View From the Bushes

After being horribly shamed by the comments on my March 3rd entry, I resolved to do a better job of making time to read. As a consequence, I picked up Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose. I've read a few of his books in the past and I always enjoyed them, plus this book is a loaner from my father, so at some point I need to return it, and there would be far less shame involved if I could do it without admitting defeat. The book has taught me a couple of things: the first is that I really don't have any big gaping 'reading spaces' in my schedule (so far I'm only on page 30 after a week), the second is that Meriwether Lewis makes any modern man look a baby that still needs the protection of a crib and diapers.

So far, Lewis has calmly shot a bull that was charging him at the age of eight, saved an entire refugee camp at the age of ten, and explored most of the eastern United States before the age of 16. Normally I use myself as a negative example in whatever point I'm trying to make, but I don't know anyone who would have the calm to face down a charging bull (I personally would need the aforementioned diaper) and kill it with a single shot. And this is at any age, let alone when they were eight. I can only conclude that men were made of sterner stuff back then, and I have to wonder: what's changed?

I think maybe it's opportunity -- what we need are more charging bulls. Imagine if there were hundreds, nay thousands of charging bulls in every city in America. If only through dumb luck eventually some eight year old would shoot one of them. Now countless eight year olds (and lots of additional people for that matter) would die, but isn't that a small price to pay if we could end up with some real heroes like old Meriwether? I'm just asking you to think about it...

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross