CULTIVATING GREATNESS

 

 

When companies close our eyes are opened to understand that our destiny is our responsibility.

     People get fired but problems don't get fixed. The problem isn't with the people but with a culture that is corrupt and corrosive. In this culture average consumes. People do their jobs but not their best. After awhile, crises reveals weakness. People are then layed off or fired in an effort to counter. Companies pursue this course daily, as if dismissing people will help them to recover. It's foolish, however, for them to indulge average over time and then demand greatness over-night.

     People seldom change that fast. Even if they did space must be allotted to defray the effects of average. The market must also have time to adjust. Meanwhile employees will suffer because management didn't demand excellence from the outset. Such is the cycle in the contemporary world of work. If workers don't demand greatness of themselves, managment will. By then, however, money is tight and crises imminent. Then firings are proposed and lay-offs are certain. Unfortunately, this is the only way some companies know how to manage average. Doing so doesn't fix the problem but it does reveal the plight facing today's workforce.

THE FEW

The road to succes is narrow and long

Many begin the journey but few press on,

Along its paths are many who have fallen

Whose goal slipped away along with their calling.

 

Yet for those small few who are willing to plod

Who believe in the dream because they believe in God,

Those who will persist when the outcome appears bleak,

Remaining calm even amid adversity's heat,

These are they who are destined to reach

Life's highest mountain and scale its peak.

YOU CAN!

 

          You can’t achieve greatness focusing on your weakness. How often have we heard this statement made? How often have we even said it to ourselves only to be snared by our own failures? More important, how do we bypass the blockades that failure erects and which we unconsciously expect when success exposes us to our weaknesses? The purpose of this article is to help you adjust your approach so that you can realize your hopes by highlighting three simple yet effective correctives to equip you in your quest for greatness.

                                                                                                                                                               

Weakness versus Failure

          We must first realize that failure and weakness aren’t synonymous. Yet how often do we confuse the two because we blame our weaknesses for our failures. Even so, failure is the temporary inability to accomplish a peculiar task according to our conception or expectations. Weakness, in contrast, reveals a need to take deliberate steps to overcome specific limitations when possible, whether environmental, emotional, circumstantial or practical.  Making these distinctions allows us to see that weaknesses may cause failure but they don’t make us failures unless we choose to call ourselves so.

          A healthy attitude is always optimistic at base even when circumstances best for the moment. In this regard, Billy Joel captures the crux of this characterization between failure and weakness when he responded to lavish praise regarding his musical style. Joel said, “My style is a result of my limitations because there are some things that I just can’t do.” Wow! How much further would we go (enjoying the journey) if we employed Joel’s genius in facing our own limitations and weaknesses? How closer would we be to achieving our dreams? What, moreover, if we understood how to respect the relationship between time and timing discussed below.

Time and Timing

          Time is perhaps the biggest harassment we endure, especially when we reach a certain age and have yet to grace the stage youth envisioned. Then we are apt to see ourselves as imprisoned despite our best efforts to be paroled and to prosper as we pine to. When we see time this way, it becomes a tormentor rather than the mentor that it is to those who ultimately achieve greatness. These achievers understand that the right sentiment is essential to success and greatness. They understand (and honor) the inevitable rotation of greatness, which brings every soul to its season if it stays centered in itself, making adjustments and growing endowments accordingly. Keeping this attitude enables them to negotiate the often nebulous relationship between time and timing.

          Unfortunately, however, most of us focus on time –how long we have been working or waiting, for example. We seldom consider timing in a way that tempers or comforts us. If we are to succeed, however, we must acknowledge the fundamental, metaphysical fact even, that there is a time for every purpose under the sun. If we ignore this fact, we allow haste to hinder and our hunger to wither because we aren’t getting the results we desire.  Timing is about knowing when to plant, plow or to place our work and ourselves into success’s soil. We increase our sensitivity by developing our weaknesses, accepting setbacks rather than cursing them or ourselves. The greatest benefit in taking this approach is that it enables us to reset our success clocks to be more in sync with the cycles that bring every soul to its season.  These seasons and cycles are the subject of the next section.

Seasons, Cycles and Success

          Much is revealed about us based on how we handle hindrances. Some people get defensive and feel a need to justify their circumstances or deny them. Others, in contrast, resist them in ways that lead to exhaustion, despondency and depression. Yet none of these people would behave this way if they went and into their gardens and observed nature, which is the ultimate nurturer of success and greatness.  This is especially true if they understand that seeds can’t be forced to grow except at their own pace. Of course today we do have all kinds of supplements and science that can bypass this process and rush to market what hasn’t finished making itself. Yet we pay for it ultimately with bad diets, digestion and death in some cases. Yet these same people often seek to elude nature’s cycle by working around the clock rather than with it, as if this is enough to rush success or beguile greatness into coming sooner than it does. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be diligent, driven even.

          But I am saying that success comes in seasons according to the cycles set by the same nebulous nature that controls time and timing. We forget this, however, because we are deluged daily with some example of overnight success, which is what most people want. Success can come over night; but what if it doesn’t. What do we do then? How should we respond when we have waved our wand seemingly to no avail? Does this mean that we have failed? Or does it mean that we should respect the same invisible and inviolable laws that regulate the natural world? This question isn’t a matter of violating principles or ignoring them. On the contrary, the best approach is to be mindful rather than moody, as we strive to do the duty we have prescribed for ourselves. If we do this, we can improve our weaknesses, accept our limits, and improve our relationship to time, which will help us to be in sync rather than out of sorts with success or ourselves!

SERIOUS SEEKERS

 

     If greatness were easy everyday would be breezy, as obstacles fell, allowing us to dwell in the heights that we imagine. Yet serious seekers know how often it leads us into caverns where we are crushed or are taunted for not having done enough to excel. Oh well; that's what we usually utter as we strive to turn struggles into success. In this regard, we are goaded and guarded together, rejecting anything that says that we will never achieve. Some days the darkness is so dense that it's hard to believe!

FEELING DEFECTIVE

 

We must push despite the pain that punishes.

     I just glanced at all my books and degrees and a sense of being defective came over me because I have yet to achieve the thing for which my heart bleeds. It was insulting because I've been seeking since adolescence to be a presence in life. Thus far, though, no one knows I'm here. Sometimes I even doubt my own presence, at least until I experience resistance from being. Only then am I reminded that I am grounded herein, often to my chagrin.

ENGAGING GREATNESS

 

If greatness is so engaging why are so many people faking pursuit?

 

          If you aren't willing to go it alone it's best to go on away from greatness toward what is the basis of convention. Consider, however, before you do what compromising will do to you. If after this you can reject the risk of greatness then you make compromise the basis of your life. Nothing is inherently wrong with compromise. After all somewhere daily a dreamer dies to her dream and the thing she once deeply desired. Yet so many people today seem to be faking, acting as if they are taking steps toward greatness. Even so, I understand because its demand often overwhelms. But those who are committed refuse to compromise still.

WHO

                       

                          Vanity promises to do for others what it can't possibly do for its self.

          Where are you going? More important, who's leading you? Each of us is following something or someone, which will ultimately determine our end. That's why it's important to ask, "Where are we going and who's leading us." If we don't know the guide or the guidelines, how can we trust the guidance?   (10/26/98, Work, Why? Diary of a Dreamer)

NEXT, PLEASE!

     How do you stay positive when everything is opposite to what you imagine? How do you keep your head up when every day ends up with you making no progress? Where do you find strength to stretch amid stress lest it break and you bow to circumstances? How long can you go without advancing before you surrender to your fears that what you desire will never appear despite your passion to achieve? These are just some of the questions greatness asks in order to screen applicants and supplicants together. Only those who answer ably are permitted to go further. The rest are returned to living a life wherein they yearn to know the answers.

WHAT KIND OF AMERICA?

    

     I loathe the nostalgic appeals to a mythic America that only served the interests of elites whether democrat or republican. I repulse the perspective that says anything to get elected, erasing history in route while forging a route toward an ideal that will repeal democratic safeguards and human rights. I marvel at the people who fear the evil of President Obama (or Governor Mitt Romney) because they believe that we need to “take our country back.” From whom and to where, that’s what I wonder when I hear voices thunder from political platforms around the nation. President Obama was elected through democratic standards and republican process. The same can’t be said about the previous administration’s last term. Even so, what kind of America indicts all republicans as morally depraved because of the wave of insidious slander coming from a few loose cannons? What kind of America are we creating because of our political leanings?

     That's what I ask with each insult that insists only one party cares for and is capable of leading America. That's why I find it troubling when citizens aren’t bubbling over the insolence that has defiled President Obama’s reign and previous campaign, whether through outbursts by an angry Congressman or via a retort by a party cohort --Bill Clinton’s comment. In referencing President Obama, President Clinton blurted, “Just think, a hundred years ago he would have been getting us coffee.” Where is the outrage about these remarks and similar reminders, which suggests some people think that America only belongs to one kind or class of people? Where is the outrage over Michelle Obama recently being depicted as a slave on the cover of a French magazine? I’ve experienced more disgust over a bad call at a sporting event than I have over these neo-American politics, the sentiments of which we inevitably export.

     What kind of America (and American) gives a consensual silence to the growing practice of linguistic violence, which no other Administration has faced, because of its fears and misguided loyalty to a party? Why have alternative parties when we have the same kind of willfully blind people perched therein? We need new people more than we do new parties as far as I’m concerned. But it all depends upon what we have learned from history, whether contemporary or ancient. That’s why I strive to tread lightly because I want to pledge rightly my allegiance. Maybe that’s also why I’m neither democrat nor republican, libertarian or independent.  I reject any wholesale allegiance that requires me to abandon my duty to reason. Else my support merely supplants those principles we claim to hallow. What kind of America would this yield –one that is admittedly shallow.

SETTLLING FOR SUCCESS

     Settlers do their best until circumstances push them to buy a piece of property they never intended. Doing so is hard to understand if you haven’t been winded by circumstances. If you have, then you understand the salve that settling provides, usually temporarily ultimately, because settlers still ogle at the tract they for which they could have traded. But the need to make a living became overwhelming. Secretly, however, they wish that they could bid of these premium parcels, especially after the salve no longer soothes. Then more than most they desire to move. Yet they are land-locked and grid-locked together because they didn’t read the fine print on their deed, which many traded for their dreams.

     The perks and peace this provides discourages them to becoming serious about buying another acre despite their desire to be greater. Their plight is hard to understand unless you have been wounded and overwhelmed. Inwardly, though, they know that they could’ve done better. But they could only take so much bad weather, bad news, and the high dues associated with pursuing success. So they settled to save themselves the hassle of trying to haggle with it. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t successful. It just means that life was more stressful than they could bear. Thus they bought a plot and cast their lot with their neighbors who also chose to settle. Meanwhile a small few are deeply mired in trying to acquire the peculiar piece and thus refuse to cease until it is theirs. Whenever they consider settling, success dares and greatness draws them beyond themselves.

SILENCE PLEASE!

     Who do you call when desire gnaws and time stalls, indifferent to your desire despite the fire that inflames? What do you do when you’ve said your prayers (and a few swears) yet things remain and desire pains beyond expression? Have you ever experienced this depression, the kind that cuts, carves and consumes leaving nothing but more room for itself? Do you know what it’s like to spend your life waiting for the knife to be pulled from your back or trying to find a way to extract the desire that drives you on? If not, you can’t understand when greatness groans. On the contrary, you are apt to confuse its angst with an unwillingness to give thanks for all things. Perhaps this is true of some people. But there are those that, after they’ve exhausted gratitude, they still remain undone and prone to brood. What do you tell these? Do you have the words to ease what aches? If not, be thou silent in the presence of the great though they have yet to make their appearance or gain clearance to ascend as they intend.

A NORMAL LIFE

          A normal life isn’t the type that leads to greatness. Normal in fact is its nemesis, especially during the genesis when Destiny decides who will ride success’ heights. Then while others sleep, we work through the night, often against our wills because of what Destiny wants to reveal to others to help them discover their own potential.

          The task is compounded because we lack credentials other than uncommon courage and desire indomitable, the combination of which makes us formidable. Characteristically formidable is fundamental to success. Without this we will wish rather than work as we should, especially when circumstances stifle. But that’s when we should reload our rifles, metaphorically speaking, and become even more determined to obtain what we are seeking.

          So many people, though, let circumstances make them fold. Yet these same souls will watch the Olympics and ignore the template for success that they illustrate because every contestant endured something adverse solely for the opportunity to become great. In failing, however, the passive enthrone normal and berate the banal; indifferent to how their indifference controls both the channel and the flow of their lives.

         Others assert that it’s too late because they don’t know how to become vicariously great by supporting others in their dreams. Even so, life has innumerable schemes and designs that can help us achieve what we have in mind. Yet the character of a normal life we must first be willing to decline. If we do this and diligently persist, our gifts will grow and our talents will eventually show themselves, taking us we know not wheres!

If we don't fulfill our promise we owe others an apology.

        If we thought the impossible were so, life would cease. Yet none of us believes in the impossible.  We acknowledge it but we don’t believe in it. To believe in the impossible is to reject our passion. Yet our passion stirs us nightly and sustains us daily. The moment we believe in the impossible life passes. Only by rejecting its myth do we master.

GRASPING GREATNESS...

         The grasp for greatness grows when someone previously unknown and unnamed emerges to achieve glory and fame. In doing so, each of us is reminded that we too can be blinded by its lights if we are willing to fight for our spot and to promote what we’ve got no matter how many times we are rejected and ridiculed. What matters is our commitment to rise and to rule. Yet so many people are simply unwilling to grapple until they are captained accordingly. These behave as if gifts are rare and as if they are afraid of “there,” the place that represents what they spend their time dreaming about. Meanwhile they watch as each season a new soul sprouts from the soil of toil until it triumphs. After which, they label these giants –perhaps. In reality, however, they aren’t giants but they are generous, ambitious and unwilling to be suspicious of greatness. So they chase this until they achieve it. If only we could get others to believe in it for themselves!

DENSITY AND DESTINY

You must be porous to hear the chorus that calls some to greatness. Those who can't ignore its chant, being deaf to music.

         

          You have to be dense to do what makes no sense, especially when you do it at your own expense because inwardly you are convinced that you are being spent in Destiny’s service. Thus nights find you working and days find you nervous because your only resource is a fund of courage that renews itself without your help (or permission), compelling you thus to pursue the vision. Meanwhile others behave as if you don’t exist. Those that are aware often stare stymied because you keep aligning yourself with the unseen with no guarantee that you will succeed.

          In your defense you erect a fence between their doubts and your own even as you are driven to labor to manifest a greatness that only you believe in enough to invest despite the stress and ridicule. The only consolation is that you have now become indifferent when, in referring to you, others whisper, “fool.” Instead you flash a half-smile because you too have turned this stile in an effort to turn away from what consumes your days and command your nights. Not even God is the consolation that religion excites. Yet HHe is the Source of Destiny’s summons.

          He’s also the reason your friends start running when they see you coming. It isn’t because you solicit money or anything else. You just sometimes need help believing in yourself. But it seldom happens, so you keep hoping and working that Destiny is certain, and that you aren’t deceived. Yet in reviewing the lives of the great similar parallels you perceive. That’s what makes it hard just to discard the time you’ve invested and to discount the ways you’ve been tested. So, you just vow to die until you are ushered into eternity away from time. At least it can’t be said that you denied your allegiance to the thing that kneaded itself in your soul.

ODE TO GREATNESS

Greatness is invasive when it comes and bewildering when it runs from us.

          Do you know what it is to be caught in the draught of destiny, for it to summons you unsolicited down a path contorted and twisted? Yet you lack the willpower to resist it? Do you know what it is to feel as if you are owed because of what it showed and promised to shower you with if you would only take time to develop your gift? Have you ever sat for days pondering its maze, wondering how you got in and how you will emerge?

What moreover do you do when you are seized by its urge, which compels you to walk because your heart is stirred though your vision is blurred? How many nights have you been prone to fight with yourself, to question your sanity and health because you couldn’t let go though it was squeezing you to death? While others lose themselves in pleasures and pursuits easily obtained, how do you handle that sense of shame that comes because what they consider fun frustrates you?

          How often in your heart have you silently accused them of being lazy and yourself of being crazy because you wanted to live a life beyond amazing? Have you ever wondered why it yet lingers and digs its fingers into your pores until it makes sores on your soul? In doing so, you routinely make oaths and inevitably write odes, shaking your head because not even half has been told because no one wants to listen to someone imprisoned by what they are free from. So much that even yourself you often shun, even as you wonder, “God, what have I done!”

TRANSITIONING AGES

It’s difficult for ages to transition through certain stages because something about their method leaves them stunted, blunted and unresponsive. So, they toy with ideas and make appeals that appease our lower nature, indifferent to its effect on morals, manners and culture. Architects succeed because they weave their webs through entertainment.

Thus citizens are less likely to indulge complaining. So whether it’s Lady Gaga or the contemporary obsession with being a star we fail to realize just how far we are falling because we are stalling in our duty to restore as truly as we can conditions that are fit for rational women and men. Meanwhile politics depletes and politicians defeat the aims of ethics though they are assigned to protect it.

Tis from this dimension wherein our positions should be erect, morally speaking, because politicians shouldn't be merely seeking to protect the interests of their constituents.  Yet critics of the system are mistreated and issued reprimands because they stand opposed to what everyone instinctively knows is too sinful to be tenable. Yet even sin and its concepts are of no help in this new age. We agree instead by silent consent to live until life is spent, preventing commonsense from making a dent in our depravity, eroding in route social stability.

EXHORTATION TO GREATNESS

No one exhorted Rembrandt as he labored to master the strokes of the brush. Thomas Edison had few supporters in his tireless attempts to develop the electric light. When Marty Wollstonecraft published Vindication of the Rights of Woman she was harangued. Each of these achievers spent most of their lives in obscurity. While others played, they persevered.

           Each failure nurtured success. Desire is the catalyst propelling ordinary souls toward extraordinary achievement. When combined with persistence success is inevitable. In fact success is seldom realized without persistence. No amount of talent can replace it. If you aren’t willing to persist in preparing, success won’t be yours. Ironically persistence and obscurity overlap.

           Today in some dark laboratory or on a dusty schoolyard tomorrows champions  are being chiseled, unknown today yet soon to explode on the scene of success. Know that the years you spend sacrificing will pay off. In life there are no wasted efforts. No one else needs to be aware of the time you spend improving your skills –God knows. He’s there with you, celebrating your determination because He knows that obscurity is the dressing room in which all achievers must change.

THE PENALTY OF GREATNESS

When we consider the people and the events that have influenced our lives we are apt to become angry, especially if they disparaged our vision. Unfortunately, we must fight repeatedly to reverse the unjust judgments rendered by our contemporaries and our circumstances. This fight may begin with members of the clergy and end with our mentors in the classroom.

            Until these judgments are reversed we are often ridiculed. Not even the approval of Provide palliates because the vision was given to us, not to them. We are responsible for its fulfillment. If we do not fulfill it we will others will inevitably suffer. Of course the vision would be easier to fulfill with their support but we do not have it.

          This is an annoying reality. Others may applaud our ends but oppose our means. Thus our value sinks. Moreover, the favor they once gave freely is now given frugally. Even then they give it with the intention of changing our minds. Amid this dilemma we must decide whether to pursue it authentically or to pacify their opinions by changing it substantially.

           To choose the vision, however, is to choose enmity, insomnia and social insecurity. To choose the vision is to risk being branded aloof, unreasonable and an idealist. Choosing the vision means playing the protagonist and the antagonist together.

          Be assured, before it vindicates the vision will see each of us overwhelmed. To choose the vision is to be banished to the lonely isle of Patmos with the Apostle John or to be slain on your front lawn, as was Medger Evers. To choose the vision is to choose slander, scandal, scorn and a posthumous praise.

OUTLASTING FAILURE

Destiny is possible. Anything else impoverishes.

Every story is striking once it is told. In fact most of us would amaze if we could emerge from ourselves. In this regard, greatness isn’t just one of a kind but simply one of many stories that could be told` if we had the essential density. After all, J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter) could have very easily quit when failure eclipsed.

THE ROTATION OF GREATNESS

Every soul has its season and every season has its soul. Despite appearances no one’s life blooms perennially. Even the privileged must endure days of drought. During these times the clouds threaten but bring no rain. Each day the horizon is pregnant with precipitation but the advent of eve leaves them shaking their heads, saying, “Maybe tomorrow.” Just over the hill, however, their neighbors are busy gathering a bountiful harvest. This year’s rains have left them plenty to fill their once bare barns. Yet last year this time they had considered quitting and starting elsewhere. What a difference a season makes.

          In this regard, life is forever instructing us, and one of its most illuminating lessons is this: We should never let the harvest of as few or the drought suffered by many to diminish our diligence. If we endure and adjust accordingly, we will have our time. We will have our season. Difficulties arise, however, when we desire to flourish in another’s season. When we embrace this folly we compare the bounty of our neighbor’s barrenness with the barrenness of our own. After a while we resent their abundance. Moreover, if we aren’t careful we will curse our once cherished soil. All this happens because we fail to realize that every soul has its season and every season has its soul.

          Characteristically, times and seasons are the protectors of our potential. They teach us to reverence our ground and not just the harvest it produces. They also compel us to remove our shoes and realize that the ground we stand upon is holy. Then we can applaud the bounty bestowed upon others because there ground is holy also. Realizing this, envy no longer torments and delay ceases to discourage. Instead we become persuaded that the time is coming when we will flourish also. Until then, we wait and hope quietly for rain. Despite the richness of our soil no one escapes this rotation. Only through it do we avoid the vanity of blooming too fast, too often.

GREATNESS: STAKING YOUR CLAIM

If you want to be great you must drive your stake deep into the earth's soil until the water beneath the surface begins to boil, until fear and failure both recoil from respect for your commitment to be a witness to greatness' existence. If you do this without being remiss in your duty you will eventually bypass the layers and shales where others have failed and faltered because they allowed the earth's density to alter their pursuit. In this regard, greatness is all about going to the root.

FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY

Freedom in principle is seldom as simple as our celebrations suggest and our complaints impeace because of what it means to each. In this regard, the battle for democracy and its vision can only be sustained by an indomitable discipline and by strategies whose adages reject conventional claims and insidious aims which caution the conscience that what it heard is undemocratic and dishonest. Success requires us to be more than emphatic in our denials and patriotic in our avowals and commitment to its existent. Yet some people are hostile to what flows through the nostrils of those whose vision of democracy conflicts with what they see. Even so, democracy thrives when citizens practice beyond pretense its precepts with the help of wise governance and humble acceptance of its goals.

COMPLEXITY AND COMMONSENSE

          Due to uncritical fiscal restraints, the Department of Complexity and Commonsense has now been combined and condensed with the appropriate personnel being inappropriately reassigned. Thus, the head of the former is now weaker in resolve; whereas the ego of the latter no longer needs to be soothed. Practically, this means that citizens are now free to follow protocols or if they are sufficiently creative (or idle) can conceive their own. Approval of course must be obtained through ambiguous channels. Know, however, in advance that there is no one to handle requests, suggestions or innovations. 

          Those whom this approach repulses may appeal to the senior most station where all key staff have now been reduced to less than half. Of those that remain the decision was made to retain all but the most competent. Doing so was essential to gaining agreement on the achievement the alliance of these two giants represent. Technically, though, neither society nor its institutions have ever been ruled by commonsense. Still, with all due regard things shouldn‘t be as hard as they were before to have grievances deftly ignored. In fact, those concerns that reflect the utmost complexity will now be decided  irrationally and haphazardly.

          So, there is no need for grievances to be submitted because the inappropriate staff has already committed to solutions a priori, yet another benefit of the departmental tie. Yet the simplest concerns will now be subject to a vote by the Supine Court and Appellate Council. Their process for deciding is designed to censor all but the most unavoidable of concerns, which should also reflect the utmost significance. Upon receipt, these will eventually be referred to the Committee of Indifference.
          The same process holds for complaints due again to uncritical fiscal restraints. We, the Ruling Council, believe that these procedures will hasten the advent of social amnesia until citizens forget what it means to live in a society regulated by piety and concern for human souls. Of course, this depiction refers to democracies of old, as they have come down to us by what historians told in their banal annals which, thankfully, discourage emulation and duplication. Finally, anticipated savings from the Departmental merger will be diverted until they have dissappeared. After which, taxes will be raised in order to produce propaganda to further deceive citizens, for their own good of course.

THE WINNER'S DINNER

Have you ever eaten at the winner’s dinner? Do you know what it is to dine because you took time to refine your skills or perhaps to rebuild what was broken? What did you do to keep you hoping? Knowing is crucial because so many see as futile their efforts to succeed. Thus they occupy themselves by wishing when they read about other winners, never tasting the delights served at its dinner. Even so, there is a way for us to reserve a space at the table. Nature didn’t make us equal but it did make us able, only however if we labor.

SELLING SOULS

It’s such an oddity how we’ve made life a commodity to be bought and sold, salvaged and ravaged until we have extracted all that is vital and essential to its possibilities and potential. While some people debate abortion, others argue that portion which depicts people as something less than equal to or made in God’s image. They see life instead as a sort of pyramid where those at the top have power to stop its evolution through whatever solutions they deem desirable. Of these remedies, most aren’t final but they are routinely fatal to natal as well as to the able –those whose potential has yet to become fertile based on contemporary definitions. So souls are traded on world markets even as economists refuse to hearken to the notion of life’s sanctity. What matters is its profitability. If this element is missing, then buyers go fishing for lives that they deem more prize-worthy. Thus it isn’t enough to be human. We must also be liquid instead, capable of becoming capital in the service of those who head contemporary systems. It doesn’t matter what the issue is, politically or economically speaking. What heads want to know is their prospects of reaping a profit off it. Realists attribute this manner to the nature of society. Moralists, in contrast, decry human depravity. Meanwhile souls are bought, sold and aborted all in the name of the need to make a profit. This calculus catalyzes efforts to erode the equitable distribution of basic necessities. Otherwise we wouldn’t despise the poor and coddle the wealthy. Yet the last warfare will be between classes, guided by the peculiar glasses through which they see life, whether Marxist, Socialist or the strivings of the Zeitgeist.

CHARMED

Our lives seem charmed when circumstances change. Then we cease feeling estranged from our dreams and everything else that we esteem whether or not our deeds astound. On the contrary, something about progress and the feeling of success brings us to a rest within ourselves. Rest profoundly fulfils if it has taken us years just to get us here where we are today, especially when so many others fainted along the way. That’s what we don’t always understand about the journey. That’s also why we are apt to abandon our dreams when things are continuously turning against us. Yet during these times we must bind ourselves to our dreams, acting as if they are the only things that matter. We must do so, however, without compromising our morals. Otherwise we become estranged from virtue instead. It may not matter now but it will in the end, unless of course we fail to mature. If so, then all we care about is success and its lure.

MAKING A STATEMENT...CHASING GREATNESS...

We make a statement whenever we are waiting and working toward our dreams, especially when it seems as if it will never happen. Yet that’s when we must truly play the part of a Captain lest we be crushed by the stuff that life brings. Doing so is especially hard when others sing because Fortune rings their bell and screams through the keyhole that “ALL IS WELL!” We meanwhile must learn to smile and to rejoice in their good fortune. Otherwise regarding our requests Fortune will fail to hearken. That’s why hating on others makes no sense. It’s also why waiting on our dreams makes us dense if we work while we wait. If so, we will reach the point where things tip and life takes a turn for the better despite the bad weather we endured. Meanwhile we must be diligent daily and strive to endure. That’s what those who made it did. Like us, they too endured a season when they were hid from view. Remember this when you are tempted to quit. Success eludes if you split, colloquially speaking.

DEMOCRACY IN DRAG.....

The elite and the masses attend different classes, metaphorically speaking, politically especially. Hence, the difference in their dressing, especially intellectually. Thus their views are inevitably divergent because of the nature of their nurturing. This doesn’t mean that each is fated to cling to their respective perspectives. Yet conciliation begins when each lends a willing ear to better understand the other’s fear, which is the basic root of division and all other antagonisms. Yet the less they talk the more they balk at values and views that serve as fuses to inflame dissent. Even then, however, the masses are meant for better. Yet better can only be achieved when they come together under the banner of their common humanity rather than maintaining the insanity of class, color and other codes that keep them at opposite poles, morally especially. In fact in this climate morality is messy and suggestive of world views that only serve to light the fuse until tempers flare and truth ceases to care for the soul. At least that’s how it seems when things explode. Plainly speaking, democracy is wreaking with an odor that disrupts the order its ideals are intended to bring; likewise the dignity it is designed to promote beyond the fact that citizens vote. What good is the ballot when we sell ourselves for the carrot discretely dangled before our eyes? How in this climate can citizens rise even as democracy supplies the means of social reform? It isn’t, however, a reductionist question of either/or because nature is generous when we confess our faults and acknowledge the fears that incite the division which today smears democratic garments all because our arguments are intended to defend the narrow ends for which we aim. Some even do so in God’s name!

OUR LOSS, WHOSE FAULT?

We blame the serpent for usurping but the desire was incipient. Otherwise neither Adam nor Eve would have bitten the forbidden. But their decision merely displayed how good we are at practicing bad faith, philosophically speaking. Thus we not only refuse to face facts but also ourselves, and act instead as if we aren’t aware of the consequences of our decisions before we make them. Saying so isn’t meant to throw arrows or bend angles that ignore moral demands. On the contrary, acknowledging our folly puts responsibility back into our hands where it belongs, and ceases to be belittled because we are fickle in mind and faint in heart. Thus it doesn’t matter whether it was Eve or Adam who erred. Few can refuse temptation when rightly dared, which is what initiated the celebrated Fall. In this regard, the Garden of Eden yet exists. Daily in fact each of us risks being tempted and evicted when we are morally indifferent. Unlike Adam and Eve, however, we can’t blame a serpent, unless of course we’re Christians. Then we have a reason and a means of vindication. But those without this view must opt to own their duty or pretend to be clueless instead. No wonder democratic morality is merely a figurehead, a figure of speech also in many circles because of our tendency to be morally fickle. Even so, life proceeds and consequences follow deeds. Thankfully, though, they aren’t as severe as we routinely fear unless we enthrone fear by being too fickle, repeating thus the dreaded cycle.

GREATER THAN GREATNESS.....

There are several things greater than greatness; yet what do we do while we are waiting for these to flower and for our realization of these? This question determines what breeze blows in our lives. Love for some is all there is. But what good is love if our best we don't give which, characteristically, is a form of greatness. Others exalt forgiveness and the willingness to overlook faults. But such sympathy and compassion must inevitably be taught. Thus those who are capable of teaching and practicing have achieved some degree of mastery, which can also be called greatness. Peace is the prize that the pacifist eyes; yet even peace is the release of faults and shows a regard for love, which only the greatest are capable of. So, the question still remains, namely, what do we do to entertain ourselves other than watching others climb the stairs that lead to greatness. Besides, the age is bathed (and disengaged) from itself. Thus it requires ordinary people to rise to the level that would improve several of our systems whether they are atheist or embrace religion. What matters is their ability to effect change and rearrange broken bonds so that society ceases to swim in a polluted pond. This service true greatness provides. It has nothing to do with living high on the hog or being immune to the fog that clouds the vision of others. Service is yet the signet that posterity will eventually discover as the defining feature of a life of achievement.

IGNORING HISTORY, DESTINY AND WISDOM.....

History is being offended because we use incentives that incite riot and sow discord, politically and morally, because our hearts are hard. Our eyes are also closed, at least to what matters most. So, we justify policies and practices with the skill of actors and actresses, as if no other options remain than those we frame in the language of our preference. In doing so, we insult wisdom’s benevolence, which would act as a guide if we acknowledged our guile. Thus far, however, we prefer to be clever, conceited and clandestine, acting in darkness where the Light doesn’t shine. Even so, the time is coming when we will be running to and fro seeking to know the way of wisdom. First, though, we must experience the consequences of our decisions. Meanwhile a company is being prepared with whom wisdom has shared its intent. These will expose and expound until Wisdom’s sound pierces and penetrates. Only then will our nation begin to be great. Currently, we have the potential but lack the essential –a commitment to values conventionally transcendent. If we do not heed, woe to our descendants!

TRIBES AND BRIBES...

Every tribe has its bribe that it uses to get others to join. Some use praise and others use coins, cash and pizazz. You know, the prestige that comes from being in league (and aligned) with others. Consider, for example, sororities and fraternity brothers. They promise camaraderie but often commit robbery emotionally speaking, provided we have something worth seeking. If so, others court until we comply, consenting to join their peculiar tribe. Yet there are a few who refuse to glue themselves so. Conventionally speaking, others call them mavericks because they resist gathering when the bell rings or the Piper sings his fabled tune. They choose to sit instead in solitude. The strength it requires can’t be acquired otherwise; though, conventionally speaking, there is strength in numbers but only if the tribe is comprised of others who are strong within themselves. If not, tribes merely hide their inadequacy and their lack of courage to be apart from a group that hollers and whoops about its bond.

ENDURING CYCLES...

You must be sage to endure the cycles that repeat yet don’t replenish our soul. Persons who can’t often fold under pressure because they can’t measure rightly because things are tightly wrapped, warped even, in their lives. Thus life’s cycles they learn to despise, not realizing that fortune dispenses despite their winces and whys. Still, life must be lived and cycles endured until we have matured. The proof is in our reaction to repetition. Can we experience it without embracing superstition that things are the same and will never change for us? In this regard, cycles repeat until they repair something in our thinking. After which, we find ourselves drinking from the fountains of satisfaction.

CHANGING PEOPLE

The attempt to change people resembles trying to change evil into good, which is impossible unless the nature of both is understood. Even then we must strain to initiate change because of how the emotional (and molecular) structure of each is arranged. With good the challenge is in identifying the flaw, and then being able to call forth a person or an age’s highest faculties. With evil, in contrast, we must understand depravity and its influence on the soul despite the claim of some that people are naturally as “good as gold.” Perhaps? Yet how do we explain the lapse, the lingers, the unjustified anger that sabotages our systems. Maybe people are neither as good nor evil as we wish them. In either case we must understand the base and the basics in order to rearrange it to reflect what we suspect about human nature. Otherwise our efforts will only frustrate the person, ourselves included, because we aren’t sufficiently rooted in truth.

THE PRICE OF GREATNESS

Can you endure the solitary confinement that comes with having a solitary assignment?

The price of greatness is often under-rated or deflated to make it seem as if achievers are lucky rather than laborers. In doing so, however, others maintain behaviors that defeat success and retards progress, making greatness impossible and themselves impervious to its requirements. No wonder so many are ignorant of its dynamics. Even so, the price of greatness can’t be lowered without being gored of the essential –diligence, drive, and determination. Without these we can’t please others or ourselves. Neither will we discover the wealth God hides deep inside every soul. Others, in contrast, understand its price but aren’t willing to sacrifice accordingly. Instead they feign cleverly their commitment while being inwardly resistant to its demands. They want the spoils but the lack the spunk and are thus sporadic instead. Characteristically, most by average are led. Yet there are a few who willing eschew compromise, doing what they must until they rise into the place their gifts lead. Some go slow and others embody speed. What matters, however, is that they get better until they blossom no matter what it costs them.



SPYING GREATNESS

In constantly looking abroad we continuously rob ourselves of our opportunity for success. Technology makes it easy and fear makes us queasy when we consider the tests we must face and the fears we must chase in order to succeed. But everyone who is anyone had to turn within before doing the deed that brought them success. Still, so many people would rather look than labor, changing their behavior accordingly. In doing so, they exaggerate greatness and inflate their weakness until they can't imagine themselves accomplishing similarly. No wonder greatness our contemporary fascination with celebrity. Yet there are those whose goals are too important to be neglected. So, they watch these rather than being infected with celebrity fascination. Eventually, Destiny will bring them to their station provided they maintain their stamina. If so, they will increase their status, becoming the latest source of fascination, enjoying the fearful's adoration.

SELF AND WEALTH

We crave success as a way to invest ourselves with more value because apart from it we are seldom hallowed. Instead others merely see our shell, and secretly wonder why we aren't doing so well. So success becomes the solution to dispel the illusion that our lives are impoverished and deprived. Yet unless we embrace our essence it doesn't matter how much are our investments. What matters most is the way we host and hallow ourselves despite the expense of our wares.

ACCORDING TO PLAN

Don't be so stiff; success isn't a myth. You must become instead light and lilt because your gift will now grant you room, enabling you to bloom and flower. Stop therefore being so sour. You must understand that Life has plans for you. Otherwise you would not have been trained and compelled to pursue. Yet there is a time for every soul to soar. This time is here if you simply relax and let me oar your life because this is what Destiny does to those who prize its presence and embrace its guidance. So, again I say relax and resist failure's attack. The time has now come and all things will be done according to plan.

ON HEROES

Heroes amaze when they emerge because they are willing to act on what has occurred. While others ponder and their hearts palpitate, heroes are bold and willingly embrace the uncertain act that pushes defeat back where it belongs. Some people give themselves to this daily, especially those in the military. Without their efforts our endeavors would be profoundly constricted.

MAKING CHANGE

If we want a new beginning we must stop pretending and start changing. That means setting goals and rejecting guile because it only estranges us from ourselves. Real change begins when we are self-aware and sincerely devoted to our motives. It also requires us to be mindful of our means. Else we will change things that should remain. That's what's so strange about change. In making it we sometimes un-do the glue that binds our soul.

STEPS

Every step seems insignificant when we envision greatness for ourselves. Tis then that of time and space we become most aware, especially when others seem to be succeeding. We meanwhile are desperately seeking the avenue that leads to its true path. We do so because don't realize that paths and paces are meant to be different. Thus no step is insignificant when we take it because it takes us a little closer to our dreams, even when it seems not to. That's why both our trust and commitment must be true. Else time will deceive and space will spoil, declaring as futile our labor and toil.

WEAK ENDS

When the week ends where do you aim, toward your dreams or towards things that distract? Can you have fun without losing your focus? Success requires us to be ambidextrous. Else we will be careless instead, defeated by fun.

WILLING TO BE AND DETERMINED TO SEE

Despite our passion it takes time to fashion the life we imagine, provided we are willing to imagine even as we are building what we envision. If so, we must deliberately maintain a high degree of willing, especially when we are reeling from failure and rejection, disappointment and misdirection. Tis then that we must believe that what we conceive is within our reach, and is also our right. So many people, however, lose sight of what they seek because they don't see how it can be. So, they become cynical and inimical to their own interests. If winners did this they wouldn't know the bliss that winning brings. Sustaining ourselves isn't easy but if we don't we will be cheated out of what we desire and deserve. Failure in this regard is a failure of nerve because it takes courage to be when we can't see our way out.