Think of the flow of thoughts in your mind as a social media feed. Throughout your life, you have “subscribed” to different things without noticing. Now their posts keep showing up in your feed, and you don’t know from where. Some are true & interesting, but many are unhelpful or simply untrue.
Brother Francis produced the blueprint. “The highwayman was kind enough to leave this in my keeping, Holy Father. He – he mistook it for a copy of the illumination which I was bringing as a gift.”
“You did not correct his mistake?”
Brother Francis blushed. “I’m ashamed to admit, Holy Father –”
“This, then, is the original relic you found in the crypt?”
“Yes –”
The Pope’s smile became wry. “So, then – the bandit thought your work was the treasure itself? Ah – even a robber can have a keen eye for art, yes? Monsignor Aguerra told us of the beauty of your commemoration. What a pity that it was stolen.”
“It was nothing, Holy Father. I only regret that I wasted fifteen years.”
“Wasted? How ‘wasted’? If the robber had not been misled by the beauty of your commemoration, he might have taken this, might he not?”
Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959)
People often misjudge their abilities. Those with less than average abilities overestimate their true abilities. Those with higher don’t realize how much higher. Stupid people are too stupid to know how stupid they are. Some smart people wrongly assume that most others can do what they can.
We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events.
Heart muscle cells have the most mitochondria, thousands per cell.
High-intensity interval training in aerobic exercises such as biking and walking cause cells to make more proteins for their energy-producing mitochondria, effectively stopping aging at the cellular level.
What would happen if all the mitochondria in your body released all their energy at once?
“Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?”
There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one’s opponent.
The same holds for human existence. One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment.
Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.