Conservative Conversation + Podcasts

Retired consultant, avid biography reader and meditator

| May 12, 2020

39 COMMENTS

As the country starts to breathe a sigh of relief and emerges from the lockdown that is devastating our economy, people will use this opportunity to attack those who have supported the country’s efforts to re-open. They will cry out that people are dying. And they are right.

Whether the country began to re-open this month, or next month or in September, in other words, no matter when we strive to return to normal lives, people will die. Some will die from heart attacks, or pneumonia, or simply old age. And some will have contacted COVID-19. We will probably never know how the virus actually contributed to their deaths, but even now it has been implicated as the source of many deaths. And people who supported opening up will be called out for conspiring with those who are greedy, those who lack compassion and concern for other human beings.

By KentForrester

Moderator

KentForrester

I grew up in the 50s in the blue-collar city of Compton, California, just before it turned dangerous. I spent my youth in pool halls and bowling alleys. I had no interest in school. To make money, I delivered newspapers, set pins in the bowling alley, kept score, and even shined shoes in dive bars on Compton Boulevard. I was drafted into the Army in 1958 and spent 18 months in Germany, where I started thinking hard about what I wanted to do with my life. So I returned to Compton Junior College f… [more]

| April 11, 2020

57 COMMENTS

Mark Twain once wrote, “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” I’ve always liked Twain, probably because his temperament and philosophy pretty much match my own. I’m in a Twain state of mind this morning, so I thought I’d use Twain as my spirit guide as I write a post on last things.

OK then, first things first: last words. I don’t know about you, but I want to leave a good last impression. Here’s Mark Twain with a hint to help us to do just that: “A man should be as particular about his last words as he is about his last breath. He should write them out on a slip of paper. . . .and never leave such a thing to the last hour of his life.”

By Merrijane

Thatcher

Merrijane

Wife, mom, Latter-day Saint, poet. Not necessarily in that order.

| March 31, 2020

26 COMMENTS

UPDATE: They let me in.

UPDATE 2: Mom passed away in the early morning hours. Thank you to everyone for your kindness.

By Seawriter

Seawriter

Seawriter is a former Shuttle software engineer who successfully made the transition to the oil and gas industry as a technical writer after the end of the Shuttle program. It is not the first career

| March 28, 2020

13 COMMENTS

“In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.” — C.S. Lewis

While Lewis wrote this in regard to the then-new threat of atomic warfare, it seems remarkably appropriate to today’s Chinese coronavirus scare. While we may be reacting to the threat in novel ways, the threat itself is as old as mankind. Yet death is inevitable once birth has occurred. Through our panic (as others have noted on Ricochet) some may be hastening their own deaths or the deaths of others.

By Susan Quinn

Retired consultant, avid biography reader and meditator

| March 15, 2020

66 COMMENTS

My husband and I must be the only two seniors who embrace sanity over panic. We live in a 55+ community, where many people have pre-existing conditions or simply don’t take care of themselves. To deal with their anxiety regarding the COVID-19, they feel they have to do something. They’ve decided to shop. When we went to do our weekly shopping, you would have thought that a five-force hurricane was offshore bearing down on us. Shelves were cleared of bottled water, milk, and toilet paper. I’m not sure why they’ve gotten toilet paper, but I guess for those of us who are spoiled Westerners, toilet paper is a necessity.

We walked through the store, shaking our heads. I hope those people are feeling more at ease. I doubt it.

By Susan Quinn

Retired consultant, avid biography reader and meditator

| March 9, 2020

28 COMMENTS

Fear is a normal state in human beings. At one time another, we’ve all experienced it. Soldiers know fear when they dive from bullets; some of us know fear when we need to drive on black ice; others experience fear when our children are seriously ill. We’ve all known fear.

Fear should also be a temporary state. It heightens our senses and awareness to notice when our safety or well-being is threatened; once the emergency passes, however, our bodies, for the most part, should return to a “normal state,” which is different for each person.

By Arahant

Arahant

Corporate governance, process management and change management consultant, poet, alchemist, and writer.

| December 1, 2019

14 COMMENTS

“Nothing is simpler than to kill a man; the difficulties arise in attempting to avoid the consequences.” — Rex Stout, Too Many Cooks

By Lilly B

Coolidge

Lilly B

Lilly B is a member of Ricochet.

| November 3, 2019

3 COMMENTS

“During these last months the King walked with death as if death were a companion, an acquaintance whom he recognized and did not fear. In the end death came as a friend, and after a happy day of sunshine and sport, and after “good night” to those who loved him best, he fell asleep as every man or woman who strives to fear God and nothing else in the world may hope to do.” — Winston Churchill, February 7, 1952, on the death of King George VI

I think many people hope that this sort of death awaits them, but I doubt it’s an entirely true account of the King’s experience. It’s lovely rhetoric that honors and elevates a respected man and emphasizes his fearlessness.

By Midget Faded Rattlesnake

Midget Faded Rattlesnake

Bio: Other rattlesnakes make fun of the Midget Faded Rattlesnake because even though it's a rattlesnake, it's both midget and faded (how embarrassing). Mainly it puts up with this, because it's fairly even-tempered (for a rattlesnake), though it's surprisingly venomous for such an unprepossessing creature. The Midget Faded Rattlesnake hibernates from time to time, but is usually back within a few months. The M: The M stands for “Moderator”. For more info on what Moderators o… [more]

| September 12, 2019

9 COMMENTS

If you knew you only had a 1% chance of surviving tomorrow, would you consider that a death sentence? What about 2%, 5%, 10%… at what point would your odds of survival be good enough you wouldn’t feel doomed? And what if you had to purchase your fairly slim chance at survival by risking the life of another? When would you do it? What balance of risk would just barely escape counting as doom?

What if you were the other whose life was risked on the slim hope of avoiding someone else’s death sentence? When would that hope be worth it, and when would it be a forlorn one? How effective must our efforts to lift another’s doom be in order to merit the price?

By Midget Faded Rattlesnake

Midget Faded Rattlesnake

| August 15, 2019

11 COMMENTS

Over the years, Ricochet has inspired lasting friendships, not least of which is many members’ friendship with @tommeyer, who’s not only a great guy, but someone who rendered Ricochet great service before he moved on to other things. When Herb Meyer, Tom’s father, died, the outpouring of thanksgiving for Herb’s life was tremendous. At the time, I dedicated a motet I was working on to Herb’s memory, but life having gotten in the way, I haven’t had a chance to share it with the Ricoverse until now:

By Susan Quinn

Retired consultant, avid biography reader and meditator

| June 17, 2019

34 COMMENTS

Death, or the specter of death, has been weighing on my life lately. It feels like a weight that I am able to carry, but one that is sometimes oppressive.

I first noticed it around D-Day. Normally I try to take these events in stride. After all, life and death are inextricable partners, no matter how difficult they may seem. But the thought of soldiers dying in huge numbers, and their leaders knowing that they would likely be sacrificing their lives, was a sad awareness that still lingers.

By Jon Gabriel, Ed.

Chief

Jon Gabriel, Ed.

Jon Gabriel (a.k.a., @ExJon on Twitter) is the Editor-in-Chief of Ricochet. He is a political writer and marketing consultant, contributing articles to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, and USA Today among others. Until 2012, he served as Director of Marketing for the free-market Goldwater Institute, where he converted policy initiatives into compelling stories. In the private sector, Jon led marketing efforts for Cold Stone Creamery, Honeywell, and several technology companies. In his… [more]

| June 7, 2019

33 COMMENTS

Three weeks ago, my dad talked to me for the last time. Three days ago, he died.

During those final weeks, any words surprised me. He was diagnosed with dementia eight years ago, four years after that with Alzheimer’s disease, and hasn’t been able to converse for several months. Every visit, he was a bit quieter, a lot thinner; a little less like Dad.

By Susan Quinn

Retired consultant, avid biography reader and meditator

| May 26, 2019

16 COMMENTS

This Memorial Day week-end has been especially poignant for me, and I’m not sure of the reasons. The touching posts we’ve seen about history, family and friends have both filled and hurt my heart; they are filled with pride, loss and truth. I’m reading Tom Cotton’s book on The Old Guard and did a post […]

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Quote of the Day: Nothing Lasts

By Susan Quinn

Retired consultant, avid biography reader and meditator

| May 8, 2019

39 COMMENTS

“We are like children building a sand castle. We embellish it with beautiful shells, bits of driftwood, and pieces of colored glass. The castle is ours, off-limits to others. We’re willing to attack if others threaten to hurt it. Yet despite all our attachment, we know that the tide will inevitably come in and sweep the sand castle away. The trick is to enjoy it fully but without clinging, and when the time comes, let it dissolve back into the sea.” — Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

At a rational level, we all know that we will eventually die. But it seems like a far off ending to our lives. The fact is, though, that everything dies. We can’t hold on to anything forever: relationships end, flowers die, cars end up in junkyards, no matter how often we try to save them.

By John H.

Inactive

John H.

I make a point of wearing T-shirts with nothing printed on them but if I did wear one with something printed on it, it would probably read “Be Kind To Plants By Not Eating Them.” There is no record of my ever having used the word “alas,” not conversationally anyway. I feel that freedom from the press is at least as important as freedom of the press. I like being able to say “Ankara” and “Manaus” in the same sentence (hotel clerks in both cities remembered me from visits months ea… [more]

| April 6, 2019

8 COMMENTS

On May 1, 2017, I wrote the obituary of someone who died on March 25, 2019. Of course I left the date of death blank. I could not have guessed it. Indeed, until the latter date, I mean until about midday that very day, I did not think the subject was about to die. As […]

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Police, Death, and Black Humor Euphemisms

By Arahant

Arahant

Corporate governance, process management and change management consultant, poet, alchemist, and writer.

| January 4, 2019

29 COMMENTS

In another conversation, I mentioned that when I was growing up my father was a policeman and I heard about some suicides that were not necessarily suicides, like the belt-and-braces suicide. One guy shot himself in the heart with a long gun (a shotgun, maybe), and then he shot himself in the back of the head with a pistol just to make sure. Ricochet member @alfrench contributed this to the thread:

“Stole more chains than he could carry, then tried to swim across the River with them.”

By Mike Rapkoch

Moderator

Mike Rapkoch

| December 31, 2018

5 COMMENTS

“As soon as a man comes to life,” wrote Martin Heidegger, “he is at once old enough to die.” That’s not exactly a new insight, but it does have the virtue of clarity, which wasn’t Heidegger’s long suit. Being and Time is so incoherent that it makes Hegel look breezy in comparison. Still, statements like Heidegger’s do […]

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Quote of the Day: What Kind of Death Will We Have?

By CB Toder aka Mama Toad

CB Toder aka Mama Toad

A cradle Catholic, I live in Toad Hall in New Paltz, NY with my Toad Prince and six tadpoles. We homeschool and run our own business. We wage unceasing war on dust, shoddy thinking, and grumpiness.

| November 21, 2018

7 COMMENTS

“I am very old, and fortunate that someone so lovely as Abishag the Shunammite ministers to me every day. In another minute or two, she will be completed with her preparations and come to my bed. I will treasure the warmth and sweetness of her. You think that makes me happy? You think I’m at peace now with my Maker? Anything but. I am thinking of God now, and I am thinking of Saul. I think of Saul in his wordless gloom and torment every time I came to his chamber to play for him, and I realize as I remember that I never saw a sadder face on human being until a little while ago, when Abishag the Shunammite held a mirror up for me to see and I looked at mine.” — from God Knows, by Joseph Heller

One of my favorite books, God Knows tells the story of King David from his perspective in his age. As Scripture relates, when David was an old man he was unable to stay warm, and so a beautiful young virgin was given to him to minister to him and keep him warm in his bed. In Heller’s book, David appreciates Abishag’s comeliness, but he only feels desire for Bathsheba, whose only desire is for her son Solomon to be king.

By CB Toder aka Mama Toad