Michael's Corner

Daily writing prompt

When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

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We have developed instruments and methods to measure inches and miles, nano seconds and centuries, the speed that both light and sound travel. More impressive, astronomers have gauged that the universe is expanding faster than first estimated. It impresses me that we have developed the capability to measure everything under the sun and beyond. But what barometer do we use to measure success? I looked everywhere; I emptied my junk drawer, tore apart the cellar closet that houses all sorts of odds and ends that have been accumulating for decades. I can’t find it!

Wait, what’s that you say: No one has developed an instrument that measures success? Success is a matter that’s purely subjective and cannot be measured? Well, you could’ve told me that before I went and tore the damn house apart! Okay, I had my fun; thanks for bearing with me.

Many years ago, when wheeling a shopping cart through a supermarket—my 18-month-old son is sitting in the upper part of the cart with roving and intelligent eyes—an older man approached me and said, “You’re the richest man in the world.” He walked away without uttering another word. Any words said in subsequence would have spoiled a moment of perfection. That is not to suggest that I am the personification of success, but, in that moment, I had a clearer grasp of a matter that’s often impalpable and idiosyncratic. And who knows, perhaps one day I’ll find myself having lunch and a drink with someone who will explain Bartok’s string quartets, James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, and at the conclusion of all the enlightenment, grab the check.