will create nothing that endures.
"If you want to accord with the Tao,
just do your job, then let go" (Tao Te Ching ch. 24, trans. Mitchell).
I get lost thinking about what I want to build with this blog, how I far I wish to go with this Greek. But the simple maxim from the East pulls me back. Be present. Perhaps this has become a cliche, but there is no other duty in the world. This morning I studied noun declensions, memorizing a few forms by writing them over again and again. Such a simple task may seem mundane, and my thirst for constant intellectual input has in the past made me impatient with the process. I want to read Plato now! I used to think. Such an inclination always stands ready at me shoulder, tempting me away from my duty, my attention to the present moment. But to such a call I feel Greek to be a powerful antidote. I enjoy the endless repetition of forms, the alien script, the iota subscripts and the circumflex accent marks. Every word, every form, every meaning, washes over me softly and I am calmed. It is enough. I am grateful to finally be able to say that, after half a dozen years of frustration with Latin and German. Today I am whole. There is not a piece missing.
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