Turtles All The Way Down

For a couple of months now my son T walks with me on a Sunday morning. For at least four hours every-time. He likes walking. At first mainly for keeping his sixpack into shape but slowly I seduce him with:

• history stories: questions and answers on what happened really
• images: questions and answers on what happens to facts - past, present or future - if we just take another metaphor
• dreams and fantasies: questions and answers on what could have happened if  ... or happens if ...

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the beginnig and the ending of our Universe and on why planet Earth moves. I told him the story about the 'Turtles All the Way Down'. He liked the story.

Since then the two of us have an inside joke '"Planet Earth is moved by a turtle ... or was it an elephant?"

P.S. The picture of the elephant is fake. It's made digitally by artist Marcel Laverdet.

Sim. E Tua Glória

Faz de mim um instrumento de teu prazer, sim, e ...

Música: aqui

Becoming Fruit

The ancient Egyptians wrote down their wisdom "long" (read: >1,000 years) before the ancient Greeks. Read these, proverbs of more than 3,500 year old and still sound so modern:

1. "Men need images. Lacking them they invent idols. Better then to found the images on realities that lead the true seeker to the source."
2. "Grain must return to the earth, die, and decompose for new growth to begin."
3. "Be patient with a bad neighbour: he may move or face misfortune."
4. "Social good is what brings peace to family and society."
5. "When the governing class isn't chosen for quality it is chosen for material wealth: this always means decadence, the lowest stage a society can reach."
6. "An answer brings no illumination unless the question has matured to a point where it gives rise to this answer which thus becomes its fruit. Therefore learn how to put a question."
7. "Man, know yourself... and you shalt know the gods."

Sources: here, here and here.

Why Give Water?

Ancient Egypt proverb out of the 'Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor': 

Do not act arrogant my friend. In the morning you will be held accountable for your failed expedition for the King. "Why give water to a goose (literally bird) at dawn before its slaughtering in the morning?"

A more literal translation, including the hieroglyphs (source: here)