Pearls? We have pearls of wisdom, pearls of joy, pearls of yesterday and of course pearls of the crown. Which one it matters not; all connote a certain essence of value. Something worthy of consideration, thought or even just endearment. We all recognize that certain things have a universal value and all agree that these things are worthy of collecting, savoring, protecting, enjoying and as many other verb “-ings” as there are pearls. I think you’d agree that to ‘to each his own’ is completely valid but some things are ‘to each and everyone’ valuable, an example would be his own life. Now granted, some more than others but this is universal. No?
I think we should a thought to realize that pearls come from actions taken, the lessons learned from hard work on one’s life or the hard won interest of another who has shared their personal lessons of life. In the animal world it is only the human being who can learn vicariously. I don’t even need to see it, I can hear or read about it and receive that pearl and make it my own. Pearls can be so easy to come by that, I really believe in this day and age that they have become of little or no value. I find myself on Instagram, as an example, catching pearls by the second; one after the other. What could I possibly do with them all? Well, I save them of course; for the day that I can use them. When? I Don’t know.
What I have come to understand though is that a person needs to be in a certain place in life to be able to see what it is that is ‘staring him in the face’ or ‘find what he’s been look for’ or ‘receive a piece of the puzzle’ and know what to do with it. I’m not even sure my library of pearls are really pearls if I can’t use them now. But, oh how I love it that people are tossing them about all the day long.
Enter…..’the pigs’. Boars, sows, piglets, hogs, you know swine. If I was to take a literal pearl, a tiny white ball from an oyster, and place it on top of the hogs food he would not hesitate a split second suck it in the front end and wait for it to pass out the back end. Not the slightest thought for it, nor would he go looking for it afterward realizing it may have had some value.
It took me a long time to learn about pearls to pigs. Sure I understood the concept and meaning but long did it take me to learn what a pig was. My goodness, upon the revelation I thought I was stupid. I have been investing heavily in anyone who would hang around and show signs of interest. What I learned is that most everyone will be cordial and gracious at least at face value. I would spend my time because I thought I was reaching someone who cared and it would turn into a worthwhile effort.
After years of this one day here a few years ago I was listening to a fella by the name of Dan Pena. You can go check him out, I do recommend that you do. He is quite vulgar but STRAIGHT forward and pulls no punches. Basically, what he said, was “you’re all soft. You’re not going anywhere because you’re all sissies. All of these guys you see who have made it are tenacious and elbowing people out of the way to get where they did.” There is quite a bit of latitude in my quotation there purposefully not to be as vulgar. He says it a lot better. In any case, I realized I was pissing around with people who were not going to go anywhere no matter what came to them. They could get a whole wheel barrow of pearls and it would not make one iota of difference. I would encourage, train, coach, teach, demonstrate and still they would do nothing. I did all of this believing that they would see the light and join me in going on to a greater life.
Pigs. Everyone of them, at least for that moment with me. I hate to be or sound judgemental about such things but there have been soooooo many that the evidence is overwhelming in my position. Seemingly from Dan’s point of view and quite a few others. We are never not looking for good people but now I am looking for that person who is passing me up on the row I hoe. No more so I stop to look because there is a warm body in proximity. If you’re going somewhere worthwhile I will see you appear again and again later on. With you I will go the distance!
If you’re out there going at it, look for two kinds of people only. The one’s getting behind you and what you’re doing or the one passing you up doing what you doing and go help him. You both will be blessed
Go hard into your future, now!
Greg