COMMENTARY: Unkind Words Are Weapons 752.2
With four teenage daughters, I frequently find myself correcting, disciplining, or simply protesting unnecessary and unkind comments certain to anger or wound a sister and evoke counterattacks that fill the air with nastiness. Hoping to get them to think before they speak in the future, I often ask, “What did you expect to accomplish by that remark?” and “Did it …
COMMENTARY: Birds on a Wire: Actions are More Important Than Intentions
Five birds are sitting on a telephone wire. Two of them decide to fly South. How many are left? Three, you say? No, it’s five. You see, deciding to fly South is not the same as doing it. If a bird really wants to go somewhere, it’s got to point itself in the right direction, jump off the wire and flap its …
OBSERVATION: When someone you love takes a different road.
People take different roads in pursuit of their happiness. They are not wrong, foolish or lost simply because it’s not the road you would have taken. Once a decision is made, your doubts and disapproval
CONGRATULATIONS! Announcing the Winners of the 2011 Commentary Essay Contest!
In the fall of 2011, the Josephson Institute of Ethics created a special contest to celebrate the end of Michael Josephson’s extraordinary run of more than 14 years on KNX-AM1070 radio in Los Angeles. Listeners and newsletter readers were invited to write short essays on how his radio commentaries had make a positive impact on their lives. The prize: the …
COMMENTARY: A Parent’s Love for the Family Treasure 751.4
There are all kinds of love. The passionate romantic love immortalized and often fantasized by poets and novelists; Platonic love among friends, the love of humanity preached by missionaries and ministers, the love of country, and even the love of our work. I’ve been fortunate to have experienced all of these forms but none has impressed me more than the deep, enduring …
OBSERVATION: Moving on when love ends.
If someone walks away, let them go. If it’s over, let it be over. Don’t chase the shadow of what was. Don’t leave the key to your happiness
OBSERVATION: ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.-Alfred Lord Tennyson
Some say that “love hurts.” That’s not so. Love feels good. What hurts is loneliness, rejection and envy. It’s losing love that hurts. hurts. Allowing ourselves to love makes us vulnerable, but those who avoid love to avoid
COMMENTARY: Moral Courage – The Engine of Integrity 751.3
Mignon McLaughlin tells us, “People are made of flesh and blood and a miracle fiber called courage.” Courage comes in two forms: physical courage and moral courage. Physical courage is demonstrated by acts of bravery where personal harm is risked to protect others or preserve cherished principles. It’s the kind of courage that wins medals and monuments.Moral courage may seem less …
Images and Words of Courage
Revised and supplemented February 21, 2012 See Michael Josephson’s 64 handpicked best quotes about courage https://whatwillmatter.com/2012/02/quotes-all-about-courage-64-great-quotes-on-the-nature-of-courage/
OBSERVATION: Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” Life rarely demands grand acts of valor where we put our lives on the line for a principle or person we love, but it often demands the strength and fortitude to do what we are afraid to do, to do what we don’t want
WORTH WATCHING: “You’re better than that.” Rocky Balboa talks to his son about courage.
The video clip is not able to be embedded in this post, but you can watch it here.
COMMENTARY 751.2: What Is Character?
Here’s a riddle: You can hardly ever find it anymore — especially in politics or business. Lots of schools don’t teach it anymore. We want more of it in our children and in all the adults who interact with them. We want it from our bosses and the people who fix our cars. And most of us believe we have …
OBSERVATION: Character is destiny. – Heraclitus
Of course, our character shapes our destiny. We must not forget, however, we shape our character. Thus, character may determine our fate, but character is not determined by fate. It is
Doing The Right Thing
Character is doing the right thing even when it costs more than you want to pay. – Michael Josephson
OBSERVATION: In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: “it goes on.” – Robert Frost
Life does go on. And the life that goes on must be lived until it is ripped from you or you surrender it, the life ahead has as many mysteries and miracles
COMMENTARY: Who Am I to Judge? – The Ethics of Moral Judgments 751.1
Almost every week someone indignantly attacks my integrity because I offended them with a real or perceived opinion they didn’t like. The underlying assumption is that stating an opinion on any controversial matter violates the sacred duty of neutrality. First, I’m a teacher and a commentator, not a judge or journalist. Although I strive mightily to be objective, I don’t …
Don’t touch my nose!
“The right to swing my fist ends where the other person’s nose begins.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
OBSERVATION: The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality. – attributed to Dante
This quotation was frequently used by President Kennedy to make the point that on important moral issue it is wrong to sit on the fence and refuse to take a side. Martin Luther king, Jr. used a variation of the quote (“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”). He added, “He who passively …
OBSERVATION: The precept ‘Judge not that ye be not judged’…is an abdication of moral responsibility. It is a moral blank check one gives to others in exchange for a moral blank check one expects for oneself. – Ayn Rand
When I graduated law school in 1967 it was popular to rail against people who made moral judgments. We called finger wagging moralists presuming to judge people and life styles as right or wrong “moral imperialists” and adopted, instead, a form of ethical relativism implying that there was no true universal right or wrong, just equally valid or invalid opinions. After all, we …