A crumb...

In his short essay ‘Kafka and his Predecessors’ Jorge Luis Borges refers to a parable of Kierkegaard:

The subject of the […] parable is the North Pole expeditions. Danish ministers had declared from their pulpits that participation in these expeditions were beneficial to the soul’s eternal well-being. They admitted, however, that it was difficult, and perhaps impossible to reach the Pole and that not all men could undertake the adventure. Finally, they would announce that any trip –from Denmark to London, let us say, on the regularly scheduled steamer – was, properly considered, an expedition to the North Pole.