“Then came October full of merry glee …” –Edmund Spenser
Suffer no exceptions to the program, and maintain momentum. It’s critical to know what motivates, how to push that extra mile.
Stick to a regimen. To stay engaged, new challenges are needed. Repetition or comfort means it’s time to find a new target for one’s energy.
Garry Kasparov
Long ago, during the last age of reason, certain proud thinkers had claimed that valid knowledge was indestructible – that ideas were deathless and truth immortal.
But that was true only in the subtlest sense, and not superficially true at all.
There was objective meaning in the world, to be sure: the non-moral logos or design of the Creator; but such meanings were God’s and not Man’s, until they found an imperfect incarnation, a dark reflection, within the mind & speech & culture of a given human society, which might ascribe values to the meanings so that they became valid in a human sense within the culture.
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter Miller
A man walks upright. For him it is strenuous to climb a steep hill, because he has to keep pushing his own vertical mass upward and cannot gain any momentum.
The rabbit is better off. His forelegs support his horizontal body and the great back legs do the work. They are more than equal to thrusting uphill the light mass in front of them.
Rabbits can go fast uphill. In fact, they have so much power behind that they find going downhill awkward, and sometimes, in flight down a steep place, they may actually go head over heels.
WATERSHIP DOWN (1972) by Richard George Adams
GO, and eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is now that God favors your works. Enjoy life with the wife you love, all the days of the vain life granted you under the sun. This is your lot in life for the toil of your labors under the sun.
Anything you can turn your hand to, do with what power you have; for there will be no work, no planning, no knowledge, no wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
-2y + 14 = -x
-2y + x = -14
-2y = -14 – x
-2y = -x – 14
-7 – x/2 = -y
-7 + y = x/2
-7 = -y + x/2
-7 = x/2 – y
-14 – x = -2y
-14 + 2y = x
-14 = -2y + x
-14 = x – 2y
-x – 14 = -2y
-x + 2y = 14
-x = -2y + 14
-x = 14 – 2y
-x/2 – 7 = -y
-x/2 + y = 7
-x/2 = -y + 7
-x/2 = 7 – y
-y + 7 = -x/2
-y + x/2 = -7
-y = -7 -x/2
-y = -x/2 – 7
2y – 14 = x
2y – x = 14
2y = 14 + x
2y = x + 14
7 – y = -x/2
7 + x/2 = y
7 = -x/2 + y
7 = y – x/2
14 – 2y = -x
14 + x = 2y
14 = -x + 2y
14 = 2y – x
x – 2y = -14
x + 14 = 2y
x = -14 + 2y
x = 2y – 14
x/2 – y = -7
x/2 + 7 = y
x/2 = -7 + y
x/2 = y – 7
y – 7 = x/2
y – x/2 = 7
y = 7 + x/2
y = x/2 + 7
same equation sorted alphabetically (ANSI)
The world of the materialist is a “bubble world”. Its inhabitants live inside a consumer-driven, status-obsessed bubble. Possession is key. Those who can see beyond the walls of the bubble are deemed mad & deluded. A gimpse of the truth will burst the fragile walls.
–The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
Life is an experiment: we’re all testing hypotheses, learning from outcomes, and iterating as we go. Every choice is a variable, every experience a data point.
–Grok
Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Found my way downstairs and drank a cup and looking up I noticed I was late. Found my coat and grabbed my hat, made the bus in seconds flat. Found my way upstairs and had a smoke, and somebody spoke and I went into a dream.
A Day in the Life by The Beatles
Hobbes describes life as “nasty, brutish, and short.”
Keltner believes evolution has given Homo sapiens emotions like gratitude, joy, amusement, and compassion.
–On the Science of Awe by Mark Leviton Thomas
Humans Appreciate Art