good old days...

In the year of our Lord 1432, there arose a grievous quarrel among the brethren over the number of teeth in the mouth of a horse. For thirteen days the disputation raged without ceasing. All the ancient books and chronicles were fetched out, and wonderful and ponderous erudition such as was never before heard of in this region was made manifest. At the beginning of the fourteenth day, a youthful friar of goodly bearing asked his learned superiors for permission to add a word, and straightway, to the wonderment of the disputants, whose deep wisdom he sore vexed, he beseeched them to unbend in a manner coarse and unheard-of and to look in the open mouth of a horse and find answer to their questionings. At this, their dignity being grievously hurt, they waxed exceeding wroth; and, joining in a mighty uproar, they flew upon him and smote him, hip and thigh, and cast him out forthwith. For, said they, surely Satan hath tempted this bold neophyte to declare unholy and unheard-of ways of finding truth, contrary to all the teachings of the fathers. After many days more of grievous strife, the dove of peace sat on the assembly, and they as one man declaring the problem to be an everlasting mystery because of a grievous dearth of historical and theological evidence thereof, so ordered the same writ down.
—Francis Bacon, 1592.

While it may not be clear if the attribution to F. Bacon is entirely valid, this quote, among other things, adorned my graduate student office wall for a long time.

I found it hysterical and profound at the same time.

I was going through the four (O.K., a dozen) boxes full of material collected over my student days - material I haven't touched in the last 6 years - just to see if I can reduce the junk...

No Luck! Every little piece of paper there has some story. Of course, a story that only I shall know, a story that probably will remain untold, a story probably not worth telling as it is not all that interesting... nevertheless, they mean a lot to me, they carry some memories I am not ready to cast away yet...

Well, some things did manage to find their way out - mostly my class notes and assignments; so, I now have only about ten boxes to sift through in the next round of clearing I plan to undertake by end of Summer. (Didn't say which Summer, did I?)

I miss the good old days.