Circling the universe on a pale blue dot

if god hadn’t wanted anyone to find that one apple, woulda been easy enough to not tell people exactly where it was

so we can extrapolate that god did want people to eat the apple

ok then why not just give people the knowledge straight up

because the point wasn’t actually the knowledge, the point was getting people to figure out on their own that it’s important to question authority

1021 was not an uneventful year. The emperor began a campaign into Italy. Illustrious abbots died. There was an earthquake. But Herbert took the time to note, at the end of the year, that his brother was born. 

I read that and my heart melted

“Perhaps I will not live to see you, dearest newborn and offspring of my soul, when you reach adolescence, if God so wishes it, or when you mature; for the days of my life are failing and the time approaches when its thread will be cut short. I have therefore decided to address this speech to you in advance of that day and reciprocate your innate charm with the graces of speech. I should be ungrateful and entirely thoughtless if at a time when your perceptions and thoughts are undeveloped (though as far as I alone am concerned you are perfect in these respects, insofar as you hear my voice and feel my affection, cling to my neck, slip into my embrace, and put up with my annoying kisses), I should be ungrateful, I say, if I myself failed to render to you a fitting return.”

He then goes on to praise his grandson, who is the most HANDSOME and INTELLIGENT and RATIONAL child ever born. (No seriously, he calls a four-month-old baby “rational” – rationality and moderation were considered important virtues so OBVIOUSLY his grandson was full of them.)

He observes every little thing the baby does – breastfeeding, taking baths, fussing, babytalking – with unrestrained marvel and delight, complete with flowery descriptions:

“[Your eyes] moved cheerfully, whenever a smile was about to come upon you. It sufficed for me to take note of this only once—I needed no Delphic tripod or bacchic ecstasy—to prophesy without hesitation from the kindly look in your eyes that you were about to laugh. And, true enough, you moved your lip slightly, blushed, and, behold! you laughed.”

He takes special pride that the baby likes him, and puts himself in the picture too:

“And when I would see you becoming perplexed, I immediately snatched you away from your toys, took you up in my hands, and lifted you up in the air until you were full of joy.”

He wishes him to lead a happy life. He calls him “my living pearl, the ornament of my soul”. And he ends the letter like this:

“May you obtain all that you love, but especially education and good sense, which alone can elevate the soul to its proper beauty and which constitute understanding of the more profound things. I wrote all this for you while holding you in my arms and kissing you insatiably.”

You are. Epilogue 03

Just keeping that story going!

For what it’s worth: if you find success, don’t spend forever second guessing it. Don’t give in to self doubt. Don’t wonder if you deserve it. Don’t cut yourself down because you made it and other people didn’t.

Find a new goal. Find a new dream.

Think about the goals you have when it comes to fitness; do you have a plan for after you have reached them? What comes after achieving your goals in whatever you do is an important subject to think about.