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Know Yourself, or An Odd Effort at Creativity

This is an experiment in perspective, as told through the viewpoint of a monkey.

With that solace which sometimes adorns the face of simian creatures like myself, some would argue that I feel younger than I am. "Watch as he swings along the boughs," screams one young lad. "He's free!"

Then they understand that to obfuscate me in such a fashion is both ill-advised and reckless, for I turn against them with such unabashed rage that other monkeys clear a fifteen-foot radius for me to let loose upon the world.

"No doubt you think I have a problem with my temper, but I am not the angry creature you think I am," I merit, an assertion made more for myself than for others.

The lesson to be learned here comes often with experience. It is simply this: admit who you are, and think no thing higher or lower of yourself, for a man or woman with so clear a self-picture can bring to the world a wisdom which not only governs how and when to use our talents, but inspires others to find themselves and do the same.

"Where your talents and the needs of the world cross," Aristotle once said, "there lies your vocation."

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