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  1. I liked Al Mohler’s Wednesday edition of The Briefing, especially part II: ” The View of World History through the Eyes of Vladimir Putin: The Legacy of the Autocrat, the Drive for a Greater Russia, and the Reclamation of Russian Glory.”

 

2. I liked George Herbert’s (1593–1633) poem “Sunday.” In part, it reads:

The Sunday’s of man’s life,
Threaded together on time’s string,
Make bracelets to adorn the wife
Of the eternal glorious King.

 

On Sunday’s heaven’s gate stands ope;
Blessings are plentiful and rife,
More plentiful than hope.

 

This day my Savior rose,
And did enclose this light for his:
That, as each beast his manger knows,
Man might not of his fodder miss.
Christ hath took in this piece of ground,
And made a garden there for those
Who want herbs for their wound. . . .

 

Thou art a day of mirth:
And where the weekdays trail on ground,
Thy flight is higher, as thy birth.
O let me take thee at the bound,
Leaping with thee from seven to seven,
Till that we both, being tossed from earth,
Fly hand in hand to heaven!

3. I liked Julie Hartman’s Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Harvard Students Are Covid Sheep.” (Hartman is a senior at the prestigious university.) FYI, by “liked,” I mean found interesting. Her words below intrigue (and sadden) me:

The administration has managed to implement all these measures without serious objection because of this hard truth: For most Harvard undergrads, our lives during Covid aren’t that different from the way they have always been. . . . To get into this university, we chose to detach ourselves from normal human experiences, neglecting our interests, hobbies, robust social lives—anything that couldn’t appear on a college application or be touted in an interview. Almost everything in life was subordinate to whatever was necessary to get into college. Once we arrived on campus, we certainly had more fun than we did in high school, but our tendency to conform hasn’t gone away, especially as we pursue our next goal, whether at Goldman Sachs or in graduate school. There is little difference between mask compliance and the grueling sports practices and marathon study sessions we did in high school. Covid restrictions are simply requirements we tolerate to attain the next credential. . . . Our life’s mission has been to please those who can grant or withhold approval: parents, teachers, coaches, admissions officers and job interviewers. As a result, many of us don’t know what we believe or what matters to us. . . . My peers and I are often told that we are the future leaders of America. We may be the future decision makers, but most of us aren’t leaders. Our principal concern is becoming members of the American elite, with whatever compromises, concessions and conformity that requires. The inability of Harvard students to question or oppose these irrational bureaucratic excesses bodes ill for our ability to meet future challenges.