"Than seyde Merlion, "Whethir lyke ye bettir the swerde othir the scawberde?" "I lyke bettir the swerde," seyde Arthure. "Ye ar the more unwyse, for the scawberde ys worth ten of the swerde; for whyles ye have the scawberde uppon you, ye shall lose no blood, be ye never so sore wounded. Therefore kepe well the scawberde allweyes with you." --- Le Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory
"Just as you touch the energy of every life form you meet, so, too, will will their energy strengthen you. Fail to live up to your potential, and you will never win. " --- The Old Man at the End of Time
This is pretty much unrelated to everything else, but one afternoon when I was in, I dunno, high school maybe my mom rescued a largish snake from the dog and, being already late to pick me up from school, put it in the coat closet next to the front door. I'm glad she told me about this in the car, because the first thing I did after getting home was to go use the restroom, and I glanced into the shower and saw the snake draped all over the fixtures. Apparently it squeezed out under the closet door and went looking for a more comfortable place. Knowing it was in the house at least I only jumped back a little rather than having a minor stroke. (I like snakes well enough, but we live in rattlesnake country, so my first reaction on seeing a snake in the vicinity of my house is quite reasonable alarm until the presence or absence of rattles is confirmed. Mom would not have brought a rattlesnake in, of course.)