by reallyjake » Mon Feb 02, 2015 3:23 am
I certainly agree with many of my fellow posters that success is not acquiring and having physical possessions. For me, success has two very different dimensions. First, I am absolutely crazy about classic opera. When I am able to attend an outstanding opera with a friend who feels as I do about opera and we share the excitement and ecstasy of watching opera together, that is the height of success for it also brings my friend and I much closer emotionally to one another. I have worked in the Philippines off and on over the years and have occasionally seen an opera in the Philippines but I have almost always gone by myself. Then I would feel a bit sad for easily 90 percent of the opera goers attend as a part of a couple. The second dimension of success for me is much different than the first dimension for it is largely an individual success. I like to research and write, but while I would never, ever mention to friends that success for me is to have my writing accepted for publication and then see the title of my publication in a journal or on the front of a book, in actual fact that makes me quite happy for I have achieved success after months, weeks, days, and hours of work. The two dimensions of success for me do come together when that very close opera friend runs up to me and says "I love what you have written" and then says something to the effect as "your writing is lovely, as lovely as those operas we so much liked going to see together".