Obligation versus Agreements

You don’t owe anybody anything. You will not turn out to be* a miserable monster if you don’t have obligations riding you. You have free intelligence, and you can decide moment to moment.

Now this is not the same as making agreements and not keeping them. That’s an entirely different business. Re-evaluation Counseling, as a Community, cannot function without the agreements. If we’re going to have joint efforts, we have to make and keep agreements. But that’s not the same as being obligated. You can retire from the RC Community anytime if the agreements are onerous to you, but don’t stay in and break them.

Harvey Jackins
From the July 1986 Peace and Disarmament Activists’ Workshop


* “Turn out to be” means result in being.


Last modified: 2022-12-25 10:17:04+00