“Your sadness, your loneliness, your fear, and your anxiety are not mistakes. They are not obstacles on your path. They are your path.” Matt Licata, Lifted from Bill Britton
What if being manic depressive is as much a gift as it is a curse? What if bouts of self-loathing get transformed into stretches of self-affirmation?
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“To listen impatiently is to hear nothing at all… Formulating an opinion is not listening. Neither is preparing a response, or defending our position, or attacking another’s position. Listening is suspending disbelief.” Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
The sad truth is that most of us listen with the intent to reply, not to understand.
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“Life presents her finest self in the guise of unexpected and unanticipated events.” Journal Entry, 7/3/23
I once was a dedicated life/business planner. Planners think with “the end in mind.” What results do I seek for myself or for my family or for my career? These are indeed good questions.
But all we can really plan for is limited to the big picture: some high-level end result. What we cannot plan for are the unknowns that most assuredly arise. The old phrase always rings true: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” And it is in the “what you don’t” that can be discovered the real magic. Results you never saw coming, both trials and immensely surprising joys.
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“The dissolution of certainty is the gateway to real freedom.” Jacob Needleman
The one character trait that most of us find unacceptable is that of the “know-it-all.” Yet, in our current dualistic world of true or false and right or wrong, certainty has become a most desired state of mind. We seem to unconsciously seek knowing it all.
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“Rules direct us to average behaviors. If we’re aiming to create works that are exceptional, most rules don’t apply. Average is nothing to aspire to. The goal is to not fit in.” Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
Certain aspects of life demand social agreement. Standards and rules are necessary for civilization to be “civilized.”
We live according to rules and codes designed to establish conformity. But when conformity gets in the way of creativity and personal expression, the question arises, “Where would we be as an innovative society if Einstein and writer Cormac McCarthy were limited by the rules of their crafts?”
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In today’s world of certainty and scientific proofs, many fundamental beliefs of Christianity seem indeed questionable (at best!). I get it. But it makes me wonder.
I am thinking of just four “doctrinal statement” beliefs that challenge credibility and logic: Trinity, Incarnation, Virgin Birth, and Resurrection. All four are incomprehensible and unintelligible. And yet all four hold sway in what is considered essential to the Christian “faith system.”
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“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character give him power.” Abraham Lincoln
What comes to mind first when you consider the idea of power? For most people, power is simply another word for control.
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“The Gospel is ultimately calling us to simplicity, vulnerability, dialogue, powerlessness, and humility. These are the only virtues that make… intimacy possible.” Richard Rohr
I am wondering: Is character building better understood as relationship building than it is merely some lofty ideal state of being? Until I read Richard Rohr’s comment above, I don’ think I have ever considered virtue to be a critical component of meaningful personal relationships.
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“Where there is no critical perspective, no detached observation, no time to ask the pertinent questions, how can one avoid being deluded and confused?” Thomas Merton from Bill Britton P 173
Earlier this week I was visiting my son in Pittsburgh where he plays for the Pirates. When Austin and I are together, we talk much less about baseball than we do about philosophies of what Douglas Adams calls “life, the universe, and everything.”
We were walking the streets after breakfast when Austin proclaimed that all our positions on subjects is based on Perspective.
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“Wisdom will come… eventually. You just need to be patient and wait for it.”
A while back I wrote a post on “time in the tomb.”
We are all familiar with the concepts of death and resurrection, but almost always neglect the time in between. In his Four Quartets TS Eliot writes that every beginning is an end, and every end is also a beginning. There is a time to die (metaphorically) and a time to begin once again with a new (and resurrected) life. Such is the history of humankind.
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