RESOLUTION is the virtue for this week. Interestingly, my friend Ben had the foresight to situate his virtues in an ORDER that would work through an earthquake. Many people will now have to resolve the primary order of their lives, to stay in Christchurch, or to leave.
My thoughts are all over the place on this one, as will be those for many others. I have entertained all kinds of scenarios half-baked, protruding into my consciousness from some deep seated unconscious fear for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, showing my roots and re-establishing the fact that I have gone from immigrant to refugee in the blink of a one minute event that will forever alter how I view things from the arrangement of my books to the space which I may or may not occupy.
Right now I am in Clyde, a safe enough distance to think outside the shake, rattle and roll that my fellow Cantabrians are still forced to live through.
And, while I am here, I have been deploying what I learned many years ago as the Benjamin Franklin process for making a decision, to create a RESOLUTION to which I might adhere (My good friend CW taught me this one). Take a blank piece of paper and put Christchurch at the top and two columns, one for why, one for why not. Write down all the reasons for one, as opposed to the other and see how the numbers stack up. Try as I might to make Christchurch a negative place, it still stacks up for me at this moment, even after all the devastation. The Garden City still blooms deep for me inside my conscious and unconscious soil.
The important thing is to write it down. Trying to keep track of all the things inside one’s head is too difficult and seeing the list in black and white will bring things up from the unconscious and puts them squarely in the frontal lobe. The thing is, is to be honest with one’s self...write down what you really feel to be an asset and a detriment for each space you plan to occupy, do the numbers as many times as you need and then intend to resolve yourself to one space over another with the clear understanding of what will be positive and negative issues, of which there are always both, to live and work through.
In the past few days I have resolved to go back to Christchurch for now, though a few days ago I was searching property advertisements in other parts of the world, I did the Benjamin Franklin process on paper and found, my heart, my head and my life still clings to Christchurch in some pretty stable ways that no earthquake can shake out of me.
I think you will all understand if I don’t bother trying to resolve any other issues at just this moment in time. For now, it is enough for Cantabrians simply to decide, do I stay or do I go....
Showing posts with label morals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label morals. Show all posts
Monday, February 28, 2011
Order in the Midst of Chaos
Okay, so I am contemplating ORDER in the midst of so much chaos. I mean really, how much more chaos can there be than to have your entire community nearly wiped out and everyone deeply affected by the backlash of an aftershock (seemingly an earthquake) that levies death, mass destruction and irrevocable psychological damage?
The first orderly thing I felt, was the hugs given to me by strangers. I cannot recall ever being held so securely for so long. They just held me and did not let go. In that moment, I began to feel some ORDER coming back. Of course I cried, but that felt exactly what was in ORDER to give me the impetus for the next event.
There was a nudging toward ORDER when I went into a store in Cromwell and the lady making copies for me of an essay written by Laura Mulvey that I was giving to my German friend overheard that I was from Christchurch. Yep, I had updated my status from immigrant to refugee by a natural cycle that had not been around for say 16,000 or 17,000 years, but then, some forms of ORDER take a long time to come through. I went to pay for my copies and she said no charge for that. My sense of ORDER began to come through, there is something to be said for being on the lamb from a heaving piece of earth you once called home. People often give you stuff, not because they have to, but because they want to let you know, there is still some ORDER left. Money is not high priority for the lady whose shop sign said “Going Out of Business”. She could relate entirely. I found ORDER in that, too.
Right now, I am well past ORDER and supposed to be into RESOLUTION, remembering I have allocated only one week per virtue, those weeks go by pretty fast in Christchurch, New Zealand in the midst of an earthquake/aftershock that requires some instantaneous thinking, like Malcolm Gladwell's Blink supersliced can mean the difference between 'being' or 'leaving' in the aftermath of chaos by a snap judgment that might lead to permanent resolution, might not...we shall see after at least a week's reflection...
The first orderly thing I felt, was the hugs given to me by strangers. I cannot recall ever being held so securely for so long. They just held me and did not let go. In that moment, I began to feel some ORDER coming back. Of course I cried, but that felt exactly what was in ORDER to give me the impetus for the next event.
There was a nudging toward ORDER when I went into a store in Cromwell and the lady making copies for me of an essay written by Laura Mulvey that I was giving to my German friend overheard that I was from Christchurch. Yep, I had updated my status from immigrant to refugee by a natural cycle that had not been around for say 16,000 or 17,000 years, but then, some forms of ORDER take a long time to come through. I went to pay for my copies and she said no charge for that. My sense of ORDER began to come through, there is something to be said for being on the lamb from a heaving piece of earth you once called home. People often give you stuff, not because they have to, but because they want to let you know, there is still some ORDER left. Money is not high priority for the lady whose shop sign said “Going Out of Business”. She could relate entirely. I found ORDER in that, too.
Right now, I am well past ORDER and supposed to be into RESOLUTION, remembering I have allocated only one week per virtue, those weeks go by pretty fast in Christchurch, New Zealand in the midst of an earthquake/aftershock that requires some instantaneous thinking, like Malcolm Gladwell's Blink supersliced can mean the difference between 'being' or 'leaving' in the aftermath of chaos by a snap judgment that might lead to permanent resolution, might not...we shall see after at least a week's reflection...
Monday, February 14, 2011
Shhhh.....
In my silence, I can see more. Much more than I do while speaking. Hence, my friend Ben's practise to consciously refrain from participating in trifling conversation. For years I have been trying to do this very same thing, only say that which benefits others or myself, and even with my practise, I seldom achieve the results I hope to see. However, I am convinced that the effort makes a significant difference and though I often fail to word my conversations to be as beneficial as I would like, I wonder how much worse it might be without the effort applied to speak beneficially and with certain control. With that thought, I often give myself some credit so that I do not give up the effort, when others write me off as a 'no-hoper', I recognize they cannot see me trying internally. There is no spyware for that, though often, people say to me...
'I know what you are thinking...'
Yesterday, in my silence, I wrote the things that go into places no one sees. Unless they use spyware or live inside of me, and last time I checked, there was only one of me in there. Many facets of that oneness, but one me, always. This is the meaning of the 'one god', I believe. I believe I am responsible and the only source of control for all that I might say, but how often I hear others say to me...
'You made me...'
You cannot deny responsibility for others' actions that they believe you responsible for. You can only remain silent and wait for them to seek their own participation in silence.
Shhhh...you can not tell this to anyone that doesn't already know it.
'I know what you are thinking...'
Yesterday, in my silence, I wrote the things that go into places no one sees. Unless they use spyware or live inside of me, and last time I checked, there was only one of me in there. Many facets of that oneness, but one me, always. This is the meaning of the 'one god', I believe. I believe I am responsible and the only source of control for all that I might say, but how often I hear others say to me...
'You made me...'
You cannot deny responsibility for others' actions that they believe you responsible for. You can only remain silent and wait for them to seek their own participation in silence.
Shhhh...you can not tell this to anyone that doesn't already know it.
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| My Morality Board inspired by Ben Franklin |
Monday, February 7, 2011
My Friend Ben
I have been reading Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren published in 1938 by The Viking Press. I am not through it yet and already, I feel I must write about it. It is a book I was allowed to take for free from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 2, 2011, between 11:00AM and 2:30PM during a book giveaway. As you might imagine, there was a host of us there sporting boxes.
My husband, daughter and I wheeled our free book selections out on office chairs with swivel wheels that were also a part of the giveaway. We each had selected from our own preferences. My husband’s was history and geography, my daughter’s was science and literature, mine was American studies and literature. How could I do any better than with a book written about Benjamin Franklin?
Today is only five days later and I have already begun a painting in relationship to the American I always admired superficially, having owned a copy of Ben Franklin adages that sat on my coffee table for many years. About his life, I knew relatively nothing other than a story of a kite, lightning, electricity and moral fabric tossed about through adages slurped randomly. I knew I liked Benjamin Franklin, but I really didn’t know why. Call it intuition, or not, if the thought frightens you.
I’m finding I was savvy to feel rather kindly toward Ben, even if he validated a few things that make me cringe with my political correctness lens that hasn’t yet been fully deleted (I’m working on it with a little help from my own Junto, a scheme I have adopted from Ben who adopted it from Cotton Mather). Ben’s industrious capacities cannot be denied, he accomplished a lot before the advent of light technology, and he had to use ink and type and set it and before that, create what was to be said, he was a one man google-anonymous-blogger without the light show and the quickness, but will all the punch.
I mean, I really admire this human being, the way he was being, inside of where he lived and when, and even now, I would like very much to be locked into an elevator with Benjamin Franklin for awhile, it would not prove onerous, but uplifting, perhaps to the next floor of my own conscious participation with the world I live in. That is why I am determined to paint part of what I learnt about him that makes me like him so much, a plan for living, a list of desirable virtues he longed to groom in himself, a list complete as twelve things, or so he thought, until a good Quaker friend pointed out his many instances of lack of humility, to which Benjamin had to agree when he viewed what must be repeated with the acceptance for others’ opinions.
The list went from twelve to thirteen then. Obviously messing up the mathematical beauty of how it fit into taking Ben through the list one at a time for a week, for twelve weeks, to begin to repeat again and make way to practice all traits for a month of each year at its conclusion, but nevertheless, it works well to remember humility before going back through the original twelve again, lest we forget our requirements to be parrots. And, the original list with the addition is herewith set out as the desirable virtues our young Benjamin set off to instil in his internal world:
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. 4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. 6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly. 8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. 9. Moderation: Avoid extremes, forbear resenting injuries do much as you think they deserve. 10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. 11. Tranquillity: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. 12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation. 13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates (Benjamin Franklin by Van Doren, p. 88).
Now, I am committed to attempting this exercise throughout the year 2011 to see what I can see inside myself surfacing daily under scrutiny by my own conscious act. Temperance, I have but one day today followed and realized that once I met my limit of three fudgsicles, I resorted to placing my foot upon the kitchen bench and stretching out the desire to finger the remnants inside the freezer. Woe, is me, I do not drink, but man can I eat when contemplating. I must take up a race to the other side of the house to keep my date with number one on day one, this is going to be a long year.
More on the painting next time...
My husband, daughter and I wheeled our free book selections out on office chairs with swivel wheels that were also a part of the giveaway. We each had selected from our own preferences. My husband’s was history and geography, my daughter’s was science and literature, mine was American studies and literature. How could I do any better than with a book written about Benjamin Franklin?
Today is only five days later and I have already begun a painting in relationship to the American I always admired superficially, having owned a copy of Ben Franklin adages that sat on my coffee table for many years. About his life, I knew relatively nothing other than a story of a kite, lightning, electricity and moral fabric tossed about through adages slurped randomly. I knew I liked Benjamin Franklin, but I really didn’t know why. Call it intuition, or not, if the thought frightens you.
I’m finding I was savvy to feel rather kindly toward Ben, even if he validated a few things that make me cringe with my political correctness lens that hasn’t yet been fully deleted (I’m working on it with a little help from my own Junto, a scheme I have adopted from Ben who adopted it from Cotton Mather). Ben’s industrious capacities cannot be denied, he accomplished a lot before the advent of light technology, and he had to use ink and type and set it and before that, create what was to be said, he was a one man google-anonymous-blogger without the light show and the quickness, but will all the punch.
I mean, I really admire this human being, the way he was being, inside of where he lived and when, and even now, I would like very much to be locked into an elevator with Benjamin Franklin for awhile, it would not prove onerous, but uplifting, perhaps to the next floor of my own conscious participation with the world I live in. That is why I am determined to paint part of what I learnt about him that makes me like him so much, a plan for living, a list of desirable virtues he longed to groom in himself, a list complete as twelve things, or so he thought, until a good Quaker friend pointed out his many instances of lack of humility, to which Benjamin had to agree when he viewed what must be repeated with the acceptance for others’ opinions.
The list went from twelve to thirteen then. Obviously messing up the mathematical beauty of how it fit into taking Ben through the list one at a time for a week, for twelve weeks, to begin to repeat again and make way to practice all traits for a month of each year at its conclusion, but nevertheless, it works well to remember humility before going back through the original twelve again, lest we forget our requirements to be parrots. And, the original list with the addition is herewith set out as the desirable virtues our young Benjamin set off to instil in his internal world:
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. 4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. 6. Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly. 8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. 9. Moderation: Avoid extremes, forbear resenting injuries do much as you think they deserve. 10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. 11. Tranquillity: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. 12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation. 13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates (Benjamin Franklin by Van Doren, p. 88).
Now, I am committed to attempting this exercise throughout the year 2011 to see what I can see inside myself surfacing daily under scrutiny by my own conscious act. Temperance, I have but one day today followed and realized that once I met my limit of three fudgsicles, I resorted to placing my foot upon the kitchen bench and stretching out the desire to finger the remnants inside the freezer. Woe, is me, I do not drink, but man can I eat when contemplating. I must take up a race to the other side of the house to keep my date with number one on day one, this is going to be a long year.
More on the painting next time...
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