Let Ithaka be always in your thoughts.
To get there is your goal and destiny.
But do not hasten to your journey’s end:
it’s better if it lasts for many years
so that you'll reach the island when you’re old,
wealthy with all you’ve gained along the way,
not hoping Ithaka will make you rich.
Your marvellous journey is Ithaka’s gift.
Without her you would not have started out.
But she has nothing more to give you now.
And if you find she's poor, you’ve not been fooled.
So wise have you become, so much you’ve learned,
that you will know what Ithakas must be.
Source: Seen in passing on X-Twitter. Holler if you want the whole thing.
Author/Translator: Armand D'Angour, Professor of Classics, Oxford. Cello lover. Larkin about. Turning life into Latin verse, one hexameter at a time. Podcast “It’s All Greek (& Latin!) to Me”.
Posted: Feb 06
I can only exercise until the crisis is past. When I fell off a roof and injured my back, I did back exercises for several months, until I seemed to have regained my strength. When I smashed my elbow, I did exercises for about six months, to regain movement. When I had a heart attack, I cut out fatty/sweet foods for… well… a while, until my arteries felt as though they had cleared themselves of cholesterol. Doing exercises seems so much like a waste of time, when I could be doing something more productive. I felt the same way about playing scales, back when I took music lessons, when I could be making melody instead.
Jim T
Jim T – Well, that’s about what I’ve been doing with physio for 20 years – working my way out of back attacks. And now shoulders and knees . . . We could start an Unhappy Exercisers Support Group, maybe, but who would do the maintenance work for that?