Will the real you please stand up

In the movie "Breaking Away" released some years ago, the story centers on a young man from Indiana who has grown up in a community and in a home where stonecutting is the only way to make a living. He comes to a crisis in his life when he tries to decide whether to consider trying to go to college. His SAT scores are good enough, and his application has been accepted. But he has deep reservations and self-doubt.

Everybody in his neighborhood is either a stonecutter by trade or the son or daughter of a stonecutter. Typically, the sons and daughters follow in their fathers' and mothers' career paths. It is tradition. They never go away to college. They stay close to home and cut stones.

The young man's father takes him to the university campus one day, and they stand on the front steps of the administration building.

"I cut the stones that you see placed here to build this university, Son," the father says, with his arm around his boy's shoulders. "I'm proud of that accomplishment. I think I did a good job." His son nods and they look each other in the eyes.

Then his father offers, "But I'm a cutter. And I've been watching you. You're not a cutter, and you don't have to try to be one. You can be anything you want. Just find out what you really like and what you really want, and you can be different.You can stand up and break away."

And so he does.

It's one thing to tell yourself or have someone else tell you that you can break away from the same old rut. But it's another thing to believe that what you see is who you'll be and let it make a real difference in your life. I constantly get letters that say in effect:

Okay, Waitley, so my potential is tremendous. I don't have to live with all those limitations. I've heard all that before, but I'm stuck in the same dead-end job. What do I do first to get out of my rut? Do you know of any good positions for a person of my potential?

Such letters ask me to be practical – and specific. I don't know of any better way to do that than to respond, "Find out what you are good at."

A problem in today's society is that parents really have little opportunity to help children discover their natural gifts. Contemporary culture and lifestyle leave very little time to spend really getting to know children by watching them and working with them.

In the "old days" children often worked on the farm or in the family business right alongside mom and dad. Now they run from school to Little League to Brownies to dancing class and, finally, to bed. And about all that mom and dad get, if they are lucky, are brief reports on how things are going. In many cases only mom hears the grants of "Okay, I guess", as she chauffeurs the kids from one activity to another. Dad doesn't get home on the seven o'clock commuter until after they're fast asleep or in the middle of a sitcom.

Try a lot of things. Spend more money on experience and less on toys and other material possessions that are supposed to enhance life. Isn't it ironic that we spend more at Christmas on toys than we spend the rest of the year on giving our children interesting experiences? We try to buy their love with birthday and Christmas presents when we could give them the priceless gift of discovering the unlimited potential they have within themselves.

Your natural gifts are the key to fulfilling your potential for success.

Find your natural gifts. Develop them. Then use them to be the best you can be.

Poverty

Poverty is untested potential, resulting from self-imposed limitations.

Poverty is working a lifetime doing something you don't like, so you can retire and do something you like after age 65.

Poverty is having many acquaintances and not knowing any of them well.

Poverty is having so many clothes, you "haven't a thing to wear."

Poverty is eating so well you have to think about going on a diet.

Poverty is having every pill imaginable to cure your body's ills, because you "can't afford to be sick."

Poverty is being loaded down with toys at birthdays and Christmas, and then being bored silly because there's nothing to do.

Poverty is having three degrees and feeling unfulfilled in your job.

Poverty is having two cars, three TV's and a dishwasher, and then "roughing it" by going camping to "get away from it all."

Poverty is going, day-to-day from one building to the next and never stopping to see the beauty in the world outside. Poverty is spending money on make-up, deodorants, colognes and designer clothes, and still being worried about the image you are projecting.

Poverty is being white, healthy, middle-class and unhappy.

Poverty is never being curious about the world around you and never wanting to explore it or the people in it.

Poverty is as much of the soul, as it is of the body.

 

Comprehension Check

1.There are some difficult sentence structures in the text; make sure you see the inner connections in them to make out the meaning.

a) "But it's another thing to believe that what you see is who you'll be and let it make a real difference in your life".

Write the formula for the structure extending the infinitive "to believe".

There are two homogeneous members in the sentence. One of them is "to believe"; find the other.

Find the antecedent for "it" in "let it make a real difference". (Antecedent is a substantive word, phrase or sentence to which a pronoun refers. The antecedent is always to be found left of the substitute pronoun).

b) "Contemporary culture and life style leave very little time to spend really getting to know children by watching them and working with them".

State the functions of the infinitives and the gerunds in the sentence.

c) Pay attention to homogeneous adverbial phrases (from N to N to N to N) in the sentence "Now they run from school to Little League to Brownies to dancing class and, finally, to bed".

Translate the sentence into Russian and describe the means you use to retain the emphasis.

d) Present the structure of the following sentence in a formula: "And about all that mom and dad get, if they are lucky, are brief reports on how things are going."

 

2. Find the English equivalents of the following:

...пусть пробудится и проявится ваше истинное «я»;

...зарабатывать на жизнь;

... подходить к критическому периоду в своей жизни;

...у него имеются сомнения и неуверенность в себе;

…быть не таким, как все;

...ты можешь восстать против традиции и оторваться от привычной колеи;

... и пусть это по-настоящему изменит вашу жизнь;

...буквально следующее;

...вовсе не обязательно жить в непротивлении жизненным обстоятельствам;

... моя работа завела меня в тупик, я не могу выйти из него;

...в этих письмах меня просят дать практический совет, причем конкретный для каждого конкретного случая;

...но совсем другое дело поверить в то, что вы действи­тельно можете стать тем, кем вы себя представляете.

 

3. Find in the text words and sentences that say:

generally, ordinarily, normally to take up one's parents' career to change one's life style

it is easy to tell yourself... but it's not that easy to...

Spend money on being together, seeing together, doing things together

sad, paradoxical, ridiculous, absurd

...doesn 't get home before they are fast asleep

She drives the kids from one club activity to another.

 

Discussion

1. Retell the episode from the film "Breaking Away" (the one about the stonecutter's son who was brought up in the community where nobody breaks the set pattern of life). Do you agree that his "deep reservations" about going to college are due to a conflict between his devotion to the family tradition and his inner desire to choose a different road? What features of the boy's character enabled him to challenge the family career tradition?

2. What enabled the boy's father to understand his son's self-doubt and to encourage him to be different? (Quote the text). What did his father tell the boy when they were standing on the front steps of the administration building on the university campus? What do his words "a good job", "accomplishment", "proud" testify to?

3. Many people, in their letters, ask D. Waitley the question "What shall I do?" What kind of answer does D. Waitley give them? Why does he say that it's one thing to tell yourself or have someone tell you that you can break away from life routine, but it's another thing to do it?

6. Kurt Vonnegut, a modern American writer, said (in his book "Breakfast of Champions"): "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be". How do you understand it? Is this idea in any relation to Denis Waitley's "...what you see is who you'll be..." and to the title of the chapter?

7. Chapter 5 is concluded by a kind of appendix called "Poverty". For many people, the word "poverty" has one very definite and frightening meaning. D. Waitley introduces his own original interpretation of the word. Do you fully agree with him? Give you reasons if you don't.