A few weeks ago, Florence compiled an amazing selection of insightful quotations, which we printed on fancy paper (“handmade deckle edge lokta bark paper” – made in Kathmandu, delivered to my doorstep by Amazon). Over a couple of weeks, I brought them into the office, about a hundred in all - where they found a home in our sunlit pantry overlooking the Hudson River. We nicknamed the orange blown glass bowl in which they sit the “Cornucopia of Random Inspiration”, a BlackRock “Easter Egg” referencing our super cool CoRI Index (Google it).
My friend Zaida Guadalupe and I have been encouraging everyone to take one or three, for themselves or a friend. Granted, quotations printed on pretty paper are not going to be life-altering, but we thought – given May is Mental Health Month - it might be a tangible reminder that it’s ok to pause and reflect on what your inner voice is telling you as you make your way through the work day. It has been a rewarding exercise to see people taking pictures of quotes and sending them to friends, grabbing one to read while getting coffee, or pinning one at their desk.
Always give without remembering,
and always receive without forgetting.
One of my favorite Cornucopia quotes is “Always give without remembering, and always receive without forgetting”, by Brian Tracy, a motivational speaker. I love how economically it calls out our fundamentally self-centered orientation to life. More often than not, our instinct is to “give without forgetting” and to “receive without remembering”.
By rearranging two words in a nine word phrase, Tracy not only challenges the transactional mindset with which we typically engage others, but prompts a deep yearning to be treated the way we rarely treat others, a result which, for me, generated an internal conflict which called for resolution.
As a result, I’ve been thinking about this.
A lot.
Eventually all that thinking found its way into an essay, a Deeply Boring exclusive, which you can read here.
- J