The Thought for the Day – Bilbo and Gandalf
“…but I expect you know best, as usual.”
“I do – When I know anything.”
-Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Neither the book nor the author that produced today’s Thought require introduction from us. We will say our introduction to this book came completely by accident. A co-worker had left a copy of it lying around. Initially we turned our nose up at it, but we were bored enough to open it to a random page and were immediately captivated by the writing, even though we don’t really have the imagination for stories of this sort.
So we went and started from the beginning, reading book one. Then a buddy of ours said introduced us to The Hobbit so we read that, then started The Lord of the Rings from the beginning again. We still feel this is as well-written a book as the English language has produced.
For the uninitiated, Bilbo was the central character in The Hobbit, and is the cousin of the main character of Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins. Gandalf is a wizard, and the two are chatting about some advice Gandalf has given Bilbo.
We must know our strengths and our weaknesses. There is no substitute for this, for any of us. We cannot go against our grain. If we tried to earn a living as a mechanic we would have had no success, because we have neither the interest in, nor the aptitude for, fixing cars. We were put here to write.
By utilizing our strengths we are doing the most good to ourselves and when we do that we are being the most use to our fellow humans. All of us were issued assorted and different talents and purposes at birth. The most satisfying lives are passed by those who have discovered their talents and strive to get the most out of them.
By avoiding our weaknesses we avoid getting mired in things we are not good at, avoiding a life we were not meant to live. By ignoring our strengths we miss out developing the talents we were issued at birth, one of life’s great prizes.
“I do – When I know anything.”
As today’s Thought shows, Gandalf knew his strengths and his weaknesses, and he wasn’t shy about acknowledging both. Nor should we be shy about this, either. We can all do something well. By facing and maximizing our strengths and minimizing our weaknesses, we put ourselves in a position to get the most out of our time on this planet.
The Thought for the Day – Walter Isaacson
To succeed, they had to be awed by the magnitude of the task and be humbled, not assertive. – Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Walter Isaacson is an American biographer. Benjamin Franklin lived about as useful a life as our species has produced and Issacson’s biography is a work that everyone from casual readers to serious Franklin scholars will find readable. We fall somewhere in between here at The Thought for the Day and we found this book compelling, as good a biography as we’ve read and this wasn’t our first.
Today’s Thought is about the men who made up the assorted state delegations to Constitutional Convention in 1787 in Philadelphia. There were an awful lot of competing interests, personal, political and regional and there was no small amount of trading and compromising that went on. Ultimately, thanks in no small part to the work of James Madison and the guiding hand of Franklin, our Constitution was produced.
Humility, caused in no small part by an awareness of the magnitude of the task, also played a part.
…and be humbled, not assertive.
Humility is a trait that serves us humans well. Humility allows you to see deep inside yourself, to discover the life you were truly meant to live. It resists outside influences that are merely there to distract us. Humility allows us to see the greater good, instead of our own self-interest, although it should be noted the self-awareness humility brings produces confidence that does not allow us to be taken advantage of.
Humility’s opposite, arrogance, does not allow for any of these things. Had arrogance been the ruling trait of the Constitutional Convention, nothing would have been accomplished and while no one can say for certain what would have happened, it is possible America eventually would have broken up into a two or more regional countries.
Collectively, humility allows for progress. Individually, humility allows us to live the life we were meant to live. It gives us the power to live our lives honestly.
The Thought for the Day – Deng Ming Dao
When your final day comes, you yourself must be the examiner. Did you do well? Or did you squander your precious existence? You must decide. – Deng Ming Dao, 365 Tao
We harp about this all the time here at The Thought for the Day: there is going to come a time when we are going to have to examine our life. We don’t have firsthand experience in the matter yet, but, as today’s thought implies, it will probably come when our time comes to die.
When that time comes it must be faced. There will be no putting it off. We can put it off now, of course. Procrastination is something most of us do fairly well. But on our last day there will be no avoiding it; we will determine whether we made our time on this planet serve us, or rather we merely served time while we were here.
Some say it is possible to be too concerned about the future to not enjoy the present.
True and false. It depends on how you define enjoy.
If you define enjoy as merely passing your time being entertained, then yes, you are guilty of not enjoying the present. If you define enjoyment as being on your path, of living the life you were meant to live, then you are completely enjoying each day because every day is a step forward and every step forward pays a dividend.
Did you do well? Or did you squander your precious existence?
These are the only two questions that matter. We must be committed to being able to say we did well. To have a good life we must have a collection of good years. Hopefully, this collection is a long one though there are no guarantees.
If we want good years we must have good days. To completely maximize our time on this planet we must have good days every day. One good day followed by a few bad days will not do us any good, and if we’re not doing ourselves any good friends, we are not doing anyone any good.
All we have to with our time on this planet is live and learn and make our time serve us. Certainly, our time must be enjoyed, however it must not be squandered.
To look back and determine that you have lived your life well is life’s great prize. It’s there for anybody who wants it, who is willing to put nature and circumstance to work for them, who is willing to follow their hearts and trust their instincts.