January 30, 2004
Wisdom
Got this via Jason Clark who credits imagine! .. anyway, good stuff ...
Father Richard Rohr (Franciscan father from the States who spoke at last year's Greenbelt). This is his "five messages that a teenage boy needs to learn to become a wise man":
1. Life is hard
2. You are going to die
3. You are not that important
4. You are not in control
5. Your life is not about you
I guess it's simple and yet profounds truths that battles the illusory lies that often plague our minds ...
On No. 1 --> strange but somehow we have this illusion it's supposed to be easy, but it just gets plain harder.
On No.2 --> i heard somewhere (I think it's Robert Farrar Capon) the number cause of death is birth (something like that)... sobering.
On No.3 --> then why do we work so hard to be "important" especially in the eyes of other people?
On No. 4 --> Ahh ... how I wish things were more predictable! Something always crops up when I feel things are settling down.
On No.5 --> then what is my life about? finding the answer for this is already one more step to wisdom!