Welcome to the Time Capsule — a weekly newsletter that discusses the practicalities of life and explores the wisdom, ideas, and events of the past to help you build a better future.
💭 Quote(s) of the Week
Read only the best and most challenging and traditional. And reread it.
Harold Bloom
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The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.
Ernest Hemingway
✏️ On Time
The concept of time is foundational to the human experience. We plan our days, our weeks, our years, feeling the unstoppable and irreversible passing of time — time is the medium through which we understand the past, experience the present, and prepare for the future. But is it a uniquely human phenomenon? Is it possible that time, in fact, does not exist?
There was a young boy, curious and wise beyond his years, who studied the world in the modern, scientific fashion. The theory of evolution, for him, was not only true but irrefutable. Underpinning his theory of evolution was time — the ability for things to transform in different environments. The problem with evolution is it only explains things up to a certain point: eventually, if you look back far enough, you reach a point where time no longer provides answers but deep, unanswerable questions; where the theories and formulas of science cannot explain things anymore.
The world is crowded with phenomena that are inexplicable by science. Mainly in the inner world. Science cannot describe what it feels like in your heart when you conquer a fear, or what a bridegroom feels standing at the altar, in front of God and his whole world. Life is not meant to be calculated, to be measured in terms of minutes and seconds and days of the week. It is meant to be experienced, to be felt in one’s bone marrow.
To live well is to enjoy the passing of time without knowing it exists at all.
📸 Photo of the Week
📖 Book of the Week — The First Crusaders by Jonathan Riley-Smith
Much has been written about the 1st Crusade, but much less about the actual crusaders — Who were they? What moved them to go? What were their experiences like?
This book takes a comprehensive look at contemporary sources to answer these questions and more. Crusading required so much support and resources from the individual that certain families rose to the forefront, which in many ways influenced the direction and story of the 1st Crusade. Understanding who they were helps us understand why the 1st Crusade happened the way it did.
Written by Jonathan Riley-Smith, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge.
💡 Food for Thought
How, do you want your life to be better at this time next year? (h/t James Clear)
🔭 Sunday Best
What We Can Learn From Islam & The Quran — a conversation with Jordan Peterson and Hamza Yusuf.
One of my best finds of the year, tons of wisdom in this one.
Ethiopian Elite Running — an awesome video following Haji Adilo and Kenenisa Bekele's squad on a 35km long run through the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
Accidentally On Purpose — a poem by Robert Frost.
Cheers,
AT