The biggest laughs are based on the biggest disappointments and the biggest fears. Most of us are none too eager to confront a spider or to be caught in a thunderstorm. A phobia (from the Greek for “fear”) is a persistent and unreasonable fear of a particular object, activity, or situation. If they even think about the object or situation they dread, people with a phobia become fearful, but they usually remain comfortable as long as they avoid the object or thoughts about it. Most are well aware that their fears are excessive and unreasonable. Some have no idea how their fears started. We all have our areas of special fear, and it is normal for some things to upset us more than other things, perhaps even different things at different stages of our lives. A survey of residents of a community in Burlington, Vermont, found that fears of crowds, death, injury, illness, and separation were more common among people in their sixties than in any other age groups. Among 20-years-olds, fears of snakes, heights, storms, enclosures, and social situations were much more common. How do these common fears differ from phobias? A phobia is more intense and persistent and the desire to avoid the object or situation is greater. People with phobias feel such distress that their fears may interfere dramatically with their personal, social, or occupational lives. Phobias are common in our society. Surveys suggest that 10 to 11 percent of the adults in the United States of America suffer from one in any given year, and more than 14 percent develop a phobia at some point in their lives. The disorder is more than twice as common in women than in me. Most phobias technically fall under the category of specific phobias, which is a marked and persistent fear of a specific object or situation. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

In addition, there are two broader kinds of phobias: social phobia, a fear of social or performance situations in which embarrassment may occur, and agoraphobia, a fear of venturing into public places, especially when one is alone. Because agoraphobia is usually, perhaps always, experienced in conjunction with panic attacks, unpredictable attacks of terror, we shall examine that phobia later. As we have observed, a specific phobia is a persistent fear of a specific object or situation. When sufferers are exposed to the object or situation, they typically experience immediate fear. Common specific phobias are intense fears of specific animals or insects, heights, enclosed spaces, thunderstorms, and blood. Each year as many as 9 percent of the people in the United States of America have the symptoms of a specific phobia. Eleven percent develop such phobias at some time during their lives, and many people have more than one at a time. Among people with this disorder, women outnumber men 2 to 1. For reasons that are not clear, the prevalence of specific phobias also differs among racial and ethic minority groups. Hispanic Americans, for example, report twice as many of the as European Americans. The impact of s specific phobia on a person’s life depends on what arouses the fear. Some things are easier to avoid than others. People whose phobias center on dogs, insects, or water will keep encountering the objects they dread. Their efforts to avoid them must be elaborate and may greatly restrict their activities. People with snake phobias have a much easier time. The vast majority of people with a specific phobia—almost 90 percent of them—do not seek treatment. They try instead to avoid the objects they fear. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

Many people worry about interacting with others or talking or performing in front of others. A number of entertainers, including Barbra Streisand and Paris Hilton, have described major bouts of nervousness before going onstage. Social fears of this kind are inconvenient, but usually the people who have them manage to function adequately, some at a very high-level People with social phobia, by contrast, have severe, persistent, and irrational fears of social or performance situations in which embarrassment may occur. A social phobia may be narrow, such as a fear of talking or performing in public, eating in public, using a public bathroom, or writing in front of others, or it may be a broader fear of social situations, such as a general fear of functioning inadequately in from of others. Both forms, people repeatedly judge themselves as performing less adequately than they actually do. A social phobia an interfere greatly with one’s life. A person who is unable to interact with others or speak in public may fail to perform important responsibilities. One who cannot eat in public may reject dinner invitations and other social opportunities. Since most people with this phobia keep their fears secret, their social reluctance is often misinterpreted as snobbery, lack of interest, or hostility. As many as 8 percent of the population—around three women for every two men—experience a social phobia in any given year. More than 13 percent experience this problem at some point in their lives. The disorder often begins in late childhood or adolescence and may persist for many years, although its intensity may fluctuate. What causes phobias? Behaviorists believe that people with phobias first learn to fear certain objects, situations, or events through conditioning. Once the fears are acquired, the individuals avoid the dreaded object or situation, permitting the fear to become all the more entrenched. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

How are fears learned? Behaviourists proposed classical conditioning as a common way of acquiring fear reactions to the objects or situations that are not really dangerous. Here, two events that occur close together in time become closely associated in a person’s mind, and the person then reacts similarly to both of them. If one event triggers a fear response, the other may also. In the 1920s a clinician describes the case of a young woman who apparently acquired a phobia of running water through classical conditioning. As a child of 7 she went on a picnic with her mother and aunt and ran off by herself into the woods after lunch. While she was climbing over some large rocks, her feet were caught between two of them. The harder she tried to free herself, the more trapped she became. No one heard her screams, and she grew more and more terrified. In the language of behaviourists, the entrapment was eliciting a fear response. Entrapment à Fear response. As she struggled to free her feet, the girl heard a waterfall nearby. The sound of the running water became linked in her mind to her terrifying battle with the rocks, and she developed a fear of running water as well. Running water à Fear response. Eventually the aunt found the screaming child, freed her from the rocks, and comforted her; but the psychological damage had been done. From that day forward, the girl was terrified of running water. For years family members had to hold her down to bathe her. When she traveled on a train, friends had to cover the windows so that she would not have to look at any streams. The young woman had apparently acquired a phobia through classical conditioning. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

In conditioning terms, the entrapment was an unconditioned stimulus (US) that understandably elicited an unconditional response (UR) of fear. The running water represented a conditioned stimulus (CS), a formerly neutral stimulus that became associated with entrapment in the child’s mind and came also to elicit a fear reaction. The newly acquired fear was a conditioned response (CR). US: Entrapment à UR: Fear; CS: Running water à CR: Fear. Another way of acquiring a fear reaction is through modeling; that is, through observation and imitation. A person may observe that others are afraid of certain objects or events and develop fears of the same things. Consider a young boy whose mother is afraid of illness, doctors, and hospitals. If she frequently expresses those fears, before long the boy himself may fear illnesses, doctors, and hospitals. Why should one upsetting experience develop into a long-term phobia? Should not the trapped girl later have seen that running water would bring her no harm? Should not the boy later see that illnesses are temporary and doctors and hospitals helpful? Behaviourists believe that after acquiring a fear response, people try to avoid what they fear. Whenever they find themselves near a fearsome object, they quickly move away. They may also plan ahead to ensure that such encounters will not occur. There was a girl who had friends cover the windows on trains so that she could avoid looking at streams. People with phobias do not get close to the dreaded objects often enough to learn that they are really quite harmless. Behaviourists also propose that specific learned fears will blossom into a generalized anxiety disorder when a person acquires a large number of them. This development is presumed to come about through stimulus generalization: responses to one stimulus are also elicited by similar stimuli. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

The fear of running water acquired by the girl in the rocks could have generalized to such similar stimuli as milk being poured into a glass or even the sound of bubbly music. Perhaps a person experiences a series of upsetting events, each event produces one or more feared stimuli, and the person’s reactions to each of these stimuli generalize to yet other stimuli. That person may then build up a large number of fears and eventually develop generalized anxiety disorder. Children of parents with alcoholism—or “children of alcoholics (COAs),” as they are commonly known—have received a great deal of research attention as an at-risk population. Concern with this population stems from the belief that parental alcoholism leads to disrupted and dysfunctional family environments that have ill effects on children. These ill effects may be driven by parental modeling of dysfunctional and destructive behaviours, corruption and deterioration of parenting behaviours, or an amalgamation of both processes. Indeed, results of a large-sample cross-sectional study with rigorous sampling techniques indicated that COAs exhibited significant differences from non-COAs: greater involvement in alcohol use; more drug dependence; more depression, agoraphobia, social phobia, and generalized anxiety; less behavioural control; lower academic achievement. Differences between COAs and non-COAs in this investigation were small to moderate in magnitude. Other findings indicate that COAs are more depressed, less satisfied with their own marriages, and more likely to drink for coping purposes; that they are more susceptible to the ill effects of conflict with their parents; and that they experience less intimacy in their close relationships than non-COAs do. Taken in isolation, findings such as these suggest rather pervasive deficits among COAs. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Perhaps the problem most strongly linked with being a COA is a risk for alcoholism. COAs are far more likely to have alcohol problems themselves than are members of the general population. Consideration must certainly be given to the influence of genetic mechanisms in the familial transmission of alcoholism. At the same time, however, it is plausible to assume that social learning processes also contribute to the increased risk. Children who observe parents using alcohol as a means of relaxation, coping with stress, celebration, and so forth would naturally be expected to imitate this behaviour that their parents regularly modeled during their formative years. Notwithstanding some of the significant problems that appear to be associated with being a COA, a substantial body of literature is emerging that questions the distinctness and at-risk status of the COAs and non-COAs in alcohol-related problems, suicidal ideation, personal control, and perceived social support; anxiety, social skills, social maladjustment, use of nonverbal communication behaviours; personality traits such as expressiveness, alienation, defensiveness, independence, impulsiveness, sociability, and extraversion; object relations deficits and compulsive behaviour, self-esteem, or depression. The list of such studies is too long, and the breadth of dependent variables too extensive, to dismiss these findings to sampling error or other artifacts. Such results are interpretable as good news for the COAs. Although parents who have alcoholism may raise children with psychological problems of their own, this is not a deterministic relationship. Dysfunction may be more evident in those COAs seeking attention through self-help groups and professional contacts. In general, researchers are converging on the converging on the conclusion that COAs are a complex and heterogeneous population who are not always distinguishable from those in the general population. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

It is notable that although many COAs are as functional as their non-COA counterparts, most still describe their early family environments as distressed and dysfunctional. For example compared to non-COAs, COAs describe their families of origin as more conflict-laden, less harmonious, more troubled, and stressed, and less cohesive. To a large extent, parents with alcoholism and their spouses describe similar dynamics in the family environment. This pattern of findings speaks favourably to the validity of family environment assessments from the people with alcoholism, their spouses, and their children: All see troubles in the family context. Even though COAs often describe a negative atmosphere in their families of origin, many are still indistinguishable from non-COAs on a variety of psychosocial outcomes. Clinicians found that family environments with which COAs are raised are as varied and diverse as those in which there is no parental alcoholism. Since parents with alcoholism are themselves a diverse and heterogeneous group, it stands to reason that the family environments that they help to create are reflective of that heterogeneity. Taken one step further, it may be understandable why their children are an equally heterogenous group. The new frontier in research on COAs entails the search for mediators and moderators of the effects of parental alcoholism on the children’s psychosocial adjustment. The advice to researchers has been clearly stated: “We must move beyond COA—non-COA contrasts to systematic analyses of within-group variance in order to better understand the conditions under which family history of alcoholism results in adverse outcomes.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

Recognizing this, researchers are attempting to discover the family factors that enhance risk or resiliency in the face of parental alcoholism. For example, some models of the influence of parental alcoholism on children’s adjustment suggest that variables such as marital strain, social isolation, role reversals, and medical problems may moderate this relationship. COAs are more likely to have experienced physical or sexual abuse while growing up. However, when abuse history is controlled for, the effects of parental alcoholism on offspring’s social maladjustment become non-significant. When parents with alcoholism create dysfunctional family environments, attachment to the parents mediates the relationship between family and interpersonal distress in young adult children. Specifically, family dysfunction tends to reduce parental attachment, which in turn is associated with increased levels of interpersonal distress in COAs. Also, COAs who have a predisposition toward social deviance (exempli gratia, problems with authority, unresponsiveness to discipline, social alienation) are especially prone to developing alcohol problems themselves. In a review of the literature on COAs, it was noted that parental alcoholism does not occur in a vacuum. Others adverse familial and environmental factors can influence child outcomes to varying degrees. A brief review of the diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence reveals that problems with the law, physical health, and occupational performance, are by definition, part of each disorder. Each of these could precipitate a host of stressors that could have a malevolent impact on family members. COAs are between two and four times more likely than non-COAs to be exposed to parental divorce, separation, unemployment, or death, in addition to their parents’ alcoholism. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

Each of these stressors could independently have deleterious effects on the psychosocial adjustment of children. A study on COAs to control extensively for comorbid stressors has some interesting findings. The findings indicate that once these are taken into account, family environments of COAs are not described differently from those of children of nonstressed control families. Therefore, where COAs appear to be psychologically or socially disadvantaged, family stressors that covary with parental alcoholism may be as responsible for the disadvantages as parental alcoholism per se, if not more so. Some family and interpersonal factors that protect COAs from distress have recently been identified. It was found that for adult COAs, dyadic cohesion and agreement in marital communication (exempli gratia, household management, self-disclosure, consensus, et cetera) greatly diminished the association between parental alcoholism and their own problem drinking. Similarly, families that are able to maintain family rituals (exempli gratia, birthday celebrations, evening meals) are less likely to raise offspring with alcohol problems, despite parental alcoholism. Also, social support from friends, but not from family members, is associated with a lower risk of alcohol and drug misuse among COAs. Recognition of the interpersonal consequences of alcoholism has brought considerable attention to COAs (children of alcoholics). Although they were originally considered to be an at-risk population, research findings show that COAs are a heterogeneous population, not particularly distinct from non-COAs. In cases where COAs experience problematic psychosocial outcomes, a generally distressed family environment, rather than parental alcoholism per se, may be the casual agent. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

Many people go around complaining, always looking at what is wrong. They see the negative in every situation, and then they wonder why they are not happy, why they are not enjoying their lives. Really, it is because they have an ungrateful, unthankful attitude. It is a heart issue, and if they do not get to the root cause and start being more grateful, it is never going to change. However, God did not give us our mouths to complain. One may not have everything one would like today. In fact, one may be dealing with a lot of problems, but complaining is only going to make matters worse. One needs to stop looking at what one does not have and start thanking God for what one does have. Stop taking inventory of everything tht is wrong, and start thanking God for what is right. The reason many people cannot seem to get out of their problems is because they are not grateful for what God has already done for them or what He has already given them. You tap your feet on the ground and “Well,” you say, “you should see the car that I am driving. She is a sophomore in high school and has a better care than me.” No, some people would love to have your car. In fact, vintage Japanese cars are big news in Russia. People like them because they are easy to work on and have a soul. The car has enjoyed the pain and pleasure the pervious owner experienced, and the new owner enjoys feeling its emotions. And they can easily customize the car to suit their needs. Nonetheless, some have to get around by taking the bus, riding a bicycle, or walking. However, if you have ever lived in a rural community or a big city, people love the public transportation because otherwise they would have to get up at 2am walk and get to work by 8am. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

The ability to walk is also a blessing. Those who have come close to never being able to walk again take great pride in long walks, they feel it is safe and enjoy using their legs. Until you have a grateful attitude, you are going to stay right where you are. “Well,” you say with your arms folded, “you just do not understand my situation. My husband is so lazy. He does not like to do anything. I do not even enjoy his company.” Do you know how many people are lonely today? Do you know how many people would love to have someone to eat dinner with tonight? Your spouse may not be perfect, but you need to change your attitude and start thanking God that at least you have somebody with whom you can share your life. Start being grateful for what God has given you. That is the first step to seeing things improve. If you would just change your perspective and start being more grateful, your life might take a radical turn for the better. People like Britney Spears, for example, recently opened up that she did a decade of therapy, daily, seven days a week, ten hours a day, and look how well she is doing. Look how happy she is. Look how great her performances were during that time. She was truly at her best. If not for gossip, no one would have even known there was anything troubling her because she did some of the best performances, and more than anyone in this generation has done, and it was quality stuff. The best in her career. Remember this: No matter how many negative things you have in your life, somebody has it a whole lot worse than you do. Somebody would love to trade places with you. You may not have the perfect job; you may not care for your boss. However, instead of going around complaining about your workplace, start thanking God that at least you have a job. You could be in the unemployment line. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

You could be on the streets somewhere. Imagine if you got laid off, and for six or seven months, you could not find a new job. You did not have enough money to pay your bills, and the bank was threatening to foreclose your house, reposes your cars, confiscate your furniture, and auction off your wife’s mink coats and diamonds because you could not pay your bills. However, just then, a former employer called you up and offered you that same job back. Do you know how thrilled you would be to have your old job? What made the difference? Your perspective changed. We need to remind ourselves, “I may have a dream job in mind, but what would I do if I did not have this job? I may have a dream home in mind, but what would I do if I did not have my home? I may have a fantasy spouse and do not particularly enjoy the person whom I am married to, but what would happen if one day that person was gone?” We need to see our circumstances in a different light. Some parents perpetually complain about their children. “These children are so bad, so terrible, they are driving me nuts. They make such a mess. All I do is clean up after them.” Do you realize that some husbands and wives would love to have children like yours? Some people have spent thousands of dollars, and have gone through all kinds of medical procedures, tying to become pregnant and have children just so they could have a precious baby in their arms and protect it and care for it and love it. They would give anything to be able to clean up that mess. You should thank God every day for blessing you with those children. When you drive to work, instead of complaining about the traffic, why not say, “Dear Lord in Heaven, thank you for blessing me with this job. I pray to one day own the company and increase revenue as I become a better employee.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

When it is time to go to the cathedral or church, instead of complaining that it is too far, too long, or too crowded, why not change your perspective and say, “Dear Lord in Heaven, thank You for the privilege of gathering with other believers to worship you in peace and safety. It is a great joy to bring up my family in the church so I may show them the path to righteousness.” Every one of us has a reason to give God thanks. If you got out of bed this morning, you can thank God that you are alive. Thank God that you are healthy and have strength. There are lots of people at the medical center who would gladly exchange places with you. Have a grateful attitude. More than a million people die every single week. Think about that. Let us start being thankful that we are alive. We have no idea how much time we have left on this Earth. COVID is real. Anyone can get it; babies, old people, skinny people, dog, cats, fetuses. However, you are better off than a million other people were last week. Take time to enjoy life. Do something to make you and your loved ones happy. Stop and smell the roses. If you have a roof over your head, you are better off than 80 percent of the World’s population. If you have five dollars to your name, you are better off than the top 8 percent of the World’s wealthiest people. Five dollars! We have so much to be grateful for. We should get in the habit of giving God thanks all day long. Let us start by giving Him thanks for this new day. Dear Lord in Heaven, I thank You, for another day. Thank You for giving me a job. Dear Lord in Heaven, thank You for my family, and for our friends and neighbours, and regardless of how they dress, if they are on a stripper pole or president of a law firm, thank You. Lord, thank You for giving me such a great life, not just one in Heaven one of these days, but right here, right now, on Earth in the moment. “In everything give thanks: for this is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ,” reports 1 Thessalonians 5.18. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

What a splendid companion You are, Lord Jesus! How sweet it is to make merry with You at the Heavenly Banquet. Odd thing, though, or perhaps not so odd: there is only one entrée on the menu. You Yourself are the dish, and a most delectable one at that, at least as my heart ranks tastes. When it came to devotion, I used to be able to turn it on and turn it off, it came in such abundance. Sensing Your presence was such a sweet thing. Being such fast friends and all, I sued to tear up and, like the pious Magdalene in Luke (7.37-38), drizzle Your feet with the drops. However, where has my devotion gone? Where have my tears fled? Certainly in Your purview, O Lord, and that of Your Holy Angels, my whole heart ought to burn and to cry for joy. Why? I have You truly present in the Sacrament, although, I must say, You have hidden Yourself under some rather common species. At the time when the flames of nationalism burn fiercely around the World—when national liberation movements proliferate in places like Ethiopia, America, China, Taiwan, and the Philippines, when tiny islands like Dominica in the Caribbean or Fiji in the South Pacific declare their nationhood and send delegates to the United Nations—a strange thing is happening in the high-technology World: instead of new nations arising, old ones are changing and in danger of coming apart. As the Third Wave thunders across the Earth, the nation-state—the key political unit of the Second Wave era—is being squeezed by viselike pressures from above and below. One set of forces seeks to transfer political power downward from the nation-state to subnational region groups. The others seek to shift power upward from the nation to transnational agencies and organizations. Together they are leading toward a crack-up of the high-technology nations into smaller and less powerful units, as a look around the World quickly reveals. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

During this pandemic, many people are seething because the new administration made all these promises to help people through the pandemic and to erase student loan debt, but they have done nothing. All they did was sign into law a payment that President Trump initiated, and have done nothing since then. And, I know you have heard of inflation, but things are really skyrocketing. In the Sacramento Valley, there are places with gasoline for $6.00 a gallon, and it is nearly winter, when the gas prices are supposed to decrease, so imagine what they will be in the summer. The prices of homes have also risen by $130,000.00 dollars over the past year for new construction. It takes a person to qualify for at least a $650,000.00 mortgage in order to afford a brand-new home. Rents are also on the rise. The prices of products are also going up by a $1 or $2, and in some cases $5 for regular items. The Dollar Store even raised prices to $1.25 and some are also selling $5 and $6 items so their customers can have a better selection and they can pay their employees more. So things are really ratcheting up. It is like 20 percent inflation, on top of prices that have been inflated over the past decade because wages are stagnant and have been, so they are not keeping up with the cost of living. Also, many suppliers are having problems getting products they need, so this is driving of the prices of goods and services. The people feel that the government is looking down its nose at them because they have done little to develop the economy, and rich states like California, with a $35 billion surplus totally ignore the seniors, many of the disabled and the veterans when it gave to issuing stimulus payments. There are people who are having to significantly cut back on their food, stop buying their medications, and simply stay at home and pay bills, and thank God that they have a roof over their heads. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

Nightclubs are opening up, but you will see only five or ten people inside. I think not only are people scared, but they are strapped for cash.  Therefore, people are outraged that then government is ignoring them and still giving foreign countries subsidies and special rights to settle in America, which is coming out of their tax money. Settlers are arriving in hordes and promptly taking up government resources and buying up much of the city’s farmland, leaving the people who have lived in these regions all their lives to feel even more like strangers in their own city. At the opposite end of the country, too, long-simmering separatist sentiments have flared up in recent years. In the deep south, with high unemployment and some of the lowest wage scales in American, the separatist movement has widespread popular support. It is splitting the country into rival parties and leaving many to fear for the safety of public and private businesses. In the first ten decades of the 21^st century, talk about American nationalism was regarded as a joke in the fake news media. Today, with oil prices surging and people worrying about being able to keep a roof over their head, the issue is not funny at all. People feel proud to be an American, even if they were once discriminated against in the past. And true American come in all colours, shapes, and forms. However, the sluggish American economy is dragging down the morality of many people and leaving them to worry about the future of their children. They demand more control over their oil. They also seek to supplant their depressed steel and auto manufacturing industries with new ones based on electronics and other advanced industries. Indeed, while America is torn with controversy over whether to go ahead with plans for a state-back superspeed railroad industry, people want more control over government and a transition out of backward industry into high technology. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

America is feeling a relentless buildup of centrifugal pressures. If centrifugal tendencies fulfill themselves, we will have permitted this country either to break up or become so divided that its existence and its ability to act as one nation will have been destroyed. The government is not the only source of divisive pressures. It is also coming from the media. If you watch the Japanese news, you will see what news is supposed to be. They actually give reports about culture, lifestyles, nature, some political, and things people in joy. The focus is not on fear, lies, propaganda, nor politics, like in America. Instead of the country and World modeling themselves after California, California should look to peaceful nations like Japan and see how they focus on family and unity. California is a state of vast distances, airfares are rigged against her; and the local policies discourage domestic investment. The gold-lettered sign welcoming people to California reads “West Coast Secession Movement.” What we see, across the board, are widening fissures threatening to crack nation-states apart. The delight of creative self-expression and personal initiative ought to be encouraged and not chilled, as it is under California’s Communism. It is better for a man—and consequently for the nation—that one should farm one’s own little piece of land in economic and individual freedom than that one should be a mere labouring “hand” under State employee. The notion that slavery becomes innocuous when it is slavery under a bureaucratic State instead of under a particular master is a notion to be repudiated. The worthwhile values which have been do far derived from a free system should not be sacrificed, even though the system itself may have to be brought up-to-date. It must defend itself against then hard strict and rigid doctrines which would destroy individuality. If one is numbered, regimented, dragged about, and enslaved by a cold, unfeeling, abstract entity called the State, nobody who loves liberty can be happy. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

The intellectual mistake of destroying personal freedom in order to achieve the ends, along renders California’s Communism unacceptable to the philosophic mind. The emotional mistake of effecting such destruction violently and brutally renders it still more unacceptable. One who loves freedom to follow a spiritual path and values independence of mental outlook will not care to be rigorously controlled at every step of one’s work and for every hour of one’s intellectual life by any bureaucratic regime. When, for instance, writers, artists, and clergymen have to serve that State first and the truth, beauty, or God afterwards, they can do so only at the cost of forfeiting the authentic inspiration which these ideals provide. They must be free or the community will get not their best but their worst work. The extinction of intellectual and spiritual liberty, the destruction of personal self-respect, and the disregard of the sacredness of individual life are definite evils. Philosophy is opposed to totalitarianism in all its forms because it believes in the necessity of preserving human dignity, human freedom, and human individuality, within proper limits. Unless there is respect for such aspirations, spiritual growth will be hampered. To a totalitarian order, things are more important than humans, frontiers than people behind them, and the State than its citizens. However, to a true philosophy, humans in their final essence are creatures with divine possibilities, human dignity is sacred, inviolable, and human individuality is to be sacrificed only at God’s behest. This development is one of the last things that a totalitarian state can wish or permit. Therefore, the practice of true religion, mysticism, and philosophy, which leads to the development of humans’ spiritual individuality, could only end in collision between the seeker and such a state. Fatalism has crept into economic thinking in the most vicious and distorted form, the form of Communism. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Everyone is obliged to everyone and everything else; we all belong together; we are of each other. In this awareness we are freed from self-preoccupation—and only then, emptied of self, can we be filled with thanks. Love wholeheartedly, be surprised, give thanks and praise—then you will discover the fullness of your life. Within this human impulse to gratitude flow the vast cycles of universal reciprocity—for everything that is taken, something has to be given in return. If you merely take in a breath and stop there, you will die. Likewise, if you merely breathe out, life is not giving or taking, but give and take This is the dynamic expression of universal belonging expressed in our thanksgiving. We give-away our thanks to the Earth, which gives us our home. We give-away our thanks to the rivers and lakes, which give-away their water. We give-away our thanks to the trees, which give-away fruit and nuts. All beings on Earth: the trees, the animals, the wind, and the rivers give-away to one another so all is in balance. In the midst of a pragmatic World in which we constantly ask ourselves how “useful” things are, these prayers may seem “useless.” Yet perhaps the greatest gift we humans have to offer the rest of creation is our heartfelt appreciation. The ability to receive in thankfulness the blessing of life is an awesome quality. We alone on this planet can reflect on all that surrounds us and through our loving recognition the rest of the Earth achieves a deep fulfillment. Earth, is not this what you want: invisibly to arise in us? Our praise and thanksgiving is as essential a part of life’s give and take as are the cycles of oxygen and water or any other nourishment flowing through the biosphere. O Lord, please guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile, and to those who slander me, let me give no heed. May my soul be humbled and forgiving unto all. Open Thou my heart, O Lord, unto Thy scared Law, that They statues I may know and all Thy truths pursue. Please bring to naught designs of those who seek to do me ill; speedily defeat their aims and thwart their purposes for Thine own sake, for Thine own power, for Thy holiness and Law. That Thy loved ones be delivered, please answer us, O Lord, and save with Thy redeeming power.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto Thee, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Thou who establishes peace in the Heavens, please grant peace unto us and unto all America. Amen. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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