4 Observations (from Others)

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

-- Carl Jung

The more I think about it, the more I feel that there’s nothing more genuinely artistic than to love people.

-- Vincent van Gogh

The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Shalom is communal, holistic, and tangible. There is no private or partial shalom. The whole community must have shalom or no one has shalom…. Shalom is not for the many, while a few suffer; nor is it for the few while many suffer. It must be available for everyone. In this way, shalom is everyone’s concern…. Shalom produces change for the good of all…. 

-- Randy Woodley

Prior 4 Observations (from Others).

How Things Work

A Brief History That Keeps Needing To Be Told

On a day of memorial for Rev. Jesse Jackson, a brief history that Keeps Needing To Be Told

Balance

Balance.  

That's what we need right now, right?

Unless our head is in the sand of all our TV shows, we are collectively struggling with how to balance our sense of being right now against the backdrop of what is happening around us.

The headlines are overwhelming us, because of their implications:

Exclusive: The Trump-Netanyahu call that changed the Middle East

A Dire Warning From the Tech World

Trump’s war exposed the truth

Alex Karp: The Insane Billionaire, Mass-Surveilling, Bullied Young Nerd Now Proudly Killing Humans to Get Revenge on the World

Not to mention Epstein, immigration, the coming elections...it just never stops.  And, it won't because too much money is being made off this machinery of chaos and fear (but we still love our capitalism, don't we?).

The question then is, is balance going to cut it for us?  

Balance is often a means to mitigate certain realities by trying to keep other realities in play (work, life balance, etc.).  When we have anxiety, we try to do things to off-set it (prayer, meditation, mindfulness, etc. — not saying things like this aren't good).  But, the concern here feels more significant than tweaking our dials by adding 10 minutes of...something that might help, doesn't it?

What if balance isn't what we most need right now?

If not, then, what?  What do we really need?

Most kind of know we need something closer to a complete reset.  And, that is half the problem anyway; we're trying to keep things going (as much as we can), without tipping over into something far worse.  

So, maybe it's the question that should be real our catalyst.  

Seriously.  If we don't know very much about what we really need, we're not going to be able to do much about it.

In theory, at least, a balanced approach should open us up to consider more than we usually do.  So, what should WE really be considering then?

How did we GET here? 
Who did we let INFLUENCE us?
How are we COMPLICIT (it's lazy to just blame whoever we think the bad guys are)? 
What do we want to DO about it?  

Just asking ‘balancing’ questions isn’t enough, though — doing the hard work of answering them is.

All to say, we need way more than just balance.

It Just Seems So

The blizzard doesn't last forever; it just seems so.

-- Ray Bradbury

When Leaders Lack Character

Picking up from yesterday....

Character informs values.  Values inform character.  In combination, they manifest behaviors resulting from decisions.  Not unlike other critical moments in history — and again now more than ever — we need leaders of strong character and the values that drive it to make critical decisions (especially those that transcend the simple interests of money).

As is too often the case, we have to turn back to the people for the character (and values) that is needed when leaders lack it.

Character and Values

I'm wondering...about the role of character in our lives.  

Because how, as a society, will we survive without it?

For good or bad, people create and sustain values.  What character-traits, then, most influence the more significant decisions in front of us?  

Given the small-minded agenda (get DEI out of the military — is that really the biggest problem our military needs to address?) we have seen from him so far, I'm not thinking this guy knows (or represents) what we want, not to mention need, especially on this front:

...of course, he wants us to.  But, as with many of these folks, you really have to know why (in other words, what he really wants...surveillance).  Keep in mind that in our revenge and retribution economy, ANYONE who protests is now no longer referred to as an American with a different point of view, but a...domestic terrorist.  Terminology has shifted and is way more significant than we think it is because the fundamental landscape was changed when we elected it...again.

Oh, that's a bit dramatic isn't it?

Well, you tell me (these guys certainly look like they are working from a fairly common script):

Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.

-- Larry Ellison, from Citizens will be on their best behavior amid constant recording

False Narrative

One of the greatest deceptions of our time is the false narrative that tells us we should be more concerned about a poor person misusing the welfare system or an immigrant being here illegally than we are about the ultra wealthy abusing the system and cruel people have unchecked power over us all.

-- Benjamin Cremer

And, this, coming from a pastor (even though that shouldn't matter).

Here's another one, revived again today with Operation Epic Fury (also called by some, Operation Epstein Fury), from the George Orwell seminal novel, Nineteen Eight-Four:

War is Peace

Trump himself conflated the two....

Trump’s Real Reason for War

...worth considering, if nothing else, especially thru the lens of the observation above.