Nat

David Brooks of the New York Times, wrote this in his column today, which explained why Catholic “quasi-believers” are so successful in our society:

For there are at least two things we know about flourishing in a modern society.

First, college students who attend religious services regularly do better than those that don’t. As Margarita Mooney, a Princeton sociologist, has demonstrated in her research, they work harder and are more engaged with campus life. Second, students who come from denominations that encourage dissent are more successful, on average, than students from denominations that don’t.

This embodies the social gospel annex to the quasi-religious creed: Always try to be the least believing member of one of the more observant sects. Participate in organized religion, but be a friendly dissident inside. Ensconce yourself in traditional moral practice, but champion piecemeal modernization. Submit to the wisdom of the ages, but with one eye open.

One eye open. It’s an interesting notion, and it may well be that this recipe predicts success in our society right now. But it only rings true for me if by “one eye open,” you mean that you are looking to supplement the wisdom that one tradition teaches you with additional wisdom.

I prefer belief to skepticism. My belief in a powerful God has often been the only reassurance that got me up and out of bed in the morning. Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree and waited for enlightenment. He wasn’t evaluating options; he was looking for an answer to explain human suffering. As far as suffering goes, I believe that God doesn’t bring it to us.

I don’t have all the answers, but I don’t feel the need to keep one eye on the possibility that God has suffering in the works for us. It’s a better world if he doesn’t.

The new Time Magazine has Al Gore on the cover under the headline “The Last Temptation of Al Gore.” Obviously the teaser headline focuses on whether or not Al Gore is the perfect Democratic candidate for president in 2008 if the current front runners stumble. Gore himself, though, shows much keener interest in the major challenges facing our society: first, global warming, and second, the crisis of irrationality in American politics, about which he has written his new book, “The Assault on Reason.” In that book, which Time excerpts, Gore writes that the rise of television in the last 50 years has fundamentally eroded our country’s ability to debate the most pressing issues we face.

His conclusion is startling and hopeful: we can take steps to resolve this issue, and the Internet may be a key to how we do it. He also quotes Gandhi’s concept of a “truth force.” The truth force posits that humans have an innate ability to recognize the most powerful truths.

The article is remarkable on many, many levels, starting with the way Gore has emerged from the personal pain of losing an election in which he won the popular vote, to become a spokesperson for attention to climate change, an Oscar-award winning filmmaker, a board member of Apple and a senior advisor to Google, as well as a best-selling author.

I have to confess that Gore didn’t inspire me at all when he ran for president in 2000, but that’s not really the point. What thrills me is his example of reacting to an enormous setback to re-invent himself as an even more interesting person than he would have been had he won.

In the Time article, Tipper Gore describes her husband as having complete freedom to do what he wants, in the way that he wants to do it. She makes it sound pretty grand.

Meanwhile, Gore believes resolutely in Gandhi’s notion of our collective ability to recognize the truth we need to learn. The entire article made an inspiring case for the future: a person can respond to disappointment and failure with growth and energy, and our society can recover from the apathy cultivated by over-indulgence in television.

David Pogue’s superb technology blog contains a write up on a brilliantly energy efficient house called the Enertia house. Pogue was one of the judges in an invention contest, which was won by Michael Sykes. Sykes’ house design is for a wooden house that literally heats itself.

The wood is a resin heavy pine that creates its own atmosphere under the right design circumstances. When that happens, the heat literally stays in the walls. It’s a brilliant design and clearly deserves its prize.

The invention is built only from farm-raised yellow pine, which absorbs heat during the day and releases it at night. When I read the article, I thought it had to be a lie or an oversimplification. The house is neither. It is novel and thoughtful to the environment.

What I absolutely love is that the house solves practical local problems. We need more of those. Please check out the house. Its seems impossibly wonderful, and I’d like to see how others react.

On the writing blog red Ravine, I posted a piece about my childhood school. I note that its structure and my social life there instilled great confidence and security in me.

I should add that my parents and my sister have always done the same, with their unflagging belief that I can do anything. My wife and stepdaughter later added their own level of confidence and support. That’s what family is supposed to do, among other things, let you know what to appreciate about yourself.

It’s quite a gift to have this deep, generous well-spring of support from the people who know you the best. My father, we used to joke, would drive 10 hours to change one of our light bulbs. It wasn’t really a joke; he would have done it.

I’m so glad for the confidence my parents have in me. It gives you the sense that you can achieve anything, when the first people you know and love tell you that you can, and mean it.

Thank you.

My father-in-law sent me a great link to a video clip of a guy who has what looks like the most frightening job possible. You have to see the clip to appreciate it, and what I love is the subject’s description at the end of what fears he has overcome in life.

Years ago, my friend Ted took me camping in Baxter State Park in Maine. We did a 4-5 day trip, ending by hiking the Razor’s Edge down from Mount Katahdin. As you would expect, the trail is exceptionally narrow and plunges several hundred feet down on both sides. What’s even more nerve-wracking is that it is a prime spot for lightning strikes, and that day, we seemed to be just a few hours ahead of a storm.

Prior to that trip, I had struggled with a sort of low-grade but annoying fear of heights, but once you are there, you really have no alternative but to walk across it. We were both pretty ragged by that point–Ted had had to talk me up a mountain face on our first day, which I really didn’t think I had the strength to manage.

Still, needing to cross over, and with the scenery spectacular down to lakes and forests, we pressed ahead. I can’t remember for sure if we saw other hikers while we were out on the trail, but we knew that others had crossed ahead of us all summer. Knowing that it is possible, we just did what all the books tell you to do: one step at a time.

Usually I am only happy with overcoming a challenge after it’s done. This time, though, I was conscious all the way across of walking past my fears.

So watch the video clip and ask yourself what you fear that you could confront. There’s no better feeling.

I’ve written before about how much I admire my teenage stepdaughter. She does many things well because she has a fantastic work ethic, and she listens to coaches and teachers.

Tonight I attended her annual dance recital. They’re more fun than they used to be because she dances in many more numbers than the younger children do. There were six tonight, including a great big dance ensemble to the tune of “One” from A Chorus Line, and several others, mixing hip hop, tap, and modern.

Her kicks have gotten higher and better coordinated than they were last year. She’s been practicing, and her attention to sports has increased her conditioning and rhythm. She’s able to smile now when she dances, because she doesn’t have to concentrate impossibly hard on every second. It’s fun to watch her.

It really wasn’t long ago that dance recitals were entertaining primarily for costume changes and the music, but now our child is busy with the dance steps for which her group is responsible. The group focuses heavily dancing in character and in time. It came together well.

And it looks like a lot of fun.

It was our third or fourth warm night of the year, and a work colleague invited a group of us to join him in one of the luxury boxes at the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox’s stadium. The suite includes an indoor living room with television, sectional sofa, a few tables, and a large window so you can watch the game.

Through the door is the outdoor seating area, with three rows of seats, the lowest of which is partially below the level of the infield. I sat there most of the evening, talking about nothing of consequence with three of my co-workers.

Several guests brought their young children, which was nice for those that wanted to play and those that wanted to watch the game.

All in all, it was one of those nights of which you think, this is a very relaxing way to be. There must be people who don’t like professional sports, but I’m not one of them. So I watched the hitting and the running of young men chasing a dream. I watched it with men and women who are chasing or have found their own dream, from a really good spot.

I like to be reminded, as often as possible, that life can be sweet right where we are, that our happiness isn’t dependent on where we ultimately think we need to be. That’s how it was for me tonight.

My friend R and I had lunch outside today. I sat under the umbrella, and she wore sunglasses. Nothing makes soup and salad taste better to me than eating in the sunshine. Even in a chain restaurant next to the street in front of the mall, the experience felt cosmopolitan and Continental.

My friend is a lifelong student of personal development, in the best possible way. She thinks deeply about the value of her life to herself and to others, and she willingly shares her observations and insights about what seems to work and what doesn’t. Another quality of hers that I admire immensely is her absolute willingness to tell the truth and to be direct. I find it hard to have a superficial conversation with her, because she has a way of letting you know that it would really be much more interesting to skip to meaningful topics.

With her, I can’t lie about myself, and when I start to, I sound completely foolish.

Toward the end of the conversation, she talked about how she is learning to take things more slowly. We had been talking about reading books. I have stacks of them on my night stand and try to read about 10 at a time. Often this means I don’t finish what I start. Meanwhile, R has adopted the discipline to leave only one out next to her bed and to read it to the end before proceeding to the next.

For some reason, this habit strikes me as a towering achievement. Both of us acknowledged that we often want to have everything at once: solutions to problems, life ambitions, books read. She is learning to be more methodical and more measured, and she seems quite serene about it. I was impressed and envious, but I’m hoping that I can learn from her how to do this myself.

Ybonesy and QuoinMonkey, on the great red Ravine blog started a post thread yesterday on keeping journals.

Go to the post to read about Brian Singer’s 1,000 journals project, involving leaving 1,000 journals out for people to write in and pass along. The thread at red Ravine is getting lots of commentary, because keeping a journal appeals to so many people.

On my bookshelf, I keep a tiny, pocket-size spiral notebook, like the ones reporters use. It was a log of my first trip to Europe, with my parents when I was 11. My mother, an English teacher, insisted that my sister and I keep journals on the trip. My guess is that the tiny size was my effort to shrink the time spent writing in it, but just as my mother expected, it is a thrill now to recreate the trip through my entries.

ybonesy describes a journaling assignment given to QuoinMonkey and her by Natalie Goldberg. The journal was to keep a written record of their writing and meditation practice during a year-long course.

Apart from the topic being fascinating, I mention journaling here because it is a powerful tool to help see where you are in your mind and where you would like to go. In this way, it can be both a reminder of what you cherish and also a goad to get somewhere better.

Natalie Goldberg likes to say that this kind of writing practice gives you a slice of your mind. Most of the time, these revelations help guide you.

Have you ever kept a journal?

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world … as in being able to remake ourselves.” Mahatma Gandhi said that. It is both reassuring and intimidating at the same time. It says we can be great without looking beyond ourselves and also that we have no excuse not to be great.

I like that notion of accountability. We are accountable for who we become and what impact we have on the world. I worry about these two things pretty often now. It isn’t enough just to drift from one experience to another. I want to feel my life has consequence.

Most of my friends care deeply about the notion that their lives will mean something. The only challenge is to sort out first what we consider meaningful and then to find a way to move in that direction.

Gadhi’s life meaning came to him on the day a racist train conductor mis-handled him in South Africa. That was enough of a push to make him an influential social revolutionary. I conclude from this that we should pay close attention to what makes us feel very strongly.