January 1992 WISDOM OF THE WEST
by Travis Hardin
12/22/91
Dear Carol,
Miscellaneous stuff first: I was Garth B's only MM guest at the December 8 concert for which Garth had written one of the pieces. What concert? It was the Christmas Choral Concert of the Combined Choirs of Catonsville Community College and Carroll Community College. Eleven! That's the longest naturally occurring alliterative string I've seen growing in the wild in some time. Isn't that a riot?
Here is my short WOW submission for January 1992:
I don't talk to schizophrenics about schizophrenia; I don't talk to alcoholics about alcoholism, or authoritarians about bullying. I don't analyze religion with religious people or decry ignorance to the ignorant. I don't talk about morality to the dogmatic, or mysticism to the mystical.
This is why I don't talk very much: There's no one to talk to who does not have a psychological or intellectual deformity locked away in the attic of the mind, pretending it's not there, never to be discussed.
Where are the people who love inquiry, knowledge, integrity of thought and truth-telling above all, no matter where it may lead? Where are the thinkers who have no fenced-off areas in their minds for sacred cows? Where are the philosophers and clear-headed scientists among everyday people? Where are the whole people? Where are the humanists?