Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.

— Confucius

Even ugly things? How can someone say that and actually mean it?

Get inside the head of Confucius, one of the most profoundly humble people on the planet.

Confucius described himself as merely a "transmitter" of knowledge, "who invented nothing." (As a side note, I also perceive my poems about unifying with the All as being written by everyone and everything, and therefore decline all the credit for writing them).

He perceived his teachings as belonging to everyone, and was one of the first proponents of public education in history.

Something that you might not get from fortune cookies with Confucius quotes is that he was constantly focused on righteousness and the greater good. He wanted to teach people how to be compassionate and ethical in everything they did, even tasks performed in self-interest.

So how can everything have beauty?

Assume for a moment that everything is connected to everything else. Can something provide beauty by contrast?

Is light something that stands alone, or is darkness required to have contrast?

Or maybe even the very experience of being able to perceive anything is a beautiful process, all by itself. For when we return to All, everything is truly the same, and no contrast is apparent.

Today's Question:

Can you name some ugly things, and find new beauty in them via your own dialectical process with this Confucian quote?

Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

The optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity.

—Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill

Some of the most amazing people in history had disabilities of various kinds. Churchill was no exception — he had a speech impediment known as "cluttering" which is speech that is hard to understand due to its rapid rate, unusual rhythms and structure/grammar problems.

It doesn't seem to have stopped him.

He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom through World War II (1940 to 1945) and then did a second term later (1951 to 1955). He was a noted orator (take that, speech impediment!), war correspondent, polo player, military officer, strategist, cabinet minister, and friend to other optimists, such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He won the Nobel Prize in literature for his historical writings in 1953.

What does Churchill's quote remind us of today?

There seems to be an awful lot going wrong in the world, right? But that just means problems to be solved — and opportunities to make a better world.

Take global warming, as an example. We have been presented with the reality that we're facing another ice age, and civilization as we know it ending, if we don't control greenhouse gasses.

That would really suck.

That said, we have beaten the odds before. The sun was once nearly blocked by smog in our cities, and that is not a reality anymore. We can do it again with greenhouse gasses.

We just have to stop associating with people who want to isolate, and join hands with other people around the world who are making sustainable living a priority!

And there are a LOT of people making money at this. I just went out with a couple the other night who are franchising green investment clubs, for eco-investing, all around the country. And they're making a living doing it!

So don't get wrapped up in the dangers.

Get wrapped up in the opportunities presented by dangers.

It's what successful people (optimists) do!

Today's Questions:

What are the opportunities presented by the dangers in your own life?

Can you think of a time when a dangerous situation turned into an opportunity for you?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

"We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope."

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past half-century, I should not have to link you to the Wikipedia article about MLK's life, but there it is if you need it!

What I will say is that I didn't know these things:

• Everyone knows about the "I Have a Dream Speech" but did you know that he had a spiritual vision of America at racial peace? Close to the time of his assassination, he said: "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

• We think of him as a southern minister, but he got his theological training at Crozer Seminary, right outside Philadelphia (the City of Brotherly Love, which seems appropriate, now, doesn't it?).

• In 1964, as a 35-year-old, he was the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize up until 1993 (Rigoberta Menchú Tum received it that year at 33 years old, for social justice work for indigenous peoples).

What is the lesson an optimist derives from MLK's life?

Well, for one thing, he reminds us that the leaders of the greatest social movements often do not get to see the fruit of their labors in their lifetimes (Moses is another example). But the profound ability to touch and inspire others lives forever.

But to the point of the quote, maybe it's OUR job to make sure the negative talk is time-limited and the positive talk is ongoing.

Nothing good ever comes from dwelling on the negative.

Only solutions fix things. 

• Solutions require creativity
  
• Creativity comes from hope
  
• Hope needs time and space from negativity to work.
  

So keep the negative short and sweet, and then switch to the positive.

Move on!

Today's Question:

What disappointments have you allowed to be ongoing for you?

How do you think you can make it finite and make your creativity infinite?