The next morning as I looked over the driveway there were the outlines
of two footprints. Fortunately for Bill the outlines are only in the film on the
surface and will eventually wear off, but had the cement not been set enough,
it would have been like Bigfoot in a bakery.
June 27, 2013
Firmness Test
A few days ago we had a new cement driveway poured and after less than eight
hours Bill wanted to see if it had cured enough to walk on so he stepped onto
the green cement. Now this is not like sticking a toothpick into a cake to see
if it is done, or testing in an inconspicuous place. This was more like pushing
in the middle of the cake to see if it would spring back.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----”…take only ways that are firm.” If we each grew up and lived alone in the woods, stepping onto the cement to see if it was firm would be the thing to do (if it was our first pour.) We wouldn’t know when it firms into concrete, having no experience with it. But we don’t live alone, and cement has been poured everywhere for thousands of years. The rate at which it sets is knowledge that has been passed along with the traditions of the trade. At any point in time from the pour, knowing what others have learned tells us how firm or soft the cement is.
-----The value of tradition is that we don’t each have to leave footprints in the concrete for the sake of discovering which paths are firm. If we have the moral integrity wherefrom is honor, respect, and basic trust for our fellow man, then our fellow man’s knowledge happily becomes ours, and from generation to generation, society will improve.
-----But we’ve allowed two generations to be hoodwinked by malicious fools, and a third stands in line for the same. “Everyone has his own bag, man,” is not a universal principle regardless of how much dope a society smokes. In fact, the foolishness of such an attempt to take leave of good moral traditions should have been clearly seen in these fools’ admission to the tradition of having a bag in the first place. Maybe if they had smoked another joint they would have struck upon the fact that language itself is a tradition, and so are the fundamental, sociological metaphors which interface language with knowledge, understanding, imagination, and all other inner workings of the mind. But no, we allowed grimy, long haired, lice infected, stoned-out-of-their minds ignoramuses to flip a deep-down, basic switch from simple respect for traditions and mutual understandings to a popularized disrespect towards them. We didn’t even question the incompleteness of their philosophy while questioning “everything” like they said to do. Nor did we question their fool questions.
-----Indeed, everyone does have his own bag, but indeed it is bag of particulars for the individual having it, which is a non-statement about the bag of generalities we all maintain together. And even many particulars are constructed from generalities which must be held (ei, traditions) for us all to be social beings. From the foolishness of subjective reality to the foolishness of subjective morality to the foolishness of a world now AIDS infested by sexual preferences to which tradition is becoming subject, the concept of “ways that are firm” is beyond being under attack, it is nearly destroyed.
-----I’ve seen dogs bear pups, cats bear kittens, war bear fear, selfishness bear animosity, kindness bear friendship, and charm bear love, but I’ve yet to see foolishness bear wisdom. The destruction of traditions is the destruction of acquired intelligence. The destruction of acquired intelligence is the destruction of wisdom. The destruction of wisdom bears not wisdom, but foolishness. And foolishness pays demise as dividends to its stockholders. But ways that are firm are known amongst people mutually careful about goodness towards all, including self, truth, and God.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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