Why is Triadic Philosophy called a philosophy? Because it builds on or in opposition to established philosophical traditions. Because it sees everyone in the world as philosophical. Because it proposes things that are novel but sensible and says that they are also universal.

Among the arrows in the quiver of Triadic Philosophy is “Gently moving forward.” Repeating this to oneself is an excellent method of centering yourself and focusing on the actual task at hand.

It is a means of avoiding distraction.

I suppose it is a mantra; it’s a maxim, a catchphrase, a verbal help. I have friends who use similar words, completely personal, that serve the same function. That function is to make sure you do not get run over by a bike or car, or fall on your face, or any of the other things that result from distraction.

Aggression

There is innate hostility in our mix of pedestrians and traffic. It shows the limitations of current planning sensitivity. It is a concession to an economy that is sadly looking backward rather than forward. If it looked forward, it would be moving past cars and protecting people from bikes.

It would care more for people than moving vehicles about in an officious manner.

The aggressive bent of our culture is reflected in the prevalence of binary thinking. This is the either-or mentality that produces politicians who act like schoolyard bullies and preachers who thrive on malevolence.

Being gentle should stop being something of importance to the female gender but not to men. This is to entirely misunderstand Triadic Philosophy. Gentleness should be a universal ideal that is shared by every blessed soul.

Continuity

Gently moving forward is a phrase that mirrors the continuity we all share when alive. Spaceship earth is in motion. We are going someplace. C. S Peirce called that continuity.

Moving ahead with gentleness is also a recognition of fallibility.

We need a more neighborly environment. When I was recovering from some surgery I needed at times to ask a complete stranger to give me a hand at a difficult curb. I was fortunate. I batted 1000. That shows it never harms to ask.

Continuity and fallibility modify our intolerable perfectionism and our tendency toward violence. Both of these are goals of triadic philosophy.

Blessings

The phrase under discussion goes along with blessing others, another device of Triadic Philosophy for transforming humankind in a DIY manner. The more we bless the gentler we are. The more we are gentle the more blessed we become.

The fly in the ointment remains the unwillingness to see such thinking as compatible with a world that is safe and secure. Everything we now rely on violence to accomplish can be done with no violence at all. To learn how become a triadic thinker.