Advent Day Nineteen

When I was just out of college I devoured Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. I fell in love with the idealism personified in her characters as well as how she described the various aspects of the human struggle. I wonder if I would still be enamoured with her philosophy…maybe one day I will read the books again.

Two very different writings frame today’s collage, the first is from Atlas Shrugged:

The only pride of her workday was not that it had been lived, but that it had been survived. It was wrong, she thought, it was viciously wrong that one should ever be forced to say that about any hour of one’s life.  Dagny Taggart

The second is a poem by SH Payer. The stanza about decision making is one that I look to  frequently…and aspire to live by it, although I am somewhat unsuccessful in that regard. I am sitting with the contrast between the two, striving to live as SH Payer encourages.

Live Each Day to the Fullest

Live each day to the fullest.
Get the most from each hour, each day,
and each age of your life.
Then you can look forward with confidence,
and back without regrets.

Be yourself… but be your best self.
Dare to be different and follow your own star.
Don’t be afraid to be happy
…enjoy what is beautiful.
Love with all your heart and soul.
Believe that those you love, love you.

When you are faced with decision,
make that decision as wisely as possible,
then forget it.

The moment of absolute certainty never arrives.
And above all, remember that God helps those
who help themselves. Act as if everything depended on you
And pray as if everything depended on God.

~ SH Payer