DEAR FRIENDS: In a chaotic and confusing time
DEAR FRIENDS: In a chaotic and confusing time, it seems appropriate to ponder what it really means to live a successful life. In fact, it’s a good theme to return to regularly in any time. The little poem below has long been one of my favorite touchstones, and is indeed beloved by a great many people. It is often attributed to the great American transcendentalist and author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. But that seems not to be the case. Rather, a poem very similar was first penned by a woman named Bessie Stanley in 1905.
Confusing. But I don’t much care. Good is good and true is true. What is less confusing is the fact that I personally know and have known a number of such people. I’ll bet you have, too. Inspiring, real, kind and genuine people, successful human beings who embody such values. While at the same time, the current avatar of ‘success’ in this country is a *president who refutes them all. Turns them upside-down and inside-out, as he corrupts the very idea of success. Just as he corrupts everything and everyone he touches.
But this is common knowledge. To anyone with a pair of eyes and a pair of ears and a decent mind. What is interesting, though, is the fact that such an astonishingly perfect illustration of what success is NOT, can be just as illuminating as what it is.
I’m often asked these days what regular folks can do to help the country, to help one another, to make it through such a dark time as this. Perhaps part of it is… we can simply try to live successful lives.