High Ground

The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven.

John Milton
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Hello Rose
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People are in the habit of expecting and demanding from other people the same ethical rules they try to apply to themselves. It is as if a person knows all about right and wrong and is therefore qualified to teach others. Ethics is a very complicated topic which has absorbed philosophers since the beginning of rational thought. And what makes it complicated is, among other things, the difference between thought and behavior.
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Morality has become a rather cheap word these says as politicians chime out about their individual moral stands on one issue or another. We've heard about the moral high ground as if it was a vantage point for casting stones down on those who don't subscribe to the moral tenets of the hill dweller. The annoying fact is that what is moral behavior in one instance is immoral in the next. And that's why it is so important to come to an understanding of ethics and how it affects the individual and the society he lives in.

If a single act can be right in one case and not in another it means we can't judge morality just by human behavior. A soldier is allowed to shoot an enemy soldier but not his next door neighbor, no matter how scurrilous he may be.

We must judge human behavior, if we allow ourselves to judge it at all, on the basis of motives. Motives are mental things. It is very difficult in most cases to know what a person's motives are for doing anything. Those are hidden in the mind of the doer and not public domain. And the person who is holding in mind the motive is free to lie about it if he wants to. .So the overall subject of ethics is not about behavior but about thought. Which brings up the question, whether you act on it or not, if you think an immoral thought are you being immoral? If you are then it is even more important to discipline your thoughts than your actions.

We have all looked into the smiling face of the "so nice" person who is secretly holding close to his mental chest the most dangerous desires and ideas. That person is living in hell. Without realizing it his mind has put him lower then the low moral ground. His pretentious at being the nice guy have forced him into hypocrisy, and sooner or later the thoughts in his mind will spill out into behavior and everyone will be amazed and shocked.

While the true evangel will carefully examine his thoughts and desires to conform them to his highest ideals and thus stand firmly on an invulnerable moral ground no matter where he is.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
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Be Aware

The first great gift we can bestow on others is a good example.

Thomas Morel
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Hello Belmopan Belize
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As with many youngsters I grew up surrounded by some vary bad influences. I was told what was right behavior, especially toward others, but I had few examples of that behavior to emulate. The way to be it seemed to me, was to be "out to get" others, one way or another. I became competitive in a harmful manner. And the guys I hung around with were of the same stamp. But I was about to enter a 4 step awareness program.

Step 1. I started to notice goodness. I began to realize that there were people around me who were doing kind and generous things without being asked. I was seeing pure altruism in action and it made no sense to me. Everyone had something wrong with them and it should be pointed out. They should be judged, criticized, scorned and laughed at. And yet there were people who actually overlooked what I considered people's faults and who praised and approved of them.

Step 2. I realized to my shame and bafflement that some people were treating me with the same goodness of heart and behavior. There was a genuine unselfishness in the actions of some of those around me. I was being thought of with approval and an acceptance beyond what I thought I deserved. That began to alter my own behavior, but only superficially. It didn't change my opinion of those I thought were beneath me, just my actions toward them, a tolerance which I felt they didn't deserve.

Step 3. To my great surprise I opened my mind enough to realize that the people who were being so kind to me were doing so because they recognized my negativity and were offering a source of healing to it by example. Instead of being lectured at or criticized, people were simply behaving toward me in a way that was an eloquent urge for me to be the person they wanted me to be and knew I could be. As a result I actually began to be that person. I disciplined myself to discard my negativity toward other people and learned to recognize the goodness in them and praise them for it.

Step 4. Having thus far leaned these lessons I set out to be the kind of person who could be the best example possible for others who were going through the same negative expressions I had been. Once free of scorn and ridicule it is easy to see it in others and to see how ugly it is. So I am paying back those who kindly brought me out of my own shadow by keeping the light on for others. This is a step I'm still working on.

DB - The Vagabond
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SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

There's still time to answer the Spring Question, so let's go.

NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.

Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 6 answers so far

I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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Paddle Your Own Canoe

Nothing needs reforming as much as other people's habits.

Mark Twain
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Isn't it curious how other people are so much less complicated than I am? There is no one I can think of who could possibly carry around the vast network of thoughts, ideas, fears and hopes that I do. You see, I am definitely a superior person and other people should listen to me and do what I say. If they would only conform their behavior to what I know is right for them they would be so much happier and the world would be a better place.

Back up the tape to my younger years and see all the people around me who are advising me. "You really ought to do this." "It's a shame you're not that." "If I were you I would do the other thing." "What's the matter with you?" "You'll be sorry if you continue doing what you're doing." "You've got to learn to make something out of yourself." "Whatever is going to become of you?" "I hope something comes along some day, hits you in the head and knocks some sense into you."

If I had done what everyone, my family and my teachers, thought I should do I would have been beyond manic, I would have been Swiss cheese, a patchwork quilt, a chess set with some pieces missing, a wheelbarrow stuck in the mud, half of a motorcycle.

If you think you know something then you might. It's merely a question of making sure. The adults around me were all authority figures so I assumed they must know the answers. And even though I had different ideas, I must be wrong.

I would love to say there was a great blazing, cymbal crashing wake up one day, but there wasn't. It happened gradually. As time went by people began to ask me what I thought. That surprised me. And when I told them what I thought, sometimes they agreed with me, which surprised me even more.

Eventually I learned to respect myself, my ideas and my abilities. Once I did that I was free to learn how to respect other peoples ideas and abilities. I don't always agree with them. But today, the last thing I want to do is to tell anyone what to think or how to behave.

We all have our own canoes. You can't paddle mine and I can't paddle yours.

DB - The Vagabond
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SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

5 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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Kinetic Kindness 6/07/09

We are incessantly moved by the stream of time, and the change of sensations resultant from it.

Immanuel Kant
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Hi. If you were affected by that awful Tagged scam yesterday, I am so sorry it happened to you. I had nothing to do with it. It was sending out messages all over the world, without my knowledge. Know that if I invite you to join some social network as my friend, or whatever, it is probably not from me. If, by some remote chance it is, I will let you know that ahead of time. This is about what snagged us:
Tagged.com Email Scam - "Your Friend Tagged You" - Phishing for Your Identity
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Be sure to checkout the Weekend Puzzle below. It is legitimate.
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I was just thinking this morning about how much I have changed over the years. When I reflect on certain events and recall what my behavior was at those times I can feel regrets. But I find that knowing I will not do those things anymore is a partial treatment for those regrets. I have done a lot of things in my life I'm not proud of. Who hasn't? Today, I take no particular pride in knowing that I won't do those things again if the opportunity occurs. It's more a matter of feeling cleansed from much of the sarcasm, judgmentalism and negativity of the past. In short, I'm a nicer guy than I used to be.

It is also a satisfaction, and somewhat of a surprise, to find that a person can float on "the stream of time" into senior citizenship, even with illness. pain and trouble, without becoming curmudgeonly nasty with a basic distaste for life, as has happened to some guys, unfortunately.

I ignore the evil angel that talks of dissolution and decrepitude. I feel as much alive as ever but with a whole different set of sensations. The challenge of making a living has been replaced by the one of walking down the street. That's where the humor is. As I wrote to someone recently, I write because I think and I think because my mind is just about the only part of me that still works right.

I have come to not taking for granted many things. I know there is a future and that things change. I look forward to it.

"He's a tough old bastard." You betcha.

DB
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Let Springdom Ring
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WEEKEND PUZZLE

Okay. Here you go.
Without cheating (i. e. Googling), how many of the following can you identify with their full titles? Warning, they get progressively more difficult. The correct answers and winners, if any (heh, heh, malignant chuckle), will appear after 9 p. m. EST on Sunday. So get busy. No cheating.

1. PIN

2. NASA

3. CORE

4. FAA

5. ASCAP

6. AFL-CIO

7. AGVA

8. LASER

9. EDGAR

10. CARD

Good luck. You'll need it.

1 winner so far.

Extreme Etchings 4/09/09

We have left our thumbprints in the thick, moist clay of each other's lives.

Hugh Elliot
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Good day to you.
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One of the traits of an experienced actor, or, in fact, any artist or thinking person, is a careful observation of the world. An actor will glean images and experiences from human life to use as raw material. Now I find myself doing the same thing in my writing. I often think back to moments when something someone did made a lasting impression on me. Sometimes it was a friend who did or said something that had an impact. At other times it was just a moment observed in passing. Why do I remember some things and not others? That's a mystery.

But an even greater and perhaps unknowable fact is to what extent I have impacted other people. Unless I'm told I will never know if something I said or did stayed with someone as part of a collection of memories that changed that person's life in some way.

But the realization that just as others have affected me without their even realizing it, leads me to understand that I have a responsibility to those I come in contat with to try to leave an impression that is good, not just so I won't appear negatively to them, but also so that I don't adversely affect their lives.

Who knows to what extent someone's behavior may be due to negative impressions they have received over time from people they don't even know? I may respond poorly to someone, not because they deserve it. but because something they do brings up a reaction I once had to something similar from someone else.

It is unforgivably self-indulgent for me not to hammer out on my anvil that gross metal and make of it a positive tool.

As we skip and trudge through our daily lives we are always leaving thumbprints in other's lives wherever we go. We can't help it. If you think about the people who affected you somehow, even if it's just a flash of a thought, realize at the same time that others are thinking of you in the same way. Some part of you lives in someone else's thoughts. It is impossible to always leave a good thumbprint but it is possible to be aware of the fact that we do leave one.

DB
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May you always have a song to sing.
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