“A warrior takes everything as a challenge [to be overcome],

while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or as a curse.”

– Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-born American anthropologist and author

“Do you think rocks are like potatoes?”

My father stopped what he was doing and stared at me.

“If I plant a rock in the ground and come back a month later, will I find six?” I continued.

Father shook his head and then tossed the rock he was holding onto the stone boat. Our family was out in a field picking rocks – again. A sizeable chunk of our land was strewn with rocks. We would pick them clean every spring and by the following year find more had appeared in their place. The only tangible proof that we had picked a...

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