Friday, March 4, 2011

Caring and Action

Hey Guys,

Today in TWUSA we had the privilege or having our school president coming and talking to us about Trinity Western from his perspective. He shared with us about the financial side of the campus, where they are looking to globalize and the overall attitude around campus. Not just what he thinks is up, but we were allowed to ask questions and seek after answers. The reason I share this is because it made me realize that authorities do care. I know that sounds weird but it was great to see that there is an actual care that he has for the school. As the day went on I began to think about this idea, what is caring? what does it actually mean to care for someone? We often hear it from many people: I am here for you, I care about you, I will be there to listen, and I am always around to help. Those are forms in which people show they care but are those really caring? 

We live in a society in which we throw heavy statements around like they have no meaning what so ever, for example: I LOVE steak, I HATE that person, I am going to KILL you, etc... The list goes on of words that we use to lightly. Edward Albert wrote that:
The simple act of caring is heroic.
Sadly I will have to disagree with him on this point, I believe we no longer live in a society where the simple act is enough. We walk around spending so much time acting... is the simple act enough anymore? Read through some of the lines I wrote before about common lines we say, how many of those do you act like you care and how many do you follow through on?

I guess "caring" ultimately comes down to ones character and their ability to actually follow through with their actions. I am not the best at this, I am trying and will continue to struggle with this but this is what caring comes down to. It is another action. So maybe Edward Albert did have it right? The simple act(ion) of caring is heroic. The act of telling someone you care, or the act of just listening but not actually being fully there is useless but the ACTION of caring maybe that is heroic. Now I know a few of you are probably just saying act and action are the same thing and I bag differ. Acting one way is different then action. A act of something in my opinion expresses something fake like an actor playing a role. Where as action you are following up what you are saying. This is the last thing I want to leave you with is this, be men and woman of action. Do not act like you care or pretend that you do because eventually it will be shown through. You can fake caring and fake love for a while but eventually you will be called to action and where will you stand? I am thankful their are people in my like who are of action and I need to continue to try and learn to be a man of action. Hopefully you will continue to be people of action too.

Goodbye for now,
Christian Sawka

3 comments:

  1. This resounds well with society today. We live in an romantic age where thought and feeling are considered at the top of the hierarchy of humanity. We are very experiential people: going from one experience to the next. Pop music these days is a indicator of this phenomena. How many songs have come out in the past two years that focus on partying, having the time of your life and experience? A lot, and in my opinion, perhaps too many. A classic example that I struggled with is the "experience" of visiting Africa. No doubt, my team did a lot of good things there but we come back and we talk about experience. I sometimes find that to be narcissistic and that bothers me.

    Perhaps heroism was labeled with these traits and nobody has bothered to change them yet. Good thoughts. Gave me something else meaningful to think about instead of my homework.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll be standing with you, cowering in the corner tackling problems that are popular to tackle and avoiding controversial ones that might keep you from getting laid - like abortion.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I know this might come as a shocker here, but I made a promise a long time ago to save myself for marriage. So I am not too worried about getting laid. The reason I do not do something like abortion is because I know absolutely nothing about it besides what I have read. I write about things I have experienced.

    ReplyDelete