From Walker Percy

[Guest guest]

Why is it that no other species but man gets bored? Under the

circumstances in which a man gets bored, a dog goes to sleep. Thought

Experiment: Imagine that you are a member of a tour visiting Greece.

The group goes to the Parthenon. It is a bore. Few people even bother

to look - it looked better in the brochure. So people take half a

look, mostly take pictures, remark on the serious erosion by acid

rain. You are puzzled. Why should one of the glories and fonts of

Western civilization, viewed under pleasant conditions - good

weather, good hotel room, good food, good guide - be a bore? Now

imagine under what set of circumstances a viewing of the Parthenon

would not be a bore. For example, you are a NATO colonel defending

Greece against a Soviet assault. You are in a bunker in dowtown

Athens, binoculars propped on sandbags. It is dawn. A medium-range

missile attack is under way. Half a million Greeks are dead. Two

missiles bracket the Parthenon. The next will surely be a hit.

Between columns of smoke, a ray of golden light catches the portico.

Are you bored? Can you see the Parthenon?

 

I had discovered that a person does not have to be this or be that

or be anything, not even oneself. One is free.

 

The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the

everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of

the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be

in despair.

 

We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their faces

away.

 

Why it is that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in

the Cosmos-novas, quasars, pulsars, black holes-you are beyond doubt

the strangest?

 

You live in a deranged age, more deranged that usual, because in

spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the

faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing. "

 

Since grief only aggravates your loss, grieve not for what is past.

 

Walker P. has been gone for 16 years now, but I still read him a

lot....................bob