Tight-knit

The last time I mentioned the show Criminal Minds was in 2009 and one of my posts that year was entitled enumeration and I literally enumerated quotes from several episodes that stuck with me. We just rewatched seasons 1-5 and we're currently on season 6. It's impressive that the show is now in its 19th season. Thus far, I've added these two quotes to my list of impactful quotes, especially since these currently ring true for me:

"Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn."-- Spoken by JJ (Jennifer Jareau) at the end of Season 5, Episode 13 ("Risky Business")

"Poet Haniel Long said, ‘So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our stability because it measures our sense of loyalty.’"-- Spoken by Hotch (Aaron Hotchner) at the end of Season 5, Episode 9 ("100")

I'm writing this just a few hours after watching The Odyssey, which I liked very much. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it in the "oh it was so entertaining" sense. I liked the storytelling and the mini emotional odyssey I went through. I think the two quotes above can be connected to the message that I took home from watching the film. It's as if the TV show we are watching and the film we just watched is the current real life anthem. 

Another interesting connection that I just thought of right now is how both Criminal Minds and The Odyssey have female characters with traits that I'd like to emulate, and they have the same name: Penelope. In 2008, I wrote about how I thought Penelope Garcia (this is the blog post) was so cool and smart that I wanted to learn how to code. Almost twenty years later, I code daily for work--a different programming language, but that's a big part of my current occupation. The other Penelope--the wife of Odysseus--is a woman of strength, courage, intelligence, and incomparable loyalty. She was full of love for her husband and son, and this was intertwined with her love and sense of duty to Ithaca. What amazing fictional women. 
Life is tough. Sometimes, there are those who deliberately make it tough for others primarily for self-interest...sometimes their own survival. 

"All through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always. (Gandhi)"-- Spoken by Aaron Hotchner at the end of Season 2 episode 9 

"Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him." -- Luke 17:3–4