Love should be treated like a business deal, but every business deal has its own terms and its own currency. And in love, the currency is virtue. You love people not for what you do for them or what they do for you. You love them for the values, the virtues, which they have achieved in their own character. - Ayn Rand A VIRTUOUS LIGHT To be virtuous is to have or show high moral standards (Dictionary.com). During these times of strife and the splintering of society, we must ask ourselves, “Am I being virtuous or am I being vicious?” We are really at a time where many of us need to take a few steps back and reflect on who we are and what we value. Is our behavior reflective of what we say we value? In a poem titled, Creases, that I wrote a few years back the first few lines give us something to think about: A slip of the lip exits so abruptly into the space we share Lines written out in spaces than can never be taken back Words can bring on hurt in a split second due to the absence of an open ear and heart Words can trigger our minds and hearts differently As we share sides, are we listening to one another or throwing out words of perception… I share quite often in my blogs, in my class, among friends and family and with colleagues the importance of self-reflection. We recently started the spring semester at Elon University. I always spend the first week building community in my classroom. With my class this semester, I decided to have the students complete the Values in Action (VIA) survey. I wanted to give my students an opportunity for self-reflection as well as provide a resource for me when I divide the students into teams later in the semester. . It is important for students to reflect on themselves before we begin challenging dialogue in the course. This assists students in better understanding self as well as understanding that their peers’ values may be similar or different from theirs. This process creates an opportunity for us to intentionally think about our interactions in the classroom during difficult dialogue. Will we choose to react as a virtuous light or a vicious light? Hopefully by providing a tool such as the VIA survey it will give ya a starting point for understanding ourself and understanding others. Perhaps this will assist us in listening to one another without throwing out words of perception and to understand different perspectives other than our own. “Research has found that only 1/3 of people have an active awareness of their strengths. Imagine a world where we all knew—and used our strengths to their full potential” (VIA Institute on Character, sec. Why Take the Survey). The VIA survey gives you your top 10 strengths out of 24. The strengths are characterized into six virtues (wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence). My top ten strengths fall in each of the sixth categories with the exception of temperance and the majority of my top ten characteristics fall in the categories of wisdom and justice. What about yours? To find out your top ten strengths visitViaCharacter.org. I remind us to think about how we behave during times of strife and the splintering of our society. We must ask ourselves how am I responding, “Am I being virtuous or am I being vicious?”
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