Oh, I don't know. Maybe sometimes it should. Corrupt is a loaded word. But insofar as it may mean for one thing 'to get into' another, I think taking on something new with a sense of how you have failed in the past (aka experience, and necessarily indivisible from the failure itself) is a good thing.
Does the man mean never to let past failures stop you from proceeding? If so, I disagree again. Failures sometimes are harbingers of eventual success; sometimes they are the canary in the mineshaft counseling self-awareness. Sometimes they are their own thing. Hindsight tells us which, but that indeterminteness is no license for saying 'never'.
But I agree we should take from failures what is useful and leave (except when it is the thing that is useful)the debiitating effects, because (as Shakespeare said about the unknown):
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution is sickl'd o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment, with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action.
Thanks for the comments, Dave, and for the reference to Hamlet - my favorite! I agree with everything you said. I loved the quote, because it stirred so many thoughts in me. In context, I believe Mr. Chambers meant your last point. Sometimes we fall to the ground, and sometimes the best thing to do is "pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again"! Oh, and sometimes we need to take a deep breath too!
Agreed. And good to know you are moved by Shakesspeare. He has said many things the best they can be said.
At the end of that most famous of soliloquies, Hamlet espies Ophelia and says the thing that I say when justifying why I won't become Facebook friends with folks who knew me when I was yet less admirable than I am today: In thy orisins be all my sins remembered.
3 comments:
Oh, I don't know. Maybe sometimes it should. Corrupt is a loaded word. But insofar as it may mean for one thing 'to get into' another, I think taking on something new with a sense of how you have failed in the past (aka experience, and necessarily indivisible from the failure itself) is a good thing.
Does the man mean never to let past failures stop you from proceeding? If so, I disagree again. Failures sometimes are harbingers of eventual success; sometimes they are the canary in the mineshaft counseling self-awareness. Sometimes they are their own thing. Hindsight tells us which, but that indeterminteness is no license for saying 'never'.
But I agree we should take from failures what is useful and leave (except when it is the thing that is useful)the debiitating effects, because (as Shakespeare said about the unknown):
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution is sickl'd o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment, with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action.
Thanks for the comments, Dave, and for the reference to Hamlet - my favorite! I agree with everything you said. I loved the quote, because it stirred so many thoughts in me. In context, I believe Mr. Chambers meant your last point. Sometimes we fall to the ground, and sometimes the best thing to do is "pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again"! Oh, and sometimes we need to take a deep breath too!
Agreed. And good to know you are moved by Shakesspeare. He has said many things the best they can be said.
At the end of that most famous of soliloquies, Hamlet espies Ophelia and says the thing that I say when justifying why I won't become Facebook friends with folks who knew me when I was yet less admirable than I am today: In thy orisins be all my sins remembered.
Post a Comment