Heavens, Here We Go Again

Just when I thought I was up to my gills in new reading, trying to catch up with an incredibly talented deep-thinker who also happened to be an incredibly prolific writer better known for his mysteries than anything else...I come across another.

From the First Things website:

Winston Churchill was once swaying gently back and forth on a train, reading a newspaper, when he came upon a notice in a printed box, from which he immediately read aloud to his companion: “Three doctors from Birmingham reported yesterday that during a lifetime of normal span, the average Englishman who takes at least a brandy and soda per day probably consumes enough brandy to fill an entire railway car.” Touching his companion’s shoulder, Churchill turned his head to study the full dimensions of the railway car, and settled back with a sigh: “So much to do, so little time.”

That is what future graduate students will say, when told that to complete their theses on the life and work of Ralph McInerny they will have to read all his writings. First of all, they will discover that it requires three single-spaced pages just to list all his academic appointments, honors, and organizational offices—and if one adds just the names of the magazines and reviews he has written for (not counting the articles) that would take another eight or ten pages, in more than a score of languages—and still he has been overheard to look around at empty bookcases, muttering “So much to do, so little time.”

That's right, Ralph McInerny. Hopefully no philosophers out there think too poorly of me if I admit to knowing next to nothing about him (don't worry if you do, I'm certain the paterfamilias is shaking his head).

Sadly, I think my time has too often been spent, ahem, "in the boxcar," and too little reading at the bookshelf (much less writing...ha!). Ah well, I've got fifty odd years to reflect on squandered time...