It Keeps Happening Anyway

See, that’s the tragedy of the human condition.  No one WANTS to be corrupted by power when they set out to get it.  They have good, even noble reasons for doing whatever it is they do.  They don’t want to misuse it, they don’t want to abuse it, and they don’t want to become vicious monsters.  Good people, decent people, set out to take the high road, to pick up power without letting it change them or push them away from their ideals.
But it keeps happening anyway.
History is full of it.  As a rule, people aren’t good at handling power.  And the second you start to think you’re better at controlling your power than anyone else, you’ve already taken the first step.
—    Harry Dresden
The narrative character in the novel:  “Cold Days“
Written by:  Jim Butcher
.
On This Day In:
2021	An Impossible Situation
	I Fear It Is (For Us If Not The Planet)
2020	#45 Never Shuts Up
	Walkin’ In The Rain With The One I Love
2019	Silly Pooh Bear
	Dominoes Or Jenga?
2018	Very Few
2017	Or The Candidate Who…
2016	The Happiest People
2015	Jumping Into The Dark
2014	I Would Be Sillier
2013	It Keeps Happening Anyway
2012	Take Time
2011	A Mother’s Lesson
2010	3rd Pair – Shoe Review (DOA and Final)

Read Full Post »

Oh Yes He Can!

I read an article once that said that when women have a conversation, they’re communicating on five levels.  They follow the conversation that they’re actually having, the conversation that is specifically being avoided, the tone being applied to the overt conversation, the buried conversation that is being covered only in subtext, and finally the other person’s body language.
That is, on many levels astounding to me.  I mean, that’s like having a freaking superpower.  When I, and most other people with a Y chromosome, have a conversation, we’re having a conversation.  Singular.  We’re paying attention to what is being said, considering that, and replying to it.  All these other conversations that have apparently been going on for the last several thousand years?  I didn’t even know that they EXISTED until I read that stupid article, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.
I felt somewhat skeptical about the article’s grounding.  There were probably a lot of women who didn’t communicate on multiple wavelengths at once.  There were probably men who could handle that many just fine.  I just wasn’t one of them.
So, ladies, if you ever have some conversation with your boyfriend or husband or brother or male friend, and you are telling him something perfectly obvious, and he comes away from it utterly clueless?  I know it’s tempting to think to yourself, “The man can’t possibly be that stupid!”
But yes.  Yes, he can.
—     Harry Dresden
The narrative character in the novel:  “Cold Days“
Written by:  Jim Butcher
.
On This Day In:
2021	What Will You Become?
	Life’s Illusions
2020	Rules Of Morality
	Tempting Fate
2019	Good People On Both Sides?
2018	Schedule, Please
2017	No Hope For #DumbDonald
2016	Do Something
2015	What Are You Making Now?
2014	Like Fire Burning In My Heart
2013	Oh Yes He Can!
2012	Enquiries
2011	The Prize: Understanding
2010	Can You Tell My Scanner Works?
	Rebecca – The Early Years
	James – The Early Years
	Brothers By Another Mother

Read Full Post »