Thoth and the Distant Goddess

When you start on your journey to Ithaca, Then pray that the road is long, Full of adventure, full of knowledge, Do not fear the Lestrygonians And the Cyclopes and the angry Poseidon. You will never meet such as these on your path, If your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine Emotion touches your body and your spirit. You will never meet the Lestrygonians, The Cyclopes and the fierce Poseidon, If you do not carry them within your soul, If your soul does not raise them up before you.

Then pray the road is long. That the summer mornings are many, That you will enter ports seen for the first time With such pleasure, with such joy! Stop at Phoenician markets, And purchase fine merchandise, Mother-of-pearl and corals, amber and ebony, And pleasurable perfumes as you can; Visit hosts of Egyptian cities, To learn and learn from those who have knowledge. Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind. To arrive there is your ultimate goal. But do not hurry the voyage at all. It is better to let it last for long years; And even to anchor at the isle when you are old, Rich withal that you have gained on the way, Not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.

Without her you would never have taken the road. But she has nothing more to give you.

“Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself...Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart that's sorry yet for thee.”

And so they take shelter.

How often, too, the teacher who has just raged at "ingrateful man" and the "thick rotundity" of our educational system turns to behold a wet, shivering student. My boy, we are both cold in this place called school. And I have one part in my heart....

Civilization consists, in part of being able to respond, "OTHER". You have to know about the range of choices, available to you; you have to know the limitation of those choices; and you have to be able to reject all, and seek a new solution.