…to shine amid the brightness. – Bruce Henderson and Sam Summerlin, The Super Sleuths
Bruce Henderson and Sam Summerlin (1928-2017) are American writers. Henderson has had a successful career writing books about history, particularly military history, while Summerlin had a long career as a reporter for the Associated Press before becoming an executive with The New York Times. Henderson served his country honorably in the navy, while Summerlin was the first to report the singing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, which ended the actual hostilities of the Korean War, though the war has yet to be officially ended. Summerlin would later say this was because he was still in his 20’s and weighed 125 pounds and was able to outrun everybody to the only telephone available to reporters in Pyongyang.
(This is one of the earliest quotes in our quotebook and we’ll be honest, we had to do some research to tell you The Super Sleuths chronicles a dozen or so history’s greatest manhunts.)
There is a lot of brightness in this world and there are a lot of people who make mere shining their purpose in this life. They don’t really care how; their main concern is shining bright enough so people notice them.
We must be careful though. Bright lights attract, but we cannot make shining merely for the sake of being brighter than anyone else our goal because once your moment passes and the lights find someone else to shine on you are left empty and hollow because your goal was based on outside influences and wasn’t rightly placed.
…to shine amid the brightness
The brightest lights come from inside us and we shine when we are making our time serve us and living the life we were put on this planet to live. Where this light shines is immaterial. It might shine in front of millions and shine for ages or it might only shine amongst our family and friends. It could be the light of an athlete at his very best in a moment he had long worked for, or the light of a choir director at a small church getting the most out of her charges and making them a bit better than they thought they could be.
It doesn’t matter. As long as our light burns from deep inside us, the life we were meant to live awaits us.
The Thought for the Day runs regularly. Gaylon began stockpiling quotes in 1988.
