Affirmations: Values, Purpose, Etc.

~ I am read and willing to help clarify common social values now.

~ I am ready and willing ti help clarify common understanding of values now.

~ I am ready and willing to learn to discover a way to have satisfying dialogue online now.

~ I am ready , willing, and able to learn to give myself a better opportunity to converse with an interesting person here and now.

~ I am ready, willing, and able to learn to bring an excellent person into my life now.

~ I am ready and willing to learn to better know what it means to honor geography now.

~ I intend to benefit by being cleared about the purpose of this activity now.

~ I am ready, willing, and able to learn to be clear about the purpose of this activity here and now.

~ I am ready and willing  to learn to meet an excellent neighbor now.

~ I intend to practice being a bit more pleasant with associates this month.

~I am ready and willing to learn to take the time to consider the origin of an assumption of mine now..

~ I am ready and willing to learn to find something easy to do now to make a pleasant day for one close to me.

~ I intend to use my freedom as well as I can in this situation right here.

~ I propose to acknowledge that I enjoy contributing my learning to the well-being of others here.

~ I Choose to have fun easily this day.

~ I plan to more effectively organize my doings this month.

~ I intend to give more attention to organizing my work right here.

Commandment One

How do you and I decide to kill that man?

How do we decide to spend our money to kill that man?

How do we decide to spend the blood of our youth to kill that man?

How do we decide to kill his duckling?

How do we decide to kill his puppy?

How do we decide to kill his daughter?

How do we decide to kill his daughter's baby?

How did we decide to kill that Korean baby?

How did we decide to kill that Panamanian duck?

How do we decide to kill that Iraqi puppy?

How did we decide to kill that Afghan man?

How did we decide ti kill that Laotian son?

How did we decide to kill the Cambodian wife?

How do we decide to to pay others to kill men in other places?

How do we handle our responsibility as citizens of  this republic?

How do we reconcile our words about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with out decision to kill so much, to kill so many, to kill so often?

Who says that we kill without deciding1

Affirm Your Life: VALUES Affirmations

Affirm Your Life: VALUES Affirmations

How do the values expressed here stand with the ones held in your heart and manifested in your life?

What kind of person compares their own actions with their own values?

Old and Slow

A short couple of months before OWS two young acquaintances suggested starting a 'movement.' I started drafting a post of that experience then. I just ran across that start. Thought that it might still be worth 'finishing' and posting.

I told them that I didn't know what they meant by 'movement.' It seemed that they weren't very clear about it either. Though perhaps in their own minds they were clear enough.

I told them that I was willing to talk with them, but they wanted more than 'talk.'

They reminded me that I had mentioned 'organizing' as something useful. I told them to go organize. They asked me how. I suggested that the try 'talking.' They were tired of talk and wanted something more than talk. Also, they were not sure what I meant by 'talk.' I told them that if the wanted, I would help them learn more about effective talk. They had experience with talk and were interested in doing something other than talk.

I was perhaps I was doing more telling than was supportive of good talk. So, I told them that doing was okay with me. They said that they wanted to do organization. Organization seemed  big medicine to them and they wanted help in using that powerful magic.

I mentioned that organization was most often for an objective. They mentioned making things better; things like politics, economics, society, and like that. I said that betterment of those things seemed a grand objective, perhaps too grand.

I then called their attention to the fact that I seem pretty disorganized to some. I told them that I didn't have a family of my own (a pretty traditional organization); that I didn't belong to any organization; that I didn't have a job; that I was no longer the member of a political party.

That took them back a bit.

I told them that I intended to avoid taking part in any organization, movement, or group, that didn't include a lot of ongoing talk.

"Talk about what?" they asked.

"Everything" I answered a bit extravagantly.

Them: Be more specific.

me: Values, assumptions, dialogue skills, clarification of meanings.

Them: We want more than talk.

me: okay.

them: We want you to help.

me: I'll try to help by talking.

them: Okay we are talking.

me: What do you value?

them: Freedom, justice, fairness.

me: What's valuable about freedom?

them: This seems more like interrogation than talk.

me: I just want to understand what we are talking about.

them: A Movement. Freedom to have a movement.

me: I've had two already today, both satisfying.

them: That's a lot of shit.

me; I value shit and assume that it is important to you. Okay, I might consider doing something with you, but it must include a lot of dialogue as I have mentioned. There are other things that I would probably insist on, like no violence and no leaders.

them: can your dialogue and two 'nos' make a movement?

me: I don't think so. Think about it. It might be a start.

them; See you later, maybe.

me: Bye.

An Older Teacher

Some old teachers showed me this list of twenty values compiled by an older teacher. They then gave me this homework. "You highlight in green the five of her values that appear most important to you. Then highlight in red the five values that mean the least to you.
Put aside the values that mean the least to you and arrange the remaining ten values in descending order from okay to not very important. Now, you should have a value list that is important to you."
I am not a student of these teachers so I have not done the homework. However, the list seems interesting and its purpose worthy. So, I reproduce the list below. Perhaps I will indicate five of them which seem most important to me today. You know, I'm not even sure that they are values, but they do seem to point toward values.


1. Life isn't fair, but it is still good.
2. When id doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. I don't have to win every argument. I can agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with my past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare my life with others. I have little little idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
!5. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks. 
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.


These are from retired women who taught children and now speaking to each other. The list probably says more about them than anything still the list, and the homework, may motivate one to do something about ones own values.


My green list of the moment is: 2, 3, 16, 19, 13.

The Most Toys

After decades of study and travel I was easily able to see why our underhanded, dangerous, neo-colonialism disturbed the peoples of nearly every nation on earth with our corporate tentacles distorting the political, economic and cultural aspects of their lives with its wringing exploitation.


However, criticism of another of our 'national characteristics' surprised and disturbed me. It was something I knew well and thought I understood pretty well. It was something I a accepted and had found acceptable. What had surprised and disturbed me was how deeply it was felt by the peoples of the earth and how profoundly disillusioned and betrayed many felt because of it.
They called us materialistic and it was our materialism which disturbed them. What touched and disappointed them so deeply was to observe that our concern with money and possessions seemed  stronger than our concerns with spiritual and intellectual values. We might say, "Right, he who dies with the most toys wins." Do we value dollars, gold, goodies, and the power of material wealth more than, say, church and school? Were dollar values very much greater than spiritual values in our lives. What surprised  and disturbed me was that I had not even noted that much in our lives was biased toward the material.


The more I saw us as many others do, the more the more I thought about our apparent prioritization of values, the more I felt a sort of disappointment. My earlier surprise turned a bit sad upon realizing how easily I had gone along with fellow American attitude that the buck and the stuff came before mind and spirit.


How many prominent Americans value monetary power over others more than they value the quality of their own spirit and intellect?


Who are we?

Way to Talk

It seems to me that we can benefit from learning a more productive way to talk about that which is important to us.

If you were here I'd ask you to help me name various ways of talking.

Debate is one of them. I think of it as a bit like war. One important aim of debate is winning. The idea seems to be to best an opponent. Producing a win is not the kind of production which interests me here.

My aim in the kind of talk which interests me here is to better understand those with whom I converse. I want to understand them and their views on a deeper level. I want a better understanding of their values and assumptions. I want to better appreciate how they feel about it. I want to be clear about what it is.

I also want to be understood and appreciated.

Debate does not seem to be the best vehicle for such understanding.

Chat is another kind of talk. Chat may go on without dealing with views, values, or assumptions.

Conversation is a great kind of talk and I enjoy it greatly. However, our conversation may not deal well with strongly felt differences, and can lead to argument. Arguments may turn to debate or to verbal fight.

Discussion seems, like conversation, to be  kind of talk between chat and debate. Discussion seems to tend toward persuasion. It often includes the intent to persuade.

The purpose of of the kind of talk which interests me here is about persuasion. The way of talking which interests me here is not about persuasion. I am not interested in persuading or in being persuaded.

My purpose is to to understand and to, perhaps, be understood.

I have been calling this way to talk dialogue

Desire

~ I propose to consider how I will exercise my foresight right here and right now.
~ I am ready, willing, and able to learn to benefit a bit more from my foresight now.
~ I am ready, willing, and able to learn to be a bit more mindful of that which I resolve and determine to do this day.
~ I seek to describe what it is that I desire this year.
~ I am ready to learn to be more clearly aware of the nature of that which I desire here.