The Thought for the Day – Tao, Time and Experience
All teachings are mere references. The true experience is living your own life. – Deng Ming Dao, 365 Tao
We can only depend on what we learn in a classroom or what others dictate to us so much. There comes a time when we must sharpen the blade acquired in the classroom on the metal of experience.
Louis L’Amour, one of the great autodidacts of our time, said all education is self-education, He was right. Some utilize the resources of a college or university. Some educate themselves. Neither way is better than the other. We must decide what is best for us.
Does someone who goes to college and spends four years studying for tests and binge drinking do himself any good? Of course not. On the other hand, someone who goes and utilizes the resources offered by his school, who thinks and questions and does more than take notes and pass tests, now there is someone who had done himself – and by extension his fellow humans – some good.
Similarly, someone who educates himself by spending his time merely punching a clock and being entertained isn’t doing himself any good, either. He is wasting the opportunities nature and circumstance put in front of him.
The true experience is living your own life…
There is no substitute for jumping off the sideline and getting in the game. If we are going to have a satisfying life we must make our time serve us. Every one of us was born with specific talents and ambitions and we are not doing anyone any good by ignoring them.
The only commodity every one of us is issued in equal measure is time: we all have 24-hours every day. The hours can either be friend or foe, too. We can do battle with them or we can put them to work for us, but those 24 hours are there every day. What we get out of our lives, whether we do well or squander or precious existence, is dependent on the work we put into those 24 hours.
We must live the lives we were meant to live. All of us must test what we’ve learned and make our own references.
The Thought for the Day
Some swear by you, some swear at you. – Matthew McKeon, Staff Sergeant, United States Marine Corps
The failure of some to grasp what others believe to be true is a constant in our human experience. Though us humans are, more or less, 99 percent alike, that one percent, made up both of traits issued by nature and by our own experiences, produces the differences that, as Mark Twain said, makes horse racing so interesting.
I’ve run into this many times over the years, particularly in leadership positions. There are some who are on board with you, and some that are not. I found this especially true running for the United States Senate in 2014.
Any candidate who speaks from the heart – as opposed to candidates who merely tell you what you want to hear – truly believes in what he says and is confounded when not everyone embraces his deeply held beliefs. I found this true on a few issues. My favorite was the death penalty.
The purpose of The Thought for the Day is not to preach, but I believe that even the most casual evidence shows this nation has executed innocent people. There have been too many innocent people released from prison to believe otherwise. There are those that do believe otherwise, however and these beliefs must be respected, if not agreed with.
It’s a lesson that presented itself many times and there is no reason to think these lessons will not be reinforced in this year’s Congressional campaign. And I’m on the other end of this, too. There are those with deep –seated beliefs I simply do not agree with. It’s all right and the way the world is built.
Some swear by you, some swear at you…
The key is to realize there are some people you simply are not going to please. So we shouldn’t bother trying. Leaders who have the best interest of those under them at heart and who lead from the heart will have most swearing by them. We must all remember that not everyone hears every voice, however. There are some that will not be reached.
Editor’s Note: Gaylon is the Libertarian nominee for Congress from Colorado’s 3rd District. His official campaign site is www.TheFreedomTrain.com.
The Thought for the Day – Walter Isaacson
To succeed, they had to be awed by the magnitude of the task and be humbled…Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Walter Issacson is an American writer, one of this nation’s foremost biographers, and today’s quote comes from his very good biography of Benjamin Franklin.
Franklin and his fellow Founding Fathers were in Philadelphia for a convention designed to replace the Articles of Confederation with a new national governing document. It was a contentious time and even casual readers of this period knows not every delegate was filled with awe and humility.
Franklin was then in his 80’s and nearing the end of his rather useful life. Experience had taught Franklin that patience and humility were key elements in getting anything done and while Franklin was at the stage of his life where he tended to ramble, he still commanded an immense amount of respect. While most of his proposals weren’t adopted, the esteem for Franklin was such that his guiding hand was instrumental in getting delegates for more or less sovereign states to cooperate. It was a time when America desperately needed such cooperation.
Humility is a useful trait. Humility allows us to see our shortcomings. It shows that no matter how advanced or accomplished we might become we do not know and cannot do everything. Some equate this with weakness, however this is far from the truth. Humility is the gateway to strength, allowing us to confront our own shortcomings and showing a path to overcoming, though perhaps not eliminating, them.
To succeed, they had to be humbled…
Humility also allows us to accept our strengths with grace, showing us that if there ever comes a time when we do look around and are unable to find anyone else on the mountaintop, to be grateful for the gift of the skill that got us there and to appreciate the work we put in to get there.