What do you think?

Back in January of 1996, the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, was invited to offer the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives (not the Kansas Senate, as claimed in the text), and the prayer he offered was this one (which differs somewhat from the version cited in the text above):

Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, “Woe to those who call evil good.” But that’s what we’ve done.

We’ve lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We’ve exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We’ve neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

One day I’ll fly away
Leave all this to yesterday
What more could your Love do for me?
When will Love be through with me?

Why live life from dream to dream?
And dread the day when dreaming ends

One day I’ll fly away
Leave all this to yesterday
Why live life from dream to dream?
And dread the day when dreaming ends

One day I’ll fly away
Fly, fly away

– William Wordsworth

A well-known poem, The Daffodils, was one of the poems I read in class X. I found the poetry book among other things when I was clearing up my desk back home. For me, the daffodils are my travel adventures. I can be on my own on a quiet day, immersed in my memories and travelling on my own – once more.

Talk about identity, allegiance, and what the little things mean…they are all a part of this book… well, it isn’t a complicated story — a simple story about a family. However, there are touching moments, moments of realization, moments of fear….everything you’d find in real life.

I really have no idea why I picked that book – when I bought it, I didn’t know the story, the outline, that it was made into a movie, that the author also wrote ‘Interpreter of Maladies.’

—–
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

—–

Think about it… the next time you are boiling with anger about something that happened some time ago, think about it….

btw, am not preaching – this is more of a reminder from I to me

For example, success and failure depend not only on a company’s actions but also on those of its rivals. Where did we lose that insight we gain right from kindergarten – your rank doesn’t depend only on the marks you score. I guess, in our quest to find that easy answer to the puzzle, we often fail to realize that there can be a few puzzles that have a different answer each time. Instead we expect the puzzle to end at the same point – which is not the case in a competitive environment.

There were other thoughts that were business-centric – but if you take a closer look, you’d realize they are true in other spheres of life as well. Consider this one: “Suggesting that companies can follow a blueprint and achieve lasting success may be appealing, but is not supported by the evidence.” Like the books that deal with the success formula for business executives, there are umpteen books out there that talk about how to deal with your own life – how to win, how to be successful, how to be a good listener and so on. At the end of the day, these books tend to reduce life into a set of formulas you live by. But, life isn’t about following someone else’s path; life isn’t about living within the safety zone. Life is all about stretching your boundaries, accomplishing what you considered impossible, and, most importantly, living your life your way.

In the business world, success is a result of decisions made under conditions of uncertainty and shaped in part by factors outside our control. In your life, what you do and who you are depend on your decisions in your day-to-day life. You cannot simulate your life and your choices to reflect someone else’s. There is no perfect choice, there is no dead-end – you can always start again and your best attempts may not be good enough. That is life – but then, for all the uncertainty, I won’t want life to be any other way.

Here are some of the very interesting and valid points:

A reliable path to high performance – does not exist.

In the business world, success is a result of decisions made under conditions of uncertainty and shaped in part by factors outside our control.

The task of strategic leadership is not to follow a blueprint but to gather and evaluate relevant information, and make choices that provide the best chance for the company to succeed, all the while recognizing the business uncertainty.

The delusion of absolute performance

Success and failure depend not only on a company’s actions but also on those of its rivals.

High performance com6es from doing things better than rivals can, which means the managers have to take risks.

The delusion of lasting success

Lasting success is largely a delusion, a statistical anomaly. There is a strong tendency for extreme performance to be followed by less extreme performance in the next.

Suggesting that companies can follow a blueprint and achieve lasting success may be appealing, but is not supported by the evidence.

No formula can guarantee a company’s success, at least not in a competitive business environment.

One of the few books that have humour and profound thoughts in equal measure – complimenting each other…..

http://www.shantaram.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantaram_(novel)