Ben & Me: From Temperance to Humility--Stumbling Through Ben Franklin's Thirteen Virtues,One Unvirtuous Day at a Time
Cameron Gunn
Language: English
Pages: 146
ISBN: 2:00050295
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Thirteen weeks. Thirteen virtues.
Cameron Gunn considered himself a regular guy-a pretty good husband, father, attorney, and friend.
But was there room for improvement?
A reader of history and a fan of Ben Franklin (and weary of self-help advice that never seems to offer much help), Gunn decided to try a little experiment. He would attempt to live by Franklin's thirteen virtues, a list of lofty ideals the Founding Father held dear, as enumerated in his famous autobiography.
Would Gunn's plan to improve his life, Citizen Ben-style, prove to be a brilliant reinvention of the self-help movement or a boondoggle of revolutionary proportions?
By turns heartfelt, hilarious, and more than a little humbling, Gunn's adventure takes this ordinary man way outside his comfort zone and into a thicket of not-so-modern values. The result is an engaging mix of humor and history-with perhaps a lightning bolt of inspiration or two along the way.
Prepare to get up close and personal with everyone's favorite Founding Father.
Temperance * Silence * Order * Resolution * Frugality * Industry * Sincerity * Justice * Moderation * Cleanliness * Tranquility * Chastity * Humility
about Leland and Faye Gunn? I know everybody says that they have the best parents in the world, but they’re lying because I have the best parents in the world. They taught me right from wrong. Life can be tough, whether you’re trying to be a better person or just trying to get through the day. It helps to have great partners. I’ve got the greatest. My wife, Michelle, and my children, Kelsey, Harper, and Darcy, make my life, virtuous or not, special and interesting. This book is dedicated to
calloused thumbs, I feel like wrenching the device from their hands, flinging it as far as I can, and screaming, “You’re not that important. You can wait until you’ve finished your soup before you see what other fool is rudely sending off generally trivial information.” I know, that doesn’t seem very virtuous, but stick with me. Maybe Tranquillity is going to be a welcome week. And yet, as much as I hate emails, I’m not sure how I would survive without them. Perhaps my annoyance for those that
modern criticism of television has focused on the effect that it has on younger viewers. Anyone who has seen a six-year-old stare, slack-jawed and droopy-eyed, at the screen for more than five minutes understands this concern. But how much time is lost by adults with that same glazed-over stare? I am not, of course, advocating a ban on television. But somewhere between Dick Stacey’s Country Jamboree and American Idol, it occurred to me that at the very least I should feel guilty about my viewing
assessment for her own reasons. She deserved Sincerity. You see, I knew, when my wife asked me what I thought of her, that she asked it in the context of her ongoing internal struggle over whether or not she had made the right choice to forgo her career—at least temporarily—to stay home with our three young children (she was just returning to work on a part-time basis). It is a classic struggle manifested by the nature of our modern society, one made all the more poignant for my wife by the fact
means: “What Would Jesus Do?” ’ She went on to explain that the bracelets were part of her youth group Bible project. They had decided as a group that they would wear these wristbands to remind them of an important principle. Whenever they were uncertain about their action, or whenever they were facing a decision that was novel or difficult, they would ask themselves, ‘What would Jesus do?’ ” Sounded exactly like what I should be asking, at least on this week. One had only to follow the