01 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Parable of Many People Working on a Large Project
A parable: A man was examining the construction of a cathedral. He asked a stone mason what he was doing chipping the stones, and the mason replied, “I am making stones.” He asked a stone carver what he was doing. “I am carving a gargoyle.&rdquo. And so it went, each person said in detail what they were doing. Finally he came to an old woman who was sweeping the ground. She said. “I am helping build a cathedral.”
...Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one...
1 Often we are so immersed in the details of our work that we fail to see the big picture of what we are contributing to. I could see this parable apply to anyone in our society, where we all are building civilization.
18 APR 2011 by ideonexus
The Story of Inoculation Being Brought to the West
In 1717 Lady Mary travelled to Turkey with her husband, the British Ambassador at Constantinople. There she first witnessed variolation. She described the procedure in a letter to her friend Sarah Chiswell:
The small-pox, so fatal, and so general amongst us, is here entirely harmless by the invention of ingrafting, which is the term they give it. There is a set of old women who make it their business perform the operation every autumn... People send to one another to know if any of their f... 1 
notes
notesLady Mary Wortley Montagu introduces inoculation to small pox to the wester world.
