Ruminations from the Temple

At the conclusion of my second reading of the fabulous Star Wars book, Clone Wars - Wild Space (by Karen Miller), I find myself still pondering the depth of wisdom in the presented Jedi philosophy. I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to be trained from so young that you couldn't remember in the ways of self-discipline, meditation, wisdom, sacrifice and service. Nothing in our world, much less our western culture, comes even close. "A Jedi youngling in the Temple is taught many things. First among them is this: Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. Beware the dark side, Jedi. And the second lesson goes: Mastery of self is the only mastery that matters." Mastery. Was I taught mastery of anything?...much less of self. The concept of self-discipline and self-control is definitely a religious thought that I was unaware of in my youth. To be honest, the thought never occurred to me until well into my twenties - pretty a...

FUN It always comes down to definitions, doesn't it? Take, for instance, the word fun. Some use this word to talk about an experience where they had a great time physically and mentally (for example: going to the amusement park was fun!). However, some use the word for a myriad of things from watching others take vows (weddings, etc.), or using the word to describe their feelings while witnessing a child learn something new (example: it was so fun to watch little Johnny finally figure out that math problem.) I take a rather black and white view of the word fun. I always think of a dear friend who always said everything was fun - anything from going on a wonderful date to going to the dump. Finally, I confronted her on her discrepancy...not everything can be described as fun, in my view. DIPLOMAT I have been described as 'the diplomat', which I suppose is a fair assessment. I can be rather careful and tactful with the way I word things, to be sure. I believe that you...