I noticed today, while hitting the daily clicks, a growing
preponderance of religiously-themed links. Chiefly “Pro-“ vs. “Anti-“ — dreary stuff,
most of it. My Morning-Mind puzzled over this phenom, until I finally woke
up enough to recall: Shrove Tuesday.* Ash
Wednesday. And, uh, Thumthing Thurthday. The Lenten crawl toward Easter has
begun.
Easter, with its many dividing lines, certainly seems to invite debate. I would have been all over this stuff, when I was in my 20s.
There’s nothing more clarifying than a debate, after all, particularly when one
side apparently walks away with all the marbles.
But I lost my appetite for it, after a while. What these
spectacular smack-downs hammered home more deeply than anything was the fact
that I clearly wasn’t the smartest chap in the room. And those occasions when I
presumed to be led to behaviour I would later recall with profound shame. I
finally decided that if the fragile yolk of my ego was to remain intact, the
more prudent strategy would be to acknowledge the clear strengths of any
particular argument, and gently probe at possible vulnerabilities, where
perceived.
It’s what I do — unless the roaring ape within glimpses the
shiny possibility that, maybe just this once, he really might be the smartest
chap in the room. I still wield the whip and the chair, of course, but there
are times when the Old Gorilla will not abide.
Speaking of which, here’s a Frazetta cartoon from MAD
Magazine that always gets me giggling.
*AKA, "Pancake" Tuesday.
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