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What Color-Coding the Books in My Office Taught Me About Life

Nothing. Suggested Reading The Root 100 – 2024’s Most Influential African Americans Post #3 6-18-2025 Post #2 6-18-2025 Video will return here when scrolled back into view Stefon Diggs and Cardi B Viral Boat Video Prompts Response from Patriots Coach To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that…

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Stefon Diggs and Cardi B Viral Boat Video Prompts Response from Patriots Coach
Stefon Diggs and Cardi B Viral Boat Video Prompts Response from Patriots Coach

I tried real hard, though, to find life-lessons there. An edict, perhaps. An ancient mystery, finally solved, maybe. A clue, even, that would begin to unlock an ecosystem of interconnected riddles. A tomb opened. A catacomb unleashed. A reverie discovered. โ€œOne cannot step twice in the same river,โ€ the great Heraclitus said when noticing how wet his shins were. Is this bookshelf my river? The books my water? What do you do with a wet book?

I glanced out my office window, searching for an answer, a solution, a meaning, a purpose; but instead found a Rite-Aid parking lot. There are cars there. Some empty. Some not. Carl Sagan once noted about emptiness that โ€œin all our searching, the only thing weโ€™ve found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.โ€ He always reminded me of soup.

โ€œWho do you call when the phones are jammed?โ€ Itโ€™s a question I keep coming back to. Especially now since my phone has call-waiting. And Iโ€™m reminded of what Adriana Lima said, years ago, about jelly. โ€œWhen I get older, I donโ€™t think Iโ€™ll like to have wrinkles, or a big jelly belly. I cannot have it.โ€ Age is a grift.

But yeah. No life-lessons. I just think it looks pretty.

Straight From The Root

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