Liberal Arts Blog — If You Were a State, What Would Your Motto Be? If You Were a Constitution What Would Your Preamble Be?
Liberal Arts Blog — Tuesday is the Joy of Literature, Language, Religion, and Culture Day
Today’s Topic: If You Were a State, What Would Your Motto Be? If you were a Constitution what would your preamble be?
Put differently, have you picked an epitaph yet? Did you ever have to write a “four word” or a “five word” autobiography in grade school? middle school? high school? college? What did you come up with? Is there a better mental exercise? How about thinking about the best one, two, three, four, five, six, seven word sentence ever written? Or how about ranking the best one, two, three, four, five, six, seven idea sentence ever written? How many ideas are too many ideas for a sentence to carry? How many are too few to tell the story of you or the meaning of life more generally? Today, a focus on three of the most evocative sentences I have ever come across. What are your top three?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
“ART IS LONG, LIFE IS SHORT, THE OPPORTUNITY FLEETING, EXPERIENCE DELUSIVE, JUDGMENT THEREFORE DIFFICULT” (a 14 word, compound sentence — the First Aphorism of Hippocrates, really the work of generations of Hippocratic physicians over centuries)
1. The Second Aphorism should also be memorized with it: “The physician must not only do the right thing himself but make sure the patient, the attendants, and the externals cooperate.”
2. I like to think of these sentences together as the greatest paragraph written in human history. Simple, but complete.
3. The gauntlet is down. What’s your pick?
“WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION, ESTABLISH JUSTICE, ENSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY, PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENSE, PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE, AND SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY TO OURSELVES AND PROSPERITY DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES”
1. What is missing from the Preamble form an 18th century perspective? The Preamble of every state constitution I can remember has two items that are missing from the federal constitution. Do you know what they are?
2. What two items are missing from a 21st century perspective?
3. Let’s discuss at lunch today — or any other time.
“GOD, GRANT ME THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE, THE COURAGE TO CHANGE WHAT CAN BE CHANGED, AND THE WISDOM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE” (Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892–1971), theologian
1. “Niebuhr later added more lines, such as, “Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace…”
2. “The prayer gained widespread popularity after an Alcoholics Anonymous member found it in a 1941 newspaper and introduced it to the group. It has since become a cornerstone of the 12-step program and is used by many other organizations and individuals.”
3. “Since at least the early 1960s, commercial enterprises such as Hallmark Cards have used the prayer in its greeting cards and gift items.”
NB: Niebuhr was one of the American intellectuals covered in my doctoral dissertation, “War of Ideas: American Intellectuals and the World Crisis, 1938–1945" (1982). This is the only sentence written by any of them that I can remember. What sentence that haunts you can you share with us?
FOOTNOTE — If you were a flag, would you have words on it? Would “love” be one of them? Did Brazil make the right decision to leave “love” out?
1. “The motto Ordem e Progresso is derived from Auguste Comte’s motto of positivism::”L’amour pour principe et l’ordre pour base; le progrès pour but” (“Love as a principle and order as the basis; progress as the goal”).
2. “The stars on the disc represent each of the 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District, with their placement reflecting the sky over Rio de Janeiro on November 15, 1889, the day the country became a republic.”
3. My flag would, of course, have Orion on it. And if one word, “gratitude.” If two words, “gratitude” and “kindness.” Remember, if you inhale with gratitude and exhale with kindness, you will be on the right path.
List of U.S. state and territory mottos — Wikipedia
Hippocratic Corpus — Wikipedia
Preamble to the United States Constitution — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH — Have you made your own Bible yet?
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY INTO FOURTEEN BOOK-LENGTH PDFS:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to words, language, literature, religion, culture.
Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to Words, Language, Literature (eg. quotes, poetry, vocabulary) that you have not yet shared.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
