Submitted for Questioning to the Local Thought Police

 

 

Whatever your parenting style may be, there is no guarantee that what works to successfully navigate one season of your child’s life is going to work in every season. Whatever the thought police may say, you have to use your intuition. 

Toughen up. Children need to deal with some tough situations, and they are not going to be prepared if you don’t show them how to get a job done without complaint, and expect for them to handle a thing or two themselves. 

Also, be more sensitive. Listening to children teaches them that their feelings and perceptions are important. You don’t have to tell them how to solve their problems, but they do need to know that you understand their world on some level, that you feel for them, and they are not alone. 

You have trouble on your hands either way. Teach your children to think for themselves and they are going to get into good trouble, and probably trouble you would have rather they avoided. Fail to give them the tools to think for themselves and they will not be able to recognize when somebody offers them poison that could stop their heart. 

This is a problem the greatest minds of our generation have completely fumbled. 

The greatest minds of our generation are copying and pasting part of a formula for social change without allowing space for questions. As sometimes happens for the sake of quick results at a cheaper cost, something has been left out in the process of replicating the formula in our consumer education system. 

It is time for the greatest hearts of our generation to suffer what Shakespeare would call the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and stand for a better way.  

Get woke. Make America great again. These are slogans that conceal the hidden hope and possibility that only critical thinking with the heart can make possible. Critical thinking includes what Gandhi and King would call satyagraha, grasping on to truth. Heart-centered action is what Gandhi and King would call ahimsa, or non-violence. These are soul force principles. These are the quality control measures needed to ensure the social change formula distributed in our homes, our churches, and our public schools is not poisonous.  

The faint of heart will fail to listen to the beat of their own heart. They will fail to remain open and curious about what questions they might have in common with others, but they can learn. The greatest hearts fail at the very same thing. 

The only difference between the faint hearted and those who move to a stronger beat is that the hero maintains an open heart and continues to ask questions. The hero lives to serve others, and does not settle for what to think.

The heart of the hero allows for what is, and what people think about what has been, but will not agree to any final solution. There is no right answer that will not become the wrong answer, if persisted in long enough on the basis of the special interests of a few separated from the welfare of the entire human family. 

Teaching our children how to think and ask questions on behalf of the entire human family is a heart-centered activity that provides a basis for social justice. Whatever you think children should know, whether it is about social justice, or God, or sexuality - if what you teach doesn’t have a question in it you are feeding them deadly poison. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to the big questions, no right answers that one person can copy and paste for another person’s situation.

For the crime of asking questions, Socrates was compelled by the state to take poison that stopped the beating of his heart. If our children are not to suffer a similar fate, we must have the courage to practice civil disobedience if necessary, openly teaching the Socratic method at home, and resisting political evangelism in our public and private schools.  

If hell starts to freeze over, you have to be flexible. The roads are dangerous, and the near freezing temperatures call for extra caution. You have to know what to do if you encounter black ice, also known as clear ice. The first rule is to avoid overreacting. Do as little as possible to safely pass over icy spots in the road. If you hit the brakes, or struggle to steer the wheel in the opposite direction there is a greater risk of spinning out of control than if you just took your foot off the gas, and a gentler approach with the steering wheel.

Notice what answers you think the thought police might be looking for on the true/false test of faith in the church of your choice, school of thought, or political party. Identify the questions that aren’t being asked.  

Recognize the kernel of truth in the ideas of other churches, schools, and parties. Discover what you have in common with people of other faiths by asking yourself how you might nurture their kernel of their truth in your own heart. 

Respond by submitting a question for the thought police to share with the next travelers on the highway. If you are taken into custody for questioning the authorities, you have a right to remain silent. You are allowed to make a phone call. Ask for further direction. 

 

* GODSPEED stands for “Gather Only Data in Sync with the Purpose of Every Excellent Deed.