This is such a tough principle to navigate! How much should we “stand our ground”, and how much should we simply let people be the people they are, even if it steps on our toes?
I think this is one of the greatest philosophical questions we face as humans, and how we face it says a great deal about what kind of people we are. (And I don’t think I understand it all myself—just that it’s of huge importance.)
Continue reading What Should I Tolerate?How curious that a man
Can be willing to do a thing
And yet not be willing to be it—
That he will commit to it outwardly
And even for impressive periods of time
And yet not love it with all his inner being—
And live on for years divided about it in his spirit!
People’s minds are messy.
In many things involving both our understanding
And the way we explain that understanding
We are fuzzy and imprecise and technically incorrect
In some regards, even if not in every regard.
And I said to him, “You know you’ve changed my life, right?”
And he smiled when he replied with a dismissive roll of the eyes, “No, you’re the one who did all the work.”
Continue reading The Power of Better Ideas, Long AdvocatedShe gives in buckets—
Pouring herself out daily
Even though she totally
Knows the routine by now—
That when he gives
It’s usually with an eyedropper,
And even then, it’s
Only when he finds it
Strategically necessary.
And he does his best
Not to think anything
Of the huge difference
Between them,
For if he did,
It might prick his conscience.
And that, he thinks,
Must be avoided
At all costs.
And she does her best
Not to think anything
Of the huge difference
Between them,
For if she did,
It might tweak her pride.
And that, she thinks,
Must be avoided
At all costs.
So she still gives in buckets.
And I cannot help
But to compare them both
To myself.
And I am in between
And deeply convicted
That I do not
Give in buckets
More often.
NOTE: He routinely decouples from his conscience, while she routinely decouples from her pride. It is a fundamental difference in paradigms.
I have a belief,
And I’m quite adamant about it—
Even though a great many
Will remain either unconvinced,
Or certain that its opposite is true.
Set the one guy’s life in this ugly-beautiful world,
And he’ll decide to hate the ugliness and love the beauty.
And the next guy will love some of each
And hate some of each—
The ugliness and the beauty, that is—
And a third guy will even surprise you by loving
Lots of the ugliness
And hating lots of the beauty.
To be sure, many foolish things
Are worthy of ridicule.
But the wiser I get—
If that is indeed what is happening—
The harder it is to defend the ridiculing.