Victory Comes in Different Guises

From the Mythic Tarot, the Six of Wands:

I pulled this card earlier today; it shows Jason holding the golden fleece overhead. I was stumped by it, unable to think of any recent or upcoming achievement. But it later dawned on me what it was about, after attending a memorial service for a friend who died. Pancreatic cancer took him quickly and mercilessly. So where's the victory in his death? The answer was in all the people his life touched, and as an AP correspondent, he touched many. There were no sermons or speeches at the memorial, just lots of people sharing how they had laughed and learned with this man. Sometimes triumph and recognition comes in unexpected ways.

From the Symbolon Deck comes "The Actor:"

Unlike someone trying to deceive by pretending to be someone else, the Actor is obviously playing a role. We all wear different "hats" to deal with different situations - friend, employee, spouse, etc. In order to take care of my responsibilities, I might have to act differently than I feel at times. If a friend calls to talk about some serious stuff going on, I'm not going to say, "You think you have it bad - just wait til you hear about my day!" At the service today, everyone had on their brave face: sad for our loss but grateful for our time spent with this man.