Fire and Knowledge

Brain damaged for 10 years, firefighter makes astounding recovery

Praise God for miracles! Too bad the people who killed Terry Schiavo didn’t believe something like this could happen with her.

Since many of us have the unnatural and unhealthy desire to sit at a computer most of the day, here are some helpful tips to make the experience a little more “ergonomic.”

Thus human life is nothing but a perpetual illusion; there is nothing but mutual deception and flattery. No one talks about us in our presence as he would in our absence. Human relations are only based on this mutual deception; and few friendships would survive if everyone knew what his friend said about him behind his back, even though he spoke sincerely and dispassionately. Man is therefore nothing but disguise, falsehood and hypocrisy, both in himself and with regard to others. He does not want to be told the truth. He avoids telling it to others, and all these tendencies, so remote from justice and reason, are naturally rooted in his heart.
—Blaise Pascal, Pensées, in Christianity for Modern Pagans by Peter Kreeft, p. 151

When, at one point [during filming], concern was voiced over whether the President was wearing the same necktie as he had during the previous sessions [of  filming], [Harry] Truman asked if that really mattered.  “Because if while I’m talking about Korea people are asking each other about my necktie it seems to me we’re in a great deal of trouble.” (McCullough, David.  Truman, p. 979)

While the producers were worried about image, Truman was worried about content.  I think there is a great lesson in this, just as Truman pointed out: everyone seems worried about the image of something when we really should be worried about the content.  Image should not be ignored, but it should not be the main show either.  In movies people are constantly looking out for inconsistencies in image—but rarely in content.  I believe this is further evidence for the biases of television (images) vs. the biases of typography (content).

Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly concerned with the past or the future. We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.
—Blaise Pascal, Pensées, in Christianity for Modern Pagans by Peter Kreeft, p. 74