This is http://www.essayz.com/a9501041.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.}
==========================================================
  %UNWISE FOOLISH BEHAVIOR CONFUSED FOCUS FEAR EVIL 950104

     We  are unwise and behave in foolish ways when we are
confused and focus our fear inappropriately.   We may have
been  taught  to  be  confused  and  to  focus  our   fear
inappropriately---by  people who profit thereby.   We  may
have been the victims of conflicts,  violence and chaos---
and   thereby have been taught to be confused and to focus
our  fear  inappropriately;   with  nobody  truly  gaining
thereby.  We may have  internalized conflicting ideals and
values  and  been confused  by the internalized  conflicts
which we know  not how to resolve---and so focus our  fear
unwisely.

     To  recover and enjoy health,  personal integrity and
communal integrity we need to overcome our confusion about
what it is most prudent to fear.

     It  is  not prudent to fear rejection by  people  who
manipulate  our fears---for they have already rejected  us
and  are treating us as impersonal objects to be used  and
abused by them.  They have no love to give to us and it is
not  prudent to fear that they will withhold what they  do
not  have  to give to us.   People who  offer  conditional
personal acceptance and love have  no love to  give;  they
are  dishonest.    It is prudent to fear  their  dishonest
manipulations and abuse.   It is not prudent to fear their
rejection---for that is in the past.

     It  is  prudent  to fear falling  into  the  trap  of
respecting and being comfortable with that which we  would
be wise to fear.

     It is dangerous to be comfortable with and to respect
the repression of and  ignorance  about  our: experiences,
perceptions,   sensations,  emotions,  feelings,  desires,
hopes, aspirations, insights, and fears.  Such comfort and
respect  are part of the reversal process which  leads  us
into total confusion about what it is prudent to fear.

     When  we fall into the trap of respecting  and  being
comfortable with  that which we would be wise to fear---we
fear  the ground of our being and all that  God graciously
supports:     Love,    honesty,    truth,     forgiveness,
reconciliation, gentleness, humility, affection, intimacy,
gifts of security,  justice, kindness,  peacemaking,  etc.

     Such  fear leads us to be comfortable with respecting
all that wise people  prudently  fear:  hate,  dishonesty,
deceptions,    secret   grudges,   conflict   maintenance,
violence,   arrogance,   abuse,  distrust,  defensiveness,
arbitrary   revenge,   capricious   actions,    prejudice,
ignorance, confusion, meanness and war preparations.

     Collusive  addicts  and their codependent  supporters
fear  all that God graciously supports and are comfortable
with  respecting all that wise people prudently fear.   We
have fallen into   the   trap of respecting evil if we are
comfortable with, respect and support  powerful people who
are collusive addicts and their codependent supporters.

     Evil has to do with alienative RELATIONSHIPS.

     Alienative RELATIONSHIPS are the essence of evil.

     We  have  fallen  into the trap  of  respecting  evil
relationships if we feel, think and believe that evil is a
destructive  power which  resides more in some people than
in  other  people;   perhaps  believing  that  it is  most
concentrated  in THE DEVIL.    If we have fallen into that
trap  we are bound to be defensive  and  preoccupied  with
passing  judgment  to  deciding who is more evil than   we
are.  Such evil people must be destroyed.   In such a trap
we are  bound to alienate ourselves and each other through
defensiveness,  suspicions,   deceptions and excommunicat-
ions.

     Alienative  RELATIONSHIPS entail two or more  people.
Evil   resides in the alienation of the people   from each
other,    not  in the people who are alienated  from  each
other.    Blaming the other person for the imperfection in
the  relationship  between you and another person  has  no
chance  of promoting the reconciliation which is essential
to the transcendence of the alienation.

     We  are  wise  when we fear alienation  and  work  to
transcend  alienation  through reconciliation,   gifts  of
security,  conflict resolution,  and clarification of what
it is prudent to fear.

     We  are  wise when we fear being confused  about  the
difference  between integrative ideals and values  on  the
one  hand,   and disintegrative ideals and values  on  the
other hand.   Many highly respected ideals and values  are
tragically  disintegrative.   Many integrative  ideals and
values   are   feared  by  collusive  addicts   and  their
codependent  supporters.   They work together to  keep  us
confused  about what what kinds of fears are wise and what
other kinds of fears are foolish.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================