Just A Pilgrim On This Road

A living mind should never be stagnant. My mind has not been stagnant, but for years it has been a slow moving stream, obstructed by false alarms, smoldering embers, brush fires and full blown conflagrations of flame and smoke.

At my age, perhaps the best way to deal with life is to build an intellectual firebreak and spend time reading and learning, as I did when I was young. For a time in my twenties I sought to read three books a week. I tore through subjects that interested me as if they were a seafood buffet--taking little time to chew in order to be able to swallow more. Between 1979 and 1987 I read everything worth reading about the history of the people of Tsennacomacah, and their relationship with the Jamestown experiment. From 1980 to the early 90's I inhaled books on Biblical critical analysis and scholarship. During the same period of time I read everything worth reading about both John and Bobby Kennedy. During the first decade of this century my focus was on absorbing the written word on natural horsemanship.

In recent years my reading has focused on the characters that contributed to Americana and Roots music. But that reading has not been as satisfying. That reading has come from some books, but mostly does from internet research.

Reading from the internet is not like going to a seafood buffet. It is like stopping by 7-11--sometimes I can find something that tastes good there, but the real reason that I stopped is to find something quickly.

Learning from the internet  allows one to accumulate a vast amount of information but is not conducive to reflection on that information. That matters--knowledge comes from the accumulation of information, but wisdom comes from reflection on that information.

Lately I have found myself drawn back to the road--to look for knowledge and wisdom as hard as I did when I was in my twenties. Perhaps this is merely a result of being nearly sixty years old and wanting to get things straight before I am gone.  More likely, the decline in our nation's morality and decency in recent years has caused more reflection.

At William & Mary my mind was on fire. My closest friend in my college years and best man in our wedding was Jim Comey. Jim was also a double major, mine was Government and Religion. I think that Jim's was Chemistry and Religion.  I was not used to talking to people smarter than me. At age 19 it was something that had very rarely  happened. Jim was smarter than me--not by much, but a touch smarter.

After you get a knife  sharp with a sharpening stone,  a steel hones it to an even sharper edge. Jim and I served as steels for each other's minds.

I want to regain that sharpness. Sanders, Niebur, King, Heschel, Amos, Luke and Malachi are starting to push their way back into the workings of my mind.

So now here I sit. I am on the Sabbath that I have about every 18 months to two years. I have the flu and as always I am enjoying it to no end.  It gives an opportunity for complete rest and reflection. The option of getting some work done does not exist. I am entirely too sick to even go feed up. So I can rest--and think.

 I am not too sick to doze off  as I compare Lincoln's Second Inaugural to Martin Luther King's letter from the Birmingham jail. And it is a wonderful thing to allow my mind to go back to being twenty two years old again.

When I was still young enough to be impressed by brilliance.

(The title of this post is from Steve Earle's great funeral song, "I'm Just a Pilgrim This Road.")