{"id":995,"date":"2014-08-18T08:10:16","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T20:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=995"},"modified":"2014-08-28T16:57:12","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T04:57:12","slug":"speak-your-truth-quietly-and-clearly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=995","title":{"rendered":"Speak your truth quietly and clearly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=994\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-994\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-994\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/desiderata.jpg\" alt=\"desiderata\" width=\"252\" height=\"261\" \/><\/a>Back in my student days, it seemed that almost every one of my contemporaries owned a copy of <em>Desiderata<\/em>.\u00a0 It was usually displayed in poster form \u2013 alongside the mandatory posters of Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Che Guevara.<\/p>\n<p>More often than not, the poem was credited to Anonymous and was described as having been found in an old church \u2013 sometimes named as Old St Paul\u2019s \u2013 in 1692.\u00a0 In fact the poem\u00a0was written much later.\u00a0 In 1927.\u00a0 By a chap named Max Ehrmann.\u00a0 But why let a few facts get in the way of a good story?<\/p>\n<p>With a particularly acrimonious election campaign now underway, I recently found myself recalling snatches of <em>Desiderata<\/em>.\u00a0 In particular, I found myself recalling the part that advises:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2018Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Also, the further suggestion:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2018Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>What is it about politics that makes so many people \u2013 politicians, journalists, and entrenched supporters of one side or the other (but, regrettably, mainly from the left) \u2013 feel that they need to shout?\u00a0 What is it that makes them feel that they need to be loud and aggressive?<\/p>\n<p>Trust me: if you have something worth saying, you may speak your truth quietly and clearly and I will be only too happy to listen.\u00a0 But if you persist in shouting, I will simply attend to more measured voices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in my student days, it seemed that almost every one of my contemporaries owned a copy of Desiderata.\u00a0 It was usually displayed in poster form \u2013 alongside the mandatory posters of Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Che Guevara. More &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=995\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":998,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions\/998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}