There is no activity more thought-provoking than reading. I’ve recently read Erik Larsen’s The Demon of Unrest. It is a marvelous account of 1861 and the days preceding the Civil War. This history crisply tells the tale of the people of Charleston, S.C., who were at the core of the secessionist movement with Fort Sumpter sitting in their harbor. In this telling, Larsen dissects the pre-Civil War south and Washington, D.C. much as he did 1941 England in his work, The Splendid and the Vile.
This got me thinking about the relative nature of victory, of success. I had most often assigned success as, at worst, a semi-permanent status. Somewhat like a high school diploma or an athletic letter. I’ve earned it, I’ve got it and no one can take it from me. The more I read, the more I realized success can be a most transient entity.
