Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Huainanzi - Entry 25

Trey Smith

Those who do not see great meaning do not know that life is not worth greed. Those who have not heard great words do not know that dominion over the world is not worth considering an advantage.
~ a passage from
The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~
My wife reminded me the other day of a word she used to bristle at when we were dating: superficial. Della came from a typical southern Bible-belt family that tended to skim the surface of life and rarely, if ever, chose to dig beneath the outer sheen of anything. By meeting and falling in love with yours truly, she had come upon an odd individual who relished digging down miles under the surface!

When I look at the state of the world today, I liken those who only are concerned with their short-term wealth and power as being very superficial people. Many would sell their soul to the devil -- if he actually existed -- in order to eke out a few billion more. These folks are all about appearances and little else. They put the ISH in selfishness.

People of depth look at the long-term aspects and how decisions impact their community and world. They truly grasp the notion that we're all in this together and so it is of vital importance to raise or lower all boats at once.

More importantly, they realize that providing love and respect -- not greed and avarice -- is what makes this life truly worth living.

To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.

2 comments:

  1. I used to use the word, "shallow" which suggested slightly beyond the surface. Sometimes that was worse.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meaning...they thought they had some depth.

    ReplyDelete

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