When she saw a keyboard for the first time, she had wondered why the letters weren’t in alphabetical order, but she had then promptly forgotten about it. 

She assumed it was simply the best layout for people to type quickly

 

the QWERTY keyboard, 

because that’s the order of the letters on the first row of keys

 The first machine was invented by Christopher Sholes, in 1873, to improve on calligraphy, but there was a problem:

 If a person typed very fast, the keys got stuck together and stopped the machine from working. 

Then Sholes designed the QWERTY keyboard, a keyboard that would oblige typists to type more slowly. 

 Remington—which made sewing machines as well as guns at the time—used the QWERTY keyboard for its first typewriters. 

That meant that more people were forced to learn that particular system, and more companies started to make those keyboards, until it became the only available model. 

 The keyboard on typewriters and computers was designed so that people would type more slowly, not more quickly

 

Each human being is unique, each with their own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure, and desire for adventure. 

However, society always imposes on us a collective ways of behaving, and people never stop to wonder why they should behave like that. 

They just accept it, the way typists accepted the fact that the QWERTY keyboard was the best possible one.

 Have you ever met anyone is your entire life who asked why the hands of a clock should go in one particular direction and not the other?

 

Human beings are the only ones in nature who are aware that they will die.

  knowing that their days are numbered and that everything will end when they least expect it, people make of their lives a battle that is worthy of a being with eternal life.

 What people regard as vanity-leaving great works, having children, acting in such a way as to prevent one's name from being forgotten- 

 the highest expression of human dignity

 

if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else. 

It causes neuroses, psychoses, and paranoia.

 it's a distortion of nature, 

it goes against God's laws,

 for in all the world's woods and forests

 he did not create a single leaf the same as another.

 

Record things in your heart. 

It’s more important than trying to show people what you’re experiencing

 

Going after a dream has a price. 

It may mean abandoning our habits, it may make us go through hardships, or it may lead us to disappointment, et cetera.

 But however costly it may be, 

it is never as high as the price paid by people who didn’t live.

 Because one day they will look back and hear their own heart say: 

I wasted my life.

 

Our life is a constant journey, from birth to death. 

The landscape changes, the people change, our needs change, 

but the train keeps moving. 

Life is the train, not the station

 

Stay close to those who sing, tell stories, and enjoy life, 

and whose eyes sparkle with happiness. 

Because happiness is contagious and will always manage to find a solution, 

whereas logic can find only an explanation for the mistake made

 

We are all growing and changing shape, we notice certain weaknesses that need to be corrected, we don't always choose the best solutions, but we carry on regardless, trying to remain upright and decent, in order to do honor not to the walls or the doors or the windows, but to the empty space inside, the space where we worship and venerate what is dearest and most important to us 

 

All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, 

and you will see in it all the marvels of creation

 

It's better to live cherishing a dream 

than face the possibility that it might all come to nothing

The Last Supper

 

When he was creating this picture, Leonardo da Vinci encountered a serious problem: he had to depict Good - in the person of Jesus - and Evil - in the figure of Judas, the friend who resolves to betray him during the meal. He stopped work on the painting until he could find his ideal models.

One day, when he was listening to a choir, he saw in one of the boys the perfect image of Christ. He invited him to his studio and made sketches and studies of his face.

Three years went by. The Last Supper was almost complete, but Leonardo had still not found the perfect model for Judas. The cardinal responsible for the church started to put pressure on him to finish the mural.

After many days spent vainly searching, the artist came across a prematurely aged youth, in rags and lying drunk in the gutter. With some difficulty, he persuaded his assistants to bring the fellow directly to the church, since there was no time left to make preliminary sketches.

The beggar was taken there, not quite understanding what was going on. He was propped up by Leonardo's assistants, while Leonardo copied the lines of impiety, sin and egotism so clearly etched on his features.

When he had finished, the beggar, who had sobered up slightly, opened his eyes and saw the picture before him. With a mixture of horror and sadness he said:

'I've seen that picture before!'


'When?' asked an astonished Leonardo.

'Three years ago, before I lost everything I had, at a time when I used to sing in a choir and my life was full of dreams. The artist asked me to pose as the model for the face of Jesus

 

When faced with a loss, it is no use trying to recover what has gone. 

On the other hand, a great space has been opened up in your life 

- there it lies, empty, waiting to be filled with something new.

 At the moment of one’s loss, 

contradictory as this might seem, 

one is being given a large slice of freedom

 

When you repeat a mistake, it is not a mistake anymore: it is a decision

 

 Beginner's luck.

 the principle of favorability. 

When you play cards the first time, you are almost sure to win.


 there is a force that wants you to realize your destiny; 

it whets your appetite with a taste of success 

 

You don’t choose your life; it chooses you.

 There’s no point asking why life has reserved certain joys or griefs,

 you just accept them and carry on. 

We can’t choose our lives, 

but we can decide what to do with the joys or griefs we’re given

 

It's what you do in the present that will redeem the past 

and thereby change the future.

 

 in the second before our death, each of us understands the real reason for our existence, and out of that moment, Heaven or Hell is born. 

Hell is when we look back during that fraction of a second and know that we wasted an opportunity to dignify the miracle of life.

 Paradise is being able to say at that moment:

 "I made some mistakes, but I wasn`t a coward. I lived my life and did what I had to do.”

 

The warrior who trusts his path doesn't need to prove the other is wrong

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a romantic comedy about four young Athenian lovers and a troupe of amateur actors who get lost in an enchanted forest. They become unwitting pawns in the domestic disputes of the fairy king and queen, resulting in magical mayhem, mistaken identities, and hilarious transformations

The play's interweaving plots resolve into three main storylines:

The Lovers’ Chaos: Hermia and Lysander are in love, but Hermia's father demands she marry Demetrius. The young couple flees into the woods, pursued by an unrequited Demetrius and his admirer, Helena. In the forest, the mischievous fairy Puck accidentally enchants both men with a love potion, causing them to fall desperately in love with Helena instead of Hermia

The Fairy Dispute: Deep in the woods, King Oberon and Queen Titania are feuding over a young boy. Oberon uses the magic potion on Titania, causing her to wake up and fall in love with a clumsy actor whose head has been magically transformed into that of a donkey

The Play-Within-A-Play: A group of amateur craftsmen (the "Mechanicals") rehearse a play in the same forest to perform at the Duke's upcoming wedding. Puck's mischief and magical transformations interrupt their rehearsal, adding to the nighttime hilarity

Eventually, the spells are broken, order is restored, and all the couples return to Athens for a joyous group wedding and a terrible, yet hilarious, performance by the actors

The main point of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is that the course of true, passionate love is rarely rational or smooth. The play explores how love makes people act foolishly, obsess irrationally, and endure temporary chaos before ultimately bringing order, maturity, and harmony to their lives

The play highlights this message through three core interconnected themes:

1. The Irrationality and Folly of Love

The central idea is that love blinds us to logic. Characters fall in and out of love effortlessly—often manipulated by magical potions in the forest—symbolizing how real-world romance can feel like a spell or a sudden, uncontrollable madness. As the famous line goes, "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind."

2. Appearance vs. Reality

The forest acts as a mystical, dream-like space where things are not as they seem

. Illusions, tricks, and magical transformations confuse the characters, illustrating that our perceptions of people and relationships are often just illusions. The audience is invited to question how well we truly understand who and why we love  

3. Order vs. Disorder

The play contrasts the strict, patriarchal, and logical world of Athens with the wild, lawless, and magical realm of the woods. The chaos in the forest represents a release from societal rules. By the end of the story, order is restored and the lovers return to Athens transformed, suggesting that society needs a balance between reason and passion to thrive

A 1999 film version was written and directed by Michael Hoffman. The cast includes Kevin Kline as Bottom, Rupert Everett as Oberon, Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania, Stanley Tucci as Puck, Sophie Marceau as Hippolyta, Christian Bale as Demetrius, Dominic West as Lysander, Anna Friel as Hermia and Calista Flockhart as Helena. This adaptation relocates the play's action from Athens to a fictional "Monte Athena", located in Tuscany, Italy, although all textual mentions of Athens are retained

Neil Gaiman's comic series The Sandman uses the play in the 1990 issue "A Midsummer Night's Dream". In this story, Shakespeare and his company perform the play for the real Oberon and Titania and an audience of fairies. The play is heavily quoted in the comic, and Shakespeare's son Hamnet appears in the play as the Indian boy. This issue was the first and only comic to win the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, in 1991 

In Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman universe, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a celebrated story. Originally published as issue #19 of the comic series (later collected in Dream Country), it features Dream (Morpheus) commissioning William Shakespeare to write the play as a gift for Faerie royalty

In the Netflix series, this fan-favorite narrative is adapted into Season 2, Episode 3, titled "More Devils Than Vast Hell Can Hold"

The Deal with Shakespeare

Dream strikes a secret pact with the aspiring playwright. He grants William Shakespeare the gift of everlasting fame and the ability to spin words that will never be forgotten. In return, the Bard is commissioned to write two plays to celebrate the nature of dreams:

"A Midsummer Night's Dream": Written at the beginning of Shakespeare’s career to be performed for the Faerie.

"The Tempest": Written toward the end of his career 

The Special Performance

The episode shifts to Elizabethan England to show the troop of actors performing the play outdoors in a field for a highly unusual, magical audience. The audience includes King Oberon, Queen Titania, and the hobgoblin Puck (Robin Goodfellow). Dream arranges this exclusive performance to ensure the magical realm will be remembered by mortals long after the fairies depart for their own dimension

Puck - Midsummer Night's Dream

 

If we shadows have offended,
think of this and all is mended:
that you have but slumber'd here,
while these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,
no more yielding than a dream.

Gentles -- do not reprehend.
If you pardon -- we will mend.

And -- as I am an honest puck,
if we have unearned luck
now to'scape the serpents' tongue,
we will make amends, ere long.

Else the puck a liar call.

So good night unto you all.

Give me your hands if we be friends
and Robin shall restore amends.

Summer Solstice

 

Summer Solstice

 

Summer Solstice