Updates for Friday, April 23rd [2004]
Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
Dearest Friends,
This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. Rather, one who would be since long dead had the course of nature brought him along the right accord. But alas, it did not, and here I am, as if I was dead, but living instead. Providence surely had some strange duty for me today, so I've decided to stick to that path.
It has been a little more than 20 days since I last spoke to you & I stand frustrated, my laxness driven from the general business of work and life, I find it as though easier to get work accomplished in this future but there stands definitely more to do. Capitalism, my turtle, spends his time crawling the world at a steady pace, but he gets to where he goes, now moving at regular speed where before he would move perhaps slower than a slug or snail, his injured leg healed completely. I am happy, as I didn't think it would recover so quickly from such a grievous injury. This of course, being the least of my worries, as defense of the poor creature from James, who still has the pleasure of staying in my room while I board on the couch, is more than enough duty for one such as myself.
Daniel, my good friend, is still jobless and could stand to do some work. He loafs around the house playing games and making idle demands of my time. I have put in a humble request to the lowering of my rent, so that I might have free money to feed the turtle and perhaps buy myself goods such as clothes and food, but, Daniel has done little to respond to that honorable request.
A week ago, on April 15th, it was time to file for the income tax. These self-appraisals, and the tax itself, I believe make the system entirely unconstitutional. How can one be required to volunteer to testify against oneself? And how can one pay a direct tax that is not apportioned? These things, under our Constitution, are forbidden to government. This makes little sense to me. Regardless, the 15th is the absolute deadline, as I found out this year. I, hopefully being a temporary citizen of this strange time, did not have to file, but Daniel did, and had I known he was missing his deadline I would have reminded him. While he had completed out part of his tax forms a couple of months ago, he was reluctant to file them as he had to pay a dubious new county tax, which he had no mind for. So, he waited, and the 15th came and went and he totally forgot to file his papers. Aparently, he said, he had over $800 due to him from the government, but now he must file an extension to even get that. I told him he should be determined never to be idle, as he could not complain for want of time if he loses none, indeed it is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing. He did not pay much attention to the comment.
It is fallacious, indeed, to presume that all designs of government are right and just, but even moreso to become lazy and dallying about dealing with those misgivings. Yet, that's what I see about me today. It's strange that no change has been effected, of perhaps this the effected change I merely do not fully understand yet. I only wait as I gather myself for a fine letter of inquiry to Congress, the thing I have been thinking about since my arrival here.
So it was, that fate would have it, that I talked with our regular customer, Ludwig, once again at length, trying to seek a common interest with him, and not seeming to succeed.
Ludwig: Well it is, mein friend, something of a quandry of understanding, but yes, you would warp the space around you to even make the travel, so that you still match the same speed. To go faster than light is a result of warping both space and time, and incapable in conventional science. It's been independently verified.
Me: I'm afraid I simply do not understand. I would rather believe that two Yankee professors would lie than believe such events are verified by independent eye.
Ludwig: Well, it's the chief reason Einstein is so famous.
Me: Who?
Ludwig: Wo ist es wir findet solche dumme Dummköpfe? I must be going. To you, my friend, good regards.
I wonder if I will get to understange this gentleman enough to learn about the inner workings of the ChronoTech corporation?
God bless you and preserve you multos aNos.
- Th. Jefferson
Editor's Notes:
Well, after saying I had liberated myself to write more, I went on a 21 day haitus to return with this post. Go figure. For the informal purposes of filling you in on how I am as of this writing, I finished reading the "Wealth of Nations" and have begun another big book, this time historical, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". Wish me luck.
If you want a teaser to what the next series of TeeJ updates are going to be themed after, then feel free to investigate my opening line, "This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead."... it's the opening to a letter which will have some hints at the happenings of future updates. Of course, don't let the letter spoil you, after all, patience is a virtue.
"Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day." was the Jeffersonian quote that got me thinking about the fact that I hadn't updated TeeJ in nearly a month, so it was time to get back on the horse.
TeeJ's words of wisdom to Daniel stem from a quote of his in a letter to his daughter Martha, in 1787: "Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing. And that you may be always doing good, my dear, is the ardent prayer of yours affectionately." I have been unable to find a reproduction of this letter, but a similar letter written May 21rst which I sampled from for my Jan. 2nd 2004 update to the TeeJ LiveJournal follows along the same theme of never being idle.
Jefferson's comments about "two Yankee professors" lying were taken from his skepticism of the existance of meteors, which he used the same line against. His exact line for time immemorial, "I would rather believe that two Yankee professors would lie, than that stones fall from the sky." I figured if he wouldn't buy that, what would he think of something so silly as a speed limit on light?
Ludwig's German reads "Where is it we find such silly fools?"
"Multos annos" is latin for "many years". He uses this exact phrase in his letter to Albert Gallatin on Dec. 26th 1820, the subject of the letter being an interesting dialogue about deflation of the dollar due to central banking mismanagements and the relevance of the North/South divide, perhaps speculating the future possibility of Southern secession. The letter also provides an interesting perspective on Jefferson's health at the time as he was suffering from arthritis of the wrist and described the pain in the opening of the letter (this did not stop him from writing volumes of letters on a wide array of subjects, perhaps showing his great love for the written word).
