by KC Cole

With a new year and decade upon us, I thought I'd share one of my favorite insights into the nature of good living, from the late J. Robert Oppenheimer, written in a letter to his younger brother, Frank, when Frank was a teenager:

... one cannot aim to be pleasing to women any more than one can aim to have taste, or beauty of expression, or happiness; for these things are not specific aims which one may learn to attain; they are descriptions of the adequacy of one's living. To try to become happy is to try to build a machine with no other specifications than it shall run noiselessly. (Emphasis mine.)

Frank certainly never ran noiselessly (and neither will this blog); he did, however, leave behind a font of Frankisms on the adequacy of living, and so in the spirit of sibling fairness, here's my favorite:

The worst thing a son-of-a-bitch can do is turn you into a son-of-a-bitch.

A good thing to remember when driving on the freeway — and even (especially) when fighting those who mean us harm.