"I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom. "
Bob Dylan, US singer & songwriter (1941 - )
I was delighted this week that Heroes returned to our screens. I rarely watch TV during the week (football matches are an exception), but Heroes was so engaging in the first series that I couldn't wait to get home on Thursday evening. Beneath all the action and thrill of the multiple stories, there is a constant theme for almost each character. They have a special power that gives them a level of freedom, and they must learn to control it and use it effectively, to grasp the degree of responsibility that comes with it.
We often think of heroes as those who show courage in the face of fear, and take action that saves the day... or at least saves something or someone. What is the key ingredient of heroism? Courage? Ability?Special powers? Courage seems to be a prerequisite, and ability does increase the likelihood of a successful heroic act. But do we not all possess courage and some ability? Most people do, and yet ... there are few true heroes. Why is this?
Well, Mike Litman states that "in life, you're either consistent, or you're non-existent". Could it be that heroes may have courage more consistently? Or do they simply have a better understanding of the responsibilities their abilities require? Or is it simply a question of energy? Does "fatigue make cowards of us all" as Vince Lombardi asserts? Or, is it the case that we are all like the characters in the series Heroes? Perhaps our powers do not appear as special or dramatic, but we do have gifts. And to the extent that we integrate these gifts into our lives and honour them, we have the capacity to be heroic...
"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. "
Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)
"Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. "
John Barth, US novelist & short story author (1930 - )
"The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. "
Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality, Italian novelist & semiotician (1932 - )
Saturday 26 April 2008
Sunday 20 April 2008
Health
"As I see it, every day you do one of two things: build health or produce disease in yourself. "
Adelle Davis
A weekend spent playing nursemaid as my family have been struck down with a bug. I have now gone for a considerable period without illness, despite being regularly surrounded by it. Does that make me healthy? I guess I could say yes to a degree, but health is much more than the absence of illness. I see health as a state of well-being, mainly physical, but affected by the emotional, mental and spiritual. Health is like an intermediate point on a spectrum of Life and Death. Illness is an intermediate point on the opposite side of the same spectrum.
Although health is fundamentally important in our lives, it is primarily a context activity. Good health supports us in what ever our lives are ultimately about. But good health is not an end in itself. It is not a super-strategic function, although it is very important in supporting our strategies. Cleaning an office is not a strategic function, but a dirty office would quickly begin to adversely affect the staff, and ultimately the company's performance. Cleaning is usually outsourced - a third party company manages it. The main company don't have to concern themselves with cleaning - they just pay the invoice.
Health can be outsourced too. But not (necessarily) to a third party. The outsourcing is to your habits. Automation provides the service and frees you up to focus on your strategic objectives. You create good healthy habits and then they run by themselves, building energy and well-being, while you get on with the business of living your great life. You don't have to become obsessed with health. You just select some good habits and start them off. And yes, keep paying the invoice...
"Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady. "
Francois de La Rochefoucauld, French author & moralist (1613 - 1680)
"Pain (any pain--emotional, physical, mental) has a message. The information it has about our life can be remarkably specific, but it usually falls into one of two categories: "We would be more alive if we did more of this," and, "Life would be more lovely if we did less of that." Once we get the pain's message, and follow its advice, the pain goes away. "
Peter McWilliams, Life 101
"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. "
Redd Foxx, US comedian (1922 - 1991)
Adelle Davis
A weekend spent playing nursemaid as my family have been struck down with a bug. I have now gone for a considerable period without illness, despite being regularly surrounded by it. Does that make me healthy? I guess I could say yes to a degree, but health is much more than the absence of illness. I see health as a state of well-being, mainly physical, but affected by the emotional, mental and spiritual. Health is like an intermediate point on a spectrum of Life and Death. Illness is an intermediate point on the opposite side of the same spectrum.
Although health is fundamentally important in our lives, it is primarily a context activity. Good health supports us in what ever our lives are ultimately about. But good health is not an end in itself. It is not a super-strategic function, although it is very important in supporting our strategies. Cleaning an office is not a strategic function, but a dirty office would quickly begin to adversely affect the staff, and ultimately the company's performance. Cleaning is usually outsourced - a third party company manages it. The main company don't have to concern themselves with cleaning - they just pay the invoice.
Health can be outsourced too. But not (necessarily) to a third party. The outsourcing is to your habits. Automation provides the service and frees you up to focus on your strategic objectives. You create good healthy habits and then they run by themselves, building energy and well-being, while you get on with the business of living your great life. You don't have to become obsessed with health. You just select some good habits and start them off. And yes, keep paying the invoice...
"Preserving health by too severe a rule is a worrisome malady. "
Francois de La Rochefoucauld, French author & moralist (1613 - 1680)
"Pain (any pain--emotional, physical, mental) has a message. The information it has about our life can be remarkably specific, but it usually falls into one of two categories: "We would be more alive if we did more of this," and, "Life would be more lovely if we did less of that." Once we get the pain's message, and follow its advice, the pain goes away. "
Peter McWilliams, Life 101
"Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. "
Redd Foxx, US comedian (1922 - 1991)
Friday 4 April 2008
Hate
"If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. "
Hermann Hesse, Swiss (German-born) author (1877 - 1962)
Two weeks after the holiday and I feel very well rested. The only snag has been the fairly constant headache I have had since I got back. One day while working, I thought I felt a little drowsy too so I did a search on "headache and drowsiness" on Google, and the first hit was "Brain Tumour". I got back to work...
Fortunately, my headache is probably more to do with my eye strain than cancer, but the brief period of anxiety was instructive. It also got me thinking about how negative thinking patterns can affect physical health ultimately, rather like a editing a document on the computer affects what gets printed out physically. What about hate, specifically? What is hate? How does it come about? What is the effect?
Well, as always, I prefer to leave the wisdom to the quotations and instead examine particular aspects of a topic. I have a theory that hate is a form of laziness. My father once said, "If you really understand someone, it is very difficult to dislike them". I believe this is startlingly true. We lurch towards hate when we abdicate the responsibility and discipline to do the work of understanding others. Understanding requires energy and effort, and many of us would rather just...hate. But is that really it? Or is there something deeper and more insidious?
Hermann Hesse raises a key point when he talks about us hating people who exhibit parts of ourselves that we have disowned. Otherwise, we would be indifferent. So is the crux of the matter that we simply have not done the work of truly understanding ourselves? Of embracing the parts of ourselves that we have disowned? Of coming to understand those parts? If we were to do this work, would we be capable of hate? There is a saying that "Projection makes Perception". We project without, what we deny within. We perceive our projections and we don't like what we see. We hate.
It is no wonder that most spiritual practices urge the practitioner to "know thyself". This seems to lie at the heart (literally) of the matter. So next time you feel yourself hating someone, take that as a signal to examine yourself. Find out what is in you that you have not understood or embraced. We must all do this. The future of the world may depend on it...
"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. "
Andre Gide, French critic, essayist, & novelist (1869 - 1951)
"We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them. "
Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832)
"Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself. "
Richard M. Nixon, in his White House farewell, 37th president of US (1913 - 1994)
"Hate no one; hate their vices, not themselves. "
J. G. C. Brainard
Hermann Hesse, Swiss (German-born) author (1877 - 1962)
Two weeks after the holiday and I feel very well rested. The only snag has been the fairly constant headache I have had since I got back. One day while working, I thought I felt a little drowsy too so I did a search on "headache and drowsiness" on Google, and the first hit was "Brain Tumour". I got back to work...
Fortunately, my headache is probably more to do with my eye strain than cancer, but the brief period of anxiety was instructive. It also got me thinking about how negative thinking patterns can affect physical health ultimately, rather like a editing a document on the computer affects what gets printed out physically. What about hate, specifically? What is hate? How does it come about? What is the effect?
Well, as always, I prefer to leave the wisdom to the quotations and instead examine particular aspects of a topic. I have a theory that hate is a form of laziness. My father once said, "If you really understand someone, it is very difficult to dislike them". I believe this is startlingly true. We lurch towards hate when we abdicate the responsibility and discipline to do the work of understanding others. Understanding requires energy and effort, and many of us would rather just...hate. But is that really it? Or is there something deeper and more insidious?
Hermann Hesse raises a key point when he talks about us hating people who exhibit parts of ourselves that we have disowned. Otherwise, we would be indifferent. So is the crux of the matter that we simply have not done the work of truly understanding ourselves? Of embracing the parts of ourselves that we have disowned? Of coming to understand those parts? If we were to do this work, would we be capable of hate? There is a saying that "Projection makes Perception". We project without, what we deny within. We perceive our projections and we don't like what we see. We hate.
It is no wonder that most spiritual practices urge the practitioner to "know thyself". This seems to lie at the heart (literally) of the matter. So next time you feel yourself hating someone, take that as a signal to examine yourself. Find out what is in you that you have not understood or embraced. We must all do this. The future of the world may depend on it...
"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. "
Andre Gide, French critic, essayist, & novelist (1869 - 1951)
"We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them. "
Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832)
"Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself. "
Richard M. Nixon, in his White House farewell, 37th president of US (1913 - 1994)
"Hate no one; hate their vices, not themselves. "
J. G. C. Brainard
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