I was struck by a moment during the Harris/Walz campaign rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin last week. Governor Walz was speaking and apparently someone in the audience felt ill. In mid-sentence, he noticed what was happening and called for help. His eyes fixed on the person.
Thank you, yes there is absolutely a balance between Public good and private life.
This might seem tangential, reading this sparked a recent sermon I heard :
“The closest thing we have to the Kingdom of Heaven, is a multiracial, multicultural democracy, where power is truly shared.”
I think it doesn’t happen without as the Greek word agape notes, a love of mankind. An impersonal love. We share because we care, we hoard when we don’t care. That includes every little kindness we can choose to share or not.
We aren’t kind because we are so untethered from lifelong, cultural and spiritual teachings that call us to the Angels of our better natures.
All we are left with are our grievances.
In psychotherapy, it is well known that you cannot give another person. What you yourself do not have. So many are impoverished by a shallow life. Yet as human beings were hardwired for meaning.
Living, a life of oppositional natures will never create circumstances we can thrive in .
Everything is a choice, including not choosing. Choice by choice we’re building a personal and community life, either rooted in grievances or rooted in agape.
Kindness, caring, empathy, as you say so well, are our way of being. And we must return. They are our invitations to our true selves.
And we must not allow others to describe kindness, caring and empathy as negative. As if these qualities are somehow the qualities of someone who wants to oppress you.
That moment on the trail struck me, too. I appreciate your thoughts on what happened and the bigger idea of caring for one another as a society. Freedom does seem to have been twisted from what we used to understand it as into a very "me first/me only" mindset that makes caring for fellow citizens seem weak. I remember being shocked by the "makers" and "takers" talk that surfaced on the right when Obama was first running. It's so binary and doesn't allow room for us to take care of one another as citizens in a society should.
Thanks for putting in the effort to write about Gov. Walz' kindness. He stopped to help a stranger. I write on the day 4 day old twins were killed in Gaza by Israel adding the the over 2,000 children under two who were killed among 17,000 children of the 40,000 killed that we know of above ground. Tens of thousands more will certainly die from currently starvation and disease conditions. One woman who fainted in the heat. Gov. Walz is campaigning with VP Harris who has worked in lockstep with Pres. Biden to perpetuate a genocide. How will they adjust their accounts? I hear no apology or course correction, just billions more in bombs to kill more innocents. Your feel good story might make it into Reader's Digest but it rings hollow. Doesn't it? No "E" for effort here only an incredulous response to your ignoring the greatest moral crisis of our time. Sincerely, Ralph Galen
Thank you, yes there is absolutely a balance between Public good and private life.
This might seem tangential, reading this sparked a recent sermon I heard :
“The closest thing we have to the Kingdom of Heaven, is a multiracial, multicultural democracy, where power is truly shared.”
I think it doesn’t happen without as the Greek word agape notes, a love of mankind. An impersonal love. We share because we care, we hoard when we don’t care. That includes every little kindness we can choose to share or not.
We aren’t kind because we are so untethered from lifelong, cultural and spiritual teachings that call us to the Angels of our better natures.
All we are left with are our grievances.
In psychotherapy, it is well known that you cannot give another person. What you yourself do not have. So many are impoverished by a shallow life. Yet as human beings were hardwired for meaning.
Living, a life of oppositional natures will never create circumstances we can thrive in .
Everything is a choice, including not choosing. Choice by choice we’re building a personal and community life, either rooted in grievances or rooted in agape.
Kindness, caring, empathy, as you say so well, are our way of being. And we must return. They are our invitations to our true selves.
Thank you for the thoughtful breather.
And we must not allow others to describe kindness, caring and empathy as negative. As if these qualities are somehow the qualities of someone who wants to oppress you.
That moment on the trail struck me, too. I appreciate your thoughts on what happened and the bigger idea of caring for one another as a society. Freedom does seem to have been twisted from what we used to understand it as into a very "me first/me only" mindset that makes caring for fellow citizens seem weak. I remember being shocked by the "makers" and "takers" talk that surfaced on the right when Obama was first running. It's so binary and doesn't allow room for us to take care of one another as citizens in a society should.
Exactly!
Thanks for putting in the effort to write about Gov. Walz' kindness. He stopped to help a stranger. I write on the day 4 day old twins were killed in Gaza by Israel adding the the over 2,000 children under two who were killed among 17,000 children of the 40,000 killed that we know of above ground. Tens of thousands more will certainly die from currently starvation and disease conditions. One woman who fainted in the heat. Gov. Walz is campaigning with VP Harris who has worked in lockstep with Pres. Biden to perpetuate a genocide. How will they adjust their accounts? I hear no apology or course correction, just billions more in bombs to kill more innocents. Your feel good story might make it into Reader's Digest but it rings hollow. Doesn't it? No "E" for effort here only an incredulous response to your ignoring the greatest moral crisis of our time. Sincerely, Ralph Galen