M catherine thomas biography of william
My desire here is to offer you some comfort and some inspiration, as well as some tools for dealing with your mind and feelings....
“The Doer of Our Deeds and the Speaker of Our Words”
My subject this morning concerns the pursuit of self-esteem.
I’m going to resist defining self-esteem and simply use the term to circumscribe a number of ways of viewing the self. I would like to explore the nature of the self and the conditions under which it flourishes.
In the world of M. Catherine Thomas's books, aesthetic and spiritual experiences also take precedence, and come deeply and more often through spiritual.
In particular, I want to ask this question: What is the eternal value of the pursuit of self-esteem?
Whatever the valid uses of the term self-esteem are, however much good is intended, I wonder if self-esteem isn’t a red herring.
The term red herring comes from the practice of dragging this smelly fish across a trail to destroy the original scent. Thus a red herring is a diversion intended to distract attention from the real issue. I suggest that the issue of self-esteem is a diversion to distract us from the real issue of our existence.
We might be justified in telling people to fix their self-esteem in order to solve their most basic problems if we knew