Value Full Life: Values, Growth, and Development for an Individual and an American Identity from a Clinical Perspective

By Elizabeth Cunningham LCSW ACSW

Value Full Life is a framework of eleven core values encouraging us to come together and work toward the growth and development of possibilities and aspirations. These values combine respect for oneself and one’s world, encompassing the development of esteem and honor for our unique individuality and all that surrounds us. Value Full Life is a concise expression of philosophies for living, along with core values that have been relevant to the success of the United States of America. Value Full Life emphasizes a blend of natural science, human history and behavior, and clinical competencies that are relevant from a personal and social system perspective. The author incorporates a historic legacy of wisdom from spiritual traditions, Native Americans, the Founding Fathers, and other American leaders to define a value system that can help bring us together and secure a stronger foundation for future endeavors. The United States, and we as individual citizens, are at an intersection with history. Value Full Life takes into account the many factors that contribute to the urgency of our times including the challenges facing the world today, the political divide in the United States, pace and scope of change, volume of exposure to information, and unprecedented complexity of our modern world. The values emphasized in Value Full Life are stepping stones and belief systems that can inspire healthy perspectives and life competencies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973660033

Elizabeth Cunningham LCSW ACSW

Elizabeth Cunningham is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with almost 40 years of experience as a practicing Social Worker and Clinical Therapist. As a former Clinical Director and Clinical Consultant of a multifunction child welfare organization, her work with families, children, and adults includes thousands of unique interactions. She has been honored to work and help many individuals grow into a healing continuum of health and growth. This essay reflects her belief in the innate capability for each of us to develop competencies in order to find solace, work towards recovery, and ultimately experience stability and joy. She understands the depth of pain people encounter in their many experiences in life and works to help them recover and find their authentic selves amidst the suffering. She sees each person as a beautiful prism and helps to empower them in their journey toward growth and healing. Elizabeth Cunningham is the daughter of a Navy warrior who fought and served during World War II. His Navy transport ship brought back some of the first prisoners of war from Japan, many of whom suffered extreme trauma. He reminds us that “Freedom is not free.” As the daughter of a military veteran, duty to our country and service to others have been stalwart values. This book is dedicated to the American family, and particularly my father and other military or service personnel, who serve a cause greater than themselves. Those that serve will tell you that it doesn’t matter what politics or religion one has, they each work together and protect one another with their lives. We honor their combined sacrifice. Inspired by patriotism, this work is an attempt to cultivate values, personal competencies, and fully embrace our unique American identity so that peace and achievement may prevail.

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Copyright © 2019 Elizabeth Cunningham, LCSW, ACSW.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Passages quoted from The Biophilia Effect English Translation Copyright © 2018, by Clemens G. Arvay, republished with permission of Clemens G Arvay.

Passages quoted from Native American Wisdom Copyright © 1991, Compiled and Edited by Kent Nerburn and Louise Mengelkoch, republished with permission of Kent Nerburn.

Passages quoted from The Ultimate Quotable Einstein Copyright © 2011 by Princeton University Press and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, collected and edited by Alice Calaprice, republished with permission of Princeton University Press, permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6004-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6005-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-6003-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019904818

WestBow Press rev. date: 4/30/2019

Contents

Introduction

1 Living with the Value of Equality with Diversity

2 Living with the Value of Honor

3 Living with the Value of Sacred Trust

4 Living with the Value of a Connection to Nature

5 Living with the Value that we can be Strong and Kind at the Same Time

6 Living with the Value of Growth and Development

7 Living with the Value of Compassion

8 Living with the Value of Seven Generations

9 Living with the Value of Something Greater than Ourselves

10 Living with the Value of an Attitude of Abundance with Gratitude

11 Living with the Value of an Aspirational American Identity

References

Acknowledgments

It is with gratitude that I recognize my husband, Dr. Steve Cunningham. His expertise as a national presenter on diversity and his background in socioeconomics were invaluable as a contributing author. The hours he spent editing and working with references were essential in bringing this book to completion. I am also grateful to my brother Dave Arnold, Esq, a legal contracts attorney who applied his capable legal lens to line editing and helped to fine tune this document into its final form. I am eternally thankful for the love and support from my family and my daughters. My mother’s unconditional love enabled me to love others unconditionally.

This book is dedicated to generations of the American family and particularly my father and other military or service personnel who serve a cause greater than themselves. It is with prayerful hope that we can learn to care for one another and work together to solve the imminent challenges facing the earth today so that future generations can experience the beauty of this planet that we have been gifted.

Overview

Value Full Life emphasizes a blend of natural science, human history and behavior, and clinical applications that are relevant from a personal and social system perspective. The author incorporates a historical legacy of wisdom from Native Americans, the Founding Fathers, and other American leaders to develop a value system that can help lead and guide us into the future. The emphasis is upon values that can bring us together and secure a stronger foundation for future endeavors and aspirations. Educational information is incorporated to promote health and growth for individuals, organizations, and our society.

As of the time frame of this writing in 2018, the political divide in the United States has prompted a prolific expression of perspectives from well-known and not so well-known writers that represent a call for awareness of the staggering changes that are afoot at the national level. These changes have prompted a need to express and contemplate the status of our long-held values in the face of such far reaching change in order to keep focus on the very nature of our national/societal leadership and values throughout our governmental and private sector organizations at all levels. The outpouring of books and publications is heartening insofar as these represent an expression of ourselves in the face of unprecedented complexity, pace and scope of change, exposure by virtue of electronic communications, reliance on technology (and internationalism) in the modern economy, and division in this country at all levels extending from national leadership to neighbors, friends, and coworkers. This outpouring is indicative of the stakes that exist and are at play in the current national and geopolitical environments for the future of this country. It certainly feels as though we are at an intersection with history. A small representative subset of these important publications include:

• Madeline Albright – Fascism, A Warning (2018)

• Amy Chua – Political Tribes, Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations (2018)

• Khizr Khan – This is Our Constitution, Discover America with a Gold Star Father (2017)

• Jon Meacham – The Soul of America, The Battle For Our Better Angels (2018)

• Jason Stanley – How Fascism Works, The Politics of Us and Them (2018)

Value Full Life is intended to be a concise expression of philosophies for living, along with core values that we see as having been relevant to the success of the United States, and of individuals in their many pursuits, which collectively have produced the unique thrust of human progress attributable to the history of this United States of America. At a time when the relevance of long-developed core values, including the role and status of the United States leadership as the world sponsor of globalism and human dignity is in question, concern for the future and love for this country prompted the writing of Value Full Life.

Introduction

Value Full Life includes living a life with realistic Ethics and Values. It combines respect for oneself and one’s world. It is an attempt to find some common ground upon which to interact. It encompasses the development of esteem and honor for our unique individuality and all that surrounds us. Value Full Life is a framework of values encouraging us to come together working for growth, development, and the achievement of our possibilities and aspirations.

In a world where conflict and discord seem to be prevailing, what are the values upon which we can agree? We each have our own history and perspective that comes with the summation of our experiences. We are many tribes and many ethnicities, yet living on one planet.

What does it mean to be a citizen of planet Earth? Astronauts talk about the beauty of our planet which holds no defined boundaries of actual citizenship. They can’t see where states or countries are divided. Yet identities are forged as the result of where we are born and with whom we associate. Health, opportunity, and fortune are the roll of the dice. Character and virtue is what we do with what we are given. I am entitled to blessings no more than the least blessed person living on this earth. In fact, I could be them and they could be me. The question is do I see them?

For those of us fortunate to be born in a first-world country, our blessings far outweigh those who struggle with poverty, hunger, displacement, violence, and disease. It seems to me that there are many goals to which we can aspire. How can we come together to focus on solving problems? It is my hope that living a Value Full Life helps one focus on the deeper purpose of living and, from this perspective, Value Full Life becomes a forum for opportunities of innovation and health.

Value Full Life incorporates the following Values:

• Living with the Value of Equality with Diversity

• Living with the Value of Honor

• Living with the Value of Sacred Trust

• Living with the Value of a Connection to Nature

• Living with the Value that we can be Strong and Kind at the same time

• Living with the Value of Growth and Development

• Living with the Value of Compassion

• Living with the Value of Seven Generations

• Living with the Value of Something Greater than Ourselves

• Living with the Value of an Attitude of Abundance with Gratitude

• Living with the Value of an Aspirational American Identity

Life lives only in the moment. We all share the same moment of time and existence, which passes for everyone and all living things simultaneously – a great equalizing factor. Each moment of time occurs simultaneously across the universe, encompassing that moment of existence for all living things. We perceive time as a span of existence, which is composed of the immediate moment connected to the series of past moments and projected by the future we anticipate standing in the current moment. In the moment, everything universal (proximate and distant) is connected (relativity). Every moment leads to the future and leaves the past forever behind. Biological organisms provide the capacity to exist (consciousness), act within (self-determination), and retain life across multiple moments (life span). However, living occurs only in the current moment, which is infinitesimally discrete and focused. We can remember the past, but can’t relive or change it. It is gone. We can influence the future by the actions and the course of actions we take in the moment, but the future does not exist either, until we live through those future moments. Making the most of the moment is essential to maximizing life, experience, and accomplishment. Our values greatly influence our perspectives and decisions as we navigate the course of life.

You’re alive, welcome to this moment. Carry your values with you on your travels, as they provide meaning, purpose, and a guide to your existence as it passes.

1

Living with the Value of Equality with Diversity

Living with the value of equality with diversity incorporates that we are each equal in our unique worthiness as a human being. No one has greater value than another. The value of one human being is no less than that of another. There is an inherent dignity in every one of us in our unique personhood. The concept of equality is equivalent to worthiness yet does not dictate sameness. In fact, an intrinsic aspect of the concept of equality is a recognition of the multifaceted complexity of our individual uniqueness.

Loren Eisely (1978) wrote a story about a little boy on a beach. When asked why he was throwing a starfish back into the ocean when so many of them were beached and unable to return on their own, he told the questioner: It makes a difference for this one. The little boy in the story believed that even though he couldn’t save them all, he could make a difference for a few. He saw each one as worthy of helping. Each one of them held intrinsic value in his eyes.

The beauty of living with the value of equality with diversity is that we celebrate our equal worth while also celebrating the multifaceted complexity of our individual uniqueness. We each have many similarities, yet each of us has our own DNA, our own genetic makeup, and our own experiences. Just as the little boy saw worth in each starfish, we can find equal worth in every human being.

When we hold onto the value of equality while embracing our diversity, we form a circle of us instead of competing with the other. Genetically, there is really no scientific concept of race. Instead, genetic variability of individuals sharing characteristics identified as similar racial groups exceeds or equals genetic variability of individuals from different populations. In other words, there is no reason to assume that someone who looks different is in fact fundamentally different from you in a genetic sense. When we begin to see each other through a prism of equality with diversity, we become less fearful or threatened by the other. We might be less likely to project specific or generalized traits if we all looked alike, yet how boring life would be if we were each just a clone.

Natural diversity incorporates both biological and experiential differentiation. For example, (Ramirez 2001) suggested a theory of cultural diversity. The author illuminated the lack of a genetic basis for diversity (summarized from genetic and anthropological studies) and refuted what was described as an artificial emphasis on racial versus cultural diversity reinforced by political and legal systems. Thus, scholars have observed that instead of simplistic racial categories, human biological variation and diversity should be understood as a far more complex phenomenon involving both visible and invisible biological traits combined with life and cultural experiences. This multicultural perspective is more consistent with recognizing the unique personhood of each individual.

The United States of America was born after the triumphant defeat of the British Empire. A new America was forged by men who fought with valor and honor. Their aspiration was of a government and a society as reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (Thomas Jefferson 1776)

The signers of the Declaration of Independence vowed to stand together in 1776 and agreed to, mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. They envisioned a democratic nation that was governed by individual liberties, the rule of law, justice, and a Bill of Rights.

Khizr Khan is a Gold Star father and Pakistani immigrant who was inspired to publish a textbook titled This Is Our Constitution (2017), dedicated to all our nation’s middle school students and their teachers. The author describes the First Amendment along with nine other amendments that are commonly called the Bill of Rights. As explained by Khan, the First Amendment incorporates a freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom to peaceably assemble and petition to combine voices and amplify our messages and the right to ask our government to find a solution. Furthermore, the Fourteenth Amendment stipulates that no state, shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (27-30).

Equality is embedded throughout the rule of law and further personified in the United States’ judicial system imprimatur expressed as Lady Justice, whereby her three distinctive features (blindfold, scales, and sword) represent the constitutional values of impartiality, equality, due process, and justice under the law.

Our forefathers were dedicated warriors and brilliant scholars who wanted the lands that they loved and fought for to be free from tyranny and oppression. George Washington, the father of our country, believed in our young country’s capability to aspire to a stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining (1783).

Secure attachments with others frequently lead to a rooted system of hope and idealism. Insecure attachments make us distrust others at the onset. The more we have experienced hostile interactions with others, the greater we typically perceive threats and become defensive. The more defensive we are, the more we might look to the strong man. The strong man can make us feel protected, whether in fact he is sowing the ground for security or has more self-serving motivations. In the case of the latter, the strong man designs an illusion to fight against the other. It is important that leadership accurately portrays enemies that do exist versus trumped-up demons designed to manipulate and divide. The rogue strong man elicits a hierarchical system of inequality by embracing beliefs that the other is a threat to our homeland or our resources, when this may not be the case. The rogue authority will get us to believe that the other is a lesser human being than us. Respect for one another, or the Golden Rule, flies out the window. We lower ourselves to our basic tribal instincts to fight. While conflict and division permeate our society, the rogue authoritarian quietly uses this distraction to undermine the rule of law and develop a system of corruption and greed that serves himself personally. The illusion becomes a subterfuge for personal power and corruption. Keeping our eyes open to accurately discern our true adversaries is important. Democracy can either be uplifted or denigrated depending upon the motivations of its leaders. Protecting our democratic institutions is an inherent responsibility of governmental leadership.

As the daughter of a Navy warrior, I shoulder the mantle for which he fought. I believe in the doctrine of our American Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I carry the responsibility to uphold those values for which the Greatest Generation fought. Hitler was a scourge upon the world. His hate and cruelty will forever be remembered in infamy. His manipulation of propaganda and hateful violence set the scene for tribalism that led to his totalitarian regime. He created enemies within the populace. Yet, he was a man who was elected within his own nation. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States went to war against Japan and entered World War II to help stop the global spread of fascism. Freedom, liberty, and equality are never free. Many have sacrificed their lives and limbs for our freedom, security, and prosperity.

Our country also fought a Civil War and many died to defend the principles of equality. The challenge is to be mindful of the emergence of authority that invokes differences within the populace to divide and sow discourse for purposes of the authority’s own self-empowerment. Abraham Lincoln is known for expressing his confidence in the strength of America in asserting his belief that America would never be destroyed from the outside. In one of his earliest published speeches from Springfield, Illinois, titled The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions and known as the Lyceum Address (1838), he asserted that if we faltered and lost our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves:

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.

Throughout history, there have been periods when different cultures/civilizations have reached unprecedented levels of enlightenment, technology, and artistry whereby intellectualism and culture superseded trends of primitive tribalism allowing for expression of human capability. These periods resulted in many great societies throughout the world and prompted much of the technological progress that we enjoy today. However, simultaneous with the enlightenment of progress there have been consistent rises, falls, and outbreaks of abhorrent and malevolent behavior typically arising from episodes of self-absorbed leadership enforcing rage and intolerance against the other as a means to divide societies and bolster their political status. Such leaders emphasize one versus the other.

When the flames of hate and fear are stoked, reactions become inflamed. Insecurity leads to a primal fight-or-flight response and we easily become poised to battle. It is a human evolutionary response and reaction. The challenge is to stop and think. Authority can be honorable or dishonorable, aligning