Michelangelo Buonarottispeak

"
It is my pleasure to sleep
And even more to be stone
As long as pain and dishonour may last
My sole desire is to see and feel no more

Speak softly, I beg you
Do not wake me

"

- Michelangelo

I sat at the window and looked out

I sat at the window and looked out. My mind was blank. I glanced at the sheet of paper before me and that was blank as well. My gaze rolled upward toward the ceiling, and spied a dark, tree-like pattern just above my head. “Termites”, I muttered, making a face. “Well, it doesn’t matter really. Another half hour and I’ll be out of this dump”, I thought, looking at my watch for the hundredth time. I doodled as I waited aimlessly for time to pass itself. Even as I drew a flower, I thought of him in spite of myself. I cursed and threw my pen at the darkest and dirtiest corner I could spot. The doorbell rang just then. “What is it?” I snapped. “Room Service”, said a voice. “I didn’t order anything!” “There’s a letter for you, Miss.” “Put it under the door.” I rose heavily and went to pick it up. It was from the Agency. Something about my details being kept under the strictest of confidence unless I chose to disclose them. I crumpled it into a ball and tossed it into the corner after my pen. I absently went to sit at the window again, and stubbed my toe on the bed. And I don’t know what it was that stirred inside me that instant, but I was overwhelmed by a pain, not physical, not mental, but one that eats away at your insides and gloats as it does. I half sat, half collapsed onto the filthy sheets and was only dimly aware of the room starting to spin around me.

Benoit Mandelbrotspeak

“The rare scholars who are nomads-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines.” - Benoit Mandelbrot

the child who cried

All that education has taught me is helplessness. To learn to read and write is to forget how to communicate. What is mind that cannot convince another, “Sleep, no need to worry.”

exquisite

Just the thought of being so exsquisitely happy was enough. I laughed, for the first time, a laugh like I had never heard before; free and full. The fog seemed to clear, and the world to brighten a shade. And I knew it would be a wonderful day.