bluegreen17 | ruminating on ruminating

i borrowed a few books from the library today. what a surprise!

among them was m. scott peck's a world waiting to be born which is about the lack of civility in the world and what he thinks can be done about it. he's also written a book about community-building,another important topic that i'm interested in.

every day i'm appalled at the rudeness that is so common in the world. am i the only one that was raised by decent parents? or one of the few? or what? actually,i think americans IN GENERAL are pretty rude. we don't have a very good reputation around the world and of course with the present regime it's hardly getting any better.

but i digress...

i flipped to a chapter on prayer. he talks about contemplative prayer,and about contemplative people in general. i can relate to this:

what we contemplatives do during our precious quiet times is to examine our lives. we enjoy experience but only in relatively small doses.[too much experience and i personally get overwhelmed and have to wind-down and recharge].what we like to do is take a little bit of experience and,by contemplating it,milk it for all it's worth. we believe that in this way we can ultimately learn more - become more conscious - than those who lead more frenetic lives crammed with far greater amounts of unreflective experience.

i love it when i find someone who can express what i haven't really been able to. it's great to know someone out in the world understands something about you. i think the jargon for that is 'validation'. yeah,yeehaa,i'm real!

some folks live wide,and some folks live deep. and of course,some folks do some of both.

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...just had to say I love that title! I recently got at the library Alice Walker's Anything We Love Can Be Saved, also a great title. (Yes, I'd read it once before.)If I wrote a book it would be called "America the Ugly and How It Got That Way" not very upbeat 'eh?

I want to say, speaking of things that are appalling, another form of rudeness: littering. Rachel and I were in my car at the grocery store and as the car next to us drive off, the guy dropped and an empty water bottle out of his window. I went bright red, got out picked it up and I recycled it. This week the local free rag came out with a feature about Trash; Why the ciy is so dirty. Hmm...I can't possibly figure?!
Now how HARD IS IT to put your trash in a receptacle at the gas station next time you go to fill'er up? Or take it home with you for crying' out loud!

oy,don't get me started...!!!

how about flinging cigarettes out the window on a trafficky road? cars leak fluids like oil and gasoline all the time...and they are highly flammable!

arghhhh...

what we like to do is take a little bit of experience and,by contemplating it,milk it for all it's worth.
I definitely relate to this. I love the things you post, and they definitely reflect that contemplative side of your personality.

that's one of the nicest things you could say to me,and you did...so thanks!

: )

You're not the only one who wonders about the increase of rudeness. I'm astonished, each time I have the chance to get out, by the blatant rudeness I encounter. So few have any manners or respect for other living beings. I often thank my Mom for raising me so well. I still use my manners and try to be polite, no matter how bad I'm feeling.
It's sometimes emotionally draining to get out and be around so much negativity.

I find that I can only contemplate in small doses. Like you, I get overwhelmed and have to defuse. But I can't imagine not contemplating! ;)

How wonderful to hear this said in a new way. You may have seen the title of my lj page is the famous quote from Socrates, "The unexamined life is not worth living." It is something that I feel very strongly about, and I'm happy to find it reflected here in lj, where I was uncertain of finding it at all. I certainly appreciate your post.

I saw this post and took a look at some of your paintings, GoldLeafGoddess. They are absolutely gorgeous--so richly colored and contoured.

ruminating on ruminating

A World Waiting To Be Born

Appalling

Re: Appalling

milking it

thanks!

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