Monday, August 30, 2010

ON WRONG AND WORST

A fist-fight is the first fight virtue forsakes, especially when cowardice provokes.

It's better to do the wrong thing than the worst thing, especially if the right thing eludes. Ask any husband who killed his wife because he couldn't leave her. (www.joelbryant1.com)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

THE POINT

Missing the point imperils truth.

People have opinions but lack convictions. They discuss virtue but don't practice it. Like ancient sophists, they explore the great questions but don't answer them. Most require a good disaster or a great tragedy to stir. Yet after these pass complacency consumes. Virtue again eludes. Without tragedy some people would never know their capacity for kindness.

Monday, August 23, 2010

ON DESTINY

Destiny is the choice we make about ourselves and our potential. We don't have to know what it is to believe that it is. (www.joelbryant1.com )

Sunday, August 22, 2010

ON MINORITIES

I'm at a diversity workshop learning how to be sensitive to minorities. Being black it's easy to forget that their are others.

Friday, August 20, 2010

ON PRECEDENTS

Too much wonder makes us wobble.

Sometimes we must be the precedents we envision or seek for confirmation, affirmation too. Doing so is hard, lonely and unlikely. Not because of its difficulty, but because of our passivity.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

WIND FALLS

When the wind falls, the woe flees.

On what are you waiting? How long have you waited? Are you still waiting or have you resigned? If so, why not resume your wait, knowing that it only takes a second to experience the super? But you must be ready. So, go ahead and resume your wait. In doing so, you vanquish the woe of resignation. (www.joelbryant1.com)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

HELPING OTHERS

Helping others nurtures success. You must be able to this or your influence will fade. It's not enough to impress others with your knowledge. You must help them benefit from this. If you can show them how to achieve their greatness, you secure your own. Unfortunately, however, most people are merely consumed with themselves and their ideas. (www.joelbryant1.com)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Legacy of Destiny: Part 1

OUR TURN

Each of us awaits our turn. Few of us accept the present as permanent. Silently we all court fortune's favor. This courting keeps some and kills others. Hope is the hinge. Some people, however, abandon hope and quit prematurely. In doing so, they frustrate their destiny. (www.joelbryant1.com)

Friday, August 13, 2010

GROWING GREATNESS

When greatness grows nature knows no limits. Yet when limits encroach greatness crouches, preparing to vaunt to achieve victory. It overcomes what confines others because it is willing to go further than reason advises and threats discourage. Without this quality we won't accomplish what we envision no matter how vividly we imagine, Discouraging perhaps, but true still. (www.joelbryant1.com)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

FROM ABOVE

Do you know what it's like to be fed from above, to feel without suspicion how deeply you are loved? Do you know the satiety, transcendent temporarily, that bequeaths beyond desert? Or do you still imagine that your degree of having rests upon your merit? If so, you will forfeit this comfort. (http://www.joelbryant1.com/) Also check out the enlightening video: The Legacy of Destiny on http://www.youtube.com/ .

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

JERSEYS AND JOCKS

I own no jersey and claim no jock. I don't care which team "rocks." Though, when I was young I gladly sung others praise. But at this age I'm stayed focus on myself and my capacity for success, greatness, even.

jerseys and jocks

Monday, August 9, 2010

WANTING TO ACHIEVE

We want to achieve but often concede prematurely to failure. Our biggest error moreover is in asking others. It's okay to seek opinions but not to obey them unless they encourage us in the direction of our dream. After all, no one who succeeds truly believes that failure is final unless he is fragile and can't take its blows. If so, he looks for reasons to quit because he can't admit to himself that he is a failure. In this regard, real winners are real tender but not so much that the slightest touch sends them turning. Instead, they hurt on the way as they obey their will to succeed. From a distance they look lucky to the touchy. (http://www.joelbryant1.com/)

Friday, August 6, 2010

ON PRETENDING

I can only imagine the pain of pretending, of being polite instead of sincere, which doesn't mean that we foolish say what's on our minds. I wonder if some people ever consider how each smile makes them small in the eyes of the perceptive. Do they even care or are they are aware of themselves?

Thursday, August 5, 2010

A TIME

Where we end up doesn't always depend upon how we stand up to pressure, though it helps.

There is a time when we should listen to none. There is a time when wisdom fails and what follows should. There is a time when neither speech nor silence serves. There is a time when all that we know must be forgotten or at least foregone. When this is, however, is hard to say and foolish to force. Even so, it exists.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

TORN AND TENDER

Paydirt is payback for all the put-downs we endured.

There is a height that invites us to visit. Few, however, are inquisitive. So, they buy postcards and postpone the journey, surrendering to reason's tyranny. Then when others emerge who followed the urge they are the first to cry, "How do these fly!" Yet if how knew the flight's view would be all too common. It isn't, however, because most people ignore the summons. (http://www.joelbryant1.com)