{"id":1687,"date":"2012-01-04T09:46:57","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T17:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=1687"},"modified":"2012-01-04T09:46:57","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T17:46:57","slug":"a-wish-for-less-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/01\/04\/a-wish-for-less-list\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wish for Less List"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h6>\n

On January 1st I referred to last year’s (and now this year’s) resolutions. It was a list of qualities I could wish for more of. But I could just as well come up with another I’d like less of. I could call it my non-wish, or unwish, or antiwish list. It’d be made of us stuff I tend to have but would be better off with less of.\u00a0If it was only that easy I could just\u00a0name it and disclaim it!<\/em><\/p>\n

Or take the stuff that\u00a0sullies and put it in my dis-wisher.<\/p>\n

Everyone’s list would be different but a few suggested options for me would be:<\/p>\n

Poverty of spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Poverty of any kind<\/strong><\/p>\n

Underconfidence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Overconfidence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Preoccupation with self<\/strong><\/p>\n

Preoccupation with anything<\/strong><\/p>\n

Considering the old days were better<\/strong><\/p>\n

Considering the old days were failures<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any ingratitude<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any entitlement<\/strong><\/p>\n

General inattention<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mental myopia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Insensitivity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dullness of mind<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dullness of any kind<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tomfoolery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dick and Janefoolery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Insertmyownnamefoolery<\/strong><\/p>\n

I could go on, and so could you. (Feel free to comment.)<\/p>\n

Here’s another that could summarize the whole thing. I heard it a few months ago at a funeral of a man who had been our pastor in the early years of our spiritual development. His teaching and example always held a place of honor with me. At the funeral, a distant niece of his had mailed over a personal eulogy which was read aloud. In it she enumerated a long list of his qualities, all of which were right and true, but one, buried in the list, stood out with me particularly: \u201cHe was never small.\u201d<\/p>\n

Never small!<\/p>\n

What a wonderful thing to have said about you, even when you’re dead. Better when you’re still alive.<\/p>\n

So I add it to the list.<\/p>\n

Smallness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smallness of thinking<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smallness of any kind<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this inner game of baseball, these are the balls not to swing at.<\/p>\n

Why strike out needlessly?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next: Thoughts on a life-long poem, coming Friday.<\/p>\n

PS Haven\u2019t subscribed? You can do so with a quick click in the right column and never miss.<\/p>\n

And feel free to share with a friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking of New Year’s resolutions, here’s an anti-list . . . a list of “want nots.” The the grand scheme of things, that’s as important as the wants. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1687"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1687\/revisions\/1707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}