Title: The Majesty of Calmness Author: William George Jordan Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6911] *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS *** Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Charles Franks, and the Distributed Proofreading Team. The Majesty of Calmness Individual Problems and Possibilities... by William George Jordan (Author of "The Kingship of Self-Control") CONTENTS I. THE MAJESTY OF CALMNESS II. HURRY, THE SCOURGE OF AMERICA III. THE POWER OF PERSONAL INFLUENCE IV. THE DIGNITY OF SELF-RELIANCE V. FAILURE AS A SUCCESS VI. DOING OUR BEST AT ALL TIMES VII. THE ROYAL ROAD TO HAPPINESS I The Majesty of Calmness Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life self-centred, self-reliant, and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power,--ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis. The Sphinx is not a true type of calmness,--petrifaction is not calmness; it is death, the silencing of all the energies; while no one lives his life more fully, more intensely and more consciously than the man who is calm. The Fatalist is not calm. He is the coward slave of his environment, hopelessly surrendering to his present condition, recklessly indifferent to his future. He accepts his life as a rudderless ship, drifting on the ocean of time. He has no compass, no chart, no known port to which he is sailing. His self-confessed inferiority to all nature is shown in his existence of constant surrender. It is not,--calmness. The man who is calm has his course in life clearly marked on his chart. His hand is ever on the helm. Storm, fog, night, tempest, danger, hidden reefs,--he is ever prepared and ready for them. He is made calm and serene by the realization that in these crises of his voyage he needs a clear mind and a cool head; that he has naught to do but to do each day the best he can by the light he has; that he will never flinch nor falter for a moment; that, though he may have to tack and leave his course for a time, he will never drift, he will get back into the true channel, he will keep ever headed toward his harbor. _When_ he will reach it, _how_ he will reach it, matters not to him. He rests in calmness, knowing he has done his best. If his best seem to be overthrown or overruled, then he must still bow his head,--in calmness. To no man is permitted to know the future of his life, the finality. God commits to man ever only new beginnings, new wisdom, and new days to use the best of his knowledge. Calmness comes ever from within. It is the peace and restfulness of the depths of our nature. The fury of storm and of wind agitate only the surface of the sea; they can penetrate only two or three hundred feet,-- below that is the calm, unruffled deep. To be ready for the great crises of life we must learn serenity in our daily living. Calmness is the crown of self-control. When the worries and cares of the day fret you, and begin to wear upon you, and you chafe under the friction,--be calm. Stop, rest for a moment, and let calmness and peace assert themselves. If you let these irritating outside influences get the better of you, you are confessing your inferiority to them, by permitting them to dominate you. Study the disturbing elements, each by itself, bring all the will power of your nature to bear upon them, and you will find that they will, one by one, melt into nothingness, like vapors fading before the sun. The glow of calmness that will then pervade your mind, the tingling sensation of an inflow of new strength, may be to you the beginning of the revelation of the supreme calmness that is possible for you. Then, in some great hour of your life, when you stand face to face with some awful trial, when the structure of your ambition and life-work crumbles in a moment, you will be brave. You can then fold your arms calmly, look out undismayed and undaunted upon the ashes of your hope, upon the wreck of what you have faithfully built, and with brave heart and unfaltering voice you may say: "So let it be,--I will build again." --THIS IS AN EXCERPT-- The entire text can be found free of charge at http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04/mjcmn10.txt
Thank You...for a wonderful post! I'm in the middle of moving and it is indeed "one of the most stressful experiences in life". I never thought that I would find a calming experience on ET.
Nice "book", I like it. But it has this statement which cannot be true: "We are dependent for nearly half of our light and heat upon the stars. . . " The author(s) claim that the sun gives us about half our light and heat, and the stars the other half. That is ridiculous. When our hemisphere turns a bit away from the sun, we get winter for crying out loud. If that statement were true, then daylight would be about twice as bright as night, or night half as bright as day. EDIT: To prevent some bozo from pointing out the sun is a star so the author is correct, here is the sentance prior to the one above: "The great sun itself does not supply enough heat and light to sustain animal and vegetable life on the earth. "
TGregg, I am not sure what the advancement of science was in 1898, but I am willing to forgive the author his lack of astronomical knowledge seeing as how this is apparently not his field of expertise. -RLB
It's a good read, just that this particular instance of a glaring lack of observation stands out like a lone catholic at a traditional mosque.
I wish some of your moderator buddies were as lenient on the posters as you are on this guy. This has nothing to do with the advancement of science at that time. It just common logical sense as pointed out by TGregg. I am sure that even the ancient Greeks would know it was nonsense.
I've only just read the excerpt I posted here and only did that moments before posting, so no. I think though that it speaks to many of the issues brought forth in this forum. It also seems applicable to the act of trading since, in my own analogy, trading is comparable to athletics, which require a sense of calm and focus. As a 'life perspective' this excerpt has worth, but I think it most valuable when applied at the point of performance. I have once seen a television show dedicated to the study of brain activity in professional athletes. The study was performed on archers who, prior to aiming, have normal and relatively erratic brainwaves (think 8 foot swells on the Atlantic) but immediately preceding and during the act of shooting their target they register far calmer brainwave patterns (think of a placid lake). Call it 'in the zone,' low brainwave frequency, or the majesty of calmness, each describe the state of mind one needs in order to achieve peak performance. There are other aspects to this piece as well, but I have yet to investigate its content to its true depth - maybe my fellow ETers have some thoughts or interpretations.
That may be, but what is the point of the excerpt? Does the failure of the author on this issue somehow weaken his overall thesis? If so, please explain for I do not see the connection. Then again, I have not read the entire text so I may need a bit of enlightenment. All the best, RLB