How did the Marines used to put it in their ads? “Be all you can be”? That’s a great aspiration regardless of what you apply it to. We adore athletes who leave it all on the field and performers who leave it all on the stage. They gave us our money’s worth and then some. The trick is — and there is a trick — leaving it all out there is hard work. Okay — the truth is there’s no trick, just hard work with no guarantee of success but the potential for payoffs that transcend money. They can even touch the spiritual — imagine that!
Randy is in the midst of a unique personal, professional and spiritual experiment that — even just attempting it has opened his future in unexpected ways. Where it goes? Who knows. Alan also is in the middle of a personal and professional rebirth filled with rewards and promise. They’re both trying to prove F. Scott Fitzgerald wrong — some Americans do have lives with “second acts” in them. They might even have third acts in them, too. So, there, F. Scott!
The goal is always betterment. Seeing more. Knowing more. Being more. And then doing more. That’s our obligation — to pay it all forward by doing something. Isn’t “aspire” one great, aspirational verb?
And who better to help us aspire to be better than our friends?
That’s the question on the table today — and it’s really, really timely as we stand on the cusp of change: “How to be a better… atheist or Christian… a better American… a better human… a better spouse or lover… a better friend”. It all ties together. But let’s start with how we got here. We can only judge “better” from the perspective of “where we are”.
Let’s start that by tossing the high falutin’ stuff and just talk nuts & bolts — the day-to-day of being a Christian Minister in a time of spiritual flux like we’ve never experienced before. Let’s talk about the lay of that land and what it’s like to navigate that in the midst of your own spiritual journey toward betterment.
By the same token (since that’s what we do here), how does one navigate this world from behind an atheist’s reading glasses? How would one “become a better atheist”? What’s the metric?
As atheists find community the way Christians always have — a sense of community is one of Christianity’s unquestionable strengths — how does that “enlighten” one’s sense of enlightenment if at all?
How has our personal road impacted our view of the way ahead — and how we intend to travel it the best way we can?
Or, if you prefer to watch…
How to be a better person? As Elvis Costello put it, answer this question: “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love And Understanding?”