Learning and understanding

 It’s the first week of Lent, and I was delighted to find an online retreat, hosted by the Dominican order out of Cork, Ireland.  There were several themes offered, and participants could register for one.  I chose “ An Introduction to Moral Theology ” because it was something that was of interest. Ethics and morality are so ingrained into humanity that it’s challenging for us to be able to clearly define our own.  We’ve all faced ethical or moral dilemmas over time, and perhaps we glibly quote things like, “ the needs of the many... ” (while crying buckets watching Spock and Kirk share a last conversation.) I’ll leave you to look up definitions and examples, because I’ll get distracted from my Very Important Post 🤣 The session opened with a short discussion, asking us what we considered to be our main moral and ethical issues.  After a while, a brave soul began offering ideas (you may know them) and it took off.  We mentioned things like immigration, heal...

 It seems to me that we live simultaneously in 2 worlds, and neither of them is fully real.  Let me explain... We all believe that we are good, decent and honourable people, who live (mostly) valuable lives, and who are kindhearted, care about our neighbours and friends, work hard, take care of our families and expect that we will be rewarded in time for our goodness, and evil / wrongdoing will be punished.  (Not ours, because we don’t do anything bad , so we should be excused our failings.)  In my experience, this leaves people in 2 general groups.  The first group considers a stranger to be a friend we haven’t yet met, while the second considers a stranger to be a threat to existence.  The first group thinks that people are all generally trustworthy, and have to prove that they are unreliable.  They believe in second chances and the benefit of the doubt.  The second group considers that all other people (those who are not like us ) are out to ha...

Thanks for playing!  I’m not surprised, but my sister Helga was able to identify all of the Sesame Street  references rapidly!  Lynne wins, with a total of 35/59 correct answers, and I’ve already sent something to her in the post.  It should arrive during the week, so I wait for her reaction! (I expect her to call me a “cheeky brat” at the very least.) I enjoy finding quotes like these, so I’m likely to continue finding inspiration from songs, or perhaps books or poetry.  We’ll see... in the next round! Although this is the summary of a few years’ blogging, so it might be a while.   Blog title Song  Artist Whole heap of zing Red red wine UB40 The essence of all As gentle as silence Catholic hymn Dreaming of bigger things Thunder Imagine Dragons  The whole year through Happy new year  Kelwyn Hutcheon O res mirabilis Panis angelicus  Catholic hymn Try to bridge the emptiness Same auld lang syne Dan Fogelberg Christmas changes too Where are...