I'm cleaning out files and drawers and cubby holes where I have stashed stuff for "later" when I have time to do something with it. It is too good to toss, but what do I do with it until I know what to do with it? For example, I'm holding a yellowed newspaper clipping with a picture of a bespectacled older man in a jaunty hat with what is probably a colored ribbon band. He has signed the piece in a steady, readable script. This is what it says:
"I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon if I can. I seek opportunity - not security. I will refuse to be a kept citizen, to be humbled and dulled by having my state and nation look after me. I want to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed - never to be numbered among those weak and timid souls who have known neither victory or defeat. I know that happiness can come only from the inside through hard constructive work and sincere positive thinking. I know that I can get a measure of inner satisfaction from any job if I intelligently plan and courageously execute it. I know that, if I put forth every iota of strength that I possess - physical, mental, spiritual - toward the accomplishment of a worthwhile task ere I fall exhausted by the wayside, the Unseen Hand will reach out and pull me through. Yes, I want to live dangerously, plan by procedures on the basis of calculated risks, to resolve the problems of everyday living into a measure of inner peace. I know if I know how to do all this, I will know how to live and, if I know how to live, I will know how to die."
Signed by H. B. Zachry
I'd like to meet this man but he has probably been dead for many years since I've had the clipping for at least twenty years. I love his message. Still don't know what to do with the clipping! So I'll tuck it back in the file with a beautiful page of Inspirations from Norman Vincent Peale and uplifting quotes by the prophets and others until I need it for a lesson or talk. In the meantime, my files are expanding, not diminishing, but I have been given food for thought. I hope you have.
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