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...instead of bashing what you hate."

This quote was posted on Facebook today.

I have to say that like it. The problem is, I can't see how we would get anywhere if the whole world followed that advice. Maybe the world would become a giant Pinterest or... something very bland. I don't know.

On the other hand, I see people who have left the church and live by this advice and I like what I see. They seem so secure and happy.

I have an aunt who always posts on Facebook about beautiful sunsets, delicious food, and fun times with friends. She left the church but has never ever said a word that would show any interest in religious ideas.

I have some friends who speak out against our Nation's political marketeers- even the great Houdini Mitt Romney (gasp). The political discussions get on my nerves but ya know? We kind of need those discussions.

Anyway, full of rambling tonight. I just witnessed a 5th grader complete a science project so I was thinking pretty deeply.

But what if you love bashing?

zeezrom wrote:...instead of bashing what you hate."

This quote was posted on Facebook today.

I have to say that like it. The problem is, I can't see how we would get anywhere if the whole world followed that advice. Maybe the world would become a giant Pinterest or... something very bland. I don't know.

There's a difference between "bashing" and constructive criticism. The latter is necessary, the former only belittles the "basher".

Max Ehrmann gave some good advice:

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story....Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit....

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. (Excerpt from Desiderata.)

Those who clamour (or "bash") the loudest, in the negative sense, will achieve little. Jesus didn't raise nor command armies, nor demand revolution, nor support "an eye for an eye", and Gandhi took a leaf from Jesus' notebook: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

To those disappointed, or even angry at their "Mormon experience":

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

And maybe that's what your aunt sees. Take all of the negatives of your Mormon experience, and maybe view them as stepping stones, rather than stumbling blocks to your continuing personal progression and learning. One can chose to be bitter, or to learn from experience. One thing I've learned from having five children is that my "hard-earned" wisdom will have little or no impact on them, even if I verbally repeated it day and night for years. They will have to "go there", themselves, and then decide what's best for them.

The beauty of life is that we are our own "agents", and free to choose, and even to make bad decisions, and learn from them. I've always loved the poem Invictus, by William Ernest Henley, and once had it pinned to my wall to remind me:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.