I
suppose I should wish you success, but that is too easy. I would like to wish you something that is
harder to come by. So I am going to wish
you meaning in life. And 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 things and people you love, out of the values
of 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.
Robert
Gardner
