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 %BEING PERSONAL COMMUNAL INTEGRITY COMMITMENT TRUE 980301                        
                                                                                                                               
     To  truly  enjoy personal and communal  integrity  we                                                                
need  to  be  truly  committed  to  the  encouragement  of                 
personal and communal  integrity.    We  need  to  seek to                 
influence developments in personal and communal  integrity                                                                
---   but  not seek to be in control of  outcomes  of  our                                                           
influence.  If we seek to be in control of outcomes of our                                                           
influence   ---  we  are  bound  to  become  manipulative,                                                                     
coercive, violent and alienative; and so to undermine both           
personal and communal integrity.                                                                
                                                                                                                               
     Personal and communal integrity are not the fruits of                                                                
engineering  plans  and  management programs  designed  to                                                                     
bring  to  fruition such engineering plans.     We  cannot                                                                     
control people in ways which will insure that they will be      
honest, authentic, transparent, responsive and loving.  By                                  
being  true  to  ourselves and each other  we  may  elicit                        
authentic, transparent, and loving responses which are not                                  
under  our control ---  even though they may be influenced                                                    
---  by our being  true  to ourselves and each other.   To                        
enjoy both personal and  communal integrity we must let go                                                                
of our inclination to be in control of the outcomes of our                                                           
efforts to influence people's: ideals, values, principles,                                         
thoughts, feelings and behaviors.                                                       
                                                                                                                               
     We  need  to  beware of thinking that  letting  go of                 
dispositions  to be in control ---  entails letting go  of                                                           
any interest  in  what  other  people's  ideals,   values,               
principles,   thoughts,   feelings and behaviors  may  be.                                                       
Personal  and  communal  integrity  are  not  promoted by:                                                                
apathy, indifference, lethargy, insensitivity, detachment,                                     
hopelessness,  depression, or their like.   Seeking refuge                                                                     
in the latter---because we cannot be in control ---  is no                          
way to find refuge from our disappointment.      
                                                                                                                               
      To  enjoy  both personal and communal  integrity  we                                                                
need   to   deal  honestly  with  our  natures   and   our   
possibilities;  and  not try to pretend that we are  other                                                               
than we are; or that our possibilities are other than they                                                            
are.  Games of mutual self deception are not successful--- 
no  matter  how many people play the games,  and no matter               
how powerful are the people who play the games.   The more                                             
successfully we  play games of mutual self deception,  the 
less competent  we are  to  deal with the major threats to                                                                     
our personal and communal integrities; e.g., dishonesty.                                                            
                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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