Daily insight:

Wisdom at the Cost of Suffering

These are the words of the prophet Tiresias to King Oedipus, who unknowingly murdered his father and slept with his mother.

Oedipus' terrible sins - the rotten fruits of Fate - paralysed the prophet's tongue to the point he begged for the chance to stay silent:

Tiresias feared for both his safety and the heart of his leader; any sane man would be outraged at such an accusation, but for Oedipus, who swore to bring justice to his father's murderer, it was a self-condemnation, an irony only known to the reader:

The people suffered too—his corruption brought a plague to Thebes, and the only way to clear the disease was to punish the murderer.

The tragic and clueless Oedipus mercilessly hunted himself.

Further in the play, Oedipus recounts his past, pieces the prophecy together, and creeps closer to the truth until it explodes in a blinding revelation, a truth which illuminated every shadow and left no wretched detail uncovered.

He knows the truth will be sinister, but presses on in spite of the horrors that await.

Jocasta, his wife and mother, kills herself after the discovery, leaving her hanging corpse for Oedipus to find.

After a moment of silent grief, he plucks the brooches from her clothes and, inflamed with guilt, thrusts the pointed ends into his eyes.

Pained by his hubris and ignorance, Oedipus punishes his eyes for not seeing the truth.

I also read it as a retreat into ignorance; the shame and suffering his actions brought are too painful to face, and he doesn't dare look into the eyes of his countrymen, nor witness the gory scene of his mother, nor the cursed future of his two daughters:

The Oedipus plays are thematically rich, and I don't mean to dilute them to serve one email, but this story reminded me of a problem in our education.

It feels like the more we know - or the more we care - the unhappier we get.

You see it in the archetype of the "troubled philosopher," where their search for truth drives them into a deep fear, depression, or existential crisis.

When you explore the grand questions of existence and meaning, or even the messy sphere of politics and culture, you are stepping into a dark abyss armed with a tiny candlelight.

You can walk aimlessly for miles, lost, clueless as to what lies ahead, always on guard, always anxious for what you will find.

There are no promises, no easy exits, and the rare comforts you find are fleeting—even when you find an answer, doubt and unease linger nearby.

It's where the idea of blissful ignorance comes from:

These types can envy "normal" people who live according to simple pleasures, who seem unbothered by the same questions and struggles weighing down on the former.

I find this pretentious, but that's not the point.

I only stress that internal struggle is real, visceral, and disturbing.

Like Oedipus, we unveil what might frighten us—we grapple with God, with family, with who we are and what we do on this earth, and with the image of death that lingers nearby.

Will we run? Will we hide? We very well could.

And yet you won't, because you care about Truth and Goodness.

If we are to embark on the long voyage of wisdom, we should have the courage to face these difficult questions and hold fast when our very existence is challenged.

We should choose sight over blindness.

Yours,

Odysseas

​

Links

​Rosetta Stone​

It's quite rare to find a language-learning app that doesn't feel half baked.

I've been using Rosetta Stone to learn Dutch, especially with grammar and vocab; most other apps spoon-feed you and no real skills are built, but here, you get more chances to figure out words and syntax by yourself.

I'll admit, it was a bit jarring at first, but I now admire that I'm forced to read more actively and think about how each sentence is constructed—we learn through friction, after all.

There's also plenty of chances to practice speaking, which is what ACTUALLY matters in the real world, not BS copy-paste phrases like "l'éléphant est rose."

Now, do you remember when you could buy stuff and own it forever?

I don't. I'm too young.

Rosetta Stone offer a one-time-purchase, a gem in today's subscription economy.

My link above will get you 60% off the lifetime plan, so give it a look.

​

​Postcard Teas​

I was in Mayfair the other day and found this nice specialty tea shop.

They work with micro-farms across India, China, Japan, and other small pockets of production spanning just a few acres.

There's something nice about knowing the first name of the farmer behind your drink, as well as the story and vision behind the cultivation.

I have never been a tea-drinker, but this boutique had enough charm to win me over.

It's also not as expensive as I first guessed, so that's a plus.

​

​Improve Your Ability to Recover BETWEEN SETS - Alan Thrall

It's crazy how little time it takes to do yourself so much good.

The "I don't have time" line just doesn't work, and I know this because it was one of my favourite excuses to be a bitch and not bother with the gym. No more nonsense.

Alan Thrall is a prophetic figure in the lifting sphere and his sermons are some of the rawest, straight-to-the-point improvements for how you train.

This one is about trimming down your training sessions without losing gains, and there are tips inside that I have used for years.

​

---