The Road Not Taken

<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2uQI8XEEY_5QZnZwP0MdmK2nsbOW87Qcb2ptx9ux8AhOeCzXmcpqephPO9H564dciL4W4Ss0CVV2VCKtzWSqA5bLiAE9WyAaUzPxd4gMLjiEOD6Qoi6yRVMbW1Z7gi1grNWaHRD0dG0lG-mqlhJfkgJPd68dVtX2nn4JIpJT-hcP-EmHOYIg9FBvv=s4000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2309" data-original-width="4000" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2uQI8XEEY_5QZnZwP0MdmK2nsbOW87Qcb2ptx9ux8AhOeCzXmcpqephPO9H564dciL4W4Ss0CVV2VCKtzWSqA5bLiAE9WyAaUzPxd4gMLjiEOD6Qoi6yRVMbW1Z7gi1grNWaHRD0dG0lG-mqlhJfkgJPd68dVtX2nn4JIpJT-hcP-EmHOYIg9FBvv=w640-h370" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435810">A Woodland Road with Travelers</a></em><span style="text-align: left;"> by Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607 (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art)</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p></p><blockquote><i><b>“We, at the height, are ready to decline.<br />There is a tide in the affairs of men<br />Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;<br />Omitted, all the voyage of their life<br />Is bound in shadows and in miseries.<br />On such a full sea are we now afloat;<br />And we must take the current when it serves<br />Or lose our ventures.” </b><br />   — William Shakespeare, 1599</i></blockquote><p></p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label></div><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label></div><p><br /></p><p>In Friday’s edition of <em><strong>Timeless & Timely</strong></em> (“<a href="https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/the-choices-we-make">The Choices We Make</a>”), one of the timeless links was to Robert Frost’s poem “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken">The Road Not Taken</a>.”</p><p>And I promised to follow up on that with some additional thoughts.</p><p>It’s probably his best-known poem, having inspired so many other creative outputs from others: books, commercials, episode titles for a dozen TV shows… In fact, it may be the best-known American poem of all time.</p><p>It begins:</p><blockquote><p>“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,<br />And sorry I could not travel both”</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>And concludes with the iconic lines:</p><blockquote><p>“I took the one less traveled by,<br />And that has made all the difference.”</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>But when making a reference to the point of this poem, most people get it wrong.</p><p>Our initial instinct is to view this poem as a celebration of individualism — of making a conscious choice and going in a direction that others might not.</p><p>But if you read it again, one road isn’t less traveled. Frost writes:</p><p>“I took the other, as <em>just as fair</em>,” and “the passing there / Had worn them <em>really about the same</em>.”</p><p>So the narrator knew that both paths were comparable. And he simply chose one of them, as it looked just as good as the other.</p><p>There has to be some reassurance in that. When we make a choice down an unknown path, we warmly welcome any clue that can provide more certainty.</p><p>And there’s always the temptation, after we’ve made our choice, to convince others that we knew what we were doing all along.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguMGDwCWv_ZoJDtpAPBy1bFAwRZ2a6BiFGOxPLDW0mokGLdl-fk56Jim3bdsn3_zYu_3KqAI-gdhkGp6cEPigQJTw5Wl4JDG6bf8tdYLhuzab3SgzU0nukDYeChjda0t735f44CK6Sp_PGgkblaeTZH3kybzRV35MNcChgNYAIQhsiFdBNvTTyLRbm=s361" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="203" data-original-width="361" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguMGDwCWv_ZoJDtpAPBy1bFAwRZ2a6BiFGOxPLDW0mokGLdl-fk56Jim3bdsn3_zYu_3KqAI-gdhkGp6cEPigQJTw5Wl4JDG6bf8tdYLhuzab3SgzU0nukDYeChjda0t735f44CK6Sp_PGgkblaeTZH3kybzRV35MNcChgNYAIQhsiFdBNvTTyLRbm=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>This is exactly what happens in the poem.</p><p><br /></p><p>Look again: when Frost writes:</p><blockquote><p>“I shall be telling this with a sigh<br />Somewhere ages and ages hence,”</p></blockquote><p>He’s saying that one day in the future, he’ll be recounting this moment in time — what will he do then?</p><p>He’ll tell everyone:</p><blockquote><p>“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—<br />I took the one less traveled by,<br />And that has made all the difference.”</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>So this isn’t really about making an uninformed choice; it’s about <strong>how we concoct stories to make a narrative about our choices</strong>.</p><p>Or put another way, it’s how we look back at a situation and romanticize it a bit. Or justify our decision. Or infuse it with details, embellished with larger figures and more expansive descriptions that we didn’t notice when we were in the moment.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>Don’t you think it’s reasonable to believe there were embellishments and improvements along Frost’s way?</p><p>Of course there were. I mean, who’s going to want to read or listen to a poem about a guy who comes to two grassy paths and just picks one at random?</p><p>So in that respect, yes, it’s about choices. But it’s also about the choice to tell a story in a certain way. And each of us faces that every day as we choose to create our own narrative or a message for a brand or company.</p><p>As storytellers, we choose which details are essential to include, and which are superfluous to the story. In doing so, we capture the imagination and attention of the people we’re trying to reach, whether they’re in a room with us or in front of a screen somewhere.</p><p>The conditions in which we do this are ever-changing: room size, platforms, moods, competing priorities, staff…</p><p>And so elements of our narrative change accordingly. But always leading on to something better.</p><p>And if we’re reassured in our decision while telling our stories, all the better.</p><p><br /></p><div class="embedded-post-wrap" data-attrs="{"id":31096762,"url":"https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/leaders-need-to-be-accountable","publication_id":28922,"publication_name":"Timeless & Timely","publication_logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","title":"Leaders Need to Be Accountable","truncated_body_text":"“The buck stops here.” — Harry Truman In 1948, Harry Truman made an executive order at the risk of losing popularity: he determined that segregation within the U.S. military was illegal. 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The Road Not Taken

  A Woodland Road with Travelers  by Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1607 (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art) “We, at the height, are ready...

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Accountability Redux

<p><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1yqrVrPhDP50mmgRhLXwdlW5Eeymm73ArB8iaWLBaVTc65H6-Ylle9meQjEt-73UbL-oAxmXbAanFvkut76E5JUx2vJYbG7QiVq-zIwgjWR3PFkLdCb3l3DQ-RFFX5Qu6nLn5Z9RPD4b36KJbyGOJgN2EK3ErtDsqXzBQK6sCo6nKBswtDNBJ9pfD=s1196" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1196" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1yqrVrPhDP50mmgRhLXwdlW5Eeymm73ArB8iaWLBaVTc65H6-Ylle9meQjEt-73UbL-oAxmXbAanFvkut76E5JUx2vJYbG7QiVq-zIwgjWR3PFkLdCb3l3DQ-RFFX5Qu6nLn5Z9RPD4b36KJbyGOJgN2EK3ErtDsqXzBQK6sCo6nKBswtDNBJ9pfD=w640-h482" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_West_-_Cleombrotus_Ordered_into_Banishment_by_Leonidas_II,_King_of_Sparta_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" target="_blank">Cleombrotus Ordered into Banishment by Leonidas II, King of Sparta</a></i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">by Benjamin West, 1768 (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="preformatted-block"><pre class="text"><br /></pre></div><blockquote><p><em><strong>“The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation… We—even we here—hold the power and bear the responsibility.”</strong> — Abraham Lincoln, 1862</em></p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln stood before Congress to give his annual message, quoted above. The country was in the midst of a bloody civil war and the outcome was anything but certain.</p><p>This week marks one year since the assault on the U.S. Capitol and democracy. And, <strong><a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/seven-ten-americans-say-country-crisis-risk-failing">according to an Ipsos poll</a></strong>, Americans seem inexorably split on their perceptions of the events that day.</p><p><strong>Sun Tzu</strong> wrote “the wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.” And <strong>Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.</strong> famously said “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”</p><p>Uttered thousands of years apart, these two sentiments run parallel in their faith in mankind and in their geometric analogies. Both a wheel and an arc are curved entities. Neither is a straight line.</p><p>It is very rare that we find <strong><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/qoltxt/instant_justice_is_always_the_best/">instant justice</a></strong>.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>True justice is a lengthy process, as investigators need to gather facts, prosecutors require time to prepare their case, and judges deliberate with solemnity and discernment.</p><p>But our attention-lacking brains have become accustomed to the pleasures inherent in a TikTok prank, a karaoke Reel, or <a href="https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/thoughts-on-our-political-exhaustion?r=2k4r8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web">performative cretinism</a> on Twitter. What chance does the glacial pacing of a federal legal proceeding have against dopamine-inducing confection that appears with the ease of a swipe of a thumb?</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>The further we get from January 6, 2021, the more hazy some people’s memories of the events become (although we all watched it play out on live television). The good news is there are <strong><a href="https://wapo.st/3sVQD9U">consequences being doled out</a></strong>: 725 individuals have been charged in connection with it.</p><p>What the leadership of the January 6th Congressional committee is focused on next is putting the pieces together to determine some level of accountability. Because <a href="https://wapo.st/3ePsv0g">we need a reckoning if we want to move forward</a>.</p><p>Accountability is what any organization needs when something has gone sideways. Someone needs to step up and take responsibility. Harry Truman’s famous desk plate read “The Buck Stops Here,” and it wasn’t just lip service.</p><p>This is why we cheer on people like Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, and see some modicum of justice in the Elizabeth Holmes verdict.</p><p>In these cases, the curtain is raised and the accusatory finger of accountability is pointed directly at someone.</p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> <br /></pre></div><div><hr /><br /></div><h2><strong>A Boyhood Lesson of Responsibility</strong></h2><p>For a story of the emotional power of accountability, William Faulkner’s final novel, <em>The Reivers</em> (1962), holds a valuable lesson.</p><p>The book is a retrospective, told by Lucius when he was an old man. He recalled some events of his childhood in Mississippi in 1905.</p><p>He was convinced by his friend Boon Hogganbeck to “borrow” the automobile of Lucius’s grandfather, “Boss.” They added coachman Ned McCaslin to the group and headed for Memphis.</p><p>Along the way, they ran into challenges and exciting new things for an 11 year-old like Lucius, from getting stuck in a bog to visiting a brothel. And Ned traded Boss’s car for a horse to pay off a friend’s debt. If it won the race it was scheduled to run in, would mean the debt would be clear and the car would return to Ned’s possession.</p><p>The action culminated the only way it could: with Lightning, the horse, winning the race, but with Boss showing up unexpectedly.</p><p>When it came time to punish Lucius, Grandfather told Father to spare the shaving strop he was going to use on the boy. Lucius admitted his guilt and expected punishment, imploring his grandfather to get it out of the way:</p><blockquote><p>“How can I forget it? Tell me how to.”</p><p>“You can’t,” he said. “Nothing is ever forgotten. Nothing is ever lost. It’s too valuable.”</p><p>“Then what can I do?”</p><p>“Live with it,” Grandfather said.</p><p>“Live with it? You mean, forever? For the rest of my life? Not ever to get rid of it? Never? I can’t.”</p><p>“Yes you can,” he said. “You will. A gentleman always does. A gentleman can live through anything. He faces anything. A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences, even when he did not himself instigate them but only acquiesced to them, didn't say No even though he knew he should.”</p></blockquote><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p><em><strong></strong></em></p><blockquote><em><strong>“A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences, even when he did not himself instigate them but only acquiesced to them, didn't say No even though he knew he should</strong>.” — William Faulkner, 1962</em></blockquote><p></p><div class="preformatted-block"><label class="hide-text" contenteditable="false"></label><pre class="text"> </pre></div><p>These two quotes, one by Lincoln and the other from Faulkner, were written exactly 100 years apart, and bookend the importance of accountability.</p><p>Leaders ought to accept responsibility for their actions and bear the burden of their consequences.</p><p>At least this is what I was saying the morning of January 6 last year, before anything even happened.</p><div class="embedded-post-wrap" data-attrs="{"id":31096762,"url":"https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/leaders-need-to-be-accountable","publication_id":28922,"publication_name":"Timeless & Timely","publication_logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","title":"Leaders Need to Be Accountable","truncated_body_text":"“The buck stops here.” — Harry Truman In 1948, Harry Truman made an executive order at the risk of losing popularity: he determined that segregation within the U.S. military was illegal. 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Jump ahead of the leadership curve by learning from the best from throughout history.","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","author_id":429,"theme_var_background_pop":"#2879af","created_at":"2020-02-02T20:45:53.185Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"Scott Monty","copyright":"Scott Monty Strategies","founding_plan_name":"Timeless Supporter","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false}}],"twitter_screen_name":"ScottMonty","is_guest":false}]}"><br /></div><div class="embedded-post-wrap" data-attrs="{"id":31096762,"url":"https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/leaders-need-to-be-accountable","publication_id":28922,"publication_name":"Timeless & Timely","publication_logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","title":"Leaders Need to Be Accountable","truncated_body_text":"“The buck stops here.” — Harry Truman In 1948, Harry Truman made an executive order at the risk of losing popularity: he determined that segregation within the U.S. military was illegal. 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Jump ahead of the leadership curve by learning from the best from throughout history.","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","author_id":429,"theme_var_background_pop":"#2879af","created_at":"2020-02-02T20:45:53.185Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"Scott Monty","copyright":"Scott Monty Strategies","founding_plan_name":"Timeless Supporter","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false}}],"twitter_screen_name":"ScottMonty","is_guest":false}]}">Thanks, and I’ll see you on the internet.</div><div class="embedded-post-wrap" data-attrs="{"id":31096762,"url":"https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/leaders-need-to-be-accountable","publication_id":28922,"publication_name":"Timeless & Timely","publication_logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","title":"Leaders Need to Be Accountable","truncated_body_text":"“The buck stops here.” — Harry Truman In 1948, Harry Truman made an executive order at the risk of losing popularity: he determined that segregation within the U.S. military was illegal. 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Jump ahead of the leadership curve by learning from the best from throughout history.","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","author_id":429,"theme_var_background_pop":"#2879af","created_at":"2020-02-02T20:45:53.185Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"Scott Monty","copyright":"Scott Monty Strategies","founding_plan_name":"Timeless Supporter","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false}}],"twitter_screen_name":"ScottMonty","is_guest":false}]}"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEivn6vEMFwFpbBWhN_c-8yf4_hL3ZaKBiveVqwCdMWsmJ5UTyJIA77VsOwsIUCXMUS9pm4VC6TJeF147OJ7klNJ9FL4lm2TCUf7qpJwhgJOoTBOhMavYk_vMSkrf0jS4-dOEN7AXznNPjX_iYZnS9afvBRjudQReRRdD_teN3K748kvweW1e45VJjG-=s800" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="141" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEivn6vEMFwFpbBWhN_c-8yf4_hL3ZaKBiveVqwCdMWsmJ5UTyJIA77VsOwsIUCXMUS9pm4VC6TJeF147OJ7klNJ9FL4lm2TCUf7qpJwhgJOoTBOhMavYk_vMSkrf0jS4-dOEN7AXznNPjX_iYZnS9afvBRjudQReRRdD_teN3K748kvweW1e45VJjG-=s16000" /></a></div><br /><div class="embedded-post-wrap" data-attrs="{"id":31096762,"url":"https://www.timelesstimely.com/p/leaders-need-to-be-accountable","publication_id":28922,"publication_name":"Timeless & Timely","publication_logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","title":"Leaders Need to Be Accountable","truncated_body_text":"“The buck stops here.” — Harry Truman In 1948, Harry Truman made an executive order at the risk of losing popularity: he determined that segregation within the U.S. military was illegal. It was an election year, and this decision could have cost him the presidency.","date":"2021-01-06T12:01:48.892Z","like_count":5,"comment_count":0,"bylines":[{"id":429,"name":"Scott Monty","photo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/9ea180a7-4ad6-4937-b37a-52810591c920_2717x2531.jpeg","bio":"Strategic communications and leadership advisor inspiring people to be better communicators, leaders, and humans. First executive at Ford to lead digital communications. Soothing voice available for hire.","profile_set_up_at":"2021-04-25T06:21:53.329Z","publicationUsers":[{"id":1595,"user_id":429,"role":"admin","public":true,"is_primary":false,"publication":{"id":28922,"name":"Timeless & Timely","subdomain":"scottmonty","custom_domain":"www.timelesstimely.com","custom_domain_optional":false,"hero_text":"This is a time machine. Jump ahead of the leadership curve by learning from the best from throughout history.","logo_url":"https://bucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/6b0b5664-8343-4c87-a050-1a89626389ec_1280x1280.png","author_id":429,"theme_var_background_pop":"#2879af","created_at":"2020-02-02T20:45:53.185Z","rss_website_url":null,"email_from_name":"Scott Monty","copyright":"Scott Monty Strategies","founding_plan_name":"Timeless Supporter","community_enabled":true,"invite_only":false}}],"twitter_screen_name":"ScottMonty","is_guest":false}]}"><br /></div><h4><br /></h4><h4><br /></h4><h4><br /></h4><h4>P.S. One more thing:</h4><p>I heard from a few people who were concerned about the length of these newsletters. After printing out all of last year’s issues (335 pages) and the previous year’s (367 pages), I’m taking that into account. I always try to write just as much as a subject requires, but I recognize that not everyone has time to digest so much.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWyuV0fmJjvdnSXaw5tCV033mOm3osBk70iuaHSVV3-e5hISuL_1QCz8ObA2x9NqMI-z7h43e_apYtyHMT9DHqzvLqM7MDIEDaUxSrwNneN3zU3tinzbXDFtXd_27ZVcZv0kx3NJ0e0d57p7qiWE1LCRykTPTqhc74Ph1yZvDhh9TLpDV0S7buLASM=s1643" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1643" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWyuV0fmJjvdnSXaw5tCV033mOm3osBk70iuaHSVV3-e5hISuL_1QCz8ObA2x9NqMI-z7h43e_apYtyHMT9DHqzvLqM7MDIEDaUxSrwNneN3zU3tinzbXDFtXd_27ZVcZv0kx3NJ0e0d57p7qiWE1LCRykTPTqhc74Ph1yZvDhh9TLpDV0S7buLASM=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Perhaps the making of a book?</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>To wit, I’m going to be more succinct in the Friday paid subscriptions: you’ll still get a podcast and book recommendation each week; accompanying those will be one link or thought in the Timeless section and one Timely section, rather than three in each.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And I’ll do my best to shorten the entries. No promises, though. </p><p><br /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><hr /></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">👉 Premium Members receive an additional related essay plus curated links, stories, and audio and book recommendations every Friday.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Join the club by signing up below:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe data-dashlane-frameid="1241" frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://www.timelesstimely.com/embed" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div><p><br /></p>

Accountability Redux

Cleombrotus Ordered into Banishment by Leonidas II, King of Sparta   by Benjamin West, 1768 (Wikimedia Commons, public domain) “The fiery tr...

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