The Way of the Runner

But enlightenment, as the monk says, isn’t a point where everything stops and you’ve made it, forever surrounded by a halo of bliss. No, it is something alive, something that pushes you on every day, that calls you to return, whether you are a Daigyoman Ajari on Mount Hiei or a data-management assistant in an office in Hounslow

The problem with living in a country where you don’t speak the language is that you start to sound like a child when you’re speaking, and so people begin to treat you like a child. Then, to complete the circle, you begin to act like one.