Maybe it is time you all come out of that insanity of unreality and seriously realize how much trouble you are in. It is a lot like being stuck in a foreign country and not knowing anyone nor having any friends you can trust. And although it is your private life and personal business it is a big joke and there is no one you can turn to for answers. You think you handle a matter then days later you have to deal with again, and all people can tell you is, “Try not to worry about it,” or “The rules recently changed and these are the new procedures,” or “Sorry, I can’t help you,” or “If you call here again, we’ll have you arrested.” And while it may sound like no big deal to others, this is your life and you have no one to turn to if things do not go well. I spent my life in college preparing for a dream job to make sure I would not ever be in this situation. And here I am living around people who wet the bed and think it is normal to be drunk and have blood running down their legs. Grown able body men who poop their pants, as a practical—living in a crazy high rise, where if you open the windows the smell of drugs fills your apartment. What a life. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 5

Every day, people are calling with upsetting news about my personal life. My life and human rights do not matter…and yet I have to pretend everything is great and there is no one to talk to, all I can do is pray and hope God saves me. I try to find something to do to make myself feel better. Three days ago, I drank a bottle of wine, yesterday, I had candy and today I had more candy. I have probably gone from drink one bottle of wine a month two up to five, which is absolutely ridiculous. When my urine turned orange, I knew it was a problem, but actually I knew long before then. Many of you know how hard it is being an adult, but when you actually fall in love with someone you do not want to be with and then they play you and allegedly get engaged to someone else, and you have to find out through social media, it is hard…especially because this is not someone you really wanted to be with anyway. It is like a big conspiracy and people like playing games with my life and emotions. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 5

I have gotten used to it, but it does not feel good. I am no longer drinking, but eating candy, which is another poison. I have even resorted to eating cakes and pies and pizza to make myself feel better and I think about all the damage this stuff is doing to my body…the fat, the sugar, the extra calories, and the liquor—all stuff I do not need. I am trying to quit all of the bad stuff, I really am. I had even given up meat for a while, but then, as you know, being a vegetarian is extremely expensive. So, I had to go back to eating meat, mostly fish, but at least I am not doing drugs. My body and mind are very important to me, so I have to cut out the bad stuff, and I am working to become emotionally stronger so I will not drown my sorrows or pain in pinot, but you know…that is also part of it, it is not just frustration, I have body aches and pain. Compression fractures in my spine, nerve pain shooting down my leg and in my arm so bad that it sometimes hurts to move and wine really helps with that.  #RyanPhillippe 3 of 5

Nevertheless, I have to do things that do not aggravate my body and I have to find new ways to relax my mind. My dad and my grandfather are both veterans, so I am sure they went through much worse, but you would never know, they were always so in control of their lives and selves. So, you know, when I am upset, I cannot turn to a gummy bear or a slice of cake or a pizza to make myself feel better, but they do help because those were sources of happiness from childhood. I just have to make sure that I keep myself calm. It is easy for people to attack you and run and hide, and evade responsibility. And if you did not know, senior citizens can be worse bullies than kids. When you are bullied in school, usually it stops, or you can go to a different school, or you can find new friends or talk to someone and they will protect you. However, as an adult, bullying becomes a conspiracy, where people get away with violating your rights and physically attacking you and use different sources. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 5

You see, adults have this new game, where they get in positions of power and spy on your and have their minions attack you and there are a lot of them and nothing you can say about it and no one you can turn to. Then, they will label you as crazy so that way if you tell anyone what they are doing to you, it will be discredited. After a while, you will see there is no one you can turn to, but God. And one day things will improve. Just try to limit your contact with others who upset you for fun, find things you can do to enjoy yourself and know that it will all workout. The other scary part is sometimes even the people you love will betray you, and the scary part is when you know the people who are involved in the conspiracy will be punished, and these are some of the people you have known all of your life. It is very conflicting. I hope you all are reading this and realize how hard you have made my life. However, just like that newspaper in Europe were reporters got arrested for spying and hacking, it can happen in America, too. God bless you and peace be with you and never forget Rod Belagojevich and George Ryan. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 5

People of true learning, and almost Universal knowledge, always compassionate the ignorance of others; but fellows who excel in some little, low, contemptible art, are always certain to despise those who are unacquainted with that art. Philosophers in 156 B.C. held that knowledge came by way of phantasia (representations), not by way of pure, intuitive theoria (knowledge of intelligible forms).The mind in certain cases receives sense representations that irresistibly make the mind assent to them (phantasia kataleptike). The highest degree of probability is possessed by the tested representations. In practical life we must, in various circumstances, be satisfied with varying degrees of probability (an unarmed man confronting a lion in a jungle acts upon a lower level of probability then does a physician confronting a disease). However, we must never forget that this is probability for us and not necessarily the objective truth concerning the external cause or the origin of that representation. In this awareness we remain skeptics and are at the same time capable of practical and moral action. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 5

On the evening of a late Autmun’s day in 2004, 56-year-old man lay in an intensive care unit with his wife standing quietly beside him, gently stroking his hand while the flash of each heartbeat on the nurses’ central monitoring station traced out the fact the fact that he had had a severe heart attack earlier that morning. His electrocardiogram was markedly abnormal; runs of arrhythmic heartbeats caused the warning red light to flash brightly but ominously on the monitor, while intravenous needles dripped fluid into both his arms before his life ended my father knew he was going to die, and he had only one simple request—that he did not want to die in the hospital and wanted his loved ones to stay by his side. The pain from a heart that sorely ached from lack of oxygen made it difficult for him to speak, but between us words were not necessary. I gently stroked his hand for hours as his, until I got tired and needed to sit down for a moment. As my back was turned, I heard the agony of agonal respiration. It was very brief, but the echo of death is a sound I will never forget. He died peacefully, ending a lifetime of exquisite dialogue. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 5

The grief etched in my face is the price of commitment that knew no limits. My father was my hero and someone I could always trust and count on. He was a Vietnam veteran and a great man, not a day goes by that I do not think about him. He was also one of the few members of the Harris family that I know. Then I turned on my TV and saw Jillian Harris from the successful TV show Love it or List it. I really liked her designs and I wondered was she a natural born Harris or married to a Harris. Unfortunately, I feel on hard times and needed new times for my car and my cable television was the first thing to go. A few years went by and I was online searching for Harris’ and ran across Jillian Harris again, and she had recently had this cute little baby boy called Leo and she is engaged to this incredible guy called Justin and I took a renewed interest in her career and family. And their son is just so amazing, he wakes up at 3am and watches the news, while he sucks on his bottle, and actually loves the news. Leo is their first child, and he is learning to speak, and the expressions on his face are amazing. The joy, pride, and peace the baby brings his parents is amazing. #RyanPhillippe 3 or 5

Within a brief period I have come full circle, witnessing the death of a person loved deeply, then witnessing life renewed. Common to both is human love, and in both cases its expression did not need spoken words. The essence of both of these encounters was dialogue, nonverbal dialogue—communication between those who are alive and in love. Staring at the lifeless body of my father in that bed, I knew what had been lost. No longer could we verbally communicate with each other; our physical dialogue had come to an end.  Between the mother, father, and child it was also clear what had been born—a dialogue of love between a loving family—cuddling an infant in his earliest years. Dialogue is the essential element of every social interaction, it is the elixir of life. The wasting away of children, the broken hearts of adults, the proportionally higher death rates of single, widowed, and divorced individuals—common to all these situations, I believe is a breakdown in dialogue. The elixir of life somehow dries up, and without it people begin to wither away and die. Those who lack the dialogue early in life can perish quickly, while those who lose it as children, adolescents, or adults feel acutely what they have lost and struggle to get it back.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 5

Here is one of my father’s favourite prayers: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Our lives mark a moral tradition for our individual selves, as the life of humankind at large makes a moral tradition for the race; and to have once acted nobly seems a reason why we should always be noble. For what end are the blessings of life granted us, but to enjoy them? When the mind is made easy, the body will not long suffer; and the love of life is a natural passion that is soon revived when fortune turns about and smiles. There is nothing in life more beautiful than that trancelike quiet dawn which precedes the rising of love in the soul. At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. However, God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 5

It seemed all so familiar, and yet my feelings were so different. We live in a physical World whose properties are familiar, and, no eye could find the place; but God on his repealless list can summon every face. This drive me to find the time for a deeply humanistic involvement in daily life and social concerns. The only raiment I should need is space.  It is all around us, all the time. We talk about outer space—the space outside our World and “inner” space—the space inside our minds. We cherish our own “space.” We give “space” to people or things that scare us. However, in the space has now become a more and more contested issue. Some call it clear, other passed their curtains by. Sweet morning, when I over-sleep, knock, recollect, for me. Since Albert Einstein, we have come to recognize that the space in which we live is fluid. It takes place in time. We have developed new kinds of space as well—the space of mass media, the Internet, the computer screen, virtual reality, and cyberspace. Sentences of science can be expressed as quantitative descriptions of definite space-time points. In this view, all of science (biological and psychological, as well as physical) consists of sentences equivalent to sentences of the physical protocol language. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 9

 Is the Trojan War a real event or merely a product of poetic imagination? And the metaphysical problem of reality. Are perceived physical things real or merely contents of consciousness. All these new kinds of space result in a visual notion of the self, rather than any particular self—the self as a secret entity, as a secret, hidden place. There is search for interpersonal freedom and the resultant loneliness appears in many forms. One of the more fashionable forms to emerge in the last decade is the “identity crisis,” which involves “knowing who you are,” “doing your own thing,” and “doing it your way.” The most important goal is to become a “real person,” and this apparently is accomplished by becoming differ from everyone else.  All representations involve an affection or action of the mind considering them—of there is no action, there is no apprehension of the representation—so a representation is not received like a stamp upon wax but is mixed in with subjective or affective elements of sorts. This we plainly see in those cases where representations that pass for true are in fact false (for example Hercules’ mistaking his sons for enemies and killing them by mistake; oars appearing in cooked water). #RyanPhillippe 2 of 9

Great fear is expressed at the thought of being only marginally different—the cleavage between the individual and everybody else must be sharp and total. The search for one’s own identity cannot be found with somebody else; it is a private, solitary, and lonely struggle.  Many reactions to loneliness lead inexorably to greater isolation. People are more attracted to loneliness traps that are woven into society, and the battle against the lack of love in our society leads to more loneliness because people equate love with object. They try to find love through the use of objectivity, an intellectual response that can lead to greater isolation. Experience has shown that powerful therapeutic benefits flow from meetings in which humans band together to discuss common problems. Alcoholics Anonymous, for example, produces remarkable changes in individuals who can stand up among their fellow men and women and admit “I am an alcoholic.” The public recognition and admission of the fact that they have a problem is one major aspect of their ability to battle the problem. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 9

So too with people suffering from obesity—again the recognition and admission of a problem to a group similarly afflicted helps reduce the feelings of guilt and shame, thereby producing secondary benefits in overcoming the problem. For decades, radical breast surgery for cancer in women produced serious secondary psychological consequences. Women were ashamed of their condition, and they suffered alone, silently, often to the detriment of their physical health and the disruption and destruction of their marriages. Yet the process of banding together with others similarly afflicted has produced understanding and therapeutic gains in conquering this problem. Reach-to-Recovery is but one example of a group that helps patients recognize and publicly discuss the fact that there are serious psychological and social problems that surround cancer; with the help of these effects of cancer are now able to rehabilitate their lives. All these groups work on the principle that before all else you must recognize that you have a problem, then publicly admit it, so that you can rid yourself of the hidden guilt and shame that often accompany such a problem. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 9

One of the basic feelings that accompanies human loneliness is shame. Unlike some cancer patients, alcoholics, drug addicts, or obese individuals, lonely people often aggravate their condition by suffering alone. Rather than publicly meeting with others similarly afflicted, the lonely tend to shun each other. Seeing other people suffering from the same problem embarrasses the lonely all the more, making them feel all the more ashamed. These feelings lead to the most fundamental of all loneliness traps. The burden of loneliness is that feelings of shame lead the lonely not only to shun other people who are obviously lonely, but also to deny to themselves their own feelings. This silence makes lonely individuals highly exploitable. Their sense of shame often leaves them with only two alternatives: either they must withdraw from society, or they must try to find companionship as quickly as possible. The loneliness trap of withdrawal is self-explanatory: it is a silent admission of total defeat and a reluctant resignation to the existing state of affairs, to a life devoid of human love. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 9

The traps inherent in attempting to find human companionship as quickly as possible are less immediately apparent. Two traps are particularly difficult to avoid. The first is the trap of panic. Because of intense feelings of shame, anxiety, and pain, the person sets out immediately to find a mate with a single-mindedness that borders on an obsession. While such a strategy may produce a mate, all too often it also produces greater loneliness. One problem is that in the single-minded pursuit of a mate, other humans who could provide companionship and friendship are discarded. Panic and retreat, at each end of a continuum of responses, define the extreme limits of the loneliness traps. By far the great majority of lonely people fall into a more subtle trap—they deny their own feelings of loneliness, they make believe that their feelings are not true. They do not permit themselves to become conscious of their own feelings, a denial for which, as we have seen, they find support in many aspects of our culture. Having denied their own loneliness, they are then driven to seek out alternatives to companionship. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 9

The denial of dependence and of feelings of loneliness even lead some people to redefine many of the terms that describe aspects of intimate relationships. Some, for example, confuse sexual intercourse with companionship. So thoroughly confused have these notions become that the word love is now used as a code for the sex. “Make love,” “how is your love-life?”, “do you have a lover?”—these phrases refer to activities that need not necessarily include love. While sexual pleasure can be a part of a love relationship, it is clear that sexual pleasure can be achieved without any “love,” dialogue, or companionship. Prostitutes and gigolos are not the only ones who have demonstrated the fact. The Westworld fantasy of the perfect computerized lover ultimately leaves us cold: it is as unsatisfactory as the hand-on-a-stick petting machine for dogs. Vibrators, brothers, massage parlors, and masturbation all yield pleasures, but they do not provide love or companionship. One of the agendas is companionship—real, live, honest-to-goodness companionship.  #RyanPhillippe 7 of 9

Often healing from loneliness goes beyond the agenda of companionship to include something called love. Many people are obviously able to avoid loneliness traps even without realizing that such traps exist. To list all the potential sources of loneliness is like listing all the dangers of life; it is impossible for the same reason it is impossible to predict all future dangers. However, beyond that, a preoccupation with danger might prove to be the greatest danger of all, producing an individual with a warped sense of proportion, trapped in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Preoccupation with the dangers of loneliness may, in the long run, be just another loneliness trap. Not everyone who lives alone hurdles inexorably into physical or emotional disaster. Not every divorcee, bereaved individual, or single person is lonely, not do they all suffer from emotional or physical difficulties. Many lead rewarding and healthy lives, sustained and enriched by many friends and acquaintances. And, conversely, simply being married or physically living under the same roof with other human beings does not by itself guarantee human companionship or good health. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 9

Physical living conditions do not seem to be the critical variables. Rather, it appears that the way a person responds and interacts with his or her fellow human beings is the crucial factor. Living together involves the process of dialogue. However, gratifying it is in later life to express thoughts and feelings to a congenial person, there remains an unsatisfied longing for an understanding without words.  I looked at Sunrise once, and then arose godly habits. I immersed my life in the life of the Lord and ways of God became a spontaneous expression in my life that I was no longer aware of. Love means that there are no visible habits—that your habits are so immersed in the Lord and that you practice them without realizing it. Is there someplace where you are not at home with God? Then allow God to work through whatever that particular circumstance may be until you increase in Him, adding His qualities. Conscience is that ability within me that attaches itself to the highest standard I know and then continually reminds me of what that standard demands I do. If I am in the habit of continually holding God’s standard in from of me, my conscience will always direct me to God’s perfect law and indicate what I should do.  #RyanPhillippe 9 of 9

All power is trust. We are accountable for its exercise. From the people, and for the people, all springs, and all must exit. The examples of all ages show us that humankind in general desire power only to do hard, and, when they obtain it, use it for no other purposes. The present is an important time; as all present time, necessarily is. The poorest Day that passes over us in the conflux of two Eternities; it is made up of currents that issue the remotest Past, and flow onwards into the remotest Future. We were wise indeed, could we discern truly the signs of our own time; and by knowledge of its wants and advantages, wisely adjust our own position in it. Let us, instead of gazing idly into the obscure distance, look calmly around us, for a little, on the perplexed scene where we stand. Perhaps, on a more serious inspection, something of its perplexity will disappear, some of its distinctive characters and deeper tendencies more clearly reveal themselves; whereby our own relations to it, our own true aims and endeavours in it, may also become clearer. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 7

Were we required to characterize this age of ours by any single epithet, we should be tempted to call it a mechanical age, both externally and internally, its chief symptom being an excessive self-consciousness. With its inheritance of the largely negative contributions of the Enlightenment, it is an age of inquiry and doubt rather than one of meditation and faith. Outwardly, social mechanizations are more prized than individual vitality. Inwardly, morality no longer springs from belief in a transcendental authority but arises out of prudential feelings grounded on mere calculation of consequences. When we enter upon a devious course, we think we shall have it in our power when we will to return to the right path. However, it is not human’s own power to reform when one will. Although the present time is thus out of joint, there is nevertheless strong hope for the future. Even as the darkest hour heralds the dawn, so the spring time of organic rebirth is now at hand. For all that is right includes itself in this of co-operating with the real tendency of the World.  #RyanPhillippe 2 of 7

As a sign of the times, we are now producing not only a renewed attack upon the materialistic spirit of industrial society but also an indictment of political liberty and democracy. One more, we must protest against laissez-fair, the irresponsible pursuit of wealth in which cash payment has become the sole nexus between humans, this displacing the traditional tiles of obligation. However, social injustice, can be achieved, paradoxically, through the enforcement of social inequality. Of the highest order of genius, it may be truly asserted, that to gain the reputation of superior power, it must partially disguise itself; it must come down, and then it will be applauded for soaring. Members of the aristocracy and those heroes of the business World, the “Captains of Industry,” must assume their responsibilities as rulers of the masses: freedom consists in the right of the novice to be guided by the wiser. Have you ever had a crisis in your life in which you deliberately, earnestly, and recklessly abandoned everything? It is a crisis of the will. You may come to that point many times externally, but it will amount to nothing. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 7

The true deep crisis of abandonment, or total surrender, is reached internally, not externally. Have you deliberately committed your will to Jesus Christ? Make the determination to surrender your will. Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing—it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready. Whenever any duty presents itself, we hear God’s voice as our Lord heard His Father’s voice, and we are ready for it with the total readiness of our love for Him. A ready person never needs to get ready—he or she is ready. What wonderful accessions have thus been made, and are still making, to the physical power of humankind; how much better fed, clothed, lodged and, in all outward respects, accommodated humans now are, or might be, by a given quantity of labour, is a grateful reflection which forces itself on every one. What changes, too, this addition of power is introducing into the Social System.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 7

 However, be alert about the things that may appear to be the least likely to tempt you. Beware of thinking that the areas of your life where you have experienced victory in the past are not the least likely to cause you to stumble and fall. It is in the aftermath of a great spiritual event that the least likely things begin to have an effect. They may not be forceful and dominant, but they are there. And if you are not careful to be forewarned, they will trip you. Wealth has more increased, and at the same time gathered itself more and more into masses, strangely altering the old relations, and increasing the distance between the rich and the poor. Nonetheless, we must never measure our spiritual capacity on the basis of our wealth, education or our intellect; our capacity in spiritual things is measured on the basis of the promises of God. Never allow the limitation of your own natural ability to enter into the matter. If we have received the Holy Spirit, God expects the work of the Holy Spirit to be exhibited in us. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 7

Spiritual people are gracious and psychology has demonstrated that expressing gratitude is associated with many beneficial emotions such as optimism, being generous with time and resources, and overall vitality. Spirituality encourages people to be optimistic about life and this fosters compassion towards others and this allows one to enjoy a steady diet of simple pleasure in life, which will keep you above your set point and allow you look at the World through empathic eyes. Act as if the future of the Universe depends on what you do, while realizing we are just a small fraction of this dynamic World. Never forget that our capacity and capability in spiritual matters is measured by, and based on, the promises of God. God has promised, in the midst of trouble and conflict, a genuine peace, a sense of assurance and security, that the Worldly person never knows. Real love is blind devotion, unquestioning self-humiliation, utter submission, trust and belief against yourself and against the whole World, giving up your heart and soul to God. God also promises eternal life. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 7

To some, religion and a belief in God is like some persistent plastic brain adaption that is activated by prayer, love and forgiveness that allows them to feel better about life and have an awareness that better days are to come. Many use religion and their belief in God as a way to probe basic questions about our own existence, our fears and desires—essential aspects of human sapience. Through prayer, we explore our humanity and, among others things, our spiritual and psychological nature. Long since we parted, still there is no knowing when we shall meet again. Let this letter take to you my cordial heart and eternal love. When you come to me, I feel like I am taking in a refreshing air; you come to me like a deep sea in whose arms I am lightly floating. God is just to exercise his might, and mighty to perform his justice. Love is the master-key that opens the gates of happiness, knowledge, and friendship. No matter where you go, no matter how long you are away, I will wait, wait, and wait.  #RyanPhillippe 7 of 7

The real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial. Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he or she chooses—repentance is a gift of God. The ancient Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to truly repentant. How is this basic question about the “can” in the morally crucial use of “He can do otherwise” to be resolved? Only a few, admittedly feeble, hints can be given here. First, the idea that this “can” is conditional possibility seems extremely dubious, since this sense of the word is pretty clearly a contrived one, not mentioned even in unabridged dictionaries and thus hardly one that, like the “cam” of ability and opportunity, is likely to be used in the familiar, everyday, morally compelling assessment of free, responsible actions. Second, the less forceful way and therefore far more tempting claim—that it is at any rate naïve or unreasonable to describe an action as free if it is conditionally impossible for the agent to have done otherwise—seems very unsatisfactory when it is carefully pressed. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

A critique of not reason but of consciousness is needed. To think of free actions as differing from unfree ones in being conditionally undetermined is to make the very notion of a free action practically useless, since any question that might arise about the freedom of a given act would presumably then have to be settled by a fairly hopeless hunt for causes in the jungles of neurology. For another thing, to conceive of free actions in this way is to sever their ties with those complex principles of personal responsibility that incline us to excuse, rather than emphatically condemn, the kindly antiquated parson who (we might imagine) suddenly, spontaneously, and without cause wills to, and does, brain the infant he is baptizing. The last point really seems to go to the heart of the matter: To conceive of free actions as conditionally physically indeterminate actions is to conceive of them in too naturalistic a way. After all, the very identity of an action—think of promising or murdering—is determined not just by the physical movements involved but also by a complex system of rules, laws, and so forth. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

Since it is the application of such rule concepts that distinguishes actions involving the same physical movements—murder and defensive or punitive acts—the basic vocabulary of action descriptions is essentially normative to a very large extent. (Actually, the vocabulary of action description is “intentional” in a way in which “scientific” language presumably is not.) Because the “can” in the morally crucial claim “He can do otherwise” plainly belongs to the family of words specifically used in connection with human actions, there is an inescapable force to the claim, made by many contemporary philosophers, that to identify this sense of the word with “conditional physical possibility” is to confuse a practical, largely normative “can” with an aseptic, scientific, theoretical one and thus to misconceive drastically the purpose, point, and import of the familiar, nontechnical statement “His action was one done freely.” This critique would make it clear that human experience is not the self-consciousness of an Absolute subject. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

The subjects must be a plurality because to exist—to be conscious—is to be reciprocally related to an other; and an others, to be truly other to the subject, must be like the subject. Reciprocity is possible only because each individual is conscious of an Absolute Object that is the ground of his or her likeness to the other, and the ground also of mutual otherness. The objectivity of consciousness is manifested empirically in the fact that we inhabit one common World; but this empirical community is a posteriori and always remains problematical. That the World of different observers is one World must be taken on faith; and this faith is justified only when the observers actually succeed in reaching agreement. The real World is the result, not the condition, of this agreement. The priori principle, in which our experience of a common World is grounded, is called God. Thus, concrete consciousness is the immanence of God, the absolutely unique Object, in a plurality of reciprocally related subjects. This proves not that God exists but that Being is. If the Absolute Being existed, it would necessarily be in relation with its own other; but if it has an other, it is not Absolute. #RadnolphHarris 4 of 9

Being is existence. Being is one that exists. Being is one’s essential nature. Viewed as the past, the Object is knowable as Truth; as present, it is sensible as Beauty; and as future, it can be willed as Good. Thus, we might describe the Object in secular terms as real time. Real time differs from pure form of succession in that its moments are not successive but mutually immanent: no experience is absolutely past or present or future; whatever can be cognized can also be appreciated or willed, and vice versa. Spirituality is an interior valuative activity of the human existent, not a category of being. Values can be realized, communicated, and related only within the diverse dimensions consequent to the process of self-distinction. History is a realm of incarnate ideality, the sole locus of value. This incarnation of spirituality proves that the World, while it makes possible the realization of values, disperses rather than integrates them. A principle of the integration of value is needed. This principle cannot lie in spiritual activity itself, for in that case it would become the norm of those values and hence could not establish their transcendentality. God is this transcendent and transcendental principle of the integrity of values. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

The first manifestation of this integrity is to be found in the concrete unity of the incarnate human person. The World and God become the twin poles between which the human person mediates and, in the process of mediation, creates both its own selfhood and the concrete locus of the integrity of all values. Yet, many people, especially those with chronic relationship issues, were deeply affected by family violence when they were growing up. Physical and emotional abuse is committed by fathers and mothers and by older siblings. Such abuse creates lasting traumatic emotional scars, especially when it is severe, chronic, and in addition to or only being sadistic. The victim of family violence may develop patterns in his or her adult relationships that mirror the behavior of the original abuser or reproduce the child’s fearfulness and compliance. Adult survivors of family violence may use a threatening, aggressive style to maintain distance when they are in a couple relationship, or else they may distance by seeming to accommodate their partner’s wishes and needs (while actually absent at the deeper levels of emotion connection). #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

Being impacted by traumatic losses, for example, the death or disappearance of one parent; the loss of a house, community, or extended family due to political upheaval, natural disaster (supply shock), or job loss; or the sudden loss of parental attention when a new child enters the family or when parents find a new partner—you may not have realized it, but these things can create disturbing feelings that arise. Through philosophy, you can use your past to strengthen, not to debilitate, yourself. Being sexually abused, for example, being sexually molested by a parent or other adult caregiver, or an older sibling, or a trusted person in the community; or witnessing the sexual abuse of others is hard to deal with especially if they take photographs and share them. There is really no point in going back to relive painful memories unless you can work with your past to build a better present. We do not always get that message. However, when you do not get everything you need, the deprivation can help you to become very resourceful. You learn some great survival skills, like not passively waiting for someone to save you. No matter who are what we are, God restores us to right standing with Himself.  #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

Everyone is in some degree influenced by the love of power. However, sometimes we will face the most miserable years that one can ever imagine and live a generally agonized life. We might become unknown socially, ideologically, even stylistically antipathetic to the fashionable literary World. We might experience poverty, be desperately lonely, and because of our irregular eating habits, almost permanently dyspeptic. Religious doubts can quickly darken into unbelief, and we might experience a spiritual crisis. However, this is the time when we should draw closer to God and He will be a hero to our faith. Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by Action. Conviction is worthless until it is converted into activity, mere speculation is an endless, formless, a vortex amid vortices with a gravitational field so intense that no happiness or love can reach us. Life becomes a place where people or things, especially money, disappear without a trace. Therefore, one must do the duty which lies nearst thee…Work while it is called T0-day; for the Night cometh wherein no one can work. Choose a time of day when you can talk to someone, or go for a walk, or watch a movie, or do anything else that would be soothing if building faith stirs up too much intensity. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

Going back in time is difficult work when you are looking at painful experiences. Proceed at a safe pace and use your favorite self-soothing practices, which do not include drugs, violence, the sex, nor liquor, to protect yourself. Keep in mind that you are no longer a child, and you have choices that you did not have back then. Do not allow the people around you to stir up needless suffering. Take a few minutes to relax your body and mind and think about something that makes you happy. This could be something as simple and putting your feet up and watching The Wendy Show, or sports team, or going for a walk with your best friend or dog, or making a cake. Take the time to visualize all the details of this happy picture. For example, if your happy image is taking a walk with your best friend, remember how good it felt when he hugged you and your felt his tall, thin torso, or how happy it made you when he grabbed your hand. Or how good it felt when the new girl in school sat next to you and said you were cute. Notice how the air feels. Is it warm or cool? What do you see, hear and what is their fragrance like? What do you notice that tells you others are having a good time, too? How does your body feel? Are you smiling? Singing or talking to your friend?  #RandolphHarris 9 of 9

Purity is not innocence—it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. The art of conversation consists of the exercise of two fine qualities. You must originate, and you must sympathize; you must possess at the same time the habit of communicating, and the habit of listening. Because of the field of philosophical perplexity is virtually limitless, any one of the “cans” is a possible source of trouble to the philosopher. However, several of them (especially the “cans” of ability, opportunity, and possibility), have proved exceptionally potent in bewitching the philosophical imagination, mainly in connection with the age-old problem of free will. This problem is partly generated by the conviction that a person can be said to perform an action freely only if one did not have to perform it but one could have done something else instead. A conviction of this kind tends to generate a problem because if the metaphysical thesis of determinism is intelligible, tenable, and applicable to human actions, it becomes doubtful whether it is every true that a human can do anything other than what one does do, at least in the sense of “can” in probability or inclination, opportunity, or possibility. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

Everything that is, is possible. There is nothing else in the World so big as power-strength. If you have that, you can get everything else. However, if you have it, and do not use it, then it rusts and decays on your hands. It is like a thoroughbred horse. You cannot keep it idle in the stable. If you do not exercise it, you lose it. The “can” of ability—how can the ability sense of “can” bear on the free will issue has received perhaps the largest share of attention in the recent literature, possibly because it questions about a human’s abilities are often so crucially relevant in moral context. Yet the decisive points about abilities in this connection are easily stated. In all of the subsenses of the “can” of ability, there is an essential distinction between the possession of an ability and the exercise of that ability. To show that a person lacks an ability is more complicated than to show that he or she does not exercise it. A failure to perform a certain action implies that an individual lacks the corresponding ability only if both one wants, wills, intends, or chooses to perform that action and one’s failure is to perform it occurs in relevantly normal conditions. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

Power to the powerful is the law. This fact has tempted philosophers (for instance Nowell-Smith) to analyze “He can” (in the sense of ability) as meaning “He will if….” Important difficulties with such hypothetical analyses have been pointed out by philosophers, but it has not been shown that there is anything wrong with the line of thought that prompted these analyses—namely, that our use of “can” in this sense is built on the idea that a human need to do what one can do and that in order to find out what one can do, we must find out what one will do if, in relevantly normal conditions, one wants, wills, intends, and so forth to do certain things. This line of thought is not, moreover, inconsistent with determinism, since determinism does not imply that is, under appropriate conditions, I wanted and were to try to perform an alternative action, I should certainly fail. On the contrary, it is presumably only because a measure of determinism does hold that my trying, in certain circumstances, to perform a particular action is likely to meet with consistent success.  #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

When we enter upon a devious course, we think we shall have it in our powers when we will to return to the right path. Clearly, aging is a developmental process within the limits of finitude. We are born, we grow, we mature, we decline, and we then go to Heaven or Hell. Like a trajectory there is an initial blast-off, an arching height, and a final descent. More precisely, aging focuses upon the later stages of the life cycle. The “integrated” personality type represents the optimum personality. The person usually functions well, he or she has a complex inner life. One is intact intellectually and is competent personally. There is a flexibleness, a mellowness, a maturity that characterizes one’s activities and satisfactions. This higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through a higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, “Friend, come up even higher.” When God elevates you by His grace into Heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. In spite of all this, it still seems possible to argue that, given determinism, a human cannot do other than what one does do in the sense that any alternative actions on one’s part is physically impossible. A claim of this sort is, however, false if taken literally, since what is physically possible simpliciter need be consistent only with the laws of nature, not consistent with the laws of nature and certain initial conditions. If, however, the claim is to be taken in a slightly different way—namely, that it is conditionally physically impossible for the individual to perform some other actions—then it is entirely unexceptionable if the thesis of determinism is tenable and applicable to human actions. The reason for this is simply that the notion of conditional possibility is a technical one, definable by reference to determinism: Roughly, “A conditionally physically possible” is by definition equivalent to “Nothing has happened that physically determines non-A.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

Within the “integrated” type personality, there is also a “reorganizer” who competently enjoys a broad range of activities. He or she stays young, remains active, finds substitute involvements as limitations appear, and refused to grow old. The only way a servant of God can remain true is to be ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. This sense of expectation will give out life the attitude of youthful vigor wonder God wants us to have. Being ready for God requires that we have an intense spiritual reality. Because one is to make sense of conditional physical possibility by reference to determinism or something like it, it is clear that the hard-fought question whether determinism rules out human freedom is not the questions whether determinism rules out the conditional possibility of human’s doing other than what one does do. There is, in fact, little that is controversial about the last question; it gets an analytic “Yes.” What is controversial is the question whether the sense of “can” involved in the morally relevant query “Can that individual do otherwise?” is to be understood as the “can” of conditional possibility. Be careful that you do not become a hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right with God before you worship God yourself. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

For if, both libertarians and sophisticated fatalists seem to think, this “can” is of basic moral significance, then free actions are possible only if determinism is false, untenable, or inapplicable to human actions. If, on the other hand this sense of “can” is not the one that does concern us or should concern us when in a moral context, we wonder whether a person can do other than what one does do—the opinion of the “reconcilers” of the empiricist tradition—then there is, perhaps, no incompatibility between determinism and human freedom after all. The more we love, the more we “can” love. Love is limitless. Love produces love. That is why psychiatrists recommend having healthy human relationships with parents, spouse, grandparents, kin, group members, workers, and church members, or having a loving pet. Love passion and joy of love will enter your heart and this love prolongs life because the energy of love has the capacity to heal our bodies and create life satisfaction. People who are satisfied with their lives find pleasure in daily activities. Life is being meaningfully met, through successful goal accomplishment, positive self-image, happy and optimistic attitudes and moods. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of scripture, like jabbing them in the heart with a wooden stake, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit? While there are very fewer makeup and breakup dramas, the distancer keeps holding back, never really capable of letting himself or herself get close to a partner. The ambivalent distancer never seems to find the elusive perfect love, yet never gives up the quest. One may briefly partner with someone, then quickly move on to better opportunities. The ambivalent distancer can also stay within a relationship but strays repeatedly toward other objects of desire outside the committed relationship as a way of defending against a deeper connection with one person.  This form of distancing can be maddening for everyone involved. People feel vulnerable and have a fear of closeness, are chronically restless, and have a pervasive dissatisfaction.  #RandolphHarris 8 of 8

Seeing there is a Three-fold World—Elementary, Celestial, and Intellectual—and every inferior is governed by its superior, and receive the influence of the virtues thereof, so that the very Original and chief Worker of all doth by angels, the Heavens, stars, elements, animals, plants, metals, and stones from Himself the virtues of His Omnipotency upon us, for whose service He made and created all these things: Wise people conceive it no way irrational that it should be possible for us to ascend by the same degrees through each World, to the same very original World itself, the Maker of all things. Very few there are that understand the deep mysteries thereof. The striving of the great thinkers is to achieve a total conception of reality and the human relation to the World as reflecting one of the deepest human aspirations. It is the failure of the World to satisfy the human demand that it provides a basis for human values—for our personal ideals and for our judgments of right and wrong. There is some kind of congruence between human values and the nature of reality. Because of the decline of religious belief in the modern period a number of secular religions have attempted to tie values to reality by means of a postulated schedule of historical development that guarantees their eventual realization.  #RyanPhillippe 1 of 5

Some presuppose that none of these modern interpretations of reality as value-supporting can survive critical scrutiny; the tenability of any purposive or evaluative attitude on the part of human beings—the only moral beings—is thus called into question. It is this isolation of humans as an evaluative and purposive being in a World that affords no support to such attitudes that is considered absurdity of the human condition. Americans today are the best entertained but least informed people on the planet because they no longer meet to discuss ideas or to share intellectual propositions, but rather to entertain one another. There is an endless pursuit of mindless pleasures and trivialities, exempli gratia, drugs, the TV, the endless consumption of junk food, useless material items, and trivializing ideas. In human affairs, we do not have the luxury of hindsight. All we can do is study ourselves during the process of reinventing ourselves. The central issues are no longer that the vast majority of commercial TV is irredeemable junk and that celebrity worship has reached such vast proportions and has infiltrated our society to such a degree that it constitutes an unhealthy wound on the body politic.  #RyanPhillippe 2 of 5

Our concerns with reality lie much deeper. We are concerned with the soul of present day America. We are concerned with how our nation can compete economically against other nations such as Japan which still regard education as the fundamental infrastructure of their society. In Japan, 94.6 percent of University graduate students are hired, and 90.4 percent of high school students are promised jobs. Success in projects is everything. In contrast, Americans are destroying their youth and the self-destroyer is his or her own enemy, Suicide cannot be regarded as an adequate response to the experience of absurdity. Suicide deals with absurdity simply by suppressing one of the two poles—the human being and the World—that together produce the tension described above. Suicide is thus an admission of incapacity, and such an admission is inconsistent with that human pride to which we should have. Only by going on living in the face of their own absurdity can human beings achieve their full stature. Do not allow the hideous, but remediable evils of human society, the cosmic injustice of the human condition to have some obsessive hold on your mind. People say that this World is the Devil’s World and that is a radical refusal of the human condition as such, resulting in either suicide or in a demonic attempt to dispose of God and make the World in the image of man. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 5

Its deepest motive in saying this is the Devil’s World is not a love for human kind, but a desire to destroy the World as it is. The order it attempts to impose on the New World it constructs is informed by no ethically creative principle because nihilism can yield no such principle. A nightmare state of power for power’s sake is the ultimate fruit of buying into the doctrine that this is the Devil’s World. You are not alone suffering, others are, too. The apocalyptic character of the tableau seems to reflect a national predilection for extreme crisis situation. As it stands, 76 percent of Americans report that they are spending all of the money one earns by or before the next time one is paid, thus saving none or very little in the process. And 50 percent of Americans report that they are spending 50 percent of their income on housing (mortgage, rent).  The plague the is presented is just one of the forms that injustice and inhumanity can assume. We must fight this plague and not be inspired by a dream of a total conquest of evil. Instead, throughout the struggle, retain one’s sense of humanity and one’s capacity for love and for happiness. Know that this World and this life counts and that we can heal and recover.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 5

One’s attitude towards life should simply be a stubborn moral integrity and a deep sympathy with our fellow humans, animals, and environment. Do not allow monsters whose ultimate self-knowledge leads one to create a sense of guilt and unworthiness in oneself and others by advertising their own corruption. In this way, people feed their obsessive need for superiority, which is the real reason for indoctrinating others with nihilism. It is not justifiable to impute the manifested culture that gives prominence to hack writers and third-rate thinkers. These are not the role models to which as a society we should turn to for illumination on the issues of our day because more accurately it is a way to avoid illumination on the issues of our day. When thoughts of failure are held in mind, failure is precipitated in the situation. By acknowledging the negative feelings and letting go, a person can evolve to the next level which is an energetic state based on feelings of courage, acceptance, and love where our ability to concentrate is at its highest. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration. A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue—one is devoted to God Himself. #RyanPhillipe 5 of 5

God cannot reveal anything to us if we do not have his Spirit, and represented in the dream of his entire life. However, our insensible thinking will end immediately once God’s resurrection life has its way with us. Humans do not speak by words alone. A mute glance of reproach has pierced the heart a tirade would have left untouched; and even an inarticulate cry may utter volumes. Never learn anything until you have been made uncomfortable for a long while by not known it. Scholars study a great number of things dealing with subject ranging from grammar and rhetoric to philosophy and theology, from apologetics to politics, and from medicine to magic and astrology. Academics are convinced that philosophy is an all-embracing science to which all other sciences must be referred as their ultimate source and foundation. No subsidiary science deals with all things as they are, but only as they appear, whereas philosophy, and especially metaphysics, deals with things as they are and insofar as they are. Philosophy is an inquiry after the truth of both human and divine things, based on the testimony of God, who reveals himself either through the World of created things or by direct teaching. Consequently, nature and the Scriptures are the two codes on which philosophy must be built. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 8

The principle of self-consciousness is the basis of knowledge and certitude (absolute certainty or conviction that something is the case). One can distinguish between innate and acquired knowledge. Innate knowledge (notitia innata) is cognition through self-presence and belongs to the very essence of the soul; acquired knowledge (notitia illata) is the soul’s cognition of external things. Innate knowledge is superior to, and more certain than, acquired knowledge; for the soul, cannot be mistaken about what belongs to its nature. The two great movements of the soul are the desire of honor and the fear of shame. Knowledge of the external World can be obtained either by intuition or by abstraction. By intuition one grasps a thing immediately in its concrete reality, so that nothing of the object escapes the penetrating and all-embracing act of the intellect. Knowledge is made by partial assimilation of the object known. This assimilation is made by contact between the knower and the sensible species of the object known. These species are neither the intentional species nor the corporeal images. Although, they may assume as many different forms as there are sensations, they are always something material that impinges on the senses and represents to a certain extent the external object. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 8

A second and more advanced explanation of knowledge is what may be called the metaphysical approach from the standpoint of the soul as an essentially knowing nature. The characteristic doctrine that to know is to be (cognoscere est esse). In this new approach knowledge is still called sensation and assimilation, but the assimilation is carried so far as to means a real transformation of the knower into the object known. This doctrine that to know is “being” or “to be” must be understood in the idealistic sense of the absolute identity of object and subject. There is a distinction between knowledge that a person has of oneself in virtue of one’s own nature and knowledge that a person acquires from outside of oneself. This is called the distinction between “innate” and “illate” knowledge. Both types of knowledge are said to belong to “being”: but the former refers to knowledge of the original being of the knower, and the latter refers to the knowledge of being that is inferred by reasoning and is formally distinct from the being of the knower. In the first case, knowledge is the esse; in the second case, it becomes intentionally the esse in the possession of the extramental reality. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 8

We all know what happens when the average person feels humiliated: Most individuals put all of their energy into protecting themselves, developing whatever survival strategies one can. Most individuals may repress their feelings; they may get furious and plot revenge. Many behaviors that are classified as psychiatric problems, including some obsession, compulsion, and panic attacks, as well as most self-destructive behaviors, started out as strategies for self-protection. Unreality is the result of the massive infusion of entertainment into every realm of human affairs to the point that everything is distorted and complexity is denied by a society that is hooked on massive dosages of entertainment in order for it to function. The gratification in respect of the fulfilment of the repressed wish may prove to be so great that it balances the painful affects adhering to the day-residues. What is fulfilled by unreality is an unconscious wish—the wish for punishment of the participant for a repressed, prohibited wish-impulse. Because most of the negative feelings are accompanied by a negative value judgment, they are suppressed, repressed, or projected.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 8

Are there some things regarding your physical or intellectual life to which you have been paying no attention at all? Suppression, repression, and projection are all destructive dynamics and result in a progressive stress on and decline of our relationships.  All things, whether spiritual or material, consist ultimately, although in different degrees, of power, knowledge, and love as their transcendental principles. These are called primalities and are found in creatures as well as in God, of whom creatures are faint imitations. Whereas God is pure and infinite being, creatures are composites of finite being and infinite nonbeing. Being and nonbeing concur in making up finite things, not as physical components but as metaphysical principles. Just as a creature is essentially and necessarily a particular and limited entity, so it also is essentially and necessarily the nonbeing of all others things and of God himself. You no more need a day off from spiritual concentration on matters in your life than your heart needs a day off from beating. As you cannot take a day off morally and remain more, neither can you take a day off spiritually and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely his, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit.  #RyanPhillippe 5 of 8

Humans are a composite of three substances, body, spirit, and mind or mens. The spirit or sensitive soul is the corporeal principle that animates the body and serves as a link between body and mind. The mind or intellectual soul is created and infused by God into the body already organized by the spirit; it is a spiritual substance and the form of the whole human. There is a World soul, and a Universal animation that endows all things with some kind of sensation. Human’s supreme good consists in self-preservation. However, this must not be understood in a purely egoistic sense, but rather as the conservation of one’s existence in God in the next life. Whereas God is his own supreme good and does not look to another being outside of himself for his preservation, so that to be and to be happy are for hum one and the same thing, human depends entirely on God for their own preservation. God is therefore the supreme good toward which human must direct all his or her acts and operations. No power on Earth nor in Hell can conquer the Spirit of God living within the human spirit; it creates an inner invincibility. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 8

Space is a primary and incorporeal substance having the capacity to receive all bodies. Space is the substratum of all things. In this space God placed matter, a body that is formless and inactive but capable of being molded into many forms, just as wax is acted upon by a seal. Matter is not pure potency, but has a reality of its own distinct from the form. This, in turn, is not a substantial principle of material beings and is only improperly called an act. Heat and cold are the active principles of matter as the passive principle of al material beings. And time is not something ideal and subjective, but something real. Time is the successive duration of things having a beginning and an end. Or, more concretely, time is the thing itself considered in its successive duration through change, deeply interwoven in the galaxy, but you can never try to separate yourself from time, as time is God and penetrates every bit of human nature. Time takes the omnipotence of God—his complete and effective divinity—to live the life in human flesh. We have to keep letting go of our own will and slowly, but surely the great, full life of God will invade us. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 8

Our roles in these studied has been akin to that of neutral observers on a battlefield, one in which the most intense war is constantly waged against death. While we have witnessed many victories, some patients we observed did not survive. As our studies have continued, we have been increasingly struck by the uniqueness of every patient, as well as by the responsiveness of the human heart to the most ordinary types of human contact. Very recently, for example, we watched a 54-year-old man die. He succumbed after 14 days of the most intense medical care that could be imagined. When it was clear that this man was not going to survive, the medical personnel reluctantly shifted their concern to one of making his death as comfortable as possible. We watched this man’s heart change abruptly when a nurse held his hand. She quietly comforted him at a point when he was in a deep coma, shortly before his death. Not only was the patient in a coma, but ever muscle in his body had been completely paralyzed by a drug known as d-tubocurarine, and he was able to breathe only with the help of a machine-regulated artificial respiration. And yet, in spite of, or perhaps because of, his acute condition, the heart rate changed in the comatose man when the nurse comforted him was striking. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 8