Just a reminder to us all.
Month: February 2011
‘Balance is ensuring you take yourself seriously enough to take your dreams seriously but not so seriously that you can’t laugh at yourself’ – TGRR
Good morning! Happy Monday!
A weather musing
On Barbarians, Civitas and Alexander:
‘The Worlds at War’ has been a fascinating book so far. And this week’s book learning has 3 fun facts/thoughts from the book.
1. Barbarians: Do you know how the word ‘barbarian’ came about? The word now is associated with uncivilized people with no manners. In the old days however, the Greeks simply referred to the Persians as people whose speech sounded like ‘ba ba’ and hence, barbarian. And that meaning, of course, changed with time..
2. Civitas or civilization: The Roman civilization were the first to be described as ‘civitas’ or civilization. This concept was unique at that time. Everybody wanted to be a Roman ‘citizen’ (a novel concept then) as the Roman civilization stood for being just and good. Rome was a metropolitan city, much like the New Yorks, London’s and Singapore’s of today and the Roman civilization was looked up to as it did not choose to conquer and enslave people, but bring them under their law by making them all citizens of Rome.
3. Alexander the visionary: Alexander the great was quite a visionary. In a time when the tendency was to wage war and create boundaries, he sought to unite. After conquering the Persian people, Alexander not only sought alliances by marrying the Persian queen (versus taking them all slaves), he also sought to embrace Persian culture and combine Persian customs with the Greek as he attempted to unify the world under one umbrella by demonstrating openness.
I found that concept and thought pretty amazing. Our world today seems so divided in comparison..
I’ve found reading history to be great for imagination and creativity. Moreover, I find it interesting to understand how and why the world exists in it’s current form. I’ve still got 2/3rds of this book to go. More fun facts to come then!
Emotions in 24 hours
‘Atheism is a non-prophet organization.’ – George Carlin
Haha.
When it’s done, it’s done.
Done is not inking in the last letter in the 11th hour.
Done typically translates to a 3rd draft (ideally) submitted with time to spare.
Yes, this is NOT how we are accustomed to doing things in school/university.That’s why the ‘real’ world is called what it is called I guess.
‘The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.’
Like many quotes, this would have to be viewed with balance, of course. Interesting perspective, I thought..
Have a nice day!
Digging Deep
I mulled.
‘No one can possibly achieve real and lasting success by being a conformist’ J. Paul Getty
Have a nice day! :)