Sometimes it occurs to me that if I had been Jewish, or more Midwestern in my outlook, I might be a multimillionaire, very powerful lawyer now. But I didn't go to law school to become a multimillionaire. After I transferred law schools due to the professorial shennanigans, I ran into some folks from the old school, and as the new school, although in the same tier and in NYC rather than the hinterlands, was ranked a bit lower than the old, their condescension was palpable. An uncanny moment that helped to teach me that my ways were different from their games.
If you listen to the gossip of the folks surrounding me, who have always surrounded me, you'll likely not think that much of me, but if you take the work on its own terms, you might find it to be worthwhile.
That much for a brief apologia -- απο-λογοσ. A brief word directed to the present ways of speaking and thinking about things.
Onward.