MHDEN AGAN

Ed Cone wrote a good rant about iPods, cellphones, DVD players in cars, and the virtues of silence, contemplation, and conversation.

Those last three are all good things, but so can the first three be, if used in the right way.

The title of this post is Greek for "nothing too much," which was inscribed on the entrance to Apollo's temple at Delphi (along with GNWTHI SEAUTON, "know yourself," another pretty good piece of advice).

Like Ed, I prefer to run in silence through Country Park; I resent annoying, public phone conversations; I enjoy car conversations with kids.

But there's nothing like Rachmaninoff's Vespers for contemplative bedtime listening when your spouse is already asleep; there's nothing wrong with the kids enjoying Elizabeth Bennet's rejection of Darcy's proposal during a long car trip; and there's nothing like a cellphone when you're trying to juggle the schedules of two working adults and three teenaged children.

MHDEN AGAN.