I have been reminded over the past couple of months that the most interesting infection that a person can get is an infected mind. That is to say, a mind that is no longer going with the grain, but against the grain of the universe. The most common symptom of this infection is the thoughts that spending long hours on THE JOB is what keeps the world spinning.
Now, mind you, I have had this infection and could very easily catch it again. However, thems that have it can be very hard on thems that don’t have it.
A very close friend, now on to his reward, did not have it and I do not remember a time when he did have it. On a wet day, this fellow traveler possibly topped the scales at 100 pounds. When he showed up the kitchen would open and would not close for his entire stay. He always had a healthy appetite. He would show up and we would bring him in. His people lived 40 or 50 miles southwest of our place. After four or five days, my mom would ask him if maybe he should contact his people to let them know where he was (I think she was figuring on reducing her feed bill as soon as possible as well). “No”, he would respond, “they will be glad to see me when I get there.” He was great company and always pitched in where needed, but he simple never got worked up about what day it was or when the next ‘event’ was going to happen. After some time would pass, he would get up one morning and say ‘Adios’ and that was that. He would be off to the next stop. It might be home or anywhere else. It just did not matter.
Since I have departed from my lane in the rat race, I have given less thought to clock time, either railroad time or government time. It has made me very aware of how much time most people do not have. I am not surprised nor disappointed by this. Mr. Nock, in what he describes as economism hit the nail on the head, stated that western society had only one philosophy which was to interpret the whole of human life in terms of the production, acquisition, and distribution of wealth. He continued by noting that most people are like certain Philippians in the time of St. Paul, their gods are their bellies, and they have no mind for anything beyond έπίγεια (earthly things). Of course as one drinks deeply of the literature, one finds that in America, at least, this has been true since A.D. 1492. And so it goes….
SDG