No Man Is an Island

Thomas Merton asks in his "No Man is an Island," "Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?

We cannot be ourselves unless we know ourselves. But self-knowledge is impossible when thoughtless and automatic activity keeps our souls in confusion. In order to know ourselves it is not necessary to cease all activity in order to think about ourselves. That would be useless, and would probably do most of us a great deal of harm. But we have to shut down our activity to the point where we can think calmly and reasonably about our actions. We cannot begin to know ourselves until we can see the real reasons why we do the things we do, and we cannot be ourselves until our actions correspond to our intentions, and our intentions are appropriate to our situation. ... It is not necessary that we succeed in everything.. A man can be perfect and still reap no fruit from his work, and it may happen that a man is who is able to accomplish very little is much more of a person than another who seems to accomplish very much."

Heads up Barry! Heads down Barry!. A little introspection could go a long way to expose your shallow, self-centered, hedonism and your false belief in re-distribution of wealth at the expense of those who produce wealth. As President you could accomplish much by doing little, by regulating less, by encouraging self-sufficiency more. For you, an examination of conscience - as we Catholic school children were told to call it - could go a long way.

Read up Barry, on Merton’s discussion of hope and despair. It is still not too late for you to mend your ways. Merton reminds each of us about "addressing God in the emptiness of a hope that may come close to despair.... perfect hope is achieved on the brink of despair, when instead of falling over the edge, we find ourselves walking on the air. Hope is always just about to turn into despair, but never does, for at the moment of supreme crisis God’s power is suddenly made perfect to our infirmity."