Self-respect is the corner stone of all virtue
John Herschel
***************
Hello Marty
****************
Evil sneaks into our lives with charm and subtlety. It is interesting, exciting, entertaining and beautiful in its reptilian way. Evil always begins by telling us something true. So we believe it. Then it tells us things that maybe aren't quite so true, but we believe them also because the first thing was true. If we keep on believing and accepting we eventually say strange things and do things we never dreamed we would do. Eventually we wake up and discover that we've been debauched, degraded and corrupted. Evil has won.
After years of shameful acts, guilty endeavors, malicious, regretful deeds and a degraded life, enjoying a victim's pain and distress,can one, who wakes up to what has happened to them, actually regain any innocence and self respect? Some people do survive. Others do not.
What is wrong with our society that people are not taught to respect themselves at an early age? Why aren't people warned to beware of the pleasant smiling face that holds out the gentle hand of evil? One can forgive a trusting child who in it's innocence is taken in by the predator. The kidnapping of a child is not the child's fault. The question is what happened to the predator that turned him into a kidnapper? What has evil done to that person to bring them to that mentality? What has taken control of the liar, the deceiver, the betrayer, the destroyer, the thief, the torturer, the killer and allowed that person to justify their actions by saying the victim is a fool, when the victim is perhaps one of the most reliable and respectable people in the world. What evil causes the predator to go after a blameless mind?
Those are hard questions and one's this journal is not qualified to answer. The larger question of what it takes to regain one's innocence and self-respect after a contract with evil is important enough to conjecture upon. We learn behavior, good and bad, by observation, example and emulation. Evil doesn't demonstrate anything but itself and is eventually self-destroyed. Goodness, on the other hand, shows itself in many ways. One of the most important is in not responding in kind to evil, aiding it or supporting it an any manner, pointing out to others evil's masquerades and offering alternatives to evil's recipes for disaster. The good man doesn't lie to get gain, doesn't cheat on people, betray their feelings, trick them, disrespect them for being trustworthy and doesn't malign them for their goodness.
A good man will no doubt have regrets, but he will know why and how to avoid those pot holes along they way as a result. The good man will have achieved a healthy measure of self-respect. A good man will be more virtuous today than he was a year ago. And he will attain more virtue in a year's time because he works at it. He learns more and more how to recognize evil when he sees it and how to avoid it and why.
He may treat the crook with compassion or disgust, but he will not do less than provide an example of virtuous life to the extent he is able.
Some day I may be wise enough to consider what warps an otherwise intelligent person into a state of degradation such as I recently witnessed with a former friend. But for now I am gladly returning to a comfortable level of self-respect and trying to wash my thoughts clean of evil.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
**************************
Showing posts with label evil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evil. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Joy
Where is the joy?
Joy is a deep and concentrating quality which can turn every errant dirty spot into humor and unimportance. It is also the result of right actions and good trails of thought. Many excellent things have happened to me since I left the nasty world of the sub humans. The devious, degenerate, dishonest, betrayers of friendship. But I still don't have my joy back.
I am successfully struggling back to health after the month of attacks of evil and I patiently await the return of joy.
I think it's time to write a blog entry about evil, something I unfortunately know something about. And what I write may surprise the evil doers.
DB - Vagabond
Never give up.
Joy is a deep and concentrating quality which can turn every errant dirty spot into humor and unimportance. It is also the result of right actions and good trails of thought. Many excellent things have happened to me since I left the nasty world of the sub humans. The devious, degenerate, dishonest, betrayers of friendship. But I still don't have my joy back.
I am successfully struggling back to health after the month of attacks of evil and I patiently await the return of joy.
I think it's time to write a blog entry about evil, something I unfortunately know something about. And what I write may surprise the evil doers.
DB - Vagabond
Never give up.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Enlightened Ebbing 10/14/09
Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.
Meister Eckhart
*****************
Come sit over here by me.
_____________________
It seems a very odd thing for most people to look at evil squarely in the face with all of its evidence and to deny it, to deny its rights and to deny its very existence. And yet that is what many great thinkers of the past and present have told us to do. The slate must be cleaned before the right words can be written on it. Denial must be matched with affirmation, and affirmation with denial.
The director of a local high school play called and asked if I would come and help him. He was having trouble with the last scene and he didn't know what to do about it. The students performed the scene for me and it was a mess. First I had to get the teacher's permission to take over the redirecting of it, then I undid everything he had done, brought the whole scene to a stand still and started over to do it right.
One day in New York I was stopped by a radio interviewer who wanted to know my opinion about a current homicide trial that was happening and what I thought of capital punishment. I had no opinion about the murder case but I said I was not in favor of capital punishment because I believed that anyone is basically redeemable no matter how tethered they are to crime and violence. If I did not believe that, though my sins may be minor compared to some, it would be hypocritical of me to hope for my own redemption. And it has happened. People have been inspired to turn their lives around, overcome the crimes, malignancies and anti social behavior of their pasts and emerge as good people.
I knew a man who, because of a minor indiscretion when he was young, was required to register with the police as a sex offender wherever he went. And yet he became very effective at straightening out other men who were guilty of even worse such behavior and an advocate for the protection of children.
When the war in Iraq started those who pray were, I'm sure, praying for the safety of our armies, for the right actions of our generals and the right decisions of our president. But I'll bet none of those who prayed were praying for the one man who needed our prayers more than anyone else, Saddam Hussein.
"WHAT??!!" you are screaming. "I should have PRAYED for that son of a bitch???!!!" The answer is "Yes." After all he was the one caught in the spider's web of evil. Hussein was an intelligent man. He could have brought together the disparate elements of that society in a diplomatic attempt to resolve their differences. He could have established an agreement of safety and security with his neighbors. He could have been friends with the free world and been a force for international peace . But somewhere along the way he was convinced to take the wrong road and, as a result, he kept half of the country under suppression, thus feeding the fires of divisiveness, legalized torture to satisfy the sadists and became a world wide threat. So they arrested him, tried him and executed him, which accomplished absolutely nothing. It wasn't Saddam that needed to be destroyed, it was the dark, evil road he was on. The Koran says "Evil shall recoil on those that plot evil."
It has also been written that evil is never a person, it's a thing. And it's a thing that needs to be denied existence, to be cleared away, erased, wiped off the mental slate. And the good must be affirmed with just as much vigor, or more, as one uses to fight against the beliefs of evil.
This two part activity is the diastole and systole of our lives. It is cosmic in its importance, It's ebb tide and high tide, night and day, plowing and harvest, winter and spring. Deny the wrong. Give it no place, validity or reality. It is the absence of good. Affirm the good and claim its rightful truth. Denial and Affirmation. They go together.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
___________________
Delight yourself in joy, please.
*******************
Meister Eckhart
*****************
Come sit over here by me.
_____________________
It seems a very odd thing for most people to look at evil squarely in the face with all of its evidence and to deny it, to deny its rights and to deny its very existence. And yet that is what many great thinkers of the past and present have told us to do. The slate must be cleaned before the right words can be written on it. Denial must be matched with affirmation, and affirmation with denial.
The director of a local high school play called and asked if I would come and help him. He was having trouble with the last scene and he didn't know what to do about it. The students performed the scene for me and it was a mess. First I had to get the teacher's permission to take over the redirecting of it, then I undid everything he had done, brought the whole scene to a stand still and started over to do it right.
One day in New York I was stopped by a radio interviewer who wanted to know my opinion about a current homicide trial that was happening and what I thought of capital punishment. I had no opinion about the murder case but I said I was not in favor of capital punishment because I believed that anyone is basically redeemable no matter how tethered they are to crime and violence. If I did not believe that, though my sins may be minor compared to some, it would be hypocritical of me to hope for my own redemption. And it has happened. People have been inspired to turn their lives around, overcome the crimes, malignancies and anti social behavior of their pasts and emerge as good people.
I knew a man who, because of a minor indiscretion when he was young, was required to register with the police as a sex offender wherever he went. And yet he became very effective at straightening out other men who were guilty of even worse such behavior and an advocate for the protection of children.
When the war in Iraq started those who pray were, I'm sure, praying for the safety of our armies, for the right actions of our generals and the right decisions of our president. But I'll bet none of those who prayed were praying for the one man who needed our prayers more than anyone else, Saddam Hussein.
"WHAT??!!" you are screaming. "I should have PRAYED for that son of a bitch???!!!" The answer is "Yes." After all he was the one caught in the spider's web of evil. Hussein was an intelligent man. He could have brought together the disparate elements of that society in a diplomatic attempt to resolve their differences. He could have established an agreement of safety and security with his neighbors. He could have been friends with the free world and been a force for international peace . But somewhere along the way he was convinced to take the wrong road and, as a result, he kept half of the country under suppression, thus feeding the fires of divisiveness, legalized torture to satisfy the sadists and became a world wide threat. So they arrested him, tried him and executed him, which accomplished absolutely nothing. It wasn't Saddam that needed to be destroyed, it was the dark, evil road he was on. The Koran says "Evil shall recoil on those that plot evil."
It has also been written that evil is never a person, it's a thing. And it's a thing that needs to be denied existence, to be cleared away, erased, wiped off the mental slate. And the good must be affirmed with just as much vigor, or more, as one uses to fight against the beliefs of evil.
This two part activity is the diastole and systole of our lives. It is cosmic in its importance, It's ebb tide and high tide, night and day, plowing and harvest, winter and spring. Deny the wrong. Give it no place, validity or reality. It is the absence of good. Affirm the good and claim its rightful truth. Denial and Affirmation. They go together.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
___________________
Delight yourself in joy, please.
*******************
Monday, June 1, 2009
Evil's Enemy 6/01/09
A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions and the roots spring up and make new trees.
Emelia Earhart
*****************
'Lo.
-----------------------
This is what kindness can do. It can feed a hungry child, ease the pain of an injured man, help the handicapped, guide the blind, rescue a suffering animal, provide for the poor, care for the elderly, visit the shut-in, educate the ignorant, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and befriend the lonely stranger. But those things are only the beginning,
A kind act has a huge benefit attached to it that the care giver isn't even aware of at the time. A kind deed thrusts a sharp spear right into the very heart of evil.
There are many ways of being unkind, compassionless and unmerciful and many reasons for it. Self-justification is a popular one. "I'm just taking care of myself and my family. That's difficult enough. Why should I care about anyone else? That's their problem." Ignorance is another one. I'm reminded of the remark a woman made about wanting to give her leftover Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless but she didn't know where they lived. Tucked into one's safe and reasonably happy home it's easy to become benignly unaware of the desperation down the street. Then there are the religious reasons, which are the most insidious. It's alright to be cruel under certain circumstances because the Bible says this and the Koran says that and my guru saya the other thing and traditions must be followed.
Evil relishes the idea of going out into the gladiatorial arena and doing battle with kindness, charity, love and mercy. But in that arena evil has only one weapon. And that weapon is the human mind.
If evil can get you to believe that it's alright to kill, maim, torture, forget, ignore, turn away from, overlook, stay home, and let others take care of things because you can't be bothered, then evil has won the day.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
*********************
May you find unexpected joy today.
__________________________
SPRING QUIZ
THIS IS NOT A CONTEST
What do you think was the most important event of 2008? and
What was the most significant event in your life last year?
You have all Spring to answer if you wish.
15 responses so far.
Leave answers on my email dbdacoba@aol.com or on my journal
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/. Thank you. DB
Emelia Earhart
*****************
'Lo.
-----------------------
This is what kindness can do. It can feed a hungry child, ease the pain of an injured man, help the handicapped, guide the blind, rescue a suffering animal, provide for the poor, care for the elderly, visit the shut-in, educate the ignorant, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and befriend the lonely stranger. But those things are only the beginning,
A kind act has a huge benefit attached to it that the care giver isn't even aware of at the time. A kind deed thrusts a sharp spear right into the very heart of evil.
There are many ways of being unkind, compassionless and unmerciful and many reasons for it. Self-justification is a popular one. "I'm just taking care of myself and my family. That's difficult enough. Why should I care about anyone else? That's their problem." Ignorance is another one. I'm reminded of the remark a woman made about wanting to give her leftover Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless but she didn't know where they lived. Tucked into one's safe and reasonably happy home it's easy to become benignly unaware of the desperation down the street. Then there are the religious reasons, which are the most insidious. It's alright to be cruel under certain circumstances because the Bible says this and the Koran says that and my guru saya the other thing and traditions must be followed.
Evil relishes the idea of going out into the gladiatorial arena and doing battle with kindness, charity, love and mercy. But in that arena evil has only one weapon. And that weapon is the human mind.
If evil can get you to believe that it's alright to kill, maim, torture, forget, ignore, turn away from, overlook, stay home, and let others take care of things because you can't be bothered, then evil has won the day.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
*********************
May you find unexpected joy today.
__________________________
SPRING QUIZ
THIS IS NOT A CONTEST
What do you think was the most important event of 2008? and
What was the most significant event in your life last year?
You have all Spring to answer if you wish.
15 responses so far.
Leave answers on my email dbdacoba@aol.com or on my journal
http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/. Thank you. DB
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)