Sunday Box Talk: Hope and Etiquette
It was the best of times,
It was the worst of times,
It was the age of wisdom,
It was the age of foolishness,
It was the epoch of belief,
It was the epoch of incredulity,
It was the season of light,
It was the season of darkness,
It was the spring of hope,
It was the winter of despair,
We had everything before us,
We had nothing before us,
We were all going direct to heaven,
We were all going direct the other way…
~ Charles Dickens (1812-1870), A Tale of Two Cities
As I embark on my journey of the next stage of my career, one of my companions is Richard Nelson Bolles and his book, What Color Is Your Parachute. In it, his first argument is that the most important, and primary, thing to cultivate as a job searcher – and, really, a human being – is hope. With hope, we have everything; without it, we have nothing and nowhere to go.
One way to build it within ourselves is to remember that in any situation, there is always something, some part of it, over which we can exert control and assert our own power. Doing so can restore our belief that we are the Captains of our own ships.
I couldn’t agree more. After all, isn’t this what we’ve learnt in all our travels on the Artist’s Way? In fact, the theme for these essays, Sunday Box Talk, comes from Mr. Bolles’ book The Three Boxes of Life, in which he proposes that we figure out what we have control over and rethink how we exercise that control.
It’s a lesson many of us, myself included, must continue learning over and over. But I am grateful to Mr. Bolles for his willingness to share of himself and his knowledge. He has changed the world for millions of people and the world is a better place because of him.
On the subject of Etiquette, I had the opportunity to work with another author recently. They came on an emailing list I’m part of and asked to appear on others’ blogs in a blog tour promoting their book. I emailed them and offered my blog, asking if we could do an exchange since I, too, have a book release coming up.
To my startled eyes, I received an email reply: “I don’t do blog posts anymore.”
Then why on earth would you ask for a blog post on another’s blog, someone who does continue the effort to develop interesting content for readers and maintain a site for them to enjoy?
Apparently, common sense isn’t, so I’ll say this for those of you out there who need to hear it (though, sadly, the ones who need to hear it probably aren’t reading my humble words): if you are out there looking for promotion, be prepared to return the favor. The world is your oyster, my dear, but you must also give back to the sea.
After all, we’re all in this together.
Happy Sunday, Dear Reader, and may you find Hope within your heart today and remember: you are loved.
Oke Verry Good…thanks…