Choices
Contributed by invierno
on Saturday, 13th January 2018 @ 05:11:45 PM AEST
Topic:
short
|
What, exactly, does ‘being taught a lesson’ really mean? Just about everyone, myself included, would reply to that question along these lines; “That’s when you learn something because something bad happens to you.”
A more accurate answer might be, “being taught a lesson means that your action, or cause, has run contrary to a greater power, and the resultant effect, or consequence of that transgression is the culminated result of the particular action taken within context of a defined cause and effect paradigm.”
A ‘cause’ is any action of any type undertaken by both man and nature; noting that logically, man and nature are one and the same, as ‘man’ is but one small cog in the machine that is nature. But we allow for the hubris of man in this dialog, and so treat ourselves as if we are distinct, above even, the Law of Cause and Effect, which runs far deeper than the grand canyon, incidentally existing due to the effects of water erosion, which is of course the cause.
Another subtlety; one does not often smile fondly upon recollection of a lesson learned. They tend to bring unpleasant memories to the forefront of the mind, not snoozing on a far removed dusty shelf, where only the passage of time has made it possible for them to reside.
Cause, standing without its twin, Effect, is by itself neither wrong nor right because the consequences of any given action are defined by the effect itself.
All ‘effect’ is defined as coming from one of two distinct origin. Any effect from any cause emanates the impetus to consequential action by origin either natural or man made.
The first, ‘natural’ effect, was demonstrated aptly in the grand canyon reference. Closer to home, by a recent assault upon our kitchen by furry little rodents. I was taught a lesson, albeit by unaware teachers; mice. The consequential effect, or resultant action of their presence, manifested unappealingly in the form of mice droppings of a random nature all over our food preparation areas and sink area of our kitchen.
The lesson the mice taught, and we learned was to, before retiring for the evening, remove every trace of edibles from working surfaces and dishes utilized in cooking and eating the day’s meals.
Sticking with mice, it is easy to illustrate how the ‘man made’ effect often supersedes that of the natural effect of an action, or cause.
Imagine a bizarro world, different from what we know as ‘normal’, or within the context of our relative knowledge and experience. Our reality, or interpretation of our experiences, differs not only nation to nation, but person to person. This capacity for relative points of view are reserved for homo sapiens alone. It is due to our greatly increased frontal lobe.
Picture this world from an airplane; you see men chipping on what looks like enormous, miles long sheets of glass. They are convicts. It becomes apparent by the bright orange jumpsuits they wear. The pilot’s voice comes across the intercom informing the passengers the Western Diamond Shelf is just below. The prisoners are breaking big diamonds into little diamonds. And why not, since half the surface of this bizarro world is diamond, and two miles thick at that!
But mice droppings? Not so plentiful! How can one lure this endangered specie into their home, all the better to collect their droppings, which, unique to mice, contain a viral agent widely accepted as the only cure for cancer? Common murinae scat is worth decidedly more than diamonds in bizarro world.
Therefore, our perception of objects, events, people...anything and everything, create relativity, or specifically, relative points of view, which ultimately affects the effect, punitive or otherwise, of the cause.
This cat and mouse game of cause and effect plays out every minute of our lives. We are all locked into a vast cause and effect machine works, where the gears under our influence at any particular moment turn this way or that based on our actions, which in turn affect gears that others are turning, and so on, in a never ending chain of action, reaction; action, reaction.
It is through our awareness of consequential effects that we learn life’s most important lessons, summed inclusively well in the phrase ‘if you play with fire, you’re gonna get burned’. Once we incorporate this fundamental axiom at an ingrained level of awareness, and apply it metaphorically to life’s situations on all levels, we have learned a secret to happiness and success.
There are two integral rules to more effectively utilize and thus capitalize on a thorough understanding of the Law of Cause and Effect; the “if I do ‘this’, then ‘that’ could happen” paradigm.
The first is to examine the premise of implementing a potential action. Is the premise sound? Does it pass the litmus test, inherent in all human beings, for being a right and proper action? Identifying ‘Good’ as true north on a moral compass, it is easy to determine if the proposed actions will be of benefit or harm to nature, society, people or a person specifically. If it does pass this ‘blink of an eye’ test, then your premise, or foundation of thought processes, composed of both logic and emotion, rests on moral terra firma.
Secondly, and arguably of greater import, is to make an effort to recognize and benefit from the ‘lesson taught’ when an action taken results in personally negative consequence. The thought process employed being that if one recognizes the punitive consequence of one’s actions, and by so doing, avoids repeating the same action to avoid the same consequences, one improves oneself as a human being.
And that, this improvement as a human being, is the primary covenant we creatures of flesh and blood have with and to our soul. This is so, regardless of one’s spiritual belief structure. This is all that is asked of us by our creator; to honor the blessing of possessing a soul by seeking to make our soul’s experience as rich in positive, right minded actions as possible while housed within our bodies and intellect.
Those mice are effective teachers, and my wife and I know they are always ready to leave another ‘lesson’ on a dirty dinner plate. However, with the day’s dishes washed and stacked or put away every night before we commence to sawing logs, we run a cleaner ship, and cleanliness of living is most definitely a form of improvement for any human being.
Copyright © invierno
... [2018-01-1305:11:45]
(Date/Time posted on site)
|
|
<<<<<< Story Index
>>>>>>
Advertisments:
|
|
Story Rating
|
Average Score: 0
Votes: 0
|
|
|
Menu
· 
Poetry
Community
Members
Areas
Reference
Search
Top
Others