I've been reading "The Christmas Mystery" by Jostein Gaarder and it really made my holidays. It's more intricate, more challenging and more interesting than "Sophie's World" (his other book). What turned out to be an innocent Christmas storybook became a beacon of knowledge when i started to consult atlases, almanacs and even history books in the course of my reading. I won't review the book, I encourage everyone to read it. I'll just leave a a few excerpts:
"There are two ways of becoming wise. One way is to travel out into the world and to see as much as possible of God's creation. The other is to put down roots to one spot and to study everything that happens there in as much detail as you can. The trouble is that ot's impossible to do do both at the same time"
"In the opinion of the Kings of the Orient", God spoiled humans a bit. He created far too much at the same time. He created so many strange things to look at that many people don't see God. But that's how he managed to hide himself too. He wouldn't have been able to do that if only four people, three trees, two sheep and eight camels exixt in the whole of creation. If only one fish could be found in the sea, people would probably noticed how perfect it was. And then they might have started asking who had made it."
"A quarter of eternity. That's about 66,289 years.. or about 156,498 years... or more exactly, 439 million 811 thousand 977 years and 4 seconds... or perhaps even a little more. It's not easy to say how long a quarter of an eternity lasts. First, you have to find out how long a whole eternity lasts, then you have to divide it by four, but exactly how long a whole eternity lasts is very diffcult to calculate. No matter which number you start with, eternity will last even longer. So one can say that a quarter of an eternity is as long as a whole eternity. Even a thousandth of an eternity is really just as long as the whole of the rest of eternity. This is extremely difficult to understand, for calculating whole or half of eternities is a matter for heaven alone."
- Caspar, King of Nubia
"He's selling flowers in the middle of the winter because the glory of heaven has strayed down to earth. You see, there's so much glory in heaven that it can easily spill over"
- Joachim
"You needn't own anything at all to feel generosity fizzing in your veins. A little smile is enough or something you've made yourself"
- Nicholas, Bishop of Myra
Now, I really wanted to meet Caspar!
Have a fruitful year!
"There are two ways of becoming wise. One way is to travel out into the world and to see as much as possible of God's creation. The other is to put down roots to one spot and to study everything that happens there in as much detail as you can. The trouble is that ot's impossible to do do both at the same time"
"In the opinion of the Kings of the Orient", God spoiled humans a bit. He created far too much at the same time. He created so many strange things to look at that many people don't see God. But that's how he managed to hide himself too. He wouldn't have been able to do that if only four people, three trees, two sheep and eight camels exixt in the whole of creation. If only one fish could be found in the sea, people would probably noticed how perfect it was. And then they might have started asking who had made it."
"A quarter of eternity. That's about 66,289 years.. or about 156,498 years... or more exactly, 439 million 811 thousand 977 years and 4 seconds... or perhaps even a little more. It's not easy to say how long a quarter of an eternity lasts. First, you have to find out how long a whole eternity lasts, then you have to divide it by four, but exactly how long a whole eternity lasts is very diffcult to calculate. No matter which number you start with, eternity will last even longer. So one can say that a quarter of an eternity is as long as a whole eternity. Even a thousandth of an eternity is really just as long as the whole of the rest of eternity. This is extremely difficult to understand, for calculating whole or half of eternities is a matter for heaven alone."
- Caspar, King of Nubia
"He's selling flowers in the middle of the winter because the glory of heaven has strayed down to earth. You see, there's so much glory in heaven that it can easily spill over"
- Joachim
"You needn't own anything at all to feel generosity fizzing in your veins. A little smile is enough or something you've made yourself"
- Nicholas, Bishop of Myra
Now, I really wanted to meet Caspar!
Have a fruitful year!
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