Lewis and Value (ie. random thoughts)

I have been reading through Mere Christianity again recently... and come to the realization that I do not believe I have ever actually finished the book before. Most of the times I have read it before were part of a discussion group. The discussions always lasted longer than the alloted time, and so the group would finish before we got through the entire book.

As a result I am just now reading Lewis' thoughts on the trinity and time/eternity and some other things. Suffice to say I should have just quoted him in my last post. As is normally the case he makes a more concise argument than I do; more clear as well most likely. It is comforting (for me anyway) that our basic thought process leads to the same conclusion... namely that our understanding of "time" causes unnecessary confusion when we try to understand God and how He works within Creation.

Randomness Part 2:

I was thinking today about how people define their value. I started off making this a "male/female" thing, and I think in general it would still hold, but I am not ready to make that generalization completely. The two distinctions I wanted to focus on were those who find their value in who they are and those who find their value in how they perform; my person or my performance. My thoughts centered around how these two people enter into conflict. For example:

Those who find their value in their person will often make personal attacks when facing conflict. Words will be said surrounding a person's character (you are a liar, cheat, bum, etc.) The game is won when you can successfully build a picture of your own person that is somehow better, purer, holier, etc. than the other person.

Those who find their value in their performance will make attacks on another person's competence (you suck, loser, moron, etc.). In fact these people assume that each party has the same basic skills. This is a necessary assumption in order for their perceived victory to have meaning. It would be like a football team that got spotted three touchdowns and managed to win the game; there is no real victory there because they had an advantage. People who base their value on performance actually like it when the other team has the three touchdown advantage and they still manage to win.

Obviously both of these are an insufficient basis for our value, but I think they provide a helpful understanding of why people respond the way they do in conflict. If you hear people making personal comments in heated moments it is because they are feeling like their "person" is under attack. You might be talking about mistakes they made in a recent report and they shoot back with personal attacks on your or a co-worker.

You will find people defining themselves either by what they do or how they do it; or perhaps some combination of the two.

End of randomness.