As I’ve said a few times over the years, I have a writing “junk drawer” — a notebook where I jot down ideas for columns. Some of those ideas come to fruition here, but most don’t. So, I have notebooks full of jotted-down quotes and words and “just things I want to remember” that will never fill up a full-length column. Unless you string a bunch of ‘em together! Like … the note I made on March 23 of this year. I was sitting on the front porch and saw a black cat. No big deal — I’m not particularly superstitious about black cats. In some cultures, like Scotland and Japan, they’re actually considered good luck. So, the particular reason that I noticed this one is that it was a bob-tail. That ups the interesting quotient, enough so to note it. David Murdock I went inside for a refill on coffee — black , no sugar, by the way — and came back outside to see the black cat all the way across the yard. So I thought. Then, I noticed this black cat’s long tail. Hmm. I sat there for a bit until I saw both of these black cats … just to make sure I wasn’t losing it. Early April finds a great quote by the German philosopher Friedrich Hegel: “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the coming of the dusk.” Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom, and she is represented by the owl, so that’s Hegel’s poetic way of saying that it’s only with the coming of age — “the dusk” — that wisdom takes flight. Well, at least I have something to look forward to! More: David Murdock Column: On breaking good habits Here’s a quote from the great Anglo-American poet T.S. Eliot: “Not least of the effects of industrialism is that we become mechanized in mind, and consequently attempt to provide solutions in terms of engineering, for problems which are essentially problems of life.” That one is from “1944.” And, since today we are more into “technology” than “industrialism,” it […]
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