Below is a list of 20 values. Your task is to arrange them in order of their importance to you as guiding principles in your life. Work slowly and think carefully.
- Character
- Justice
- Joy
- Mindfulness
- Salvation
- Meaning (belief that your life has significance in the great scheme of things)
- Equanimity (spiritual poise in the face of pain, suffering and death)
- Altruism
- International order
- Beauty
- Reason
- Passion
- Spirituality
- Faithfulness
- Intelligence
- Gentleness (a nonviolent attitude and practice tht infuse your entire life)
- Prosperity
- Self-determination
- Worthwhileness
- Love (a pervasive feeling of affection for all human beings or agape)
OK, so how we’re going to handle this in class is have everyone report out on their top and botttom 5 and talk about why and then see how much overlap we have. I did this exercise in a hospital waiting room with my friend Dragon while Hubby had shoulder replacement surgery and we found quite a bit of overlap with some important differences. By the way, Hubby is home and resting comfortably but the splint is something of a hassle. It chaffes. He’s adapting well though and already back to taking care of some household chores like feeding the cats just 48 hours after surgery. The ice buddy ice pack is super helpful.
Here are my results:
Top 5:
- Spirituality (a holistic feeling of harmony with invisible powers)
- Equanimity (spiritual poise in the face of pain, suffering and death)
- Character (inner integrity about values and how they are practiced)
- Joy (personal happinesss in life)
- Altruim (helping others)
Spirituality is as close as this list comes to “a relationship with God.” Equanimity has always been super important to me. I’m not exactly sure why. I think of it as a sign of maturity and character. And speaking of character, I think it’s damned important. Joy ranks #4 for me. My own personal happiness is super important to me, no denying it. Altruism is part of what makes up my character and part of how I feel I am contributing to my society in a way that justifies my presence.
Bottom 5:
16. Meaning (belief that your life has significance in the great scheme of things)
17. Beauty (living in a world that is aesthhetically pleasing and stimulating)
18. Salvation (some form of immortality)
19. International order (relative peace in the world)
20. Gentleness (a nonviolent attitude and practice that infuse your entire life)
Having significance is not important to me. I’d like to matter to the people I love but I’d like to have enough humility not to need to be anything in particular in the greater scheme of things. I don’t need to leave a legacy. If beauty mattered to me I wouldn’t live in Lansing. Man, this city lacks pleasing aesthetics. I appreciate it when I can get it but I can get by without it, too. Salvation is one of those things that my atheist parents drilled into me as magical thinking and it’s stayed with me. It’s the most significant doubt that I have about typical religious beliefs so it just doesn’t rank here. International order? I’ll let other people worry about that. I don’t feel like I can really influence that. And gentleness or non-violence is just not a thing for me.
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