Perhaps the best way for us to call attention to ourselves is not through our attire, not through the car we drive, or the house we live in, but through the quality of our work, the depth and scope of our education, the integrity of our choices, and the nuance of our opinions.
So much can be purchased on installments. So much can be put on display. How common it is to feel special. How comforting it is to feel superior.
Few things, however, mark wisdom as much as the realization that we know very little, that conspicuous consumption communicates a poverty of character, and that feeling ‘better’ than someone else is usually based on limited knowledge…about the other person and ourselves.
So let’s go forth quietly, our only certainty being that others greater than us have come before, and others greater than us shall follow. We are only our unique, flawed selves.
Let’s remember that we use to measure our self-worth is telling: it reveals our priorities and what we hold dear…and what we may lack.
Failure and success are actually rarely definitive and never comprehensive. Victory is never absolute. Defeat is final only if we allow it to be.
It is not all wishy-washy, though. We know in the midnight of our souls what we have done. Whom we have honored. When we have fallen short. Where we could improve.
It is therefore wise to remember that we are human. Prone to mistakes, but drawn to a better world.
Let us endeavor to take the journey.
- BGT