Peggy Noonan: Miracle on Fulton Street (FreeRepublic mentioned!)

Opinion Journal ^ | 12/14/2001 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

The El, the book party and the site of the Virgin.

My friends, this is the kind of column I used to do now and then before the world changed. I tell you what I've been doing and thinking and if you're interested you get a cup of coffee and sit down and read along, and if you're not you can go back to OpinionJournal's main page, or Drudge, or Salon, or Free Republic.

[Oschisms]

Thanks for the ping, what a wonderful read!
Of course I'm saddened by the fact that she moved out of the neighborhood, though!

[jla]

Peggy Noonan personifies the spirit of conservatism & all that is good in the world.
She surely is someone special.

[JoeSchem]

We wouldn't have to work so hard if we would take everything we have and rent a $600 a month apartment just outside a suburb of Tulsa, and join a local church and get a job in a hardware store and be peaceful and kind and take the elderly neighbor to the hospital every other week for chemo.

But it is not the American dream to want to live outside a suburb of Tulsa in a $600 a month apartment.

Ah, the rich like to think that being poor is easy. Being on welfare is easy, but being poor is not. That $600 a month apartment will eat half your monthly paycheck at the hardware store. More, after taxes. And should it be mentioned that minimum wage work is mind-numbing?

Talents and opportunities are gifts from God, and we should never underrate God's role in our success.

[ken21]

bump de bump.

[Amelia]

Thanks for the ping, Pokey78! Somehow, reading this was very relaxing after a somewhat stressful week.

[RonDog]

We work so hard to find happiness. But more and more I think of what a friend told me on the phone 10 years ago after I had written an essay on the subject. He called and said: "This is a famous quote from someone, I forget who, and this is what you mean. 'Happiness is a cat. Chase it and it will elude you, it will hide. But sit and peacefully do your work, live your life and show your love and it will silently come to you and curl itself upon your feet.' "

The general consensus, from a Google search for "happiness is" cat chase elude, is a SIMILAR quote from William Bennett (posted on the Internet 60+ times!), and is documented authoritatively in a link from the footnote that follows THIS version:

William Bennet writes:

"Happiness is like a cat.
If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you, it will never come.
But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business,
you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap."⁴

This appears to be a variation on an EARLIER quotation by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which has been posted on the Internet 250+ times:

"Happiness is a butterfly,
which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp,
but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

I am still searching for the version that says, "Happiness is a DOG..."

[Victoria Delsoul]

Wow! Excellent research, Ron. Thanks so much!

I am still searching for the version that says, "Happiness is a DOG..."

LOL, that's funny. How about happiness is a dog, chase it and it will growl and bite you. Relax, take your time, show your love and it will come to you and sit by your side and always follow you wherever you go.

Nah, lol!

[Republic]

Have you all noticed how Peggy has something for everyone: secular and religious, liberal and conservative, rich and poor, male and female, young and old. That is an art that very people can manage.

One day she's mingling with high society, the next she's reading religious articles on the net. She isn't ashamed of her family, her faith or her friends (conservative).

There's a serenity about her that is so engaging. That, plus talent, is hard to beat.

I cannot imagine a better compliment, were I Peggy Noonan. What a wonderful tribute to this very special author.

Peggy just fills me with emotion. She somehow knows how to tap that cord that truly binds all of us, a cord that sears thru economic or racial divides and connects us all somewhere in the realm of our humanity/shared experiences. She has not forgotten what carrys meaning, and is not afraid to refer to it, often. This is REAL intellectualism at work.

Somehow, even tho she has traveled in highly sophisticated circles, full of real power and probably unending tirades from so called elitists who are full of their own ego driven selves, Peggy has stayed the course of reality. She has managed to stay 'in touch'. What a treasure! Peggy does not gloss over the nuance, she blows it wide open and presents such a clear view of the moment that the reader cannot avoid that 'oh yeah, I know exactly what she means' kind of feeling that draws us all a bit closer. Peggy's magic way with words comes from the heart and makes the soul sing.

Peggy's true friends are very fortunate people.

[summer]

Love her or hate her, she really is an excellent writer.

[DKNY]

Thanks... as always Peggy is outstanding.

[tallhappy]

Bump.

In reading her columns of earlier after 911 and what our response is as citizens to the war the terrorists have brought to us I realized she (and her son) read Free Republic.

[doug from upland]

I am pleased to say that Peggy has let us know she and her son love her copy of THE BALLAD OF MIKE MORAN.