The Experience of Clarity

A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

162 When reality interferes with my life: In the daily transactions between my two economies — the mundane business of life and that of my pleasant dreams — I must have a competent manager in both companies, the object of each is to balance the books at the end of the day.  I also must not permit the one to grasp for “more” than is necessary.  I do not want the one to acquire too much debt with the other ... nor to lend too much.  The one needs the other’s future business. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

163 Without dreams life would become something that had to be endured ... a succession of petty, meaningless tasks.  On the other hand, without an eye for the superficial, I could never steer an event, never become anything more than an accident ... never worthy of anything, and life would become just an endurance of disappointments. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

29 Street Morality: He confesses to a sin he did not commit in order to avoid appearing too timid and weak for its commission.  In the street, he holds to a moral standard where the evil is not sinning and the good, sinning, but he fails to live up to it. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

164 Dreams are the stuff of life?  Very well, but one would do well to know that things are the stuff of dreams.  So where does that leave us?  ... with a little more control. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

30 Some cannot stifle the fear of falling into temptation because of a constant self-contempt from not having the courage to commit the sin. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

166 Real change is never as precise or smooth as we would like it to be.  We soon find that our carefully drawn blueprints and our precision instruments no longer apply.  We pick up a rock, screw up our faces and pound. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

31 Often the consequence of a morality is the weakening of the spirit, and so at times a sin admitted proudly can be a first push toward strength.  One has stepped over a moral boundary, one foot in and one foot out: one has the fault of not being weakened. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism

32 The Eternal War in Heaven: Being good and becoming good are as different from each other as a present state of Good is from one of Evil.  On the other hand, they are also only as different from each other as being complacent is from discovering complacency. A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism