Racimo con Brio: Make the Most of Life

By Victoria Racimo Thursday, January 07, 2010

No matter how you said goodbye to 2009 in those closing seconds – no matter how you entered 2010, I want you to give thought to these wonderful lines from the book “Divisadero” by Michael Ondaatje (“The English Patient”):

“Everything is biographical,” said painter Lucien Freud.  (Yes, Freud’s grandson.) "Why we make, why we draw a dog, who it is we are drawn to, why we cannot forget. Everything is collage, even genetics. There is the hidden presence of others in us. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border we cross.”

As we enter 2010, (barely a week old), and as we desperately try to hold fast to our resolutions and commitments to do better, be better for ourselves and others, I’d like you to think about that quote and remember that you are the result of so much that went before, whether related by blood or otherwise. You are the product of all those whom you’ve loved and continue to love, of all that went before. All has been passed on to you in one form or another, in learning and living.

Many ways have been paved for you. By all this, you have inherited enormous wealth.  You will honor the goodness of these ancestral gifts by remembering them as you head into 2010. The future can’t fail. If you see a grassy field, make a path and take someone’s hand. If you come upon a mountain, put on boots and make the climb. White water 1-5? Say yes.