FEBRUARY 2
Compassion & Intellect for this day of commemoration in my home state Connecticut, for the Sandy Hook slayings of children, and its aftermath.
Compassion & Intellect for this time of refugees and illegal aliens and transgender issues. My copy of the "coin" to flip stays on my desk or nearby - then I put it away for a while and bring it back out again and start over, with the clarity it brings and power to do better!
Someone sent the card to me as an artshow ad, and it started my own thought on the subject of such a basic dichotomy. I took it off my postings board and began to carry it, then folded and glue-stick-ed it, so that it worked like flipping a coin. I left it in my wallet/datebook, loose, so that I could not predict which side would show itself to me in the course of a day. It has been a moment's help, over and over again. May you will find it useful, too!
Instructions for use of Compassion & Intellect
Copy or Print Image from this page - to 8.5x11inch card or photo paper
Cut to make four cards, fold at midline, gluestick to make four double-thick cards
Use and share with friends - a basket of them on your desk is fun!
If you are handy, cut them in rounds to make a coin to flip, but not necessary.
NOTES ABOUT IT ALL AND A MISSION
It is odd to many people to try to understand martyrs and those who sacrifice. What intellect could take compassion to the lengths of the saints? Saint Damien the famous leper colony saint of Molokai Hawaii said , "I make myself a leper with the lepers, to gain all for Jesus Christ. " - Saint Damien Joseph de Veuster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Damien#Canonization
It is interesting to note that his work came to the world at the same time as The Red Cross, and other international compassion projects reacting to the horrors of the American Civil War.
I am just an artist / redcrosslady / happy wife and later widow / happy mother now empty-nested I cry when I am asked to make ANY sacrifice - I like to make art, and cranberry sauce and happy days and nights - and everyone growing and thriving - and yet we all deal with the duality of the intellect / compassion balance and pray to make the right choices when it is our turn at it.
The Syrian refugee issue is top news today - and that is why this posting at the holidays. My plea for thought on this dynamic that rules this moment.
Or on this Sandy Hook Massacre memorial day - so many ways we could go when reminded of the children lost that day here in Connecticut and on other days in losses all over the world to mindless hate. We must act with compassion and intellect to gently but firmly at least keep our children safer.
Where is the conflict when it is clearly right
to secure the perimeter of a school
to recapture decency in every way in the school environment
to act to prevent repetition of murderous attacks of all kinds
to drop deadly force altogether, for effective modern technological ways?
to make the pods for ALL the planes not just a few VIPS?
to install the affordable, no-brainer elevator-car-like escape pods in the skyscrapers?
These tasks are key and it's been there to do and no one is even talking about it - not even after Sandy Hook or Nineleven, and the agony of the scores of those who are permanently marred by the loss of three thousand on that day because safety issues were NOT considered. Someone is stonewalling it - lobbies for those who would have to pay to get it done? It took me a total of maybe 4 hours to get my insurance company to pay for Silver Sneakers fitness subsidies in our county.....but no one will spend even that much time to send around notes and quick emails and work for fifteen minutes getting an online petition begun. Why, do you suppose? Hmmmmmmm.....and the Compassion/Intellect coin is handy again to have nearby.
We ARE at a funnyspot in evolution - we forget that so much of our goals were to secure the safety of the populace, always, in all leadership - the path for it changed and updated and we did not, so we are lost. But we can do it - it's not so difficult.
Happy Holiday and may both Compassion and Intellect in your level of healthy balance glow till next holiday! ...and lots of happy moments to empower our best work.
! Elle Smith Fagan December 14, 2015