“The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.”
Voltaire
Thursday
A week down.
The first week back from break looked remarkably similar to the last week before break.
The past reflecting the future.
Friday
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.”
Aristotle
It is good to be back in the gym.
A week of consistent effort and my body responds as it should.
I spend the morning reading.
We are hosting our good friend for dinner next weekend. We will need a trip to Ajman. The apartment is dry.
As I drive to Ajman I feel like there needs to be some flexibility regarding the ‘only drink on holiday’ rule.
“I don’t like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don’t like to be shaped by society.”
Charles Bukowski
I spend the afternoon reading and finishing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
My original plan was to go from Jack London to F. Scott Fitzgerald. This plan changed after reading the biographies of London and Larry McMurtry. Both referenced Melville and Twain as the earliest of American literary influences.
“Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it — namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.”
Tom Sawyer
I have already mentioned my thoughts on Moby Dick. I was hoping the work of Twain would enlighten my on why he and Melville enjoy the platitudes they do.
Tom Sawyer has a beautiful prose and I can see the appeal. It has a charm similar to Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.
Like Charlotte’s Web, Tom Sawyer appears to be a book for children. A book written for boys and girls who love adventure about a young boy who… loves adventure.
I will move on to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I imagine is no different.
We drink too much wine and plan our lives around jobs we do not have. Imagine how we would spend money we are yet to earn.
Somehow we have managed to place ourselves in a position where we have options. The worst of these options, if everything else falls through, sounds like an amazing proposition.
“Choice not chance determines your destiny”
Aristotle
Saturday
“There is no escape. You can’t be a vagabond and an artist and still be a solid citizen, a wholesome, upstanding man. You want to get drunk, so you have to accept the hangover.”
Hermann Hesse
Gym with a hangover.
It is a very lazy day.
I read.
In the afternoon we plan the Christmas break.
The usual inexpensive flight into Budapest.
We spend a few nights in Budapest, hire a car, and head to Graz, Austria for a night.
I was hoping to get to France this break, but the range of cabins does not seem to be available.
We decide after Graz to head into the foothills of Gamlitz, Austria. We have a cabin for three nights over Christmas with a fireplace and a kitchen.
Who knows where we will end up after that.
“Resist much, obey little.”
Walt Whitlam
Bed.
Sunday
Sleep in and Shell encourages me to do some yoga.
Harder than it looks, I feel great afterwards.
I prepare my meals for the week and do some work.
There is plenty happening at school right now but my mind is elsewhere.
Opportunities for Shell seem to be coming from every direction and excitement for our next journey is distracting.
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
T.S Eliot