Lingamfelter: The Gods of the Copybook Headings

By Scott Lingamfelter

After 69 years of life on this terrestrial ball, I’ve learned a few things. Like many people, I’ve made more than my fair share of mistakes in life. Bad judgment, impulsivity, self-aggrandizement, and plain old stupidity. Some wags have suggested that God watches over drunks and fools, others adding children, third basemen, and sailors. Apparently he also is charitable toward artillerymen and politicians, the trades of my adult life. Truly I have made many mistakes in my life and some of them are painful to recall, even years after I have sought forgiveness—and received it — and changed the way I do business with others.

It’s not all bad news, though. My life has been filled with things I’ve done correctly that have been beneficial for me and others with whom I have served, led, or interacted. God has blessed me with skills. Even as I have stumbled recklessly though life, those skills have had a redemptive quality that has allowed me to do some good things too.

In the process of life, learning is very important. I’m sure you’ve heard that learning is a life-long pursuit among wise people. Reading is very important in that regard and I have learned so much from others who have penned their wisdom. It’s why I have taken to writing myself and embraced the Latin term scribendo cogito — I think by writing — as my closing moniker to my works. Indeed, I think if there was ever a time to focus on wisdom, it’s during a time when it seems roundly rejected by so many.

That’s why I have highlighted English journalist, poet, and novelist Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The Gods of the Copybook Headings,” that poignantly contrasts the eternal wisdom of the ages with the fashionable and naïve ideas of modernism.

“As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began
as the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire; 
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!” 

As I note in the introduction to my website www.copybookwarrior.com, Kipling’s abrupt prose reveals a simple truth. Proverbial wisdom—once scrolled on the headings of the copybooks used by British students to practice calligraphy—will ultimately outlast the frivolous notions that seek to supplant timeless truth and proven wisdom. In other words, I should have learned this years ago.

Here’s the really good news. It’s never too late to learn some wisdom. Even if your life is a wreck, others can profit by what you learn even as your time here grows ever shorter. And here’s a bit of wisdom I have learned. The little things matter. The words we speak, the small actions we take, the brief moments of love and kindness that we share with others are significant in building a life well-lived. And I’ve also learned this. That the admonitions we receive when we are wrong are vital in learning how to live a better life. And the admonitions we give—from the wisdom we’ve attained—are a blessing in disguise to those we admonish to better ways.

I really think Kipling got it right. We can toy with alternatives to the simple and timeless lessons of wisdom. We can invent new ways of thinking about old things. But rarely can we improve on that which has stood the test and torment of time. Insert into your thinking the trends of modernism we witness daily and ask yourself a simple question: How do they comport with the wisdom of the ages?

Of course, that exercise in reflection presumes you and I understand that wisdom, think it worthy to practice, and are eager to share it with other “drunks and fools.” I’m not convinced at all that God protects those who flaunt the wisdom of the ages, particularly His wisdom. But I’m sure of this. He cares about the small things in life. I know because I’m one of them.

And that’s really the point. The small things matter. But today and in our zeal to do big things, the simple wisdom of the ages is jettisoned for new thinking that has no need of the timeless lessons of life.

And when that occurs, a person might hope that God will protect “drunks and fools.” But it’s a dubious proposition and one that invites a certain warning. The “Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.”

PS: And I am very thankful for those of you who have purchased my book Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War or taken the time to write a review on Amazon or Goodreads. If you order one from the site above and enter code FDESERT, you’ll get a 30% discount and free USPS Media Mail shipping of the hardcover version. Believe me, THIS is a good deal. Really!

Scott Lingamfelter is a graduate of VMI and the University of Virginia Law School, a retired U.S. Army Colonel after 28 years of service, and a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 2002-18.