Ironies and Lessons (first draft)

 

Most of us, if not all measure our success by the amount of money we have accumulated or the PhD's and academic honors we have achieved.
Reality dictated the above. We need it to thrive if not survive.

As I mature with my way of thinking and acknowledged my finite being 
- Socrates was right (?) and Aristotle was truthful (?) most of the time. Plato was greatly influenced by his beloved teacher Socrates. Plato, Socrates and Aristotle are many of the famous Greeks that influenced our Western thoughts.
Sun Tzu, Confucious, Ho Chi Min, Mao Tse, are few of the many Asian thinkers that influenced many Asians.
I read and studied both Western and Asian thinkers.
I pondered for years and made attempts to apply the positive lessons they shared in making our world a better to live. As a teacher, I influenced some of my students with my synthesis and arguments about the Western and Asian thoughts. 

My greatest lessons are not from my mastery and understanding of my favorite philosophers,
but from my mistakes and indecisiveness in my life. I noted this mistake.

My lessons are the ironies of my personal existence. The way my thoughts, were molded by the books I read, I obviously struggled and denied some of their philosophical insinuations. Again, it is probably my difficulties in suppressing the pessimism of my experiences, or just that the realities of life is really not explained by the above thinkers.

What is reality ? Ironies ? Lessons ?