CYNICAL ENCOURAGEMENT
Copyright 2020 Don Ray.
Websites tend to disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to copy and share the following.
A day spent researching tires. Learned my winter tires are too old for the tire shop to install them.
Rich people and powerful people and productive people don't have to deal with such things. I am lousy at dealing with them. I invest way too much time in them.
I stare at the hillside and marvel at the path that brought me here. I marvel at the odd sound of the magpie talking to me. I marvel at the cynicism and ego of John Bolton as I read his book The Room Where It Happened.
Would I be John Bolton if raised in his life? Would I be a homeless person if raised in their life?
Richard Rohr (activist, contemplative writer, and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation) writes today about the recurring sequence of order - disorder - reorder. Bolton writes about the cycle of international threats that inevitably are not stopped soon enough thereby leading to cataclysm The Richard Rohr view optimistically sees the opportunities for God's positive influence. The Bolton view is invoked in order to justify mass violence.
From either perspective we are entering a time of traumatic upheaval. The person fleeing their burning home may find solace in Rohr's words. That person will find only useless ineffectual bitterness in Bolton ' words.
What words will we leave behind? Will cold, cynical, albeit accurate analysis, provide any solace? Will bitter lessons prevent future bitter lessons? Or might words of healing help individuals and, in subtle societal influence, help heal the social neuroses that lead to traumatic upheavals?
There is some good in the world, and it needs all the encouragement it can get. Let the cynics accurately wax bitter and pessimistic about the recurring cycles of self-induced human cataclysm. But how much worse it would be without the ameliorating influence of words of Hope and tolerance. The words of Hope and tolerance do not heal the world but that is not their fault. They do have the potential to heal and do to amazing degree temper human suffering. The cynical pessimism of the Bolton’s of the world may seem caustically realistic, but such a perspective makes nothing better, and the more people accept and incorporate such a viewpoint the worse and worse the world situation becomes.
Two perspectives, one worldly and cynically pragmatic, one hopeful and encouraging, one with potential if adopted by everyone to inexorably lead to unrelenting conflagration, the other with potential if adopted by everyone to put an end to all conflict.
The latter will never triumph. But thank God it keeps the former from triumphing.
Copyright 2020 Don Ray.
Websites tend to disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to copy and share the following.
Copyright 2020 Don Ray.
Websites tend to disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to copy and share the following.
A day spent researching tires. Learned my winter tires are too old for the tire shop to install them.
Rich people and powerful people and productive people don't have to deal with such things. I am lousy at dealing with them. I invest way too much time in them.
I stare at the hillside and marvel at the path that brought me here. I marvel at the odd sound of the magpie talking to me. I marvel at the cynicism and ego of John Bolton as I read his book The Room Where It Happened.
Would I be John Bolton if raised in his life? Would I be a homeless person if raised in their life?
Richard Rohr (activist, contemplative writer, and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation) writes today about the recurring sequence of order - disorder - reorder. Bolton writes about the cycle of international threats that inevitably are not stopped soon enough thereby leading to cataclysm The Richard Rohr view optimistically sees the opportunities for God's positive influence. The Bolton view is invoked in order to justify mass violence.
From either perspective we are entering a time of traumatic upheaval. The person fleeing their burning home may find solace in Rohr's words. That person will find only useless ineffectual bitterness in Bolton ' words.
What words will we leave behind? Will cold, cynical, albeit accurate analysis, provide any solace? Will bitter lessons prevent future bitter lessons? Or might words of healing help individuals and, in subtle societal influence, help heal the social neuroses that lead to traumatic upheavals?
There is some good in the world, and it needs all the encouragement it can get. Let the cynics accurately wax bitter and pessimistic about the recurring cycles of self-induced human cataclysm. But how much worse it would be without the ameliorating influence of words of Hope and tolerance. The words of Hope and tolerance do not heal the world but that is not their fault. They do have the potential to heal and do to amazing degree temper human suffering. The cynical pessimism of the Bolton’s of the world may seem caustically realistic, but such a perspective makes nothing better, and the more people accept and incorporate such a viewpoint the worse and worse the world situation becomes.
Two perspectives, one worldly and cynically pragmatic, one hopeful and encouraging, one with potential if adopted by everyone to inexorably lead to unrelenting conflagration, the other with potential if adopted by everyone to put an end to all conflict.
The latter will never triumph. But thank God it keeps the former from triumphing.
Copyright 2020 Don Ray.
Websites tend to disappear into the digital ether. Feel free to copy and share the following.