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Sunday, May 23, 2010

PICK ONE : ID EGO SUPEREGO

when you admire the strong silent type it's not because you think they're stupid or weak ... when we praise grant for six separate maneuvers against the fortress at vicksburg we don't call him a butcher ... when we say of churchill in politics or in history that he stood alone we don't pity his isolation ... when in the day clever or stolid we are of good service that night past satisfaction it's peace we have as our reward having done something of essence that it means to be human ... the old man in dementia may have a broken mind and still use a shard to apologize for seeming impolite to tell you his name and to shake your hand a father to his son ... or finally pick any great person famous or forgotten but successful and try to take a measure of that success ... note how much defeat and what kind there is in their triumph ... old man socrates how much longer could he continue his debate with his failing body no longer surely with his jury ... what is it then that we so admire

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