On quitting and an original poem
From a The Wall Street Journal article:
“I played for the rest of college, even becoming a two-time Academic All-American athlete, but I gave up on the idea of ever playing professionally. This was an agonizing decision that went against my upbringing. But I’m lucky I quit, because I found another calling, one that I did turn out to have an above-the-curve talent for: economics. Decades later, my work as an economist has convinced me that good old Vince [Lombardi]: (‘winners never quit, and quitters never win’) got it wrong. People don’t quit enough.”
This reminds me of the Romantic poet John Keats’ concept of “negative capability,’ letting go of your passions and interests when they are not working out. I was once told when younger that I tried too hard. My older and wiser brother has a saying that he chooses his battles. Sometimes I stick too much to my guns.
In a social-media quote earlier this year after a very difficult few months, I said I was going to try to calm down and keep quiet. It has to do with obsession. W.B. Yeats in a poem wrote of “Hearts with one purpose alone / Through summer and winter seem / Enchanted to a stone / To trouble the living stream.”
A poem
“Pun-(ch)” by yours truly
“I’m thirsty. Where is the pun-ch?!”
“Remember: the past is perfect. Know that much. And don’t let a buddy steal your lunch.”
“This has been fun but maybe too mu(n)ch”