Author: Gordon

Never Forget

Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe. . . . They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.

They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct.

And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours.

Lee Harris, Civilization and its Enemies: the Next Stage of History

Thud and Blunder

I’ve started running again. That is, I’ve woken up early to run both yesterday and today, so I think it’s a trend :-)

I’m so badly out of shape that in order to run for twenty minutes I have to sort of dog-trot along, almost shuffling. It’s embarassing. Luckily my only audience is the two Indian gentlemen out for their daily constitutional. If they’re mocking me, I wouldn’t understand it.

Contacted Canadian Blood Services today to see if I can get back on the list. Haven’t had any a-fib worth mentioning for a couple of years now, so I’ll see… The inspiration was this site. I’ve been in the Canadian marrow registry for a while now.