Your Morning Sophocles
For Wednesday, April 9th, 2025
Week 109 of our regular morning feature here at Friedman of the Plains Worldwide in which we highlight the great words and works of great men and women, as well as those who are insufferable, delusional, and even fictional.
This Week Sophocles
“Not to be born at all
Is best, far best that can befall,
Next best, when born, with least delay
To trace the backward way.
For when youth passes with its giddy train,
Troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,
Pain, pain forever pain;
And none escapes life's coils.
Envy, sedition, strife,
Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.” — Oedipus at Colonus
This morning while sitting at our pub table, I lifted my coffee cup towards my mouth. I was just about to tip its contents into said mouth, when I began to read Sophocles. I stopped the cup short of my mouth and slowly set it back down--I turned to look east out our picture window, where Spring is laughing. A full-on guffaw.
Well, yeah, sure... but what does that motherfucker know?