Tag Archives: virtues

Daunting

Daunting: (adj) description of a task which is disheartening

 I do not begrudge someone ascending Mount Everest.

More power to you.

I’m certainly glad if you hit home runs.

And feel free to win the Heisman Trophy as long as you don’t kill your wife and her guest.

But physical achievements are not daunting efforts.

As long as you train well, prepare your body and understand the task set before you, you have a fighting chance to achieve your goal and win.

The true daunting tasks are to bring about the peacefulness of the Garden of Eden in a world which is gradually deciding that generosity and kindness are unusable virtues for battling greed and hate.

With the rest of my journey on Earth, I have decided to take on three daunting tasks:

  1. To fight gender inequality by continuing to tout how similar men and women are instead of insisting that we are radically constructed to be at odds.
  2. Destroy racism by pointing out the bigotry introduced to me, which I am dismantling, encourage those who will join me and joke around with those who won’t.
  3. Live and promote a faith which is grounded on Earth and survives through the fruit it bears instead of the mere promises of eternal life.

Everything I sing, everything I write, everything I produce, and every conversation will be laced with these three adventures.

It is my belief that “daunting” is achieved by beginning the denting of the walls that separate us.

 

Consistent

Consistent: (adj) acting or done in the same way over time

No human being is consistent.

Before you decide that’s a bad thing and you scrunch up your face in disapproval, may I point out that inconsistency is one of our better funny wisdom on words that begin with a C
virtues.

Since the Earth is filled with tribulation and chaos, being consistent is one of the better ways to make sure you’re either ignored or a total and complete failure.

If you do not realize that everything around you is evolving continually–whether it be part of natural selection or the standards, goals and aspirations of the Earth itself–then you might accidentally try to adapt to patterns which will leave you choking on the dust of the acceleration of progress.

Certainly there are times we want to give our best effort to a cause–what we might call a “consistent representation”–but only until we are shown that these practices have been phased out and discontinued.

It was a consistent belief in this country that women were inferior to men.

It was a consistent contention that the races should not mix.

It once was a consistent doctrine that divorced people were going to hell.

Consistently, the human race has claimed the right to judge other people–only to discover that when the same judgments were placed upon them, they fell well short of the glory of anything.

In place of being consistent should be faithful.

Faithful to love, to humanity, to change, to acceptance, to forgiveness, to creativity, to kindness, and to perseverance.

If we are consistent in these attributes, and stay faithful to the cause, it will be made known to us what to change, so that we can continue to consistently be on-point and valuable to our own lives and the lives of others.

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Con Man

Con man: (n) a man who cheats or tricks others by persuading them to believe something that is not true

Every once in a while I take a stroll through the Ten Commandments to take an inventory on how many I’ve broken.

That is one of the more ridiculous aspects of that top ten list–it does not serve as a guide to our lives, but rather, a reminder of how futile ourfunny wisdom on words that begin with a C
 attempts often are when we pursue self-righteousness or any form of superiority that makes us feel that we’re near to the heart of God.

For instance, I’ve been a con man.

I didn’t do it for a living. That’s probably good. Otherwise, I might be writing you from Folsom Prison, with the blues, or from Sing-Sing without a song.

But I have presented claims as facts, trying to impress people around me, when in actuality the legitimate information was far less than my boast.

Here’s the only difference between me and the standard con man: I actually believed my own bullshit.

I did.

I had thoroughly saturated myself in fictitious notions that twisted my brain to such an extent that they squeezed out common sense and replaced them with Thanksgiving stuffing.

So not only was I a con man to those around me, but I did a remarkable job promoting it to myself.

This is why self-awareness is probably one of the greatest virtues that a human being can pursue–it makes you stop off every once in a while and read the Ten Commandments and realize how far you have fallen short–as you chuckle over your own inadequacy.

 

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Cherub

Cherub: (n) a beautiful or innocent-looking child.

It takes a lot for me to become motivated to try to lose weight.

It’s similar to convincing an ant-eater that ant consumption is bad for its health. After all, you are named “ant-eater.” To suddenly stop eating ants not only removes your diet, but robs you of your identity.

I.e., if I am not a fat man, who am I?

If I’m not the guy talking about calories while lamenting my metabolism, how would I be able to find myself in a crowded mall?

My identity is wrapped up in my weaknesses just as much as my virtues. I don’t know why we take so much time to lie, cheat and cover up our frailties, when the
y are obviously going to pop up and announce their presence.

But every once in a while, I do become motivated to try to carve away some of the fat from my body. It usually takes a shock. One such occasion happened when a gentleman from a newspaper, reviewing my show and describing my face, wrote: “He is a chubby fellow with cherub-like features.”

I was appalled.

There is no man born on this Earth who wants to be a chubby cherub. Matter of fact, if you told a woman that her blind date was “chubby and cherub-like” she just might call in sick.

I became obsessed.

I went to my bathroom mirror and stood there for at least fifteen minutes, peering at my cheeks–my second chin which was thinking about adding on an addition–and eventually became convinced that I indeed was a cherub. Although that supposedly has angelic proportions, it also makes you look too child-like and too plump.

I immediately started a diet, which didn’t last long because I was motivated for all the wrong reasons.

So over the years I have tried to grow a beard, which was as successful as any other cherub, and I’ve sported a mustache–a goatee which I occasionally have to pencil in because it’s just not dark enough.

This whole story would be very pathetic except for the fact that deep in my heart, I really don’t care.

My confidence is not based on my appearance, but rather, the confidence my appearance may proffer to others.

 

 

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Autonomy

Autonomy: (n) freedom from external control or influence; independence

The trouble with what I think is that it comes from my thoughts. dictionary with letter A

Very limited.

So over the years, I have pondered the difference between needing and wanting.

Living in a society that greatly believes in autonomy, I get tempted occasionally to consider that my information is enough to provide me success.

For after all, I don’t want to need anyone.

And even wanting seems to be clingy.

So the end result is that most individuals go along pretty well until they come across a problem that requires assistance, but instead they worked with their own ideas, leaving a gaping hole or a disaster.

At that point, you can either admit your mistake or you can be a true American and disguise it and lie about it. But suddenly you might find yourself with a microphone in your face as people ask you why you did this terrible deed and what caused you to think you could get by with it.

Ridiculous.

Here’s what I feel–I want to know myself well enough that I’m fully aware of my inventory of facts, so that when any situation comes up, I can either say, “I need no one else on this,” or “I want a buddy.”

I don’t want to be needy all the time, but I refuse to end up wanting because I’m afraid to admit my lack.

So here’s the three-step process which I use every day of my life when it comes to things that pop up in my pathway:

  1. Do I know anything whatsoever about what is confronting me?
  2. Of the little I do know, will my knowledge be enough to handle the difficulty?
  3. If not, who do I want to invite into my predicament to aid me?

That’s it.

Autonomy is wonderful if you know what you’re doing.

If you don’t, autonomy is that first step you take off the edge of the cliff … insisting that the angels should catch you.

 

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Automatic

Automatic: (adj) a device or process working by itself with little or no direct human control.dictionary with letter A

Racing to escape the wilderness of political correctness and stumbling into the jungle of free speech, let me state clearly for all time:  Being kind is not automatic.

Human beings are neither innately good or evil, but rather, born to be lazy. (I know this will disappoint Steppenwolf, who contended that we were “Born to be Wild,” but let the chips fall where they may.)

So if we’re going to pursue a quality life which frees us of the need to retaliate because we haven’t instigated an attack against anyone else, we must practice what is automatic. And what makes things automatic? They slip out without our permission.

If we had more time to think about them, we certainly would have picked a different approach. But because the abundance of our heart carried a certain venom, the mouth spit it out like a cobra.

So I am going to tell you what I think the three greatest virtues are in a human being:

  1. Kindness
  2. Good cheer
  3. Perseverance

So if you want to tap these virtues and make them become more automatic in your reactions, understand that kindness finds a resting place in our souls because we finally come to the conclusion that we don’t want to be treated like crap.

Yes, it’s true. I am not kind to people because I am so overflowing with heavenly goodness. I just don’t want others messing with me, so I don’t mess with them. Then I sweeten it a little bit with some gentleness, hoping to get some sugar back my way.

Secondly, serious people are always seriously in trouble. Because they are searching for a problem, they will quickly find one and then be overwhelmed by its dimensions.

This makes them a pain in the ass.

If you can’t add some humor to the situation, then basically…shut up.

And finally, perseverance is not something you can muster in the midst of the struggle. Rather, it’s the extra canteen of water you brought along because someone mentioned a trek through the desert.

In other words, you troubleshoot–considering some of the more unpleasant options and then simply prepare yourself aforehand for said trial. Then if these complexities do arrive, you are prepared to endure.

I am trying to get kindness, good cheer and perseverance to be automatic in my life in order to acquire two tremendous blessings:

I did my part.

So please leave me alone.

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Antonym

dictionary with letter A

Antonym: (n) a word opposite in meaning from another. (e.g., bad and good)

What a simplistic example by Webster–bad and good.

I will tell you right now–there are antonyms in our generation that did not exist a hundred years ago, but because of the introduction of the lifestyle of mediocrity, we have gradually eroded certain virtues, causing them to lose their rich soil. Let me give you some examples:

Religious and spiritual.

Although once considered synonyms, they are now on the other side of the room from each other, throwing doctrines. Being religious is pursuing a form of godliness, and being spiritual is finding the power in believing and making it practical.

Shall we try again?

Politician and statesman.

At one time they might have been used in a press release to describe a senator or congressman. But after eight or more years of governmental deadlock, we now realize that a politician is someone who is voted into office and a statesman is an individual who embodies the office.

I guess I have time for one more.

Men and women.

We have convinced ourselves today that they are opposites. It was fully the intention of the Creator to make them synonyms, complementary to one another. But because we find communication so exhausting and understanding passé, we would rather conclude that the two sexes of our species are doomed to derision.

We must be careful about this word, antonym.

For instance, simply calling it a “war on terror” does not keep it from being a war.

And insisting that people are born with certain attributes does not remove the responsibility we all have … to improve and grow out of our crib.

 

 

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Ambivalent

dictionary with letter A

Ambivalent: (adj.) having mixed or contradictory feelings about something or someone

I am ambivalent about writing an essay on ambivalence, or my ambivalence is quite evident about the word, ambivalent.

Either way, I, for one, have grown weary of honoring certain topics, subjects and even concepts that are considered to be sacred, which no longer deliver any potential to humanity.

Matter of fact, I have recently been in discussions with individuals both liberal and conservative, and noticed that the reason progress is impossible is that the respect we hold for certain beliefs and attitudes is so inflexible that to ask these virtues or precepts to produce a fruitful conclusion is considered unrighteous.

Here’s what I think: if you’re going to believe in God, it should show up somewhere other than in your bad attitude. If what you think, feel, and desire does not make you more gentle, caring and expressive, then I think the assertion is not only worthy of being challenged, but should be voted on for extinction.

Case in point: don’t tell me it’s in the Constitution and therefore should be revered. Please convince me why it’s still in the Constitution.

I would appreciate you not telling me it’s in the Bible and is therefore the holy word of God if you cannot give me a factual representation of why it exists in the first place.

There are three criteria for being zealously affected by a good thing. Without these three ideas, I feel rather ambivalent about what’s offered to me.

  1. Is it going to help people be better people?
  2. Does it give everybody a chance to find their best effort and soul?
  3. Does it take into consideration the needs and freedoms of others, which would include protecting them from getting hurt?

There you go.

Anything you want to share with me that does not fall into one of those three categories, I am totally ambivalent about. And if you continue to pursue it on my watch, I could become your adversary.

  • For years and years we were ambivalent about racial equality. We were wrong.
  • We were ambivalent about women voting. Wrong again.
  • We now face a whole series of issues which we’re trying to table, expressing our ambivalence and eliminating solutions. Is it safe to say that we soon will be called wrong?

Look at my three and tell me what you see.

I would be curious.