Maxims

 In this space, I will from time to time post maxims--short sayings that bear reflecting on. I make no claim that these originate with me; indeed, I am skeptical of anything I think of that has not been thought of, and tested, before.

These maxims occur in no particular order.

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1. Any weapon you fashion and/or use against another, will be used against you.

    "Those who take up the sword, will perish by the sword." 

2. In this life, things are hidden under their opposite.

3. What people notice in a situation reveals at least as much about them, as it does about the situation.

4. Greater harm comes from the overcorrection of an error, than from the error itself.

5. We do not know as much as we think we know.

6. Suffering provides the opportunity for wisdom and salvation; ease provides the opportunity for folly and damnation.

7. The world is far more chaotic than our maps of it suggest. All our maps lie.

8. Stupidity is an equal opportunity employer.

9. What you fear will happen, will happen. Choose your fears wisely.

10. Most revolutionaries are broken-hearted lovers.

11. When narrative drives fact, problems quickly spiral out of control. (Chernobyl)

12. When power is concentrated, more progress is made. The question is, progress in which direction, and to what end?

13. One is never so close to sight as when one says, "I don't see." One is never in such deep darkness as when one says, "I see." (John 9; Socrates)

14. Truth stumbles, error marches. Truth whispers; error shouts. 

15. He who discovers how death is overcome, never fears.

The Shepherd and the Thief

     The holy fathers teach that we know a thing's essence by its energies. We know that Christ is truly man because he wept, he ate and drank, he slept, and he suffered. We know that Christ is truly God because he forgave sins, raised the dead, healed the sick and so on. (Others have also done those things, but in his name.) When St. John the Forerunner called people to repent, he told them to "bear fruit worthy of repentance," because repentance is manifest in actions. To use an everyday example, if I am in a room and hear laughter coming from the hallway, I can be sure that somebody is out in that hallway. The energy (laughter) is an infallible sign of the essence (a human being).

    In John's Gospel, Christ told the people, "I am the good shepherd. The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly." We can tell the difference between the Shepherd and the thief by the fruit they produce. You can be sure of this: where theft, and murder, and destruction is present, it has come from the Evil One. 

    So let me give to others freely, but not take from them by force; let me lay down my life for love of neighbour, but never wish his hurt or death, much less cause it; let me build up the lives of those around me, and not tear them down by words or works. "But they have wrong ideas!" Their wrong ideas will cause you no harm (unless you let them). "But they act wrongly!" They, like you, act for what they think is best. Pray for them, act kindly toward them, try as hard as you can to understand them. Choose wisely whose will you enact: the will of the Shepherd, or the will of the thief.