Temet nosce

 Whee! I’m moved to a step down facility in preparation for the move back to the General and rehab!  My new location is A363-1 still at the Civic, probably overnight since they hope that the General will have an available bed by tomorrow. Plus, as a bonus, I have a window!!  See my view!

I’m a little sad to be leaving the care at the Civic. I’ve been treated very well, and the staff are so pleasant. Some of them would pop in to visit when they had a moment just to say “Hi,” and share a quick smile. I’m looking forward to the next stage where I’ll be more mobile and I can plan travel again (that was a question that I didn’t have to ask, my doctor already knew my thinking.  Great, isn’t it, that they know me so well? 🤣🤣

I’ll know more tomorrow whether I’m at the General or still waiting for a bed.  Either way, I’m moving forward with recovering and celebrating life.

I had a longer conversation with the chaplain on the subject of saints and their virtues.  I had considered, and thought, that my selection of saints tied to the feeling of security that I got from being with my grandmother, but while that was true, it’s insufficient.  He explained that saints are people who fully lived their virtues, and we try to emulate them in being fully committed to constant improvements, especially in virtue.  I mentioned in one of my Lenten reflections this year that I was struck by the concept in Catholicism that virtue is something that you can work to improve, and the more you work at it, the better you become — effectively you become more virtuous as you practice.  There are 7 virtues identified in Catholic teaching: Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Temperance, and Prudence. The first three are called Spiritual virtues, while the rest are Natural virtues, and are found extensively in Greek philosophy.  We particularly wanted to focus on fortitude, which relates to not giving up when times get hard.  Saints generally tend to be good at continuing to do the right thing no matter how difficult it becomes.  In the way of the world, things tend to pop up and we trip over them repeatedly because it generally means that there’s something important that is going on under our noses… I had had that conversation earlier today with someone else.  And then later on with someone else via email.  So there’s something about fortitude that’s salient today.

My view is that religion is how we manage to find meaning of the universe, while literature helps us describe it.  I’m open to many variations of religious belief, but I think that religious teaching is effectively summarized in “do as you would be done by.” Ironic, really, since that seems to lead to all manner of problems!  Religions provide a standard for evaluating behaviours, so that we agree on the moral commonalities.  The Ten Commandments, for instance, outline basic morality in the form of a checklist — do these things and you’re a good member of society.  But it’s incomplete as a code for living and definitely too weak for it to help explain our relationship with each other and the world around us. 

Fortitude, therefore, can really only be appreciated in the context of meaningful human relationships, where there is a good understanding of right and wrong, like any of the other natural virtues.  The spiritual ones are provided to us, entire in themselves, and aren’t really subject to improvement.  Given that, doing the right thing becomes obvious and should be easy to carry out.  My first exercise in that, as decided today in our talk, is to not give in to despair.  Despair could be the cancer, or it could be depression, or any of several painful matters that occur in the course of the day.  I’m not unrealistic enough to believe that I will always be upbeat and positive, nor do I think that I am always able to respond lovingly to comments that can be hurtful (I’ve got people who will tell you about the times that I lashed out at something seemingly innocuous)  I do hope, though, that when those times come that I can ask for and willingly accept help.  And I apologize in advance for the days when I respond in anger.  I hope that they are few and far apart, and that we can grow in love from them. 

I believe that religion provides a standard for evaluating behaviours provided that we are open enough to listen before disparaging.  Among those behaviours are the virtues that I listed above, which lead us to being better humans overall, which is really something that can only be accomplished collaboratively. The next step, IMO, is to not attack others for different beliefs and to be open to them.  I find it annoying when people think that they’re being funny or clever when they start with the “you’ve believed the wrong thing all your life…” and start attacking others.  The desire to be superior to others, and to force one’s viewpoint to the exclusion of all others is a poison that destroys religion and warps it into anathema for everyone else.  I think that’s the real work of the Enemy — taking what is good, twisting it into something unrecognizable and then labelling it as what it should have been.  This, though, is a long discussion that can’t be reasonably addressed here.  Suffice it to say that there is always good, and we should always strive to be the best that we can be without condemning others for not meeting our standards.

Good night!  I’m yielding to a late night because I’ve learned that it’s sometimes necessary not to fight pointless battles… another lesson I have to relearn regularly!  Cheers all.