What drives me most persistently – as an ardent consumer of both goods and information … and philosophy – is a sense of PERMANENCE … a sense of DURABILITY … a sense of WHAT’S RIGHT … WHAT’S TRUE and enduring. I’m not into momentary, gratuitous, opportunistic, “transactional” holdings, tribal connections, conspiracy theories, or what’s “trending”. There’s so much we DON’T know, and so much that’s “friable” – that we can’t really COUNT ON, and it seems that life stridently behooves us to GO FIND OUT and keep adjusting UPWARD!
Ahab in “Moby Dick” asks the question:
“What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare?” Herman Melville
Unfortunately, it’s not a universally shared compulsion:
THOUGHT FOR TODAY: AWADmail Issue 1227, January 4, 2026
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (2 Jan 1920-1992)
More from Captain Ahab, encountering the Pequod ship’s carpenter:
“This is a cogent vice thou hast here, carpenter; let me feel its grip once. So, so; it does pinch some … No fear; I like a good grip; I like to feel something in this slippery world that can hold, man.” Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, p. 502
Importantly, one doesn’t have to do it ALONE! Reach UP, DOWN and AROUND to make the MOST POSITIVE DIFFERENCE possible. Firm ANCHORINGS are critical. That’s SUSTAINABLE DURABILITY.
Don’t GIVE IN or GIVE UP! Get the best GRIP you can manage, and SAIL ON!
