Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Wednesday-Tuesday, yeah it that sort of week for many of us who live in a normal work week world. For all you retirees, enjoy Infinity-Tuesday+ š More quotes & commentary from William James.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
"My truth." Few dumber things have been said by a person, and probably all of us at some time or another have said it in our life pilgrimage. Some clarity before the mob with torches & pitchforks decide that such statements are insensitive.
"My truth" - When you mean my experience, I think that is reasonable. This is what happened and what you think about it. Personal truth-experience are part of understanding self and our place in the world, but it is only your perspective on your experience rightly or poorly understood. "My truth" as a sharing of one's own story is a great thing, the bonds of communion, the growth of friendship all happen when we take an interest in another. Few things are more important than to who or what we give our time. We give our time to what we love. More on this later.š
"MY TRUTH" as your unassailable attitude or thought is the beginning of your trip away from community and friendship. It is the statement of your prejudice as described by William James. You have turned an experience and its varied meanings into an absolute that cannot be questioned, criticized or doubted. Thus far in my pilgrimage, nothing is beyond question, free from criticism or above doubt. The inability to question should be a alarm to all of us. You are not free to think __________.
"MY TRUTH-ers" seems to be a variation on the victimology spectrum. I'm a victim, I can't be questioned, to do so is to discount my experience. Isn't that the opposite of what questioning does? It doesn't discount experience but rather open it up. Without the questioning, the criticisms, the doubts and wonder, my truth becomes a dead end experience that will not allow me to connect to another person and develop an "our truth." The bridge to "our truth" is a way back to the first meaning of my truth and a healthier integration of experience. It troubles me that we don't talk about mental illness but instead seems to validate it as someone's "truth".
The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.
I used to have a sign in my office - Attitude is everything. While it is not everything, it does account for much of your interaction with the world. It is the one thing that is solely yours. My life often runs between an attitude of gratitude and you've got to be freaking kidding me. Everyday is a spin on that wheel of fortune to see where it lands.
In my daily life - I experience an abundance of gratitude. God or good fortune has blessed me immensely. I favor God blessing me, but not everyone is sure of the Divine reality of life. When I look beyond my little acre of reality I tend to experience more of the YGTBFKM. You've got to be freaking kidding me is usually accompanied by some laughter and head shaking. If I were living in an urban neo-necropolis I would be more worried since a mostly friendly protest could be paying me a renovation visit.
Discover the power of mastering your attitude and your life will change for the better. Never perfect, but gradually better. The number one thing to question is your experience, your feelings, your assumptions, biases and unquestioned givens. What has life taught you, continues to teach you, invites you to discover? That I could be wrong, mistaken or misinformed is rarely far from my thoughts. I don't walk around paralyzed by doubt, but I know that something new might come along as a surprise visit from enlightenment.
Well enough rambling for the morning post. I pray your acre is as abundant as mine and that your perch on the world provides some laughter and questions about the dumpster fire being fed by rage, mental illness and wokeness (aren't all virtually the same?)
Sunflower landscape near Poggibonsi, Italy
