"He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation." - Machiavelli, The Prince
Sock Drawers
Author: Jack
Mr. Johnson says that if we were to take all our "junk out of the closet", then stereotypes and other things would slowly disapparate. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. If people were more open about their problems, wouldn't people with similar problems feel less alone and more accepted? Wouldn't that problem seem more normal? Maybe if people were open so that we could understand a little better, then we could find solutions to the problems! But there's another side to this that would be crucial for this to be carried out effectively: Acceptance. The only way someone would be willing to say that they're anorexic or depressed is if they weren't verbally stoned after saying so. But what about murderers? Are there things that shouldn't be spoken of? Should the evil things of the world seem more acceptable, more normal? No! This encourages those things. BUT what if, after knowing these things, we viewed them as wicked, and attempted to bring them to a different path. Hmmm... But what about murderers? Yes, try to bring them over so that they won't continue with those actions, but what would we do for our security/safety? Punishment? If there was no punishment to hinder (or even discourage) improper action, then why would they stop? And if people knew there would be a punishment, then they'd be discouraged to talk about what they did if they did it. He told us later that his class was a place where we didn't have to think about the junk. That made more sense, but it was so comforting it got me thinking. Is it better to reveal the junk? Or to hold it inside? Is this a continuum or a dichotomy?
I have always been told that the best way to teach a dog or a child (interesting isn't it that we trian children like dogs) is to reward the good and pay little attention to the bad. Wasn't the sock drawer a closet?
I realize this is a little tangential, but I find it interesting what you said about accepting people with . . . can we safely call them problems? I guess so. Accepting people with problems.
For a BYU club, I'm working with an organization at UVU called the Interfaith Student Association (ISA). Basically, my club is promoting their club by working on marketing strategies and stuff like that for them.
Anyway, basically, they have this motto which is to move society from tolerance to love. For the ISA, that means bringing different religions and sets of beliefs to a point where we don't merely live in the same neighborhood without brawls every other weekend, but actually loving each other as though they were no different from ourselves. In fact, I really seem to remember Christ saying something like that.
In the sense that you're talking about, I agree that we need to move from merely tolerating people that have disabilities or problems, to loving them. Granted, there needs to be discipline for those who commit crimes, but I think overall we need to increase our love and understanding.
So I guess this is just a great big ditto mark.
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That's exactly what I mean, Derek. I loved how you talked about going from "tolerance to love". That's an awesome way to put it. I talk about this a little in another post where I talk about an invention I'd like to make that shows everyone's emotional scars, until, as I put it "we're all so naked that we realize it's nakedness that's natural." When we come to realize that we all have problems, shall we call them, then we'll be more accepting of people with those problems, and more accepting of our own problems.