Food for the Soul

Well, Mae was yesterday's winner with "Have You Seen Jesus my Lord?" As such, she chose today's topic. There are probably several that go with this topic but again, there will only be one mystery song. The topic today:


FOOD



By the way, that does not include drink.



Now on to another matter. I am merely thinking out loud here and I get a little wordy, so you may just want to ignore the rest of this.

I have been pondering of late the impact of being direct with others versus being passive. My nature ordinarily leads me to be rather direct. It honestly is not borne of any desire to cause friction. I just think that honesty is, if not the best policy, at least a pretty darn good one. I am learning, however, that: 1) many people do not want honesty and 2) sometimes passivity accomplishes more.

I suppose if we stop there it is a classic example of the end justifying the means, but should we stop there? Falling back on that argument can lead to other pmistaken notions; for example: no matter what the outcome, if the intentions were honorable that should suffice. Our welfare system is a classic example of that. It is horribly broken and of the dollars poured into it through taxation less than 20% actually reaches the intended recipient. Nevertheless, whenever the system is critiqued the responding outcry lauds the intentions while ignoring the core issues. Ah, the implications of hellish road surfaces.

I bring all this up because I began my current job as a proponent of the direct approach. I have learned, though, that when logic goes ignored sometimes passivity accomplishes so much more. For instance, at one job I have had someone wanted to pursue a project that by every possible scenario would be a financial disaster. I pointed this out as directly and logically as I knew how but was told to press on. At this point, I pondered the fact that my charge was to manage assets in a fiscally responsible way rather than be a yes man. So, I drug my feet in the appointed task until the folly of the project became clear. In other words, passivity accomplished what needed to happen when direct behavior failed and we avoided a disaster.

So, this kind of brings me to a crossroads. What path should I choose in life? Do I become more passive and possibly accomplish more through manipulative but cordial relationships or do I be honest and direct and leave no doubt while possibly allienating others? Frankly, this is a question people are forced to answer every day at some level and we usually choose the former over the latter. But is that what we really want? We say we want real community, but when it has an edge to it we revert to the cushy surface relationships. I guess this really is more than just a random rambling thought. This inquiring mind actually wants to know.