By their Fruits...
Can we eradicate bad character, inequality, injustice, poverty, and living out of balance with nature?
And should we get angry and indignant with each other when they stubbornly persist?
Because that’s what people seem to do. And persist these evils do.
People justify their anger and indignation because they see all these bad things as “if only” scenarios.
If only some people weren’t greedy…
If only some parents weren’t useless…
If only some economic structures weren’t biased…
If only some hater groups weren’t racist, or bigoted, or whatever.
If only!
Viewed at scale, we each bob up then drop out of the continuum of human history, this ever-flowing river of Life, like little stars making our fleeting little cameos on a stage we didn't make.Good or evil (or really a kaleidoscope of both), the stage and the backdrops were already there when we arrived, and they’ll be there after we exit stage-Right (or Left), though we might live through a few scene changes.
Of course, we should put in our best performance while we’re here. But does that mean we should attempt to force a change in the overall plot if we don't like our scene? Or can you have some trust that your best performance – the best go at having a bit of grit and character about you – will naturally play into the glorious outcome of a plot that someone else wrote?
When my toddler doesn’t get her way, she huffs and puffs and stamps and storms off stage, as it were. Often tearing down the props and set on the way out.And when I’m not a weak-as-dishwater exhausted single parent, she doesn’t get her way behaving like that.So then she complains that’s it’s not fair.
And as better-than-weak-as-dishwater parents, it’s our role to guide these little cameoing humans into a more productive negotiation of the situation, learning how to generate more fruitful outcomes for themselves and the people on stage with them.
Often, this involves not always getting what we want or think we need, not being the starring lead, delaying our gratification, or even – heaven forbid - going without any gratification at all!
And this we call character building.
Taking one for the team....
The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was said to lead to death precisely because it dupes us into this infantile and fruitless view of things being fair and unfair, and getting upset, and feeling swindled and exposed.But only the fruit of the tree of Life propagates strength of character, which endures in others beyond our time here.
As in, playing your part in a pretty epic plot that someone else wrote.
Just my two bob.