trial is useful

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through the experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. -Helen Keller.

I am intrigued by who said this quote.  I think it is a nicer version of "That which does not kill you, makes you stronger." -Friedrich Nietzsche


When searching for this quote's originator I ran across this article:

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Weaker

So like many other sayings there are two sides to every thing.  

The curious thing about all of this is that every single person in the world experiences trial. Think about it. Life begins with being squeezed out of a teeny tiny dark wet space and doesn't always improve after that. Ever doubt that life can be messy, turn on the TV to the "Death and Destruction Hour" better known as the News. I still remember as a kid touring the FBI building and they had a light that blinked every few seconds representing the number of murders happening each day. I heard they took out the exhibit since it was always on. (This may be rumor but I wouldn't be surprised.) I know when one of my kids lived in Washington DC I learned the the murder rate is higher there than in the Middle East war zone. Crap happens. So do the strong survive or is it the luck of the draw? Doesn't matter in my opinion, it depends on what you do with it. I posted a while back a story that represents this idea:

The Potato, Egg and Coffee http://weareone-ruth.blogspot.com/2010/09/potato-egg-coffee.html

I continue on in my journey to figure out how to use what I have learned and the talents I was given to make this world a better place.  I remembered this poem and hunted it down.

The Bridge Builder

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,
"You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You've crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."

Will Allen Dromgoole     

The news attest to many that choose to add to the misery of the world.  I choose to be a builder.  

I like what Ghandi's grand daughter remembers:

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.

Indira Gandhi

What can I build today?