Large Fierce Mammal

I once wrote …

“When a person achieves what passes for success today, it is said that they have “arrived”, as though their journey has ended, and their status is to be admired. The yardstick that measures such success is made of treasure and property, and the power they represent is the power to consume, without fear of limitation or consequence. Few today are of the sort who pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and never forget where they came from. Who continually strive to be a better creature of Nature than they were yesterday, and measure themselves against that one rather than anyone else. Who truly seek understanding of the Truths that lie outside the artificial constructs of men, and express them through their passions. Who bring those passions to everything they do.

“The art and meaning of truly striving is lost in a society that has managed to infuse the next generation of people, those who will be expected to do the work that needs doing, with an expectation of instant, easy success, mostly by permitting them to pass through the public education system on the basis of work that was “good enough”, if it was done at all. Likewise, “education” has been permitted to assume the mantle of a sentence one is forced to serve before the fun starts, rather than the lifelong, joyful process it’s supposed to be. Worst of all, in schools full of mediocrity, lacklustre has been rebranded and sold as the new excellent.

“We see a symptom of this in the fact that fast food counters are staffed by a seemingly endless succession of rude, listless, resentful children who, in spite of an exaggerated sense of self-importance and entitlement, can’t be relied upon to perform the simplest of tasks free from constant supervision because far too many of them are employed under protest against the unfairness of the world. Another is the commonly held view that spending money year after year on losing lottery tickets represents a valid expression of investment in one’s future, and still another, that the “reality show” genre is real entertainment instead of something to be ridiculed out of existence.” ~ Art, Science, Life, and Reality – Certified Organic

In the spirit of that, I offer this …

Timely Advice is Never Too Late

By LFM

Your use to the World comes from skills that you have,
And the things that you know how to do.
Some come by Nature, while others are learned,
Adding Value to all that is you.

But whose acts aren’t a match for the words that he speaks
Needs must hark to this lesson of old —
If you prove that you can’t or won’t do what you say,
There’ll be nought but to do as you’re told.