Wednesday, March 25, 2015

A Secular Guide To Repentance

Ideally, everybody would just be on the same page and understand this stuff, but it is the tragedy of modern times that, as the ability of communication has exploded, so has the babbling- in many cases deliberately so, so that few can understand. But here we have a claim- Monica Lewinsky claims she fell in love with her boss, so let's explore this a bit.

Now, we don't know what sort of arrangement Bill and Hillary actually have, but they are legally married.
Suppose you start feeling love for someone who is married?
What is the appropriate response?

Well, assuming you reflect upon it at all, you know any attempt to interfere with or damage that marriage is injurious to the object of your affections. If this emotional state is, indeed, love, then love requires action, in this case the sort of action where in you leave, and remove yourself from temptation.

We should be at least attempting to improve ourselves, and build up others where we can- at the very least not tear down others.

Being insulted in public, or online, is no fun. I do not like it. Recently there was some hubbub about some kid reciting the pledge in Arabic. I thought it was dopey, but I also thought the highly negative responses to it were unwarranted and contrary to our traditions in America. We never had a national language because our forefathers vision of America was different from the European view of their nations. We could have evolved into a German speaking nation, had the World Wars not made speaking German in this country unpopular. But we've never had an official language, and we didn't have a stupid pledge to a flag that represents a republic that has been dead longer than my grandmothers have been, until some socialist decided we needed it.

But you know what? People are stupid. The list of people who have done nothing wrong (remember the CEO of Mozilla?) that have been the subject of awful public campaigns is long. In the end, Lewinsky can never get what she wants, because the people who are like her- who tear down (whether the operating feeling is hate, affection, etc)- won't repent.

You only have yourself to work on in the end.

Lewinsky needs to acknowledge- to herself- the incongruity, and then take measures to repair what she can. Mostly this would involve staying away from cameras, the press, etc... Indeed, I wonder who convinced Lewinsky to do this stuff now, as the political season is starting to heat up. A Democrat insider trying to sabotage Hilary's campaign?

Anyway, I suspect the other problem is Lewinsky wants a more public and social life, whereas she needs a quiet, medatitive life. Healing happens in a therapeutic environment.

2 comments:

The Anti-Gnostic said...

When you're trying to live in Gotham City, the contemplative life--say, with a realtor's license and a tolerant husband in Louisville or Charlotte--just will not do.

I heard parts of her TED talk. She is not bright, but some bright people think they may be able to make some money off her.

August said...

True. And repentance must be the farthest thing from her mind, since she is no doubt aware we are on the eve of another campaign for Hilary as president. Remember all the conspiracy stuff about the body count surrounding the Clintons? I wonder if Democrats just ignored all that stuff. It certainly doesn't seem prudent for her to be making public noises now, the more I think about it.