Destiny v. Fate

Wednesday Word
6/29/2016

Destiny

Merriam-Webster: the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future; the hidden power believed what will happen in the future.

Quintessential Voyage: objectives assigned to your soul that require your physical being to shuttle you to and through in order to achieve it. The assignment of these objectives are determined by a greater power, beyond our comprehension. Those objectives are passing islands during your pre-plotted voyage of your life, it's up to you to explore and conquer these islands rather than letting them go by, you may pass them again or you may not.

Fate

Merriam-Webster: the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power; to be destined to happen, turn out, or act in a particular way.

Quintessential Voyage: events and landmarks that happen based on happenstance, the predetermined crash course of these events is unpredictable. How you react to each collision is the deciding factor in the realization of destined achievements or follies. Without control of these, you can simply prepare and brace for impact in order to create the best possible outcome for yourself.

Destined Destinations

Tuesday Take
6/28/2016

I was looking for a quote to help embody how I felt about destiny and fate... I was unsuccessful.

I'm working on crafting something about this... perhaps for Wednesday Word I can craft my own definition of these misconceived words. For right now I'll tell you that there's a certain amount of life that happens by chance, this is not calculable in a formula because of so many various variables.

If you believe you have a destiny that's great, but fate alone will not get you there. If you're meant to cross paths with a mountain, a challenge, or an experience, it's up to you to conquer it and overcome it, if you so deem fit.

Fate is the currents, the winds, all those forces that collaborate to get you in the situations for your destiny to become realized.

Destiny is the objectives where you are meant to be and conquer, but these things are not all given through coincidence or happen through force. There's a certain amount of finesse and strategy that going into achieving one's destiny, oh and don't forget the wisdom to know what is true.

Adventures for One

Monday Mountain
6/27/2016

While surfing the endless waves of the internet, I came across this image explaining the common depiction of the heart that we use and why it doesn't exactly match the anatomical representation of this blood-pumping organ. The image is actually meant to be two hearts coming together in order to symbolize love. See below...

Now here's the part where I tell you to not fall in love... Not just yet at least. I know last week I wrote about the heart and some of the functions of how it works, but the heart is built for the individual's use throughout their whole life.

Take this singular heart of yours and show it the world. Explore the places you've only imagined about or things you've only seen in pictures. Enrich your knowledge and wisdom through the experiences of the world. Develop your own understanding. Learn as much as you can about yourself. Travel, live, experience, grow, etc. So many things you should be doing with yourself, yet you're saving you for another while that version of you that you're saving goes stale. Those adventures you have with yourself create opportunities for you and your soul and your heart to be refreshed and enhanced and just better in so many ways.

Adventures for one allow for great stories. Going out and finding yourself in the world, whether you find it in pieces or as a whole, makes you much better at being the other half in a relationship. Be the adventurous one, explore and enrich and explain.

Explanations of the Heart

Thursday Thought
6/23/2016

• Love & Heartbreak

• Love works in an interesting way... In my head you find someone you like someone you enjoy spending time with and who you get along with, a person who causes minimal pain. This individual earns trust and affection, in time (dependant on the owner) the owner of a heart will decide to give them a piece of their own heart. This act of LOVE is great, if it is reciprocated, we often want to see a trade of heart pieces and beautiful endings. 
• Heartbreak happens when this person leaves you while keeping your piece, this is often a problem the owner puts on themselves. In other words, the person may offer the individual their heart back to them and the original owner either will not accept it or refuses to end the deal. Imagine the situation of a break-up like a reposession, a person takes their heartpiece back and the new "owner" fights to keep it, in the end the person initiating a break-up gets to keep the heart and theirs. There are those mutual break-ups but the blood on your hands from a return exchange never seems to wash off. 

• Love: Lessons of Better Spending
• Look back at your first love, you remember it? How awesome did it make you feel? How invested were you in that person? How much time did you spend with them? See where i'm going with this is when you're young (or new to love), you're willing to spend more and give them more than probably what they deserve. 

• Refer back to the point above, you gave this person a piece of your heart, in a percentage how much do you think you gave them? How much did you give that next person you fell in love with? Who got more? Chances are you probably have given that first person the most, the second even less, and each person after that you were more and more reluctant to invest and gift pieces of your heart. If you're married and you truly believe this is your life partner, the person you're going to be happy with forever, then I bet you that when you and them were dating you gave them more and more of your heart until eventually it was the most anyone's ever received and the best way you've invested it.

• Fiery Passion, the Heart - Source
• The heart is like an eternal flame. Pause for dramatic effect, cue your eye roll. I know it's cliche but think about this... You are working on something and plugging away, if you're truly passionate about it you are able to continue at it for days and weeks without wavering. I imagine the heart is a fire that burns to signal things like passion, love, happiness, etc. The flames change color. Those who are close to you can see it and interpret it and understand it. In order for somebody to get close to the flame, there are layers (like an onion, not a cake). Somebody has to get past each one into the inner rings. 

• Emotional Investment, a Debt Crisis
• There's an issue nowadays with investing and spending. Not just for cash money, but also for emotional spending. We are often spending more than we have and thus creating a loss in terms of return of investment. Between friends, family, and lovers/partners/significant others... Allocating the funds of emotional energy can be difficult and tough to spend adequately. You need to find people who will spend their energy with you, and thus creating a return of investment for you and a beneficial relationship for you both.
• Take a minute, imagine you're at the beach as a kid, building a sand castle with your toys. Now this stranger kid comes in to help you build this sand castle, they may or may not understand the sand castle you want to build but they're helping you by deterring the water, collecting piles of good sand, or even beautifying the structure. This other person is that lover/significant other that assists you in achieving your goals, they enable you and help you to achieve your goals even though my may not fully understand, they want the best for you. If you're a good partner, you will do the same for them when they start to build their sand castle.  

Hearty Passion

Wednesday Word
6/22/2016

Heart

Merriam-Webster: 

a hollow muscular organ that pumps the blood through the circulatory system by rhythmic contraction and dilation. In vertebrates there may be up to four chambers (as in humans), with two atria and two ventricles.

Quintessential Voyage: 

The metaphorical center of all human emotions, passions, and connections. This organ provides a figurative location where both fiery passion and fluid emotion come from in reaction to the external world. 

The heart intrigues me because it is used so often as a metaphor to explain as the center emotions and passions and character. It's interesting there's not math behind the concept and explanation of how the logical and emotional damages occur, there could be some metaphors to explain the same. I have been contemplating some ideas and figured I would list them for tomorrow's Thursday Thought.

Being Self-Driven

Tuesday Take
6/21/2016

"You will go farther by being determining your own path than if  you allowed someone else to tell you where to go and how to get there."

- Cole Cook -

I was talking to some of my cousins following the ceremonies at my Grandfather's funeral, the conversation shifted to where we were talking about finding our passions. Some of them have been directed by their parents most of their lives on where to go, what to do, and so on. I told them about how eventually one day I decided to drive myself and determine how I wanted to get to success. The words I wrote above flowed out of my mouth, and sometimes it's those improvised moments of wisdom that provide the carefully calibrated quote. This was beyond simple and I was surprised that I never heard it somewhere, or if I had I did not recall the place I came across it. 

In short, these words mean just what they say and should require little deciphering. If you decide to drive yourself and where you want to go, having more power over your own path allows better chances for you to be successful in your own definition of the words. If you allow someone else to dictate your path or what you should be and use their definition of success, then you will not get as far as you would like or feel as whole when you do get there. 

Drive yourself, you can enjoy the journey and you'll end up someplace you might love.

What Sweat Says

Monday Mountain
6/20/2016

There's something to be said about the sweat on someone's brow when they are hard at work. The intensity and the labor applied cause the body temperature to rise and as a result the body perspires. This perspiration speaks volumes to the effort and conditions the worker is willing to put themselves through in order to achieve the objective.

I try to practice the belief that you should let the sweat on your brow speak to the volume of your success rather than your words. It's not always easy to do so when you have a white-collar job, so in those instances what speaks about how successful you've been is the quality of your work and the diligence of your work.

Sweat, whether it is metaphorical or real, says what you have done, what you're doing, and the look in your eye says what you're going to do. Let's sweat in our work, leave those sweat stains at our desks and prove that we earn our keep. Sweat on your blade, into the fire, through the floods. Let the wind cool your body and ease your determined spirit.

My Eulogy for Grandpa Cook

6/19/2016

First thing I’m going to read is an excerpt from the Bible that Grandpa took to his heart, as he mentioned to my Dad. Throughout his life, he lived by this verse: Genesis 1:27-31

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” 
And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good.

In all of his actions lived the pursuit to subdue the earth and its materials. Although it was not always an outspoken objective, it was ever-present as a criterion for his success. For him it was not about doing a completing a task, but ensuring the task was left well-done and accomplished in the right manner. Hard work and good work, you could say. This practice lives on through his children, which in turn is taught to their own children.

Grandpa had ways of being a positive power in the world around him, for example he was always willing to help people, assisting so many in whatever ways him and Grandma could. He had this infectious happiness, you couldn’t help but smile and feel good about what’s going on with him around. He taught me so much about being warm, caring, hard-working, and a good man in every sense. I am eternally grateful for him to have taught those things to me, all without an actual lesson or lecture. Everything he instilled in me was through example and gentle nudging through small interactions and anecdotes. Each story and interaction built upon the last one, compiling to a seemingly never-ending wealth of experiences he would recall upon order to provide advice or wise tidbit.

He was one of the most influential men in making me into a man throughout my childhood. When I received the call around sunrise on Wednesday, I felt a significant sadness in his passing. Later that evening when my Dad and I embraced each other, it was in that moment when the feeling of sorrow was greatest. As all of us Cook guys do, we reacted by reminiscing through hilarious memories and valuable conversations held though out our past with him.

Mourning is a part of the process of us dealing with the death of a loved one. Everyone handles this process in their own ways. Mourning does not need to be filled with sadness, it's best to mourn by rejoicing in who they were and those pieces of them that live on through us. Let us rejoice in the life of Lewis Cook. Let’s cry as we need to wash away the sorrow and the pain. Let’s then speak about him so he is buried with a cloak of our love and warmth from our hearts and join me as we smile to express the impact that he had on our journeys in this world.

Mourning a Family Member's Death

Wednesday Word

6/15/2016

Mourning

Merriam-Webster:

A great sadness felt because someone has died, period of time during which the signs of grief are shown. 

Quintessential Voyage:

A great pain of someone's death, a pain in which deserves an appropriate response. Grievance is allowed, celebrations are preferred. 

Early Wednesday morning my Grandfather passed away. He was one of the most influential men in making me into a man throughout my childhood. When I received the call around sunrise, I felt a significant sadness in his passing. Later that evening when my Dad and I embraced each other, it was in that moment when the feeling of sorrow was greatest. As all of us Cook guys do, we reacted by reminiscing through hilarious memories and valuable conversations held though out our past with him. 

Mourning is a part of the process of us dealing with the death of a loved one. It's all about how you go about this process. As a young man, I have experienced several deaths of loved ones as we all do. I've learned through observations and experience it's best to rejoice in who they were and those pieces of them that live on through you and your fellow mourners. Cry as needed to wash away the sorrow and the pain. Then speak about them so that they are buried with a cloak of your love and warmth from your heart and smile to express the impact they had on you. 

Serenity Prayer

Tuesday Take
6/14/2016

God, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
Courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

As a believer, this prayer has accomplished in easing much built-up anxiety, depression, or fear in situations of my life where it all seemed out of control. 

Serenity Prayer has been in existence since the early 20th-Century, and surely it has helped millions of people over the years. I discovered this when a friend and boss recited it to me when I was concerned and overwhelmed by a long-distance relationship, a bleak future in an undetermined career, and an exhausted heart from caring too much without any return on investment. 

It's a quote that when you read it there is little impact. There's a certain way for this make an impact on you... Establish some privacy with a quiet and substantial distance from the busy and buzzing world... Close your eyes (or read the words off a piece of paper if you don't have it memorized) and bow your head... Recite these words while imagining all the problems and issues you have in your life around you... Upon the completion and slowly thereafter the recitation (sometimes you have to repeat it), you will feel the weight lift and a sort of divine wisdom flow over you. If you go into it believing it won't work, then it won't. If you believe or have an open heart, then you can find something peaceful afterwards. 

Rage Against Yourself

Monday Mountain
6/13/2016

You might have seen it floating around the internet, it's a picture quote. In this picture it reads something along the lines of, "If you don't let someone else talk to you like that, why would you do it to yourself?" This is obviously pertaining to the self-talk we have constantly in our lives, during these internal dialogues we critique, evaluate, and judge ourselves, often it is too harsh on ourselves.

There's nothing against self-talk. It's the ideal dialogue between you and yourself. A growing voice in society is encouraging self-talk to be positive, because it can have adverse effects on your self-esteem and confidence. As human beings with egos, they're sensitive and I would not advocate damaging yours in any way, however, I do believe you should have some sort of qualm with yourself. What some may call a chip on your shoulder, you need to have it with yourself.

This chip represents all of your ambitions and expectations of yourself. This is the vision of your future you believe in. It is the dreams and fantasies of who and where you want to be down the road. With this chip you have to keep yourself in check in order to achieve it. These checks come in the form of real selftalk... You have to keep it real with yourself.

What does one say to one's self during self-talk while keeping it real? For me it includes the following phrases:

• Are you kidding me about this? 
• Will this really accomplish your goals?
• Why don't you just finish it? Why don't you start it?
• Fuck you. You're slacking off. You're better than this.

And the list goes on. 

You should always be hard on yourself and reward yourself. Never settle for complacency. Expect more out of you than anyone else expects out of you. Call yourself out. It's amazing what you can do once you start looking at yourself without personal bias. Keep it real. Call it how you do it. 

Venturous Voyage

Friday Freestyle
6/10/2016

Push,
Slowly, anti-climactically,
I drifted from where my rope was tied,
Away from that bountiful land,
That place I lived for so long.

The time had arrived,
A point in my life to sail on,
Sail away from these known shores,
Growth from those crops were stunted,
New sources of nutrition were required.

As I waved to the loving farmer and his wife,
They each wept in my absence,
They quietly rejoiced for my voyage,
It was required for my destiny,
Required for me.

I sailed on beyond the observable horizon,
A calling cried out from there,
As well as from within my bones,
My heart beat like the waves against the boat.

Many lessons were learned,
Heartaches burned,
Maturity was earned,
And rhyming deemed unnecessary.

The Course continued un-plotted,
Voyaging onward and over the ever-far horizon,
Nourishment found upon each new found land,
Growth came with the completion of every feast,
Taller grown, bigger hearted, and holding a desire to be wiser.

On this journey across my oceans,
I began to see, what I should be,
Learned what I wanted to become,
Every day sailing, my own progress,
The steps and course become better known,
Finding where my current self and my desired self meet,
At that location, I will call home.

Importance of Storytelling

Thursday Thought
6/9/2016

Stories are a dictation of events over a period of time set by the narrator and the details edited by the same god.

There in lies an importance to tell a story. Well honestly, stories do not need to be interesting to be told, but they do need to be interesting to be heard. Telling a story well holds a great importance to those around us, allowing for them to understand our own epics told in bite-size portions. You can tell something truthful and then you can tell something fictitious, either way the listener should not be able to tell which is which until the narrator shows his hand. Least that's my belief.

A good storytelling is like a magnificent dinner party with an open invitation. As it begins, you hold a cocktail hour, socially acceptable to have people join in late purely based on their interest as it develops. Along with those intoxicating lines with barb hooks and bits, you serve delectable progression in bits and pieces with a little variety for every pallet. Next the service staff calls for every one to sit at the table for the main course, this is where the audience engorges on the robust meat of the plot and the nutritious descriptions and elements. Progressing through the night and into the story, this dinner party escalates in their excitement and enjoyment of the goings on. Once the plates from the meat and potatoes are pulled, there is a seemingly false sense of deescalation. In wheels the desserts, sweet and just what they crave to complete their experience. It's sweet purpose is to complete the meal with a figurative bow and leave them content with the whole event.

Good stories are about resonating with something that the audience has experienced or watched someone experience or dreamed about experiencing. Adventure. Romance. Horror. Etc.

In my ambitions, I greatly desire to write a story that makes the reader weep, chuckle, smile, rejoice, motivated, involved, and so many more emotions. It's too great to wish it be a perfect story, but if I can align words in the English language in order to entrance, envelope and amaze the reader, then I have done as I have dreamed to do.

Oral presentation of a story is a practiced art and a perishable skill. All the good ones do so on a regular occasion, creating the illusion of a natural gift. Writing a story of good worth is not so difficult or endearing as we wish it to be. Writing takes a certain amount of solitude, commitment, energy, and investment of time. In times alone, that is when I develop my greatest ideas and articulate most efficiently.

I encourage you to practice both of these forms of storytelling. It builds character to talk about a character doing things in their world. While you're doing that, do not forget to do things in your own world and develop your own epic worth telling in bite-size stories over the gradual consumption of beverages.

No Place for Complacency

Wednesday Word
6/8/2016

Complacency

Merriam-Webster: a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements. 

Quintessential Voyage: a false sense of security and inappropriate satisfaction with the performance of one's self in recent events; an often lethal feeling that allows the individual to be taken advantage of or robbed through lack of effort and innovation.

Complacency Kills. 

I've heard that phrase many times in my time as an Army officer. I had always thought of complacency as this sense of comfort causing you to become indifferent and unaware to the changing world around you. Upon looking it up in the dictionary, I had realized its definition is much worse than I had originally thought. 

It's a form of cockiness through idiotic confidence earned through trivial victories and accomplishments. 

Complacency is lethal to your goals and dreams. It's an injections of falsely earned confidence that slowly shuts down your drive one piece at a time, organ by organ. Think of it as "rewarding" yourself with Whataburger or Chick-fil-a after going to workout a few times in a week or taking a vacation after recently catching up since your last vacation. 

In order to avoid complacency, it is recommended you strive to keep yourself in perspective of where you are compared to world, and always remain hungry for your goals and dreams. Never settle and never feel like you've made it. Don't be proud. Work hard always. 

Turmoil of Tolkien

Tuesday Take
6/7/2016

"I do so dearly believe, that no half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien -

After researching into this quote I fell in love with earlier this year, it was discovered that it was not actually a quote from one of Tolkien's books. This was part of his commentary to Edith, his wife, I believe it came from a letter he wrote to her about her converting to Catholicism. Besides the true history of the quote, in true fashion the English language can be interpreted in many ways from its pure surface value when taken out of context and freed from nonverbal bounds. 

Let's break it down... 

In this quote, the beauty of it lies in the secular nature of those bounds... the half-heartedness and the worldly fear. Then it acknowledges the divinity of light and how it cannot be stopped. Sure, it sounds like I'm writing about religion. In reality, I'm talking about the nature of destiny and how you can live it out.

Nothing in the world should scare you enough to keep you from pursuing yourself.
Nothing for lack of effort from yourself should hold you back.
Everything from within should enable you to win your battles.
Everything around you can build you up to feel royal. 

Medication of Dedicaiton

Monday Mountain
6/6/16

I'm fed up with adequacy.  That sense of coasting is awfully comfortable, which feeds into either feelings of self-loathing or a feeling of decency. For me, I've fallen into a world of skating by and doing okay. It all started going downhill with a shoulder injury, as a result of this I have been out of lifting regularly for about 6 weeks. I'm anxious, getting out of shape, and feeling pretty pathetic all the time.

I don't need a freaking pity party. I've already done that for myself, it's called my intervention.

Yes, you too can intervene in your own bad habits and addictions in order to heal and have a better life.

I wrote this post about feeling sorry for myself because I have commit out loud and in writing to myself before I change my habits. It's a thing about dedicating your efforts and energy to your goals and to your growth. If you do not grow, you will wither and die.

After fighting a physical injury and internal ailments (beyond the organs), I woke up this morning and felt a need to change things for the better. Stop feeling sorry and feeling tired. Tell myself to shut the hell up. Go out and chase that positive energy. Grow and become better than I have been. It's time to pursue my best life. I will put doubts to death. I will rise higher than the sun. I will be stronger than ever before. Day by day I will lay the stones to build a wonder, through hard work, not being a sluggard and slumber.

Evaluate where you are and decide if you need to dedicate something to yourself. Are you achieving your goals? Are you growing? What does it take for you achieve? What are you doing that's helping you reach those goals? What are you not doing that's hurting your goal reaching-abilities?

I prescribed a Medication of Self-Dedication. Now watch me flourish.

Self-Appreciation

Thursday Thought
6/2/2016

Are you content with where you are?
Are you happy of who you are?
Are you proud of what you've done?

If you answered yes to at least two of those questions, then well done to you.
I would say yes to two of the three for myself, however the last question is definitely a no.

Pride is a part of self-appreciation, I believe it goes from valuing yourself into treasuring your attributes and accolades. Our parents, some friends, and the occasional superior in the workplace can either show or express their pride in who you are the reward they see from investing in you. It's a welcome feeling, other people's pride in you, it's a more valuable thing to be proud of yourself.

Turning myself into something/someone I can be proud of is the source of my drive and ambition. I am not proud of who I am, but I am confident and content in myself. I am not proud of what I have accomplished, because there is still more to do. I'm not going to tell you to feel the same way or you how to believe in yourself... that is entirely up to you.

Self-pride is not something I practice at this time in my life, because I know there is much more that I can accomplish. I have determined I am going to be successful (defined in my own way) in my professional career, personal relationships, physical development, and my overall life achievements. This is purely a conscious decision and not because of a destined fate. Success is rarely something that people fall into, it is stalked, hunted, and acquired through hard, continual work.

What will it take for my be proud of what I've done? That's the tricky part, I have an idea of prospective accomplishments in all areas. It is better to leave it as an outline for right now and lets the details reveal themselves through the opportunities that arise in front of me. There have been objectives that I have self-assigned, through striking those off of my list I can become someone to be proud of.

Ambivalence towards ambition?

Wednesday Word
6/1/2016

Ambition

Merriam-Webster:

A strong desire to do or to achieve something,  typically requiring determination and hard work.

Quintessential Voyage

A willingness to sacrifice frivolous freedoms and sweet sins in order to pursue a goal or task so that you may achieve the objective. 

Sacrifices for your passion or your goals is not always a bad thing. There are times when you give up freedoms to pursue something better in knowing you can enjoy the fruits of your labor in time. 

Do not sacrifice it all. There is a balance in life. Do not burn bridges, build wonders. Do not live on an island, live with loved ones. Ambition is about the fire that burns within. Utilize that fire to fuel your uphill journey, and display that fire to allow others to feel its warmth and find their own.

You can give up some liberties and joys for temporary time periods, but you must also find time to reward yourself for what you have already done. You must also work. Without work there is no reward. You do not deserve anything, you prove your worth and earn your keep.

I recently posted a picture on my Instagram, it talks about the costs of ambition. Listing several things that I agree with and some others that I don't agree with. The costs include long days, lots of associates/few friends, people lacking the ability to understand, being single, and the fact that nobody wants to see you surpass them so they'll only help you to a part. I currently lack much free time for anything beyond what helps me grow and enhance, for that reason I rarely hangout with my friends and I hardly go on dates. It's just how it goes... The true friends will be there the day you win and they'll answer the day you fall. 

A SEAL & a Scholar

Tuesday Take
5/31/2016

“A good peace, a solid peace, a peace in which communities can flourish, can only be built when we ask ourselves and each other to be more than just good, and better than just strong. And a good life, a meaningful life, a life in which we can enjoy the world and live with purpose, can only be built if we do more than live for ourselves.” 

- Eric Greitens -

The Heart and the Fist

This quote comes from one of my favorite books I read in college. I owe part of my ambition and fire to the inspiration that Greitens instilled in me through this tremendous memoir. It seriously opened my eyes to see there is something beyond myself. 

There is great pleasure in living for other people and helping them grow and become better. It's a wonderful thing to help someone out and to watch them grow from your nurturing and love. This quote comes with a lot of face value. Take it as it is. 

Does this quote provoke thought? What comes to mind when you're reading it over and over?