10:27 a.m. - 2003-04-29
A philosopher's fate
I remember hearing a great story in my first year University. My philosophy professor told it, and it went something like this.
Back in the day, there was a queen who was terribly busy. Her days and most of her nights were filled with queenly things to do, but she desparately wanted to find time to be schooled in philosophy. She managed to fit into her schedule the hours of 5 to 6 o'clock in the morning to set aside for such matters, but it was a difficult thing to find someone who wanted to teach at that hour.
The queen searched all over, and finally found a struggling but (eventually) famous philosopher who was willing to put in the hours for his queen. So, every morning, he and the queen met before even the break of dawn to to go school. This arrangement went on for two weeks.
Then the philosopher died.
The morale of the story: Philosophers don't do early mornings.
It's silly. It's also supposed to be true, but it loses some of it's edge when you can't remember the historical figures' names. My professor used it as an excuse as to why he wouldn't show up to our 8 am exam until 10.
Still, I've always considered myself a bit of a philosopher. I like to think about the big things, and I've got philosophical theories coming out of my ass. That's why I like this story. It gave me an excuse to not wake up early.
I've been doing the 9 to 5 thing for over two weeks now, and, despite my fears, I'm not dead yet. I'm not even that tired. The weird part is...I've gone to bed before midnight two nights in a row.
I am sooo getting old.
Shiver.
