Tuesday, January 8, 2013

On Virtues

Sometimes, when you wake up at 3AM with a full bladder, and are rude enough to disturb the cat resting on your legs to get to the bathroom, you can't get back to sleep.  And sometimes, the muses in your mind organize things so that you have some thoughts that make sense and you need to record them.  These are those thoughts.

This morning, around 4:40am, the concepts of Patience and Truth became clear as worthy of striving toward.  Honesty also, but honesty sometimes is best when tempered with Patience.  Honesty and Truth are nuances of the same virtue.  Then Wisdom crept back in, as I read the 8th Proverb. 

As a New Year's Resolution, then, I shall keep the virtues of Patience and Truth in mind as a framework around which my life or my behavior at least should be woven.

Vickey Campbell sent me a most delightful Christmas card, that I kept because it is a profound reminder of beauty and wisdom:
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things.  Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
This concept jumped at me from morning Proverb, this 8th day of the month:
In Praise of Wisdom: Are you immature?  Learn to be mature.  Are you foolish?  Learn to have sense.  Proverbs 8:5 (Good News Translation)