Choosing Nobility in Daily Life

Everyone longs to accomplish something meaningful. Yet most of life is filled with small, everyday tasks that can seem insignificant. Perhaps the real measure is not the task itself, but the spirit with which we approach it. Helen Keller expressed this beautifully:

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

Even the smallest actions, when carried out with grace and sincerity, can remind us of our true purpose. The Bahá’í writings affirm this noble identity:

“Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created.”

The Challenge of Criticism

It is easy to fall into the habit of criticising others. Yet Abraham Lincoln offered wise counsel:

“We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.”

Living nobly is easier when we have role models whose actions embody higher ideals. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá observed:

“… Spiritual philosophers … ever express their high and noble thoughts in actions.”

Without such examples, we risk sinking to the “lowest common norm.” But leadership teacher John C. Maxwell reminded us that deep within, everyone longs to rise higher:

“Every person has a longing to be significant; to make a contribution; to be a part of something noble and purposeful.”

Choosing a Noble Goal

Noble living requires both effort and intention. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged:

“… make ye a mighty effort, and choose for yourselves a noble goal.”

Once chosen, the challenge is to remain faithful to that goal, remembering who we truly are. True friends help us in this journey. George Bernard Shaw wrote:

“The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.”

Shoghi Effendi explained that the best guidance comes not through words but through the power of example:

“… if the friends become embodiments of virtue and good character, words and arguments will be superfluous.”

True Nobility

Too often we compare ourselves with others, taking pride in their shortcomings. Ernest Hemingway reminded us:

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”

This daily decision—to be better than we were yesterday—is the true path of progress. And progress finds its highest expression in service to others. Khalil Gibran wrote:

“Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave this vision of noble service:

“… strive that your actions day by day may be beautiful prayers. Turn towards God, and seek always to do that which is right and noble. Enrich the poor, raise the fallen, comfort the sorrowful, bring healing to the sick, reassure the fearful, rescue the oppressed, bring hope to the hopeless, shelter the destitute!”

Aspiration Versus Ambition

Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor, distinguished between ambition and aspiration:

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.”

To live nobly, we must set our sights on ideals greater than ourselves. Gary Hamel put it simply:

“A noble purpose inspires sacrifice, stimulates innovation and encourages perseverance.”

Such a purpose often means planting seeds whose fruits we may never see. D. Elton Trueblood observed:

“It takes a noble man to plant a seed for a tree that will someday give shade to people he may never meet.”

Awakening Nobility in Others

At times, we may wonder what difference one life can make in a world bent on selfishness. James Russell Lowell offered reassurance:

“Be noble, and the nobleness that lies in other men, sleeping but never dead, will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”

History provides shining examples. Epictetus, born a slave in Rome, rose to become a renowned Stoic philosopher. He taught:

“To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education; to accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun; to accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.”

For him, nobility meant mastering one’s judgments and actions so completely that external circumstances and the faults of others no longer held sway.

What was wrong with Caligula and why are bad leaders so toxic?

 Caligula: Mad Tyrant or Misunderstood Ruler?

When you think of history’s worst leaders, one name almost always comes up: Caligula. Over the years, films and books have painted him as the ultimate villain—cruel, paranoid, sexually perverse, and hopelessly corrupt. He became emperor in his twenties, and within just a few years, he was assassinated.

It’s easy to see why he’s remembered as the ultimate “bad ruler.” But here’s the twist: many of the most shocking stories about him probably aren’t true.

Take the infamous tale of him making his horse consul. Great story, but ancient sources suggest it never really happened. Same with the rumours about incest with his sister—his enemies never mentioned it at the time, which makes it pretty unlikely. Even his supposed unpopularity has been exaggerated. In reality, it looks like later historians—and Hollywood—added layers of scandal to make him seem even more monstrous.

So, what was really going on with Caligula?

The Medical Mystery

In 2024, I stumbled across a fascinating paper on Google Scholar that tried to answer this question. The researchers weren’t debating his politics—they were trying to diagnose his health.

The leading theory? Epilepsy. Members of the Julian family (to which Caligula belonged) were known to have it, and ancient writers mention he suffered from the “falling sickness” as a child. He would lose consciousness, suffer fevers, and—according to sources—barely sleep more than three hours a night. Combine that with anxiety and erratic moods, and the picture of an unstable young emperor starts to make sense.

But epilepsy wasn’t the only possibility. Another factor could have been alcohol. Romans often sweetened their wine with sapa—a grape syrup boiled in lead pots. That meant every sip contained traces of lead acetate. Modern tests on Roman bones show aristocrats had much higher levels of lead than slaves—because they drank more wine. If Caligula was a heavy drinker, his mental decline may well have been made worse by lead poisoning.

When you put all that together, his bizarre behaviour—sudden mood swings, strange laughter, cruelty, hypersexuality, depression, paranoia—reads less like random madness and more like symptoms of epileptic psychosis, possibly worsened by lead toxicity. Some historians even think he suffered a severe seizure in 37 CE that left him permanently changed.

A Childhood in Trauma

Even before becoming emperor, Caligula’s life was scarred by tragedy. He suffered seizures as a toddler. When he was seven, his father was assassinated. By fourteen, his mother and brothers had been executed by Emperor Tiberius, and his sisters were exiled. Strangely, ancient writers note that he showed little emotion through it all.

By twenty, he was living with Tiberius on Capri—the very man who had destroyed his family. Tiberius himself was painted by historians as a reclusive tyrant, infamous for cruelty and disturbing behaviour. Growing up in that toxic environment almost certainly shaped Caligula’s own brutal reign.

The Bigger Picture

Corrupt emperors like Caligula didn’t just terrorise their inner circles. They poisoned the entire system. Fear trickled down from the palace into every corner of Roman life. Violence, paranoia, and corruption spread like wildfire. Public life became dangerous, politics a death trap, and the very foundations of Roman society began to rot.  Caligula may have been sick, traumatised, and unstable. But he was also emperor—and when absolute power mixes with personal instability, the result can devastate a whole civilisation.

"All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilisation ... Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth". 

Baháʼí Writings

Siege of Weinsberg

In the winter of 1140, the fortress of Weinsberg in Germany was forced to surrender. King Conrad, who had laid siege to the castle, decreed that the women might leave freely, but only with what they could carry upon their shoulders.

When the gates opened, the king’s soldiers expected them to bear gold, silver, and treasures. Instead, each woman carried her husband or a man of the town upon her back.

Moved by their loyalty and wisdom, the king allowed it. Thus the men of Weinsberg were saved—not by armies or weapons, but by the love and devotion of their wives.

"Faithfulness is the cornerstone of love, without which it cannot endure.” 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

PS this legend appears to have emerged decades after the actual real siege took place, but it lifts my heart so I include the tale to raise your spirit too!

Fortress of Wellbeing

Marriage should be a fortress of well-being—a place of safety and sanctity not only for the couple, but also for all who live within, enter, or visit.

Yet even the strongest walls can be breached by unwelcome intruders. They slip in unseen—addictions that steal time, attention, and focus from those who truly deserve it. Such intruders wedge themselves between the couple, draining goodness and kindness from this precious union.

Some arrive with malicious intent, driven by selfish and toxic agendas. Others come with goodwill and kind hearts, yet their words and actions unknowingly cause more harm than the worst enemy, chipping away at the very foundation.

Exhaustion, weariness, boredom, and rigid routines can become self-inflicted wounds, cutting off the water supply that sustains the fortress.

So tend to your defenses—together.

Even if torn out by the roots, heartbroken and lost, choose to stumble or crawl back to one another. Rebuild what has been taken, lost, or forgotten.
We build that fortress daily—with kind hands, gentle words, and attentive actions.

Be the sanctuary for the many souls who may one day find shelter in your fortress of love. And above all, be grateful for the immense privilege of walking this life’s journey with a sweet soul by your side.

May your fortress ever be a thing of beauty—mighty, strong, and uplifting to behold.

The most popular blog postings over last 13 years

 

Windflowers — Blog postings

Table of Windflowers blog posts with working links.

Post title	Page views	Link
I am ever so humble, I am	4,130	humble link
Maximinus Thrax - Giant in stature and gigantically flawed	3,210	Maximinus link
Sa Maison Gardens - remembering Lady Lockwood	2,400	Sa Maison
Malta and its underground tunnels	1,600	Malta tunnels link
My father was upset about the library being burned	1,190	Father upset link
Raised Eyebrows and Demented in Dubai	812	Raised Eyebrows link
Slaves Revolt - Malta	827	Slaves Revolt link
I will rip his arm off and beat him to death with the bloodied stump	599	Rip his arm off link
Foxes Furs, Men on the Moon and Peter Pan	498	Foxes Fur link
Grandmaster Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII meet up	531	Grandmaster link

Can I show you something private? He said, and it made me afraid

 

It was a peculiar question. My neighbour had looked suddenly shifty. Everything had gone well up to that point. I wanted to apply for my over-65 bus and train ticket. Here in Northern Ireland, when you reach that age, you can travel free on all buses and trains, even down to Dublin! It required someone you were not related to to sign the application form.  So I chose my neighbor two doors down, as we had been reasonably friendly at a distance. We would wave at each other through windows or if passing on foot or as our cars passed, so not exactly friendly, but an acquaintance. After I knocked on my neighbour’s door he'd invited me into his tidy living room. Unusual in my experience to find everything in place with a neat pile of books on the table beside his armchair. His wife had died some years earlier and I'd expected chaos but no, he was obviously a tidy person. More importantly he'd been happy to sign my form and fill in the details after he had found his glasses and his hearing aids. 

I thanked him profusely and was getting ready to leave when he looked at me oddly as if assessing me in some way. Then he walked to his rear door leading away to a back room and paused with his hand on the door and said, 

“Can I show you something private?” 

This I have to admit caused me some alarm as I was not at all sure I wanted him to show me anything private at all. We stood in a strange awkward silence as I wrestled with my gratitude for him signing my form with deep unease about being shown into the rear of his property. He said,

“It will have to be our secret, you understand? 

This sounded even worse. The word private was already triggering alarm bells but keeping secrets was what paedophiles said or serial abusers. A perfectly innocent afternoon was turning into something altogether sinister. He opened the door to his back room and gestured for me to enter. I'd just got comfortable in my neighbours living room after all had never entered his house before this. Everything seemed to be going pear shaped for me. He repeated,

“Come in, come in but don't tell anyone!”

This was said with some vehemance as well as persistence. It was politeness more than anything else that had me following him into his back room. Things could become nasty in a minute and I readied myself. I never pass a dog or a human without wandering if I could kill them if necessary. Yes, odd I know, but my life has taken many unexpected terms and a readiness to defend myself to the death has become part of my nature. 

I find myself ushered into a back room that opened out into a sunroom and in that space were eight full-sized motorbikes. As he showed me around he explained he used to drive the bikes to competitions in his younger days. These great gleaming machines would compete with others up and down the country. The tidy living room now made sense. 

Such meticulous attention to detail has its rewards, no wonder it had become second nature. I also suddenly understood why this had to be kept secret. These bikes were very expensive. People knowing such riches lay in his house could target this pensioner.

I was simply so relieved that there was nothing untoward being planned and enthusatiatically admired each and every model.  We parted real friends not acquaintences. In this world where women are so often targeted by men inappropriately and even voilently how often does politeness do us no favours. It can all too easily be interpreted as willingness or acquiescence by the male. But the whole episode reminded me too that all the men in my life have shown kindness and consideration.  It made me suddenly want to thank each and every male of the species that has demonstrated gentle courtesy to women as if it was our birthright.  There are so many more of such men out there than we think!

Killing us slowly

It seems absurd, that while the sixth great extinction is underway, with species being eradicated from fish to butterflies to gorillas in eye watering numbers, mankind chooses at this time to wage war. 

Never mind that our planet is evidently weary of us with environmental pollution poisoning our seas and air.  Even our climate is showing distress with areas of the world becoming uninhabitable due to drought or flooding. 

In the face of a global pandemic, mankind could have united and saved millions more lives. Instead some countries bought excessive numbers of vaccines which they never used and others suffered the consequences. 

Businesses cost us many more millions of lives each year, with drugs, alcohol, smoking, fast food, guns and gambling having free rein to cause misery while making huge profits.  Many of them have more lobbying power than nations. 

But knowing all this, at this critical junction, when our eyes need to be on pressing urgent problems, we squabble and race into battle with each other. Blinded by prejudice,  hatred and nationalism we stumble into more deadly mistakes.  This must stop!

There are issues that underpin everything we see around us.  Will we respond with hatred and prejudice or try and address the fundamental problems of which these are only symptoms?