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WE’RE ALL ABOARD THESEUS’S SHIP
Jug Suraiya

On the voyage that we call life, we are all in a sense sailing on the ship of Theseus, a hero of Greek mythology.
Theseus, the legendary king of the city of Athens, rescued the sacrificial victims held hostage by the monstrous Minotaur, a beast with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man, whom he slew in the maze of the labyrinth and, with the 14 young men and women he had freed, sailed to safety aboard his ship to the isle of Delos.
According to the 4th century CE annalist Plutarch, citizens of Athens would each year honour Theseus by re-enacting his voyage to Delos on his ship. With the passage of time, the planks and sails of the ship decayed and had to be replaced. Over the years, all the parts of the original vessel had been changed, giving rise to the philosophical question: Was the rebuilt ship still of Theseus or something entirely different?
1200 years later, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes compounded the question by proposing that if a second ship were to be built using all the discarded parts of the original, which would be the real ship of Theseus, the older one built of new parts or the new one built of old parts? What is the quiddity, or the fundamental essence, that defines the ship of Theseus?
The old saying, attributed to Heraclitus, asserts that you can’t step into the same river twice, because the flowing water isn’t the same as it was when you first stepped into it, and you’re not the same you as you were when you first walked into the water, either. The Greek philosopher uses this analogy to convey the idea that everything, rivers, humans, clouds, Earth itself, is in a state of perpetual flux, of constant change. Nothing is in a state of stasis. Nothing is permanent.
Of the approximately 300tn cells that our bodies are made up of, over 300bn, or about 1% of the total, are replaced every day. Today you are a 1% different you than the you who you were yesterday, and you will be a different you tomorrow. In 7 years, all the cells in our bodies will be replaced. So, in 7 years, we will be a 100% different from what we are today.
Our bodies are made up of seven octillion atoms, that is 7 followed by 27 zeros. When we eat, drink, breathe or indeed perform any activity or biological function, atoms from our bodies are expelled, and atoms from the biosphere, which come from other people and other sources, are absorbed by us. Everything on earth is connected in an unending circle of life.
We’re all made up of hundreds of billions of atoms that were once part of other bodies. This molecular interchangeability blurs the boundaries separating religions, races, nationalities, and all other divisiveness including that of gender. We are literally part of one another. All of us are fellow passengers on the ship of Theseus.

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QUOTES 29/10/26
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All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others…GEORGE ORWELL, Animal Farm
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Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings…Anais Nin
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Sex on the mind, Fear in the heart…wrote Khushwant Singh back in the 1970s
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It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk…BERTOLT BRECHT
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This, dear Phaedrus, is the most important point: no geometry without the word. Without it, figures are accidents, and neither make manifest nor serve the power of the mind…Paul Valery, Dialogues
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Humans can exist without justification, and there does not need to be any evolutionary explanation for…say… picking your nose…SAUL J NEWMAN
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Smiles and tears are so alike with me, they are neither of them confined to any particular feelings: I often cry when I am happy, and smile when I am said…ANNE BRONTE, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
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O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is a green-eyed monster which does mock
The meat it feeds on; that cuckhold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o’er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!… WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, OTHELLO
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To boldly go where no man has gone before… KLINGON
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We often find far more power in a symbol than in something that is in actuality…STEVEN BERKOFF
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A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that wordly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul…GOETHE
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It is not talking but walking that will bring us to heaven…MATTHEW HENRY
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Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion… Impossible is nothing… MUHAMMAD ALI
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One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute… WILLIAM FEATHER
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People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them…GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
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No body in India will tell you it’s 5 o’clock and certainly, no Indian will ever remind you it’s the weekend 2.11.26 ET

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So happy to receive this letter on behalf of Shravan Charity Mission from Dr Amita Mahajan, Apollo Hospitals Delhi. Sharvan Charity Mission has been helping poor children suffering from cancer since 2007. We hope to continue with this noble cause till eternity.

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QUOTES 20/10/26
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Fear not each sudden sound and shock
Tis of the wave and not the rock
Tis but the flapping of the sail
And not a rent made by gale!
LONG FELLOW
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Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather…JOHN RUSKIN
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The galloping horse, in Browning’s words on cruelty takes a dim view: “And one eye’s black intelligence – ever that glance o’er its white edge at me, his own master, askance!”
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Negotiation is not a policy. It’s a technique. It’s something you use when it’s to your advantage, and something that you don’t use when it’s not to your advantage…JOHN BOLTON
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You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete…BUCKMINSTER FULLER
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The power to hurt is bargaining power…THOMAS SCHELLING, NOBEL PRIZE WINING GAME THEORIST
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I have measured out my life with coffee spoons…TS ELIOT
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Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each…PLATO, The Republic
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Two drowning people can’t save each other. All they can do is drag each other down…CARSTEN JENSEN
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He truly commands respect who is always cautious not to insult others. A person who merely boasts but has no virtues cannot command respect…MAHAVIR
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Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands…JEFF COOPER
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Feelings or emotions are the universal language and are to be honoured. They are the authentic expression of who you are at your deepest place… JUDITH WRIGHT
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Never give up; for even rivers some day wash dams away… ARTHUR GOLDEN
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We are looking for happiness and running after it in such a way that creates anger, fear and discrimination. So, when you attend a retreat, you have a chance to look at the deep roots of this pollution of the collective energy that is unwholesome…THICH NHAT HANH
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In all politics truth is optional
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You make choices, choices make you
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By far, the greatest danger of AI is that people conclude too early that they understand it…ELIEZER YUDKOWSKY
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A nation behaves well if it treats its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value…THEODORE ROOSEVELT
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Break a barrier and draw a line.
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If I can get my dress on, my weight is under control…DOLLY PARTON
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An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and watched. ‘Can they be brought together?’ This is a practical question…ALBERT CAMUS