defeating one's own purpose
August 1st, 2007
Dear Whomever,
I hope this little note finds y'all healthy and happy.
I've been thinking lately about how we sometimes go about achieving a good purpose in a manner that foils accomplishment and actually sets us back.
Over the years I have seen that there are right and wrong ways to try to accomplish anything. My father used to try to teach me that. Right ways, if continued, eventually lead one toward accomplishment with little or no unintended consequences. Whereas wrong ways cannot ever achieve it, no matter how long or how diligently they are practiced and are fraught with unintended consequences.
I didn't really take his message seriously enough. And so by employing bad methods, I've experienced the "one-step-forward - two-steps-back" phenomenon regularly.
For example, I go to do something, and I get half way through ... suddenly to discover I should have done other things first, or I did it in the wrong order, or whatever. And I then have to undo what I've done and start over. But only after cleaning up the mess I made doing it the wrong way; the unintended consequences.
So anyway, I look at my cult experience and recovery from it like that.
And I now believe there are an infinite number of right ways to go about doing anything. Some are better than others, but they lead toward our goal. There are probably an equal number of bad techniques to use.
I know far too much about the wrong ways. So my advice, if you were to request it, would be to stay away from cul-de-sac philosophies, with their dead-end thinking and Clockwork Orange models of the human soul.
Seek God directly without an intermediary or dogmatic path.
Be well,
Dennis
ps. I have a new love in my life and we will soon be wed.
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Originally Posted by tarbaby
