Bill Grimm, MM With Reflections for Those Who Preach, by Fr. In Oscar Wilde's 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest, one of the characters is named Ernest, so the title is a pun. Today, Wilde might write The Predominance of Being Earnest. Earnestness is a characteristic of our time. People seem to be serious concerning just about anything and everything.
Books guaranteeing success for the single-minded are all over the place.
There is a guru in almost every area of human interest, offering enlightenment to those who really want it. Even the life of the spirit is not exempt from the pursuit of self-improvement. Books purporting to give easy enlightenment for only the cost of a volume fill the shelves. Most of them are simple-minded, some are downright harmful. There is a paradox in our age's pursuit of self-improvement.