I ENJOYED the article a lot. With your blessing, I would like to propose a few sequentially-connected considerations.
1. Being alert is critical. As I have pondered my life, I have felt God's inspiration telling me this, "Where 'er thou art, be thou (w)holy there." In short, I need to be COMPLETELY THERE (alert) in all conversations, in all elements of work, play, etc. AS WELL, I need to be righteous, non-judgmental, or as some say, "Christlike."
2. Truth is not relative. One plus one is two no matter what. If one is blind, one could say in his/her "truth" that all is black and there is no sunrise. That would be a falsehood and not true. Yes, there is a different in "personal perspective," but not a difference in truth. 1+1=2
3. Without absolute truths and principles connected to them, there is no true basis for solid relationships, integrity, etc. ALL successful relationships and societies MUST have some basic ground rules and principles in order to flourish. Indeed, one of the world's challenges is the constant shifting of values and the uncertainties associated with them. A value-less society is a dangerous society that eventually leads to being in opposition to nature where nature is "naturally" and mostly predictable, constant, etc. Without constant values and principles what eventually sets in is anarchy, manipulation by the power brokers, etc. and eventual entrapment in a totalitarian society. History is just STUFFED FULL of evidence of this sort.
4. Thanks for hanging with me on this. :-)
5. Though the railway metaphor supports your point, the river metaphor doesn't. Even rivers have banks, have courses, and have "principles," so to speak, that KEEP THEM IN their course. What railways don't have that rivers do is LIFE.
Principles, in my world, are like the RIVER BANKS and guide me along the way, but I must STILL be (w)holy there in order TO BE the person of gentle persuasion in this world. Between the banks of the river, I can gurgle down the river bed, nurturing other life along the way, etc., but I still cannot arbitrarily flow over a mountain or cut a new path on a whim. As a river, I am predictable, nurturing, have room to flex between my banks, to draw on tributaries of goodness poured into my life by others, drop the sands of pain on sand bars (leaving them behind), etc., etc.
So, in the end, I am not a train-track based person with rigid, inanimate, cold numbness, but I am a person seeking to live by absolute truths (which do exist) and by corresponding principles with the goal to provide goodness and hope for all those that come to my riverbanks.
God bless.
On Mar 5, 2008 Murray wrote :