“Dare to be naive.”

R. Buckminster Fuller [emailed by a friend and widely quoted online but I don’t have a precise source].

“there is scarcely anything that could offend me in modern England which is not far more offensive in modern Germany. It is there that these things have had their real success; it is there that they will have their real failure. You may say that Germany leads the modern world. You may, if you like, say that Germany is the modern world. But, if that be so, what is called the modern world is, amid general rejoicings, coming to an end. With all its mirthless cynicism, with all its unmanly militarism, with its sham science and shifty diplomacy, with its excuses for the powerful and its routine for the poor, with its long words of explanation and its very short cuts in conduct, with all its care of the self, and all its carelessness of the soul, what some call the Modern Spirit is cast out of heaven like Lucifer, Son of the Morning. It is cut down to the earth, that did weaken the nations.”

G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News, September 9, 2016, quoted in “GKC on Scripture * Conducted by Peter Floriani” in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 #1 (Sept.-Oct. 2022)

“My Al-Anon friend told me about the frazzled, defeated wife of an alcoholic man who kept passing out on the front lawn in the middle of the night. The wife kept dragging him in before dawn so the neighbors wouldn’t see him, until finally an old black woman from the South came up to her one day after a meeting and said, ‘Honey? Leave him lay where Jesus flang him.’”

Anne Lamott Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“Tyler Giles of Wellesley College, Daniel Hungerman of the University of Notre Dame, and Tamar Oostrom of The Ohio State University... noted that many measures of religious adherence began to decline in the late 1980s. They find that the large decline in religious practice was driven by the group experiencing the subsequent increases in mortality: white middle-aged Americans without a college degree. States that experienced larger declines in religious participation in the last 15 years of the 20th century saw larger increases in deaths of despair. The researchers looked at the repeal of blue laws in particular. Blue laws limited commerce, typically on Sunday mornings.... The repeal of blue laws had a 5- to 10-percentage-point impact on weekly attendance of religious services, and increased the rate of deaths of despair by 2 deaths per 100,000 people, they found — accounting for a ‘reasonably large share of the initial rise in the deaths of despair.’ What’s also interesting is that the impact seems to be driven by actual formal religious participation, rather than belief or personal activities like prayer.... They further added that they didn’t know of any cultural phenomenon that matches the mortality patterns, which are seen for both men and women, but not in other countries, and in both rural and urban settings, but mostly middle-aged, less-educated white individuals. ‘The decline in religiosity matches mortality trends in all these characteristics,’ they wrote. The authors also pushed back on the opioid theory. They said OxyContin was first introduced as a prescription drug in 1996, yet already by then deaths of despair for middle-aged white Americans were well above trend.”

MSN story from “Market Watch” January 17, 2023 [why “Market Watch” I do not know]

“To see [Pope John Paul II, Karol] Wojtyla as a ‘Christian radical,’ then, is to try to understand his radicalism as an example of what the American philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once described as the simplicity that lies on the far side of complexity.”

George Weigel Witness to Hope [noting that the etymological root of radical is the Latin radix meaning root].

“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

Oscar Wilde, quoted as standalone “WORDS OF WISDOM” in email teaser from Epoch Times January 1, 2023.

“Awe can mean many things. It can be witnessing a total solar eclipse. Or seeing your child take her first steps. Or hearing Lizzo perform live. But, while many of us know it when we feel it, awe is not easy to define. ‘Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world,’ said Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. It’s vast, yes. But awe is also simpler than we think — and accessible to everyone, he writes in his book ‘Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life.’ While many of us associate awe with dramatic, life-changing events, the truth is that awe can be part of everyday life. Experiencing awe comes from what Dr. Keltner has called a ‘perceived vastness,’ as well as something that challenges us to rethink our previously held ideas.... In his book, Dr. Keltner writes that awe is critical to our well-being — just like joy, contentment and love. His research suggests it has tremendous health benefits that include calming down our nervous system and triggering the release of oxytocin, the ‘love’ hormone that promotes trust and bonding. ‘Awe is on the cutting edge’ of emotion research, said Judith T. Moskowitz, a professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.... So what is it biologically? Awe wasn’t one of the six basic emotions — anger, surprise, disgust, enjoyment, fear and sadness — identified back in 1972, Dr. Keltner said. But new research shows that awe ‘is its own thing,’ he said.... Dr. Keltner found that awe activates the vagal nerves, clusters of neurons in the spinal cord that regulate various bodily functions, and slows our heart rate, relieves digestion and deepens breathing. It also has psychological benefits. Many of us have a critical voice in our head, telling us we’re not smart, beautiful or rich enough. Awe seems to quiet this negative self-talk, Dr. Keltner said, by deactivating the default mode network, the part of the cortex involved in how we perceive ourselves. But, Dr. Keltner said, even his own lab experiments underestimate the impact of awe on our health and well-being.... Awe is something you can develop, with practice. Here’s how. Pay attention…. Focus on the ‘moral beauty’ of others…. spend time learning about inspiring people…. Practice mindfulness.... ‘Meditating, reflecting, going on a pilgrimage.’… Choose the unfamiliar path. Awe often comes from novelty…. We can work on developing this openness through everyday choices…. In his book, Dr. Keltner wrote that people who find awe all around them, ‘are more open to new ideas. To what is unknown. To what language can’t describe.’”

New York Times January 3, 2023 [yeah, I know it’s long, but I think it’s noteworthy how they go on and on about the materialist basis and never look up to the heavens].

In my latest National Post column I say the “inclusive” teacher who told a Muslim kid to celebrate pride or get of Canada exposes not just reflexive intolerance but a deep, unresolvable contradiction in multiculturalism.