Thinking Out Loud

Thinking Out Loud:

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Cervantes  work, Don Quixote.

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

Note: Are you a dreamer? Do you dare see life as it should be and not as it is? If we dare to live our lives as we believe the world should be, we have to be prepared for the criticism of those who lost the ability to dream. They fear a world where there is no global warming. They fear a world where love reigns. They fear a world where people of every race, culture, ethnicity, and gender can live peacefully together. I prefer to be a dreamer and believe the dream is within our grasp.

Thinking Out Loud: There are Consequences to Our Actions

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Harper Lee’s  work, To Kill a Mockingbird.

“Atticus said to Jem one day, “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.

“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Note: When a developer drains a swamp destroying the habitat for thousands of animals, the developer destroys something beautiful and innocent in his/her quest for money. When we shame and condemn another, we, like the developer, destroy a part of the person being shamed. When we use false statements to support a lie we degrade ourselves in the process. All the mockingbird does is to sing. I have mockingbirds that frequently visit my yard and compete with me for ripened figs. They always win. I also win because I hear them singing. It’s better to consider the consequences of our actions before we act.

Thinking Out Loud: What Have You Done Today to Earn Another’s Trust?

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Harper Lee’s  work, To Kill a Mockingbird.

“We’re paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It’s that simple.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Note: One can’t order trust online. Nor can one expect somebody to trust him/her without first earning that trust. Trust results from the accumulation of hundreds of small action. It only takes one act to destroy all the previous good acts. Once lost, it’s difficult to regain another’s trust. Trust is an imprint on one’s character. It’s indelible. We earn another’s trust by keeping our word, standing on trusted values, and never taking the cowards way out when facing difficult challenges.

Thinking Out Loud: Discovering Real Courage

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Harper Lee’s  work, To Kill a Mockingbird.

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

Note: It takes courage to stand alone against the crowd (in can be anywhere) to support something you know is right, but the crowd doesn’t want to hear. If you know in your heart you are right, you take the stand and along with it, the consequences. I found myself in that situation several times. I have the scars to prove it. I can look back and wonder where I found the courage. All I know is that it was there at the right moment. I think that’s how it works. You have to face it, alone. When you do, the courage awakens within you, and you discover strength you didn’t realize was there.

Thinking Out Loud: Who Are You?

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Harper Lee’s  work, To Kill a Mockingbird.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

Note: I think about parent – child relationships. I loved my dad, understanding him takes more work. He was one of eleven children of Italian immigrants. His father died when he was 14. He quit school in 8th grade to go to work in a shoe factory to help support his family. My dad and mom were married during the great depression. He was drafted during WWII and fought in Europe. I will never have the experience of his anxieties, fears, or doubts. Nor will I understand where he found the inner strength to go forward and raise a family. Like my dad, we all have stories. Our stories are similar, yet vastly different. The way we experience our story creates the person we are today. Perhaps the good way to understand another is to listen non-judgmentally to their story and appreciate the challenges they overcame to get to the present moment.

Thinking Out Loud: The Dance of Love

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Boris Pasternack’s  work, Dr. Zhivago.

“Their love was great. Most people experience love without becoming aware of the extraordinary nature of this emotion. But to them—and this made them exceptional—the moments when passion visited their doomed human existence like a breath of eternity were moments of revelation, of continually new discoveries about themselves and life.”

Note: A deep, passionate love continuously breathes new life into a relationship. The parties to the relationship lose themselves in each other. They maintain their individuality and simultaneously surrender themselves completely to the other. Observing them is like watching two great dancers. The individuals become absorbed into the dance of love. With each beat of music they capture another glimpse of the other and fall deeper into love.

Thinking Out Loud:

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Boris Pasternack’s  work, Dr. Zhivago.

“It’s good when a man deceives your expectations, when he doesn’t correspond to the preconceived notion of him. To belong to a type is the end of a man, his condemnation. If he doesn’t fall into any category, if he’s not representative, half of what’s demanded of him is there. He’s free of himself, he has achieved a grain of immortality.”

Note: The moment we can honestly say, “I don’t have to be who you want me to be. I choose to be what I am destined to become, and I will choose the path,” we are free. We are free to fail miserably. We are free to succeed beyond our wildest expectations. Waylon Jennings in his song, The Chokin’ kind, sang, “You can kill a man with bullets, poison, or a knife / But it hurts him more to take his pride and run his life / Whatever it is you want, girl, I hope you find / But that hat don’t fit my head, ’cause it’s the choking kind.” When we have the internal freedom to live up to the expectations we set for ourselves, we discover the who we were meant to become.  

Thinking Out Loud: Experiencing Moments of Grace

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Boris Pasternack’s  work, Dr. Zhivago.

“For a moment she rediscovered the purpose of life. She was here on earth to grasp the meaning of its wild enchantment and to call each thing by its right name.”

Note: Moments of clarity are few. They come to us unannounced. In those moments we know as we were created to know. I call them moments of grace. In these moments I know that I am part of something vast, wonderful, overflowing with an abundance of love. I want to remain in those moments, nothing else matters. The moments leave. They leave me recharged, filled with the Spirit, to move forward with a heart overflowing with hope and love.

Thinking Out Loud: Dare to Speak the Truth

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Boris Pasternack’s  work, Dr. Zhivago.

“Ordinarily, people are anxious to test their theories in practice, to learn from experience, but those who wield power are so anxious to establish the myth of their own infallibility that they turn back on truth as squarely as they can. Politics mean nothing to me. I don’t like people who are indifferent to the truth.”

Note: Searching for and speaking the truth is a dangerous journey. Historically, people who have dared speak the truth are martyred. The adage “the truth hurts”  often does to the one speaking the truth. They are guilty of naming what is happening, of cutting away the fog from the evil that is being committed in the name of truth. It happens at a national level where tyrants name the truth and those who speak out claiming that the truth spoken by the tyrant is a lie are destroyed. It happens in every social unit where there is oppression. When someone confronts the oppressor with the truth, the oppressor strikes out, often violently. Grateful for the courageous people who dare to speak the truth because the truth to them is more important than the threats from the oppressor.

Thinking Out Loud: Looking Forward to the Next Chapter

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Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Boris Pasternack’s  work, Dr. Zhivago.

“Farewell, my great one, my own, farewell, my pride, farewell, my swift, deep, dear river, how I loved your daylong splashing, how I loved to plunge into your cold waves.”

Note: Life for us is a long series of letting go. We let go of childhood to enter adolescence. We let go of adolescence to enter adulthood. During our adult journey we may let go of good health. We may lose a partner to death. Each time we let go we experience the pain of separation. We’re never really healed from the separations, each separation leaves a scar. Some of my scars are more visible than others, but I carry them as you  do yours. With each separation there is a time of mourning. If we’re healthy, we begin to look forward to the next chapter with hope-filled expectations. Then we get on with life and leave what was lost behind.     

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