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                      %ROLES BOUNDARIES CHANGE GROW 950506

     In  our lives there are many realities and many roles
which we and the realities within our lives play.  Each of
us  and  each of the realities in our lives from  time  to
time  and place to place plays diverse roles which  change
from time to time and place to place.

     The  boundaries between roles played are often not as
sharp or clear as we usually take them to be.

     Roles played  by us and by the realities in our lives
are not as fixed and inevitable as  often  we take them to
be.
     Boundaries between us, each other,  and the realities
of our lives are not always as clear and distinct as we we
make them out to be.

     We will do well to be sensitive to the  possibilities
which exist within changing realities, roles, perceptions,
definitions, articulations, judgements, and processes.

     We  may  think  and  pretend  that  ideals,   values,
principles and goals exist independently of the individual
people, the groups and the spirits which embody them---and
thereby deceive ourselves  and each other about the extent
that   such   realities  exist  through   embodiment,  and
disintegrate in the absence of embodiment.

     We may think and pretend that the processes  of using
particular ideals,  values, principles and goals in making
judgements about particular events,  actions,   behaviors,
people        and       attitudes---entail         clearly
differentiated  standards   of  judgement---and  so   fail
to   acknowledge    the  integrity   of  the  whole  which
includes   both  the  standards  and  the   foci  of   the
judgmental processes.

     We  may think and pretend that certain  standards  of
judgement  and/or certain foci of judgmental processes are
unchanging  and  perhaps  eternal---when  we  are  in  the
process   of  evolving  them  and  ourselves  through  our
creative conceptions and perceptions.

     We  may think and pretend that we are being objective
as detached perceivers.

     Perceptions,      judgements,     interactions    and
changes   are   in  profound  ways   reflexive---in   ways
which   frustrate  all  of  our  efforts  to  draw   sharp
boundaries  between  and  among  us and the  foci  of  our
attentions.   Rarely  can we maintain sharp  boundaries in
ways which are integrative and helpful---for  such efforts
are  disintegrative  if  they are invested  with  concerns
which  shows  little  respect for  personal  and  communal
integrity.

     We  will do well and be well if we are  sensitive  to
and  respect  the  ways  in which  personal  and  communal
integrity involve connections and interactions which cross
and transcend many of the boundaries which we try to  draw
and   sharpen---in   our efforts to see   things   clearly
and as distinct from us and our relationships.

     The more we treat parts of ourselves, our bodies, our
spirits and our communities as if they were  separate from
what is important to our personal and communal  integrity;
the   more  our  personal  and  communal   integrity   are
sacrificed    and   disintegrate.     Analysis   of    and
manipulations of the parts whose connections are essential
to our personal and communal integrity---are not the  keys
to salvation; to personal and communal integrity.

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