This is http://www.essayz.com/a9210181.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %COPE TRAGEDY MISFORTUNE PRETEND AVOID GUILT SHAME 921018 It never does anybody any good to pretend that misfortune and tragedies have not been, are not, and/or will not be real parts of our lives. It never does anybody any good to pretend that misfortune and tragedies could have been, could now, and/or will be entirely avoidable. Feeling guilty or shamed by un-avoided, developing, and/or unavoidable misfortune and tragedies does nobody any good. It is humanly impossible to avoid all misfortune and tragedies; for there are many developments in our lives which nobody could have controlled, could now control, or will be able to control. There are times when the only good that can be done is to deal openly and honestly with the realities, guilt, shame, and impossibilities which are associated with human misfortune and tragedies. Scientific and technocratic responses to them are often of no use, and we just as well admit that responding to many misfortunes and tragedies in scientific and technocratic ways is of no use to us. We cannot cope helpfully with misfortunes and tragedies in helpful ways so long as we are compulsively engaged in responding to them in ways which are not helpful to anybody. Our scientific and technocratic compulsions can undermine the possibilities of love, compassion, tenderness, forgiveness, and healing. There are times when the best thing we can do is to learn to shift the focus of our attention, and make a revolutionary paradigm shift in how we try to cope with the realities which confront us. Learning to deal with them honestly may be a revolutionary paradigm shift. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================