People often say that there is no use of crying over spilled milk. However, sometimes there is a point; maybe crying over spilled milk today will help me to avoid spilling more milk tomorrow. My old man? Do not be stupid. My old man? Let me tell you, he was never wrong about nothing. Do not tell me my father was wrong. Let me tell you something, a father who made you is wrong? A father, the breadwinner of the house there? The man who goes out and busts his butt to keep a roof over your heard and clothes on your back you call him wrong? Father, that is the man that comes home, bringing you candy. Father is the first guy to throw a baseball to you. And take you for walks in the park holding you by the hand. My father held me by the hand, hey, my father had a hand on him though, I tell you. He busted that hand once, and he busted the other on me to teach me to do good. My father, he shoved me in a closet for seven hours to teach me to do good, because he loved me. Do not be looking at me. Let me tell you something, you are supposed to love your father because your father loves you. How can any man whose loves you tell you anything that is wrong? My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5

It is important to consider the past carefully in order to learn from it. Sometimes we also need to consider the future carefully. Planning for the future is an important part of life and something that all parents try to teach their children. We find societies that are open to outsiders are extremely careful and strict in the behavior of individual members toward each other. We may find a romantic revolutionary system that wants to create a new World for everybody; in this case, the behavior of the members toward each other becomes of extreme importance and is firmly controlled. Thus, the social self—self-presentation—becomes crucially important and well defined. There is corresponding pressure on social rules to make self-presentation identical with the private self, that is, to open the private self to inspection. Authenticity, public self-analysis, and communal living become accepted life styles. Our sense of time is altered in these moments of deep and intense experience, so we know what now means. We feel at home in that now, in that eternity, because this is where we really are. We cannot be in the future and we cannot be in the past; we can only be in the present. We are only real to the extent to which we are living in the present here and now. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5

 At the other extreme are societies that overemphasize group conditions. These societies stress duty toward society, show suspicion of outsiders, use magic to protect their personal boundaries, and distrust having new ideas come in our having their own knowledge go out. Fatherhood is something of prestige and power. The father possesses the idea and ideas as part of his inheritance. The virtual and spiritual gem that he receives and transmits eminently contains that specific and social characteristics of human being: stable essence, entelechy, final cause and supreme reason. Group memberships has consequences for the person, and these consequences are what make groups in society so important. We can represent this aspect of group membership by the statement that a group has power over its members. There is something distinctive in this power: it goes beyond the power of one individual may have over another; the channel of influence of one person over another cannot account fully for the effect of various group members on each other. There is something in the group as an entity which in itself is a source of power. The moral premise is that the law requires us to promote the highest good, which involves a perfect correspondence between the morality and happiness of every individual. However, the only guarantee of the possibility of this correspondence would be the existence of God, presumably because God alone would possess the power necessary to achieve it. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5

 The group itself is the source of power above and beyond the power of the individuals composing it. In this sense, the group has an individuality, a separate meaning for its members. This meaning may be given by a name, “our family,” “our community,” but also by goals that membership in the group can mediate, say, prestige through being in a select circle, making the congenial friends through being members of the community. We speak of this attraction to the group itself as cohesion. The average strength of the motives enforces group cohesion. Loyalty to a group may differ over space and time; family and community cohesion may last over a long time and is often reinstated when it is lost. However, even weak cohesion, dependent on a short, common experience can be reinstated; alumni of one event, such as one blizzard, will arrange meetings after years. By being part of cohesive groups, a person accepts a willingness to cooperate as the price of staying a member. Thus, membership in a group leads to openness of influence by the group. A certain uniformity in behavior or attitudes results: this may be expressed quite formally—members of a group wear certain clothes or certain badge or profess certain beliefs. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5

Circles, especially, are founded on common beliefs. In determination of attitudes, communities are seen to be important. The stronger the cohesion, the stronger the influences toward conformity in general. This rule is not uniform over all potential issues, but only on issues that are important to the existence of the group. A church group may allow differences on supporting baseball teams; a fan club may include people of different religions. In fact, the longer and more intensely a group exists, the more easily can important and unimportant issues be distinguished. A secure, established group can tolerate differences about peripheral issues, that a new, insecure group cannot. Even without formal rules, the group members are dependent on the agreement of those who are members of those intimate groups. In fact, people may join groups to obtain this reinforcement. When this core of belief is established, an effort will be made to have all the members of group accept these standards. Efforts will be made to convince those who disagree, but if these fail, deviates will be excluded from group membership. We love strength. We love the World. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5