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        %FOCUSING WITH LIBERATING CONCEPTUAL LENSES 870413

     Our  perceptions of our relationships may get out  of
focus  due  to conceptual near-sightedness  or  conceptual
farsightedness;   i.e.,  due to an inability to shift  our
focus   conceptually,    due  to  a  lack  of   conceptual
flexibility.

     To see clearly in various contexts requires a variety
of conceptual tools.   Not all contexts require the use of
the same set of conceptual tools.  To always feel that one
set  of  conceptual  tools  is always best is to be  in  a
conceptual prison.  To have available only one set of very
limited  conceptual tools is to be conceptually  poor  and
powerless.   To be addicted to one set of concepts as  the
ultimately   important   set  is  to  be  unable   to   be
conceptually honest and perceptive about situations  where
those concepts are not important.

     Conceptual  poverty  leads  to  paralyzing  fear  and
collusive  addiction to games of mutual self deception  in
which  fixation upon some limiting concepts imprison those
who  are ill at ease in life with diseases which they  can
not control.   Ironically it is those people to whom being
in  control  is  most important, who most suffer  from the
diseases  which  they can not control.   Their fears  keep
them  from  acquiring the concepts with which  to  clearly
focus  upon their situations and how to more flexibly deal
creatively  with  them.   In tragic and strange  feed-back
loops   their  fears  dominate  them  and  so  they   live
perpetually ill at ease, diseased with no hope of a cure.

     A  collection of concepts which are not integrated in
a coherent way  will not empower people to cope wisely and
so live with personal and communal integrity.   People and
communities will live  integrated lives and overcome their
diseases with hope when they have a coherent and inclusive
set of concepts,  and a conceptual way of integrating them
into  a coherent life style.   Such conceptual integration
generates flexibility to deal  with totally new situations
by  helplessly focusing upon  all  the various   ways   of
perceiving the  situation  from complementary perspectives
through complementary conceptual lenses.  Addiction to the
use  of one exclusive set  of conceptual  lenses will  not
empower people to have control over whatever it is it will
help to control.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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