The Arte of Motivation

August 30th, 2010

“We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great.”

- Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lucy ‘Maud’ Montgomery was born in 1874 in the village of Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island, Canada. At the age of five Maud suffered a near-fatal bout of typhoid fever but otherwise was a healthy young girl. Her first published novel, Anne of Green Gables, was a resounding success with many sequels to follow.

Ideals are like toes: we need just enough to provide balance and stability to the two square feet upon which we stand each day. Ideals provide balance to our thinking: making sure we don’t lean too far in any direction while helping us to spring forward when the time and circumstances and people are right. They also make a stable foundation for our beliefs and actions: keeping us grounded in reality and steady in our approach to life’s challenges and needs. And like the ten toes that differentiate us from other creatures, our ideals hopefully differentiate each of us from others who never quite succeed. They’re what make us grand and great. Life would certainly be a sorry business without ideals or toes.

Arte Nathan

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