entry 9: unspoken

Last night I had a conversation with my wife about the idea of “resume-building”. Not so much in the money making career sort of way, but rather, the idea of the resume that you build that becomes the person of you.

Everyone has a list of experiences they can draw upon; some good, some not so good; but the stuff a fully-human person is made of is what you learn/achieve from those experiences. And of course this is most telling when it is physically quantified. This is where the story of your life flows and where your history happens. It’s beautiful.

More impressive though is when stories are not so much told but perceived. I aspire to have my history precede me. Jesus said to “not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”. I’ve always agreed with this. I love the idea of speaking when necessary and letting your words be few and effective. Nietzsche aspired to have ten of his sentences speak more than ten books from others.

Currently, I am systematically shaping my history with my wife. We want our actions to speak for themselves and our desire is to leave no room for error. This “resume-building” takes time and I want our eventual expertise to be world shaping.

entry 8: IF

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling (1909)