Wings and inspiration.....
The post NMS Mail to the Facilitators Team
Friday, March 1st 2002
Stockholm
hi all u amazing people
i don't know why i am emailing... i don't have anything to say really, nothing that i can explain in a coherent way... but a part of me senses that all of u feel a little of the same still... especially those of us who have stayed on and only got home sunday or today and haven't had time to recover.
I have not been home yet... got off the boat and walked into office and have been feeling really strange all day. There are so many thoughts in my head. I look at the faces around me, the people i work with, i live with... and i wonder why i don't feel any passion or fire. Why after 3 years, the passion is still strongest when surrounded by AIESECers, at a conference. Why is it that after a week i feel closer to some of you than some others i have known for a year and who are "friends".
I wonder what it is in AIESEC that helps me to be the best i can be, to think like a visionary, to speak with passion and fire, to inspire and be inspired. And what is it in life that turns the raging fire into a dimly glowing piece of charcoal... that stops me and stops us from being the men and women that we really want to be... on a daily basis. that stops us from being all we want to be and all we can be.
In jerry McGuire, there is a line when Dorothy says about Jerry:
"I love him for the man he wants to be... and i love him for the man he almost already is".
Sometimes i feel that I am close to being the man i want to be. But the mediocrity of life always seems to pull me back... so that i have a professional career that is strewn with accomplishment and achievement.... but in the only scale that matters, that of being the man i want to be, all i have are occasional bursts... often coinciding with AIESEC conferences.
I think what makes me so happy in an AIESEC conference, what gives me that charge and that fire in the middle of a really good talk or discussion, especially around the more "fluffy" concepts is the fact that for once when i talk vision and values, i am not a minority of one. It is the charge that comes from being surrounded by people who question and search for answers, who do not accept the accepted. By people who have the desire and passion to not just be inspired but to inspire themselves. By young people who are looking for more in life than professional success, young people who want to "be the men (and women) they can be".
Many many of us will lose this fire when we step into real life and away from AIESEC. We will almost all do more than the average person, but few will ever be the people they can be. For that, we have to find a way that even though our feet stay in the averageness of day to day life, our hearts and minds have wings... that they soar beyond the boundaries of creativity and materialism and the limitations that come from fear and the obstacles of daily life.
And we need to give our eyes the ability to see, not just all we see when we wake up in the mornings, but really see... beyond the immediate tasks, beyond the immediate obstacle, beyond the immediate issue.... and really SEE.
The only way to do this is to surround yourself by people who feel the same passion and inspiration, help them to never lose it, and in the process ensure that you do not lose yours.
We are humans... our wings are not gifted by god... our wings are created by other humans that teach you to soar and remind you as you walk along the ground... "why look at the ground and walk... you have the ability to look at the sky and fly".
I, like Flo, am a crap communicator... and i will mail less than most of you, and even lose touch for years with some of you. But you will not be forgotten. As i travel through life, i am now determined to surround myself with people like ourselves, and every new person i find like us, adds to the strength of those wings, helps me soar higher... and you will remain a part of me, a part of the wings that help me on the journey as i try to "be the man i want to be". So if 4 years from now, any of you wonders where i am and feels like dropping a line, don't let anything... anything stop you.... if you are a part of me, then time between last contact or length of emails do not matter... i am here, connected to you in a deeper, more fundamental way.
with love... always
Blah
The post NMS Mail to the Facilitators Team
Friday, March 1st 2002
Stockholm
hi all u amazing people
i don't know why i am emailing... i don't have anything to say really, nothing that i can explain in a coherent way... but a part of me senses that all of u feel a little of the same still... especially those of us who have stayed on and only got home sunday or today and haven't had time to recover.
I have not been home yet... got off the boat and walked into office and have been feeling really strange all day. There are so many thoughts in my head. I look at the faces around me, the people i work with, i live with... and i wonder why i don't feel any passion or fire. Why after 3 years, the passion is still strongest when surrounded by AIESECers, at a conference. Why is it that after a week i feel closer to some of you than some others i have known for a year and who are "friends".
I wonder what it is in AIESEC that helps me to be the best i can be, to think like a visionary, to speak with passion and fire, to inspire and be inspired. And what is it in life that turns the raging fire into a dimly glowing piece of charcoal... that stops me and stops us from being the men and women that we really want to be... on a daily basis. that stops us from being all we want to be and all we can be.
In jerry McGuire, there is a line when Dorothy says about Jerry:
"I love him for the man he wants to be... and i love him for the man he almost already is".
Sometimes i feel that I am close to being the man i want to be. But the mediocrity of life always seems to pull me back... so that i have a professional career that is strewn with accomplishment and achievement.... but in the only scale that matters, that of being the man i want to be, all i have are occasional bursts... often coinciding with AIESEC conferences.
I think what makes me so happy in an AIESEC conference, what gives me that charge and that fire in the middle of a really good talk or discussion, especially around the more "fluffy" concepts is the fact that for once when i talk vision and values, i am not a minority of one. It is the charge that comes from being surrounded by people who question and search for answers, who do not accept the accepted. By people who have the desire and passion to not just be inspired but to inspire themselves. By young people who are looking for more in life than professional success, young people who want to "be the men (and women) they can be".
Many many of us will lose this fire when we step into real life and away from AIESEC. We will almost all do more than the average person, but few will ever be the people they can be. For that, we have to find a way that even though our feet stay in the averageness of day to day life, our hearts and minds have wings... that they soar beyond the boundaries of creativity and materialism and the limitations that come from fear and the obstacles of daily life.
And we need to give our eyes the ability to see, not just all we see when we wake up in the mornings, but really see... beyond the immediate tasks, beyond the immediate obstacle, beyond the immediate issue.... and really SEE.
The only way to do this is to surround yourself by people who feel the same passion and inspiration, help them to never lose it, and in the process ensure that you do not lose yours.
We are humans... our wings are not gifted by god... our wings are created by other humans that teach you to soar and remind you as you walk along the ground... "why look at the ground and walk... you have the ability to look at the sky and fly".
I, like Flo, am a crap communicator... and i will mail less than most of you, and even lose touch for years with some of you. But you will not be forgotten. As i travel through life, i am now determined to surround myself with people like ourselves, and every new person i find like us, adds to the strength of those wings, helps me soar higher... and you will remain a part of me, a part of the wings that help me on the journey as i try to "be the man i want to be". So if 4 years from now, any of you wonders where i am and feels like dropping a line, don't let anything... anything stop you.... if you are a part of me, then time between last contact or length of emails do not matter... i am here, connected to you in a deeper, more fundamental way.
with love... always
Blah
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