<p>A challenge I face in pursuing excellence is… <em>[drum roll]</em>… finding others who pursue excellence.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe that wasn’t such a surprising revelation. As the saying goes, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man another”.</p>
<p>For me, it is not satisfactory enough to look to my contemporaries - I have looked centuries back, hoping to appreciate greatness.</p>
<p>Without further ado, I share a list - off the top of my head - of works I look up to:</p>
<p>In Classical Music,</p>
<ul>
<li>Beethoven’s Cello Sonata, Op. 102</li>
<li>Schubert’s Winterreise</li>
</ul>
<p>In opera,</p>
<ul>
<li>Bartók’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”</li>
</ul>
<p>In Russian literature,</p>
<ul>
<li>Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse, “Eugene Onegin”</li>
</ul>
<p>In children’s literature,</p>
<ul>
<li>Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”</li>
</ul>
<p>Others:</p>
<ul>
<li>a fairly modern film, Wong Kar-Wai’s “In the mood for love”</li>
<li>A song by The Beatles, “Come together”</li>
</ul>
<p>In concluding, I note that if I have a small, puny mind, the world I see is a small, puny world. I wish for a mind that can see greatness in even the smallest thing - eyes that can see beauty and wonder.</p>
<p>For example, can I learn, from a dog, how to be happy, while being held on a leash? Or, from a cat, how to meditate?</p>
<p>I close with a quote from the classic tale, “The little prince”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>This post first appeared <ahref="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6648108747728216064/">on LinkedIn</a>.</em></p>
