(Untitled)

[trinker]

One of the joys of DW and LJ is serendipitous encounters with people whose entries brighten your world, or open your eyes, or otherwise make things go "click".

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of my heroes, during the last years of his life--which, for those unacquainted with his work, were spent in a Nazi prison awaiting execution, so he damn well

Comments

[wcg]

I've been a Bonhoeffer fan for years. He was a truly remarkable man.

[trinker]

I am often an ardent proponent of the idea that we are all ordinary people capable of extraordinary things.

But I am also a believer in the goodness of striving to be a living bodhisattva. Perhaps not in a strict Buddhist sense - I find certain elements of Buddhist practice distasteful. I remember, though, a stunned moment in argument with someone about parenting...and that person said, "I am not a saint!" Well, obviously not, but what were they aiming for? (Because, as with many people, they missed their mark a lot.)

I'm trying to get better at being a decent-enough human in addition to aiming for bodhisattva-hood. I don't think I'm qualified to grant medals to the likes of Bonhoeffer. But I'd nominate him.

[nellorat]

Synchronicitously, I've been thinking about this issue in my own life & probably would have written about it today if I hadn't written about serendipity/synchronicity. I've come to think of myself as a cynical optimist: my opinion of humanity overall goes lower and lower, but I continue to be buoyed with hope over what the exceptions to that rule can do for themselves and all of us just by being decent & rational. (I think I sometimes qualify as an exception & often don't--which is still pretty good & able to become better-- As Bob & Bob say, we're all both the Holy Man and the Shithead.)

[browngirl]

This is, oh, extremely heartening doesn't even begin to cover it. *hugs these words to my heart*