Some Thoughts on Personal Best
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. Remember that phrase? If you attended a Catholic secondary school or are familiar with the writings of St Ignatius, the translation, "All for the glory of God," was immediately pulled from your temporal lobes. While the poetry of his enjoinder is beautiful, I come from a marginally religious family and despite my education and exposure, my father's often operatic demand for personal best, trumped St. Ignatius every time. The message, however, coming as it did from two directions, was internalized and the quest for personal best became part of who I am. I rarely dwell on it these days, but a recent chance encounter set me to thinking about it again.
