Sunday Musings – February 10, 2019
It has been a relatively quiet week in this little corner of the world. At least on the surface or compared to the public noise in Venezuela, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran and suchj places as Washington, DC and Virginia in the United States. Life continued to also show up here; just not in the noisy manner that it is in other places. Everywhere it is evident that many of us expect those we assign or elect to leadership positions to do the equivalent of a public 12-step program 4th step and an expanded 5th step. Many readers may recall that these steps are:
4th step – Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
5th Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Actually, our expectations are even more expansive. The 12-step program recognized that as one continues to grow emotionally and spiritually one will remember more and one will become aware that some behavior which one did not consider immoral or hurtful was in fact very hurtful and inconsistent with one’s spiritual/moral beliefs. Yet we want our leaders or those to whom we look for guidance and mentorship to be “all knowing” and to admit all these “wrongs” to the god of their understanding and the entire world. If one fails in these expansive goals which, of course, one will, one can expect judgment, outrage, and cries of deceit, and accusations of violations of trust. We the public then shame, vilify, and assign them, to the public stocks for 15 minutes before banishing them to the desert of the other – a land without love.
Even in the 12-step program one may initially go through the motions of a moral inventory because one is truly unable to understand why some behavior was hurtful or wrong. One may think at early stages of growth that one must pay lip service to “recovery or political correctness” while planning on continuing a behavior. Eventually, if one continues to grow, one may have many eureka moments.
While waiting for someone to have an Eureka moment many other 12-step members will continue to love and support the older teenagers who just does not get it. Yet! Much like healthy parents they may attempt to mitigate the extent of the harm by these undeveloped brains.
Once again, I will state that I believe:
At the same time, I know that just as the 12-step program has a clear and unequivocal goal of healing must we, in all areas of public and private life, have healing as our goal. While creating a place where it is safe to continue to do a 4th and 5th step and to go further and make amends when possible while resolving to not repeat hurtful behavior, we must look clearly into the mirror and commit to healing.
Written February 10, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
Coachpickett.org
It has been a relatively quiet week in this little corner of the world. At least on the surface or compared to the public noise in Venezuela, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran and suchj places as Washington, DC and Virginia in the United States. Life continued to also show up here; just not in the noisy manner that it is in other places. Everywhere it is evident that many of us expect those we assign or elect to leadership positions to do the equivalent of a public 12-step program 4th step and an expanded 5th step. Many readers may recall that these steps are:
4th step – Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
5th Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Actually, our expectations are even more expansive. The 12-step program recognized that as one continues to grow emotionally and spiritually one will remember more and one will become aware that some behavior which one did not consider immoral or hurtful was in fact very hurtful and inconsistent with one’s spiritual/moral beliefs. Yet we want our leaders or those to whom we look for guidance and mentorship to be “all knowing” and to admit all these “wrongs” to the god of their understanding and the entire world. If one fails in these expansive goals which, of course, one will, one can expect judgment, outrage, and cries of deceit, and accusations of violations of trust. We the public then shame, vilify, and assign them, to the public stocks for 15 minutes before banishing them to the desert of the other – a land without love.
Even in the 12-step program one may initially go through the motions of a moral inventory because one is truly unable to understand why some behavior was hurtful or wrong. One may think at early stages of growth that one must pay lip service to “recovery or political correctness” while planning on continuing a behavior. Eventually, if one continues to grow, one may have many eureka moments.
While waiting for someone to have an Eureka moment many other 12-step members will continue to love and support the older teenagers who just does not get it. Yet! Much like healthy parents they may attempt to mitigate the extent of the harm by these undeveloped brains.
Once again, I will state that I believe:
- Racism in all its “faces” and forms is immoral and must be named and no longer tolerated.
- Sexism, sexual assault, and other forms of oppression must be named and stopped.
- Use of power at any level to harm others is wrong.
At the same time, I know that just as the 12-step program has a clear and unequivocal goal of healing must we, in all areas of public and private life, have healing as our goal. While creating a place where it is safe to continue to do a 4th and 5th step and to go further and make amends when possible while resolving to not repeat hurtful behavior, we must look clearly into the mirror and commit to healing.
Written February 10, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
Coachpickett.org
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