Everything has already been done. Every story has been told, every scene has been shot. It’s our job to do it one better.

Stanley Kubrick

I don’t keep a travel diary. I did keep a travel diary once and it was a big mistake. All I remember of that trip is what I bothered to write down. Everything else slipped away, as though my mind felt jilted by my reliance on pen and paper. For exactly the same reason I don’t travel with a camera. My holiday becomes the snapshots and anything I forget to record is lost.

Alex Garland, The Beach

“Pigeon Day” (Aug. 10): Pigeon lost inside bullet train—heading back home for Obon?

Shortly past 11:00 AM on August 10, a pigeon strayed into a car on the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train.As the pigeon got into the luggage racks and flew around among passengers, it caused a minor stir in the crowded train car.The bullet train made an unscheduled stop at Nasushiobara Station, where station staff boarded and successfully captured the pigeon a few minutes later.

αἱ δὲ βάσανοι μαρτυρίαι τινές εἰσιν, ἔχειν δὲ δοκοῦσι τὸ πιστόν, ὅτι ἀνάγκη τις πρόσεστιν. οὔκουν χαλεπὸν οὐδὲ περὶ τούτων εἰπεῖν τὰ ἐνδεχόμενα, ἐξ ὧν ἐάν τε ὑπάρχωσιν οἰκεῖαι αὔξειν ἔστιν, ὅτι ἀληθεῖς μόναι τῶν μαρτυριῶν εἰσιν αὗται, ἐάν τε ὑπεναντίαι ὦσι καὶ μετὰ τοῦ ἀμφισβητοῦντος, διαλύοι ἄν τις τἀληθῆ λέγων καθʼ ὅλου τοῦ γένους τῶν βασάνων· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἧττον ἀναγκαζόμενοι τὰ ψευδῆ λέγουσιν ἢ τἀληθῆ, καὶ διακαρτεροῦντες μὴ λέγειν τἀληθῆ, καὶ ῥᾳδίως καταψευδόμενοι ὡς παυσόμενοι θᾶττον. δεῖ δὲ ἔχειν ἐπαναφέρειν ἐπὶ τοιαῦτα γεγενημένα παραδείγματα ἃ ἴσασιν οἱ κρίνοντες. δεῖ δὲ λέγειν ὡς οὐκ εἰσὶν ἀληθεῖς αἱ βάσανοι· πολλοὶ μὲν γὰρ παχύφρονες καὶ λιθόδερμοι καὶ ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὄντες δυνατοὶ γενναίως ἐγκαρτεροῦσι ταῖς ἀνάγκαις, οἱ δὲ δειλοὶ καὶ εὐλαβεῖς πρὸ τοῦ ἰδεῖν τὰς ἀνάγκας καταθαρροῦσιν αὐτῶν, ὥστε οὐδέν ἐστι πιστὸν ἐν βασάνοις.

Aristotelis Rhetoricorum, Liber I

If you don’t know what you’re living for, just stop for a moment. Give yourself permission to let it all go. In that stillness, whatever stays behind, glowing like gold dust at the bottom, is what truly matters to you. You don’t need external validation. Whatever anyone else might say, that tiny light in your palm is yours alone.

But if you can’t see anything right now, that’s okay too. You don’t have to find the light today.