Opportunity comes in the strangest of serendipitous circumstances.
Stupid motivational books, the likes of which flood most corporate boardrooms, point to taking advantage of openings … moments that come around infrequently, moments we should seize.
Stupid motivational books, the likes of which flood most corporate boardrooms, point to taking advantage of openings … moments that come around infrequently, moments we should seize.
Lay in the cut just as Puzo’s Vito Corleone, the up-and-coming street urchin.
You remember the scene?
It’s beautifully filmed in the second installment.
De Niro as Vito waits in the hallway near Fanucci’s flat. Fanucci ascends the staircase, making his way up, up, up. Vito wraps an available piece of linen around the revolver, … after having turned the passageway’s only light bulb counterclockwise in order to obscure Fanucci’s view.
The contrast of colors is brilliant. The dark, hazy grey of the afternoon; Fanucci’s white, super-white suit draped by a black cape.
Of course, Fanucci notices the irregular lighting, and he turns to right the bulb.
The nimbus reveals Vito, who only moments before confronted Fanucci, the neighborhood thug, in an unprecedented way (it too is a great scene, but the final confrontation is by far my favorite of the trilogy). Fanucci receives a payback in the only currency he understands. Vito punctuates with a final turn of the pistol through the oral cavity that’d offended him too many times. Coppola is a genius.
The nimbus reveals Vito, who only moments before confronted Fanucci, the neighborhood thug, in an unprecedented way (it too is a great scene, but the final confrontation is by far my favorite of the trilogy). Fanucci receives a payback in the only currency he understands. Vito punctuates with a final turn of the pistol through the oral cavity that’d offended him too many times. Coppola is a genius.
I abhor violence, yet I am NO pacifist. Ain’t afraid to drop the gloves, as they say in hockey, if you want, fool. Hahahaha. But that’s not the point.
The point is Vito took the opportunity when it came. He could feel things changing around him, and this perceptive sense served him well throughout his fictional life.
I am attempting to feel my way through such experiences, attempting to address those moments as they arise.
In my experience, these moments come as a result of fidelity to fundamentals. Doing those things, even those one’d rather not do, EVERY day seems to create the necessary disposition to allow one to SEE those moments.
They’re the result of habit, of engagement.
In my experience, these moments come as a result of fidelity to fundamentals. Doing those things, even those one’d rather not do, EVERY day seems to create the necessary disposition to allow one to SEE those moments.
They’re the result of habit, of engagement.
I need to pay better attention.
And I mean it.
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checalaloskelsos@gmail.com
Craig Edward Kelso is the author of Anarcho-Capitalism (2014), a primer on the philosophy of peaceful, stateless cooperation. His curriculum vitae include a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from San Diego State University, and a Post-Baccalaureate secondary education credential in both Social Science and English Language Arts. Kelso taught for nearly a decade in the American public school system, and was voted by colleagues Teacher of the Year, twice in his short tenure, earning numerous accolades from chambers of commerce, mayors, state assembly persons, governors, congresspersons, senators, and even Wal-Mart. Currently he struggles to earn an opportunity to be employed, working as a laborer, dishwasher. He is deliriously happily married to Myra Kelso, living in Southern California with their adorable children.
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