John R. Miles

We have the ingredients of a significant life sitting right in front of us.

but we are terrified to scoop it up and apply it.

We are afraid that if we commit to a specific join, we might lose our flexibility.

This is where conviction enters our own architecture.

This is exactly what Steve Sloman helped us understand on Tuesday, that meaning doesn't happen in the center of the stone.

It happens in the intersubjective space, the space between the stones.

It is the bond that exists between us.

We have mixed the elements, our experiences, our relationships, our daily decisions.

Now comes the harder part, applying them with a level of commitment that makes them non-negotiable.

We spread the mortar generously across the joins of our lives, between our private values and the shared beliefs of those around us.

between our solo ambitions and the collective wisdom that tempers them.

But here's the catch.

The cost of conviction is real.

Applying this mortar means saying no to the easy compromises that would weaken the bond.

It means holding sacred values as anchors, even when they polarize the room or demand a sacrifice of your comfort.

Solomon's research shows that a community

or life is only as strong as its sacred values, the things it refuses to trade away.

That is the grit in your mortar.

If your life is made of utility mortar, where everything is up for negotiation,

where you'll trade your integrity for a win or your time for a status symbol, your mortar is just smooth, slippery mud.