It's Me Making Magic with my Maker Thing

Dear America,

Happiness 

is an activity 

of the soul 

that expresses complete virtue. 

Aristotle, 

Nichomachean Ethics

...and it expresses this complete virtue,

through our own actions day in and day out...ultimately cultivated over a lifetime.

And to that end, this end result -- this happiness -- can only be fully recognized when we are done, finished, having come to the end of our now complete life.  Taking this long look back, we can then ask ourselves, what did this virtuous life thing bring?  Was it worth every do-good-er thing and thought -- completely tethered to a higher purpose and purity of moral responsibility, of course -- for the greater good of one and all?  How did we benefit? How did society benefit?

“As far as its name goes, most people virtually agree [about what the good is], since both the many and the cultivated call it happiness, and suppose that living well and doing well are the same as being happy. But they disagree about what happiness is, and the many do not give the same answer as the wise.” NE 1095a17-21

Granted -- this thing called happiness comes and goes in life.  It fluctuates -- within the day, even an hour, over many moons and years.  One minute we may be jumping for joy, and the next in tears.  As any reasonably intelligent human being may divine and conclude, our days are inconsistent, at best. 

  

It often feels fleeting, this happiness; and yet, sometimes, this happiness engulfs us, as if it takes over every cell of our being and overfloweth in delight.  And what we find -- really, discover in ourselves --  is that this true happiness is much more than a feeling.  It's more like a deep satisfaction, a gift from our Maker, a sensation affirming our unique reason for being is in our grasp, or at the very least, awfully close.

But the thing is -- this making of happiness -- depends solely upon ourselves.  Here's a lovely page to read for more on that...

and while all this is being said just to begin a day,  all there is to add is, oh wow... giddy up, girl...

I love how people are chatting about the Hillsdale Commencement ceremony for the 164th graduating class, featuring the great, the wonderful, the rather quiet soul that sits upon the bench of the highest seat of justice in the land, the Supreme Court --  the Honorable Clarence Thomas.

Being on the Imprimis [in the first place] mailing list, a monthly Hillsdale publication -- a weekend alert to watch the whole affair, complete with a live stream, did not go unheeded.  What a joyful thing, I thought.  

But lo and behold,  what began as a splendid idea, turned into a whirlwind of emotion, totally unsuspected.  

Now, perhaps the tears were just from exhaustion.  Perhaps the release was all the live long week, rocked with all the usual suspects of petty ups and downs and running ragged finally coming into their own, and feeling rather entitled, celebrating a chance to come to a flourishing finish...who really knows what it was, or where it came, or where it went when it was all done with me, right?  What goes up must come down.

I just couldn't stop crying.

It was as if I was trying to feel every word; taking everything to heart and becoming completely overcome, this neat little care package via the magic of apple and enjoining all things Americana, collegiate, our origins, and the great hope of our future was brought to my door -- the entire world, really -- bearing the gift of new life.  As in, what is truly old is obviously the new new.  Can I get a witness?

Larry P. Arnn, the twelfth president of Hillsdale College, opened the ceremony defining the "age old activity" of learning and its benefits (and paraphrasing as best I can,  I will try to be quick about it....tee hee):

1.  the activity itself, to learn, is joyful; the stuff humanity is made for, and of, to become more like our Maker
2. freedom -- for the learned soul cannot be enslaved
3. for the improvement of character...brave, moderate, and just
4. to enrich the connection with God, this being especially true at Hillsdale and an attribute required of gaining a complete education.  A connection with God is highly supported, encouraged, and even favored, while believing the right for everyone to worship as you please.

Now much of the message from Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas may be easily described as going by way of The Golden Rule, in both natural law and life.  Highlighting things his grandfather taught him [being almost entirely raised by his grandparents], Thomas said things like this, 'if we didn't work, we didn't eat; what we don't plant, we don't grow'...'lead by example'...'love thy neighbor as thyself'...'right is right'....these are the ideas a young Thomas was fed as a boy.  And just look at how he turned out...

He also reminded us of the words of President Kennedy, "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."  indeed

Thomas continued making his remarks and his beliefs UNapologetically made known, including telling a short tale of the modern age, and making up an instance based on a What If....And basically proposed, what if spring breakers returned fully exhausted from their reveling demanding the redistribution of grades with the students who stayed, studied, and got their fair share of an A, well deserved?  What kind of an injustice that would be, right?

Indeed, and all to make a point -- "if we continue to consume the benefits of a free society without making deposits...we will run out of other people's sacrifices..." 

 "Today, of course, there is much more focus on our rights as citizens and what we are owed...

It is not often that one hears of our obligation or our duties as citizens, unless of course there's talk of our duty to submit to yet another new policy being suggested or proposed...

At the risk of understating what is necessary to preserve liberty and our form of government, I think more and more that it depends on good citizens, discharging their daily duties and their daily obligations..

In addressing your own obligations and responsibilities in the right way, you actually help to ensure our liberties and our form of government."

this is how America was designed to work, literally.

We gave of ourselves, freely, in the support of liberty for all, by 'addressing our own obligations and responsibilities in the right way' dutifully -- we did not ask anything from town and country, but ultimately benefited town and country through living and working a virtuous and good life all the way around.  We were raised not to take from America, but give; and in turn, as luck and values and virtues work, we learned to benefit in the living of a complete and happy life, more or less.

It was duty and delight coming in contact with one another and making magic, imprimis.

Oh my word, I just found a new website!  It's called The Art of Manliness!  This link actually takes you to a wonderful post on Latin Words and Phrases Every Man Should Know.  It's just fabulous!  And ironically, it is written by a Brett and Kate McKay, so you can just stop the hate mongering, k.

The motto of Hillsdale, Virtus tentamine gaudet -- strength rejoices in the challenge -- is what brought me to the pages of manliness, for in my feeble attempt of taking notes during the commencement ceremony, my tee's were not crossed and my i's were not dotted, and that led me all over the place for just a wee bit, and mostly just for kicks. but surely, I digress.

Strength may indeed rejoice in the challenge, for this sort of rapture only comes with perspective.  What value is there if all things are just handed out like participant trophies for everybody?  Satisfaction comes, happiness comes, and perhaps can only come,  after we have met the challenges of working hard at something, for something.  Perhaps a Bachelor of Science or Philosophy ir something... 

“Each function is completed well 

when its completion expresses

 the proper virtue. 

Therefore the human good

 turns out to be the soul’s activity

 that expresses virtue.” 

Aristotle, NE 1098a15-17

“[V]irtue of character 

is concerned with pleasures and pains. 

For it is pleasure that causes 

us to do base actions, 

and pain that causes

 us to abstain from fine ones.

 Hence we need to have had 

the appropriate upbringing—

right from early youth, as Plato says—

to make us find enjoyment 

or pain in the right things; 

for this is the correct education.” 

Aristotle, NE 11049-13

PUT GOOD IN, GET GOOD OUT!

“[N]either virtues nor vices are feelings.” 

Aristotle, NE 1105b29

No matter how we feel today, tomorrow, yesterday -- we must recognize the big picture and  all that is truly divine in the making of a day.  The Law works in equal portion for everyone, if we dare ask, align and agree to the terms, working with IT! -- the Universe says yes when we move our own two feet.

A simple day, the making of a life -- happy or sad -- it is ours to make or throw away, whether steeped in ignorance or knowledge.  It just is.   Enough with how we feel; let's get back to what we do!

And one thing's for sure, things are generally dulcius ex asperius...sweeter after difficulties.

and then of course, there's this:

flectere si nequeo superos, acheronta movebo

...if I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell.  hehehe   

[This phrase being perfectly embodied by Winston Churchill, right?]  

But as the Age of Manliness duly notes, it happens to be a phrase from Virgil's Aeneid...and just one more silly Latin thing this girl learned in a day...bon appetit (yeah, that is French....so?)

Gloria in excelsis Deo

and to think...you get all of this delight pro bono.  badump ba.

and now that you have arrived at the end of a day,  here's looking at you, kids.

This day is finished -- and as it ever was, where it stops nobody knows... it turned into a day in total, complete praise -- as in, magna cum laude to the max -- of Hillsdale College, Clarence Thomas, Aristotle...and me making magic with my Maker. amen.  It's just what we do in America, one day at a time...As Clarence Thomas declared, we began as a "flawed nation" but it IS our "last great hope."

semper fidelis,

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

The downside with building an economy around spending --

 is building an economy around spending.

Any woman could probably rattle off a list of ten cosmetic companies in a blink of an eyelash; men, could name a wish-list of trucks or sports cars at a rate of 0 to sixty in 3.7 seconds -- introducing the new Mercedes-Benz 2011 SLS AMG -- in chrome with red interior preferred grrh ra wowwwww (true stats too).

That slamming brand new baby is ready to rock n'roll while getting up to 200 mph -- where you can drive it at that speed, besides through the Mojave Desert, I do not know.

Have you seen the mascara aisle lately?  There must be 100 different mascaras just at the local five and dime -- not counting the Mac counters and ritzy glitzy stuff at the department stores.  I mean, really, remember when our eyes immediately locked onto the pink and green packaging brought to you by Maybelline -- with perhaps the option of a waterproof version of the same?

Now we have every leader and wannabe in the field of beauty jumping in with each their own version of the extra lengthening, blacker than black, falsies and fabulous, smudge proof, waterproof, crying proof, perfectly separating, flake free, lash fortifying, Hollywood approved mascara known to (wo)man.

It is mind-boggling to say the least.

The downside with building an economy around spending --

 is building an economy around spending.

But just look at the upside...with spending, people are employed!  With spending, people make the things that other people want to buy.  With spending, the law of circulation is alive and well, and it continues to merrily merrily go round and round as long as the getting is good.

If the circulation gets thrown out of whack for reasons of either improper use of the law itself -- borrowing too much in order to buy, falsifying documents or fraudulently biting off more than one can chew or fudging just a wee bit on how much money we make or the liabilities already at play -- then oopsy daisy, we all come down.

The downside with building an economy around spending --

 is building an economy around spending.

America has built the most prosperous, the most innovative, the most charitable, the most faithful nation of movers and shakers and buyers there ever lived.

Everybody, in one form or another, has contributed to keeping up -- or at least even steven -- with the Jones' for years...and for even those who could not get theirs fair and square, regulation or the lack thereof, assisted in the making of going from wimpy, droopy lashes to fast, full and fabulous in one stroke of the magic wand (and when I say lashes, I mean to say, "lashes" can be substituted on a whim with anything else that meets your fancy for immediate gratification...).

The downside with building an economy around spending --

 is building an economy around spending

Oh, and there is this, perhaps if for the last forty or fifty years, the demand for cars and trucks and SUVs and Minivans did not grow to keep up with the pace car, miles ahead and just making us grumble the American rally cry of "I want that" --  of course, only with the confidence and security of having waterproof lash protection on first.

It is soooooooooo easy to blame the thirst for oil and gasoline on the irresponsible and reckless car makers --- according to the green machine building up momentum over the last several decades.  It is soooo easy to blame it on the friends of oil, the lobbyists of oil, the presidents of oil and even a war or two; the happy and hypocritical left would like nothing better than to have us think it is all for the love of speed combined with the greedy capitalists in charge, who have created the winding roadway to the overwhelming addiction to anything that moves and the harsh realities of where we are today.

On a wink and a prayer with those fabulous eyes of ours, we let the future ride for another day...and another day....and another day...

not by the hands of simply the makers of these fine things, but by our own bloody demand -- oh, and by the way, there's a really good spot cleaner for that...aisle eighty six this.

The downside with building an economy around spending --

is building an economy around spending.

Time to look in the mirror, ladies and gentlemen; this is every bit as much our fault as it is theirs.  Take away those with the dough who don't want what you sell, and what have you got?  You force change to happen in the market all by itself.

The law of circulation begins with the law of supply and demand.

How does Mercedes-Benz spin it. "The best or nothing.  That is what drives us."

You got that right.  It is a vicious cycle, indeed; but we, the buyers of what sells, made this mess every bit as much as the the makers of Mercedes-Benz and such.

Richard Reich has a piece in this month's Newsmax (don't even get me started on magazines...not since Thomas Paine has the selling of commentary and other people's fluff been so flooded into the marketplace...we can sell anything, can't we?!).

SO, how does the former secretary of labor (under Billy) size it up:

"In the short term, [we need] more stimulus:  Extend unemployment benefits and aid to state and local governments that are whacking schools and social services because they can't run deficits [because cutting spending is so not attractive]...In the long term, we need a new New Deal that will bolster America's floundering middle class [the new New Deal, he actually said that...as if the new and improved will be any better]."

The downside with building an economy around spending --

is building an economy around spending.

What we refuse to talk about or give proper credence to, it would seem, is not the law of circulation, or the law of supply and demand that brought us here, but another tiny little matter worthy of our full attention -- the basic law of self-reliance and individual duty, inherent to all Americans, that is slowly being drowned out by all the other options that have presented themselves over the years.

The root problem is not solved by simply monitoring the supply or tweaking the demand; it cannot be resolved by speeding up the spending process or controlling who gets what, when or how -- no matter what the cost or so called value that it MIGHT potentially bring.

More importantly, it would be a lie if I told you flat out that this is what drives us as Americans, for real.

Sure, by all appearances, we have thrown on the painted faces and hopped into the latest animal on wheels, but that is not what drives us really (ignoring Hollywood and Cosmo of course).

What has made America great was our attention to detail, while motoring along our highways and byways.  Yes, we like making ourselves look pretty darn good -- but, in the past, we were always able to handle it by the level of substance and humility and common sense hidden deep within our make up; built with a fighting individual spirit to succeed, on our own, and make something of ourselves, was what we were made of through and through. 

So what if we got a little cocky, right; we could handle it -- because the substance back behind the false eyelashes and fast cars carried us further than our hearts desired.

It was this mentality, this freedom to live, this liberty that carried us fast and furious through the wealthiest years this world has ever known, with our real prosperity leading the way -- that being our sound work ethic, our charitable spirit and our fullness of faith in God, any God, even if that is purely a reverence to our inherent ability to make it merely on our own. We overflowed in the magnificence of making everything and nothing, and giving thanks for all of it on Sunday.

But pullleeze...don't get me wrong...there is nothing wrong with spending -- or building an economy around spending; for in that spending, we can take care of our families, our communities, and the desperation's of our surrounding world without blinking an eye; it is really good to be that nation, to be that kind of people.

But without substance, we not only miss out on being our best, and buying the best of the best, we run the risk of losing it all.

Our founders set us in the right direction -- of course, the intention of making it on our own two feet was to be our first and primary option...a slick advertising piece to sell it, no need to apply. 

Since then, the supply of Americans with even a fair amount of understanding of this principle is dwindling -- and why the demand is so incredibly high.

The real fair market price, my friends, is going up.
Here we are, as the years have come and go, we find ourselves at the crossroads -- or where the miraculous miles of aisles meets the new frugality (and old humility) at warped speed. If we crash and burn, my hope is that I am wearing the right mascara for the moment.
 
Make it a Good Day, G

 Rhapsody in (red, white) and Blue is featured on Dear America...Gershwin is a pretty great G.