The Greatest Danger Before You, by Granny D

In the end -- and it will end -- your life will seem to have sped by like a fleeting dream. Much of your story will be the age-old but ever joyful human experience: romance, family, satisfying work, and happy completion. I wish you a great fountain of successes. You will also be provided with all the failures and tragedies necessary to deepen and widen your soul -- sufficient, I hope, to make you wise and forgiving of all human frailties. I pray that these necessary troubles will never long crush your optimism nor your love for this magical life.

The greatest danger before you is this: you live in an age when people would package and standardize your life for you -- steal it from you and sell it back to you at a price. That price is very high.

You have already been selected for this program. You have its credit cards and designer labels already expensively around you. In the months ahead, you will find yourselves working long hours, too exhausted for community life or even good friendships -- too compromised to take a stand against the abuses of the system you serve. A great treadmill has been devised for you, and its operators do not care much if it wears you out or kills you. A system is in place to steal your life from you, if you will let it. Don't let it.

Read, study, meditate and think for yourself. Let your most serious education now commence, if it has not already done so. Refine and hold your own values, and pay the high price necessary to live those values. Decide what is important to you, and hold your ground against all temptations and tortures. From the pink granite of your own values, build a fortress against the world's ethical compromises, or you will soon be among those dead of eye who stand next to you in elevators but who are not alive. Don't let them steal your life. This is the only warning you will receive.

--Granny D

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Add Your Reflection

16 Past Reflections

Deepak

Jun 18, 2010

Thank you for sharing . Made me reflect about life .

Rosie Clarke

Jan 21, 2008

Wise and considered words. Thank you for sharing them - I think I'll print this out to keep by me.

philip joshua

Nov 25, 2007

Sir,
Tks for the article "The greatest danger before you". Simply wonderful. I sent it to my son.All youngsters should read it.One of the best pieces I have read in my life.Tks

Troy Massey

Nov 24, 2007

wow.

That E.mail has been the most real-to-life concept that I have read so far. Calling it out quite simply as to the everyday encounters along with the all to often forgot inevitabilities this human life requires.

This sort of simplification of life is needed to make far reaching changes in our own lives.

Thank you.

Gurudatt

Nov 23, 2007

Well done, Granny D, for shaking us out of intoxicating but never- satisfying lifestyle of today! Conscience and voice of minimalism are almost stifled. We are always in a haste chasing happiness while happiness itself quietly pursues those who are calm, composed and centred.

meena

Nov 21, 2007

Here come the point of need and desire...Need are of body and desires are from mind...and desires are endless...infinite...
We need food,shelter,clothes and someone to love us...but we want desiners clothes,a palace to live and different variety of food to eat...and we are not satisfied with one person.We want more and more..Here comes the competition...

SARAH

Nov 21, 2007

all those i seem to luv are leaving ,am i being cussed as

rose encabo

Nov 20, 2007

... and i become silent
thanks

Conrad

Nov 20, 2007

Fantastic and beautifully written. Einstein said a liberal education would allow us to "think something that can't be learned from textbooks" Granny D must have had that kind of schooling. Thanks Nipun

Brinda

Nov 20, 2007

WOW! A woman after my own heart...
We have to live by our own values and it is so important for our children to see that in our example. Like I tell my friends, "I can control what *I* do
and what goes on in my home"...how I live my life should be determined by my values. To thine own self be true.
THANK YOU for sending this quote today! It will be passed on to many.
With gratitude,
Brinda

easan

Nov 20, 2007

poignant look at the human dilemma.

xiaoshan pan

Nov 20, 2007

What a shocking truth! I have to agree that "By far - one of the most compelling, lively and lucid thought-of-the-week pieces I've read." Thanks, Nipun

"I want people to die at 90 instead of dying at 20 and being buried at 90." Thanks, Darshni.

choclet peye

Nov 20, 2007

So true. It reminds of the Bill Hicks quote: [talking to audience]'If any of you are in advertising or marketing - kill yourselves.'
I just watched a documentary on TV, where a young man seriously said he'd like to get a 'D&G' logo tattood on the back of his neck.

zookro

Nov 20, 2007

WOW!
This is so true. We left behind all that 'consumerism' years ago, but it's evident in our children, some of whom cannot just wear clothes and footwear but MUST wear a label or they are not 'complete' and not an inexpensive label either! I remember being horrified at 1 of our children spending £100 on a pair of jeans a few years ago. I want a whole outfit for that money.
I just hope they realise eventually that possessions do not bring happiness and just tie you to the treadmill.

Darshni Dave

Nov 20, 2007

By far - one of the most compelling, lively and lucid thought-of-the-week pieces I've read.

Coming home in an ecstatic mood, I read this and starting weeping! Because it couldn't be more closer to the truth. I sitting here smiling to myself - happy to know Granny D has the same philosophy to life as me : D

Robin Sharma writes in one of his book's : I want people to die at 90 instead of dying at 20 and being buried at 90

To thine ownself be true

selina

Nov 19, 2007

I have people around me who are trying to "kill" me. All because of who i am and that I am different and unlike them. The envy and jealosy I see is ugly and I feel sorry for them.