CONFESSIONEM

I confess that a few reptilian apprehensions have indeed pilfered from my stockpile of amazing grace, to wit; the political intransigence/ignorance of many of Lenin's 'useful idiots'.

 
I avow to attempt to make this new year one of re-supply, that is to redress those things which I consider most important in life, including in some small measure, Goethe's recommendation:

"Because central to the mission of Newman’s university was the notion, not only of civilised education, but also of civilised leisure.
Our resistance—to the depravity of the present age as much to that of our own base nature—must be our play as well as our work. This has always been the chief function of “high culture”, and the Newmanites follow Goethe’s recommendation:
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul." ([emphasis mine]Michael Warren Davis]