200 DAYS
With 200 days behind us, we are witnessing a concentration of authoritarian power, simply the creation of a cult by Donald Trump and his associates. Gone are truth, statistical data, facts, law, honesty, gratitude, trust, compassion, courage, prudence, and integrity.
As a senior elder, gone are the days of the West Point Honor Code, “I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those amongst us who do;” Bill Coors during his Adolph Coors Company leadership team addresses, “Honesty, integrity, and morality;” Coors Senior Vice President of Finance, Max Goodwin, coaching, “Be objective, not self-serving, and make decisions in the best interests of the Company;” and Hyler Bracey, President of The Atlanta Consulting Group, “Commit to 100% Responsibility, life happens because of me, not to me.”
It feels like the 250-year history and ethical character of the country has disappeared!
Integral Ethics, like any decent ethics, is the art of being a good person. It’s the practice of goodness in our everyday lives and includes all the ways of being truthful, authentic, caring, and courageous that continue our basic integrity. Integral Ethics also refers to the dimension of our lives where we must make difficult and complicated choices and nuanced judgments about what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable, and quite often, unavoidably ambiguous. It’s where we must grapple with moral dilemmas, in politics, sexuality, health, relationships, work, money, and sometimes life and death situations… The short-term costs of unethical behavior are unhappy, contracted, and unskillful states of mind and emotion. The long-term costs of unethical behavior are worse—a vicious cycle of lies, self-contempt, and denial that erodes the foundation of our integrity and virtue. (Wilber, Patten, Leonard, Morelli, Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening, 2008, Boulder, CO: Integral, 255)
Terrence Real offers relational counsel,
FIVE CORE SELF-SKILLS, relational skills, for a well-adjusted, well-functioning person.
- Self-Esteem
Dysfunction: shame; grandiosity.
- Self-Awareness
Dysfunction: disassociation; perfectionism.
- Good Boundaries
Dysfunction: too porous (reactive); walled off (disengaged).
- Interdependence
Dysfunction: overdependence; anti dependent; needless; wantless.
- Moderation
Dysfunction: immature (too “loose”); super mature (too “tight”).
(Terrence Real, How Can I Get Through to You, 2002. NY, NY: SCRIBNER, 203-204)
Ethics is an opportunity for joy, happiness, empathy, and freedom. And it is not a matter of recasting the entrenched sense into dutiful obedience. Synchronize the heart and the mind and reach out for others in a heartfelt, caring, helping, serving, and loving manner. Quality relational skills matter, and gratitude, trust, hope, and compassion can become a way of life. Life is simply practice and every experience has a purpose.
