Infinitely draw meaning from the arts

The beauty of parables, figures of speech, and the arts is that we can infinitely draw meaning from them. The arts can convey insights that may be original, relatable, usable for daily lives, and inspire vision. But it also demands that the one extracting meaning should be ready and prepared; reflective, discerning, and oriented towards the good.

Drawing meaning does not mean that it is always a pleasurable experience. That is why so many artists are also activists – they wake society up and make us see discomforting truths we may be running away from.

Not all meanings and insights are necessarily correct. This is why appreciating art is having both the critical and creative capacity to understand contexts.

With so many rich media, we are conditioned to react impulsively. But are we able to truly appreciate? Are we able to extract insights from the “art” we consume and adapt in a way that improves our lives?

Maybe the invitation is to go beyond reacting, and to actually appreciate. Then, we can draw more meaning.

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Matthew 13:10-17. Why Jesus speaks to crowds in parables

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 202: JULY 21, 2022]

Collective will and mission

Indeed, there are things that are not meant for a single person to do nor accomplish. There are challenges that are meant to be overcome by a collective bound by wills and fortified by the Spirit.

However, a safe space for dialogue and dissent is essential, for without these, the collective cannot self-correct. It could fall into the trap of relying on personalities rather than principles. A collective will could turn out to be the will only of an impostor leader, effectively transforming the group into a cult.

There are no shortcuts to staying the course of mission fulfillment. There would be many traps where the collective can drift away from its mission. It is up to the brotherhood, sisterhood, or the “bayanihan” spirit of the group to cover our blindspots, call out our errors, and inspire us interdependently.

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Matthew 12:46-50. Who are my brothers?

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 200: JULY 19, 2022]

Martha my dear

Pardon the reference to a McCartney Beatles song! Haha.

Martha is such a relatable character in this gospel. Trying to be as hospitable as possible, Martha almost misses the point of her hospitality: to spend a more intimate time with her Guest.

Sometimes, we spend doing jobs for the sake of appearing busy. Scholars and experts have termed this phenomenon “bullshit jobs”, where the task being performed is not actually contributing to the mission of an organization, but rather, it is created and performed only as a formality or for an appearance of necessity. Maybe because of politics or other reasons not exactly related to an organization’s mission fulfillment.

Our workaholic and hustle culture may distract us from the truly essential, like how Martha was almost distracted by chores when the whole point of authentic hospitality is spending meaningful time with one’s guest.

The challenge here is that Martha thought that what she did was necessary. All the more we are prone to fall into the trap of BS jobs or needless workaholism or hustling.

Incentives, routine, and norms may be helpful at first, but without finding time to pause and reflect, we might be inadvertently missing signals from our conscience or from our Higher Power that our actions may drift away from our actions’ initial intention.

At the risk of inappropriately citing the song (and yes, I know Martha in Paul’s context is a dog), I end my reflection with these lyrics:

“Take a good look around you
Take a good look, you’re bound to see
That you and me
We’re meant to be for each other
Silly girl”

(… Paul’s lyrics have a knack for fitting a religiosity context, ala Let It Be, eh? Haha!)

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Luke 10:38-42. Martha and Mary

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 198: JULY 17, 2022]

Inheriting traditions and building on them

The tragedy is when we think of traditions and rituals as givens that we have to comply with. We only look at the surface – what actions to be done, what formulas to be recited.

When I was younger and more naive, “breaking tradition” seemed to be sexier, fitting for the mindset of an angsty teenager seeking himself. But as I tried to hone my own writing skills and got to be more intimate with doing research, I realized the importance of reviewing and analyzing the context – the goal of literature and practice reviews.

Many times we see books in our favorite stores that use the same catchy buzzwords: grit, resilience, artificial intelligence, blockchain, NFTs, etc. But sometimes, these content are just fluff; or worse, they are well-disguised BS that is only written to “generate content” and “engage audiences”, without respect to the hard work of reflecting on an initial insight, validating it, then articulating it in its most meaningful version.

Honestly, tempering one’s idealism with pragmatism and realism seems like a being a “sell out” at first, but if we reflect on it, we are not supposed to live life taking extreme sides towards “-isms” that are being shoved our minds through the bytes we devour. In critical realism, we view the world as composed of structures, culture, and agency of humans interplaying with each other to produce phenomenon. No single person can radically change the conditions of life, and therefore, there needs to be respect and synergy between these structures, the cultural context, and the people who act with these entities to really have an authentic attempt towards change.

“Helping things happen” is such a profound message. Even if we look at basketball and the lens of the NBA, we may have glorified hero ball like how Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant played, but the best players of today’s generations “help things happen” by drawing the best out of teammates, started by Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki (and his remarkable 2011 championship), LeBron’s Magic-MJ hybrid, and Stephen Curry’s transcendent shooting and gravity.

It’s quite ironic for me that social media has made personalities and influencers more… haha, well, influential, but at the same time, our initial dreams for social media was to facilitate coordination, community, and connection, to help each other help things happen.

This has been a lengthy reflection, but our responsibility is to really carry the weight of our tradition, re-articulate its spirit, and modify those that go against longstanding morals and virtues due to the changing context. Isn’t this what a “living tradition” means?

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Matthew 12:1-8. Something greater than the temple is here

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 196: JULY 15, 2022]

Do authentic learners and children have a difference?

I think what makes children blessed is their “innocent curiosity”. In a way, children seeks answers not to verify preordained narratives, but to satisfy their natural desire to learn more about the world.

Sometimes, people who claim to be intelligent or learned give up innocence in exchange for mindless judgements and assumptions. In our bid to project that we seem to know more, we abandon humility. Worse, we embrace a BS way towards “learning”. It becomes an appearance or a status symbol rather a real devotion to insight and flourishing.

I do not think that authentic learners and children differ in terms of having that natural desire to know; an innocent or benevolent version of curiosity. Learners who “project” intelligence are those who are furthest from divine revelation, because with every twist of truths and baking a fluff of half-truths, we feed our ego but starve our soul.

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Matthew 11:25-27. “… hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 194: JULY 13, 2022]