Grade 11
I Shuck Oysters The world is your oyster. A phrase coined and immortalized by Shakespeare, who reduced the whole of the world to a bivalve mollusk that frequents the bays and estuaries of the world. The world is your oyster. A prize sheathed in a calcified shield perfectly evolved to withstand the hardships of the world. Oysters have thrived for more than 150 million years behind this foreboding barrier, unbreachable by those without the drive to succeed. But when the world is your oyster, and you have a knife, the integrity of those once impenetrable walls is trivial. Defeated by a flicka da wrist and the resourcefulness of Man, an oyster shell is merely an obstacle. By no means are the walls the end-all-be-all of Man’s quest for …show more content…
But what is success? How can one concretize what success means for seven billion different souls with different hopes, different dreams, different aspirations? Robert Kennedy once said “The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.” Taken broadly, this can of course, apply to anything. But if every person on the planet is focusing on making things better for everyone else, what are you doing for yourself? Can you justify a life of selflessness simply because you do not want to be seen as selfish? Seven billion different souls on the planet and all of them must live lives of altruism? Those who feel the calling of altruism should heed it, but the money hounds of the world should heed their gold lust. The everyday person should heed his own calling, whatever that may be. The world will always need garbage men and bankers and public servants. Who are you to tell a banker that his life is corrupt? To tell a garbageman that he is living without purpose? To tell a public servant that the small businesses he set up in rural Gambia will be gone by the time he leaves for Liberia? Live your life, and live it with purpose. Forget about how others rate your life. Man needs to take hold of the oyster of life, rip it open, take the pearl for himself, and realize that the concept of selflessness and selfishness is ridiculous. Life is a success only once you find your own purpose and block out the ceaseless …show more content…
In The Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie preaches the integrity of charity; how “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others”. Enrichment does not come from material goods, such as the direct donating of wealth. Thrusting money upon a single man does not make him rich. To say such would be pedantic. “If you start by promising what you don 't even have yet, you 'll lose your desire to work towards getting it” (Coelho). Mass accumulation of wealth is indicative of retirement, a goal which no man or woman living a Personal Legend considers an end. This is why Carnegie recommends charity to society, not individuals. The creation of schools and hospitals and libraries and museums provides outlets to help a person along their Personal Legend. Attending the aforementioned institutions is a choice. Too often is wealth heaved upon the shoulders of the questing, a burden to weigh them down on their long road. Siddhartha, while on the path to his Personal Legend of realizing Self, becomes distracted by the allure of a life of comfort brought from wealth. He realizes, to his horror, the stagnance of his journey and believes it necessary to repent for the time lost. But you can’t replace time by wasting time. He eventually accepts his dalliance as a lesson learned on the road. To not be goaded by material
I Shuck Oysters The world is your oyster. A phrase coined and immortalized by Shakespeare, who reduced the whole of the world to a bivalve mollusk that frequents the bays and estuaries of the world. The world is your oyster. A prize sheathed in a calcified shield perfectly evolved to withstand the hardships of the world. Oysters have thrived for more than 150 million years behind this foreboding barrier, unbreachable by those without the drive to succeed. But when the world is your oyster, and you have a knife, the integrity of those once impenetrable walls is trivial. Defeated by a flicka da wrist and the resourcefulness of Man, an oyster shell is merely an obstacle. By no means are the walls the end-all-be-all of Man’s quest for …show more content…
But what is success? How can one concretize what success means for seven billion different souls with different hopes, different dreams, different aspirations? Robert Kennedy once said “The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.” Taken broadly, this can of course, apply to anything. But if every person on the planet is focusing on making things better for everyone else, what are you doing for yourself? Can you justify a life of selflessness simply because you do not want to be seen as selfish? Seven billion different souls on the planet and all of them must live lives of altruism? Those who feel the calling of altruism should heed it, but the money hounds of the world should heed their gold lust. The everyday person should heed his own calling, whatever that may be. The world will always need garbage men and bankers and public servants. Who are you to tell a banker that his life is corrupt? To tell a garbageman that he is living without purpose? To tell a public servant that the small businesses he set up in rural Gambia will be gone by the time he leaves for Liberia? Live your life, and live it with purpose. Forget about how others rate your life. Man needs to take hold of the oyster of life, rip it open, take the pearl for himself, and realize that the concept of selflessness and selfishness is ridiculous. Life is a success only once you find your own purpose and block out the ceaseless …show more content…
In The Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie preaches the integrity of charity; how “No man becomes rich unless he enriches others”. Enrichment does not come from material goods, such as the direct donating of wealth. Thrusting money upon a single man does not make him rich. To say such would be pedantic. “If you start by promising what you don 't even have yet, you 'll lose your desire to work towards getting it” (Coelho). Mass accumulation of wealth is indicative of retirement, a goal which no man or woman living a Personal Legend considers an end. This is why Carnegie recommends charity to society, not individuals. The creation of schools and hospitals and libraries and museums provides outlets to help a person along their Personal Legend. Attending the aforementioned institutions is a choice. Too often is wealth heaved upon the shoulders of the questing, a burden to weigh them down on their long road. Siddhartha, while on the path to his Personal Legend of realizing Self, becomes distracted by the allure of a life of comfort brought from wealth. He realizes, to his horror, the stagnance of his journey and believes it necessary to repent for the time lost. But you can’t replace time by wasting time. He eventually accepts his dalliance as a lesson learned on the road. To not be goaded by material