Tantalus Range from radio tower site on Hut Lake FSR. Copyright (c) 2016 Stephen Hui.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
~ J. R. R. Tolkien from The Fellowship of the Ring
Learning is fundamentally an act of vulnerability. It is an acknowledgement that what one knows is not sufficient, and that new information and new thinking about that information is needed.
“So last year, I self-diagnosed myself. I thought it was Celiac Disease. And let me tell you how relieved I am to find out it was cancer. You mean I can eat regular pasta again?” ~ Comedian Quincy Jones
“No one, not even a ‘friend,’ can make us better. But it is a great happiness in life to meet a person of quite different construction, different bent, completely dissimilar views who, while always remaining himself and in no wise echoing us nor currying favor with us (as sometimes happens) and not trying to insinuate his soul (and an insincere soul at that!) into our psyche, into our muddle, into our tangle, would stand as a firm wall, as a check to our follies and our irrationalities, which every human being has. Friendship lies in contradiction and not in agreement!”
Note to a letter of Strakhov dated January 5, 1890, in his book Literary Exiles. Via brainpickings.