I’ve taken the following from my previous writing but I believe that they do bear some repeating.
“Know thyself? If I knew myself, I’d run away.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To be a Citizen
I come from a long line of common folk. My family simply lived life: they were good citizens, voted in elections, volunteered in the community, and raised their family—quite admirably, I might add. Mom once served on a jury when we were kids and helped convict a purse snatcher; she did a lot of volunteering at our schools, too. Gramps managed the local Farm Bureau feed store, worked for the County Assessor’s office, and appraised property. Dad owned a civil engineering firm and served on a number of city and state boards and commissions.
Tabula Rasa
Tabula rasa – The mind in its hypothetical primary blank or empty state before receiving outside impressions; or something existing in its original pristine state. Source: Merriam-Webster.com
In Latin, it means, “scraped tablet”. Humans are born “blank” and our identity is defined entirely by events after our birth. This theory was expounded on in the seventeenth century by the English philosopher John Locke, who posited that, at birth, the (human) mind is a “blank slate” without rules for processing data; over time, data is added and rules for processing such data are formed solely by one’s sensory experiences (Source: Merriam-Webster.com).
On Being Born
I don’t remember having any thoughts that day I was born; I certainly do now after 66 years in this mind and body . I do remember my baby crib when I was around two: I needed to be confined lest I wandered off to do serious damage to the house or myself. Mom once had my crib too close to an end table and I grabbed her favorite lamp, pulled it off, and broke it into pieces. I was reminded about that for years. I remember toddling on the floor in the house on Elm Street and diving headfirst through the glass storm door onto the carport floor (Dad didn’t tell me he had fixed that latch). I once took a knife and cut the twine seat in one of our chairs, believing I was the mouse helping free the lion from his ropes in the famous fable by Aesop. I got a paddling for that one. I climbed on house and garage roofs, went on reckless bike rides into the bushes, climbed onto the school rooftop (they conveniently placed a TV stanchion close to the building), and stabbed myself with my own pocketknife.
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The following quotes are from the Irish poet, Seamus Heaney (1913-2013) one of many of the Great Irish poets.
“How perilous is it to choose not to love the life we’re shown?”
“Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it.”
