High School graduation.
Scholarship.
Land of the Opportunity.
He leaves.
Undergraduate Degree.
Marriage.
Green Card.
Graduate Degree.
He learns. Continue reading “Riding Metro North. Man With a Plan.”
Tag: Success
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
There are so many people who’ve come before us,
arrows and wagon wheels, obsidian tools, buffalo.
Look out at the meadow, you can almost see them,
generations dissolved in the bluegrass and hay.
I want to try and be terrific.
Even for an hour.
~ Ada Limón, “During the Impossible Age of Everything,” from Bright Dead Things
Notes:
- Ada Limon: Blog. Wiki profile. Her book “Bright Dead Things: Poems” (Sept, 2015) was a long list selection for the National Book Award for Poetry.
- Photo: Karol Majewski photography – Meadow at Island Beskids, Poland.
- Poem: Boston Poetry Slam
Riding Metro North. Giving Up the Ghost.
Hump Day. Hump it was.
It’s the 9:06 pm train from Grand Central. A 15-hour day and it wasn’t over.
I sit with other weary commuters heading home. The train is silent.
I can’t get comfortable. I shift left, and then right and then lean against the window. I give up. I need to be horizontal, in my bed.
It’s Haunting. A Ghost. It’s Hilary Mantel’s Giving Up the Ghost:
The faintest movement, a ripple, a disturbance of the air. I can sense a spiral, a lazy buzzing swirl, like flies; but it is not flies. There is nothing to see. There is nothing to smell. There is nothing to hear. But it is motion, its insolent shift, makes my stomach heave. I can sense— at the periphery, the limit of all my senses— the dimensions of the creature. It is as high as a child of two. Its depth is a foot, fifteen inches. The air stirs around it, invisibly. I am cold, and rinsed by nausea. I cannot move. I am shaking. . . . This is the beginning of shame.
You are tired. You know that’s it. Let it go Man. Continue reading “Riding Metro North. Giving Up the Ghost.”
Burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be
I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be.
Martha said to me, very quietly: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. As for you, Agnes, you have so far used about one-third of your talent.”
“But,” I said, “when I see my work I take for granted what other people value in it. I see only its ineptitude, inorganic flaws, and crudities. I am not pleased or satisfied.”
“No artist is pleased.”
“But then there is no satisfaction?”
“No satisfaction whatever at any time,” she cried out passionately. “There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
~ Agnes de Mille, The Life and Work of Martha Graham
Credits: Quote Source: Brainpickings. Image: Your Eyes Blaze Out
Driving I-95 N. With Potential.
It was some time ago.
Yet, it is now.
I’m heading home Friday afternoon after a long week and the story replays.
Not a sitcom. But a documentary.
The hotel ball room is tightly packed.
The lights dim.
600 eyeballs watch him amble onto the stage.
Blue sport coat. Gray slacks.
Black boots, clean, polished and up over the ankle.
He’s wearing a watch, a large face, a Patek Philipe.
He’s an Engineer, Inventor, Founder, Investor and VC.
And a new Father.
He’s a Silicon Valley giant. A Giant presence
And, still way on the right side of 50.
Q: China. Q: Europe. Q: U.S.
Q: IPOs. Q: Capital markets. Q: Private Markets.
Q: Innovation. Q: Disruption. Q: Cybersecurity.
Q: Facebook. Q: UBER. Q: Lift. Q: Twitter.
Q: Paypal. Q: Apple Pay. Q: Bitcoin.
Q: Regulation. Q: Politics.
Q: Philanthropy.
Q: Diversity.
A:… A:.. A:… A:… A:…A:… A:… A:…
Crisp responses. Stats to support. Colorful anecdotes.
He’s a Giant knife slicing through Butter.
Q: Where do you find the time? You work. You travel. You write. You curate. You have a large social media following. Where do you get the ideas? Where do you get the content you curate? Continue reading “Driving I-95 N. With Potential.”