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Opportunities are a Lot Like Work—they are Everywhere
Difficulties and sufferings help to forge the human soul. Without effort and sacrifice nothing really great can be accomplished; even a good song cannot be created without pain, have you heard The One I gave my Heart to by Aaliyah? So, people should not hesitate to fight against evil and tyranny and to overcome fear. There are objective laws governing social progress but they depend on the laws of human nature, which can be discovered by an analysis of the history of humankind. Genuine intellectuals help their people to become aware of their sufferings and their real needs and to produce a radical change in their conditions. A social revolution, therefore, presupposes the total intellect power of the people. Education is a revolutionary act and leads to the growth of civilization and an increasing social justice and the elimination of irrationality in human life. Thinking consists of both abstract and concrete concepts; it is not only generalization of the experience, but also immediate consciousness of reality. Behind me is infinite power. Before me is endless possibility. Around me is boundless opportunity. Why Should I fear? #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
Perception and cognition are not a mere reflection of the external World, but a creative interpretation and transformation of data in the light of language, previous experience, and the practical needs and values of the subject. Knowledge is therefore a historical category and contains subjective, human elements. It is a picture of the World in the perspective of a limited cognitive apparatus and a limited set of goals. However, whenever human practice is repeatedly and intersubjectively successful, this can be explained only on the assumption that in all such cases it was guided by an objective knowledge of the corresponding parts of the World. There is a real possibility for humans to become a free creative being who rationally controls natural and social processes and lives in solidarity with other people in real human community. In the contemporary World humans have lost control over the products of their physical and mental activity (the state, political parties, nuclear weapons, religion). They have become enslaved by dull imposed labor and has reduced all the richness of life to an artificial need to possess as many objects as possible and other people to the status of things to be used. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
Humans are alienated: they are not what people could be and ought to be. The supreme value for contemporary philosophy is therefore desalination, the progressive liberation from all forms of slavery and poverty, both material and spiritual, and the fulfillment of all the potential of the individual. Humans live in a World where there is both order and change, and they can therefore behave as a relatively free agent insofar as one becomes aware of external and internal compulsions and is ready to resist them. From this conviction that within certain objective limits humans can be free and can create history, contemporary philosophers are led to a profound optimism and activism. There are various kinds of visits: visits of ceremony, visits of condolence, visits of congratulations, and visits of friendship, and each has its different custom or etiquette. These visits, however, are all essential, in order to maintain good feeling between the members of society; and, therefore, they should be carefully attended to, even if they do occupy a large portion of your time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
Visits of ceremony, are those which are paid after receiving attentions at the hands of your acquaintances; after dining, or supping at a friend’s house; after attending an evening party; etc.; and they should invariably be of short duration; and one should never take either children or dogs when making them. Hand your card to the assistant at the door, and ask if the lady or ladies are in. When other visitors are announced, it is better to wait until they are seated, and then rise from your seat and take leave of your hostess, and bow politely to the guests; but never leave while others are entering the room, as it produced a needless confusion. Many well-bred persons do not introduce their visitors to each other; but if you are left in the parlor with strangers, while the servant summons his mistress, it is not impolite to enter into conversation with them, and when the lady enters, the conversation would be mutual. You should always call at an hour when you would expect to find ladies prepared to receive visitors, and not at lunch, or dinner-time. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
In most cities, regular reception days are a la mode, and are engraved upon the visiting cards, thus – “At home Mondays, from 12 o’clock till 4.” And then it is needful to call upon that day, and between the hours prescribed. Only very intimate friends would call at any other time. After attending a dinner-party, or a ball, you should call within the week upon your hostess. When you are going to be absent from your house for months, or years, you should call upon all your friends and acquaintances, or send your card, enclosed in an envelope, with the letters, T.T.L. (“to take leave”) or P.P.C. (“Pour prendre conge), written at the right hand lower corner. In taking leave of a family, you send or leave as many cards as there are members; but if the call is upon intimate friends, you need only turn down the left-hand edge. If, previous to a long voyage, or absence, or on the occasion of your marriage, you omit to call or send a card to your friends, it is understood that the acquaintance ceases. When you return to the house, those to whom you have sent cards, or paid visits, will pay the first visit to you. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
When a lady intends to give a large party or ball, she calls or leaves cards at the houses of those whom she intends to invite, from ten days to a week before the invitations are issued. A slip of thin card-board with the name, and the number of residence and street engraved upon it, is accepted as a substitute for a ceremonious visit, and its shape and lettering varying with the fashion. It is usual, however, to prefix the titles of Mr., Mrs., and Miss to the name, but young gentlemen omit the Mr., and; the professional ones, such as Right Rev., Rev, and Dr., are also given, but we omit the prefix of Hon. and Excellency. Military and naval titles are added to the cards of those in the service of the United States of America. A card can be left or sent by an assistant, in lieu of a formal visit; but it is not well-bred to send it through the post. In leaving your card for a stranger, you may not want to add your address, but it used to be custom to do so. Keep an account of your ceremonial visits. A visiting-list, or book, is indispensable if one possesses a large circle of acquaintances. This is needful, because time passes so rapidly; and then you note down at what time your visits were returned. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
And you can graduate your visits by it; yet there may be circumstances, such as ill healthy, or age, which would render it desirable for you to call again without reference to the return of your visits. The courtesies of society should ever be respected among the nearest friends, and even in the domestic circle; but among relations and intimate friends, visits of ceremony are not needed. Yet, one should endeavor to pay even social visits at suitable hours, and never make one’s self a bore by staying too long. To continue working with the crochet needle, typewriter, telegraph machine, telephone, or television when visits of ceremony are paid, would be extremely uncourteous; but when intimate friends are present, it is not always necessary to lay aside any light kind of work which does not interfere with your conversation. However, you guests are not indentured servants. It is decidedly inconsistent, however, with good-breeding to have your eyes fixed upon a crochet, or worsted pattern, and attempt to count its stitches while receiving a call from the most intimate friend. If your visitors come from a distance, be sure to offer then some refreshments, or urge them to remain to lunch; and is those call who are ill in health, offer a glass of wine, with a biscuit or cracker. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
We admire learning in a pig; and undervalue it in a human. We once heard a lady say:– “I never attempted now to pay visits in the downtown or midtown of this city, because it entails upon me long drive, traffic, difficult parking, and something of a walk into the bargain, and as few ladies ever think of offering their friends either a glass of wine or a cup of coffee or tea, with a biscuit, scone, biscotti, or a bit of cake, I should return to my house half famished, and a severe headache would be the result. I am always glad to see my friends, but I cannot return their visits.” A slight lunch would be always agreeable after the exertion. In the same town or village, of course, such an attention is needles; yet, if aged persons call, it is pleasing courtesy to them. Do not pass gas in the phone booth, and it is polite to have a stool only in your own bathroom, if possible. And it is important that you never date more than one person from the same family. Never make fancy with the former romantic interest of your friends, and never date more than one person at a time. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
Find your own vision. Three important rules for breaking up. Do not put off breaking up when you know you want to. Prolonging the situation only makes it worse. Tell him honestly, simply, kindly, but firmly. Do not make a big production. Do not make an elaborate story. This will help you avoid a big tear-jerking scene. If you want to date other people, say so. Be prepared for the man to feel hurt and rejected. Even, if you have gone together for only a short time, and have not been too serious. There is still a feeling of rejection when someone says she preferred the company of others to your exclusive company. However, if you are honest, and direct, and avoid making a flowery emotional speech when you break the news, the man will respect you for your frankness and honesty. And honestly, he will appreciate the kind of straightforward manner in which you told him your decision, unless he is a real jerk or a crybaby, you will remain friends. When you face situations that seem impossible in your everyday life, pray. When you ask, God releases favor and angles to go to work and strongholds are broken. You will see the greatness of God’s power and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
A Vital Doctrine—God Manifest in the Flesh
Never in a human head was contemplation more separated from desire. The Architects and advocates of the modern English translations of the Holy Scriptures unequivocally declare that Christ was God manifest in the flesh. He appeared in body. Two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and human beings. The Westminster Divines evidently regarded this verse as one of the essential proofs of the Trinitarian doctrine of the Bible, that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The first Reason, why the then Greatness of the Roman Empire was a fit Circumstance of Time for the Mission, of Christ, is that he might better manifest his Divine Authority and Commission to the civil Powers of the World. Hell, Satan, and the devils are in reality sates of the mind. However, some events can never be explained. When we limit the mental to the realm of conscious events (the actual), it is called psychology without a soul. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
Faithfulness to fact is raised to the level of genius. Behavior at the house is one of the best touchstones of good manners; for many persons will appear well abroad, and yet cannot exhibit any degree of ease at their own fireside table. However, to entertain company without embarrassment or excitement, is an art which it requires some usage to perfect. Company, various company, is the only school of this knowledge. Nothing forms a young person so much as being used to keep respectable and superior company, where a constant regard and attention is necessary. It is true, this is at first a disagreeable state of restraint; but it soon grows habitual, and consequently easy; and you are amply paid for it by the improvement you make, and the credit it gives you. Hospitality is also a Christian duty, and all homemakers should exercise it to some extent. We were not designed to live alone, to shut ourselves up in our houses, and enjoy the blessings up in our houses, and enjoy the blessings which have been given us in a spirit of exclusiveness. The idea is therefore essentially the divine nature and formally the ratio according to which God intelligizes creatures. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
These ideas make up the creative mind of God. In a parallel fashion the universal (on human level) is its singular. The singular participates in its universal, which is by nature a projection of an idea in the mind of God. As a creation of God’s mind, the singular is incapable of annihilation. For God to allow a singular to be annihilated would be to permit the annihilation of a part of himself—an obvious impossibility. Nature teaches us a lesson in this direction. She keeps open house for innumerable winged and creeping insects, and their banquets are always spread among the beautiful, fragrant flowers, whose hospitable abodes are every filled with guests, from the bees and the butterflies to the tiniest winged fairy. Elegant hospitality can be exercised at a moderate expense; and those of us who cannot afford to give costly dinner or evening parties, can surely entertain a few friends at tea or coffee, or of an evening, and this promote a social feeling among neighbors and acquaintances. It is not well for young persons to entertain too much company when they first commence housekeeping, but neither is it well to pay no heed to hospitality. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
God’s intellection, his knowledge, his will, the Trinity, his ideas and his power to create outside himself is the grand design. Young people should live frugally and you will live happily; shut not your doors or hearts against those who have a claim upon your hospitality;–but remember, that if they really esteem and love you, they will come not to look at your table or your furniture, but to enjoy your society. Psychology is the common basis for all scientific and cultural knowledge and the bond uniting all the individual sciences, and therefore as the science directly preparatory to philosophy. Certain knowledge is possible for humans of one realm but not of the other, where only opinion is possible, although God may be able to have the knowledge of both. The chief art of pleasing is to make everyone feel at home; that is, at one’s ease. And if anything has occurred in your ménage to ruffle your temper, do not annoy your guest by telling your grievances. Of course, they cannot be interested in such petty details; and the relation may tend to mar their pleasure. We can improve our understanding, but this will always fall short of knowledge. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
The most perfect being must owe one’s exemption from vice to the absence of temptation. We never quite understand why another dislikes what we like. There are those who are born with the faculty of rendering everyone happy who comes in contact with them, and they seem endowed with great discernment of character, and can encourage the timid, repress the encroaching, and call forth the peculiar talents and perfections of all. Such persons can always make themselves agreeable; while there are others who, strive as they can, can never attain to the same position. Yet, a desire to please—a desire to entertain one’s guest, will usually prove successful; and if you are cheerful, animated and pleasant yourself, you cannot fail to shed a halo of pleasure upon those around you. People of an enormously strong moral character have an unselfishness and self-control. It is important to be ambitious generals and politicians to acquire knowledge, and draw analogies to show that all skills must be learned. The significance of your knowledge can be usefully increased by deeper understanding of the purposes of your various crafts. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
If your friends become your guests for awhile, it is well to give them some insight into your mode of life. Then they will readily comprehend your duties, and will often think it advisable not to encroach too much upon your morning hours, which may be required for some domestic occupations. After luncheon, or early dinner, your time, however, should be given up to them; either to drive out, walk, shop, or in some entertainment in the house. Of course, you will always attend to the arrangement of their sleeping-rooms, and provide everything that is essential for their comfort before they arrive, unless you are blessed with a most superior housekeeper. It is merciless to invite friends to visit you in cold weather, without providing a fire in their bedroom or dressing-room (heat). Neither is it courteous to wait until they arrive, and then inquire—“Would you like a fire?” Therefore, if you cannot afford to make your friends comfortable, do not invite them; at least in the wintry season. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
There are temptations which it is not in the power of human nature to resist. Let your guest see, by your manner, that their presence is a decided pleasure to you; and make it also an incentive to recreations and amusements which do not belong to the common routine of your life. One should try to make their visits as agreeable as possible, but without any apparent effort; so that they many not think that you are putting yourself out of the way to afford them pleasures in which you do not often indulge. It is your duty to endeavor to make the time pass pleasantly, but if your visitors perceive that you are altering the daily tenor of your life on their account, it will detract greatly from their happiness. Mental training is paramount; serenity, sincerity, magnanimity, introspection, and self-restraint are the virtues to be cultivated. An ethical formula of devotion within, righteousness without is a virtue to be cultivated. Learning is knowing and practice. Therefore, we must rely on intelligence rather than strength. Intelligence is a great asset in the struggle for existence. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
We do not injure others, nor harm ourselves in the pursuit of fame, wealth, and rank. These are to be avoided as temptations external to one’s nature. On the other hand, there is inherent in human beings a craving for the pleasures of this World. To seek the gratification of one’s desires for such things as fine food and beautiful objects is to yield to one’s original nature and in this way to work for its completion. We must seek happiness to our heart’s content, as well as longevity and immortality. One should not unnecessarily shorten one’s life. It is a good plan, when inviting guests to visit you, to state a given period for their visit. Mention the day when you would be happy to receive them, and the length of time of their visit. Perhaps a young lady is invited to make a visit in the country, or in the city, and no mention is made of days, weeks, or months, for its limit, and, therefore, she is utterly at a loss to know what amount of clothing to bring. It is impossible to study the human frame without a little studying the human mind. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
The imprudence of our thoughts recoils upon our heads. When your guests intimate their intention of leaving you, if you really desire them to remain longer, say so frankly, and urge them to prolong the visit; but if you do not care for their society any longer, do not be so insincere as to urge it; or, on the other hand, if they cannot prolong their visit, do not worry them by your pertinacity in urging them to do so—but, while you invite them to renew their visit at their earliest convenience, facilitate their departure by every means in your power, and give them all needful information as to routes, times tables, etc. Of course, no guest will leave a friend’s house without some expression of regret and good-will. A good warm heart will, however, dictate the forms of speech requisite upon such occasions. And when you are at the house, be sure and inform your friends of your safe arrival, and express the gratification you have received from your visit, and gracefully allude to different members of the family, while you thank them for their kindly hospitality. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The transcendental knowledge attained involves a vivid awareness of the nature of the soul and its essential distinctness from the psychophysical organism. This bring liberation. No well-bred person will ever fail to acknowledge your hospitality and charming family; and a failure to do so, is a decided mark of ignorance of both etiquette and politeness. Guests will never take the part of either host or hostess in any trifling disagreement or opinion. As visitors, they can express their ideas upon various matters, of course; but shun any partisanship. And they will also scrupulously respect the rights of their entertainers, and never criticize their surroundings and manners to other persons. A house guest never speaks ill of those whose food one has tasted; and well-bred persons will never repeat what Mrs. Hearst said, nor tell what Mr. Hearst. did, when they were visiting. There has been some investigation of the physiology, and there seems little doubt that a kind of hibernation can be achieved and that the control over lungs, heartbeat, and the viscera organs is, by ordinary standards remarkable. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
Some of the ore spectacular physical claims, however (such as levitation), are unconfirmed, and some of them are mythological in style. The ascription of magical powers to the host or hostess is part of the traditional tendency in India to think that with austerity and mental discipline can create a force which can even threaten the gods. This in turn both reflects and generates the view that mystical experience is the supreme religious goal, transcending the cult of supernatural beings. Such discrepancies of good manners are perfectly unendurable, and no respectable person will excuse them. Visitors should always give the housekeepers who waited upon them some little presents, either in money or its equivalent. They have had extra work in waiting upon them, and, therefore, deserve extra compensation. The chain which binds society together is composed of innumerable links, and it should be the part of hosts and guest to keep them uniformly bright; and to let neither moth nor rust corrupt them. There is nothing so difficult as to manage the public mind. The rest of your life will be the best of your life, which is socially engaged, but still retains its intellectual independence and freedom of social criticism. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
Seeing may be contrasted both with hearing and with feeling by touching. One way in which seeing differs from hearing follows from the truth of our language that we hear an object if and only if we hear a sound which is made by the object. There is no comparable linguistic practice in the case of seeing. This may lead us to think of sight as presenting objects to us directly, hearing only indirectly. One way in which seeing differs from feeling by touching is that if we feel something by touching it, our experience is of feeling it with a particular part of the body. Our visual experience, however, is not of seeing with our eyes. We can imagine a disembodied mind having visual experiences but not having tactile ones. Sight does not require our being part of the material World in the way in which feeling by touching does. One way in which seeing differs from both hearing and feeling by touching is in respect to time. It takes time to hear a tune or to feel the shape of a statue, but one seems to be able to see a landscape instantaneously. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
Sweet pliability of a human’s spirit, that can at once surrender itself to illusions, which cheat expectations and sorrow of their weary moments! Thus, the directness of seeing when contrasted with hearing, its noninvolvement with its object when contrasted with feeling by touching, and its apparent temporal immediacy when contrasted with both hearing and feeling by touching are features that may partly explain the belief that sight is the most excellent of the senses; this envied in the use by ancient and modern philosophers of predominantly visual metaphors to describe intellectual apprehension. Pray that we may finally receive the consolations and the succor of Heaven in all our necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly in Sacramento, and that we may bless God with the Elect through eternity. As mere human knowledge can split a ray of light and analyze the manner of its composition, so sublime intelligence may read in the feeble shining of this Earth of ours, every thought and act, every vice and virtue, of every responsible creature on it. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
Call Me When the Cross Turns Over
Love and friendship know nothing of justice. The value of love is that it overlooks faults, and forgives even crimes. The World imagines those to be at our nature’s depths who are impudent enough to expose its muddy shallows. The dredging of natures is the miry form of art. Analytical psychology is an approach to studying mental health and personality development by investigating consciousness and unconscious processes. Personal development involves a process of individuation, growth as an individual, in which each person can better understand both themselves and aspects of a universal level of the subliminal cognitive state. Many of us are on a noble quest. We spend each moment of every waking hour focused and reflecting on mystery we are trying to solve. Life is about trying to protect the peace the community after an intrusion by outside forces, which we are not akin to. The person who is very determined and on a righteous journey, in the midst of the chaos and deceptions around one is a person who is connected with God, and this allows us to remain strong and peaceful.
Individuation refers to the effort to become a fully human person and to grow into full consciousness. The process of becoming fully human and totally conscious is to understand the good, bad, light and darkness, and it is not an easy choice. The journey to individuation is a lifetime journey. Some people choose to protect their compassion nature with cynicism and apathy because they do not want to feel vulnerable nor uncertain. It is by far more easy for people to pretend like they do not care than to face heartbreak or disappointment. Some people put up barriers because they feel threatened by potential rejection and want to live a painless life. However, by blocking people out who care about you, not only are you hurting them, but you are also hurting yourself. No matter what, life is fluid and while you may think you have a person where you want them, you may lose them while you are not looking. A lot like parking your car in a lot and leaving it unattended. You think it is secure because it has an alarm system, you are constantly watching it, but if someone wants it, they will find a way to get it from you.
When people lose things they care about because they did not cherish them, a feeling of revenge starts to brew, and while they thought they were protecting themselves, they really start to feel the pain of loss, and this can turn into a vengeful rage. Your shadow represents the individual’s discordant desires, instincts, or shortcomings. This is why we are facing so many shootings and violence, people are living fake lives and hurting inside. On Wednesday, 2 December 2015, in San Bernardino, California, USA one to three suspects committed a massacre, killing more than 20 people at the Inland Regional Center, a facility that cares for people with developmental disabilities. This shows you that no targets are off limits, people are killing anyone they want without any regard. Because the conscious ego can only know itself, the contents of the mind and the dark shadows residing inside are unknown to others. Mass shooters are no longer adapting to the outer reality that we all share, but rather to an inner reality. They have a split with reality because there are elements of themselves that are forgotten, repressed, or ignored. To avoid these type of situations, we need to be kind to people and accept others for who they are. We have to learn to surrender, relinquishing part of our own desires and be guided by God to care for others who are having hard times.
We have to learn to train our mind, body, and spirit to be disciplined. In life, everyone faces trials, and just because some are smiling and happy, it does not mean that their life is better than yours, it simply means they are better able to control their emotions. While some people take relationships for granted and are running around trying to get attention and be popular, their loved ones may be in the process of letting going and moving on. A person should contemplative as the spirit converse and assimilates with the unconscious. As one progresses through individuation, actions may change, as the body now acts in congruence with the mind and spirit. When you recognize distressing feelings, the first step is to acknowledge them. If you remain in denial or in a one sided relationship, you will remain discontented and ignorant for the rest of your life. Being alone and uncertain of your future can be a painful and frightening experience, but remember to walk in faith and not by sight. Before examining our own hidden qualities, we may be in complete denial of our shadow elements, yet what we deny in ourselves can often easily be spotted in others. A person may despise another’s quick temper while at the same time fervently suppressing a wish to respond with anger.
The first step in making the acquaintance of a person’s own shadow is admitting that the scary, annoying, or irritating qualities found in others are often the qualities in that individual that evoke the very same responses. For example, if you are dating someone who is in their 40s, who is still going out to nightclubs and trying to be hip, you may despise that aspect of them and you need to eradicate that person from your life. Staying in unhealthy situations disavowals one’s own characteristics and it may be dangerous. The more you suppress yourself, the more darkness and unhappiness grows inside of you, and it will take over your life entirely. The goal in life is to develop a reciprocal relationship. Everyone knows when you are in your 40s, you are too old to be going to nightclubs and trying to look cool. So if you are dating someone, who is older than you, and this is how they behave, break it off and enjoy life so you do not end up like them. Art may disguise complexions, but never improve them. Sometimes people are placed in our lives so we can see what we do not want to become. This shadow holds a message that it may be wise for you to heed. These are messages that may come from your subconscious content, particularly if the vision includes a character that is the same gender as the person with the vision. By paying attention to the message, or the vision, the encounter with the shadow becomes collaborative, rather than hostile in nature.
As unbelievable as it may sound, this shadow is still part of you. You should accept it, attune to it, guide it, and control it. Be mindful, strive to stay mindful and aware of anger and other shadowy feelings, as well as paying attention to your thoughts. Sometimes you go through a lot of the same type of relationships to help you grow. On the path to individuation, a person examines events are meaningful expressions of the collective unconscious. So, let me take that back, if you are dating someone who is immature, as long as they are not harming you or taking anything from you, allow them to be in your life. This could be your spirit testing you to see if you can hang on when things get rough. Let them think they are still the love of your life, and when someone else comes on, they will realize you have left them in the shadows. We have the innate capacity to walk a path through the park that leads us to our true selves. We gather strength from every situation, and allow this to bring you peace, balance, and wholeness, but to benefit from this wisdom, we must first learn to feel the variety of emotions. It is amazing, when you change the way you look at people, and start looking out for them, it is impressive how much better they treat you.
Hostages Seized and Killed in Attack on Radisson Hotel
No child is born hostile or aggressive. It becomes so only when its desires to be loved and to love are frustrated, that is, when it expected satisfactions are thwarted—and the thwarting of an expected satisfaction is the definition of frustration. I entertain the hope that in our venturing we shall get addicted to wonder and know the joy of constantly feeling something a little new. Grief can take care of itself, but to get full value of a joy, you must have somebody to divide it with. We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. In Bamako, Mali—an unknown number of Islamist militant gunmen stormed a Radisson Blu hotel on the morning of 20 November 2015 in Bamako, the capitol of the West African nation of Mali, taking at least 170 people as hostages, and killing an estimated 3 people. Because of all of the terrorist attacks, many people are wondering if Muslims and Islamist are religions of terror?
Over the centuries, churches, synagogues, and mosques have had a number of important socializing effects on their participants as well as on society as a whole. In the main, these have to do with an individual’s approach to how to answer certain important questions about life, death, how to deal with people, and the structure of one’s value system. Perhaps the most important socializing effect of many churches is to teach members that there is an answer to every important question—and that leading a good life consists of learning these answers and following them to the letter. In effect, people were provided with a whole code of ethics and set of rules for living. Many decisions were eliminated. All the devout person had to do was find the church’s view of the answer.
Many people are learning to abuse religion. Because God forgives anyone of any sin, people use this as an excuse to partake in bad behavior, and then pray to God and ask for forgiveness. Even if you are evil and bad your entire life, you can ask God to forgive you on your death bed, and he will. So people have no incentive to behave. This position, too, has seen and experienced much change. Churches today are more inclined to encourage individual responsibility. For some, this has contributed considerably to the amount of anxiety in the World over the number of unanswered questions “running around loose” in each person’s head. Much of the popularity of the Back to Jesus movement may be due to the desire for renewed certainty—the feeling that the Bible and the church have a certain answer for every difficult question. And those who do not participate in such religious experiences may look elsewhere for that sense of certainty—whether in drugs, astrology, political ideology, or even psychology.
Many people have left organized churches because of difference between what the church teaches and what goes on in the real World. Others left because their religion insisted on dividing people into believers and unbelievers, teaching hatred and rejection for those with different beliefs. Many young people have begun to borrow ideas from oriental religions like Buddhism, Taoism, and Indian meditation cults. It seems to me that if we are going to live sanely, then we must respect and be sensitive to differences, realizing that no two individuals are alike, and that is we really understand someone, we understand how they differ from us. Freedom in religion, freedom in life, asks one fundamental overriding questions: Who do you want to be? It does not tell you who you must be, not even that there are some real and productive laws of your being that you were destined to become. Religion asks you never to forget how each day can be described by the possibilities it contains and how tomorrow shall be as well. All freedom can do is to illuminate the possibilities that can be opened to us and toward which we can steer ourselves by making our choices real.
Flags of Our Fathers
The worst of our evils we blindly inflict upon ourselves. Selfishness is so predominant, that when most people hear of benevolence, they consider it a curiosity. Doc is a young man who has not have many good things in life. Both his mother and father worked hard and long hours but never seemed to be able to get ahead. There were four children in the family, and Ben often went unnoticed, somehow lost in the shuffle. He very often got very little to eat, and shared his bed with his two brother and often did not get enough sleep.
His clothes could hardly have been called stylish; his family could not afford new ones, and handed the old ones down until they literally fell apart. In school, did was not the best student, was shy and withdrawn, and was not good at sports because he was tired all the time and never got enough to eat. Most of the time, as he grew up, his parents were not home, and there was not one to take care of him when he was sick or injured.
The day after he managed to graduate from high school, Doc joined the Navy. If you talk to him today, his eyes gleam with pride as he tells you how much he loves it. “Being in the Navy was the best thing that ever happened to me! It seems that throughout life I was looked down upon and set up to fail, but I took charge of my life and made something of it. Now that I am more mature, people often wonder how I made it.”
Some people believe the whole story of motivation is coded in our genes, those inherited bits of cellular stuff: we are born a certain way and what we do is determined exclusively by these genetic factors. However, not a soul on board of us knows whiter we may be gliding—not even the commodore himself; assuredly not the chaplain; even our professor’s surmisings are vain. On that point, the smallest cabin boy is as wise as the captain. Heaven has kindly closed from our eyes the book of future events, that we may not be guilty of repining at its ordinations.
We do know that some of our behavior is caused by factors that are part of our physical existence. However, the most important lesson the World has learned in the past fifty years is that it is not true that human nature is unchangeable. Human nature, on the contrary, can be changed with the greatest of ease and to the utmost possible extent. If this lies huge potential danger, it also contains some of the brightest hopes that we have for the future of mankind.
If you encounter an issues of life, think of lawful, honest, and ethical ways that you can make a difference or make it better, and it will always come to you. There is no set time, but it will happen. It is astonishing how large a hole a woodpecker makes with a small beak: it is owing to successive impressions. Great works are reformed, not by strength, but perseverance. My good is mine now, and I can see it and feel it and know it.
From far and near my own shall come to me. Even now it is coming to me and I receive it. My own is now manifesting itself to me, and I see and know its presence. My own shall respond to me. Felicitate thyself then upon thy defects; which are evidently thy principal perfections; and which occasion thee a distinction which otherwise thou wouldst never have. Life always was and evermore shall be a World without end. All the power there is, is mine now. All the life, truth, love of the Universe is not and forever flowing through my body.
The all good cannot change. I shall always have access to my eternal God within me. Perseverance is the surest road to success. The first step leading to perfection, and real activity, is to wander through the World unknown, and subject t few wants. You must not forsake the ship in tempest, because you cannot rule and keep down the winds. Remember, attention, love, admiration, cannot be always kept at the stretch. The light of life is full within me and around me. A ship is not counted strong by biding one storm, go forth and bless all who come to you, light within.
Randolph Harris II International Institute 