broken resolution

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

It is of course justifiable for the man that draws up
reports, adds up figures, answers business letters, follows
the movement of the stock exchange, to feel an agreeable
sense of superiority when he says to you with a sneer: "It's
all very well for you; you have nothing better to do." But
he would be no less contemptuous, would be even more
so
.were your recreation writing Hamlet or Merely reading
it. Wherein busy men show a lack of forethought. For the
disinterested culture which seems to them a comic pastime of
idle people when they find them engaged in it is, they ought
to reflect, the same as that which, in their own profession,
brings to the fore men who may not be better judges or
administrators then themselves but before whose rapid
advancement they bow their heads, saying, "it appears he's
extremely well read, a most distinguished individual." 

			Marcel Proust    A la recherche du temps perdu

Or was it Goncharov's Oblomov?

Proust does more than TV can
To justify a slothful man.

Ever see Al Bundy on vacation? He ropes off the couch and
the tube and refuses to acknowledge anyone that comes into
his vacation space. Thank Zeus I can read a book during a
riot, big family small house and subways I guess. 

Back to fishing,

Terrance 
 



Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> Every year for the last five years I've made a New Year's resolution to
> break my addiction to the p-list. It's too time-consuming. I neglect
> family and other duties on account of it (I'm always  being told).
> And I agree--the p-list is bad for me. However my resolution to
> quit never lasts more than a day or two. I have observed and talked
> to others who have had the strength  and the resolve to kick the habit.
> I have seen them go on to lead happy productive lives. I feel their
> joy but know it cannot be my own own. I have come to recognize at this
> point in my life that I now longer am even trying to fight the addiction.
> The damn thing is just too compelling, the dependency too great. The only
> hope left is that the p-list will somehow evaporate from the face of the
> earth. But I know this is an idle hope. It will not happen. It has gone on
> too long. The p-list is indestructible. And I am doomed.
> 
>                                 P.