The Price of Precious Knowledge

“You’re right,” the old man said.  “All God would have to do is wave his arm and your request would be granted.  So why does he stay his hand?  I am just a silly old man, but you might be surprised at how much silly old men understand.

     “The knowledge you seek is precious above all else, and it has nothing to do with the intellect.  It has to be burned into every cell of your body until it becomes like breathing, like your heart beating.  And for some reason, God wants you to pay a price first, so that you never take lightly such a gift.  It is a price exacted as much in effort, work, and diligence as it is in patience, submission, and forbearance.  Who knows? perhaps paying the price and gaining the knowledge are part of the same process.”

There is a hole in my soul

“There is a hole in your soul, (Blaise) Pascal said, and it can't be filled by stuff. There is only one thing that fills that hole, and that's God. There is a God-sized hole in your soul. Some people try to throw stuff into the hole: bigger car, bigger house, bigger vacation, more debt associated with it. And it just doesn't work for them.”
-Dave Ramsey

Be careful what you wish for

“Oh, my son,” he said wistfully, “the Universe is designed to give you what you want.  It sees what you love and what you want by how you spend your time, and what you sacrifice for.  After a time, it gives it to you, and then you find that what you wanted was not what you thought it would be.  So you set your heart on something else, and the process repeats itself – over and over – each time refining you, or perhaps revealing you.  Your destiny, whether dark or bright, is indeed inside you.”

“Youth rarely heed the mumblings of the old, but we mumble nonetheless: those whose seek to give, to build, to nurture, and to heal become glorious.  Those who seek to take, to excel, and to conquer become terrifying, lonely, and ultimately impotent.”

Date Range Overlap

The best way to figure out if two date ranges overlap is explained in this stackoverflow answer. However, there is additional information below on calculating the actual amount of overlap, if any.