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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (82986)	6/27/2000 8:48:00 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Respond to of 108807

If I were a doctor, my services might be of some interest to the indigent sick. I am a writer, and the poor do not need writers. My contribution to the collectively provided safety net is of more value to the poor than any service I could directly provide. This is one form of taking responsibility. You put too small a value on your profession, the poor "need" advocacy and encouragement as well as education, all within the realm of a writer. The "selfish lives" and enormous consumption of Americans, supported by the productivity of those who are too busy with their work to live lives of service, absorb the exports of the world, provide jobs around the globe, and in general do far more good than all our charity combined. Now that's giving charity a bad name that it does not deserve and anyway you are attempting to make economy and charity somehow synonymous. Again, you sell your talents as a writer too cheaply. You could obviously be a great value to the poor. Live a life of true service. Produce something, sell it, and go out and buy something. Skip the messy stuff like prison ministry, caring for your elderly family or well.....any volunteer work. You're probably depriving someone of a job and the government of taxes. Congress has the power to provide for defense and general welfare, but I cannot find anything about individual welfare excepting the protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The collective menace is individuals deciding what is good for other individuals and stealing from some and giving to others. Debate and refinement are meaningless if there is no lawful arena. You seem to want to trust government and not charity (voluntary service). The general failure of welfare programs show that recipients view it as largess and not a genuine "helping hand". There is no collective "good", no common "good". Even if sunlight were deemed good would it benefit a blind man? Some will get sunstroke, another a good tan. This reasoning is justification for unspeakable acts.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (82986)	6/28/2000 7:54:00 AM
From: Frederick Smart	Respond to of 108807

Steve.... You editing my comments... >>So "the collective" is actually a ruse, a charade which, as you say, "does the dirty work" in areas which we, as individuals, don't care to go or tread.>> >>This "black hole" power of "the collective" will always increase on the basis of ONE force: personal failure and resulting breakdown that happens when INDIVIDUALS do not accept and take responsibility for living a life of service to others.>> Your partial response...... >>>>If you will remove your head from the clouds for a moment and experience the novel sensation of treading upon the earth, you will see that the collective menace is nothing of the sort. We are a nation of individuals. We recognize that we need a government to perform certain functions, and we assess taxes to provide it with the resources to perform those functions. The extent of the functions which need to be provided and the extent of the resources needed to provide them are under continuous debate and refinement. The system of debate and refinement is itself subject to continuous debate and refinement. Individuals are free to participate in the debate and refinement process to the extent that they desire. Many individuals choose to eschew debate and focus on the productive work that sustains them. Nobody should hold them in contempt, because the bottom line is that productive work, not charity and service, keeps the whole ship afloat. The system is a long way from perfect, but it works better than any of the other ones around.>>>> Yes, I'm planted firmly on the ground. I can prove this for yesterday I played 18 holes of golf with a friend from SF who works for a major financial services firm along with a local cop who's last name is - yep - Mulligan. Here's what I wrote back to this friend - a very funny guy who's 1/2 Italian and 1/2 Irish - who's mom is directly related to Bill Murray. We played at this little put, put course where Bill Murry not only caddied, but played and even owned a local snack shop. We talked to Mulligan about putting together a program where we'd could take kids in need out for a walk with two others who could lend a hand. Here's what I wrote to my friend this morning: >>Don: Let's take your idea of turning Peter Jans into a spiritual walk through life for a run around the IP track. Playing the Game of Life: Taking A New Walk Evanston/Wilmette Peter Jans Golf Course Proudly Presents: - A Course of Service - Where a River Runs Through It - Forgiving - Spanning Two Communities: Rich vs. Urban Diversity - Connected By Time, Trust and Water - A Lake Nearby - A Protective Temple Watching Guard to the North - Power of Three Service Walks With Empowered Individuals From All Walks of Life Jans Power-of-Three-somes: One person in need Two others who want to help This is your legacy Don. "Just Do It!" Peace. Fred>> As for me, I'm an entrepreneur. I fly in the clouds, but walk firmly on earth to share my energies, ideas and trust with others like Mulligan and Don. I firmly believe that life does not have to be fragmented, bifurcated, sliced and diced and spun by all this wild, crazy, confusing and highly inefficient tail chasing that we all end up doing when we buy into the notion that it "has to just be this way." For I really don't believe that we've even begun to scratch the service on what living a life of service can really be like. And I'm not talking about a return to a 60's-like finger-pointing "the system is wrong" negative baiting the legacy of which still continues today. I'm talking about my interest in taking personal responsibility for my feelings and actions in ways that make me happy. Giving, helping and serving others gives me the greatest pleasure in my life. And I can do this 24 X 7 during every living, waking moment that I walk on God's green earth, hitting hole after hole of bogeys, double bogeys and triple bogeys. But playing open, straight up and honest. And just having fun listening to the birds, taking in nature, talking, sharing and living the fullest expression of the moment. While I walk I can chose to either be driven by the "little black hole" or I can chose to rise above it and embrace my natural, full and happy childlike spirit. For, to me, the goal in life is to be a child all the time. I believe we can all walk the walk of a child: aware, intuitive, open, trusting, honest, happey. And I don't have to shoot 15 under par and win the U.S. Open to feel this way. For I don't chose to dance with the Tiger. I don't chose to feed the "little black hole." There is more to life and living. And kids need to be given more examples of how a even a round of golf can really be "a simple walk through life." This is my friend Don's dream. And I am just trying to jumble help him realize it. Maybe even Michael would like to walk this walk with a kid and a cop someday. Peace. GO!!