I have just been reinforced in the idea that I have long held in semi-conscious fashion, ever since struggling through first-year calculus: progress is only (or at least mainly) possible through disaster.
You see, disaster clears out the rubble of life, the bits and pieces you can’t bear to throw away yourself, the illusions you feel compelled to keep. When you rebuild and/or continue on, you only take back, as far as possible, those things you really want and need.
In other words, an hour ago, I accidentally erased the bottom half of my Movable Type main index template, with all the blog-fluff and customizations on it. Most is back now, to my own joy, at least, and I’m now trying to remember why I had that other crap on it.
Maybe I shall remember some day, but I do bow to the masters of Blogrolling. I regard them now as even more necessary than before.
Where does calculus come into it? I failed my first calculus test miserably, with a total of 26 out of 100. So I found Clarissa the tutor, who eventually explained that everyone fails a calculus test at one point or another. In other words, mistakes are there to benefit from. You learn about “why” more than you do with success.
And you eventually start passing your exams.
white pebble 