If You Can't Be Seven Feet Tall,

The Most Important Thing About Quests, He Decided, Was Not In Finding What You Went Looking For, But In Finding What You Never Could Have Imagined Before You Ventured Forth.

All Great Human Deeds Both Consume And Transform Their Doers. Consider An Athlete, A Scientist, An Artist, Or An Entrepreneur. In Service Of Their Goals, They Lay Down Time, Energy And Many Other Choices And Pleasures; In Return, They Become Most Truly Themselves. A False Destiny May Be Spotted By The Fact That It Consumes Without Transforming, Without Giving Back The Enlarged Self.

This Wasn't Prayer Anyway, It Was Just Argument With The Gods. Prayer, He Suspected As He Hoisted Himself Up And Turned For The Door, Was Putting One Foot In Front Of The Other. Moving All The Same.

His Outflung Hands Traced Over The Threads Of His Rug, Passed Loop By Loop Through Some Patient Woman's Hands. Or Maybe She Hadn't Been Patient. Maybe She'd Been Tired, Or Irritated, Or Distracted, Or Hungry, Or Angry. Maybe She Had Been Dying. But Her Hands Had Kept Moving, All The Same.

There Was No Limit To What One Man Might Do, If He Gave All, And Held Back Nothing.