Looking for something else, I chanced upon Tennyson's Ulysses (1842) one evening last week. I can't remember reading it since high school, so I reread it. Slowly. Wonderful stuff.
We are not now that strength which in the old daysI might just e mail it over to our new Pope. To have a responsibility as intimidating as the papal office thrust upon you at the age of 78, when retirement and rest would be more in order, requires a valiant heart.
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Speaking of the Pope, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough expressed his chagrin at joining the 'lemmings' of the media who forsaw a violent rejection by American Catholics of Joseph Ratzinger's election as Pontiff. Yesterday ABC cited a full 81% of those polled as pleased with the choice of the new Pope, while only 13% claimed to be disappointed.
Kudos for Scarborough.
I, however, remain suspicious of polls, even when in agreement with their results.
