
Happiness and Ancient Egypt
What I saw in Egypt taught me that happiness isn’t about comfort — it’s about connection.
Peter Gilderdale's Flirting With Wisdom series reflects on the interplay between curiosity and conviction, blending personal stories, history, cultural critique, and philosophical musings. Each vignette invites readers to embrace the beauty of unfinished thinking and the art of holding life’s ongoing questions.
What I saw in Egypt taught me that happiness isn’t about comfort — it’s about connection.
Graciousness is a small gesture — but it holds the power to honour someone else’s joy.
Getting it wrong — and faking it — turned out to be useful. It taught me what real understanding takes, and how hard it is to ask for.
Sometimes the most powerful music is the kind that proves you wrong.
The most unforgettable lessons are often the ones that would never survive a curriculum review.
Even ordinary habits can become objects of worship — and battlegrounds for meaning.
What seems like chaos to one person is harmony to another. You can live side by side for decades and still be discovering how differently you experience the world.
Sometimes your body dives before your mind agrees — that’s when you know you’re on the ball.
What thrives in one place might be unwelcome in another. Sometimes it’s not who you are, but where you are that decides — what blooms in one garden gets pulled up by the roots in another.