do, v.i.

[Wilson Gray]

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 9:00 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:

> At the memorial service for Richard Holbrooke last week, Pres. Clinton
> observed that "I loved the guy because he could do =97 doing in diplomacy
> saves lives." Â He added, "He could do and do."
>

in her many rants to her ingrate chirn, my mother used to say, more
often than I care to remember, given that ranting about getting no
appreciation was her favorite sport:

"_I do and I do and I do_! And what do I get for it? Nothing! I don't
get NOTHING!" (Mother Dear didn't normally use the double negative in
her speech. She low-classed and hyper-Southernized in her rants in
order to make clear her disrespect for us. After all, as no less a
family-counselor  than God Himself, speaking through William
Shakespeare, His favorite surrogate, once observed,

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is, to have a thankless child!")

What she meant by "I do and I do and I do" was something like,

"I am a wonderful mother who, asking nothing in return, does
everything that she can to care for her undeserving, worthless
progeny!"

--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

Once that we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity,
or evil intent, we can uncumber ourselves of the impossible burden of
trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition
that we could be in error, without necessarily deeming ourselves
idiotic or unworthy.
–Kathryn Schulz

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