Saturday, January 11, 2020

The Dag Hammarskjold letters part four








Dear Dag Hammarskjold,



As you know from my previous letters I come across your wonderful quote everyday that I walk to work. It is driven right into the surface of the stone of a lovely little plaza, just as it should be. And whenever I see it I read it and think about it. 

It is:

“We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny, but what we put into it is ours.”

Now imagine my delight when, in seeking clarification on this quote, the author of it (you!) turns out to be completely helpful and responsive to all my many letters about its nuances. Your generosity, clarity, and wisdom have meant the world to me, and I finally feel like I really and truly understand this quote in all its depth and richness. Thank you so much.

I have not mentioned this so far, but part of why all of this has been so meaningful to me is because I am a bit of a quote writer myself! I really just dabble so far, maybe nothing worth writing in stone, if you know what I mean. But I do have my dreams.

And I've made a go of it.

I wrote 

"In my past life I was a Buddhist. In this life it's my only one." 

Which I thought was pretty good. I mean maybe not "stone" worthy, but worth sending around to all the big quote anthologies.

No luck.

I wrote

"They really are out to get me, though fortunately they're not too serious about it."

Not bad, right? Still, nothing, not even a paving stone somewhere.

Nevertheless I carried on. I thought maybe I'd try marketing to a large niche audience and came up with:

"If practice made perfect there would be millions of professional golfers."

Readers' Digest didn't even respond to my submission. And that's when it hit me:

It is not my destiny to be a famous. I can do whatever I want, but it is never going to go big time. It is simply not my fate.

Okay. Fine. But you're obviously really smart about stuff like this so I thought I'd ask you:

Do you think there's any way I could change that?


Thanks for all your help.

Yours,


Clerkmanifesto





        

    



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