Sunday 9 April 2023
I am a result, not a cause
A quote for Easter -
At the club he was called to the telephone by Lewis, who asked him to come at once to his office at the Edwards Consolidated. When he got there he found a wire from Sue. In a moment of loneliness and despondency over the loss of his old business standing and reputation, Colonel Tom had shot himself in a New York hotel.
Sam sat at his desk, fingering the yellow paper lying before him and fighting to get his head clear. “The old coward. The damned old coward,” he muttered; “any one could have done that.”
When Lewis came into Sam’s office he found his chief sitting at his desk fingering the telegram and muttering to himself. When Sam handed him the wire he came around and stood beside Sam, his hand upon his shoulder.
“Well, do not blame yourself for that,” he said, with quick understanding.
“I don’t,” Sam muttered; “I do not blame myself for anything. I am a result, not a cause. I am trying to think. I am not through yet. I am going to begin again when I get things thought out.”
Lewis went out of the room leaving him to his thoughts. For an hour he sat there reviewing his life. When he came to the day that he had humiliated Colonel Tom, there came back to his mind the sentence he had written on the sheet of paper while the vote was being counted. “The best men spend their lives seeking truth.”
Sherwood Anderson - Windy McPherson's Son (1916)
Sam McPherson discovers that success isn’t what he thought, that he was driven by ambition while he himself drove nothing. He was merely a result of that ambition, not its cause. His epiphany is one Spinoza would have understood. “The best men spend their lives seeking truth.”
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3 comments:
I read Russell's History of Western Philosophy when I was fourteen. Naturally I've retained almost nothing that he said except that Hume was the only important philosopher since the Greeks. But whether I actually remember that or made it up myself I'm not sure.
Anyhoo, brother Spinoza. Later I learnt that he gave the only sensible explanation I've ever come across for the origin of the Jewish food taboos. Every other explanation I've heard has been manifest rubbish so I accept Spinoza's. Would Hume approve? Tant pis if he wouldn't.
Interesting you mentioning Spinoza. :)
dearieme - I've not read Russell for decades but I recently came across a Kindle collection of his essays which I may try. I don't recall Spinoza on Jewish food taboos but it's been a while since I read him too, although I'm aiming to read 'Ethics' again.
James - he creeps in every now and then :)
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