So I’m reading an article on Beliefnet.com, an interview with Susan Sarandon actually, and I find myself saying, “Yes, that’s it.” Just this past weekend I was having a conversation with a friend about the shift that occurs when you do the right thing because it comes naturally as opposed to because “it’s the right thing.” It’s a subtle shift, and such a gratifying one.
In the interview, Susan Sarandon talks about the rite of passage she practices with her kids. They take on a project that involves helping others. For example, her 16-year-old son and his friends joined her and her friends in putting up drywall in a four-story brownstone in Harlem; it was through Habitat For Humanity. She says:
It’s so rewarding to know you’re capable of doing that. I want my kids to understand the joy of that. Not the self-congratulatory “I’m such a good person” kind of thing, but just the sense of accomplishment. You’re working with people who are going to live there.
So I would hope they would develop some kind of habit that involves understanding that their life is so full they can afford to give in all kinds of ways to other people. I consider that to be baseline spirituality.
The heart is a muscle like every other muscle. The more you use it …
Yes. That’s it.
