Corporal Jones?

Was chatting to a friend yesterday and the subject of tolerance was raised. Religious, I think, though it could be any branch. It suddenly struck me what an unfortunate term tolerance is in that context.

I tolerate the cold, but I hate it and wish it would go away. Is that the way we really feel about religions, ethnic groups and gender / sexual orientation? As a grown-up person, I know that many do but, as a society, do we really want to say that's ok?

Maybe I'm a bit behind everyone else in seeing this. "Keep up, Jones."

I put down Simone de Beauvoir's "She Came to Stay" this week in favour of Kerouac's "Dharma Bums". It's probably just me, but Beauvoir's book just seems to fall over the philosophy all the time.

I couldn't get it to start and keep running, like cars I've owned. Maybe the pilot jet's blocked in the carburettor. Sartre's novels don't seem to suffer from that but, then, you have to look harder for the philosophy.

Pirsig pulls it off, but his book is more explicitly instructional. Different kettle of fish maybe. So, on with Kerouac and his crazies. Maybe that's why it's working for me!