On Faith

Roger Housden, author of “Keeping the Faith without a Religion,” spoke about faith in the most wonderful, sensible and pragmatic terms. He spoke of faith as being “prior to religion…part of who we are as human beings…non-rational intuition of both life itself and the way it’s going.” What I especially liked was when Housden said that faith belongs to the clearly put idea that it may be but is not necessarily attached to a religious system. It makes perfect sense to realize that faith is an entirely natural response of our humanity as we make our way through the world of our affairs, so natural that it is not just on hand when things are going well but when hard times show up also.

Faith is not a monolith...

Faith is not a monolith; it comes and it goes and is entirely buildable, which makes it fully a living thing. Perhaps we should not worry so much, then, when we feel our faith is small. Perhaps these dark times are just more reasons to seek greater light through our mental/spiritual practices.

We exercise faith every day...

I think Housden is right. I think the“organic, natural truth and beauty of life holds alongside all the darkness and difficulty.” The essence of faith comes into life with us and simply enhances itself as we stay out of its way. We are, by nature, beings of faith. Wisdom comes when we realize this and work to establish bonds that connect our faith to the Divine Good, however we may view this. Whether we think about this or not, we exercise faith every day. When we go to sleep at night, we have faith that we’ll wake up in the morning. When we leave our homes, we have faith that we will return. If we really want a strong, working faith it will belong to us to establish a foundation within ourselves that holds vital meaning on which to stand, something that, through sun and storms, we can count on…a place where faith dwells.

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On Disappointments

Disappointments happen. Everyone knows this, except perhaps little children who are not mature enough to realize that everything won’t always go the way they would like. Disappointments seem to be a part of life and are not really a big deal…until they are, until something or someone we counted on fails us. It’s difficult when what used to work doesn’t anymore or when someone important chooses another path.

I'll find another way...

Disappointment will work for us if we will let it. For the hardy person it can be a goad that gets us moving again. For those who will not take “no” for an answer, the signal becomes… I’ll find another way. For those of us who do, perhaps when there is nothing else available but to accept the “no,” we’ll need another response. One could be to remember that disappointments are not a rejection of ourselves, just a “no” to a circumstance. It need not, it should not become a soul wound because this can make it difficult to lift our heads again.

...a resilient reminder...

Don’t we hear a good deal these days about “being who we are?” There is more to this than just a pat phrase that gets tossed off in self descriptions. There is a resilient reminder in us that surfaces in tough spots…if we will let it…the reminder that we have successes behind us as well as disappointments and more of both to come. I recommend we thumb through success memories and let the disappointments recede in becoming a past occurrence rather than a picked-over wound.

Tomorrow really is another day...

To live is to succeed…and to be disappointed. Both our successes and our disappointments do not have to define us. They can tell us something about ourselves as our growing-up process continues and we become more of who we truly are. A disappointment may give us a whack to our egos; it doesn’t have to keep us down. Tomorrow really is another day.

And we could always write a blog about it…

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On Politics

Once upon a time there was an honorable profession called politics. It was honorable because, put simply, it implied a desire to do good works, especially when it came to serving in government as a worker or a public official. People were lauded when they wanted to serve in this way. They were welcomed at community gatherings; they were willingly included in civic events.

A great infection developed...

Then something happened. Over decades the aspect of “public servant” dropped from the picture…not entirely, of course, there were those who still wanted to do good work, at least initially. But a great infection developed, one which insidiously crept through most legislators and their staff, and it became known as self service rather than public service. Some of its symptoms showed up as “Get re-elected at all costs…Secure the base.” Worse, the disease began to surface as “Destroy the opponent,” which is a battle statement, not a political tool and seemed as far from public service as possible.

Did we not care...

Were we, the public, asleep when our representatives turned public service into self service? Did we not care enough to get to the polls on election day or take an interest in what was being done in our names? Have we become so cynical that we look at governmental politics as something flawed beyond repair?

With liberty and justice for all.....

I certainly hope not. We do live in a democracy that needs the rough and tumble of honest, political debate and the informed heart of a citizenry. Would that we could become the open-spirited people who long to see a fair shake for everyone, which is inherent in a democratic society. Alexander Hamilton once called the citizenry “a great beast.” Imagine what could happen if the beast got mobilized toward a quest to remember itself as “One Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

More Essays About Everything is now available on Amazon

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On Shameless Promotion

I am promoting my brand, new book shamelessly…shamelessly, and I don’t care who knows it, so do bear with me for a few days as I let readers know of my newest baby. Since you enjoyed my first book, Essays on Everything, I followed up with a second volume entitled…what else…More Essays on Everything! This book continues with 45 new mini-essays on varied subjects, some light, some more thoughtful, all easy reading when you have a few minutes to put up your feet and thumb through it.

Try this little gem...

If you’re looking to be motivated, elevated or co-created, well, you might seek another book, but for a few…or several…minutes of relaxation and a space for good thought, try this little gem. It can be found in paper back at Amazon.com on my site, or you can just click on the picture to your right and grab a copy right now. For Kindle users, you’ll need another week or two.

Something here for everyone...

Check it out. There’s something here for everyone. You might find a kernel of humor in “On Doorknobs,” something to mull over in “On the Cancer Experience,” or a bit of expansiveness in “On a Safe Harbor.”   

Take a look!

On Lying

I figure there are two primary reasons for lying, the first is to keep something about ourselves hidden. This lie can be consciously or unconsciously told since it is possible to be so out of touch with ourselves that we don‘t even recognize the lie. The second lie is told to deliberately mislead, which always makes it an intentional lie, either at the personal level or organizational level.



A work of art...

I knew someone in our circle who was so good at lying that his lies became a work of art, and unless you were caught in the crosshairs of one, you would never know you were being lied to, so good was his technique. He was quick, articulate, could out talk anyone around and toss off a story at the drop of a hat. It took me two or three disasters before I knew I’d been “had” by him. (In those days I was not too quick on the uptake about such things since I liked to believe what people told me. Unfortunately I’m a little more cynical now.) Anyway, now savvy, I felt a certain amount of devastation. I could not and never did trust him again, and for the rest of our years of activity together, I could never believe anything he said, not even the simplest, and I'm not sure who the biggest loser was. I never did know whether he was a deliberate liar or just so used to his inventions that he was by then oblivious to them. The thing is, eventually we all knew…we all knew.

Fibs, casual lies, and whoppers...

There are, in my opinion, basically three kinds of lies: fibs, casual lies and whoppers. They all cause damage…in the world of trustworthiness, at least…but there is a difference in degree. Sometimes we’ll fib to a child…all the while teaching him or her not to fib…to put off something we might not want to do at the moment and maybe make up for it later. Casual lies do their jobs in helping us hide what we do not want revealed. Whoppers, now, always told to mislead, will create serious damage, either immediately or down the road. In fact, if you tell a whopper to a kid and are discovered quickly, he or she will never trust you again. If the lie is discovered later, its overtones will already have been eroding an unsustainable performance.

Is it worth it?

I think that If we live long enough we will discover that nothing stays hidden forever; secrets, however subtly, make their ways into the light, and the loss of others’ trust becomes a terrible price to pay for a deceptive life. We have to ask: Is it worth it?

More Essays About Everything is now available on Amazon

http://tinyurl.com/kxsb47c