Commencement speakers, he states, “are always telling people to follow
your passions. Be true to yourself. This is a vision of life that begins with self
and ends with self. But people on the road to inner light do not find their
vocations by asking, what do I want from life? They ask, what is life asking of
me? How can I match my intrinsic talent with one of the world’s deep needs?”
Such people, he says, “often follow a pattern of defeat, recognition,
redemption.” They don’t build their lives by being better than others but by
striving always to better themselves. We call that regeneration.
“People on the road to character,” he says, “understand that no person
can achieve self-mastery on his or her own. Individual will, reason and
compassion are not strong enough to consistently defeat selfishness, pride and
self-deception. We all need redemptive assistance from outside.”
Well, not from someplace vaguely “outside,” but from God.
But Brooks is on to something – that “a person of character has achieved a
settled philosophy about fundamental things,” and from that a sense of peace.
That is what New Church education is all about – developing character
based in spiritual principles from the Lord. That is the work and crowning
achievement of a lifetime. Because when you get right down to it, character is
the only thing we take with us into the other world. And it is the only thing we
leave behind.
(BMH)
doing god’s work: ‘no little plans’
Daniel Burnham was one of the most influential and accomplished men in
New Church history. What enriches his legacy is that he was not only the
preeminent architect in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, but
also was known and admired as a devoted Swedenborgian. He deserves to be
remembered.
Burnham was honored in 2009 in his native Chicago, which he
transformed during the World’s Fair of 1893 into “The White City.” Now plans
have been announced for enriching another of his landmarks, the venerable
Union Station in Washington, DC.
Burnham operated from a bold philosophy: “Make no little plans. They
have no magic to stir men’s blood.”
He launched a career of “stirring men’s blood” with that revolutionary
and comprehensive urban planning model for Chicago. He envisioned it as
“Paris on the Prairie.” Grand boulevards, lush gardens and classic buildings
transformed a dreary landscape into today’s famous lakefront.
His legacy also extends from the Flatiron Building in New York City and
the Field Museum in Chicago to Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Cleveland and the
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