A Kindly tongue

"A kindly tongue is the lodestone of the human heart" is one of the quotations given in a study book. This, I take to mean that speaking kindly towards someone is more likely to have the hearer respond positivly. We have all seen the effects of one person swearing or shouting - they are ignored, treated with pity, or seen as somehow deficient. Not useful if that person is the manager of the office! What is worse is when others respond in a similar manner and the 'conversation' degenerates into a slanging match - totally unproductive and can become harmful.

How very sad that many modern comedy shows, quiz shows and other 'entertainment' is liberally peppered with "four letter words", language that was in my childhood, considered as obscene. frankly there are programs on radio and television that I just refuse to watch/listen to, simply because of the language used by the presenters and their guests.

The Baha'i teachings have much to say on this. Here are just a couple of examples.
"He must never seek to exalt himself above anyone, ... and refrain from idle talk. For the tongue is a smoldering fire and excess of speech a deadly poison." "Be fair in thy judgement and guarded in thy speech."

Halloween

How very strange that so many people spend time (and money!) planning events for celebrating the time when the spirits of those who have passed on are supposed to return to earth, and yet those same people deny any belief in God, saying that this life is the only existence we will ever have.



"Know verily, that the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men have failed to grasp. It is the first among all created things to declare the excellence of its Creator." Baha'i Writings

education - again

Wind forwards over a year from my last post on this topic, but throughout that time I find that education has been constantly in my thoughts. Whether it is my daughter going through college, or the study circles that are a popular feature of Baha'i activities, or the discussions at work on staff performance reviews, I cannot get away from the subject of learning.

What started as a simple question relating to peer review of computer code has moved, through a simple observation by myself, into a discussion on opportunities for staff development and training. All I did was to suggest that it should not be limited to one member of staff review the work of one other member in the same team. Perhaps, said I, that if a group of staff from several teams met together, they could learn from the different approaches to coding and testing that had been taken by other teams.


"Forget your own selves and turn your eyes towards your neighbour. Bend your energies to whatever may foster the education of men." Baha'i Writings