Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Ideal of the Common Good

Humanity's difficulty has been the tendency
to identify with one form of thought

to the exclusion of all others.


One of the most pernicious of these forms is
the idea that satisfaction of material needs is
the be-all and end-all of existence.

The ideal of a Common Good is then sacrificed
on the altar of the selfish greed of individuals,
as every man struggles to grab his share of
the limited physical resources of the planet.

Humanity will find the ideal of a Common Good,
a true Common-wealth, elusive, until there is
a genuine willingness, not just to recognize our
radical interconnectedness, but to put in place
social and economic arrangements that
respect that interconnectedness.

~Dominic Dibble
The Quest for Synthesis

Of Note: Mr. Dibble edits the World Goodwill Newsletter available online at www.worldgoodwill.org. This regular bulletin highlights the energy of goodwill in world affairs. Like my blog, the newsletter has no Pollyanna overtones, however. Rather it speaks of the basic ideals toward which Humanity is being drawn, such as the sacrifice of selfishness for the Common Good, for inevitably we are being pulled, kicking and screaming in many cases, toward that goal. Those who sense the ideals are responsible to bring this information to the attention of the world. We can thank those at the World Goodwill Newsletter for doing just that.

Today's Weather Report: It is another gorgeous day in the northwoods that will eventually be in the mid-50's Fahrenheit. A few clouds float in the sky like cream but do not obscure the sunshine streaming down. The ticks have been terrible this year and are back after taking the summer off. We put the expensive tick treatment on the dogs last week and repeated it today as the ticks have continued seemingly undeterred by the medication. What that is about is anyone's guess. The final touches are being put on the field that at the beginning of the week was home to the last rock pile on the property. The pile was overgrown with foot-tall weeds and most would not have known it was there. The rocks and dirt have now been distributed along the fake stream bed that at the beginning of the summer was a maze of weeds, cattails, logs, and boulders and now looks like a Zen garden. Looking at the work accomplished over the summer, we can acknowledge that we were certainly busy and have much to show for the effort.