Mazda Quotes

Except, now that I don’t have a car, I can’t really make good on my birthday promise.” Sydney thought about it for several moments. “Well. I’ve got a car.” An hour later, I vowed I’d never make fun of that Mazda again.

Yet a strange hope remains. A hope that somehow, something, God, the demon, Ahura Mazda, someone, will see I'm trying. I'm really trying, and that will be enough.

Dr. DeMarco nodded, motioning toward Carmine. “I’m thankful for the Mazda— damn thankful you didn’t return it scratched,” he said, glaring at his father. “I’m thankful to be out of that ridiculous boarding school. Thankful for music and my gun... I fucking love my gun.” Haven looked at him with surprise as Dr. DeMarco laughed. “It’s a nice gun. I checked it out. A 1911 .45 ACP. Where’d you get it?” Carmine shrugged. “Maybe I don’t recall.” “Fair enough,” Dr. DeMarco said. ”Are you done?” “Uh, I'm thankful for you all, even if you get on my nerves sometimes,” Carmine said. “Oh, and orgasms... definitely thankful for those.” “That’s enough,” Dr. DeMarco said, shaking his head as he turned to her. “What are you thankful for, child?” She hesitated, her nerves running amuck. “Having food to eat. A bed to sleep in, too.

Supermarkets this large and clean and modern are a revelation to me. I spent my life in small steamy delicatessens with slanted display cabinets full of trays that hold soft wet lumpy matter in pale colours. High enough cabinets so you had to stand on tiptoes to give your order. Shouts, accents. In cities no one notices specific dying. Dying is a quality of the air. It's everywhere and nowhere. Men shout as they die to be noticed, remembered for a second or two. To die in an apartment instead of a house can depress the soul, I would imagine, for several lives to come. In a town there are houses, plants in bay windows. People notice dying better. The dead have faces, automobiles. If you don't know a name you know a street name, a dog's name. 'He drove an orange Mazda.' You know a couple of useless things about a person that become major facts of identification and cosmic placement when he dies suddenly, after a short illness, in his own bed, with a comforter and matching pillows, on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, feverish, a little congested in the sinuses and chest, thinking about his dry cleaning.

The new MX-5 is like the new Ford Mondeo and the Subaru Legacy Outback. It is one of those cars that's absolutely brilliant ... and nobody buys it. You never see one on the road.

we get into his green sports car. A Mazda Miata with the top down. My backpack’s too big for the little trunk, so we tie it down tight on the rear rack.

Sydney thought about it for several moments. “Well. I’ve got a car.” An hour later, I vowed I’d never make fun of that Mazda again.

I knew I could stay at Mazda for ten years and get very comfortable or take a huge leap of faith.

And how do men call you?” “I have many names, but one nature. You may call me Mazda, or anything you please.

At the center of Zoroastrian theology was a unique monotheistic system based on the sole god, Ahura Mazda (“the Wise Lord”). Like most ancients, Zarathustra could not easily conceive of his god as being the source of both good and evil. He therefore developed an ethical dualism in which two opposing spirits, Spenta Mainyu (“the beneficent spirit”) and Angra Mainyu (“the hostile spirit”), were responsible for good and evil, respectively.

Baca konsep campaignnya 'All New Mazda 2', bunyinya begini : Its the new way to feel alive. Drive it, Feel it, Live it, Be Alive. Hmm.. Itu ngga salah? gimana caranya benda mati bisa bikin lo ngerasa lebih hidup, padahal dia sendiri aja jauh dari kehidupan.

It could be known only through six divine “evocations” that it brought forth into the world from its own being: wisdom, truth, power, love, unity, and immortality. These are not so much Ahura Mazda’s attributes as they are the six substances that make up its essence.

In the mountains north-west of Athens, at Delphi, there stood an oracle; and so teasing were its revelations, so ambiguous and riddling its pronouncements, that Apollo, the god who inspired them, was hailed as Loxias—‘the Oblique One’. A deity less like Ahura Mazda it would have been hard to imagine.

His voice was reassuring and calm, his expression soft, his eyes brighter than ever. Oh Ahura Mazda, she’d never wanted any man so intently in all her life. She ached to have him touch her, kiss her, taste her. And Ivar did as she wished. He put her hand to his nose to smell her skin, kissed her inner wrist to taste her, his lips lingered over her racing pulse. Finally, it was confirmed in actions and direct words, spoken aloud and repeated seven times… She felt the rush of desire ripping through her body, an intense sensation of warmth upon her skin, the blissful waves of uneasiness swamped through her, tingling her nerves.

Now the search is all that matters. I know there will come a time when I find my book, but it is far in the future. And I know without doubt that it will not be today. Yet a strange hope remains. A hope that somehow, something, God, the demon, Ahura Mazda, someone, will see I’m trying. I’m really trying, and that will be enough.

On Dussehra, the day marking the victory of good over evil, however, the city of Bombay prepared to receive another wannabe incarnation of God. This time the mode of conveyance was not the television set, but a Swaraj Mazda souped up to resemble a chariot. And the new, self-styled avatar of Rama was not an actor but a politician: L. K. Advani, president of the BJP.

Zoroaster was the prophet of the Persians, the people who restored the Jews to Jerusalem, the same Persians who later gave rise to the Chaldeans. The basic idea in Zoroaster’s teaching is that there are two Gods, one good, the other evil. The good God is a God of Light, of Justice, of Wisdom, who created a perfectly good world. His name is Ahura Mazda, “First Father of the Righteous Order, who gave to the sun and stars their paths.” The Mazda bulbs were named after this God of Light. Against him stands a God of Evil, Angra Mainyu, “the Deceiver,” who is the god of lies, darkness, hypocrisy, violence, and malice. He it was who threw evil into this good and well-made world. Thus the world in which we live is a mixture of light and darkness, of good and evil. This worldview is the mythology of the Fall. In its biblical transformation, it is the Fall. There is then a nature world that is not good and one does not put oneself in accord with it. It is evil and one pulls out or away in order to correct it. From this view arises a mythology with this sequence: Creation, a Fall, followed by Zoroaster (or Zarathustra), who teaches the way of virtue that will bring a gradual restoration of goodness. On the last day, after a terrific battle known as Armageddon, or the Reckoning of Spirits, Zoroaster will appear, in a second incarnation, the evil power will be wiped out, and all will be peace, light, and virtue forever. This mythology is surely familiar to all.

In the early hymns of India the appellation asuras is given to the gods. Asura means a spirit. But in the process of time asura, like dæmon, came to have a sinister meaning: the gods were called suras, the demons asuras, and these were said to contend together. But in Persia the asuras—demonised in India—retained their divinity, and gave the name ahura to the supreme deity, Ormuzd (Ahura-mazda). On

Tony didn’t look like a guy who had millions. He had sold the first company he co-founded, LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265 million in 1998 at the age of twenty-four. But he dressed in plain jeans and a Zappos T-shirt and drove a dirty Mazda 6. Within a few weeks of hanging out with him, I ditched my True Religions (I know) and started shopping at the Gap. I began to wonder if I should drive an older and dirtier car.

What name shall we give it which hath no name, the common eternal matter of the mind? If we were to call it essence, some might think it meant perfume, or gold, or honey. It is not even mind. It is not even discussible, groupable into words; it is not even endless, in fact it is not even mysterious or inscrutably inexplicable; it is what is; it is that; it is this. We could easily call the golden eternity "This." But "what's in a name?" asked Shakespeare. The golden eternity by another name would be as sweet. A Tathagata, a God, a Buddha by another name, an Allah, a Sri Krishna, a Coyote, a Brahma, a Mazda, a Messiah, an Amida, an Aremedeia, a Maitreya, a Palalakonuh, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 would be as sweet. The golden eternity is X, the golden eternity is A, the golden eternity is /\, the golden eternity is O, the golden eternity is [ ], the golden eternity is t-h-e-g-o-l-d-e-n-e-t-e-r-n-i-t-y. In the beginning was the word; before the beginning, in the beginningless infinite neverendingness, was the essence. Both the word "god" and the essence of the word, are emptiness. The form of emptiness which is emptiness having taken the form of form, is what you see and hear and feel right now, and what you taste and smell and think as you read this. Wait awhile, close your eyes, let your breathing stop three seconds or so, listen to the inside silence in the womb of the world, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, re-recognize the bliss you forgot, the emptiness and essence and ecstasy of ever having been and ever to be the golden eternity. This is the lesson you forgot.

It is in the context of this mid-Sasanian era edict reported by Elishe that the myth of Zurvan as hypostatized “Time” is outlined. Another fifth century CE Armenian, Eznik of Kølb, narrates the myth in more details and with some variations. It describes Zurvan as progenitor of both Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu. This myth of a common progenitor seems to have been one way that Zoroastrians in the Sasanian period understood the separate origins and natures of good and evil. Although in this schema Zurvan is the source of both, he is not a creator god—that role belongs to Ahura Mazda. The Zurvanite “twinning” of Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu as “brothers” from a common origin is rejected as a false teaching in the Middle Persian Denkard.

What name shall we give it which hath no name, the common eternal matter of the mind? If we were to call it essence, some might think it meant perfume, or gold, or honey. It is not even mind. It is not even discussible, groupable into words; it is not even endless, in fact it is not even mysterious or inscrutably inexplicable; it is what is; it is that; it is this. We could easily call the golden eternity "This." But "what's in a name?" asked Shakespeare. The golden eternity by another name would be as sweet. A Tathagata, a God, a Buddha by another name, an Allah, a Sri Krishna, a Coyote, a Brahma, a Mazda, a Messiah, an Amida, an Aremedeia, a Maitreya, a Palalakonuh, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 would be as sweet. The golden eternity is X, the golden eternity is A, the golden eternity is /\, the golden eternity is O, the golden eternity is [ ], the golden eternity is t-h-e-g-o-l-d-e-n-e-t-e-r-n-i-t-y. In the beginning was the word; before the beginning, in the beginningless infinite neverendingness, was the essence. Both the word "god" and the essence of the word, are emptiness. The form of emptiness which is emptiness having taken the form of form, is what you see and hear and feel right now, and what you taste and smell and think as you read this. Wait awhile, close your eyes, let your breathing stop three seconds or so, listen to the inside silence in the womb of the world, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, re-recognize the bliss you forgot, the emptiness and essence and ecstasy of ever having been and ever to be the golden eternity. This is the lesson you forgot.

And I asked the 'Nietzscheans' do they know what makes the superman, and they told me you can't know it unless you are the superman. How senseless! I asked for one word, one term, and nothing came to me. But Zarathustra is telling us about the tide of evolution where numerous species came up. Do they want to be the ebb? Is it so hard to read a book in simple language? Who was Ahura Mazda? Wasn't he the god of wisdom? What is Zarathustra doing 10 years in his cave? Isn't it collecting wisdom like the bee honey? And is not the superman a sea of wisdom who must be such a sea in order to take in the dirty river man without getting dirty by it? So, is that word not wisdom? You may ask now how can a pig arise from wisdom? Well, it can't from wisdom, but it can from trying to adapt to the rise of the superman. One species rises and others are getting dumber. Nietzsche also said that species are being made from higher species, and that is the destiny of all those who are losing WISDOM.

Thus, no matter where you live in New York City, you will find within a block or two a grocery store, a barbershop, a newsstand and shoeshine shack, an ice-coal-and-wood cellar (where you write your order on a pad outside as you walk by), a dry cleaner, a laundry, a delicatessen (beer and sandwiches delivered at any hour to your door), a flower shop, an undertaker's parlor, a movie house, a radio-repair shop, a stationer, a haberdasher, a tailor, a drug-store, a garage, a tearoom, a saloon, a hardware store, a liquor store, a shoe-repair shop. Every block or two, in most residential sections of New York, is a little main street. A man starts for work in the morning and before he has gone two hundred yards he has completed half a dozen missions: bought a paper, left a pair of shoes to be soled, picked up a pack of cigarettes, ordered a bottle of whiskey to be dispatched in the opposite direction against his home-coming, written a message to the unseen forces of the wood cellar, and notified the dry cleaner that a pair of trousers awaits call. Homeward bound eight hours later, he buys a bunch of pussy willows, a Mazda bulb, a drink, a shine-- all between the corner where he steps off the bus and his apartment.

Mithras is a Persian light and warrior god adopted by the Roman army as their tutelary deity.  His name means “Friend”.  Mithras was the emissary of Ahura Mazda, the supreme power of good, who battled Ahriman, the supreme evil.  Mithras slew the divine bull to release its life-giving blood into the earth, and creatures that served Ahriman like scorpions and serpents tried to stop this happening. Mithras was often depicted with a pointed cap, and a number of reliefs show him in the act of slaying the bull.  As a solar god he was directly equated to Sol Invictus by the Romans, as can be seen from inscriptions.[469]  Twelve inscriptions to him have been found to date.[470] There were seven grades in the Mithraic mysteries, which were only open to free men.  The Mithraic cult was highly tolerant of other deities, as is evidences by depictions of other gods in the shrines.  Also as the soldier god, priesthoods were known to bring their statues to the Mithraea (temples) for protection when danger threatened. The Mithraea were usually small, and have preserved their mysteries to an extent as little writing remains from them.  A relief from Housesteads (Northumberland) shows Mithras bearing a sword and spear rising from an egg, surrounded by a hoop depicting the signs of the zodiac.  A silver amulet found at St Albans similarly depicts Mithras rising from a pile of stones.  More commonly images on altars showed him sacrificing a bull, such as at Rudchester (Northumberland), Carrawburgh (Northumberland) and the London Mithraeum.  There are now five known Mithraea in Britain, those at Caernarvon, Carrawburgh, Housesteads, London and Rudchester.  Of these all were purely military apart from the London Mithraea. 

Persler de kendi tek tanrılı dinleri olan Zerdüştlüğe dört elle sarılmışlardı. Bazılarının daha çok düalistik (ikili) bir inanç olarak gördüğü Zerdüşlüğün* temelleri İranlı Zoroaster (Zerdüşt) tarafından MÖ 1500 dolayında atılmış ve din, Pers İmparatorluğu'yla birlikte resmi devlet dini olmuştu. *Zerdüştlere göre tek bir tanrı; Bilge Tanrı olan Ahura Mazda vardır ve Ahura Mazda, kötülüğün ve karanlığın temsilcisi Ehrimen'le mücadele halindedir (Zerdüştlüğün bazılarınca ikili bir din olarak görülmesinin sebebi bu yapısıdır). Sonunda iyilik kazanacak; insanoğlu öldükten sonra dirilip Ahura Mazda'nın huzuruna çıkarak sorgulanacaktır. Zerdüştler sanıldığı gibi ateşe tapmaz, ateşi, tanrının ışığı olarak görürler. Kutsal kitabı Avesta olan Zerdüştlüğün günümüzde 200 bin kadar takipçisi kalmıştır. -Sayfa 34

Darius raided Central Asia east of the Caspian, and probed India and Europe, attacking Ukraine and annexing Thrace. He built his sumptuous palace-capital of Persepolis (in southern Iran), promoted the religion of Zoroaster and Ahura Mazda, organized the first world currency (the Daric), raised a navy of Greeks, Egyptians and Phoenicians, and created the first real postal service, setting up inns every 15 miles along the 1,678 miles of the King’s Road from Susa to Sardis. The achievements of his thirty-year reign make him the Augustus of the Persian empire. But even Darius reached his limits. Shortly before his death in 490 BC, he tried to push into Greece, where he was defeated at the Battle of Marathon.

Then trust goes two ways, doesn’t it, Inspector?” We sat there, baking in the hot Mazda littered with empty fast-food drink cups, sort of squaring

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what you’re holding in your mind will unconsciously influence what you can notice and focus on. When you’re thinking of buying a red Mazda, you suddenly start noticing all the red Mazdas on the road. Whatever you’re thinking about can also influence the choices you make, so you might not, in fact, make the optimal choice.

Shock damping has no effect by the time the car has settled into a turn, but it can have a big effect on transient behavior. The shock damping can control the speed of the weight transfer. Contrary to what you might think, a softer shock will speed up weight transfer, and a stiffer one will slow it down. You can almost treat them as temporary sway bars.

Zoroastrian religion, the sign of Ahura Mazda.” Sean turned around and looked at the circular light on the emblem. Karem was correct. It was a symbol he’d seen before in Babylonian culture, mostly in temples and other religious settings.

If the books contradict the Qur’an, they are blasphemous. And if they are in agreement with the Qur’an, then they are unnecessary.” The library was destroyed, and generations of writings were burned.’ ‘No books survived?’ I asked.

The Good comes directly from the supreme god, Ahura Mazda, who dwells in the “Abode of Light.

I ain't never heardin' of a place called Odin.” Now Mazda knew. Hillbilly. A fucking hillbilly. If there was one thing that Mazda disliked more than Greeks, it was hillbillies. He grabbed the slack-jawed yokel by the throat and lifted him off the ground, “Not a place. A who.” The man had a difficult time speaking, “Awho? Who's Awho? Is he at Odin?

Mazda paid little attention to Sartre. “What's the matter? Afraid that you'll lose to a man? A mere mortal?” This caught Mazda's attention. “If you don't come and get me, I'll tell everyone that I beat a god. A giant pussy of a god.

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Mazda [Ahura] checked his phone and quickly received the message, “Neat,” he cracked a half smile, “I think I like Twitter.

Alarmed, Odin announced, “This thing says Mazda on it!” The group took a close look at the decal on the back of the car. Thor brought his war hammer over his head, “What is it? Can I smash it?” Odin put his hand up, “No, wait. I don't think that this is a god. Look, there are others named Mazda, too. I think these are used to transport people.

Musk had never run a car factory before and was considered arrogant and amateurish by Detroit. Yet, one year after the Model S went on sale, Tesla had posted a profit, hit $562 million in quarterly revenue, raised its sales forecast, and become as valuable as Mazda Motor. Elon Musk had built the automotive equivalent of the iPhone.

Development kicked into gear soon after Ford Motor Co. sold most of its 33.4 percent controlling stake in Mazda in 2008,

Dying is a quality of the air. It’s everywhere and nowhere. Men shout as they die, to be noticed, remembered for a second or two. To die in an apartment instead of a house can depress the soul, I would imagine, for several lives to come. In a town there are houses, plants in bay windows. People notice dying better. The dead have faces, automobiles. If you don’t know a name, you know a street name, a dog’s name. ‘He drove an orange Mazda.’ You know a couple of useless things about a person that become major facts of identification and cosmic placement when he dies suddenly, after a short illness, in his own bed, with a comforter and matching pillows, on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, feverish, a little congested in the sinuses and chest, thinking about his dry cleaning.

Ahura Mazda, God of Persians, fathered twin sons. He gave each the will to choose. The one, Ohrmazd, opted for light and life and benevolence. The other, Ahriman, chose death and darkness and evil. Ahura Mazda divided the world between his sons. Ohrmazd created the heavens and the earth. Ahriman created demons and death. 'It is not,' Ahriman said to his father, 'that I am incapable of good. It is I choose evil.' To prove to the world his ability or greatness, Ahriman created the Peacock.

Why did so many have to die or suffer? Because one side was determined to impose his religion upon the other—which could not even understand the reason for the imposition.

is fashionable these days to ignore history in order to preserve the peace between faiths,’ she said. ‘And I am all for

peace and interfaith understanding. But that process must start with recognising what happened, not whitewashing

What the fuck?” “The fuck is, guy. You’re on a date with my bride-to-be, so climb into your Mazda parked outside and fuck off, yeah?” “What the goddamn hell, Monroe?” he shouted. “Bride? Since when?” “Since now. And this little game is her idea of teasing me, which she knows I love. It gets my juices running, doesn’t it, baby?” lied Chains, leaving Monroe slacked jaw as he played her game better, he smirked her way and told Craig, “so beat your feet so I can sit my ass down with my woman and sort her out. Or sit there and fucking watch. We’d like that, too.” Big fat liar. She nearly gasped like a maiden at the idea. What was the biker playing at? Playing her better, that was a damn fact. Proof when he smirked her way and winked.

It was an odd, tense moment. I knew I was going to kiss her. She knew I was going to kiss her. But we were quite still for I don't know how long, just looking at each other, with the tenseness and warmth and intimacy growing between us, and then I pulled her tight against me and her lips parted as I bent my mouth to hers. Her lips were soft, curling and moving beneath mine, sliding and clinging hotly. Her arms tightened behind my neck and I spread my hands open behind and around her small waist, slid them up her back, let my right hand glide on the smooth cloth of her dress until it touched the swelling mound of her breast. As I pulled her to me, she pressed even more tightly against me, her lips writhing more violently, tongue moving and one hand curling against the back of my head. The rest of what happened was simply indescribable. We just sort of fused together, like people melting. It was as if she and I were two flesh magnets, and she laid her North pole up against my South pole and then turned on the juice. About 110 volts, at least, went honking along my spine and out through my ears and hair and everywhere. It was as if I lit up like a Mazda lamp, and if I could have seen myself right then I'll bet I'd have been shocked. That kiss was a trip to a land of new experiences. It was like entering the fourth dimension, or something very close to it. Wherever this was, it wasn't the same old world I'd been used to. I liked it here. This was where I wanted to live. And, friend, it was living.

It’s worth pausing for a moment to meditate on what Tesla had accomplished. Musk had set out to make an electric car that did not suffer from any compromises. He did that. Then, using a form of entrepreneurial judo, he upended the decades of criticisms against electric cars. The Model S was not just the best electric car; it was best car, period, and the car people desired. America had not seen a successful car company since Chrysler emerged in 1925. Silicon Valley had done little of note in the automotive industry. Musk had never run a car factory before and was considered arrogant and amateurish by Detroit. Yet, one year after the Model S went on sale, Tesla had posted a profit, hit $562 million in quarterly revenue, raised its sales forecast, and become as valuable as Mazda Motor. Elon Musk had built the automotive equivalent of the iPhone. And car executives in Detroit, Japan, and Germany had only their crappy ads to watch as they pondered how such a thing had occurred.

all that money can give is the freedom of not having to worry about it.

One need not scale the heights of the heavens, nor travel along the highways of the world to find Ahura Mazda. With purity of mind and holiness of heart one can find Him in one's own heart.

Arriving at Wilfrid Derome, I parked in the lot reserved for cops. Screw it. It was Saturday and I might have God in my Mazda.

During his career, he served as president of Ford Europe, director of global research and development at Mazda, and, for a year, chief executive of Maserati in a turnaround effort before it was split off from Ferrari and aligned with Alfa Romeo under Fiat. In 2004, Automobile magazine named Leach its Man of the Year, even though he was jobless after leaving Ford Europe as a result of, in his words, being “drawn into the political ping-pong initiated by Ford worldwide.” (Leach sued Ford in 2003 in a successful effort to prevent the company from enforcing a noncompete agreement.) “He’s a certified car nut, one of the very few visionaries of the trade, an excellent engineer and driver, a pragmatic team player, and a genuinely nice guy,” Automobile said.

you, Becky." Inside the wrapping paper was a beautiful doll with long, wavy, auburn hair. It was the most beautiful doll Becky had ever seen. "What's her name?" she had asked, her eyes unable to leave the doll's beautiful face. Twenty-four years later. BECKY JENSEN'S FACEBOOK STATUS: In life, it is said that everything happens for a reason. So I ask you this, Cancer, what is your reason? Fresh tears blurred Becky Jensen's vision as she gripped the steering wheel of her Mazda and stared straight ahead through the streaky windscreen. The wind and snow swirled outside, blurring the oncoming traffic. The roads were busy; people had left

Todos los días, salvo el domingo, mi padre salía del edificio alargado y bajaba por la calle hasta la estación de tren de Nyland, a unos cientos de metros del colegio de Veitvet por la calle Østre Aker. Ese recorrido llevaba media hora, tal vez cuarenta y cinco minutos, mi padre lo hacía todos los días ida y vuelta, cada día salvo el domingo, durante los años en que trabajó fuera de la ciudad, en dirección a Strømmen, al este, donde había una fábrica de zapatos en una explanada, en realidad se trataba de un gran barracón dejado allí por los alemanes, que todavía no había quebrado, pero lo haría pronto, como lo habían hecho ya casi todas las demás, un ejército de fábricas de calzado cayendo como fichas de dominó tras los muros derribados por los aranceles. Y precisamente ahora, en el Mazda, más de dos años después de su muerte, me di cuenta de cuánta parte de su vida había dedicado a bajar por aquí tan temprano, descendiendo por las cuestas a primera hora y de vuelta nueve horas después, subiendo las cuestas hiciera el tiempo que hiciera. Siempre ascendía una corriente helada del fiordo, desde el fondo del valle, y no se rendía hasta pasar Stovner y Vestli, mi padre debía conocer bien ese viento, ese frío en la espalda por la mañana, como dardos de hielo sobre las mejillas por las tardes, y puede que se sintiera abatido, con los ojos achinados, entrecerrados contra la ventisca, seguro que se sintió indefenso y solo, pero entonces yo no pensaba en eso, era demasiado pequeño, y para ser sincero tampoco lo pensé después.

Some car manufacturers should have known better when choosing the names for their car models. Some examples: Mazda LaPuta (in Spanish it means: “the whore”), Mitsubishi Pajero (in Spanish: “wanker”), Chevrolet Nova (in Spanish: “It doesn’t go”), Opel Ascona (in Portuguese: “female genitalia”), and Honda Fitta (in Swedish and Norwegian: “cunt”).

just took their weighty German word for it. Jesus, Mani, Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha—at the very outset the leader did not offer his circle of followers a better state hereafter or an improved social order or any reward other than a certain “psychological state in the here and now,” as Weber put it. I suppose what I never really comprehended was that he was talking about an actual mental experience they all went through, an ecstasy, in short. In most cases, according to scriptures and legend, it happened in a flash. Mohammed fasting and meditating on a mountainside near Mecca and—flash!—ecstasy, vast revelation and the beginning of Islam. Zoroaster hauling haoma water along the road and—flash!—he runs into the flaming form of the Archangel Vohu Mano, messenger of Ahura Mazda, and the beginning of Zoroastrianism. Saul of Tarsus walking along the road to Damascus and—flash!—he hears the voice of the Lord and becomes a Christian. Plus God knows how many lesser figures in the 2,000 years since then, Christian Rosenkreuz and his “God-illuminated” brotherhood of Rosicrucians, Emanuel Swedenborg whose mind suddenly “opened” in 1743, Meister Eckhart and his disciples Suso and Tauler, and in the twentieth-century Sadhu Sundar Singh—with—flash!—a vision at the age of 16 and many times thereafter;

Maybe we should have thought it strange for a student and her professor to go on a road trip, but you are only eight years older than I am, and you so often seem younger, even with all those acronyms after your name. Especially when you drove down Highway 9 in your red Mazda Miata with the top down, singing to Janis Joplin at the top of your lungs. I swear you didn’t care where we were going. You just loved the wind and the road, the sensation that we were moving somewhere.

a slender, artificial Christmas tree with a solitary string of lights. He watched them blink to the tune of some Brazilian carol, and despite his efforts not to, Nate thought of his children. It was the day before Christmas Eve. Not all memories were painful. He boarded the plane with teeth clenched and spine stiffened, then slept for most of the hour it took to reach Corumba. The small airport there was humid and packed with Bolivians waiting for a flight to Santa Cruz. They were laden with boxes and bags of Christmas gifts. He found a cabdriver who spoke not a word of English, but it didn't matter. Nate showed him the words “Palace Hotel” on his travel itinerary, and they sped away in an old, dirty Mazda. Corumba had ninety thousand people, according to yet another memo prepared by Josh's staff. Situated on the Paraguay River, on the Bolivian border, it had long since declared itself to be the capital of the Pantanal. River traffic and trade had built the city, and kept it going.