Galveston, Brownsville, and Gettysburg
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STAGE ONE: MIMICRY
▪️As children, the way we’re wired to learn is by watching and mimicking others. First we learn to do physical skills like walk and talk. Then we develop social skills by watching and mimicking our peers around us. Then, finally, in late childhood, we learn to adapt to our culture by observing the rules and norms around us and trying to behave in such a way that is generally considered acceptable by society.
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STAGE TWO: SELF-DISCOVERY
▪️Stage Two involves a lot of trial-and-error and experimentation. We experiment with living in new places, hanging out with new people, imbibing new substances, and playing with new people’s orifices.
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STAGE THREE: COMMITMENT
▪️Once you’ve pushed your own boundaries and either found your limitations (i.e., athletics, the culinary arts) or found the diminishing returns of certain activities (i.e., partying, video games, masturbation) then you are left with what’s both a) actually important to you, and b) what you’re not terrible at. Now it’s time to make your dent in the world.
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STAGE FOUR: LEGACY
▪️People arrive into Stage Four having spent somewhere around half a century investing themselves in what they believed was meaningful and important. They did great things, worked hard, earned everything they have, maybe started a family or a charity or a political or cultural revolution or two, and now they’re done. They’ve reached the age where their energy and circumstances no longer allow them to pursue their purpose any further.
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Answer: the Byzantines were defeated by the Normans during their conquest of Italy, thereby driving the Byzantines from southern Italy. Even more dangerous than the Normans was a new enemy from the steppe: the Turks.
A person in office but waiting to leave is a lame duck.
