It is a happy talent to know how to play.
Ralph waldo emerson
Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
Hans christian andersen
Don’t abandon kindness, mercy, and sympathy in an emergency.
Qiānzì wén [千字文], Ch. 3
Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
albert Einstein
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Henry david thoreau
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. PeckProbably New Years as it’s the only one that there’s some excitement about no matter where one is in the world — even nations that have their own calendar celebrate it as a secondary new year. No use in getting too attached to single-country holidays if you’re a traveler, it just creates melancholy.
Also, because it’s not one of those roaming holidays that’s on a different date each year. Those are too hard to keep track of.
A learned man came to me once.
He said, "I know the way, -- come."
And I was overjoyed at this.
Together we hastened.
Soon, too soon, were we
Where my eyes were useless,
And I knew not the ways of my feet.
I clung to the hand of my friend;
But at last he cried, "I am lost."
Virtually anything but myself. Philosophy, literature, science, economics, public policy, meditation, martial arts, health / well-being, travel, nature, culture, food, the end of the world as we know it, etc.
I do have some blind spots where I could not speak intelligently (e.g. large swathes of history, sports, and pop culture.)
Pity would be no more
If we did not make somebody Poor;
And Mercy no more could be
If all were happy as we.
And mutual fear brings peace,
Till the selfish loves increase;
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.
He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears;
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.
Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the Catterpiller and Fly
Feed on the Mystery.
And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the Raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.
The Gods of the earth and sea
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree;
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human Brain.
I don’t know that I’ve ever regretted taking a risk. I’ve taken some bruises for them on occasion but not felt regret.
I did once try to block a staff strike with an ill-positioned / ill-timed wooden sword. I got a mild concussion that time, but still — I don’t think — regret (but I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, maybe it damaged the part of my brain that is capable of regret.)
I’m with Miyamoto Musashi, who wrote: “我事におゐて後悔を／せず” [“I will not regret my deeds.”] in his Dokkôdô [“Way of Walking Alone.”] Of course, he probably suffered his share of concussions as well.
The older I get, the more I find regret to be a sucker’s game. I was the me then that I was, wishing the me then was the me now is just a waste of angst. Learn and move. Learn and move. No regret.
All sorts of stuff — e.g. gabby strangers approaching me unexpectedly when I’m in a low mental energy state. But when I observe the sensation of that nervousness, without rumination or feeding of the feeling, it fades rapidly. As Twain [allegedly, but possibly never] said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
We’re all screwed. Embrace the chaos or head for the hills.
There is a class of problems that brute force solutions, even when they nudge the needle in the desired direction, always end in devastation.
One can’t drive an aircraft carrier like a jet-ski and expect anything other than a bunch of drowned sailors and destroyed planes.
[Guess who’s been reading the news.]
Tiger Riding for Beginners 