November 17, 2009
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"Did you ever see an unhappy horse? Did you ever see a bird that had the blues? One reason...birds and horses are not unhappy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses."
---Dale Carnegie
Author, How to Win Friends and Influence People
The Daily News
1 Ever just stop right where you are and ask yourself, "Who am I?" It isn't a bad thing to do, don'tcha know!
2 That happened to me yesterday. With all the boushit I've been going through lately, I just caught a glimpse of myself in a tile at The Pond, and wondered what the heck I was trying to prove.
3 Granted, I have made it to The Gym and into The Pond 13 times in the past 15 days.
4 But nothing felt better than giving a lesson on Poe's The Bells today.
5 I'm still going to keep hitting The Pond every single day, but it IS really strange trying to redefine oneself to the point that we suddenly stop and ask ourselves where the heck we have gone.
6 Polonious told Hamlet, "This above all: To thine own self be true."
7 Ah, we spend so much of our lives running away from ourselves simply to impress others that we become swiftly horses' rear ends.
8 I always like when I get off my high horse and come back down to Earth.
9 I had a great friend visit yesterday and give me some incredible advice, very much about remaining true to myself.
10 And don't get me wrong: I'm going to continue with working out as much as I can, because it has already been an amazing change.
11 Still, after two weeks, I wanted to look in the mirror and see an Adonis, but there was the same Old Brown Shoe, with all the ravages of a wonderful life.
12 In many ways, it humbled me.
13 I went home and stayed focused on gettting my grading done, and on trying to perfect each and every single lesson at school. Nobody has any idea that I spend hours on end doing that, but I do.
14 Sometimes it's the little things.
15 Every time I go out on a limb to try to impress others, I realize that a part of me leaves, and it isn't always as joyous making people who we don't really know that well think we're more than we are.
16 That's not intended to be a negative statement by any stretch, I just think it is really important for us to remain true to ourselves, our friends, our families, and our dogs.
17 It is also important to try new things, so long as we keep who we are deep within our own hearts. The good that is intrinsically there is golden.
18 Ah, I think Dale Carnegie had it right in so many ways.
19 I have a million friends and acquaintances now up at the Chill, and it feels wonderful every single day. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But somewhere in there is the same guy who received roses from the senior class his very first year teaching.
20 The guy who brought the King Arthur lesson to life after planning the lesson by reading Tennyson and sitting up all night drinking Cognac. I read about knighthood, and chivalry, and how not to spell it "chilvary".
21 Not sure where this is headed, except to say that my progression with The Gym is cool so far, but a lot of it isn't really me. It's cool if I emerge some muscleheaded fellow I don't know, but really, it's more about helping people, and giving it my all in other areas, the DN certainly being one of them.
22 Paul Simon said this in his epic song The Boxer:
No it isn't strange after changes upon changes
we are more or less the same, after changes
we are more or less the same.
23 I like that lyric.
24 It is so reassuring that we won't get lost.
25 The fighter, indeed, still remains.
26 Keep fighting.
27 And stay true to you.
28 Peace.
~H~
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