This Is Our Story

This is Our Story

Humanity United in Action,
Driven By Love and Compassion,
Informed by Science and Reason.

Value for Tuesday of Week 52 in the season of Harvest and Celebration

Living with Good Orderly Direction

Odilon Redon, Buddha Walking among the Flowers (1905)

Meaning is about where we want to go. Direction is about how to get there.

The intellectual component of the sacred anchor is direction – the rules by which we live. Many people omit this from their conception of the sacred or religious life, mentioning only meaning and purpose; the intellectual component, direction, is also essential. It may not be as satisfying emotionally as the other elements (few people enjoy being told what to do), which probably explains why many people overlook or ignore it. Yet without it, we cannot use reason, much less wisdom, to chart an intelligent course that is likely to produce a good and productive life. We may know what we wish to accomplish (meaning) but we will not know, or will not follow, the proper steps to achieve our ends. The exclusion of direction from the holy Trinity may be as much, or more, a product of choice as of oversight.

In the Christian Trinity, the analog to direction is the Word, or Father; the analog to meaning is the Spirit, represented by the invisible feminine principle (unfortunately, the mother is absent, replaced by a formless “Holy Spirit”); the analog to purpose is the Son, the product of the parents, the Word made flesh and expressed as action. Perhaps this is why the Christian narrative is so enduring: it reaches deep into the psyche, straight to the mother lode of meaning, through a metaphor that brilliantly reflects a robust approach to life.

Real

True Narratives

Technical and Analytical Readings

All of our values are part of living a well-directed life. Below are books explicitly on the subject.

Photographs

Documentary and Educational Films

Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Poetry

Poems:

From the dark side:

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Johannes Brahms, Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 (1878) (approx. 36-46’), is a virtuoso work that takes a more calculated tone than the other great violin concerti. “. . . Brahms was serious, no doubt about it. His Violin Concerto might display a lyricism that sounds spontaneous, but this composer sweated over every bar.” “The fact that this violin concerto was written for a most famed and virtuoso violinist of that time suggests its difficulty. The concerto requires tremendous technique from the violinist performing the work.” “As the conductor and scholar Leon Botstein notes: ‘[Brahms] wanted to find a way to reconcile the most serious aspirations of instrumental music with the visceral power associated with the display of virtuoso technique.'” “Brahms intended Opus 77 to be a truly symphonic concerto; that is, a concerto that fully integrates the orchestra, rather than a showy piece designed to display the soloist’s virtuosity, in which the orchestra is relegated to mere accompaniment.” Those may have been Brahms’ intentions but the listening experience is one of hearing a brilliantly constructed concerto. Brahms’ efforts paid off brilliantly. Best recorded performances are by: Kreisler (Barbirolli) in 1936; Busch (Steinberg) in 1943; Huberman (Rodzinski) in 1944; Neveu (Schmidt-Isserstedt) in 1948; Menuhin (Furtwängler) in 1949; Martzy (Kletzki) in 1954; Szeryng (Monteux) in 1958; Francescatti (Bernstein) in 1961; Little (Handley) in 1991; Bell (Dohnányi) in 1994; Rachlin (Jansons) in 2004; Faust (Harding) in 2010; Capuçon (Harding) in 2011; Batiashvili (Thielemann) in 2012 ***; and Shaham (Jacobsen) in 2019.

Music: songs and other short pieces

Visual Arts

Film and Stage

latest from

The Work on the Meditations

Being Open-minded

When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir? [attributed to  John Maynard Keynes] A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality, and not vice versa, whether or not we like the implications. [Lawrence Krauss, A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing (Atria Books, 2012), p. 139.]…
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Being Open-hearted

Probably you have heard the expression “open-hearted.” Standard dictionaries define it as frankness coupled with kindliness. The authoritative text Buddhism for Dummies identifies it with generosity, which is the global expression of kindness. Frequently, the quality is associated with children, who have not yet been conditioned to guard the free expression of their emotions. Ronald Aronson describes the emergence of…
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Being Open

Konstantin Somov, Open Door on a Garden (1934) For many, spirituality may already have begun to emerge, or may have emerged long ago. For others, an additional distinction may not yet have emerged clearly. Early on, we identified willingness as sine qua non to ethical, moral, spiritual or for that matter virtually any kind of personal development. Later, we found…
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Being Generous

Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much. [Erich Fromm] When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required. [The Bible, Luke 12:48] Generosity is an indispensable step in the path toward spirituality. This is essentially definitional, since spirituality implies…
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Affirming, Adding To, Expanding Upon, and Amplifying

In springtime (does it seem like a long time ago), we explored the development of self-esteem, self-confidence and self-competence, which usually occur in childhood, especially if well-assisted by adults. Yet we all can benefit from help throughout our lives. We value the views and opinions others have of us. Sometimes another person can guide us with nothing more than an…
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Being Good and Decent

I am one who believes that human happiness and well-being depend on people and societies advancing beyond what we might call the contract level of human interaction. If life was perfectly predictable and every contract, or agreement, was crystal clear, we might be able to achieve a just society through merely contractual arrangements. But because life is messy, we need…
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Serving

You may be tempted to think of service along the lines of a maid or butler, or a food server in a restaurant. If so, you may be put off by the economic inequality that often accompanies and gives rise to such work. But for some people, service to others is a constant and joyful act and not subservient at…
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Appreciating People

Beyond understanding is appreciation, which occurs as we begin to see and feel ourselves as another person or people. Appreciation reaches out from the intellect to the emotions and is important to the development of a sense of empathy.