Merry Christmas, etc.
Merry Christmas! And a happy New Year, too.
2017 has been the kind of year that makes me think of wry remarks like "there is a lot of ruination in a nation" and "may you live in interesting times". And indeed, maybe the whole decade ending in 2017 was exhibiting a similar spirit. But perhaps I should be if not cautiously optimistic, at least open minded. Among other things, the more I have learned about history, the more I have been reminded that the baseline level of "ruination" and "interesting" tends to be pretty high, even in times when in hindsight we can see that things were looking up.
To a relative whose birthday falls very near Christmas, I sent a pair of gifts close to that year-end theme: Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs as recorded in Poland in 1987, and Moynahan's Book of Fire. And if none of your relatives thoughtfully gave you such timely gifts, and you want to remedy the deficiency for yourself, and you don't need to stick to copyrighted works in order to make a traditional purchasable gift, you can try Macaulay's History of England, which is available free on Project Gutenberg (and which might make a subject for another post).
2017 has been the kind of year that makes me think of wry remarks like "there is a lot of ruination in a nation" and "may you live in interesting times". And indeed, maybe the whole decade ending in 2017 was exhibiting a similar spirit. But perhaps I should be if not cautiously optimistic, at least open minded. Among other things, the more I have learned about history, the more I have been reminded that the baseline level of "ruination" and "interesting" tends to be pretty high, even in times when in hindsight we can see that things were looking up.
To a relative whose birthday falls very near Christmas, I sent a pair of gifts close to that year-end theme: Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs as recorded in Poland in 1987, and Moynahan's Book of Fire. And if none of your relatives thoughtfully gave you such timely gifts, and you want to remedy the deficiency for yourself, and you don't need to stick to copyrighted works in order to make a traditional purchasable gift, you can try Macaulay's History of England, which is available free on Project Gutenberg (and which might make a subject for another post).
posted by William Newman at 5:51 PM
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