In Love With Their Own Ideas

I think a defining element [of a good leader] is a courageous thoughtfulness, the ability to learn fearlessly and be open to different ideas.

Leaders who fall in love with their own ideas and their own plans to the point where they can’t fall out of love with them can be dangerous… When theory collides with reality, reality always wins. Any good leader has a responsibility to go outside of his or her own brain to listen to whatever input can be solicited.

-- Admiral Eric Olson

Fundamental Illusion

The notion that God is absent is the fundamental illusion of the human condition.

-- Thomas Keating

So if I were your enemy...

The quieter the mind, the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more perfect the prayer is.

-- Meister Eckhart


Technology, social media, Netflix, travel, food and wine, comfort. I would not tempt you with notably bad things, or you would get suspicious.  I would distract you with everyday comforts that slowly feed you a different story and make you forget God.  Then you would dismiss the Spirit leading you, loving you, and comforting you. Then you would start to love comfort more than surrender and obedience and souls.

If that didn’t work, I would attack your identity. I would make you believe you had to prove yourself.  Then you would focus on yourself instead of God. Friends would become enemies.  Teammates would become ...continue here.

-- Jennie Allen

SM Brunch 19: Communication, Media, Way You Treat, and Weakness

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.

-- Joseph Priestley

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The media amplifies anxiety, and then offers programming that offers relief from that anxiety.

-- Seth Godin

...seems like more than a coincidence; something insidious is going on here, especially when money is the motivation.

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The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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I have been increasingly aware that true healing mostly takes place through the sharing of weakness. In the sharing of my weakness with others, the real depths of my human brokenness and weakness and sinfulness started to reveal itself to me, not as a source of despair but as a source of hope.

-- Henri Nouwen

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Instagram: bobgoff

So it's searchable:

The world will know what we believe

by seeing who we love.

-- Bob Goff

Protest

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Protest".  Given these days, one might naturally think that this poem was written recently.  So, it gives another dimension of pause to learn it was actually penned in 1914:

To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry
Loud disapproval of existing ills;
May criticise oppression and condemn
The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws
That let the children and childbearers toil
To purchase ease for idle millionaires.

Therefore I do protest against the boast
Of independence in this mighty land.
Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.
Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.
Until the manacled slim wrists of babes
Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee,
Until the mother bears no burden, save
The precious one beneath her heart, until
God’s soil is rescued from the clutch of greed
And given back to labor, let no man
Call this the land of freedom.

-- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

31

Yesterday, Tami and I celebrated 31 years of marriage.  She said some very simple, yet deeply penetrating words to me; she said she's glad she married me.  I couldn't agree more that I feel the same way towards her.

We haven't always felt this way.  Like everyone else, we've had our deep challenges.

What a wonder God can do in our lives, in spite of us.  We are so grateful for the kind of love he creates in people, the kind he has created in us.

-- Bob Goff

Meaning

Meaning is truth in context.

Not By Force

A leader leads by example, not by force.

-- Sun Tzu

...this is not as tidy and straight-forward as it might first appear; example and force have many dimensions and can take many forms.  In other words, it is worth some thought beyond just quick intellectual assent.

The Republican Fausts

Many Republican members of Congress have made a Faustian bargain with Donald Trump. They don’t particularly admire him as a man, they don’t trust him as an administrator, they don’t agree with him on major issues, but they respect the grip he has on their voters, they hope he’ll sign their legislation and they certainly don’t want to be seen siding with the inflamed progressives or the hyperventilating media.

Their position was at least comprehensible: How many times in a lifetime does your party control all levers of power? When that happens you’re willing to tolerate a little Trumpian circus behavior in order to get things done.

But if the last 10 days have made anything clear, it’s this: The Republican Fausts are in an untenable position. The deal they’ve struck with the devil comes at too high a price. It really will cost them their soul...continue here.

-- David Brooks

Cast Yourself

​Cast yourself in the arms of God and be very sure that if He wants anything of you, He will fit you for the work and give you strength.

-- St. Philip Neri


God, with your help, let me courageously face whatever I'm afraid of.

-- Linda Neukrug

SM Brunch 18: Life Mistakes, Ideology, Changed Rules, Habits, Discipline, and Forgiveness

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

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In the 1970s, the rules changed: the self-denial ethic morphed into the self-fulfillment ethic.

-- Philip Yancey

This makes me wonder what version of self- we are now in -- past self-actualization, now to...self-promotion?

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​People seem as attracted to ideology as ever and our capacity to change or adapt our ideologies seem to lessen with age, unless they are disrupted. The problem is that as we age we tend to insulate ourselves more and more from things that could disrupt us. But...

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​The great thing about habits is that they are changeable. 

-- Bernard Marr

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Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.

-- Lou Holtz

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Heart to Heart

'Poem selection' for this Valentine week -- "Heart to Heart":

It’s neither red
nor sweet.
It doesn’t melt
or turn over,
break or harden,
so it can’t feel
pain,
yearning,
regret.

It doesn’t have 
a tip to spin on,
it isn’t even
shapely—
just a thick clutch
of muscle,
lopsided,
mute. Still,
I feel it inside
its cage sounding
a dull tattoo:
I want, I want—

but I can’t open it:
there’s no key.
I can’t wear it
on my sleeve,
or tell you from
the bottom of it
how I feel. Here,
it’s all yours, now—
but you’ll have
to take me,
too.

-- Rita Dove

Action & Thought

Think like a man of action; act like a man of thought.

-- Henri Bergson

More than juxtaposed concepts, consider how each of these informs the other.

Forgotten

How much do we no longer know, as human beings, simply because of all that we have forgotten over time...generation after generation?

So stark is this possibility that some seem to think things like silence or contemplation are actually new ways of knowing.

Shared Goal

As an emotional intelligence competency, teamwork means being able to work toward a shared goal with others, actively participating and sharing responsibility. Leaders with this competency draw on their skills in empathy and cultivate an atmosphere of cooperation and respect. They are able to build commitment to the team’s goal from everyone. This competency is about more than just work in team situations; it is core to all forms of collaboration.

-- Daniel Goleman

Dear Mr. President:

Dear Mr. President:

I am not a Republican or a Democrat. I do not belong to an organized religion. I do not represent or belong to any special interest groups. I am not an advocate for any specific political view albeit I respect those with one. I am an American. An ordinary immigrant who came to the United States (legally) back in 1980. Today, I am the owner of a small business here in Washington D.C. living in the Maryland suburbs with my wife and kids appreciating the blessings daily.

Today, by coincidence, I watched in shock and disgust some of the ugly social media commentary against you and your family members following your final press conference. I read commentary no American could read without horror. Commentary no American can or should shrug off and move on from. It was another infuriating reminder of how we have become boundary-blind. We may not...continue here.

Like?

If these are the creatures, what must the Creator be like?

-- St. Francis of Assisi


If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer is not merely an awful thing: it is an infinitely foolish thing.

-- Phillips Brooks

SM Brunch 17: Can See, Ground & Dies, Justice, and You've Got A Friend

More Saturday Mornings Brunch:

Most people can only respond to what they can see.

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​“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

‭‭-- John‬ ‭12:24‬

I must believe this more and more...even as it relates to some of my own vision for things.  This is simply how life works; it works right through death.  There is something about this that I can get more comfortable with and, as many of the wisdom traditions have pointed out, there is a wonderful beauty to this kind of understanding of seeds (perhaps this is part of why I love flowers so much).

...so, because of this, I really enjoyed a line from this particular rendition of the idea from this week's Michiana Chronicles:

“They tried to bury us, but then they discovered we are seeds.”

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​Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

-- Benjamin Franklin

While it may be true that he really wasn't the one who said this, there is a tidiness to it that makes a rather searing point.

For those interested in true sources, some think the idea above is really a modification of this...in response to a question about how wrong-doing can be avoided by a State.:

If those who are not wronged feel the same indignation at it as those who are.

-- Iohannis Stobaei Florilegium

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Otherwise

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Otherwise":

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

-- by Jane Kenyon

Starving

People are starving...and for food isn't the half of it.

Gracefulness

​I've noticed...looking back over my life, that I have tried to have an element of gracefulness to what I do. And, I felt a kind of contradiction in myself when this doesn't happen.

I don't think I've tried to plan for this; it more just seems to happen, like just a 'way' I'm wired or prefer to do things.  In other words, it isn't just what gets done, but how it gets done that is important to me.

But Not

The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.

-- Jim Rohn

Either, Or

​Be wise regarding either / or dilemmas or propositions. Often there are other forces involved, trying to keep things positioned this way.

For example, why must things be described only as either 'left' or 'right'?  Aren't there different features of both, which are appealing?

Inner Experience

Historically, most people naturally presumed that they would come to God by finding unique spiritual locations, precise rituals, special priests or shamans, or unique sacred words. Our correct behavior or morality around these manifestations would bring us to God or God to us. The majority of us began by looking for the right maps or laws, hoping to pass some cosmic test. The assumption was that if you got the right answers, God would like you. God’s love was highly contingent, and the clever were assumed to be the winners.

But the Bible does not make transformation dependent on cleverness at all; rather, transformation is found in one of God’s favorite and most effective hiding places: humility. Read the opening eight Beatitudes in this light (Matthew 5:1-12). Such “poverty of spirit,” Jesus says, is something we seem to lose as we grow into supposed adulthood.

We all need what Jesus described as the mind of a curious child (see Matthew 18:1-5). A “beginner’s mind,” which is truly open and living in the now or in what some call “constantly renewed immediacy,” is the most natural and simple path for all spiritual wisdom.

The genius of the biblical revelation is that we come to God through “the actual,” the here and now, or quite simply what is. The Bible moves us from sacred place (why the temple had to go), sacred actions (why the law had to be relativized), and mental belief systems (why Jesus has no check list in this regard)—to all space and time as sacred. At the close of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Space, time, and patience reveal the patterns of grace. This is why it takes most of us a long time to be converted. As Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) prayed, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.” Our focus eventually moves from preoccupation with perfect actions of any type, to naked presence itself. The historical word for presence is simply “prayer.” Jesus often called it “vigilance,” “seeing,” or “being awake.” When you are fully present, you will know what you need to know in that moment. Really!

As Eckhart Tolle points out in The Power of Now, you don’t have to be a perfect person or in a certain place to experience the fullness of God. God is always given, incarnate in every moment, and present to those who know how to be present themselves. Strangely enough, it is often imperfect people and people in quite secular settings who encounter “The Presence” (Parousia, “fullness”), more than overtly religious people preoccupied with doing their rituals correctly. That pattern is rather clear throughout the entire Bible where, except for Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, God-experiences are in “secular,” domestic, and nature settings.

The biblical text moves us toward transformation of both the self and all of history. Deep understanding of Scripture cannot happen until you have somehow first experienced God actively and lovingly working in your own life! Then it all makes sense. Without inner experience of God and grace, Scripture interpretation is often lethal and egocentric. As Paul courageously says, “The written letters alone bring death, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

-- Richard Rohr

SM Brunch 16: Out / Into, Romanticize, Lose?, Fear Clothed, and Abandoned

Another Saturday Mornings Brunch:



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​Seems true; what you get out of it, depends on what you put into it.

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I can truly love another person only if I don’t romanticize him or her.

-- Parker Palmer

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​What if the things we're afraid we will lose by not being more courageous, we will lose anyway?

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Remember that anger is fear clothed, so when you feel anger always ask what you are afraid of – and if someone is angry at you, feel compassion because it only means they are afraid of something.

-- James Altucher

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Music

'Poem selection' for the week -- "Music":

When I was a child
I once sat sobbing on the floor
Beside my mother’s piano
As she played and sang
For there was in her singing
A shy yet solemn glory
My smallness could not hold

And when I was asked
Why I was crying
I had no words for it
I only shook my head
And went on crying

Why is it that music
At its most beautiful
Opens a wound in us
An ache a desolation
Deep as a homesickness
For some far-off
And half-forgotten country

I’ve never understood
Why this is so

But there’s an ancient legend
From the other side of the world
That gives away the secret
Of this mysterious sorrow

For centuries on centuries
We have been wandering
But we were made for Paradise
As deer for the forest

And when music comes to us
With its heavenly beauty
It brings us desolation
For when we hear it
We half remember
That lost native country

We dimly remember the fields
Their fragrant windswept clover
The birdsongs in the orchards
The wild white violets in the moss
By the transparent streams

And shining at the heart of it
Is the longed-for beauty
Of the One who waits for us
Who will always wait for us
In those radiant meadows

Yet also came to live with us
And wanders where we wander.

-- Anne Porter

Slow Work

​Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

-- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

In vs Out

I used to think...in terms of getting moved out of something (by me...or God...and usually because of something wrong with me).  Now I know that understanding is probably mistaken, as it​ is more likely, in such situations, that I am being moved into something, than out of something.