Your sensations are overwhelmed; you are totally and completely defeated — you feel adrift: now what to do? All of us can identify with this. An event has just occurred that will change the course of your life. You must “deal with it” and, at the same time, make the right choices! I always look to history for guidance. As the summer approaches, I am pulled back to that momentous event in Western history: World War Two. It was an unfortunate war for the British Empire. Having overspent on the building of grandiose and expensive infrastructure projects and a crippling war, (1) she was ill prepared for more conflict, and thus more cost. But, in September 1939, war began once again and by the summer of 1940, defeat following defeat, she was “on her knees.” Nothing could get worse! Britain, traditionally, has always believed in the Navy as its bulwark against all calamities.
The seven deadly sins: which one have you experienced? (1)
The other day, I stumbled across a video clip of the hot dog eating competition at Nathan’s on Coney Island, New York. (2) Disgusting would be an understatement. Now I am not a conservative when it comes to extreme events. I am as titillated as the next person when I watch someone jump out of an airplane without a parachute and fall into an enormous (Chinese—made) net, and survive. (3) But, the food thing, I just don’t get. As parents, we plead with our children to develop their table manners as quickly as possible. I come from a generation that determined your social class, and therefore your business or matrimonial acceptability, by how you held your knife and fork. What is this sort of nonsense saying to our young people? When upwards of 30% of Americans are obese: (4) what is the possible message: gluttony is cool? This acceptance of the base and obscene is not the correct way, I feel. Why not hold ourselves to a higher standard of taste and quality? We do not have to be pompous and condescending, but surely there is a social level, a litmus test of decency, that must exist, or am I just too extreme and old fashioned? I don’t think so. If we do not want to be wage slaves, we must affect some style, some poise.
Continue reading The seven deadly sins: which one have you experienced? (1)
Always excellence: why not?
I have the great honor of teaching across the socio-economic spectrum — from the very rich to the more economically humble. To this end, I have been inside many, many homes. People are, in the main, tidy and well organized in their domestic life. Some individuals have great style having traveled to the far corners of the globe and others are more modest. Everyone wants decency and warmth in their private life. What I remarked on the other day, however, gave me pause?
I want to live an ethical life and be true to my aspirations.
Our society is awash with moral judgments. The media is rife with pronouncements, both good and bad (though usually bad), of this political event, that celebrity or movie star and a further distant occurrence. We, fortunately, don’t have to think because we are being given the thought — though think we must, if we truly want to be free: but, wait, I am free. I am told, in virtually all democratic countries, that I am free because I live in a democracy: I am free, aren’t I? “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. … In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. … And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.” (1) These oft-used quotes from George Orwell are there to remind us that deep thinking itself is not innate. Critical thinking is a skill that must be nurtured and enhanced. It does not come to us naturally. We have to, therefore, make our own moral assessment of how we want to live our life.
Continue reading I want to live an ethical life and be true to my aspirations.
Failure and forgiveness: can we truly forgive?
We live in a world that lauds action but seems unwilling to truly accept its consequences. “Action and inaction are both actions” is an unacceptable mantra in the post-Millennial age. (1) Are we prepared to be responsible, accept failure in ourselves and others, and then forgive or ask for forgiveness? “You are the people of God; He loved you and chose you for His own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever any of you has a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you.” Colossians 3:12-13. (2) I believe that basic morality is innate and should, therefore, give us the tools that are necessary to answer the aforementioned question in the affirmative. Error and failure certainly produce a certain level of guilt. But, many seemingly refuse to accept responsibility for life: why? That said, few people would fail to take umbrage at the notion of stealing or more serious social transgressions. We all understand the concept of the Ten Commandments. There is, however, an elasticity associated with certain forms of behavior: I am speaking of being responsible for one’s actions. To truly forgive yourself, you must first accept your own mistakes: my life is my fault.
Continue reading Failure and forgiveness: can we truly forgive?