As Addiction Takes Hold of Us This world provides ample opportunity for us to let go. In last month’s column on this topic, I discussed many types of letting go. This month I consider what it means to hold our dreams and goals lightly. This is not always easy. Sometimes our dreams and goals become addictive. All mammals, humans included, have evolved to take pleasure in the many substances and activities we need to survive, such as water, sweets, fat, sex, learning, and caring relationships. When we feel pleasure from a behavior, we learn to repeat it. When we get hungry or thirsty or lonely, we seek out that which…
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Living Our Values
Ideology Versus Compassion To live our values, we must first figure out what values we want to live by. Religions can guide us in that as long as we are careful not to adhere rigidly to any system of beliefs. In The Song of the Bird, author and priest Anothony de Mello reminds us that it is dangerous to to make a rule-bound religion out of spiritual truths. In the story, “Bayazid Breaks the Rule,” de Mello tells about a time, during the month of Ramadan, when Bayazid was traveling and teaching. He reaches a town in Iran where his worshipers rushed to greet him. They made a big stir. Weary…
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Punishment versus Forgiveness
Imprisonment and Punishment In the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 20 decision in Utah vs. Strieff that gives police officers the right to stop you for no reason at all, discover you have an outstanding warrant, search you, and then use anything they find as evidence against you in court, I feel a kind of despair. Our insatiable need to contain, corral, and punish those who threaten our money, power, or comfort is so strong we’re willing to erode all safeguards against police overreach. In her rebuttal to the court’s decision in the Utah vs. Strieff case, Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “We must not pretend that the…
