Posted by
Zentrist on Friday, May 01, 2009 9:20:57 PM
Pete Williams quipped in his discussion tonight with Gwen Ifil that Judge Souter might well be looking forward, back on the New England farm, to "reading Thoreau." That might be so. But as I recall Mr. Souter also has a taste, or at one point indulged a curiosity--for Marcel Proust. One summer, off from school, the young student-intellectual read the entire "Remembrance of Things Past," if that is the correct translation. If this is a true story, or even if it is not, I compliment the great man for his taste in literature and politics. I admire his courageous devotion to lifelong learning. Not just casual magazine reading, although this can be edifying, but a serious passion for truly great minds and great books. The leisure that the "professional student" seems bound and determined to pursue--is nothing more and nothing less than what Joseph Pieper called, "The Basis of Culture." Souter will do us all more good by reading, thinking, meditating and speaking. Oh yes, and writing! If he is so inclined, and I strongly suspect he will be. I, for one, look forward to reading that highly intellectual yet New Hampshire down-to-earth book.
So, if any kind of "statement" was being made by David Souter, and I doubt that, it might be this: There is something to be said for the European way of doing things. By that, I mean: over there, people are not quite so OBSESSED with being busy, with making money, with working, constantly working--hardly a vacation or only a very short one in sight. Many over there, unlike too many, far too many over here--know how to live. I compliment David Souter for the example he is setting in KNOWING HOW TO LIVE.
In that sense, the statement Souter is making is that, ironically, he winds up being extraordinarily PRO-LIFE. I envy Souter also for this: He will be closer to my healthy and wholesome friends in Vermont, the monks up in the hills who live the most beautiful life imaginable, the cloistered, contemplative life.