Ulysses

Very recently, a close friend and I got talking about success and our perceptions of it. How after a certain point in life you have to accept the limitations of your mortal flesh and make peace with the ghosts of unfulfilled dreams and desires. Just a casual browse of Facebook or LinkedIn, and you know which friend is taking that foreign vacation that you can't afford, which colleague got the promotion you had your heart set on. Trouble happens, he said, when our ambitions find it difficult to adjust to the limits posed by our abilities. 

And having discovered our weaknesses, do we stop in our tracks, waiting for fair winds to fill our sails while the storm weathers itself out? Or do we trudge along, knowing we might never reach the proverbial Jerusalem, but keep marching to the tunes of duty and old habit?

We always read about heroes and supermen in their youth. Their old age seems to be lost in valourless obscurity. But courage and faith are not the monopoly of the fresh-faced. The hero of the Trojan War may be weak in the knee, but not in the heart. 

"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

                                       - Ulysses, Lord Alfred Tennyson 

Read the full poem here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174659

Throwback Thursday

#Shelfie status, circa Jan 2014
And miles to read before I sleep.

Lego Ergo Sum

No, I don't have a fascination for colourful little bricks, those little ones that make people go "Everything is Awesome!". What I do have a fascination for is instead the written word.  And that manifests itself in a number of pleasant and not so pleasant ways. Case in point:

1. I spend most of my waking hours at home in bed. Yes, waking hours. Yes, with a book.
2. My worst work time distraction goes by the name of GoodReads, not Facebook.
3. Did I mention that I have nothing to add to the discussion when people talk about Jon Snow?
4. I spend  way more time and energy in making sure that my book's photo on Instagram than I ever did with my selfies. It has to be just the right shade of arty plus cool you see.
5. Thinking about where in the house to put up more shelves is one of the top things I daydream about.
6. The thing that scares me most nowadays about moving to a new city is that we might be able to make enough space there for our books.
7. I sometimes seriously consider taking a sabbatical from work, just to catch up on my reading.

I may not be a BIBLIOBIBULI as yet (honestly, is there actually such a thing as reading to much?), but I'm very much a BIBLIOPHAGIST, literally a devourer of books. I read, therefore I am. Lego, ergo sum.