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Peggy Noonan: A Time of Lore
Opinion Journal ^ | 07/26/2002 | Peggy Noonan

Posted on 07/25/2002 9:06:41 PM PDT by Pokey78

Edited on 04/23/2004 12:04:40 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

We live through an Agincourt a day, yet life goes on.

I am thinking about the moment in history in which we are immersed, and as usual my mind turns to the words of a great writer of the movies. In Robert Bolt's screenplay of "Doctor Zhivago," Lara and Zhivago, near the end of their drama, are huddled at his family's old estate in the Ural Mountains, waiting for the local Bolsheviks to descend. All seems lost, all exits blocked. The wolves of the forest howl with foreboding. Lara comes awake in the night and begins to weep. "This is a terrible time to be alive," she says. "Oh no, no," says Zhivago in all his innocence and belief. "It is a wonderful time to be alive." Life itself, whatever the circumstances, is good; it is a miracle no matter what.


(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: betheball; miss; noonan; peggynoonanlist
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1 posted on 07/25/2002 9:06:42 PM PDT by Pokey78
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To: Howlin; Miss Marple; summer; mombonn; Sabertooth; beckett; BlueAngel; JohnHuang2; ...
Ping for the PNPL.
2 posted on 07/25/2002 9:07:22 PM PDT by Pokey78
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To: Pokey78
An absolutely elegant piece, with snatches of humor (I know she lurks here...how else to explain the description of Traficant...LOL) and a wonderful slam on both Gore and Clinton.

Peggy is right, however. We have more information and events than we can assimilate. I think her idea of keeping notes is an excellent one.

3 posted on 07/25/2002 9:14:37 PM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: Pokey78
What an inspiring article. A much more positive outloook than the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times."

Thanks for posting it.
4 posted on 07/25/2002 9:16:08 PM PDT by kancel
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To: Pokey78
"Once more unto the breach . . ."
5 posted on 07/25/2002 9:16:49 PM PDT by JimSEA
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To: Miss Marple
The greatest historical event in my time was the fall of the Soviet Union. Growing up under the threat of nuclear annihilation pretty well guaranteed that. This is fun, but that was GREAT.
6 posted on 07/25/2002 9:20:09 PM PDT by gcruse
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To: Pokey78
I love Peggy Noonans stuff. She really can capture the passion, the suspense, the heroic around us.

"We'd come together to battle the asteroid, pooling our best talent and sharing our genius, wouldn't we?"

She got this wrong. It'll be the Americans taking care of it. Possibly the British, Russians and Germans will help out in some way.

7 posted on 07/25/2002 9:20:43 PM PDT by Kermit
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To: Miss Marple
I think her idea of keeping notes is an excellent one.

That's what bloggers are for...

8 posted on 07/25/2002 9:27:48 PM PDT by NonZeroSum
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To: Pokey78
Thanks for the ping, Pokey.

From the google cache for http://home.earthlink.net/~cva/agincourt.htm, this about Battle of Agincourt:


9 posted on 07/25/2002 9:36:43 PM PDT by ThePythonicCow
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To: Miss Marple
An absolutely elegant piece, with snatches of humor ...

What an absolutely elegant description of this writing! You truly captured the essence of it with that phrasing!

10 posted on 07/25/2002 9:40:16 PM PDT by kayak
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To: Pokey78
A congressman who regularly fills the Capitol with his deranged banter and whose head looks like the last sanctuary of tree squirrels

ROTFL!! She has SUCH a way with words!!

11 posted on 07/25/2002 10:02:59 PM PDT by SuziQ
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To: Pokey78
The most significant marker of this time of lore that Peggy writes about is the sense that we are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It just doesn't seem over yet. There is a suspense in the air that doesn't lift; I cannot help but wonder if we have done enough, if our covert and overt operatives have found enough information to prevent the next attack. It isn't like living under what I would imagine a bombardment is like, or how the Anne Franks of Europe felt while holed up in an attic. It's more a sense in the air, a feeling of wonder: Will another attacker get through? To me that is the best descriptor of the times. And until that sense of wariness can leave us, we are, in a sense, hostages to the unknown abilities, will, and way of the terrorists.

12 posted on 07/25/2002 10:23:00 PM PDT by GretchenEE
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To: Pokey78
Thanks for the ping, Pokey =^)
13 posted on 07/25/2002 10:33:48 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: Pokey78; AuntB; nunya bidness; GrandmaC; Washington_minuteman; buffyt; Grampa Dave; blackie; ...

Peggy Noonan MEGA PING!!


14 posted on 07/25/2002 10:34:26 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
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To: gcruse
Re #6

An event even bigger than the fall of Soviet Union may be on the horizon. Events of today could be leading to it.

15 posted on 07/25/2002 10:41:05 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster
Been hearing that for, oh, a thousand or two years.
16 posted on 07/25/2002 10:46:54 PM PDT by gcruse
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To: gcruse
Re #16

Perhaps you got it wrong. I am not talking about Appcalypse or the Second Coming of Jesus. Economies may collapse and people may die en mass. But not the end of world.

17 posted on 07/25/2002 10:54:56 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: Pokey78
****Maybe we are living in a perceptual warp, in a time when so many stray images and thoughts are coming at us that none of them successfully and completely come to us. ***

Yeah man, like it's been that way ever since I ate all that acid back in '68. Just keeps gittin wierder.

18 posted on 07/25/2002 10:58:25 PM PDT by mercy
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To: Pokey78
Lyrical writing!

I am reminded of Paul Simons' song "The Boy in the Bubble" from the Graceland album..."These are the days of miracles and wonder"

19 posted on 07/25/2002 11:12:39 PM PDT by Despiser of Democrats
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To: Pokey78
his opponent, a new-age whack job who, upon his loss, grew a beard and came to look like a portly Gilded Age banker.

What a great description of the Gore-on

20 posted on 07/25/2002 11:27:22 PM PDT by BreitbartSentMe
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