The Marvelous Human Capacity

In the interest of finding out how the First World War came to be conducted in such a horrendous and limited form as a bunch of trenches strung across France and in other places as far-flung as Gallipoli, resulting in so much wholesale slaughter and not much else except setting the stage for the Second World War. I've been reading Barbara Tuchman's explanations in "The Gun of August."   According to her it was clearly a matter of a great many self-important politicians and military leaders on all sides combining their talents for self-deception..   And on page 265 she may have summed it all up when she spoke of "the marvelous human capacity to see what you expect to see even if it is not there." .

And speaking of that, B. is coming over here in the next 45 minutes to play our weekly game of chess.  It will be earlier than usual, because later it may be too hot for the ladies to take their usual walk.