“The relationship between a man’s benevolence and the exercise of his power over others resolves to an inverse proportion while the measures of his freedom and liberty are tied, exponentially, to the depths of his humility and Grace.”
Author: David M. Poff
There's not much to say... I come from a long line of Appalachian folk that landed in America long before flipping off the King was even a twinkle in the eyes of our founding fathers. We have been Carpenters and coal miners... Soldiers & Sailors and pig farmers and Sunday morning circuit-riding preachers. Hell, I'm told we have even been fairly decent bootleggers too.
The oldest of my family elders I met as a child were the sons and daughters of farmers across whose red rocky fields the North and South marched and died at Antietam. I am quite sure that my ancestors had more wisdom in the palms of their crooked calloused hands than the whole lot of high-minded and over-educated White Collar class will ever acquire across the entirety of their collective lifetimes.
It is my hope that, in the midst of so many lost and self-unaware souls, I might pay forward - even a little bit - of what was handed down to me before it is my turn to swan-dive off this mortal coil.
No One Takes Anything From You That You Haven’t Let Them Keep
I’m reminded, as I write this, of a quote I first heard while listening to a Dan Bongino podcast that came from Quintus Ennius, an ancient Roman writer, and poet, that is worth memorizing in the days ahead: