W. Grey Champion
From the Moleskine
My Moleskine accompanies me everywhere, for the purpose of catching those elusive thoughts that bombard one’s consciousness and may or may not be worthy of elaboration. I have shared these musings on my blog, From the Moleskine, each week for many years. Originally a Google blog, I moved it to this website when my third book was released. In The Weekly will be recent reflections I seek to record and to share with readers. Described here are other headings, also updated weekly.
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Dokusan: In Japan, dokusan is a private meeting of a Zen student with his master. For background, readers must see my book, Conjuring Archangel: Chronicle of a Journey on the Path, because the conjuring continues.
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In the Courtyard: As my collaborator on the blog, my friend Anna reports under this heading from her frequent forays to the village. We often meet in the courtyard for croissants and hazelnut coffee from the French bakery.
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The Carriage Lamp: Evocative of those bygone, romantic days of horses and carriages, Anna and I, Sherlockians both, will on occasion include original poems, either hers or mine. The most recent will be at the top.
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The Weekly
Humility
I suppose it is only natural that here on the outskirts of Washington DC political topics, especially in such terrible times for the world, should be seen to creep into everything. My dear old friend Anna in her Courtyard post last week wrote about a column by George Will which noted that it is Europe’s turn to save America. Even in the comics section of the daily paper, strip after strip makes political reference. With the drums beating so loudly everywhere, I struggle against adding to the clangor, instead to find some point that is not to be discerned in it. I do hope, Readers, that you caught my new poem “Latter Day” last week, and understood my implicit meaning in the last two lines: “We vanquished, and we died.” To be explicit, those now feeling victorious, believing they have conquered, die all the same, and as I also wrote last week humility is the trait most lacking in humans.
In modern times, despite Christianity being the world’s dominant religion, there has been an emphasis on justice rather than humility. In civilized society there is in fact a constant tension between the two, a condition unique to humans. In other social species, might makes right, and the strongest male leads the pack. Humans in the tribal state were no different, nor were the absolute monarchies, interrupted only briefly by uprisings and revolutions. But absolute power makes no accommodation for justice, only for mercy if there be any. How singular then, nonpareil, is today’s yearning for autocracy around the world. Here our dictator, hard at work to install himself in perpetuity, told a Christian group before the election, “You will never have to vote again.” Therein lies the secret.
Pardon me, Readers, but I must again refer to the pendulum, which now has passed over the pivot point, becoming a trebuchet. Here’s how: In the name of justice for the most vulnerable members of society, the bob of the pendulum was pushed left, harder and harder; approaching the pivot came the demagog preaching to the privileged, “You are superior to these people. What rights have they to any pride, to any advantage?” Now the bob is high on the right, and from this height it is hard to see whether any humility remains at the point of equilibrium. Indeed will we ever regain that point - when all the moderates were decapitated in the swing?
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