Thoughts from the road...

Letters to a Diminished Church by Dorothy Sayers

For the devilish strategy of pride is that it attacks us, not on our weak points, but on our strong. It is preeminently the sin of the noble mind - that corruptio optimi that works more evil in the world than all the deliberate vices. Because we do not recognize pride when we see it, we stand aghast to see the havoc wrought by the triumphs of human idealism. We meant so well, we thought we were succeeding - and look what has come of our efforts! There is a proverb that says that the way to hell is paved with good intentions. We usually take it as referring to intentions that have been weakly abandoned, but it has a deeper and much subtler meaning. That road is paved with good intentions strongly and obstinately pursued until they have become self-sufficing ends in themselves and deified.

Norms and Nobility by David V. Hicks

I know that we live in an age where the homely
or psychological detail is considered all-important.
We like heroes in shirtsleeves, or, in other words,
we don't like heroes. But things were not always
that way, and today is not forever. ~ Louis Auchincloss

A college president I know keeps three books on his night table: the Bible, the Iliad, and Louis Auchincloss' 1964 The Rector of Justin. When I once asked him, "Why the novel?," he responded, "Because it raises questions I cannot answer or ignore, the sort of questions that possess a wisdom apart from answers."

A repeat performance:



Reality:

The hotel WI-FI is, um, shall we say, a bunch faster than the dial-up dinosaur we left on my desk at home. Sad, but true.