Truly Good At Heart

I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.

-- Anne Frank

Assume They Know Something

Most beliefs are soft until challenged. When you tell someone they're wrong, the belief hardens.

Instead of trying to convince someone they're wrong, assume they know something you don't and figure out what it is.

I've found that saying, "Seems like you have a reason for saying that ..." helps them explain instead of defend. Half the time, they'll find gaps in their own reasoning before you have time to point them out. The other half, you'll learn something and change your own mind.

-- Shane Parrish

Not Be In The Future

Ever noticed...how hard it is to not be in the future (and in the present instead) when you’re not with other people?

To put it the opposite way; is it easier to be in the moment when you're with other people? ...even though it's quite obvious (especially to others) when you still aren't.

Radical Inclusion

Jesus reformed the laws of religion and undercut the basis for all violent, exclusionary, and punitive behavior. He became the forgiving victim so we would stop creating victims ourselves. He became the falsely accused one so we would be careful whom we accuse. 

This is Jesus’s simple message: Holiness is no longer to be found through separation or exclusion, but through radical inclusion. Any exclusionary system only lays the solid foundation for violence in thought, word, and deed. 

-- Richard Rohr 

3 Observations & A Question

Paying attention can help you avoid choosing things that diminish you.

Take care to understand who you really are, including what most establishes that understanding.

If you don’t do what you really want to do, you should ask yourself why — there's usually only about one reason.

There is a profound legacy of human goodness and you have the wonderful (albeit sometimes challenging) opportunity to personally perpetuate it — so how do you want to do that?

 

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Disconnect or Sh*t Show

They agreed because I said they agreed.

-- Mr. Trump, referring to the Ukraine/Russia cease-fire he had announced at the White House

...well OK then.  But, how about:

A closer look at the US-Russia diesel deal

Washington Is Warning of Election Threats While Weakening Our Defenses

 
Axios

Billionaire Elon Musk has already funneled at least $366 million into the midterms to try to make sure voters elect Republicans

...and that may not be the worst of it:

Ukraine loses Starlink access as Musk says Zelenskiy went "too far"

...so who put Musk in charge of these things? (Not really a question; we know who did...).

“I can do whatever I want, if I want.” — Trump's arrogance never stops (if only this was the worst of it): 

Axios

Because it isn't:

They Shouted “USA!” As Men Beat A Woman

...unfathomable for an American President to publicly pile on in such a situation.

And the wanna-be waiting in the wings has been taking notes, using the same shtick:

JD Vance smeared James Talarico, then admitted he was “just guessing”

...where do these guys come from (naively or not, I used to think Republicans were more noble than this)?

At least there's some resistance (late as it may be — too little, too late?):

Scott MacFarlane Reports

Public Execution Won’t Have the Effect Intended

As if all this wasn't enough, there's what happens when you intentionally undermine public confidence with misinformation:

This disease now declared an emergency — Maps show where it's spreading.

There's almost no sphere where the fissures aren't deepening in our systems:

 
Axios

 
FOX BUSINESS

...all combined, seems pretty clear this is way bigger than a 'disconnect'. 

Donald Trump has turned the Republican Party into something I no longer recognize. 

-- One of the Republicans supporting Democrat Chris Pappas in New Hampshire

Between Things

Instead of looking at things, look between things.

-- John Baldessari

Frame of Reference, Con't

Another lingering reflection, on a recent I'm Wondering...:

I'm wondering...about our frame of reference.

Frame of reference, basically, is what we think we know and why we know it.  Initially, we don't think about it very much.  We just experience it.

Much of our frame of reference is established (and constrained) by our particular experience — what we have experienced and what we haven’t experienced.  We have to admit that our experience is limited...to what we have experienced.

At one point or another, something prompts a deeper question.  How do we know (not just what we do know and why)?  

For example, how much of what we think we know is true is simply because of the frame of reference we are currently in?  What if we were in a different frame of reference?  What would we think would be true then?

We all have a point of reference.  It's natural; even needed for our development.  It helps us at key points in our lives.

And, it can limit us — we may simply not see important things because of it.

To test the theory, notice what happens when things change.  You basically have two options.  Get things to change back or change how you view them.  To do the latter, you have to change your point of view — how you think about what is happening, about what is different?

This often happens to us more than once over the course of our lives (even it we don't recognize it).  Sometimes it happens simply because of a change of circumstances (insignificant or substantial).  Sometimes education and growth is involved.  Sometimes our carefully constructed worlds no longer seem to fit with the larger experience we are seeing or experiencing.  

Traveling overseas during college was one my first significant encounters with my frame of reference — what it was and how other people's frame of reference was different.  Having kids was another one — what I thought going into it really needed to be expanded.  Right now I'm in a job arrangement that is pretty unfamiliar (at least for me) — I've been using my frame of reference to evaluate it...and it needs to change, to allow for other possibilities.  In each case, I have had the opportunity to change what I use to evaluate things.  Each situation is obviously different; it would follow then that my criteria should, too.

So, sometimes, you have to be willing to allow your point of reference to change.

Whether it is forced upon on us or a choice we make, most of the time, over the course of one's life, there is an opportunity (one way or another) for it to evolve.

LT: The Actual Work

 
Leadership First

Frame of Reference

I'm wondering...today about our frame of reference.

How it helps us, how it limits us, and when it evolves.

For one thing, how things start each day impacts mine:

...today's sunrise reminded me of part of my frame of reference.

Spiritual Life

The spiritual life keeps us aware that our true house is not the house of fear, in which the power of hatred and violence rule, but the house of love, where God resides. 

-- Henri Nouwen

3 Observations & A Question

We often do not see things, because of how and where we’ve been trained to look.

 

There’s usually one or two things that you are deeply committed to — because the perceived consequences would be too costly, if you weren’t.

 

Wisdom is often not perceived in the eye of the beholder, especially in the moment.

 

Why wouldn’t you?

 

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Executions

He acts like he has no relatives.

-- An old Indian saying (on the worst thing that can be said about a person, from Listen, Learn, and Contribute)

 
FIVE MINUTE DAILY

 
Letters from an American

Public Sadism:

 

Humility

Humility is the pathway to knowledge and understanding.

When pride becomes arrogance or conceit, knowledge (and especially understanding) dissipates.

We can certainly see evidence of this at large right now, can't we?

Or, maybe we can't, unless we've first seen it in ourselves.

I must admit, I have seen it in myself. And, the consequence has, in fact, been that I lose both understanding and knowledge. Only when we are humbled (or when we allow ourselves to be humbled), do we seem capable of reversing course and seeing the return of growth of knowledge and understanding again. 

Understanding is a two-way street.

-- Eleanor Roosevelt

More often than once, I have discovered (sometimes quite painfully) that what I thought I knew was happening really wasn't what was happening or, at the very least, all that was happening.  As the evidence that that was the case became clear, I had the opportunity to be more curious, more open, more capable of saying I was wrong or limited in my understanding. 

For one thing, I simply don't know everything that is happening and that should be the given default in most situations. When I'm pretty sure about something, I still have the option to consider what I might not know about it.

Humility isn't as much about being wrong or embarrassed about not knowing as much as it is about an overall disposition towards what I don't know, rather than simply what I think I know. Both are involved — being humble allows for that discovery. 

My Only Advice

My only advice is to stay aware, listen carefully, and yell for help if you need it.

-- Judy Blume

Losing and Failing

There is a difference between losing and failing. Losing reflects the score. Failing reflects our attitude.

-- Simon Sinek 

Some People's Dogs

I’ve noticed…that some people’s dogs are more interested in me than they are.

This Is How A Pastor Responds

...to news like that recently coming out of Cornell University.

4 Observations (from Others)

It’s foolish to look far away for what you already have close by. 

 

-- Francesc Miralles, Postcards From Japan

 

The universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you already are. 

 

-- Rumi

 

Most people live in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul’s resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.

 

-- William James

 

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.

 

-- Etty Hillesum

 

 

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

Fall

'Poem for the week' -- "Fall":

Fall Fall, falling, fallen. That’s the way the season 
Changes its tense in the long-haired maples 
That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves 
Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition 
With the final remaining cardinals) and 
then Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last 
Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground. 
At twilight the light, too, is layered in the trees 
In a season of odd, dusky congruences—a scarlet tanager 
And the odor of burning leaves, a golden retriever 
Loping down the center of a wide street and the sun 
Setting behind smoke-filled trees in the distance, 
A gap opening up in the treetops and a bruised cloud 
Blamelessly filling the space with purples. Everything 
Changes and moves in the split second between summer’s 
Sprawling past and winter’s hard revision, one moment 
Pulling out of the station according to schedule, 
Another moment arriving on the next platform. 
It Happens almost like clockwork: the leaves drift away 
From their branches and gather slowly at our feet, 
Sliding over our ankles, and the season begins moving 
Around us even as its colorful weather moves us, 
Even as it pulls us into its dusty, twilit pockets. 
And every year there is a brief, startling moment 
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and 
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless 
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air: 
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies; 
It is the changing light of fall falling on us. 

-- Edward Hirsch

The Season of Letting Go

Governing: Terminology, Intimidation, Data Centers, Etc.

From a 'town hall' (and 'rally') ad this week in our town:

A number of implications terminology-wise (besides the topic itself) — gotta get the word 'freedom' in there, too.

And, no surprises here:

The Department of Justice announced that it was charging a grand total of 10 noncitizens with allegedly either registering or voting in the state of Minnesota, over a period of several years. This constitutes, at most, 0.0003% of Minnesota’s active registered voters, based on data from the last federal general election. As the clock ticks down to Election Day, every rushed statement from the administration confirms what we’ve long known: noncitizen voting is infinitesimally rare and already well-prevented by the states.

-- Center for Election Innovation and Research

Fed’s Watchdog Finds No Misconduct or Illegal Activity in Costly Renovations

Other ways of playing fast-and-loose with the truth (at best)

If only (instead of just playing these intimidation games) we could get on with the work of actual governing on the real issues needing attention:

Swiss glaciers lose over 5% of ice volume in 2026 as heat waves, low winter snow accelerate thaw 

 

GALLUP - Front Page

 
digitalinformationworld.com

Difficult Moments

Above all, don't fear difficult moments.  The best come from them.

-- Rita Levi-Montalcini

LT: What, Why, How

A leader is someone who knows what needs to be done and why.

Further, a leader knows how to make it happen and then is persuasive in executing something that incorporates all three.

What, why, and how are critical, but still not enough without execution.

There are leaders who do these things well, and there are those that do them terribly. Nonetheless, all are on the spectrum of leading, for better or worse.

Taboos

Ever noticed...how many things that have been considered taboo throughout history have actually been rooted in health issues (as opposed to social or spiritual issues)?

Good News

Paul’s declaration of the good news found special resonance among people of lower classes, and with slaves, widows, and women. In fact, women proved to be a vital force in the ministry of Paul, serving as apostles, teachers, benefactors, and friends.  

-- Rachel Held Evans

3 Observations & A Question

It is ominous when the only thing that can save you is the law.

Perspective is knowing that seeing is not enough — it needs to be fused with reality (which can get skewed w/o perspective).

There is our experience of something in the moment and then there is our evaluation of that experience, which sometimes turns out to feel quite different.

Have you ever actually listened to even half the people that some people say are dangerous? 

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

When the Sunrise Won’t Stop

Columbia Falls, MT

You Are Responsible

‘You are responsible’ for most of the things in your life…is often misconstrued.

The further you go, the more apparent it is how little you actually control.  Or, at least, that should be the case.  If it isn’t, I wonder how you have learned to relate to suffering.  Perhaps, you haven’t really learned that at all because other things have left you concluding that you know how to avoid suffering.  But, the wise know that isn’t really possible.  So, the aberration is simply that you think you can. 

It doesn’t take much to detect what all is forfeited by that conclusion.

There is so much that happens in life that has nothing to do with us. So, to think we are also responsible for it is…arrogant, to say the least.

The truth might be closer to we are responsible for how we respond to most of the things in our lives. 

This is no small distinction.

Not everything, for example, is a function of cause and effect.  Somethings just happen.  Randomly.  Or, at the very least, outside of our ability to control it.  Sure many things can cause cancer, but it still happens to people who avoid some or all of the things that do. Accidents happen.  Lightning strikes. Weather exists, often predictably, but obviously not always.  Forces of existence are not all perfectly or completely understood.  

Being responsible is not always being prepared for anything that could happens.  It is crazy sometimes how quickly we resort to the notion that we should have (or even could have) prevented something bad from happening.  Bad things happen either way.  

Perhaps we would be better off if we focused more on learning how to cope than to prevent.  After all, it is our response to the things that happen in life that seems to make the most meaningful difference.

Hold & Break Faith

The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

-- James Baldwin

One You Tell Yourself

Your inner monologue determines your outer actions. The most powerful story in the world is the one you tell yourself. 

-- Shane Parrish

Nature of the Earth

I'm wondering...about the nature of the earth.

Long walks give you time to take things in at a deeper level.  Hikes seem to allow for certain questions to emerge that might not otherwise.

Like, what I am really seeing (and experiencing) here?

We’re hiking in Glacier National Park this week. If you’ve been here, you know why I’m wondering what I’m wondering.

A reading contributing to my pondering...here. 

Grinnell Glacier

Where we're worshipping today:

 

Glacier National Park, MT

Will be adding pics throughout the week...here.

3 Observations & A Question

Worry is a thief of acceptance. 

In the end, you have to help yourself — others can help you only so much.

 

We often say (or think) we will do something IF someone else does it...first.

 

What is your relationship with wisdom like?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Government Corruption

To destroy things he can’t possess or control is his essential nature.

-- George Conway, on Trump

Trump Has Made More Trades Than All Of Congress Combined

Speaker Johnson recesses the House early as Rep. Thomas Massie pushes Hegseth impeachment 

 

GALLUP - Front Page

The Emperor Has No Clothes

Feedback

The Question

The question we start with is rarely the question we end with. 

But, a question is a start because the question we start with will inevitably lead to a whole different question, in fact a different kind of question. And, one closer to the ones we really need to be asking.

While, conceptually, the question is the same for all of us, it also is unique to each of us. 

We often don't ask questions because we don't really want to know. Among other things, we're afraid of the work it may require of us. But, at the same time, we risk forfeiting something too significant, if we don't ever ask our question.

Usually, the question surfaces from some kind of hardship. It comes because of something difficult happening to us or to someone we deeply love. 

So, what is the question anyway?

Why?

That's often the leading question; why?

Why is this happening to me? Why is this happening to them?

Why pries open the fact that we still care. We may organize things to avoid caring a lot of the time. But, the fact is we still care. And, when it hurts bad enough, we show it.

'Why?' leads us forward, often into uncharted waters of our experience. Our experience, so far, is not all there is. There is more. And, 'why?' forces us into it.

Many times (usually after the fact), we are grateful for what we discover in this new terrain. We know we wouldn't have gone there, if the pain of 'why?' didn't drag us into it. 'Why?' brings us to a new place. It is often one that moves us past thinking mostly only about ourselves.  It expands the version of itself to include something bigger, a larger question.

What is this all about anyway? That informs both our question and the one we all are facing.  The mere fact that we recognize something we all are facing is evidence of the journey questions take us on.

We can spend a lot of time in our lives on this one.

But, beckoning us further is yet another question, how? 

'Why?' leads us to 'What?'. 'What?' leads us to 'How?'

How then (with this now much wider point-of-view), do we want to live this life?

How we do things is what matters. It is what impacts the whys and whats for everyone.

So, let questions lead us to where we need to go. 

Who You Believe

Maybe happiness isn't what you believe, but who you believe.

-- Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Point Out The Good

Point out the good when you see it. In life, in others, in yourself.

-- Topher Kearby

More Than

I’ve noticed…nature is more than just instructive.

It’ll Tell You Everything

The world can overwhelm. But if you slow down, and sit under a tree long enough, it’ll tell you everything. And if you forget who you are, draw something. Or go hike alone. Nature remembers you.

-- Robert Redford

3 Observations & A Question

We all see certain patterns in life and often only certain ones.

 

We live largely unaware of how our past is influencing our present. 

 

Every once in a while, you should consider the things that have become habits in your life.

 

What if you are being given the very thing you want, but just in a way you completely don’t recognize?

Prior 3 Observations & A Question….

Life Changing

Switching your mindset from “I can’t” to “I’ll learn” is life changing. 

-- Unknown

Dilemma With Donuts

Most certainly a first world problem, I have a dilemma with donuts. 

As I’ve observed some of the patterns in my life, I’ve noticed that nearly every time I have a doughnut for breakfast my total calorie intake for the day ends up much higher (not just because of that donut). There is probably a simple explanation. 

Eating sugar makes me want to eat more sugar. Invariably, if I start things off with a donut, by the middle of the day – and then again in the evening – I am craving something sweet (again). If I can catch it, by recognizing it, I can redirect myself and end up just eating something else. However, even then, the eating-something-else strategy is still staring at me toward the end of the day. For whatever reason, it seems, my willpower to resist by the end of the day is rather low.

In simple tactical terms, it seems like the best thing I can do to try to head things off…is simply not eating a doughnut at the beginning of the day.

Here’s the thing, while wanting to avoid some of the more obvious consequences (weight gain, rising cholesterol, etc.) are sometimes yet effective, denial is a short-term tactic at best. Because on any subsequent day, I’m faced with the dilemma all over again.

So, this got me thinking — when do I address the situation in a completely different way? The day to day challenge is both tedious and wearisome. It feels like a waste of energy. And since, as I age, energy is moving up the scale for my attention, I’ve begun to consider what all else may be going on that I can work with more effectively.

I’ve been in several conversations over the years, and again lately, about the role of desire in our lives. What is it that we want? This almost inevitably leads to the next version of the question; which is, what is it that we really want? To be sure, there is a collective version of these questions. And, there is a highly personalized version, too — what do I really want?

We seem to be hardwired to want things. Many things influence what that is. Our DNA seems to set the default and then what we experience, especially in the earlier years of our lives, adds its weight to the shape of the things we want.

At this point in my life, I’ve noticed that overall health is higher on my list of things I want than it used to be. The earlier version of it was that I wanted to feel good. At that stage, wanting to feel good was often confined to things like food that tasted good. After a few too many experiences, where eating too much food that tasted good, I discovered that I often ended up not feeling good. So, then, I had to balance something out. The desire to feel good, but also to not feel bad.

After a few years of discovering this dynamic, I moved towards wanting to actually feel good, as opposed to simply enjoying things like what tasted good. And, so, it was somewhere along this point of the journey that I realized I needed to incorporate physical activity into my life intentionally because doing so made me feel good.

Fast forward a few more iterations, I got closer to the reality that while feeling good overall was important, there are other dimensions to being healthy that needed to be considered. So, now, I will actually eat things that, in my opinion, don’t taste particularly good simply because they are good for me — they contribute to my health.

I work out nearly every day now; mostly because I know it is good for me (not because I always feel like doing it). And, even as I work out, I vary things day to day because I know it is good for me to do it that way.

I do these things because of what I want. In other words, I want more than the quick savory hit I get from donuts. I still want them (and I still eat them). But, I want to be healthy even more. So, whatever combination of these things that I want works its way through what I do, I am subconsciously balancing multiple things that I want. In laymans terms, I want a doughnut. In theoretical terms, I want to be healthy. Somewhere in the middle, they meet.

So, at least for now, this is my working conclusion, I have faced a dilemma with donuts (OK, and ice cream…). But, the nature of that dilemma is shifting, even to the point where dilemma is a bit of an overstatement.

Always Do Right

Always do right.  This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.

-- Mark Twain

Get Moving Again

After we terrorize ourselves with self-doubt, our only relief is to get moving again.

-- Twyla Tharp

HISTORY: Labor Day

Each culture has a telling relationship with work.  Ours is no exception.  If nothing else, we need to know how ours has been shaped in order to effectively relate to it going forward. 

Another history: this time from a prior post about Labor Day.

Some things seem as necessary as ever. 

Prices

 
MORNING BREW

 
AXIOS

Truth & Freedom

Do we really believe the truth will set us free?

Like, all truth? 

Or, only the truth that (we think) benefits us?

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for the truth; and truth rewarded me.

-- Simone de Beauvoir

The Long Way Back to Christianity

4 Observations (from Others)

What goes too long unchanged destroys itself.

-- Ursula K. Le Guin

 

Is it possible you could live your whole life and die without ever having met the person that lived your life? 

-- Thomas Merton

There is no one formula for any of us at any point in our lives. Keep being open to adapting, learning, and listening to yourself.

-- Jason Brown 

 

Be the reason someone believes in goodness again.

-- Chris Bharnes

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).