On What Matters ...

From the preamble to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner comes this excellent quote:

"Meanwhile I do not deny that it is helpful sometimes to contemplate in the mind, as on a tablet, the image of a greater and better world, lest the intellect, habituated to the petty things of daily life, narrow itself and sink wholly into trivial thoughts. But at the same time we must be watchful for the truth and keep a sense of proportion, so that we may distinguish the certain from the uncertain, day from night" (adapted by Coleridge from Thomas Burnet, credit to the Norton Anthology of English Literature)

What encourages me to share this lovely quote? The following headlines streaming through the homepage at Comcast.net:

"Bush has 'confidence' in Rove"

"Tom Cruise starts filming latest movie"

"Harry Potter springs a leak" and "Judge imposes gag order" (on what? the contents of a book until it is appropriately marketed? the secrets of an imaginative franchise?)

"Pitt hospitalized with 'flu-like' symptoms" (my best to Brad Pitt, but who freakin' cares?)

"P. Diddy Resolves Random House Suit"

On the endless barrage of Brad Pitt news, the story copy reads that the name of the hospital has been withheld for security reasons ... it is so surreal to think that someone might try to disturb a hospitalized celebrity ...

... wholly trivial thoughts ...