tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5968119896288127912.post8990423348346500819..comments2023-08-23T08:27:09.890-07:00Comments on Writing in the Spirit: Why does goodness happen?Gerald Schiffhorsthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16657701771312055596noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5968119896288127912.post-47970969245321091272011-01-15T07:03:40.865-08:002011-01-15T07:03:40.865-08:00I am grateful to those who have responded to my po...I am grateful to those who have responded to my post about this important film. I had read the review in the NYTimes and saved the title. When I found that Netflix couldn't send it right away, I checked my public library and there it was, here in Winter Park, FL. It should be much more widely known. Thanks for writing!<br /> Gerald SchiffhorstGerald Schiffhorsthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16657701771312055596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5968119896288127912.post-29258282373294244382011-01-10T21:06:31.285-08:002011-01-10T21:06:31.285-08:00I was amazed by the filmmaker's comment and wo...I was amazed by the filmmaker's comment and wondered how she found your blog. <br />As a long time therapist, I believe exposure to love and peace (not placation and spoiling but love the way Scott Peck defines it) brings love and peace; and that exposure to parental addiction, violence, and dishonesty is a petri dish for hostility and hatred. These things are well and statistically documented YET: There's a mystery at the heart of it all. Consider this: Hitler was abused as a child -- in a manner eerily similar to Beethoven's abuse. What made one truly evil incarnate and the other beauty incarnate?Patricia Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08798150460282018354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5968119896288127912.post-26028524100576866432011-01-10T18:13:55.727-08:002011-01-10T18:13:55.727-08:00I think it’s nothing short of amazing that within ...I think it’s nothing short of amazing that within a few hours of your post, Jerry, the co-director and producer of the film responds to it. I am curious about how you came to know about this film, and also, like Judy, where you saw it. This is a remarkable story I’d never heard. <br /><br />Let me take a stab at why people do good. I believe that each human being is endowed with innate goodness from creation. I’m not a scripture scholar by any means, but in Genesis we read that God looked at what He’d created and saw that it was good. However, once we’re born and free will kicks in, we act in accord with the value systems we adopt. Most people adopt values based on sound principles: solid moral and ethical principles that steer us towards the “right” choices, those that would have us do good. Although this is in accord with Christianity, the same sound principles that point to doing good are found in most major religions, if we are to believe Stephen Covey, who based his well-known “Seven Habits” on these principles. He says, and I agree, that principles govern. It would surely seem they did in the case of Francisca Halamajowa. Maybe the question is what separates those who perform heroic acts from the rest of us. I have no theory for an answer to that. Thanks for a very thought-provoking post. NedNed Kesslerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01187039953202486033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5968119896288127912.post-37675235591180178642011-01-10T15:09:35.417-08:002011-01-10T15:09:35.417-08:00Dear Gerald,
I enjoyed reading your blog. I am th...Dear Gerald,<br /><br />I enjoyed reading your blog. I am the co-director and producer of this film. Mine was one of the three families saved by Francisca Halamajowa and her daughter, Helena. In response to the question, you pose at the end of your piece, none of us really knows why she did what she did, except that she did it out of a basic sense that this was the right thing to do. I'm interested in knowing where you saw the film.<br />Thanks, JudyAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13967278122266599763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5968119896288127912.post-26708352938620345532011-01-09T20:13:40.829-08:002011-01-09T20:13:40.829-08:00Hello, Mr. Schiffhorst.
I was told about your blog...Hello, Mr. Schiffhorst.<br />I was told about your blog by our mutual friend Ned.<br />Your topic today is one I have long been fascinated with, perhaps even more resonant because even after a long career as a mental health professional, it remains as much a mystery as before. There's a book written by the psychiatrist who interviewed the Nuremberg defendants that sheds some light on this (they all blamed Hitler, and reported Himmler blamed Hitler). And a book on the <br /> choices in WW II describes movingly of a whole French town that acts as a kind of underground railroad for Jewish persons (actually much higher - they spirited them through the Alps). Although none told the others what they were doing, it was preached by both of the village clergy (also helping unbeknownst to each other!)<br />I appreciate your slant on it - why do people do good? I see it even from yesterday. It's easy to say we'd all have tackled the shooter when he was reloading but his tacklers couldn't have known what else he had or what he'd do.Patricia Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08798150460282018354noreply@blogger.com