Leonel Messi seems blessed by the gods. Is he blessed more than other people? How can he be so good for so many years?

Óðinn: Ha. "Blessed by the gods." Men say that of anyone who does a thing they cannot themselves explain. Here is what I know. The Hávamál says it plainly: he alone is aware how great a mind is given to one who is not a fool. Most men do not know what they carry. This one, perhaps, does. And then there is the other thing — the thing men overlook because it is less comfortable than "blessing." He has worked. Long, and hard, and when others rested. The gods do not hand a man his craft like a gift at a feast. They hand him the raw material and step back to watch what he does with the cold mornings. As for the years — cattle die, kinsmen die, the body fails, the knee goes, the pace slows. That is the way of all flesh, even the finest. What lasts longer than the body is reputation. He has built that too. Whether the legs hold another season is a thing not even I would bet my remaining eye on. Blessed? Perhaps. But "blessed" is a word the lazy reach for when they do not want to think about the hours a man has poured into his gift like water into dark ground, year after year, while the rest of the world slept. The gods favour the bold. They favour more the one who shows up regardless.

This conversation was had on Skalden — walk into the Norse world.