Character is a thing you do every day
Tim Dowling writing in The Guardian about the passing of his 102 year-old father (my emphasis):
I can’t tell you all the things I learned from my father, over my life and his, but I can tell you a few: that you can always make people happy with a story told against yourself; that self-esteem is great, but possibly overrated; that character is not your reputation, but a thing you do every day; that your only real enemy is fear, unless it’s a fear of heights, which is really just a specific form of common sense. And that as you age, a little caution is no bad thing.
I’m hoping my own dad, who turns 75 this year, will be around for a long time yet. But the reason for sharing the quotation is Dowling’s channelling of Aristotle, who can be translated as saying something like:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
One of the things I’m really appreciating on this holiday is the chance to reflect on my life. While my daily habits are productive and healthy for me personally, and helpful for my family, they’re very much focused on the short-term. I need to think bigger. Life is short.
