1) My rule is, if I’m awake after 5:00 AM, I start the day. Often I break this rule, now that I don’t have to leave the house by 8 to make the office by 9, but not today.
2) Mother’s Bible opened to Galatians 3, which begins with a question that many Americans would have trouble answering: “O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you from your faith after Jesus Christ, crucified, has been pictured before your eyes?”
2a) And in Gracián’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom, #165: “Wage a clean war. the wise person can be driven to war, but not to a dishonorable one. Act like the person you are, not the way they make you act. To behave magnanimously towards your rivals is praiseworthy. You should fight not only to win power but also to show that you are a superior fighter. To conquer without nobility is not victory but surrender. [emphasis mine] . . . don’t take advantage of the trust that was once placed in you. Everything that smacks of treachery is poison to your reputation. Noble people shouldn’t have even an atom of baseness. Nobility scorns villainy. You should be able to boast that if gallantry, generosity, and faith were lost in the world, they could be found agian in your own breast.”
3) Variations on routine become gemstones of excitement, and this morning I have a 9 AM call with a friend and former colleague, and that is most pleasant to consider!