nothing more I want.......................

      But sitting here, under a budding lemon tree, among these lively, lovely people, I am absolutely certain that Tasso's garden is alive with something essentially holy.  I see it in the warm glances exchanged around the fire.  I hear it in Kosma's tender teasing of his father for his habit of depositing olive pits in his shirt pocket.  I feel it all around me.
      I owe much of my appreciation of what is happening here in Tasso's garden to my age.  As an old man, I am at peace with this peacefulness.  There is nothing I want from these people except their companionship.  There is no new excitement or accomplishment I long for.  Indeed at this moment there is nothing more I want from the cosmos than I have right here:  "to see a World" in their faces.

-Daniel Klein, Travels with Epicurus:  A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of a Fulfilled Life

Ed. note:  see the next post to make sense of the "to see a World" quote.

Ed. note #2:  If you have any intention of becoming old, do read this lovely, lively book.