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Antifragility embodied in human form. Beautiful writing that speaks from and of beautiful souls. Thank you for your generous sharing.

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I stopped midway through your description of things Phil might notice on a trail or on a road, to say how much like a druid/wizard/nature magician/hermit your description of him feels like. Like some sort of Shaman who somehow ended up in modern times. Like an elemental creature that's part of the forest and the land.

The ''Dangly Dingly''... i would love to encounter one in the wild.

Also, when i first read it i thought it was going to be like a Christian effigy. You don't talk about any religious implications to it, at the same time, it feels so strongly like a totem, like a spiritiual, otherworldly artifact.

Part of the reason why, i think, is because it's made up of collections of discarded items from different individuals. Items that may have been useful for one specific case, like fishing, or for cars. Things different humans treading the land left behind, either on purpose or unknowingly.

Also, the way it comes together.

All that junk is lifted up from the ground.

It hangs in the air.

Such a holy quality to it.

And your description of things he went through. I don't know how it would be for me if i went through that. At the same time, i have this vague idea that some situations might be more easy to stay bitter in. Maybe as long as you can leave those, and i doubt if it's always possible, you might lose the battle against your own mind, and if somehow things work out and you can leave those situations, maybe the bitterness is a thing of the past, and you're more jolly and free-spirited as you keep moving on.

And that citrus tree sounds amazing. I can't imagine how it must have been like to get the smell, the soapy smell, all the way across the water.

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What a good feeling all inside of me, Jesse...what a pleasure to meet Phil through your rambles and love for the imminent, the relevant, the beautiful.

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