aspirations
when i was a younger, not very many years ago, yet long enough ago that i can reminsce about it, i had aspirations. i have them now too, but that was different, it was more idealistic, less practical, more dreamy and very ambitious. i wanted to go to mit, i wanted to be like einstein, or edison. nowadays i just want a job, i still dream of unlimited riches and a harem of beautiful women, but that with a hopeless wishfullness.
i remember being totally in awe of thomas alva edison, having first read about him in a school text. i'd eventually obtained a biography and devoured it, superimposing my projected self in his place and planning path breaking inventions. his quote of genius being mostly perspiration and a little inspiration was a personal favorite (though i remebered it as being success and not genius). at other times i've aspired to be a great writer, like james michener, churning out thousand page novels in my twilight years, or like dickens, prose so powerful, it wrenches mind and soul.
i do not remember where i read this but it is pertinent to the present discussion. if, at the end of your life, there came to you someone and said, you'll have to live every moment of your life again, every breath, every second, every victory, defeat, hope and desperation, every knife in the back, felt and used, how would you react? the way you saw that someone, as god's angel or as the devil incarnate, tells you how you've lived. it is a cruel, distressing assessment, but it is a good honest one. posted by ubaid - Friday, March 21, 2003 at 3:14 AM - 0 comments - post anonymously