Two Sides of the Coin

And now for a bit of my own philosophy.

I've found that while great sayings can provide great insight and inspiration -- and wonderful lessons to live by -- they can sometimes be contradicted by other messages that just might be more appropriate for a given individual or a given situation or a given era.

Here's one I came across recently that I really like:

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. - Epictetus

... which, to me, says a very similar thing to the old saw I quoted in my immediately previous blog entry:

God give me the courage to change the things I can, accept the things I cannot change, and have the wisdom to know the difference.

But don't the following sage sayings portray the other side of the coin?

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. - Michelangelo

... or this one:

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for? - Robert Browning (no sexism meant, at least by me)

For me, the first two sayings could be an excuse -- for some -- to give up, to say that they really can't affect very much in any meaningful way, to become cynical about the way things are, to conclude that the vision that they've been longing for is only a pipedream, to succumb to what Jackson Browne calls "the resignation that living brings."

I find the second two sayings much more inspirational. To me, they implore a person to try to make a difference, to tackle important issues, to be a whistleblower if called upon to do so, to keep trying to reach their vision, while all the time realizing that they may never reach it. They're related to a favorite saying my dad's years ago, "go out with your popguns blazing," or when my younger sister Jane says she admires someone who's "dreaming and scheming."

With all the crazy things going on in the world today, I'd rather be motivated by dreams and schemes that I think just might change things for the better, than by the resignation that living brings to most people, but perhaps that's just me.

JW