Many people are complacent in spirit and they are meant
for safe harbors.In a line, they
are tethered to the docks as they softly rise and fall with the gentle
waves.They don’t own a single
reckless belief.
Yet some souls are meant for the open seas. Commanding their
horizon, they were born to cast their sails to a strong wind. They have the ability to form uncommon
beliefs and uncommon spirituality.
Own a reckless belief…..a belief that is fully yours.
I am a mass murderer and my weapons of mass destruction are
garden trowels, fertilizer, water and a sense that plants are endlessly thirsty.
The plants, that I ignore, thrive and the plants, that I painstakingly nourish,
die a slow agonizing death.
A few years ago, I planted a tree in the backyard. The tree
was from my grandfather’s land.
While in its infancy, I mowed the tree with a lawnmower. Also my beloved
chocolate lab, Nellie, confused to tree with a chew-toy and she stripped the
tiny tree of limbs and foliage.
Today, the tree is biggest and healthiest plant in my yard.
In the front yard, I planted two trees. I watered the trees
during the hot months of summer. I
mulched the trees. The trees have been safe from random dog and lawnmower
attacks. Yet if the trees were
patients in a hospital, they would be in critical care. They are barely clinging to life.
Apparently my love crushes the will to live. I likely need to take a weedeater to
the front two sickly trees. It is their only hope.
Yesterday, my wife informed me that Steve Jobs died. She
knew that I admired Steve. He was a visionary and a fighter.
On his battle with cancer Steve said, “My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is
doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything
you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It
means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as
possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes."
As Steve waged a war with cancer he never lost a trait, which I admire the most: fiery romanticism. In a speech Steve
said, “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want
to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has
ever escaped it. And that is as it should be…Your time is limited, so don't
waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is
living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of
others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the
courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you
truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Society is combative
with people who dare to walk differently, speak differently, and think
differently. Yet, we should have the courage to stray from the well-worn path.
There is more danger in endlessly cloning the ideas than forming new ideas,
regardless of the claims of foolishness.
So let’s be foolish. Let’s experiment. Let’s shoulder the risk of
failure taking paths that others ignore.
On fools and the
foolhardy Steve said, “Stewart and his team put out several issues of The
Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a
final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of
their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind
you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it
were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell
message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished
that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.”
