“No man is an island,” said the great John Donne.
As we travel on this path of life, sometimes we climb mountains, and sometimes we fall into ditches. And, often, success or failure is measured not by the act itself, but by a scope of reference. Same singular act today, simply a different context for its review tomorrow.
We’ve all seen the movies: someone climbs up a mountain successfully, but then can’t get down; or, someone falls into a ditch only to be saved from a passing train. We’ve got to be very careful about judging the moment.
If Abraham Lincoln had won the 1858 U.S. Senate race, he may not have become the U.S. President. In some despondency, after losing the Senate race, Lincoln wrote, “I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable questions of the age, which I could have had in no other way; and though I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone.“
Yes, Abe, you were ridiculed, scorned and lost the vote…on that day.
The truth is that we simply cannot tell, at any given moment, whether this moment is a success or a failure. Getting money, and being a success, are simply different measures in different contexts. Gain a coin, lose a spouse. Gain a title, lose a child. Gain the World, lose a Life.
As every judge of excellence knows, after some experience in judging rightly, everything is context. And, context is a matter of scope of view. View a moment, view a day, view a life. The perspective changes the view.
As every judge of excellence knows…everything is context. [P]erspective changes the view.
Therefore, it is wise to contemplate that this success—on this day—will be succeeded. This success—such as we think it is, on this day—will be succeeded by something: another day, another event, a new context of review.
The meaning of things that we think are important—or what we think at the moment are successes or failures—are within references of time and context. Time supplies new context, which, therefore, creates a new perspective.
In all that can be accomplished in life, real success is in the relationships that we develop. The relationships—a type of love—to which we bind together in life. The relationships with people who we help, and who help us, to get down from the mountain or to get out of the ditch, as the case may be. But, with relationships, such as they are, we get out of them what we put into them; we reap what we sow.
Aesop taught as much, 2,000 years ago.
In The Two Travelers, Aesop demonstrates the success in the moment that is succeeded by a new context, and, better, how one man got out of the relationship what he put into it.
No. 21 The Two Travelers and the Purse
Two Men traveled together when one of them found a wallet of money.
“How lucky I am!” he said. But the other Man said, “You should say, ‘how lucky we are!‘”
“No,” replied the first. “I found it and it is mine.“
Just then, they heard, “Stop, thief!” yelled by a mob of people armed with clubs and pitchforks.
The Man who found the purse panicked. “We are doomed,” he cried.
“No,” replied the other Man, “You should say, ‘I am doomed.‘”
Moral of the Story: If we claim to be alone and isolated with our fortune, then we should be alone and isolated with our misfortune.
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Copyright © 2016 Gregg Zegarelli. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn.
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