No Purpose, No Paradise

Nat Hentoff passes along a valuable lesson he once learned from Jazz legend Duke Ellington:

... This was when I was in my teens, working at a Boston radio station where I'd also had a weekly jazz program.

Later I was struck at how tired Duke had become while he and his orchestra were playing more than 200 one-nighters a year all over this land.

Presumptuously, I told him: "Duke, you don't have to endure this. You've written classics and can retire on your ASCAP income."

Duke looked at me as if I'd lost all my marbles and roared: "Retire? To what?"

Regarding part of the other subject matter of the piece, I'd respectfully advise applying this admirable reasoning to others, and leave it at that.

In light of Ellington's wisdom, the evil of the irresponsible and impossible financial promises of Social Security pales in comparison to the emptying-out of existence it encourages, in the form of the recent invention of "retirement."

-- CAV