People, Places, Things, Ideas

From Menletter December 2006

By Tim Baehr

Now long out of print, it was an elegant, small children's encyclopedia in four volumes. They were organized into four themes and titled accordingly: People, Places, Things, and Ideas. A pretty good way to categorize knowledge, I think, in our efforts to understand our world.

The categories are also a good way to organize an occasional assessment, status report, and plan for the future - the kind we often attempt on a birthday or at the turning of the year. Here are some questions I'll be asking myself over the next few weeks. Maybe they'll resonate with you or cause you to think of some of your own.

People

Who deserves more of my attention? Who deserves less? Who needs me? Whom do I need? What persons enhance my life, and which persons detract from it? What toxic persons or personalities should I avoid - or do they seem toxic precisely because I am avoiding something in myself? With whom do I need to make peace? War? Who is my soul-mate? Who is my family? Whom do I admire? Why? Whom do I have to get along with, no matter what? What am I going to do about that? Who am I?

Places

Where did I go last year? Where will I go this year? Where is home? Where do I feel most at home? Where is my place of power? Where is the fertile ground that I need to nourish my soul? How different am I in different places? What places are safe for me? Are they also dangerous in their comfort, safety, and stagnation? What places are dangerous for me? Should I avoid them or confront them? When? Where am I?

Things

What is my relationship to the things in my life? What do I "own," and what "owns" me? What one or two things would I bring with me to a desert isle? Save from a burning building? What would my life be like if I lost every thing in it - house, belongings, money, job? What would I be like? What are a few of my favorite things, regardless of their usefulness? What is the most useful object in my life? What about a couple of the intangible things: How is my health, physical and mental? What do I need to do about them? What new things would make my life better? What old things do I need to discard? If I were a thing, what would I be? What am I?

Ideas

What ideas - philosophies, beliefs - are at the foundation of my everyday behavior? What old ideas are no longer useful? What new ideas did I learn this year? What am I going to do with them? Will they be easy to accept or reject? Or will I struggle with the decision? What ideas seem strangest to me? Why are they strange? Is there a Big Idea? Have I discovered it yet? What idea am I?

A Simplification and a Wish

As important as it may be to ask some of these questions or ponder our accomplishments and status, we might also ask some much simpler questions, ones that could lead to action:

· What one thing do I really want in the coming year?

· What am I willing to do to get it?

· What is the first step?

· When will I take it?

I wish us all a year filled with joy and an ability to overcome all our challenges ... and all our successes.