06 November 2001
Today I want to discuss the smoke in Manhattan, you personal compass, and having something to lose.
I'm slack-jawed at the complaints of people around the world about the actions of the American military in Afghanistan. There is still smoke rising from the rubble at the World Trade Center.
Maybe someone thought that if they punched us really hard in the nose, we would just go home and enjoy our ice cream and leave them alone to do what they please. Geez, we're sorry if we every gave you that impression, because the truth is that we're going to have justice, on our terms and our timetable.
I'm going to New York this week, and I'm going to look at this place, and then I'm going to get angry again.
I know a lot of people who spend their lives trying to make other people happy. Often they do this at their own expense. Sometimes they even plan their lives around the expectations of others. This is a big mistake.
My kids are in college, and I watch them struggling to balance their growing awareness of their own personalities with their well polished awareness of what is expected of them by others. I realize that they should be listening to that little voice that speaks up when the path they're on is too far away from their own True North.
Some people sail away from their own compass. Alignment of your actions to your compass is the key to happiness. Find your compass, follow it.
The west coast is threatened with the destruction of suspension bridges. Large buildings have been damaged in New York and Washington. We are under attack by people who believe that if they destroy our things, they will destroy us. They are wrong. Attacking our things only strengthens our resolve to live like we choose.
We'll always have a lot to lose. There will always be someone who thinks we should be hurt.
The strength and value of our people is what gives us something to lose. We built those bridges and buildings once, and we can build them whenever we need them. Nature knocks them down, men knock them down. We just alter the world to suit our needs anyhow.
So here's how the game works. We put up nice things. Someone breaks them. We hurt them and fix the nice things. We have a lot more ability to create than our enemies have to destroy.
And we believe in our way of life, in a way that can't be destroyed by violence. There's never been a multi-cultural society like ours before. We're doing a great experiment here, and it's too good to abandon just because somebody else doesn't like it. This is special.