Column by Dr. Ann Hollingsworth
As a child, I remember “character education” stories in school from Aesop’s Fables. One was about a turtle and a rabbit who had a race. Of course, Aesop called them the Old English proper names of Tortoise and Hare. But as the two raced toward the prize, the rabbit sprinted out quickly but at some point got winded a bit and had to slow down and even decided to take a nap while the slow, slow turtle plodded along.
Well, in the end, the slow and evenly-paced turtle won the race. The thing that I like about Aesop’s Fables is the real-life application that was indeed simple character education for children. Interestingly, there was more “buy-in” of the life lessons then than there is now with the very expensive and very complex character education programs instituted in our schools today.
This past week, one of the courses that I teach had a focus on counseling ethics – which is basically a framework of counselors doing what is right. One of my students observed that Jesus gave us the golden rule and other guidance of doing what is right. Many professions spend an exorbitant amount of time, money, and energy in developing, promoting, and reinforcing a code of ethics for their people. Yet political correctness would punish attempts to work by the guidelines from Jesus.
Living life well really can be simple, and we can pace ourselves to go through it comfortably to have a winning journey. Life does not have to be complex like we have been so prone to make it. Think of all the stress and problems that have come from our generation of this complexity. Think of the goodness and enjoyment if we could but slow down and live simply.
