YOLO's Origins

WHAT UP blogger peeps. The purpose of this blog is to share the reflections that I've had rambling around my head on some incredible book, movie, show, person, or thought I may have come across. Being an avid reader, I always stumble upon a fact or theory in that I want to discuss with my friends but it's hard to explain myself completely over texts or a phone conversation. This is the perfect way for me to reflect. I've been trying to start one for over two years now and finally forced myself to make this. I may post a blog entry once a month, a week, and maybe multiple times a day if I'm ambitious (or bored) enough. Excuse any grammar mistakes that I'll be bound to make, I'm not really used to this blogging world. Also, I didn't exactly know what audience I had in mind when I started this so I'll just be pretending to talk a small group of friends and strangers. Here goes:

To start off, I want to share a short anecdote I wrote explaining one of my all-time favorite quotes. I stumbled across it while reading  "The Year of Living Biblically" by AJ Jacobs which I HIGHLY recommend to you. The title is almost self-explanatory but it details the journey of the author trying to live an entire year following the guidelines in the bible as strictly as possible. He actually attempts to stone adulterers, avoids wearing mixed-fiber clothes, and (my favorite) grows out all his facial hair. Note: This is not a Sacha Baron Cohen type work - he is not trying to be offensive whatsoever but satisfy a religious curiousity. Just two years before, he had accomplished a similar feat: devote incredible amounts of time towards an impossibly meticulous long-term goal (http://www.amazon.com/The-Know-It-All-Humble-Become-Smartest/dp/0743250621). < In that book, he reads all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica set (over 33,000 pages) to become "the smartest person in the world." His incredible personality alone is enough motivation to read his books. But like I said, I wrote my own (lengthened) version in response to a short excerpt from the hilariously meaningful book:

• In ancient times, a Prince was born to the wealthiest and powerful ruler of the lands.
• The King sent his Three Wise Men off to see the world in order to collect all the knowledge of the world for his newborn son.
• Ten years had passed when the Three Wise Men returned, each carrying a stack of books taller than the King containing information related to an infinite range of subjects.
• The King furiously ordered the Three Wise Men to condense the information to an amount his ten-year old son could absorb in a reasonable length of time as his attention span had not yet been developed.
• The Three Wise Men set off on the arduous task and consulted with scholars around the world to seek that which would please the King.
• They returned seven years later with a single book discussing medicine, war tactics, survival, human nature, and free will - encompassing what they believed would prove an understanding of the modern world.
• The King was pleased. He handed the book to the adolescent Prince who abruptly tossed the book to the Wise Men claiming he did not have time to engage in mindless reading when he had to learn the trades of his forthcoming role as the King of the land.
• The King agreed with his son and ordered for a single page of wisdom into the human race.
• The Three Wise Men engaged in brutal debates as to what should be considered truly insightful. Knowledge they deemed to be the foundations of a worldly intelligence.
• They finally returned on the Prince’s twentieth birthday – the day he had inherited the throne of the old King – and presented a document simplifying every known religious text or code of chivalry known to mankind. The Three Wise Men had presented information on how one should live a life – the basis of all religion.
• The new King, now arrogant of his newfound position, tore the manuscript before even glancing at it and banished the Three Wise Men from his kingdom for wasting his and the old King’s time.
• The King’s father, realizing the gravity of the situation, begged his son to rescind his command.
• The King respectfully agreed and ordered the Three Wise Men to concur a single statement that would make him happy when sad, sad when happy.
• The Three Wise Men engraved a phrase onto a ring and handed it to the King. 
• Inscribed in the ring were four words, “This too shall pass.”

Disclaimer: The reason the format of the story is in almost bullet-type is because I typed this up while studying for a final exam on first floor Clemons (for you non-UVa students it unmistakable pit of doom).  For some reason, I had the mindset that I wanted to make my mark at UVa and thought it would be awesome to engrave it onto one of the cubicles. I ended up not even finishing writing it all because I was too embarrassed every time someone would walk by and see I was writing something on the cubicle assuming I was just doodling or writing I <3 X Sorority.

According to its Wikipedia page, this quote is a "proverb indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary". I try to live my life by this simple yet complex statement. If an unfortunate event arises, I won't over it because it'll pass soon enough. Likewise, in a state of elation, it's best to live it up because it will ll go by just as quickly (interpreted differently: that pleasant moment will soon pass so don't get too happy). Anyway, that is the story behind my favorite quote. I think it's a hell of a lot better than the social media and college sensation "YOLO". My other blog posts may not be this long but it will probably be on a completely different topic so stay tuned friends and strangers.

Here is the actual passage from the book that I attempted to enhance:

“Did you hear about the middle Eastern potentate?" he asked me. "This potentate called a meeting of the wise men in the kingdom, and said, "I want you to gather all the world's knowledge together in one place so that my sons can read it and learn."The wise men went off, and after year, they came back with twenty-five volumes of knowledge. This potentate looked at it and he said, "No. It's too long. Make it shorter." So the wise men went off for another year. When they came back, they gave the potentate a piece of paper with one sentence on it. A single sentence. You know what the sentence was?"Bob looked at me. I shook my head. "The sentence was: "This too shall pass."Bob paused, let it sink in: "I heard that when I was very young and it has always stuck with me.”