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One Wants His Heart and the Other Wants His Soul
If the great Sun move not of himself; but is as an errand-boy in Heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I. By Heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this World, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the weapon. Some men are cowards and run from their responsibilities. Others sit back and complain. However, you have no right to dispose of your future destiny whilst there is the least probable chance you may be reclaimed. While weak souls are crushed by fortune, the brave mind makes the fickle deity afraid of it. It is not what is done to us, but what is made of us, that wrongs us. No man can be really injured but by what modifies himself. Existence is a great pot, and the old Fate who stirs it round cares nothing what rises to the top and what goes down, and laughs when the bubbles burst. The privilege of free action belongs to no mortal man. In doing and suffering, we play but the part allotted by Destiny. Amidst his most swift and easy pace the rider must guard himself against a fall, and it is when prosperity is at the highest that our prudence should be awake and vigilant to prevent misfortune. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
The freedom crucial to human existence is untenable if the individual is dependent for his existence upon any other being. Look far into eternity, with those bright eyes, and tell me what you see. Being the son and the grandson of veterans gives me a sense of honor. They eyes are the casements at which the heart generally looks out. Knowing that I am a descendant of two generations of men who essentially gave their lives for our country and our freedom provides me with a sense of pride that some may not be able to understand. My family did not sit around protesting nor complaining, they served their country. Real men, who stood up for what they believe in, while others sit around crying and complaining about why they deserve hand outs and freebies. My father and grandfather provided me with hope, Heaven’s own gift to struggling mortals; pervading, like some subtle essence from the skies. People may heckle me because my father served in the army and gave his life for his country, and because of the price he paid, I live with an eternal reminder of his service. However, I have the honor of knowing my father is a real man. At one time, I regretted the fact that he died, and I miss him, but to me, he is a titian. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
When enough good deeds are accumulated to constitute a high virtue, spiritual enlightenment naturally arrives and the heart of the warrior is there at hand. I see my father as a one hundred foot all marble statue, a God, and will always remember his smile, kind heart, and the fact that he was always happy and a nice guy. What we know as nature and evolution is the product of the various kinds of self-active beings, moved ultimately by the final causes of their inner beings toward a common goal. The employment and harnessing of Heaven for the advancement of human welfare. It feels good to come from a line of warriors. Reality is a republic of self-active, self-defining spirits, each moving toward the Ideal exemplified by God, changelessly attentive to every other mind, rationally sympathetic with all experiences, and bent on its spiritual success. The exaltation of freedom should be exercised in nature and society. All the material and spiritual goods to which man can aspire (from daily nourishment to truth) derive from the order to which he belongs, the hierarchies which are the interpreters and custodians of the cosmic order. In exalting freedom, man exalts his capacity to form his World, to vary it, ad to better it absolutely. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
There are limitations through your own decision and choice. You shall determine your own nature without constraint from any barrier, by means of the freedom to whose power you have been entrusted with. God has placed us at the center of the World so that from that pint one might see better what is in the World. We have been made neither Heavenly nor Earthly, neither mortal nor immortal so that, like a free and sovereign artificer, we might mold and fashion ourselves into the form one oneself shall have chosen. Wisdom confers on human beings’ powers which prefect one’s nature. The only thing left is for hecklers to swallow their insults in silence. Mockers are derided as careless and thoughtless persons who become comical because the truth escapes their lips automatically, as it were. The humanists exalted the soul of man for its powers of freedom. Humans are a part of nature—that nature is our realm, the features which tie us to nature (our bodies, our needs, our sensations) are essential to us to the point that we cannot abstract from them or ignore them. If the best people do not draw great prizes in life, we know it has been so settled by the Ordainer of the lottery. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The life of Christ is not followed only by those who belong to religious orders but by all those, inside and outside of clerical circles, dedicate their activities to God. Moral philosophy is our territory. Those who betray it, and give themselves over to physics, seem in a way to occupy themselves with foreign affairs and to neglect their own. Never give your neighbor you last. The value of money is an indispensable item for the well-being of the individual and for the life of the society, and those who have a contempt for money are expressing a manifestation of the medieval asceticism which is based on ignorance of human nature. In the interesting of defending the value and freedom of humans draws us into discussion of the traditional problems of God and providence and of the soul, its immortality, and its freedom—these discussions frequently lead us to recognize the basis of the correspondence between the Heavenly and Earthly city. The Heavenly city is the norm or the ideal of man’s civil life; and precisely because it is such, its recognition means the commitment of humans to realize, as much as possible, its characteristic in the Earthly city. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
In our own hearts, we mould the whole World’s hereafters; and in our own hearts, we fashion our own Gods. The Good Book (Christian Bible) is not only the proclamation of superterrestrial happiness but also of Earthly happiness. Religion is the confidence in the value of humans being able to work, and in the success of this work, and in the reward that we will find in the future life. Those which are the forces of the outer World are as shadows to the power we have created within us. The fundamental function of religion is to support people in the work of civil life, in political work and activity. The inalienable value of the individual—the goal is the highest and most proportional development of our powers to a complete and consistent whole. Reason must guide this development, as true knowledge of humanity depends on the cultivation not of pure analytical reason, but of deep-lying intuitive faculties. Christianity simply brings to fulfillment the wisdom that ancient philosophy has elaborated, because reason, which has supported and guided this philosophy, is the same which became incarnate in the Word. Do your children think highly of you? The broadening of our existence and of our knowledge the soul is infinitely precious and possess information of the manifold intellectual, sentient, and moral human powers. Although we may suffer several material setbacks in the course of our travels, it is actually a driving faculty, as we make spiritual advance and will triumph over adversity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
In Youth, as at the Opera, Everything Seems Possible
People who are of a well-bred culture cannot defend themselves in the same manner as a common, ill-bred person would do. They have to try to conceal any problems and pretend all is well, which could be why some of them end up dead. Since our individual childhood and the childhood of human civilization, our hostile impulses towards our fellow-beings have been subjected to the same restrictions and the same progressive repressions as our sexual strivings. We have not yet progressed so far as to love our enemies, or to extend to them our left cheek after we are smitten on the right. Furthermore, all moral codes about the subjection of active hatred bear even today the clearest indications that they were originally meant for a small community of clansmen. As we all may consider ourselves members of some nation, we permit ourselves for the most part to forget these restrictions in matters touching international people. America is considered the best country in the World, but the masses of immigrants are making it less of a dream World for the people who have been in the country for several generations. Within our own circles we have nevertheless made progress in the mastery of hostile emotions. Nowadays one says, “I beg your pardon,” formerly one had recourse to a cuff on the ear. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
Violent hostility, no longer tolerated by the law, has been replaced by verbal invectives, and the better understanding of the concatenation of human emotion robs us, through its consequential “Tout comprendre, c’est tout pardoner,” more and more of the capacity to become angry at our fellow human who is in our way. The gorgeous Martha Sharp Crawford von Bulow (1 September 1932- 6 December 2008), was an American heiress and socialite, she was worth over $75 million. She married Claus von Bulow, who ran with the elite, but was not rich. He lived off her money and after a year of marriage had started having an affair and allegedly wanted out of the marriage, after falling in love with Dark Shadows soap opera actress, the raven-haired beauty Alexandra Isles. So, Claus needed money and allegedly injected his wife with insulin and she went into a coma, but recovered 8 hours later. Claus really wanted the 14 million he was to inherit upon the death of this wife. She was rich, they lived in real mansions, the kind that are 22,000 square feet, with 18th century paintings, Waterford crystal chandeliers, and antique furniture. The second time his wife went into an insulin induced coma, he was charged with murder. Martha had no history of diabetes. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Claus von Bulow was convicted of attempting Martha’s murder by insulin overdose, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. A second trial found him not guilty. Martha lived for 28 years in a persistent vegetative state until her death in a New York nursing him on 6 December 2008. When on trial as a witness, Alexandra Isles was asked if she still loved Claus and she replied, “I don’t know?” The lawyer went on to ask her was she aware of what was going on, she replied, “I had some idea, but I was in love. Have you ever been in love? It is hard to believe the person you love is a killer.” The relationship ended shortly after. Then Claus started dating another woman, and they moved into Martha’s 5th avenue apartment and she wore Martha’s jewelry and clothes and lived like royalty. Claus could have got a job, but he wanted to life like the rich and famous. Society, whose interest is to safeguard personal safety, prevents us from expressing our hostile feelings in action; and hence, as in sexual aggression, there has developed a new technique of invectives, the aim of which is to enlist this third person against our enemy. By belittling and humbling our enemy, by scorning and ridiculing the individual, we directly obtain the pleasure of that person’s defeat by the laughter of the third person, the inactive spectator. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
We have all much to learn: let us try and teach one another as kindly as we can. A weaver who finds hard words in his hymn-book knows nothing of abstractions; as the little child knows nothing of parental love, but only knows one face and one lap towards which it stretches its arms for refuge and nurture. Learning is perhaps the most important human capacity. Were we to believe nothing but what we can comprehend, every person upon the face of the Earth would be an atheist. Learning allows us to create effective lives by being able to respond to changes. We learn to avoid touching hot stoves, to find our back to the house from school, and remember which people have helped us in the past and which people have been unkind. Without the ability to learn from our experiences, our lives would be remarkably dangerous and inefficient. To find right remedies and right methods, here is the great function of knowledge. The principles of learning can also be used to explain a wide variety of social interactions, including social dilemmas in which people make important, and often selfish, decisions about how to behave by calculating the costs and benefits of the outcomes. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
Youth is a good subject for a physician to work upon. Thoughts, opinions, knowledge, are only a sensibility to facts and ideas. Who can prove that the enjoyment of the moment also is the purpose of the existence of that moment? Conditioning is evolutionarily beneficial because it allows organisms to develop expectations that help them prepare for both good and bad events. The brain is self-organizing and self-repairing, but computers are not. If a person suffers a stroke, neural plasticity will help him or her to recover. If we drop our laptop and it breaks, it cannot fix itself. The brain is significantly bigger than any current computer. The brain is estimated to have 25,000,000,000,000,000 (25 million billion) interactions among axons, dendrites, neurons, and neurotransmitters, and that does not include the approximately 1 trillion glial cells that may also be important for information processing and memory. Our memories allow us to do relatively simple things, such as remembering where we parked our car or the name of the current president of the United States of America, but also allow us to form complex memories, such as how to fly a plane or write a computer program. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Moreover, our memories define us as individual—they are our experiences, our relationships, our successes, and our failures. Without our memories, we would not have a life. A cause is a great abstraction, and fit only for students; embodied in a party, it stirs people to action; but place at the head of that party a leader who can inspire enthusiasm, one commands the World. However, our memories are far from perfect. The errors that we make are due to the fact that our memories are not simply recording devices that input, store, and retrieve the World around us. Rather, we actively process and interpret information as we remember and recollect it, and these cognitive processes influence what we remember and how we remember it. Because memories are constructed, not recorded, when we remember events we do not reproduce exact replicas of those events. The cognitive processes lead us to distort our judgments or misremember information. Prior knowledge can influence our memory. People who are long before they see a thing, when once it strikes them, see it in the strongest light. Knowledge is one of the means of pleasure, as is confessed by the natural desire which every mind feels of increasing its ideas. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Open your heart to the influence of the light which from time to time breaks in upon you. You always learn something new from educated people. It is the iron rule in our day to require an object and purpose in life. We go all wrong, by too strenuous a resolution to go all right. Everything has a moral, if only you can find it. Some people actually look forward to aging because with age comes knowledge and experience, which generally help one enjoy life more. Also, in real-life working conditions, antiquated workers are apparently less vulnerable from lack of sleep. However, disabilities such as loss of vision, hearing or taste produce greater restrictions in performance. These restrictions are even more true when a person gets older, because information-processing resources generally reduce with age. Unraveling the mysteries of the brain begins with neurons. A single neuron is not very smart. Yet, when neurons join in vast networks, they produce the magic of intelligence and consciousness. Stem cells in the brain could be the key to extending life and slowing ageing. These cells—which are located in the hypothalamus, a kind of master control center for emotion and many basic motives. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Much of the knowledge we seek, already we have in our cores. Yet so simple it is, we despite it; so bold, we fear it. The hypothalamus affects behaviors as diverse as sex, rage, temperature control, hormone release, eating, drinking, sleep, walking, and emotion. The hypothalamus can reinvigorate declining brain functions and muscle strength in middle-aged test subjects. The hypothalamus is a critical juncture that connects with many areas of the cortex and subcortex. As such, it acts as a final path for many kinds of behavior leaving the brain. You might think of the hypothalamus as the last area where many behaviors are organized or decided on. Previous studies have suggested that the hypothalamus is involved in ageing, but the latest research shows that stem cells in this region can slow the process by ten to fifteen percent. That makes sense, because the hypothalamus is involved in many bodily function, including inflammation and appetite. A mind of moderate capacity which closely pursues one study must infallibly arrive at great proficiency in that study. Nothing like preserving in adulthood the fraternal familiarities of youth. It proves the heart a rosy gem to the last. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
In the study, it was discovered that stem cells in the hypothalamus disappear as the test subjects grow older. When the researcher injected them with viruses that destroy these cells, the subjects seemed to grow older faster, experiencing declines in memory, muscle strength, endurance, and coordination. They also died sooner than untreated subjects of the same age. Next, the team injected stem cells taken from the hypothalamic of newborn test subjects into the brains of middle-aged test subjects. After four months, these individuals had better cognitive and muscular function than untreated subjects of the same age. They also lived ten to fifteen percent longer, on average. The researcher found that these stem cells release molecules called microRNAs, which help to regulate gene expression, into the cerebrospinal fluid. When the team injected these microRNAs into the brains of middle-aged mice, they found that the molecules slowed cognitive decline and muscle degeneration. These cells may have a role in regulating the neurons that release a hormone called GnRH, which is secreted by the hypothalamus and is associated with ageing. It is possible that the microRNAs from the cells can pass into the bloodstream, which would carry the, throughout the body. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
All of us, in our very bodies, outlive our own selves. Anti-ageing therapies targeting the hypothalamus would need to be administered in the middle age, before a person’s muscles and metabolism have degenerated beyond a point that could be reversed. Therapy could extend a human lifespan, but slowing the effects of ageing is the more important goal. Living a longer and healthy life is important. In sin, like sorrow, merely an element of human education, through which we struggle to a higher and purer state than we could otherwise have attained? Did Adam fall, that we might ultimately rise to a far loftier paradise than his? The older I get, the more empowered I feel. Each life experience brings us a more comprehensive perspective, and greater clarity about people, life, and resolution. We are able to more efficiently navigate life’s challenges, and use this knowledge to help others. God is transcendent as well as immanent. And as a consequence, not an absorption into the Godhead, but union of love and will in which the distinction between the Creator and the creature is permanently retained. The gifts of God are to be enjoyed, when the Giver is remembered. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Enlightening Misery—God is in Control of the Storm!
To lose one’s faith surpasses the loss of an estate, because estates can be replenished—faith cannot. Inherited with life, belief but once can be annihilated in a single clause, and begins beggary. One difficulty that people face when trying to improve their happiness is that they may not always know what will make them happy. As one example, many of us think that if we just had more money we would be happier. While it is true that we do need money to afford food and adequate shelter for ourselves and our families, after this minimum level of wealth is reached, more money does not generally buy more happiness. You do not really pay for things with money. You pay for them with time. In five years, I will have put away enough to buy that Victorian mansion I want and then I will slow down. That means the house will cost me five years—one-twelfth of my adult life. Translate the dollar value of the house, car, or anything else into time, and then see if it is still worth it. The phrase spending your time is not a metaphor. It is how life works. What do you spend most of your time doing? #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
Are you a happy person? Can you think of ways to increase you good emotions? Even though income and material success has improved dramatically in many countries over the past decades, happiness has not. Despite tremendous economic growth around the World from 1946 to 2017, there is no increase in reports of well-being by the citizens of the World. Americans today have about three times the buying power they had in the 1950s, and yet overall happiness has not increased. The problem seems to be that we never seem to have enough money to make us “really” happy. People who earn $30,000.00 USD a year feel that they would be happier if they made $50,000.00 USD each year. In addition, people who earn $100,000.00 a year reported that they would need $250,000.00 annually to make them happy. Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed. To comprehend a nectar requires sorest need. Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. A door just opened on street—I, lost, was passing by—lost doubly, but by contrast most, enlightening misery. We all know that God opens door (provides us with opportunities). We have seen God give us favor, good opportunities, and promotions. That is the power of God opening the doors, but the same God who opens doors will close the doors. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
God can see the comprehensive view of your life, he can see all of time in one eternal glance. God knows where every opportunity, choice, decision, and consequence is leading. He knows when things are not right for us. All reason knows is that God is the eternal, ever-present, and creative source of anything that does (or can) exist. Creation and preservation are identical. Somethings things that seem like opportunities or promotions to us will make us work hard for years only to end up right back where we started, never making any progress. God acts on people by grace (through the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit). While various attempts have been made to separate divine human action so that, for example, the human will is left wholly autonomous in a strictly moral choice, on the grounds of Scripture and experience, only the divine and human wills act simultaneously throughout the Christian life. The manner of their interactions is a paradox, or mystery, that cannot be unraveled by the intellect. If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; if I can ease one life the aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting cockatiel unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Somewhere in my soul, I know I have been through this before; it just reminded me a big part of faith is trusting God when I do not understand why things happen the way they do. God may have closed a door because you are more valuable than what you are pursuing. If God opened the door you want him to when it is not right for you, it would limit the great things he wants to do in your life, you would not get the experiences you need and meet the people who you are supposed to show the love of God to and they would not get to express their mutual love of God with you. Whatever opportunity that is blocked that you want so badly might be that way because it is not the right time, or there are other people involved and they are not ready yet. If God opened that door at the wrong time, it might leave you miserable and distraught. God has your best interests at heart. God is fully personal, both in himself and in his dealings with humankind. Such primary images as Father, King, and Friend mediate a knowledge that cannot be surpassed by abstract speculation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
There are three main routes to God: reason, revelation, and religious experience. Reason can obtain a certain knowledge of God’s existence and nature. Human intellect by nature participates in eternal Truth. God’s existence is proved. Since World War I, natural theology has been vigorously attacked, and notice that the World is in more chaos now than it was in the past. People are afraid to go to concerts or even drive to the supermarket. When one door closes, you do not know what God is saving you from. At least you are no longer commuting to work and pulling over on the side of the highway to feed your brand-new baby, who is crying because he is hungry, wet, or scared. If your prayers are not answered the way you want, instead of being discouraged or feelings like God let you down, why do you not have a bigger perspective? The reason the door closed is because God has something better in store. In addition to a natural knowledge of God, there is a supernatural knowledge revealed by Christ and received through faith. These findings might lead us to conclude that we do not always know what does or what might make us happy, and this seems to be at least partially true. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Do you know what will make you happy? Psychologist have found that people’s ability to predict their future emotional states is not very accurate. For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then fact to face. Right now, you may not see all clearly, but one day it will come into focus, and you will look back and say, “Thank you, God! You are the best and had it figured out. You closed that door on purpose so your perfect will can manifest in my life.” People tend to overestimate their emotional reactions to events. Although individuals think that optimistic and melancholy events that might occur to them will make a huge difference in their lives, and although these changes do make at least some difference in life satisfaction, they tend to be less influential than we think they are going to be. Hopeful events tend to make us feel good, but their effects wear off pretty quickly, and the same is true of negative events. For example, individuals who won more than $50,000.00 in the lottery were interviewed and researchers discovered that they were not happier than they had been in the past, and were also not happier than a control group of similar people who had not won the lottery. On the other hand, the researcher found that individuals who lost some functions or mobility as a result of accidents were not as unhappy as might be expected. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
How can this possibly be? There are several reasons. The Scripture says, “God’s ways are not our ways. They are better than our ways.” There will be times when a door closes and you cannot understand why. You may be experiencing that right now. Here is the question: Will you stay in faith while you wait to see what God is up to? People are resilient; they bring their coping skills to play when negative events occur, and this makes them feel better. Most people do not continually experience the very best or the very worse, affect over a long period of time, but rather adapt to their current circumstances. Just as we enjoy the second Fraiche Nutrition cool vegan tropical Nice Cream Sandwich made with almond breeze, we eat less than we enjoy, as we experience more and more and more beneficial outcomes in our daily lives we habituate to them and our life satisfaction returns to a more moderate level. What God opens no one can shut, and what God shuts no one can open. God knows our deeds. He has placed before us an open door that no one can shut. As the Heavens are higher than the Earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts. Believer, God overrules all things for your good. Do you believe that material wealth is not as important as you might have thought it would be? #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Real satisfaction comes not in understanding God’s motives, but understanding his character, in trusting in his promise and leaning on him and resting in him as the Sovereign who knows what he is doing and does all things well. Another reason that we may mispredict our happiness is that our social comparisons change when our own status changes as a result of new events. People who are wealthy compare themselves to other wealthy people, people who are poor tend to compare with other poor people, and people who are ill tend to compare with other ill people. When our comparisons change, our happiness levels are correspondingly influenced. And when people are asked to predict their future emotions, they may focus only on the beneficial or pessimistic event they are asked about, and forget all the other things that will not change. When people are asked to focus on all the more regular things that they will still be doing in the future (working, gardening, decorating, designing architecture, going to church, socializing with family and friends, and so forth), their predictions about how something really good or bad would influence them is less extreme. God is wonderful in his design and excellent in his working. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
The needs-be for all that you have suffered has been most accurately determined by God. If pleasure is fleeting, at least misery shares some of the same quality. Your course is all mapped out by your Lord. Nothing will take him by surprise. There will be no novelties to God. There will be no occurrences which God did not foresee, and for which, therefore, he has not provided. We might think we cannot be happy if something terrible, such as the loss of a partner or beloved family member, were to happen to us, but after a period of adjustment most people find that happiness levels return to prior levels. God has arranged all, and you have but to patiently wait, and you shall sing a song of deliverance. Health concerns tend to put a damper on our feeling of well-being, and those with serious disability or illness show slightly lowered mood levels. However, even when health is compromised, levels of misery are lower than most people expect. When a plane goes through turbulence and it gets dark, you do not throw away the ticket and jump out. You still and trust the engineer. For instance, although disabled individuals have more concern about health, safety, and acceptance in the community, they still experience overall beneficial happiness levels. Taken together, it has been estimated that our wealth, health, and life circumstances account for only 20 percent of life satisfactions scores. Clearly the main ingredient in happiness lies beyond, or perhaps beneath, external factors. God is in control in the tough times, as he is in control in the good times. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
God will deliver you from the hard times. Other times God will prevent hardships from occurring in your life altogether. Cherish is the word I use to describe all the feeling that I have hidden here for you inside. You do not know how many times I have wished that I had told you. You do not know how many times I wished that I could hold you. You do not know how many times I have wished that I could mold you into someone who could cherish me as much as I cherish you. Perish is the word that more than applies to the hope in my heart each time I realize that I am not going to be the one to share your dreams. That I am not going to be the one to share your schemes. That I am not going to be the one to share what seems to be the life that you could cherish as much as I do yours. I wish I could say that I need you, but then you would realize that I want you just like a thousand other guys who would say they loved you with all the rest of their lies when all they wanted was to touch your face, your hands, and gaze into your eyes. Cherish is the word I use to describe all the feeling that I have hiding for you inside. “Diabolical forces are formidable. These forces are eternal, and they exist today. The fairy tale is true. The Devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow,” reports Ed Warren. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
Housing is High, Food is Expensive and People getting Rich on Blood Money
A paranoid is someone who knows little of what is going on. Despite the fact that young people have experimented with cigarettes, alcohol, and other dangerous drugs for many generations, it would be better that they did not. All recreational drug use is associated with at least some risks, and those who begin using drugs earlier are also more likely to use dangerous drugs later. The most commonly used of the depressants is alcohol, a colorless liquid, produced by the fermentation of sugar or starch, that is the intoxicating agent in fermented drinks. Alcohol is the oldest and most widely used drug of abuse in the World. Alcohol use is highly costly to societies because so many people abuse alcohol and because judgment after drinking can be substantially impaired. It is estimated that 50 percent of automobile fatalities are caused by alcohol use, and excessive alcohol consumption is involved in a majority of violent crimes, including unwanted physical sexual activity and murder. Alcohol increases the likelihood that people will respond aggressively to provocations. Even people who are not normally aggressive may react with aggression when they are intoxicated. Alcohol use also leads to rioting, unprotected sex, and other negative outcomes. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
A single deed of violence and cruelty affects our nerves more than when these are exercised on a more extended scale. Alcohol increases aggression in part because it reduces the ability of the person who has consumed it to inhibit his or her aggression. When people are intoxicated, they become more self-focused and less aware of the social situation. As a result, they become less likely to notice the social constraints that normally prevent them from engaging aggressively, and are less likely to use those social constraints to guide them. Cannabis (marijuana) is the most widely used hallucinogen. Until it was banned in the United States of American under the Marijuana Tax Act of 1938, it was widely used for medical purposes. In recent years, cannabis has again been frequently prescribed for the treatment of pain and nausea, particularly for cancer sufferers, as well as for a wide variety of other physical and psychological disorders. While medical marijuana is now legal in several American states, it is still banned under federal law, putting those states in conflict with the federal government, Marijuana also acts as a stimulant producing giggling, laughing, and mild intoxication. It acts to enhance perception of sights, sounds, smells, and many produce the sensation of slowing down. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Because drug and alcohol abuse is a behavior that has such negative consequences for so many people, researchers have tried to understand what leads people to use drugs. Individual ambitions, expectations, and values influence drug use. College students who expressed optimistic academic values and strong ambitions have less alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, and cigarette smoke has declined more among youth from wealthier and more educated homes than among those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Drug use is in part the result of socialization. Children try drugs when their friends convince them to do it, and these decisions are based on social norms about the risks and benefits of various drugs. The use of marijuana among 12th-graders (high school seniors, generally 16-18 years of age) rose to 39 percent. And students binge drink in part when they see that many other people around them also binging. That is why stores used to always provide bags for people who bought liquor, so kids would not see it and become curious about drinking alcohol. The longer an addiction lasts, the more stress and strain it puts on the individual. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
There are a number of long-term physical and emotional effects of addiction that can easily turn a healthy man or woman into a frail shadow of their former self. The human kidney can be damaged by habitual drug use over a period of many years. Kidney failure is not uncommon among long-time users of crystal meth, heroin, and other dangerous drugs. Liver failure is a well-known consequence of alcoholism, but it can also occur with individuals using Vicodin, and OxyContin habitually over many years. Cocaine abusers and stimulant users are doing significant damage to their heart each time they use the drug. The most common conditions among addicted individuals are heart disease and heart failure. The lungs of any individual who is putting drugs they are addicted into their lungs is putting their lungs in jeopardy. Smoking crack cocaine or crystal meth damages the lungs, and so does smoking marijuana. Also, long-term drug abusers will begin to build a tolerance to drugs. Tolerance is dangerous as it causes the individual to use more and more of the drug in order to achieve the desired euphoric or stimulated states, which puts the individual at a constant risk for overdose and even death. Much of these drugs are coming from the Middle East and Mexico. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
Nothing bears so many stains of blood as gold. In Oakland, California USA so many people have built up a tolerance to drugs that they are looking for an even more potent drug to get a high from. Producers have started mixing cocaine and heroin together and they call it a “Belushi” or “Paris Hilton.” And if people overdose from the drugs you are selling, it actually makes you more popular because people are looking to overcome their tolerance. They live to get high. Because of this desire to get high, foreign drug cartels are operating in Northern California and wreaking havoc on the environment and producing marijuana tainted with toxic chemicals. Drugs are not cool. Because of the gun violence between drug dealers, people are afraid to visit the city of Oakland, California. There are so many drug related murders that no one can keep track. Homicide is the number one killer of African American men 15-34. In 2016, there were 88 homicides in Oakland. And 32 homicides as of late June 2017. The forensic anthropologist in the morgues are saying that gun violence is getting more serious, too. Instead of seeing people with one fatal gunshot, they are now coming into morgue in bullet proof vests with 12 bullets in one body, and usually end up with several people from the same gang in the morgue in the same night. These people have military style weapons. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Violence is a symptom of an unhealthy community. In Oakland’s drug wars, fire as well as firepower is a weapon. The Oakland fire department attributes more than 180 cases of arson to warfare between drug gangs and reprisals against slow-paying customers or residents who complained publicly about the city’s wide-open commerce in crack, a cheaper, potent form of cocaine. In Oakland, California, drugs are sold on more than 150 street corners. When people cannot pay their drug debts, and the dealer cannot find you, they will go after your next of kin. A woman who owed $50.00 to a crack dealer was dragged from her house, and thrown into the trunk of a car. After breaking one of her legs and the bones in one hand with a baseball bat, detectives report the attackers poured gasoline over her and set her on fire. With those cost of living so high in Oakland, California scientists are saying this is contributing to continuing violent crimes in parts of the city. There is a 19 percent unemployment rate in these communities, and the economy is not lifting the poor up. There is a large group of people living below the poverty line. The average household income in East Oakland is $47,318.50 and the citywide average is $80,758.00. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
Is there such depravity in humans as that one should injure another without benefit to oneself? The lack of education, jobs, drugs, and no affordable housing is leading to the increase in violence and crime. And that is why so many people have turned to drugs and drug dealing. People who are abusing drugs feel hopeless and depressed and they have tried to succeed, but have not been able to because they come from an unstable home, live in a violent community, do not have the resources to go to school, or suffer from a cognitive disability. So, they hustle and turn to drugs to get by and forget about life and to feel good. On the other hand, people find drug dealing lucrative and can make $50,000.00 in one weekend, so they do not want to work for $12.00 an hour when they are making more than a doctor does. However, it is very dangerous because it creates super predators. You now have cartels and drug dealers praying on other drug dealers. In places like Oakland Hills, where my father came from, people have a college degree and average household incomes of $188,000.00. However, because there is so much profit being made in the flatlands by dealers, you have to solve this problem with the youth by encouraging them to stay in school and just say no to drugs and drinking. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
There are no devils but those which are begotten upon selfishness and reared by cunning. The bloody drug warfare has caused people in Oakland to promote this urban comeback and improve its reputation. However, just feet away from these revitalized neighborhoods, crack and other drugs can be bought in board daylight just about anywhere. The killings and the sound of gunfire are now a constant in the life of many people who live in Oakland. People are getting rich on the blood money and ruining the lives of men, women, children, animals and the environment. Bears, deer, mountain lions, and rivers are being poisoned by the marijuana grows and many of them are drying. Also, in Oakland, California, there are ten-year old kids with guns in their underwear drawers. People fear that with the rising rent in Sacramento, lack of affordable housing, increase of breweries, and all the legal marijuana for recreational use that Sacramento, California will face the same fate as Oakland, California. Housing is high, food is expensive, and gas is outrageous. People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Aging alone causes people to lose brain cells and mental processing speed, but there are several other causes that you have more control over. There are some adults who seems to be dumber than tar, but they are still working and the work they produce is awful, and yet they continue to still be employed. When these adults, who did drugs in their youth and have clearly lost their cognitive abilities, are hired on as partners or major parts of the firm, the level of productivity and quality of work seriously declines, and many people sit around wondering why these individuals are still employed, why do they not retire? While we cannot recognize a change in brain speed, many people do know that something has changed with their thinking. And if you sense that you are not as smart or quick as you used to be, you know it is an uncomfortable feeling. Some refer to it as “brain fog,” because they know that they used to feel smarter but the thoughts are just not coming together as quickly. What is happening is that when brain processing seed declines, you are literally thinking slower and remembering less. New information that you are presented with is not as easy to understand, and older memories are harder to recall. At the same time, a decline in brain chemical production causes brain cell death. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
People who seem to enjoy their ill temper have a way of keeping it in fine condition by inflicting privations on themselves. Fewer neurons mean an additional decrease in the capacity to retain information. What is more, not only does an aging brain sometimes think slower, but drug use will also accelerate the deterioration of your brain. There is a separation between thinking and then doing. You know that you have things you need to do but you cannot quite figure out how to get them done, or you forget to take care of them. Once you experience these problems repeatedly, you need to start rebalancing your brain. Aging is the number one cause of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). As you get older, your brain develops chemical imbalances. If you do not act to fix them, you are actually leaving your brain and your body open to get sicker. Any type of addiction, including to alcohol, streets drugs (marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth, heroin, Ecstasy, nexus, ketamine, crack, hallucinogens), overeating, gambling, or even excessive shopping can cause an imbalance. One that is shipped with the devil must sail with the devil. However, mutual toleration and forbearance, in our sentiments, with regard to the legality, or expedience of measures, is the soul of democracy. Consistent, sincere prayer helps us to grow spiritually, shape our character, and strengthen our love for our Father in Heaven. Prayer is among the most valuable gifts we receive as spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
A Person is a Certain Sort of Living Organism
A person is a certain sort of living organism whose identity depends on its biological organization. It is obvious that we all frequently use the term personality. However, if you think that personality means charm, charisma, or style, you have misused them. Many people also confuse personality with the term character, which implies that a person has been evaluated as possessing beneficial qualities, not just as described. If, by saying someone has personality, you mean the person is friendly, outgoing, and upstanding, you might be describing what we regard as good character in our culture. However, in some cultures, it is deemed good for people to be fierce, warlike, and cruel. Psychologist regard personality as a person’s unique long-term pattern of thinking, emotions, and behavior. In other words, personality refers to the consistency in who you are, have been, and will become. It also refers to the special blend of talents, values, hopes, loves, hates, and habits that makes each of us a unique person. So, everyone in a particular culture has personality, whereas not everyone has character—or at least not good character. (Do you know any good characters?) #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
A thinking intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places; which it does only by that consciousness which is inseparable from thinking and essential to it. As far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that person. Should the soul of a prince, carrying with it the consciousness of the prince’s past life, enter and inform the body of a cobbler, as soon as deserted by his own soul, everyone sees he would be the same person with the prince, accountable only for the prince’s actions. Had I the same consciousness that I saw the ark and Noah’s flood, as that I saw an overflowing of Thames last Winter, I could no more doubt that I who write this now, that saw the Thames overflowed last Winter, and that viewed the flood at the general deluge, was the same self than that I who write this am the same myself now whilst I write…that I was yesterday. Self-concepts provide another way of understanding personality. The rough outlies of your self-concept could be revealed by this request: “Please tell us about yourself.” #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
In other words, self-concept consists of all your ideas, perceptions, stories, and feelings about who you are. It is the mental picture you have of your own personality. Self-concepts can be remarkably consistent. In an interesting study, antiquated people were asked how they had changed over the years. Almost all thought they were essentially the same person they were when they were young. We creatively build our self-concepts out of daily experiences. Then, we slowly revise them as we have new experiences. Once a stable self-concept exists, it tends to guide what we pay attention to, remember, and think about. Because of this, self-concepts can greatly affect our behavior and personal adjustments—especially when they are inaccurate. For instance, a young lady, who is a student thinks she is stupid, worthless, and a failure, despite getting good grades. With such an inaccurate self-concept, she tends to be depressed regardless of how well she does. However, in some cultures people are apt to engage in self-criticism. By correcting personal faults, they add to the well-being of the group. And when the group is successful, individual members feel better about themselves, which raises their self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
The history of some people in America is a record of an oppressed people from conditions of slavery as a moral-legal order to conditions of existence of a low caste and class within the society. It is against this background that the generalized underprivileged classes awareness and the self-concept of their ethnic identity in America is presumed to have developed into negative self-evaluations. Optimistic self-concept is not out of the ordinary. Good personal experiences can outweigh negative social historical experiences in the development of self-concepts. A belief in God and strong spirituality can uplift one’s consciousness and has great potential for helping people who might feel dejected attain self-realization, which will allow them to overcome the strong negative self-imagery emanating from reflections in other members of society. Maladaptive behavior arises from an underlying psychological or biological dysfunction that makes it difficult for people to meet the demands of day-to-day life. Maladaptive behavior most often results in serious psychological discomfort or loss of control over thoughts, behaviors of feelings. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
People involved psychopathological ritualism rely more heavily on emotional and psychological intimidation to get their ways. This is often out of necessity since the consequences of physical intimidation or outright violence in the public spheres of life become obvious. Whether we call it bullying or abuse, the hallmark of this type of maladaptive behavior is instilling doubt and fear in order to maintain control. The abuser finds that one of the most effect means of instilling doubt and maintaining control is harassing a person into keeping silent about the abuse. Another tactic is to rally others to the cause, getting them to view victims as cowards, weaklings, less than human. People love to blame a person for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency because it takes that bright intense scrutiny off their own emotional and psychological problems, letting them focus instead on someone else. The use of psychological, emotional and physical intimidation to instill self-doubt in order to maintain control, trying to feel superior by isolating an individual from the group and making them question their sanity is a sadistic form of cult and ritual abuse. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
It is a type of systematic psychopathological ritualism when groups of adults target another adult and pry into that person’s life to the point they believe they own an individual and have the power to do as they please. However, there is nothing done in that dark that will been hidden from light. If you are a victim of abuse remember, God will turn “wailing into dancing; remove your sacked cloth and clothed you with joy, and your heart will sing to him and not be silent,” (Psalm 30.11-12). We must give the Lord thanks forever. Asking with shameless persistence, the importunity that will not be denied, returns with the answer in hand. It is the nature of faith to believe God upon his care word…It will not be, says sense; it cannot be, says reason; it both can and will be, says faith, for I have a promise for it. There is no saint here who can out-believe God. God never out-promised himself yet. All things will work together for good. Thank you God that you are faithful to your word and will work mightily in the behalf of those who have faith of God. God’s energy can be labeled and traced in its motion or change of form just as a piece of matter is ticketed so that it can be identified in other places under other conditions. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
Faith in God is much like the existence of induced currents and of electromagnetic actions at a distance from a primary circuit from which we draw our energy. Faith is the medium surrounding the conductor (God) as the source for the phenomena. If we believe in the continuity of the motion of energy, that is, if we believe that when it disappears at one point and reappears at another it must have passed through the intervening space, we are forced to conclude that the surrounding medium contains at least a part of the energy, and that it is capable of transferring it from point to point. Thus, the surrounding medium or empty space becomes the arena in which energy moves, and energy, disjoined from matter, was raised in its ontological status from a mere accident or a mechanical or physical system to the autonomous rank of independent existence: matter creased to be the indispensable vehicle for its transport. When you believe, God will see to it that it is taken care of. When you believe, you have the Creator of the Universe fighting your battles, arranging things in your favor, going before you, moving obstacles out of the way. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
You could not have made it happen in your own strength, but because you are a believer, the surpassing greatness of God’s power is at work in your life. God is an indeterminate cause of finite properties. Thus, goodness exists in God in a supereminent form, proportionate to his infinite mode of being. God is in all things, not, indeed, as part of their essence, or as a quality, but in the manner that an efficient cause is present to that on which he acts. Hence, God is in all things, and intimately. God to the World is bounded on the one hand by the World of form and on the other by pre-existent matter. His task is to impose the forms on matter, and so construct a rationally ordered whole. Being wholly good, and therefore free from jealousy, he wished everything to be like himself. Since an intelligent being is superior to an unintelligent one, and since intelligence cannot be present in anything that is devoid of soul, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature best. God is superhuman, supernatural and has great influence on our lives. God is unquestionably transcendent. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Sensuality Often indulges Impurity—The Hugh O’Connor Act
Who you are often determines what you see. It will be found a common case, that when we have yielded to our instincts, and then have to soothe conscience, we must slaughter somebody, for a sacrificial offering to our sense of comfort. As we perceive events, the brain actively selects, organizes, and integrates sensory information into a photograph or model of the World. A man was in the supermarket when an eight-year-old girl suddenly came running around the corner. She looked back and screamed, “Stop! Stop! You’re killing him! You’re killing my father!” Naturally the witness was interested! He quickly retraced her path, and was greeted by a grisly scene. A man was sprawled out on the floor with another man on top of him. The guy on top was huge and looked only half human. He has his alleged victim by the throat and was allegedly beating his head against the floor. There was blood everywhere, and the witness decided to do the right thing and run to get help. By the time the store manager and the witness returned to the alleged scene of the crime, the police were just arriving. It took quite a while to figure out what happened, but it turns out this was not a crime scene at all. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
The guy sprawled out on the floor had passed out and hit his head. This caused a cut that accounted for the blood everywhere. The man that appeared to be on top of him saw the individual fall and was trying to keep him from further injuring himself, and was also loosening his collar. If the witness had never returned, he would have sworn in court that he saw murder. The little girl’s description completely shaped the witness’s perceptions. This perhaps is understandable. However, the witness will never forget the shock he felt when he met the alleged murderer—the man he had seen a few moments before as huge, vicious, and horrible-looking. It turns out that the alleged murderer was not a stranger after all. He was a neighbor of the witness and they had seen each other several times before and actually knew each other by name. Also, he was not a big man, but a small, nice looking man. The mental process of organizing sensations into meaningful patterns is called perception. This process is so automatic that it can take a drastic misperception to call attention to it. Perception creates faces, melodies, works of art, illusions, and other misrepresentations due to a lack of understanding. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
Perception refers to interpretations we take in through our senses. “All in the Family” is a television series with a lead character called Archie Bunker, he is the head of the family, hardworking, and very outspoken. His wife, Edith, is a sweet woman, and like to tell stories to express her feelings so that she is considerate of everyone, hoping they will pick up on the message without outright saying what she means. Edith is a housewife and works very hard to do her job, she organizes her work by the days of the week and because she is a woman she faces discrimination in banking and finding employment outside of the house. Their beautiful daughter Gloria is a loving wife and married to a young man name Michael, whom Archie calls “Meathead.” They all live in the same house, while Gloria works at a department store, which she was fired from for being pregnant, and Meathead is in school studying to become a college professor. Many people would assume that Archie is a bigot because of some of the things he says, but he does not really mean them, it was just the way he was raised. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
Archie is not racist, and he actually stands up for women’s rights, like the time he got Edith’s friend a job at his factory. Archie also supports equality and let his neighbor’s son, who is African American move in with them for a while when his father threw him out for being engaged, to a young lady who is half European American and African American. The reason people think Archie is racist is because of some of the things he says, but he learned these words and ideas from his father and never questioned his father because he was the man who raised him, fed him, provided “bread and bored” for him and protected him. So, in Archie’s eyes his father could never be wrong. And although Archie was conditioned to say certain things, he was a very loving man. When Michael finally got a job as associate professor and had to move from the East Coast to the West Coast, Archie was so very sad and did not want him to take the job. He had actually grown to love Meathead, and did not want to be far from his daughter Gloria and his grandson Joey. Sometimes we have to look beyond the surface to see what is really going on. Actions speak louder than words. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
As I was watching this television show, I would call home to my mother and tell her about the funny things that Archie Bunker did and said. I really enjoyed watching the show because he reminded me of my grandfather and Edith reminded me of my grandmother. And I also started watching “The Jefferson’s,” and when I would go home I will tell my mother about the funny things that George Jefferson did. These shows are new to me, but when I was looking up the actor who played George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), I found out he had died. And it kind of made me sad. I was talking to my mother about how I see this man on TV every day and he is so very much alive to me, but how he was dead. And it is kind of sad to get attached to people and find out they are dead. Then, she broke the news to me that Archie Bunker is dead, too. I kind of had a feeling. So, I went home to look up information on Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor). Carroll O’Connor was Born 2 August 1924 and died 21 June 2001. He suffered a heart attack. His career spanned over four decades. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
Carroll O’Connor went to the University of Montana-Missoula, he was an actor, producer, and director. His wife is still alive, her name is Nancy Fields O’Connor. In 1962, while he was in Rome filming “Cleopatra,” Carroll O’Connor and his wife adopted a six-day-old- boy, and named him Hugh O’Connor. They took him back to America and at the tender age of 17, Hugh worked with his father on the set of “Archie Bunker’s Place, which was starring Carroll O’Connor, of course. Then both father and son went on to work on the television show “In the Heat of the Night.” Unfortunately, Hugh O’Connor became addicted to drugs and when he could not break the habit, he called his father and told him that he was going to kill himself. By the time Carroll was able to get help to his son, he was already dead. Following his son’s death, Carroll O’Connor spent the rest of his life working to raise awareness about drug addiction. He successfully lobbied to get the state of California to pass legislation allowing family members of an addicted person or anyone injured by a drug dealer’s actions, including employers, to sue for reimbursement for medical treatment and rehabilitation costs and other economic and noneconomic damages. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
The law, known as the Drug Dealer Civil Liability Act in California, went into effect in 1997. It is also referred to as the Hugh O’Connor Act. Hugh O’Connor started the fight against the man who sold the drugs to Hugh. He called Harry Perzigian a partner in murder of Hugh O’Connor. “I can’t forget it. There isn’t a day that I don’t think of him and want him back and miss him, and I’ll feel that way until I’m not here anymore,” said Carroll O’Connor. It would be well I those who stifle their consciences, and commit crimes, would set up a sort of medico-moral diary, and record their symptoms minutely day by day. Such records might help to clear away some vague, conventional notions. Drug addiction is a serious problem in America. An estimated 570,000 people in America die from drug overdoses every year. Many people do not understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. They mistakenly think that those who use drugs lack moral principles or willpower and that they could stop their drug use simply by choosing to. In reality, drug addiction is a complex disease, and quitting usually takes more than good intentions or a strong will. Drugs can change the brain in ways that make quitting almost impossible, even for those who want to. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
Drug addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to take drugs is usually voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can lead to brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. These brain changes can be persistent, which is why drug addiction is considered a relapsing disease—people in recovery from drug use disorders are at increased risk for returning to drug use even after years of not taking the drugs. People who suffer from addiction often have one or more accompanying medical issues, which may include lung or cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, and mental disorders. Imaging scans, chest X-rays, and blood tests show the damaging effects of long-term drug abuse throughout the body. For example, research has shown that tobacco smoke causes cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, blood, lungs, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix. In addition, some drugs of abuse, such as inhalants, are toxic to nerve cells and may damage or destroy them either in the brain or the peripheral nervous system. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
Drug abuse and mental illness often co-exist. In some cases, mental disorders such as increased stress, depression, or schizophrenia may precede addiction; in other cases, drug abuse may trigger or exacerbate those mental disorders, particularly in people with specific vulnerabilities. Some research suggests that marijuana use is likely to precede use of other licit and illicit substances and the development of addiction to other substances. It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of heroin users have used marijuana (and many other drugs) not only long before they used heroin, but while they are using heroin. Like nearly all people with substance abuse problems, most heroin users initiated their drug use early in their teens usually beginning with alcohol and marijuana. There is ample evidence that early initiation of drug use primes the brain for enhanced later responses to other drugs. And Marijuana use is positively correlated with alcohol use and cigarette use, as well as illegal drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. Allowing recreational use of marijuana is dangerous because of the aggressive commercialization of marijuana is now rampant and growing. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
The legalization of marijuana increases availability of the drug and acceptability of its use. This is bad for public health and safety not only because marijuana use increases the risk of heroin use, but also because it markets marijuana and an array of increasingly potent products in ever more attractive ways that encourage marijuana use. Legalizing marijuana will have lasting negative effects on future generations, it will increase the national drug abuse problem, including expanding the opioid epidemic. Lawmakers in California “have been darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of their ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more,” (Ephesians 2-17-19). People who are addicted to marijuana are three times more likely to be addicted to heroin. With California allowing recreational marijuana to be sold in California, but it still being considered an illegal drug by the federal government, it seems with the Drug Dealer Civil Liability Act, families and employers can now seek help to pay for the problems and rehabilitation cost of their children and family members. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
The Luxury of a Pure Conscience is the Health of the Soul
Time is a mere infirmity of human mind which prevents us from seeing things sub specie aeternitatis; and because there is a close correlation between temporality and the mentality (temporalistic panpsychism). States of consciousness are private, God within the mind, this eternal monitor. Our environment also employs a deep impact on our development. Environment (nurture) refers to the combination of all external conditions that affect a person. For instance, the brain of a newborn baby has fewer dendrites (nerve cell branches) and synapses (connections between nerve cells) than an adult brain. However, the newborn brain is highly plastic (capable of being altered by experience). During the first three years of life, millions of new dendrites (connections between nerve cells) in the brain form every day. At the same time, unused synapses (connections between nerve cells) disappear. As a result, early learning environments literally shape the developing brain, through blooming and pruning of synapses. The cradle of civilization is in Africa, where the garden of Eden is located. Although human DNA is evolving, modern humans are still genetically quite similar to cave dwellers who lived 30,000 years ago. A strong influence of African migrants existed throughout the World (and is still detectable today). Most modern genes come from African as a result of large African migration(s) and/or incremental gene flow. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
The Pleistocene era is from 1,800,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. During the latter Pleistocene (125,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago), one more major migrations from Africa fueled the Worldwide dispersal of modern humans. Although most researchers agree that anatomically modern humans originated in Africa between 150,000 and 200,00 years ago, there is still debate over whether this was a speciation event that replaced other human populations outside of Africa, or whether there was a genetic mixture. In Africa, premodern fossils have been found at several sites. One of the best known is Broken Hill (Kabwe). In this and other African premodern specimens, a mixture of older and more recent traits can be seen. Dating estimates of Broken Hill and most of the other premodern fossils from estimates have been given dates for most of the localities in the range of 600,000-125,000 years ago. The premodern human fossils from Africa and Europe are more similar to each other than they are to the hominids from Asia. They mix of some ancestral characteristics (retained from Homo erectus ancestors) with more derived features give the African and European fossils a distinctive look; they are usually referred to as H. heidelbergensis. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
The situation in Asia is less tidy. To some researchers, the remains appear more modern than contemporaries from either Europe or Africa. They represent a regional branch of H. heidelbergensis. The Pleistocene World forced many small populations into geographical isolation. Most of these regional populations no doubt died out. Some, however, did evolve, and their descendants are likely a major part of the later hominid fossil record. In African, H. heidelbergensis evolved into Neandertals. Meanwhile, the Chinese premodern populations may have all met with extinction. However, the African migrants might well have interbred with resident populations outside of Africa. Nevertheless, a bright new born baby born today could learn to become almost anything—an actor, an engineer, a race car, driver, nurse, singer, rapper, a spiritual gangster, or a mechanic who likes to build Victorian houses. But an Upper Pleistocene baby could have only become a hunter for food. It was once thought we appeared in Europe around 45,000 years ago and that they coexisted with Neanderthals for thousands of years after that. They may have hung on in pockets – including caves in Gibraltar – until 40,000 years ago, it was believed. In other words, there was a long, gradual takeover by modern humans, and died out from competition. It is not an easy matter to hit a conscience exactly between wind and water. Thank goodness for evolution and human rights. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Environmental factors actually start influencing development before birth. Although the intrauterine environment (interior of womb) is highly protected, environmental conditions can nevertheless affect the developing child. For example, when a young lady was pregnant, the baby’s fetal heart rate and movements increased when loud sounds or vibrations penetrated the womb. In addition to cultural differences, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, and sexual orientation all affect the social norms that guide behavior. Social norms are rules that define acceptable behavior. While watching an episode of “The Jefferson’s,” the father, George had a problem with his African American son, Lionel dating a young lady, Jenny, who has a White father and a Black mother because he did not understand her culture and did not want to deal with it. Also, on the show “The Bachelorette,” the star Rachel Lindsay is the first African American bachelorette ever on the show and comes from a prestigious family. She has to choose from African American and European American men, and one of these lucky men will be her next husband. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
To many, interracial dating is no big deal, most people do not even see what they problem is with Rachel choosing from men who have different skin tones, but still a lot of people have deeply rooted hostilities about interracial dating, as they did 40 years ago when “The Jefferson’s” was a new show, which reflects cultural attitudes of time era. And some other people wish that racial had more cultures to choose from like Japanese men and Hawaiian men. However, with interracial the more cultures you mix in to the situation, the more complex it becomes because people become insecure when they have more competition. Nevertheless, some women who are mixed race also have a problem with their children dating people who do not look like their phenotype (outward) appearance because they feel like their child is rejecting their image or culture. Even more, European American women who marry African American men sometimes have problems with their mixed race son’s dating White girls because of historical race relation issues and also sometimes because people who marry another race identify as they race and also feel rejected if their child rejects the race that they are married to. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Other problems with the show “The Bachelorette” is that some feel it is unethical because a woman is selecting from men who she does not really know and marrying them and a few people think it is unnatural. However, in China, for every man, there are two women, so there are more women than men. And dating and marriage has become a business. If you do not have a career, healthy bank account, are not tall and attractive and do not have a house in a desirable location a woman will reject you with in ten minutes of meeting you because women are in such high demand. Dating is like a business and so “The Bachelorette” many not be a bad form of finding a mate. The men are screened to make sure they healthy, safe, and come from good background, which seems like less of a gamble of meeting people on your own and taking a risk. Also, some people do fall in love fast. To fully understand human behavior, psychologist need to know how people differ, as well as the ways in which we are all alike. To be effective, psychologist must be sensitive to people who are ethnically and culturally different from themselves. For the same reason, an appreciation of human diversity can enrich your life, as well as your understanding of psychology. In strong and involuntary bias, the heart is conscience. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
We have to reflect on a new social reality: Cultural diversity is becoming the new normal. The percentage of non-Hispanic white people in the United States of America has reached an all-time low: 63 percent. That is 197.7 million White people out of 325.9 million Americans. In 2000, Whites were 69 percent of the population. In some large cities, African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native Americans are already the majority. In the past, psychology was based mostly on the cultures of North America and Europe. Now, we must ask, do the principles of Western psychology apply to people in all cultures? Are some psychological concepts invalid in other cultures? Are any universal? As psychologist have probed such questions, one thing has become clear: Most of what we think, feel, and do is influenced in one way or another by the social and cultural Worlds in which we live. Unlike the Divine Intellect, the souls are unable to grasp the timeless truth at one, in a single instantaneous act, but only gradually, step by step, by a laborious process of reasoning. Succession and change are thus mere results of our inability to grasp everything at once. The moving image of eternity, an imperfect (because moving) imitation is understood in a psychological sense as movement of soul. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Abandoned Opportunities are Never Lost
Beauty must be exhibited as a necessary condition of humanity, the luxury to apprehend, for this new value in the soul is the supremest Earthly sum; that refinement makes humans whole complete beings. The elegance and delicacy is the quality by which causes love or some passion similar to it. That love is all there is, is all we know of love; it is enough, the freight should be proportioned to the groove. Things are always beautiful in their own nature. You are the loveliest of all lovies, please stay awhile and tell me your name. And yet by Heaven, I think my love as rare. Love is compared to a single soul inhabiting two bodies. Happiness is what all people desire since it is always the end goal of our activities, it is an unconditional good. It does not depend on external things, but rather on how those things are used. Happiness is not to be found in the goods that one accumulates, or even in the projects that form the ingredients of one’s life, but rather in the agency of the individual who gives life a direction and focus. Human nature will discover what brings out the best in human beings. Offer all in your heart and all of your good intentions to God’s gracious majesty. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
The human soul as it is recognized has beauty in its true origin and destiny. What mystery pervades as well softened by nature’s blessing. Love is always in a state of lack and hence of desire: the desire to possess the beautiful. This state of infinite longing is trained on the truth, and is the path to wisdom. The basic idea has been relished many times by romantics. It fuels the cult of idealized or courtly love, which has been strong since the Middle Ages, in which the beloved has become a symbol of the infinite. Beauty is centered in the human experience of pleasure. Beauty is such an order and construction of parts, as either by the primary constitution of our nature, by custom, or by caprice, is fitted to give a pleasure and satisfaction to the soul. Pleasure and pain. Proud of my broken heart since you did break it, proud of the pain I did not feel until you, proud of my sight since it was the limit of my dream. The focus of my prayer, a perfect, paralyzing bliss constitutes your very essence. It was a dream in which I found myself, a brave palace that was all my own. Whether tomorrow’s day shall break the spell, I will remember always it was your hand that I held. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
Beauty is the emblem of what we lack, the mark of an art that speaks to our desire. Beautiful things do not stand aloof, but direct our attention and our desire to everything else we must learn or acquire in order to understand and possess, and they give Godspeed to the sense of life, providing new shape and direction. The Heaven below the Heaven above obscured with rosier hue. Whatever we have seen, heard, or understood, delights, pleases, and ravishes us by this joy so scantily disburse. The pleasure of sense accompanies the ideas of sensation. There is vastly greater pleasure in your complex beauty, a regular and harmonious apprehension, which conforms my soul as if it were a church. Everyone acknowledges we are delighted with your fine face, a just picture, than with the view of any one colour, were it as strong and lively as possible. When you smile, it is more pleasing then the Sun arising among settled clouds, and colouring their edges, with starry hemisphere. When roses cease to bloom, dear, and violets are done, the pleasure of your composition has passed beyond the Sun. When dreaming the night shall pass away. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
God above all others is capable of bringing us happiness, as he is the helper of mankind who eliminates those evils, whose cure brings the greatest happiness to the human race. If life is ever worth living, it is when one has attained this vision of the soul of beauty. And once you have seen it, you will never be seduced again by the charm of gold or flesh, you will care nothing for the beauties that used to take your breath away, and when one discerns this beauty, one will perceive the true virtue, not virtue’s semblance. And one has been brought forth and reared this perfect virtue, one shall be called the friend of God, and if ever it is capable of one to enjoy immortality, it shall then be given to that individual. The greatest happiness is the pure vision of God. This overwhelming experience of truth, beauty, and the divine, will make all the sufferings and tribulations of our lives meaningful and worth experiencing. It is something that is earnestly pursued that comes only after all our adventures in the World. Humble yourself deeply before God, and make virtue a necessity. Be thankful for everything that God has blessed you with and show appreciation by taking great care of it, and you will be rewarded with more. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
The righteous person is happier than the unjust individual. We all certainly prefer to be healthy than unhealthy, but health is nothing but the harmony among different parts of the body, each carrying out its proper function. Justice, it turns out, is a similar kind of harmony, but among different parts of the soul. Injustice on the other hand is a form of civil war between parts of the soul: a rebellion in which one rogue element—the desirous part of our natures—usurps reason as the controlling power. In contrast, the just soul is one that possess psychic harmony no matter what comes one’s way in life; just individuals never lose their inner composure, and can maintain peace and tranquility despite the harshest of life’s circumstances. Happiness is the internal benefits and characteristics rather than external ones. Living a virtuous life brings greater pleasure than living an unvirtuous life. Psychic harmony that results from a just life brings with it greater peace and inner tranquility, which is more pleasant than the unjust life which tends to bring inner discord, guilt, stress, and disease. Simplicity, gentleness and modesty are to be desired in all society—there are some people who are so full of affectation in whatever they do that everyone is annoyed by them. Some people are artificial in all they do and spoil the pleasure of society. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
The higher pleasures of the just life are not merely peace of mind, but the excitement of pursuing knowledge, as it produces an almost Godlike state in the human being. The philosopher is at the pinnacle of this pursuit: having cast off the blinders of ignorance, one is able to explore the higher realm of truth, and this experience makes every merely physical pleasure pale in comparison. Most pleasures are not really pleasures at all, but merely an absence of pain. Some pleasures are not relative because they concern higher parts of the soul that are not bound to the relativity produced by physical things. These are the philosophical pleasures—the pure pleasure of coming to a greater understanding of reality. Wrapped in ever-expanding social networks, we are never far from other people. They are always right beside us, just around the corner, or only a phone call, telegraph, or text massage away. In our intensely social World, it is tempting to assume that a person who is alone is a loser, a loner, a social outcast or, at the very least antisocial or shy. However, is this assumption always justified? Well, it depends. On the one hand, it is true that some people are alone because they are socially fearful, self-conscious, or shy, or otherwise dislike social situations. Many of these people are shy and lonely. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
In more extreme cases, people who shun social interaction and are troubled by their isolation may even be diagnosed with a mental disorder such as agoraphobia. On the other hand, it is also true that some people are alone simply because they prefer solitude. In fact, many of history’s most creative and spiritual individuals have found insight in their solitude. “I think it is important to take a break, you know, from the public eye for a while, and give people a chance to miss you. I want longevity. I do not want to get out there and run myself ragged and spread myself thin,” Aaliayh said when she was asked why she took five years off between albums. She went on to say, “There are times in my life when I just want to be by myself.” Environment factors influence intelligence. Social interaction, the media, the internet and video games, much like most of popular culture is becoming so complex. The rich, complicated experiences can require 40 hours or more of intense problem-solving to complete or understand. People must usually figure out by themselves how to figure out the rules because everything is so cognitively demanding. In the end, popular culture may well be inviting us to read, reflect, and problem-solve more than ever before. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
This person is alone. But is that individual lonely? Do you think time alone is healthy or unhealthy? Can we not be around people sometimes and by ourselves at other times? Why not? Perhaps we could all benefit from some alone time. Quiet time for reflection does seem to be associated with creativity, spiritual growth, problem solving, and self-discovery. In our modern World, social contact is a given. Alone time—now that is another story. Did you know that healthy solitude was on the minds of legislatures when they passed the 1964 Wilderness Act? According to the act, national parks should serve “to preserve natural conditions, to provide opportunities for solitude, and to provide a primitive and unconfined type of recreation.” Although little can be done to change neural intelligence, by adding to personal knowledge and learning to think better, people can become more intelligent. Many psychologists believe that to make full use of innate intelligence a person must have good metacognitive skills. Metacognitive skills mean above and beyond ordinary thinking. Such skills involve an ability to manage your own thinking and problem solving. Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
Typically, to better manage our lives, this means breaking problems into parts, establishing goals, and subgoals, monitoring your progress, and making connections. Learning metacognitive skills is the surest avenue to become more intelligent. Learning to relax is a way to lower stress, and emotional support also helps. To reduce stress, rehearse how you will cope with upsetting events. Calmly plan how you will handle each situation—by keeping your attention on the task, by focusing on the issues one at a time. Another helpful strategy involves listening to the upsetting thoughts you have during the day. Then you can learn to combat these worries with calming, rational replies. If I prepare well and calm my worries, my day will go fine. Even if I do not, it will not be the end of the World. My friends will still like me, and I can try to improve the next day. We acquire social motives in complex ways, through socialization and cultural conditioning. The behavior of outstanding artists, scientist, athletes, educators, and leaders is best understood in terms of such learned needs, particularly the need for achievement. This indicates our mind is part of our soul. Call to mind that the day now is beginning and you may work for eternity, and make steadfast resolution to use this day for that end. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
Minds Rule the World—But What Rules the Mind?
Human life partakes of the untravellable inscrutable and indeterminate law of God. The only true separate agent intellect is God, whose light of understanding fortifies the human agent intellect. Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate, it supplies us with a flow of sustaining power in our daily lives. Once we have steeped our souls in prayer can every anguish calmly bear. The word “God” stands not for a specific being but for a verbal expression: supreme or highest being. Become aware of God, in whose presence you are while you pray, then take a formula of prayer and recite it with perfect attention both to the words you are saying and to the being you are saying them. Our souls are from God alone; thus human reason and will are free. The human soul is directly created by God. It is an incorporeal substance; operationally, however, the soul functions as the vivifying form of the body. Thus, the name “soul” (anima) is derived not from it essence, but from its operation as form of the body, which is accidental to that essence. Since the soul is a substance in itself, it is immortal, surviving the body because it is not dependent upon it. Rather than saying that the soul is in the body, we should say that the body is in (that is, participates in the existence of) the soul. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
The will is placed in the soul, and who can enter there but he that created the soul? Divine commandments and prohibitions, as well as reward and punishment, reflect human freedom to obey and disobey since divine justice and retributions is incompatible with determinism (the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will; meaning that human beings have no free will and cannot be morally responsible for their actions). People who do not believe in God and have wicked ways are the ones who will say that someone is affecting their behavior or compelling them to act in a certain way because they do not want to take the moral nor legal responsibility for their actions. And in their mind, these excuses make them feel better about hurting others or sinning. However, God’s foreknowledge of anything could be the cause of its coming to being, and if that is true, then all things would have to be eternal, having existed always, since God has always known of them. Therefore, God has knowledge of things as they are actually constituted. God is not like man, who profiles individuals, then spends over a decade trying to make his bogus predictions come true. You cannot predict what you do not know, even if you manipulate a subject. God knows before anything happens that it will happen. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Furthermore, God is cognizant of what one’s choice will be before one makes it. Since God’s knowledge is not causative, human will is free. Thus, God can know the outcome of an individual’s future choice without determining such an action. God’s knowledge is incidental. His foreknowledge of a phenomenon is not its cause for coming into being. All human decisions are thus in a free climate—they may just as freely occur as not occur—because God’s knowledge of a future event is not the cause. The compatibility of God’s omniscience with human free will, this knowledge is incomprehensible to the limited human mind, since God’s knowledge is a priori (derived by reasoning from self-evident propositions) and part of his unknowable essence, whereas human knowledge is posteriori (derived by reasoning from observed facts). Thus, humans cannot understand how God can immutably foreknow the possible without rendering it necessary. The power to perform one among a number of alternative actions is given to every human. If one wills to turn oneself into a good path and to be righteous, the power is one’s to do so; and if one wills to turn oneself into a bad way and to be evil, the power lies in one’s control to be that way. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
In reality, the undoubted truth is humans are self-determining beings, as they have deliberate rational judgment and act according to their desire or will, free of external constraints, as long as there is no external compulsion controlling an individual. If God had decreed that a person should be either righteous or wicked or is there were something inherent in one’s nature which irresistibility drew an individual to a particular course, what would be the purpose of life? What would be the purpose of church and The Good Book? What would be the purpose of teaching God’s love and forgiveness? By what right or justice could God punish the wicked or reward the righteous? God determines that one can choose, but not what one chooses. After one exercises his or her freedom, the consequences of one’s choice is determined. The consequences of an individual’s actions, since they are subject to the natural order that God has created or to chance. One’s choice, however, is free. Understanding of choice not only necessitates the act being within one’s power, but also the combination of deliberation, a mental act, and desire. Actions caused by desire are determined by predisposition or habituation, it is also possible that there are actions that are the result of deliberation and choice. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The majority of human actions are not caused, but determined. Even though human choice is determined by a casual chain initiated by God, humans are responsible for their choices. Success is not measured by what an individual accomplishes, but by the opposition one has encountered, and the courage with which one has maintained the struggle against odds. Open your heart to God and you will see the jewels of wisdom and treasures fine. God will intervene and reunite the body with his blessings with joy and life and strength. God will remind one of what it means to be safe in one’s body. And when an individual cannot hear God’s reminders, he will draw closer and speak sublimely to your soul until the pain melts into the comfort of his presence. The Lord helps to leave behind frustration fatigue, bitterness, anger, and sadness. Hear the voice of God and accept his guidance. God will love your mind, body, and soul to a good place. One where individuals will feel his blessings and support. A place where we are inspired to gracious living. Those with broken hearts and fragmented lives will be blessed with healing, as their circumstances will change, allowing peace and prosperity to come into abundance. Those who have plenty will share the richness of their souls. Trust in God’s certainty and become consumed by calmness, as ultimate reassurance cradles you. With God all things are possible. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
What are the comprehensible terrors of humans compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God! The eyes, though they do not tell all, they tell much. The eyes are the keys of character, the mirrors of the soul. God will dispel your fear and end your stress and wipe away any worry from your mind. You and those you care about will find good health and complete recovery. God will make known this healing power and give comfort and shelter. All who are tired will be granted restorative sleep and safe passage. Beauty and pureness are everlasting; they are of God, and can never die. They may for a moment be obscured, but they shall reappear in brighter lustre. Angels have charge over them that they dash not their foot against a stone. Let us turn to the pleasant face of God in what is about us. Some people believe that enjoying their garden is a form of prayer, because it is showing an appreciation for the natural blessings that are provided by God and their soul is silently praying and being thankful for what they are enjoying. That love of Earth, which is a recognition of God. God sees at one view the whole thread of our existence, not only that part which we have already passed through, but that which runs forward into all the depths of eternity. God’s knowledge is perfect and immutable over all that is knowable. And through faith in God, the rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Love is a Tender Dialogue Between the Soul and God
Anyone who denies that the rational or intellectual soul is essentially and of itself the form of the human body is to be deemed a heretic. Every hardship, every joy, every temptation is a challenge of the spirit, that the human soul may prove itself. The great chain of necessity wherewith we are bound has divine significance, and nothing happens which has not some service in working out the sublime destiny of the human soul. Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincides. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. It is through solving problems correctly that we grow spiritually. We are never given a burden unless we have the capacity to overcome it. If a great problem is set before you, this merely indicates that you have the great inner strength to solve a great problem. There is never really anything to be discouraged about, because difficulties are opportunities for inner growth, and the greater the difficulty the greater the opportunity for growth. Spiritual opening is not withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe haven. It is not pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with the wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any separation. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
A loving heart is the most essential virtue on the spiritual journey. However, Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to abhor their species, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful that no living woman held a candle to her beauty. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive, and only prevented from moving by modesty. His art was so perfect that it concealed itself, and its product looked like the workmanship of nature. Pygmalion admired his own work and at last fell in love with the counterfeit creation. Oftentimes he laid his hand upon it as if to assure himself whether it were living or not, and could not even then believe that it was only ivory. He caressed it and gave it presents such as young ladies love—bright diamonds. One of the many treasures was a Tiffany & Co. Lyrical Paloma’s Melody collection ring, which was crafted from interlocking bands that gently shift shape as they glide with the body, always falling back together as a whole. The dazzling diamonds traced the five bands of the stunning ring set in 18K white gold, with round brilliant diamonds, carat total weight 4.59. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
What is a loving heart? A loving heart is sensitive to the whole of life, to all persons; a loving heart does not harden itself to any persons of things. He put raiment on its limbs, and jewels on its fingers, and a masterpiece of 34 Lucida diamonds alongside marquise and round diamonds, the opera necklace in platinum with Lucida diamonds carat total weight 73.58; marquise diamonds, carat total weight 12.3; round diamonds, carat total weight 17.24 about its neck. To the ears he hung Tiffany & Co. elegant, timeless, captivating hoop earrings in platinum with round brilliant diamonds, for pierced ears, with a total carat weight of 4.50. Her dress became her, a Draper James Parton Check Mary Beth Halter Dress, and she looked not less charming than when unattired. He then took her to Chateau West, a French, European restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee America, and called her his wife. They enjoyed Chatebriand prime center-cut filet seared and craved table side with mushrooms, asparagus, roasted potatoes, and béarnaise sauce, while cherishing the tradition of Southern France in the charming heartbeat of American South. The heart is like a garden of love. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
When a soul has in it the life of the spirit, then does it bring forth blessings from the divine Lord. When your life is filled with the desire to see the holiness in everyday life, something magical happens: ordinary life becomes extraordinary, and the very process of life begins to nourish your soul. The festival of Venus was at hand—a festival celebrated with great pomp in Tennessee. Where a woman would accept the epithet and its responsibilities represented the goddess’ own heart. She was given her own temple and was to persuade people of both genders and every class, whether married or unmarred, to cherish the traditional responsibilities of married and morality known to please the God and benefit the State. When Pygmalion had performed his part in the solemnities, he stood before the altar and bravely said, “God, who can do all things, give me, I pray you, for my wife”—he dared not say “my ivory virgin.” Venus who was present at the festival, heard him and knew the thought he would have uttered; and as an omen of her favor, caused the flame on the altar to shoot up thrice in a fiery point into the air. If peace is our single aim in all we do, we will always know what to do because we will do whatever will protect and deepen our peace. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
When he returned home, he went to see his statue, and leaning over the couch, gave a kiss to the lips. It seemed warm. He pressed its lips again, he laid his hand upon her delicate hand; the ivory felt soft to his touch and yielded to his fingers like the wax of Hymettus. While he stands astonished and glad, though doubting, and fears he may be mistaken, again and again with lover’s ardor, he touches the object of his hopes. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment. It was indeed alive! The veins when pressed yielded to the finger and again resumed their roundness. Then at last the votary of Venus found words to thank the goddess, and pressed his lips upon lips as real as his own. The virgin felt the kisses and blushed, and opening her shy eyes to the light, fixed them at the same moment on her lover. Venus blessed them nuptials she had formed, and from this union Paphos was born, from whom the city, sacred to Venus, received its name. Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself. Each one has to find peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
As once with prayers in passion flowing, Pygmalion embraced the stone, till from frozen marble glowing, the light of feeling over him shone, so did I clasp with young devotion bright nature to a poet’s heart; till breath and warmth and vital motion seemed through the statue from to dart. And then, in all my ardor sharing, the silent form expression found; returned my kiss of youthful daring, and understood my heart’s quick sound. Then lived for me the bright creation, the silver rill with song was rife; the trees, the roses shared sensation, an echo of my boundless life. God is to me that creative force, behind and in the Universe, who manifests himself as energy, as life, as order, ad beauty, as thought, as conscience, as love. Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole World seems upset. Inner peace is found by facing life squarely, solving its problems, and delving as far beneath its surface as possible to discover its verities and realities. A space opens our hearts, and when two hearts recognize and acknowledge each other, a connection happens. It happens again and again as other hearts are joined in the loving spirit. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
In works of literature, and to some extent in works of visual art, human beings are depicted and their actions are described. Even when there are no historical counterparts to the characters in a work of fiction, critics quite universally apply a criterion of fidelity to human nature in evaluating novels and dramas. Aristotle’s test of how a person of that kind probably or necessarily would behave (in given circumstances) has been applied to art, at least to literary art, throughout many centuries of criticism. The test is roughly as follows: Would a person, such as has been described thus far in the novel, act, think, feel, or be motivated in the way that the author describes in the circumstances presented? It is often very difficult to decide this question, either because our knowledge of human nature is insufficient or because the novelist has not given us enough clues. However, once a critic is convinced that the character in question would not behave in the way that the author describes him as behaving, he will condemn the characterization (at least with respect to that action or motivation) as implausible, and his negative judgment on the truth of the characterization will count against a favorable judgment of the work. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
The essential identity of every human being is a rational and immortal soul, which is entirely out of the order of the physical creation. The metaphor of the ivory statue explains the relationship between the soul and the body: The soul of a human shows that faith illumined and strong enough can make your dreams come true. It is through the exercise of the power of the soul that human progress is achieved. The soul can discover the realities of things, comprehend the peculiarities of beings, and penetrate the mysteries of existence. All sciences, knowledge, arts, wonders, institutions, discoveries and enterprises come from the exercised intelligence of the rational soul. We are able to reflect divine attributes to the extent that we cleanse the mirrors of our hearts and minds through prayer, the study and application of the sacred scriptures, the acquisition of knowledge, difficulties, and service to humanity. I see life as purely benevolent. I gather that God is life, truth, light. He is love. He is the supreme Good. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible Universe, forms my idea of God. To live a spiritual life, we must first find the courage to enter the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
Randolph Harris II International Institute 