20110618

Clarence and Dads

A quiet legend died today. Clarence Clemons, lead saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen had a stroke a few days ago and passed away today.
You could say that Bruce Springsteen's music influenced me a bit growing up. I got to do a history project my junior year and chose The Boss as my topic. Apart from his major hits, I listened to a fair amount of his discography. It was all interesting, but I especially loved his The Rising album released in 2002. There was also a quote I found and have loved ever since.
"Some people get a chance to change the world, and other people, they get a chance to make sure the world don't fall apart."
Springsteen said this quote when he was discussing his father back in 1980. I think its a great quote and its partially relevant because Fathers Day is tomorrow. I think The Boss got it right when talking about dads, especially his own. But its a great describer of my dad too.

20110607

Success

Success is measured differently for everyone.
At the beginning of the season, I presume I'll be measuring Arsenal's success by the number of trophies we'll win. By the end it's how much further ahead of Tottenham we are.
Some people measure it by how happy they feel or how much money they're making.
I could choose to measure my success like those some other people and I would be successful in those standards. But I choose to measure my success in smaller, much more meaningless ways.
Success may be running a few seconds faster. Or not running into a doorway or tripping over my feet. Or finding one of my favorite colors of Gatorade somewhere I didn't expect to find it.
Today, success was measured by dinner. I didn't burn my mouth on the macaroni tonight. Therefore, I was successful because last time I ate that, I didn't taste much the next day. Who knows what success will look like tomorrow...
What does success look like for you?