I'm in a write-off in LJ Idol, and haven't figured out what to write about, with a deadline of tomorrow. I'm sure I'll come up with something, but whether it will be enough to save me from elimination? That's the question. HOWEVER ... I had a theme for today's blog in the back of my mind - actually for a couple of days. I listen to audio books while swimming, and the following that I'll quote came from my latest listen/read by R.A. Salvatore. It struck me, when listening to this while swimming, that there were a lot of very wise words in this that we can apply to our upcoming election. So I offer his words in my blog today.
* * * * *
When you see the journey and focus not merely on the goal, you learn humility.
Too often do people too greatly measure their lives by their goals, and, subsequently, by that which they consider accomplishments. I have reflected on this many time in my life, and so the wisdom of hears has taught me to constantly move the goal just beyond my stretching reach. For, is the downside to achievement complacency? I have come to believe that too often do we name a goal and achieve it, then think the journey at its end.
I seek perfection, with my blades, with my body. ... My goal is unattainable, but the truth is that it is my journey to that goal that is more important.
That is true of every goal of every person, but rarely do we see it. ... The journey is more important than the goal, for while the goal might be worthwhile, the journey is, in fact, the thread of your life.
* * * * *
It itches on the collective consciousness of a society, nagging and nattering, whispering unease.
The tiny bubbles of criticism appear, about the bottom of the pot at first, hanging on, secret.
Quiet.
They dart upward, rolling the surface, just a few, then a few more, then a cascade.
This is the critical moment, when the leaders must step forth as one to calm the brew, to lift the pot from the fire, but too often, I fear, it is the ambitious opposition to those leaders stoking the flames among the citizenry, poking the folk with one malicious whisper after another. Veracity matters not; the emotional response takes hold and will not let go.
The bubbles become a boil, the heat flowing through the water and wafting up into the air on the sould of the many who will surely die in this symphony of hatred, this expression of rage seeking focus.
This war.
I have seen it over and over through the decades, in campaigns sometimes worth, but most often involving nefarious designs beneath the lies and feigned purposes. And in that turmoil and misert and carnage, the warrior is held high and the flag is tightly wrapped - too tightly to allow for any questioning of purpose and method.
This is how society is convinced to plant the fireball beneath its own pot.
And when it is over, when the rubble replaces the homes and the graveyards overfill and still the bodies rot in the streets, do we look back and wonder how it came to this awful point.
That is the greatest tragedy, that the only time when questioning is allowed is when the ultimate failure of war has come to pass.
When the families are shattered.
When the innocent are slaughtered.
- Drizzt Do'Urden (R.A. Salvatore)
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