Speaking in Slogans

He has decided that what will not fit on a bumper sticker may not be worth saying.

Getting Better

He agrees it was what was best and that it was, in fact, the only alternative.  He could think of no other way to do it, but then he asked what else there might be since he did not want to do the only thing.  Being better was O.K., but getting there was something else, and that idea of having to be better forever was something else all together.  Talking about it was easy, even exhilarating, but doing it was so far beyond talk, and that was the tough part.

Realization

Trust, it seems, is the hardest part of all.

Laughter and Tears

There are silly and funny things, the things we could only laugh about together.  They are as silly or funny still, but now when I smile I sometimes cry as well.

Make A New Rule

Rather than be upset by changes in the schedule or the occurrence of the unexpected, why not make it the rule that schedules will change and that unexpected things will occur on a regular, but unpredictable, basis.

No Contest

Life is not a contest.  Make it one and you may not win.

Our Contract With Life

There is no need to be afraid of what is supposed to happen.  We may resent how we die, or when, but not that we die.  That was supposed to be.  It is part of our contract with life.

Some Trades

There is no winning in some trades.  Better to know at the outset that second best is the top prize.

The Age of Children

Children are never the right age.  We want them to be older until they are.

Our Shared Problems

We think our problems unique when they are instead unique expressions or formulations of a very common concern, the problems each of us has in our own way, but we are hardly alone in having them.

Life's Curve

Life's shape is like that of the normal curve, bulging in the middle and more placid at its ends.

The Ends of Life

In the middle of life so many things seem so important, and probably they are -- at least some of them.  There is as well a clutter of things to be done, careers to be established or changed, schools coming to an end.  There is family and their care.  So many needs, so little time.  But the ends of life -- its beginning and end -- are less cluttered, more free.  They are times of less care, fewer demands shouting all at once.

At the beginning there is a freedom in reliance on the adults in one's life and a wonder that makes each day so new, unhampered by the sameness and care waiting down the road.  And at the end, while less dramatic, there is also a serenity as we let go, sometimes reluctantly, of what life has been and move within, to greater depths for the lessening of life's breadth.  It is a contemplative time, a time to move out of your body and into your heart.

Childhood Passing

He spoke of the sadness of children's toys set aside, of innocence passing as they become the people they would now be.  It is sad only to those of us who watch.  For those children, leaving childhood is what is supposed to be.  Maybe we find it sad because we, like the toys, are being left more in their past.

No Deeper Meaning

Why must they think there is always a more subtle distinction, a more devious explanation, a really real reason why?  Why is it so difficult to accept the obvious, the most evident, to forego a deeper -- if not a darker -- meaning?

A Narrower Focus

As time goes by our focus narrows.  The global problems we so readily solved no longer seem important.  The universal application is also narrowed and we focus instead upon specific people asking particular questions.  Instead of world hunger, this one hungry person absorbs our compassion and peace as a concept is less important than peace in just one heart.

What Suffering Builds

Suffering builds more fear and sadness than character.

Advertising Ignorance

Seeing some bumper stickers and what is written across some shirts, you could wonder why some people so readily proclaim their ignorance.

A New Age, A New Self

About the time we are at ease being a particular age with a definite role it is time to change, to become a new person with a new age's requirement and role.  If the earlier stage was not satisfying it can be a welcome change.  If it was a more comfortable one the change may be less well received.  Either way, it is time to say goodbye.  A new role, age and self are waiting.

Fewer Resources

With all of the conflicts you might wonder how much of the earth's resources are blown up each day.

A Less Formal Faith

We seem to be becoming much less specific in our religious definition, less inclined to see ourselves as Catholic or Christian.  We are less focused on a specific formulation or particular perspective, as though the approach to God (and God to us) were less significant than is the fact of approaching.  It is a broadening, or deepening, that may rely less on the form than on the fact -- and even "fact" is not so correct an expression since we move inward from fact toward a less specific relationship, a closer union, that is not dependent on formulation.  Fact may be true, but it maintains or establishes a distance -- a formality that is not so necessary.  Formality is associated with things like God's grandeur and our corresponding insignificance.  It may well be fact that God is majestic and that in comparison we are decidedly less, but we are going beyond a religious experience based on comparison; and so while that fact (and others) and even some ceremonies that will embody them might maintain a role or have a function, it is a much less significant one.  All the titles we might have used to magnify God served only to shrink the contribution we would make to whatever we might share.

This is not to deny the truth expressed in any one approach, or to lessen the value of any tradition.  It may instead be the contrast between the specific, with its more narrow and so more intense assessment, and a more general, or more inclusive, sense of God -- which might not note so well the distinctions but offers in its place a greater or fuller realization.  At least so it seems.

Values

How come he thought the discussion on values had ended after he spoke of money?

Trapped

She is trapped, having to be who people blame her for being, and having no foothold in that community that thinks too well of itself to admit her to their company.

The Doubt We Borrow From Others

We may never be entirely without doubt, at least in terms of ourselves.  There will, in significant areas, be concern about whether I am doing it right, am I being me in the way that is best.  There is also the doubt we borrow from others, wondering will they approve of how I am being me.  This latter is the less significant consideration though it can loom quite large, and "them" -- as we fear or as we see them -- can seem to take control.  If that is the case today, then take it back.

Beyond The Facts

As long as the discussion is of fact, there is little concern.  The distress comes along with the interpretation of them.

It Goes Well Until It Doesn't

It goes well until it doesn't; and I'm OK until I'm not.  Those times happen and they happen sometimes so suddenly.  Even after all this time they can hurt so much.

Trusting In People

Even for some of the more devout, religion is not as essential -- particularly as it might be in the expectation of some theologians.  It might be a guide to life, but life it is not, since life for most people is how they live day to day with one another and that is not a speculative process.  It is how they will be within themselves, and for that we look to our hearts rather than to anything else.  Religion is an aspect and might be an almost constant influence, but it is more the script than it is the performance.  This is probably as it needs to be.  In our society and culture it is not as though it could reasonably be otherwise.  And so, when we offer it and proclaim a particular way of being or believing we might trust it will be received as well as it can be and religion will be as much a part of people's lives as it can be for them.  This means too that we will let that be so, trusting in people as we do in God to provide or recognize that we may not be as able to see as we might like, or to belief as we might wish.

We owe nothing to the craziness of our lives

People's Essence

If we begin with the proposition that people are essentially evil we will need mechanisms to monitor and control the appearance of their limitations in daily behavior.  It will mean the multiplying of rules, the avoidance of trust -- since trust is incompatible with control -- and penalties to inflict as we catch them being themselves.  There is no opportunity to relax our vigilance since that fallen nature, their essential limitation, may surface at any moment in any setting.  It is an exhausting prospect, more for the maker of rules, the controller and examiner.  Be it parent, Church, or state, whoever has that role can never rest.  Having the power, or at least claiming it, means having then to use it, applying it or being ready to.

If we decline this proposition there is no need to watch or penalize.  We would need only to celebrate the goodness that arises -- a goodness we would never see if our search were for evil instead.  We could congratulate people on the pursuit of their essence, knowing when they found it they would have hold of something wonderful.

It seems an easy choice.

Just Stop

Should you notice you are acting odd, stop.  Save wondering about why for another time.

The Blind Man's Way

Jesus told the blind man to go his way, but instead he followed.  Being able to see, it had become his way too.

Lesson About Others

It has taken a while to realize I can like some people but let them also do poorly.  It took a bit longer to learn I could dislike others and let them do well.