If you have a friend and you tell the bad news there ought to be sad and you can tell them
They will listen
You know they'll listen
They'll take the damn pain
And they won't tell you about some worst thing that happened them defensively sake
And they won't secretly be happy that you got knocked off your pedestal
They'll listen
And then another thing is this if you have a friend and something good happens to you
They’re happy
Like you have an ethical responsibility to take care of yourself
You have an ethical responsibility to surround yourself
With people who have the courage and faith and wisdom
To wish you well when you’ve done something good
They will listen
You know they'll listen
They'll take the damn pain
And they won't tell you about some worst thing that happened them defensively sake
And they won't secretly be happy that you got knocked off your pedestal
They'll listen
And then another thing is this if you have a friend and something good happens to you
They’re happy
Like you have an ethical responsibility to take care of yourself
You have an ethical responsibility to surround yourself
With people who have the courage and faith and wisdom
To wish you well when you’ve done something good
I read this piece of work by Yung a long while back
It was a meditation on the injunction to treat your neighbor as you would like to be treated
And what Yung pointed out which I really liked
Was that an injunction to be nice to other people
It was an invitation to reciprocity
It was something like this
Is like you should figure out how you would like to be treated like you were taking care of yourself
Not how you would like people to respond to you
It's more important than that
It's like imagine you had a child that you really cared for
And someone said “Well people will treat this child exactly like you want them to”
“But you have to figure out what that is.”
And so, then you'd have to sit down for like a month
And you think okay well how do you want your child to be treated
You don't want everyone just to be nice to them
You know you want people to challenge them and you want people to discipline him
It was a meditation on the injunction to treat your neighbor as you would like to be treated
And what Yung pointed out which I really liked
Was that an injunction to be nice to other people
It was an invitation to reciprocity
It was something like this
Is like you should figure out how you would like to be treated like you were taking care of yourself
Not how you would like people to respond to you
It's more important than that
It's like imagine you had a child that you really cared for
And someone said “Well people will treat this child exactly like you want them to”
“But you have to figure out what that is.”
And so, then you'd have to sit down for like a month
And you think okay well how do you want your child to be treated
You don't want everyone just to be nice to them
You know you want people to challenge them and you want people to discipline him
The first chapter I have in my book Is called is “Stand Up Straight with your Shoulders Back”
And it's an injunction to be combative
Not least to further your career let's say
But also, to adopt a stance of ready engagement with the world
And to reflect that in your posture I kind of have an affinity for lobsters
When a lobster loses a fight, it kind of crunches down so it looks smaller
When he wins the fight, he stretches out, looks bigger
And so, he's signaling other lobstersThe tally of his victory
So, you think well so what
The lobster runs on serotoninNeurochemical
And if the lobster loses the serotonin levels go down and if he wins the serotonin levels go up And when the serotonin levels go up
He stretches outAnd he's a confident lobster
And one of the consequences of that is if a lobster loses a battle
And you give them the equivalent of antidepressant then he stretches out and go fight again
And it's an injunction to be combative
Not least to further your career let's say
But also, to adopt a stance of ready engagement with the world
And to reflect that in your posture I kind of have an affinity for lobsters
When a lobster loses a fight, it kind of crunches down so it looks smaller
When he wins the fight, he stretches out, looks bigger
And so, he's signaling other lobstersThe tally of his victory
So, you think well so what
The lobster runs on serotoninNeurochemical
And if the lobster loses the serotonin levels go down and if he wins the serotonin levels go up And when the serotonin levels go up
He stretches outAnd he's a confident lobster
And one of the consequences of that is if a lobster loses a battle
And you give them the equivalent of antidepressant then he stretches out and go fight again
I think that you can get glimpses of Heaven and glimpses of Hell
I think that you can see people who live in Hell
You walk down the street and see them
For them it’s eternal
Because their pain is so overwhelming
That it feels like it will last forever
It’s also something that can engulf everyone
And has
Is there a metaphysical reality to it beyond that?
I suspect so but I don’t know
I think that the Heaven-like experience points to the way that things could be
And we don’t know how things could be if we really got our acts together
We don’t know
We spend a lot of time in our fallen condition
Wasting time
Being resentful
Working counterproductively
Hurting other people
And cursing fate itself
I think that you can see people who live in Hell
You walk down the street and see them
For them it’s eternal
Because their pain is so overwhelming
That it feels like it will last forever
It’s also something that can engulf everyone
And has
Is there a metaphysical reality to it beyond that?
I suspect so but I don’t know
I think that the Heaven-like experience points to the way that things could be
And we don’t know how things could be if we really got our acts together
We don’t know
We spend a lot of time in our fallen condition
Wasting time
Being resentful
Working counterproductively
Hurting other people
And cursing fate itself