While I’m rather comfortable with time, Acton, I believe more in the stages of life than I do in retirement. I once considered, should this profession taper and travel becomes impossible for me, that I may spend quiet nights somewhere with dramatic, shifting landscapes.
Although, as the best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew, I plan nothing for myself. I prefer my ‘retirement’ to benefit the maximum number of persons possible. I suppose some day, we may learn more.
While there is no one person that I wish had not joined the crew (and instead, led a different life), I will admit that there were some members that could not stay. I've taken these as lessons learned, of course.
I'm sure for the same reasons you'd want to keep Mikal. Who hasn't a penchant to hire a Middle Eastern 'specialist' with cultural understandings of the esoteric Druze, the Yehudim Yisraelim, and one who has roots in Hinduism?
"Napoleon attacked by rabbits" so I had to go google search it. "The story of Napoleon being "defeated" by rabbits during a hunt in 1807 is a humorous anecdote, but it's not a confirmed historical fact, though it is mentioned in General Thiébault's memoirs. "