Date:         Fri, 19 Sep 1997 11:04:18 EDT
From: brain wash and tumble dry <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      EXERCISE: Values (Justice and Mercy) #12

[Based on the book "Teaching Your Children Values" by Linda and Richard
Eyre, ISBN 0-671-76966-9]

(p. 224) "Obedience to law, fairness in work and play.  An understanding
of natural consequences and the law of the harvest.  A grasp of mercy
and forgiveness and an understanding of the futility (and bitter poison)
of carrying a grudge."

"General Guidelines" include
    1.  Set up simple family laws.  Suggested:  PEACE (no hitting,
fighting, etc.); PEGS (daily family work, homework, practicing, evening
personal hygiene--get your pegs in each day); ASKING (ask permission
before leaving, inviting someone over, etc.); ORDER (room straight, pick
up after self); OBEDIENCE (do what parents say).
    2.  Establish rewards to go with keeping the law and punishments to
go with breaking the law.  Note that in most cases, the main punishment
for disobedience is the absence of reward (ignore rather than chastise).
    3.  Add provisions for 'repentance'.
    4.  Set the example.  Show that justice and mercy are your values
and that you, too, are trying to learn to repent and forgive.
    5.  Be fair and consistent, but also tender and merciful.

Some observations/games...
    Discipline in private, not in public.  Make sure to give more
attention to doing something right than for doing something wrong.  Make
sure that people know the reasons for the laws, and the results of
breaking them (i.e., try to help them understand why they should observe
the law on their own, rather than simply obeying the person for fear of
being caught).  Be consistent and predictable.  Don't add punishments to
natural consequences.
    Remember the harvest.  Plant something, then water it and take care
of it, and it will grow.  Neglect it, and it dies.  This is the natural
justice of the world--kindness and caring result in a good harvest,
neglect results in a bad harvest.
(p. 240) "Remind ... that we are not usually in a position to judge
others--and thus better off to try to understand and forgive rather than
to condemn."

okay?  values (justice and mercy)...

First, pick a number from one to six.  Ready?  Then here's your
quotation:

1. John Maynard Keynes: "In the long run, we are all dead."

2. Thomas Szasz: "If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to
you, you have schizophrenia."

3. John F Kennedy: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your
country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

4. John F Kennedy: "If a free society cannot help the many who are
poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."

5. Haida Indian saying: "We do not inherit this land from our
ancestors; we borrow it from our children."

6. Carl Jung: "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us
to an understanding of ourselves."

[Quotes taken from http://www.starlingtech.com/quotes/randquote.cgi
using the 20th Century Quotations setting]

One more time, please?  And your number is:

    1.  a 20 dollar bill
    2.  a vase
    3.  the phone call someone really wanted to know about
    4.  the answers to a test
    5.  a slice of cake
    6.  15 minutes

This little bit of reality is the core of the problem.  Take a few
minutes right now to think about at least five ways that your choice
could be a problem that will require justice and mercy to resolve.
For example, a 20 dollar bill could be found, stolen, missing...you
think of the rest.

[for the extra point...throw in an metaphor.  There's that harvest
one, or maybe you like the olive tree, or what about...catfish?  oh,
well, you come up with your metaphor and tie it in...]

Okay.  So we have a little problem, and we have a quotation.  This can
be the moral (or the antimoral?) of your tale.  Take a few moments and
think about characters.  You probably want at least two, and three is
even better.  Think about who will take the action in the story, and
just how we are going to (a) get into trouble with the piece of
reality (b) complicate, raise the stakes, and make us really feel the
pressure of this dilemma, this puzzle, this knot in the ethical
network and (c) resolve the situation, for better or for worse, for
this time, place, and people.

Think, think, think...and write!

tink