Friday, September 16, 2011

Grumbling

Here’s my philosophical nugget for the day. When I was an academic counselor, it used to disturb me when grumbling students convinced others to drop out of school with them. Seneca wrote, through the lips of that witch, Medea, “I can be quiet only if I see everything overwhelmed along with my ruin. As you go down it is a satisfaction to drag others with you.” I won’t describe Medea’s ruin at the end of Seneca’s tragedy, but—take heed!—grumblers are quitters, and like Medea’s murderous attitude, they always try to take others down with them. If you know any, stay far away from them so you don’t become infected too. Philippians 2:14-15: “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked an perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”