Open the Doors

Good Morning from New Hampshire!

That's right, dear readers, I'm in New Hampshire!  Following yesterday's report, I took off to the granite state in order to support my beautiful, talented sister in her quest to become the Miss of it!  Tonight marks the first of the three night event, but that doesn't mean I'll leave you reportless... Just that the report will come later in the day, apparently.  (I embraced the opportunity to sleep in.)

Yesterday's report garnered a great deal of response throughout the day.  One reader offered an interesting article on the South African perspective, while also noting the increasingly prohibitive cost of college that demands a certain degree of realism.  Another observed that, beyond the misspelling of "political scientis," how many Political Science majors do we know who go on to be whatever a political scientist is?  Johnny A, Investment Analyst, gave a very analytical (and mildly snarky) approach, including a similar piece from the Wall Street Journal with a much more dynamic and interesting to play with sorting system.

However, the piece that is going to compose much of today's report is not by any member of our readership.  From my nightstand at home in New Hampshire, I was browsing through a handful of old notebooks (English Major!) and stumbled upon a piece of poetry written by a friend almost seven years ago.  Given the impassioned responses to yesterday's Report, I felt that this piece would be an appropriate one to share as the report today.  Here it is:

Open the doors before you, around you-

Venture onto the path you feel is right,

Not necessarily the one less taken-

Not necessarily the one travelled by so many-

Choose the path in time that is your own direction.

Open the many doors not with fear,

But with the confidence that so many dream of having with each turn

From one knob to the next.

The one to guide you when ready to take on the world.

Continue to face all that is to come

With the excitement once held as a little boy.

On that snowy Christmas morning several years ago

Or when meeting your new invisible friend Bob.

Do not become discouraged
If what you do discover is a pair of red hand-knitted socks

From your aunt who loves to pinch your cheeks til they become

A nice rosy red,

Or a simple pair of grey long johns with its own back trapdoor, or,

If and or when you finally discover that Bob has not spoken

Or understood English as long as you've known him.

Even so, Bob's been there through the happy and the sad.

Just one of the many remarkable doorways.

Make all that you can of THE path-

The rocky, the smooth, the sunny - the path so challenging, so incredibly worthwhile.

Accept the challenge-

Become stronger within

Know this
Accept this

Welcome it.

Constantly grow and learn with eagerness.

Discover your place.

Reach high.

Discover yourself.

Make a life completely filled with the abstract-

Happiness

Peace

Love

Pride

Confidence

Friendship.

Allow your set of delicate wings to spread in all their glory

To lift you freely off the path-

From your cocoon-

To soar, high above the bustling world, again,

To soar, to venture forth into your life's choices-

The ones most desired.

Continue to fly.

Bob won't mind.

Oh, yeah, don't forget to wear your red hand-knitted socks

And pinch your aunt back.  Why not!

-September 7, 2005

A lovely and related piece of poetry for an April day.  The past reaches forward and finds our present problems and reminds us that we knew things once that we forgot, or the present reaches back and pulls things from the past to remind us.  Serendipity.  Why not!

And for those who are more visually minded:  Explore like this, enjoy like this.

Til tomorrow, where we will have news of the first day of pageantry and reflections of childhood wonders.

Happy World Intellectual Property Day!