Ten values

[serenissima]

From M.C.A. Hogarth:

Let's play a game! You have ten words to encapsulate the values that are of primary and personal importance to you. They should be things that you wake up every day thinking 'these are the things I'm going to try to manifest through my words, acts, and thoughts.'

I chose:

1. kindness — start from a position of love, make allowances for the people one interacts with


2. humility


3. curiousity, desire to examine and explore the world around oneself


4. honesty, both in relationships with others and with one's own self, i.e. intellectual honesty


5. generosity


6. joy — at first I put "positive attitude" and next I thought "optimism" fit better, but here I mean a deep underlying positive outlook on life, even if one has down days sometimes. I recognize that mental illness can wipe this out.


7. industry


8. perseverance


9. creativity, making things, whether that be expressed in fine arts, performance arts, crafts, cooking, tinkering, or whatever


10. nurture — taking care of things to help them thrive. In my life, this would be my children; but it could mean something like service work or running a business.

The first four or five came easily, but after that I had to do a lot of thinking. It helped to frame this in the form of "qualities I want to exemplify." For example, I just noticed that "justice" isn't on my list; I do value it, but I don't see myself as its agent, or not so much as some other qualities.

One concept I thought of quickly when considering this challenge was the "fruits of the Spirit," as described in St. Paul's letter to the Galatians. I deliberately finished my list before looking it up, but as I expected, several of the values are in common.