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cblj_backup) wrote2005-10-21 10:47 am
cblj_backup) wrote2005-10-21 10:47 am
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I'm mostly unpacking, doing laundry, and cleaning up this morning. Recovering from the holiday, if you will. I haven't even looked at CC in two weeks, really, and LC in much longer. I hope to get back into that work this weekend. A part of it is that I really do have to "unpack" and clean up my computer as well. Because I haven't been on much, either online or simply using the computer, things have gotten lost, moved around, shifted through folders, and saved in the wrong places. Plus I have an email backlog, although that's pretty much par for the course. :D
In the meantime, as I work, I've gone back to dubbing all our old VHS tapes to DVD. It's an odd assortment; earlier this morning it was old episodes of Zorro that the Family Channel used to play back before they were bought by the fundies, when they actually put on well-written family programming. At the moment it's a PBS documentary on Benjamin Franklin which is exceedingly interesting.
The best part so far is an explication of the old Tin Whistle story -- Franklin bought a little tin whistle as a child and was mocked by his family for paying too much for it. They explained to him that he could have bought an array of things instead of a single thing. Most textbooks tell us that this taught him thrift and not to spend money on pleasure. In his own words, however, it taught him almost directly the opposite: to put proper value on things and, in a way, never to value wealth too highly. He says that a miser who gives up comfort and friendship for wealth has paid too much for his whistle; he has given up one valuable pleasure for one overvalued pleasure.
Whistles are nice, as is wealth, but neither should be overvalued beyond function and worth.
Good to know, and good to still be reaching for more than the McNuggets. Especially at the conferences, I became aware of just how many people really are McNugget-eaters. I prescribe a healthy application of Lies My Teacher Told Me, particularly for Americans.
In the meantime, as I work, I've gone back to dubbing all our old VHS tapes to DVD. It's an odd assortment; earlier this morning it was old episodes of Zorro that the Family Channel used to play back before they were bought by the fundies, when they actually put on well-written family programming. At the moment it's a PBS documentary on Benjamin Franklin which is exceedingly interesting.
The best part so far is an explication of the old Tin Whistle story -- Franklin bought a little tin whistle as a child and was mocked by his family for paying too much for it. They explained to him that he could have bought an array of things instead of a single thing. Most textbooks tell us that this taught him thrift and not to spend money on pleasure. In his own words, however, it taught him almost directly the opposite: to put proper value on things and, in a way, never to value wealth too highly. He says that a miser who gives up comfort and friendship for wealth has paid too much for his whistle; he has given up one valuable pleasure for one overvalued pleasure.
Whistles are nice, as is wealth, but neither should be overvalued beyond function and worth.
Good to know, and good to still be reaching for more than the McNuggets. Especially at the conferences, I became aware of just how many people really are McNugget-eaters. I prescribe a healthy application of Lies My Teacher Told Me, particularly for Americans.