Some governments have rules against cruel and unusual punishment, but still put prisoners in solitary confinement. I said that it is not good for the man to be alone, and this is universal, and still applies. Yet a far greater number choose solitary confinement for themselves, or accept it without seeking community. Contact with other people is essential for well-being. How particular are you about whom you will associate with? Don’t be so fussy that you isolate yourself. While you are on your search for your community of like-minded people engage with the people you meet on the way.

I said that if your brother offends you, you need to go to your brother. Have you found that this is a very difficult thing to do? This can result in a hard conversation, but your brother may have offended you unawares, and it might be easily resolved. Even if it is not you have put the issue in the open. What is the easy thing to do? Cut off all contact without a word or a trace? Easier still to spread the word and enlist support from any third parties who will hear you, to vindicate and justify yourself. Have either or both of these things ever been done to you? Don’t do them yourself.

I said that unless you are converted and become as little children you would not enter the Kingdom of God. Yet you have already been a child. So this statement implies that you have lost something you once had that is essential to life. What could it be? Have noticed that children have a sense of wonder and live in a world of enchantment? They get over this in due course. So it is appropriate to ask if this is true or not, and if it is a valid and useful way to see the world. Do you live in a world I created? Every time you open your eyes do you see something I made with divine intention?

Would you rather be judged by your achievements or by your faults? How do you judge others? it is easier to judge by faults, for once committed they provide a basis for judgment, condemnation, and rejection that cannot be erased. Achievements take longer to accumulate, and a more lengthy and attentive observation. What about the person who has little or none of either? Is this the mark of a worthy life, to have done nothing either good nor bad? You know that forgiveness is available for your faults, and for the faults of others as well. What is the remedy for lack of accomplishment?