I believe I have found my calling. It is a calling that, though requiring strict discipline and steady wisdom, will lead to unfathomable rewards. What is this calling, you might ask? It is none other than swing dancing. That's right. I am going to start an organization to benefit the rhythmically challenged. I shall certainly be the foremost member, but what rhetorical energy I have shall be devoted to encouraging the crestfallen and downcast, those lost in the shadows of the graceful and elegant, those like me; for when I attempted this arguably simple dance, recalling what moves I could from past swing experiences, I began to believe that perhaps something was wrong with me. Didn't I have the same ability to understand directions that others had? Then why did my hand go one direction when it was supposed to go the other? Why did I lead the girls with whom I was dancing into fitful missteps? Happily, my unsuspecting partners were forgiving. Not me. It will take years for the scars to heal, and no one will know my pain more deeply. This is why I now commit with courage to creating an organization to assist those like me. This is my destiny. This is my calling. I ask that you join me. Thanks for reading.
I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...
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