Sociology and Self

We need privacy to formulate the answers to the questions of self and life context.  Questions are among the first line of resources to work through the matters of our lives – large or small.  Forming the best questions for life, in the humble attitude of learning, and a disposition toward the truth in all matters will offer vision and motivation for life fulfillment.  All this must be attended by a willingness to take responsibility for investing self in finding the answers to the questions and living by those answers.  There isn’t much time to get it all done.  In the tenth decade of my life, I am still working on some questions and feel the decades slipped by me without achieving all they should have produced.  Although pleased with the situation and the circumstances of my life, there is no doubt that it could have been better with a bit more time devoted to the strokes for building life fullness not only for myself but for those with whom I have had the privilege of relating – among family, friends, and audiences of society that incorporated both persons of secular interest and those of Christian.  I ask God for forgiveness for the omissions of my life.  Far too many persons arrive at the end of mortal life feeling that it has some failure, or omission that should not be.  We should make exit leaving some legacy, perhaps unknown, contributing more than we took from life.

Questions, even for the humanist follow the beam of idealism for humankind.  Annually the O magazine, from Oprah Winfrey, publishes life questions.  The second series, for women, from the February 2015 issue are: 1) Do I feel at home? 2) What should I try today? 3) Am I doing this right?  4) Am I Smart?  5) Am I funny?  6) Do I have enough money?  7) Do I have enough fun?  8) Do I have enough friends?  9) Should I be having more sex?  10) Do I enjoy my own company?  11) Am I waiting for my life to begin?  12) Do I feel my feelings?  13) Do I know what I think I know?  14) Do I see myself as others see me?  15) Am I ready for whatever comes?  16) What is my blind spot?  17)  Am I overthinking things? 18) Am I ignoring the obvious? 19) Have I made peace with my past?  20) What’s in store for my future? All are good questions – some answered better with insightful counselors, some answered best in a spiritual context; and answers fitted to a holistic concept of each single life.  All are appropriate with men as well, perhaps cast differently so to achieve purposes and definitions that may vary a bit between genders.  The citing here of the questions does not imply support for all the various articles from the writers making observations on the questions in the section of the magazine.  Much of it is quite good, but assumptions in some passages would need clarity for agreement or disagreement – so to look elsewhere for some answers. (I would never use the list without asking: Am I spiritually at peace? All the others are only human.)

Persons secular in orientation rightly answer about half of the questions differently than Christians.  That means the different answers are appropriate in their contexts.  Usually the questions for us are the same, but the answers are not.  We need to understand context, and know what the opportunities and limitations are in the choices and their applications.  Scripture implies and experience proves that God permits the humanistic context to succeed when it follows a value system that one might identify as Christian.  For example, a secular source discussed the decline in Europe, perceived to be greater than a lesser decline in America, and effective to contribute to any further American decline.  To avoid the problem the author stated the need for: good monetary and fiscal policies . . . . But no matter . . . a country or continent will be in decline if it rejects the culture of family, turns its back on work and closes itself to strivers from the outside.  The article continues in support of visionary leadership and the development of people as assets rather than simply manipulating them.  This all relates to scriptural injunction and illustration, but with the addition of quality virtues and spiritual objectives that carry the whole of it even farther upwards in vision than is found in nature’s boundaries.  The best humanistic tradition functions as though there is a god, and the Christian functions in the belief there is partnership between mankind and God.  The difference is significant, but is similar in following questions for the dimensions in different contexts.  Again – the same questions but answers may differ in extent.  Ideals for society are noted in Romans 13:1-8.