It’s not often that I get two days off in a row, so when it actually happens, I become rather less tethered to adult behavior than usual. Today is my Sunday, and my bride and I will go to the beach later on to relax, take a short walk, and dodge umpteen hundred thousand spring breakers who are exuberantly starting down the path that leads to Alcoholics Anonymous.
As my new favorite saying goes, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow I awaken at 2:30 a.m. to go back to work.” But Sunday is a day of reflection, no matter what day of the work week it actually falls on.
In fact, I have a book of daily reflections right here on my desk. Today’s thought comes from the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who was born in 50 AD and died in 135 AD. “Freedom isn’t secured by filling up on your heart’s desire,” he wrote, “but by removing your desire.” In other words, if your life is an unending fight and struggle to get more and more, you’ll never have enough. But if you enjoy the “pockets of freedom” that you already have, you’ll find there is wealth in being satisfied.
So from my little perch on St. Andrew’s Bay, where I’m currently enjoying a cup of coffee strong enough to wake Lazarus, here are a few random musings that have been percolating:
• As the dude in the photo is telling us, “Beef Jerky costs too much.” A nine-pack of beef sticks would have run you a little over $17 back in 2017, but it would cost over $25 just six years later in 2023. Now stay with me here, because if we substitute the canary in the coal mine with a nine-pack of beef jerky sticks — which is a great deal tastier than the canary — we see that the price is now just under $15. Not a bad trend line, actually, the dude’s sign notwithstanding. It looks like prices in general are trending the same direction.
• Pet Peeve Alert: If you are driving in the fast lane and you notice that the road in front of you is clear but there is a mile-long pack of cars in your rearview mirror, please move over. In Panama City, Fla., where I reside, the official mascot of local drivers is the sloth. Multi-generational Panama City drivers are advised to replace the speedometer on their dashboards with a calendar, since they will go a lifetime without ever making it up to the speed limit. I’ve lived here off and on for over 40 years, and while the locals have always traveled at glacial speed in the left lane, I’ve noticed an increase in out-of-town drivers who actually have places to go. It makes for dicey driving conditions at best, and life-threatening road rage at worst. Be courteous and move over, please, which will lessen the temptation of those around you to engage in genealogical speculation at your expense.
• I sent a text to my sister a couple of weeks ago and she answered me — from Paris! My mind went immediately back to the one and only time I’ve been to Paris. We were on the way back from my second of three tours of duty in the Middle East, and we landed at Charles de Gaulle, in Paris, to refuel the plane. Since we were in uniform at the time, we were not allowed off the plane while refueling since the policy held that Americans in uniform are not welcome in Paris unless the Germans are visiting and refuse to leave. Happily, no one asked my sister to show up in France with the Statue of Liberty in her checked baggage, which would have elicited from her older brother something akin to “Molon Labe.” Then there was General Norman Schwarzkopf’s observation during Desert Storm: “Going to war without the French is like going hunting without an accordion.”
• And could someone please tell Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) to stop persecuting us with her non-stop badgering and threats? Like a girl I knew years ago who was so thunderously combative that she could start an argument in an empty house, Crockett desperately needs to just take a breath. She recently stopped calling for “Elon [Musk] to be taken down” as a birthday present to say of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), “I mean, this dude has to be knocked over the head, like hard, right?” To paraphrase Mark Twain, if Crockett had been there when God said “Let there be light,” we never would’ve had it.
• Anyone else wondering if the Republic will survive Justice Roberts’ Rules of Disorder? Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had the presence of mind to lacerate Judge Ana Reyes’ audacious realignment of the military’s standard of readiness to something more in keeping with what she fancies. Such are the awesome powers of a single unelected federal district judge to assume Article II Executive power. Secretary Hegseth responded:
Since “Judge” Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Banning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers how to execute High Value Target Raids … after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.
• Incidentally, where does this business of any itsy-bitsy, half-pint district judge from Big Toe, Arkansas, to Big Thighs, New Jersey, who self-appoints himself to the highest elected office in the land finally come to an end? Do the Rules of Disorder really approve of a popularly elected presidency grinding to a halt in legal quicksand where too often justice is merely incidental to the process? Let’s hope not.
• Back to the philosopher Epictetus and the lesson that one should value the “pockets of freedom” that one already has, we can simultaneously strive for a civil society ordered along the lines of individual sovereignty and limited government that is in keeping with what the the country’s Founders had in mind, and still have hearts full of gratitude that the unreservedly awful progressive project has been ushered to the back seats by an American citizenry who have finally awakened. It’s a good day indeed for Sunday reflections.
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