"Auld Lang Syne" Dept.
(And Goodbye)

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint stoop
And surely I'll be mine
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes
And pou'd the gowans fine
But we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin' auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd i' the burn
Frae mornin' sun till dine
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin' auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And here's a hand, my trusty fiere
And gi'e's a hand o' thine
And we'll tak a right good willy waught
For auld lang syne. [Attr. Robert Burns]

Sleep among the stars

Dry those tears upon the wind

Cry no more sweet girl

Points to Ponder:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. [C.S. Lewis]

Picking Ten Threads:

I put up on Monday a post highlighting eighty threads from Rerum Novarum which were posted over the time period where this site was re-engaged. Afterwards, it dawned on me that it might be useful to post a more condensed followup to that material before this site is indefinitely suspended. With that in mind, I went through the lengthier thread compilation and picked ten threads from it to feature on their own at this time. Without further ado...

Points to Ponder For Those Who Grieve (circa December 14, 2021)

On the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, Obedience, and the Requirements of Faithful Catholics (circa February 26, 2020)

Points to Ponder on Dialogue (circa October 21, 2019)

Lighting Candles Instead of Cursing the Darkness (circa September 13, 2018)

Briefly on Grieving (circa May 30, 2017)

More on Usury, the Importance of Definitions for Utilizing Logic and Rational Thought, the Problem With Sophism, Etc. (circa March 11, 2021)

A Plan To Pay Off The National Debt (circa August 14, 2020)

On the Controversy of Amoris Laetitia Amongst The More Faithful Than Thou Crowd (circa December 5, 2019)

More on the Subject of Natural Born Citizenship (circa October 31, 2018)

On Objective Principles and Subjective Circumstances Where Citing Sources Are Concerned (circa April 25, 2017)

Points to Ponder:

At some point, I realized that my view of the world had changed.

...

While I realized that I had to be intentional about how I invested my limited emotional energy, the truth is, a lot of things that used to piss me off, just didn’t matter to me at the same level anymore.

It was as if my meter had been recalibrated, and things that used to be a 7 or 8 or 9 on the piss-me-off-o-meter, now were more like a solid 4. And there isn’t much reason to get upset about a 4. It wasn’t that I stopped caring, and I want to be clear about that point.

...

But my emotional response to day-to-day issues has changed. It diminished, and in some cases, ceases to exist. Moreover, I just don’t view most problems as being big enough to justify my getting upset.

And at some level, about some issues, it is a case of 'fuck it, I don’t care.' In those cases, I wonder why I ever got upset about those things in the first place. [Shawn Herbig]

Eighty Notable Threads of Rerum Novarum Since 2017:

Before this website goes on an indefinite suspension, I want to compile here a list of threads since I resumed publishing in this medium that are in my mind among the most important generally speaking as opposed to personally so as a rule.{1} These are grouped together by the general category titles of grieving, ethics, dialogue, theological, apologetical, and politics and listed from most recent to oldest in each category. (Recent guest editorials while worthy of mention are not included.) Without further ado and divided by general topics...

Grieving:

The Full Death Toll and Some Considerations (circa December 22, 2021)

Points to Ponder For Those Who Grieve (circa December 14, 2021)

Patches Grief Haiku #2 (circa December 14, 2021)

My Dad: Twenty Years Gone (circa June, 12, 2021)

Points to Ponder on Grief (circa February 8, 2021)

The First Mausoleum Visit (circa December 8, 2020)

Mourning Chris -Fourteen Years Later (circa November 23, 2019)

Points to Ponder on the Sacredness of Tears (circa March 4, 2019)

On the Passing of John and Bill, Waning Writing Motivation, Etc. (circa December 30, 2018)

Points to Ponder on Cigars and Grief (circa September 10, 2018)

Briefly on Grieving (circa May 30, 2017)

Ethics:

For Preserving the Historical Record Against Comment Box Censorship (circa November 29, 2021)

Four Questions For Distributist/Distributivist Apologists (circa April 12, 2021)

On the Subject of Character (circa March 10, 2021)

On the 1945 Atomic Bomb Controversy and A Proposed Ethical Challenge (circa August 9, 2020)

On Clarifying and Retracting Some Prior Statements on the Magisterium (circa March 8, 2020)

Briefly On Another Changed View (circa June 5, 2019)

On Burying Hatchets, Building Bridges, Facilitating Authentic Dialogue, Etc. in 2019 and Beyond (circa April 9, 2019)

On Conspiracy Theories and Faulty Conspiracy Apologetical Methodology (circa November 21, 2018)

On the Changing of One's Positions (circa January 31, 2018)

Briefly on a Past Controversy (circa December 6, 2017)

A Request For Ethical and Rational Consistency To Various and Sundry Past Critics (circa June 24, 2017)

On Objective Principles and Subjective Circumstances Where Citing Sources Are Concerned (circa April 25, 2017)

A Public Notification To Venerable David (circa April 11, 2017)

Dialogue:

On Atheists, Theists, and Reasoning (circa December 13, 2021)

More on Usury, the Importance of Definitions for Utilizing Logic and Rational Thought, the Problem With Sophism, Etc. (circa March 11, 2021)

On Usury, the Importance of Definitions to Reasoned Thought and Discourse, Etc. (circa March 2, 2021)

On Q, Conspiracies, "Patriots", "The Plan", Etc. (circa January 21, 2021)

One From the Vault" Dept. on "States' Rights" (circa May 14, 2020)

On Amoris Laetitia, Argumentation Fallacies, The Eye Beams of Some More Faithful Than Thou Folks, Etc. (circa February 4, 2020)

Points to Ponder on Dialogue (circa October 21, 2019)

More on Popes, Heresy, Theology, Church History, Etc. (circa February 11, 2019)

On Papal Dissent, Argumentation Fallacies, Etc. (circa February 9, 2019)

On the Scandals in the Church and How to Respond To Them (circa November 19, 2018)

Lighting Candles Instead of Cursing the Darkness (circa September 13, 2018)

On My Resignation From Where Peter Is, General Concerns For The State Of Public Discourse There and Elsewhere, Etc. (circa August 6, 2018)

"One From The Vault" Dept. (circa May 11, 2017)

Theological:

Excerpts from Bishop Vincent Gasser's Forgotten Vatican I Relatio (circa December 6, 2021)

Points to Ponder on Charity (circa October 17, 2021)

On Dogmatic Facts and Pope Francis' Election as Pope (circa December 4, 2020)

Briefly on Non-Dogmatic Statements of Fact (circa November 21, 2020)

Miscellaneous Musings on Neoscholasticism (circa November 19, 2020)

More on Magisterial Interpretation (circa October 23, 2020)

On the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, Obedience, and the Requirements of Faithful Catholics (circa February 26, 2020)

On Magisterial Interpretation (circa January 4, 2020)

On Female Deacons and Other Considerations (circa August 4, 2019)

On Veritatis Splendor, Gaudium et Spes, and Intrinsic Evil (circa July 27, 2019)

On the Infallibility of Papal Canonizations of Saints (circa May 7, 2019)

Points to Ponder on Obedience (circa December 5, 2018)

On Pope Francis, the Catechism, and the Death Penalty (circa August 21, 2018)

More on the Controversial Dubia Subject (circa April 10, 2017)

Very Briefly on the Dubia Subject (circa April 9, 2017)

Apologetics:

On a Possible Petrine Apologia for Galatians 2 (circa November 26, 2021)

On Old, Tired, and Often Refuted Trad Nonsense (circa November 14, 2021)

Five Threads on Traditionis Custodes (circa November 6, 2021)

On NFP (circa March 31, 2021)

Texts on the Sacrament of Penance (circa October 12, 2020)

On "Traditionalism", the Catholic Spiritual Tradition, and How To Approach Ecclesial Problems (circa July 18, 2020)

On the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the Atonement, Etc. (circa April 11, 2020)

Briefly on Vigano (circa January 6, 2020)

Briefly on Faulty Apologetical Arguments (circa December 29, 2019)

On the Controversy of Amoris Laetitia Amongst The More Faithful Than Thou Crowd (circa December 5, 2019

Six Threads on Pope Francis and Amoris Laetitia (circa September 6, 2019)

Remembering John and Bill (circa January 7, 2019)

"None Dare Call It Conspiracy" Dept. (circa December 5, 2018)

"One From the Vault" Revisiting an Old False Dichotomy (circa April 17, 2018)

On Good Apologists -Remembering Bob Klaus (circa May 14, 2018)

Commemorating A Controversial Anniversary (circa August 17, 2017)

Politics:

On the Depravity of Journalism Revisited (circa September 23, 2021)

More on Wars Fought Without A Formal Declaration, Implied Powers, Early Supreme Court Precedents, Etc. (circa June 22, 2021)

Seven Ideas For Law Enforcement Reform (circa June 15, 2020)

A Plan To Pay Off The National Debt (circa August 14, 2020)

On Jeffrey Epstein's Death (circa August 11, 2019)

On the Recent Mass Shootings and Reasons For Their Greater Occurrences in Recent Decades (circa August 6, 2019)

On Conservative Judicial Activism (circa December 14, 2018)

On The Recent Birthright Citizenship Kerfuffle (circa November 5, 2018)

More on the Subject of Natural Born Citizenship (circa October 31, 2018)

More on Third Party Fantasies (circa September 22, 2018)

A Solution For Dealing With Civil Asset Forfeiture Abuse (circa June 3, 2017)

Points to Ponder on Big Business (circa June 8, 2017)

Note:

{1} There are a few of a particularly personal nature but even those few usually have a general applicability as well.

Points to Ponder:

You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters. [St. Bernard of Clarivaux]