Conference turris::womannotes-v1

      to thine own self be true. 

    I would never relinquish my love for my fellow humans, black, white,
    yellow, male, female.
    
    In retaining this basic belief I think I'd retain the basis for
    most of my other beliefs.

    care and concern for others (even .5's) which grows out of my
    faith in God.

    Love for my wife and kids.
    
    -bs

I thought about this one last night.... It's a toughie and difficult
to answer honestly, I think.

I'd say what I value above all else is trust.  My trust in others
and how others trust me.  I have left jobs, stopped relationships,
and grovelled to protect and instill this value.

And I didn't really think about it until two of the neighbor children
stopped by yesterday afternoon to play with our cats and we had a
discussion about Christmas.  Six-year-old Corrie said her Mom yelled
at her for looking in bags.  I explained that Christmas had a special
rule in our house that no bags were looked in at all!!  Caragh asked
how that rule was enforced when no one was home.  I shrugged and
told her that it simply was.... Patrick and I never looked in each
other's bags, never read each other's mail, and never peeked in the
other's respective journals.

How did I know?, she asked.

In my heart, I told her, I would know if he did, just as he would
know if I did.

Of course, very heady stuff for an 11-year-old and Corrie begged out
of the discussion long before that to play with Rocco and Rhonda.

And driving home from school last night I remembered that I quit my
last 2 jobs at DEC because I no longer trusted my manager, broke up
with someone 4 years ago because I no longer trusted him, and realized
that I could put up with anything except loss of trust.

I realize what an awful burden that puts on people around me, and
I wonder how realistic it is to maintain that... and I wonder how
hard I'm being on myself to make ME maintain that.  And in religion,
is my trust of God and the church simply blind faith in what the
priests tell me?

Sorry for the rambling....

Karen    

    Definately a tough, thought-provoking question!
    
    After mulling this one over for days, I'd have to say that taking
    action is my Number 1 value.  Whatever goes on in life, be it desires
    or events, I try to DO SOMETHING about it.  It's gotten me a lot,
    so far.
    
    Sheila

    I agree completely with .8. I can (and have) put up with all sorts
    of crap from all sorts of people. The one thing I won't put up with
    is a violation of my trust. Once that happens there is no possible
    way I will ever trust that person again. 
    
    Bahama Mama

    To pay back the earth/creation/God (or whatever it is that gave
    me life) for my life.  Otherwise, I would be breaking trust with
    that which supports my life.
    
    Joanne

    
    To always remember to treat other people (and as far as possible
    animals) as well as I want to be treated myself.
    
    Lorna
    

    Love.
    
    When Jesus said that the most important thing was to love God, then
    also to love other people, I believe he also said that all the other
    things one should do would come.  I agree.  If you love people,
    then you should look at things more fairly, and trust people a little
    more easily.  Love isn't easy, and I sure haven't gotten there yet,
    to love as fully and as well as I think I should, but it is what
    I would want to keep striving for.
    
                    Carol
    

    Honesty, especially to oneself (same as .3), comes first to my mind.
    To be loving and caring is equally important to me too.

    o Reason
    o Purpose
    o Self-Esteem       
    
    	o rationality
    	o independence
    	o integrity
    	o honesty
    	o justice
    	o productiveness
    	o pride
                                                   
                  /
                 (  ___
                  ) ///
                 /
    

    	...accept the things i cannot change
    	the courage to change the things i can
    	and the wisdom to know the difference...

    >If asked to relinquish all moral values, religious beliefs
    >and personal guidelines...which would you leave for last.
    
    I think that the last value that would leave me would be the
    belief in the sanctity  of life.  Life for its own sake and 
    not for any purpose or end.  I'm beginning to believe that 
    its the dance and not the dancer that matters.  

    As with several others I feel most important thing is to never betray
    a trust. Liesl

I think for me it has to be love.

As with  most  any value though, since they are vaporous (can't remember the
right  word  for non-concrete (haven't been drinking, I've just been working
since  9 this morning)), it's hard for more than one person to agree on what
the  values really are. Love for me and love for Joe (my "SO") aren't always
the  same  thing,  yet  in  the  end it seems to mean a tremendous amount of
trust,  respect,  caring,  etc,  etc,  etc,  for  both  of us, without being
overwhelming.

          
    
          'love, honesty and trust'


but...

   > If asked to relinquish all moral values, religious beliefs
   > and personal guidelines....which would you leave for last?


   Why would you want to listen to anyone who asked you to do such
   a dumb thing in the first place ???

    re: .23
    I think the tone of your response is unnecessary.
    
    re: .22
    I've been in situations where a good deal was out of my control,
    but I could concentrate on small pieces of it, and do some good.
    Obviously, when I've got a context, I can make a more concrete
    decision. But I can indeed imagine myself in a situation where I
    had to decide on a value, and fight for it. Of course, no one would
    be *asking* :-).
    	Mez

The belief that I should leave more "resources" when I die than I consumed
while I lived.  Might mean translating food and oxygen into the great
novel.  .  .  Might mean creating an atmosphere of trust for someone.  .  .
Might mean loving someone.  .  .  Might mean simply resisting the
destructive forces around me.  .  .  Or not so simply might mean actively
trying to tear down those destructive forces. . . Might mean not being the
kind of person who forces someone else to use up resources just dealing
with me that they might use in some creative endeavor. 

The creation drive rests on a belief in a benign, active, creator God in
whose image (Physical?  spiritual?  Mental?  I don't know) I(we) are made,
and in whose being we participate.  True creation springs from and is
guided by that participation.  Usually love and trust as mentioned
elsewhere are the building blocks.  Negative example here, World War II saw
the "creation" of death camps, but that creation took more out of the world
than it added. 

Obviously I've never have quite bought into the idea of Ying/Yang or Good
and Evil being two sides of the same coin. 

-Byron

    re: 25
    
    I like the idea.  Very *proactive* (Isn't it amazing the words you
    learn from management books?)
    
    For my self it's a toss up between truth and empathy.
    

    1.  Truth
    
    2.  Recognition that life is more a state of mind than a reality.

.29 forgive me for being dense, but

			huh?????????

    re: .30
    
    The "greeks" have three words for "Love":
    Eros - Love for ones wife (?) (lover, etc) Sexual love.
    
    FIlial Love for ones family, children, parents)
    
    Agape - Love for otehr people, the worlds, friends.
    
    Agape became a very popular term during the Ecumenical Movement
    a few years back. 
    
    Its a nice wasy of registring "I Love you" wiothout extending any
    implicationm of "lets hop into bed",.
    
    [ oh oh network problems causing slowdown ]
    
    End here 
    Bob
    

The Greeks actually have four words for love:

o Lust - We all know what that is, don't we?
o Eros - Lust gone upscale.
o Philia - Love for people in Philiadelphia.
o Agape - Love that leaves your mouth hanging open.

Or something to that effect . . .
 <_Jym_>