Monday, August 4, 2014

EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE

                                   What is innate pre-dates our efforts, and guides them also.


          I’ve spent years having imaginary conversations with extraordinary people in an effort to learn their secrets. From rapper Lil’ Wayne, I learned how to churn words until they revealed their rhythm. Ralph Emerson, in contrast, taught me the ways of wisdom, and how to write indifferent to reception. Soren Kierkegaard reinforced this lesson. From Shakespeare I learned that brilliance has no bounds. His plays to me are more like plows, pushing me to hope and herald authentically though in disgrace with fortune circumstances find me.
From Michel Montaigne I learned the value of sincerity and the art of the sentence. Each encounter with him (and Schopenhauer) increased my confidence. From MLK, Jr. I gained strength to love, learning to be devoted despite the motives of malefactors. If, however, it weren’t for Fredrich Nietzsche indifference would have defeated me. Yet Nietzsche encouraged me to become who I am despite being slammed by circumstances. In this regard, Michael Jackson and Jordan also served.
I’ve never seen anyone do what they did with so much verve. Who would have thought that a ball and a beat combined with backward moving feet could accomplish so much and inspire so many. Of course their success (and privilege) wouldn’t surprise Paul Tillich, because he recognized that anything can become an object of ultimate concern if we commit to it and are willing to learn. Thanks, moreover, to William James many of my anxieties were tamed. His Principles of Psychology eased my fears of mediocrity and of being overlooked, especially when time was inclined to stream slowly. James’ wisdom comforted and helped to grow me.
There are also other extraordinary people by whom I have been instructed, Herman Keyserling included, as well as those whose names I have omitted (Blaise Pascal for example). Thanks to these I have been able to weave my own literary web. In time, like them, maybe I too can help someone else find his way, hers too, thanks to the shrew, Mary Wollstonecraft. Who’s teaching you along your path?

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Awaiting Dawn


     Most of us work for days waiting for dawn to wave its wand over our lives.

When it does, however, its seldom what we envision the way we envision it.

On the contrary, dawn often sends darkness to help us develop our greatness.

Yet, in expecting light we routinely sleight ourselves, others also.

In fact so much of what we envision opposes the mission for which we were born. Hence our tendency to feel cheated and shorn of opportunities that come freely to others.

Even so, dawn has a reason and we have a mission. In discovering this, we turn darkness into greatness instead!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

THE BASIC


Nothing is so wasted as is what we consider basic, mainly perhaps because it is.

Otherwise time would be cherished and others encouraged whether or not we feel like it.

Yet because both are basic (and abundant) we are indifferent until they are gone.

Only then are we prone to value each rightly.

Even then, however, the basic is wasted more than we admit it, to others and to ourselves.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Wishing and Rushing


 
 
We spend most of our lives wishing and rushing only to discover that neither matters in the end.
We should consider ourselves fortunate if we discover this fact before we get to the end.
If not, we indulge regret or deny denial because we can’t reverse the sun’s dial.
It’s okay to be committed and whetted in our appetites.
Yet we shouldn’t let these deprive us of our lives, which is what happens when wishing and rushing rule.

So, why not relax while you work and let time work for you instead!