Paolo Roberto

Paolo Roberto:

was known in Sweden as a boxer;
played himself in a film about his life;
appears as a character in Stieg Larsson's second novel, The Girl Who Played With Fire;
plays himself in the film of the novel.

Thus, the novel describes him performing actions that he had not performed in real life but did later perform in the dramatization of the text of the novel.

A fascinating fiction-reality interaction.

Drifting

Looking back from retirement, it is clear that I drifted without ambition or career plan. However, what I value most is understanding, not merely in an abstract, academic or theoretical sense. While drifting, I have gained certain levels of understanding:

a layman's understanding of scientific cosmogony and Darwinism from general reading;
an analytic philosophical understanding of theism from studying Philosophy;
a Marxist understanding of society from political campaigning while unemployed;
a critical understanding of Christianity from teaching Religious Education;
a Zen understanding of consciousness from meditating.

I might not have got the third and fourth if I had become an academic.