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     %MECHANICAL PLAN CONTROL JOY HAPPY ECSTASY SEX+950722
    %DUTY OBLIGATION MANDATE REQUIRE PRESCRIBE MUST 950722

     What  images are conjured up by the terms "Mechanical
joy", "Planned happiness", "Controlled ecstasy"?

     Relationships   and   experiences  which   are   most
meaningful and fulfilling are not:   mechanical,  planned,
controlled,  mandated, required,  prescribed or occasioned
by a sense of duty.

     Personal relationships of true integrity  are not the
fruits  of mechanical plans,  programs of control,   moral
injunctions,   ethical prescriptions or lists of do's  and
don'ts.

     Plans   and  efforts  to  control  according  to  any
systematic program tend to undermine personal and communal
integrity---rather than to promote them.

     Efforts to  think helpfully in dichotomous  terms are
doomed   to  failure.    When  one  way  of  thinking   is
dysfunctional, the opposite way of thinking is most likely
also  dysfunctional.   We need to seek to transcend  human
tendencies to go from one extreme to an opposite  extreme;
from yes to no, and from no to yes.   We need to beware of
choosing  the  opposite,   and   seek   additional   (non-
dichotomous) alternatives which are more likely to promote
personal and communal integrity---than are  either extreme
of any dichotomous set of alternatives.

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