Hopeful Thinking

Life is so complicated right now it’s exhausting. Just interacting with one’s neighbor is a challenge, much less the world. So many things have been made more complicated in an attempt to make them simpler. My smartphone, for instance, is the most complicated thing I could possibly imagine designed to make my life easier. Obviously, the political world has become more complicated by orders of magnitude. And I can’t begin to conceive the extra layers of complication involved with being a teenager in the 21st century. The pressures of daily life are both real and enormous.  There isn’t much we can do about it, really. Except for one thing: adapt. We actually have to become accustomed to it since it would appear we have little power to change it on our own. And the single, overarching methodology of all adaptation is resilience.  So it therefore, begs the question: What are you doing to enhance your own resilience? Toward what are you directing yourself and your intentions as you...

What if words like wrong and failure were actually value-neutral? What if they were just regular old adjectives just like red, or tall, or smooth?  When you look at the origin and history of the word wrong it doesn’t exactly imply that wrong is bad. That use of the word didn’t happen until later. Wrong merely means crooked in the directional sense. Off the expected course.  The word right comes from the Latin rectus, meaning straight. The opposite of crooked. Wrong means it is off the expected path. It is on a path of its own. Right means I am going straight ahead on course.  We could assume that one is better than the other, but why? Do either of these truly require a judgement about whether meeting expectations is always the best possible outcome? Not all wrong things are bad. We should be careful to note the difference. Some are merely different than expected, or anticipated, or perhaps even desired. By the same token, ‘failure’ is only a word describing the exact same...

Our world is looking deeply in the mirror right now. A process that will and has taken generations to undergo. We are far from the brass ring of world peace. But how do we get from point A to point B? My daughter and I have talked a lot about what it means to “be a bridge” for others who are struggling with change. I can tell you, it’s always difficult. Standing astride two separate shores and holding up all who cross. The weight of sojourners traveling from one land to another. Confused. Tired. Hungry. The dirt of the road clinging to them. Perhaps they don’t know the language. Perhaps they are afraid. I wonder if the bridge becomes as weary as the travelers who cross it. Perhaps yes. But for very different reasons. Perhaps those of us who have embraced this new age in our world history rather than fear it could make a deliberate choice to help those across who are having a hard time. Because there are many of us standing on a brand new shore now. In hope, we built a foundation along ...

I love creative elimination shows. There are so many of them out there. Home design challenges crafting, baking, metalwork, glass blowing, upcycling reclaimed objects, even tattoos.  I truly enjoy seeing how the contestants' skills fare against both one another and the clock. Of course the artisans’ individual stories help further make for good television as we develop an emotional attachment between the contestants and ourselves as viewers.  Recently, I was watching the series Forged in Fire about blacksmiths forging their own versions of ancient weaponry when I became curious about something that show participant and weapons specialist Doug Marcaida says after he tests each weapon for lethality.  If the weapon is sufficiently made, he proclaims the contestant’s success by stating, “It will KEAL.”  As someone who often watches television with the subtitles on in order to catch some of the nuances of speaking and terminology, I was made curious by the obvious acrony...

The Sixth Principle of Unitarian Universalism is the “goal of world community, with peace, liberty, and justice for all.” Many would say this is a preposterous idea with virtually no chance of happening.  But how could we ask for less? How do we rightfully say to ourselves that simply not being at war is the same thing as being at peace? It is not. Being at peace is an action, not a state of neutrality. Peace is a platform for accomplishment. It does not simply put down its swords, it turns them into plowshares. The medieval church is often vilified as backward and power-hungry, for it was. They appeared to be interested in nothing but selling the rights to heaven in order to pay for its own wealth and cathedrals large enough to contain it. Luther broke from the church exactly 500 years ago for that very reason. But the medieval church was far more complex than just its failings. It also did some pretty groundbreaking peace work during a time when violence was the societal ...

Looking in the mirror can be a challenge. Sometimes we don’t always like what we see. Many times, in fact. We are often very self-judgemental about our appearance.  An unwanted bulge here, a sag or a wrinkle there. Gray hairs, perhaps well-earned, but nonetheless preferred on other heads than ours.  Taking stock of ourselves is rarely a wasted exercise, however. Acknowledging who we are, how we look, and the effect of our actions is a practice worth undertaking.  It is a useful activity, primarily because it will occur with or without our consent, eventually. The longer we wait to face our history, or our wrinkles, for that matter, the more traumatic that inevitable discovery becomes.  The challenge is even more grave when that examination yields shame. Shame over our past, of our failures of kindness, of equality, of basic consideration toward our fellow human. Sins against those whom we’ve come to recognize as our neighbors.  This profound self-evaluation come...

I learned a new word recently. It’s one that psychiatry professionals know of, but I’d never heard it until just five days ago. It’s been ruminating around in my head ever since. The word is euthymic. The word euthymic is used primarily as a medical term describing at state of tranquil ease in a person with bipolar disorder or other mood disorders. It is a term that articulates the contrast between a widely varying mood state, with more extreme highs and lows, versus a state of relative ease and tranquility. This euthymic state of general ease is the therapeutic goal of psychiatric and psychological treatment in these areas. But I wonder if there’s not a goal in it for everyone, not just those suffering from mental health concerns.  The word euthymia derives from Greek terms that ultimately mean ‘I am happy and I make others happy.’ It is derived from word components that mean ‘a wellness of the soul.’ The concept of euthymia as a philosophy was conceived of by ancient Greek philos...