168 lines
		
	
	
		
			4.5 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			HTML
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			168 lines
		
	
	
		
			4.5 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			HTML
		
	
	
	
	
	
| <!DOCTYPE html>
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| <html lang="en">
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| 
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|   <head>
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|   <meta charset="UTF-8">
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|   <title>
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|     
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|       ~rogbeer's corner · where ~rogbeer stashes some stuff
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|         <h3 class="masthead-title">
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|           <a href="/~rogbeer/" title="Home">~rogbeer's corner</a>
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|           <small>where ~rogbeer stashes some stuff</small>
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|         <small>| <a href="/~rogbeer/swap">What is the value of a cassette tape nowadays?
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|     <h1 class="post-title">
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|       <a href="/~rogbeer/2020/03/24/very-late-afternoon/">
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|         A challenge I face in pursuing excellence
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|       </a>
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|     </h1>
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| 
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|     <time datetime="2020-03-24T00:00:00+00:00" class="post-date">24 Mar 2020</time>
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| 
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|     <p>A challenge I face in pursuing excellence is… <em>[drum roll]</em>… finding others who pursue excellence.</p>
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| 
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| <p>Okay, maybe that wasn’t such a surprising revelation. As the saying goes, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man another”.</p>
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| 
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| <p>For me, it is not satisfactory enough to look to my contemporaries - I have looked centuries back, hoping to appreciate greatness.</p>
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| 
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| <p>Without further ado, I share a list - off the top of my head - of works I look up to:</p>
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| 
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| <p>In Classical Music,</p>
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| 
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| <ul>
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|   <li>Beethoven’s Cello Sonata, Op. 102</li>
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|   <li>Schubert’s Winterreise</li>
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| </ul>
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| 
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| <p>In opera,</p>
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| 
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| <ul>
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|   <li>Bartók’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”</li>
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| </ul>
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| 
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| <p>In Russian literature,</p>
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| 
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| <ul>
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|   <li>Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse, “Eugene Onegin”</li>
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| </ul>
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| 
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| <p>In children’s literature,</p>
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| 
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| <ul>
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|   <li>Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”</li>
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| </ul>
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| 
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| <p>Others:</p>
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| 
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| <ul>
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|   <li>a fairly modern film, Wong Kar-Wai’s “In the mood for love”</li>
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|   <li>A song by The Beatles, “Come together”</li>
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| </ul>
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| 
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| <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>
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| 
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| <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>
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| 
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| <p>I close with a quote from the classic tale, “The little prince”:</p>
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| 
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| <blockquote>
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|   <p>“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”</p>
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| </blockquote>
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| 
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| <p><em>This post first appeared <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6648108747728216064/">on LinkedIn</a>.</em></p>
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| 
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|   </article>
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|           © <a href="">~rogbeer, whoever he is</a>, <time datetime="2023-10-23T03:17:39+00:00">2023</time>. All rights reserved. 
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