Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
[CP Cavafy]

Points to Ponder:

[C]harity, as it is written, is not self-seeking (1 Cor 13:5) meaning that it places the common good before its own, not its own before the common good. So whenever you show greater concern for the common good than for your own, you may know that you are growing in charity. Thus, let the abiding virtue of charity prevail in all things that minister to the fleeting necessities of life. [From The Rule of St. Augustine (circa 400 AD)]

Twelve 2020 draft prospects I really like

As today was a rather dubious anniversary, I want to republish at this time an expository musing I wrote on the subjects of fundamental rights, common law principles, and abortion about thirteen years ago. Without further ado...

On Fundamental Rights, Common Law Principles, and Abortion (circa February 1, 2007)

Points to Ponder:

Christianity, and nothing else is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy...We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter. [Jürgen Habermas]

The Rerum Novarum Miscellaneous site has been updated for the first time in over a decade!

Today Was The 4th Annual Women’s March…Does It Still Matter?

Just a few bits...

Out front, a climate-themed phoenix showing animals rising from the ashes of a burning forest.

...

Pink-hatted women have parked a big cage with a doll wrapped in a space blanket behind the media riser.

...

Chilean feminist collective Las Tesis are going over the lyrics to A Rapist in Your Path, their viral anthem denouncing violence against women.

“The oppressive state is a macho rapist,” they sing.

In a nutshell, we need more mental hospitals for folks like this!