Aye Aye, Captain...

If hearts or lungs were as undisciplined as minds we'd all die in childbirth.

Plato likened the natural state of the mind to a mutinied ship which had been taken over by stubborn sailors - each believing himself free, each taking his turn at the wheel, and each taking the ship in a new direction. The result: an erratic path of disconnected navigations. Plato urged us to quell the mutiny, to take back the ship from the wild sailors and the whim of the moment, and to steer consistently and coherently towards a chosen destination. This, in his opinion, was our job as humans.

(Two Johns in a rowboat, Sept. 1963)