Thoughts on Memorial Day: Seven Deadly Sins - Against Humanity

Opportunities come to me everyday to examine and rethink the dictums and principles that direct and shape my behaviors and my life.

Today I sang in the choir at the local Unitarian church.  The choir is a great experience for me.  Our director, David Owens, is a professional musician, excellent pianist and composer, and a good human being.  Holly, who helps in practice and directing and David Zabrisky, are similarly talented and gifts to be singing with and for.  Today, Tom Goldsmith, the longtime minister for the local Salt Lake City congregation, spoke today on a Memorial Day topic - "Every War Has Two Losers".  As always, I found myself taking notes and walking away from his sermon thinking, challenged, and inquisitive to learn more.  He used some material that was attributed to Mahatma Gandhi regarding sins framed as Humanity's loss.  When I went home and Googled the topic to learn more, I happened to pull up a quote from Stephen Covey's  "Seven Habits" book where he had quoted Gandhi's "Seven Deadly Sins - against Humanity  They are listed below.  What continues to amaze me are the multitude of places you can find wisdom and truth, and the value of keeping an open mind rather than deciding you already know all that you need to know.

I am an American (United States Citizen) and will always be proud of my roots and my citizenship.  In recent years, however I have been disgusted with the results of Capitalism and Free enterprise in our country.  It would seem that the American way now is to cheat or take advantage of another person before they take advantage of you.  And almost no one is held accountable by the law.  And, heaven forbid, if you have a handicap, are a foreigner with language limitations, are not sufficiently knowledgeable about a certain service you need help on, almost without exception the person serving you will try to take advantage of you.

Maybe this is a good time to review and internalize  the substance and message of the Seven Deadly Sins as Gandhi  listed them.

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Mahatma Gandhi said that seven things will destroy us. Notice that all of them have to do with social and political conditions. Note also that the antidote of each of these "deadly sins" is an explicit external standard or something that is based on natural principles and laws, not on social values.

Wealth Without Work

Pleasure Without Conscience

Knowledge Without Character

Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics)

Science Without Humanity

Religion Without Sacrifice

Politics Without Principle

What do you think?  

California road trip to visit David, Kellie, Austin, Amy, and Jody

Having three children living in California gives Sharen and me opportunities to visit there occasionally.  Even though it is mid May, we just missed having to chain up going over Donner. (Of course, there is no climate change going on, however.)

Another gift with these three adult children in our lives is that they have been very involved in Special Olympics as participants over the last 20 + years.  This time, Jody and Amy were on the same Bocci ball team, competing in the Northern California Bocci ball tournament in Martinez Calif.  They have all competed in Softball, Basketball, Track, Snow Skiing, Bowling, Volleyball, and even Tennis in the years past.

And - one of the major events of the trip was that youngest son David, beat his old man, fair and square, in a game of golf in Lodi, CA.

Attached are some pictures of our trip.