When in doubt...

Here are a few excerpts from a letter of CS Lewis dated February 24, 1961 to Mary Willis Shelburne:

"... And as the comic Beatitudes says,' Blessed are they that expect little for they shall not be disappointed.'" -- Apparently Mary was getting married....

(I have been using this in modified form since I was at Northern Illinois University in 1967. I have not heard it very much since so I began to think it was original with me. Double rats! On the plus side, it actually works pretty well in many instances. Universal application is contraindicated.)

Resuming the MS:

"I hope and pray you will be able to do them some good, but probably if you do, it will not be by any voluntary and conscious actions. Your prayers for them will be more use. Probably the safe rule will be,'.When in doubt what to do or say, do or say nothing.' (Moriarty: "Curses, foiled again!" Stop)

"I feel this very much with my stepsons. I so easily meddle and gas: when all the time what will really influence them, for good or ill, is not anything I do or say but what I am. And this unfortunately one can't know and can't much alter, though God can. Two rules from William Law must always be in our minds:

1. 'There can be no surer proof of a confirmed pride than a belief that one is sufficiently humble.

2. I urge earnestly beseech all who conceive they have suffered an affront to believe that it is very much less than they suppose.' "

And finally for my father and all cat psychologists:

"I hope your vet is not a charlatan? Psychological diagnoses even about human patients seem to me pretty phony. They must be even phonier when applied to animals. You can't put a cat on a couch and make it tell you what it dreams or produce words by free association. Also -- I have a great respect for cats -- they are shrewd people and will probably see through the analyst a good deal better than he would see through them."

(And if you think there is a great deal of consistency between "scientists" of the behavioral kind in regards to the diagnosis in any given individual I have some interesting studies to share with you! It really still depends on the atmosphere of the moment and on even more so on what the patient wants you to believe. As I've said before, usually people are either exactly what they say they are or the exact opposite. Telling the difference is opaque even to the most brilliant, or should I say, especially to the most brilliant minds who have a far greater capacity to rationalize and deceive themselves than the rest of us.)