I Want to Live a Grounded Life

A Grounded Life? Why not an exciting life? Or a visionary life? Or an adventurous, fearless life? Or a loving life?

Because: Life that does not recognise that it is earth-based will not survive the tough times.

But what about God? What about Love? What about Hope? What about Vision? What about Imagination?

Yes, yes and yes to all of these, but I am human and I live on earth. 

• I do worship God.
• I do love – I love some people deeply and passionately, others moderately, some distantly, some theoretically, and some not yet. Some I don’t like, but I try to love.
• I hope, envision and imagine as a human.
• Being grounded, I recognise that I have limitations. 

Motivational speakers tell their audiences that You Can Do Anything That You Dream!

Politicians spruik their fond notion that if you educate all young people equally well we will solve all of their problems. And that if you throw more money at schools all the problems will magically disappear.

None of it is true. Some people cannot do some things well. Not everyone is a rocket scientist – but neither is everyone a market gardener. I can easily manage a large corporation, but I can't fix my car. 

Truly compassionate leaders deal realistically with people; thy help them to achieve the very best that they can, within their own limits and talents. 

And yes, these limits might be beyond what they thought at the start – but I won't try to turn a person with average intellect into an astrophysicist, nor a short, not-thin person (e.g. me!) into a fashion model.

The grounded person can recognise that God came to earth in what theologians call the incarnation. The transcendent God became a grounded (i.e. in-the-flesh) person! 

The grounded person will worship and serve the God who is above all grounds, and yet became grounded for us. Their faith will be grounded in evidence and mystery, not blind fantasy.

The grounded person will get educated. Perhaps technical education, if that is the sort of person you are, or theoretical or professional or musical or whatever it is that you need, to suit the sort of person you are. 

The grounded person will gather other human beings around them for support. They won't live alone, as individuals charting their own course. The truly grounded person knows that it is much better to be supported and accompanied by people who have their feet solidly planted in truth, than by people who have built dream-castles in the air.

The grounded person will seek to be cured by solid evidence-based medicine, not quackery. 

The grounded person will run their own business or get a paying job, and make reliable investments, not live on handouts or waste their money like fools trying to win the Lotto. 

The grounded person will love wisely, complementing themselves with another, planting their seed where they want it to grow, not scattering their seed and their self randomly across the planet, hoping to find meaning by dividing themselves endlessly. Sperm banks are the moral and teleological equivalent of birds moving seed about in their droppings as they sit high up in a tree and relax their avian version of sphincter muscles.

I'd prefer to employ grounded persons. They are far less likely to resign on a whim and go travelling around the world in the fond hope of finding themselves. They’re more likely to hear criticism, weigh it up, and act on it with calm thoughtfulness, rather than announce a workplace dispute. They're far more likely to tell me they'd like a few hours off to get their dog vaccinated than just tell a lie on a phone message, saying they are sick. 

Grounded people will live well and die well. The ground they have loved will receive them, the ground they leave behind will be better for their having been here, and all manner of things shall be well.