My Sunday Thought for 01082017: The Tools You Bring With

You can have all the tools in the world
 but if you don't genuinely believe in yourself, it's useless.

-- Ken Jeong, physician, comedian, actor

I was asked by a good friend to listen to a music video called Wings,  by Macklemore and featuring Ryan Lewis.  She rarely steers me wrong, and her reasoning was sound in this request as well:

"Listen to the words and then we can talk about it.  Pretty deep on how some follow their callings and others follow material callings.  Thought you could do something with that, like what or who is calling you in life."

Discussion was and is not necessary; the video speaks for itself, literally.  I have to admit, the last time I was moved by rap was during Eminem's performing the entire score from the film "Eight Mile," and if you haven't enjoyed the performances by Supaman, check him out on Facebook.

As I said, my friend's reasoning was sound for me.  First off, I haven't put together the follow up to my latest post concerning time, Life Between the Ticks; I have a title and a few quotes, but nothing of real substance (nothing new there).  Second, it is right on target with me and what I write about, ad nauseam, to wit, if you are in control of you, or if your existence driven by your ego and materialism.  Do you follow your own path, are you trying to follow someone else's, or is someone plotting your course for you?  If you think you are your own person, look in your wallet and count the credit cards.  Who's in your wallet, and who do you really serve until all debts are paid?  Who do you belong to?

Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding.

-- Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., businessman, retired CEO of IBM

Not enough proof?  Ask yourself what you will do tomorrow morning when you find you have lost everything.  What will you do when you find the high paid executive you wanted to be is now a homeless person sleeping on a park bench?  What will you do when you find the tools in your tool chest are for car repair and not carpentry, carpentry and not seamstress?  When you find out the scientific calculator doesn't translate to the foodservice industry at McDonald's?  And, if you think your job is secure, you're not as intelligent as your university of higher education lulled you into believing.  Someone is always looking to climb over you for the greener grass, to steal your job, your hot car, the shallow eye candy hanging onto your already Rolex embellished arm, or, as in the video, your priceless, coveted, basketball shoes - always.

“Accept yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your truths, and know what tools you have to fulfill your purpose.”

-- Steve Maraboli, author

We never teach that it isn't about what we strive to be, it is about the journey to get there. It isn't about what we wear, or what school we attend, or how much money we have, it is about our desire to learn what it takes to succeed at life along our path as we try to attain some goal, or survive if we fail. We may, indeed, fail.  In failure we will find we become so much richer for the journey if we have the tools to survive.  If you fail and find you don't have the tools to survive it, failure is a great motivator for learning, creativity, and humility.  As my friend continued in her message:

"Exactly. The shoes don't make the person. Kids and adults pay for material things that they think will buy them their dreams. Some things just can't be bought, you have to work for them."

I have always been amazed at how hard we work for that which we really don't need.  I always shake my head when an entertainer has to declare bankruptcy as divest themselves of several mansions, ten or so cars, a few castles and an island or two.  Kim Kardashian was robbed of $10,000,000 of jewelry, from her hotel room.  What dumbass takes $10 mil to a hotel room?  Well, Kim Kardashian, I suppose.  Is this really happiness?  They would say yes, and I would say they're full of shit.  If she really wants to impress, show up each morning at a soup kitchen and help out serving the poor.  I won't hold my breath.

People tend to focus on things they could better do without, and pay little if any attention to what is really important.  I've found that what is really important is so much easier to grasp for the simple reason that it is so much more important, like air, food, water, shelter, companionship, and faith.  It seems most of the filthy rich take all of this for granted.  Maybe they've been without and forgot, or would rather forget, what it felt like.  Maybe they've never had to want in their spoiled lives.  

When it comes to survival there are several camps I would fear, these are the camps of "want."  They are the perpetually poor who want what I have and the formerly rich who want what I have, and any other group who wants what I have.  The fact that you are willing to share what you have is of so much less importance than them having it all for themselves, whether it's $10 million dollars' worth of jewelry, or the last potato on earth.  If you don't share, then survival dictates killing you to get it or dying in the attempt.  It is the tool kit they brought with them, and learned to use along the way.  The question is clear:  What will your response be?

“Don't trust children with edge tools. Don't trust man, great God, with more power than he has until he has learned to use that little better. What a hell we should make of the world if we could do what we would!”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), essayist, poet

As the intelligent go through the school of hard knocks, we learn the tools of wisdom.  One tool of wisdom dictates that just because you can do a thing doesn't mean you must do that thing.  We develop the tools and lessons of morality and righteousness.  Morality, for all written on it is simply stated as doing that which is right.  Yet, doing that which is right might cross into immorality.  With great power comes the tools of great responsibility and with great responsibility comes the most important tool in our inventory, the curse of conscience.  Conscience is a personal scale on which morality and righteousness weigh heavily upon those who must choose.

Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian professor, philosopher, and public intellectual who once said, "We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us."  Okay, no Canadian jokes.  Do we really become what we behold?  I find it easier to accept that we are, or fall prey to, what we eat.  The good professor then follows bad logic with good philosophy.  It is up to each one of us to take tools given to us by our parents and mentors, or discover what other tools we need, and shape them to accomplish the task at hand.  These are the tools which will assist in defining who we are and shape us.  These tools are our ideas, beliefs, and our faith, our ability to think in the abstract.

Abstraction is one of the greatest visionary tools ever invented by human beings to imagine, decipher, and depict the world.

-- Jerry Saltz, three time nominee, Pulitzer Prize in Criticism

What if your tools fall short when it comes to righteousness and/or morality?  Well, like my mother taught me, there is a great difference between being intelligent and being smart.  We've all seen the people with doctorates which don't deserve our respect because they haven't done anything to deserve it.  Yeah, so you're intelligent, big whoop-de-do.  Now do something to earn my respect.  Sometimes, hell, most times, righteousness and morality aren't something you can just learn from a book.  These are things you learn by falling down and failing, losing your way and getting your hands dirty, and then, through humility and conscience.  It is more about how you feel about what you know, and how you implement those feelings in a moral and righteous manner.  Morality and righteousness, what you feel and what you know, the same and yet... not.

Fiction is not necessarily about what you know, it's about how you feel. That is the truth about fiction, and the other truth is that all science is a tool, and we use our tools not to actualise what we know, but to implement how we feel.

-- Margaret Atwood, poet, novelist, critic

Editor's Note 

(re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card) 

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider another viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 23 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to the intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, in the guise of the Congregation's official, online, blog, "The Path," of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as lead chaplain at a regional medical center.