Half a lifetime ago, I purchased and read a book, first published in 1989, titled Leadership Is An Art, written by Max DePree, the successful former CEO of Herman Miller, Inc.
In what some consider to be a bible for the business world, there was one particular chapter that stood out to me: The chapter Max titled, “Why We Should Weep.”
In his introduction to this chapter Mr. DePree wrote, “Anyone in touch with reality in this world knows there are lots of reasons to weep.”
After reading this section of the book, I began cobbling together a list of reasons why, I believed, we should weep, with the intent of writing a book by that title. For some years now, I have accumulated quite a list (in the hundreds) …but no book.
Why write such a collection of thoughts?
Because sometimes we need to jar our preoccupation or complacency; to reflect, re-access and “re-value” what we have – inadvertently or unknowingly – de-valued or dismissed from our mind. Regrettably, it’s all too easy to become callously numb.
But before I identify just a few of these reasons, it would be best if we establish a clearer understanding of what it means to weep. DePree suggests, “We weep over triumphs and over tragedies. Most good people weep over admirable actions and deplorable ones.” I agree, adding that weeping, in the context that I am writing, coveys more a sense of mourning or grieving.
As Sarah Ockler describes it in her novel, Twenty Boy Summer, “Weeping is not the same thing as crying. It takes your whole body to weep, and when it’s over, you feel like you don’t have any bones left to hold you up.”
Grieving what has been lost, mourning what is disquieting can do that to you. It drains life; not enriches it.
With this in mind, reflect on the following reasons why I believe we should weep.
We will begin with one of the observations from Mr. DePree’s book:
“confusing pleasure with meaning”–Max DePree
“loving vain amusement, rather than loving God”– Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:4
“perverting the plain meaning of words”–Samuel Adams
“keeping truth out of sight”–Thomas Jefferson
“a ‘press’ that abandons itself to falsehood”–Thomas Jefferson
“the long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, thereby, giving it a superficial appearance of being right”– Thomas Paine
“demeaning the sacred”– Garry Gamble (gg)
“creating God in ‘our own’ image”–gg
“man thinking himself sovereign”–gg
“when the created defies its Creator”–gg
“churches where God is not welcomed”–gg
“ ‘political correctness,’ the marauding impostor of morality”–gg
“deceit, viewed as an acceptable device for gain”– gg
“evil, masquerading as good”–gg
“fearmongers fraught with flawed foundations of truth”–gg
“the paralysis of fear”–gg
“the obsession with ‘dressing-up’ the outer man, while ignoring addressing the inner man”–gg
“the cult of celebrity”–gg
“those who would ‘look’ good rather than ‘do’ good”– gg
“‘crying wolf ’ when you are one”–gg
“changing terminology in an effort to change public perception”–gg
“the intolerant ‘tolerant’”– gg
“the belligerent voice that quiets the voice of reason”– (gg)
“when a society becomes ‘comfortable’ with the crass”– gg
“human life perceived as a commodity”–gg
“when good words are used to sell bad ideas”–gg
“indoctrination as curriculum”– gg
“falsifying facts”–gg
“removing landmarks”– Scripture: Proverbs 22:28
“choosing to live life as a victim” –gg
“making the exception, the rule”–gg
“when ‘Truth is treason in an empire of lies.’ ”–George Orwell
Victor Hugo, considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers—among his most famous works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, 1831—wisely noted:
“He does not weep who does not see.”
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics.
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