Question: What is your question?
Peter Gomes: “Am I doing the best I can with what I have?” That would be the fundamental question. I’m not asking, “Can I be the best whatever I am?” I’m asking, “Am I making the best use of whatever talents, skills or opportunities that are placed at my disposal?” That’s my question all of the time. Here I’m always asking myself, “I know I am fluent. I know I have a gift for communication. I know I’m good with language and words. Am I using those things as effectively as possible to influence others for the good? Or am I so charmed by my abilities to do this that it’s all about me and not about them or something else?” That, I think, is the question that people with talent and opportunity – and these are the people who will watch something like this, or engage in its production, or will be in its orbit . . . We’re all . . . we all have talents. We all have skills. How are we using those? Do they do good? Are they doing harm? Or are they neutral or indifferent in the way the world operates? That is the question that I ask myself.
When I was a child in the little church I belonged to in Plymouth – a Baptist church – there was a stained glass window in the ceiling of the pulpit. It’s one of the things I looked at frequently when I was ignoring the sermon – one of the great diversions. And it was a great oculus, a great all-seeing eye, a terrifying single eye like on the dollar bill. And I was reminded by one of my Sunday school teachers of Milton’s line about living in my great task master’s eye. And it was always a phenomenon for me knowing that God was looking at me. God knew everything that I had because God had given me everything that I had. Was I using it wisely? Now that may be a rather barbaric and primitive figure which many could dismiss out of hand. But it’s been a very effective device for me. I am accountable. I have been given things. How do I use them? What kind of a steward of my resources, and of my place and time, am I? Those are the questions that concern me. Now they may be the questions of a neurotic Puritan. I doubt it though. And if that’s neurosis, then give me more of it. I think that’s the kind of question that people in positions such as I hold, that people who are watching situations such as this, ought to be asking and ought to be able to answer with some conscience. I’m doing the best I can with what I have.
Recorded on: 6/12/07
Discuss
Timothy Monicken on January 18, 2008, 8:56 PM
WOW! All I can say is WOW! That was the best bit of conscience-jarring that I've seen on this site! Have you thought of running for President? I wish I could say unequivocally that I have been a prime example of "good stewardship" for the talents given to me in my life… I can't. But I think I'm trying hard, and I'm giving it my best for the most. Still, this question of stewardship should NOT be seen as some piece high moral ground taken by some "neurotic Puritan." And even if that were the case, the question would still be a valid assertion of whether one has chosen to fight the "good fight," or simply given up in the face of adversity. and, the later is an easy trap for the unprincipled, unschooled mind… I fear fatalism eats at the heart of our youth as the public schools have continually eroded the place of "dialogue" in our pedagogical practices. No longer are students made to stand and perform… to address an audience of their peers on a daily basis. Literacy and language skills suffer immeasurably as a result. Those fortunate enough to be involved in debate or theater, are perhaps saved from this obvious deficit upon leaving our secondary schools, but still their sense of the "meta" is starved, until someone or some class helps to regain ground in this area. But I'm off on my favorite tangent which concerns American education and the need for change in our pedagogy. Anyway, stewardship of one's gifts is seldom brought to mind nowadays, and we need to hone our gray matter to the best we are able, if we are to prove adequate to the many challenges and "cusps of catastrophe" that are soon to confront humankind.
Timothy Monicken on January 19, 2008, 1:56 AM
WOW! All I can say is WOW! That was the best bit of conscience-jarring that I’ve seen on this site! Have you thought of running for President? I wish I could say unequivocally that I have been a prime example of “good stewardship” for the talents given to me in my life… I can’t. But I think I’m trying hard, and I’m giving it my best for the most. Still, this question of stewardship should NOT be seen as some piece high moral ground taken by some “neurotic Puritan.” And even if that were the case, the question would still be a valid assertion of whether one has chosen to fight the “good fight,” or simply given up in the face of adversity. and, the later is an easy trap for the unprincipled, unschooled mind… I fear fatalism eats at the heart of our youth as the public schools have continually eroded the place of “dialogue” in our pedagogical practices. No longer are students made to stand and perform… to address an audience of their peers on a daily basis. Literacy and language skills suffer immeasurably as a result. Those fortunate enough to be involved in debate or theater, are perhaps saved from this obvious deficit upon leaving our secondary schools, but still their sense of the “meta” is starved, until someone or some class helps to regain ground in this area. But I’m off on my favorite tangent which concerns American education and the need for change in our pedagogy. Anyway, stewardship of one’s gifts is seldom brought to mind nowadays, and we need to hone our gray matter to the best we are able, if we are to prove adequate to the many challenges and “cusps of catastrophe” that are soon to confront humankind.
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