Why must I suffer? This is the perennial question that has been with us since man could first think and reflect. The simple answer certainly lies in the realization that, because I am conscious and therefore alive, I am embodied with a range of emotions – with thoughts, with feelings, with good, and with evil. I must experience pain as well as joy. I have free will. I am corporeal and have human sensitivities. Here my individuality comes into play. I am a host of givens: my race, my culture, my family, and my education to name but a few. Compounding this is the fact that I am unique in how I respond to the vagaries of life. I have met those in my years who took every circumstance, enlarged it, and made it into the negative – as a receptacle of pain and suffering. They were thus ill-prepared for a real change in circumstance or social position.
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The art of modesty
The more powerful we are, the more modest we should be. Sometimes I question some forms of humanity. I truly cannot understand how violence of any form will lead me to a better communion with God. My perspective, of course, comes from a person who is enfranchised in the world, quite well educated, and traveled. I have not been exposed to the demons that sour an individual’s view of life and, more importantly, hope. In one of our classes recently I asked how we can understand spiritual and physical despondency if we have never experienced this range of feelings in our lives. My students were stone-faced and could present no answers. One rather clever man, however, suggested that the solution lay in the art of modesty, which adumbrated respectful dialogue.
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The weather and time
The weather and time are two phenomena that we often remark on and complain about – but have little to no control over their occurrence. At best we can but manage our responses to their presence. Of the two, the weather is the most physically pronounced. Today is a beautiful day: chilly but resplendent. Now if it were bitterly cold and wet with a raging snowstorm or a blowing typhoon, my emotions might be sorely tested. Further: there are those who actually complain when it is too cool or overly hot.
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Impatience
Impatience: the bane of the thoughtful mind. The other day, I was stopped at a red light immersed in my own ponderings. Slowly this sound of great annoyance permeated my consciousness. Someone was wailing on his horn. “What is this idiocy all about,” I thought to myself. I slowly refocused my morning’s musings to discover the source of the pandemonium. There, at some distance, an Uber Eats driver was trying to open a space in the halted traffic so he could proceed to the beginning of the queue. We were “packed in like sardines,” so his efforts were futile. That did not diminish the frantic nature of his attempt, however.
Gratitude
I was just so overwhelmed this morning, so thankful. It was a beautiful day filled with the iconic and endearing image of brilliant sunshine and singing birds imploring us to be awake and conscious. Being alive is quite an interesting phenomenon if we take the time to reflect, isn’t it? It is both freeing and enslaving: liberating in that in this entire universe with its rocks and planets and bugs and other life forms, I was given me, my consciousness — my life. It is conversely profoundly tyrannizing because I have free will. (1) For this reason, I can experience joy and elation, and yet also ache with pain and suffering – spiritually, philosophically and physically.
It is great to be young
A large number of Western young people do not finish high school, seeing no value in its completion. (1) I had personal experience with the concept of quitting school. Fifty years ago, in my Grade One class, there were sixty students: ten white children and fifty aboriginal children. These were the beginning years of the integration of native children into “normal” Canadian society. Canada, like many Western nations, has an unfortunate legacy with its minorities, this includes the Chinese people. The dropout rate amongst the native children was, and continues to be, outstanding. Not one of these children from my elementary class graduated from school twelve years later.
It is great to be young
A large number of Western young people do not finish high school, seeing no value in its completion. (1) I had personal experience with the concept of quitting school. Fifty years ago, in my Grade One class, there were sixty students: ten white children and fifty aboriginal children. These were the beginning years of the integration of native children into “normal” Canadian society. Canada, like many Western nations, has an unfortunate legacy with its minorities, this includes the Chinese people. The dropout rate amongst the native children was, and continues to be, outstanding. Not one of these children from my elementary class graduated from school twelve years later.
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Passion
Passion: what is it and where do we find it? Simply put: it is an intense emotion that compels us in an exciting direction towards personal discovery and fulfillment. It is an energy, however, that must be individually stimulated and encouraged. But it cannot be thrust upon a person. Herein lies the problem. As educators, employers and parents, how do we expose young people to the opportunities that being passionate about something present? In the last while I read an article entitled “Eight Ways to Discover Your Passion and Live a Life that You Love,” “It is terrifying when you feel like your life has no purpose or direction, but finding your passion can change all that. Finding your passion is like finding your personal road map. When you know what your passion is, you feel motivated, inspired and so much clearer about what your next step should be.” (1) The piece goes on to give us a selection of ways to discover the uniqueness that exists in each of us and hence our personal passion: thoughtful.
Passion
Passion: what is it and where do we find it? Simply put: it is an intense emotion that compels us in an exciting direction towards personal discovery and fulfillment. It is an energy, however, that must be individually stimulated and encouraged. But, it cannot be thrust upon a person. Herein lies the problem. As educators, employers and parents, how to we expose young people to the opportunities that “being passionate about something” present? Recently, we read an article entitled “Eight Ways to Discover Your Passion and Live a Life that You Love,” “It is terrifying when you feel like your life has no purpose or direction, but finding your passion can change all that. Finding your passion is like finding your personal road map. When you know what your passion is, you feel motivated, inspired and so much clearer about what your next step should be.” (1) The piece goes on to give us a selection of ways to discover the uniqueness that exists in each of us and hence our personal passion: thoughtful.
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The adventurers
Have you ever noticed that it is often the ones closest to us who attempt to limit who we want to become or dismiss what we attempt to achieve: why you may ask? The simple answer is fear. Though they truly love us, they are apprehensive to allow us to take a chance because they are afraid to take a gamble on themselves. To be fair if everyone were to be an adventurer, who would be at home tending to the animals and stoking the hearth? That said it is important for others to understand our apparent fearlessness. We too cannot truly comprehend this conservative approach to life.