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the secret of life: dignity and meaning

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2014.09.22

Today I read a mission statement for life by American author & statesman John Gardner.

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

It was the tail end of a longish speech given in '90 and reproduced here. Seems like a smart and dedicated fellow.

rand()m quote

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.

—John F. Kennedy