In 1723, a London physician called Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) published an economic tract (unusually but charmingly written in verse) titled The Fable of the Bees. This proposed that – contrary to centuries of religious and moral
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“Some things we have only as long as they remain lost, some things are not lost only so long as they are distant.”
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“I wonder now about Demeter and Persephone. Maybe Persephone was glad to run off with the king of death to his underground realm, maybe it was the only way she could break away from her mother, maybe Demeter was a bad parent the way that Lear was a bad parent, denying nature, including the nature of children to leave their parents. Maybe Persephone thought Hades was the infinitely cool older man who held the knowledge she sought, maybe she loved the darkness, the six months of winter, the sharp taste of pomegranates, the freedom from her mother, maybe she knew that to be truly alive death had to be part of the picture just as winter must. It was as the queen of hell that she became an adult and came into power.”
― A Field Guide to Getting Lost
― A Field Guide to Getting Lost
“Pain is what gives rise to meditation. It has nothing to do with age, let alone beards.”
― Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
― Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
“Problems begin the moment we're born. We're born with infinite possibilities, only to give up on one after another. To choose one thing means to give up another. That's inevitable. But what can you do? That's what it is to live.”
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“When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness. Another word for this is freedom—freedom from struggling against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.”
― Living Beautifully: with Uncertainty and Change
― Living Beautifully: with Uncertainty and Change
Ayda’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Ayda’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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