For most of my life I’ve been a patient, caring and somewhat passive person.  Structurally, these three qualities have been benefitial in applying and receiving grace.

To be gracious, one must be willing to take risks.  And paramount among those risks is the risk that grace will be abused.

I’ve been trampled on a few times in my life.  And, I’ve trampled on others.

Such is life.   To create the space in which human beings thrive, grace must be applied.  But the context in which grace is applied is a context in which there is the very real chance that the grace is 1) not recognized, 2) taken for granted via entitlement or 3) explicitly abused.

So how do we face the fact that grace fails in this world?  What do we do about it?   Do we harden up; become stone hearted?  Do we create structural boundaries to protect us from the failure of grace?  Or do we keep on taking risks in the unbelievable belief that at the end of the day, grace is our best hope?

B) knowing how to do it

C) getting it done, well.

Whatever it is, I firmly believe that there is no greater feeling for members of Homo Sapien than to experience the feelings associated with the conjunction of A, B and C. If you’re missing C) then you feel incomplete. If you are missing B) then you feel out of control. If you are missing A) but somehow get C) then you got lucky. But not only lucky. You also lost the context which informs and magnifies the experience of C)

Whether it’s voting as a citizen in a democracy, working for overthrow in a tyranny, mowing the lawn, protesting an unjust war, putting together a lego set, helping a friend in desperate need, developing an argument, holding an employee accountable, fixing a clogged drain, taking care of a brand new baby, buying a gift for your wife, building a door frame in the basement or power-washing the vinyl siding… there’s no greater feeling.

I’m not saying that these things are necessarily fun. But there’s an unparalleled feeling that I experience when I look reality in the face, see what needs to change, do the hard work to make change, and ultimately complete the task.

I imagine it’s a bit like how God felt when he said “It’s good” more than a few times as he created the world.

1. I’m thankful not only for the gift of forgiveness but also the gift of forgiving.

2. How can you not be thankful when you’ve got friends like these.

3. I’m thankful that there are still some people who are more curious than political.

4. I’m thankful for older people who are full of grace and provide a model of what it is to be truly human.

5. I’m thankful for my dog Lilly and two cats Cordouroy and Abby. They give me daily joy simply by being themselves.

6. I’m thankful for real ideals - ideals that are really worth pursuing, even when reality struggles to conform.

7. I’m thankful for becoming…for the art of progress, growth and development.

8. I’m thankful for the way things are. All our political posturing, false beliefs and mumbojumbo philosophy can’t change those facts.

9. I’m thankful for the beauty of relationships. They are fundamental. Absolutely fundamental. The most real, real. Brute, basic, bedrock.

10. In that light, I’m especially thankful for my wife, who has shown me the depths, textures and rich potential of relationship. And soon, we shall start a new relationship;-)

I take it as self-evident that there is a receiver of thanks implied in all of these propositions;-)

Why is there a $700 billion trade deficit? Because Americans want to buy things they can’t afford. Why do they want to buy things they can’t afford? To pretend to be richer than they are. Why do they want to appear richer than they are? Because it gives them higher social status. Why do they want higher social status? So they will have better access to the opposite sex.

From Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics

“…the anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don’t know.”

-John Holt

Source

This week I visited Sherburne, NY for the first time, I think, in over eight years. The last time I was in Sherburne was for my brother’s graduation from high school.

I spent my freshman, sophomore and junior years in Sherburne, NY and it holds a special place in my heart.

Though I’m out of touch with virtually everyone from my high school years, I still think fondly of the place (even the dog food smell, haha) and it’s been great to be back and soak up all the old memories.

Here are some pictures from Rogers Park, a great game conservation park right smack dab in the heart of Sherburne, NY.

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It also occurred to me recently that modern Western humans have largely lost touch with the concept of there being a “blueprint” for living a good life. In today’s West, the goal is to define what’s best for oneself. This often turns out to be equivalent to “whatever the hell I feel like doing” - or at least to “whatever feels good without harming others.”

That sums up, to a large degree, how I’ve lived my life so far. But the ancient philosophers and writers of wisdom knew something that we’ve forgotten. That things, including humans, have natures to be discovered. Sure, there is certainly a degree of variability and self-definition that Nature allows for. But by and large, the vast number of facts are determined facts. The healthy soul seeks to know these facts, learn from these facts and act based on these facts. Wherever these facts are clearly problematic (disease, poverty and sickness), one can find joy from fighting against these facts. Wherever these facts are non-problematic, one can find joy by embracing and acknowledging these facts with one’s life.

I wrote a paper recently that investigated the various ways that biblical wisdom literature admonishes the reader to look at natural kinds, and to learn from them. The main point, in my view? That acting according to one’s nature is fundamental to peace, Joy and happiness. As one obvious example, it is part of the nature of human beings to share stories. That’s one of the reasons movies make so many people happy. Movies (and novels before them) help us realize aspects of our human nature.

It’s my view that it is also part of the nature of human beings to praise God; to have an attitude of thankfulness and admiration. I know that I’ve gone between extremes. I’ve been very angry at God…even very recently. I’ve also been inclined to disbelieve in God from time to time. But if I’m truthful with myself, I have to acknowledge that the most fulfilling, rewarding and “whole” times of my life have been when I’ve maintained a persistent attitude of thankfulness.

What constitutes thankfulness? Being Fully Human. That’s it. Seems simple, but if, by Being Fully Human, I include the property of “being thankful to God” - it turns out that many of us fail to be fully human on a daily basis.

Let me end this post by drawing your attention to this canticle (a song). The idea here is that we praise God by being the things we were created to be. That’s quite comforting to me. It makes me realize that one of the goals of my life is to discover, to the best of my abilities, the Nature of Human and to live according to that nature:

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Today, my wife and I get to meet our friends’ new baby boy. A very special baby boy, in fact.

Tomorrow, I might get to test drive a Mustang, look at house plans at 84 Lumber, and buy a bike for my wife so we can start bike riding along the Delaware Canal path.

Best of all, Miss Lillers is pretty much back to normal after two hard days of work at Four Paws