I couldn't help but think how unkind it was to say that; how seemingly out of character for people who still remember and admire her. Is it important to mention? Please let's not get into what Woody Allen's reputation seems to bear out...we all know the rumors, but pretend it's not someone you know. Pretend it's you. You smell? And many know it now? Was that KIND?
Can we all be kinder? I think so. Should we? I'm not sure we can say "should" in today's PC America, but yes, I'd say we should be kinder. I'd also add that we could do with a lot more "should" and "shouldn'ts," you know, the type we heard when people were living lives of better moral character? Ya, those.
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:32 (I think Aesop was right, too, don't you?)
Be kind to yourself, too. It's then waaaay easier to be kind to others. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay. Ever noticed that?
Happy Sunday,
Z
52 comments:
Kindness appears to have become a lost art. Even among many Believers!
It takes grit to be kind to some people -- I admit that.
And there's always the danger that being kind to someone will be interpreted as appeasement, sycophancy, etc.
Z - You are so right that we should be kind to one another. If you start doing acts of kindness it gets easier and easier. And it feels good too.
As for being kind to yourself - I think sometimes that is hard. It is easy to be hard on yourself and hard to be easy on yourself.
Have a great Sunday and be kind to yourself. :]
Kindness, a willingness to forgive and forget, is why I think the left made such progress in from the 1960s. what you seemed to be talking about in the initial paragraph is manners. We don’t seem to have manners or social grace any longer. Have you heard the language women use these days?
As for Christian kindness and being tenderhearted ... yes and no. Christians today know that being kind allows atheists and communists deny us of our ability to worship God. No more praying before our lunch at work, not more inviting a friend at work to church on Sunday, or a Church picnic. Yes we should be kind, but not stupid.
It's easy to love your friends, I have not learned to love my enemies, don't know if that's ever going to change for me.and that's on me
The public discourse has been so poisoned by the likes of Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity and other scions of the right that it would be a huge effort to reclaim rational, dignified discourse.
It's compounded by the likes of Huntington who is apparently incapable of distinguishing between his ability to worship (when have you been denied the right to say grace before lunch by the way, not by me) and his desire to have his beliefs prevail in the public square.
We are all complicit in this and a smug attitude solves nothing.
Reid, Pelosi, Obama, Biden, Herman Munster, ect. ect.
Caritas is a virtue, no doubt.
To love the neighbor, who hates you and wants to change (or eliminate) you, is never an 'easy' and is always a 'seemingly imprudent' task.
For 'prudence' is ALSO a virtue, one often directly opposed to 'justice'.
Speaking of smug attitudes, ducky ... it was only the scions on the right? Do you think that public discourse is improved or diminished by leftist lies and the fraud associated with stealing elections away from the people? Or do you now claim that the 35,000 fraudulent elections in NC is only a figment of our imaginations? No, it is only the scions on the right who are at fault...
If one only looks up the definition of “libtard” in the urban dictionary, you will find a picture of ducky.
Woody Allen likely has a distinct smell or aura of evil.
I find that it's possible to detect or sense in some way if you are in the presence of evil emanating from something or someone. Not sure why that is though.
Odd, too, that I don't detect evil in the likes of Limbaugh, Coulter or Hannity even tough there may be much to criticize in their spewings.
I do detect evil in the likes of Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller just in their writings or thoughts expressed over the air waves since their agenda is broad based and enslaving (ultimately evil).
The problem is, I think, respecting the views of Ducky and his particular strain of virus, is that the American left would much prefer that conservatives sit down, and shut up. We did shut up for a very long time; on TV they called us the silent majority. It gave the communists great hope.
We aren’t silent any longer —and nothing upsets Ducky as much as a conservative or black people who don’t know their proper place or have the sense enough to shut up.
No, can’t have an opinion in commie-land.
" Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity.."
Matthews, Harris-Perry, Schultz, O'Donnell, Sharpton, Maddow, Farrow, Hayes, Roades, Fluke, Krugman, Freidman, Franken, Reid, Lee, Waters, Boxer, Pelosi, Colbert, Stewart, Feinstein, Carter, Clinton(2), ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, Powers, Williams ( Juan & Brian ) Jarret, Rice, Curry, Mitchell, Biden..Dear Unka Joe....need I go on
And list more horn blowers, Liars and sycophants?
AOW; But kindness is never wasted.
Sue...thanks. It's harder to be kind to others when we're not kind to ourselves, I think.
Sam, I'm not sure that allowing what we're allowing is 'kind'...it's just stupid, as you say. It's kind because we're not usually the rabble rousers and the media's made us reticent to speak up. Very artful. Very successful.
Cnc....the thing about enemies is you don't have to forget what they did/do. Not sure if that helps loving enemies but it helps us to pray for them.
CnC and SPEEDY: I'm not sure we must LOVE to be KIND. I think that we don't.
Waylon...I'm certain she meant ODORS...not like "you STINK" as a person; i.e. nasty, mean, etc.!
But you're right....people can give off a sign they're not the best people.
Of course, not considering Limbaugh or Coulter evil is in the eyes of the beholding political party, but I know you're a centrist, or at least pretty independent....and I don't get true evil from most Conservatives. You're right.
Actually, they're way TOO nice.
But they've been smeared with the silly "racist, xenophobic, hateful" because it's easier to do that than discuss a situation with the left. They can't defend, as they say to small children, "with nice words," and real information.
Mustang; good points!
Imp; GREAT list. It'd be very hard to be kind to people like that when you know they don't wish us or our country well and hide behind the guise of giving when it's really giving for POWER they do...wrongfully smearing us in the doing.
Being kind is at it's core, treating others the way you would like to be treated
Sam - "Christians today know that being kind allows atheists and communists deny us of our ability to worship God. No more praying before our lunch at work, not more inviting a friend at work to church on Sunday, or a Church picnic. Yes we should be kind, but not stupid."
I usually enjoy your posts for their inclusion of some amount of reason...but you've completely gone off the rails here. Nobody has ever denied your ability [or would be able to] worship, pray or invite a friend to church. This is a politically correct appeal to victimhood, that I didn't think I would see from you.
Imp - "And list more horn blowers, Liars and sycophants?"
It's a good start, but you could have doubled the list by including the horn blowers, liars and sycophants on the right.
@Z - kindness is never wasted.
Kindness is never wasted at minimum because of what it does for you! Even better when that is not the purpose but the result of your thoughtfulness. Mr. B and I have been many times blessed by the doing. One of the things I admire in Mr. B is his natural impetus to do a kind deed for others.
AOW - "Kindness appears to have become a lost art. "
I agree with this, as on a daily basis, I see the majesty of people I encounter, as self centered, self engrossed and simply selfish.
But....far less frequently, but more profoundly....I encounter some who would literally give the shirt off of their back to help a neighbor...or even a stranger. These instances, for me, seem to erase the faceless multitude of the selfish...for awhile.
CI...That might be 'kindness at its core' but I think true kindness is beyond that.
I think it comes from a different place than what we expect for ourselves. I think it's bigger.
Baysider.."a minimum," that's for sure. I have sometimes thought I wished a kindness of mind did not reap me any reward, even a feeling of having done good.
And I'm always so sad for friends who can't wait to tell me a kindness they've done. I feel like it wipes the kindness of its good...but I know that's just me and a little extreme. But I'm good with that!
And Sam definitely has a point; we are teaching about islam in elementary schools more and more..and Buddhism, too, through yoga in elementary schools. there was just an article about how both are growing in the media recently. Mention Jesus and you get quite a different story.
I want to add that I've never as many intelligent, savvy and KIND women than at the bible study I used to attend/lead. Baysider knows this.
I never met one woman in 250 who wasn't kind and unexpectant of reward. Helpful and purely kind at an astonishing level.
@CI:
Of course you would...but that list only omitted one other truthful person of the three mentioned.
The list of many are haters...plain and simply passionate, vitriolic haters of anything either race oriented, religious ( Christians only ) or conservative.
Only three have been rightfully dumped out of all of them...Morgan, Oberfurher and "defecate" Bashir.
This week...an innocent CEO has been denied his rights and labeled a "phob" by the host of fascists.
Imp - "This week...an innocent CEO has been denied his rights and labeled a "phob" by the host of fascists."
Except that Eichs 'rights' weren't violated. He chose to resign.
Z - "That might be 'kindness at its core' but I think true kindness is beyond that.
I think it comes from a different place than what we expect for ourselves. I think it's bigger."
Z, I think I know where you're going with that...and you might be right. But since being kind is an action that we have control of, our personal sphere of influence, it would be difficult for me to gauge treating others in a certain positive manner while not preferring to be treat in a like manner.
Imp, that comment's pretty difficult to grasp; "one other truthful person." ?? "Oberfuhrer?"
??
EVERYONE:
I think for many of us who see and read so many things, it's hard to grasp that there are Americans who think Christianity's just as well respected and openly revered as it has been the last 250 years in our country. Just so hard to understand that there are those who don't see it's changed.
And it's so very obvious, not ideological, not dogmatically recognized...that one wonders why anything different's even discussed. Truly odd.
There's been a very fine job of reducing it to a second class religion practiced by nuts; I don't mean by Muslims, Buddhists...the faithful usually respect all faiths (other than those who want others to die because of their faith, of course), I mean by white folks from CHristian families, young people who've been 'enlightened,' in college "GOD IS DEAD, GOD IS DEAD", media and politicians who have become afraid of looking like they stand by the religion of their families, even if they still do, deep down.
No, it's not the same. But keep pluggin'!
@CI:
He chose to resign? That's the most crazy, cracked comment you've ever made. Resign he did...the question is why....not that he did. You know damn well what they did to him too....and you ignore it.
“Instead of encouraging free and open debate, collectivists strive to discredit and intimidate opponents,” They engage in character assassination."
This is the approach that Arthur Schopenhauer described in the 19th century, that Saul Alinsky famously advocated in the 20th, and that so many despots have infamously practiced.
Such tactics are the antithesis of what is required for a free society — and a telltale sign that the collectivists do not have good answers.”
@ CI
Nobody has ever denied your ability [or would be able to] worship, pray or invite a friend to church.
Before spouting off, I urge you to do a bit of research. I know that it offends your sensibilities, but that’s okay ... give it a try, and what you will find that the denial of individuals the ability access obscure religious devotionals has steadily increased since 1996. Employees have been fired and disciplined and these measures upheld by the courts. Military and Naval officers and senior NCOs have been relieved of their duties. Military bases have closed chapels, ordered troops to burn Christian religious materials, and denied them the right to maintain a Bible or small pocket-sized testaments.
Meanwhile, people are bending over backwards to accommodate the religious rights of Moslems and atheists.
@Z:
""one other truthful person." ?? "Oberfuhrer?"...
No..of the three mentioned by duck...I'm surprised he omitted the most popular one. Not Oberfurher...the POS that he is and continues to be.
CI...perfect.
He "CHOSE TO RESIGN" from the company he founded.
Just blissfully? For no reason?
Just decided "Oky doky! It's TIME TO GOOOOO!" ??
I think not.
Kindness...something I think might be left to each of us to discern and qualify or quantify. I just hope most of us know what it is, recognize it, and do it.
By the way, Eich's situation is a beautiful illustration of the kind of feelings I mention in my last comment.
He wasn't really told YOU MUST GO (i.e. you must stop your religion, you must stop praying, you must not do that...) but he sure felt it. Weak?
I think not. Drowning in it?
ya
"Before spouting off, I urge you to do a bit of research. I know that it offends your sensibilities, but that’s okay ... give it a try."
And there it is. Too bad...but life is too short to engage with those who use the tactics of the left. By all means, continue your politically correct appeal to victimhood. The loss of preferential treatment must sting.
Not that I'll be wasting my time with you....but I urge you to do your own research as well...especially on the 'examples' you have chosen.
Imp - I don't support the actions of those who 'demanded' his resignation...but he wasn't pushed..he jumped. He failed to have the courage of his convictions and fight to good fight. Additionally, even if he were fired [and cause upheld], companies have every right to make decisions in the interest of their bottom line. You would likely not protest if the issue at hand were one where you supported the other side.
Z, I understand what you mean about friends who can't wait to tell you about a kindness they've done. Somewhere on that continuum, though, is a balance where I get encouraged and think 'gee, I wish I had thought to do that when such and such happened.' It really depends on the presentation. :)
Baysider...the presentation and the heart.
CI, could it BE that you're the only one here at geeeZ who EVER gets it right? Who's so well balanced, so aware, so fair?
I think not...no matter what your own perception is.
By the way...who asks for 'preferential treatment?'
Do you mean 'preferential treatment' of the self-professing 80% who declare Christianity as their faith?
You see, what some have done is taken the majority and dismissed it...much more LOVING and OH, SO OPEN MINDED to "prefer" the minority. This is a very dangerous situation, not what our country was founded on.
We must all respect; nobody should ask a majority to be dissed just for being a majority.
And 'preferential treatment' is not when the majority is just that..the majority. It's normal that a majority's practices are ...well, the majority.
It would be nice if we could all be kind to each other HERE, and that includes me.
But, alas......
Z - "CI, could it BE that you're the only one here at geeeZ who EVER gets it right? Who's so well balanced, so aware, so fair?"
Of course not. That's why I enjoy mature dialogue with adults.....not intellectual children. The difference here seems to be that while I support individual liberty for all consenting citizens, some seem not to.
Our Constitutional system was not engineered to pay preferential treatment under the law, to the majority, at the expense of the minority. We're not a definitional Democracy.
If you expect and enjoy such treatment, then you'd best hope that you remain in the majority.
@CI:
Fence siting and umpiring...your specialty. If the "other side" meaning mine...cause I'm not a fence sitter... forced a man to resign his position, ruin his career because of his personal and benign religious / personal politics I'd be outraged too.
So stop your silly "fairness" squishy patronizing, pediculous nonsense and chastising me to see another side. The other side is the evil side. Wrong is wrong. I can see you having a difficult time defending yourself.."Gee...I wonder what the other guy would think? Would he be upset? Would he do the same to me? Do I have a good reason? What would the other side think about me doing this"?
So cease and desist.
No mustang, I don't care how much you speak. There isn't any way to hold a conversation without both sides speaking.
What I object to are the delusions like Sam who feels that Christians are suppressed in this culture while we let Muslims run wild. It's a pure fever dream but it's his world and I doubt the perspective can change.
Then we have the inability of the right to admit that the likes of rabies radio initiated the noise machine. The world of the snarky ghost written book was not a left wing development.
Centralized media ownership has been an issue that has robbed both sides but we aren't about to demand or look for quality news and reporting.
We just had another installment of the corruption of the democratic process as SCOTUS continues to sell us to the highest bidder.
As the right supports this perverse idea of speech and this ignorance of corruption I am forced to wonder if they ever read the Federalist papers. I know they like to talk about them.
There was a real fear that money would corrupt government and it was one of the reason New York City was not made the capital. Too close to the kapital. But the right has shouted down reasonable argument.
Politeness? The rift is so large it's probably impossible.
Imp - I don't fence sit.I have no use for fences. I care about what's just. And hypocrisy isn't just. I care about liberty for all...not some. I also have no problem defending my positions, as I have amply proven. I have no problem defending such precisely because I don't give a damn about what somebody thinks. I don't give a damn about political correctness, regardless of which end of the spectrum is emerges from. I do not however, owe answers to those who cannot discuss something in a mature manner.
That you only see your position and the polar opposite, says more about you than it does about me. There are more than two sides to every issue. What you believe you see as a squishy middle is your own inability to look past the game you're playing. Wrong is indeed wrong. It's a shame however, that both sides of the game can't sack up and own it when they're wrong.
"So cease and desist."
Seriously? Am I supposed to bow and scrape now?
The public discourse has been so poisoned by the likes of Obama, Biden, Schumer, Reid, Boxer, and other puppets of the left that it would be a huge effort to reclaim rational, dignified discourse.
Nice paraphrase, huh, Ducky? And, it is more accurate than your imagined pontification. But, I forgive you.
Yes, do lecture us Rabies Ducky.
Very cogent,Sam, your inability to respond with anything but ad hominem is indicative of a pug who's been boxing outside his weight for way to long.
----
So Bob, the deal is that anyone you identify as "left" (Schumer? Wall Streets puppet?) is a serious reprobate but Bachmann, Cruz, Lieberman, West, Palin, Gohmert, et. al. are the lost voices of the Enlightenment?
Please stop.
You prove the point that the right is absolutely incapable of being circumspect and purging the insanity in their midst.
Speaking of odors in the room....
Here's the deal, CI, particularly:
There IS RIGHT and WRONG. And I , and many here, believe we ARE right. We ARE the side protecting babies, the side protecting all faiths as long as some don't want us DEAD, the side which feels that having a debt ceiling on a budget doesn't mean we're happy that some might suffer, which believes that when we tamper with a HUGE health bill it should be approached gingerly and carefully with ALL sides involved in decision making, the side which feels we all have free speech, we all have a right to liberty and that we know how much salt we should eat, how much Coke we can drink, and because we say global climate change can't be blamed on humans doesn't mean we LIKE bad air and bad water or that we want to do nothing to help it all stay CLEAN.
Yes, there IS a side that's RIGHT.
It's when the left which you supposedly don't admire started telling American children that minorities are the ones deserving help and sympathy over the majority, etc., etc., that we started to swerve as a country and, brother, we're past swerving now and are careening due to people like Ducky who literally do NOT get this.
Ducky: "The ENLIGHTENMENT? "are you NUTS? By the way, LIEBERMAN, who hasn't said SQUAT in about four years is on your list now??...what, because he's a JEW and you hate Jews? My GOD.
Yes, Ducky, Bachmann, Cruz, West, Gohmert, Ryan, etc., etc., they love this country and want to get back to the CONSTITUTION...remember that?
We don't HATE GAYS because we feel marriage is of a man and woman, we don't HATE WOMEN because we hate killing babies before we're born, we don't LOVE bad air and water because we understand that climate change is cyclical and nothing is new, etc etc..
My GOD, I'm happy for the comments above because , as my comment here shows, they made it as easy as shooting apples in a barrel.
Ed...........GOD BLESS YOU. Yes, "speaking of odors in the room..." XXXXXXXX
Ducky, by the way...
Why is it that you can slam a Jew any day or night here at Geeez, being as bigoted as they come, but let ONE CONSERVATIVE suggest Muslims can be dangerous and you're a shouting, condemnatory MESS on the blog?
so interesting, isn't it? Noticed that?
@Z:
Come to think of it, everyone in Boston had a front seat last April 15th. at the marathon.
To see just what their pets can do. Guess it didn't have any impact on some here, to change their minds and face the realties of home grown jihad. But..it's only a "few"...maybe less than 5% that are so...ummmm...radical.
Yep...that's only 75,000,000! No sweat. We have a 500,000 man army. And Boston has 1,000 cops? The MSP, 2100?
Z - I find it interesting that you attempt to scold me on the existance of right and wrong....which I stated such exists earlier...and then list examples where I agree with you. The problem with that list, is that they are generalizations. Right and wrong applies also to the tactics and the rhetoric used to achieve the ends.
None of these listed were in play in today's topic however, at least from my perspective. What was in play was Sam's absurd and unsubstantiated proposition that there was a 'denial of the right to worship'....and Imp's assertion that Eich's 'rights were violated' [without naming said right].
"It's when the left which you supposedly don't admire...."
Passive aggressive much? You are of course, invited to illustrate where I admire the left, if you believe such.
Conservatism means advocating for individual liberty over the collective....and reasoned, rational discourse. Surely I'm not alone in subscribing to that?
@CI: There are, at some organizations, pressures against employees/managers to keep them from sharing/expressing their faith.
Eich at Mozilla comes to mind, although I don't know that his religious beliefs informed his "resignation".
And although it was a "resignation" as you say, you may have missed the Mozilla news release apologizing for not acting quicker against Eich.
How many politicians and managers have been forced to turn in their resignation in lieu of dismissal?
Ed - Agreed. There certainly are instances where this occurs. It also raises the question - does an employee have an unimpeded right to epxress their religious faith...and in the instances where pressure does occur...were the employees actions benign, or were they a distraction to an efficient work environment?
To be fair, Mozilla's statement said: "We didn’t move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We’re sorry. We must do better." It invloves some amount of reading into it, to claim that it meant they didn't move quick enough against Eich. He resigned. It's just as fair to say that they din't move against him at all.
In her Thursday blog post, Baker (Z: chairwoman and cofounder) wrote, "We have employees with a wide diversity of views. Our culture of openness extends to encouraging staff and community to share their beliefs and opinions in public. This is meant to distinguish Mozilla from most organizations and hold us to a higher standard. But this time we failed to listen, to engage, and to be guided by our community."
Does anybody quite realize where their definition of 'diverse' seemed to stop?
They failed to listen...or they'd have pressured Eich earlier to leave.
amazing.
And the Mozilla backlash is bleeding the company.
Not looking good for Mozilla.
https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/?selected=7d&date_start=2014-03-31&page=7
When Andrew Sullivan is decrying the actions, you know you've got trouble.
They value diversity of opinion. As long as it agrees with theirs.
I didn't see Mozilla pushing Obama to resign given that he was on the same side as Eich in 2008 also.
Hypocrites.
Rita,
I didn't see Mozilla pushing Obama to resign given that he was on the same side as Eich in 2008 also.
Zing!
Exactly!
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