March 21, 2020
THE RAMBLE BEGINS
I am confined to quarters in New York City at age 78 by order of the government as part of measures taken to control the spread of a virus inflicting death around the world at the approximate rate of 3%. No health issues here in the cave. The confinement is comfortable, still permitting daily solitary walks along the East River, shopping for food or medicine and I have access to radio, television, the internet (with all the music, information and news one could want) and the books in my library.
These circumstances, which may last a few months or even longer, offer me an opportunity to write down some thoughts. I have the audacity to think that this might constitute a source of wisdom helpful to myself and others, or at least a diversion and distraction. Most of what I may write is derived from what I collect or recollect from wisdom of the past. And I intend to include a generous sprinkling of quotations, aphorisms, anecdotes and jokes. I am not aiming for originality, merely for the presentation of wisdom in a form most suitable for the audience of our time. It may be that true wisdom for Homo sapiens is a relatively constant matter, merely embodied in different forms through the ages, from myths to scientific principles, from narratives recounted around fires to virtual realities conveyed by wireless transmissions. In all times I hold that there are fundamental thoughts and attitudes which are best suited to suggest the best possible life for the most people.
One of my models is Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) who wrote "If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle." With this in mind, I hope to set aside some part of each day of this viral isolation, aside from sleeping, napping, eating, walking, reading and amusing myself, to express some thoughts in writing. Today's thought: Collect your thoughts and express them. At the very least this may be a healthy mental parallel to the process of nourishment, digestion and excretion.
END
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