Seven Keys

Getting Back to Fundamentals

A few keys:

1. What you need most to be a good self is love. All your dogmas, doctrines, politics, and cleverness won’t be of any use if you aren’t growing wiser and better at the craft of care. Love always seeks a liturgy, whether it’s morning coffee or a kiss on the cheek or drinks on Saturday or Eucharist or tucking into bed or sex on Thursday nights. Our connections assure us we are tethered to love.

2. What you need most to be a good mind is discipline. What you think can’t matter as much as what you can learn. Don’t let a day go by without asking yourself a question and chasing an answer. Don’t settle for the answer that flatters your prejudices, nor for the one that skewers your biases. Learn to live with uncertainty and to be comfortable with not knowing.

3. What you need most to be a good soul is frequent, un-ironic laughter. if your head is full of secrets when you laugh, those secrets will rot away in hidden rooms. If your laughter is bitter, it will leave you bitter. I…