August 30, 2005
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Just do it ...
"I don't want any pretense about how safe I am. I'm not. We have made an agreement which I can't enforce. I want you to know I understand my position fully. If you intend to keep your word, don't talk about it, just do it." Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged
A long time ago in a country far far away, ... okay it was Greece and since time and distance are both relative, I'll just leave it at that. A fellow named Solon is reputed to have bequeathed to us the bit of wisdom that says the best measure of happiness is whether one dies happy. You may think you are happy now because you have health, wealth, fame, or whatever, but tomorrow you may wake up sick, broke, and ugly. All your happiness is circumstantial and it could change at ay moment.
It's a rather depressing view of happiness that denies the fact that one may be happy in the moment regardless of how long that moment lasts. But I like that illustration for the purpose of discussing promises. How can I know whether you are trustworthy? Whether you will keep your promise? I don't.
It seems to me that the best way to know whether someone is trustworthy is not whether they say they will do something, but in the end whether they've done it.
I particularly dislike promises. I don't like to give them because I'm aware that there are circumstances outside my control that might interfere with my intention to do what I've promised. I don't like receiving promises for the same reason. I don't assume that a person is untrustworthy, but I know that trusting someone based on their word alone is a risky business. If you intend to be there for me, don't tell me so, do it.
Just do it.
Comments (13)
Actions say much more than words...telling someone to trust you, how safe they supposedly are around you, and how much they matter is nothing if at the same time you've been intentionally hurting them and allowing others to abuse them. Took me a year to figure that out, but it's a lesson I'll never forget.
I hope to be, but darn that sounds a bit too much like a promise.
Well said...well said. I certainly don't rely on the arm of flesh. There is only one I fully trust to keep His promises.
This is SO applicable. It's not what people say. Lotta people say a lotta things. It's what they DO.
I agree. People change their minds, and they have every right to change their minds if it's no longer what they want anymore... you know, besides life changes.
"Just do it ..." Wise words. If we just do it, there are no need for words.
I can understand your thoughts on this. I am fortunate to have a few people in my life that I trust their word implicitly...they "walk the talk"...otherwise I feel as you, especially the empty words that spin around in our world at large.
Promises also make me very uneasy because I'm certainly old enough to know how often even the best-intended ones get broken (by me as often as by others). On the other hand, there's something to be said for hearing a promise and understanding that it's the thought that counts, I'd say. Even if it's a thought that isn't actually carried all the way to 'do it.' Actions are not, in my book, the only thing that proves trustworthiness.
This requires significantly more thought (as do all your 'vintage quiltnmomi' blogs!), but that's the best I can muster in the instant.
Not verbalizing promises only work when the recipient of the promise never, ever has expections that the promise will be fulfilled. For the recipient, an unstated expectation not filled is like a promise broken. I'd rather have all the cards on the table. (That's probably because I'm a man and can't read peoples' minds.)
Mike
If anything, i could be labelled an optimistic pessimist
Oxymoron???
As long as live each day expecting the worse, you're always pleasantly surprised when your day don't suck
Just do it ........ isn't that Nike??
well said .........doing is so much more then saying
Maybe so, but as my beloved Uncle Larry once told me, "Some things are better left said." Without the doing, promises are meaningless. So you're right about that. But promisers deserve a LITTLE slack. Because maybe they will keep those promises. I'll be back. That's a promise.
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