Welcome to the Time Capsule — a weekly newsletter that serves as both my public journal and personal scrapbook. I write about the things on my mind and close to my heart in hopes that those who read it find value and enjoyment in it, and perhaps some solace too.
💭 Quote(s) of the Week
Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.
—Haruki Murakami
✏️ The Moroccan Man
The sum of your acts.
A grand opera, with 2 parts or 20;
it is the quality that determines how it is remembered.
One’s memory never fails to remember;
to walk the straight and narrow
requires constant course correction,
filtering the impurities to find the truest l’eau.
I have bad eyes. It makes my job easier:
they do not wander like most men —
they try their best, but a good horseman
can rein in his agitation.
I wait for something at home,
but the streets provide plenty of stimuli.
I think about the Moroccan man,
who sold terrible food, but splendid tea,
and was
touched by the grace of God.
📸 Photo(s) of the Week
📖 Book of the Week — Thomas Cromwell by Diarmaid MacCulloch
Thomas Cromwell is one of English's most famous — or notorious — figures. Born in obscurity in Putney, he became a fixer for Cardinal Wolsey in the 1520s. After Wolsey's fall, Henry VIII promoted him to a series of ever greater offices, such that in the 1530s he was effectively running the country for the King. That decade was one of the most momentous in English history: it saw a religious break with the Pope, unprecedented use of parliament, the dissolution of all monasteries, and the coming of Protestantism. Cromwell was central to all this, but establishing his role with precision has been notoriously difficult.
💡 Food for Thought
🔭 Sunday Best
You and Your Research — a talk by Dr. Richard Hamming from Bell Labs and the Naval Postgraduate School on so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the long run.
Plato's Apology | Philosophy, Virtue, and Death — Jared and Wesley discuss Plato's Apology, the philosophical and dramatic rendition of Socrates' ill-fated trial. In it, Socrates argues that philosophy is a way of life that is relentlessly dedicated to truth. They also discuss the relationship between Socrates' views of philosophy and his (admittedly murky) views of God, the virtues and vices on display in this dialogue, and the philosophical account of death and harm put forward by Socrates after he is sentenced to death.
XO by Beyonce — a cover by Charles Nyiha and John Kyalo
Bonne soirée!
AT