The Kingdom

He believes it's a romantic illusion that a person can follow their heart and their own inner desires, because beyond satisfying our most basic needs we don't have any inner desires of our own. We desire what we see others around us desiring. Like dogs that are not interested in a toy bone suddenly have to have it when they see another dog wanting It I nodded. And like when you feel a stronger desire to own your ow service station once you know other people want to own it too.

To build that house or get that education - these are bigger decisions than choosing to end your life sooner than it otherwise would have ended.

Maybe the worst damage is done not when the abuse takes place, but when we understand that it's beyond what's regarded as acceptable.'

There are still two diametrically opposed but morally equally dogmatic ways of looking at Fidel Castro. And what determines your view of him is not whether you are politically on the right or the left but the degree to which Castro affected the history of your close family, the extent to which they ended up part of the govern- ment in Havana or refugees in Miami. Everything else is secondary.

AIl I'm trying to say is that morality as a motivating force is overrated in us humans. And that our loyalty to our flock is underestimated.

He chuckled. And I rememnbered something Uncle Bernard said. That in time all memories turn into good memories.

Sometimes feelings of guilt are wasted and no good to anyone involved.

Beauty is always in a context, it's in relation to our previous experiences, everything we've sensed, learned and put together. People in countries all over the world have a tendency to think their own national anthem just happens to be the best in the world, that their mothers are the best cooks, that the most beautiful girl in town is also the most beautiful on the planet, and so on.

Of course I didn't know what she had in mind, but I did know that she was like my father and followed the law of nature that says family comes first. Before right and wrong. Before the rest of all mankind. That it's always us against the rest.

'She's alive and doing well' I said. How d'you know that? Your voice when you talk about her. It's steady.'

Because "investor" sounds a lot more impressive than just "participant". Don't you think? […] It's pure psychology.

That, of course, made me feel like one of those idiots I can't stand myself, always showing off with random and superficial snippets of knowledge.

Ice is slippier when it's closer to melting point, I said. 'Slippiest of all when it's exactly seven degrees below. That's the temperature they try to keep the ice in ice-hockey stadiums. What we slip on isn't an invisible thin coating of water on account of the pressure and friction the way people used to think, but gas that's formed by loose molecules at those temperatures."