On Thankfulness, Antidotes, Carrying Character With You and Prevailing Against Adversity

When Lem recently expressed his thankfulness for Jordan Peterson in a comment on his update post, I experienced a similar sense of thankfulness. Peterson first came to my attention at Levity (a year or two ago?) in the form of videos posted here of him lecturing in Canada. At the time, I was dismissive of them, him and the person who was posting them (with little in the way of context or comment provided); and I didn't invest much time in watching them. I did however, in Feb of 2018, buy Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, and I carried it around for several months in my car/travel bag, using it for reading during wait times. I didn't read it cover to cover, but wandered around inside, going with whatever I opened to that held my attention, and it eventually ended up in the stack of pick-up books next to my reading chair. Then in the cold and darkness of this February's polar vortex, after reading a comment made elsewhere by someone who'd heard Jordan speak without notes at a show with Dave Rubin on The 12 Rules tour and was impressed by his thoughtfulness and depth, I started listening to videos of Peterson extemporaneously answering interview and audience questions, and responding to concerns about bias while on tour. I found him to be thoughtful, clear, courageous, truthful and direct in the way he responded to others; so much so that I felt heartened and encouraged by his sincerity, integrity and willingness to respond from what appeared to me to be a place of inner integration, involving "heart, soul, strength, and mind" . In picking up the book last week I happened to find this quote, which seemed a fitting affirmation of and follow-up to the thankfulness expressed: "It is our responsibility to see what is before our eyes, courageously, and to learn from it even if it is horrible--even if the horror of seeing it damages our consciousness and half blinds us. The act of seeing is particularly important when it challenges what we know and rely on, upsetting and destabilizing us. It is the act of seeing that informs the individual and updates the state. It was for this reason that Nietzsche said that a man’s worth was determined by how much truth he could tolerate. You are by no means only what you already know. You are also all that which you could know, if you would know. Thus you should never sacrifice what you could be for what you are. You should never give up the better that resides within for the security you already have--and certainly not when you have already caught a glimpse, an undeniable glimpse, of something beyond. In the Christian tradition, Christ is identified with the Logos. The Logos is the Word of God. That Word transformed chaos into order in the beginning of time. In His human form, Christ sacrificed himself voluntarily to the truth, to the good, to God. In consequence, He died and was reborn. The Word that produces order from Chaos sacrifices everything, even itself, to God, That single sentence, wise and beyond comprehension, sums up Christianity Every bit of learning is a little death. Every bit of new information challenges a previous conception, forcing it to dissolve into chaos before it can be reborn as something better. Sometimes such deaths virtually destroy us. Set your ambitions, even if you are uncertain about what they should be. The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power. Status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against great adversity."