Quo Vadis?

Society prize success. Gladiators like Kirk Douglas were stars who played winners. Dirty Harry, the master of the 44 magnum, got the bad guy. But what about all the weaklings, the deformed, the forgotten. What was the fate of the slow learner in Ancient Rome? Someone had to take last place in the games. You perhaps imagine Ancient Rome like today, a large groaning board, a feast filled with delights to satisfy the appetites of all the winners including nubile women and young boys. Of course Epicureans like Lucretius put a different spin on things, but De rerum natura was unlikely required reading in the Senate. Augustus was an unlikely adherent to the golden mean. But what about the last who are never first in the paradigm of human excellence. Christianity came with the advent of Constantine and along with him the 23d Psalm. "You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." What is your vade mecum?

read "Pet Buddha" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

listen to James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti singing "It's a Man's World"

and listen to "I Love to Love (But My Baby Just Wants to Dance)" by Tina Charles (1975)

and listen to "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne with Belinda Carlisle

and listen to "Twenty-Five Miles From Home" by Edwin Starr