So SECULAR and other kinds of wisdom dictate - TANSTAAFL, TINSTAAFL, AND TNSTAAFL?
WHAT DOES ‘DEEPER SPIRITUAL WISDOM’ REQUIRE FROM US? That ‘DIVINELY TRUE Word’ directing us - which stirs true, nobleness from our very hearts to our souls?
It is said that a hammer can be a; firearm, a part of a gun, a Stradivarius - 1707 antique violin, an automobile, from the early 1900’s, an equal area map projection, a candlestick pattern - a formation in a stock market analysis, etc.
Most of us just think of it as a ‘tool’.
A
hammer is a force amplifier
which basically works by
converting mechanical energy into kinetic energy
and back. (1)
During my childhood, my father always said; ‘’men aren’t men until such a time as they could learn to handle a jackhammer.’’ (2) Nowadays that sounds so out of whack.
Professional wrestlers know, ‘the jackhammer’ to be a particularly nasty kind of ‘powerslam’. A move during which wrestlers who perform the slam, fall face - down on top of their opponents. (3)
I have heard politicians, people in courts of law etc. say …. ‘
you have to hammer the truth home
’. Communist countries notoriously show ‘
the hammer
’ on their flags. Farm and worker instruments and tools have long been used as symbols for the
proletarian struggle
. A popular ancestor to the hammer and sickle was a
hamme
r on a plough. (4)
When
it’s about hammering the truth home
, our earthly family cultures, beliefs, mannerisms, values and the likes, can
jam us up
at the most inconvenient times.
‘’Respect Papa but go find out for yourself first! Do not just follow blindly!’’
One part of this kind of hammering is particularly challenging
.
Culture jamming
… is a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It attempts to ‘
expose the methods of domination
’ of a mass society to foster progressive change.
Culture jamming is
a form of subvertising. Many
culture jams
are
intended to expose
questionable political assumptions
behind
commercial culture. Tactics include refiguring logos, fashion statements, and product images
as a means to challenge the idea of ‘what's cool’
.
Culture jamming often entails
using mass media
to produce ironic or satirical commentary about itself, commonly using the original medium's communication method.
Culture jamming is employed
as a
reaction against social conformity
. (5) Its nature can be brutal and include communication from people walking in all kinds of wisdom, which sometimes leave others gnashing their teeth.
Teens with access to the internet and social media are blown away by all the different kinds of input. They struggle with hormones, social structures and having to discern between what is acceptable in their own homes, cultures and other influences from outside. The abandonment of anything good, by some characters on social media, may
look like freedom
to them.
If you were a teenager once
,
you’ll remember the restlessness. The need to explore, the need for self - determination.
Most parents are highly involved with a different kind of hammer regarding their children
.
It is the ‘hammer’; also
known as ‘the malleus’
, a hammer-shaped small bone or ossicle of the middle ear which connects with the incus and is attached to the inner surface of the eardrum.
It transmits the sound vibrations from the eardrum to the
incus
.
As a youngster
my father would sometimes ask me if ‘my hearing was somehow lacking’
, meaning …. did I have a hearing problem or was I merely being obnoxious? In some older cultures, people just made a sign,
like a hammer ‘hitting wood’ to ask if one could hear something
? My dad simply used it in a similar manner to some old Western sayings:
1) To a man with a hammer,
everything
looks like a nail.
2) If your only tool is a hammer then
every problem
looks like a nail.
3) Give a young boy a hammer, and he will
treat everything
as a nail.
The original version of the saying, above, is often attributed to Mark Twain ……
''Quote Investigator:
Expert Ralph Keyes examined this saying in his reference work 'The Quote Verifier', and he noted that the linkage to Mark Twain was unsupported:
A thematic precursor
involving a boy
was published in a London periodical called ‘
Once a Week
’ in 1868. The notion of a child
wielding a hammer with overeager energy
also occurred in later citations:
Give a boy a hammer and chisel; show him how to use them; at once he begins to hack the doorposts, to take off the corners of shutter and window frames,
until you teach him a better
use for them
, and how to keep his activity within bounds
.’’
(6)
All of this made me think of how we should approach ‘a free lunch’.
A free lunch metaphorically speaking can be
anything, any kind of help
,
service or comfort, or truth
.
If you subscribe to handing out a free lunch, it carries great responsibility.
You have to, choose
what
the hammer of that truth
, is going to look like.
“Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and
ask yourself if this step
you contemplate
is going to be any use to him
.”- Mahatma Gandhi (7)
There is an unseen rule to which most great men and women hold themselves:
‘if you teach a man to fish, instead of just handing him a fish, that translates into real help.
’ Mentorship is an inbuilt aspect of ‘the free lunch’:
THE ABSOLUTE GOLDEN RULE
Kenyans believe that you are
not helping anyone by just giving them food or something to lend
. They have this profound, Kikuyu proverb: ‘
Poverty has no roots, but it has tendrils. (8) Meaning that when someone is walking in any kind of poverty, its tendrils will encircle their whole life. It becomes a stranglehold. The poverty can take any shape or form.
I really like this definition of philanthropy: ….it… ‘
means etymologically, the love of humanity, in the sense of caring and nourishing,
involves both the benefactor in their identifying and exercising their values, and the beneficiary in their receipt and benefit from the service or goods provided.
A conventional modern definition is "private initiatives, for the public good,
focusing on quality of life
," which combines an original humanistic tradition with a social scientific aspect developed in the 20th century...’ (9)
I saw the picture above; of a hammer about to
powerslam
(jackhammer) the egg. The beautiful potential of the egg. Helping people, to help themselves is like hiding them away in protection in a basket of valuable wisdom,
versus just hammering away mindlessly
by giving or ordering without first
empowering them
. (pic; 1,2 &3)
Let's
first empower the people that cross our paths
,
to help themselves
, before we expect returns on investments made, on both sides.
Until next time:
have a great time, choose to live & choose an excellent attitude!
References used in this writ:
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackhammer
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerslam
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_and_sickle
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming
-
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/08/hammer-nail/
-
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/93644-recall-the-face-of-the-poorest-and-weakest-man-you
-
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-18930368
- (sent in by Ibrahim Evanso, Gilgil, Kenya)
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philanthropy
Picture:
1.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/egg-power-fear-hammer-40721/Pixabay
Source:
pixabay.com
2.
http://www.freepik.com/free-photo/eggs-in-nest-on-fresh-spring-green-grass_1007833.htm
@jannoon028 - Teerawut Masawat - Best Work Best Design
3.
http://www194.lunapic.com/editor/?action=undo&backupid=10
(edited and pictures blended and art effect - engaged)