THINKING-REFLECTION: WHAT’S THE POINT? – PART IV. . .

With my previous posting I began to briefly explore a response to this question regarding ‘Thinking-Reflection’: ‘What’s the Point?’

 The first response focused on what I call ‘The Ideal.’  This morning we will focus on the second response and I call this ‘The Real.’

‘Thinking-Reflection’ matters because it is a process that each of us engages in – continuously.  The more we consciously practice the better we become and, with conscious discipline, the more effective we become.  Here it is crucial to understand (or remember) that contrary to common belief, ‘practice does not make perfect.’  ‘Practice makes permanent!’  Thus the disciplines of ‘Thinking-Reflecting’ that I practice – and over time, integrate into habits – becomes crucial.

How I think-reflect about who I am and who you are powerfully determines what I choose to do.  My attitude about the ‘other(s)’ is directly impacted by how I think-reflect – and what I think-reflect upon when it comes to the ‘other(s).’  For example, do I believe that the ‘other’ is trust-worthy?  Do I believe that the ‘other’ is, by his or her very nature, a threat to me and mine?  Do I believe that the ‘other’ is less than human?   Once I decide then I will censor ‘in’ all that supports my ‘belief’ and I will censor out – block – all that disconfirms my ‘belief.’

Consider this question: Do you believe that there is life after death?  If so, what kind of life?  If not, then once you die, then what?  Even though I was raised a Catholic, when I was in my late teens I found myself thinking-reflecting upon what I truly believed when it came to my responding to this question.  My response, I knew, would determine how I would approach my life.  Although, my thinking-reflecting involved an abstract process I knew that how I then chose to live my life would have ‘real’ and ‘practical’ consequences.

How many of us humans, in our Culture, believe that we humans are, by nature, self-centered?  Our goal is to get as much as we can for ourselves.  In our culture we are now rooted in a ‘banking metaphor’ – people are assets, resources, commodities to be used and our goal is to obtain the best return on our investment (our investment can be in ‘time,’ for example).

One unintended consequence of our integrating the banking metaphor into our culture/lives is that we have become less trusting of others, we have become more suspicious and we have become less cooperative (we fear being taken advantage of – by, among others, attorneys, car salespersons, and insurance salespersons).

We do not believe that the other(s) will keep promises made and we are more likely to ‘guilt-free’ break promises we have made.  The gulf between the rich and poor (now middle-class) continues to grow exponentially and with this gulf, fear of the ‘other(s)’ also continues to grow.

We have elementary and high school students in some of our public schools (think: large urban school districts) who, during these winter months, have to wear coats and head coverings in their classrooms because there is no money for heat.  Teachers in these schools develop ‘go fund me’ sites so that they can purchase materials and, in some cases, so they can purchase coats and head coverings, for their students.

Although the ‘banking metaphor’ is rooted in the abstract, the ‘real’ effect is felt by so many in our culture every day.  And the ‘real’ effect/affect is far from the ‘American Dream’ that we, as a culture, still espouse.

The ‘Real’ reminds us – those of us who are awake and aware – that ‘thinking-reflection’ is continuous and that what we ‘think-reflect’ about directly determines, for better and for worse, our cultural ‘reality’ (too often, we espouse ‘A’ and obtain the ‘Real’ which is ‘B’).

To put it another way: We are our Thoughts-Reflections! [An Aside: We can thank Aristotle for this insight.]

Given this, what is the third response: ‘The Real+’ response?  Stay tuned.