London, 2023

Cold, windy, and sleepless nights in London remind me of a passage from Proust, where he mentioned how we don’t really learn anything properly until there is a problem, until we are in pain, until something fails to go as we had hoped:

“A man who falls straight into bed every night, and ceases to live until the moment when he wakes and rises, will surely never dream of making, not necessarily great discoveries, but even minor observations about sleep.”

Proust implies that there is a bright side to infirmity, as it can disclose aspects of ourselves and the world that would otherwise remain unknown to us. So I’m glad that we mostly explored the splendid city of London in the nocturnal hours.