Core Values

LAST NIGHT I WROTE ABOUT My resolves for the year and offered a quick and dirty update on my progress. In the posting in which I had outlined my resolutions I also posted what I termed "core values." The extended quote from that posting follows:

"Peace and Harmony : I gave up trying to save the world years ago. Now I just want my corner to be tidy and a haven for peace and beauty. If I do this maybe somebody else will, and then somebody else, and so on until the world is saved by stages.

"Do no harm : If I can't help you , I certainly won't hurt you. That is much harder than it sounds. This has been the great challenge of my life and continues to be the central motivation in all that I have done. I have failed miserably at times. Other times I have had modest success. There is much that I have done of which I am rightly proud. I want to continue doing what is good and learn to leave behind what is not.

"Live, laugh, love : In one-hundred years all of us will be gone and nothing will be left but the sound of our laughter and the salt of our tears' enough said on that one.

"Honest and meaningful work : I do like to work. But I cannot work for something that I do not believe in. I won't whore myself out for material gain. Unlike some of my leftist friends, I do not see corporations or wealth as evil. I see them as areas that have been easily corrupted, however. Greed is the enemy, not wealth."

It is the final comment that struck me: "Greed is the enemy, not wealth." I suppose that this is one against which I have struggled for years. Most of my career has been spent working with people of modest means. I have seen profound acts of generosity from the poor and profound acts of greed. I came to see that greed does not know nor does it respect one's economic status. I am not a greedy person. But it is my deepest fear that I could become one. I would hate to see me become miserly.

I suppose that it is hard for me to be prudent when I too easily associate that with being greedy. Keeping for myself would have made my current situation less onerous. I would be in a more secure place had I planned for the moment rather than just living in the moment. I need to think, in this second half of life, about how to better use the resources upon which consensus has endowed with value.

The other values are part of my being. I need to focus on them and live according to their counsel more intentionally, more deliberately. They have been part of my way of being in the world for years. Surely, prudence can keep their company.

- tDF