13 Sept 2026
Our Way of Proceeding
I take a little camp chair to a hill near the house some mornings. I call it pond hill. There is a pond. And a hill. Not my best branding but it's stuck now.
The pond is full of frogs (or toads?) during the summer. Well, I guess they are there in the winter too.
Writing out highlights from books I've read is one of the ways I get my mornings going. Up on that hill, in the city, or wherever. Here’s one:
"Self-awareness, ingenuity, love, and heroism. Not four techniques, but four principles forming one way of living, one modo de proceder."
That's from Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney. A book on how the Jesuits were built and why they lasted. Religion isn't the point here. Whether you agree with them or not, they built something that lasted five hundred years. That's the point.
After writing that, I stopped and said, "Wait a second. This word heroism. That's a big word. That means a lot to me. Did it mean something less in the 1540s?"
Turns out heroism didn't mean something less, it meant something more. Today, our use of the word hero has flattened. We apply it to athletes or someone who returns your lost wallet. Back then, a hero sat somewhere between human and god. A demigod.
So what else might have been lost in translation in that quote, intentionally or not? Lowney was modernizing the ideas. That's okay, but I wanted to understand what Loyola said. What were the principles he wanted for the culture of the Compañía de Jesús? I’ll give you Lowney's word first, then what Loyola actually wrote (translated from Spanish).
Self-awareness: "Inward knowledge of yourself"
(conocimiento interno)
He means self-knowledge, which only comes through daily self-examination. Unlike other orders where monks would spend hours in reflection, Loyola thought a quarter of an hour two times a day was enough. Sit down and examine what is going on with you.
This is the core of my mornings. Sometimes handwritten, sometimes typed. What's happening around me now? What's going on in my head? Where am I holding on too tight? Or too loose?
For some reason, when it's out I can process it more rationally. A kind of hard drive defrag, for those of us who remember that.
Ingenuity: "Make ourselves indifferent"
(hacernos indiferentes)
Ingenuity is Lowney's word. Indifferent or unattached is more accurate. Searching for the right way. Not callous, not uncaring. Ready. Curious. "Always keep one foot raised." Step in the right direction when you know.
Commit, but give yourself freedom to move. To adjust as the facts change, or the world does. It makes me think, "When do I get stuck on my ideas?" Because they are mine.
Love: "Love shows itself more in deeds than in words"
(el amor se debe poner más en las obras que en las palabras)
The early Jesuits described what held them together as mutual affection. Unity of hearts. I'd go further. Maximum mutual affection. Maybe a new way to use the acronym MMA. When you have it, you can feel it.
Heroism: "Distinguish yourself in all service"
(señalarse en todo servicio)
He is advocating service. Not heroism. We should reserve that for real heroes. Usually they aren't around to thank after.
It’s what we practice, not say, that becomes our way of proceeding. What you believe deeply ends up being how you make your way. Or don't.
Here's what I'm taking with me.
Self-knowledge: Reflect. Daily. Try to understand yourself. Indifference: Curious. Unattached. One foot raised. Ready to move. Love: Actions. Maximum mutual affection (MMA).Service: Distinguish yourself through service, not words.
Those are principles that built something that lasted five hundred years.
And we don’t need to be heroes. The mission doesn’t need to be grand. Sometimes there’s work to do and people to love. And that’s enough.
Take care. Be good.
-kv
P.S. I looked it up. The frogs are on the bottom of the pond. Breathing through their skin. The toads dig down below the frost line in the woods. Both slow way down when it’s time. Maybe there’s a lesson there too. Nature is so cool.
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