Sep 27 2008
Use It Well
When I earned my doctorate–when all the work was over and I could finally announce to everybody that I was done–a lot of colleagues congratulated me, with cards, happy e-mails, etc. But one e-mail in particular has stuck with me all these years. A fellow teacher congratulated me, but then, on a separate line at the end, he told me to “Use it well.”
As a Harry Potter fan, I couldn’t help linking that line to the first book, when Harry is given his father’s invisibility cloak as a gift, for he is told the same thing: “Use it well.” And that is exactly what Harry does, using it to find out the truth in various books.
Over the last few days, the phrase has returned to me, running through my head, especially as I watch all the political stuff going on in Washington–as well as the presidential debate, etc. And I look at the two presidential candidates, and all I can wonder is why anyone would try so hard for such a tough job. Yet I also find myself aching to send a letter to both of them, telling them that, whatever their strengths, I hope they “use them well” to solve this country’s significant problems.
Where is all this going? Back to myself, of course (when do I not talk about myself, eventually?). It’s no good to feel as if I have talents, and it’s useless to take any pride in them, if I don’t USE them well. Playing piano is AWESOME (I’ve been playing obsessively, lately, too), but having the church to play for, every Sunday, motivates me in ways I never imagined. I find myself practicing and practicing, knowing that my work on it will likely have a significant effect on the service.
Writing is the same. I’m not writing for my own glory, or for money, or out of pride. I want my skills to improve, not so I can feel superior, but so I can make a difference through my writing. My aunt Leilali read my first novel, and her comments are the ones that keep me motivated: she told me reading my novel changed her life. Really, that’s what she said. And I realized that this effect is precisely what I write for. I don’t want to just make a vacuous story that provides entertainment but nothing substantive. I want to change lives.
I’ll never be the president. I have neither the intelligence for such a job nor the capacity to handle such pressure. But I can use the talents I’ve been given for something real, and I can make a difference. I use them every day to help my children grow and learn and reach for their own life-changing potential. As my kids figure out what they have within themselves, I hope they learn to do what I am striving for right now: I hope they take each talent and “use it well.”
definitely not a job I’d want!
The presidency, I mean
I do think you’re over estimating the intelligence required though … I have no doubt that you have more than ’nuff… probably too much more 
Raising kids to use it well is every bit as important.
That’s what I want from my life: to have made a difference to the good.
Sometimes, I’m not so sure. Today was one of them, but somewhere, somehow, it’s important to me that the world was a better place, however slightly, because I was here.
I only have to make it better for one person somewhere for it to be true, though I strive for more, but I need to know that I did it.