potluck
Matt Miller asks whether “luck” or “individual effort” matters most “in determining
where people end up in life.” He notes that both Democrats and Independents
overwhelming said luck in a survey he commissioned, while Republicans said it’s
effort. (NYT, Taking Luck Seriously, May 21, 2005). Miller states:
“Try too hard to wipe out the inequities spawned by luck, and you
banish luck’s societal benefits and go down the road of communism.
But harness a healthy awe for luck, and you expand the bounds of
empathy in ways that make a living wage for poor workers and great
schools for poor children national imperatives. What we’re led to is the
public agenda missing today, built around passionate commitments –
by both liberals and conservatives – to (1) equal opportunity and (2) a
minimally decent life, achieved in ways that harness market forces for
public purposes.”
If Republicans won’t act on these moral imperatives, Miller thinks Democrats
should take luck seriously — making America more just by forging a victory
based on “values that can win.”
horseflies’ and bees’
big lucky day…
blossom-filled temple
donning my umbrella-hat–
cherry blossoms portend
a lucky day
Your editor apologizes for all the webserver problems that have made
accessing f/k/a so difficult the past few days. I’m afraid that no amount of effort on
my part will solve the problem. Pray to the great Webmaster in the sky.
She has some interesting choices and — being into fanstasy literature — alternative
Stick universes. Talk about generation gap: not one of our choices matched. Not one
of our genres, either. I’m again surprised that so many people re-read books. Has there
been a study about personalities that re-read books or watch particular movies or tv
episodes repeatedly (as adults reading for themselves, and not for children) as compared
to those who are one-off-ers? [Note my Britsy idiom.] I spent years recording hundreds
of movies (for personal use, of course) and have not watched even one of them in the
past five years. I’m glad to see that Sarni feels no need for lugging a How-to-Survive-in-
the-Wilderness book. That’s probably part of the basic curriculum in Aussie elementary
school — Walkabout Ed. Stop over to Infernality and see Sarni’s Stick and shtick. Thanks
for shaking and sharing your Stick, Ms. S!!
“tinyredcheck” I feel lucky today: two of my favorite haiku poets agreed over the
weekend to be Honored Guests here at f/k/a: Tom Clausen of Ithaca, NY, and
Yu Chang of Schenectady, NY. I will be formally introducing each of them this
week, but you’ve worked hard (or are just lucky) and deserve a double sneak
preview — with haiku and senryu by Tom and Yu from the latest issue of frogpond,
the Journal of the Haiku Society of America.
from Tom Clausen:
just oatmeal
the waitress says
“enjoy”
out of its reflecting pool
the windblown
fountain
from Yu Chang:
pumpkin patch
this one is big enough
for my son
taking turns
to stretch their necks
a pair of herons
“THNLogoF” “THNLogoG”
from dagosan
last week of May
unpacking
the winter quilt
[May 23, 2005]