“The Fourth Best-Kept Secret of Total Success is that a large vocabulary – which implies broad, general knowledge – characterizes the more successful persons, regardless of their occupations.” –Denis Waitley
George Mason University, circa 1995-1997.
One very early memory I have of me grappling for mastery over the English language springs from my time as a 9-year old grade-school student at Brent Elementary in Washington, D.C. There, instead of some useful, conventional language like Spanish, Japanese, or even Russian, we “gifted” but disadvantaged inner-city children of heterogeneous stock were vigorously encouraged to study the roots and origins of our own native tongue, “Old English !”
“Why not Ebonics or Bantu ?”
Today, I am so very glad nobody from the multicultural or ethnocentric sects of teaching and education appeared to raise any kind of an objection to us colored kids learning the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons, spoken in England from c. A.D. 400 to c. A.D. 1100. For if they had, I doubt very strongly I would’ve gotten this far in life.
Questions about my Wisdom.
- Are you honest with yourself and others? How would two persons who know you well answer?
As an Objectivist, I must always be brutally honest with myself and with others : My philosophy requires that I view “honesty” as a two-way street of civilized interaction.
To say, “Why should I be honest to a no-good, lying, cheating, stealing piece-o’-shit and sorry excuse for a human-being like this asshole !?”
People with real integrity who are always 100% honest with me will receive both honest action and righteous acts in return.
But dishonest people, like these two hypothetical friends of mine who’re duplicitous, full of deceit, and supposed to know me very well here as a result, don’t deserve as much as honorable conduct or “truth-in-advertising” from me.
- Do others trust you completely? Recall one instance in which you proved yourself trustworthy.
Other people’s trust in me is predicated upon their very own trustworthiness to others :
Remember the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” ?
Well, in my case it’s more like the words from that song Prison Sex by Tool : “Do unto others what has been done to you !”
“Trustworthiness begets trust !”
For example, only last week a bunkmate of mine here at Jason’s International Youth Hostel declared to me that he was going to vacate the room and move into his very own apartment in town but not to tell anyone else since he wanted a friend to inherit his precious bottom bunk.
“Your secret is safe with me,” I assured him.
Now if my then bunkmate, Mike-D, had been any more of a duplicitous fellow I might have leaked word of his pending departure to someone I got along better with, thereby torpedoing the arrangement Mike-D was making for his friend in room 6B-1.
But I didn’t.
People who know me and know I wouldn’t trust them under these philosophical terms should know better, and should, therefore, never realistically expect for me to be reliable or trustworthy in any way, shape, or form to them in return.
- Are you going where you want to go, doing what you want to do, and becoming who you want to become?
- If you could live your life over again, who would you be?
If knowing all of what I now know and allowed to retain all of the Wisdom I’ve acquired over the past 43-years of worldly existence, then I’d only want to be myself all over again. I mean, how could I not want to come back as a harder working, more dedicated, and a much more ideologically committed African dictator like another William Sherrick Duncan-Binns would no doubt be? “I’m President of Liberia for life !”
- Are you making the best use of your real talents in your profession? How will you find expression for those talents?
“Whatever the circumstances of your life, the understanding of type can make your perceptions clearer, your judgments sounder, and your life closer to your heart’s desire.” –Isabel Briggs Meyer
Near the very end of the 1980s (around 1989), and after the beginning of my second military enlistment, the U.S. Navy had me undergo a complex personality assessment test known as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
My results?
That, either through nature or nurturing, I had become an INTJ personality type : (I) Intuitive; (N) Introspective; (T) Thinking; and, (J) Judgmental.
In other words, I have the personality type of a Roman Emperor, a medieval king, or an African warlord.
Boy, am I underachieving !
“Much of the frustration, depression, and restlessness in society is related to aptitudes that are not being used or properly expressed… [We] need to learn what we are ‘good at’, rather than try to model our lives after individuals who possess completely different talents from our own.” –attributed to Joseph O’Conner (Human Engineering Laboratory)
Great blogging requires a good deal of independent study (reading), research writing (journaling), and thorough self-examination (introspection). Therefore, blogging, along with chess and a few of my other “hobbies”, allows my talents and my aptitudes to find useful expression in my everyday life.
And I am content.
- What are you doing to expand your vocabulary and your knowledge? Which of these will you do next week :
*Obtain a library card?
I’ve had a library card since before age 8 or 9.
*Buy or borrow a book and begin reading in an area of your interest?
There are dozens of books at a time I am always simultaneously reading in one area of solid interest : 7-books on chess alone !
http://www.librarything.com/home/DuCannibis
*Start a vocabulary-building program?
Tuesday, 15 January 2013 : I was able to buy this dictionary on sale from Walmart for $3.97 !
The good news is that I’m always working to expand my English vocabulary and word knowledge. It’s second-nature to me !
Hopefully, someday soon, I will be able to say the same thing about Spanish.
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