Tolstoy, after Rousseau, on Knowledge and Wisdom

“Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one’s life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.”

Day 13: A Day In The Life

The title by no means is unique to me or The Beatles, sorry to say. I'm of the persuasion that the hit 1967 song was inspired by the short book "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn published in 1962. But I could be wrong. A gripping book, by the way. A short read but deeply moving, full of deep, beautiful and tragic thoughts:


But I'm taking the long way 'round to this post. My intention is to give a kind of a snapshot of a typical week-day in my own life. It's a journal post, after all. 
  • 5:45 a.m. Wake up, fall out of bed, find coffee. Should be brewed and waiting.
  • 6:00 a.m. Shower, get dressed. Drag the comb across my head.
  • 6:15 a.m. Fix breakfast, get lunch together, keep waking up.
  • 7:15 a.m. Leave the house.
  • 8:00 a.m. Arrive at the University
  • 8:05 a.m. Start coffee (most mornings), eat breakfast and get all systems booted up.
  • 8:10 or :15 a.m. Start workday: e-mails, phone calls, so-forth and what-not
  • 8:30 a.m. Once a month, meetings until 11:00 a.m.
  • 11:00 a.m. (when school is in session) Chapel
  • 12:00 p.m. CrossFit in the Fitness Center (or lunch meeting, depending); shower
  • 1:00 p.m. Back in the office (generally, unless meeting carries through until mid-afternoon)
  • 1:15 p.m. Fix lunch and work 
  • 2:30-3:00 p.m.-ish Get out from behind the desk and walk around a bit.
  • 5:00 Close up "shop"
  • 6:30-ish Dinner, clean up, work outside a little, read, write, watch TV until
  • 10:30-ish Go to bed. 
Exciting, my life, eh? 

That's ok. I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks and all this won't matter. 


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