served him right to suffer this fate operate as a pervasive, constructive because, being conccrned with good force in our times, and in ways and evil, he should have known that that cannot now be foreseen. This is man is made to deal creatively with what makes the problems of human all the challenges of evil, danger, development so interesting to me: frustration, uncertainty, pain and the unseen potential that may flower Seven Choices for Mature Living hardship. He could have made a if one makes the kind of choices that better choice. recognize the time of crisis in which by Robert K. Greenleaf At the center of every healthy we live and the need for more of man who is really alive is a para- those who have the strength, to act This article begins a series presentation of an dox: while he always struggles to responsibly. especially thoughtful way to look at life-with-a- minimize pain, he would choose the Robert Frost concluded his poem, purpose. It is in terms o f six decisions we can world of pain and confusion and “The Road Not Taken,”* with these try to make and a seventh “big overarching one.” problems to one with no challenge words: and no problems and no pain. Two rourls diverged in a wood, I find the world today pretty hard und I – 1 I took the one less to live in. Yet if I could rub Alad- travelled by, / And that has made din’s lamp and have the choice be- d l the difference. tween the 1960’s, tough as they are, I invite you to join me as we and the 1920’s when I went to col- choose the road less traveled by, the lege and started in business and choice that makes all of the differwhen there was nothing wrong with ence. It embraces six quite definite About the Author the order of things as I saw it, I choices, and one big overarching Rohcrr K. Grccrrlcr~f would choose the 1960’s. lives irt New lcrsey nrrd is n rctircd hrtsirrcss I I I N I I – 1 1 4 o110s rror rccrlly rc- T H E R E once was a man who had a chance to rub Aladdin’s lamp and have his one wish, his one one, each of which can be cultivated I don’t know how to change the quite specifically. world so as to make it more toler- The first is the choice to be retired, hrrr is rccfivc irr pcr- choice. He was a good man who was able. I have no cause, no great pop- sponsible. sortrlel irt~d r ~ ~ c t r ~ i r g r ~ r ~ o ~ f corrsrtlfcrfiorr from const concerned about the evil around ular movement to urge upon you. But I have some ideas about There is a growing school .of to cousf. Tlris rrr tide is him. So, after much thought, he thought in psychotherapy which hosed 011 tnlks hc lrns choices, choices about ourselves; giver1 ill cr scl~oolfor hrtsi- made his choice: he chose to banish choices which, if made consistently, holds that the assumption of responrrcss e.rccrrlivcs, m flrc Los evil from the world. His choice was Arrxelcs Mcrc.lrnrrfs nrrd will help us as individuals to deal sibility in all relationships is the honored and all of the evil in the Mnr~crfocfrtrers Associmore creatively with the world as it only path to recovery for many who crliorr, c r r d ((IS 11 S P ~ I ) I O I I ) world was stamped out in one is; choices that might pour some are ill. Irresponsibility, rather than crf flrc Clrrerch of Trrrrlr irr breath. The result was a world purc NCIV York. H c snvs of fresh cement into the foundation being a conscquence of illness, may, rlris sfrtcly of 111ed c c i . ~ i o r ~ ~ and serene in which not even a in fact, be a cause; or, at least, the rrccded for ttrcrtrtrc or111 single evil thought remained. But stones of our society and set some assumption of responsibility is the e.rci1irrg lil~ilrx 111nt it soon he was a desperately unhappy new responsible forces to work in is %of n firrislred docrr- the world; choices which might * T h e lines from “The Road Not Taken” arc 11ret11.I t is if1 frnrrsifiorr man because he found himself des- Con~plerePoems of Robert Frost. Copy- ~rrd SII~~CSI~OIIS for i1.v tined to live the rest of his days in make us more interesting to our- from right 1916, 1947, by Holt. Rinehart. and Winfrtrflrcr clo.cIoprrrcrrr (Ire the stupidest, dullest, most sterile selves as persons and which would ston. Inc. Copyright 1944 by Robert Frost. irivifed.” Reprinted by permission of Holt. Rinehart, and world one can imagine. And it make of us social “antibodies” that Winston. Inc.

i point at which healing begins. Some of her job and performance. This i are ill, then, because they choose to was in the first of three annual sesbe ill. They would rather be ill than sions which were held in three sucresponsible. In a broader context, cessive summers. When we reconres&nsibility is a necessary condi- vened the next summer, this lady tion for the wholeness and fullness immediately sought me and told me of life, and he who cannot assume it she had a story she wanted to tell may be denied the greatest oppor- me as soon as we could find the tunity which life offers to anyone: time. When we found the time for a to be a whole person, to be right leisurely visit, this was her story. and describe in detail the attitudes fate, over the next few years I met with the world, to belong. She had taken an overnight train one should hold to perform his job this lady twice again in an airport or One of the significant movements home at the close of our session the successfully. Thus, when she ana- railway station as we were going our of our time is-~lcoholics Anony- summer before, and when she was lyzed her marriage, she listed and separate ways. Each time I asked, mous. Its greatness is attested by its settled in her room on the train, she described the attitudes that each “How is the marriage going?” Each effectiveness in recovering so many got out the analysis board to review partner would need to hold if it were time she replied with a smile: “It is men and women from this dreadful it. She said she immediately con- to be a successful marriage. When still good.” disease which plagues an estimated cluded that her job was not her she completed the analysis, the re- This is a success story. It might five million or more Americans. If a problem; she was thoroughly com- solving insight came. She realized not have turned out this way. But practicing alcoholic is anything, he petent in it. But then she thought, “I that if a marriage relationship were either way it was a character-buildis irresponsible. The means of re- do have a problem, a very serious to change, the one who first saw the ing, responsible act by the person covery offered by AA is the imme- one – my marriage.” Then she necessary basis of attitudes clearly who performed it. And, either way, diate – assumptioh of responsibility told me the story of her married had the obligation to hold those at- she is a healthier, saner, more whole for oneself, for others, and partic- life. Twenty-five years of marriage titudes as if they were real, and be- person for having acted responsibly. ularly for other alcoholics. that was no marriage; no children; have accordingly. This is the root of Here in simple, yet profound A few years ago I was teaching a each engrossed in his own work; an responsibility, responding to the ob- terms, is the key to responsibility. short course for executives. Part of apartment that was a common living ligation which seeing the oppor- The Universe, to paraphrase a poem my teaching procedure was to ask place but not a home; a marriage tunity first imposes. Obviously, the by Stephen Crane, had said to her: each of my students, all mature men relationship that was, on the human one who does not see it cannot re- “The fact of your unhappy marriage and women in responsible positions, level, a dismal failure. Then she spond. She said, “I left the train has not created in me a sense of obthat he make a careful analysis of said, “As 1 sat there thinking of my resolved that I would hold and act ligation.” It was not until she had his job and his performance in it. marriage while looking at the analy- upon those attitudes, not knowing done the hard, analytical work on T o facilitate this, they were pro- sis board, I wondered what this ana- – but hoping – that he would re- her problem, had reduced it to the vided with an analysis board, a sort lytical proccdurc would reveal if 1 spond. Fortunately,” she said, “I attitudes she must hold, and reof folding visible file in which cards applied it to my marriage instead of had the tenacity to hold those at- solved to hold them as if they were on which the necessarv information to my job. So I did. And I sat up all titudes over quite a period when real and act upon them – it was was written could be arranged. night working on it. When I got to thcre was no response from my not until she took a consistently re- In my class, this particular year, my destination the next morning, I husband. But finally it came; he re- sponsible course and sustained it was an outstanding woman execu- knew what to do about my marriage sponded; and now, after a year, we long enough so that her husband tive of about fifty. She was one of and I was resolved to do it.” have a good marriage.” could respond, that the relationship my best students and she made a This analysis procedure required, By one of those curious twists of could change. particularly discriminating analysis among other things, that one list To be continued next month.

June 1966

“Open the doors!” An emergency about fifty people before I gave it e, Seven choices for mature living: cord hung overhead. No one pulled up, and no one I tried this on could it. A similar cord was in the op- tell me in five seconds where the The second in a series of six articles posite end of the car. No one near it cord was. Nor, in fact, did I find was going for it either. Two or three anyone who was sure where the cord precious seconds went by before I is, given an unlimited amount of realized it was up to me; so I ran time to think about it. And yet they for the cord at the opposite end, all rode the subways every day. It bowling over a few people as I went. caused me to wonder what people And I made it just in time. think about as they ride along. They It was terribly important that a aren’t always reading or sleeping. life was saved, although I never Where is their awareness? Choosing To Be Aware learned the man’s name and he The significance of this experidoesn’t know mine. And I am glad ment is that if, as a regular subway by Robert K . Greenleaf it is that way. But this wasn’t what rider, a person never thinks, as he made it a significant experience. Its rides along, about the possibility significance, for me, is what I that some day he might have to pull On making a conscious choice o f attitudes for learned about some of my contem- the cord, and if he fails to fix in his poraries. Almost all of the seventy- mind where the cord is, under the productive living: the first was the decision to be five people in that car were closer stress of the emergency and the responsible, and then . . . to one of those emergency cords shortness of time he is not likely to than I was. Why was I the one to be the one who pulls the cord. One pull the cord? This puzzled me. But responds, in an emergency to what L had a hunch about it and over the he has pre-set and firmly fixed in next few months I conducted the his mind in calmer moments prior ductor missed it as the train took following experiment. to the emergency, when the reason- T HE second choice is to be aware of and foresee. One can do nothing constructive in the world off, dragging the man down the platform. Fortunately, h e was At lunch or on other appropriate ing about an anticipated situation is occasions with New Yorkers who done. In an emergency one does not unless he foresees the consequence hooked to the middle of the train ride the subways regularly, I de- go through elaborate reasoning, of electing these choices. Let me and there were a few seconds for scribed the situation to the point there isn’t the time and the stress is give you a simple example of aware- action. where I went for the cord. “What too great; one largely acts on his ness that is based upon interest, at- He was caught in the rear door of would you do?” I asked. Almost pre-set reasoning. tention and effort. the car in which I was seated in the everyone said he would pull the What I learned from this is that One of the significant experiences middle. The car was comfortably emergency cord. “All right,” I said, very few people accept that this is a of my life was a chance incident filled, perhaps seventy-five people, “there are three basic subway sys- dangerous world – morally, physiabout fifteen years ago when I some of them standing. I became tems in New York and the cord is cally, intellectually – and consepulled the emergency cord on a aware of the emergency by the com- in a different place on each system. quently, they do not choose to be New York subway train to save a motion in the end of the car. A This is the Independent System. aware of where they are, who they man’s life. The doors had closed on crowd converged on the door, claw- Where is the cord? You have about are, what kind of world they live in, his arm as he was about to enter so ing at it and shouting, “Stop the five seconds at most. One -two – or what its traps and hazards are. that he could not get loose. The con- train!” “Pull the emergency cord.” three – four – five.” I tried this on Consequently, they do not think

‘ much about what could happen and nessman) is to use his superior inwhat they would do under certain formation sources to see what must anticipated conditions. For the pru- be done far enough ahead of anydent man these must be pre-set in body else so that he can act his way, advance so that in the real life emer- the right way, rather than let events gency all that he has to do is to force his hand and require that he assess the exact circumstance; the compromise with other people’s . rest has all been determined in ad- judgments. We would not give much vance. One has chosen to act re- to the French revolutionary who sponsibly, and one has prepared for was attending a party when there it before the emergency arises. was a commotion outside. He I have linked awareness and fore- looked out the window, grabbed his sight together because each grows beret and came and rushed to the out of the other; they are mutually door shouting as he went, “The mob reinforcing and a person is not like- is in the streets! I must find out ly to have one to a high degree with- where they are going because I am out the other. So often our choices their leader!” are blocked for want of foresight. To be aware, one makes the ef- In Niccolo Machiavelli’s little fort to see himself always in the treatise written three hundred years center of a time span that extends ago on how to be a prince, he has back into the past and forward into something to say about foresight the future. Thus, “now” is not seen which is of interest to us. He said, as only the present instant of clock “Thus, it happens in matters of time. “Now” is the center of a sort state; for knowing afar off (which it of moving average that includes is only given a prudent man to do) some history behind us, and some the evils that are brewing, they are foresight ahead. It is 2 strong posieasily cured. But when, for want of tion to be in, in a tense troubled such knowledge, they are allowed to world. And one can choose to be grow so that everyone can recognize there; one can choose to see what is them, there is no longer any remedy called “now” as a span from past to to be found.” In other words, the present to future, and to support lead that a leader has (whether he this choice with interest and effort. be parent, teacher, politician, busi- T o be continued next month.

July 1966

Seven Choices for Mature Living T h e third in a series of six articles

Choosing to Grow by Robert K. Greenleaf

On ma kin^ n cwnscioia choice o f attitudes for productive living:

The first, the decision to he

responsible; the second, Time was when men and women comfortable plateau of achievement surviving partner of a marriage. Uncould get away with this choice, and that one can sit on comfortably less there is a common disaster, this to he aware, and now . . . some did. In the present rapid pace from middle life to the end. The is bound to be the fate of one or the of the world, no level of compe- choices at that point are clearly up other. What does one do with the tence, however high, is likely to be or down, growth or decay. One must loss? What does one do with the . good for twenty-five years. Even make some growth effort just to stay opportunity? Few would think of it H E third choice is to grow, to parents may find an unbridgable gap T try to live and work to the limit of one’s potential, right up to the in maturity with their children if the parents sign off at forty or fortyeven. The demands of growth are rigorous and exacting, but the rewards are exciting in today’s world. as an opportunity, but it is. Among those I know intimately the most significant life development is an I end of one’s life. Once launched five, and if their children continue I found some interesting challenges older man who lost his wifk in early ! upon a career, the great hazard to to grow with the pace of this fast- awaiting me when I retired last middle age. The significance is in successful people is in their late moving world. I have seen too many year, and I had them only because large part what he has achieved that thirties and forties when they may tragic instances of this. Children will I made some difficult growth choices might not have come had his wife have developed good competence in forgive many errors of their parents when I was forty. lived to old age. Since knowing this their chosen field: they have learned (and it is a good thing they do be- One of the great sermons I heard man I have often thought of what a to deal with the competitive pres- cause we all commit plenty of them). when I was young was Harry Emer- powerful creative force would be sures, and they have acquired some But the child who moves to a high son Fosdick’s “The Power to See released in the world if all widows feeling of security. The temptation level of maturity at an early age is Life Through.” It had to do with the and widowers would, as he did, subto which many succumb is to choose not likely to forgive the parent who, things to attend to when young in limate their aloneness through a to sign off and ride it through to re- in middle life, could have chosen order to be prepared for the oppor- generous service to others or a kind tirement on the competence and the continued growth but chose, in- tunities that come when one is older. of public work which those who enclaims to security they then have. stead, to level off. There is no nice One of the things to be prepared for joy a life-long marriage relationship is to go it alone should one be the seldom undertake. He was able to

do it because it was in his life- two-day seminar in which the pargrowth pattern. ticipating members were twelve min- This is more likely to happen isters of all faiths and twelve psynaturally if one is prepared for it; chiatrists of all faiths. They met, if there is a growth discipline prac- without an agenda, for two days of ticed from youth onward that pre- informal discussion on the theme of pares for all eventualities. It can be Healing. The chairman opened the very simple to say (but not to do) session with this question: “We are like the advice that Dr. Millicent all healers,” he said, “whether we Macintosh used to give to her se- are ministers or psychiatrists. This niors when she was President of is our business. What is our motiva- Barnard College: tion? Why are we in the business of 1. Have a field, throughout your healing?” After a brief ten minutes life, in which you maintain high they were all in agreement -the competence. priests, the rabbis, the Protestant 2. Read extensively outside your ministers, and the psychiatrists field. “For our own healing,” they said. 3. Develop excellence in a man- Growth is the recognition that life ual craft. is the healer. But the Universe says, 4. Be engaged in some service to “The fact of your existence has not others, all of the time. created in me a sense of obligation.” A few years ago I had the priv- The choice is ours; it is always ours. ilege of attending, as an auditor, a T o be continued next month

August 1966

Seven choices for mature living the initiative is ours, we compound the successful revolution. This may someone else’s error rather than have been the most significant The fourth in a series of six articles creating our own good. choice made by any of the revolutionary leaders. A few years after the war when the constitution was

Two More Choices T HE fifth choice I want to talk about, and one of the more difficult ones, is the choice to be ourbeing drafted, Jefferson was Ambassador to France; he wasn’t even selves. And I mean something more around. But he had made his conbasic than just one’s outward de- tribution for he had effectively by Robert K . Greenleaf framed much of the new constitumeanor. If a person happens to have a nasty disposition or a way tion by laws already operating in of working that offends or distresses Virginia. Some would argue that We can elect to be really human, and to be ourselves other people, he might do well to Virginia was the only place Jefferchoose a form of outward behavior son ever wanted to be. There is that is easier for others to live with, some truth in this, but if this had even if he is not quite his natural been his only motivation he would self. But I am thinking of being have stayed on his hilltop at Mononeself in a more fundamental sense ticello and worked on his “Notes on T HE fourth of my six choices is the choice to be human. What does it mean to choose to be huthey would say the same for their lot. When he finally finished his sad of how one chooses to use his life: Does he live his own life or some- Virginia” instead of , going through ‘ all of those tough struggles with the man? Let me give an illustration. story, I said to him as gently as I body else’s life? legislators at Williamsburg. I prefer A few years ago an acquaintance, could, “Did it ever occur to you I like to think of that great choice to see this as a great choice that from the middle management of that if you were to make a great of Thomas Jefferson who, as a influenced the course of history. In another business that I know inti- effort to create for your subor- young man, had drafted the Dec- those war years when Jefferson was mately, came to my office in an dinates a climate so that they would laration of Independence and was in the Virginia legislature, he wrote obviously disturbed frame of mind. experience less frustration than you world famous. The war was on and about 150 statutes, about fifty of He was puffing violently on his cig- do, you might feel better about your he was importuned on all sides to which were immediately enacted arette as he started an outpouring own lot? Remember that great line take an important role in the war. into law. For the next hundred of pent-up feelings which began from the prayer of St. Francis, ‘For But he turned them all down. He years, the Virginia legislators were with, “I am leading a life of quiet it is in giving that we receive.”‘ knew who he was and what was digging into that barrel of statutes desperation,” and went on for an The choice any of us can make, no required of him, and he knew it whenever the need arose that made uninterrupted hour of bitter com- matter how intolerable our own lot, from his own inward resources. So, the enactment of one an urgent ‘ plaint about his situation in his is to use what little freedom and against the advice of all of his col- matter. . . . company: unappreciated, unrecog- resources we possess to make the leagues, he went back to Virginia What is the task of each of us? nized, little freedom to manage, the lives of those around us more signi- for the duration of the war and What are we called to do? Will it victim of other people’s mistakes. ficant and rewarding. The choice to chose, as his major contribution, be a convenient stereotype; the pop You are no doubt familiar with his make life more tolerable for others, the drafting of statutes and getting ular notion of the day; what suits story. As I listened, I recalled what in all of our relationships, is open them enacted into Virginia law, sta- somebody else’s mission? Or can I knew of his situation and I was to all of us. Too often, by reacting tutes creating new principles of law each of us, like Jefferson, find his sure that if I could get the honest to the treatment we receive, rather that would be needed by the new own unique mission? views of this man’s subordinates, than choosing how we will ‘act when nation which was to emerge from To be continued next month.

September 1966

by Laurens Van der Post of South (written in 1912). “Make no little Africa. His talk was about the ra- plans,” he said. “They have no Seven choices for m a t w e livilzg cial tensions in his own country and he gave a clear and dramatic picmagic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be real- The filrlt in a series of six arriclcs ture of the gravity of the situation ized. Make big plans; aim high in there. In the question period a nice hope and work, remembering that old man in a very concerned way a noble, logical diagram once resaid, “Colonel Van der Post, I am corded will never die, but long after deeply moved by the plight of your we are gone will be a living thing, people. Is there anything we in this asserting itself with ever-growing country can do to help?” insistency. Remember that our sons CHOOSING Van der Post’s reply was brief and to the point: “Cultivate your and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your own garden, and its fragrance will watchword be order and your bea- GREATNESS be wafted across the ocean to us.” Bernard Baruch, who had an uncon beauty.” Whichever course greatness takes, usual perspective from which to whether it is to do one’s useful work view our times, in an interview in superbly well or to strike out to by Robert K. Greenleaf move men and institutions to nobler 1964 on his ninety-fourth birthday, was asked who he thought to be the paths than they would otherwise greatest man of our age. “The fel- take (and one capable of the latter low who does his everyday job,” he should do the first as well), it is a said. “The mother who has children choice that every man must make

F INALLY, on my list of six choices, is greatness. There are many facets to greatness and it is an overwithin his sphere of influence has the chance for true greatness. Whether one makes it or not deand gets them up and gets them breakfast and keeps them clean and sends them off to school. The felwith his inward resources. Most of my public communication is with the business community. used word. But I really cannot find pends on what one chooses to be, low who keeps the streets clean – Businessmen, like many other peoanother word that carries the mean- within the circumstances where one without him we wouldn’t have any ple, sometimes see the solution to ing. So, greatness it is, and it is a now is. The opportunity for true sanitation. The Unknown Soldier. their own problems in terms of rechoice for every one of us. And it greatness is never in the greener Millions of men.” Any person doing forming someone else. Whenever I isn’t what was meant in a recent pastures elsewhere. It is always his job well can be great. He may encounter this, if I know the man New Yorker magazine cartoon in where one now is and within the not be widely known; but he can be well enough and think he can take which we see a beefy, sluggish, old range of choices available there. great in his own eyes and in the it, I ask him, “How good a business guy in his undershirt and suspenders Some kinds of achievement are eyes of those who know him inti- do you run?” An educator once sitting with his can of beer in front more available in one place than mately. trapped me when I asked him how of the TV. To one side his wife is another, but not personal greatness. good a school he ran. His answer saying to her friend, “George wasn’t This is of the moment, where one “Make no little plane” was pretty deft. “There are no good born great; he hasn’t achieved great- is at the moment. But for those who have the tal- schools,” he said, “but mine is as ‘ ness, but he still hopes that great- Before our own racial issues were ents with which they can move men good as schools are.” ness will be thrust upon him.” as sharply defined as they are now, and institutions, if they choose, Dan- Businessmen usually aren’t that Everyone – literally everyone – I attended a lecture in New York iel Burnham had another view nimble; they take the bait and try to

say how good a business they run. a strong urge, as so many of us did, who is sensitive to meaning in art, what the old artist did-paint a They say they make a good product to do something. He was thorough- no message could be more powerful. great picture, build a great business, at a fair price, they treat their em- ly aroused and a new energy for There are a few great paintings that build the greatest business in the ployees well, they make a profit, action overtook him. have literally moved the world. .And world.” they are good citizens in the com- Now he didn’t do what has be- where is the artist who doesn’t think Now I am not saying, “Don’t munity. The inference is, “What come the popular fashion; make a that he might be the one to paint ever have a cause, or join a movemore could one .ask?” But I say, cause out of his new-found energy such a picture? ment, or set out to reform someone “It’s not good enough, not if you and start a movement to change the else.” But before one does, one “Stick to your last” should ask oneself, “Have I done want to do something about the world. He got out .his paints and things you are complaining about.” his brushes, stretched a big new So I say to my business friend what I reasonably can to achieve And I tell the story about the old canvas and said, “I must paint who complains about the state of greatness where I am and with artist who had thought he was too again. I must paint a great picture, the world, “Save your breath. Don’t the immediate circumstances over old to paint and was living in idle- my greatest.” add to the confusion. If you see which I have some influence?” A ness when news came of the drop- One to whom painting doesn’t something wrong that you can get at “cause” can be a screen to obscure ping of the first atomic, bomb on mean much may say, “So what – and help without doing more harm an inadequacy in something close Hiroshima. He realized at once, as another painting. What difference than good-go to it. But if you to home -oneself or something many of us did, that this was the will that make?” But look at it from really want to make the world a within one’s grasp that is manage- ‘ end of an era, and that a sinister the artist’s viewpoint. Art has been better place, stick to your last, do able if one will only put the effort new force was at large in the world his life’s work; it is his highest what you know how to do, and do into it. The Great Society is not an which would test man’s endurance, value. What more could a true ar- it with the resources at your com- abstract idea. It is not laws on the ingenuity and character as it had tist contribute to any situation than mand -your business. If you are statute books or programs to meet never been tested before. He felt his greatest painting? And, to one stirred by the state of the world, do needs, important as these are. It is

the sum of great people and great “Make no small plans. They have institutions: churches, schools, gov- no power to stir men’s blood and ernments, businesses, families. More probably themselves will not be reconcern for greatness by individu- alized.” It is the sustained effort to als and institutions in their own lives take whatever sphere of influence and affairs will make less needed a one has, whether it be home, workgeneral concern for the state of shop, classroom, church, business, society as a whole. neighborhood, government; take For most of us, true greatness is whatever it is and work with skill probably a blend of Mr. Baruch’s and devotion on it; but also breathe steadfast dedication to doing one’s a great dream into it; make somejob well, and Professor Burnham’s thing really distinguished out of it. To he continued next month.

October 1966

Seven choices f o ~ matwe liviqzg The final article in a series of six

Choose the Nobler Belief by Robert K. Greenleaf

Six finite choices depend on our relationship with the infinite

dox. . . .” Thus, as I see it, the and wonder. The over-arching choice over-riding choice, a faith to live is to seek to enter this level of con- HAVE suggested six quite def- the nobler, embrace it without res- I inite choices available to those who choose to go with Robert Frost ervation; and with all of one’s strength live by it, with enthusiasm by, also harbors a paradox. In answer to the question, “Who am I?” I am two people. I am a unique insciousness from time to time; it is the choice to withdraw from and then return to the world of finite down the road less traveled by, the and abandon. This is faith; a grow- strumcnt of creation (and so is each choices that mark my external imchoice of road that makes all the ing evolving faith. of US). Nothing like any one of us age. It is the choice to seek to lose difference. These six choices are: to The over-riding choice is a faith ever was or ever will be. I am an myself in my inward self where I be responsible, to be aware and to live by. What hypothesis will one instrument of creation, not a cre- am at one with all creation. foresee, to grow, to be human, to be choose as the central belief that ated thing. I am not a thing in any Why would I make this choice? ourselves, and to be great. Now, in shelters all other choices? For mod- sense. But bcyond these differenti- Why would I choose to negate, temconclusion, I want to consider the ern man, as 1 see it, it is more the ated aspects that mark my unique- porarily, the obligations I acknowlbig over-arching choice which the answer to the question, who am I? ness there is another “me”: a edge in the six choices I have road less traveled by requires, with- The answer to this question every timeless. unchanging level of con- discussed and give this as the overout which the others will not have man must choose, a conscious sciousness that is at one with the arching choice without which the much meaning. choice or a choice by default. And cosmos; a level at which all is one, others lose significance? My first Dean Inge once defined faith as if one lets it be answered by default, where there is no uniqueness. It is answer is the same as Hillary’s “the choice of the nobler hypothe- one is. in effect, choosing confu- that aspect of me that stands in awe when asked why he wanted to sis” (not the noblest; in an evolving sion. Let me give my over-riding and wonder before the mystery and climb Mt. Everest, “Because it is society, one will never know what choice, my faith to live by. the majesty of all creation while there.” that is) – the nobler hypothesis, of At the outset I said, “At the cen- knowing that I urn the mystery and I choose to cultivate this cosmic all the hypotheses one can see. Take ter of every healthy man is a para- the creation of which I stand in awe lcvcl of consciousness because it

pulpit to preach that great allegori- hearing the news that an unfriendly cal sermon. Ishmael, telling the man had been elected Pope. On bestory, describes how this venerable ing asked what he would do if the is a part of me; it is there. T o a humbling oneness can bring a seafaring man turned chaplain, new head of the church should refuse to cultivate my inward penalizing egoism. And greatness, mounted to the pulpit on a rope order the Society of Jesus dissolved, consciousness is to deny it and to not periodically viewed. from noth- laddei and then turned around and the venture on which Loyola had rejcct wholeness. Having experi- ingness, will become ordinary. Man slowly pulled the ladder up into the staked his all, Loyola replied, “Fifenced brief moments of it. I know is a rhythmic being and his optimal pulpit. Said Ishmael, “Thought I, teen minutes in orison and all will why it is there and why it must be self, in which he makes and sustains there must be some sober reason for be the same.” cultivated for the sake of the finite the nobler choices that mark his this thing; furthermore, it must sym- James Naylor was one of the choices. Choices likc the six I have role in the external world, comes bolize something unseen. Can it be, great preachers of the first-generamentioned cannot clTcctively sus- only as he occasionally withdraws then, that by the fact of physical tion Quakers in seventeenth-century tain optimal pcrformancc of the to that inward vastness that com- isolation, he signifies his spiritual England. At the height of his power, obligations assumcd by thesc pletes them all. This is the paradox. withdrawal for the time, from all he became mentally ill and suffered choices. A heavy burden of respon- And the withdrawal can be done at outward worldly ties and connec- delusions. For this, he was consibility not seen occasionally from many levels, from turning to the tion? Yes, for, replenished with meat victed of blasphemy, was severely the serenity of detachment can be- simple diversions (which have their and wine of the word, to the faith- whipped, had a “B” branded upon come fanaticism. Awareness is place) to the cultivation of the ful man of God, this pulpit, I see, is his forehead, a hole bored through sharpened by the changing focus of ultimate available level of conscious- a self-contained stronghold – with his tongue with a hot iron, and was consciousness. Growth is enlivened ness. For one’s optimal achievement a perennial well of water within its cast into one of the horrible English and enriched by renewed perspec- some choice of the ultimate is re- walls.” Robert Frost may have been prisons of that day. There he retive. Humanness must be separated quired. inspired by this passage when he covered his judgment and, upon his from the finite self to keep it genu- Herman Melville was grappling wrote “Directive,” his guide for the release, was making his way home ine. Overstressed uniqueness with- with this question in Moby Dick inward journey. At “the height of when he was set upon by thieves, . out the occasional withdrawal into when Father Mapple climbed to the the adventure,” he says: beaten and left dying in a field. He And if you’re lost enough to find was found and taken to the home of oursel elf/ By now, pull in your lad- a friend where, two hours before his der road behind you/ And put a death, he spoke the following.words: sign up CLOSED to all but me./ “There is a spirit which I feel Then make yourself at home. that delights to do no evil, nor to The choice to withdraw to the avenge any wrong, but delights to level of cosmic consciousness that endure all things, in hope to enjoy transcends all finite choices and in- its own in the end. Its hope is to volvements is important to him who outlive all wrath and contention, elects to live by the nobler choices, and to weary out all exaltation and like the six given here, because the cruelty, or whatever is of a nature pursuit of such as these involves contrary to itself. It sees to the end one in tension, stress and suffering of all temptations. As it bears no (as if just ordinary living did not). evil in itself, so it conceives none in One would hope to be able to re- thoughts to any other. If it be bespond as Ignatius Loyola did on trayed, it bears it, for its ground

and spring are the mercies and for- in the earth, who through death obgiveness of God. Its crown is meek- tained this resurrection and eternal ness. its life is everlasting love un- holy life.” feigned; and it takes its kingdom The response of Loyola to the with entreaty and not with conten- threat to his life.work and of Naylor tion, and keeps it by lowliness of to the crushing of life itself reveals mind. In God alone it can rejoice, men whose inward resources, whose though none else regard it, or can contact with the cosmic oneness, own its life. It is conceived in sor- sustained life at the level of the row. and brought forth without any heroic. This is the level of being I to pity it, nor doth it murmur at have tried to describe by the six grief and oppression. It never re- choices: to be responsible, to be joiceth but through sufferings, for aware and foresee, to grow, to be with it the world’s joy is murdered. human, to be ourselves, and to be I found it alone, being forsaken. I great. The choice to seek to live at have fellowship therein with them the level defined by these choices is who live in dens and desolate places open to all of us-it is always ours.