A New Resolution
Home Blog: Pysanky Gallery Contact
Blog Post #48
A paradox is a contradiction, seemingly against common sense,
and yet proves to be well founded, true and beneficial.
Making resolutions for the New Year?
Consider one or more of The Paradoxical Commandments by Kent M. Keith. He wrote these Paradoxical Commandments as a young student at Harvard in 1968 and published them in a small motivational book for his fellow student leaders.
Thirty years later, Dr. Keith was at a Rotary Club meeting during which a member read a poem attributed to Mother Theresa. Much to his surprise and delight, that poem was actually his Paradoxical Commandments. They had made it all the way to Mother Theresa’s Shish Bhavan children’s home in Kolkata, India; printed on a sign that still hangs on a wall to inspire all.
The Paradoxical commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
“Whatever you choose to do, one thing is certain: When you live the paradoxical life, you will find personal meaning in a crazy world. You will make a difference. You will change lives. One of the lives you change will be your own”
—Kent Keith, Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments, copyright © 2001 by Kent M. Keith, published by G.P. Putman’s Sons, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.
More information about Dr. Kent Keith and his books can be found on his website:
Ukrainian folklore characterizes pysanky as a symbolic, talismanic writing that invokes a higher Universal Power for help, while believing with faithful certainty that It will. The contemporary version of this characterization is a paper-and-pen journaling practice called prayer writing that develops a personal relationship with God.
Copyright © 2022 Nancy Kopack.
All rights reserved.