Sunday, September 30, 2012

Motivation and Judgment and Forgiveness, Oh My




So the way to deal with Doubt is to apply Grace, and Judgment. So far in every instance, the way to carry on and maintain our spirits has been to openly apply Grace. When Trust is broken, Grace covers it. Doubt is raised, Grace applied.

Just as Grace and Rationalization are two sides of one coin, the thought occurs to me that so too are Motivation and Judgment. Bear with me on this.

Motivation is what spurs the action, Judgment is what tempers it. A child wants a cookie but is able to apply its mother's caution “Don't eat any cookies before dinner. It will spoil your appetite. You can have two after you eat.”



Motivation is and is not important. The end result remains in spite of motivation – the car's bumper is smashed, the plate is broken, trust is destroyed. So the damage exists separate from motivation. Amends must be made regardless of motivation. Repairs to the car, replacement of the plate, whatever can be done to acknowledge the disconnect and rebuild the relationship.

But motivation does come into play in some regard. If you accidentally back into another car, your actions are forgiven once restitution is made. If, however, you did a Kathy Bates in “Fried Green Tomatoes” and purposefully smashed into someone's car – that's another story. Dropping a plate is one thing; throwing the plate, another. Then there are various shades of “throwing the plate” and what those mean. It can get endless.

So is Motivation important, or not? How does Judgment fit in? What about – oh no, another concept rears its head – Forgiveness? Will this butterfly chase ever end? I doubt it.~~GHC


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