Failure

My friend Julia gave me a one-a-day desk calendar for Christmas. It has inspirational quotes. She has the same one; the idea being that when we would read the daily quote, we'd not only feel inspired, but also think of each other. Nice, huh? She's like that.

Anyway, so far it's worked. However, something happened on Tuesday morning which made me pause for more than thought. Tuesday's quote was:

"Failure is Impossible" ~Susan B. Anthony.

No offense to Ms. Anthony, but I was not inspired. In fact, I immediately thought of cases where failure itself was not only possible, but giant, flame-loads of it had come shooting out of my ears. Some work assignments I've had this past year. That time I moved to Japan. My last relationship.

In fact, sometimes, I'm pretty sure I'm walking around with a big FAIL on my forehead.

Then I thought about it awhile longer: perhaps that failure was only IN my head, not on it. When I reflected on my percieved failures, I see upsides. I _love_ Japanese food. Because of my year, I have earned an ease with chopsticks and sushi houses that amazes (or intimidates?) a string of terrible dates. I've learned a slew of things that, without failure, would've never known.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the times I've truly failed, were actually, kind of, WINS. I guess I can see what Ms. B is driving at - failure IS impossible depending on your perception.

So, while I still disagree, perhaps her quote just needs to be tweaked a little bit:

"Failure is necessary". ~Mtanga.

////Tomorrow I'm hoping for a less thoughtful, more instructive quote, such as "Don't eat that entire jar of pickled asparagus." In which case, though, it might be too late.