Tag: Moscow

Faith as motivator

Faith not fanatic is one of the strongest motivators.

Fanaticism is one-dimensional one-upmanship taking to the max. Not worth paying attention to (that way, it deflated on its own). But faith propels a man beyond himself. Take Cold Mountain for instance. It gives you a chill just to relate to the character (during the Civil War, weather-beaten just to drag himself back home, to love awaiting). Or that which drove a widow with child to drop in a backward tribe to learn their native tongue and ultimately translate the Bible into that tribal language (Elizabeth Elliot).

He is no fool to lose that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

We wake up each morning (some of us wake up each evening) counting on the rising of the sun, and neutrons, protons all held together. That gravity still works.

Faith.

We read about the Crusades, the battle of the faiths. The force of beliefs went astray.

While the future pulls , faith pushes.

The challenge is to walk the tight rope between belief and reason. When discussing the Rise of the Rest, we don’t really expect to see our own Gospel of prosperity applied to all.

Tolstoy touched on the conflict between public good vs private interests (while Moscow was burning, the rich and the rest only worried about what was immediately relevant to them).

Public good and personal gratification, when conjoined, makes for a happy society.  When in conflict, hypocrisy. Instead of planning for the future, we kick the can further down the road.

This is why we cannot solve climate problems or other issues on the commons. Politics at its worst got in the way, instead of being a way. We “bowl alone” , close our doors and our eyes. Down the street, it’s someone else’s problem. (Conversely, when the Evangelicals try to play politics, they barely get pass first base even with full-page ad on the NYT).

With no institutional memories (church history was quite skewed) and talent to navigate the modern world, men of faith simply see his strength dissipate, leaving the mike for fanatics whose agenda are too distorted. The Bible wasn’t intended to be a substitute for the IRS tax code.

To decode God‘s instructions, one needs a set of “braille-like” keys, whose main code is faith, besides love ( Him and one’s neighbors). To own up to that takes up a life time.

Major not in your minor. Focus on faith, but realising that it’s not the only motivators. Other people have their own ideas of faith besides their universal and inalienable rights to pursue happiness.

From that common base, we can go ahead beyond gamesmanship. While being dogmatic, we should know that those 9/11 fighters were just as fanatic (and barbaric).

Faith remains important but needs a dose of relevance and verifiable reality, called life.

Though now see through a glass darkly…oneday we may see face to face.

Human spirit as Motivator

Papillon is a real-life recount of  an undefeated spirit. Viktor Frankl talks about “they can take my body but not the spirit that is in me”.

In war, down the trenches, with bullets zipping by, what causes a man to stay put?

No greater love than a man who lays down his life for a friend. Comradeship.

Mike Murphy, a SEAL, a Penn Stater, went out in the clear for better wireless signals, knowingly sacrificed his life to save his troop.

Human spirits.

Higher purpose.

Maslow perhaps touched on this by naming it “self-actualization“.

In War and Peace, we read about the Russian army defended Motherland after Napoleon had burned down Moscow.

Wounded bodies, but not spirits.

United Flight 93 passengers decided in split seconds to go down in style.

In 300, the movie, their leader retorts that (when aides brought up bad news that the enemies’ arrows would rain down and cover the sky) “good, we will fight in the shade then”.

Human spirits.

Each man’s history tends to condense in those few decisive turns.

Shun not the confluence of events.

In crisis, show confidence and judgement. When it’s 50-50 split, throw in the human spirit. The tie-breaker.

The quant could never factor this quality on their spread sheets.

They aren’t trained to identify much less put a dollar value on it.

But since time began, we know it exists. One more (aerobic) step, one more cold call (Colonel Sanders), one more pregnancy unaborted.

The Vietnamese eat from a common rice pot. There is always one extra bowl and a pair of chopsticks just in case.

I was at RockStorm last night (stadium concert). The other numbers were OK.

But when Noi Vong Tay Lon (Let’s join hands) was up, I heard a loud chorus “the wild is calling us to rejoin disparaged shores”. Old wine in new skins. The spirit of unity expressed in new genre (rock was first associated with individuality and independence).

In Hotel California, we hear that “we haven’t had that spirit since 1969”.

Human spirit.

Tell me it did not exist, too intangible, hard to pin down.

I will tell you history is made of exactly that, whether or not historians could pin it down. That which is unseen is stronger than that which is seen.

Holes and gaps

By now, we realize we were born incomplete.

We need one another, like a team that needs complemeting members.

Some lack social skills more than others.

Most know by now how set the trajectory of their lives are.

No more dreaming, tweaking and improving.

Yes, occasionally we indulge in fantasy. But those moments are short-lived.

Then back to business as usual. Back to the routine and mundane.

Back to non-events.

Those huge vacuums often times are not recognized, until someone point them out to us: “you have been insensitive”, “you hurt my feelings” etc…

Males don’t particularly pay attention in this area.

Yet that’s the area which set the course of progress and change: if I like you, I will even die for you. The catch is how to get others to like and help us, when we ourselves know we are not without fault.

First, be authentic and realistic. Born that way. No way out.

Second, forgive others (who are also insensitive and hurtful to us).

Third, carry on with magnanimity, asking for mercy and forgiveness from others often.

I think we will change the fateful trajectory once we really want change in us. Worry not about other’s shortcomings. We are all born imperfect, incomplete and in need of help. You know I made this move first. Now it’s your turn.