20 Questions for the New Year

You are all invited to our first FOOD AND FILOSOPHY meeting of the New Year, January 9th at the Dolce Vita at 5:30 p.m.. Sylvia Springer will be the moderator, and I will be responsible for the programme.

This session will be dealing with inner explorations of You. You already have the answers. Come and share them with us. We are all teachers and learners, and since we are good listeners, we can make this a learning experience.

Do take some time to write your responses to the following statements:

(1) Philosophers have been telling us that it is very important to Know Thyself: How well do you know yourself? Who are you?

(2) Socrates told us: The unexamined life is not worth living. How much time do you spend on examining your life? What have you found out since you have undertaken to listen to this advice?

(3) Examine this quote from Macbeth: Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing? Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

(4) J.F.Kennedy said the following: Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. What can you do for Port Alberni, here and now?

(5) I will live this day as if it were my last. What would happen to your life if you adopted this philosophy for one day?

(6) From the Bible: Faith, Hope and Love, these three but the greatest of these is Love? Is Love supreme in your life?

(7) This is an advice from William Wordsworth: The world is too much with us late and soon, getting and spending we lay waste our powers, little in nature we see that is ours. Is this poet speaking to you?

(8) Where there are no visions, the people perish? What is your vision for Port Alberni?

(9) Every person should have a mission statement of life. What is you mission on this earth?

(10) From Julius Caesar: The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings. Do you blame others for your behaviour?

(11) A person once asked Gandhi for his message to the world, and he said: My life is my message. Is your life your message? What is that message?

(12) Back to Shakespeare: Sweet are the uses of adversity. How could adversity be sweet?

(13) Happiness is the journey, not the destination. Are you happy?

(14) The Japanese has a philosophy of Kaizen: Continuous development in every aspect of your life. Look at you life, are you making continuous improvement in all aspects of your life?

(15) A writer advised that we should give a gift to every person we encounter. Is this possible? Try this for a day and report to the group.

(16) We should live in the present moment. Are you living in this present moment?

(17) Readers are leaders. Is this true of you?

(18) If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds of distant run, yours is the earth and everything that is in it, and what is more, you will be a man my son. Do you plan your day? Do you kill time?

(19) You are what you eat.

(20) Resolutions are made to be broken. We hear this statement often from people who say that they do not make resolutions. How important is making resolutions to you?

This is enough home work for us all, and I hope that all readers will venture to share the answers to this question with families at home, and I see this is a good opportunity to discuss this question during the lunch break with you colleagues.

WE ARE CELEBRATING THE 100TH ANNIVEERSARY OF Port Alberni, what better way can we all seek to make some valuable contribution to this place. Let us lay the foundation for the next hundred years. I think of Christ, starting Christianity with 12 men! I will be pleased if only one person dared to take this challenge seriously, and by his or her action made a positive change in this community. Even though you may not be able to attend the session, you can share your thoughts with me: wjoseph@shaw.ca.