Tag: society

Forgetting to Think


One of life’s greatest pitfalls is forgetting to think. Rushing ahead to make a snap decision, allowing emotion or passion to have unabated reign, plunging headfirst (not necessarily with brain in tow) into fool-hearty acts, all have eventual consequences. Sometimes these consequences can be quite serious; unwanted pregnancy, loss of life (your own, for one), the unintentional ending of another’s life, loss of a job, divorce, loss of trust. Forgetting to think is, well…, thoughtless.

Assembling the proper ingredients in the mixing bowl of the mind is fundamental to the thought process— gathering information, insight & opinion from others, testing the idea, waiting…, waiting some more. Asking, What could go wrong with this course of action? What is the probability it might go wrong? What is the seriousness if it does? Build a model or prototype, if appropriate.

Of course, if you are between the ages of 13-21, little of this may matter. Your hormones have undoubtedly circumvented your thought processes and you are predisposed to act on the moment’s emotion with thinking, and regrets, following later. If you are 21-40, you are more than likely to think about yourself and how you can get ahead or what’s in it for me. [We seem to become such a needy species in this period.] To be sure, though, some of us are not like this: we think of what we can give to better serve our planet and its inhabitants. We are known as the humanitarians, the servants of industry, social workers, missionaries, soldiers…, the ones who give their lives for the lives of others.

If you are between ages 40-60, you are (or should be) thinking about what you will leave behind— your legacy, the impression that will remain with those who follow. If you have not built a foundation for this stage it may be a strenuous time on the road, a surprising time. But it is also a critical one in life’s journey.

Wherever you are along the road of life, the shift to thinking will be sparked by one common consideration— thinking about the effects your actions have on others rather than thinking about what you can personally gain. To never come to this point, no matter your age, is to decide to live a life of perpetual self-gratification and self-absorption. It is to instill an incessant imbalance within between personal desire and human responsibility and kindness toward others.

May God help you!

Or…, change.  Think about it.

Have a nice day,

Gary

quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur

Joanbanjo

Language has played a multidimensional role in human history. Ever since Babel, confusion and cultural divisions have reigned. Today’s whole field of cross-cultural communications has expanded to indispensable proportions. Language has both united us and divided us every bit as much as ideology. In our day we have the convenience of instant written and vocal translation devices. Yet in Western culture we oft fall back on our mother tongue, Latin, to accentuate a point.

Acta non verba– Action, not words; the motto of the U.S Merchant Marine Academy is used across the English speaking world. From Aesop we received alterius non sit qui suus esse potest– Let no man be another’s who can be his own. Author John Steinbeck, told he would be a writer when pigs flew, tagged all his subsequent works with Ad astra per alas porci- to the stars on the wings of a pig. And of course, amor vincit amnia– love conquers all. [Ah, FTL. (That’s yet another language.)]

The English language is steeped in Latin roots. –dict- to say, as in dictation; -ject- to throw, as in project or eject; -port- to carry, as in import or support. Then there are the myriad of prefixes and suffixes. Latin all! Words just sound more, well, correct, in Latin.

But seriously, erudition aside, what is the point? Unless you are presenting a paper at a medical college, or lecturing at an international theological or ornithology gathering, Latin may otherwise be out-of-place. The issues at stake in any human intercourse are clear communication, with personal integrity and individual trustworthiness. If these three elements are not present, phrasing a thought in another language will do little to give it legitimacy.

Of all the parts language has played in human history, no role is more important than clear, honest, communication. Thus, for what it’s worth, in Latin or English, this challenge remains for each of us— Do we mean what we say? Or do we use words to conceal a part of the truth? Do we twist what is true, what is wholly true? Or do we use words to shield us from reprimand for wrong-doing? In Truth, are we being at least honest? Latin erudition can disguise our fear only so far.

Oh, the title of this emPulse translates “whatever has been said in Latin seems deep.”

Uh-huh.

Arguendo,

Gary

Unleashed

Andrzej Otrębski

What would you be like if you were utterly and completely unleashed? No restraints, no inhibitions, no one putting on the brakes or thwarting your efforts; you are absolutely in control! What would you be like? Who would you be? What would you do? What potential has lain dormant within, long awaiting an opportunity to burst forth? What dreams would realize their fulfillment? What fears set free?

Would you buy everything you’ve ever dreamed of? Would you give away large sums of money to worthwhile projects and people? Would you set up an organization to feed the world’s impoverished, to rid our world of tyrannical régimes, warlords, unethical politicians and businessmen? Would you promote “pure religion, undefiled?” How much good might you be able to accomplish given the possibility that there was nothing, nothing holding you back? Right now…, dream about it. What would you do if nothing could stop you?

Of course, most of us live a life of limitations. Commitments, responsibilities, mortgages, rent, college loans, car loans, even TV loans! Daily obligations swirl around us like a tornado, spinning us deeper into a vortex of the ever increasing winds of captivity. Prometheus Bound. We seem never strong enough to break free from the chains that bind us. To be sure, much of our bondage stems from financial over-commitment. What was that adage? “Expenses rise to meet income.” Far too many of us passed that marker long ago.

Now it must be stated emphatically that being truly unleashed is not simply about being financially affluent; it is not all about money. Rather, it is more a matter of consistently removing yourself from Position #1, and intentionally relegating yourself to a lower place along the human food chain. Position #2 is a good start; but why not Position #14, or #79? To become genuinely unleashed you must learn to place the needs, the brokenness, and the pain of others ahead of your own. The amount of our wealth, energy, and time do we reinvest into our family, our neighbors, and our society will have a direct bearing on the shackles that bind us If our bottom line continues to be profit, our chain will hold us ever more tightly to Prometheus’ Rock. And, like Prometheus, it will repetitively eat away at us.

Relaxing our clutch on those external things that we grasp for security has a peculiar side effect— it breaks our vice-grip on the non-essentials that bind our hearts and spirits within. We become something other than once we were. We become truly free. A continual releasing of things comes with a surprise; we might awake one morning and feel we are genuinely unleashed. Now we can grab life and give it all we have! But it all starts with stepping down from being #1.

Koutouing,

Gary