Monday, July 24, 2017

The Rebel Black Dot Autobiographical Song o' the Day

Billy Joel, "We Didn't Start the Fire" via iTunes (from Storm Front) (The Last Angry Man)

Commentary: I thoroughly enjoy learning new things, just for learning's sake. I like knowing things, just to know them. It is, for reasons I've never plumbed in any depth, important to me to be competent, & to be known to be competent. Not knowledgeable, but competent.

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is an early inspiration for the jones that eventually fueled the chartering of the Explorers' Club. Even as a ten-year-old at the time of the song's release (Wikipedia-link), I could identify several of the many events & personages mentioned, but I was irked not to know them all & curious to learn what they were all about. Yes, I love Trivial Pursuit, pub quizzes, & History Quiz Night, but above & beyond the thrill of competition (& victory) is for me the joy of simply knowing.

I've often heard it remarked that in a romance, a man faces a fundamental choice: He can choose to be happy or he can choose to be right, but he can't be both happy & right. I'm not presently equipped to be in such a romance, because I'd much rather be right than be happy. This is at least in part because it is a false choice, an unfair deal. How could I be happy being wrong all the time, or at least told I'm wrong & accepting this without protest?

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