Older, but no wiser
Andy Borrows' musings on life and all its confusion, contradictions, richness and opportunities
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Gifts
"Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession ... Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Yet again, a quote found by whiskey river that hits me right between the eyes. If I was a preacher and those words came from the Bible, I reckon it would be easy to create an entire sermon from them.
"...the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation" versus "half possession... [of an] ...adopted talent". Put as plainly as that, it sounds like a no-brainer. So why is it so hard to recognise what is a true unique personal gift, and distinguish that from what is simply borrowed and copied from others?
|
Back to current posts