THE BUILDING



We all want to do well, to produce good work. And, by knowing the comparative differences between our work and that of others, we all seek to progress, acknowledging their example and surpassing it when we can. By being aware of what others have done, and appreciating it, we have a target to shoot for, a view of what we can also accomplish and, hopefully, improve upon.

As intelligent creatures, we know that we don't live in a vacuum, that we co-exist and achieve our minimal accomplishments with mutual effort in a slow but steady crawl toward progress. We know that our little works are but bricks in the foundation of our elevation as a species. But we can take pride in our work all the same, knowing we are helping, brick by brick.

This sort of cooperative effort requires, obviously, an awareness of our own individual strengths and weaknesses and also an awareness of how well or poorly our accomplishments fit into the whole. It is a competitive spirit that ensures our progress, for we know that not just any old brick will fit into the wall ... the wall may crumble if we don't insist on the best.

So we make our efforts, and we do our work, and we hope that it is good enough -- for someone else is also busy with his own brick. And, if we fail, we try again, hoping to learn why our work was flawed, and how to make it better. We look at these other bricks, how well they're made, and try to emulate. Sometimes, we're very lucky -- our work is novel or excellent in a new way, good enough to start a whole new wing in our hypothetical building of humanity.

Sometimes, however, our work is not of quality and crumbles into dust. Sometimes, though well-intentioned, our work is stillborn and unrealized. Our efforts and planning came to naught. All the time and labor over what we had considered a good idea turns out to have been a waste of that time and labor. Whether the reason for such failure was in the planning, or execution, or in the lack of our drive to continue on to success, or whether the idea itself was impractical or otherwise flawed ... we owe it to ourselves to determine the reason for that failure and isolate the ingredients of that waste in order not to repeat it.

For us to do otherwise, to continue to ignore the teachings of adversity and to flaunt our ignorance, all the while proclaiming superiority though our record of achievement belies it ... is an exercise in folly. The measure of a man is not in his empty boasts of greatness or brilliance, for that is a measure only of wind and baseless pride. True greatness lies in the doing of difficult work for the benefit of others, with unflagging effort and selfless contribution. For the contribution itself is the reward, not the praise for doing it. The wise man knows the value of his work, that it speaks for itself, and that praise is merely gratitude; but praising oneself is foolish and vain, for it presumes that others might not, or that the work is flawed.

It takes more than dreams to make a world, or contribute to it. It takes more than idle ideas, conceived in haste, to turn the gears of progress and innovation and practicality. Above all, it takes an ability to know the truth, to see what is and what isn't. For the difference is delusion, which ignores the truth and creates a world oblivious to the real one.

Wisdom also dictates that one makes better "bricks" by communication with others, mining the gold of communal minds for the building of something of general benefit. Even the wisest man will listen to the world, for his wisdom came by that and he knows that only a fool would find it unnecessary.