The Chinese Communist Party is now celebrating its 100th anniversary. Has any organization in history wreaked more damage on human beings? I lead my Impromptus today with this issue. There are a lot more, of course — issues, I mean: Joe Biden, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, the Confederacy, Mel Brooks, William F. Buckley Jr., American music, etc.
Speaking of music: The latest episode of my Music for a While is here.
Care for some reader mail? In a previous Impromptus, I wrote,
There are two phrases I dislike — detest — I think above all. Let me tell you what they are: “It is what it is” and “That ship has sailed.” Maybe you can analyze me — my detestation. I think it must be the resignation in those phrases. The spirit of defeat.
Many readers responded to this item, in various ways. One woman — thoughtful — said,
I like “It is what it is.” I like the phrase very much. Here’s why:
I find it grounding. While you feel it imparts a “spirit of defeat,” I find it helps me take a step back. It forces me to disengage with the subject/battle and accept that this is something I am unable to change, at least at this time. And frankly, I find that liberating. I can now move on to something else where I may find success.
In another Impromptus, I wrote about certainty — cocksureness, actually. Here’s a slice:
In my observation, young people — recent college grads — are very sure. They know everything. I have a feeling I was like that, when I was young: insufferable (even more than now). If you disagree with a young person — no matter how much experience, knowledge, or wisdom you have — you’re a dolt.
Maybe you are. But, you know? Maybe you aren’t.
One young person responded,
I think young people may not be as sure as you think — though outwardly, most of us are. Almost none of us are as sure of ourselves as we pretend. It’s the few who actually are who make things difficult.
Ha, that sounds right.
Elsewhere, I cited a wonderful comment by Tim Alberta, the crack political reporter who once worked at NR, then moved to Politico, and is now with The Atlantic. Tim wrote, “I’ve been waiting to coach Little League since the day I learned my wife was pregnant.”
A reader, loving that sentiment, says,
I always evangelize on the need for quantity time with kids, not just quality time (as a replacement for the former). You never know when great small chats (or knowing looks, or important listening) will happen, and may not even know which are “great” to the kids. Heck, sometimes they don’t even know which are great . . . until much later.
So true. “Quantity time,” not just “quality time.” I’d never heard that. It is spot-on, I believe.
A friend of mine likes to say, “Life is in the daily” — not so much in the big moments as in the daily. So, so true.
For reasons I could get into, I ended a recent Impromptus with a paean to cucumbers (and told a story about them). My friend Dave Taggart writes,
Here in the South, you lock your car in the church parking lot to keep other people from slipping in bags of cucumbers and squash.
Fabulous. Well-nigh aphoristic. Thanks to one and all. Today’s Impromptus, again, is here. See what you think.