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“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same…”

Yes, the evening’s gotten bad enough for UD to haul out the Kipling.

And meanwhile where is it written that UD gets to have everything she wants to have? Your always absurdly privileged blogeuse would like to live in a country that elects not only Barack Obama but also Hillary Clinton; but she doesn’t always get everything she likes.

Margaret Soltan, November 8, 2016 10:59PM
Posted in: democracy

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11 Responses to ““If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same…””

  1. Greg Says:

    Over the past few months I’ve tried using, as consolation, similar thoughts about non-entitlement. What’s harder here is that it seems that so many of the already disadvantaged will be adversely affected, so that this is a very special case of wanting something and not getting it. Wanting it, I think, largely for others — my kids, friends, their children, people I don’t know at all. Of course one could be wrong and wisdom of a slight crowd might prove right. It just doesn’t seem likely here.

    But what I have learned –or more accurately am learning — is not to allow something I had so little control over make me put my life — breathing in a sense — on hold as I did with this. I hope I’ll rise to similar occasions in which I can make a difference –give money etc., phone bank when I can. But it’s time to put more weight on family friends, art, nature.

    Best wishes. I’ll probably be back.

  2. contingent cassandra Says:

    My feeling are similar to Greg’s: if I thought the majority of Trump voters would increase the chances of getting at least some of what they want (especially things like a decent chance at a decent life, in terms of work, education, gaining better lives for themselves and their children, etc.), I’d be much more resigned. But all I see is the likelihood of greater economic stratification, and the possibility of real danger, especially on the international front, and I don’t think that’s going to benefit anybody.

  3. Margaret Soltan Says:

    contingent cassandra, Greg: Well said, both of you – very much to the point, and very much my own thoughts.

  4. theprofessor Says:

    One of my grandfathers loved Kipling, and he gave me a book of his poems when I was about 6. Strange that the offspring of a poor Irish family who first went to sea when he was 12 or 13 would admire Kipling. I take it that Kipling is too triggering to be taught these days in a college classroom.

  5. Greg Says:

    Roy Rogers gave the very first Trigger warning. Or was it Dale?

  6. Greg Says:

    By the way, Contingent Cassandra is one of my very favorite names on this blog. Is there a good English word for what you become if the contingency lifts; instantiated? My wife wants me to put in a word for her fav sobriquet– Doctor Doctorstein.

    Back to trying just enough Buddhism to dull things while still giving a damn. What a difficult balance!

  7. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Greg: Wonderful way to put it: Just enough Buddhism to dull things while still giving a damn. Yup.

  8. charlie Says:

    The most important function of a citizen isn’t voting, it’s to be informed. How many of those who took part in yesterday’s plebiscite knew anything of DT’s business practices or Clinton’s Senate voting record or State Department policies?

  9. theprofessor Says:

    @Charlie, I’m guessing the percentages between those who voted yesterday who knew about those items would be comparable to the percentage who knew anything in 2008 about Obama’s complete lack of accomplishment in the Illinois legislature or the US Senate.

    @Greg, Dale Evans gave Buttermilk warnings, not Trigger warnings. I remember that as a kid, a Deplorable relative gave me a toy horse named Trigger that galloped under the radar of my arch-liberal parents.

  10. charlie Says:

    TP: exactly.

    “Now, more than ever, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body is ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.”

    James Garfield “A Century of Congress” 1877

  11. Greg Says:

    TP —

    Buttermilk was Dale’s horse! Ah: Saturday morning TV in the midwest. It all comes back as if I had just dipped my Twinkie © in tea, taken a bite and was transported back to my bedroom in Combray — oops Granite City — all tucked in and waiting for Mom’s kiss, unsure if really awake or just dreaming that.

    Happy trails to you. Here are Roy, king before Elvis, and Dale:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcYsO890YJY

    After that, for a palate cleanse, listen to Jobim and Regina::

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBEesrdaRog

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