-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter XVIII, p. 162.
This is only half the truth, like "The bottle is half empty." Human beings have changed this world, Earth, with hands and brains and can change more than Earth. But we can't change everything. One of the things that has to be accepted is that people do change things, changing themselves in the process. Another is that there are basic laws that we can learn but not alter.
In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, and probably elsewhere, there is a prayer for courage to change what can be changed, patience to accept what cannot be changed and wisdom to tell the difference. Another good aphorism is "Pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the will." Whatever our condition, there is always something that can be done.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, just to be nit picky, we do see SOMEONE changing the laws of nature on Earth in Stirling's Emberverse series. But of course I knew what you meant!
And, yes, I agree human beings have changed this planet of ours. And I only wish humans were changing the Moon, Venus, and Mars now!
"Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will"? I understand and agree.
Sean
Paul:
"...and wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they got on my nerves."
I don't know who came up with that parody, but I've got a copy posted in my kitchen/dining room.
In an American newspaper comic strip, a little girl is starting a petition against "scientific tyranny," otherwise known as "those pesky laws of nature that won't let people do whatever we want." You know, gravity, the second law of thermodynamics, that sort of thing....
Kaor, DAVID!
I thought that parody of the Serenity Prayer you quoted very amusing! It reminded me of this bit from George Long's translation of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius' MEDITATIONS (2.1), "Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial." So this long dead Emperor also had to put up with irritating people.
And that little girl from the comic strip reminds me too well of those people who resent being constrained by FACTS from doing or getting anything they want. Like poor Bruce Jenner pretending to be a woman when we all know, even those who abet his delusion, that he's just a guy in drag.
Sean
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