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Life demands for its completion and fulfillment a balance between joy and sorrow. But because suffering is … disagreeable, people naturally prefer not to ponder how much fear and sorrow fall to the lot of man. So they speak … about progress and the greatest possible happiness, forgetting happiness … is poisoned if the measure of suffering has not been fulfilled.
Carl Jung, M.D., in Psychotherapy and a Philosophy of Life (Collected Works, Vol. 16)
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Where are the adults and wisdom figures today? Not in politics. Not in higher education. Not in media. Not in journalism. Not in public life. Not in the law. Surely not in the established bureaucracies of the government. And most assuredly not in entertainment. Not among the Leftists and the whining ideologues, nor among the “professional” advocacy class and the liberals on television or the products of “identity politics.”
Nope, we are short of mature, wise adults.
In large measure this is due to having few people with honestly examined lives. Few who are familiar with human psychology, philosophy, the history of Western Civilization or history itself, few familiar with the Classics of literature, and fewer still who are spiritually developed and hence engaged in faith and guided by a religious narrative.
Super-power notwithstanding, a nation does not survive that is not populated with those who are broadly educated and are humbled by a life in which both joy and sorrow have been experienced.
When I look at the assembled collection of Democrat presidential aspirants I think only of this – “what a motley crew!” Not a one to whom I’d feel comfortable giving a sharpened pencil. Likewise, I prefer not to give attention to anyone in journalism – such is the state of that enterprise today.
So where does this leave one? To the task of independent self-education – becoming familiar with a range of disciplines that instruct as to the collected understanding of the human person for good and ill. And from this base – to the individual life lived to experience and know both joy and sorrow … which renders us sober, grateful, insightful, steady, humble, wise, courageous, faithful and joy-filled.
Alas the miss-mash we see in the nonsense of a secular society stripped of wisdom and insight ought to call us back to common sense, more silence than chatter, and quiet application of life dedicated to proper education and conduct now simply honored in their abandonment.
Shalom.
… Epictetus was telling his students … that there can be no such thing as being the “victim” of another. You can only be a victim of yourself. It’s all about how you discipline your mind. (Emphasis added.)
James B. Stockdale, in Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus’s Doctrines in the Laboratory of Human Behavior
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You can tell the strength of a nation by the number of “victims” in its population. Yes, those who willingly and loudly proclaim they are “victims” are showing their weakness and in the aggregate showing the nation to be weak.
There is nothing flattering about being a victim. And much less so when “victim-hood” is claimed as a life long “status” to gain the sympathy of others, lay claim to financial support and particular “privilege” as a persistent “advantage” as to life’s routine tasks. Yet, worst of all – those who adopt the permanent status of “victim” implicitly excuse themselves from living as full and as responsible a life as they are able to live.
Oddly, and with intention and cunning, the Left loves to count people as victims and in doing so advance their own agenda – which is to gain power and control over others. Frankly, the Left is shameless in this regard – their faux interest in others is always an interest in themselves.
“Cynical,” you say. Yes. They are a cynical and insincere bunch. They gain at others expense.
Want to live free and with dignity? Heed what Epictetus has said.
You need not make yourself a victim … for being a victim diminishes you and sows the seeds of perpetual unhappiness, discontent and under-achievement – in short: a life far below your talent and ability.
Think about it.
We can no longer counsel or tolerate the production of “victims” so some may claim power and control over those they diminish and consign to dependence and unhappiness.
We do not have a Declaration of Dependence – but a Declaration of Independence.
Shalom.
Labor Day, September 3, 2018
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Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life purpose.
Thomas Carlyle, in Past and Present
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Ora et Labora.
Prayer and work. Ah, life is complete. These two go hand and hand.
Take rest. Have quiet. You have labored long and hard.
Today there is time for prayer. Find such time in each day.
Shalom.
Dumb Elites – The power “elites” in Washington so out of touch that they cannot resist engaging in behavior that drives people to Donald Trump. They actually engage in conduct and schemes that make themselves undesirable. That is what thinking you are smarter than others, better than others and more entitled to power than others gets you. We are watching a very interesting object lesson.
“No matter what the writer may say, the work is always written to someone, for someone, against someone.”
Walker Percy
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I sit alone to write. I sit in quiet to write. I write each day. Normally before dawn. Maybe at 2 a.m. Maybe at daybreak. Yes, I write to others. To someone else. To those met or those not yet met. To the living and the dead. To those before and those to come. And to myself.
I write for, and I write against. I write to all, to the family we are.
Writing: a message in a bottle. My crucifixion.
I write alone … hanging on a tree.
Shalom.
Our wills are not ours to be crushed and broken; they are ours to be trained and strengthened.
Hamilton Wright Mabie
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Many things in life seem to stall us, trap us – but what of our will? The ability to persevere. The mental toughness to “gut it out,” “grind away,” refuse to quit, to give up?
Does not will overcome the obstacles that arise when feelings are hurt and action is needed? Yes, of course it does.
But who has the will is the question? Look around. How many are trapped by childhood problems? Life’s misfortunes?
Is it not the case that all will be hurt in some primary way, suffer some insult and neglect? Yes, of course it is.
But those who employ the will, arise from the damage and get stronger, smarter, more determined, more confident, wiser, sly and cunning. Those who will advancement beyond the pain rely on the will to live, to live despite the setbacks – indeed, because of them.
Does God not give us free will for a reason? Yes, so that will itself may be chosen and in doing so honor the sanctity of life that we have been given.
Shalom.
Victory over modern liberalism will require a robust self-confidence about the worth of traditional values that … liberalism has already seriously damaged … This is at bottom a moral and spiritual struggle. (Emphasis added.)
Robert H. Bork, 1997
The real crisis we face today is a spiritual one; at root, it is a test of moral will and faith. (Emphasis added.)
President Ronald Reagan, 1983
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Opposition politics today is not about policy and surely not about tweaking the business of government and established big-government programs.
Yet none of the opposition candidates have shown that they understand what a significant percentage of the electorate does: that our nation is being re-defined and lost, its once reliable institutions destroyed, its citizens targeted, faith unwelcome, God exiled, courts as agents of nihilism, executive action – lawless, unilateral and contrary to our national security and interests.
Yes, we face a spiritual crisis, one of moral will and faith.
Yes, the United States and Western Europe are at serious risk because of the ideas and policies of the Left and modern liberalism.
We face a spiritual crisis, one that jeopardizes the fundamental nature of America and the West and our survival. The battleground is – what we believe, our spiritual existence.
Our candidates, lacking comprehension of the nature of the conflict we face, do not speak to the damaging change in culture and country that has been visited upon us by the Party of the Left.
Nothing less than a head-on assault on the thinking that the Left embraces and promotes in its public policy is required; and that, today, means a scope of criticism that engenders the spiritual needs of people and the spiritual damage Leftist thinking has presented to us in the last 60-70 years.
The leadership we need must be wise in matters of faith and spirit, have the ability to articulate and explain the damage caused by the Left’s destructive thinking, policies and ideas, and the public presence to strip the bark of the Leftist tree with intelligent insight, wit, warmth, and commanding presence.
We face a time not unlike the 1st Century of Christianity in which we stood against the tyranny of the Roman Empire and the self-limiting ways of the existing religious hierarchy.
Challenging? Yes. But this is the rarest of opportunities to be overtly Christian again – strong and unflinching, unashamed and determined.
We can do this one by one. Christians have stood against oppression since 33 A.D. This is our heritage, our identity.
Shalom.
Christian simplicity is the very perfection of the interior life – God, His will and pleasure as the sole object.
Jean Nicolas Grou, in The Hidden Life of the Soul
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” … Reagan was – I use the word simple, as in simplicity … What you saw is what you get, it’s not phony … I mean the guy cared about the country, he cared about the people. He wasn’t a phony …”
So says Dennis Le Blanc a young California highway patrol officer assigned to Ronald Reagan’s security detail when he served as Governor of California and who worked side by side with the Governor at his ranch when he became President and after he served as President.
When I say “worked side by side” I mean that literally.
You see, Ronald Reagan always did manual labor on this ranch. He maintained the land, improved it, created trails where once thick wild brush thrived. He added small improvements to his very modest home there. He made and laid fence. He worked alongside Mr. Le Blanc and shared lunch with him and others who helped in the work.
As Le Blanc reports, never asked anyone to do work that he himself would not do.
This was an everyday occurrence and truth is: he loved it. It was part of his day, every day – rain or shine.
Yet more impressive, and so critical content in understanding the nature of the balanced and good life of Ronald Reagan was this: he was grounded in a relationship with God.
Indeed, simplicity and God go together as Jean Grou says. They form a contented and fulfilling life of service to God and others, a life with and for God and others.
As Mr. Reagan’s daughter Patti notes: he saw God in creation, in the land and its beauty. He saw the human being as being responsible to care of what God created. He saw man not as a problem but as God’s humble problem solver.
As author Peggy Noonan says “He saw the sanctity of ordinary things” and acted accordingly.
Indeed, here was a man who occupied a position of enormous power but never clung to it, nor lauded it over others. No $200 haircuts. No retribution. No superiority. No family foundations taking in millions and blurring the lines between proper and improper, lawful and unlawful.
No need to sustain a public presence after his service was complete.
Rather, here was a man willing to get his hands dirty, happy to be a private citizen, a retiring presence, a contented man. A simple man with a relationship with God who he saw in all things, in others, in His beautiful creation.
A grateful man who never forgot his early life of poverty and his mother’s enduring trust in God.
Yes, he perfected, without fanfare, his interior life and, yes, his simplicity was real and connected to his relationship with God. This: a lesson for all of us.
How we need public figures like this. Authentic people, those who serve God and others – not themselves. Not problem makers but problem solvers. Humble servants. Good people.
Christianity … makes a man’s greatness consist in the amount of service he renders to the world.
Theodore Parker, in Thoughts on Labor
Shalom.
Note – Credit goes to Peggy Noonan for her chapter “The Ranch” in When Character Was King. She has written such a good and useful book.
How might you know what will become of your life, and what work you will do? You probably will not know that. Living is first an approximation – notions that, in living, get refined and reveal who we are as we proceed.
You will have at the onset an approximation, a general direction – something that will be distilled, shaped into an identity, a place in the world. We live by faith, you see – and walk by light, at first a glimmer and then a flame.
How does the journey look? What is it like?
We mature over time. And this takes sorting through what comes our way, learning from the missteps and mistakes, coming to grips with the early events of life – and learning from relationships and past wounds and gaining emotional and social wisdom. In the process, somewhere along the way, creativity grows and our place and name is more familiar to us and we grow in the spirit and become savvy at living in the world as it is and can be.
You arrive when calm is the dominant disposition and you realize you can help others quite readily and often find yourself doing so.
Live with patience. Grow each day.
Shalom
Knowing God is more important than knowing about God.
Karl Rahner, S.J., Theologian
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How does one come to know God?
This is a concise question that opens up our life, changes us and promises our expansion and fulfillment.
If God is in all things, then God can be known in all things.
The traditional ways of coming to know God are through worship, by reading and contemplating Scripture. Yet, there is so much more that it natural to our existence that reveals God to us. We know God in our friendships, in caring for those who need help or understanding. Likewise we know God in family and through the work of our hands and heart. And in nature also. As in silence.
Then there are the things special to you. The things you enjoy doing are often a place to know God who places in your life skills and a disposition to know the joy of living that is unique to you.
For me, I find God in children, in friends, in my care of dogs, in painting and in reading and writing, in my suffering and the suffering of others, and in the warm reception of others and they of me. I find God in the suffering of our Jewish brothers and sisters during the Nazi Holocaust for I cannot see a reminder of this monumental tragedy but that I think how God was betrayed by those who tortured and killed His children. I see God in our Jewish kin and their steadfast devotion to God and learn from them what the love of God is.
Yes, God in everything. And with God in everything, then always God. Nothing above God. Nothing more than God. God. Just God. God and you. God and us. God. Knowing God.
May you draw closer to God each day, with each step. May your consciousness be of God; may you be with God and God with you breath by breath.
Shalom.
Spirlaw 