Symbols...

At all times I wear a necklace with two silver pendants that have symbolic meaning for me. Whenever I become aware that they are there, or see them dangling from their chain, it strengthens my resolve to follow the path I have chosen. Very few people know about these symbols that mean so much to me, so I thought this would be a good time to share…

Allez -


I bought this in June of 2007, and then got a silver necklace to hang it on. I don’t think I’ve taken it off since. It is inspired by a necklace that Johan Bruyneel wore during the 2004 Tour de France. Loosely translated, allez (pronounced ah-LAY) means “go for it!” I try to use it as a constant reminder that reward requires risk, and that the two are often directly correlated. I never want to NOT do something, and then spend years regretting it or wondering if I should have done it.

Some book I was reading not long ago mentioned the success – in private life - of combat veterans after World War II. The nation, rightfully so, provided them with the means to achieve – the GI Bill – but the guys themselves still had to go out and do it. I recall one anecdote, specifically, in which a hearty veteran said that, after the war, he started a business, made some money, risked it, lost it, made it again, lost it again, then made it back again. All the while he was unconcerned and not afraid to continue to follow the path of his own choosing. As he said, “I woke up in the morning, I was still alive and no one was shooting at me.” Risk, it seems, is relative to those who have been exposed to the ultimate risk - in combat. The point was – they achieved, in many cases, because they were not afraid of failure. When one fails, in civilian life, they are still alive, and, in all likelihood, no one is shooting at them.

That is what “allez” means to me. Go for it. Don’t be ruled by fear of failure or the inability to take risks.

Ankh –


This is the classic Egyptian symbol of life, sometimes thought to resemble the “key to life.” I added this to my necklace in December of 2008. By this time, I had pretty well decided that I would make the Big Move - what has become my New Clothing Enterprise – and the ankh reminded me that our needs, when it comes right down to it, are simple. I don’t need a fancy car or a big home or food from expensive restaurants. What I need is to be alive – to live. After that, everything else is a bonus. It is my way of reminding myself to focus on experiences rather than things.

I have been fascinated, for a while now, with outdoor sportsmen – specifically hikers and mountain climbers. Most of them have a hard time explaining what it is, exactly, that gives them satisfaction from weeks spent in the wild, or from ascending high mountain peaks. I often think of a quote from a mountaineer named Dick Bass, who had a very difficult time summiting Mt. Everest, but made it. “That mountain gave me peace," he said. "Not a superficial sense of well-being, but the peace that comes from going through the fiery furnace, by God, hanging in there, and coming out alive. And as long as there's life, there's hope.”

As long as there’s life, there’s hope. I can’t say it any better than that.