Discernment is the proper balance of Wisdom and Compassion. When expressed perfectly the wise thing to do is also the compassionate thing to do.

Wisdom in my mind is the combination of knowledge and perspective expressed. The older I gets the more I figure out that the best expression is often no-action. As they say ‘you cannot push the river’.

Compassion on the other hand is hard to put into words as it is grace that you are actually trying to define. Outside of actually witnessing it in action you can sometimes recognize it in poetry. It is easiest to speak to what it is not. The Victim – Perpetrator – Rescuer triangle comes up as a good reference to speak to.

Identifying with any of these is not compassion, it is known as idiot compassion.

Being the victim as to not cause problems is not compassionate. Allowing the Perpetrator to continue they’re abuse is an error that will harm others and cheats the perpetrator from growing.

Being the Perpetrator is fairly obvious. There is a thin line between holding someone accountable and victimizing them. The rule of thumb I learned in the workplace was that to be accountable they had to have responsibility and authority, which holds true in the world as well.

Being the Rescuer is where idiot’s compassion plays out most often. The Rescuer is most often righteousness in disguise. People do need a hand up, but as they say, teach them to fish. If rescuing is not in the moment, such as grabbing a runaway baby buggy, then it is very difficult to maintain.

The truth is that you are always victim, perpetrator, rescuer and taking action; that is being human. Being aware of this instead of operating blindly out of habit makes all the difference.

So with all of this in mind I ask myself what am I doing here. Yes I am trying to rescue a certain group in my community and here on LinkedIn. Yes to the majority here, as LinkedIn claims, I am a perpetrator of thinking outside of comfort zones. Technically I am a victim of censorship; however I fully expected LinkedIn and those that feed from the corporate structure to not like what I had to say.

I have no interest in wasting energy battling LinkedIn, there are other venues, so I will de-escalate my posts here and focus elsewhere. It is also clear from private messages that having you help me propagate this on LI is a lot to ask of you. I will post from time to time as things come up and to remind those new arrivals out of corporate life that there are alternatives.

If you wish to see more it will all be on www.fiveranks.org and soon likely be posted on FB to a page titled Corporate Rehab. Or follow me @PrajnaAbility on twitter for tweets of new postings.

May your life go well