March 09, 2003

Be Willing to Be Pleased

Today's joys are many: digging two evil, resistent weedy stumps out of the side-garden so that they will stop sending their rotten tendrils all over the fence and garden (which I will plant this year); sweating while conducting this activity, though I had previously felt quite cold; smelling the oregano, jasmine, rosemary, and some basil-like bush while pruning them; eating Good-n-Plentys, which I think of as old-person's candy, while drinking mineral water mixed with Angostura bitters (tastes a little like Campari) and studying Samuel Johnson.

"Let no man rashly determine, that his unwillingness to be pleased is a proof of understanding, unless his superiority appears from less doubtful evidence; for though peevishness may sometimes justly boast its descent from learning or from wit, it is much oftener of base extraction, the child of vanity and nursling of ignorance."

Johnson: Rambler #74 (December 1, 1750)

Posted by care at March 9, 2003 03:10 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I am *so* willing to be pleased, but you seem to have disappeared, and that's just not pleasant. Come back, the water's fine. What could be better than this virtual world that we can make the best of all possible worlds? I need to re-read _Candide_...

Posted by: ambimb at March 19, 2003 09:52 PM
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