dumb and dumber

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A voice on the radio the other day argued that even assuming that those who are unemployed found some renewed occupation, the length of their unemployment would mean that there once-sharp skills would be dulled...that, in effect, the work force is getting less and less effective and the nation is likely to suffer a kind of collective dumbing-down.

Certainly I find it true -- use it or lose it. The jolly juxtapositions and intense importances I once found compelling and worth noting have entered a kind of Vaselined blurriness. What once was sharp and interesting and important ... well, the energy and willingness to engage it has dwindled. Is it age? Is it retirement? I don't know, but I do know that where once subject matter seemed to clamor in the mind, now I have to read secondary sources like the news or some revered text in order to fire up the engines of writing ... which, themselves, seem slower and less capable.

Let others be concerned. Help them if they ask. Otherwise ... well, otherwise let things alone. Great involvements are not all that great.

How much worse off would anyone be if they never involved themselves in spiritual life? How much worse off if they simply did a half-assed job instead of a good one? How much happier or unhappier if the dove headlong into one Big Muddy or another?

Dumb, dumber, dumbest ... it seems to be the direction.