As tempting as it may seem not to require it, action must be informed.
In and of itself, action may have affect, but not necessarily a desired one.
Action too easily can simply becoming activity, without much efficacy. It needs to be informed, so that the quality of the action can have the substance that is needed to prevail against what otherwise are simply just other ideas.
On the other hand, being informed is simply not enough for what is needed. Ideas can (technically) exist, but to no real avail without some form of implementation or action.
The battles of our time, unfortunately, seem content with simply the disputes of ideas. But, ideas themselves do not change much without an attending and corresponding action that embodies them. We can talk all day, but it doesn’t really matter that much who is right or wrong if there is no practical utilization of them.
It has been observed that ideas have power. But, their power comes in the form of agency — without agency they largely just float around in the atmosphere ...without much impact.
It is the actionability of ideas which impacts the true quality of them.
We need the quality of both, especially right now where there is so much talk and so little action...not to mention the truth that should inform them.
The most successful people don't fight their nature. They architect their environment to amplify it.
Stop asking: "How do I fix myself?" Start asking: "How do I position myself where my natural traits are assets?"
-- Shane Parrish
I've noticed...that I’m interested in truth wherever it is, and less and less based on the surrounding ideology that claims it has the corner on it.
The great temptation of Christianity has always been to think that if we were in control, if we had power, we would “win,” but that’s exactly what Jesus warns us against. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us to be salt—not the meat, the potatoes, or even the vegetables—just the invisible but very effective salt. Salt is what gives zing and taste to food and Jesus is calling us to be people who give purpose, meaning, and desire to life. If we look at the history of Christianity, whenever we were “in charge,” that’s when we became the most corrupt. Christianity operates best in a resistance position, in a position where we can discern and choose how to be salt, how to be light.
Likewise, the metaphor of light as Jesus uses it here is not controlling or forceful. As Alcoholics Anonymous says, it’s not moving forward by self-promotion, but by attraction. Just set the light on the lampstand and if it’s good, and if it’s real, and if it’s beautiful, people will come. This is very different than what we expect. We basically think we can only move the world by being in control. Yet both of the images that Jesus offers here warn us against wanting to be in control.
That is so contrary to our common sense. We think “If only we had the power, if only we had the majority, we could create the kingdom of God,” but it’s never been true. I know from my years of traveling that when Christians are a minority in a country, and they have to choose and decide to be the salt of the earth, to be light on a lampstand, they make a real difference.
Jesus calls us to give the world taste, meaning, purpose, direction, desire. It’s a humble position, isn’t it? We’d much sooner be in charge. But whenever someone or something has all the power, they mostly misuse power. Jesus warns us against power, because very few people can handle it. Most of us use it for our own aggrandizement, our own promotion and advancement in the ways of the world, which usually means more money and more power.
Either we learn how to be the salt of the earth, a true alternative to the normal motivations and actions of society, or as Jesus put it very clearly, we might as well throw it out and trample it underfoot. We have to find our inner authority through Christ in us; we have to find our purpose in our love of God and neighbor, and actions of mercy and justice. Otherwise, we’re not offering anything that the world doesn’t already have or can’t find in other places.
-- Richard Rohr, on Matthew 5:13–16
Our fears are often irrational — so, now that we’ve cleared that up….
You need to know what centers you and how to maintain being grounded.
For my overall health, I'm slowing recognizing that removing distractions from my life is not optional.
Both are wealthy, but does it seem like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the same kind of people as Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger...or Jimmy Carter?
What do you do when you realize people's perceptions of you aren't what you want them to be? What if that is most palpable when they say you're not who you should be?
Both seem to escalate our interest in identifying who we are.
So, why then does becoming who we are seem to actually scare us more than inspire us?
Sometimes, it seems like it’s almost easier to try to be someone else, than it is to be ourselves. Perhaps, that is because this strategy appears to give us the option with less consequence when we can't pull it off. In other words, if I’m not able to be someone else, then what is the real consequence of that? I’m just…not them (which everyone else already knew). But, if I try to be more fully who I am, and somehow fail (whatever form that takes), the implications somehow seem far more significant.
Most of this, of course, is imagined in our minds much more than it is true in reality. And, certainly, we have encountered people who are genuine and authentic and just, as we say, “who they are”. These people seem free and simultaneously attract something in us…something we desire to be.
While we might mistake this as wanting to be like them, I think what we are really engaging is our innate desire to be free ourselves.
One aspect of discovering and being who we really are is related to the ideas, in general, that we have about becoming something. For example, what do we do with the idea that we have to become something in the first place?
I suspect the question here is influenced by many of the religious sensibilities that we have accumulated, especially about our need to become 'more like Christ', which is often juxtaposed as something unique or different. This version of our becoming is often predicated on another religious feature that seems to emphasize the inherent badness (wretchedness) of who we are, and therefore sets up what I think is a false-binary that, rather than becoming ourselves, we need to become more like Christ.
But, this bifurcation sets a couple things in motion that are hard to bind together, in the end. And, because of this, it seems to result in divergent directions, including the requirement to hold more deeply to one or the other (rather than to both). My sense, at this point, is that the two are not really incompatible at all. In other words, I become more of who I truly am because of who Christ has made me to be.
Whatever layers I’ve added on to the equation about the badness of who I am, and the need to conform that to something other than me (like Christ) is predicated on key notions related to our starting points. If my starting point is that I am bad, then one could see how self-actualization is a problem. But, I think most religious traditions themselves even support the notion that I need to be who I am inherently because of who I am in Christ — the image of God in me. And, therefore, it seems more consistent to recognize, in that frame, that my ultimate aim is to become more aware of what the image of God, that I represent, is including the shape that takes in the uniqueness of me as a person.
It is in this context that I feel the most comfortable with the notion of increasingly becoming aware of who I am, including the ever-increasing discovery of the unique manifestation that is of me. This, in fact, would seem to enable the most capacity to set me free — to be who I am and to offer more of who I am to the world around me.
After all, when we see others doing (being) this somehow, we almost universally recognize what is happening.
Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are.
Both in in his presidency and in life, Jimmy Carter, was a model of true public service.
“President Carter was a man of character, courage, and compassion, whose lifetime of service defined him as one of the most influential statesmen in our history,” Biden said in a White House statement. “He embodied the very best of America: A humble servant of God and the people. A heroic champion of global peace and human rights, and an honorable leader whose moral clarity and hopeful vision lifted our Nation and changed our world.”
The son of a farmer and a nurse, Carter served in the Navy Reserves during the Second World War, returning home to manage his family’s peanut farm in Georgia following his father’s death. A humanitarian, man of faith, public servant, and lifelong Democrat, he served as a Georgia state senator, the state’s 76th governor, and ultimately president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.
In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development. Continue here....
-- Jennifer Mattson
Setting partisanship aside as he could, Jimmy Carter served people and their interests above his own. Though not perfect (but, by many estimations, better than most), he strove to better his fellow-man by famously committing to never lying to the American people and living his life as one of them (a real contrast, it seems to me, to many so-called public servants):
Former President Jimmy Carter lies in state at U.S. Capitol
How former President Jimmy Carter's hometown of Plains shaped his life
This may say it best:
Ever noticed...all that is conspicuously absent in the media after a US election? Like, where did all the bad news (not to mention terrifying) suddenly go?
President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.
-- Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics
The country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.
No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.
-- Peter Baker
Seek out what magnifies your spirit.
-- Maria Popova
The function of contemplation in all its forms is to penetrate illusion and help us to touch reality.
-- Parker Palmer
Trust is a process, not an event.
-- Hillary L. McBride
One thing we all must cope with is that life is very likely to provide terrible blows, unfair blows. Some people recover and others don’t. But every mischance in life, however bad, provides an opportunity to learn something useful. Instead of becoming immersed in self-pity, the most successful among us utilize each terrible blow in a constructive fashion.
-- Charlie Munger
Prior 4 Observations (from Others).
Do you know what your greatest asset is?
Your desire.
It is true that your desire will probably drive you into a few ditches. But, it will also be what motivates you to get out of them.
One of the best things you can get in the habit of doing is asking yourself each day what is it that you want most from it. The answer provides you the greatest opportunity to direct your attention and resources.
If you don't do this, you are highly at risk of drifting along in mindless feeding on the delivery systems of our culture, which aren't nearly as interested in you as a person (in spite of what it sometimes looks like) as much as they are in lining the pockets of those benefitting from those systems.
What you really need most is already within you. Your work is discovering what that is and connecting it to the needs of the world (more likely, to one piece of the world). How you do that is through your familiarity with what you want. It is your desire that can guide you and ultimately lead you toward a deeper sense of fulfillment.
Like any asset, your desire can be unattended, suppressed, or corrupted. But, also like any asset, it can reveal the deeper and freeing truth about yourself and your contribution to life.
Do you know who you are? Do you want to know? What if this year you learned how to follow your desire — in the end, it may be the best asset you have.
