Anonymous. I’d like to meet that person sometime. Anonymous has come up with some of the funniest and pithiest expressions I have ever heard. And he (or is it she?) can also be so deeply profound at times.
Like these words from Anonymous about what enthusiasm can do for us:
“Indifference never wrote great works, nor thought out striking inventions, nor reared the solemn architecture that awes the soul, nor breathed sublime music, nor painted glorious pictures, nor undertook heroic philanthropies. All these grandeurs are born of enthusiasm, and are done heartily.”
I’m reminded of that great 18th century founder of Methodism, John Wesley. When asked how he drew such large crowds of people to hear him preach, he responded, “I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn!” People are drawn to enthusiasm.
Where there is no enthusiasm, there is no passion. Where there is no passion, there is no great living.
Are we meant simply to be satisfied with mediocre lives? From antiquity to the present, indifference has stolen from too many people the chance to do something important with their lives. Their indifference inspires little energy to pursue something truly worthwhile.
One woman went to the market and asked for two pounds of sausage. The clerk yelled at the butcher, “Two pounds of enthusiasm!”
“Why do you call it that?” the bewildered customer asked.
“Because he puts everything he’s got into it,” the clerk said.
In your daily activities; in your relationships with family, friends and colleagues; in anything you think is important -- what would happen if you “put everything you’ve got” into it?
Are you ready to find out?
-- Steve Goodier
Image: flickr.com/Simon Law