An early happy birthday to you! It's so important to start each new year off with some kind of intention. It's cliche to say but this time moves so swiftly and this life can change so quickly.

This is the passage from the daily reader I was telling you about, "365 Tao", for your day...

Accountability

A father without a father
Has difficulty balancing.
A master without a master
Is dangerous.

We look up to our parents, our teachers, and our leaders with trust and expectation.
Their
responsibility is to guide us, educate us, and even make judgments on our behalf when circumstances are uncertain. Ultimately, they are to bring us to the point where
can make our own decisions,
based on the wisdom that they have helped us develop.

But the potential for abuse and mistakes is very great. What person can be right all the time? A simple lapse at the wrong time can cause confusion, psychological scars, and even great disaster.
Harsh words during a child's impressionable moments can engender years of problems. That is why we need a parent for the parent, a master for the master, and leaders for the leaders. This prevents errors of power. In the past, even kings had wise advisers.

Every person who would be a leader should have such assistance.
Eventually, someone has to be at the top. And who will that person turn to? Let us invoke not deities but pragmatism. It is experience that is the ultimate teacher.

That is why wise people travel constantly and test themselves against the flux of circumstance. It is only in this way that they can truly confirm their thoughts and compensate for their shortcomings.

I officially become a "pensioner" this year and get my first check from the company I worked for for over twenty years in July. That's so freaking strange to think about.