There are a great many lessons on life to be learned from the world around us. Last summer while traveling through the swamps and everglades of the Florida peninsula I was impressed by the fact that from out of the muck and mire of the teeming swamp king the most breathtaking trees and flowers. Where they were, rooted in the steaming filth of the semi tropical jungle, yet reaching up to the heavens, gloriously beautiful, refusing to bend back down to the darkness that had given them birth. Sometimes in life we meet people like that, people who have had none of the advantages of life, people who were born into unhappy homes and surrounded by misery and evil throughout their formative years. And yet, like the flowers of the jungles in the swamps, they refused to bend back down to the mire from whence they came and instead fought their way up through the darkness to the sunshine above. I admire such people so very much for they must surely have greatness of heart. They must certainly have incredible courage and a deep and abiding love for beauty. And above all, they have self-respect, without which they would most assuredly sink back to the gloom that surrounded them at birth. I have known such people and they have enriched my life beyond all measure. They give courage and faith. They give dedication and beauty. They underline the fact that truly there are extraordinary possibilities in the ordinary man.
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