First Blog

Spite is a terrible thing.  As a verb, it is to  deliberately   upset  someone or cause them  problems .  Many of us secretly spite one another, but knowing it is wrong, mask it in some principle or other. Examples. A. He rejected promotion to his disliked colleague’s application because he thought his problem-solving skills were inadequate.  The spite is the rejection. The principle is the strength of or value to the company. B. She revealed her neighbor had been arrested for driving under the influence, because she said our neighborhood should maintain the highest standards.   The spite is the revelation.   The principle is those high standards.   C. “Life’s unfair,” is a principle often used to demonstrate a measure of spite toward someone down and out - while you are not. The Scarlet Letter , a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850, is a lesson in social spite. One example more.  The cat drank from the dog's water dish just to spite it.  No pr

One way to understand any topic is to better understand its opposite or an alternative.   For example, to understand the nature of gravity, it is useful to imagine no gravity.   To understand the qualities of a good teacher for example, think first of the qualities of a bad one.   This prescription - too see me, first see me not - gives broad outlines and shapes, while not rendering fine detail. In this first installment of a new sequence of micro-essays, we consider the differences between… Today, we consider the politician and two new breeds, those coming from business accustomed to deals plus things money can buy, and those emerging from the basement mimeograph machine accustomed to running off provocative missives to save the world. Caution . If you lean left or right, you may not like what’s to come. Businessmen think in terms of deals and profit (i.e. money). If dollars are involved all come to their normal levels of wishing for more. Thus, between them understanding