The Stuff of Ideas

Why I am Here

Published on November 11, 2004 By Roger Layman In Welcome

I finally retired last January. After flurry of activity to catch up with all the projects that I promised I would do as soon as I retired (How was I to know that my wife actually kept a list!) things have started to slow down and I have some time to take stock and do some reading and thinking that I never seemed to have time to do when I was doing my 40-plus hours every week.

But reading and thinking are not very rewarding if there is no one to share discuss my ideas with. I tried a few Yahoo groups and miscellaneous topical forums, but these seemed to be full of monomaniacs who were woefully ignorant outside their favored topics. So, I took a deep breath and decided to try setting up my own blog/web site (not sure of the proper term) where I could throw out my ideas and see if others felt they were at least worth discussing.

So, if you feel like talking about anything and everything in the world of ideas, feel free to post here. Or, you can read my ideas and tell me where to get off. You/I can even talk about the social no-no's of religion and politics. Call it a dinner table discussion without the restraints imposed by everybody's having knives to hand.

Comments

Roger Layman

on Nov 11, 2004

Right now I am reading G. K. Chesterton. He wrote the Father Brown mystery series (which I have never read) but was also a poet and wrote extensively. on relgion and philosophy. My current reading is Heretics written in 1905. What amazes me is the number of points he makes that still apply a hundred years later. Some examples:

"In the glad old days...it used to be thought a disadvantage to be misundrstood. It may be doubted whether it is always or even generally a disadvantage. The man who is misunderstood has always this advantage over his enemies, that they do not know his weak point or his plan of campaign. They go out against a bird with nets and against a fish with arrows."

Pretty much sums up Bush's victory

In writing of G. B. Shaw, Chestertpn says, "He has pleased all the bohemians by saying that women are equal to men; but he has infuriated them by suggesting that men are equal to women."

Could be ripped from today's headlines as they say.

These are just some examples of the ideas and thoughts that I hope we can discuss here.

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