Finding Roads to Meaning and Resilience: Breathe Deep Seattle 9/21/19

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Need Your Help

                                                  “How can I help when someone I love develops cancer?” This seems to be a simple question, and the answer can be both easy and difficult. A simple answer is the fact that you cannot help if your aim is to cure them. You also may not be helping if your plan is to bring a casserole and then leave as quickly as possible. True, there is no formula that fits everyone, and true, you may not be able to cure your loved one’s illness, but you can do something meaningful. You can be with them, and you can give them care and kindness. This sounds like a cliché, but I am far from wanting to reaffirm an old adage. To be there for someone and to provide kindness and care are easily...
Read more

To Be Thankful Is Not A Commitment

To be thankful is an entitlement. It is not a commitment -- unless the person chooses to make it her own commitment. I could live as if life is granted to me by an act of grace and I could choose to be grateful, that is my choice. I am entitled to make this choice. Because it is a singular choice, there are other choices I am entitled to as well. A person could choose not to be grateful. “I did not ask for your generosity!” someone could say. And even if the person has asked for an act of grace, she could still choose to not be grateful, unless she has promised to be so. To be grateful is a commitment only if I commit myself to being grateful.   It is a choice; “Thou shalt be grateful” is not a categorical imperative. But some people speak as if being grateful is an “ought”. To justify gratitude as a normative obligation, comparing the person who ought to be grateful to someone less fortunate or more disadvantaged. They say, “you should be grateful that you have thi...
Read more