Category Archives: the work

Giving Up, Giving In

People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. — Rosa Parks, My Story

Rosa Parks didn’t give up her seat, because she was tired of giving in.

When we don’t give up, we don’t give in.

When we give up, we give in.

Don’t give up. Don’t give in. 1

I post daily here. I stand this ground. If these words changed your day, please let me know by contributing here.

  1. One of life’s great paradoxes is that, often, the most powerful change comes from those that stand their ground. ↩

The Thing About Success

There are people so depressed that, for them, success is defined as simply being able to get out of bed in the morning and face another day.

There is a homeless man downtown for whom success is cashing in enough cans to be able to buy a small bottle of hooch that evening. And, in the rare but most successful of cases, still have enough change to get a cup of coffee in the morning.

My little girl defines success by being able to convince her parents to give her anything she wants (and she has more success than she reasonably should).

My point being that success is not something that can be objectively measured. How others count it does not matter. It is not linear. There is no recipe. And, in fact, there is no real definition or standard other than that which we define and set for ourselves.

Our days are made up of many minor (and sometimes large) successes and minor (and sometimes large) failures. And each day, each moment in fact, we get a clean slate to start anew. We could choose to celebrate the big victories by barely acknowledging them and the small ones with a full-blown parade. How we define it, how we measure it, and how we celebrate it, is up to us.

Success for me is publishing something that makes your day better, every day. If this connected with you, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

You Are A Hero

We all have our personal struggles in this life. Our shit to shoulder. A monkey on our back. The things we keep mostly hidden from the world, yet still remain with us.

Perhaps it was a childhood that was less than ideal.
Perhaps it is a marriage that is slowly falling apart.
Perhaps it is a less than ideal relationship with your kids.
Perhaps it is a bad habit or addiction you wish you could shake.
A secret, silent, shame.

You are a hero. We all are. I may not know what you are victorious over but I know that each one of us has a huge amount of baggage to carry and, to get through this life with it, it takes heroic courage. That making it to the end of each day, is a small (and, some days, large) but not insignificant victory.

So many problems would be overcome in this life if we recognized each victory in what we have come to know as routine. If we all simply recognized the hero in ourselves and each other.

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