Greetings,
Today I write some random reflections about the necessity of accepting oneself in navigating human relationships.
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not to beat others.
—Ayn Rand
✏️ On self-reliance
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
It has taken me a good 28 years to realize that the ability to manage oneself and one’s relationships is the crucial and deciding factor that determines so much of one’s fate. Yet there are few things more difficult in life than navigating relationships with other humans; they are a tangled and tense maze of desire, insecurity, ambition, power, friendship, expectation, and custom.
Doing so — being an adept navigator of human relationships — is tricky because you can’t win everyone over. Authenticity is essential in true human connection, and some people are just not going to like you. I find this the most difficult to accept: that two people can be like water and oil, and nothing be necessarily wrong with either of them. You can’t accept it unless you accept yourself.
I think its a battle that we all are fighting in our own minds: whether we are making the right choices; whether someone’s aloofness to us is evidence of some deficit on our part. But time and experience brings the realization that each of us has an Achilles heel. Each of us will find our tribe. This goes for friendships, relationships, colleagues, and partners — the right people are out there, they are just different for each person.
Lux et veritas.
Light and truth.
💡 Food for Thought
Behind every face there is a secret life.
🔗 Sunday Best
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 2nd Movement
Played by Khatia Buniatishvili
After 30 years of work, Tarantino finally found him
The story of Christoph Waltz
How did Christoph Waltz go from unknown to star? In this video, we explore how Quentin Tarantino cast Waltz as Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds, creating one of cinema’s greatest villains. We also dive into their evolving collaboration, including Waltz’s unforgettable role as Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained. Discover why this actor-director duo is pure Hollywood magic!
Kingdom of Heaven | Jerusalem has come
A classic film.
I don’t feel particularly proud of myself. But when I walk alone in the woods or lie in the meadows, all is well.
—Franz Kafka
See you next week!
AT