Billie knew all. And, terrible though the fact is as an indictment of the male sex, when a woman knows all, there is invariably trouble ahead for some man.

P.G. Wodehouse, The Girl on the Boat

Yup, I think the wife must have read that before she picked me 

This is a long one, but I found it moving and worth the read.


“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.

"I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.

"I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet.

"This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."

-- William Shatner, actor

There's something I've been fascinated by for as long as I can remember, which is: you can know something partially, like a half formed thought. Sometimes it isn't until you hear a quote or a sentence uttered by somebody else that a realization can be unlocked by taking the 20 little fragments that are floating around in your grey matter and distilling them down to one photo/line.


Today I read "to get more out of life you must get more out of yourself".

It seems so obvious yet before the words were strung together for me by somebody else the realization may as well have been a million miles away.

I'm also starting to think that anything that I need 500 words to explain means that I simply don't fully understand the essence of it. If I did I could sum it up easily without flailing away circling the point without ever reaching it. Judging by the size of this comment maybe I only understand 30% of what I'm saying.

Haha who knows, Paul. I've took note for years though that those things I've argued about countless times (religion, baseball, headphones, anything at all) over time I can repeat it again but with fewer words.

Until then its like I'm trying to convince myself of it as much as I am the listener.

From the sister-in-law.  She does post sensible stuff as well as jokes.