If You Want To, If You Have Something To Offer

You’re a student — whether the idea appeals to you or not.
You’re in love with knowledge.
And I think you’ll find, … you’re going to start getting closer and closer — that is, if you want to, and if you look for it and wait for it — to the kind of information that will be very, very dear to your heart.
Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior.  You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know.  Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now.
Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles.  You’ll learn from them — if you want to.
Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you.
It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement.  And it isn’t education.  It’s history.  It’s poetry…
I’m not trying to tell you, that only educated and scholarly men are able to contribute something valuable to the world.
It’s not so.
But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they’re brilliant and creative to begin with — which, unfortunately, is rarely the case — tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are merely brilliant and creative.
They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the end.  And — most important — nine times out of ten they have more humility than the unscholarly thinker.
—    J. D. Salinger
From:   “A Catcher In The Rye“
[This is an unusual “quote / excerpt” for me because I’ve removed some of the text and rearranged the sentences to “say” more of what I’m getting from the quote.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Give It Time
	Spending That Last Dime
2020	I Like The Feeling
	Everything I Hoped For
	Let The Landslide Begin!!
2019	Somebody’s Watching You
2018	First From Within
2017	Or Vote Against You
2016	Cupid Must Say It Too
2015	Some Of This And A Pinch Of That
2014	Consensus Is Only One Side
2013	Not Ought
2012	If You Want To, If You Have Something To Offer
2011	I See Lots Of Fools
2010	Orange Inside!!
	And The Band Played On…
	Happy New Year!!

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