Sublime

The late Dr. Hans Selye, in his monumental research on stress, basically says that a long, healthy, and happy life is the result of making contributions, of having meaningful projects that are personally exciting and contribute to and bless the lives of others. His ethic was “earn thy neighbor’s love.”

Character and behavior are inextricable.

Life is stressful and depressing for a person who learns through childhood to be helpless.

During the generative life task, people try to find some way to be of service to the world. One either achieves generativity, Erikson argues, or one falls into stagnation.

Each person is a fathomless mystery, and you have only an outside view of who they are.

Throughout this book, I’ve been banging the drum about how our experiences of freedom, aliveness, love, and peace are the focus. About how no matter what, goals and outcomes and accomplishments are all theories or strategies to empower us to live from this place.

MARCH 18 The Life of a Caretaker