I'm not worthy...or Am I?

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 00 - 08:55 AM

You two!LOL!! Thanks, Kevin, for cleaning my posting of Amos' email.

kat

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: kendall
Date: 24 May 00 - 09:07 AM

I dont get no responses at all!! LOL

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: MMario
Date: 24 May 00 - 09:46 AM

gee, everyone's directing their comments at me. NOW I'm beginning to wonder about my self worth....

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 May 00 - 09:55 AM

Wonder no more Mario.......You're a completely worthless excuse for a person....Probably watched the "Brady Bunch Movie" didn't you?

Soaw

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: MMario
Date: 24 May 00 - 10:00 AM

no - I was saved from that fate...(my niece refused to watch it -- and I was afraid to watch it alone; too much sugar can induce comas)...I watched "The making of the Partidge Family" instead. wait, that makes me even more pathetic! oh nooo!!!!!

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 May 00 - 10:04 AM

Well there ya' go........Right down in the primordial ooze with the rest of us (see the Linda McCartney thread).

Spaw

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: SINSULL
Date: 24 May 00 - 12:10 PM

MMArio,

The offer of the shawl still stands. You can put it over your head and rock. You'll feel better.

Where were you last night? We missed you on Hearme.

Kendall,

This is for you. What kind of a folk singer drives a Lincoln? VW bus - OK but a Lincoln??? Of course the sound system may work in your favor. Still I don't see how you can play the starving artist driving around in a Lincoln. Unless of course you live in it. But you were chasing your printer paper out on the porch so that can't be. Janis had a Mercedes but she had a drinking problem too. Help me here. SS

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: MMario
Date: 24 May 00 - 12:15 PM

I've been falling asleep about 8:00 lately....and computer isn't available until much later...even to listen...*drat*

say - how do you know he doesn't have a porch on the Lincoln?

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: Bert
Date: 24 May 00 - 12:21 PM

Kinda reminds me of that Born Loser cartoon where the vagrant asks 'the boss' if he has any odd jobs.
The boss says "You can paint the porch, the paint is in the garage"
Vagrant comes back for his pay, all splashed with paint of course.
Boss says "finished already?" vagrant says

"Yup, gave her two coats, and by the way you car ain't a Porch it's a Mercedes!"

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 24 May 00 - 01:39 PM

A bit more back on the subject...whether the compliment comes from an expert, a fan, or a houseguest, a smile and a "thank you" will always be the right response. How much weight you assign to their compliment (expert vs fan) is your business. It's impolite to contradict a compliment, and anyway, you can gain comfort in the idea that somebody liked what you did, even if it wasn't up to your expectations. I've seen it go wrong both ways; where nothing will ever bee good enough, or where everything done is a triumph of epic proportions. To the former I say, perfection is dull. To the latter I quote Golda Meir,"Don't be so humble, you're not that good."

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: Amos
Date: 24 May 00 - 03:41 PM

JulieF:

I think a very very important point has been raised here, and you are absolutely right that you can raise a child to exercise his own native capacity for goodness -- good judgement, compassion, good discrimination, desires to better things -- these are not elements of a false overlay driven in by parental pressure. Quite to the contrary, they are exercised by individuals who are free from neurotic drama in their thinking as a natural extension of their basic personality, in my opinion. So really we are talking about two different (at least) definitons of "good" -- the one being defined by the local "moral authorities" whether parents or scum-punk-brat-peers, and the other being an inherent sense that seems to me to derive from the most rationale and whole capabilities of the inherent person without any distorting overlays packed in with force or emotional blackmail or other cute tricks.

Self worth (I think) will generally blossom when the native undistorted ability of the individal is exercised in making some positive action occur, on any front from helping a friend to giving to charity to writing a beautiful song, or performing one, to building a birdhouse or making a cake -- valued production naturally improves self-esteem. But it would be a good idea to differentiate between the natural sense of right action, and its near cousin, the philosophical sense of "good" which Socrates wrestled with, and the arbitrary codes that moralists love to beat each other up with which are derived only from authority or only from mass agreement and don't have an inherent rationale to them.

One straightens out and betters the activities and thinking of people, and the other compresses and distorts minds and activities, looking for knee-jerk agreement and automated compliance for reasons which should be left for confessionals. This is all my philosophical opinion, but I have to say that in my experience life does seem to work this way.

A

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 May 00 - 04:53 PM

"Well there are those good men and good men do exist....So burn his ass! Yeah, that's it Jack......When I'm the chairman of the jury, burn his ass.....If you can take the hot lead enema, THEN you can cast the first stone."
.....Lenny Bruce, 20th Century Stand-Up Philosopher

Spaw

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 24 May 00 - 05:40 PM

Catspaw, you don't need to take a hot lead enema to burn your ass, just have some of those fire hot wings they serve at the pub, that ought to do it.


Amos and JulieF, you guys make so much sense. It was the missing element to this discussion.
Being inherently good and teaching that to your children is so very different from the social rules of being 'good'
I believe we are inherently good, we may not realize it, but we are.
To find that goodness, think of yourself as a stone, something like a geod. You know, that stone you see cut in half and inside you find a sparkling crystal cave. If you chisel away all that isn't of goodness in yourself, eventually you will find that sparkling stuff.

Little Neo

Subject: RE: I'm not worthy...or Am I?
From: Amos
Date: 24 May 00 - 06:00 PM

Nicely said, Lil Neo. You is a prime example of nach'l goo'ness purse-OWNified! An' don'choo fergit it, neither.

A