The teacher quizzed her class: “He drove straight to his goal. He looked neither to the right nor to the left, but pressed forward, moved by a definite purpose. Neither friend nor foe could delay him, nor turn him from his course. All who crossed his path did so at their own peril. What would you call such a man?”
A student replied, “A truck driver!”
Let’s hope you don’t meet that truck driver on the highway. But I have noticed that those who possess even a fraction of that man’s passion often get where they want to go. The trick, of course, is to maintain enthusiasm.
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel got it right when he said:
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.Nothing will kill a dream or douse the fire of a good idea more quickly than indifference. To whatever endeavor you commit yourself, be on guard primarily against that spirit-quenching attitude of apathy. “Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something,” says former Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton. “It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit.” What do you have a fire in your heart for? Most fires will go out if neglected - ask any camper who wakes up cold in the middle of the night. Our job in life is to discover the fire in our heart and to keep it burning. Feed it. Encourage it. Shelter it from those natural elements that threaten to extinguish it. In other words, find it and keep it lit. Who knows what can happen?
-- Steve Goodier
Image: flickr.com/Meighen