|
a Moment for Wisdom… |
|
.DAILY WISDOM:
|
|
|
a Moment with Sharif… |
|
|
Greetings; Two quotes today, both different, seemingly contradicting each other… yet holding the symmetry of truth. I don’t think this is “either /or”. I think it’s “both/and”. Think about the “changes” in our lives that we WELCOME. Innovations like the Internet or Google. The availability of healthy choices in food. Ever- increasing opportunities for connectedness (well, that’s one I don’t necessarily fully embrace!). On the other hand: this week a friend shared with me her first run-in with a “key-less” car. Getting the car to start, keeping it going, even knowing whether or not it was “on” or “off” – all produced much uncertainty and anger. Which gets us back to our two quotes above. The problem has to do with CULTURE. (Remember: “culture” is the part of your life that you don’t have to think about… unless you run into a different culture.) There are 140 separate actions you must take, in the correct order, from the time you are standing outside of a car with a key in your hand to the time you have the car in motion. (That does not include adjusting mirrors, selecting radio stations, etc.) Of those 140 actions, you are conscious of… almost none of them. Any American can get behind the wheel of any car and drive away inside of 15 seconds… Two friends told me stories of their first encounters with cars. One had learned to drive his uncle’s car, who was a wheelchair user. The accelerator and brake were on the steering wheel. He thought ALL cars were like this. When he got into a “standard” car (in a car showroom), he asked, “What are those things on the floor?” The other friend, raised on “standard” cars, got behind the wheel of a hand-operated car for the first time. He told me, “I knew something was wrong, something was missing – but I couldn’t figure out what!” So, let me try to refine the above wisdom further: People resist change. People resist being changed, because… PEOPLE RESIST WHAT THEY HAVE TO THINK ABOUT. We live our lives on automatic pilot, allowing our culture and our sub-conscious to guide us through life. We resist that which FORCES us to think… whether or not it benefits us. On the other hand, we readily embrace those changes we are WILLING to think about. It would serve us well if we become more conscious of the connection between consciousness and culture.
Peace,
Sharif
|
|
|
Signing up…
Simply CLICK HERE! to go to the sign-up form.Fill
http://www.commonway.org/signupform
Acknowledgments:
All photos by Sharif Abdullah, unless otherwise noted.
|
Supporting “A Moment for Wisdom”!
To make a monthly pledge of support to Praxis, please click here:
http://www.commonway.org/support_praxis
|
|
Commonway Institute for Societal Transformation PO Box 12541 Portland, OR 97212 mail@commonway.org
|
THE COMMONWAY MISSION: To envision and implement a transformation of human societies, one radical enough to match the times, inclusive enough to heal humanity and all other beings, and visionary enough to propel us to the next step of human evolution.
|
