Business

We can go home again! Contrary to Thomas Wolfe’s article that declared “You Can’t Go Home Again,” I think it is not only possible to go home again but desirable. There was some truth in Wolfe’s lament. It is impossible to go back to family as we knew it, to a childhood already lived, or even a romantic love that ended. However, trips back home whether to some distant land or to our neighborhood can be very meaningful. If intentional, such trips can be fun, fulfilling, and rewarding.

The trip

One morning this week, I was watching the History Channel. There were two documentaries aired back to back. The first one dramatized the rise and fall of the Third Reich under Adolph Hitler and the second the life and violence of Charles Manson. Both told stories of how one man misused power and influence and played on the fears, insecurities and misguided human needs to gain control and get people to do horrible things.

Our legacy will grow out of what we do this year. Matthew West’s The Story of Your Life raises some provocative questions about our future. “Is this the end or only the beginning? Is it the second chance you never thought you would get? The question is, will you do something with it? Or will you spend your days lost in your regret? This is the story of your life. You decide how the rest is going to be. This is your chance between the lines to redefine what legacy you will leave…is this the end or only the beginning?”