Septuagesima Sunday, 1967] ... And, after all, am I not arrogant too? Am I not unreasonable, unfair, demanding, suspicious and often quite arbitrary in my dealings with others? The point is not just "who is right" but "judge not" and "forgive one another" and "bear one another's burdens". This by no means implies passive obsequiousness and blind obedience, but a willingness to listen, to be patient. This is our task.-- Thomas Merton
The Road to Joy
Robert E. Daggy, editor
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1989): pp 96-97
My technique lately is to ask myself what it would be like to be the person I am having a conflict with, would I like to be that person who wants my money, time, or is critiquing me. My answer is always "hell no".
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading the section in "Living With Wisdom" where Merton is reduced to muttering "Stalin, Stalin, Stalin" with tears streaming down his face after the psychiatrist dissects his personality. What an image - it disrupted my Merton stereotype completely.
ReplyDeleteYou know, that psychiatrist, the famous one, changed his tune (diagnosis) after getting to know Merton better.
ReplyDeleteThe psychiatrist that Merton saw in Louisville ended up becoming his very good friend.
I didn't know that.
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