Humanist Thought of the Week

Finding Love

Love comes in many forms.

I love my husband deeply and passionately.

I love my son too, but in a slightly different way.

I also love my cat. She’s wonderful. 

What do all these forms of love have in common?

They make me feel good.

They make me want to care about someone other than myself.

More and more I am convinced that the feeling of connectedness we all crave and desire, is best fulfilled by loving other people.

Feeling love for others is its own reward whether they appreciate or reciprocate my feelings or not. 

This is what it is to love unconditionally.

So when you love, whoever you love, get your ego out of the way and love for the sake of loving.

It’s not always about you!

People seem to get offended a lot.

And it seems religious speech is the most offensive.

Religious people get offended when someone says – hey – that pretty stupid.

Non-religious people get offended when they are told they are stupid for not believing things they think are pretty stupid. 

If you ask me – it’s all pretty stupid.

What everyone needs to understand when they are offended by the religious speech of others  is ....  It’s not about you! 

It’s about the speaker and their views and their feelings and their experiences.

You don’t have to be offended. You can ignore them.

And that would be the smart thing to do! 

Please Think Responsibly

Thinking is hard.

Just ask my son after 3 pages of math homework.

His brain gets tired and what was easy half an hour ago becomes nearly impossible.

If you want to make good decisions, you need to take care of your brain properly.

 A brain is an organ and a muscle.

And like any muscle, it has to be exercised properly and it can get tired.

You have to feed it properly and it also likes to play some too.

In order to think well you have to practice thinking well, actively and intentionally.

Be a responsible brain owner and please think responsibly.

Poor Old Jack

My son has been going through a Nightmare before Christmas phase.

He has been asking to listen to the soundtrack over and over and over. 

And I’ve decided that the song “Poor Jack,” the song he sings in the cemetery after ruining Christmas has got to be one of the best humanistic songs ever written. 

I’m including a link to a youtube video of a live performance of it from the composer Danny Elfman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw6r1OnIZ5A 

This song is a perfect encapsulation of a healthy response to reaching for the sky and failing and having to come to terms with that failure.

He feels sorry for himself.  “Why does nothing every turn out like it should?”

He gets angry – “no one really understood, well how could they?

He congratulates himself for at least trying “What the heck I went and did my best.”

He accepts himself for who he is “That’s right I am the Pumpkin King!!” 

He moves on “I just can’t wait until next Halloween.” 

And then, he commits to fixing his mistakes. “I wonder if there’s still time to set things right.”

Everytime I hear this I am motivated to move past my own failings.

It’s no wonder everyone yells along to “that’s right – I am the Pumpkin King!” every time we hear it. It’s really life affirming.

And ... dare I say - humanistic

Nothing is to be feared.

I came across a quote from Marie Curie the other day.

She’s the first woman to win a Nobel prize and she won it twice. She studied radioactivity. 

If you don’t know who she is, you should.

Anyway, here is the quote:

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood “

As a Humanist I love this.

I think fear is the hardest emotion to cope with.

I feel like my entire life is has been one long exercise in overcoming fear.

I have always found that the best antidote to fear is knowledge.

The more you know.