Activity

The Big Chill

Freezing solid in Montgomery County Texas is a rare threat the good Lord giveth.  Almost like proverbial hen’s teeth.  The warning of winter storm sounds from rural to borough and citizens listening batten down their hatches.  A crystal cover soon cloaks each road and roof and wheeled ride.  Worry turns to wonder as Nature slightly smiles in arrogance at the halting power she still holds over the ever pushy and impatient men at her mercy.

For an old farmer, staying home (and far from the madding roads) is my default, anyway.  So, the calamity of traffic lines looms less important.  More important be the water lines in winter. And the great lengths that water hoses go.  Strewn and stretched.  To five coops, with four splitters, into three pools, from two sources.  One shrinking soul slinks out each night to protect the vessels of drink from the icy fingers waiting to grip them.  Cutting off water, draining off hoses, taking off nozzles. Maybe silently praying that I got it all.  Knowing from piles of coiled evidence that I did not.

The next morning icily crackles awake, an accompaniment to the familiar cackle of poultry.  Layered clothing and mud caked boots soon maneuver through a glass menagerie of thin, irregular glass panes glazed overnight in my muddy puddled pasture.  The Ice Queen!  Yes.  She was here.  From coop to pen, to my gloved hand, fingers numbing, in the deep freeze, exhausted smoke hurries up from my lungs and sun rises.  My cotton and wool weaves envy the victory that fur and feathers still claim against wind chill.  My ever-present canine companions relish the relief from the heat of this climate change, adding their own smoky dogs’ breath.  My fowl friends stare thirstily and indignant.  A steady gaze, one hundred pairs of eyes seemingly asking at once, “Who do I have to kill to get a drink in this place?”

Good question.  I go grab a maul (like an axe but blunt and fat).  The skinny chickens see me coming in brisk.  One would think, instinctively, the winged animals would take flight at the sight of an axe.  But curiosity overcomes them and all watch to see what this fool with his tool may do.  I speed past them to the waterfowl.

First, I deliver a love tap to this seemingly pitiful ice sheet on the kiddie pool that serves as the duck’s drinker.  Only a contusion.  Next, I raise it up higher, delivering a more insistent blow.  Maybe a fracture.  Followed by a big bounce.  Whoops!  Back atcha.  Finally, I chop at the ice like I would wood.  I’m attacking an evil, tightly grained, unseasoned green, stringy round of hickory.  That did it.

Drink it now, you young quacks, because in an hour or so the laws of physics will taketh it away.

Vignettes

Murder in Muleshoe

This past weekend my wife and I went out to dinner with another couple.  I asked the guy if he was a native Houstonian (my standard ice breaker question).  My friend answered, “Let me tell you about my granddaddy.”

Born up in Nacogdoches.  The youngest boy.  His eldest brother had married a girl and moved up to Muleshoe.  In the Panhandle.  Some while after the brother’s move, his wife killed him.  My granddaddy’s granddaddy bought a gun.  He gave that gun to his young grandson, my granddaddy, and admonished him, “You take this gun and you go up to Muleshoe and shoot that woman”.  That grandson, my granddaddy, bought a train ticket to Farwell, and said his goodbyes.

Farwell, Muleshoe’s closest neighboring town, provided the boy with a wealth of information about his older brother.  Many people knew of him.  Some people feared him.  More than a few hated him.  He labored at the rail yard about one day a week.  He got drunk every day of the week.  And he beat his wife. And his kids.

Farewell – This boy didn’t travel to this one-horse s***hole to mourn his brother. But to avenge him.  He hopped a freight train headed for Amarillo and jumped off at the Muleshoe junction.  He inquired.  He walked hesitantly toward his destination.  He stopped…watched a rail thin woman carrying wash from perhaps a hand dug well to her rain filled stock tank.  She saw him.  She dropped her wash into the rinse tub.  The well’s ferrous sediments bleeding out into the clear water.   At close range…he spoke.

He (ashamed): I’m…

She (relieved): I know…

Neither had any illusions about what would happen next.

She recounted her drunken husband’s cruelty.  The wind died.  Dead calm.  The low prairie grass.  The insistent trill of a distant sand crane.  Rare moisture in drops… washed out along the creases of swollen eyes.  Profuse perspiration in rivulets… stained young, ruddy cheeks.  Congealed mucus… in the breathing of two snot nosed kids.  His brother’s.  His niece and nephew.  Squatting. Curious.  Feeling protected in the dying shade between that tarpaper shack and off-kilter outhouse.

He noticed a tool laying atop a wooden barrel.  Its umbra attempting to hide an irregular stain. The hammer.  Visitor to the crime.  He imagined those nails.  Three cut nails.  Accomplice to the passion.  He envisioned them protruding from his brother’s resistant skull.  This last thought, sobered him to his purpose.  The young assassin’s hand recoiled as flesh touched revolver.  Each chamber held a fate.  Four smooth bullets.

Fare.  You can’t go home.  Not after this.  Not after murder and vengeance and cowardice.  It’s not deeds of family that haunt.  It’s deeds you choose.  My granddaddy traded a near-new gun for a fare to Houston.

Pub Theology

Pub Theology: Resolution, Gratitude, Pleasure Seeking, Attitude, Poetics, Opium, Razor Sharp, and then we’re done! 12/26/2017

Ice Breaker Question:

New Year’s Resolutions: Do you make them?  If not, why not?  If so…Which one’s may bear fruit this year?  Which one’s have made the list before?  Which one’s are paradoxical to your current lifestyle or beliefs?

Question of the Night:

From his memoir American Drug Addict, Brett Douglas ~ I used drugs to elevate my mood.  Gratitude does the same thing.  If gratitude was indeed a guaranteed positive mood alterer, everyone would be a user.  How can one inject gratitude into one’s stream of life?  When gratitude does not deliver the desired effect for you, how do you react?  How do you correct your expectations or reactions when gratitude fails to gratify?

Other Questions:

Greek philosopher Epicurus (paraphrased) ~ Seeking modest, sustainable pleasure without pain and fear constitutes happiness in its highest form.  What words might you insert or append to this declaration to make it more realistic, attainable, or cogent?  How successful have you been (would you be) in trying to moderate your pleasure(s)?

William (George) Miller’s prophecies of the Second Coming did not occur as expected in the 1840s, yet a religion, the Bahá’í Faith, holds the attitude that his predictions of 1844 events were accurate (with varying explanations like Miller had the wrong continent, wrong year, and wrong Second Coming).  When a belief ignores visible evidence, is it because of the light or dimness?

John Clare (1793 – 1864) was “the greatest laboring-class poet that England has ever produced. However, in midlife, Mr. Clare was committed to an asylum. Dr. Matthew Allen wrote: He has never been able to obtain in conversation, nor even in writing prose, the appearance of sanity for two minutes or two lines together, and yet there is no indication of insanity in any of his poetry.   Poetry was John Clare’s conduit to making connection with community.  What other paths do complicated, intense, or timid individuals take to soulful expression?  Is it expressed in their work?  Their compassion?  Their effusiveness?  Their silence?

Karl Marx is often identified with the condemning quote: Religion is the opiate of the people.  To be fair, the entire metaphor reads: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”.  With a clearer and more complete understanding of another’s conflicting beliefs, what happens to your view of that person?  With a complete acceptance of a person, what happens to your prejudices toward their behavior?

Very Hairy (You’ll need a sharp razor)

Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses includes an allusion to a possible incident in Islamic teachings where the prophet Muhammad mistook “satanic suggestion” for divine revelation.  The effect of publishing this book caused extraordinary international mayhem, seemingly out of proportion to the cause.  According to Hume’s razor: “If the cause, assigned for any effect, be not sufficient to produce it, we must either reject that cause, or add to it such qualities as will give it a just proportion to the effect.”  What are your thoughts on this particular historical episode or other events (whether personal or historic) where “cause doesn’t balance out effect”?

Optional (You’ll need a strong constitution)

Once upon a time, a young mother, named America, had a precocious child, named Maryland, who’s declaration to her fellow citizens stated: “Profane words concerning the Holy Trinity are punishable by torture, branding, and, at a third offense, death without benefit of clergy.”   Young America reprimanded her precocious Maryland with a paddle fashioned from the strong fibers of Article VI of her Constitution and the cohesive threads of her First Amendment.  This analogy can be applied to many young nations.  What are the signs that a country’s age has weakened the fibers and diluted the threads which, in the nation’s youth, required government by all of its people and tolerance of all of their beliefs?

Pub Theology

Pub Theology:Burning Truth, Hare on Fire, Age and Youth, Heart’s Desire -12/12/2017

Ice Breaker Question:

Headline 12/7/2017 MSNBC: Man rescues rabbit from wild fire in California.  Did you see this?  A man hopping up and down in hairy panic, focused on something or someone, with the raging wildfire in backdrop.  A tiny wild rabbit (probably a hare), marched across this flaming stage unhinged (presumably singed), into the arms of a man named Oscar (possibly a future Tony) and disappears into the night (surely daytime, but with all the smoke…).  What was your gut reaction when you first saw this or heard about it?  The comments on this news story contained some maligning of the harey Samaritan. What detriment did he done did?

Question of the Night:

Mahatma Gandhi ~ “Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.”  Describe the ripple effect of contentment with the accommodation of a lie.  Describe the immediate disruption for pursuit of an unpopular truth.  Which has more prevalence?  Which has more impact?

Other Questions:

From the book ‘Autumn,’ by Karl Ove Knausgaard ~ To turn 40 (pick an age) is to realize that one’s limitations will last one’s whole life through, but also to know that all the time… new layers are being added to one’s character… What limitations of “self” do you believe are being referred to?  How does added character manifest itself over time?  If sterling character can be added over time, what are the personality flaws that might tarnish one’s character with age?

 Donald Trump ~ I’m automatically attracted to beautiful. Not surprising, we all are – by definition.  In Richard Prums’ new book, The Evolution of Beauty, he surmised that Darwin believed aesthetic mating choices were made largely by females. How does this idea scan with you?  What is your theory on who chooses who in a significant relationship?

Is Darwinism the culmination of Martin Luther questioning orthodoxy, rendering concepts like heaven and hell irrelevant?  If Darwinism trumps Creationism, what happens to heaven and hell?

Have you seen the Lactaid commercial?  A lactose intolerant woman drinking her Café au lait, is surprised by a sarcastic talking cow (is there any other kind?) who mo(o)cks her unsuppressed gastrointestinal stress by imitating flatulence, disturbingly, by slowly releasing air from an inflated party balloon.  A noble bovine appears and boots sarcastic cow out, then introduces the product Lactaid and states, “Try Lactaid, it’s real milk!”  How is food real if it is adulterated?  If nature joins compounds together and man puts then asunder, who is being served?  What is being served (Parkay?)  How can whole foods be of benefit when they are halved?

Not Recommended (if you scare) In 1973, Frenchy Fuqua, of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team, exhibited an obscure fetish (possibly Finnish).  He would wear platform shoes having see-through heels that contained water and a live tropical fish selected from his aquarium to match the color of the day’s outfit. In 1979, Steve Martin made us aware of the popular Mexican sport of cat juggling in his movie, “The Jerk”.  In 2006, Dubai hired a law firm when they were accused of trafficking boys to be used as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates.  Exploitation of vulnerable populations, though evolving and inventive, remains popular and robust even today.  What are the ingredients of exploitation that make its consumption so enduring?  What forms of exploitation or degradation do you find yourself standing up against?

Optional (if you dare) Inspired by Barbara Kingsolver’s book, “Flight Behavior” ~ You stepped out from a flourishing hill top on a moon lit evening into a mysterious valley and chased an alluring butterfly into the darkness until the phases faded from waxing enchantment to waning endurance and, finally, to the impossibility of a return.  What were the circumstances you left?  What were you chasing?  How do your current conditions compare to those once flourishing on the hill top in the moonlight once upon a time?

The Deluge

Deluge Deux

This week I started cleaning my barn.  My second flood in a little over a year.  For three months, the mud sat on the concrete, the tools and the supplies.  On several occasions, help beckoned from my neighbors, friends and my beloved church but I turned down that help.  At this current moment, the residue afflicted me with pain from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head.  I took a piece of broken memory and scraped the mud from myself and sat among the ashes.

Predators, poachers, pollution.  The outstanding nemeses at Sawmyl Synders Farm.  When I first got chickens, the predators, in the form of raccoons, opossums, and coyotes, started showing up.  So, I had to start putting them down.  To the acrimony of the animal lovers.  When deer season came one year, an interloper put a deer stand on my back property.  He said it was a mistake.  Also, he could see my house from the foot of the deer stand.  He took it down.  To the rancor neighbors who wanted me to prosecute.

This year before the flood, following the flood of last year, the mischievous creek turned black.  And smelly.  Dangerously black and smelly.  It turns out that the City of Magnolia Wastewater Treatment plant stopped treating the sewer water.  The started dumping effluent into the creek that ran out into Montgomery County that contained E Coli that was twelve times the permitted limit.  The City lied about it.  It took six months to get the water treated properly and for the smell in the air on the farm and around back to tolerable.

Last week I ran into one of the realtors involved in my purchase of this property now christened Sawmyl Synders Farm.  Part cowboy/farmer, all gentleman, and subtly wheeler dealer, Wheeler sat down on a high stool alone in a Tomball restaurant catty-corner to my wife, my daughter and myself.  In no way was he a cowboy in the jungle, “With his shrimpskin boots and his cheap Cheroots And his skin as white as paste”.  Wheeler personifies the real deal. Fine and shiny leather boots, broad seasonal cowboy hat, pressed roped shirt and Wrangler jeans.  I spoke to him briefly, mentioning the flood.  How I recognized him is a wonder. He finished his lunch and spoke quietly to the young waitress before approaching our table.  A good salesman always, he greeted us appropriately, gave me his card, and galloped back west.

I haven’t forgotten that I started this anecdote by telling you I was cleaning my twice flooded barn three months after the last flood.  You might think I sat there in the dust dwelling on the fact that my dream dwelling had become a hovel of dust and mud and flood.  You could surmise the disgust I held for the poacher that got away or the lying city officials who dumped crap on me through the spring, summer and into the fall.  But you haven’t yet guessed that Wheeler the realtor paid for our expensive lunch that day last week in Tomball.

House Church

Noah and the Flood Story Retold

And it came to pass that God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  Also, the grifters, deficient and the affected caught a break.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.  And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.  Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.  And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.  Also, don’t forget the grifters, deficient and the affected.

Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.  Thus, did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.  Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.  Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.  Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth. Also, don’t forget to include seven pairs of the grifters, deficient and the affected.

To this last inclusion, Noah objected.  Seven pairs of the grifters, deficient and the affected.  Really?  You want these rejects to foul the ark for half a year?  Seriously?  God, this is where I put my sandal down.  Just like the unclean, which they are, only a single pair of the grifters, deficient and the affected.  God reluctantly acceded.  And Noah said:  Mark my words, this is a big mistake.  You shouldn’t try to save everybody, because you can’t.

There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.  They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.  And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.  However, God noticed not every pair was there.  And He said unto Noah: Wait a sec, where are my grifters, deficient and the affected?  And Noah said unto Him: Whoopsie, I didn’t think you’d notice their absence since you’re over there busy destroying all of mankind.  Oh well, I’ll put them in the ark, only a single pair of each like we agreed.  But I won’t hold them.

And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.  Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.  And the grifters, deficient and the affected immediately set about plying their dark arts.  The grifters making deals with man and beast which they would not or could not fulfill.  The deficient giving a hot foot to the orangutan, short sheeting the giraffes, etc.  The affected laughing hysterically as they mocked to death the turkeys for their bizarre physiology, the baboons for their crimson asses, ad nauseum.

And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;  And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.  And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and went and looked for every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, to offer burnt offerings on the altar.

But there were no clean pairs left of the seven pairs saved.  Through deceit, cruelty and ridicule the grifters, deficient and the affected destroyed the beasts of the boat.  Watching the display for one hundred and fifty days, even the unclean felt dirty.  However, after allowing the grifters, deficient and the affected to join the unclean, the unclean were now their minions and set about populating the earth accordingly.

As for Noah, it would be bad.  Without something clean to sacrifice, God forsook him.  He died quickly after this fiasco.  His dying words to God were: Told Ya.

To provide for sacrifices is the reason more of the clean animals were to be taken into the ark.

Activity

From the Desk of the Farmer at Sawmyl Synders Farm 10/18/2017

I am not nice.  But I try to be.  One fine day, my wife took an order for eggs, a hen and a rooster.  Eggs and hen in inventory.  Rooster on backorder.  Chicken to customer travel clucked several miles, so parties agreed to a meetup point – inexplicably a short distance from the buyer’s house.  Such a compromise.  Anyway, after exchanging the eggs, hen, some of feed, a cute chicken feeder and some nesting hay, we were off.  Another citizen on her way to home grown farm fresh eggs.  We seemed done…not so fast.

I am not easy.  But easy I try to be.  It wasn’t but a week or so before the lady called and said she was out of feed.  I previously gave her some feed and a little feeder as a courtesy and told her of at least one place where she could buy feed.  Ok, but she needed me to bring her feed.  The hen had nothing to eat.  I bought a 50-pound bag of Layer Pellets and drove down to a different rendezvous point for the exchange – about the same distance for me to travel but quite convenient for her.  So, after the exchange of feed and money, we were off.  Another citizen on her way to having a well-fed hen and home-grown farm fresh eggs.  We thought our deed finished…easy there rider.

I’m not generous.  But I try to be.  The next time my wife talked to the hen lady, she said her hen was not laying eggs.  This was odd.  A Gold Star hen less than two-years-old had stopped laying in the prime season of spring.  With no other information I concluded that the hen needed company.  I could donate one of my older birds so that companionship and egg production would commence.  So, one day down the road we drove, old hen in cage.  Good deed on the way.  This time we drove to her house.  I’ll never forget my shock on that sweltering summer day when I saw the non-producing hen in her backyard, tabled up high in a – wait for it – parakeet cage.  My head, my heart and my hope dropped.  Here I was donating one of my beloved birds to someone who cluelessly tortured her first purchase.  I presented the free bird and left the small cage which was more than twice the size of the current housing.  Dejectedly, we drove off determined to come back with a reasonably sized chicken coop for my former fowl.  We thought we had a final solution…hold your horses Samaritan.

I’m not tolerant.  But I try to be.  Due to circumstances beyond our mutual control – her husband’s death, our Hurricane Harvey, the sweltering summer of 2017 – the roomy coop did not materialize until one hot Saturday this fall.  While I struggled to complete the project with materials and remnants on hand, my wife struggled to contact the bird lady of Alcatraz.  I finished the cage in the afternoon – some of my best worked.  However, my wife could not get in touch with the lady by any means.  We decided to make the drive south and check things out.  Wow. We got there – she was gone!  No furniture as observed through the bare windows.  No parakeet cage with suffering animal.  No loaned out handmade roomy cage with free bird.  In addition, cell phone – cancelled, forwarding address – nada, personal contact – nope.  Tracking this lady down to give her new free stuff (roomy coop) in exchange for old free stuff (homemade cage) loomed problematic because she was known to my wife only by her nickname -Ya Ya.  With waning hope, we talked to the neighbors – who knew nothing, checked the mailbox – with mail addressed to both the living and the dead, and knocked at the door of the leasing office – closed on Saturday at 3 pm.  Naively, we drove away towards home knowing that somehow there would be answers about the disappearance of Ya Ya, without knowing when or how or what.  We knew, assuredly, that it was only a matter of time…until what?

Pub Theology

Pub Theology Questions 10/24/2017 – The Folly of Fanaticism of Every Kind

Ice Breaker Question:

 

Winston Churchill ~ A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.  You must be (or must have been) a fanatic about something, what is it?  Talk about the whats and whys?

 

Question of the Night:

Lee Gruenfeld ~ Religious fanaticism comes not from deep faith, but from a lack of it.
Fanatics – Beware! Being zealous for the Lord of Hosts [1 Kings 19] is not the same as being a fanatic. Fanaticism is a serious spiritual dysfunction.  What are some symptoms of religious fanaticism referred to here?  What specific examples of religious fanaticism have you witnessed?  Describe.

Other Questions:

 5 Plays by Moliere

Synopsis The Imposter ~ A pious fraud has incriminated himself beyond all help, yet his believers refuse to act to exile him.  Describe a life situation where your fanatic belief in a person or entity led to impossible choices or dreadful consequences.  How did the situation resolve?

 

Synopsis The Misanthrope ~ The cynic is tremendously unpopular, and he laments his isolation in a world he sees as superficial and base.  Talk about your experience of living by high standards in an earthly society.  When has isolation or escape worked to resolve social conflicts?

 

Synopsis The Middleclass Gentleman ~ Aspiring to something you can never be, brings mockery and exposes vanity, grifters who flatter you openly while despising you secretly and who seek to take your money.  What vulnerabilities and related calamities surfaced when you chose your path to high aspiration?

 

Synopsis The Hypochondriac ~ If you believe in a single system for a cure or a single person for all of your answers, your remedy will be the death of you not your illness. Talk about blind allegiance to the opinions of experts (Medical, Legal, Financial, Religion, Psychiatric, etc.) and actual or possible consequences.  What could be an antidote to fanatic allegiance to the vested interests of professional expertise?

 

Synopsis The Learned Ladies ~ Education and academic achievement become merely pretention and obsession when they overlook true desire and free will.  Reflect on the pursuit of education and the satisfaction or disappointment it has brought.  What learned ideal might you pursue today, given the opportunity?  Why?

 

Humor

 

Bertrand Russell ~ The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Pub Theology

Pub Theology Questions 10/14/2017 – Disagreements, Dustups, Donnybrooks

Ice Breaker Question:   Tom Petty ~ Even the losers get lucky sometimes…

Diffusing the term loser, talk about a brief wondrous time in your life, a time that became way more than you expected and attends your memory even today.

Question of the Night:

Caleb Keeter (after the Las Vegas massacre) ~ I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life, until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was.
Talk about a once held righteous belief – you know you have them – that became a wrong reality when the deity of life coldly touched you.

Other Questions:

An MGM producer exposed himself to a 12-year-old child star at her first interview with that studio.

If you are the parent, this crime exposes what primal instincts?

If you are the studio executive, this producer exposes you to what corporate liabilities?

If you are the 12-year-old female child star, what sentiments might you secrete and to which must you adapt?

 

Psychological Theory 1 ~ Genius and madness are in no way incompatible.

Psychological Theory 2 ~ The time will come when science will be capable of “correcting” the brain of a psychopath, but this is unfortunately not yet possible.

What do you think about these two statements, or are they just craziness?

How might correcting a madman corrupt a genius, or do I need to dumb this down for you?

 

American journalists in North Korea ~ We also heard some people say that while they hate the American government, they harbor no ill will toward Americans and would prefer to live in peace. One woman was nearly in tears describing her mixed feelings about the United States.

Each of us has the capacity to distinguish between a nation’s people and a nation’s government.

What thoughts, emotions, puzzlements emerge when you think of North Korea, Russia, Iran?

What realities do the citizens in these countries have of Great Satan, Duke Nukem, Uncle Scam?

What causes dovish personal beliefs to morph into weaponized political agendas?

 

Lao Tzu ~ People often spoil their work at the point of its completion.  With care at the end as well as the beginning, No work will be spoiled.

Forty years ago, this October, the revered and reviled revolutionary Che Guevara met his fate in Bolivia when his adopted guerrilla tactics failed to adapt to local peasant sentiments.

In your experience, what personal or historical events have you witnessed where “People … spoil their work at the point of its completion.”

 

Democrats are concentrated in cities.  The House is controlled by the country.

If you have a home where the buffalo roam, is Rome just a big city infatuated with past glories, ruled by a complacent, greedy elite, and hopelessly powerless to respond to changing conditions?
Humor? History? Headlines?

Spain’s autonomous region of Catalonia, in a surge of nationalism, voted for secession recently.

Historically, Catalonia’s nationalism emerged haltingly when this sparsely populated domain on the Iberian Peninsula grew wildly and with difficulty.  In 878, King Louis II “The Stammerer” talked Charles “The Bald” into naming Wilfred “The Hairy” to head the nation of Catalonia.

Now, in 2017, nationalism seeks to denude Spain of its climacteric Catalans via secession.

Why do thriving states in secure nations seek secession?  If nationalism leads to autonomy, and autonomy leads to secession, what does secession lead to? Great nations rise from poverty through united progress and individual prosperity.  What naturally follows?

Better Living Through Beowulf

Thoughts: Empathy Burnout

I extracted my thoughts on Empathy Burnout from this blog entry on Better Living Through Beowulf

Update on My Heart Condition

Empathy fatigue results from expending physiological resources to help others with their own emotional burdens.

Stop putting yourself in another’s shoes and let your shoes carry you to do the things that can be physically provided without emotional burnout.

Another’s pain plus your pain does not equal relief but multiplies pain.

Allowing another’s suffering to break your heart is a disease without a cure.

Ingratitude, guilt and sorrow can prove lethal, let them go.

Just Evolveu