That is a wonderful and beautiful framing, Carol. "On some level we sought holiness, maybe were holy, seeking mirrors." That's the issue I was addressing in my answer to the question. The mirrors that are most readily available to young people today will not reflect back an image of holiness. The debasement of public life keeps descending to lower depths than we could have imagined. It is up to us to be the mirrors they can see themselves in.
When I was a teen my father and I had a shouting match. I was giving him my idea of how the world should be, what the "fix" was (probably something generic like "Peace" or "destroy the weapons," and he threw back: "But that's idealistic! That is not how the world IS!" Alas I understand him too well now. My friends and I were idealists, cynics waiting for grownups to offer us the better world we imagined. On some level we sought holiness, maybe were holy, seeking mirrors.
Your description of our world today, filled with cynicism, negativity, violence, political discord, etc reminds me of your discussion of the world in which Salanter lived in the 1800’s your book, Everyday Holiness, beseeching his congregants to find holiness in Mussar. Thanks for spreading this message again for us today.
Until the messiah comes, this is what life will be like. There is an apparent world that drives us to see everything in materialistic terms, and there is a spiritual world that coincides with that world that we only see and appreciate because someone directs our gaze to a deeper level of reality. Generation after generation, that has been an ongoing process.
Thanks, Mark. I’m not sure if “living kindness” was a typo because it’s a nice phrase. I may even adopt it! Loving kindness seems to be a sentiment while living kindness suggests that we are taking actions that are kind. That’s much closer to the Jewish notion of chesed. And my question back to you is whether kindness is not itself an expression of idealism, maybe even a kind of idealism? If our base nature is selfish and egotistical, giving our ourselves to others has to be motivated by an ideal, no?
Alan, As a recovering alcoholic my disease makes my base nature far more egotistical and selfish than a normal person. In AA I was taught I only get to keep the gift I was given by giving it away to the person who wants it. I am motivated by my need to survive.
In AA perfecting our soul trait is not an ideal but a goal.
That is a wonderful and beautiful framing, Carol. "On some level we sought holiness, maybe were holy, seeking mirrors." That's the issue I was addressing in my answer to the question. The mirrors that are most readily available to young people today will not reflect back an image of holiness. The debasement of public life keeps descending to lower depths than we could have imagined. It is up to us to be the mirrors they can see themselves in.
When I was a teen my father and I had a shouting match. I was giving him my idea of how the world should be, what the "fix" was (probably something generic like "Peace" or "destroy the weapons," and he threw back: "But that's idealistic! That is not how the world IS!" Alas I understand him too well now. My friends and I were idealists, cynics waiting for grownups to offer us the better world we imagined. On some level we sought holiness, maybe were holy, seeking mirrors.
Your description of our world today, filled with cynicism, negativity, violence, political discord, etc reminds me of your discussion of the world in which Salanter lived in the 1800’s your book, Everyday Holiness, beseeching his congregants to find holiness in Mussar. Thanks for spreading this message again for us today.
Until the messiah comes, this is what life will be like. There is an apparent world that drives us to see everything in materialistic terms, and there is a spiritual world that coincides with that world that we only see and appreciate because someone directs our gaze to a deeper level of reality. Generation after generation, that has been an ongoing process.
Can’t idealism be a slippery slope? Do you think a teens idealistic thinking can be twisted and manipulated?
I would want them to have the soul trait of living kindness… a trait that transcends time or space.
Thanks, Mark. I’m not sure if “living kindness” was a typo because it’s a nice phrase. I may even adopt it! Loving kindness seems to be a sentiment while living kindness suggests that we are taking actions that are kind. That’s much closer to the Jewish notion of chesed. And my question back to you is whether kindness is not itself an expression of idealism, maybe even a kind of idealism? If our base nature is selfish and egotistical, giving our ourselves to others has to be motivated by an ideal, no?
Alan, As a recovering alcoholic my disease makes my base nature far more egotistical and selfish than a normal person. In AA I was taught I only get to keep the gift I was given by giving it away to the person who wants it. I am motivated by my need to survive.
In AA perfecting our soul trait is not an ideal but a goal.
It's not about fixing!
It's about being it!