Provocative Quotes From George MacDonald

I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him (Geo MacDonald) as my master; indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him.
-- CS Lewis

Man is not made for justice from his fellow, but for love, which is greater than justice, and by including supersedes justice. Mere justice is an impossibility, a fiction of analysis … Justice to be justice must be much more than justice. Love is the law of our condition, without which we can no more render justice than a man can keep a straight line, walking in the dark.

Because we so easily imagine ourselves in want, we imagine God ready to forsake us.

Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon: the thought of Him to whom that prayer goes will purify and correct the desire.

Low-sunk life imagines itself weary of life, but it is death, not life, it is weary of.

I learned that it was not myself but only my shadow that I had lost. I learned that it is better ... for a proud man to fall and be humbled than to hold up his head in pride and fancied innocence. I learned that he that will be a hero, will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work, is sure of his manhood.

ShiftHappens

There are updated versions that can be found on YouTube

Don't Ask; Don't Tell

Had Shakespeare been alive today, he would not have written, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” but, rather, “All the world is a couch, and all the men and women merely patients or psychoanalysts.” Whether it is a crisis in your marriage, with your children, your finances or difficulties on the job: never fear, Super Therapist is near!

“You are a ___ (sex, booze, adrenaline, religion, etc.) addict, have issues with mother or father or both, weren’t breast fed, weren’t potty trained properly, have ADD, have anger/fear/rejection issues, are a narcissist, a sadist, a masochist, a fundamentalist, a dualist, have a case of arrested development … and your mother dressed you funny.”

After diagnosing your issues in an instant, they will just as quickly and nonchalantly tell you how to solve them: “You need to go to this 12-step program, need 10 weeks at that rehab facility, should go to my therapist (that should send off warning-bells right there), read this book, go to such-and-such support group … then take two Zanex and call me in the morning.”

The mind-boggling thing is, you didn’t even ask them for their advice!

How is it that so many people see themselves as expert therapists or psychologists? What is it exactly that qualifies these people to tell you what your problem is, other than the fact that they stayed at a Holiday Inn? Easy. They were struggling with an issue, went to Amazon.com to search for books that would help regarding their issue, found one, and now—to everyone with a hammer, all problems look like nails.

Part of the challenge for many people is that they feel that they are supposed to help you … suppose to give you advice … suppose to quote the appropriate Bible verse. If you are such a person, consider the following quote from Henri Nouwen:

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares." +

As I know all 5 people who subscribe to this blog quite well, I know that you are not running around giving advice. What inspired me then to comment on this social phenomenon? Interestingly, it was a young lady sitting next to me on a flight home from Africa who introduced herself by saying, “Hi, my name is—I will call her Ms Transparency (MT)-- and I was sexually abused by my uncle, when I was 10 years old.” She then proceeded to not only give me the lurid details but also ask me for my advice.

MW: I don’t have any advice.

MT: Well I think my healing will come from sharing with others … it takes a village, ya' know.

MW: What if the village is filled with idiots?

MT: That's rude.

MW: Maybe so.

MT: Don’t you think people should be open about their struggles?

MW: Sure … With their therapist or minister.

MT: I believe there is a collective consciousness today that will help us all evolve and be transformed to a higher level of being.

MW: (Thinking to myself, Man, I bet she has just been dying to take that line out for a spin) So, you have read Carl Jung?

MT: Who?

MW: Never mind. I have an idea. Rather than dwelling on what happened to you, why not focus on the person you wish to become?

MT: I need to be healed first.

MW: Okay. What or who is the Standard of Health? What does a healthy person look like to you?

MT: Someone who is honest about her issues.

MW: So your Standard of Health is a person with issues?

MT: Well … it is a person who is honest about where she is at.

MW: But my question is not about where you are at: my question is about who you want to become.

MT: (silence)

Anyway, it amazes me that people are so quick to either tell a perfect stranger where they are “at,” or to give advice to a perfect stranger.

My advice? Don’t ask, and don’t tell … unless you are paying for the advice, or being paid for it!

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2008

The Laffer Curve

What happens when taxes are lowered, what happens when they are raised: The Laffer Curve. Enjoy. Discuss.

Some Differences Between Being Twenty-five and Fifty-five

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been. ~Madeleine L'Engle

A man's age is something impressive, it sums up his life: maturity reached slowly and against many obstacles, illnesses cured, grief’s and despairs overcome, and unconscious risks taken; maturity formed through so many desires, hopes, regrets, forgotten things, loves. A man's age represents a fine cargo of experiences and memories. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wartime Writings 1939-1944, translated from French by Norah Purcell

I recently received an email from a person who was wondering why I had written essays on turning 30 years old and another on turning 40, but nothing about turning 50. I wrote back that it took 5 years for me to figure out what in the world happened!

When I was 25, I took myself quite seriously. I was a man with a mission and both the man and the mission must be respected. Now that I am 55, a day doesn’t go by that I don’t laugh at myself.

When I was 25, I was going to accomplish Great Things with my life. Now, I simply hope to do good work, while having some fun.

At 25, there was the posturing and posing of the worldly wise man, the spiritual sage who had answers for everyone else’s doubts and questions. At 55, I realize that there are very few satisfactory answers to any of life’s important questions: there is only faith, hope and love … and that is enough.

At 25, Truth/Orthodoxy was the Be-all and End-all to me: I had it; you needed it. At 55, I have discovered that, however important Truth is, Jesus laid his life down for people, not for theological systems.

When I was 25, conflicts were always experienced as tsunamis. “Put up the barriers, grab the women and children … get to the high ground!” Now, at 55, most conflicts are experienced as an afternoon rainstorm. “This too shall pass.”

At 25, I thought that as I grew older I would grow wiser and more mature, in a linear fashion. At 55, I discover that I am mature over here, immature elsewhere, and wise here, foolish over there. Some days, my past pulls me out of the present: other days, my future pulls me forward. I am 25 and 55 and 15 … all at the same time.

When I was 25, I began thinking of health and fitness, so as to live as long as possible. Now, at 55, I do not believe gaining a few years of longevity is worth forgoing an extra glass of a fine wine with my 10-ounce fillet mignon (medium rare), and then enjoying a flaming crème brûlée

At 25, I wanted time to speed up. At 55, I sure as heck wish it would slow down … to a crawl.

At 25, I thought of 60 as “getting on up in years.” At 55, I don’t think you are a seasoned old geezer until around 80. Once I hit 80, I bet that will change.

At 25, I despaired of my youth, as people frequently impeached my ideas because of it. At 55, I despair of my age, not because people listen to me or not, but because the years ahead of me are far fewer than the years behind, and there is still so much I want to accomplish and experience. The despair increases daily, yet I do not allow it to cripple me: rather, I use it as a motivating force to live in the moment, savoring life, love, possibilities … and being above ground!

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2008

Celebrity Endoresements of Presidential Hopefuls

Ten Provocative Quotes From Kierkegaard

During the first period of a man’s life the greatest danger is not to take the risk

People understand me so poorly that they do not understand my complaint that they do not understand me

Once you label me, you negate me

Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are

The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself

If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!

Vroom, Vroom!

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the heart's of men. Goethe

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.
Victor Hugo

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdepedence produces the highest form of living. Anais Nin


How many people sit in a room dreaming of the life they want, a life where they are fully alive, yet do little or nothing to turn those dreams into reality? Why not “roll the dice” and see what happens? Why not run after the dream, grab it by the throat, and drag it out of the ethereal into the real?

“Well, what if I fail? What if The Dream turns out to be only a fantasy? From this vantage point, the dream remains a distant hope that may one day come true. If I go after the dream and fail, what hope is there for me? What will I have to live for?”

NEWS FLASH

Dreams don’t come true while we passively sit around hoping for One Day.

Dreams come true through the trials and errors of our efforts.

“Errors?”

Yes, errors. Somehow, God and His Universe uses even our mistakes and missteps to move us along in the direction of our destiny, just as our parents used our mistakes to facilitate our maturation process.

“Well, if the dream is from God, if it is my destiny, then God will bring it about.”

Yowza! This is not an expression of a living faith in a loving God, but a demonstration of fatalism. “Que sera, sera.” Whatever will be, will be. “All I have to do is trust God in my heart, and all will work out as He plans.”

Really? Did St. Paul hang out in Jerusalem, trusting that God would use him to reach the Gentiles … who were not in Jerusalem, by the way … or did he get on down the road chasing after the Gentiles (the dream)? Did he take responsibility for what he did toward the realization of his dream (vision/calling/destiny/whatever) or did he call passivity “faith” and just let things “happen as they will”?

Am I actively trusting in the Good God who is my Father while I work toward the realization of my dreams, or am I actually trusting in Fate—or, in other words, am I allowing circumstances to be my God? Am I a follower of God or a Victim of Circumstances? And living at the mercy of circumstances is not living, and it is not faith: it is sleepwalking and fatalism.

Think of your life as an automobile for which God has given you the keys. What do you do?

Do you keep the car in the garage, trusting that if God wants it to go somewhere He will miraculously start the car and guide it to where He wishes?

“I am scared of driving. What if I make a wrong turn?” First: “wrong turns” often turn out to be providential, i.e., the Right Turn. Second: sometimes “wrong turns” are the most exciting and educational parts of our Quest. Third: “wrong turns” are only dream-killers when we refuse to learn and grow from the experience. Get in the car and take the wheel!


Do you give the keys to someone or something (circumstances) else?

“But they are smarter/more spiritual/wiser/better drivers than I am. Besides, he/she/they/it is the authority on driving.” And how did they get to be this way? By taking their own cars out for a spin; by taking wrong turns; by making mistakes in judgment and learning from it. Come on! It’s your car, and yours alone.

But what if I wreck it? What if you don't? Anyway, if you do, at least you were driving your car in the direction of your dreams. There is a particular dignity in such a wreck: a dignity that cannot be had if you had given away your keys. And, hey, haven't you ever heard of mechanics and body-shops?

Furthermore, allowing circumstances to dictate what happens with your car is like taking off for a destination and then going home because of a roadblock, rather than finding another road and staying the course. And sitting in the back seat while circumstances push your car around may be a cool way to hide from your responsibility for your car and where it is headed ... but you and God both know that you are not living life, you are hiding.

What are your dreams worth, anyway?


Or do you get in your car and get on down the road?

And remember, when I stand before God, He isn’t going to be asking me about what others did with my car or to my car, but about my stewardship of the life He gave to me.

Vroooom, Vroooom!

Copyright, Monte E WIlson, 2008

Charlton Heston, RIP

A man's man. A gentleman. A legend who played legends on the big screen. I will never be able to think of Moses without thinking he looked like Heston.

Real Life: Fantasies and Tragedies

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
Matthew 18: 21-22


I often feel that my life is lived with one foot in a Fantasy and the other in some Greek Tragedy. On the other hand, as I read Fantasies, this is how the characters usually see their own lives. After all, Fantasies do not simply show us the “magical” side of life but, rather, a wider and deeper view of reality, which includes the reality that things and people don’t always turn up sprinkled with gold dust.

In Fantasies

The Bad Guys win some battles
Good people suffer; Bad Guys prosper
The Hero sometimes finds himself on the wrong path
The Heroine is not always all that loveable or beautiful

The classic Fantasies reflect a brutally honest portrayal of Real Life, yet they do so by placing Real Life in a larger frame: a Fantastic Adventure.

Yes, there are tragedies in The Adventure.

Yes, some battles are lost.

Yes, the Hero sometimes says “yes” when he should have said “no.”

Yes, the Heroine may behave more like a Dragon than a Princess

However, the larger tragedy occurs when I forget that The Adventure is still there to be lived, to seek after, and to experience. I can choose to use the tragedy as a means for growth, or I can choose to allow it end my part in The Adventure.

Defeats are inevitable.
He gets picked off,
She falls down,
They blow it.
We simply are not going to win every battle.

The question then is, do we get back up and continue The Quest and keep living The Adventure, transforming defeat into wisdom and humility, preparing us for future victories, or do we surrender, resign and give up? In other words, do I allow the failure to define me or motivate me to become a better man?

Not all that far into the Greatest Adventure of All Time, Simon Peter was picked off: he lied, he denied, he failed … three times, big time, just as he had been warned by Christ Himself. He probably even considered ending his Quest as Judas had just done; after all what hope is there when you have denied with curses the Alpha and Omega of all Quests? However, the most amazing thing occurred. While speaking with the women who first saw the resurrected Christ, He told them to go tell His disciples, “and Peter,” that He had risen from the dead.

Why “and Peter”? Because Jesus knew that Peter would be believing and feeling that this was one defeat that could not be reversed, not be forgiven … and Peter needed to get back into The Game, return to The Quest, and retake his place in The Greatest Story Ever Told. As he had been repeatedly told and shown by Christ, God is the God of Second Chances. No … that’s not it … God is the God of Seventy Times Seven Chances.

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2008

Leadership Training, Nakuru

I love Africa—exotic animals, scenery, people. There are so many natural resources packed into so much beauty. This place should be Mecca for business, industry, and tourism. Sadly, maddeningly, what holds so many people back here is the one industry where they truly succeed: the buying and selling of poverty and victim-hood.

“How do you sell poverty?” you ask. Quite simple. NGOs, Charities and Relief Agencies, and Mission Organizations all have zillions to give away to the poor: they neeeeed to give it away so that they can raise even more money from their donor base. On the other hand, the poor in Africa learned long ago that they have a “product” —poverty— for which these groups will fork over their zillions. Can you say, “Match made in heaven”?

The problem is that after over 50 years and trillions of dollars of aid and relief, Africa is demonstrably worse off now then it was before this largess. The situation is somewhat akin to the Welfare system here in the US where billions of dollars given to the poor only served to create more poverty. Just as we in the US were forced to reconsider our strategy for caring for our needy, so we need to reconsider how we are to go about serving the needy in Africa.

Certainly there are pressing needs that many Africans cannot meet on their own. Refugees in Darfur, for example, are running for the lives. They need to feed themselves today, and there is no crop you can plant this morning and harvest this afternoon.

But the long-term solution is equipping people to support themselves. What we want to do is to facilitate a migration from poverty to self-sustenance, and then to prosperity development. So, the question is not how do we meet the needs of the poor, as much as it is how do help them to meet their own needs: how do we create jobs?

Toward answering this question, The Samaritan Group (of which African American Self-Help Foundation [AASHF], Children’s Hunger Relief Fund [CHRF], and Comitato Mani Aperte [CME in Italy] are a part) joined together to begin developing micro-enterprises in those areas of Africa where we have for over 20 years been providing aid and relief.

However, you just do not give or loan someone 4-500 dollars to start a business:

Especially when over the last five decades so many NGOs and Relief Agencies have taught many Africans that they are victims and, thus, incapable of taking responsibility for their own lives

This is where the idea for Leadership Training came in.

We believe that these people are capable of generating value

We believe that they can sacrifice present desires so as to create value for the future

Having served people there for so long, we know people who are ready to change their way of being: people who are already demonstrating a desire and a vision for prosperity. All these people need from us is to help facilitate changes in their belief systems, attitudes, and behaviors that will transform them from a subsistence mindset to a prosperity mindset.

From March 17-22, Davide Zaccariello (CME) and I facilitated two trainings that would do just this. The first training (36 participants) was for potential grant recipients; the second one (8 participants) was for coaches who would help support the recipient.

The subjects we dealt with were such things as self-awareness (the intentions behind our behavior v discovering the impact our behavior is having on others and how to align the two), self-responsibility (taking responsibility for what people hear us saying: “the meaning of your communication is the response we get,” taking responsibility for the life we are creating, etc.), and making promises and creating accountability systems for the keeping of those promises.

While there are business related skills that we will handle in our October 2008 Training, Davide and I believed that the priority here was to deal with hearts and minds, i.e., with belief systems, mindsets and attitudes. Giving people skills and tools is futile if their way of being will ultimately nullify or at least dull the effectiveness of these skills.

Simply put, the Trainings were apparently a smashing success. I say “apparently” because we are only now monitoring the feedback in word-and-behavior of those who participated in the trainings. However, if what happened in the room is any gauge, these people are on their way to becoming quite successful in life and business.


They were engaged

They handled uncomfortable feedback in a very mature manner

They were keen to learn, eager to make fundamental changes in their lives

They made demonstrable changes in their belief systems and, subsequently, in their behaviors, right there in the room

One of the more frustrating things for me over the years is watching Missionaries and NGO-types treat Africans as if they were incapable of making changes, unable to take responsibility for their lives, mistaking ignorance (“I don’t know”) with stupidity (“I can’t learn”). The disrespect such a mindset communicates only served to feed one of the more lethal mindsets: “I am a victim and, therefore, impotent in life.” I can’t wait for the day when we produce a case study of these trainings that demonstrates how hungry and committed these people are to creating a better future for their families, communities and nations.

Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2008