Prequntas de larga vida
Long live questions
As I have previously shared, I begin the day with an attempt to articulate my spiritual intention for the day. I then share it with several people. This morning my spiritual intention was to remember that the questions are more important than the answers. I had begun the day with a note from a mother whose son had recently died of a drug overdose. There are no answers which will bring solace to this grieving mother and all others who loved this young man. Of course, she wants to understand or make sense of how this disease of addiction kidnapped and killed her child. She also wants to know how she “can help the next mother trying to avoid burying her child”. Obviously, there are no simple answers. There are the technical answers about how drugs and other addictive substances and even thoughts change the brain chemistry making it impossible to think logically or to think in terms of a shared reality. There are also the answers which remind all of us of basic scientific laws such as: “We either move forwards or backwards. We can never stay in one spot.” It is easy for us humans to fail to appreciate the fact that we need to be daily fed emotionally and spiritually; that the price of not being fed is emotional and spiritual death followed by physical death. It is very human to allow oneself to get busy with life and “forget” to emotionally and spiritually feed ourselves, our families, our neighbors, and our coworkers.
We stress the tools which will allow our children to navigate the logistics of today’s world – reading, writing and arithmetic – but it seems that we too often neglect to take seriously their questions about the purpose of these skills. Children ask the same questions that Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Jesus, the Buddha, Descartes, Hume, Vera Britton, Eleanor Roosevelt, all the poets, painters and others have asked:
Us humans have been running from life on life’s terms; from celebrating our shared opportunity to create and maintain a synchronicity in the universe for as long as we have been recording history. We now live in a society where it is very difficult to avoid the reality of the lies which have often kept the questions of the majority of the population from receiving the attention they deserve.
What are the questions we need to be asking? Our children will tell us if we are listening. As our children grow the questions may be hidden in a statemen such as: “This is crap.” or “You hate your job ? You don’t even like each other?”
Every addict to whom I have every talked told me they always knew they were different or they did not fit in. What If this is because they are the new prophets asking the questions which need to be asked? Are we listening?
Prequntas de larga vida
Written June 18, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett, LPC, AADC
coachpickett.org
Long live questions
As I have previously shared, I begin the day with an attempt to articulate my spiritual intention for the day. I then share it with several people. This morning my spiritual intention was to remember that the questions are more important than the answers. I had begun the day with a note from a mother whose son had recently died of a drug overdose. There are no answers which will bring solace to this grieving mother and all others who loved this young man. Of course, she wants to understand or make sense of how this disease of addiction kidnapped and killed her child. She also wants to know how she “can help the next mother trying to avoid burying her child”. Obviously, there are no simple answers. There are the technical answers about how drugs and other addictive substances and even thoughts change the brain chemistry making it impossible to think logically or to think in terms of a shared reality. There are also the answers which remind all of us of basic scientific laws such as: “We either move forwards or backwards. We can never stay in one spot.” It is easy for us humans to fail to appreciate the fact that we need to be daily fed emotionally and spiritually; that the price of not being fed is emotional and spiritual death followed by physical death. It is very human to allow oneself to get busy with life and “forget” to emotionally and spiritually feed ourselves, our families, our neighbors, and our coworkers.
We stress the tools which will allow our children to navigate the logistics of today’s world – reading, writing and arithmetic – but it seems that we too often neglect to take seriously their questions about the purpose of these skills. Children ask the same questions that Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Nietzsche, Jesus, the Buddha, Descartes, Hume, Vera Britton, Eleanor Roosevelt, all the poets, painters and others have asked:
- What is our purpose?
- What is going to happen in buildings that we design and build?
- Where are the roads and bridges going to take us?
- How will we relate and take care of each other when we get there?
- Why do we use punishment as our chief judicial tools when we know it does not create better neighbors, sons daughter? and spouses and.?
- Why get clean and sober if we have to join the rat rate of being better than or more than?
- How did sharing resources equally get such a bad rap?
- Why do we say we worship Jesus if we think his commandment to love our enemies is stupid?
- Why do we tolerate war games and the threat of our military might while teaching children to love each other?
- Why are we so obsessed with sex while failing to learn how to love?
Us humans have been running from life on life’s terms; from celebrating our shared opportunity to create and maintain a synchronicity in the universe for as long as we have been recording history. We now live in a society where it is very difficult to avoid the reality of the lies which have often kept the questions of the majority of the population from receiving the attention they deserve.
What are the questions we need to be asking? Our children will tell us if we are listening. As our children grow the questions may be hidden in a statemen such as: “This is crap.” or “You hate your job ? You don’t even like each other?”
Every addict to whom I have every talked told me they always knew they were different or they did not fit in. What If this is because they are the new prophets asking the questions which need to be asked? Are we listening?
Prequntas de larga vida
Written June 18, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett, LPC, AADC
coachpickett.org
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