Admiration

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From The History of World Literature (2007)

  10 Lecture 2: The Epic of Gilgamesh hero of unusual birth undergoes heroic trials, seeks a treasure, and then returns to ordinary reality a changed person. Gilgamesh returns home empty- handed but becomes reconciled to the human lot: his own immortality will be the walls of Uruk. The Sumerians’ depiction of life after death—the ¿ rst in literature—is grim; there is no happy afterlife to console human beings. The poem insists that Gilgamesh is a hero not just because of what he did but because of what he learned. The poem is rich and complex enough to be interpreted in various ways. Enkidu’s story is a Mesopotamian parable of culture in which the protagonist moves from wilderness to pastoral to city life—from prehistory to history. The story is also a fall from primeval innocence and union with nature into self-consciousness and the severing of the bond with nature. Enkidu as a civilized man kills animals that were once his friends and slays the guardian of the forests so that they can be plundered. Gilgamesh’s story is about coming to terms with mortality. As part of his maturation process, Gilgamesh comes to see everything in a new way and better understands who he is and what he can accomplish. The deepest wisdom comes to Gilgamesh from Uta-napishti: It is about understanding one’s role and responsibility in life and then performing it—in Gilgamesh’s case, to go home and resume his duties as king. The poem also encourages one to ¿ nd time for some civilized pleasures throughout life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a good work to start off this course. It provides a kind of template for so much of the literature that follows. In addition to the themes and techniques already noted, this work also deals with many themes for the ¿ rst time in literature: the relationship between gods and humans, the immortalizing power of art, the nature of a paradisial garden, the hunter or shepherd as a mediating ¿ gure between nature and civilization, dreams as portents of the future or as messages from another world, the ferryman across the waters of death, and the fantastic journey to strange places, including the Land of the Dead. Ŷ [A friend called me from] a bookstore and he’d just come across … Gilgamesh. … He said, “It is the best poem I have ever read.”

• From In an Unspoken Voice (2010)

  I was exploring with them how various imbalanced patterns of muscular tension and postural tone were related to their symptoms—and how releasing and normalizing these entrenched patterns often led to unexpected and dramatic cures. Then in 1973, in the acceptance speech for his share in the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, ‡ the ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen unexpectedly chose to talk not primarily about his study of animals in their natural environment, but about the observed human body as it goes through life and as it functions and malfunctions under stress. I was struck by his observations about the Alexander technique § This body-based reeducation treatment, which he and members of his family had undergone with notable health benefits (including a normalizing of his high blood pressure), paralleled my observations with my body-mind clients. Clearly, I needed to talk to this elder. I managed to locate him at Oxford University; with unassuming generosity, this Nobel Laureate spoke to me, a lowly graduate student, via transatlantic cable on a number of occasions. I told him about my first session with Nancy and other clients, and about my speculation concerning the relationship of her reactions to “animal paralysis.” He was excited about the possibility that animal immobility reactions might play an important role in humans under conditions of inescapable threat and extreme stress, and encouraged me to pursue this line of investigation. ‖ I occasionally wonder if without his support, as well as that from Hans Selye (the first stress researcher) and Raymond Dart (the anthropologist who discovered Australopithecus ), I might have thrown in the towel. In a memorable phone conversation, Tinbergen chided me in his kind, grandfatherly voice, “Peter, we are, after all, just a bunch of animals!” According to recent polls, however, only half of the Western world (and even fewer in the United States) seem to believe in evolution and, thus, in our intimate relation to other mammals. Yet given obvious patterns in anatomy, physiology, behavior, and emotions, and since we share the same survival parts of the brain with other mammals, it only makes sense that we share their reactions to threat. Hence, there would be great benefit gained from learning how animals (particularly mammals and higher-level primates) respond to threat, and then observing how they rebound, settle and return to equilibrium after the threat has passed. Many of us humans, unfortunately, have become alienated from this innate capacity for resilience and self-healing. This, as we shall explore, has made us vulnerable to being overwhelmed and traumatized. It was not until 1978, however, that I could plant my observations on firmer ground. While working at the NASA Ames labs in Mountain View, California, and continuing to develop my body-mind practice in Berkeley, I spent every spare moment frequenting the biology graduate library. One dark and rainy December day in 1978, I was making my usual library rounds.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  I couldn’t see D. at first, the area around the fountain was packed with people. Children ran around the fountain’s edge, weaving past their parents, bumping into strangers, and playing in the water, too, though there were signs forbidding it; they shrieked, arms pressed tight to their sides, as the spray soaked their clothes. But then I noticed him, he had hoisted himself onto the base of a lamppost and was scanning the crowd. I waved and his face brightened when he saw me. He was a few years younger than I, with shaggy black hair that hung into his eyes if he let it go too long between haircuts, as he had now. He wasn’t obviously beautiful but he was beautiful, it was a combination of charm and intelligence, a kind of earthy old-world grace, and of the wiry athleticism I felt when we hugged, a little awkwardly to spare the flower. You’ve been working out, I said when he pulled back, and he smiled, raising both his arms in a muscleman pose. It had taken me a while to be sure he was straight, he was so warm with his friends, he spoke a language of endearment, of casual caresses and kisses to the cheek and forehead, flirtation was his natural mode of congress with the world. This annoyed me sometimes in others, it could seem like a taunt, or a demand to be adored; but D.’s affection was genuine, a kind of blessing, it made you happy to be with him. He led me to the patch of shade he had claimed under the trees that grew near the wall of the Archaeological Museum, where he had been standing with two other people. One of these was his mother, whom I knew well, and I took the flower from my shirt and held it out to her, which made her laugh, she took it and then pulled me to her for a hug. I’m sure my face showed my surprise when D. introduced me to the older man standing with them; I had read his books, in Bulgarian and in English, he was the first writer I read when I decided years before to come to Sofia. Za men e chest , I said to him, shaking his hand, it’s an honor, and he smiled, less at the sentiment, I thought, than at the formality of what I had said, which was so out of tune with the festive atmosphere, with his friendship with D., which was old and deep, with the shorts and sneakers he was wearing, I was suddenly a little embarrassed. Cherries, I said in English, I had almost forgotten their weight in my hand, and I held the bag out to him. He laughed, and as he reached his hand in the awkwardness was gone. D. took each of us by a shoulder, beaming, and said how happy he was for us to meet.

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  He challenges some of the categories now taken for granted, such as Judaism, to study Paul. The question that guides his analysis is a simple, yet profound one: “How did Paul present himself to the groups of Christ-followers he established, in relation to Judean law, custom, and culture?” To Mason, there was not a lexical category of “Judaism” known to Paul and his contemporaries. His important contribution pushes us to be more attentive to history and to historical figures like Paul in their particular historical and linguistic milieu. Chapter 2 is by Leif Vaage. His style of writing and of thinking is provocative and inimitable. He moves from modern anthropology, to ancient history, and to biblical studies to push the reader to reassess his/her understanding of Paul’s earthly identity. What comes to us from Vaage’s analysis is the presentation of an ancient figure who appears stranger and, perhaps, much more interesting than simply understanding Paul as being “this” (by nature a Jewish self) or “that” (an identity framed by Christ and understanding himself as a citizen of heaven). My contribution in Chapter 3 explores the theme of the new creation in Jubilees and Romans. I have shown some similarities between human sin and the decay of creation in Jubilees and Romans, but the two texts could hardly be more dissimilar in some respects, for example, in the place the two accord to Israel and the law, although in this area there are important agreements. I also maintain, alongside Donaldson and 3 Jesus on the Mountain: A Study in Matthean Theology (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985); Paul and the Gentiles; Judaism and the Gentiles(Jews and Anti-Judaism in the New Testament; Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2010). 4 Terence L. Davidson, Gentile Christian Identity from Cornelius to Constantine (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, forthcoming). 4 4 Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles other scholars, that for Paul the believer lives in two ages, as the new has dawned and broken into the old. Ann L. Jervis’ essay (Chapter 4) is placed right after my analysis, because in a brilliant piece of writing, she challenges most of what I advanced. For her Paul was not thinking in terms of two-age dualism. Rather, she understands Paul to conceive the risen Christ as actively present in the lives of his followers, in anticipation of his return. Ann’s chapter and mine may be read as fruitful conversations in order to understand Paul’s language better.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  We left shortly after, our bags still unpacked, and began to explore the little town. It wasn’t like the other tourist towns in Bulgaria; in the shops there were handmade crafts among the mass-produced souvenirs, and in the old town, its vertiginous streets lined with National Revival houses, at first newly renovated but growing more decrepit as we climbed, there were artisans’ shops in which men and women looked up hopefully from their work, calling zapovyadaite, welcome, come in, to everyone who passed. A year before, the town had been crowded with tourists, their buses nosing through the tiny streets and their bags piled high in lobbies; but now there were few visitors, maybe because it was later in the season and the seaside had drawn them away, and we were often alone as we climbed the steep paths, the cobblestones shifting beneath us. One woman was standing in front of her shop, and beckoned us inside so fervently it would have been difficult to refuse. I glanced at R., who shrugged, and we walked over to her. She spoke to us in English at first, but visibly relaxed when I answered in Bulgarian. My husband speaks perfect English, she said, but he’s gone with my son to Sofia for the day, they’ve left me here alone. The building she welcomed us into was lovely, a two-story house of stone and wood, with cement urns overflowing with flowers at the threshold. The first floor served as a gallery, the walls crowded almost to the ceiling with paintings; others, unhung, leaned in their frames against the walls. I was overwhelmed by the number of them, for a minute I wasn’t sure where to look. Please, the woman said, walk around, there are more in the other rooms, and she gestured toward an open doorway to my right. All of them were done by us, she said, we’re all three painters, and then, at my little murmur of interest, we graduated from the fine arts academy in Plovdiv, my husband and I, and now our son studies in Sofia, at the best school.

• From Cleanness (2020)

  I hadn’t been paying attention to where Z. was leading us, and I was surprised when we arrived at the Doctor’s Garden, a little tree-filled park just west of the university. I had been there often, I loved it during the day, and at night it filled like all the parks with young people drinking. Let’s stop for a minute, Z. said, pulling out his phone and making the little screen light up, we still had some time to kill before we needed to be at the club. Z. turned off the path almost as soon as we entered the park, taking us into a section of trees and grass that was filled with dozens of fragments of marble, broken pillars and bits of cornices. This part of the garden was dark, and the stones glowed faintly, reflecting the light from the paths and playgrounds. I had looked at these fragments before, in the daytime, reading the plaques laid in the ground with information about their provenance, the various archaeological digs where they were found, translations of their inscriptions. Z. chose a pillar the right height and sat the carton on top of it, making me suck my breath between my teeth. What, he asked, and I said something about its antiquity, how it was thousands of years old and he was using it as his table. N. laughed. All this time in Bulgaria, he said, and you’re still such an American. We have stuff like this everywhere, he said, if we couldn’t touch it we couldn’t live. And besides, Z. said, don’t you think it’s better out here than in a museum, I think it likes it, and he ran his hand down the length of the stone, a strangely sensual gesture, I think it likes us to touch it. Go ahead, he said, you touch it too, and when I hesitated, he took my arm just above the wrist and pulled it to the stone. I laughed, surrendering, and stroked it as he had done, the stone warmer than the air, it must have soaked in the late sun, and pocked, not smooth at all, or smooth only where letters had been chiseled into it, the slanted edges of the cut still perfectly polished. I drew my hands away and wiped them on my jeans. The park was busy, not just with college students but with couples sitting on the benches that lined the paths, and with children playing on the swing sets and slides. Are you ready then, Z. said, taking the carton and unscrewing the cap, though I think we had all been relieved to leave it untouched for a while, everything packed for your move, and I said it was, more or less, there were still a few days before I would leave. Will you miss it, N. asked, meaning the country, I thought, or maybe teaching, and I said I would, of course, how could he wonder.

• From This Boy's Life: A Memoir (1989)

  She read my nameplate and looked me up and down, and I could see her face grow smooth and serene as she decided that she had been mistaken, that it couldn’t possibly be me. She returned my smile and gave me her name. I saw from the list that she had two boys in the Order. Already she was searching for them, glancing around her and peering into the noisy hall. She picked up her nameplate, gave her arm to the boy at the door, and passed into the banquet. My brother sent me a story he had written called “A Hank o’ Hair, A Piece of Bone.” It was about an American imprisoned in Italy for murdering a prostitute. His father was rich, but the young man refused to ask him for help. He was alienated from his father and from everyone else. He was so alienated that he wouldn’t even say he was sorry for killing the girl. He was sorry—he’d been drunk at the time—but such was his contempt for society that he would do nothing to court its mercy. The story was filled with closely observed details of prison life, such as automatic toilets flushing every few minutes and inmates banging on their bars with tin cups. I thought it was great. I couldn’t get over Geoffrey’s audacity in writing it. I sent him one of mine, a story about two wolves fighting to the death in the Yukon, but I knew his was better and contemplated submitting it to my English teacher as if it were my own. In the end I decided not to. I knew I’d never get away with it. Geoffrey wrote again to say he had liked my story and wanted me to send more. His letter was affectionate and full of news. This was his last year at Princeton. He hoped to move to Europe when he graduated, to work on a novel. There was also the possibility of a teaching job in Turkey. Princeton had been good to him, he said, and I ought to give it some serious consideration when the time came to choose my own college. Geoffrey also sent word of my father. He and his wife were separated. He had moved to California and found work at Convair Astronautics, the first real job he had had in years. In fact, Geoffrey said, they’d all been having a bumpy time of it for quite a while now. He would tell me more when he saw me, which he hoped to do before he left the country. It had been too long, he said. Geoffrey wanted to see me. That was plain. I had been wanting to see him for years, but before now, even when I hatched plans to join up with him, I never knew whether he felt the same way. In most respects we were strangers. But it mattered to me that he was my brother, and it seemed to matter to him.

• From Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away (2022)

  The same grit that helped Ali become such a great champion—admired and revered almost without equal—became his undoing when it drove him to ignore signs that were obvious to anyone on the outside looking in that he should quit. That’s the funny thing about grit. While grit can get you to stick to hard things that are worthwhile, grit can also get you to stick to hard things that are no longer worthwhile. The trick is in figuring out the difference. Grit vs. Quit We view grit and quit as opposing forces. After all, you either persevere or you abandon course. You can’t do both at the same time, and in the battle between the two, quitting has clearly lost. While grit is a virtue, quitting is a vice. The advice of legendarily successful people is often boiled down to the same message: Stick to things and you will succeed. As Thomas Edison said, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Soccer legend Abby Wambach echoed this sentiment over a century later when she said, “You must not only have competitiveness but ability, regardless of the circumstance you face, to never quit.” Similar inspirational advice is attributed to other great sports champions and coaches, such as Babe Ruth, Vince Lombardi, Bear Bryant, Jack Nicklaus, Mike Ditka, Walter Payton, Joe Montana, and Billie Jean King. You can also find almost identical quotes from other legendary business successes through the ages, from Conrad Hilton to Ted Turner to Richard Branson. All these famous people, and countless others, have united behind variations of the expression “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.” It is rare to find any popular quote in favor of quitting except one attributed to W. C. Fields: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no use being a damn fool about it.” Fields was hardly a role model, creating a public persona out of characters who loved drinking, hated children and dogs, and eked out an existence on the fringes of society. That’s not much of a counterbalance . . . and Fields didn’t actually say it!

• From Cleanness (2020)

  MENTORWe had agreed to meet at the fountain in front of the McDonald’s in Slaveykov Square. By my American standards G. was late, and as I waited for him I browsed the book stalls the square is famous for, their wares piled high under awnings in front of the city library. Really it wasn’t a fountain anymore, it had been shuttered for years, since faulty wiring stopped a man’s heart one summer as he dipped his fingers into the cool water there. It was December now, though winter hadn’t yet really taken hold; the sun was out and the weather was mild, it wasn’t unpleasant to stand for a bit and browse the books on display. From the beginning of the year G. had caught my attention, at first simply because he was beautiful, and then for the special quality of friendship I thought I saw between him and another boy in my class, the intensity with which G. sought him out and the privacy he drew about them. It was familiar to me, that intensity, a story from my own adolescence, as was the basking ambivalence with which the other boy received it, how he both invited it and held it off. I had some idea, then, what we would talk about, and why school didn’t offer enough secrecy for us to talk about it there, but I was still curious: he wasn’t a student I was particularly close to, he didn’t stop by my room outside of class, he had never confided in me or sought me out, and I wondered what crisis was bringing him to me now.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The Virgin Mary marks the turning point in the history of the female sex. As the mother of Christ, the second Adam, she corresponds to Eve, and is, in a spiritual sense, the mother of all living.628 In her, the "blessed among women," the whole sex wass blessed, and the curse removed which had hung over the era of the fall. She was not, indeed, free from actual and native sin, as is now, taught, without the slightest ground in Scripture, by the Roman church since the 8th of December, 1854. On the contrary, as a daughter of Adam, she needed, like all men, redemption and sanctification through Christ, the sole author of sinless holiness, and she herself expressly calls God her Saviour.629 But in the mother and educator of the Saviour of the world we no doubt may and should revere, though not worship, the model of female Christian virtue, of purity, tenderness, simplicity, humility, perfect obedience to God, and unreserved surrender to Christ. Next to her we have a lovely group of female disciples and friends around the Lord: Mary, the wife of Clopas; Salome, the mother of James and John; Mary of Bethany, who sat at Jesus’ feet; her busy and hospitable sister, Martha; Mary of Magdala, whom the Lord healed of a demoniacal possession; the sinner, who washed his feet with her tears of penitence and wiped them with her hair; and all the noble women, who ministered to the Son of man in his earthly poverty with the gifts of their love,630 lingered last around his cross,631 and were the first at his open sepulchre on the, morning of the resurrection.632 Henceforth we find woman no longer a slave of man and tool of lust, but the pride and joy of her husband, the fond mother training her children to virtue and godliness, the ornament and treasure of the family, the faithful sister, the zealous servant of the congregation in every work of Christian charity, the sister of mercy, the martyr with superhuman courage, the guardian angel of peace, the example of purity, humility, gentleness, patience, love, and fidelity unto death. Such women were unknown before. The heathen Libanius, the enthusiastic eulogist of old Grecian culture, pronounced an involuntary eulogy on Christianity when he exclaimed, as he looked at the mother of Chrysostom: "What women the Christians have!" § 47. Christianity and the Family. H. Gregoire: De l’influence du christianisme sur la condition des femmes. Paris, 1821. F. Münter: Die Christin im heidnischen Hause vor den Zeiten Constantin’s des Grossen. Kopenhagen, 1828. Julia Kavanagh: Women of Christianity, Exemplary for Acts of Piety and Charity. Lond., 1851; N. York, 1866.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The community of Christians thus from the first felt itself, in distinction from Judaism and from heathenism, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the city of God set on a hill, the immortal soul in a dying body; and this its impression respecting itself was no proud conceit, but truth and reality, acting in life and in death, and opening the way through hatred and persecution even to an outward victory over the world. The ante-Nicene age has been ever since the Reformation a battle-field between Catholic and Evangelical historians and polemics, and is claimed by both for their respective creeds. But it is a sectarian abuse of history to identify the Christianity of this martyr period either with Catholicism, or with Protestantism. It is rather the common root out of which both have sprung, Catholicism (Greek and Roman) first, and Protestantism afterwards. It is the natural transition from the apostolic age to the Nicene age, yet leaving behind many important truths of the former (especially the Pauline doctrines) which were to be derived and explored in future ages. We can trace in it the elementary forms of the Catholic creed, organization and worship, and also the germs of nearly all the corruptions of Greek and Roman Christianity. In its relation to the secular power, the ante-Nicene church is simply the continuation of the apostolic period, and has nothing in common either with the hierarchical, or with the Erastian systems. It was not opposed to the secular government in its proper sphere, but the secular heathenism of the government was opposed to Christianity. The church was altogether based upon the voluntary principle, as a self-supporting and self-governing body. In this respect it may be compared to the church in the United States, but with this essential difference that in America the secular government, instead of persecuting Christianity, recognizes and protects it by law, and secures to it full freedom of public worship and in all its activities at home and abroad. The theology of the second and third centuries was mainly apologetic against the paganism of Greece and Rome, and polemic against the various forms of the Gnostic heresy. In this conflict it brings out, with great force and freshness, the principal arguments for the divine origin and character of the Christian religion and the outlines of the true doctrine of Christ and the holy trinity, as afterwards more fully developed in the Nicene and post-Nicene ages. The organization of this period may be termed primitive episcopacy, as distinct from the apostolic order which preceded, and the metropolitan and patriarchal hierarchy which succeeded it. In worship it forms likewise the transition from apostolic simplicity to the liturgical and ceremonial splendor of full-grown Catholicism.

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  There is resonance not only between her faithfulness to the God of Israel and Tamar’s, but between her scriptural story and Matthew’s larger birth narrative. The Book of Joshua draws a parallel between Rahab’s actions and words, and the events of the Exodus. “She hid him,” the text says, when Rahab hides the two men on her roof (Josh 2:4 ותצפנו). The “him,” singular, is odd. So it is interesting that the same phrase occurs in Exod 2:2, when Moses’ mother hides her son: “she hid him,” Exodus says, using the same word (ותצפנהו).33 The recollection of Exodus continues. When Rahab 29 Harrington, “Pseudo-Philo,” 316, in relation not to Tamar but Moses. He points out “striking parallels” between Moses’ birth in L.A.B. 9 and Jesus’ birth in Matthew 1–2 (316). The parallels are as follows: (1) Dreams (Miriam, L.A.B. 9:10; Joseph/the magi, Matt 1:20; 2:13, 19/Matt 2:12). (2) The Spirit of God comes upon Miriam; the Spirit of God comes upon Mary (L.A.B. 9:10; Mary, Matt 1:20). (3) King of Egypt sends officers to kill the Hebrew children; Herod sends soldiers to kill the children of Bethlehem ( L.A.B. 9:12; Matt 2:16–18). (4) Moses is saved; Jesus is saved ( L.A.B. 9:15–16; Matt 2:13–15). (5) In her dream Miriam is told that Moses will “save my people”; in his dream Joseph is told that Jesus will “save his people” ( L.A.B. 9:10; Matt 1:21). I have slightly modified and expanded Harrington’s list. Harrington concludes that given the lack of contact between the texts “the points in common show a lively interest in the birth of heroes in the NT period.” Yes—but it is an interest expressed in the same way in both texts, and this suggests an interpretive tradition. Tamar appears in this context in both texts, and in L.A.B., explicitly, as a model of righteous faithfulness. 30 Cf. Wainwright, Feminist Critical Reading, 163, notes that the Palestinian Targums “emphasize the role of God” in Tamar’s story; “it seems that by the first century, God is explicitly linked to the Tamar story and hence to its double-edged power. Also Tamar is clearly pronounced righteous.” 31 Cf. Heil, “Narrative Roles,” 540 and J. Gnilka, Das Matthäusevangelium: Kommentar zu Kap. 1, 1-13,58 (HTKNT 1/1; Freiburg-Basel-Wien, 1986), 9, cited in Heil, “Narrative Roles.” 32 Bauckham, “Tamar’s Ancestry,” 324–5, and the commentaries. Bauckham (322) notes, however, that it makes perfect sense that Tamar is here married to Salmon ( contra Davies and Allison, Matthew, 1.173, and many others). Salmon’s father, Nahshon, is leader of the tribes of Israel in the wilderness. His son therefore lives, by Matthew’s reckoning, at the time of the entry into the promised land. 33 Frymer-Kensky, “Rahab,” in Meyers et al., Women in Scripture, 140–1, esp. 141. Like the midwives in the time of Pharoah, Frymer-Kensky adds, Rahab courageously refuses to reveal the sons of Israel at the king’s command. 138 138 Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles

• From Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away (2022)

  R Find Someone Who Loves You but Doesn’t Care about Hurt Feelings on Conway is best known as one of the greatest angel investors of all time. But he ought to be equally well known for his skill as a quitting coach. Conway, the founder of SV Angel, an early-stage venture fund, has been investing in start-ups since the nineties and is a legend in the venture-capital community. His list of successful angel investments may be unmatched, including many of the most famous companies of the last twenty-five years, including Facebook, Google, PayPal, Dropbox, Airbnb, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat. Conway is obviously great at picking winners. Starting a new venture requires grit. Conway is known for his ability to help founders navigate the challenging ups and downs of growing what begins as nothing more than a vision into a successful, world-changing company. You are likely not surprised that someone of Ron Conway’s stature provides enormous value by helping these founders to develop the right strategic vision, stick to it, and make it work. But you might be surprised that he is especially proud of his ability in helping founders figure out when it’s the right time to quit. He sums up his philosophy in three words: Life’s too short. What Conway recognizes is that we all have a limited time on this planet to devote to different opportunities we might pursue. Founding, running, and growing a start-up is already brutally hard work. In his experience, founders tend to be driven, gritty, and brilliant individuals. People with these qualities are in great demand at established companies, for jobs with comfortable hours and great pay. But founders have all chosen a different path, and what comes with that path is hundred-hour workweeks, unrelenting stress, and practically no pay. Famously, some founders have gotten most of their sleep—which isn’t much— in their parents’ garage or on the floor of their office. Obviously, the chance to change the world and the outsized rewards that come with succeeding can make it worthwhile for them to persevere. But in

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles136 136 Israel, does not. 24 She is faithful when Judah is not. By her faithfulness to the law, Jacob’s prophecy to Judah is fulfilled. 25 Tamar does not speak, anymore than does Judah or anyone else in the genealogy. But by her faithful action the word of God to Judah is “uttered,” brought to fruition in the history of Israel. Does Matthew intend all this in the mere mention of her name? It is worth noting that elements of her story find a complement later in the birth narrative in the episode of Mary’s pregnancy and Joseph’s righteousness; indeed, Clements notes, righteousness is “a key discipleship virtue” in Matthew’s gospel. 26 Thus there are thematic parallels between Tamar’s story and Matthew’s gospel that lend credence to the supposition that Matthew has Tamar’s scriptural story in mind. External corroboration, however, is also at hand. In Pseudo-Philo, a first-century Jewish text, Tamar (like several other biblical women) plays a starring role. 27 In Pseudo-Philo’s story of the exodus, Tamar serves as crucial scriptural reference point, model of faithfulness to God’s covenant people and purpose. When Pharaoh commands the Egyptians to throw the sons of the Hebrews into the river and make their daughters slaves, the Israelites despair. In their despair, they propose to cease having children altogether. 28 Amram protests: this is, he suggests, an act of unfaithfulness to the God who has both commanded and covenanted with Israel that they “be made many on the earth” (L.A.B. 9:2; cf. Gen 1:28, 12:2, 15:5, 17:4–7; Exod 1:8, etc.). Precisely here, Amram appeals to Tamar: Tamar who hid her dangerous pregnancy until the third month; Tamar who was willing to die in order that her son might be a son of Israel (L.A.B. 9:5); Tamar who believed that it is with Israel that the Lord God has made a covenant. Tamar’s pregnancy serves as an example of righteous faith over and against the Israelites’ failure of faith—a righteous faith that allows the necessary begetting to continue, so that God’s promises to Israel might be fulfilled. Pseudo-Philo’s appeal to Tamar in the context of the genealogical fulfilment of God’s covenant promises—an appeal to which her scriptural story is essential background— provides a parallel to Matthew’s appeal to Tamar in the same context. Thanks to Amram’s appeal to faithful Tamar, in Pseudo-Philo, the Israelite line continues and 24 Cf. A. J. Levine, “Rahab in the New Testament,” in Meyers et al., Women in Scripture, 141–2, here 141: Rahab and the women of the genealogy were seen in contemporary Jewish and Christian literature “not as sinners but as manifesting righteousness.” Indeed, they “may also indicate the higher righteousness that Matthew frequently endorses” (142). 25 Cf. A. J. Levine, Social and Ethnic Dimensions of Matthean Social History (Studies in the Bible and Early Christianity 14; Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1988), 85: Tamar shows greater faith than Judah through her “fidelity to the tradition of Levirate marriage.”

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  confesses her faith in Israel’s God, she quotes from Exod 15 and the song of Miriam.34 Josh 2:10 echoes Exodus explicitly: “For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you” (Josh 2:10). This story echoes the one in the Book of Joshua; Moses and the exodus find their counterpart in Rahab and the entry into the promised land. In Matt 2, Matthew’s birth narrative will echo repeatedly the story of Moses and the exodus. In the genealogy, Matthew names the woman whose scriptural story echoes Moses and the exodus. 35 In Joshua, it is not only Rahab’s actions but her voice that matters: her faith is a matter of word as well as of deed. Rahab confesses that Israel’s God is Lord; Rahab sings again the song of Miriam at the Red Sea; Rahab speaks ahead of time of Israel’s conquest of the land. It is her message, Frymer-Kensky notes, that the spies take back to Joshua; thus Rahab becomes the “oracle” of the conquest.36 In rabbinic tradition, Rahab is revered as a prophet.37 “Rahab,” Frymer-Kensky says, “who begins as triply marginalized—Canaanite, woman, and prostitute—moves to the center as bearer of a divine message and herald of Israel in its new land.” 38 It is explicitly by her word that the men are saved and Israel enters the promised land. By her word, in Matthew’s scriptural intertext, the promises of God are fulfilled. Ruth Ruth marries Rahab’s son. In naming Ruth, Matthew recal s another confession of faith, the faith of Ruth will not break with Naomi and Naomi’s God, though she is herself a Gentile—indeed, a Moabite. “Whither thou goest I will go; …your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 2:16). The text likens her faithfulness to the faithfulness of Abraham. Boaz says to Ruth, “you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people you did not know before” (Ruth 2:11). His language, Phyllis Trible notes, is reminiscent of the call of Abraham in Gen 12. 39 Like Rahab, Ruth names the God of Israel Lord (2:16–18). Like Tamar, Ruth is righteous. She goes to great lengths on Naomi’s behalf to ensure that the obligations of next-of-kin are fulfilled. Indeed, the Book of Ruth draws the connection with Tamar.

• From Paul and Matthew Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Terence L. Donaldson (2021)

  Matthew’s genealogy, I have argued, draws attention, in Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, to women who in the scriptural history carry forward by their righteous faithfulness the covenant promises. The genealogy and birth narrative culminate in Mary, the woman in whom the promises to Abraham and David are fulfilled. 47 This presentation voices of women are increasingly lost. “In this community,” Wire says, “responsibility belongs to a designated group of males in the group to identify the right order which tradition requires and to regulate communal life to this end” (“Gender Roles,” 106). But Matthew’s Joseph, taking on precisely this role with regard to Mary’s pregnancy, cannot—any more than can Judah—correctly identify what is right order. That right order is now found in Mary, as she conceives outside of the “right order” by the Holy Spirit and bears a son. 47 The role of “the wife of Uriah” is, I think, rather different, as her lack of a name attests. “The wife of Uriah” cal s up as intertext the story of David’s sin and its consequences for Israel. Here, too, though, it is the covenant promises that are at issue, and it is the woman whose name signals the issue. Through the righteous faithfulness of Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, in part, the promise of a scepter for Israel has come to fruition in David. What will happen to the scepter in the wake of David’s sin, a sin 142 142 Paul and Matthew among Jews and Gentiles of women as central players in the fulfilment of the covenant promises finds a parallel in Jubilees and in Pseudo-Philo. Second Temple Context: Jubilees, Pseudo-Philo, and the Voices of Women As Rahab in Joshua sees God’s purpose and speaks God’s blessing on the Israelites, so too does Rebekah in Jubilees. In Jubilees, it is Rebekah and not Isaac who repeatedly— and unexpectedly, for Jubilees is not known for its positive depictions of women—is the voice of God’s purpose. It is Rebekah and not Isaac who knows that Jacob bears God’s blessing ( Jub. 19:30–31) and tel s him so (25:1–3). It is Rebekah and not Isaac (in contrast to Gen 28) who tel s Jacob to marry a wife from his own kin and not a Canaanite (25:1–3). It is Rebekah and not Isaac who first blesses Jacob, in a formal blessing vividly depicted: And then she lifted her face toward heaven and spread out the fingers of her hands and opened her mouth and blessed the Most High God … and at that time, when a spirit of truth descended upon her mouth, she placed her two hands upon the head of Jacob and said, “Blessed are you, O Lord …, and may he bless you more than all the generations of man … The womb of the one who bore you blesses you. My affection and my breasts are blessing you. 48

• From Branded: Brainwashed Inside NXIVM (2020)

  It was sort of like he was a rockstar showing up to an event. He sort of had that feeling of a religious person. That energy of end all, be all. [Narrator] Particularly for female members. [Dr. Marie] The women around him just loved him. I wasn't attracted to him, but he had something magical about him. [Paige] People always mentioned Keith's...charm and his charisma. Keith has a way of making you feel like you're very important while still being in control. And the more time you spend with him, the more you're like, he's friendly and engaging, and he cares about me, and I'm special, and he understands what I'm going through. And none of that is real. It is what he's trying to make you believe. It's exactly the same as the girls he was charming as a teenager. It's just on macro scale with a lot more money. [Narrator] In 1999, Raniere ends his nearly decade-long relationship with Toni. And Keith told me that Toni wasn't there anymore, that they broke up, and I was quite surprised. Toni doesn't realize that there are other females. [Paige] Turns out, he likes to sleep with his followers. Like, a lot. Like, so much. He had a habit of singling out women, and then bringing them into kind of his close inner circle, making them feel like they had a sexual relationship that was just the two of them, but then, at the same time, maintaining sexual relationships with multiple other women-- at some points, dozens of other women. [Armando] This is a person who has... convinced so many different people that he has an entire new way of being. He has a presence that is unbeatable, and there are hundreds of thousands of people who are desperately trying to get around him. So it makes sense that he got a lot of the attention that he wanted. Did you notice on one of the crowd checks, one of the women wasn't wearing panties? [Narrator] Incredibly, some members of Keith's inner circle have no problem sharing their leader. In fact, they encourage others to join. [Dr. Marie] Keith told me that he talked to all the ladies in the inner circle and... even though his dance card was very full, he had one slot available for me. And I could join the inner circle. I...declined. [Narrator] In the spring of 2000, Raniere meets a new woman when Nancy Salzman introduces him to an acquaintance, financial planner Barbara Bouchey. Raniere has no idea Bouchey will become one of his greatest adversaries and help expose NXIVM as a modern-day cult. [music] [Narrator] In 2002, NXIVM leader Keith Raniere meets his wealthiest followers yet-- 25-year-old Sara Bronfman and her 23-year-old sister, Clare. [Armando] The Bronfman sisters are the Seagram's Liquor heiresses. They are loaded beyond your wildest dreams. They were almost specifically targeted by Keith.

• From Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away (2022)

  they were Rob Hall in 1995, Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953, or any of the climbers in between. At 11:30 a.m., as Hutchison, Taske, and Kasischke were making a difficult quitting decision, those people from the past tapped them on the shoulder and let them know, “Now is the time to turn around.” Retired four-star admiral William McRaven, one of the world’s most respected figures on military strategy, U.S. foreign policy, and counterterrorism operations, whose participation in ten thousand Navy SEAL missions during his thirty-seven-year career included organizing and overseeing the successful raid on Osama bin Laden, echoed the importance of this aspect of time travel in successfully navigating decisions about whether to persist or abandon course while on a military mission. Admiral McRaven is a longtime student (as well as teacher, speaker, and author) of military history. When we spoke, he pointed to a wall of bookshelves behind him stuffed with books and said, “Probably three quarters of the books behind me are history books about battles that went well and battles that went wrong.” He talked about how those history books help him access time travelers from the past. As he explained, “Is it Clausewitz coming forward to tell me something? Is it Napoleon coming forward to tell me something? Is it Norman Schwarzkopf coming forward to tell me something?” Admiral McRaven’s own experience on all those missions also allows past versions of himself to transmit important messages forward in time. “When you see another target later in your career, you say, ‘You know what? I did something really similar to that twenty years ago.’ People looking at it that are new say, ‘There’s no way you can do that.’ I tell them, ‘Oh yeah, we can. I’ve done it.’ ” When you are making a decision about whether to quit, you need to listen to those people from the past who are giving you important advice. Sometimes, the person sending you a message is someone who has traveled a similar path before you. And sometimes, the person traveling from the past is an earlier version of yourself.

• From Branded: Brainwashed Inside NXIVM (2020)

  334 00:15:22,721 --> 00:15:26,225 He's thinking that with his dynamic personality, 335 00:15:26,325 --> 00:15:30,062 coupled with her skills to sway and manipulate others 336 00:15:30,162 --> 00:15:31,964 using her psychotherapy skills, 337 00:15:32,064 --> 00:15:34,233 that this is a match made in heaven. 338 00:15:34,333 --> 00:15:35,734 [Paige] If you think of most successful partnerships 339 00:15:35,834 --> 00:15:38,237 throughout history-- think of Lennon and McCartney. 340 00:15:38,337 --> 00:15:39,838 One of them's an amazing songwriter. 341 00:15:39,939 --> 00:15:41,941 The other one's a charismatic performer. 342 00:15:42,041 --> 00:15:44,009 Together, they are unstoppable. 343 00:15:44,109 --> 00:15:46,679 You find the same idea with Nancy and Keith. 344 00:15:48,814 --> 00:15:53,619 [Narrator] In 1998, the pair join forces to form ESP, 345 00:15:53,719 --> 00:15:57,957 the very first iteration of what will become NXIVM. 346 00:15:58,057 --> 00:16:00,426 [Nancy] ESP is Executive Success Programs. 347 00:16:00,526 --> 00:16:03,429 And it's a company that's designed to help people 348 00:16:03,529 --> 00:16:06,265 identify what their goals and objectives are in life 349 00:16:06,365 --> 00:16:09,668 and to reach those goals and objectives. 350 00:16:09,768 --> 00:16:11,737 [Armando] It is a program that you can take 351 00:16:11,837 --> 00:16:16,342 that will give you a professional and personal edge. 352 00:16:16,442 --> 00:16:22,214 It focuses on what Keith and Nancy called rational inquiry, 353 00:16:22,314 --> 00:16:24,717 which is sort of piecing out 354 00:16:24,817 --> 00:16:26,452 how your life is supposed to be. 355 00:16:27,386 --> 00:16:30,789 [Robin] He seemed to sell a message 356 00:16:30,889 --> 00:16:32,891 that people wanted to hear. 357 00:16:32,992 --> 00:16:35,260 Everybody wants their life to improve. 358 00:16:35,361 --> 00:16:37,262 Everybody wants to be happy. 359 00:16:37,363 --> 00:16:39,598 The problem is, if you listen to him, 360 00:16:39,698 --> 00:16:41,133 it sounded like gobblygook. 361 00:16:52,578 --> 00:16:54,446 [Robin] It was Nancy who did a lot of the work 362 00:16:54,546 --> 00:16:59,518 of taking his philosophical, if you will, discussions 363 00:16:59,618 --> 00:17:02,721 and boiling it down into a training manual 364 00:17:02,821 --> 00:17:06,825 to teach people how to run these workshops. 365 00:17:06,925 --> 00:17:08,293 Nancy was vital. 366 00:17:08,394 --> 00:17:09,828 I mean, she was, in a sense, 367 00:17:09,928 --> 00:17:11,363 the second in command. 368 00:17:11,463 --> 00:17:13,932 And I don't think he could've done it without her. 369 00:17:14,033 --> 00:17:17,669 I don't think he really had the smarts or the wherewithal. 370 00:17:17,770 --> 00:17:19,972 [Narrator] Raniere and Salzman initially market the program 371 00:17:20,072 --> 00:17:22,107 to business executives. 372 00:17:23,308 --> 00:17:25,077 [Paige] They come to your office, 373 00:17:25,177 --> 00:17:27,379 your store, your corporate headquarters, 374 00:17:27,479 --> 00:17:31,550 and they say, we can make your people more productive 375 00:17:31,650 --> 00:17:34,820 if you have them take our seminars. 376 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:36,622 We'll offer you a discount, 377 00:17:36,722 --> 00:17:39,191 but you should have everyone sign up.

• From Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away (2022)

  T The Opposite of a Great Virtue Is Also a Great Virtue here is no place in the world where you would expect more stories of grit—per vertical foot, at least—than the upper reaches of Mount Everest. Such an unforgiving environment requires perseverance just to survive, much less reach the summit. You’ve probably heard many such stories, certainly the most famous ones. And so, Everest also happens to be an appropriate place to begin a book about the virtues of quitting. This Everest story is about three climbers you are likely unfamiliar with, Dr. Stuart Hutchison, Dr. John Taske, and Lou Kasischke. They were part of a commercial, guided expedition of Mount Everest, operated by Adventure Consultants, one of the most successful, highly regarded companies guiding climbers to the summit in the 1990s. Its expedition that year consisted of three guides, eight climbing Sherpas, and eight clients. It takes several weeks of intermediate climbs to acclimatize and move equipment up the mountain before, weather permitting, the expedition members at Camp 4 can attempt to reach the summit. Hutchison, Taske, and Kasischke had become friendly and climbed together that year on the numerous treks between Base Camp (17,600 feet) and Camp 4 (26,000 feet). Companies like Adventure Consultants had made it possible for relatively inexperienced climbers to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain. All you needed was $70,000 to cover the costs, enough free time to spend several months in Nepal, and to be in good physical condition. This last requirement is, of course, no guarantee of success or safety. The air above 25,000 feet is too thin to sustain human life for an extended period. In addition, the average temperature during climbing season is minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26 degrees Celsius). Anybody who reaches the summit (or gets anywhere high on the mountain) must be capable of persevering in conditions most people could not handle.