INTRODUCTION
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social
well-being and not mainly the absence of disease and
infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of health is one of the fundamental rights of any human
being without distinction of race, religion, political belief,
economic, or social condition. (Constitution of the World
Health Organization)
Without health, there can be no experience of a moral compass; without a moral compass, there can be no health. And without dreams there can be no deep understanding of what it means to be healthy or how to move beyond the distractions of mistrust driven by robotic decision-making and the urge to settle conflicts by going to war.
Why do I say that? Because, as Montaigne said, "Dreams are the true interpreter of our inclinations, but great skill is required to sort out and understand them."
(Quoted by Coriat in The Meaning of Dreams, (title page, 1915). Montaigne affirmed life and embraced human potential to recognize and pursue our values and needs.
What are these values? I will list five:
courage
Paul Tillich named the meaning of this state of mind best. Having faced Hitler and his Nazi war machine that conducted the malicious destruction of human life, Tillich came to the United States where he wrote his most profound understanding of what it means to face the evil disruptions of life. At the very center of his appeal to courage, Tillich affirmed "the courage to be oneself." (The Courage to Be, p. 105) This is where we begin as a child and where we end in the face of death, hoping we can claim as did St. Paul:
I have finished the race.
I fought a good fight.
I kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)
freedom
I cannot let this value pass by without referring to Thomas Jefferson. Pursuing his personal understanding of freedom, Jefferson affirmed "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," preferring "dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery" whether it be the authoritarian rule of government or the oppression of a religious theocracy. He supported education and the freedom to talk and disagree. Where Jefferson is strongly criticized, however, was his failure to recognize and act on his own undemocratic practice of maintaining slaves, an abuse of which several generations would pass before this evil was recognized for the tyranny it is.
truth
Supporting the values of courage and freedom, truth ennobles each. And presently in this distracting time of misinformation and self-serving political exploitation, "truth" itself has become elusive. Long lost is the art of political oratory in which the search for truth is debated. Absent today is the standard of a search for truth-telling. How quaint appears the childhood story of George Washington's response when his father asked who cut down the cherry tree: "I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree." This likely mythical tale was told and re-told to children (and adults) as an early childhood quality of George Washington, but also—very importantly—as a value to be enshrined within the democratic ideals of the new-born nation. And so it has largely been honored and held as a noble ideal to be lived out by persons in all walks of life.
beauty
What an interesting value we share, made even more so by the layer upon layers of meaning on which beauty rests. How do we define it? How can it ever be held within any simple definition? I fall back on the often-quoted definition of John Keats. In his poem, Endymion, written in 1818, he left us these unforgettable lines:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
It's loveliness increases.
It will never pass into nothingness.
Two of my neighbors stood admiring the new pickup truck one of them had just brought home. The proud owner rubbed his hand over one of the gleaming fenders and almost reverently said, "What a beauty"! And so it goes. What more can we say, whether it be a new, polished pickup truck, my wife's treasured daffodils springing up in our yard each year, or General Patton's profane exclamation when he saw the first m26 tank. How odd, we may think, that the idea of beauty ranges along a long line of pleasures to see, touch, hear, and sense—experiences of a joy that will never pass into nothingness.
love
And then there is love. Is it the most treasured of all things we value? What more can be said about it? But we do well to recall that love encompasses many levels, evoking a mystique that is spiritual, erotic, practical, friendly, aspiring, hospitable, playful, self-focused, passionate, romantic, and unconditional.
The three Greek words generally used to name love are philia, eros, and agape.
Philia is that love we feel for friends, neighbors, and others who enter our lives in a mutually-caring way. Next, there is eros. Here we experience the energy of passion, attraction, and a desire to connect. This is not simply a sexual longing but a pull toward that which we care for passionately. But eros and philia do not stand alone. By themselves, they describe the cognitive and emotional experiences of caring. However, human beings have evolved in their reach for the stars and a spiritual longing for that which is ultimate. This we call agape, unconditional love.
These five values—courage, freedom, truth, beauty, love— appear universally. They propel us, engage us, and fulfill our lives. But they do not operate alone. Our values intersect our needs, and to our needs I turn next.
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social
well-being and not mainly the absence of disease and
infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of health is one of the fundamental rights of any human
being without distinction of race, religion, political belief,
economic, or social condition. (Constitution of the World
Health Organization)
Without health, there can be no experience of a moral compass; without a moral compass, there can be no health. And without dreams there can be no deep understanding of what it means to be healthy or how to move beyond the distractions of mistrust driven by robotic decision-making and the urge to settle conflicts by going to war.
Why do I say that? Because, as Montaigne said, "Dreams are the true interpreter of our inclinations, but great skill is required to sort out and understand them."
(Quoted by Coriat in The Meaning of Dreams, (title page, 1915). Montaigne affirmed life and embraced human potential to recognize and pursue our values and needs.
What are these values? I will list five:
courage
Paul Tillich named the meaning of this state of mind best. Having faced Hitler and his Nazi war machine that conducted the malicious destruction of human life, Tillich came to the United States where he wrote his most profound understanding of what it means to face the evil disruptions of life. At the very center of his appeal to courage, Tillich affirmed "the courage to be oneself." (The Courage to Be, p. 105) This is where we begin as a child and where we end in the face of death, hoping we can claim as did St. Paul:
I have finished the race.
I fought a good fight.
I kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)
freedom
I cannot let this value pass by without referring to Thomas Jefferson. Pursuing his personal understanding of freedom, Jefferson affirmed "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," preferring "dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery" whether it be the authoritarian rule of government or the oppression of a religious theocracy. He supported education and the freedom to talk and disagree. Where Jefferson is strongly criticized, however, was his failure to recognize and act on his own undemocratic practice of maintaining slaves, an abuse of which several generations would pass before this evil was recognized for the tyranny it is.
truth
Supporting the values of courage and freedom, truth ennobles each. And presently in this distracting time of misinformation and self-serving political exploitation, "truth" itself has become elusive. Long lost is the art of political oratory in which the search for truth is debated. Absent today is the standard of a search for truth-telling. How quaint appears the childhood story of George Washington's response when his father asked who cut down the cherry tree: "I cannot tell a lie. I cut down the cherry tree." This likely mythical tale was told and re-told to children (and adults) as an early childhood quality of George Washington, but also—very importantly—as a value to be enshrined within the democratic ideals of the new-born nation. And so it has largely been honored and held as a noble ideal to be lived out by persons in all walks of life.
beauty
What an interesting value we share, made even more so by the layer upon layers of meaning on which beauty rests. How do we define it? How can it ever be held within any simple definition? I fall back on the often-quoted definition of John Keats. In his poem, Endymion, written in 1818, he left us these unforgettable lines:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
It's loveliness increases.
It will never pass into nothingness.
Two of my neighbors stood admiring the new pickup truck one of them had just brought home. The proud owner rubbed his hand over one of the gleaming fenders and almost reverently said, "What a beauty"! And so it goes. What more can we say, whether it be a new, polished pickup truck, my wife's treasured daffodils springing up in our yard each year, or General Patton's profane exclamation when he saw the first m26 tank. How odd, we may think, that the idea of beauty ranges along a long line of pleasures to see, touch, hear, and sense—experiences of a joy that will never pass into nothingness.
love
And then there is love. Is it the most treasured of all things we value? What more can be said about it? But we do well to recall that love encompasses many levels, evoking a mystique that is spiritual, erotic, practical, friendly, aspiring, hospitable, playful, self-focused, passionate, romantic, and unconditional.
The three Greek words generally used to name love are philia, eros, and agape.
Philia is that love we feel for friends, neighbors, and others who enter our lives in a mutually-caring way. Next, there is eros. Here we experience the energy of passion, attraction, and a desire to connect. This is not simply a sexual longing but a pull toward that which we care for passionately. But eros and philia do not stand alone. By themselves, they describe the cognitive and emotional experiences of caring. However, human beings have evolved in their reach for the stars and a spiritual longing for that which is ultimate. This we call agape, unconditional love.
These five values—courage, freedom, truth, beauty, love— appear universally. They propel us, engage us, and fulfill our lives. But they do not operate alone. Our values intersect our needs, and to our needs I turn next.
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