Politics . Isn ’ t it odd that a profession that revolves around serving others must begin with shamelessly serving oneself ? Would I be an agent of peace if I slaughtered all those threatening war ? We know what history says , but what does our common sense tell us ? Remember one cannot win wars without being at peace with violence .
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Change . Sometimes change leaves the same – be mindful of that which clings to past forms for not all that persists is a failure on our part to change it .
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Meaning . If I promised that the meaning of life arrived at the end who here would not gladly welcome a few more meaningless years ?
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True Friends . A friend is like a deep well , not because they are always there to be drawn from , but rather because they are a fortress for the portraits of ourselves . While we busy our lives with change , that which we lowered in lies waiting , preserved and ready to surface as it was . When we fail to find ourselves , we must remember to find our friends .
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Repetition . That which an author repeats in his works he cannot move past – here either you find truth or that which prevents it .
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Moving . Think critically about the structures you encounter in your life for while all pieces of life ’ s furniture appear to be a certainty for everyone , they are always a choice for someone .
Perspective . That two people experience differently the very same thing is nothing new . The subway to a daily commuter is likely a source of annoyance and distress while to a first time user , a source of ingenuity and wonder . But , when we apply this thought to the experience of one ’ s ‘ self ’, that is , that our one ‘ self ’ has many different realities within the same life , then , the potential for something new arises .
That I , at the very same moment in which I feel , for example , empty and worthless , may be encountered and remembered as quite the opposite is an important revelation into the reality of myself – into the reality that not only could be , but in fact quite often is , if not for a slightly unfavourable perspective . Only vanity makes strange the suggestion that one ’ s perspective of oneself could be disadvantageous , for after all , surely no one would hold that being closer to something always provides a better view of it .
The simple fact is that we are too close to see what it is we actually are in any given moment and this is made clear by encountering those who encountered in us , at the very same moment , something of great worth , something that added to their lives , something irreplaceable and perhaps , something that help form a moment to which they yearn to return to .
They remember you fondly exactly as you were – and this is the key , they want you back and you could be no other . You remember yourself as a shell and they remember you as a beam of light . You remember everything you were not and they remember everything you actually were .
This means , without much extrapolation , that if we look hard enough , we too could find life among the ashes of our now - no matter how dark and dense this cloud appears – just like the very same rainy bleak nights of London plague its citizens and kindle warm memories for its visitors – the same air that threatens to choke us has within it the power to carry us forward .
The tourists of our lives carry within them a portrait of us that we could not paint – bear this in mind when the urge to drop the brush is great . fredi winter 2016 • 53