Doing a straight-forward, clear-cut task that has a beginning and an end balances out the complexity-without-end that often vexes the rest of my life. Sacred simplicity.

I'd like to speak a foreign language well enough to get the jokes.
I'd like to talk with Socrates, and watch Michelangelo sculpt David.
I'd like to see the world as it was a million years ago and a million years hence.