| Anthony Gifford | Sun, 3 Dec, 09:45 (3 days ago) |  | |
| to bcc: me | |||
158 Dec. 3, ’23 A Matter of Perspective: You Choose
There are two lenses through which we view our existence. We are either worms or potential giants. In most of our experiences we are treated as the former. We are cogs in a wheel among innumerable other wheels. Our votes don’t really count. Conform. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t talk about anything that really matters. We are born sinners, deserving an eternity of suffering. The results of this world view? Look at our collective mental health and drug use.
There’s another outlook. We are unique children of God, or ‘the Universe’. We each can make a wonderful (or terrible) difference. Everything we do affects everything else. There’s no way we can predict the effect our actions or words have. The important thing is to do or say the truth. What we say and do may affect even the whole universe, for after all, isn’t it all connected? The lives we have are each an opportunity for ‘enlarging’ good and evil, darkness or light. Our job and opportunity is to ‘go-for-it’.
This polarity of perspectives was brought home to me yesterday. I usually feel so alone in my views that I’m used to it. I hope that others will find ‘food-for-thought’ in my writings, and, of course, I want to change the world. But mostly, up until now, I’ve written because in the doing, it helps me to clarify and prioritize my thoughts and actions.
Yesterday, a Saturday, we had our usual open house, sing-along and following pot-luck meal. After the singing, while chatting and preparing the food, a very thoughtful person told me how she was amazed by the clarity and depth of my soon to be published,The Unspoken Cause of Auschwitz. I don’t use these occasions for ‘pushing’ my books, but I do share my life with these people and what is important to me. I had previously given them each copies. The depth of feeling in her words left me speechless.
I had changed the world, in that I had changed her world. What a wonder! And sitting next to her was another person who has and is reading my ‘stuff’. This is a new experience for me. It’s never happened before. What do I do now? I’m no great leader. Nor do I want to be. But I know that this might be the beginning of more than I could have imagined. What if the songs are true? What if two and two can make a million?
All I know is that I’ll just continue to do what I must, to have fun with life enough to keep sharing what I know and hope. Fed by these precious few, I’ve even more energy and nerve. I can just feel the positive energy going out, not just to those around us, but even to the ends of the universe. What more could anyone hope for?
To everyone, choose how you act or even think, assuming that it affects all that is. Support the ‘good’ which is around you, knowing that it is true. Know that thoughts and actions for good, if left undone, are eternal tragedies. Let’s begin to act as if we make a difference, because we do.
Anthony
