July 11, 2022

Thought for Today

"The afternoon of human life also have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage to life's morning." 

Carl Gustav Jung

(1875-1961)

The Stages of Life (1930)

July 10, 2022

Reflection

AN  EXPERIENCE 

WE WILL NEVER HAVE

There's an experience none of us will ever have.

No matter what we do, no matter where we go, no matter how long we live, none of us will aver have this experience.

Well, what is it?

It's the experience of  experiencing ourselves.

What?

Oh, we think about it at times - especially after a snub or a big time rejection.

And there is this ongoing wonderment about, "How am I doing?" or "How am I coming across?" Or "I wonder what she sees in me." Or "I can't see why he doesn't seem to like me." Or "Something is funny here. I wonder what I did wrong."

It's my experience thatd people are fascinated by any kind of self-knowledge test - A Jung test, the Enneagram Survey, or The FIRO test.

People are often at the edge of wonderment about themselves.

It's obvious. We spend a good bit of many conversations talking about other people - especially those who drive us bananas.  Somewhere along the line we have to wonder, "What are they saying about me behind my back?"

Do people who fall in love, really fall in love with the other person? Or is it a projection - an imaginary shopping bag of stuff - stuff   we have bought about this other person - especially when  they are paying some attention to us?

Well, I guess this is one of life's humiliations.   We can't have it all. We can't be God - three persons in deep knowledge of themselves. 

Oh for a glimpse of the Trinity on a hot August morning.

August 10, 2001

July 10, 2022

Thought for Today

"Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo."

 

Don Marquis

E.  Anthony

O Rare Don Marquis (1962)

I liked this because I have  

written a few books of poetry

and walked to the bottom

of the Grand Canyon and 

up to the top of the other

side in one day.

 July 9, 2022

ACCEPTANCE

I find myself saying to people, "Try praying for the grace to accept  that you can't accept some reality."

A boss is driving us crazy. We can't quit our job - and we feel ugly with so many negative feelings bouncing around in our belly about him.

These ugly feelings make us feel guilty. We inwardly say, "I shouldn't feel this way." We think, "I should be a better Christian. I should be able to forgive this person. I should be able to carry this cross."

But when we can't. we can get a double whammy - then a triple whammy: the inability to forgive, accept, and be patient with this person.

Compound feelings pound us like ongoing traffic or pounding waves hitting our beach.

What to do?

Obviously, the first step is to call, "Time out."

Get off the basketball court for a while. Breathe! Have a coach point out what's happening. Have a coach suggest something new to do.

The coach might simply suggest accepting everything that's happening - inside and out.

I might simply say, "Okay - oh this is what a traffic jam looks like. I can't get out of this right now."

The literature on dysfunctional people, situations, or families point out that dysfunctional people get us to become more dysfunctional. They can mess us up.

The thing to do is to watch the whole game as if you're sitting in the stands as well as if you're in the game.

Once we do that, laughter can happen, Acceptance can happen.

Solutions, no.

Acceptance, yes.

 July 9, 2022

"If I'm more of an influence to your son as a rapper than you are as a father ... you have to look at yourself as a parent."

Ice Cube,

American rap musician

to Mike Sager in Rolling Stone, 

October 4, 1990

 July 8, 2013

Reflection

REALITY

If you deny reality, reality will deny you!

I found myself thinking that during Mass today.

Realities: muscles, others, sin, grace, God.

The thought hit me after reading an article in the op-ed section of the New York Times.  The article was about the Taliban destroying a statue of the Buddha in  Afganistan.

Karen Armstrong said that a few Islamic leaders accepted other religions - and they talked about a guy who didn''t and in time it came back to destoying the Islamics in India. 

 I guess dictatorships  fall because they are denying the reality of other peoples minds and hearts.

I guess the person who neglects his spouse, children, health, etc. will end up experiencing brokenness.

Reality has a way of really happening to us if we deny it.  

Reality will eventually bite us in the ass.

 July 8, 2022

Thought for Today

"There's only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second best."

Doris Lessing (1919-2013)

The Golden Notebook (1962)