July 29, 2026

Eagerly Frequent

Myself when young did eagerly frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same Door as in I went.

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet living in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, an age thick with theologians, philosophers, and mystics all arguing over the nature of God and truth. In this quatrain he looks back on his own youth spent chasing those debates, sitting with doctors of science and saints of religion alike, hungry for a real answer. He admits, with a kind of wry honesty, that after all that searching he ended up back where he began. It speaks to wonder today because it shows curiosity doesn't need to end in certainty to be worth the chase.