as watching the movie Logan on TV last night. Do you know it? It’s one of the X-Men flicks, starring Hugh Jackman as “the Wolverine,” Though in this story he’s the more human-ish version of that character, called “ Logan.” Clearly, Logan is crafted in the tradition of male/adventure leads — Bogart in Casablanca, Harrison Ford in Star Wars, Clint Eastwood in anything. He starts off crusty and uncaring, spouting lines like, “Leave me alone, I can’t help you” or “It’s none of my business! Get away fr om me!” But what happens through A ct Two? Logan changes. “Writing Wednesdays,” stevenpressfield.com, 6/19/19 The writers (Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green) move Logan, increment by increment, from a bitter, self-despairing character to a hero, i.e., a human being capable of sacrificing himself for the good of others. I won’t ruin the ending for you if you haven’t seen Logan. Suffice it to say that you and I must do the same for our protagonist through Act Two and into Act Three.

Solomon and Job knew and spoke wisely about the uselessness of human life.

The first was the happiest, the second the unhappiest of all men.

One knew the vanity of pleasure; the other, the reality of misfortune.

—BLAISE PASCAL

Follow the best way of life you possibly can, and habit will make this way suitable and pleasant for you.

This is the divine law of life: that only virtue stands firm.

All the rest is nothing.

—PYTHAGORAS

If you fear woes and misfortunes, then you are already unhappy.

Those who fear misfortunes usually deserve them.

—CHINESE PROVERB

Happiness and calmness are neither inside us nor outside us.

They are in God, who is both inside and outside us.

—BLAISE PASCAL

Everything is from God; therefore, everything is good.

Evil is goodness which we did not understand because of our shortsightedness.

When one understands that kind of evil which is in his deeds, then all other misfortunes to which he can be subjected are nothing as compared with the pleasure and freedom he can then experience.