To these two eyes, weak as they may be, you are more beautiful than anybody I can think of. Do you make me happy? You make me happy in every way. When it comes to making a guy happy, you wrote the book. Feelings and spiritual qualities as inspiration, creative genius, virtue, and wisdom give emotions a place beside reason. There is an inner light, which allows God to satisfy the inner light of human beings. All experiences of human beings emerge against the background of the limited individual being, participation in the Absolute Being. By their relation to participation, which is constant and eternal, individual beings establish their relation to the World, and through the notions of essence and existence they establish their spiritual identity. The Absolute Beings is pure actuality, the infinite source of existential dynamism, and an endless reservoir of all possible forms of essences, from which individual beings receive their own limited existence. In spite of this direct and continuous dependence of the individual on God as the source, human freedom is safeguarded by the self-creativity of the individual. Indeed, from the human point of view, participation is a pursuit of an ideal which constantly moves ahead of our efforts. In this pursuit we create our spiritual self, and our experiences, moving onward, progressively acquire a unique form. Our effort in life is meant to discover this form, which has its prototype in the reservoir of Being and is our spiritual essence. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10

The accomplishment of our essence at our departure from the mortal realm mean the radical passage from limited existence into the transfinite Being. Thus, participation appears as the means of a person’s ultimate redemption, toward which everything occurring in the Universe converges. The World is the interval which separates pure Act (Being) from the limited act of participation (human existence). Matter, in limiting the spirit, offers the resistance necessary for the self to transcend itself. The World comprises three modes of reality: the World of things, that of idea, and that of individual beings (consciousnesses). The material World plays the necessary role of separating beings; ideas give spiritual meaning to things. The World of individual consciousnesses is necessarily conscious because the essence of the Absolute Being from which they proceed is itself perfect inwardness; as such it is eternally fecund and intended to communicate the creative act to beings which, in turn, propagate it in self-creation. Freedom is the essence of human destiny. However, whereas the Absolute Act is synonymous with absolute freedom, human, the participating act, is limited by the natural spontaneity of the instinct. Consequently, the life of the spirit, which is the ideal of human life, is a fighting toward gradual liberation from the passivity peculiar to instinct. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10

We become fully human by subordinating natural spontaneity of instinct. We become fully human by subordinating natural spontaneity to reflection and rational discipline. Human freedom originates in this process; and this conversion of spontaneity into freedom is the real vehicle of participation. The spiritual being is endowed with potentialities for the accomplishment of its pre-established essence. Our vocation is to seek to make our actual selves coincide with the better part of ourselves, which represents these potentialities. This self-searching and self-controlling effort presupposes an act of consent to our vocation of the spirit. Everyday is a chance for us to rehabilitate our existence, as even the least significant instant is an opportunity for consent to the self-creative effort, and thereby, an opportunity for participation in the Absolute. Human communion is the ideal of wisdom as it is seen to be possessed in the union between a certain asceticism and everyday life and love. “And they arose from the Earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full,” reports 3 Nephi 17.20. We must remember God’s words of assurance, and be fully of courage. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10

We ought to realize that no matter what we have done in life, no matter what we do, God and Christ will still love us just much as they did before we may not have reached our goal. God and Christ do not separate themselves from people who are learning, from the people who are still trying to express their faith. Love from God is not earned. It is not merited; if it is, it is justice and reciprocity and reward. Love comes from a loving heart, and God’s love is unconditional. And he loves the worst of us and the best of us equally. We cause God to suffer when we do wrong, when he sees us live our lives in ways that destroy us, and when he sees us hurting other people—this must cause him pain. Life, however, is always a discipline, even for the lower animals as well as for people; it can be so dangerous that only by submitting to some sort of discipline can we become equipped to live in any true sense at all. This disappearance of the discipline of the old external taboos thus imposes upon us, inescapably, the creation of a new self-discipline of internal and personal taboos. If we are not responsible to an outside order which we no longer regard as valid, then we are responsible before the inner tribunal of the self, which cannot but be valid for us so long as we are alive. “The Lord has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the Earth shall see the salvation of God,” reports 3 Nephi 17.20. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10

The fully knowledge of the World made available by an encyclopedia of human knowledge, as there already exist vast stores of experience held by groups of skilled workers, or by individuals, that are not fully utilized, if we collected and systematically arranged, and their full product was obtained for understanding, such an encyclopedia would be conducive to piety by bringing out the richness and variety in the World, and thus testifying to God’s wisdom and power. Many people desire a fuller knowledge of nature of things because it will increase piety and devotion to God. And so far from it being an easy and pleasant task, as some may at first have thought when they saw the old taboos melting away, it involves difficulties which their grandparents never knew. If it means the making of new and personal taboos, it involves a slow self-development and self-responsibility, which is not in itself a continual discipline, but runs the risk of conflict with others engaged in the same task and with the same sincerity. For what we may still term morals, since it has now become an individual outcome, will not be entirely the same for all individuals. All our moralities, indeed, cannot fail to be modifications of a common pattern because we all belong to the same community; but the differences involve a greater degree of mutual understanding and forbearance than when uniform taboos were imposed from outside. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10

It would seem that for many years there can be no common emotional or intellectual background which may be take for granted; and if in the result not a little of human’s power must be spent in creating one’s own scheme of values, still there is no immediate remedy, for it is in the nature of contemporary thinking that it demands an effort as individual as it must be unsparingly honest if it is to have any meaning for our generation. Although two persons need not have qualitatively the same sense experiences, they can and do communicate, and this communication somehow depends on the nature of the space relations underlying the congruity of each person’s perceptions. So if the people of the former generation now leaving the World are often shocked to see swept away the old rigid taboos they were brought up in, they ma leave it in peace. Life, after all, may not have been so hard for them, not so hard, perhaps, as for the younger generation. None the less, that younger generation, also, may continue to carry lightly it burden, on youthful shoulders, joyfully creating a New World. No two things can be alike, but in a material thing there is always something that bears the traces of its earlier state, so that it s cause can be discovered in it. This element is the mind, since matter itself is incapable of containing such traces. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10

From this point of view, God must be conceived as surveying all; the different possible Worlds and decreeing the existence of the one containing the greatest perfection. Here it must be remembered that what exists depends on God’s will, and unless possible demanded existence, God would have no reason for admitting any of them into existence. However, once this reason is given God, he can and does impose conditions of perfection. What God allows to exist, what he chooses as best, is chosen from natural characteristics, since to give us things what is not natural to them would involve a constant miracle. The natural tendency of a body moving in a curved path is to move along the tangent to the curve; bodies cannot naturally attract one another; matter is not naturally capable of thinking; there is a natural and not a merely arbitrary connection between our perceptions of secondary qualities and the bodily movements giving rise to these perceptions. God would not do anything merely because he willed it: if there were no objective reason to determine God’s will, he would not act at all. Obscenity is a permanent element of human social life and corresponds to a deep need of the human mind, or, for all we know to the contrary, of the mind. It is not confined to any nation or any stage of culture, low or high, naïve or highly educated. If you are unwilling to hear me because you do not like or respect people of my gender, race, profession, or background, then I am spilling my message onto unreceptive ground. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10

Obscenity definitely exists and it recognized among the people of the World, it is even manifested by the greatest people of genius of all races. We forget that we are dealing with a fundamental and inevitable human impulse, and that it is our business to preserve those aspects of it which are good and to minimize those which are evil. When everything is obscene it becomes impossible to say what obscenity is. Hence the endless definitions of obscenity, and their absurdity. Some love darkness. That love of darkness is shrewd. For, if we think of it, any attempt whatever to define obscenity—once we have put aside the vague emotional terms of abuse, foul, filthy, lewd, disgusting, and so forth—in cool and precise terms cannot bring us to any crime against society. Influence through the mass communication need not be blatant—it can be very subtle indeed. Even when communicators are not making a direct attempt to sell us something, they can succeed in influencing the way we look at the World. Consciousness-raising is the process of making members of groups subject to discrimination aware of the ways in which they are being put down. It is impossible to estimate the social damage which has been done by outworn taboos of obscenity. Raising consciousness within the oppressed group is one thing, and raising consciousness among the oppressors is quite another. That is a job for God. “For the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea,” reports Habakkuk 2.14. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10

The human relation problems yet to be explored are immense, and the solution will come no more easily than did the others. It is important to communicate. It I want to not-communicate with you, all I have to do is to code my message in symbols or language you cannot possibly understand. If my intent is to confuse your, lose you, make you upset or angry, cause you to feel inferior or to dislike me, then I can select message symbols in such a way as to accomplish any of those exact results. Or I can simply keep my mouth shut and send non-verbal messages (tight mouth, glared looks, clenched fist, turned back), and claim innocence (“I was not sending that message!”). To me, one of the most baffling aspects of the behavior of men and women in highly-responsible positions in some segments of our society, is their comparative lack of concern for—perhaps it is lack of awareness of—the factor of communication, as such, in the problems and situations in which they all have to deal. It is communication that makes human society possible. Children use words to express how they feel; adults use words to hide how they feel. Sometimes every reality can prove a bitter disillusionment. Therefore, we must practice love towards humanity for solidarity and compassion, not just out of love of God, but out of a desire to combat the cruelty of destiny and of nature. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10

Necessity and simplicity of nature exclude the presence of arbitrary or miraculous forces, as well as the efficacy of magic and of those forces to which it appeals. For communication to take place, the receiver must also be receptive.  That means more than just having clean ears. One must also want or need to get the message and be willing to decode and fit it into one existing pattern of ideas or associations. If a student receiver is asleep in class, even if the professor’s must exciting and beautiful message will not get through to him. Another important factor in communication is the context in which a communication is being attempted. Suppose you and I are at a noisy party. I want to enjoy myself and not talk shop. You want to ask me a whole group of interesting psychological questions. I may turn off and refuse to receive, in a way I probably would not do in the classroom, on the campus, or perhaps at a different kind of part. The setting, thus, will have a lot to do with the communication or non-communication that take place. Today, many people are becoming increasingly aware that if they use certain words or body language, they will be considered sexist when they are talking to others. In such a situation, these loaded words or symbols do not communicate what the person intends; they have a different meaning for the other party. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10