May 27, 2025

Painting a marsh scene. The initial colors were so pretty I just wanted to sit and take them in and not finish the piece. I think I have to fight past some version of that with every work. 

William Byrd on Pandora.

I understand the arguments, and have to fight off agreement with them, concerning the efficacy of autocracy. People largely are not willing to take on the discipline and process of education necessary to govern responsibly– as witness several of the most recent elections. Yet the experiment is ruined for a long time to come. The benevolent and wise ruler which might have loosened our grip on our sovereign rights did not arise, but rather the single most piggish and corrupt person in American public history. Maybe benevolent autocracy is destined to be a thought experiment only, the real world inevitably bringing forth the worst candidates. To seek the position is to be unworthy of it.