By Dennis Lowery
In the best of times and the worst of times we are kept company with two things: how we perceive our self and how others perceive us. Too many people worry about the latter and not the former.
We see so much of the bright shiny people that occupy the media spotlight and attention. Many with little of substance or true worth behind their perfect smiles. One wonders what they see when they look at their reflection.
I have a poem on my bulletin board in my office/study that is so apt and poignant about the realities of perception… that I keep it for that very reason. Here it is:
Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favored and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine -- we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.
Even those that seem graced with fortune are often haunted in some way. It’s how you feel about yourself that dictates the shape of your life. Choose to live life honestly and not succumb to perception or the shallow opinions of the crowd. Live and shape your life to look in the mirror and smile proudly at who’s looking back at you.
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