The forecast tonight in Washington is for a low of 8 degrees and wind-chills of -9. My teeth were chattering when I walked to the Metro...and it wasn't even close to 8 degrees yet. Knowing that this was coming, I made chili yesterday. I'm bundled in two sweaters and just threw a quilt over my shoulders...indoors...with heat. I just did something I almost never do: made cocoa. Around me, volunteers have been rounding up 11,000 homeless people from the streets of our nation's capitol.
I haven't lived where it was this cold very often since I was in college. But, when it was this cold, I am embarrassed to say that, until this week, I never thought about what was happening to the people who were homeless. Half the nation is experiencing wind-chills below zero tonight. Some places in the Midwest have wind-chills forecast to as cold as -56. It is so cold that schools have been closed because it is dangerous to be out for a short bit to get there. Everyone of those cities has homeless people. My heart is breaking.
What's different today? I've never actually known someone when the person was homeless before. (See "Expect the Unexpected," 12/14/13.) I've thought about Alexander off and on all day. When I met him, he had a place in a shelter at night, but had to leave all day. It has been bitter today. I thought I was going to freeze hot-footing it a block to the Metro after work. (Is there cold-footing?) I can't imagine that he's been out in this cold all day....and he hasn't been alone.
I met Alexander while playing The Grocery Store Game (12/1/13.) My intention was to make connections. I couldn't have imagined that on a cold night almost a month later that our short meeting would have changed how I think about the weather.
Showing posts with label Golden Rule. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Golden Rule. Show all posts
Monday, January 6, 2014
Saturday, December 28, 2013
In the Name of God...
I have just watched the movie "Philomena." The movie portrays the true story of an aging mother, whose child was taken from her in the convent where she had given birth as an unwed teenager when the child was a toddler. Having ached her whole life to know something of her stolen son, she embarks on a transcontinental journey to find him 50 years after the birth.
As she has longed to know what has become of her son, the son has also been hunting for her. Although the nuns in the convent know of both searches, they intentionally impede the connection until Philomena discovers the deception after learning of her son's death. The journalist who is helping Philomena in her search confronts the nun, who has held the secrets for decades, with the accusation that "it wasn't very Christian of her." In a far more Christian act, the bereaved mother forgave the nun.
A few years ago, a wave of sex abuse revelations within clergy in the Catholic Church rocked congregations across the US, only to expand across the world. The violations of youngsters wasn't limited to Catholicism, as a second wave of revelations rippled from almost every protestant denomination. None very Christian acts either.
In Iraq, different sects of Islam kill each other in the name of God. In Israel, Jews and Palestinians fight each other in the name of the God of their common ancestor Abraham. In Africa, members of different tribes kill each other. All over the world today people will be killed in the name of one religion or another.
Yesterday, I shared Karen Armstrong's comparative religions' research, revealing that the heart of all religious, ethical, and spiritual traditions is "compassion." She describes the manifestation of "compassion" as being the Golden Rule--do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
How do we get from an almost universal drive for compassion and living by the Golden Rule to separating mothers and children, sexually abusing children, and killing other sects--all in the name of God? I am not sure how this happened, but there is one thing that I am very sure about: we can do better...we must do better...in the name of God.
Numerology is the part of the Jewish mystical tradition, which is devoted to ancient study of numbers and the spiritual lessons which come with them. We are on the doorstep of a new year and all the new possibilities which come with it. The spiritual lessons of 2014 are love, relationship, responsibility and healing. Those are the lessons that each of us is to learn during the coming year. I can't help but believe that if we learn the lessons of love, relationship, responsibility, and healing in the year ahead that we would live by the Golden Rule, and then we will do better...in the name of God.
As she has longed to know what has become of her son, the son has also been hunting for her. Although the nuns in the convent know of both searches, they intentionally impede the connection until Philomena discovers the deception after learning of her son's death. The journalist who is helping Philomena in her search confronts the nun, who has held the secrets for decades, with the accusation that "it wasn't very Christian of her." In a far more Christian act, the bereaved mother forgave the nun.
A few years ago, a wave of sex abuse revelations within clergy in the Catholic Church rocked congregations across the US, only to expand across the world. The violations of youngsters wasn't limited to Catholicism, as a second wave of revelations rippled from almost every protestant denomination. None very Christian acts either.
In Iraq, different sects of Islam kill each other in the name of God. In Israel, Jews and Palestinians fight each other in the name of the God of their common ancestor Abraham. In Africa, members of different tribes kill each other. All over the world today people will be killed in the name of one religion or another.
Yesterday, I shared Karen Armstrong's comparative religions' research, revealing that the heart of all religious, ethical, and spiritual traditions is "compassion." She describes the manifestation of "compassion" as being the Golden Rule--do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
How do we get from an almost universal drive for compassion and living by the Golden Rule to separating mothers and children, sexually abusing children, and killing other sects--all in the name of God? I am not sure how this happened, but there is one thing that I am very sure about: we can do better...we must do better...in the name of God.
Numerology is the part of the Jewish mystical tradition, which is devoted to ancient study of numbers and the spiritual lessons which come with them. We are on the doorstep of a new year and all the new possibilities which come with it. The spiritual lessons of 2014 are love, relationship, responsibility and healing. Those are the lessons that each of us is to learn during the coming year. I can't help but believe that if we learn the lessons of love, relationship, responsibility, and healing in the year ahead that we would live by the Golden Rule, and then we will do better...in the name of God.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Compassion
Yesterday one of the readers of this blog mentioned that among the qualities of Christmas about which I'd written this month that I had neglected "compassion." The season isn't over yet.
As I thought about compassion, I recalled an appearance by Karen Armstrong on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday program a few weeks ago. Armstrong is a former Roman Catholic nun, who studies and writes about comparative religions. She has written that the heart of all religious, ethical, and spiritual traditions is "compassion." She describes the manifestation of "compassion" as being the Golden Rule--do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Armstrong has crafted a Charter for Compassion. (http://charterforcompassion.org/) The Charter calls for a restoration of compassion as the center of morality and religion.
While Armstrong finds "compassion" as the Golden Rule, Wikipedia describes compassion as "the feeling of empathy for others. Compassion is the emotion that we feel in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help." The source of the desire to help is captured by the name of the East Asian Goddess of Compassion--Guanyin. Guanyin means "observing the sounds or cries of the world." How more could we feel with others more than to hear the cries of the world?
Besides being a religious, ethical, and spiritual concept, feeling with others is among the most important aspects of leadership. Empathy--the capacity to recognize emotions that are being experienced by another--is a critical aspect of emotional intelligence, and emotional intelligence, in turn, is the single most important predictor of leadership.
In Leading from the Heart, I described leadership as "seeing things as you would have them be and then having the courage to be the change you would create...If I can think it," I said, "it can happen....Leadership begins with one person--one person who believes he or she can make a difference." In the spirit of that definition, how wise could it be to hear the cries of the world and then do unto others as you would have them do unto you--be compassion.
The reader who introduced "compassion" was responding to the Christmas Day posting, "Honoring Christmas," (12/25/13) which quoted Dickens: "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." She was right: caring, hearing the cries of the world, helping, empathy, the Golden Rule, and making a difference are indeed qualities of Christmas to hold in our hearts for the whole year. May you hold compassion in your heart all year.
As I thought about compassion, I recalled an appearance by Karen Armstrong on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday program a few weeks ago. Armstrong is a former Roman Catholic nun, who studies and writes about comparative religions. She has written that the heart of all religious, ethical, and spiritual traditions is "compassion." She describes the manifestation of "compassion" as being the Golden Rule--do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Armstrong has crafted a Charter for Compassion. (http://charterforcompassion.org/) The Charter calls for a restoration of compassion as the center of morality and religion.
While Armstrong finds "compassion" as the Golden Rule, Wikipedia describes compassion as "the feeling of empathy for others. Compassion is the emotion that we feel in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help." The source of the desire to help is captured by the name of the East Asian Goddess of Compassion--Guanyin. Guanyin means "observing the sounds or cries of the world." How more could we feel with others more than to hear the cries of the world?
Besides being a religious, ethical, and spiritual concept, feeling with others is among the most important aspects of leadership. Empathy--the capacity to recognize emotions that are being experienced by another--is a critical aspect of emotional intelligence, and emotional intelligence, in turn, is the single most important predictor of leadership.
In Leading from the Heart, I described leadership as "seeing things as you would have them be and then having the courage to be the change you would create...If I can think it," I said, "it can happen....Leadership begins with one person--one person who believes he or she can make a difference." In the spirit of that definition, how wise could it be to hear the cries of the world and then do unto others as you would have them do unto you--be compassion.
The reader who introduced "compassion" was responding to the Christmas Day posting, "Honoring Christmas," (12/25/13) which quoted Dickens: "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." She was right: caring, hearing the cries of the world, helping, empathy, the Golden Rule, and making a difference are indeed qualities of Christmas to hold in our hearts for the whole year. May you hold compassion in your heart all year.
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