faith is a lie for the unbeliever

The Bible believers definition of faith is believing what is not as though it were. To the unbelieving world this is a lie if not true right now. The former looks ahead and latter does not. Recently this debate has presented itself dominating the world of politics. 

quoteblokers rulekk

The truth cannot be told by those who know.

quotebloker

First lie out there wins.

Jesus as metaphor

If  you cannot believe everything Jesus said then you can get around this by saying Jesus did not mean it, it is all just a metaphor. See Pulpit Rock.

between the letter and the spirit of the story

The division between religion and science is slowly closing. The introduction of black holes, dark matter and dark energy is more quickly easing the lessening friction. In the fifties this was not so evident when black holes were not prominent on the speculative menu in science fiction. Particularly, the language since the ancient writers described creation has changed, with the emphasis on the spirit of the story replaced by the more exact digital language of the letter seen today. The Biblical account of creation is a personified poetic account that carries more power than the exact letter does today.

projecting science entering world of the unseen

If scientific thought is backing into a designer mode then we are pointing toward the under recognized power of the concentrated control of desire. If thoughts can turn switches on and off as work with handicaps already gives hope, then the bar to the unseen is being penetrated. The greatest power lies in the unseen faith of our as yet uncontrolled deepest thought. 

even chaos has a purpose

Everything that comes out into being is going somewhere. That somewhere is its' destination and it even then has a purpose that will be later revealed in the future even if we are unable to acknowledge it presently.

quotebloker

Hypocrisy  is the tribute vice pays  to virtue,

learning increases knowledge of our ignorance

There is so much more to know already hanging over our heads, all compounded by a growing awareness that we are largely learning more about our increasing ignorance than any established knowledge. 
Every question we gain an answer to reveals more questions than we started with, suggesting we are learning more about our ignorance than wisdom. 

getting ready for death

We all know our bodies wear down. Many know that eventually our arties clog up with use, despite otherwise good health, and wear down our hearts pumping haarder and harder, signaling the imminently inevitable and ignoble end of our bodies. It just will not happen now. This is a definition of forever if we've ever heard it. Time is the puzzle here. Time fools us all in the end. Time fools so many that it is even mentioned in several current inscriptions on stones left behind. How did it all go by so quickly? It may be better to accept our death ahead of time, as many do in battle. What about accepting our bodily future while it is dimming, treating it like a cross as Jesus did. How do we do that, picking up our cross and following Jesus?

June 27. 2018 732am

anger is a sign of weakness

Everything God commands us to do is for our own benefit. For instance, When told God wants our praise, responded, why was that? Was God having a problem with His self worth? That was the response of the atheist I was at the time. However, if we lift God up in praise we a have to lift ourselves up in the effort as well. Consider forgiveness. Only God can forgive but if we can forgive we forgive ourselves. Everything God commands us to is for our benefit.

the natural struggle of events

It is the function of suffering that it makes it easier for those who greatly love their body to divorce the reluctant body from the spirit...like being born again.

competing with Christ

I used to wonder why if Christ suffered on the Cross for us what were we doing trying to compete with the crucifixion by picking up our cross and following Him? 
But there it was, I am not a chapter and verse man, Jesus Himself said it so how was I to resolve that? If one does not have enough faith to accept healing then picking up one's cross and following Him seemed the only way for a believer to handle suffering. 
I do not believe God allows suffering. It is introduced by others like the prince doubter and is a way to deal with it if one does not have enough faith to overcome it. Healing occurs according to our faith, as Jesus said be it done to you according to your faith.

The greatest gift of all is God's existence and the existence He has given us. Recall a man of whom it was said he had no children but rather had many spiritual children. 

major key is clear definitions

For me suffering is linked to worship, and faith to healing. Case being made is the definition of worship to primarily include the term love, deep all encompassing love based in the appreciation for the Cross and explanations for the Holy Spirit..

the suffering and worship onnection

Current key words are, suffering, worship, faith and healing. Suffering is one of the great stumbling blocks but I never found it so. Simplistic and incomplete definitions of what one means by the term God, is the problem evidenced in many churches. 
(See Jesus Talking after this date.)

the way we pray

Faith, the great divide. 

I strongly suspect the foremost major concentration of all prayer attempts are for healing. Prayers are offered up in assembly trying to talk God into healing them,  or someone else. In these prayers they spend an inordinate amount of time and emotional effort telling God what He already knows. Seldom mentioned are any promises or covenants God, who cannot change His mind, has already made. Their entire emphasis is on God, what He can do, so why doesn't He do it? 

Since there are so many accounts dealing with how Jesus related to healing, one would think there would be more concern about His methods of thought than there are. I also hear the word "just" jumping around, in and out. It sounds like they want to say only but I am not sure what is intended by so many "justs" . In any event, it sounds a little wimpy to me, and definitely does not seem destined to take heaven by force. 

The most often impression left with me after healing entreaties is that the great physician does it all. After all, He is in control. But a quick review reveals a little more to it than that. 
See Manna after this date.

opposite conclusions from identical information

There are two views of Jesus each purporting to prove opposite conclusions from the same witnesses. Some conclude that because there are several factual differences between the gospels, that this proves the story is a myth.

But differing witnesses are notorious for their differing views since, after all, their views come from different perspectives like separate planets each having a different view of the same star they each orbit. This then proves their stories are not made up because their views are not in synch.

Little Faith and Great Faith
In like manner, by changing the time frame for answered prayer one view concludes God did not answer and the other that He did not answer yet. The first says any claim of answered prayer is a lie and the second says persistence is the bedrock of faith.    

no copycats

We are alive such a short time compared to how long we are dead. From the moment we are conceived we are in a constant activity of change. We are well known, for the most part, to only a comparatively small number of people, many of whom will fade in and out of memory in a lifetime. It is hard to make a lasting impression beyond a local weather report. Many do of course, but not many compared to all those who could be known. Julius Caesar comes to many as a popular but remote second to Jesus of Nazareth. Both experienced a hastened death but only Jesus was reported to have returned to many witnesses. It is significant that no one before nor hence is remembered to have done the same. 

each day another life to be lived

a gentle sleep begat violent dawns

How do we predict the future when all we have to work with is the past? Follow the flow is apparently our only recourse. The sun will rise in the morning, but we cannot count on it being exactly the same as the day before. When it does not, then who is there that will speak about it tomorrow?

We swing though each day as a life to be lived until the sun goes down, and near death comes hidden in our sleep. Why do we do this? Is it a rehearsal showing us the future of our bodies? Someday perhaps our dreams which seem so real in sleep, that will upon waking, be more real.

who are we without our memories?

Top of the World, Thule AFB Greenland

As time slips further out, circling more distant orbits and everything in our memory frames recede, just like the images they throw off, they get smaller until they are,well I guess they are, disappearing into their tiny quantums like little lost black holes. It has to be vitally important to remain on our radar very long. How long can we manage it? Who are we without our memories?

thinking in the letter vs the spirit

Somewhat scary that the physical body can overtake the spirit so easily and bring one's concentration back into a fine point upon itself. To what end? To what end does pain drag the concentration so quickly back into the temporary body? Am I on the right track here?

Had lunch one particular time, lost in memory now, but upon leaving it suddenly thrust itself into my realization that he was talking the entire time in the letter and I was talking in the spirit. This is the way it worked out. I mentioned that C.S. Lewis had a crisis in faith when his wife died. Faith and the achieved strength of it is often my primary concentration. But I quoted Lewis as saying it was all a fine kettle of fish. 

Whereupon my companion exclaimed Oh Spence I doubt if he said that. My first reaction was, yes he said exactly that. Then it hit me. He was in the letter all the time while I'd been talking in the spirit. So what did Lewis say then? Was it a fine can of worms, which is the same thing? What did he say? I have no idea what he said letter-wise, but the spirit of the matter was that the entire situation was a fine kettle of fish which captured the spirit of the issue quite precisely. Probably pick this up eventually in Memorist.

this is where I came in

There will come a time eventually, if one is lucky enough, when they will realize they are arriving at a point where they came in. As Shaking Billy put it so concisely, once a man twice a child. Growing old is essentially weakening down and becoming feebilized. First the stamina becomes a problem you never dealt with before. Then that turns into a full blown question of strength. Then a certain unsteadiness creeps in, and forgetfulness slides up to you in full view of everyone else. Soon after a pain shows up unexpectedly, followed eventually by an outright orchestra of suffering. If this is not your experience, you might be one of the lucky ones. Eventually the wait alone will descend upon you with the alone in a sea of children asking you about a secret. This will be the time when the little known secrets, unknown secrets, and well known secrets will do a nice soft shoe for everybody. No one will have any idea what to make of it. Congratulations will patronizingly rain from the sky. You will not be able to consider any less.

greater works than Jesus

Jesus said that we would do greater works than He has done. Does ayone believe that? He said He would send a friend, the Holy Spirit, and we would do greater works than He Himself did. But, do you think anyone buys into that? This is another one of those silent subjects seldom, if ever, visited. Then there is that Holy Spirit thing again, like talking in tongues. There are those who are pressed to point out why we cannot do these things.....that is...today. Looking into this in Pulpit Rock.

many in the night

I knew so many people, and as they randomly come before me in the night's memories I wonder  now whether they are still alive, what they are doing, and whatever happened to them.
We remember different things. Some have no rationale. Many however were complete mysteries to me that with the passage of too many years begin to suddenly become clear. Insignificant things, like why did my fifth grade teacher's voice so mock a man while calling him a rugged individualist? I later would find out but how I would have loved to understood it at the time. Building in the...Memoirist

smoke signals in the sky

No matter how many gather around, each die alone. Alone, with nothing to communicate with but words as imperfect symbols, not much better  than smoke signals in the sky. 

hung in our hearts

How is it that certain things have been hung in our hearts? Somewhere in Psalms is mentioned that God hung heavenly bodies in the empty spaces. Why also do we have knowledge of right and wrong? How did these things happen? So now what do we do about it?

If we know right and wrong so how is it that we can rationalize around it to gain a certain advantage, even be blinded to murder? Individually we must deal with these questions, but the group can provide permission to do anything any consensus wants to achieve without any individual forced to take responsibility. 

God cannot negate Himself

Trouble, very deep trouble, with the "God is in control" argument is that He is not. Just simply because God as Existence brought everything into being, doea not mean He is reponsible for freewill beings going off track. He may know what is going to happen, what decisions will be made, but we make the decision. He only knows what we will do. 

There are established rules of order. Laws of God, commandments which result in favor or disfavor. There would be no need for laws or commandments if they would have no consequences. If we want to be in harmony with God then we have to be in harmony with His laws, the way He set everything up. (God is personified in this text to follow through with His connection to us as we were established.)

stumbling blocks to faith

I am dealing lately with several chestnuts that occupy those who cannot bridge their gap to a belief in God. Chestnuts like the problem with suffering, the problem with stupidity and many other similar arenas where atheists stumble and cannot believe in God. The reason, in my view, is that they define God, this most commonly undefined in virtually every case, as being a God totally in charge, as being totally in control and therefore being responsible as the creator of evil in all of evil's manifestations.

I am taking a different tack in my approach to the definition of God. For instance, as I read Genesis it never occurred to me that it differed with views on evolution. In fact. I thought it merely the same view couched in more beautiful very poetical language. Later it occurred to me that the untechnical approach of the time was spiritual in that it did not follow the letter of the story but rather the spirit of the story.

Now we all, mostly all I think, know that we cannot express an opinion about someone or anything else, without revealing a great deal about ourselves in the exercise. Expressing process cannot help but do reveal as much or even more about ourselves than about the subject we are talking about. The same is true as well about myself.

My approach is from an individualist view and I recognize an entirely different approach from opposing views, all from a group orientation to existence, therefore to God, and almost entirely a collectivist approach to the entire issue.

All my life, from a very early age, I saw this over and over again. I would say something to the effect that the differing person did not understand or address the basic premise of what I was talking about. 'Oh no' they would argue, I understand perfectly. But if I then asked the most simple of questions they would bungle the subject up into such a ball of various strings all tied together that I gave up.
And so I return in my final all too brief years to leave my view for a final consideration for those who can handle it not so intuitively and emotionally.  Thread will be edited and expanded in the Memorist.

misplaced authority

Everything of interest is divided in two before one can define and/or begin understand it. If we can't understand it we at least can define it no matter how inadequately. Politics and other group efforts, such as capitalist endeavors, economics in other words, can be divided in two by the labels of either process or result. If it all confuses or provides negative connotones, then they can call it PR, and if in a sacred setting then participants are inspired toward witnessing and conversion. 

Process involves a lot of gossip, particularly in politics and churches. Although politics turn a lot of people off, churches can often provide a highway to atheism.
Virtually every single person who represents himself as an atheist quoted church attendees as the bedrock for their lack of faith in God.

This belief channel is a fallacy in logic I generally call misplaced authority. 

does faith oppose fear

 Is apprehensiveness opposisng faith?

trusting my memorykk

clean time of night

Why are the wee small hours the "clean time" of night? Many think these hours are the creative times of night, when each of us are left alone with ourselves and no static intruding on our thoughts. It may also mean one has an unceremonious bladder problem. Eventually you will come across with everything, he said wearily. That is, you will only if you are lucky enough. Remnant left behind from a cluttered time of night. 

Is God In Control?

Only evil spirits seek control. There is no love in control. One who could control all things does not control all things. If He did, He would have to negate Himself. God cannot deny Himself, nor change His mind. There are those who blame God for doing terrible things of nature, and for not answering His promises. I have talked personally with pastors who reason out in their own minds why they did not get answered prayer by believing such things which come solely from their own doctrine.  Developing.....

Existence Unexplained

Existence was not created, Existence exists. I am that I am is God. First reported by Moses, who is credited as the first to have anything written down. This, when asked, was revealed by God Himself. This revelation is for us a definition, not a theory. It is straight forward and generally understood without dispute. Anything any writer says is non-fiction gospel for him, but only hearsay fiction for his readers. This is why everyone is responsible for their own decisions.

Existence and the Spirit

When one speaks here  it is not their efforts to explain what others have said about God. When I speak, for instance, speak in that fashion it is only as an example, or an illustration of what I am saying about what has already been decided without me. Examples of what I am saying do not prove anything whatever. They only illustrate, which is not proof nor is it an explanation to be mistaken as supporting any position.

Fountainhead
Of the Unseen
When I speak it is my effort to tell what I am told in a sudden awareness, at the time beyond my understanding, an epiphany within its' own context. There is only one entity in the world that exists and from which all things proceed. That is the Spirit, the one spirit, called also the Holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Existence variously called the spirit within the unseen. However, there are many spirits. They all motivate, but only One Spirit is the above of all other spirits. Many of these spirits support the Holy Spirit but others may war against the Holy Spirit. In this, God defined Himself previously as Existence, is the only one who said I am that I am. This indicates God is not only The 
spirit of existence He is Existence itself.

I am only somewhat versed in what others speak so I  only speak, directly as it were, what I am told within, directly to my spirit. All other voices are illustrative, perhaps supportive, but always merely collaborative at best. There is no proof that is constant. No proof can stand on its own because we cannot know all the facts. Therefore I, as well as everyone else, must take everything on faith because we will never have all the facts necessary to decide anything without faith. Wisdom is heavy, and difficult to make out from the outside of oneself.

Desire to Control Comes
From Competition With God
All the spirits swarm about us like flies in the dark all wanting to dominate us so they can exist. Unlike God, they strive for control for this reason. To do this they have, by the fact itself, to supplant God. But God did not create these spirits, because God did not create Himself nor did He create Existence itself. Rather, He is Existence. Therefore He did not begin so He will not end. Other spirits want to exist, but they can only do so if they can control our spirit. so that in that way, they can become our spirit. If this were not true then something very much would in effect be the same.

Once our spirit is controlled we must follow the dominant controlling spirit that we have become. The only way out is no longer controlled by ourselves, so any change or relief must come from outside and be itself out of our control. God is the only free standing spirit and only good spirits come from Him. But it is possible a good spirit could become bad and this happens when those spirits decide to desire control for themselves in hostile competition to the Holy Spirit.

Anything I tell you comes from the spirit within me and belongs to the Higher Spirit I have decided can provide my spirit the power to seek safety. Whatever anyone does about anything I say, has nothing to do with me.  Whenever anyone becomes persuaded about anything it is to their credit alone or to their discredit similarly. I am not responsible for others nor do I seek to persuade, anyone but myself.

Only ones spirit can persuade themselves, despite what they may maintain to the contrary. You can only control or convince your own spirit or any other spirit that is gaining control of you. Everything I am saying, even now, is being said by me for my own benefit. I cannot nor would I want to, convince or convict, anyone but myself. In that effort I have my hands full. Picked up in Specific Theory....

revenge of the quotables

When words multiply so does confusion. When word meanings shrink so does understanding. Everyone persuades themselves, but we all normally undertake to persuade someone else first. Let them take the responsibility.

Anger is a sign of weakness in one's argument. Insults, especially one word name calling, is a sign of a weakening vocabulary in an individual and a weakening culture disappearing in any collective setting. Abortion is cultural suicide for that particular group.

a design observed requires a designer

Evolution theory is fine and agrees with the description of it found in the Bible recorded by the ancient writers. Confirming knowledge, when it arrives after the truth is already known, continues to have a lesser after the fact status,

It is more important to the individual, as opposed to the collective, to believe before even knowing, if that is in anyway necessary. Belief comes through diligent continuous effort, if you are rich in knowledge, because knowledge by itself will begat doubt.

I am experiencing a dangerous schedule of sleep depravation. The risk for the body is great but the rewards might then also be great. In any event the lack of regular sleep could portent a public decline in the physical even as it promotes a wider path to the spiritual. 

the fine edge of success

Caring and not caring at the same time. We must and we should really care about what we do. And yet, if we don't, if we relax and let go and don't care we, at least, execute better. Between the two, if we can bring them together into a fine sharp cutting edge point we will find the secret of success. This was I think the secret of success for Dean Martin, whether he knew or understood anything about it or not. He was well known for not caring, but there is evidence he did care, I do think, and between the two he succeeded to bring them together to a fine point leading to his successes.

detail in dreams

Time seems to be forever lurking behind all my thoughts in my awareness of the abstract spiritual. This life we lead, the concrete world we see and react to, is like a dream upon looking back. Dreams themselves are so real at the time but upon looking back on them I wonder why. The memory of the dream musters mostly sparse dark images. Why did they seem so real at the time with so details. More on this in Manna. 

the way one sees it

Hawking made a prediction just before he passed away...this is the way I heard it....he predicted the world  would end shortly after he died. It is quite understandable anyone would think at the end of their life that those were the end times. Many believers in Christ think He will return and that those are the end times. The end times are for us individually or are they for everyone collectively? Depends on your definition of the end times I guess, individually or collectively. Some people drift off quietly in private. Others like to exit with a crowd around them. But the bald fact is we each go alone into the night as we cross the River of Lethe otherwise known also as the Sea of Forgetfulness.

the first lie out there wins

One has to have a boney fide genuine dung detector in order to navigate the news through less truth than can rise off excrement in a snow bank. Any argumentum ad hominem tale normally tells more about the talker than the talkee. 

faith the most vital

Believing is not so easy as just saying one believes and the only way to please God is through faith. The only way to gain faith found in the Bible is to diligently reread the word constantly until it is down deep in your spirit. By the same token, listening to the recorded word I find even more startling effective. The method can be used for any message whether evil or good. It does not matter. So I have to be sharply aware of time and what may be clogging up my spiritual arteries. Specific Theory of Existence 

divide in order to multiply

To understand something in order to multiply our knowledge, we must first divide it. Instead of starting by learning our first numbers up to twelve, in the beginning we really only have to learn two, either a one or a zero. There are only two numbers and you divide your problem to be understood in two also. Depending on the point of your study, it should be relevant. For instance in order to understand politics, which is essentially only gossip, I would divide people in two with the individual on one side and the consensus individual, primarily a peer pressured individual strongly influenced by the group.

By listing the characteristic of each, one can arrive at a good source of predictability for each. The individual needs the group, but the group does not need the individual. We see this most starkly in the Constitution which was written solely to protect the individual from the group. This is why the individual is always appealing to the Constitution while the group would like to evolve it out of the picture altogether. They also favor majority vote in the Electoral College where individuals in small groups can survive the domination of one massive single peer group, that individuals in smaller specific groups term mobocracy. Specific Theory of Existence

Atheism is eating Christian churches' lunch

Christ said Christians are not as smart as atheists. What do you think of that? Whenever I ask that question of a Christian I am asked where is that in the Bible?

Protestant church social cliques with which I've been long familiar are forever learning and never coming closer to the truth, This also is in the Bible and since I am not a chapter and verse person, "diligent seekers" who cannot find their lunch will just have to root that info for themselves. 

Churches dominated by retirees are treated almost continually with stories they should have heard by now at least a mil-yun times. Seldom if ever is anything difficult discussed such as increasing faith, and that at a time in one's life when it is clearly going to be tested sooner than later. Further comment on this generally would most likely be filed under the link Church & Faith at Pulpit Rock . 

the last days of the end times are here

When you enter your eighties you will start to believe you are in the end times. You will believe in news accounts of extra terrestrials, in some cases, their bodies intact, on display at a well known secret location in the US. Underneath the mainland US it will be reported, a super volcano being rocked by strings of earthquakes. The media will trumpet the doings of superstars you never heard of before. All the superstars you do know are safely dead, and that for sometime already. Assassination conspiracy theories will be, as you learn more and more information about them, seem quite possibly true.

Then you will finally realize that you will really die someday, and likely pretty soon. But not now. This is your definition of forever.

institutions are losing control

Government is losing control and is being overwhelmed by the governed, as well as being even overwhelmed by itself. 

So many many people each morning are not going to make it to eventide. Every single day large numbers who did not expect it, are dead by suppertime amid great unseen individual lamentations. The tendency of those blaming the triggers rather than the pullers of triggers resembles animals chasing their tails. They perceive but cannot conceive. The resulting sadness of the knowledge of so many who are lost in the invisible vortex of time is so extreme that, personally I can only hope spoons will soon be banned for those who are overweight. Mocking laughter is the extreme anecdote for the sadness of the opposing extreme, tears.

Time hoovers quietly over us all, waiting to absorb us within itself, casting a unique mood of inevitability which if one luckily lives long enough, includes suffering, What is going to happen to us? Will those who are desperate enough to survive, to make it across the river of forgetfulness? 

you WILL take responsibility for what happens to you

Ancient writers were long aware of the constant spiritual struggle going on to define words since it is mentioned in the Bible. It is also particularly prevalent in recent years as seen within the persistent political struggle going on between groups and the individual. 
Responsibility
My definition of the term, responsibility, may differ from various others. Responsibility means that whatever happens to you, we each are responsible to ourselves for it. There is no indication of blame in this word but today there is surely an strong expectation of its presence. This is the successful attempt to shed blame to someone other than the one who suffers the consequent event.

 I originally called my view my baby in the well theory. My point was that although the baby may not be to blame for accidentally falling into the well, if the baby is in the well then it is the baby that suffers the consequence and so that it is the baby alone that must respond to that event, most likely by drowning.

Although someone may be to blame for this event, or the jurisdiction over it, blame is not individual responsibility. Just as intent is not conviction or innocence, but rather only relates solely to the penalty, it is changing the meaning of words going on in academia that reflects a strong contraction of words rather than a healthy multiplication of meanings which would be present in the language of a healthy culture.

The clear desire to use fewer words for many different things, vague neautral words as well, is the opposite of a living language that expands, growing, rather than contracting, words and meanings. This is done by proponents for the purpose of reducing everything to the same thing. So growth is contained, today by one view such as  globalism, in order to control people by making them all similar. The existence as well as the rights of individuals are not welcome in this arena of knowledge destruction.

There are many words suffering in this overall struggle. For instance, where popular vote is more desired than the electoral vote. The electoral vote is evidence of a republic, not a democracy. The electoral vote is designed, as is the constitution itself, to protect individuals in small groups from individuals acting in large groups, Otherwise farmers would be the slaves of city dwellers, and the society would soon reduce itself to rubble. Therefore, the electoral vote protects what is called by the group desiring control groups like the snubbed as flyover country.

Immigration also has a definition, which is primarily to keep one particular ethnic group from gaining control over other ethnic groups as well as to make sure emigrants do not suffer neglect from the advantages of existing social structures, like hospitals, education, or the police, to name a few. Too many, too quickly, is an invasion not immigration. There must be time to assimilate if we are to keep our melting pot simmering without boiling over in order to serve those joining it.

But boiling over, whether we are aware of it or not, is the goal of agents of change. Shrinking the language, making everything the same, perhaps even including bathrooms, is a part of that strategy,

the various stages

One truth that stands out for me is that the truth cannot be told by those who know. One example is growing old, if that is, if you are lucky enough to actually grow old. First you find that your stamina does not serve as previously. My father called it weakening down. I knew what he was saying but had not idea of what he was talking about it. However, that was the first stage, and it is entirely concerned with strength in the latter stages.

You hardly know when you start forgetting, but a good indication is that when your friends finish your sentences that your realize you are in what the government calls the donut hole. Actually, in point of actual fact, since I am convinced everything has a purpose, this is the stage designed to ease you into the various stages of body death. It is commonly known a failure to fall down. Young people in their power years, 40 - 60, cheerily patronize you assuring you they understand you what you are saying, but then go ahead and do what they want, and that without telling you anything about it. This is what sets you up for your later realization you were stupid, and likely more so at the present moment.

It is possible for anyone to slowly die inside before they can be recognized as dead outside as well. So it is at this stage you want to set your automatic coordinates for everything that you hope to see happen when you shed your bod like and old coat. This is when the reflection that hits you hard is your realization that young people are all good looking. We are not aware of this when you are young, only when you are old can you recognize this. Then it is largely too late. Also, money, money starts arriving in inadequate sums only when you realize you are losing claim to it.

Strength is wasted on the young, only when they lose it can that be confirmed. Once again being told about this cannot be told. Once you realize it, it is not only too late, you find yourself laughing about it with kindred knowing souls. Laughter of course, is the opposite extremity of weeping in public.

When I was young and strong I did not know enough to write about it. When I was older and wiser, I no longer had the energy or the health.

outsmarting stupidity

I often tirelessly like to brag about my enviable brilliance by saying, I am so smart I have out smarted myself many times.
 Every year end I look back and my mistakes standout in stark contrast to common sense. I don't defend them, I just make new ones the following year.

I rank stupidity right up there alongside suffering as examples of the persistence problem in my definitions. Why are many of us so stupid in reflection and so blindsided by suffering? I wrestle with these problems because I need to consolidate my faith since I believe it is my engine of success. Everything happens because of faith and the directed strength of it. This is because we really are at bedrock, stupid. Why do I say this? It is because there is so much more that we do not know as opposed to what we actually know.

The unreliability of witnesses
Even what we know is subject to doubt in view of all the different outlooks given by equally different witnesses. (Example: Different views of Christ in the Bible are stumbling blocks for atheists butfor me when I reflect on it, it is collaborative since people all give defferent views like various perspectives as if from different orbiting planets. It is an indication of the lack of collusion or purposeful construction.) So even the more we know buries us in even deeper awareness of the lack of all the facts, as we like to call them. And what do we do with parallel facts? Can we also question proof? Continuing...

the tall tales of terrorizing talk

The previous post is really a boil over coming out of Corner Table at the Naked Eye  and needs explanation. (Click bold.) Since this site is actually bedlam contrasted to the rest of these sites, redact rules are in place to keep entries within the overall site format.

Which are? The Naked Eye, like everything else, is an account of the views of those who post there. Therefore it developed around politics. The Sunset Strollers began more as an abstract demographic site not a concrete political one, which is to say the Naked Eye became a gossip he said she said site.

The first rule was that they should stay on the subject and could not refer to actual persons. This was to keep discussions on issues and policy, not propagandizing individuals skilled in the fire arts, the fallacy art of argumentum ad hominem name calling. Most political discussions end up this way, so no naming of individuals was the reason for that rule. People can get around this rule right out of the gate as it now appears from their first outside post.

The next rule was intended to keep matters in generalizations, not specifics which always seem to start the fires burning. Some here think that is good, but the establishment around here agree that it is more like two people talking and belittering their own talk into the confusion of simple jamming.

The Naked Eye may eventually have to get their own rules, their own editors, and go off on their own.

believing with a straight face

Everyone talks for their own benefit. They are not really trying to persuade anyone but themselves. That at least is the way an individual mind would approach things. On the other hand a group minded person seems to be persuading others since they offer supporting reasons for their view while attacking with an ad hominem a story no one could seriously believe with a straight face.

I viewed a stark example of this on television. It began with a member of the reviled party detailing amendments he was suggesting so a member of the imposing party so as to gain their support. This extended effort, explaining fine points and whatnot, was then turned over to a member of the imposing party for his chance to respond. Quickly he spoke with great urgency,
  you are holding a gun to the head of our children! 

This was immediately accepted right on the spot and the scene shifted sharply to a commercial.

Life may not be rehearsal but it certainly is an experiment.

we never die

No one seems to die now that I've luckily reached the final innings of the game. They pass instead. This implies a continuation process is ahead. And as well, many operate on a new definition of forever. They all know... continued among the Memory Stones link found the the left column this date.

blaming God instead of ourselves

When God does not answer prayer, quite often I hear that God is to blame. They do not admit blaming God but go along with their idea, their own idea, that God, who decided they say not to answer that particular prayer for reasons that a good for you. God is in control and knows what He is doing it is said. This seems to me to be avoiding the fact that God cannot change His mind, nor can He lie. There are literally trillions of things He cannot do or He would be acting against Himself. So who is to blame then?

Quite obviously we are. Jesus asked a sick person, do you believe I can do this? They answered yes. Jesus said then let it be done to you according to your faith. This does not mean who do not have any faith or that you are not saved. It means you do not have enough faith. God does not change His mind. He cannot change His mind. We should be careful of finding we are avoiding our own responsibilities and pushing it off on God. God's promises are turned off that easily.

believing God but not His power

There are many Christians who believe in Jesus Christ but do not believe in his power, I call them Christian atheists. When the devil doubt cannot undermine a Christian completely then he will settle for destroying their faith by attacking their belief in the power of Jesus. Jesus without any power is just as good but since they believe in Jesus then I call them atheists but Christian atheist because they do profess to believe in Christ, See the importance of defining terms in Jesus Talking this date, linked in the left side column this date.

Tears in the rain

One of my top all time favorite quotes is said by the actor Rutger Haur in the conclusion of the first film Bladerunner when he contemplates, All those moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.

I recall reading about the last reputed survivor of the revolutionary war. He was 115 years old when he died. I figured out at the time that had he lived a second 115 years he would have been dead an additional 34 years already!  Everyone wants to live and avoid great changes from what we are used to previously. But in the time field we can never win apparently.

Think about John Keats for example. He died pauperized at 21 most likely thinking he had not received any great attention as a writer. As it just happened I had just finished reading about another writer of his time who lived in country estate luxury to an advanced age popularly successful and with respectable wealth. Contemplate this comparison however, now that they are both passed so long ago. What can we make of it now? How do we figure time with such a background.

My memories, such as they remain, suddenly leave me in Boston where there is a cemetery attached to a church. Here my high school graduation was held. Outside a stone announces the presence of the remains of  Benjamin Franklin's parents.
(This thread continues this date in the link in the first column, Specific Theory of Existence.)