The Six Mistakes of Man

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C. – 43 B.C) wrote this two millennia ago; I believe it is just as true today. The six mistakes of man are:

I. The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.
II. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
III. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
IV. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
V. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.
VI. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

Where is Your happy place?

I lead a pretty stressful life. I take on too many commitments, I have a very full career, I have a big family and an older house. But worst of all, I carry all that stress around with me like a sackful of rocks on my back. I can't put it down, even if it slows me down, makes me tired, and I know it will eventually break me.

So, how do I cope? I actually have a bunch of strategies, that in total, help me get through my weeks and months without an ulcer (so far).

First is balance. I love doing things and staying busy, but I have learned that if I overcommit, if I spend all day 'gittin' 'er done,' I become miserable. So I schedule breaks. I sit quietly with a coffee early in the morning. I go for a run. I attend a worship service. I go on a date with my wife. And this destroys the sense of being in a rut.

Second, I admit my fragility. A few years back I started getting significant stress-related symptoms: insomnia, grinding teeth, stomach pains and anxiety attacks. So, I got over my masculine pride, saw the doctor, and got a prescription for anti-anxiety meds. I paid more attention to sleep, exercise and diet. And haven't seen those symptoms since.

Finally, I have a happy place. Even looking at the photo above gives me a sense of calm. My worries are swept away and I can think about important things in my life: where I'm going, who I love, how I should make a difference. I can feel God's peace flowing through me.

Even if I'm still carrying that heavy backpack!

The Taboo Question

A couple months ago a private member's bill was introduced in Parliament, proposing that Parliament debate and decide the point at which a foetus becomes a human being. There was considerable outrage and accusations that Conservatives were revealing their hidden agenda. The usual rhetoric came out: "it's my body" and "it's my choice," and the proposal was quickly quashed. No debate.

This is a good answer to a thorny issue! The Government has no mandate to impose laws on what are essentially moral questions. In Canada its mandate is to preserve peace, order and good Government (administration). People decide moral questions, and laws preserve the society.

However, an interesting question has been raised: sometime between ovulation and birth, a mystical transformation happens, where a blob of the mother's flesh becomes an independent human being, with his or her own rights. We find the killing of a baby after live birth to be revolting; we call it infanticide and it is illegal. At the other end, few people find any fault with using birth control to suppress ovulation. What is happening here?

The answer must lie in the privileges, powers, rights and responsibilities of women. A woman certainly has the power to become pregnant, to create a new person; and by law she has the right to decide when and how she will do so. But she also has the responsibility to make a coherent moral decision about when she will transfer some of her rights to her child. The law insists that she do so at birth; and I believe most pregnant women make the transfer well before that.

The privilege and duty to make this decision lays with the mother, a consequence of her biological inheritance. It  is too important, too contentious and too private a decision to trust to the Government. But it should be taken seriously by every woman!

You don't understand!

I admire what medical researchers and biochemists do. They are dealing with a terribly complex system, the human body, and they are applying the most unexpected chemical, physical and radiological treatments to it, and they get it right a lot! But once in a while they come up with a treatment that is a big oops: say thalidomide for morning sickness or arsenic for syphilis. And the reason is that underneath it all, they don't really understand what the heck they're doing. Ask the most brilliant researcher how much they understand the thousands of intricately balanced chemical cycles they have mapped out, and the answer is quite frightening. So in fact what they do, is move carefully and experiment a lot. They know what has worked in the past, but not really why.

The general formulation for this sort of science is: if you have a complex system that you don't understand, play around with it lots but don't do anything radical, observe everything, and use statistics to make predictions. Works pretty well too.

Now here is the problem: people are incredibly vain. We never want to admit that we aren't smart enough to understand something, so we often pretend or boast that we do.

Example #1: the environment. We've done some pretty radical things to the Earth, thinking that we understand it well and can predict the effects. Oops! And we end up with depleted resources (such as cod) and destroyed habitats (such as zebra mussels in the great lakes) and toxic towns (such as Chernobyl, Bhopal or Three Mile Island). But here's what's worse: we are even vain enough to believe that we understand our error and can repair the damage! Using DDT on insect vectors actually increased the spread of Dutch Elm disease. Do we really understand what's behind global warming? Are we arrogant enough to think that reducing our carbon footprint will solve anything?

Example #2: our society. This morning in a magazine, I read an interview with a young activist. She was energized to change the world, which is great. The world has a lot of ugly warts and needs to be changed. And many of the wonderful things about Canada are the result of this sort of energy. But here's the crunch: how do we change our civilization to get rid of its flaws, without destroying the very aspects that we love? If you tax the rich will it allow you to help the poor, or will the rich take their wealth elsewhere, making the poor worse off? I don't have any idea, but some people are quite certain they do, and they're performing big, radical experiments on the fibre of Canada. Do we really understand how the economy works? Or the law? Or social justice? Are we arrogant enough to think that tougher laws or kinder schools or better welfare will solve anything?

Hmmm. Moving slowly and observing a lot is starting to sound pretty wise.

Anti-smoking Evangelism

   I’ve never understood smokers, and I’ve never liked being near lit cigarettes. Smoking is expensive, stings your eyes, tastes horrid, makes clothing stink and eventually kills you. But how can you get people to quit?

   You can’t. If you tell them they need to quit, you will likely get a rude reply. Simply put, they have to want to quit. If they are patient enough you can share arguments as to why they should quit, and you can nag them to stop being complacent and to really think about it. But you can’t force them to quit, because it’s not your choice, it’s theirs.

   Some people aptly call anti-smoking crusaders ‘evangelists’ (and a few names I can’t print here). My close friends who smoke know that I think they should quit, and I relish providing the latest gruesome details of how unhealthy it is. I don’t nag them, because that would destroy the relationship, but I don’t just ignore their smoking because I care about them. I feel I would be a bad friend if I didn't.

   I’ve never liked door-to-door evangelists. I wish they’d just walk past my home. They show up without warning; when I’m busy or relaxing or when I don’t want to talk about the profound questions they pose. I seldom agree with their answers, though I usually can’t make the case as clearly or eloquently as they can. (They’ve rehearsed – which is cheating!) But most of all, why would I share those kinds of intimate beliefs while standing at the front door, with someone I just met, who doesn’t care about my opinions?

   I discuss the meaning of life with close friends late Saturday evening, over a bottle of wine, slouching in comfy chairs. That's the right setting for exploring deep questions. I want to know what my friends believe. I love challenging and adding to my own beliefs by exploring their views. Spiritual growth is an important part of my life, and my friends help me in this endeavour.

   On the other hand, I think it is unhealthy and sad to live a shallow life, never contemplating its meaning. So for friends who aren’t walking forward on a spiritual path, I don’t just ignore their complacency because I care about them. I feel I would be a bad friend if I didn't.