Know your league

Was clearing my emails when I stumbled upon sthg I sent to some frens eons ago...think Bak Chew has seen it. It's from my all-time fav author - Robert Fulghum...problem is I dunno where I quoted it from (his books? or website?) *scratch head* Anyways, here it is... something to ponder :)

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Some sense of being successful in life may lie in knowing which league to play in. If your dream of success means playing striker on a World Cup soccer team and you are short, chubby, and slow, you will die disappointed.
Wrong league.
If you are pleased to play goalie on a local playground team with other short, chubby, and slow people – and you have a wonderful time doing it, then you are a successful soccer player.
Right league.
And the same is true for any sport – tennis, baseball, volleyball, poker or whatever - pick a league worthy of your abilities and flourish there.

Or, as Epictetus said in the 4th century B.C.:
"If you can fish, fish. If you can sing, sing. If you can fight, fight. Determine what you can do. And do that."

Likewise, some sense of being successful in life may lie in knowing on which scale you work best. For example, an astronomer is one whose mind can function on a cosmic scale. A physicist is one whose mind can handle the quantum scale. A theologian – a metaphysical scale. A historian deals with the long picture. A psychiatrist works with the deep picture. A cook or taxi driver works with the immediate situation. Poets and artists work on a very personal scale. Politicians – the public arena.
Many die confused and unfulfilled because they spend a life trying to perform above their abilities and perspective – usually a matter of working on the wrong scale.

Epictetus said, "Why worry about being a nobody when what matters is being a somebody in those areas of your life over which you have control, and in which you can make a difference?"

Why am I telling you this?
Two reasons. My 70th year begins this week, and I am in a reflective mood.
And my thinking was provoked when I arrived in Crete this year and found on my desk a letter to me from a German scholar who had lived in my house for a time while I was away. (She has read my books and reads my web-site journal postings.)
After expressing appropriate appreciation for my writing and the use of the house, she asked some hard questions:
Why did I not address the political issues of our time, especially the actions of the present American government administration? Why did I not address the humanitarian issues of our day? Why was I not outraged as an American with the evil done on my behalf? Did I agree that might makes right, that the end justifies the means, and that God is on our side? How can I support the fundamental position of Zionist Israel? Did I really believe the American Way was the only Way? Did I have any real understanding of how America is perceived in the world now? How much hatred and contempt is felt? Why was I silent on these burning issues? Why did I not run for office and do something?

Answer: It is a matter of league and scale.

My mind works in the scale of the local, the daily, and the ordinary.
Writing about that is the league in which I am competent.
I tend to be simple-minded, plain-spoken, and optimistic.
I attend to my corner of the world as best I can with the tools I have.

Of course I know that evil and ugliness exists, as much now as ever.
These get all the headlines. We all get the bad news.
And I send money and vote and march in response.
But I remain astonished at the good and lovely that exists.
And most of it is free and readily available – if I stay open-eyed.

Of course there is reason for pessimism.
We shall all die. The earth will fall into the sun.
Meanwhile . . . is the league and scale of the amateurs like me.

I have not the skill to play professional sports. Wrong league.
I have not the competence to be an astrologer, physicist, theologian, chef, historian, politician, psychiatrist, cook, or taxi driver. Wrong scale. Nor the talent to be a poet, musician, or artist. Nor writer of great literature or even thrillers or detective stories or political commentary. Not me.
When people ask why don't I do this and this and this instead of that and that and that, I can only say that I am a man who has found his league and scale, who goes about trying to be awake to the news of the immediate ordinary world; to make sense of what I see; to pass it on with the implied question: have you seen what I see?
Look! Don't miss the good stuff – that is my message.

There. Not self-defense or apology.
Just a statement of position.
Meanwhile . . . I know what I can do.
Meanwhile. . . I do it.