Q and then R

one of the best books i have ever read is a book by Virginia Woolf, entitled To the Lighthouse. it's definitely not a book for everyone. it's slow paced and very character driven. she details the thoughts of each character.

the father in the book is a very intelligent man. here are some of his thoughts:
"It was a splendid mind. For if thought is like the keyboard of a piano, divided into so many notes, or like the alphabet is ranged in twenty-six letters all in order, then his spendid mind had no sort of difficulty in running over those letters one by one, firmly and accurately, until it had reached, say, the letter Q. He reached Q. Very few people in the whole of England ever reach Q . . . But after Q? What comes next? After Q there are a number of letters the last of which is scarcely visible to mortal eyes, but glimmers red in the distance. Z is only reached once by one man in a generation. Still, if he could reach R it would be something. Here at least was Q. He dug his heels in at Q. Q he was sure of. Q he could demonstrate . . . A shutter, like the leathern eyelid of a lizard, flickered over the intensity of his gaze and obscured the letter R. In that flash of darkness he heard people saying - he was a failure - that R was beyond him. He would never reach R. On to R, once more. R-"

recently i realized that many of the goals i once had have slowly changed. i see things differently. some of you know i quit law school. maybe getting a law degree means reaching the letter R. to me - it doesn't mean that any more. R might be hard. it might mean giving up things i don't thing i can do without. honestly, some days i stay around E or F - i just barely get out of bed and make it through the day. but overall, i sure don't want to settle for Q. Q means being comfortable. Q is too easy.

how about you? what is the next letter for you? what are you doing to get there?