



If you could switch lives with a famous person for a week, who would it be and why?
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Being famous seems like it would be a drag, like it would be the worst part of being skilled at, and / or beloved for, some people-facing art. I might like to engage in some of the artistic endeavors, but only if I could pass on the fame.

Autumn half moon
shows itself in an
azure sky.
Seamus Heaney: Poems 1965 1975 by Seamus Heaney
How do you manage stress?
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Through the realization that one packs one’s own load.
Everything is passing weather, how one dials up (or down) the significance of the present situation is up to one (even if the situation, itself, is completely out of one’s hands.) As the Stoics said, either you can or can’t do something about a given event — either way, it’s not worth one’s worry. If you can’t do anything about it, worry is futile. If you can, do the virtuous thing and you can feel content even if it doesn’t seem to work out for you.
If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice, what would it be?
Don’t be an ass!

lonely mushroom
climbs out from under a rock;
after autumn rain.