Deeds

In many cases, a sense of accomplishment is indistinguishable from actual accomplishment. It is for this reason that it is an abomination to criticize another. In shattering another's sense of accomplishment, you destroy the accomplishment itself. Do not be mistaken: I do not mean to say that the feeling of being accomplished is itself accomplished. Rather, whenever you feel that you have done something, that feeling always corresponds to - and instantiates the reality of - the actual accomplishment. I do not know of accomplishment any more real than that of the man who says, "I have really done something."

For, if we are not free to identify the feeling of something with its actuality, where else can we look to evaluate the reality of achievement? At least by equating the appearance with its reality, we free the subject to be responsible for his own reality. The only alternative would be to displace the notion and value of achievement onto a third party, over whom the subject is to have no power - thereby displacing the valuating power of man away from himself and onto those others whom he gives himself over to be controlled by. Those others may take on many forms. Do not be fooled: just because one wills oneself to be controlled does not make one free. I can do something and feel that it has been done; the worst thing would be for you to come along and tell me I have done nothing.

The worst thing - the worst favor. For how else are we to live except by the hands of others? Can we really hope to live entirely in a world of our own creation? And do any of us have the necessary stamina - the courage to stand wholly outside the world of others, and the staying power to remain, despite the ever-present call to return?