Vision — Page 50

THE WAY

September 21, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Q U E S T I O N:
ARE YOU ON YOUR WAY. . . ?
A N S W E R:
ARE YOU EVER NOT. . . ?

The movie came out in 2010 but it keeps replaying the inspiration it might not have fully imagined having. . .
Erin and I watched it early in January before COVID19 made movie watching a part of the new, NEW
Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor who comes to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to collect the remains of his adult son, killed in the Pyrenees in a storm while walking The Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James. Driven by his profound sadness and desire to understand his son better, Tom decides to embark on the historical pilgrimage, leaving his “California bubble life” behind. Armed with his son’s backpack and guidebook, Tom navigates the 800 km pilgrimage from the French Pyrenees, to Santiago de Compostela in the north west of Spain, but soon discovers that he will not be alone on this journey. While walking The Camino, Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world, all broken and looking for greater meaning in their lives: a Dutchman (Yorick van Wageningen) a Canadian (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irish writer (James Nesbitt) who is suffering from a bout of “writer’s block.” From the hardship experienced along “The Way” this unlikely quartet of misfits create an everlasting bond and Tom begins to learn what it means to be a citizen of the world again, and discovers the difference between “The life we live and the life we choose”. THE WAY was filmed entirely in Spain and France along the actual Camino de Santiago. . .

All of the
detours
roadblocks
deadends
Along The Way
there is A WAY for all of us
where the strands of our tapestry
intermingle and forever become interwoven
in the Tapestry’s of others
making sure that we’ll only
grow and expand
and never fully unravel
with the ever unfolding
TRUTH:
YOU DON’T CHOOSE A LIFE—-
YOU LIVE ONE
and that’s
THE WAY
which finds us all on the same
P A T H
at different places
but the
Same Path a long The Way
just assuredly just the same
which makes any
SEE YOU LATER
more of a certainty
than any random bet. . .

MIND KIND

September 14, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Pay Attention, Class. . .
The biggest fear of being
K I N D
is someone will
USE YOU
. . .funny,
T H A T
continues to be my
daily prayer. . .
YOU?

BE KIND WHENEVER POSSIBLE. IT IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE

G A R D E N

September 11, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

ARE YOU GROWING. . .
ARE YOU PLANTING. . .
or maybe the better questions are these:

The Gardener
by Mary Oliver

Have I lived enough?
Have I loved enough?
Have I considered Right Action enough, have I come to any conclusion?
Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?
Have I endured loneliness with grace?

I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.
Actually, I probably think too much.

Then I step out into the garden,
where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man, is tending his children, the roses.

This always brings me back to my rocky bareness
as my pen spits out some of its
i n k i e s t
words:

Toiled
Tilled
Watered
Nurtured
Sunned
Blessed
with no sprouting
no harvest
and then
a mere scattering of seeds
and barren it was
no more

The Truth. . .
not all Sunshine
comes from the sky. . .
not all plants,
from the ground
and that
will get you a pair of
dirty
p r a y i n g
gardener’s hands
every time

. . .close your eyes
bow your head
pray the
wordless prayer
every Heart shouts
and no mouth
w h i s p e r s
. . .sow that

(and seeds will no longer be necessary)

Are WE getting Better?

September 9, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

COVID19 pushed me back to books
(not that I have ever given them up)
but I’m way ahead of my yearly quota. . .
I even went back to an old one I read
nearly 45 years ago:
THE LORD OF THE FLIES

In the novel Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are shipwrecked on an island and eventually turn savagely against each other. The book is a cautionary tale about humanity’s underlying cruelty and the need for civilization to tame our darker impulses—a message that resonates with many people today.

But that’s not what happened to a real-life group of shipwrecked kidsin 1965. Unlike the fictional Lord of the Flies characters, they developed a game plan for survival that was cooperative, fun, and peaceful, resulting in lifelong friendships.

In other words, the boys didn’t turn into devils when left on their own—far from it!

A new book argues that humans are more cooperative and trustworthy than we think, and social institutions need to reflect that.

The journalist, Jill Suttie recently wrote about how Dutch historian Rutger Bregman recounts this story in his new book Humankind, arguing against the Lord of the Flies’s unreasonably dim picture of humanity. The key message in Bregman’s book is that humans are basically good, when left to their own devices.

That’s not to say there aren’t characters who will act badly, especially if encouraged (or manipulated) to do so or when under duress. But the vast majority of us are happy to work together cooperatively. This, he writes, is the only possible conclusion to make from the scientific and historical evidence.

And, he argues, it’s something we desperately need to understand if we want to work together toward creating a better society for all; especially during these pandemic times.

How we get it wrong

Some of the most famous evidence for our pessimistic view of human nature comes from the Stanford Prison Experiment done by Philip Zimbardo in the early 1970s. In this experiment, Zimbardo brought students into a lab and had them act out roles as prisoners and guards. Soon the experiment turned sour, as guards began acting too harshly toward prisoners, and it had to be shut down.

The experimenters concluded that people are sadistic underneath veneers of normalcy and can easily be manipulated to do harm. But Bregman points out that the results came about because the “guards” were encouraged from the start to be harsh toward “prisoners.” By enacting their roles, they thought they were contributing to science—a kind and helpful intent. Also, one student “prisoner” in the experiment, who supposedly “broke down” and had to be removed, confessed to faking his hysteria in order to get back to studying. The whole study and its conclusions were misrepresented.

“What’s fascinating is that most guards in the Stanford Prison Experiment remained hesitant to apply ‘tough tactics’ at all, even under mounting pressure,” writes Bregman. In fact, a later “prison experiment” mounted by the BBC, where guards were not told what to do, had very different results. The guards soon became reluctant to take on their authoritarian roles and became friendly with “prisoners” instead.

Actually, research suggests that people are quite unwilling to harm others—even in war situations—without strong coercion, which explains why leaving people to their own devices would produce different results.

Bregman takes readers through many experiments and events that seem to point to our flawed natures, and debunks them one by one. For example, we learn that the famous story about Kitty Genovese—a woman who was brutally raped and murdered in Queens, New York, while neighbors supposedly did nothing to help—is largely fiction, perpetuated by the New York Times coverage of her death. It turns out that the Times’s claim about 37 heartless bystanders was false, and people did come to her aid, including a neighbor who held her while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

Still, this story of unconcerned bystanders is retold over and over as proof of human indifference and, like the Stanford Prison Experiment, graces many social psychology textbooks. Therein lies the problem.

Why does it matter?

The danger in continuing to repeat false conclusions from flawed research is that it feeds a narrative that doesn’t serve us. People hearing these findings start to believe that sadists lurk among us and they can’t trust others, when most of the time they can. It also supports the idea that only through strict social control from on high—dictatorships or police states, for example—can we stop our communities from devolving into chaos. Humankind: A Hopeful History(Little, Brown and Company, 2020, 480 pages)

According to Bregman, it’s important to understand that our true nature is (mostly) good, because it can encourage us to create institutions with less hierarchical structures and less stifling leadership. And these ways of organizing ourselves can have better outcomes.

For example, he highlights the home nursing program Buurtzorg, created first in the Netherlands, in which nurses cut out the management and created a cooperative that has been cost-effective and provides better patient care. He mentions city governments in Brazil that enacted public budgeting processes—where citizens had more say in how city funds were spent—that resulted in more health care spending, fewer infant deaths, and more civic engagement. And, he writes, schools that are less punitive and more cooperative, and allow students to be more in charge of their education, help improve students’ intrinsic motivation—one of the most important factors for learning.

The “tragedy of the commons”—the idea that public resources shared by many (like air, water, and land) can be depleted if people use them in a self-interested way—has long been an influential idea in economics. But Bregman points to the work of Elinor Ostrom, the Nobel Prize–winning economist, who studied how people around the world actually manage the commons when left to their own devices. Her research paved the way for understanding that once certain elements are present, people act cooperatively and don’t require social control—a finding that resonateswith many economists today.

This positive view of human nature can inform us about how police should handle crime prevention and prison reform, too, writes Bregman. Too often people believe that getting “tough on crime” and giving harsh prison sentences are what lead to crime reduction. But, Bregman argues, police departments that follow tough-on-crime tactics (like arresting people for minor violations) increase incarceration rates without reducing crime. Meanwhile, prisons that treat their prisoners humanely—by keeping sentences short and focusing on creating a more natural, community-based system inside the walls of the prison—prevent more crime and recidivism and are more cost-effective than those that don’t.

The book is full of other fascinating examples of places and programs being remade based on human goodness and trust. Bregman’s take-home message is that our better nature will win out, if we can only recognize its ubiquity.

That means recognizing the potential for goodness in everyone, even groups of people who look, think, or act differently from us whom we might be prejudiced against. One way to do so, research suggests, is to work on building positive contact across groups—like friendships and cooperative work relationships—that will increase our trust for others.

Bregman lists several other tips at the end of his book that people can use to see the goodness in humanity—things like “When in doubt, trust first,” “Temper your empathy, train your compassion,” and “Avoid the news.” If we take the view that we are born to be good, we can make a society that is fairer and freer for all, he says. That doesn’t take optimism; it just takes paying attention to science and experience.

“To believe that people are hardwired to be kind isn’t sentimental or naïve. On the contrary, it’s courageous and realistic to believe in peace and forgiveness,” he writes.

hands heart love — Photo by ATC Comm Photo on Pexels.com

And this leaves us where. . . ?
SOMEWHERE
that’s better than maybe what we’ve been imagining
with all of the unrest that’s making us feel anything but
r e s t f u l
because the evidence-based data
is kind of letting us know
that there’s some serious
i n h e r e n t
goodness in each of us. . .
S T I L L :

YOUR HEART

August 31, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Have you ever lost your heart. . . ?
Loaded question, huh?
Well?
What makes it such a touch question
is just trying to figure out
is that a
Physical
Emotional
Psycho-Social
Spiritual
L I T E R A L Question. . .
Ohhhhhhhh how you should know by
NOW
and all nearly some 800 Blog Posts later
that I’m a Sucker for the Sap Movies
and this one,
LAST CHRISTMAS
is maybe the sappiest of all
and it’s leaked a glue over me
that I can’t wash away
(and most likely don’t want to, anyway)
Nothing seems to go right for young Kate, a frustrated Londoner who works as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop. But things soon take a turn for the better when she meets Tom — a handsome charmer who seems too good to be true. As the city transforms into the most wonderful time of the year, Tom and Kate’s growing attraction turns into the best gift of all — a Yuletide romance. . .
Sa-Sa-Saaaaaa-SAPPY, right?
ba-ba-baaa-but
it made me think
IT MADE ME FEEL
the times I’ve lost my
h e a r t
Uhhhhhhh not so much
physically
emotionally
psycho-socially
spiritually
so much as
uh-ohh. . .
dare I write:
metaphysically. . .
and I guess I’m inviting you
to ask
to reflect
a time(S)
you’ve actually lost your heart. . . ?
Can I help answer?
Are you the same you were
10
20
30+
years ago?
What changed from the time you were an infant
to the time you became a toddler
to the time you became a preschooler
to the time you were in elementary school
to the time you were in junior high
to the time you were graduating high school
to the times of different jobs
to the the times of continuing education
to the times of getting married
to the times of having children
to
N O W
. . .just how many,
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU LOST YOUR HEART
and maybe better still. . .
FOUND IT?
Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst:
Here’s to all of the times to come
and all the Seasons
that’ll allow
the prompting of the question:
WHO AM I?
(MAY THE ANSWER CONTINUALLY BE DIFFERENT
as it has countless times before)

A HIT

August 28, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

Crazy what you sometimes dream when you’re actually sleeping. . .
and then it drives you even crazier when you try to figure out
JUST WHY DID I DREAM THAT?
. . .I blame it on a local sports talk radio station
that had a Twitter Tuesday question of
WHO HAS THE WORST OFFENSE:
THE INDIANS
THE BROWNS
THE CAVS
and it was an overwhelming landslide vote of
THE CLEVELAND INDIANS
who currently seem to have great pitching but horrible
h i t t i n g. . .
THE DREAM
was I was actually playing for them
CENTER FIELD
and it took me back to one of my worst
little league moments ever. . .
We were playing our local rivals and my grandfather, who loved baseball and taught me a lot of what I knew about it;
bought me my first glove, ball and bat
and actually took me to the backyard
and showed me how to use them;
to catch
to throw
to hit
and. . .well,
playing catch in the backyard isn’t the same as playing
Centerfield in a live game. . .
A N Y W A Y
I was in Centerfield for the Tribe
and a ball came sizzling my way
and before I could blink
it was way, way past me
(JUST LIKE THE REAL LIFE LITTLE LEAGUE GAME)
and before I could react
(JUST LIKE THE REAL LIFE LITTLE LEAGUE GAME)
I felt all of the embarrassment of
THAT MOMENT
magnified with all of the other embarrassments
over some 55 years
surging through me
AND THE PLAY WAS LIKE ON A REPLAY LOOP
it just kept being played over and over and over again
until I woke up
W H E W
(love the promise of a new day)
but the Dream hung with me
until I spilled it out here. . .
I remember that was the end of my days as an outfielder;
they moved me to third base
and I was like a vacuum cleaner
. . .in fact they nicknamed me
HOOVER
. . .I sucked everything up that came my way
and even did decent job at the plate
batting third in the line up
u n t i l
I took back to back shots to the head
and that pretty much ended my baseball career

I went from HOOVER
to
“Good field. No hit Chuck”
When I was growing up it was the way to describe a baseball player who was good defensively but terrible with the bat. . .
and it came to me when I flinched at every pitch that sizzled my way;
S O. . .
not an outfielder
not a pitcher
no way a catcher
but a decent fielder
(long before the designated hitter was even imagined)
It was done
NO MORE DREAMS OF BEING A MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER
(the dream literally became a nightmare that I had the other night)
and I wholeheartedly put all of my efforts into basketball
. . .little did I know that would somewhat be the metaphor for the way I approached things the rest of my life:
try your best at something
from every position necessary
and when the path dead ends
LOOK
to where you may want to start
A NEW PATH

THERE IS ALWAYS A NEXT STEP
to take
and sometimes the
BEST ROAD
is not the one that
IS
or
WAS
but the One
you have to create. . .
Maybe we are being given that challenge
right now
as we all cope with
the next normal
provided by this
terrible pandemic
the political unrest
the violent and deadly protests
the natural disasters. . .
Let’s all start asking ourselves
and all whose lives we touch and impact
to realize we CAN see things differently. . .
do things differently. . .
succeed differently

WE ARE NOT AT SOME SEEMINGLY DEAD END
. . .we are at the
BEGINNING
of something we can create and better still
CO-CREATE
with others
. . .and maybe
just maybe this time when I come up to bat
it won’t be so much about getting a hit
as
BEING A HIT

YOU’RE UP
(it’s not the time to take your ball and head home)

PURPOSELESSNESS

August 26, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

It’s really getting tougher
THESE DAYS
to figure things out
to know
WHAT TO DO
WHAT NOT TO DO
WHAT DIRECTION YOU SHOULD TAKE
WHAT WAY YOU SHOULD STAY CLEAR
K N O W I N G
What’s your
PURPOSE
MEANING
REASON
DESTINY
because sure enough
it’s not what it was
6 months
12 months
608 months ago. . .

RIGHT NOW
it just doesn’t feel like we’re pieces of a puzzle
or pieces of a puzzle out of the box
but more like pieces of a puzzle out of the box
WITH THE WRONG PICTURE
to work from
as we attempt to put it
all back together again
when it feels like
there’s no
TOGETHER
and no
A G A I N. . .
which means
it just might be time
to not so much shuffle the cards
but get a brand new
D E C K
I recently read an article BY JILL SUTTIE, a frequent contributor to Greater Good Magazine that kind of suggested why have a card
(even an ace in the hole)
when you can work with a brand new deck. . .
It’s been too long that we’ve forgone all of the
c r a y o n s
in the box
when it’s obvious that we just don’t need
the color
but also all of the nuances. . .

We all know folks who seem to have a deep sense of purpose. Whether working for racial justice, teaching children to read, making inspiring art, or collecting donations of masks and face shields for hospitals during the pandemic, they’ve found ways to blend their passion, talents, and care for the world in a way that infuses their lives with meaning.

Maybe it’s time we’ve stopped using a Compass
as a Clock. . .

Having a purpose in life is associated with all kinds of benefits. Research suggests that purpose is tied to having better health, longevity, and even economic success. It feels good to have a sense of purpose, knowing that you are using your skills to help others in a way that matters to you.

But how do you go about finding your purpose if it’s not obvious to you? Is it something you develop naturally over the course of a lifetime? Or are there steps you can take to encourage more purpose in your life? Are they NEVER changing or ALWAYS changing. . . ?

Likely both, says Kendall Bronk, a researcher who directs the Adolescent Moral Development Lab at Claremont Graduate University. People can find a sense of purpose organically—or through deliberate exercises and self-reflection. Sometimes, just having someone talk to you about what matters to you makes you think more intentionally about your life and your purpose, says Bronk.

In her work with adolescents, she’s found that some teens find purpose after experiencing hardship. Maybe a kid who has experienced racism decides to become a civil rights advocate. Or one who’s suffered severe illness decides to study medicine. Of course, experiences like poverty and illness are extremely hard to overcome without help from others. But Bronk’s research suggests that having a supportive social network—caring family members, like-minded friends, or mentors, for example—helps youth to reframe hardship as a challenge they can play a role in changing for the better. That might be true of adults, too.

While hardship can lead to purpose, most people probably find purpose in a more meandering way, says Bronk—through a combination of education, experience, and self-reflection, often helped along by encouragement from others. But finding your purpose can be jump-started, too, given the right tools. She and her colleagues have found that exercises aimed at uncovering your values, interests, and skills, as well as practicing positive emotions like gratitude, can help point you toward your purpose in life.

Here are some of her recommendations based on her research on purpose.

Identify the things you care about

 Purpose is all about applying your skills toward contributing to the greater good in a way that matters to you. So, identifying what you care about is an important first step.

In Greater Good’s Purpose Challenge, designed by Bronk and her team, high school seniors were asked to think about the world around them—their homes, communities, the world at large—and visualize what they would do if they had a magic wand and could change anything they wanted to change (and why). Afterward, they could use that reflection to consider more concrete steps they might take to contribute toward moving the world a little closer to that ideal.

A similar process is recommended for older adults by Jim Emerman of Encore.org, an organization that helps seniors find new purpose in life. Instead of envisioning an ideal future world, though, he suggests posing three questions to yourself:

What are you good at?
What have you done that gave you a skill that can be used for a cause?
What do you care about in your community?

By reflecting on these questions, he says, older adults can brainstorm ideas for repurposing skills and pursuing interests developed over a lifetime toward helping the world.

Reflect on what matters most

Sometimes it can be hard to single out one or two things that matter most to you because your circle of care and concern is far-ranging. Understanding what you value most may help you narrow down your purpose in life to something manageable that also truly resonates with you.

There are several good values surveys to choose from, including these three recommended by PositivePsychology.com: the Valued Living Questionnaire, the Portrait Values Questionnaire, and the Personal Values Questionnaire. All have been used in research studies and may be helpful to those who feel overwhelmed by all they want to change.

Bronk found that helping people prioritize their values is useful for finding purpose. The survey used in Greater Good’s purpose challenge—where students were asked to look at common values and rank which were most important, least important, and in between—has been shown to be effective in helping people clarify their purpose.

Once you’re clearer on your deepest values, Bronk recommends asking yourself: What do these values say about you as a person? How do these values influence your daily life? How might they relate to what you want to do with the rest of your life? Doing this exercise can help you discover how you can put your values to use.

Recognize your strengths and talents

We all have strengths and skills that we’ve developed over our lifetimes, which help make up our unique personalities. Yet some of us may be unsure of what we have to offer.

If we need help, a survey like the VIA Character Strengths Survey can be useful in identifying our personal strengths and embracing them more fully. Then, you can take the results and think about how you can apply them toward something you really care about.

But it can also be helpful to ask others—teachers, friends, family, colleagues, mentors—for input. In the Purpose Challenge, students were asked to send emails to five people who knew them well and to pose questions like:

What do you think I’m particularly good at?
What do you think I really enjoy?
How do you think I’ll leave my mark on the world?

Adults can do this if they need feedback, too—either formally or informally in conversation with trusted others. People who know you well may be able to see things in you that you don’t recognize in yourself, which can point you in unexpected directions. On the other hand, there is no need to overly rely on that feedback if it doesn’t resonate. Getting input is useful if it clarifies your strengths—not if it’s way off base.

Try volunteering

Finding purpose involves more than just self-reflection. According to Bronk, it’s also about trying out new things and seeing how those activities enable you to use your skills to make a meaningful difference in the world. Volunteering in a community organization focused on something of interest to you could provide you with some experience and do good at the same time.

Working with an organization serving others can put you in touch with people who share your passions and inspire you. In fact, it’s easier to find and sustain purpose with others’ support—and a do-gooder network can introduce you to opportunities and a community that shares your concern. Volunteering has the added benefit of improving our health and longevity, at least for some people.

However, not all volunteer activities will lead to a sense of purpose. “Sometimes volunteering can be deadening,” warns Stanford University researcher Anne Colby. “It needs to be engaging. You have to feel you’re accomplishing something.” When you find a good match for you, volunteering will likely “feel right” in some way—not draining, but invigorating.

Imagine your best possible self

This exercise if particularly useful in conjunction with the magic-wand exercise described above. In Greater Good’s Purpose Challenge, high school students were asked to imagine themselves at 40 years of age if everything had gone as well as it could have in their lives. Then, they answered questions, like:

What are you doing?
What is important to you?
What do you really care about, and why?

The why part is particularly important, because purposes usually emerges from our reasons for caring, says Bronk.

Of course, those of us who are a bit older can still find these questions valuable. However, says Bronk, older folks may want to reflect back rather than look ahead. She suggests we think about what we’ve always wanted to do but maybe couldn’t because of other obligations (like raising kids or pursuing a career). There seems to be something about seeing what you truly want for yourself and the world that can help bring you closer to achieving it, perhaps by focusing your attention on the people and experiences you encounter that may help you get there.

Cultivate positive emotions like gratitude and awe

To find purpose, it helps to foster positive emotions, like awe and gratitude. That’s because each of these emotions is tied to well-being, caring about others, and finding meaning in life, which all help us focus on how we can contribute to the world.

In her study with young adults, Bronk found that practicing gratitude was particularly helpful in pointing students toward purpose. Reflecting on the blessings of their lives often leads young people to “pay it forward” in some way, which is how gratitude can lead to purpose.

There are many ways to cultivate awe and gratitude. Awe can be inspired by seeing the beauty in nature or recalling an inspirational moment. Gratitude can be practiced by keeping a gratitude journal or writing a gratitude letter to someone who helped you in life. Whatever tools you use, developing gratitude and awe has the added benefit of being good for your emotional well-being, which can give you the energy and motivation you need to carry out your purposeful goals.

LOOK TO THE PEOPLE YOU ADMIRE

Sometimes the people we admire most in life give us a clue to how we might want to contribute to a better world ourselves. Reading about the work of civil rights leaders or climate activists can give us a moral uplift that can serve as motivation for working toward the greater good.

However, sometimes looking at these larger-than-life examples can be too intimidating, says Bronk. If so, you can look for everyday people who are doing good in smaller ways. Maybe you have a friend who volunteers to collect food for the homeless or a colleague whose work in promoting social justice inspires you.

You don’t need fame to fulfill your purpose in life. You just need to look to your inner compass—and start taking small steps in the direction that means the most to you. . .BEGINNING YESTERDAY

AND YOU. . .
MUST BECOME IT’S GREATEST
INFECTOR
(it’s the only thing that will literally give Purpose, PURPOSE)

Now
that’ll shuffle the deck
and complete the puzzle
all at the same time. . .

SUBTITLES

August 24, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

https://youtu.be/P9cxIxMatnE

Some Coffee Commercial, huh. . . ?
When I saw it this past week
somehow the first thought that came to my mind wasn’t,
“WOW, DO I WANT A CUP OF HOT COFFEE AT THIS VERY MOMENT!”
and then I researched it a little bit
AND THEN I RESEARCHED IT A LITTLE BIT MORE
and saw that it was Charlie Chaplin that actually made the speech
AND SAW THAT IT WAS CHARLIE CHAPLIN THAT ACTUALLY MADE THE SPEECH AS A CHARACTER THAT RESEMBLED HITLER
AND THEN I SAW THAT

“In “The Great Dictator”, Chaplin plays two identical characters – the Jewish Barber and Adenoid Hynkel. Hynkel is a stand-in for Hitler. At the end of the movie, the Barber has replaced Hynkel and delivers the speech we hear in the commercial. Therefore, it’s not Hynkel/Hitler delivering the speech, it’s the Barber. Of course, the speech is really Chaplin’s plea for understanding.”

anonymous person with binoculars looking through stacked books — Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Sometimes
IT IS WAY MORE THAN JUST
PERSPECTIVE
Sometimes
IT IS WAY MORE THAN JUST
HOW YOU SEE THINGS
Sometimes
IT IS JUST THE WAY
IT IS
(and that may be the toughest way of all to see things)

Without a doubt
. . .our life doesn’t come
with instructions
(BUT IT DOES HAVE INSTRUCTORS)
or subtitles. . .
at best
the seemingly non-existent subtitles
are ones you can’t read
or are in a foreign language
or much like life
feels like
. . .comes at you upside down

When all we really want to do is read
as we are read

We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Let us all unite!

KNOW
as we are
KNOWN
. . .but that just might be too much to ask for
BUT NEVER
TOO MUCH TO
KEEP ATTEMPTING
. . .rub your eyes again
b l i n k
LOOK
SEE
JOIN ME
(no subtitles necessary)

The Quenching

August 21, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

T H I R S T Y ?
For what, exactly?
For
literally
something to drink
or metaphorically
for something more fulfilling for the
s o u l
. . .with a cup of coffee
or a cooler drink
by my side
COVID19
keeps sending me back to

and instead of turning the page
I’ve hovered over poem,
THIRST
(again and again)
Another morning and I wake with thirst
For the goodness I do not have. I walk
Out to the pond and all the way God has
Given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked
And hunched over my books past the
Hour and the bell; grant me, in your
Mercy, a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a
Long conversation in my heart. Who
Knows what will finally happen or
Where I will be sent, yet already I have
Given a great many things away, expecting
To be told to pack nothing, except the
Prayers, which with this thirst, I am
Slowly learning.

I’ve always been in awe
of how a drop of water
has the power of a tsunami
if it hits
on the right shore. . .
and more
. . .supplies a
q u e n c h i n g

I F. . .
A drop of water can be an ocean
A sliver of light can be the sun
A word can be a library
A note can be a symphony
A touch can be a cure
A morsel can be a banquet
A lesson can be an entire education
A step can be a completed marathon
A stickman can be a masterpiece
A loving act can be a lifestyle
A grape can be a raisin
A caterpillar can be a butterfly
I F. . .
shared
I F. . .
recognized
I F. . .
accepted
I F. . .
applied
I F. . .

You’re spending time
wondering if my glass
is half empty
or half full
you’ll never be able to
f u l l y
drink from the
c u p
I
offer
and surely
THE QUENCHING
you
thirst

Be
the never ending
QUENCHING

The Sandbox

August 14, 2020 By ChuckBehrens Leave a Comment

C O M P A S S I O N
never leaves with clean hands. . .
and the only time
OUT OF THE BOX
isn’t so great
is when it’s a
s a n d b o x
. . .just how much sand
is still in your sandbox
or has it all
l i t e r a l l y
been thrown away. . . ?

THE WORLD
is upside down
and off its axis
seemingly with no hope of
r i g h t i n g
itself
everyone seems to be grabbing for anything
that even remotely looks like
T H E I R S
(especially opinions)

JUST WEARING A MASK
(or not)
will get you labeled
and that’ll negate you
in blink-of-the-eye-quickness. . .
CASE IN POINT:
(from two acquaintances in a Facebook Discussion)
(ROB WROTE):
This shouldn’t be a political post, but offending people appears almost as easy as blinking these days and seems to happen with a near similar frequency.
Today I met with my neurologist via zoom. We discussed the current condition of my health and the reality that heat is a destructive force in my life. Overheating complicates my already fragile central nervous system and causes frequent pseudo exacerbations and tailspins that are difficult to describe. I won’t bore you with the details, but the Dr. told me that I can’t risk going out and being near people who aren’t wearing masks in these ongoing days of Covid. If I were to get a fever, it would be “very, very bad” for me, let’s just leave it at that.
Now I don’t know each of your views pertaining to mask wearing and, honestly, I marvel at its political ties, though I know that I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m just trying to send a reminder that some of us aren’t in a position to ponder the political angles, we are just trying to keep our heads above water and would like to not be permanently confined to our homes, where it sometimes ironically seems that we might drown for lack of oxygen.
I encourage you to think of adorning a mask as if it were an empathy enhancer, regardless of any other benefits it may or may not have.
Stay healthy, friends. One day we will hug again
(WENDY REPLIED):
I think what is interesting about this conversation is that your highly trained doctor says to wear one, but my highly trained doctor says not too. It is what makes this part of the mask conversation so hard. I too, am considered extremely immune compromised but my doctor does not believe they protect us and in fact believes they are harming us more and providing an environment for more virus to grow. I work as an essential employee, have not been sick, wear mask in limited capacity and have stayed healthy. Many doctors believe that this is why we are seeing virus transmission go up in areas that are mandating it. Also on the flip side of this, my mother, who is asthmatic and my uncle who has COPD, cant wear them without getting deathly sick. It is a unique conversation to each individual, their unique situation and their health care providers feelings on it. It should not be mandated by any government entity for that reason. I respect what your doctor is telling you for you, but it can’t be something that is mandated for everyone. We do not know each person’s unique situation which why judgement to wear or not wear should be something we as individuals should not be passing and should be an individuals decision to do or not to do based on these specific factors. What could save your life, might take my mom’s life. This is a very real thing we need to see in the true light for what it is. It does mean that many people like you can’t be out in the general population right now, but it should not mean everyone has to wear a mask because of that. If you wear one and stay socially distant, you will stay safe. I am sorry that the health factors make life more difficult for you during this time
(ROB REPLIED)
Wendy – Thanks for a thoughtful reply. I am of the opinion that some of your examples are the exception to the rule, but none the less, thanks for addressing the argument rather than attacking the individual. Tip of the cap to you.

Playing in the sandbox without getting
G R I T T Y
is not just possible or plausible
but actually
providential

little boy playing in the sand — Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com

Sand in the box
is never the problem
It’s always the sand
the seemingly unremovable sand
on the hands
between the toes
in the shorts
in the eyes
that causes the
not-so-nice-play
in the sandbox
GRIT
has its place(S)
but purposely
recklessly
deliberately
in the eyes
is never one of them
Sand in the box
is never the problem
as much as
s a n d
out of the box

We are way past the time
of playing nice
. . .it’s now time
to just
BE NICE
(ALWAYS)
(ALL-WAYS)