Spirit of Leadership

THE LEADERSHIP SPIRIT and wood sculpture work and learned many lessons from the experience. However, one of the most significant lessons I learned concerned the principles of source and resource and their relation to purpose and potential. These lessons have cultivated and formed the foundation of my under standing of and my philosophy of life. On two occasions, I set about working on a wood and stone sculpture project and chose my raw material from dis carded pieces of tree and stone. After laboring many hours following the design I had developed, the day came when I was finally finished and proud of the results. When I sub mitted my project to the professor, I obtained an A and was successful in fulfilling my requirements for graduation. I was so proud of my sculptures that I took them home with me and placed them in a very prominent place in my apart ment. A year later, however, something happened that changed the life of my sculptures forever. I decided to clean the wooden sculpture and wax the stonework. As I picked up the wooden piece to shine the results of my hard work, part of the wood stayed on the table and the other part came off in my hands. My heart sank as the bottom of the figure then gave way and fell apart right before my eyes. Deeply shocked at this turn of events, I moved to the stone sculpture and wondered if the same thing would happen. As I rubbed it lightly with the cloth, the stone began to come apart like dust. With great disappointment and despair, I had to accept the reality that all my work had been in vain and that the rest of my artwork was destined for disintegration. Today, both pieces are only memories, but I cherish more the lesson this experience taught me.

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