"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration; I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
~ Goethe
~ Goethe
Something about these words by Goethe both resonates and infuriate. On the one hand it makes one feel not only a significant contributor to everyday actions and reactions, part of the cause driving the effect, but also responsible for the same. It is if we are asked to recognize our mutual investment in any given moment……are we equally invested in the input of a given moment and then by logic an owner of the outcome? Or, is this chance, destiny, or fate thing so many speak of really writing the script and we are just playing out what ever role (mood) we happen to be in at that moment?
Please….read it again.
If it were true…..then perhaps the real difference in our direction as individuals and collectively is driven by the ability (and ability is emphasized here) to transcend only our emotional output (which can be selfish and needy) and combine it with some grit- something resembling intelligence, empathy, assertive reality sharing, and highest on the list- the true reflection of our values. These values are not the ones that get shoved aside when our needs are not met, but rather the ones we know are true but we fail to exercise because of fear of personal loss; be it financial (a big fear for this writer), social, or a combination of the two, which is to say, conformity. Fear of standing out…..on a limb so to speak.
Just what is he talking about? Agreed, it is certainly difficult to put truths into words as a result of the complexity of soulful, intellectual, emotional, and external realities. For example, why is it that so many in our culture believe (have faith) in a god (and all the power that goes with it) , yet so few really speak of the deity on a daily basis? Certainly they do so in other cultures. And why do we understand the concepts of “good” yet are so drawn to the dark? The answer has to be in our will….our choice. We have a choice as to how we will be in our minds, hearts, and in our exchange with the external world. We have a choice. That choice has power. Your next moment awaits your contribution to it.
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