Today on Public Radio I heard a psychologist give a modern day understanding of something I learned a long time ago “that you become what you think.” I heard it originally in the context of a motivation talk, on audio tape called “The Strangest Secret” based on a writing in 1956 by Earl Nightingale. It has been used in “positive thinking” and other methods teaching people the power of the mind, the power of thought. Actually the thought can be traced back to a saying from Buddha, “The mind is everything. What you think you become.”

I have seen the truth of this statement in my own life. I have always been a “positive thinker” seeing the good in everything, even curses becoming blessings. But recently I am worried because people have called me a ‘negative person’. I am not sure if it is because I am saying things “they do not want to hear” or I am negative or maybe a little bit of both.

I think deep down I am still a positive thinking. I get upset when I see institutions I respect, like Marquette University or St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP)in Milwaukee do things I feel are wrong, like teaching war and killing at Marquette or taking money belonging to poor to serve suburbanites like the local SVDP. They both can and are ignoring me but my respect and love for the people in these two groups does not allow me to treat them like they do not exist and are not good persons. Being positive I think I keep trying to dialog with them even though they ignore me. I can become negative at times, especially when my attempt to reach out is ignored and I am insulted and called names for trying.

Some say I am not ‘diplomatic’ in the way I approach people with my opinions and beliefs. So I tried to do research and get my facts in line before I write or speak out. But that seems not to work. I can give officials at Marquette University quotes from the Ethics Professor at West Point and show them the Army Manuel about teaching young men and women how to kill on reflex, without use of conscience and they still the message is ignored. I took Milwaukee’s SVDP actual approved budget for the year and put it on a pie chart showing how little goes to the poor and am still ignored.

The facts do not seem to matter so in the vein of Gandhi’s teaching have gone to heart teaching, doing something nonviolent and provocative to get attention to the message. But instead of hearing the message the ‘powers that be’ further marginalized me in effort not to hear message.

Once, on the advice of friend I used a parable Thy Kingdom Come…on Earth as it is in Heaven to communicate my point. Some said they liked it but the real decision makers just ignored it.

Maybe I need to practice becoming what I think by practicing Gandhi’s teachings like: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” and so like Gandhi make “My life is my message.” All this is not easy and something I will probably never obtain. However, I can try.

But to use another Gandhi quote “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson says it in another way: “We become what we think about all day long.”

So we are back to step one, “You become what you think.”

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