Values and Actions

[bicker]

We had an excellent chalice circle last night, the final in a series of small-group get-togethers for the year. The topic was Values and Actions, and the reading was from Marian Wright Edelman, from a letter she wrote to her sons, when graduating from college, about life lessons. Highlights, below:

Don't feel entitled to anything you don't sweat and struggle for.

Please resist quick-fix, simplistic answers and easy gains, which often disappear just as quickly as they come.

Assign yourself. Don't do just as little as you can to get by.

Money alone will not save your soul or build a decent family or help you sleep at night.

It's not okay to lie or cheat. Be honest.

If you don't want to criticized, don't say anything, don't do anything and don't be anything.

I hope your generation will raise your sons to be fair to other people's daughters.

If you cut corners [your children] will too; if you lie, they will too.

Make anything that is an attempt to demean another human being unacceptable in your sight.

Excellent reading, excellent discussion, wonderful company. We were all very sad that this wonderful experience we shared together since November was coming to an end. I think most if not all of us will do it again next year, though probably with a different group of people, but that's okay; that's how our sense of community grows even broader.

 

[Gammaresource]

I hope your generation will raise your sons to be fair to other people's daughters.

Because only sons are unfair to other people's daughters? Women are such a fair gender...lol.

 

[HighClass]

Yeah-your circle needs to read that "MeanGirls" book

I find my sons to be much nicer than a lot of girls out there

 

[bicker]

It does seem clear that much of Ms. Edelman's dream has come true, but there are still many places in our society that still seem to be locked in the deleterious mind-set of a previous generation. I'm old enough to have been able to very clearly recognize the difference that Ms. Edelman was talking about, comparing the manner in which I was brought up to regard women from the manner in which some of those I grew up with were brought up to regard women. Many of them have undergone transformations in that regard; my bet is that Ms. Edelman's dream is that more and more boys start out that way.

I also think that parents of boys tend to have a different perspective than parents of girls, and parents of both probably a third perspective still.

 

[taximomfor4]

Very interesting reading. Thank you for sharing! I should look for a group like that around here. After I find a job, of course.

 

[saratogadreamin09]

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I find my sons to be much nicer than a lot of girls out there

Coming from a 14 year old girl, thats very true. Boys are just so much nicer sometimes

 

[Planogirl]

I don't think that her comment about men and women is just who is meaner. I believe that she's talking about attitudes in the male dominated society that she saw.

I like the list. It's a bit simplistic in places but it hits the right note.