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I am trying to get more reading done.. so I now sometimes pick a book off the shelf and  read from anywhere in the middle of the book.. I figure books are like rivers anyway.. to know the whole river is a big job.. find the source; where it meets the sea.. and all the bits in between.. but you can also jump in the middle somewhere.. and soon you will have a sense of the character of that particular river.. after all something is carried through.. but I stray.. this book.. Thomas Moore’s Care of the soul.. I read this bit: ‘Do we need to understand all mysteries? We are used to hearing about the great revelations of science: the discovery of atoms, particles and DNA – and so quite naturally we think that mysteries are there to be solved.  The alternative seems strange, but at the same time it has its own appeal: use our intelligence and skill to preserve the mysteries.’ I think that is one of the reasons I moved away from an academic life.. I felt I had lost that sense of wonder for the world.. that had so viscerally got me into science when I was 13 years old.. paging through and looking at the images of bygone prehistoric eras in David Attenborough’s Life on Earth.. it was the mystery that engaged me.. it is a tricky one.. we are curious animals.. and want to solve the mysteries.. but.. how do we do that that without losing our deep sense of mystery and wonder.. which for me operates no less than another sense… 

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