Home » Architecture (Page 23)
Category Archives: Architecture
The Very “Fans” of the Cinema Stars and the Famous Footballers Know Better than to Desire that!
The Lord raises up righteous nations and destroys nations of wicked. The mention of that nation which worshipped Nature-gods turns our attention to one of those features in the Christian story which is repulsive to the idea of a “chosen people.” Democrats by birth and education, we should prefer to think that all nations and individuals start to level in the search for God, or even that all religions are equally true. It must be admitted at once that Christianity makes no concessions to this point of view. It does not tell of a human search for God at all, but of something done by God for, to, and about, Man. And the way in which it is done is selective, undemocratic, to the highest degree. After the knowledge of God had been universally lost or obscured, one man from the whole Earth (Abraham) is picked out. He is separated (miserably enough, we may suppose) from his natural surroundings, sent into a strange country, and made the ancestor of a nation who are to carry the knowledge of the true God. Within this nation there is further selection: some die in the desert, some remain behind in Babylon. There is further selection still. The process grows narrower and narrower, sharpens at last into one small bright point like the head of a spear. It is a Jewish girl at her prayers. All humanity (so far as concerns its redemption) has narrowed to that. Such a process is very unlike what modern feeling demands: but it is startlingly like what Nature habitually does. Selectiveness, and with it (we must allow) enormous wastage, is her method. Out of enormous space a very small portion is occupied by mater at all. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
Of all the stars, perhaps very few, perhaps only one, have planets. Of all the planets in our own system probably only one supports organic life. In the transmission of organic life, countless seeds and spermatozoa are emitted: some few are selected for the distinction of fertility. Among the species only one is rational. Within that species only a few attain excellence of beauty, strength, or intelligence. At this point we come perilously near the argument of Butler’s famous Analogy. I say “perilously” because the argument of that book very nearly admits parodying in the form “You say that the behavior attributed to the Christian God is both wicked and foolish: but it is no less likely to be true on that account for I can show that Nature (which He created) behaves just as badly.” To which the atheist will answer—and the nearer he is to Christ in his heart, the more certainly he will do so—“If there is a God like that I despise and defy Him.” However, I am not saying that Nature, as we know her, is good; that is a point we must return to in a moment. Nor am I saying that a God whose actions were no better than Nature’s would be a proper object of worship for any honest human. The point is a little finer than that. This selective or undemocratic quality in Nature, at least in so far as it affects human life, is neither good nor evil. According as spirit exploits of fails to exploit this Natural situation, it gives rise to one or the other. It permits, on the one hand, ruthless competition, arrogance, and envy; it permits on the other, modesty and (one of our greatest pleasures) admiration. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
A World in which I was really (and not merely by a useful legal fiction) “as good as everyone else,” in which I never looked up to anyone wiser or cleverer or braver or more learned than I, would be insufferable. The very “fans” of the cinema stars and the famous footballers know better than to desire that! What the Christian story does is not to instate on the Divine level a cruelty and wastefulness which have already disgusted us on the Natural, but to show us in God’s act, working neither cruelly nor wastefully, the same principle which is in Nature also, though down there it works sometimes in one way and sometimes in the other. It illuminates he Natural scene by suggesting that a principle which at first looked meaningless may ye be derived from a principle which is good and fair, may indeed be a depraved and blurred copy of it—the pathological form which is would take in a spoiled Nature. For when we look into the Selectiveness which the Christians attribute to God we find in it none of that “favoritism” which we were afraid of. The “chosen” people are chosen no for their own sake (certainly not for their own honor or pleasure) but for the sake of the unchosen. Abraham is told that “in his seed” (the chosen nation) “all nations shall be blest.” That nation has been chosen to bear a heavy burden. Their sufferings heal others. On the finally selected Woman falls the utmost depth of maternal anguish. Her Son, the incarnate God, is a “man of sorrows”; the one Man into whom Deity descended, the one Man who can be lawfully adored, is pre-eminent for suffering. However, you will ask does this much mend matters? #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Is this sill injustice, though now the other way round? Where, at the first glance, we accused God of undue favor to His “chosen,” we are now temped to accuse Him of undue disfavor. (The attempt to keep up both charges at the same time had better be dropped.) And certainly we have here come to a principle very deep-rooted in Christianity: what may be called the principle of Vicariousness. The Sinless Man suffers for the sinful, and, in their degree, all good men for all bad men. And the Vicariousness—no less than Death and Rebirth or Selectiveness—is also a characteristic of Nature. Self-sufficiency, living on one’s own resources, is a thing impossible in her realm. Everything is indebted to everything else, sacrificed to everything else, dependent on everything else. And here too we must recognize that the principle is in itself neither good nor bad. The cat lives on the mouse in a way I think bad: the bees and the flowers live on one another in a more pleasing manner. The parasite lives on its “host”: but so also unborn child on its mother. In social life without Vicariousness there would be no exploitation or oppression; but also no kindness or gratitude. It is a fountain both of love and hatred, both of misery and happiness. When we have understood this we shall no longer think that the depraved examples of Vicariousness in Nature forbid us to suppose that the principle itself is of divine origin. At this point it may be well to take a backward glance and notice how the doctrine of the Incarnation is already acting on the rest of our knowledge. We have already brought it into contact with four other principles: the composite nature of man, the pattern of descent and reascension, Selectiveness, and Vicariousness. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
The first may be called a fac about the frontier between Nature and Supernature; the other three are characteristics of Nature herself. Now most religions, when brough face to face with the facts of Nature either simply re-affirm them, give them (just as they stand) a transcendent prestige, or else simply negate them, promises us release from such facts and from Nature altogether. The Nature-Religions take the first line. They sanctify our agricultural concerns and indeed our whole biological life. We get really drunk in the worship of Dionysus and life with real women in the temple of the fertility goddess. In Life-force worship, which is the modern and western type of Nature-religion, we take over the existing trend towards “development” or increasing complexity in organic, social, and industrial life, and make it a god. My dear Devout, is there a good way to put the grace of the devotion to work? Of course, there is. You hide it. That is to say, do not flaunt it; do not meander around it; do not maunder over it. A better way to handle the situation is to render yourself undeserving. How? Just imagine that the Gracious Gift is delivered to the wrong person. Namely you. This affection of the soul, this consolation, must not be clung to too tenaciously, for it can very quickly be changed to its contrary. When in grace, think how wretched you are; but when out of grace, think how utterly destitute you must be! Odd thing about the grace of consolation. Not much spiritual progress is made when it is present. However, when it is absent, you do cover rather more ground. How? By dutifully enduring the slippage of consolation; that is to say, by not dozing off during scheduled prayer, not allowing the rest of your ordo diei to fall apart. Just because you feel spiritually dry or mentally anxious, that is no reason to disintegrate. Just do what you think ought to be done and only what you are able to do. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
Many Devouts, when Success does not come up and buss them on the bum, immediately become nervous. That is to say, they sit down and cross their legs in a way that would make the Great Arsenious blush. That is to say, they cross their legs at the knee and drum their fingers on the table. As the Old Jeremiah has said (10.23), not everyone can choose the road one travels. However, God always has the power to give and console when He wants, how much He wants, and to whom He wants. He has only one rule: does it please Him, or does it not? Certain Devouts have thrown caution to the wind; that is to say, wanting to fulfill their expectations, yet unwilling to acknowledge their limitations, they have destroyed themselves. The grace of devotion made them do it! Or so they said. Trouble was, they followed the urging of their heart and neglected the judgment of their reason. Because they presumed the grace was greater than God actually gave, they quickly lost that grace. Instantly, they were thrown down, made destitute, the lowest of the low. They had built themselves a quiet little nest in Heaven, but now they were pulverized and pauperized. Once they flew, but now their wings were clipped. If there were any hope for them at all, it would be under My wings, as the Psalmist had it (91.4). The Devouts who at this point are new and inexperienced in the way of the Lord should pay special attention to this. Why? They can easily be deceived or knocked about in the rugged course of the spiritual life. To avoid much of this roister-doistery, they should take advantage of the experience of the discreet old Devouts in their community. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
When these young Devouts follow their own heads in this regard, they come to regard the elder Devouts as old trouts. That is a perilous path to follow, especially if they have made up their minds to trust no one older than themselves. Rare it is for those “who think they know it all,” as Paul characterized them to the Romans (11.25), to allow themselves to be ruled by others. A tale of two Devouts. One may have a modest education and carry it off with great humility and yet with some hilarity. Another may be a walking encyclopedia spouting the wisdom of the West to a World with wax it its ears. Pick one. It is better to have little to be proud than to pride yourself over a lot. You are not all that wise when you give yourself too much joy. Actually, that joy is rather smaller than you think, and losing it is the last thing you want to do. However, obviously, you are oblivious of your Pristine Destitution and chaste fear of the Lord that should have resulted. You are never so virtuous that in times of crisis you do not find your faith in Me profoundly shaken. No one wants to feel too hemmed in during peacetime, but in time of war, you would welcome restrictions; without them you do not know where you are or were the fear is coming from. Remain humble and modest always. Rein in that runaway spirit of yours, and you will not fall into dangers so easily. Good counsel has it that you should meditate at noonday about what your future will be at midnight. Even in this prayer, remember that the light will return. It is that light I withhold every now and then as a caution to you and a glory to Me. The temptational process has its uses. First, it is better to greet Temptation as an old friend than to meet it as a stranger. Second, merits are not accumulated by the number of visions and consolations you have. Third, your skill in interpreting the Scriptures has little to do with your spiritual progress. Fourth, a young person’s exalted social station in the outside World certainly has absolutely nothing to do with one’s capacity for spiritual progress in the inside World. Fifth, if you are truly humbled and really charitable, if you always seek the honour of God—that has everything to do with your spiritual progress. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
Sixth, if you think yourself an ant, and really despise your antics, and do no antagonize others, and prefer to be squished under foot than crowned king of the World—then that is something to be truly proud of. Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, was one of those baptized by Oliver Cowdery on the Monday morning before Joseph was arrested. While her husband was in court for several days, Emma was concerned about his troubles. In her grief and worry she visited her sister, and it was here that Joseph came after his release. Together they went to their home in Harmony, Pennsylvania, where a revelation was given for Emma. The Lord said: Hearken unto the voice of the Lord your God, while I speak unto thee, Emma Smith, my daughter, for verily I say unto thee, All those who receive my gospel are sons and daughters in my kingdom. Behold thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou art an elect lady, who I have called. And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant Joseph Smith, Jr., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness. And thou shalt go with him at the time of his going, and be unto him for a scribe, while here is no one o be scribe for him. Thou shalt lay aside the things of this World, and seek for the things of a better. And it shall be given thee, also, to make a selection of sacred hymns…to be had in my church; for my soul deligheth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me. Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice, and cleave unto the covenants which thou hast made. Continue in the spirit of meekness, and beware of pride. Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive. And except thou do this, where I am thou canst not come. And verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my voice unto all. Amen. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
Emma had had some training in music and singing. She had a clear soprano voice. She delighted in music. She began to select hymns for the new hymnbook according to the commandment of the Lord. Emma gathered together words of hymns for use in the church. The words of twenty-four hymns were published in the official church paper, the Evening and Morning Star, from June, 1832, to July, 1833. The first hymnbook, containing ninety hymns, words only was called “A Selection of Sacred Hymns,” by Emma Smith. This was published at Kirtland in 1835. At Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1841, a second and larger edition was published. This was vest pocket size and contained words of 304 hymns selected by Emma Smith. Some of the hymns of these early editions were: “Redeemer of Israel,” “O Jesus, the Giver of All We Enjoy,” “The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning,” “O God, the Eternal Father,” “Earth with Her Ten Thousand Flowers,” “Glorious Things Are Sung of Zion,” “When Earth in Bondage Long Had Lain,” “Hark, Ye Mortals, Hark, Be Still,” “Guide Us, O Thou Great Jehovah.” In the meantime, Joseph was making copies of the revelations he had received. John Whitmer, who had come to live with them for a while, helped him in this work. In July, 1830 a Harmony, Pennsylvania, a revelation was given addressed to Joseph, Oliver Cowdery, and John Whitmer, in which the Lord said: Let your time be devoted to the studying of the Scriptures, and to preaching, and to confirming the church at Colesville; and to performing your labours on the land, such as is required, until after you shall go to the west, to hold the next conference; and then it shall be made known what you shall do. And all things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much prayer and faith; for all things you shall receive by faith. Amen. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
This revelation is very important, for it reaffirms the principle of “common consent” in the affairs of the church. A second chance—but redemption follows not a change of body, but a change of heart. Beatitude belongs to God in a very special manner. For nothing else is understood to be meant by the term beatitude than the perfect good of an intellectual nature; which is capable of knowing that it has a sufficiency of the good which it possesses, to which it is competent that good or may befall, and which can control its own actions. All of these things belong in a most excellent manner to God, namely, to be perfect, and possess intelligence. Whence beatitude belongs to God in the highest degree. Aggregation of good is in God, after the manner not of composition, but of simplicity; for those things which in creatures is manifold, pre-exist in God, as was said above, in simplicity and unity. It belongs as an accident to beatitude or happiness to be the reward of virtue, so hard as anyone attains to beatitude; even as to be the term of generation belongs accidentally to a being, so far as it passes from potentiality to act. As, then, God has being, though not be gotten; so He has beatitude, although not acquired by merit. One might expect to encounter three different sets of therapeutic processes in the mind, and possibly also expect that analysts may need three different sets of technical measures, each directed so that it should influence the corresponding area of the mind. First, there are those patients who operate as whole persons and whose difficulties are in the realm of interpersonal relationships. The technique for the treatment of these patients belongs to psycho-analysis as it developed in the hands of Dr. Freud at the beginning of the century. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
Then secondly there come the patients in whom the wholeness of the personality only just begins to be something that can be taken for granted; in fact one can say that analysis has to do with the first events that belong to and inherently and immediately follow not only the achievement of wholeness but also the coming together of love and hate and the dawning of recognition of dependence. This is the analysis of the stage of concern, or of what has come to be known as the “depressive position.” These patients require the analysis of mood. The technique for this work is not different from that needed by patients in the first category; nevertheless some new management problems do arise on account of the increase range of clinical material tackled. Important from our point of view here is the idea of the survival of the analyst as a dynamic factor. In the third grouping I place all those patients whose analyses must deal with the early stages of emotional development before and up to the establishment of the personality as an entity, before the achievement of space-time unit status. The personal structure is not yet securely founded. In regard to this third grouping, the accent is more surely on management, and sometimes over long periods with these patients ordinary analytic work has to be in abeyance, management being the whole thing. To recapitulate in terms of environment, once can say that in the first grouping we are dealing with patients who develop difficulties in the ordinary course of their home life, assuming satisfactory development in the earlier stages. In the second category, the analysis of the depressive position, we are dealing with the mother-child relationship especially around the time that weaning becomes a meaningful term. The mother holds a situation in time. In the third category there comes primitive emotional development, that which needs the mother actually holding the infant. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
When understanding and insight bring changes in people’s relationships, based on a natural wish to stop behaving in useless, painful, and/or unpopular ways, we are in the area of classical psycho-analysis. However, what if the therapist’s interpretations, aimed at increasing understanding and self-control, only bring misery, confusion, and ineptitude? Then we may be in other areas entirely. When people seem unable to comply with the psych-analyst’s fundamental rule, of honestly saying what is on their minds, they seem unable to apprehend what is expected of them. At times it is practically useless to try to remind them of the original complaints that prompted them to seek analytic help, since they have become exclusively preoccupied with their relationship to their analyst, the gratifications and frustrations they may expect from it. All sense for continuing with the analytic work seems to have been lost. In another pattern, they repeat endlessly that they know that they ought to co-operate but that they must get better before they can do anything about that. This vicious circle—in their sincere conviction—can only be broken if something that that has gone wrong is replaced in them, or if they can get hold of something in them, which they had at once time but which they have since lost. No wonder. Not only are they in the grip of the old, dreadful, helpless memories, but something new is indeed needed—strength. The people we are discussing here cannot change because they are not strong enough yet. (There are of course exceptions to this generalization, especially among those who, though strong enough structurally, fear to grow up and would prefer to remain children because things have gone wrong somewhere in the three-person regions of their personality.) #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
The need for strength requires psychotherapists to rethink their approach. First of all, less emphasis on instinctual drives may be required. A life lived with the major emphasis on the satisfaction of biological drives is the consequence of a marked and fairly continuous lack of empathic responses in early and later childhood. If the baby had felt good about itself and about the World’s response to it, it would not have had to fall back on simple drive-satisfactions. Feeling good about yourself and your World is the result of a good selfobject phase; feeling good about what you can grab for yourself is the result of failures in that phase. (This does not mean, of course, that drive-satisfactions are not important biological gratifications in the fortunate person’s life also. It means that they are there incorporated in the experience of the self and other—not substitutes for that experience.) The deepest level to be reached is not the drive, but the threat to the organization of the self, the experience of the absence of the life-sustaining matrix of the empathic responsiveness of the self-object. Being, the sense of stable assured selfhood, is the basis of healthy doing, of spontaneous creative activity. Without it, doing can only be forced self-driving to keep oneself going, a state of mind that breeds aggression, in the first place against oneself; and then, to gain some relief from self-persecution, it is turned against other people. In these circumstances: Let me emphasize again that rage and destructiveness…are not primary givens, but arise in reaction to the faulty empathic response of the selfobject. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
An isolated striving to search for an outlet for rage and destructiveness is not part of our primary psychological equipment, and the guilt with regard to unconscious rage that we encounter in the clinical situation should not be regarded as a patient’s reaction to a primal infantile viciousness. When analysands become enraged in consequence of our attack on their resistance, they do so, not because a correct interpretation has loosened defences and has activated the aggressive energy that was bound up in them, but because a specific genetically important traumatic situation from their early life has been repeated in the analytic situation: the experience of the faulty non-empathic response of the selfobject. What were these enraged patients expecting? In this harmonious relationship, only one partner may have wishes, interests, and demands. Without any further need for testing, it is taken for granted that the other partner, the object, or the friendly expanse, will automatically have the same wishes, interests, or expectations. This explains why this is so often called the state of omnipotence. This description is somewhat out of tune: there is no feeling of power, in fact, no need for either power or effort, as all tings are in harmony. If any hitch or disharmony between subject and object occurs, the reaction to it will consist of loud and vehement symptoms suggesting processes either of a highly aggressive and destructive or of a profoundly disintegrated nature—as if the whole World including the self had been smashed up, or as if the subject had been flooded with pure and unmitigated aggressive-destructive impulses. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
On the other hand, if the harmony is allowed to persist without much disturbance from outside, the reaction amounts to a feeling of tranquil well-being, rather inconspicuous and difficult to observe. This difference in mood, expressed in adult language, would run somewhat like this: I must be loved and looked after in every respect by everyone and everything important to me, without anyone demanding any effort or claiming any return for this. It is only my wishes, interests, and needs that matter; none of the people who are important to me must have any interests, wishes, needs different from mine, and if they have any at all, they must subordinate theirs to mine without any resentment or strain; in fact, it must be their pleasure and their enjoyment to fit in with my wishes. If this happens, I shall be good, pleased, and happy but that is all. If this does not happen, it will be horrifying both for the World and for me. On the level of the basic fault, any difference is felt by the patient to be a major tragedy, reviving all the biter disappointments that established the fault. There is also an absoluteness of this state of mind. With the regressed patient the word “wish” is incorrect: instead we use the word need. If a regressed patient needs quiet, then without it nothing can be done at all. If the need is not met the result is not anger, only a reproduction of the environmental failure which stopped the processes of self growth. The individual’s capacity to “wish” has become interfered with, and we witness the reappearance of the original cause of a sense of futility. Therefore analysts must do everything in their power not to become, or to behave as, separate sharply-contoured objects. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
They must allow their patient to relate to them or exist with them as if they were one of the primary substances. This means they should be willing to carry the patient, not actively, but like water carries the swimmer or the Earth carries the walker, that is, to be there fore the patient, to be used without too much resistance against being used. This is the counselling ethic at its best: attentive listening, confirming, mirroring, reflecting accepting without judging or condemning, concerned with feeling rather than fact, responding to what makes sense rather than to wrong or silly bits, celebrating rather than nit-picking, and so on. Small wounder that we have found, regardless of the school of thought to which US psychiatrists, psycho-analysts, psychotherapists, or counsellors belonged, their patients got better according to the extent to which they could give them accurate empathy, unconditional warmth, with genuineness and authenticity. Friends do it effortlessly. People who have these resources easily available have an advantage in ministering to the distressed psyche. Some therapists find it easy only with relatively sensible people. Others find it easier with the very disturbed, strange, and apparently incoherent—if necessary for years. Other again had better not try. There are innumerable ways in which analysts may respond to their patients’ subtle forms of regression…indifference, disapproval, some slight sign of annoyance. They may tolerate acting out but follow it immediately with a correct and timely interpretation which, in turn, will take the patient some steps further to learning the analysts’ language and will inhibit further acting-out. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
They may sympathetically permit is as a kind of safety-valve; or they may take it in their stride, feeling no more, or for that matter no loess, need for interpretation (id est for interfering with the acting out), than with any other form of communication, say verbal associations. Evidently it is only in the last case that acting-out and verbal associations are equally accepted as communications addressed to the therapist. What ought to happen in therapy, is for analysts to let themselves be used a “primary objects,” objects of the absolute and primary love which existed before a basic fault cut the person off from the memory. This is not a task for loving friends to do on a non-professional basis. It needs a peculiar combination of freedom and firmness about boundaries, which is not compatible with everyday personal relationships. It is often argued that psychological treatment may cure people suffering from nervous troubles or those whose sickness are largely the result of their own imagination, but that such treatment is useless for physically caused maladies. The only way to get at the truth about this problem is to divide psychological treatment into mental and spiritual categories. Mental treatment is suitable for both nervous and physical troubles because in involves a higher power than the thinking or imagining one, a truly spiritual power which is able to affect the physical body no less than the personal mentality. Mental treatments include a large part of so-called spiritual healing, which is not genuine spiritual healing at all. Philosophy is able to make this differentiation because it understands the psyche of a human and one’s inner constitution, because it has a deeper knowledge than scientific observers working from the outside or religious devotees working by faith alone can get. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
Our knowledge of the laws which govern the psychological causes of sickness and the spiritual healing of disease is still incomplete and uncertain. Before one talks of depending upon the Overself one must first have established a relation with it, earned a title to its grace. Otherwise, the talk is premature. Nor can such dependence ever annul the duty of utilizing all ordinary means, all human channels. The possibility of healing physical ailments by spiritual means depends in the last analysis not upon the personal will of the healer but upon the divine soul of the patient. By Its grace, which is a definite force, the soul can assist both mind and body. Those critics who deny the reality of Grace as well as those who deny the possibility of spiritual healing are tersely answered by the writer of Psalms 103.3: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healteth all thy diseases.” Such healing does no contradict the natural laws; it co-operates with them. Thus, to expect an antiquated man to be turned into a young man by its assistance, is unrealizable. To demand a new leg to replace an amputated one, is unreasonable. However, all things are possible to those who love God. Oh God of all, at this time of our gradual awakening to the dangers we are imposing on our beautiful Earth, please open the hearts and minds of all your children, that we may learn to nurture rather than destroy our planet. Amen. His enemies, on isles and seas, will suffering endure; but He will increase abundant peace to upright humans and pure. Then perfect joy will bring our Lord, the sacred vessels will be restored; the exiles, He will gather them into rebuilt America; day and night shall be His light a canopy of splendor; a crown of praise His people will raise to crown their Lord and Defender. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
Cresleigh Homes
A working island is every home cook’s dream! 👨🍳 The Riverside Residence 2 model even has a formal dining room accessible through a butler’s pantry, so you can entertain in a casual or formal atmosphere! https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/residence-2/
The Kingdom of Heaven is Within Us and We are Within the Kingdom of Heaven!
Promoting diversity is the first step to not just “tolerance” but true inclusion and acceptance. Being unified in Christ does not mean we all must be the same. All people—across socioeconomic status, race, and nationality—are invited to come unto Christ and “partake of His goodness,” reports 2 Nephi 26.33. Through growing contact with, exposure to, and communication between people who are not like us in every way, we can learn how to relate to difference in a way where difference does not have to be a problem, a barrier, or a threat. And we may also see we have a lot in common with others. The demographics of America is changing and what we can do is accept that. Some people are not happy with the way the immigration system works, they think that others who are closer to the United States of America are given preference, while for them to immigrate to America takes much longer. We should not make anyone feel unwelcomed. It is up to our leaders to fix the immigration system so it is fair and legal. So, instead of making people feel unwanted, we can write to our leaders and share our concerns about the law being the golden standard in this country and how everyone deserves equal opportunity to immigrate to America. Nevertheless, even if both legal and undocumented immigration ceased immediately, the Hispanic population would be expected to continue to grow. This is primarily because of two factors. The populations age structure of the Hispanic population is far younger than that of the general population. The median age for Hispanics is twenty-six, while the median for non-Hispanics is thirty-three. This means a greater proportion of the Hispanic population is of child bearing age. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18
Second, Hispanic birthrates are approximately 50 percent higher than the United States of America averages. Thus, the expectation is that Hispanics will be an increasing proportion of the American population. There are currently 60.48 million in the United States of America. Approximately 47 percent of Hispanics are suburbanites. Many Hispanics are often well-to-do and live in affluent suburbs. Over half (55 percent) of all those of Asian background in the United States of America are suburbanites, making Asians slightly more suburban than the European American population. Asian Americans constitute the nation’s fastest-growing non-European American population. By 2040, the Asian population is expected to grow to 34.5 million. Economically, Asians Americans are American’s most affluent group of people in the United States of America with a median household income of $85,800.00. European Americans have a median household income of $65,777.00; Hispanic Americans have a median household income of $56,113.00; Africans Americans have median household income of $43,862.00. Geographically, the Asian population is concentrated on the west coast and Hawaii. One thing to note about Chinese Americans is that they tend to believe in the social advantages for children of more communal urban living. There exists a strong cultural belief in the superiority of urban environments. Early settlers in the United States of American were also rich in diversity. Most came from Europe. #RandolphHarris 2 of 18
The Swedes settled in Delaware, the Dutch founded Pennsylvania, French Huguenots sought freedom from religious persecution, Germans came escaping the military draft, the Pilgrims sought a separate religious society, and the Irish were seeking relief from famine and landlords. Out of all this diversity, a nation emerged. Leaders of intelligence and character, still a wonder to those of us who study their trials and achievements, were equal to the challenges of creating a constitution and a nation that would marry principles of freedom and the dignity and rights of humans to unparalleled economic opportunity and an expanding frontier. The diverse nation has endured much. I know there are times when we all feel that we are far from God’s heart; and the same from the Saints. Just know that God is not offended. Know also that good affection and sweet, of which you have a taste every now and then, is the effect of Present Grace; and in a sense it is a foretaste of the Heavenly Country. All of which is another way of saying, do not rely too much on such consolation; it comes and it goes. However, to respond with force to the Enemy’s incursions and to spurn he Devil’s clever interpretation of what is happening along he boundaries of the soul—both are outstanding signs of great virtue and merit decorations. Know that the Ancient Enemy tries his damanedest to impede desire in the good soul. He also tries to draw one away from a variety of particulars. For example, the cult of the Saints. The pious memory of My Passion. A practical checklist of sins. An honor guard for the heart. A firm purpose of progressing in Virtue. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18
Many evil thoughts the Enemy forces upon the devout, soul, trying to wear one down by the horror of it all and distracting one from praying and reading the Scriptures. Humble Confession displeases the Enemy; Holy Communion enrages him. Do not believe the Enemy. Ignore what he says. And mind where you walk; he has spread his traps along your usual paths. Thoughts may come your way, loathsome and lithesome, but do not blame them on yourself. Blame them on the Enemy, and save your best for him. Epithets and expletives like the following. Avaunt, Unclean Spirit! Blush, you matted clotted thug! It is you who fill my ears with such horrid unhearable stuff! “Depart from me, you seducer and traducer,” reports Matthew 4.10! You will not have any part of me! “The Lord will be with me, great warrior that He is” Jeremiah 20.11, and you will stand before Him in a state of complete confusion! I prefer to undergo every pain, even to die, than to think like you! Avast! Do not say it! Bite your tongue! (Mark 4.39). I will not listen to you any more! I mean it! Just try—one more time, one hundred more times!—to abuse me and see what happens! “O Lord, my illumination, my salvation, who shall I fear?” (Psalm 27.1). “O Lord, come to my help, come to my rescue!” (Psalm 19.14). “Do battle as though you were a good soldier,” wrote Paul to Timothy the second time (2.3). And if your fragility takes a tumble, make a second effort, a new start. Rearrange your pack. Reinforcements are coming; that is to say, additional grace is on the way. Watch your step. Complacency and pride are squirreled everywhere, blinding the unsuspecting as they advance. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18
The Proud are the first casualties, but for you Caution and Humility are the watchwords. All of which is another way of saying, proceed with care, but stay level with the ground. Against this popular idea that only a few are gifted stands the Christian idea of giftedness. Each individual of God is a unique part of the body of Christ, taught the apostle Paul. One person is, so to speak, a hand, another an ear, another a toe. All such parts are essential to the functioning of the whole body. Thus each of us is gifted. “Having gifts that different according to the grace given to us,” admonished Paul, “Let us use them.” In his letter to the early churches, Paul identified more than two dozen different gift, challenging his readers to consider which are theirs to give. Among them are the gifts of: Administration—to organize and direct people toward a goal; discernment—to distinguish truth from error, good from evil; encouragement—to support and strengthen people; faith—a special capacity for belief and trust in God’s power; giving—an especially generous, even self-sacrificial spirit; hospitality—to be comfortably warm and open with strangers; leadership—to set goals and inspire a vision; mercy—to be deeply compassionate with people who are hurting; prophecy—to proclaim God’s message with authority; service—to identify needs and give effective assistance; pastoring—to guide, nurture, and care for people; teaching—to communicate knowledge effectively. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18
Paul presumed that none of us possess all of these gifts but that all of us possess at least one or two of them. None of us are completed persons by ourselves. Rather, we find our completion as we exercise our gifts in harmony with one another. Thus not everyone in a local church needs to feel compelled to teach, but some—those who have the gifts of teaching—should. Others will likewise give their gifts of hospitality, administration, or mercy. The body of Christ will therefore thrive if each of us will take time to identify our gifts, to say no to requests that siphon our energy into areas in which we do not feel gifted, and to say yes or even to volunteer for tasks that do harness our gifts. Consider, too, what it would mean for a college to apply the Christian idea that we are gifted. Instead of evaluating all faculty by the same yardstick, much as schools assess giftedness with but one yardstick, a college might encourage its faculty to identify their gifts, to say no to activities in which they do not feel a special competence, and to say yes to those activities in which they do excel. Some might direct their energies more to teaching, some more to befriending an advising students, some more to research, some more to administration. If all such activities were seen as essential to the body life of the institution, then such diversity could be celebrated. If all faculty were held responsible for developing and using their gifts to the utmost, then all could esteem one another as they affirmed each others’ gifts. Excellence would be expected and rewarded, but excellence might involve different priorities for different people. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18
And consider finally what it would mean for schools to apply the Christian idea that all are gifted, even all children. One child might be encouraged to develop one’s artistic talent, another one’s mathematical wizardry, still others their capacity for leadership or music or mechanical tasks. There would be no need to pretend that everyone is equal or to teach children as if all were the same. Indeed, would not this Christian idea of giftedness encourage John Gardner’s vision of excellence, by providing opportunities and rewards such that individuals with every sort of gift “will realize their full potentialities, perform at their best and harbor no resentment toward any other level.” The biblical idea that different folks bear different gifts has found a home in psychological science. Intelligence comes in different packages, argue the psychologists Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg. Mr. Gardner notes that brain damage may diminish one type of ability but not others. He observes that different abilities enabled our ancestors to cope with different environmental challenges (finding their way home, reading others’ emotions, solving problems). Indeed, contends Mr. Gardner and other intelligence researchers of today, we do not have an intelligence. Instead, we have multiple intelligences, each relatively independent of the others. In addition to the verbal intelligence assessed by standard intelligence tests, some folks are blessed with numerical intelligence musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, physical intelligence, or social intelligence. Albert Einstein, Georgia O’Keeffe, Sarah Winchester, Michael Jorden, and William Randolph Hearst are or were all brilliant in some domains but not in others. The psychologists Nancy Cantor and John Kihilstrom also distinguish academic intelligence from social intelligence—the know-how that enables us to comprehend and manage ourselves in social situations. We all have known people who could blast the top off the SAT yet self-destruct for lack of social sensitivity and judgment. Indeed, as Seymour Epstein and Petra Meier note, if academic aptitude signifies social competence, then why are academically smart people “not, by a wide margin, more effective in achieving better marriages, in successfully raising their children, and in achieving better mental and physical well-being?” #RandolphHarris 7 of 18
A critical part of social intelligence is what the psychologist Peter Salovey and John Mayer term emotional intelligence—the ability to perceive, express, understand, and manage emotions. Emotionally intelligent people are self-aware. They cope with life without letting their emotions get hijacked by dysfunctional depression, anxiety, or anger. In pursuit of long-term rewards, they can delay gratification rather than letting themselves be overtaken by impulses. Their empathy enables them to read others’ emotions and respond skillfully—knowing what to say to a grieving friend, when to encourage a colleague, how to manage conflicts. They are emotionally astute, and thus often more successful in careers, marriages, and parenting than are those academically smarter but emotionally denser. In extreme cases, some people display stunning gifs in one domain while utterly lacking them in another. Those with savant syndrome display some island of brilliance—say, in drawing, remembering music, or calculating numbers or dates—while scoring low on intelligence tests and being incapable of living independently. Others have suffered brain damage that destroys one dimension of intelligence but not another. Consider Elliot, a man with normal intelligence and memory, descried by the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Since removal of a brain tumor, Elliot has lived without emotion. “I never saw a tinge of emotion in my many hours of conversation with him,” Damasio reports, “no sadness, no impatience, no frustration.” Shown disturbing pictures of injured people, destroyed communities, and natural disasters, Elliot shows—and he realizes he feels—no emotion. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18
Like Mr. Spock of Star Trek, and the human appearing android Data of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Elliot knows but he cannot feel. And since he lacked emotional signals, Elliot’s social intelligence plummeted. Unable to intuitively adjust his behavior in response to others’ feelings, he lost his job. He went bankrupt. His marriage collapsed. He remarried and divorced again. At last report, he was dependent on custodial care from a sibling and a disability check. So, the New Testament idea that people come bearing different gifts challenges the popular idea that some are gifted, others not, but finds support in psychological research on the multidimensional nature of giftedness. “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” We may have been unable to integrate certain experiences because they happened at a time when we lacked the strength to do so. In the present day, we are therefore “unconscious” that they happened—they happened before we were organized enough to be either conscious or unconscious. They happened in our pre-history, certainly in pre-conceptual history, when we did not have a structure strong enough to hold in one frame the knowledge of both acceptable and unacceptable aspects of existence. The question is, are we now strong enough to do so? The idea that the strength to integrate is not always available, and that something more is required than bringing into consciousness what has been kept unconscious, has interested psychoanalysts and psychotherapists increasingly in recent decades. With some people—melancholics and obsessionals, one can always count on a reliable and intelligent ego that is able to take in words and then allow them to influence itself. The ego is able to perform what Dr. Freud called “working through.” Such people are strong enough already. They have a coherent self; they have reasonably well-developed ego-functions; their trouble is that they have repressed (by means of horizontal “lids”) things that were unacceptable to their imagery of themselves or of the World. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18
If the need therapy, they need help mainly in talking about, accepting, and recognizing what they are doing and saying, until they are able to recognize themselves—the hitherto unconscious bits included. However, other people find it hard or impossible to reflect on themselves and their World, but because they cannot accept this or that, but because the excluded feelings really do not belong to the self that is judging whether to accept them or not: there have been vertical splits. These are splits which weaken the structure of the personality—a person’s strength depends on the existence of organizing and integrating processes. These need not be too tremendously powerful or consistent, but they do need to be sufficient no o leave out great areas of experience. To put this the other way round, the strength of a person’s personality depends on having a sufficiently integrated structure to be able to see life as it is without too much distortion or denial. A person with too many splits—a person who really lacks integration—does not have a reliable and intelligent ego that is able to take in words and allow them to influence itself. An infantile ego has been rejected and repressed. It remains therefore undeveloped and weak, and deep maturing comes to a standstill. Such strength also requires “indwelling”—the sense of being based in one’s body. People dwelling in their body know what feels good and what feels bad, and can seek the former and avoid the latter without having to think about it. On the other hand, a split between body and mind erodes one’s sense of being. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18
There are no fears worse or deeper than those which arise out of having to cope with life when one feels that one just is not a real person at all. Without such strength, we do not have the integrity to live life as it is without distorting or denying—we dread and resist the possibility of re-experiencing the deep feelings which were too unacceptable to be integrated when we first experienced them. If our integrative processes are not strong enough, we need help to gain strength first, so that we can bear the process of integration. The first task, then, is to become strong enough. And what is “strong enough”? I intend it to mean the possession of enough well-being and self-esteem to be able to accept (integrate) and live with out own imperfections and those of the World. A person who lacks this strength, and whom luck has failed in other ways, may have to work with a psychotherapist until the time when the nuclear self is consolidated, and the talents and skills that are correlated to the nuclear self are revitalized. In what regions of the personality is strength to be found? We do not yet understand perfectly just what it is, when a therapist works with people with this kind of weakness, that helps them get stronger. However, it is clear that the processes involved do not take place in the three-person region of classical psycho-analysis, the area in which Oedipal relationships find a place and in which feelings (instinctual ones in the view of classical psycho-analytic theory) are in conflict with considerations of good sense or good conduct. The area of the Oedipus conflict is characterized by the presence of all least two objects, apart from the person. The area of the Basic Fault is characterized by a very peculiar exclusively two-person relationship. A third area is characterized by the fact that there are no external objects in it. Here people are on their own and their main concern is to produce something out of themselves; this something to be produced may be an object, but is not necessarily so. I propose to call this the level or area of creation. The most often-discussed example is of course artistic creation, but other phenomena belong to the same group, among them mathematics and philosophy, gaining insight, understanding somebody or something. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18
At this third level, there is no “other.” It is the level at which something or someone is being recognized and given shape and form for the first time. Something or someone is in the process of becoming conceptualized, but is not yet clearly “mapped.” At this level, although there are no others, there is a sense of connectedness. We know that there are no “objects” in the regions where certain takes place, butt we know also that for some of the time at least, the person is not entirely alone there. Here we are reaching for the concept of ego-relatedness. Our idea of what does on at these levels is still very tentative, but is still uncertain. However, we do now have more hints. The therapeutic side of meditation practices can be competently studied only by one who both practices them form the inside as well as observes them from the outside. The scientists and the medical physician, who can do the later only, are not even half-competent: they miss the essence of the subject in missing the power at work. Their intellects may logically theorize or imaginatively guess at it but that does not bring them into touch with the reality of it. The very scepticism with which they usually confront the record of these unorthodox healings and often reject their genuineness, unfits them for such investigation. The proper openness of mind, neither credulous nor cynical, is hard for them to establish. Spiritual healing must be separated from mental healing, as the former workers by a descent of divine grace but the latter by a power-concentration of mind. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18
A cure in the firs case will not only be permanent but also affect the character of the patient, whereas in the second case a cure may be and often if (especially when hypnotic methods are used) transient whilst the character remains untouched. A genuine spiritual healing of the physical body will always produce spiritual results. That is, it will produce an inner change in the character of the person healed. However, when this happens in means that some kind of wrong thinking or wrong feeling is the real cause of one’s physical sickness. For instance, thoughts of bitterness, resentment, criticism, and condemnation strongly held and long sustained against other persons can and very often do easily produce liver trouble. So long as that kind of thinking and feeling continues, so long will the liver trouble continue. The proper way to heal it, therefore, is to get at the psychological seat of trouble—that is, effect inner change. Where spiritual healing treatment influences a human to give up the wrong thinking, so it leaves one utterly, the physical effects of the change may show themselves suddenly and miraculously or slowly and gradually. Although they show themselves as a cure of a physical malady, note that it first began as a mental malady or as an emotional malady. And if the inner change is an enduring one, the following cure will be an enduring one too. This is the only type of healing which can be truly called spiritual. All other kinds of so-called spiritual healing are merely mental healing or hypnotic healing, and the cure can never be equal in quality or durability. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18
Quite often, they have only temporary results and the sickness reappears because the inner human has been left with all one’s psychological neuroses uncured. Mental healing and hypnotic healing are no, strictly speaking, healing at all. They are suppression of symptoms, and at the cost of retention of the hidden causes of these symptoms. In the cause of mental healing there is not necessarily any change at all in the character of the patient. One’s angers, one’s hostilities, or one’s resentments may remain as active as before. One’s cure simply illustrates the power of mind over body—one’s own or someone else’s mind. It is achieved by faith or concentration or suggestion. However, in the case of spiritual healing there is an inner change along with bodily cure. Why is it wrong to seek the cure of physical ailments by nonphysical remedies, and particularly by spiritual ones? To argue that the inner healing of bad character is more important—which may be granted-does not do away with the necessity of the outer healing. It is not the true spiritual healing if it laves the character and outlook untouched, unimproved. There are other kinds of healing which may relieve or cure one kind of ailment while leaving the person still open to make one’s fate later bring on another kind of ailment. One who sees in everything only matter and beyond it only nothing, who looks to physics and physiology for sufficient explanation of our existence and chemical actions for sufficient explanation of our loftiest emotions, will be sceptical of mentalists principles and distrustful of spiritual healing. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18
So much noxious material is eliminated through the ski that three processes of cleansing are needed to counteract it. First, the warm bath. Many persons are not tough enough to stand the weakening effects of a too hot bath. It is better to be prudent and be satisfied with a moderately warm one. Second, the friction rub. Third, the frequent change of underclothing. It is a physiological fact that a part of this material can be re-absorbed into the body if these processes are neglected. When that happens, this rancid and poisonous stuff will open the way to disease. The friction rub may be done with a small coarse rough face cloth or with a loofah sponge. The entire body should be vigorously scrubbed, but especially the feet. A cool—not cold—shower at the end will close the pores and stimulate circulation. Some religions consider a twice-daily shower bath to be an essential part of spirituality. The moderns says that cleanliness is next to godliness. It is also recommended to keep the colon cleans and advisable to keep the breathing passages clear from mucous, especially the thick, gummy kind which adheres to the membranes. This can be done by gargling the throat and washing the nostrils and nasal passages with water which has been purified and slightly dissolved with salt and is comfortably lukewarm. If the eye muscles are overworked by too much desk work, regular resting at intervals during this work will enable them to recuperate their strength and efficiency. In this connection remember the advice given by my occultist that when using any eye drop medicine take care not to touch the eyes themselves with the eye cup or the dropper. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18
If one eye gets infected with, say, conjunctivitis in this way one avoids passing the infection to the other eye. The same care should be used with the small towel used for wiping the eyes after washing. Separate towels reserved for this purpose should be used or rather separate face cloths. As planets derive much more substance from air and water for their sustenance than they do from the Earth, it happens that when they rot they return to the Earth more than they have derived from it. Moreover, a forest determines the amount of rainwater by stopping vapors. Thus, in a wooded area that was preserved for a long time without being touched, the bed of Earth that serves for vegetation would increase considerably. However, since animals return to the soil less than they derive from it, and since humans take in huge quantities of wood for plants for fire an other uses, it follows that the bed of vegetative Earth of an inhabited country must always diminish and finally become like the terrain of Arabia Petraea, and like that of so many other provinces of the Old World (which in fact is the region that has been inhabited from the most ancient times), where only salt and sand are found. For the fixed salt of plants and animals remains, while all the other parts are volatized. To this can be added the factual proof based on the quantity of trees and plants of every sort, which filled almost all the uninhabited islands that have been discovered in the last few centuries, and on what history teaches us about the immense forests all over the Earth that had to be cut down to the degree that it was populated or civilized. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18
Furthermore, if there is kind of a vegetation that can make up for the loss of vegetative matter which was occasioned by animals, according to M. de Buffon’s reasoning, it is above all the wooded areas, where the treetops and the leaves gather and appropriate more water and vapor than do other plants. Second, the destruction of the soil, that is, the loss of the substance that is appropriate for vegetation, should accelerate in proporion as the Earth is more cultivated and as the more industrious inhabitant consumer in greater abundance its products of every sort. My third and most important remark is that the fruits of trees supply animals with more abundant nourishment than is possible for other forms of vegetation: an experiment I made myself, by comparing the products of two land masses of equal size and quality, the one covered with chestnut trees and the other sown with wheat. Among the quadrupeds, the two most universal distinguishing traits of voracious species are derived, on the one hand, from the shape of teeth, and, on the other, from the conformation of the intestines. Animals that live solely on vegetation have al flat teeth, like the horse, ox, sheep and hare, but voracious animals have pointed teeth, like the cat, dog, wolf and fox. And as for the intestines, the frugivorous ones have some, such as the colon, which are not found in voracious animals. It appears therefore that humans, having teeth and intestines like frugivorous animals, should naturally be placed in that class. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18
And not only do anatomical observations confirm this opinion, but the monuments of antiquity are also very favorable to it. “Dicaearcuhs,” says St. Jerome, “relates in his books on Greek antiquities that under the reign of Saturn, when the Earth was still fertile by itself, no humans ate flesh, but that all lived on fruits and vegetables that grew naturally.” [This opinion can also be supported by the reports of several modern travelers. Francois Correal, among others, testifies that the majority of inhabitants of the Lucayes, whom the Spaniards transported to the islands of Cuba, Santo Domingo, and elsewhere, died from having eaten flesh.] From this, one can see that I am neglecting several advantageous considerations that I could turn to account. For since prey is nearly the exclusive subject of fighting among carnivorous animals, and since frugivorous animals live among themselves in continual peace, if the human species were of this later genus, it is clear that it would have had a much easier time subsisting in the state of nature, and much less need and occasion to leave it. Brother of the sea, look at the stars, look at the deep blue, and set the World free. Our right is to live and be free; freedom will not come from outside. It is only in ourselves united. How fairer wilt thou be to sight, if thou with us in faith unite; Thy favor we shall always seek. However, American’s sons with wisdom speak: “O ye, who are wise in your own eyes, how can your trumpery at all compare with our great share when God proclaims us free.” And shines on us in glorious light, while you are wrapped in gloom of night? His glory then will shine and gleam—Almightly God, over all Supreme! Almighty God, who are mother and father to us all, look upon your planet Earth divided: Help us to know that we are all your children; that all nations belong to one great family, and all of our religions lead to you. Please multiply our prayers in every land until the whole Earth becomes your congregation, united in your love. Please sustain our vision of a peaceful future and please give us strength to work unceasingly to make that vision real. Amen. #RandolphHarris 18 of 18
Get ready to be impressed! This charming Cresleigh neighborhood offers an array of home types with eye catching architecture styles such as Mission, Mid-Century Modern, California Modern, and Contemporary Farmhouse.
When You Pursue Only Your Own Interests, You May be Said to Have Fallen Out of Love!
Drown me in Love, my Lord, that I may learn how smooth and swimming it is to love. Love has me in its grasp, sending me to the heights with fervor and wonder I did not know I have within me. The Lord has made known how people ought to treat one another. By searching the scriptures on this subject, we become more fully aware that we do have a responsibility to promote the happiness and well-being of our fellow humans. For example, through Moses the Lord said: “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” reports Leviticus 19.18. To help us understand what is meant by this, the Lord has given some specific examples of what a person will not do to one’s neighbour if be truly loves Jesus. “Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely neither lie one to another. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob one. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind,” reports Leviticus 19.11-14. Furthermore, the hired servant should be paid promptly for one’s work: “the wages of one that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning,” reports Leviticus 19.13. “Thou shall not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether one be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates: At one’s day thou shalt give one one’s hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it,” reports Deuteronomy 24.14-15. Let me follow You on high, my Beloved Lord “canting the canticle of love,” as Isaiah put it (5.1). Let my soul, beside itself with love, weary itself in Your praise! Let me love You more than myself! #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
Let me love myself because You loved me first! Let me love everyone else who truly loves You! That sounds like a lot, but it is only what the law of Love, of which You are the Chiefest Illumination, tells me I have to do. Love’s swift, sincere, pious, joyous, pleasant, brave, patient, long-suffering, virile, and selfless, as Paul wrote in his First Letter to the Corinthians (13.4-7). Love’s selfless; that is to say, when you pursue only your own interests, you may be said to have fallen out of love. Love is mindful of others, humble, honorable; not soft, not giddy, not messing around with the meaningless tasks of this World. Love is sober, chaste, not given to flights of fancy, quiet, and has all the senses under control. In tatters, like a waif or a wastrel, Love nonetheless can approach a prelate with confident step. Love is devoted and thankful to God, trusting and hoping in Him, even though it has been a long tie between consolations. That is to say, Love and Pain go hand and hand throughout life. You may think you know something about Love, but if you are not prepared to suffer for or stand by the Loved One, then you are not worthy to be called a lover. Any lover worth one’s word should freely embrace the hard and the harsh for the Loved One, and at the same time one should not allow oneself to be distracted by Contraries or Contretemps. The World’s dirt seems so remote from these moods of complete goodness as to seem non-existent, or a mere vaporous mist at most. With the glimpse a feelings overspreads one’s heart of benevolence towards all living creatures—not only animal but even plant. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
One would not, could not knowingly harm a single one. The Christians call this love, the Buddhists compassion, the Hindus oneness. My own term is goodwill, but all are right. These are different facets, as seen from different points. In this wonderful state one becomes keenly aware of the love that is at the core of the Universe, and therefore at one’s own core too. However, one not only absorbs it, one also radiates it. It is not something to be held selfishly, like a material possession. As it is received, so it is given. There is no possibility here of feeling stagnant, mediocre, ordinary. It is their very contraries that one feels. There are exquisite moments when all existence seems elevated to a higher plane, when one’s individual being is absorbed in a harmony with all things. The feeling which comes over one at this stage is indescribably delightful. One recognizes its divine quality and rightly attributes it to a transcendental source. No vision accompanies it. Yet the certitude and reality seem greater than if one did. The common youthful experience of falling in love bears some of the leading characteristics of this uncommon mystical experience of awakening to the divine reality. However of course it bears them in a grosser and smaller way. Some of them are: a feeling of “walking on air,” a frequent recollection of beloved at unexpected moments, a glowing sense of deliverance from burdens, a cheerful attitude towards everything and everyone, intense satisfaction with life, rosy expectations about the future, expanded sympathies, dreamy absent-minded lapses from attention to the prosaic everyday round, and new appreciation of poetry, music, or Nature’s beauty. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
There is a self which one feels within one yet is not oneself. Something unknown yet joy-giving. Some dynamic force streams through the blood in one’s veins, the feeling in one’s heart, and the will in one’s innermost being. It is no ordinary force, for one knows that never or rarely has one experienced its like before. There is magic in its movement, enchantment in its effect. The things of the World fall far away from you and a great spell will seemingly be put upon the leading mind till you remember little of name, or kin, or country, and care less. You lie in the lap of a shining mood, granted respite from heavy cares and given relaxation from corrosive thoughts. You become aware of the secret undercurrent of holy peace which flows silently beneath the heart. Although one’s general experience of it will be of its gentleness, there will be times when one will feel only an authoritative and commanding force in it, when tremendous power will manifest and rule in some episode or event. One may have a vague feeling some immaterial presence around or within oneself, a presence uplifting, ennobling, unworldly. Not only is the kingdom of Heaven within us but we are ourselves within the kingdom. We may discover this as a psychic and visual experience, as some do, or simply as a feeling-and-knowing experience that All is God. It is a transparence because one feels open, letting in a rare mood. It is also a transcendence, because one feels lifted out of one’s ordinary “I” and put down again on a higher level. Reverence for the divine presence filled my heart awe at the divine wonder permeated my mind. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20
One will feel spontaneous peace that comes from one knows not where, intellectual conviction that the right path has been found, mysterious detachment that takes hold of one during Worldly temptations and Worldly tribulation alike. When you are in this wider consciousness you are at home. Outwardly you may be without a roof to shelter your head but still you will feel protected, secure, and provided for. Your feeling and your trust are not groundless. For the outward manifestation of this inward care will follow. You will comprehend that while the Overself thus enfolds you, you can never again feel lonely, never again find the sky turned black because some human love has been denied or been withdrawn from you. It is there, in the deep center of oneself, that one finds holiness and liberation. From the physical standpoint, the ego first becomes aware of the Overself as being located in the heart. However, in higher mystical experience, this awareness is free from any bodily relationship. A feeling of lightness and freedom, songlike well-being and perfect harmony, comes with this disidentification from the body. I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts: a sense sublime, of something far more deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns. Dear soul, up to this point in our friendly chatsworth, with lots of give and take on both sides—and I hope you will not take offense—but I think I can safely say, you are not what I would call—and I want you to know that I speak only as a friend—a vigorous or prudent lover. One feels a rightness about the World-plan and a loveliness in some deeper part of oneself. It may remain for a little while only but its memory will remain for long years. In this lofty mood, bringing so much good will and insight with it, as it does, one is inclined to ignore misunderstanding and hostility from any quarter which caused one resentment or even suffering in the past. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
Now this brings us to the oddest thing about Christianity. In a sense the view which I have just described is actually true. From a certain point of view Christ is the same sort of thing as Adonis or Osiris (always, of course, waiving the fact that they lived nobody knows where or when, while He was executed by a Roman magistrate we know in a year which can be roughly dated.) And that is just the puzzle. If Christianity is a religion of that kind why is the analogy of the seed falling into the ground so seldom mentioned (twice only if I mistake not) in the New Testament? Corn-religions are popular and respectable: if that is what the first Christian teachers were putting across, what motive could they have for concealing the fact? The impression they make is that of humans who simply do not know how close they re to the corn-religions: men who simply overlook the rich sources of relevant imagery and association which they must have been on the verge of tapping at every moment. If you say they suppressed it because they were Jewish people, that only raises the puzzle in a new form. Why should the only religion of a “dying God” which has actually survived and risen to unexampled spiritual heights occur precisely among those people to whim, and to whom almost alone, the whole circle of ideas that belong to the “dying God” was foreign? I myself, who first seriously read the New Testament when I was, imaginatively and poetically, all agog for the Death and Re-birth pattern and anxious to meet a corn-king, was chilled and puzzled by the almost total absence of such ideas in the Christian documents. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
One moment particularly stood out. A “dying God”—the only dying God who might possibly be historical—holds bread, that is, corn, in His hand and says, “This is my body.” Surely here, even if nowhere else—or surely if not here, at least in the earliest comments on this passage and through all later devotional usage in ever swelling volume—the truth must come out; the connection between this and the annual drama of the corps must be made. However, it is not. It is there for me. There is no sign that it was there for the disciples or (humanly speaking) for Christ Himself. It is almost as if He did not realize what He had said. The records, in fact, show us a Person who enacts the part of the Dying God, but whose thoughts and words remain quite outside the circle of religious ideas to which the Dying God belongs. The very thing which the Nature-religions are all about seems to have happened once: but it happened in a circle where no trace of Nature-religions are all about seems to have really happened once: but it happened in a circle where no trace of Nature-religion was present. It is as if you met the sea-serpent and found that is disbelieved in sea-serpents: as if history recorded a human who had done all the things attributed to Sir Launcelot but who had himself never apparently heard of chivalry. There is, however, one hypothesis which, if accepted, makes everything easy and coherent. The Christians are not claiming that simply “God” was incarnate in Jesus. They are claiming that the one true God is He whom the Jewish people worshipped as Jahweh, and that is it He who has descended. Now the double character of Jahweh is this. On the one hand He is the God of Nature, her glad Creator. It is He who sends rain into the furrows till the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing. The trees of the wood rejoice before Him and His voice causes the wild deer to bring forth their young. He is the God of what and wine and oil. In that respect He is constantly doing all the things that Nature-Gods do: He is Bacchus, Venus, Ceres all rolled into one. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
There is no trace in Judaism of the idea found in some pessimistic and Pantheistic religions tht Nature is some kind of illusion or disaster, that finite existence is in itself an evil and that the cure lies in the relapse of all things into God. Compared with such anti-natural conceptions Jahweh might almost be mistaken for a Nature-God. On the other hand, Jahweh is clearly not a Nature-God. He does not die and come to life each year as a true Corn-king should. He may give wine and fertility, but must not be worshipped with Bacchanalian or aphrodisiac rites. He is not the soul of Nature nor of any part of Nature. He inhabits eternity: He dwells in the high and holy place: Heaven is His throne, not His vehicle, Earth His footstool, not Hs vesture. One day He will dismantle both and make a new Heaven and Earth. He is not to be identified even with the “divine spark” in humans. He is “God and not man”: His thoughts are not our thoughts: all our righteousness is filthy rags. His appearance to Ezekiel is attended with imagery that does not borrow from Nature, but (it is a mystery too seldom noticed) from those machines which humans were to make centuries after Ezekiel’s death. The prophet saw something suspiciously like a dynamo. Jahweh is neither the soul of Nature nor her enemy. She is neither His body nor a declension and falling way from Him. She is His creature. He is not a nature-God, but the God of Nature—her inventor, maker, owner, and controller. To everyone who reads this essay, the conception has been familiar from childhood; we therefore easily think it is the most ordinary conception in the World. “If people are going to believe in a God at all,” we ask, “what other kind would they believe in?” #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
We mistake our privileges for our own instincts: just as one meets ladies who believe their own refined manners to be natural to them. They do not remember being taught. Now if there is such a God and if He descends to rise again, then we can understand why Christ is at once so like the Corn-King and so silent about him. He is like the Corn-King because the Corn-King is a portrait of Him. The similarity is not in the lest unreal or accidental. For the Corn-King is derived (through human imagination) from the facts of Nature, and the facts of Nature from her Creator; the Death and Re-birth patten is in her because it was first in Him. On the other hand, elements of Nature-religion are strikingly absent from the teaching of Jesus and from the Judaic preparation which led up to it precisely because in them Nature’s Original is manifesting itself. In them you have to have from the very outset got in behind Nature-religion and behind Nature herself. Where the real God is present the shadows of that God do not appear; that which the shadows resembled does. The Hebrews throughout their history were being constantly headed off from the worship of Nature-gods; not because the Nature-god were in all respects unlike the God of Nature but because, at best, they were merely like, and it was the destiny of that nation to be turned away from likenesses to the thing itself. The goodness of anything is twofold; one, which is of the essence of it—thus, for instance, to be rational pertains to the essence of humans. As regards this god, God cannot make a thing better than it is itself; although He can make another thing better than it; even as He cannot make the number four greater than it is; because if it were greater it would no longer be four, but another number. For the addition of a substantial difference in definitions is after the manner of the addition of unity of numbers. Another kind of goodness is that which is over and above the essence; thus, the good of a human is to be virtuous or wise. As regards this kind of goodness, God can make better the things He has made. Absolutely speaking, however, God can make something else better than each thing made by Him. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
When it is said that God can make a thing better than He makes it, if “better” is taken substantively, this proposition is true. For He can always make something else better than each individual thing: and He can make the same thing in one way better than it is, and in another way not; as was explained above. If, however, “better” is taken as an adverb, implying the manner of the making; thus God cannot make anything better than He makes it, because He cannot make it from greater wisdom and goodness. However, if it implies the manner of the thing done, He can make something better; because He can give to things made by Him a beer manner of existence as regards the accidents, although not as regards the substance. It is of the nature of a son that he should be equal to his father, when he comes to maturity. However, it is not the nature of anything created, that it should be better than it was made by God. Hence the comparison fails. The Universe, the present creation being supposed, cannot be better, on account of the most beautiful order given to things by God; in which the good of the Universe consists. For if any one thing were bettered, the proportion of order would be destroyed; as if one strong were stretched more than it ought to be, the melody of the harp would be destroyed. Yet God could make other things, or add something to the present creation; and then there would be another and a better Universe. The humanity of Christ, from the fact that it is untied to the Godhead; and created happiness from the fact that it is the fruition of God; and the Blessed Virgin from the fact that she is the mother of God; have all a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good, which is God. And on this account there cannot be anything better than these; just as there cannot be anything better than God. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
Man has always been fascinating with going back in time. The question has often been asked, if you could go back in time, would you do anything differently? But what if it came out another. However, no one asks, if you could go forward in time, what would you change? As fewer workers in the rich nations have engaged in physical production, more have been needed to produce ideas, patents, scientific formulae, bills, invoices, reorganization plans, files, dossiers, marker research, sales presentations, letters, graphic, legal briefs, engineering specifications, computer programs, and a thousand other forms of data or symbolic output. This rise in white-collar, technical, and administrative activity has been so widely documented in so many countries that we need no statistics here to make the point. Indeed, some sociologists have seized on the increasing abstraction of production as evidence that society has moved into a “post-industrial” stage. The facts are more complicated. For the growth of the white-collar work force can be better understood as an extension of industrialism—a further last surge of the Second Wave—than as a leap to a new system. While it is true that work has grown more abstract and less concrete, the actual offices in which this work is being done are modeled the after Second Wave factories, with the work itself fragmented, repetitive, dull, and dehumanizing. Even today, much office reorganization is little more than an attempt to make the office more closely resemble a factory. In this “symbol-factory,” Second Wave civilization also created a factorylike caste system. The factory work force is divided into manual and nonmanual workers. The office is similarly divided into “high abstraction” and “low abstraction” workers. At one level we find the high abstracters, the technocratic elites: scientist, engineers, and managers, much of whose time is taken up with meetings, conferences, business lunches, or in dictating, drafting memos, placing phone calls, and otherwise exchanging information. One recent survey estimated that 80 percent of the manager’s time is spent in 150 to 300 “information transactions” daily. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
At the other level we find the low abstracters—white-collar proletarians, as it were—who, like factory workers throughout the Second Wave period, perform endlessly routine and deadening work. Mostly female and nonunionized, this group can justifiably smile with irony at the sociologists’ talk of “post-industrialism.” They are the industrial work force of the office. Today the office, too, is beginning to move beyond the Second Wave and into the Third, and his industrial caste system is about to be challenged. All the old hierarchies and structures of the office are soon to be reshuffled. The Third Wave revolution in the office is a result of several colliding forces. The need for information has mushroomed so wildly that no army of Second Wave clerks, typists, and secretaries, no matter how large or hard-working, can possibly cope with it. In addition, the cost of paper work has climbed so calamitously that a frantic search is underway to control it. (Office costs have swelled to 40 or 50 percent of all costs in many companies, and some experts estimate that the expense companies spend per employee annually is $1,844. The expense for preparing one business letter anywhere between $75 and $150 for a typical one-page letter of 350-450 words). Moreover, while the average factory worker in the United States of America today is supported by an estimated $150,000 worth of technology, the office worker, as one Xerox sales man out it, “works with about $13,500 worth of computers and machines, and is probably among the least productive workers in the World.” Office productivity has climbed a bare 4 percent over the past decade, and conditions in other countries are probably even more pronounced. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
Contrast this with the extraordinary decline in the cost of computers, as measured by the number of functions performed. It has been estimated that computer output has increased 10,000 times in the past fifteen years, and that the per-function cost today is down 100,000-fold. The combination of rising costs and stagnating productivity on the one hand and computer advances on the other make an irresistible combination. The result is likely to be nothing less than a “wordquake.” Over 66 percent of Americans use a computer at work, and over 80 percent of them say it is essential to their jobs. With this much workplace use and demand, it is important to understand the way a computer can affect your job. Many Americans rely on their computer skills to find meaningful employment and to work effectively once employed. Computer and information technology (IT) touch nearly every aspect of modern life. Information technology can help with such diverse tasks as driving motor vehicles and diagnosing disease. IT enables seamless integration and communication between businesses anywhere in the World. The IT industry is one of the largest in the World employing 1.7 million people. The global computers market is expected to grow from $331.45 billion to $367.56 billion on 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.9 percent. Major companies in the computers market include HP; Apple; Advantech; Eurotech and Kontron. The market is expected to reach $505.45 billion in 2025 with CAGR of 8 percent. The computer is still sometimes called a “smart typewriter” and this device fundamentally alters the flow of information in the office, and with it the job structure. It is however, only one of great family of new technologies deluging the white-collar World. As businesses continue to work primarily remotely, video is increasing in importance. Being able to see team members helps build a sense of comradery and helps everyone feel less isolated from one another, while making collaboration more productive. What we are looking at is the beginning of what some term the “paperless office” of tomorrow. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Not only will video benefit your workforce in the way of conferencing and meetings, it also is the preferred way to consume all content in general. In fact, employees are 75 percent more likely to watch a video than read text. Technology in business communication is largely centered around remote work. We have witnessed a huge mobile tsunami over the past two years. This will only continue as 5G is arriving and offers more in the way of mobility. In fact 1 in 2 people will not return to jobs that do not offer remote work. Also, 75 percent of people feel more productive at home, while 80 percent expect to work from home at least tree times of week. For those concerned about the environment, this is a great solution because it will reduce air pollution, traffic, and fuel consumption. Working from is very important, which is why more people are buying larger houses than they need, so they can have space to work in a quiet area. Instead of wasting money on cars and maintenance and fuel, they are able to invest in a home, something that will earn them money over time. Therefore, people also want to keep their neighborhood peaceful and attractive. To physically maintain communities, there are several millions of dollars of low-interest loans available to remodel homes and upgrade apartments. Ten percent of all apartment building flats are inspected every year, and a building must be brought fully up to code before it can be sold and title transferred. Some communities even used to offer grants to landlords to discourage all-one-race apartments. On a voluntary basis, a landlord could enter a five-year agreement to let Housing Centers serve as the landlord’s rental agent. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
The landlord, on singing, became eligible for matching grants up to $10,000 per unit to improve the apartment interiors; there were larger grants for exterior renovations. The Housing Center, in turn, actively sought non-European American tenants for buildings that were predominately European American and European America tenants for buildings that were predominantly non-European American. In both goals of physically maintaining the suburb and encouraging integration, the community program was remarkably successful for a quarter of a century. The communities were tightly managed, and that did not appeal to some. The community would quickly intervene to prevent signs of building deterioration and to encourage racial harmony. The suburb rigidly enforced building codes and also acted swiftly to prevent unethical or illegal activities by realtors. Brotherly love is not synonymous with friendship, although it may be part of it. Friends like each other, delight in each other’s companionship, are confidential, loyal, trusting, and share many mutual interests. Friendship is reciprocal. Brotherly love is more unselfish than either romantic love or friendship. One possessed of Christian love has a profound concern for the welfare of others. One loses one’s life in their interests. One’s life is alter- or other-ego centered. It does not matter whether the other person—the one loved—appreciates or responds to the love shown one, because brotherly love nourishes itself. It resides wholly in the person who loves and does not need response to keep it alive as romantic love and friendship do. The real test of whether one has brotherly love was given by Jesus when he said and exemplified: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you,” reports Matthew 5.44. Brotherly love is impartial and, therefore, universal. One who has brotherly love is concerned for any and every human, whether one be sinner or saint, attractive or unattractive, of the same or of another faith or race. In fact, if one is selective as to whom one loves, the chances are one loves no human in a brotherly way. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
What gives a person the sense of being well and “together”? How does a person become strong, in the sense of having good self-esteem, a god ability to understand situation and use them creatively, good personality-organization which allows feelings and needs to find expression in actions and in gratifications which in turn feed self-esteem? We do not know for sure. We may have come guesses based on what good parents, good friends, and good therapists have in common. It has been interesting to note what parallels between the behavior of good parents and good therapists. Literally, psychotherapy means “ministering to a person’s breath, soul, life.” Parents do this, and psychotherapists do this, but they are not the only ones. Friends and lovers are also notable in this respect. Friends and lovers have certain advantages in ministering to each other. However, in some particulars the professionals have the advantage. First of all, we must remember the many people who have no friends and yet need to have their psyche ministered to. Equally important, there are some things which are incompatible with friendship but which need to happen if a person’s psyche is to be restored, and so this must be left to the professionals. What these things are will become clearer in the course of these essays; they have to do with the circumstances in which a person can make a new beginning. In psychotherapy a person may find the secure boundaries which are essential for this work. Psychotherapists can impose the boundaries within which work with transferences and regressions can safely be carried on. They can set rules and insist on them: only fifty minutes per session, only one session per day, no physical violence. Also, their other close relationships are not endangered by this relationship. And so on. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
What friends are able and willing to do for each other depends on many factors and I see no good in trying to lay down the law about that. My own views are sometimes made clear in this essay and sometimes not—in the latter case often because I am in fact not clear about them myself. Psychotherapy is a developmental process, as growing-up is, and the two have features in common. A difference is that psychotherapy is remedial: it is intended to make people better, to make good some deficiency or disturbance whose roots my go back to the days of childhood. This necessarily raises questions it has been convenient to evade until now: what do I mean by “good” development and by a “fortunate baby”? And if something goes “wrong,” what do I mean? And what do I mean by “better”? My own values necessarily permeate this essay, and it is time to look at these explicitly, however briefly. There are interrelated clusters of values that seem important to me: I think it is better for children (and for those who come into psychotherapy) if, in the course of development, they gain in self-knowledge including knowledge of unwanted regions of the self, self-acceptance including acceptance of at least some unwanted regions of the self, self-direction including the ability to choose one’s own goals and values, self-love, love of other people and knowledge and acceptance of some of their unwanted regions, ability to relate to and yet be separate from others, tolerance of frustration when goals, values or affection require, a varied set of values, freedom to develop further. The first culture of values has to do with the geography and logistics of the self. It seems important to me that people should have the opportunity to discover who they are—what is good and bad in them, what hurts, what delights, and so on—as well as the opportunity to decide what to do about it. The second cluster has to do with relationships. It seems important to me that people should enjoy themselves and each other, and that they should know the difference. The third cluster is about favorable conditions for work, growth, and change. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
In psychotherapy, as in helping children grow up, the ideal development is one in which each new stage is accepted in such a way that the satisfactions of the previous stage are still accessible, neither associated with such pain that thoughts of it must be avoided at all costs, nor so delicious that developing to the next stage seems a trouble from which we recoil. Ideally we should only have to overcome our natural reluctance, conscious or unconscious, to think about painful as well as about pleasant things. However, bad things may have happened to us before we have sufficiently well-organized self-regions to absorb them. What are the consequences? In some circumstances, the memory-traces of the bad experiences are kept apart, and so are not subject to modification by later events. These split-off memory-traces can later be responsible for overwhelming feelings of misery, emptiness, inertia, and fear. By “overwhelming” I mean literally that we feel we have ceased to be people and are just clumps of dreadful feelings. We may try to rationalize those feelings—we feel so terrible because we failed an examination, lost a lover, or a job, or are worried about the state of the World. However in fact, we feel terrible because we are not in touch with memories from when we did not yet exist as persons and yet were in a state of suffering; it would be more accurate to say “There is a sense of dreadful misery” than to say “I feel very miserable”: this misery of those earlier says has never been integrated. If we are ever to feel better, the bad memory-traces of those days have to be integrated later in less painful contexts. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
During that process of integration, a process of dissolution also takes place. These reorganizations enable us to see things as they are, more or less closely connected with us and, by the same token, more or less distant from us. Thus we get a self which as feelings but is not dissolved in them. In therapy or in everyday life, processes have to happen at the end of which a person can say “I feel miserable”: there is an “I” to feel it. The misery no longer feels overwhelming, eternal, and immovable. After that, further healing can take place. Let there be peace, welfare, and righteousness in every part of the World. Let confidence and friendship prevail for the good of east and west, for the good of the needy south, for the good of all humanity. Let people inspire their leaders, helping them to seek peace by peaceful means, helping them and urging them to build a better World, a World with a home for everybody, a World with food and work for everybody, a World with spiritual freedom for everybody. Let those who have the power of money be motivated by selfless compassion. Let money become a tool for the good of humanity. Let those who have power deal respectfully with the resources of the planet. Let them respect and maintain the purity of the air, water, land and subsoil. Let them co-operate to restore the ecological soundness of Mother Earth. Let trees grow up by the billions around the World. Let green life invade the deserts. Let industry serve humanity and produce waste that serves nature. Let technology respect the holiness of Mother Earth. Let those who control the mass media contribute to create mutual understanding, contribute to create optimism and confidence. Let ordinary people meet by the millions across the borders. Let them create a universal network of love and friendship. Let billions of human beings co-operate to create a good future for their children and grandchildren. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
Let us survive in peace and harmony with Mother Earth. It is up to us to receive and transmit our Torah. It is up to us to see that the World still stands. May the time be not distant when nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, for the Earth will be filled with the wonder of life. Then shall we sit under our vine and our fig tree and none shall be afraid. We seek a renewed stirring of life for the Earth. We plead that what we are capable of doing is not always what we ought to do. We urge that all people now determine that a wide untrammeled freedom shall remain to testify that this generation has love for the next. If we want to succeed in that, we might show, meanwhile, a little more love for this one, and for each other. The Heavenly hosts in awe reply: “His Kingdom be blessed forever and aye.” Their song being hushed, they vanish away; they may never again offer rapturous lay. But America, therein excel—fixed times they set aside, with praise and prayer, Him One declare, at morn and eventide. His portion them He made, that they His praise declare by night and day; a Torah, precious more than gold, He bade them study, fast to hold; that He may be near, their prayer to hear, for always wear will He as diadem fair His people’s prayer in His phylactery, wherein is told of America’s fame who oft God’s unity proclaim. It is also meet God’s praise to sing in presence of both prince and king. With tempestuous glee, like a stormy sea, they surge and ask: “Who, then, is the Friend of thy heart, for who thou rt cast in the lions’ den?” From that which we fear, make us fearless. O bounteous One, assist us with your grace. May the atmosphere we breathe breathe fearlessness into us: fearlessness on Earth and fearlessness in Heaven! May fearlessness surround us above and below! May we be without fear by night and by day! Let all the World by my friend! #RandolphHarris 20 of 20
Cresleigh Homes
Featuring an open concept living area and a covered patio in the center, this home is great for entertaining. The spacious walk-in pantry is the perfect complement to the gourmet kitchen with included island.
A porch this lovely means plenty of time outdoors in all kinds of weather. And though the Mills Station Residence 4 is the largest in the community, we still need a little extra space in the playhouse outside. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-4/
A Family Down the Block Has One and So do Several of Our Colleagues!
Take a moment to make a list of your closet friends. What do they have in common (other than the joy of knowing you)? It is likely that most are similar to you in age and the same gender and race as you. There will be exceptions, of course. However, similarity on these three dimensions is the general rule for friendships. Ninety percent of all people in Western society marry at some point. What, beyond attraction, determines how people pair up? The answer is that we tend to marry someone who is like us in almost every way, a pattern called homogamy. In case you are wondering, homogamy also applies to unmarried couples who are living together. Studies show that married and cohabiting couples are highly similar in age, education, race, religion, and ethnic background. In general, you are far more likely to choose someone similar to yourself as a mate than someone very different. This is probably a good thing. Personality traits tend to be closely matches in the most stable marriages. Conversely, this risk of divorce is highest among couples with sizable differences in age and education. Most dangerous of all are “fatal attractions,” in which qualities that originally made a partner appealing are later disliked. Fatal attractions are likely when an individual is drawn to someone who seems “different,” “unique,” or “extreme.” When two people are similar, disenchantment is less likely to occur. Do people look for specific traits in a potential mate? Yes, in the United States of America, both men and women agree that the most important qualities are kindness and understanding, intelligence, exciting personality, good health, adaptability, and physical attractiveness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
Love is a great thing, My monastic, monotheistic friend, altogether a great good. “It makes every burden light,” as Matthew has recorded My saying in his Gospel (11.30), and manages to carry every load, no matter how slip-sliding it may be. What is more, it makes every tart and bitter thing taste sweet and juicy. My love is noble and provides the energy for doing great things; it encourages the desiring of even greater things. Love wants to rise, does not want to be tied down. Love wants to walk free, not to be told where to go. However, sadly, it loses its sense of direction. That is to say, it cannot sustain anything in time of consolation; it succumbs in time of desolation. There is nothing sweeter than Love; nothing stronger, higher, broader, happier, fuller, better in Heaven and on Earth. That is because Love is born of God, as the Beloved John has written in his First Letter (4.7), and cannot rest except in God, who is above all created things. Some wonderful effects of Love. First, one who knows how to love runs and rejoices; one is a free human and has no restraints. Second, one gives everything and in return receives everything; in a manner of speaking, one may be said to have everything. That is because one rests in the Great One, who has everything and from whom every good fountain flows. Third, one does not look for gifts for oneself, but love turns one into the giver of all goods. Fourth, Love is not measured out in small packets; more often than not, it spills all over. Fifth, Love is not seen as a load, does not have a reputation as a chore; it is more in the area of motivation than in the exercise of strength. Sixth, Love does not rise out of impossibility; that is because it comes out of possibility and permission. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19
All things considered, whoever knows how to love has the strength for everything, fills to overflowing, causes every effect. The one who has not learned to love merely flops to the floor in heap. Some more effects of Love. Love stands the night watch, yet sleeps with one eye open. Exhausted, it nonetheless does not nod off. Shoved, it shoves back. Terrified, it does not pass the terror down the line, but like a flickering flame, a smoking torch, it flares up and burns brighter than before. If you know how to love, then you can make out the words of this riotous shout. It is a burning affection of the soul clamoring in the ears of the Lord, echoing the Song of Songs (2.16): “Mine? You are all mine! Yours? I am all Yours!” Speech can accomplish more than an organizing function, in that it reminds us of imagery which we can hold on to at need—it keeps reverberations alive. The very action of saying things has consequences of a steadying kind. Speech enables people to reassess what has happened to them, to reconsider past events in the light of later experience and even, at a very deep level, to reorganize their understanding of themselves and of their World. It can even help to change the very structure of the personality. Talking puts experience into words. Sometimes talking allows us to connect experiences with words for the first time. This means that, sometimes for the first time ever, we are able to “give an account” of those experiences—we are conscious of them for the first time. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
Once the experiences are conscious, there are the experiences, and there is a narrator who is talking about them. Here we see a benign aspect of the process of depersonalizing and distancing. “I” am for the first time consciously distanced from what happened to me. I can get some perspective: “I then did this” or “Such and such happened to me next.” Moreover, the “I” and the “me” in these accounts have a curious status. There is continuity and identity: these experiences were not someone else’s but “mine” (the speaker’s), they belong to my self-regions. However, at the same time, the “I” who is doing the talking now is ten or twenty or more years older than “I” in the account. There is a distance between the self-structures-from-then and the self-structures-of-now, a gap of time. This allows for a new perspective and a new meaning. Meaning depends on context. I am not in a different context from then. If myself-structures today are more mature, more complex, with better ego-functions and capacities for respect and recognition, they may be able to hold and integrate the self-structures for then. Talking, and being understood, changes the nature of the connections between “I then” and “I now,” weakening them in some respects (“Because this happened to me twenty-four years ago, I need not be afraid of thunderstorms now”) and strengthening them in other respects (“I do not need to despise myself for having feared thunderstorms twenty-four years ago. I can stop despising myself and I can love myself.”) If I try to talk honestly to others about my past life, it comes up for review. The relation between my semantic self and my episodic self may also be challenged and changed when they confront one another. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
Sympathetic listening, and the knowledge that what happened when I was little, weak, and ignorant cannot happen to me now, give me the strength to try and remember how it was with me then. Between us, we can hold “me then.” Held, I dare given an account of hitherto hidden parts of my self. I can integrate them. This is one reason why friends are so important for our well-being, and why people who for some reason have been unable to make friends or to keep them may find psychotherapeutic groups useful. Sometimes with professionals who help people suffer misfortune and it leads them into difficulties where friends cannot help. However, in more fortunate circumstances, our friends can do a god deal of our organizing and ego-functioning with and for us. They do so anyway in the normal course of life, as we pass the time of day with hem, gossip about others, or explore the meaning of the Universe. They let us talk and blow off steam. They are patient while we talk nonsense. They talk a load of rubbish themselves. They relax us when we get too desperately tense, and amuse us. However, more particularly, good friends strengthen and diversify our ego-functioning: they produce speculations, explanations, and suggestions of their own for us to consider, and much else. Thus the passage which follows may be read in terms of friends or in terms of ego-functioning or in terms of organizing processes. They help us toward increasing knowledge of our selves: they produce new ideas, and they surprise us by changing and developing and expecting us to welcome the changes. Though they may be tolerant they will not put up with our nonsense indefinitely without protest. They love us and accept us and warm us and make us feel worth while. They help us sand firm under pressure. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
In times of crisis friends are especially important, sustaining us while we encounter and explore new things, encouraging us to carry on, holding us when we temporarily lose our footing in the stress of reorganizing our concepts. They take care of us and step in when, in the course of the temporary disorganization which new developments may bring, we are about to do something permanently detrimental to our interests. Some people are able to give sense and direction to their lives by commitment to a cause or a task. There are many who can put something non-personal into the center of their lives. I may have got no foundation for self-love from the love of others, but by being part of something admirable, I can make my life worthwhile. Some people who take this second chance will come to have a deep and rich identity, in terms of which they organize their lives. However, others will not integrate in this organized way, and yet feel held by a sense of purpose and coherence because they know what they are doing and that it is worth while. Such people present quite a range. At one end are those who are contained within an ordered social system such as traditional societies are said to afford, or religious orders or other ideologically committed groups; these will be exercising individual judgment only in narrowly restricted areas. At the other extreme are people in the fragmented societies with which most readers will be familiar. Yet even here, those of us who have no solid sense of who we are, independent of what we do, may find significance in what we are doing and feel held by it. Many creative people belong in this category. As one creation is accomplished, hey suffer a kind of “post-coital depression,” but this when the next project begins to define itself. At a less elevated level are many of us who can always cheer ourselves up by the accomplishment of small tasks well done: shoes shined, cakes baked, lawns mown, letters written. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
What gives a person the sense of being well and “together”? There are many indications that if I am to have a deep, east, and steady sense of well-being and identity, I must not have had any experiences so bad that they have cut me off from my bodily self. If they have, I must make a new beginning. Secondly, I must have been experienced as a whole person to unconscious matter, but it is not mystical. It is neurological. Neurologically the infant forms a set of conceptual structures which are either closely interconnected or nor, depending on whether those who relate to the infant regard it as a baby or as a set of tasks requiring to be done. The baby who is regarded as a loud yell at one end and a bad smell at the other will carry that knowledge through life. Experiencing myself as loveable strengthens the basis for a sense of well-being and self-esteem yet further. This lovability must depend on having been valued for being myself rather than for anything I do. The value of something we cherish or that nourishes us must lie exactly in not being exciting and not having to work or be worked for. A poorly cathected self is one which has experienced relatively little love, relatively little respect for its manifestations, relatively little empathy; lacking feelings of value and power, there are no deep roots for later self-esteem to develop from. The baby who is recognized as a person from the start is able to use this experience of recognition as a validation of itself, and can let the consequent imagery of itself perform holding functions. This in turn creates the right conditions for further integrating processes. The changes that a long-established habit of walking on two feet could have brough about in the conformation of humans, the relations that are still observed between one’s arms and the forelegs of quadrupeds, and the induction drawn from their manner of walking, could have given rise to doubts about the manner that must have been the most natural to us. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
All children begin by walking on all fours, and need our example and our lessons to learn to stand upright. There are even savage nations, such as Hottentots, who, greatly neglecting their children, allow them to walk on their hands for so long that they then have a great deal of trouble getting them to straighten up. The children of the Caribs of the Antilles do the same thing. There are various examples of quadruped men, and I could cite among others that of the child who was found in 1344 near Hesse, where he had been raised by wolves, and who said afterward at the court of Prince Henry that, had the decision been left exclusively to him, he would have preferred to return to the wolves than to live among men. He had embraced to such an extent the habit of walking like those animals, that wooden boards had to be attached to him to force him to stand upright and maintain his balance on two feet. It was the same with the child who was found in 1694, in the forests of Lithuania, and who lived among bears. He did not give rise, says M. de Condillac, any sign of reason, walked on his hands and feet, had no language, and formed sounds that bore no resemblance whatever to those of a man. The little savage of Hanover, who was brought to the court of England several years ago, had all sorts of trouble getting himself to walk on two feet. And in 1719, two other savages, who were found in the Pyrenees, ran about the mountains in the manner of quadrupeds. As for the objection one might make that this deprives one of the use of one’s hands from which we derive so many advantages, over and above the fact that the example of monkeys shows that the hand can be used quite well in both ways, this would prove only that man can give one’s limbs a destination more congenial than that of nature, and not that nature has destined man to walk otherwise than it teaches one. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
However, there are, it seems to me, much better reasons to state in support of the claim that humans are bidped. First, if it were shown that they could have originally been formed otherwise than we see one and yet finally become what one is, this would not suffice to conclude that this is how it happened; for, after having shown the possibility of these changes, it would still be necessary, prior to granting them, t demonstrate at least their probability. Moreover, if humans’ arms seem as if they could have served as legs when needed, it is the sole observation favorable to that system, out of a great number of others which are contrary to it. The chief ones are that the manner in which humans’ head is attached to one’s body, instead of directing one’s view horizontally (as is the case for all other animals and for humans themselves when one walks upright), would have kept one, while walking on all fours, with one’s eyes fixed directly on the ground, a situation hardly conducive to the preservation of the individual; that the tail one is lacking, and for which one has no use when walking on two feet, is useful to quadrupeds, and none of them is deprived of one; that the breast of a woman, very well located for a biped who holds her child in her arms, is so poorly located for a quadruped that none has it located in that way; that, since the hind part is of an excessive height in proportion to the forelegs (which causes us to crawl on our knees when walking on all fours), the whole would have made an animal that was poorly proportioned and that walked comfortably; that if one has places one’s foot as well as one’s hand down flat, one would have had one less articulation in the hind leg than do other animals, namely the one that joins canon to the tibia; and that by setting down only the tip of the foot, as doubtlessly one would have been forced to do, the tarsus (not to mention the plurality of bones that make it up) appears too large to take the place of the canon, and its articulations with the metatarsus and the tibia too close together to give the human leg in this situation the same flexibility as those of quadrupeds. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
Since the example of children is taken from an age when natural forces are not yet developed nor the members strengthened, it proves nothing whatever. I might just as well say that dogs are not destined to walk because several weeks after their birth they merely crawl. Particular facts also have little force against the universal practice of all humans; even nations that have had no communication with others could not have imitated anything about them. A child abandoned in a forest before one is able to walk, and nourished by some beast, will have followed the example of one’s nurse in training oneself to walk like the figure of dependence. Habit could have given one capabilities one did not have from nature and just as one-armed humans are successful, by dint of exercise, at doing with their feet whatever we do with our hands, one will finally have succeeded in using one’s hands as feet. Psychology receives much criticism, but it can be used to complement Christian faith. In celebrating the complementary relationships that exist between psychology and religion we must not, however, delude ourselves into thinking that there are no conflicts. As when we build a tunnel between two territories, it sometimes happens that the two ends of the tunnel simply do not connect. The two tunnels of psychology and religion may fail to connect because the two disciplines start off guided by different underlying values. The two fields may also fail to connect because they approach a subject with two utterly different conceptions of it. A case in point is the idea of giftedness. Consider the concept of giftedness as found in an older educational psychology and then in the New Testament. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
A family down the block has one. So do several of our colleagues. One family we know has two of them. And each of these families knowns of other families who have one: a gifted child. All across America a great hunt is on to find more gifted children. A promotional letter from the Gifted Children Newsletter solicited subscriptions from parents who “have the sneaking suspicion your child is special in some way.” And how many are special? Dorothy Sisk, former director of the U.S. Office of Gifted and Talented, estimate that “approximately 3 to 5 percent of the school age-population could be considered gifted and talented.” The implication is that the other 95 percent are not gifted. And that explains why, despite the lobbying of the mostly European American, upper-middle-class parents of these children, most school districts find “there generally are not enough gifted children” in their town to justify special programs for their gifted children. Nevertheless, the psychology and education of a gifted few has become something approaching a social movement. Several national associations for the gifted have sprung up, as have journals and magazines. Nearly every state now as a coordinator of programs for the gifted. Virtually everyone agrees that the gifted-child movement will serve a valuable purpose if it pushes schools to treat children as individuals. Not every third-grader should be taking the same spelling test and working the same math problems. Better if we can find ways to individualize instructions so that no child is bored by work that is too easy or frustrated by tasks too hard. The challenge is to provide opportunities and rewards for individuals of every degree of ability so that students at every level will realize their full potentialities, perform at their best and harbor n resentment toward any other level. However, the problem with the gifted-child movement, says its critics, is that it does not affirm and stimulate individuals of every ability level and, worse, may provoke resentment or self-disparagement among those implicitly labeled “not gifted or talented.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
The gifted may get to visit computer centers, do special art and science projects, visit museums, and hear guest speakers, while the nongifted remain in their classrooms, wondering why they are excluded. Moreover, labels such as “gifted” and “not gifted” can be self-confirming. In experiments, teachers who are told that certain children fit such labels, or students who are led to feel competent or incompetent by receiving such labels, sometimes act in ways that make the label into a reality. In all the hoopla over giftedness, what most people miss is the arbitrariness of the concept. We forget that giftedness is only a concept, artificially defined by scores among the top 3 or 4 percent of some test of aptitude or intelligence. We begin to assume that giftedness really exists out there somewhere. We come to believe it is like a red hair: children either have it of they do not. Actually, giftedness is a decision made in the minds of those who use the word. Nothing is gifted until someone names it that. Nature has no clustered children into well-defined groups corresponding to our value-laden labels. We, not nature, decide what is a flower and what is a weed. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, a weed is but a flower that someone decides does not belong in the garden. The arbitrariness of designating what is and what is not gifted becomes apparent when we try to agree on a practical definition. To the Yanomamo Indians of South America, giftedness is possession of the skills of a great hunter and warrior. To Suzuki violin teachers, it is musical talent. In middle-class America, one finds almost as many definitions of the term as articles on gifted children. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
However, in order to pigeon-hold children as gifted or not gifted, we must somehow measure their giftedness. Thus we often reduce it to a score on a one-dimensional device that measures not artistic talent or leadership skill or physical prowess or any other gift that a particular child may have, but IQ score. Several other quite extraordinary advances are taking place in society and transforming the way we make things. As some industries move from mass to small batch production, others are already moving beyond that toward full customization on a continuous-flow basis. Instead of starting and stopping production at the beginning and end of each short run, they are advancing to the point at which the machines can continuously reset themselves, so that he units of output—each one different from the next—stream from the machines in an unbroken flow. In a nutshell, we are racing toward the machine customization on a round-the-clock, continuous basis. Another significant change, as we shall shortly see, brings the customer more directly than ever before into the manufacturing process. In some industries we are only a step removed from a situation in which a customer-company pipes its specifications directly into the manufacturer’s computers, which will in turn control the production lines. As this practice becomes widespread, the customer will become so integrated into the production process that we will find it more and more difficult to tell just who is actually the consumer and who the producer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
Finally, while Second Wave manufacture was Cartesian in the sense that products were broken into pieces, then painstakingly reassembled, Third Wave manufacture is post-Cartesian or “wholistic.” This is illustrated by what has happened to common manufactured products like the wristwatch. Whereas watches once had hundreds of moving parts, we are now able to make solid-state watches that are more accurate and reliable—with no moving parts at all. Similarly, today’s Panasonic TV set is more of a computer than TV made just ten years ago. They are thinner, more stylish, have higher quality digital signage and a much more vibrant and enhanced picture. As tiny microprocessors—those tiny miracle chips again—turn up in more and more products making them more efficient, better quality, and more enthralling. These new electronics certainly are gifted. And of course with technology, not only is everything becoming more stylish, devices are also becoming more compact and reliable. Computers have made it where watches can be used as telephones, lightweight laptops have replaced bulk desktops, and cameras can function perfectly underwater or catch moving objects clearly (as long as that is what they are designed for). By intervening at the molecular level, by using computer-assisted design or other advanced manufacturing tools, we integrate more and more functions into fewer and fewer parts, substituting “wholes” for many discrete components. What is occurring can be compared to the rise of computers in residential agriculture. Instead of simply setting a program or watering the yard by hand, new tools now allow your sprinkler system to analyze moisture content, types of vegetation, and the weather to decide how much water is needed and when. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
There are even small robots that can weed your garden for you on a constant basis so one never sees a weed sprouting. We are also beginning to see this “presto effect” in construction and manufacturing. The question is with things becoming more automated, more expensive, and more efficient, will the human population respond by decreasing because they will not be as needed as in the past, and it would not be wise to have a population of people, who cannot afford to live, overcrowding our communities and sitting idle. The pattern becomes clear, therefore. Vast changes in the techno-sphere and the info-sphere have converged to change the way we make goods. We are moving rapidly beyond traditional mass production to a sophisticated mix of mass and de-massified products. The ultimate goal of this effort is now apparent: completely customized goods, made with wholistic, continuous-flow processes, increasingly under the direct control of the consumer. In brief, we are revolutionizing the deep structure of production, sending currents of change through every layer of society. However, this transformation, which will affect the student planning a career, the business planning an investment, or the nation planning a development strategy, cannot und understood in isolation. It must be seen in direct relationship to yet another revolution—this one in the office. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Artificial intelligence will raise humanity to the heights of power and immortality many have envisioned. Throughout the World, hundred of people are making a difference in their neighborhoods, their communities, and their country. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
In the public service arena, God loving people are changing laws, shaping school curricula, working for peace, laboring against bad habits, and helping elect good men and women to public office—or running for office themselves. The alternative to the succession model in the suburbs is the parallel growth model. What this suggests is that suburbs show both European American growth, as well as growth of other races and/or cultures. This appears to have been the more common pattern for recent decades, with comparatively less racial turnover when compared to the patten in central cities. Even thirty to four years ago, when non-dominate culture groups rates of suburbanization were already exceeding European American rates, there was no major pattern of succession of suburbs from European American to non-European America. However, we have seen European Americans move totally out of some areas, and that is mostly due to an increase in wealth. They can afford other neighborhoods usually because they have seen growth in equity in their homes, they are more established in their careers, and have been left an inheritance. This is also because America is a country that allows immigration, so as new people move in, they tend to inhabit costal communities, which can cause them to become more populated and increase prices. However, costal communities are also where more business hubs are because back in the days when things traveled by ships, that is where they docked and most commerce took place. Many suburbs are not turning over racially because European Americans make up 60.1 percent of the population. So rapid displacement of European Americans is not occurring everywhere, but is starting to happen as our nation diversifies. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
African Americans in the suburbs tend to have a higher income than those in central cities. In metropolitan areas with a population of at least a million, African American suburban families had an average income of $66.840.83. That is 55 percent higher than the average income of central-city African Americans in the same metropolitan areas. It is interesting, however, that not all non-Europeans are open to integration and diversity. In seeking that suburban dream, some middle-class non-European American families are deliberately forgoing the American dream of an integrated society. For instance, many Asian American moved to Greenhaven/Pocket in South Sacramento, which is an upper-middle class suburb. Serval African Americans moved to suburbs such as Rolling Oaks in the Miami area and Brook Glen and Wyndham Park outside Atlanta, which represents for many middle-class African Americas an affirmative decision to live in predominately African American suburbs. Race is still a core variable in American society, but class is more important than race in determining one’s neighbors. For much of the middle class, race is increasingly being supplanted by the social-class variables of income, education, and occupations. As we are well into the new century, the variables of social class are affecting housing decisions. While middle-class neighbors of any race are becoming increasingly acceptable, lower-class neighbors are not. People tend to want peace and quiet in their neighborhoods. They want to feel safe. They want their kids to be able to play in their backyards and they do not want their property vandalized or stolen. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Believe it or not, there are still some communities in America where people live their doors unlocked and their keys in their cars. And it is not because they are forgetful, but because their communities are just that safe and peaceful. Overall the pattern of housing in America is one of optimism and some discouragement. The 1968 Fair Housing Act has displaced most government or illegal segregation in America. Many European Americas accept open housing principal. Neighborhood or suburban racial changeover is no longer triggered by the presence of non-European America residents, but European Americans and others still exhibit reluctance to move into predominantly non-European American areas. The old racial segregation is largely becoming history, and because many people are driven by money and sales, racial steering by real estate agents and discrimination against non-European Americans by banks and financial institutions is less common. There are even loans for people who have income, but cannot verify that income, called non-prime loans. These people can afford expensive houses, but may not be able to prove where their money is coming from, and the banks want to accommodate them because cash is king! Over the decades suburbs have taken much criticism as being the recipients of white flight and the last bastion of the lace front curtain, white shoe law firm community. However, as indicated, the data shows a much more complex racial mosaic. Suburbs are becoming more multiracial and multiethnic. Ironically, as we enter the new century, the suburbs have the opportunity to achieve what the cities largely have failed to accomplish: truly racially integrated communities. To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gentle, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never—in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to by my symphony. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
I have come to terms with the future. From this day onward I will walk easy on the Earth. Plant trees. Kill no living things. Live in harmony with all creatures. I will restore the Earth where I am. Use no more of its resources than I need. And listen, listen to what it is telling me. Were the sky of parchment made, a quill each reed, each twig, and blade o, could we with ink the oceans fill, were every human a scribe of skill, the marvelous story of God’s greatest glory would still remain untold; for He, Most High, the Earth and sky created alone of old. Without fatigue or weary hand, He spoke the word, He breathed command; the World and all that therein dwell, field and meadow, fen and fell, mount and sea, in six days He with life did then inspire; the work when ended, His glory ascended upon His throne of fire. Before Him myriads angels flash, to praise the Mighty One, Ancient of Days; six-winged hosts stand at their posts—the flaming Seraphim—in hushed awe together draw to chant their morning hymn. The angels, together, without delay, call one to another in rapturous lay: “Thrice holy He whose majesty fills Earth from end to end.” The Cherubim soar, like the ocean’s roar, on celestial spheres, ascend, to gaze upon the Light on high, which, like the bow in cloudy sky, is iris-colored, silver-lined; while hasting on their assigned, in every tongue they utter song and bless and praise the Lord, whose secret and source, whose light and force can never be explored. There is the peace which comes from having a well-filled stomach. There is the peace of the graveyard. However, a glimpse gives us the highest peace, the Shanti of Indian sages, that which passeth understanding of the New Testament. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
Cresleigh Homes
When your home looks like the set of a California rom-com, you know you’ve made the right choice! Brighton Station Residence 4 is one of the largest floorplans available on the market! 👌 https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-4/
When entering this expansive home, take note of the two story ceiling height at the entry. There is a bedroom on the first floor, located off the entry, with its own bathroom making it ideal for a guest suite or multigenerational living. The formal dining room provides ample space for entertaining and has convenient access to the kitchen via Butler’s Pantry.
I am a Simple Doctor–All I Wanted to do Here Was to Found a Small Hospital!
Dear friend, you need to do two things. First, “Walk with Me,” as My Father in Heaven told the decrepit Abraham in Genesis, “and let Truth come with us” (12.1). Second, “Seek Me always in the sincerity of your heart,” as the Wisdom of Solomon said right at the beginning (1.1). Do these two things, and you will be protected from the bandit horde. Punishment calls for “retributive suffering.” However, discipline is “training that corrects, molds, or perfects.” Punishment is directed at the child oneself. Discipline is directed more at the objectionable behavior of the child; it is something we do for our children, not to them. The common goal is to establish a home where harmony, respect, and love abound. However, as we attempt to teach our children to “walk uprightly before the Lord,” Doctrine and Covenants 68.28, our methods will strongly influence our children’s behavior and self-image—and these either encourage or impede the results we are seeking. The heart of child management is the relationship between parents and their children. There are four basic ingredients of positive parent-child interactions. First of all, mutual respect is very important. Effective parents try to avoid nagging, hitting, debating, and talking down to their children. They also avoid doing things for their children that children can do for themselves. (Constantly stripping children of opportunities to learn and take responsibility prevents them from becoming independent and developing self-esteem.) Second come shared enjoyment. Effective parents spend some time each day with their children, doing something that both the parent and child enjoy. Third comes love. This goes almost without saying, but many parents assume their children know that they are loved. It is important to show them you care—in words and by actions such as hugging. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19
The fourth tool in the child management program is encouragement. Children who get frequent encouragement come to believe in themselves. Effective parents do not just praise their children for success, winning, or good behavior. They also recognize a child’s progress and attempts to improve. Show you have faith in children by letting them try things on their own and by encouraging their efforts. Creative communication is another important ingredient of successful child management. Making a distinction between feelings and behavior is the key to clear communication. Since children (and parents, too) do not choose how they feel, it is important to allow free expression of feelings. The child who learns to regard some feelings as “bad,” or unacceptable, is being asked to deny a very real part of one’s experience. Parents are encouraged to teach their children that all feelings are appropriate; it is only actions that are subject to disapproval. Many parents are unaware of just how often they block communication and the expression of feelings in their children. Consider this typical conversation:
Son: I am stupid, and I know it. Look at my grades in school.
Father: You just have to work harder.
Son: I already work harder and it does not help. I have no brains.
Father: You are smart, I know it.
Son: I am stupid, I know it.
Father: (loudly) You are not stupid!
Son: Yes, I am!
Father: You are not just good. You are the best!
#RandolphHarris 2 of 19
By debating with the child, the father misses the point that his son feels stupid. It would be far more helpful for the father to encourage the boy to talk about his feelings. How could he do that? He might say, “You really feel that you are not as smart as others, do you not? Do you feel this way often? Are you feeling bad at school?” In this way, the child is given a chance to express his emotions and to feel understood. The father might conclude by saying, “Look, son, in my eyes you area fine person. However, I understand how you feel. Everyone feels inadequate at times.” Again, it is valuable to remember that supportive parents encourage their children. In order for any organization to run effectively, it must establish a set of bylaws. A family also needs bylaws to prescribe boundaries for behavior. If parents do not have a specific, deliberate plan for discipline, they are likely to rely simply on instinct and react emotionally. At our weekly family council, we mutually agree upon rules which all must abide by. We also establish consequences for disobedience. In this way, everyone is aware of the rules and the consequences; there are no surprises. And the consequences are predicable and consistent. As a family, we have come to recognize that certain behaviors are “love destroying acts” and therefore cannot be tolerated. These include such things as sassing, teasing, and name-calling. “Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 132.8. Order is an eternal principle—an important characteristic of the kingdom of God. We are instructed to follow the pattern and set our own houses in order. “And now a commandment I give unto you—if you will be delivered you shall set in order your own house,” Doctrine and Covenants 93.43. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19
An orderly home depends upon well-defined and well-understood rules. One way the Lord maintains order in His kingdom is to bless those who obey certain laws. “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this World, upon which all blessings are predicated—and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 130.20, 21. An orderly home also operates on this important principle. Family rules must be established and observed before the blessing of family harmony can be attained. Truth will free you—as I said to the Jewish people who believed in Me, and as the Beloved Disciple recorded in his Gospel (8.32)—from the seductions and detractions of those who hunt you down. Yes, Truth has freed you already; and when you are truly free, you do no care what epithets the vain World slings at you. “A light that shone from behind the sun; the sun was not so fierce as to pierce where that light could,” reports Charles Williams. The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this. Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment of Nature’s total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation. There is no question in Christianity of arbitrary interferences just scattered about. It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the various steps of a strategically coherent invasion—an invasion which intends complete conquest and “occupation.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 19
The fitness, and therefore credibility, of the particular miracles depends on their relation to the Grand Miracle; all discussion of then is isolated from it is futile. The fitness or credibility of the Grand Miracle itself cannot, obviously, be judged by the same standard. And let us admit at once that it is very difficult to find a standard by which it can be judged. If the thing happened, it was he central event in the history of the Earth—the very thing that the whole story has been about. Since it happened only once, it is by Hume’s standards infinitely improbable. However, then the whole history of the Earth has also happened only once; is it therefore incredible? Hence the difficulty, which weighs upon Christian and atheist alike, of estimating the probability of the Incarnation. It is like asking whether the existence of Nature herself is intrinsically probable. That is why it is easier to argue, on historical grounds, that the Incarnation actually occurred than to show, on philosophical grounds, the probability of its occurrence. The historical difficulty of giving for the life, sayings and influence of Jesus any explanation that is not harder than the Christian explanation, is very great. The discrepancy between the depth and sanity and (let me add) shrewdness of His moral teaching and the rampant megalomania which must lie behind His theological teaching unless He is indeed God, has never been satisfactorily got over. Hence the non-Christian hypotheses succeed one another with the restless fertility of bewilderment. Today we are asked to regard all the theological elements as later accretions to the story of a “historical” and merely human Jesus: yesterday we were asked to believe that the whole thing began with vegetation myths and mystery religions and that the pseudo-historical Man was only fadged up at a later date. However, this historical inquiry is outside the scope of my book. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19
Since the Incarnation, if it is a fact, holds this central position, and since we are assuming that we do not yet know it to have happened on historical grounds, we are in a position which may be illustrated by the following analogy. Let us suppose we possess parts of a novel or a symphony. Someone now brings us a newly discovered piece of manuscript and says, “This is the missing part of the work. This is the chapter on which the whole plot of the novel really turned. This is the main theme of the symphony.” Our business would be to see whether new passage, if admitted to the central place which the discoverer claimed for it, did actually illuminate all the parts we had already seen and “pull them together.” Nor should we be likely to go very far wrong. The new passage, if spurious, however, attractive it looked at the first glance, would become harder and harder to reconcile with the rest of the work the longer we considered the matter. However, if it were genuine, then at every fresh hearing of the music or every fresh reading of the book, we should find it settling down, making itself more at home, and eliciting significance from all sorts of details in the whole work which we had hitherto neglected. Even though the new central chapter or main theme contained great difficulties in itself, we should still think it genuine provided that it continually removed difficulties elsewhere. Something like this we must do with the doctrines of the Incarnation. Here, instead of a symphony or a novel, we have the whole mass of our knowledge. The credibility will depend on the extent to which the doctrine, if accepted, can illuminate and integrate that whole mass. It is much less important that the doctrine itself should be fully comprehensible. We believe that the sun is in the sky at midday in summer no because we can clearly see the sun (in fact, we cannot) but because we can see everything else. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19
The first difficulty that occurs to any critic of the doctrine lies in the very center of it. What can be meant by “God becoming man”? In what sense is it conceivable that eternal self-existent Spirit, basic Fact-hood, should be so combined with a natural human organism as to make one person? And this would be a fatal stumbling-block if we had not already discovered that in every human being a more than natural activity (the fact of reasoning) and therefore presumably a more than natural agent is thus united with a part of Nature: so united that the composite creature calls itself “I” and “Me.” I am not, of course, suggesting that what happened when God became Man was simply another instance of this process. In other men a supernatural creature thus becomes, in union with the natural creature, one human being. In Jesus, it is held, the Supernatural Creator Himself did so. I do not think anything we can do will enable us to imagine the mode of consciousness of the incarnate God. That is where the doctrine is not fully comprehensible. However, the difficulty which we felt in the mere idea of the Supernatural descending into the Natural is apparently non-existent, or is at least overcome in the person of every human. If we did not know by experience what it feels like to be a rational terrestrial being—how all these natural facts, all this biochemistry and instinctive affection or repulsion and sensuous perception, can become the medium of rational thought and moral will which understand necessary relations and acknowledge mode of behavior as universally binding, we could not conceive, much less imagine, the thing happening. The discrepancy between a movement of atoms in an astronomer’s cortex and one’s understanding that there must be s till unobserved planet beyond Uranus, is already so immense that the Incarnation of God Himself is, in one sense, scarcely more startling. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19
We cannot conceive how the Divine Spirit dwelled within the created and human spirit of Jesus: but neither can we conceive how His human spirit, or that of any human, dwells within one’s natural organism. What we can understand, if the Christian doctrine is true, is that our own composite existence is not sheer anomaly it might seem to be but a faint image of the Divine Incarnation itself—the same theme in a very minor key. We can understand that if God so descends into a human spirit, and human spirit so descends into Nature, and our thoughts into our senses and passions, and if adult minds (but only the best of them) can descend into sympathy with children, and men into sympathy with beasts, then everything hands together and the total reality, both Natural and Supernatural, in which we are living is more multifariously and subtly harmonious than we had suspected. We catch sight of a new key principle—the power of the Higher, just in so far as it truly Higher, to come down, the power of the greater to include the less. Thus solid bodies exemplify many truths of plane geometry, but plane figures no truths of solid geometry: many inorganic propositions are true of organisms but no organic propositions are true of minerals; Montaigne became kittenish with his kitten but she never talked philosophy to him. Everywhere the great enters the little—its power to do so is almost the test of its greatness. In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human phases of life; down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19
However, He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined World up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. One must stoop in order to lift, one must almost disappear under the load before one incredibly straightens one’s back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on one’s shoulders. Or one may think of a diver, first reducing oneself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and of decay; then up again, back to color and light, one’s lungs almost bursting, till suddenly one breaks surface again, holding in one’s hand the dripping, precious thing that one went down to recover. One and it are both colored now that they have come up into the light: down below, where it lay colorless in the dark, one lost one’s color too. In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognize a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the World. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends. It is the pattern of all animal generation too. There is descent from the full and perfect organisms into the spermatozoon and ovum, and in the dark womb a life at first inferior in kind to that of the species which is being reproduced: then the slow ascent to the perfect embryo, to the living, conscious baby, and finally to the adult. So it is also in our moral and emotional life. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19
The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial: but from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and Re-birth—go down to go up—it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies. The doctrine of the Incarnation, if accepted, puts this principle even more emphatically at the center. The pattern is there in Nature because it was first there in God. All the instances of which I have mentioned turn out to be but transpositions of the Divine theme into a minor key. I am not now referring simply to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. The total pattern, of which they are only the turning point, is the real Death and Re-birth: for certainly no seed ever fell from so fair a tree into so dark and cold a soil as would furnish more than a faint analogy to this huge descent and re-ascension in which God dredged the salt and oozy bottom Creation. From this point of view the Christian doctrine makes itself so quickly at home amid the deepest apprehension of reality which we have from other sources, that doubt may spring up in a new direction. Is it not fitting in too well? So well that it must have come into humans’ minds from seeing this pattern elsewhere, particularly in the annual death and resurrection of the corn? For there have, of course, been many religions in which that annual drama (so important for life of the tribe) was almost admittedly the central theme, and the deity—Adonis, Osiris, or another—almost undisguisedly a personification of the corn, a “corn-king” who died and rose again each year. Is not Christ simply another corn-king? #RandolphHarris 10 of 19
All words are pegs to hang ideas on. One of psychology’s perennial chicken-and-egg questions is, Which comes first, thoughts or words? Do ideas arise first and await words to name them? Or are thoughts born of words and inconceivable without them? As usually happens with such either/or questions, the answer seems to be both: thinking shapes language, which shapes thought. Some thoughts precede the words used to express them. Consider: to tighten a screw, which direction do you turn it? Very likely, you first visualize the answer without words and only then expressed your thought in words such as “clockwise,” or “to the right.” Likewise, many artists, composers, poets, mathematicians, and scientists achieve creative insights as images. Peak religious moments, too, are sometimes experienced inarticulately; later the person struggles to express the mystical experience within the confines of language but finds it, as the apostle Paul reported, “inexpressible.” If words are sometimes the mere containers of ideas, they are nevertheless containers that shape the thoughts poured into them. Indeed, argued the linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf, “Language itself shapes a human’s basic ideas.” As evidence of the power of language to shape thought Whorf pointed to the differing conceptions of reality in those who speak different languages. Because Eskimos have a variety of words that describe snow, he argued, they can more readily perceive differences in snow that often go unnoticed by English speakers. Because the Hopi Indian language has no past tense for verbs, the Hopi people cannot so readily think about the past. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19
Likewise, people who are bilingual will readily testify that certain concepts are available to them in one language but not the other. The language-thought relationship is why so much of education is devoted to enlarging students’ vocabularies. It pays to increase your word power. As Henry Ward Beecher realized, words are pegs to hang ideas on. When trained in sign language, even chimpanzees behave with an enlarged thinking power. Because our words influence how we think, we do well to choose our words carefully. Our labels for things affect our thoughts about them. Whether a space weapons program is termed “Star Wars” or “The Peace Shield” can subtly affect people’s thoughts and feelings about it. Liberation movements recognize this power of words to shape thought. When African American men were called “boys” or “buddy” and when women were called “girls” and “dolls” it was easy to think of them as unequal to European American men. Recognizing that racist and sexist language undergirds racist and sexist thought, a liberation movement may choose as one of its first goals that of changing the way people talk. What is true in other realms of life is also true of religion. Our words influence our thoughts. For example, some words reflect and reinforce our tendency to think of reality as dualistic (divided into distinct categories) rather than as a unified whole. We dichotomize supernatural and natural forces, sacred and secular truths, mental and bodily realms, spiritual and material needs. Such dualisms, which as we noted in the past are more congenial with platonic than biblical assumptions, depend on certain religious words, such as soul. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19
Praying about another’s soul surely reflects a concern for the person’s ultimate welfare, which can only be applauded. However, concern for another’s soul can easily degenerate into concern for an imaginary person inside the person, while one ignores the needs of the very real person who is depressed, hurting, hungry, or lonely. If we were to expunge words such as soul from our vocabulary, it would become harder to think in dualistic terms. Similarly, we may talk of Christian life. The very words enable us to think of the Christian life as but one aspect of life, separate from one’s school life, life involving pleasures of the flesh, vocational life, or family life. The result is a compartmentalized view of life that assigns a corner of religion—that concerning prayer, worship, and the like—as distinct from one’s studies, one’s dating and family relationships, or one’s aspirations. To rid oneself of such dualistic thinking, a simple first step to avoid phrases such as Christian Life or spiritual life. Even in the struggle to find alternative words, one begins to view life more as a whole, no corner of which is irrelevant to being Christian. For the Christian, all vocations can be ministry, all learning is exploration of the Creator’s World, all human relations are opportunities for embodying God’s love. Or consider the adjectives that people are fond of piling up before the word Christian. It is not enough to be simply a Christian. One must be an evangelical Christian, a mainline Christian, a Bible-believing Christian, a born-again Christian, or even a really truly born-again Christian. One scores additional points, it seems, by piling the adjectives in top of one another. Thus we have Bible-believing, Bible-teaching Christians, and even a few really truly born-again, Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, evangelical Christians. Such words describe but also divine. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19
The tendency of Christians (or Muslims or any other religious groups) to focus on the differences rather than their kinship with others illustrates a powerful phenomenon: people’s self-concepts center on their distinctiveness. For example, William McGuire and his Yale University colleagues report that when children are asked to tell about themselves, they spontaneously mention how they differ from others. Children born in countries not native to the one they live in or are visiting are more likely than others to mention their birthplace; redheads are more likely than black- and brown-haired children to volunteer their hair color; below average weight and above average weight children are more likely to refer to their body weight; non-dominate culture children are the most likely to mention their race or culture/ The principle, says McGuire, is that “one is conscious of oneself insofar as, and in the ways that, one is different.” Thus: “If I am an African American man in a group of European American men, I tend to think of myself as an African American; if I move to a group of African American women, my African Americaness loses salience and I become more conscious of being a man.” This insight helps us understand why Christians so often label themselves as distinct from other Christians, especially in predominately Christian cultures. In India, Christians are more likely to see themselves simply as “Christian” (as distinct from Hindu or Muslim) and to feel a kindship with other Christians. In the United States of America, where a majority of the population claims to be Christian, one’s distinctive identity is more likely to be a subcategory of Christian. The result is that one begins to see most fellow Christians and certainly most fellow humans as “they” and only those within one’s faction as “we.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 19
Social psychologists have also become intrigued by a subtle but reliable in–group bias phenomenon. Merely assigning people an arbitrary label that they share with certain others triggers a tendency to favor one’s own group and to disparage those assigned a different label. In his novel Slapstick, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. illustrated the phenomenon: computers gave everyone a new middle name, whereupon all “Daffodil-11s” felt kinship with one another and distance from “Raspberry-13s.” It is a point worth remembering: the labeling of who we are—our race, gender, religious denomination, and the like—also implies a definition of who we are not. The circle that defines “us” excludes “them.” Devotion to and pride in one’s own ethic heritage or school or nation—or religious group—often creates a devaluation of other ethnic groups or schools or nations or religious groups. To label oneself as one of “Paul’s people” or “Apollo’s people,” or as fundamentalist, evangelical, mainline, or liberal, can be descriptive. However, it can also be divisive and a source of a spiritual pride that negates Jesus’ prayer “that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the World may believe that you have sent me.” Other words, and the images they carry, are more helpful. To say, as the apostle Paul did, that all Christians are members of one body acknowledges and accepts differences, yet encourages us to view other parts of the body as complementary to ourselves. Each part is unique and yet all work together—unity without uniformity. The moral: let us consider our words, for powerful ideas are hung upon them. There is an old proverb that say—be careful what you wish for, for you wish may come true. And if your wish is for immortality, it is something you will have to live with for a very long time. Did changes in the number of suburbanizing African Americans represent increasing housing integration, or merely the growth of all African American suburban areas? A related issue is whether the government’s goal should be racially integrated neighborhoods or freedom of choice for African Americans to live where they choose. Some non-dominant culture scholars suggest that the latter, rather than the former, has always been the African American priority. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19
Researchers refer to suburbs where one racial group replaces another as “displacement” or “succession” suburbs. The northern version of succession typically involves African Americans overflowing in substantial numbers from the central city into older and les desirable inner-ring suburbs. European American residents then, in turn, depart for newer suburbs further out. This type of central-to-periphery racial movement fits the ecological invasion-succession model of urban change first proposed by Chicago School sociologists in the 1920s. African American suburbanization of this type does not indicate racial integration, but rather the expansion of high-risk neighborhoods across city lines. The period of integration this type of suburbanization encompasses is only the interval between the arrival of the first African Americans and the departure of the last European Americans. Research examining the period before the 1980s indicates that the pattern of African American spillover into older and less desirable inner-ring suburban housing has empirical validity. Areas that were most prone to turn over racially where those in close proximity to all African American areas thus, a HUD studying interviewing African Americans and European Americans confirmed that lite actual residential integration had occurred. European Americans continued to show reluctance to move into areas they viewed likely to be incorporated into high-risk neighborhoods. A real fear was that inner-ring suburbs into which African Americans disproportionately were flowing would undergo the same economic difficulties and population declines that plague central cities. The assumption was that African Americans would remain concentrated in the inner suburbs abutting central-city high-risk neighborhoods. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19
The first holding which infants know about is an embrace which is physical. For the lucky ones this develops almost imperceptibly into understanding, respect, and validation, in the process of being taken care of—a more psychological sort of embrace. Embrace turns into recognition. At first, someone else has to hold me. Gradually I am able to do my share in taking care of my self. Fortunate people can embrace themselves: they can understand and accept themselves, respect and love themselves, and see to it they get their share of good things. However, still someone else has had to do it for them first. The same is true for ego-functioning—thinking, understanding, making connections, planning ahead, thinking back, comparing, taking into consideration, giving an account of, making sense of life. Ego-functioning is only one aspect of holding, but it is an important part. And I must have had a mother or someone who was my self and did my ego-functioning for me, before I can have a self of my own and do my own ego-functioning. Some people have had the blessings of natural integration more or less from their beginnings, and hold together effortlessly. Others will always have to give some attention to staying integrated. In conditions of stress, their integration will also be under stress. They always have to devote at least some small amount of energy to keeping the connections between parts of themselves intact, lest they find themselves acting on the basis of only part of who they are or what they know or what they want. How may this more effortful integration be maintained? For this we need the rationality which comes from highly developed ego-functioning. I do not mean that this must be a cold and unfeeling reasonableness. I mean the ability to take care of things intelligently and to take enough factors into account so that we need not regret our impulsive actions afterwards. However, even cold unfeeling rationality has a lot to commend it, when we contrast it with hot emotional irrationality. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19
Ego-functioning, even when divested of attractive social values, can integrate and hold together what would otherwise be a jumble of impulses and responses ungoverned by any principle. We need only look at the lives of those whose ego-functioning is suppressed by disease, distress, or the misuse of drugs, to be persuaded of this. We should not belittle the uses of the intellect. Ego-functioning can strengthen the integrating process. It is ego-functioning which strengthens the bonds between a valued self-imagery and other aspects of living. There are times when we need to remind ourselves who we are and how we wish to be. It is ego-functioning that enables us to say: “Although these people treat me like dirt, I know who I am and I am not dirt.” A number of writers have noticed how many of those who survived in extreme conditions, as Japanese prisoners of war, in German concentration camps, or during natural disasters, said afterwards that they had had important values or ideas which they exerted themselves to hold on to. Those of us who have fortunately not had to survive in such extreme circumstances, also know how to hold on to ideas which in turn hold us: “I do not want to be embarrassed or ashamed, as I would be if I were untrue to myself and did not keep this promise, which turns out hard to keep, so I had better get on and do what I said I would do.” Learning social skills takes practice. There is nothing “innate” about knowing how to meet people or start a conversation. Social skills can be directly practiced in a variety of ways. It can be helpful, for instance, to get a tape reorder and listen to several of your conversations. You may be surprised by the way your pause, interrupt, miss cues, or seem disinterested. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19
Similarly, it can be useful to look at yourself in a mirror and exaggerate facial expressions of surprise, interest, dislike, pleasure, and so forth. By such methods, most people can learn to put more animation and skill into their self-presentation. Let the trees be consulted before you take any action, every time you breathe in, thank a tree. Let treeroots crack parking lots at the World bank headquarters, let loggers be druids, specially trained and rewarded to sacrifice trees at auspicious times let carpenters be master artisans. Let lumber be treasured like gold, let chainsaws be played like saxophones, and let soldiers on maneuvers plant trees. Give police and criminals a shovel and a thousand seedlings. Let businessmen carry pocketfuls of acorns. Let newlyweds honeymoon in the woods. Walk, do not drive, stop reading newspapers, stop writing poetry, squat under a tree and tell stories. The day the saved of God traversed the deep dryshod, then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. Lo, sunken in deceit the Egyptian daughter’s feet, but lo, the Shulamite went shod in fair delight. Then a new song sang Thy redeemed thong. Thy banners Thou wilt set o’er those remaining yet, and gather those forlorn as gatherings ears of corn. Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. Those that have come to Thee under Thy seal to be, they from the birth are Thine bound by a holy sign. Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. Their token show to all whose eyes upon them fall: Lo, on their garments’ hem the fringe ordained for them! Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. For whom then are they sealed? Let truth be now revealed. Whose is the seal, and who shall claim the thread of blue? Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. Ah, take her as of yore, and cast her forth no more. Let sunlight crown her day and shadows flee away. Then a new song sang Thy redeemed throng. For Thy beloved throng still come to Thee with song, singing with one accord: “Now who is like Thee ‘mid the gods, O Lord?” Still Thy redeemed throng sing a new song. For the fathers’ sake Thou wilt save the children, yea, and bring redemption unto their children’s children. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who has redeemed America. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19
Cresleigh Homes
Cooking is a team sport when your kitchen island is this spacious! 👨🍳👩🍳 The stainless steel appliances and quartz countertops just might have you feeling like a contestant on Chopped! 🍗🧀🥖 https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/
Why are these People Out there More Prepare for Perdition than You are for Eternal Life?
If we fail to be vigilant, we may well find that the miracles which allows our greatness as a species, may well spell our doom. Underlying principles of respect that were once commonplace in society have increasingly given way to unkind behaviour. To help our children and youth sett aside the many negative examples that bombard them, we must first understand respect, reasons we sometimes act disrespectfully, gospel principles that apply, and ways we can be better teachers and exemplars of respect. There are at least two definitions of respect. The first refers to being polite or civil to those we meet or with whom we interact. This would include being respectful of a teacher. We hope grandchildren will treat grandparents respectfully during visits. We usually treat strangers with polite respect. Another meaning, however, refers to our feelings towards those who merit respect through honourable living. We admire their commitment or standards. For example, we might respect a sailor who gave up winning a boat race to save a man overboard. On the other hand, we do not respect one who embezzles or another who treats a child harshly in the supermarket. Yet if we were to interact with these people, we would likely treat them with respectful or polite manners, regardless of our feelings about their transgressions. Ultimately, even if we do not honour or admire their acts, we can treat people respectfully. As parents and leaders, we are to honour both definitions. We want children not only to treat us with respect—using good manners—but also to honour our standards, which we seek to exemplify through Christlike living. While the gospel teaches us to be respectful toward others without qualification, sometimes we may find ourselves falling into rationalizations about being disrespectful based on their behaviour. A person who cases a problems is often seen as warranting disrespectful treatment. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
It is probably fair to say that the animal rights movement has called needed attention to the abuse of animals for such purpose as testing cosmetics and other products. It has also encouraged development of alternatives that minimize the use of animals. For example, it may be possible to use computer simulations of animal behaviour for teaching and preliminary research. Also, use of animals could be limited to critical studies. However, again questions arise: Who is to say what research is worthwhile? Is it possible to guess where new knowledge will lead? Might a seemingly minor finding eventually unleash a breakthrough? Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from animal research is that anyone working with vulnerable subjects, be they animals, children, or those with special needs or disabilities, must maintain the highest ethical standards. Psychological studies are vital for advancing knowledge, but research cannot continue unless researchers are able to retain the public’s trust. The majority of psychological studies are harmless. However, some behavioural research does raise ethical and legal concerns. Anytime there is a risk of possible harm, investigators must ensure that subjects are protected and that strict ethical standards are upheld. There are some basic ethical guidelines for psychological research. Some must do no harm, accurately describe risks to potential subject, ensure that participation is voluntary, minimize any discomfort to participants, maintain confidentiality, do not unnecessarily invade privacy, use deception only when absolutely necessary. Remove any misconceptions caused by deception (debrief), provide results and interpretations to participants, and treat participants with dignity and respect. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
Respect is an expression of our sense of universal brotherhood or sisterhood—a testimony of our membership in the human family. It acknowledges our common humanity and shows our reverence for children of God. The gospel teaches us that we are to hold the same esteem for others that we hold for ourselves. “And again I say unto you, let every human esteem one’s brother (or sister) as oneself,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 38.25. Acting disrespectfully suggest we do not esteem the other person as ourselves. For example, prejudice is a result of disrespect for our fellow humans. We cannot participate in attitudes of prejudice without distancing ourselves from others. True respect, then, comes as we develop our ability to love our brothers and sisters as ourselves. Humility and affection? Sounds like trouble for me, O Lord, the sort one finds in psalmistries and prophecies. “Blessed is one whom You have brought up, O Lord, and taught about Your law,” as the Psalmist prayed (94.12-13); “may one not be swamped by the troubles!” And may one not ramble about the Earth like the ravaged Daughters of Zion in Isaiah (3.26)! Do not worry about the Prophets, My dear friend. I was their tutor from the beginning, as the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews correctly has it (1.1-2), and I have not stopped talking since. Funny thing, though. Nowadays, when I begin to speak, people feel their deafness coming on. They would rather heart the World than the Word of God; they would rather tickle the fancies of the flesh than tackle the fancy of God. Something is wrong here. The World promises a lot of pretty small stuff, much of it perishable, and guards the warehouse aggressively. However, when I promise Highest Quality and Lasting Value, the mortal heart begins to cringe. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
The World and its managers have no trouble commanding performance, but I have difficulty in finding just a few good people who will follow My commandments. “Run red with bloody shame, O Sidon, says the sea”; that is what the oracle about the destruction of Tyre and Sidon, those doleful cities, said in Isaiah (23.4). However, I, the Lord and Tailor of the Universe, have a question. Why do I always seem to come out on the short end? For a small benefic you will run a mile, but for Eternal Life you will not lift a single sandal. For a tinny toy people will haggle for the lowest price. However, why does just one coin seem to make so much difference? So the hagglers linger over the litigation until their faces turn red. And what is truly astonishing is that, for a vain premise or a small promise, they are not afraid to work themselves silly day and night. What a shame it is! For Incommutable Good, Inestimable Reward, Incomparable Honour, Interminable Glory, Humanity’s slow to break a sweat. Blush with the common beet, you sluggish and querulous soul, and answer Me these! Why are there people out there more prepared for perdition than you are for Eternal Life? Why do they rejoice more in Vanity than you in Verity? Why are their hopes always coming up short, and ye, for all their foolishness, they never seem sad? Why is that? What is wrong with My promises? Nothing that I can see. First, they do not lumber anyone. Second, they do not dismiss as dolts the persons who put confidence in Me. Third, I give what I promise; I fulfill what I order. Fourth, My only condition is that a person remain faithful to Me till the end. When you remember I am the Rigorous Examiner of all Devouts and the Rewarder of all good folk everywhere, not exactly a bad condition. Now, before you forget, some things to remember. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
Write My words in your heart and familiarize yourself with them. Why? In time of temptation, you will have to put them into play. What you do not understand when you read, you will learn on the Day of Visitation, that is to say, when I visit My chosen people on the Day of Temptation and the Day of Consolation. Every day I read two lessons to My friends. First, to encourage them to decrease their vices; second, to exhort them to increase their virtues. Whoever “hears My words and spurns them has picked one’s own judge on the Last Day,” I have said in the Gospel oh John (12.48); and an unsympathetic judge at that. Public fascination has recently shifted to John Edward, James Van Praagh, Jensen Ackles, the late Sylvia Brown, and other medium who claim they can make “a really, really long-distance call”—contact with the dead. In 2001, Gallup reported that 28 percent of Americans—up from 18 percent in 1990—reported believing “that people can hear from or communicate mentally with someone who has died”; another 26 percent are “not sure.” Edward, born John MaGee Jr., is a charismatic former ballroom-dance instructor who has seen his gig soar from New York radio stations, to nationwide seminars, to a popular Sci Fi Channel program (Crossing Over) that got moved from late night to prime time and then to daytime syndication. “Alternatively funny, sarcastic and compassionate, he comes off as sensitive yet strong, a sort of all-in-one priest, father and husband figure for the show’s predominately female audience,” reports the New York Times. “He’s telling me to acknowledge the wedding, do you understand this?” Edward asks an audience member to whom he relays information from her recently lost father. In response, the woman crumbles, breaking into sobs. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
On the edited-for-entertainment broadcast, the television audience sees this impressive hit, but not, the Times reports, the twenty minutes Edward spent during the same taping shooting blanks. The televised hits, say skeptics, are accomplished, first, by a “throw-it-all-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks” routine. Search the crowd, Edward says, “They are telling me to acknowledge an M connection; two people’s names begin with M in the family. They are telling me that somebody had the Parkinson’s, or somebody had some sort of neurological disease as well. I’m in this area over here.” He points to a row in the audience. “Do you understand this? Yes? No? Hello?” When a couple of people nod, he focuses on one of them and continues to spew statements (“Somebody in your family is a very heavy smoker”) and questions (“Does ‘Dr. Zhivago’ have any meaning to you?”). Much of the information is ambiguous enough to allow the target to impute meaning: Edward gets “a J or G” sound for a name and sees “blackness in the chest.” Skeptics also say Edward applies classic “cold reading” techniques long practiced by mediums, palm readers, and crystal-ball gazers. Cold readers “read” our clothing, physical features, nonverbal gestures, and reactions to what they are saying. Imagine yourself as the character reader who was visited by a young woman in her late twenties or early thirties. The psychologist Ray Hyman, who once read palms to supplement his income from magic and mental shows, understands the art of cold reading. He described the woman as “wearing expensive jewelry, a wedding band, and a black dress of cheap material. The observant reader noted that she was wearing shoes which were advertised for people with foot trouble.” Do these clues suggest anything? #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
Drawing on these observations, Hyman reports, the character reader proceeded to amaze his client. He assumed that the woman had come to see him, as did most of his female customers, because of a love of financial problem. The black dress and the wedding band led him to reason that her husband had died recently. The expensive jewelry suggested that she had been financially comfortable during the marriage, but the inexpensive dress suggested that her husband’s death had left her impoverished. The therapeutic shoes signified that she was now on her feet more than she had been used to, implying that she had been working to support herself since her husband’s death. Any reader of Sherlock Holmes stories is familiar with this art of cold reading. If you are no as shrewd as this character reader (who correctly guessed that the woman was wondering if she should remarry in the hope of ending her economic hardship), Hyman says it hardly matters. If people seek you out for a reading, start with safe sympathy: “I sense you are having some problems lately. You seem unsure what to do. I get the feeling another person is involved.” Then tell them what hey want to hear. Memorize some universally true statements from astrology and fortune-telling manuals and use them liberally. Tell people it is their responsibility to cooperate by relating your message to their specific experiences. Later they will recall that you predicted the specifics. Phrase statements as questions, and when you detect a positive response, assert the statement strongly. Be a good listener, and later, in different words, reveal to people what they earlier revealed to you. If you dupe them, they will come. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
The technique works so well that, while seeing others accept his readings as psychic intuitions, Hyman himself became a “a firm believer in palmistry”—until one day a respected professional mentalist suggested an interesting experiment. The mentalist proposed that Hyman deliberately give readings opposite to what the lines indicated. “I tried this out with a few clients,” Hyman reported. “To my surprise and horror, my readings were just as successful as ever. The medium was the message. Ever since then I have been interested in the powerful forces that convince us, [palm] reader and client alike, that something is so when it really isn’t.” Such is the scientific critique of New Age spiritual intuition. However, let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater. One can regard New Age claims of psychic powers and disembodied immortality as unfounded, yet celebrate the gentle music, respect for the planet, and concern for peace and harmony. New Age folk have something to teach skeptics about feelings, and skeptics have something to teach them about critical thinking. They can teach skeptics about the benefits of openness, and skeptics can teach them that a completely open mind is vulnerable to having garbage tossed in. The glimpse is what the name purports to be and should not be regarded as something more, as the fullest opening of the mind to divine truth. However, naturally, because there are different capacities and temperaments in different persons, one glimpse may be wider than another, or take less similar form. The Glimpses are not completely uniform in their details. In each one there is different emphasis on a particular aspect, such as its Beauty, Power, Impersonality, or Emptiness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
Since no two human beings are exactly alike, whether in body or mind, the kind of glimpse which each one gets, the way in which one feels and finds the Overself’s pressure, is entirely according to personal needs and not according to a fixed stereotype pattern for all. All humans who win through to the World of their higher self, enter the same World. If their reports differ, as they do, that is not because the experiences differ but because the humans themselves differ. Nevertheless a comparative examination of all available reports will show that there is still a golden thread of similarity running through the, a highest factor of perception. The first occasion when this happens brings a thrill of wonder. This is of course due in part to the tremendous nature of the Overself’s discovery, but it is also due to its novelty, to the fact that it was never previously experienced. Hence the thrill cannot come again, cannot be repeated even though the experience itself may be repeated several times; but the wonder will always remain. There is the deepest feeling in the glimpse, but this does not at all mean it is hysterical. It may be extremely quiet. It may be strongly passionate, in which case it will be completely under control—not by the ego but by the higher power. When one begins to know oneself as one really is, when one experiences this wonderous touch of the Untouched, one feels truly alive. The amazing clearness of the whole revelation and the certainty beyond all possible doubt which accompanies it are only two of its features. An extraordinary inspired elation—emotional, intellectual, and intuitive—is a third feature, with a diffused sense of well-being as its consequence or its corollary. The points of this experience are the difficulty of describing it precisely, the joy it yields and the peace it brings, the feeling of a finer self and the sense of a higher presence, the appraisal of its preciousness and the fading away of Worldly desires. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
In that blessed moment one finds oneself free in a way never before felt. For one finds oneself without the perplexities of the intellect and without the schemings of the ego. When the two are one, when ego and Overself no longer remain at a distance from one another, humans experience their first illumination. What will happen thereafter is wrapped in mystery. In this brief interval when one feels oneself to be in the presence of the Overself, when goodwill, peace, and wisdom become living eternal realities rather than mere mocking words, the littleness vanishes from life and a sacred grandeur replaces it. In extreme cases, one may even feel as if this is the first time in human history that anyone has had such a glowing experience. The tremulous happiness of these contemplative moments attains is zenith with an inarticulate breathless stillness. One feels elated, lifted up beyond one’s normal self, intensely happy without having any particular physical cause to account for one’s happiness. One feels this goodness with all others. And lastly, the burden of past sins and ancient errors falls from one’s shoulders. One has become cleansed, purified, made whole. These splendid moments, so filled with flashes of beauty and goodness, so tremendous in meaning and perspective, are like peeps into Paradise. All through one’s spiritual career one has dreamt of this first blissful and unique moment when one would enter the Overself’s awareness. In these blessed moments one loves God and knows that one is loved by God. The experience is feeling blent with knowing, but the feeling is as delicious as peach-blossom and the knowing is as certain as sunrise. In finding the godlike within oneself, one finds also the god. And from that stems forth goodwill toward all. It is really love active on a higher plane, love purified of self and cleansed of grossness. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
Glimpses vary much in their nature. Some are soft, mild, and delicate, quiet and restrained; others are ecstatic, rapturous, and excited. All gives some sort of uplift, exaltation, enlightenment, or revelation an also to varying degrees. I remember the first time I had this astonishing experience. I was fond of disappearing from London whenever the weather allowed and wandering alongside the river Thames in its more picturesque country parts. If the day was sunny I would stretch my feet out, lie down in the grass, pull out notebook and pen from my pocket—knowing that thoughts would eventually arise that would have for me an instructive or even revelatory nature, apart from those ordinary ones which were merely expressive. One day, while I was waiting for these thoughts to arise, I lost the feeling that I was there at all. I seemed to dissolve and vanish from that place, but not from consciousness. Something was there, a presence, certainly not me, but I was fully aware of it. It seemed to be something of the highest importance, the only thing that mattered. After a few minutes I came back, discovered myself in time and space again; but a great peace had touched me and a very benevolent feeling was still with me. I looked at the beautiful evergreen trees, the shrubs, the flowers, and the grass and felt a tremendous sympathy with them and then when I though of other persons a tremendous benevolence towards them. In this mysterious moment the two are one. One no longer abides with the mere images of reality. One is now in the authentic World of reality with itself. There are three stages in each glimpse. The initial one brings a soft feeling of its gentle approach. The second carries the human to its peak of upliftment, enlightenment, and peace. The final one draws one down again into a fading glow which occupies the mind’s background and later survives only in memory. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
It is a state of exquisite tenderness, of love welling up from an inner center and radiating outward in all directions. If other human beings or animal creatures come within one’s contact at the time, they become recipients of this love without exception. For then no enemies are recognized, none are disliked, and it is not possible to regard anyone as repulsive. The mood is exhilarative without being excitable, centered in reality without losing touch with this pseudo-real World. One may find oneself lost at times in short periods of absent-mindedness. It may be in the sound of bubbling brook or some lovely music or some striking lines of memorable prose. With that one forgets cares and peace wells up within one. Such an experience comes close to the mystical glimpse, only the mystic’s consciousness moves on a higher level. One seeks a diviner life, a finer soul, inner peace. For a fraction of the hour, time suddenly and uniquely steps aside, Isis is unveiled and the real beauty of Being exhibits itself: All is suspended in this glimpse, all is stillness and grace. The memory of a first glimpse is imperishable. It is a love-experience along with a birth of knowledge, all under an enchanter’s spell. When the highly personal egocentric attitude is first displaced by the Overself, there is a sense of sharp liberation and utter relief. In those glorious experiences, one seems to live a charmed existence, above all that distressed one before, beyond all the hideous negatives which the World obtrudes on one’s notice, secure in a spiritual ivory tower shimmering with inner light around. It is an experience which happens deep inside the heart. The glimpse is fresh and direct, it is both a vision and an experience and above all it is spontaneous, for it comes by itself. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
All memories can be divided into those that are purely personal or private and those that are shared or social. Unshared private memories die with the individual. Social memory lives on. Our remarkable ability to file and retrieve share memories is the secret of our species’ evolutionary success. And anything hat significantly alters the way we construct, store, or use social memory therefore touches on the very wellsprings of destiny. Twice before in human history humankind has revolutionized its social memory. Today, in constructing a new info-sphere, we are poised on the brink of another such transformation. In the beginning, human groups were forced to store their shared memories in the same place they kept private memories—id est, in the minds of individuals. Tribal elders, wise humans, and other carried these memories with them in the form of history, myth, lore, and legend, and transmitted them to their children through speech, song, chant, and example How to light a fire, the best way to snare a bird, how to lace a raft or pound taro, how to sharpen a plowstick or care for the oxen—all the accumulated experience of the group was stored in the neurons and glia and synapses of human beings. So long as this remained true, the size of the social memory was sorely limited. No matter how good the memories of the elderly, no matter how memorable the songs or lessons, there was only so much storage space in the skulls of any population. Second Wave civilization smashed the memory barrier. It spread mass literacy. It kept systematic business records. It built thousands of libraries and museums. It invented the file cabinet. In short, it moved social memory outside the skull, found new ways to store it, and thus expanded it beyond its previous limits. By increasing the store of cumulative knowledge, it accelerated all the processes of innovation and social change, giving Second Wave civilization the most rapidly changing and developing culture the World until then had known. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
Some of humans’ greatest inventions have come from a new to be love, then a desire to be worshipped; a god. Today we are taking a quantum leap to a whole new stage of social memory. One day we will be able to send an email to a computer by just thinking about what we want to write and it will be transmitted. The radical de-massification of the media, the invention of new media, the mapping of the Earth by satellite, the monitoring of hospital patients by electronic sensors, the computerization of corporate files—al mean we are recording the activities of the civilization in fine-grain detail. Unless we incinerate the planet, and our social memory with it, we shall before long have the closet thing to a civilization with total recall. Third Wave civilization will have at its disposal more information, and more finely organized information, about itself than could have been imagined even a quarter-century ago. The shift to a Third Wave social memory, however, is more than just quantitative. We are also, as it were, imparting life to our memory. When social memory was stored in human brains it was continually being eroded, refreshed, stirred about, combined and recombined in new ways. It was active, or dynamic. It was, in the most literal sense, alive. When industrial civilization moved much of social memory outside the skull, that memory became objectified, embedded in artifacts, books, payroll sheets, newspapers, photographs, and films. However, a symbol once inscribed on a page, a photo once captured on film a newspaper once printed, remained passive or static. Only when these symbols were fed into a human brain again did they come alive, to be manipulated or recombined in fresh ways. While Second Wave civilization radially expanded social memory, it also froze it. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
What makes the leap to a Third Wave info-sphere so historically exciting is that it not only vastly expands social memory again, but resurrects it from the dead. The computer, because it processes the data it stores, creates an historically unprecedented situation: it makes social memory both extensive and active. And this combination will prove to be propulsive. Activating this newly expanded memory will unleash fresh cultural energies. For the computer not only helps us organize or synthesize “blips” into coherent models of reality, it also stretches the far limits of possible. No library or file cabinet could think, let alone think in an unorthodox fashion. The computer, by contrast, can be asked by us to “think the unthinkable” and the previously unthought. It makes possible a flood of new theories, ideas, ideologies, artistic insights, technical advances, economic and political innovations that were, in the most literal sense, unthinkable and unimaginable before now. In this way, it accelerates historical change and fuels the thrust toward Third Wave social diversity. In all previous societies the info-sphere provided the means for communication between humans. The Third Wave multiplies these means. However, it also provides powerful facilities, for the first time in history, for machine-to-machine communications and, even more astonishing, for conversations between humans and the intelligent environment around them. When we stand back and look at the larger picture, it becomes clear that the revolution in the info-sphere is at least as dramatic as that in the techno-sphere—in the energy system and technological base of society. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
The work of constructing a new civilization is racing forward on many levels. The Chicago School urban ecologist of the 1920s believed that social distance was reflected in spatial distance. The level of segregation would thus be reflected in the social distance between groups. Thus, as segregation decreased, the integration of social groups would increase. The data are fairly definite in suggesting that this is what occurred with European American ethnic populations, although for some groups it was considerably faster and easier. For European ethnic populations, as generations increased, and income, educational level, and occupational status rose, they increasingly blended into the general American population. For example, as recently as the end of the second World War one could map out distinct ethnic neighbourhoods for groups such as the Irish. Today, with the exception of a few historical holdovers such as south Boston, there no longer are any demographically distinct Irish neighbourhoods. Richard Alba argues that what is emerging is a new ethnic group—“one based on ancestry from anywhere on the European continent.” The major exception to the relationship between rising socioeconomic status and declining spatial segregation has been African Americans. Historically, rising income and education has not, over time, been more or less automatically translated into declining segregation, as has been the case with European or even Hispanic immigrants. Nor did segregation decrease as generations in the United States of America increased. For African Americans the fact of race traditionally has overridden variables. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
For nearly a century, research has shown that suburban African Americans were more likely to live in suburban municipalities that had lower income, less adequate housing, and trained local finances. At least until the 1980s the patten was of residential segregation increasing in the north and declining in the south. If there is a dual housing market that shunts African Americans primarily into already African American communities, movement of African Americans to the suburbs does not automatically increase interaction between the races. However, there is less institutional discrimination in suburban rental housing than in owner-occupied housing. However, research is showing that in some communities with subsidized rental housing, European Americans face discrimination, especially if they are young. Their applications are overlooked, and people from outside the city, who are African American, women in particular, are given a preference. That is the result of the unaudited “lottery system.” Instead of being first come, first served, there is allegedly a lottery the randomly selects people for the limited number of subsidized units. However, many of the people selected to occupy these units tend to know each other, tend to be related, and are from the same city, so they have to relocate to the new city where these subsided units are. Experts say it is more than a coincidence, but housing fraud. It is not the same as a group of people all moving to one area and buying are renting houses. “It would be nearly impossible for all these people to qualify for subsidized housing in a city they do not live in and for it to be to be so segregated,” (Linda Brewster Stearns and John R. Logan, “Racial Structuring of the Housing Market and Segregation in Suburban Areas”). #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
From the extreme inequality of conditions and fortunes, from the diversity of passions and talents, from useless arts, from pernicious arts, from frivolous sciences there would come a pack of prejudices equally contrary to reason, happiness, and virtue. One would see the leaders fomenting whatever can weaken men untied together by disuniting them; whatever can give society an air of apparent concord while sowing the seeds of real division; whatever can inspire defiance and hatred in the various classes through the opposition of their rights and interests, and can as a consequence strengthen the power that contains them all. It is from the bosom of this disorder and these upheavals that despotism, by gradually raising its hideous head and devouring everything it had seen to be good and healthy in every part of the state, would eventually succeed in trampling underfoot the laws of the people, and in establishing itself on the ruins of the republic. The times that would precede this last transformation would be times of troubles and calamities; but in the end everything would be swallowed up by the monster, and the peoples would no longer have leaders or laws, but only tyrants. Also, from that moment on, there would no longer be any question of mores and virtue, for wherever despotism, in which decency affords no hope, reigns, it tolerates no other master. As soon as it speaks, there is neither probity nor duty to consul, and the blindest obedience is the only virtue remaining for slaves. Here is the final stage of inequality, and the extreme point that closes the circle and touches the point from which we started. Here all private individuals become equals again, because they are nothing. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
And since subjects no longer have any law other than the master’s will, nor the master any rule other than one’s passions, the notions of good and the principles of justice again vanish. Here everything is returned solely to the law of the strongest, and consequently to a new state of nature different from the one with which we began, in that the one was the state of nature in its purity, and this last one is the fruit of an excess of corruption. Moreover, there is so little difference between these two states, and the governmental contract is o utterly dissolved by despotism, that that despot is master only as long as one is the strongest; and as soon as one can be ousted, one had no cause to protest against violence. The uprising that ends in the strangulation or the dethronement of a sultan is as lawful an act as those by which one disposed of the lives and goods of one’s subjects the day before. Force alone maintained one; force alone brings one down. Thus everything happens in accordance with the natural order, and whatever the outcome of these brief and frequent upheavals may be, no one can complain about someone else’s injustice, but only of one’s own imprudence or one’s misfortune. In discovering and following thus the forgotten and lost routes that must have led humans from the natural state to the civil state: in reestablishing, with the intermediate position I have just taken note of, those that time constrains on me have made me suppress or that the imagination has not suggested to me, no attentive reader can fail to be struck by the immense space that separates these two states. It is in this slow succession of things that one will see the solution to an infinity of moral and political problems which the philosophers are unable to resolve. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
One will realize that, since the human race of one age is not the human race of another age, the reason why Diogenes did not find one’s man is because one searched among one’s contemporaries for a man who no longer existed. Cato, one will say, perished with Rome and liberty because he was out of place in his age; and this greatest of men merely astonished the World, which five hundred years earlier he would have governed. In short, he will explain how the soul and human passions are imperceptibly altered and, as it were, change their nature; why, in the long run, our needs and our pleasures change their objects; why, with original humans gradually disappearing, society no longer offers to the eyes of the wise human anything but an assemblage of artificial humans and factitious passions which are the work of all these new relations and have no true foundation in nature. What reflection teaches us on this subject is perfectly confirmed by observation: savage humans and civilized humans differ so greatly in the depths of their hearts and in their inclinations, that what constitutes the supreme happiness of the one would reduce the other to despair. Savage man breathes only tranquility and liberty; one wants simply to live and rest easy; and not even the unperturbed tranquility of the Stoic approaches one’s profound indifference for any other objects. On the other hand, the citizen is always active and in a sweat, always agitated, and unceasingly tormenting oneself in order to seek still more laborious occupations. One works until one dies; one even runs to one’s death in order to be in a position to live, or renounces life in order to acquire immorality. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
One pays court to the great whom one hates and to the rich whom one scorns. One stops at nothing to obtain the honour of serving them. One proudly crows about one’s own baseness and their protection; and proud of one’s slavery, one speaks with disdain about hose who do no have the honour of taking part in it. What a spectacle for the Carib are the difficult and envied labours of the European minister! How many cruel deaths would that indolent savage not prefer to the horror of such a life, which often is not mollified even by the pleasure of doing good. However, in order to see the purpose of so many cares, the words power and reputation would have to have a meaning in one’s mind; one would have to learn that there is a type of men who place some value on the regard the rest of the World has for them, and who know how to be happy and content with themselves on the testimony of others rather than on their own. Such, in fact, is the true cause of all these differences; the savage lives in oneself; the human accustomed to the ways of society is always outside oneself and knows how to live only in the opinion of others. And it is, as it were, from their judgment alone that one draws the sentiment of one’s own existence. It is no pertinent to my subject to show how, from such a disposition, so much indifference for good and evil arises, along with such fine discourse or morality; how, with everything reduced to appearances, everything becomes factitious and bogus: honour, friendship, virtue, and often even our vices, about which we eventually find the secret of boasting; how, in a word, always asking others what we are and never daring to question ourselves on his asking others what are and never daring to question ourselves on this matter, in the midst of so much philosophy, humanity, politeness and sublime maxims, we have merely a deceitful and frivolous exterior: honour without virtue, reason without wisdom, and pleasure without happiness. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
It is enough for me to have proved that his is not the original state of man, and that this is only the spirit of society, and the inequality that society engenders, which thus change and alter all our natural inclinations. I have tried to set forth the origin and process of inequality, the establishment and abuse of political societies, to the extent that these things can be deduced from the nature of humans by the light of reason alone, and independently of the sacred dogmas that give to sovereign authority the sanction of the divine right. It follows from this presentation that, since inequality is practically non-existent in the state of nature, it derives its force and growth from the development of our faculties and the progress of the human mind, and eventually becomes stable and legitimate through the establishment of property and laws. Moreover, it follows that moral inequality, authorized by positive right alone, is contrary to natural right whenever it is not combined in the same proportion with physical inequality: a distinction that is sufficient to determine what one should think in this regard about the sort of inequality that reigns among all civilized people, for it is obviously contrary to the law of nature, however it may be defined, for a child to command an old man, for an imbecile to lead a wise man, and for a handful of people to gorge themselves on superfluities while the starving multitude lacks necessities. Tired of all who come with words, words but no language I went to the snow-covered island. The wild does not have words. The unwritten pages spread themselves out in all directions! I come across the marks of roe-deer’s hooves in the snow. Language but no words. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
Lord, please grant me the ability to be alone; may it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grasses, among all growing things, and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer to talk with the one that I belong to. Praised art Thou, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, mighty, revered and exalted God. Thou bestowest lovingkindness and possesses all things. Mindful of the patriarchs’ love for Thee, Thou wilt in Thy love bring a redeemer to their children’s children for the sake of Thy name. O King, Thou Helper, Redeemer and Shiel, be Thou praised, O Lord, Shield of Abraham. Thou, O Lord, art mighty forever. Thou callest the dead to immortal life for Thou art might in deliverance. Our God and God of our fathers, dew, precious dew, unto Thy land forlorn! Pour out our blessing in Thy exultation, to strengthen us with ample premium cranberry juice and corn, and give Thy chosen city safe foundation in dew. Dew, precious dew, the good year’s crown, we wait, that Earth in pride and glory may be fruited, and that the city now so desolate into a gleaming crown may be transmuted by dew. Dew, precious dew, let fall upon the land, from Heaven’s treasury be this accorded, so shall the darkness by a beam be spanned, the faithful of Thy vineyard be rewarded with dew. Dew, precious dew, to make the mountains sweet, the savour of Thy excellence recalling! Deliver us from exile, we entreat, so we my sing Thy praises, softly falling as dew. Dew, precious dew, our granaries to fill, and us with youthful freshness to enharden! Beloved God, uplift us at Thy will and make us as a richly-watered garden with dew. Dew, precious dew, that we our harvest reap, and guard our fatted flocks and herds from leanness! Behold our people follows Thee like sheep, and looks to Thee to give the Earth her greenness with due. For Thou art the Lord our God who causest the wind to blow and the dew to descend: For a blessing and no for a curse. Amen. For life and not for death. Amen. For plenty and not for famine. Amen. Remember, it takes a special breed to keep America safe! #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
Cresleigh Homes
Kids grow up so fast! With four bedrooms in the Mills Station Residence 4, there’s plenty of room to keep them comfy as they grow. There’s even a bonus Home Hub off the entry that can be easily converted to a kids’ playroom! 🥰 https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-4/
Amazing country kitchen option and spacious design that sprawls over approximately 2,800 square feet, with a downstairs flex space, upstairs loft
A Smarter Environment Might Make Smarter People!
Diversity is important, and we must keep that in mind and even respect and welcome groups who may not be oppressed. Equality is not for one, it is for all! One of the dangers facing the World is the deterioration of the home and family. The family is one of the greatest institutions of civilization. Subversion of this great institution can do nothing less than bring destruction upon the World. The plan of life and salvation teaches that marriage is for time and eternity. They very purpose of life is that we might take upon ourselves morality, that we might prove ourselves to see if we will do the things that the Lord has commanded up. This is a glorious World in which we live. It was created by God through his only Begotten Son, with its Heavenly bodies and their functions. The Earth with its abundance of flowers, its adornment of beautiful tress and shrubs; the majestic mountains; the mighty blue oceans; the sun and its great functions; the starts and the amazing planets in the Heaven and Victorian architecture—yes, they are all the handiwork of God. All these things bid us have joy. Humans, however, are the greatest of all God’s creations. The Lord God told Moses: “This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of humans,” reports Moses 1.39. The question, “Do miracles occur?” and the question, “Is the course of Nature absolutely uniform?” are the same question asked in two different ways. Hume, by sleight of hand, treats them as two different questions. He first answers “Yes,” to the question whether Nature is absolutely uniform: and then uses this “Yes” as a ground for answering, “No,” to the question, “Do miracles occur?” The single real question which he set out to answer is never discussed at all. He gets the answer to one form of the question by assuming the answer to one form of the same question. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
Probabilities of the kind that Hume is concerned with hold inside the framework of an assumed Uniformity of Nature. When the question of miracles is raised, we are asking about the validity or perfection of the frame itself. No study of probabilities inside a given frame itself tells us how probable it is that the frame itself can be violated. Granted a school time-table with French on Tuesday morning at ten o’clock, it is really probable that Jones, who always skimps his French preparation, will be in trouble next Tuesday, and that he was in trouble on any previous Tuesday. However, what does this tell us about the probability of the time-table’s being altered? To find that out one must eavesdrop in the masters’ common-room. It is no use studying the time table. If we stick to Hume’s method, far from getting what he hoped (namely, the conclusions that all miracles are infinitely improbable) we get a complete deadlock. The only kind of probability he allows holds exclusively within the frame of uniformity. When uniformity is itself in question (and it is in question the moment we ask whether miracles occur) this kind of probability is suspended. And Hume knows no other. By his method, therefore, we cannot say that uniformity is either probable or improbable. We have impounded both uniformity and miracles in a sort of limbo where probability and improbability can never come. This result is equally disastrous for the scientist and the theologian; but along Hume’s lines there is nothing whatever to be done about it. Our only hope, then, will be to cast about for some quite different kind of probability. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
Let us for the moment cease to ask what right we have to believe in the Uniformity of Nature, and ask why in fac humans do believe in it. I think the belief has three causes, two of which are irrational. In the first place we are creatures of habit. We expect new situations to resemble old ones. It is a tendency which we share with other terrestrial beings; one can see it working, often to very comic results, in our dogs and cats. In the second place, when we plan our actions, we have to leave out of account the theoretical possibility that Nature might not behave as usual to-morrow, because we can do nothing about it. It is not worth bothering about because no action can be taken to meet it. And what we habitually put out of our minds we soon forget. The picture of uniformity thus comes to dominate our minds without rival and we believe it. Both these causes are irrational and would be just as effective in building up a false belief as in building up a tree. However, I am convinced that there is a third cause. “In science,” said the late Sir Arthur Eddington, “we sometimes have convictions which we cherish but cannot justify; we are influenced by some innate sense of the fitness of things.” This may sound a perilously subjective and aesthetic criterion; but can one doubt that it is a principal source of our belief in Uniformity? A Universe in which unprecedented and unpredictable events were at every moment flung into Nature would not merely be inconvenient to us: it would be profoundly repugnant. We will not accept such a Universe on any terms whatever. It is utterly detestable to us. It shocks our “sense of the fitness of things.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
In advance of experience, in the teeth of many experiences, we are already enlisted on the side of uniformity. For of course science actually proceeds by concentrating not on the regularities of Nature but on her apparent irregularities. It is the apparent irregularity that prompts each new hypothesis. It does do because we refuse to acquiesce in irregularities: we never rest till we have formed and verified a hypothesis which enables us to say that they were not really irregularities at all. Nature as it comes to us looks at first like a mass of irregularities. The stove which lit all right yesterday will not light to-day; the water which was wholesome last year is poisonous this year. The whole mass of seemingly irregular experience could never have been turned into scientific knowledge at all unless from the very start we had brought to it a faith in uniformity which almost no number of disappointments can shake. This faith—the preference—is it a thing we can trust? Or is it only the way our minds happen to work? It is useless to say that it has hitherto always been confirmed by the event. That is no good unless you (at least silently) add, “And therefore always will be”: and you cannot add that unless you know already that our faith in uniformity is well grounded. And that is just what we are now asking. Does this sense of fitness of our correspond to anything in external reality? The answer depends on the Metaphysic one holds. If all that exists is Nature, the great mindless interlocking event, if our own deepest convictions are merely the by-products of an irrational process, then clearly there is not the slightest ground for supposing that out sense of fitness and our consequent faith in uniformity tells us anything about a reality external to ourselves. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
Our convictions are simply a fact about us—like that colour of our hair. If Naturalism is true, we have no reason to trust our conviction that Nature is uniform. Only if quite a different Metaphysic is true, can it be trusted. If the deepest things in reality, the Fact which is the source of all other facthood, is a thing in some degree like ourselves—if it is a Rational Spirit and we derive our rational spirituality from It—then indeed our conviction can be trusted. Our repugnance to disorder is derived from Nature’s Creator and ours. The disorderly World which we cannot endure to believe in is the disorderly World He would not have endured to create. Our conviction that the time-table will not be perpetually or meaninglessly altered is sound because we have (in a sense) eavesdropped in the Masters’ common-room. The sciences logically require a metaphysic of this sort. Our greatest natural philosopher thinks it is also the metaphysic out of which they originally grew. Professor Whitehead points out that centuries of belief in a God who combined “the personal energy of God” with “the rationality of a Greek philosopher” first produced that firm expectation of systemic order which rendered possible the birther of modern science. Humans became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator. In most modern scientists this belief has died: it will be interesting to see how long their confidence in uniformity survives it. Two significant developments have already appeared—the hypothesis of a lawless sub-nature, and the surrender of the claim that science is true. We may be living nearer than we supposed to the end of the Scientific Age. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
However, if we admit God, must we admit Miracle? Indeed, indeed, you have no security against it. That is the bargain. Theology says to you in effect, “Admit God and with Him the risk of a few miracles, and I in return will ratify your faith in uniformity as regards the overwhelming majority of events.” The philosophy which forbids you to make uniformity absolute is also the philosophy which offers you solid grounds for believing it to be general, to be almost absolute. The Being who threatens Nature’s claim to omnipotence confirms her in her lawful occasions. Give us this ha’porth of tar and we will save the ship. The alternative is really much worse. Try to make Nature absolute and you find that her uniformity is not even probable. By claiming too much, you get nothing. You get the deadlock, as in Hume. Theology offers you a working arrangement, which leaves the scientist free to continue one’s experiments and the Christian to continue one’s prayers. We have also, I suggest, found what we were looking for—a criterion whereby to judge the intrinsic probability of an alleged miracle. We must judge it by our “innate sense of fitness of things,” that same sense of fitness which led us to anticipate that the Universe would be orderly. I do not mean, of course, that we are to use this sense in deciding whether miracles in general are possible: we know that they are on philosophical grounds. Nor do I mean that a sense of fitness will do instead of close inquiry into the historical evidence. As I have repeatedly pointed out, the historical evidence cannot be estimated unless we have first estimated the intrinsic probability of the recorded event. It is in making that estimate as regards each story of the miraculous that our sense of fitness comes into play. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
If in giving such weight to the sense of fitness I were doing anything new, I should feel rather nervous. In reality I am merely giving formal acknowledgement to a principle which is always used. Whatever humans may say, no one really thinks that the Christian doctrine of Resurrection is exactly on the same level with some pious title-tattle about how Mother Egaree Louise miraculously found her second best thimble by the assistance of St. Anthony. The religious and the irreligious are really quite agreed on the point. The whoop of delight with which the sceptic would unearth the story of the thimble, and the “rosy pudency” with which the Christian would keep it in the background, both tell the same tale. Even those who think all stories of miracles absurd think some very much more absurd than others: even those who believe them all (if anyone does) think that some require a specially robust faith. The criterion which both parties are actually using is that of fitness. More than half the disbelief in miracles that exists is based on a sense of their unfitness: a conviction (due, as I have argued, to false philosophy) that they are unsuitable to the dignity of God or Nature or else to the indignity and insignificance of humans. Although God can do all things, He cannot make a think that is corrupt not to have been corrupted. There does not fall under the scope of God’s omnipotence anything that implies a contradiction. Now that the past should not have been implies a contradiction. For as it implies a contradiction to say that Socrates is sitting, and not sitting, so does it to say that he sat, and did not sit. However, to say the he did sit is to say that it happened in the past. To say that he did not sit, is to say that it did not happen. Whence, that the past should not have been, does not come under the scope of divine power. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
This is what Augustine means when he says (Contra Faust. xxix, 5): “Whosoever says, If God is almighty, let Him make what is done as if it were not done, does not see that this is to say: If God is almighty let Hum effect that what is true, by they very fact that it is true, be false.” And the Philosopher says (Ethic. vi, 2): “Of this one thing alone is God deprived—namely, to make undone the things that have been done. Although it is impossible accidentally for the past not to have been, if one considers the past thing itself, as, for instance, the running of Socrates; nevertheless, if the pas thing is considered as past, that it should not have been is impossible, not only in itself, but absolutely since it implies a contradiction. Thus, it is more impossible than the raising of the dead; in which there is nothing contradictory, because this is reckoned impossible in reference to some power, that is to say, some natural power; for such impossible thing do some beneath the scope of divine power. As God, in accordance with the perfection of the divine power, can do all things, and yet some things are not subject to His power, because they fall short of being possible; so, also, if we regard the immutability of the divine power, whatever God could do, He can do now. Some things, however, at one time were in the nature of possibility, whilst they were yet to be done, which now fall short of the nature of possibility, when they have been done. So is God said not to be able to do them, because they themselves cannot be done. God can remove all corruption of the mind and body from a woman who has fallen; but the fact she has been corrupt cannot be removed from her; as also is it impossible that the fact of having sinned or having lost charity thereby removed from the sinner. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
In altering the info-sphere so profoundly, we are destined to transform our own minds as well—the way we think about our problems, the way we synthesize information, the way we anticipate the consequences of our own actions. We are likely to change the role of literacy in our lives. We may even alter our own brain chemistry. Hald’s comment about the ability of computers and chip-studded appliance to converse with us is not as blue-sky as it might seem. “Voice data entry” terminals in existence today almost feel at home with natural language, even thought they are not yet able to detect emotion or context, but forecasts for when this might happen range upwards of twenty years down to a mere five years, and the implications of this development—on both the economy and the culture—could be tremendous. Today millions of people are excluded from the job market because they are functionally illiterate. Even the simplest jobs demand people capable of reading forms, on-off buttons, paychecks, job instructions, and the like. In the Second Wave World the ability to read was the most element skill required by the hiring office. Pretty soon people will have to know how to write computer programs and repair computers to enhance their employment opportunities. It only makes sense. Learning a second or third language does give over a competitive advantage over the next applicant, but if one could also learn the language of computer programming and repair, that would be a huge advantage in the age of information. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
Still, illiteracy is not the same as stupidity. We know that illiterate people the World over are capable of mastering highly sophisticated kills in activities as diverse as agriculture, construction, hunting, and music. Many illiterates have prodigious memories and can speak several languages fluently—something most university-educated Americans cannot do. In Second Wave societies, however, illiterates were economically doomed. Literacy, of course, is more than a job skill. It is the doorway to a fantastic Universe of imagination and pleasure. Yet in an intelligent environment, when machines, appliances, and even walls are programmed to speak, literacy could turn out to be less paycheck-linked than it has been for the past three hundred years. Airline reservation clerks, stock-room personnel, machine operators, and repair people may be able to function quite adequately on the job by listening rather than reading, as a voice from the machine tell them, step by step, what to do next or how to replace a broken par. Computers are not superhuman. They need repair and rest. They make errors—sometimes dangerous ones. There is nothing magical about them, and they are assuredly not “spirits” or “souls” in our environment. Yet with all these qualifications, they remain among the most amazing and unsettling of human achievements, for they enhance our mind-power as Second Wave technology enhanced our muscle-power, and we do not know where our own minds will ultimately lead us. As we grow more familiar with the intelligent environment, and learn to converse with it from the time we leave the cradle, we will begin to use computers with a grace and naturalness that is hard for us to imagine today. And they will help all of us—not just a few “super-technocrats”—to think more deeply about ourselves and the World. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
Today, when a problem arises, we immediately seek to discover its causes. However, until now even the most profound thinkers have usually attempted to explain things in terms of a relative handful of causal forces. For even the best human mind finds it difficult to entertain, let alone manipulate, more than a few variables at a time. (While we may deal with many factors simultaneously on a subconscious or intuitive level, systematic, conscious thinking about a great many variables is damnably difficult, as anyone who has tried it knows.) In consequence, when faced with a truly complicated problem—like why a child is delinquent, or why inflation ravages an economy, or how urbanization affects the ecology of a nearby river—we tend to focus on two or three factors and to ignore many others that may, singly or collectively, be far more important. Worse yet, each group of experts typically insists on the primal importance of “its own” causes, to the exclusion of others. Faced with the staggering problems of urban decay, the Housing Expert traces it to congestion and a declining housing stock; the Transportation Expert points to the lack of mass transit; the Welfare Expert shows the inadequacy of budgets for day-care centers or social work; the Crime Expert points a finger at the infrequency of police patrols; the Economic Expert shows that high taxes are discouraging business investment; and so on. Everyone high-mindedly agrees that all these problems are somehow interconnected—that they form a self-reinforcing system. However, no one can keep the many complexities in mind while trying to think through a solution to the problem. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
Urban decay is only one of a larger number of what Peter Ritner, in The Society of Space, once felicitously termed “weave problems.” He warned that we would increasingly face crises that were “not susceptible to ‘cause and effect analysis” but would require ‘mutual dependence analysis’; not composed of easily detachable elements but of hundreds of cooperating influences from dozens of independent, overlapping sources.” Because it can remember and interrelate large numbers of causal forces, the computer can help us cope with such problems at a deeper than customary level. It can sift vast masses of data to find subtle patterns. It can help assemble “blips” into larger, more meaningful wholes. Given a set of assumptions or a model, it can trace out the consequences of alternative decisions, and do it more systematically and completely than any individual normally could. It can even suggest imaginative solutions to certain problems by identifying novel or hitherto unnoticed relationships among people and resources. Human intelligence, imagination, and intuition will continue in the foreseeable decades to be far more important than the machine. Nevertheless, computers can be expected to deepen the entire culture’s view of causality, heightening our understanding of the interrelatedness of things, and helping us to synthesize meaningful “wholes” out of he disconnected data whirling around us. The computer is one antidote to blip culture. At the same time, the intelligent environment may eventually begin to change not merely the way we analyze problems and integrate information, but even the chemistry of our brains. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
Experiments by David Krech, Marian Diamond, Mark Rosenzweig, and Edward Bennett, among others, have down that animals exposed to an “enriched” environment have larger cerebral cortices, more glial cells, bigger neurons, more active neurotransmitters, and larger blood supplies to the brain than animals in a control group. Can it be that, as we complexify the environment and make it more intelligent, we shall make ourselves more intelligent as well? Dr. Donald F. Klein, Director of Research at New York Psychiatric Institute, one of the World’s leading neuropsychiatrists, speculates: “Krech’s work suggests that among the variable affecting intelligence is the richness and responsiveness of the early environment—understimulating, poor, unresponsive—coon learn not to take chances. There is little margin for error, and it actually pays off to be cautious, conservative, uninquisitive or downright passive, none of which works wonders for the brain. On the other hand, kids raised in a smart, responsive environment, which is complex and stimulating, may develop a different set of skills. If kids can call on the environment to do things for them, they become less dependent on parents at a younger age. They may gain a sense of mastery or competence. And they can afford to be inquisitive, exploratory, imaginative, and to adopt a problem-solving approach to life. All of which may promote changes in the brain itself. At this point, all we can do is guess. However, it is not impossible that an intelligent environment could lead us to develop new synapses and a larger cortex. A smarter environment might make smarter people.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
All this, however, only begins to hint at the larger significance of the changes the new info-sphere brings with it. For the de-massification of the media and the concomitant rise of the computer together change our social memory. Self-imagery holds us together by a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. We confirm that we are as we imagine ourselves to be, by acting in a way which confirms it. In this, we may be guided by realistic self-imagery: “This-is-what-I-am,” or we may be guided by more idealized imagery: “This-is-how-I-would-wish-to-be.” There may not always be a lot of difference between these two: fortunate people are guided by ideas about themselves which please them, not crippled by aspects of themselves which shame or hurt them. How do we come to value our selves? More to the point, how do we come to value the ideas about ourselves which we do value? Surely our sense of worth comes initially from (m)others, though of course that is not how the infant part of us experiences it. The infant has right to feel grand. However, in fact our sense of worth depends on a good mirroring facilitating environment. If a mother accepts the faecal gift of proudly—or if she rejects it or is uninterested in it—she is not only responsive to a drive. She is also responding to the child’s forming self. Her attitude, in other words, influences a set of inner experiences that play a crucial role in the child’s future development. She responds—accepting, rejecting, disregarding—to a self that, in giving and offering, seeks confirmation by the mirroring self-object. The child therefore experiences the joyful prideful parental attitude, or the parent’s lack of interest…as the acceptance or rejection of one’s tentatively established, yet still vulnerable, creative-productive-active self. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
If the mother rejects this self just as it begins to assert itself as a center of creative-productive initiative (especially of course if her rejection or lack of interest is only one link in a long chain of rebuffs and disappointments emanating from her pathogenically unemphatic personality) or if her inability to respond to her child’s total self leads her to a fragmentation—producing preoccupation with its faeces—to the detriment of the cohesion-establishing involvement with her total child, her faeces-producing, learning, controlling, maturing, total child—then the child’s self will be depleted and it will abandon the attempt to obtain the joys of self-assertion. It will, for reassurance, turn to the pleasures it can derive from the fragments of its body self. This search for good feelings then no only fails to consolidate a valued self-image, but also leads to further fragmentation. In order to escape from depression, the child runs from the unemphatic or absent self-object to oral, anal and phallic sensation, which it experiences with great intensity. Disintegration—de-differentiation—is the fear at the heart of the narcissistically injured, that is of those whose self-imagery is a source of frequent misery to them. They lack that which gives more fortunate people a constant sense of their own well-being and worthwhileness. While the satisfaction of its needs gives the child a sense of well-bring and strength, what eventually gives it its integration and its identity is being treated as a whole person when it is not as yet feeling whole. For this to happen, people must relate to the baby as a person, and not as a series of chores or achievements. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
When the baby is treated as a collection of “part-objects,” there is likely to be less integration and less integrity. Very different consequences awaits the child whose oral, anal, and phallic sensations are welcomed as valid expressions of that child’s whole self (even before the child has a whole self). The empathic, mirroring, reflecting function of the adult then ensures pride in these functions without giving any of them eminence above the child as a living and loving human being—the whole person is validated. For people to value themselves, so that they can run their lives according to what they value, they have first to have been valued as persons. And they must have been loved for being, not for doing this or that—it is this which gives them the sense that they are valuable people rather than a jumble of bits. Initially, other people give the fortunate infant this identity by showing love and respect. In due course, this sense of value, given by (m)others, becomes self-respect, and becomes capable of acting as an integrating and guiding principle. This process is called “personalizing,” because it is the opposite of “depersonalizing.” By the late 1970s the postwar pattern seemed set. European Americans, for a variety of racial, educational, life-style, and tax reason, would continue to out-migrate to the suburbs. Non-European Americans, on the other hand, with few exceptions would become ever-more concentrated in the cities. The assumption that this is the inevitable future continues to be “popular wisdom” today, in spite of a quarter of a century of European American inner-city revitalization and gentrification and African American, Latino, and Asian suburbanization. During the 1970s it became increasingly apparent that in spite of the fact that both scholarly and popular attention were focused elsewhere, there were major changes in non-European American suburbanization. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
The fair housing legislation of 1968 legally opened the suburbs to middle-class non-European Americans. While racial steering still occurred, the housing legislation meant that African American, Latino, and Asian suburbanization was no longer de facto restricted to predominately Non-European American suburbs. The result was the beginning of African American and others experiencing a middle-class exodus to the suburbs. Not only did the non-dominant culture of America’s population grow faster than that in the cities; nationally, the rate of African American suburbanization was twice as fast as the previous decade. During the 1950s and 1960s, the percentage of African Americans who lived in suburbs barely changed. The 1970s marked a real turning point, with the African American population living outside cities growing faster than that within. In contrast to earlier decades, the 1970s showed the African American suburban population increasing three times as rapidly as the European American population. Washing, D. C., for example, saw its African decline 17 percent during the decade. By contrast, suburban Fairfax, in Virginia, saw a 119 percent increase in its African American residents, while the percentage increases for suburban Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in Maryland were 136 and 170 percent. By 1980 the latter county had 248,000 African American residents. Moderate- and middle-income non-European Americans were leaving the city for the suburbs. For upwardly mobile African Americans, as for European Americans, owning a home in the suburbs because a symbol of success in climbing the economic ladder. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
However, while the legal restriction of middle-class African Americans to urban high-risk neighbourhoods was no more, housing discrimination remained. De jure housing discrimination on the basis of race was no longer operative but de facto discrimination, particularly on the individual level, remained a fact of life. Nonetheless, in spite of de facto discrimination, there was an opportunity for middle-class families who could afford to do so left the cities and moved into suburban neighbourhoods. The leavers sought better housing and better educational opportunities for themselves and their children. As a consequence, middle-class African American rates of suburbanization accelerated at the same time as European American suburban growth rates were declining. According to the Bureau of the Census figures, the European American suburban population increased 13.1 percent during the decade of the 1970s, while the African American population increased 42.7 percent. The European American suburban increase was exactly half the 26.1 percent figure of the 1960 to 1970 period and only a fraction of the rapid growth of European American suburbanites in the 1950s. African American suburban growth during the 1970s was not just a regional phenomenon; it too place in all areas of the country. A pattern seemed to be developing in which African American population shifts trailed European American changes by a decade or so but followed the same general patterns. One example of this African American population shift was that several of the cities having the largest African American populations, such as Philadelphia, Washington, Cleveland, and St. Louis, saw their African American populations actually decline. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
During the 1970–1980-decade, African Americans departed from Washington, D.C., at twice the rate of European Americans. Moreover, those departing were disproportionately people in their twenties and thirties with young children. One consequence of the upswing in African American suburbanization was that by 1980, African Americans numbered 12 percent the national population and represented 6.1 percent of the suburban population. By 1990, the African American figure had increased to 6.6 percent. As of 2021, the population of African Americans in the suburbs is 27 percent. Overall, suburbs are 35 percent non-European American. Some argue that non-European Americans are still underrepresented in the suburbs. However, in general, many people like to buy homes in middle-class and upper-middle class communities that have a high number of college educated, professional European Americans because they tend to keep to themselves, are peaceful, quiet, and keep their properties in outstanding condition. So, it is not only because they tend to have higher property values, but also because they are busy working and tend to care about their reputations in the community. Nonetheless, the underrepresentation of African Americans in the suburbs is not just because of income or educational differences. African Americans of every income level are highly segregated from European Americans at the same economic level. Political distinctions necessarily lend themselves to civil distinctions. The growing inequality between the people and its leaders soon makes itself felt among private individuals, and is modified by them in a thousand ways according to passions, talents and events. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
The magistrate cannot usurp illegitimate power without producing proteges for oneself to whom one is forced to yield some part of it. Moreover, citizens allow themselves to be oppressed only insofar as they are driven by blind ambition; and looking more below than above them, domination becomes more dear to the than independence, and they consent to wear chains in order to be able to give them in turn to others. It is very difficult to reduce to obedience someone who does not seek to command; and the most adroit politician would never succeed in subjecting humans who wanted merely to be free. However, inequality spreads easily among ambitious and cowardly souls always ready to run the risks of fortune and, almost indifferently, to dominate or serve, according to whether it becomes favourable unfavourable to them. Thus it is that there must have come a time when the eyes of people ere beguiled to such an extent that its leaders merely had to say to the humblest of humans, “Be great, you and all your progeny,” and one immediately appeared great to everyone as well as in one’s own eyes, and one’s descendants were elevated even more in proportion as they were at some remove from one. The more remote and uncertain the cause, the more the effect increased; the more loafers one could count in a family, the more illustrious it became. If this were the place to go into detail, I would easily explain how [even without government involvement] the inequality of prestige and authority becomes inevitable among private individuals, as soon as they are united in one single society and are focused to make comparisons among themselves and to take into account the differences they discover in the continual use they have to make of one another. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
These differences are of several sorts, but in general, since wealth, nobility or rank, power and personal meri are the principal distinctions by which someone is measured in society, I would prove that the agreement or conflict of these various forces is the surest indication of a well- or ill-constituted state. I would make it apparent that among these four types of inequality, since personal qualities are the origin of all the others, wealth is the last to which they are ultimately reduced, because it readily serves to buy all the rest, since it is the most immediately useful to well-being and the easiest to communicate. This observation enables one to judge rather precisely the extent to which each people is removed from its primitive institution, and of the progress it has made toward the final stage of corruption. I would note how much that universal desire for reputation, honours, and preferences, which devours us all, trains and compares our talents and strengths; how much it excites and multiplies the passions; and, making all humans competitors, rivals, or rather enemies, how many setbacks, successes and catastrophes of every sort it causes every day, by making so many contenders run the same course. I would show that it is to this ardor for making oneself the topic of conversation, to this furor to distinguish oneself which nearly always keeps us outside ourselves, that we own what is best and worst among humans, our virtues and vices, our sciences and our errors, our conquerors and our philosophers, that is to say, a multitude of bad things against a small number of good ones. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
Finally, I would prove that is one sees a handful of powerful and rich humans at the height of greatness and fortune while the mob grovels in obscurity and misery, it is because the former prize the things they enjoy only to the extent that the others are deprived of them; and because, without changing their position, they would cease to be happy, if the people ceased to be miserable. However, these details alone would be the subject of a large work in which one would weigh the advantages and the disadvantages of every government relative to rights of the state of nature, and where one would examine all the different faces under which inequality has appeared until now and many appear in [future] ages, according to the nature of these governments and the upheavals that time will necessarily bring in its wake. We would see the multitude oppressed from within as a consequence of the very precautions it had taken against what menaced it from without. We would see oppression continually increase, without the oppressed ever being able to know where it would end or what legitimate means would be left for them to stop it. We would see the rights of citizens and national liberties gradually die out, and the protests of the weak treated like seditious murmurs. We would see politics restrict the honour of defending the common cause to a mercenary portion of the people. We would see arising from this the necessity for taxes, the discouraged farmer leaving one’s field, even during peacetime, and leaving his plow in order to gird oneself with a sword. We would see the rise of fatal and bizarre rules in the code of honour. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
We would see the defenders of the homeland sooner or later become its enemies, constantly holding a dagger over their fellow citizens, and there would come a time when we would hear the say to the oppressor of their country: “If you order me to plunge my sword into my brother’s breast or my father’s throat, and into my pregnant wife’s entrails, and steal the gold coins from my uncle’s purse, I will do so, even though my right hand is unwilling.” When despair for the World grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not takes their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the World, and am free. Flee, my Beloved, till our love shall please Thee, then turn in pity. Base kings would sweep us hence;–shall their despoiling not appease Thee? O tear their roots up from our ruined heap! Then raise our rampart; let our songful children call, “Behold, He standeth now behind our wall.” Flee, my Beloved, till the day be breaking beyond the end of vision—then arise and chase these shadows,–him Thou wast forsaking, despised, shall be exalted, high and wise, sprinkling the nations.—Bare Thine art, Lord, when we cry, “The voice of my Beloved soundeth nigh.” Flee, my Beloved,–like a roe be flying till Thou reveal the end of mine account. Despoiled, and for my crown of beauty sighing, contemned, but longing for the glorious mount,–so with no leader and no prophet leave me, with yet no Tishbite to renew my fame; but plead my cause at last; the bonds that grieve me break; and my foe shall turn away in shame when these that do reproach me and deceive me I answer with sweet words that speak Thy name: “Lo, this is my Beloved, my Redeemer, Lover, Friend, my father’s God, my God until the end.” For the fathers’ sake Thou wilt save the children, yea, and bring redemption unto their children’s children. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hast redeemed America. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23
Cresleigh Homes
The perfect house has space for the fancy and the casual! The Brighton Station Residence 2 offers a homey kitchen with a pass-through to the formal dining room, so you can eat frozen pizza or a three course meal – whatever fits the mood!
Many people enjoy the ease and accessibility in this single-story, light and roomy home, which boasts of nearly 2,500 square feet. All of the windows make this enchanting home an extension of the wonderful outdoor areas from which to relax or entertain. https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-2/
I believe all of our lives we were looking for a Cresleigh Home, and we were really lucky to find it.
#CresleighHomes
#CresleighRanch
What a Lovely Day for a Bit of Mystery!
It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves. I hear your words, My dear Devout; now you hear Mine. You will find them not only suasive, but also persuasive. In fact, they exceed in wisdom all the accumulated knowledge of Philosophy since the World began. My particular words for you today are “spirit and life.” My Beloved Disciple recorded them in his Gospel (6.63), but Humanity cannot seem to make any sense out of them. Important words, they should not be exegeted smugly, if I may allude to that hoary Preacher of Ecclesiastes (9.17), but listened to respectfully. That is to say, they should be received with all humility and yet great affection. Our seventeenth-century ancestors differed from us in most ways, but in nothing did they differ more than in their attitude toward the truth. In this they were closer to the Middle Ages than to us. For them a lie—a breaking of one’s faith—was the worst of sins. Today, many do not regard lying as a serious moral wrong. If the word “morality” is mentioned we think immediately of our bodily appetites, especially of pleasures of the flesh, barbiturates, paraphernalia, liquor and contraband. If the word “morality” is mentioned we think immediately of our bodily appetites very seriously—perhaps too seriously—but we do not regard lying as a mortal sin. We are one of the few civilizations in which entire professions (TV news media, for example, and public relations) are seriously devoted to bending the truth. Dante, in his Divine Comedy, divided sins into three kinds: those of lust, those of violence, and those of fraud. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13
The sins of lust—those we tend to take most seriously—were those that Dante thought most trivial; the sins of fraud—which we take lightly—were for Dante the worst of all. To create a “credibility gap” as our revealing phrase has it (as though the only relevant issue is whether a statement will compel belief), to lie, was for the medieval humans to break one’s faith, and it was faith which constituted the bonds between humans and their fellow humans, between humans and the state, between humans and God. To lie was to reduce all the most valuable relationships of life to chaos. And the seventeenth-century Puritan, like Dante, was still living by his faith. Just how important the truth was to the seventeenth-century Puritan may be gathered from the fact that all of the innocent persons who were executed—and the majority of those executed were innocent—could have saved themselves by lying. After the first execution—that of Bridget Bishop—took place in June it became obvious to everyone that persons who confessed, like Tituba and Dorcas Good, were not being brought to trial. Thus any suspected person might have one’s life by confessing. Twenty people died, nineteen of them hanged and one pressed for refusing to plead. Bridget Bishop, Mammy Redd, and George Burroughs were three of these. One cannot be at all certain of the guilt or innocence of several more. However, at least a dozen now seem to be clearly innocent. Twelve people, and probably more, chose to die rather than belie themselves. It is impressive evidence of the Puritan’s attachment to the truth. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13
Yet it was not really so simple as that, because the truth was not easy to find in Salem in 1692. The greatest difficulty was created by the genuineness of the afflicted persons’ fits. Their sufferings were so convincing that they often shook the confidence of the accused. One example is William Hobbes, who began by stoutly denying that he had anything to do with the afflicted girls’ convulsions. When he looked at them they fell down in fits, and Hathorne accused him of overlooking them (id est, of he evil eye), yet still he denied it. Abigail Williams cried out that she saw his specter going to hunt Mercy Lewis “and immediately said Mercy fell into a fit and diverse others.” “Can you now deny it?” said Hathorne. “I can deny it to my dying day,” said William Hobbes. However, he did not. Here, after all, were people in hideous convulsions, and saying that his specter was the cause. How could this be? Hathorne suggested that the Devil might be able to use Hobbes’ specter because of Hobbes’ sins; he had not observed either public or private worship. Might not the Devil have taken advantage of that? Hobbes “was silent a considerable space—then said yes.” The girls’ fits shook not only Hobbes’ confidence in himself, but also his confidence in his daughter Abigail, the wild young girl who had boasted that she had sold herself “body and soul to the Old Boy.” Hathorne wanted to know whether Hobbes had not known for a long time that his daughter was a witch. “No, sir,” was the reply. “Do you think she is a witch now?” asked Hathorne. And all that Hobbes could say was, “I do no know.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 13
Abigail Faulkner’s experience was similar. At her first examination, on August 11, she firmly denied that she had anything to do with the girls’ afflictions. When she looked at them they fell down in fits, and Hathorne asked her, “Do you not see?” Yes, she saw. However, she had nothing to do with it. Yet she would not doubt that the girls were suffering, and saw no reason to doubt their word that it was her specter afflicting them. Therefore the Devil must be appearing in her form: “It is the Devil does it in my shape.” However, by August 30 she was no longer so sure of her innocence. It was true, she said, that she had been angry at what people said when her cousin, Elizabeth Johnson, had been arrested. She had felt malice toward the afflicted persons then because they were the cause of her cousin’s arrest. She has wished them ill, and “her spirit being raised she did pinch her hands together.” Perhaps the Devil had taken advantage of that to pinch the girls, thus exploiting her malice. Even those whose confidence was not shaken bore testimony to the impressiveness of the fits. Mary Easty knew that has had not bewitched the girls, and she was confident as well of the innocence of her sisters, Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Cloyse. Yet she had to grant that there was something preternatural in the girls’ behaviour. “It is an evil spirit,” she said, “but whether it be witchcraft I do not know.” Even George Burroughs, who had been audacious enough to boast of occult powers, found himself stunned by the girls’ behaviour. “Being asked what he thought of these things he answered it was an amazing and humbling Providence, but he understood nothing of it.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 13
Indeed, these courtroom fits were so convincing that most of the indictments were for witchcraft committed during the preliminary examination rather than for the offenses named in the original complain. The typical order of events in the Salem witchcraft cases was: the swearing out of a complaint for acts of witchcraft; a preliminary examination during which the afflicted persons had convulsive fits; an indictment for acts of witchcraft performed during the preliminary examination; and the trial. The direct cause of these fits, in the courtroom or out of it, was, of course, not witchcraft itself, but the afflicted person’s fear of witchcraft. If fits were occasioned by fear of someone like Bridget Bishop, who was actually practicing witchcraft, they might also be occasioned by fear of someone who was only suspected of practicing it. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! The Winchester Estate had belonged to the family ever since the reign of George Washington, and there was a curious old wing and a cloistered quadrangle still remaining of the original edifice, and in excellent preservation. The rooms at the end of the house were ornate, and somewhat darksome and gloomy, it is true; but, though rarely used they were perfectly habitable, and were of service on great occasions when the Winchester was crowded with guests. The central portion of the Winchester had been rebuilt in the reign James K. Polk, and was of noble and palatial proportions. The southern wing, and a long music-room with thirteen tall narrow daisy-stained glass windows added on to it, were as modern as the time. Altogether, the Winchester was a very splendid mansion with 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens, and even once had a nine-story tower. It was one of the chief glories of our country. All the land in the Winchester estate, and for a long way beyond its boundaries, belonged to the Winchester family. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13
The Winchester estate grounds actually expanded all the way down to Steven’s Creek Boulevard. The community church was once within the park walls. The former estate was actually much larger than it is today, it was composed of 500 to 600 rooms at one time, but the 1906 Earthquake brought down the nine-story tower and much of the fourth floor with it. The death of William Wirt Winchester left his son, William Wirt Winchester II, unprovided for, and he was fain to go out into the bleak unknown World, and earn his living in a position of dependence—a dreadful thing for a Winchester to be obliged to do. Out of respect for the traditions and prejudices of his race, he made it his business to seek employment abroad, where the degradation of one solitary Winchester was not so likely to inflict shame upon the ancient house to which he belonged. Happily for himself, he had been carefully educated, and had industriously cultivated the usual modern accomplishments in the calm retirement of the University of Cambridge. He was so fortunate as to obtain a situation at Vienna, in a German family of high rank; and remained there for seven years, laying aside year by year a considerable portion of his liberal salary. When his pupils had grown up, his kind mistress procured for him a still more profitable position at St. Petersburg, where he remained for five more years, at the end of which time he yielded to a yearning that had been long growing upon him—an ardent desire to see his dear old country home once more. He loved the soil from which he had sprung. In all of her letter for some time past, his mother, Mrs. Winchester begged that whenever he felt himself justified in coming home, he would pay a long visit to the Winchester Estate. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13
“I wish you could come home at Christmas,” she wrote, in the autumn of the year of which I am speaking. “We shall be very gay, and I expect all kinds of pleasant people at the Winchester. When he arrived there, the Old Winchester was in its glory, at about nine o’clock on a clear starlit night. A light frost whitened the broad sweeping lawns, 12,000 boxwood hedges that were winding through the garden, and the other 1,500 plants, trees and shrubs. From the music room at the end of the southern wing, to the heavily framed gothic windows of the old rooms on the north, there shone one blaze of light. The scene was reminiscent of some unusual place in a German legend; and young William half expected to see the lights fade out all in a moment, and long shingled façade wrapped in sudden darkness. The old butler, whom he remembered from his very infancy, and who did not seem to have grown a day older during his twelve years’ exile, came out of the dining-room as the footman opened the hall-door for him, and gave him a cordial welcome, nay insisted upon helping to bring in his portmanteau with his own hands, an act of unusual condescension, the full force of which was felt by his subordinates. “It is a real treat to see your pleasant face once more, William,” said this faithful retainer, as he assisted William to take off his travelling-cloak. “You have not aged a day since you used to live at the Winchester twelve year ago, and you are looking uncommon well; and, Lord love your heart, sir, how pleased they all will be to see you!” They arrived at last at a very comfortable room—a square tapes-tried chamber, with high ceiling support by a great mahogany beam. The room looked cheery enough, with a bright fire roaring in the wide chimney; but it had a somewhat ancient aspect, which the superstitiously inclined might have associated with possible ghosts. “We are in the East Wing, are we not?” young William asked. “This room seems quite strange to me. if I have ever been here before, I doubt it.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 13
“Very likely not, sir. Yes, this is the old East Wing that your mother once had boarded up. Your window looks out into the old stable-yard, where the kennel used to be in the time of your grandfather, when the Winchester was even a finer place than it is now. We are so full of company this winter, you see, sir, that we are obliged to make use of all these rooms. You will have no need to feel lonesome. There is Captain and Mrs. Foster in the next room to this, and the two Miss Griffins in the blue room opposite.” (Some believe that reopening the East Wing is what upset the spirits and caused the 1906 Earthquake.) Young William admired the perfect comfort of his chamber. Every modern appliance had been added to the ornate and ponderous furniture of an age gone by, and the combination produced a very pleasant effect. As he awoke in the morning and opened the door, Mrs. Winchester sailed in, looking radiant in a dark-green velvet dress richly trimmed with old point lace. Above her beauty, she had a charm of expression which was to most more rare and delightful than her beauty of feature and complexion. She put her arms around her son, and hugged him. “I have only this moment been told of your arrival, my dear William,” she said; “you look just like your father. My dear child, I have been looking forward so anxiously to your coming, and I should not have liked to see you for the first time before all those people. Welcome home. Remember, William, this house is always to be your home, whenever you have need of one.” William, being a hunting man. Had, indeed, a secret horror of the sport; for more than one scion of the house had perished untimely in the hunting-field. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13
The family had not been altogether a lucky one, in spite of its wealth and prosperity. It was not often that goodly heritage had descended to the Winchesters or their only son, William. Death in some form or other—on too many occasions a violent death—had come between the heir and his inheritance. And when one pondered on the dark pages in the story of the house, many wonder if Mrs. Winchester was ever troubled by morbid forebodings about her only and fondly loved son. Was there a ghost at the Winchester—that spectral visitant without which the state and plendour of a grand old house seem scarcely complete? Yes, many have heard vague hints of some shadowy presence that had been seen on rare occasions within the precincts of the Winchester mansion. Those whom were questioned were prompt to assure investigators that they had seen nothing. They had heard stories of the past—foolish legends, most likely, not worth listening to. On the property, there was once a stable-yard, a spacious quadrangle, surrounded by the closed doors of stable and dog-kennels: low massive buildings of grey stones, with the ivy creeping over them here and there, and with an ancient moss-grown look, that gave them a weird kind of interest. This range of stabling must have been disguised for a long time. The stables that were more recently used were a pile of handsome red-brick buildings at the other extremity of the house, to the rear of the music room, and forming a striking feature in the back view of the Winchester. According to legend, some believed that spectral entities, had been haunting the Winchester estate for centuries. Several large black dogs, with eyes large as saucers, or something flaming, appear and disappear, often without a trace. In many of the legends, the dogs are malevolent: assaulting guests, frightening livestock to death, attacking other dogs, and heralding death or disaster. Perhaps that is why the heirs of Winchester who have come to an untimely end have all died tragically. Oliver Winchester was killed in a dual. William Winchester I was murdered; and William Winchester II broke his back on his return home to the Winchester Estate. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13
The butler concealed the death of William Winchester II from Sarah, telling her simply that he was called away and said he would never return. Her heart was so broken that she wrote him out of existence, as if her had never been born. After the heartbreaking news that her only son has abandoned her, Mrs. Winchester was sitting in her blue séance room; half meditating, half dozing, mixing broken snatches of thought with brief glimpses of dreaming, when she was startled into wakefulness by a sound that was strange to her. It was a huntsman’s horn—a few low plaintive noes on a huntsman’s horn—notes which had a strange far-away sound, that was more unearthly than anything her ears ever heard. She thought of the music in Der Freischutz; but the weirdest snatch of melody Weber ever wrote had not so ghastly a sound as these few simple noes conveyed to her ear. She stood transfixed, listening to that awful music. It had grown dusk, her fire was almost out, and the room in shadow. As she listened, a light suddenly flashed on the wall before her. The light was as unearthly as the sound—a light that never shone from Earth or Sky. She ran to the window; for his ghastly shimmer flashed through the window upon the opposite wall. The great gates of the stable-yard were open, and men in scarlet coats were riding in, a pack of hounds crowding in before them, obedient to the huntsman’s whip. The whole scene was gleams of a lantern carried by one of the men. It was this lantern which had shone upon the tapestried wall. She saw the stable doors opened one after another; gentlemen and grooms alighting from their horses; the dogs driven into their kennel; the helpers hurrying to and fro; and that strange wan lantern-light glimmering hither and tither was the gathering dusk. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13
However, there was no sound of horse’s hoof or of human voices—not one yelp or cry from the vicious looking hounds with flaming eyes. Since those faint far-away sounds of the horn had died out in the distance, the ghastly silence had been unbroken. As Mrs. Winchester stood at her window quite calmly and watched while the group of men and animals in the yard below noiselessly dispersed. There was nothing supernatural in the manner of their disappearance. The figures did not vanish nor melt into empty air. One by one she saw the horses led into their separate quarters; one by one the redcoats strolled out of the gates, and the grooms departed, some one way, some another. The scene, but for its noiselessness, was natural enough; and had she been a stranger in her own home, she might have fancied that those figures were real—those stables in full occupation. However, she knew that stable-yard and all its range of building to have been disused for more than half a century. Could she believe that, without an hour’s warning, the long-deserted quadrangle could be filled—the empty stalls tenanted? Had some hunting-party from the neighbourhood sought shelter there, glad to escape the pitiless rain? That was impossible, she thought. And yet the noiselessness, the awful sound of that horn—the strange unearthly gleam of that lantern! A cold sweat broke out on her forehead, and she trembled in every limb. Mrs. Winchester was pale as a ghost and trembling. Mrs. Winchester had kept the secret. That evening, the butler came to her. “Mrs. Winchester, there is no use in trying to hide it from you any longer. Your son was killed in the hunting-field, brought home dead one December night, an hour after his father and the rest of the party had come home to the Winchester. He was found by a labouring-man, poor lad, lying in a ditch with his back broken, and his horse beside him staked.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 13
Shortly after Mr. Winchester Sr. never rode to hounds again, though he was passionately fond of hunting. Dogs and horses were sold, and the north quadrangle had been empty from that day. Some evil have come upon the Winchester mansion, it was not in human power to prevent its coming. Some had beheld the shadows of the dead. Sudden terror overcomes some visitors, even to this day. There are reports of an ominous danger, as people’s hearts grow cold while on tour. Staff have been startled by seeing a man, with is hat in his hand not in evening costume; a man with a pale anxious-looking face, peering cautiously into the room. Their first thought is of evil; but in the next moment than man disappears, and they see no more of him. Sometimes when flowers are placed in the house, people see the drooping moments later and lights dying out one by one in the brass sconces against the walls. It is no wonder Mrs. Winchester shut herself from the outer World, burying herself almost as completely as a hermit in its cell. While great wealth brings some people joy, there is some times a hefty fee. Be careful what you wish for, you never know who or what you might invite in your doors. I invoke and move thee, O thou Spirit Gusion and being exalted above ye in the power of the Most High, I say unto thee, Obey! in the name Beralensis, Baldachinesis, Paumachia, and Apologiae Sedes: and of the mighty ones who govern, spirits, Liachidae and ministers of the House of Death: and by the Chief Prince of the seat of Apologia in the Ninth Legion, I do invoke thee and by invoking conjure thee. And being exalted above ye in the power of the Most High, I say unto thee, Obey! in the name of him who spake and it was, to whom all creatures and things obey. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13
Moreover I, whom God made in the likeness of God, who is the creator according to his living breath, stir thee up in the name which is the voice of wonder of the mighty God, El, strong and unspeakable, O thou Spirit Gusion. And I say to thee obey, in the name of him who spake and it was; and in every one ye, O ye names of God! Moreover in the names Adonai, El, Elohim, Elohi, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, Zabaoth, Elion, Iah, Tetragrammaton, Shaddai, Lord God Most High, I stir thee up; and in our strength I say Obey! O Spirit Gusion. Appear unto His servants in a moment; before the circle in the likeness of man; and visit me in peace. And in the ineffable name Tetragrammaton Iehovah, I say, Obey! whose mighty sound being exalted in power the pillars are divided, the winds of the firmament groan aloud; the sire burns not; the Earth moves in Earthquakes; and all things of the house of Heaven and Earth and the dwelling-place of darkness are as Earthquakes, and are in torment, and are confounded in thunder. Come forth, O Spirit Gusion, in a moment: let thy dwelling-place be empty, apply unto us the secrets of Truth and obey my power. Come forth, visit us in peace, appear unto my eyes; be friendly: Obey the living breath! For I stir thee up in the name of God of Truth who liveth for ever, Helioren. Obey the living breath, therefore continually unto the end as my thoughts appear to my eyes: therefore be friendly: speaking the secrets of Truth in voice and in understanding. Let it be so, Truefold, whatever ill news has come to us we will hear it together. He put is arm round his wife’s waist. Both were pale as marble, both stood in stony stillness waiting for the bow that was to fall upon them. It is said that perhaps you will see a glimpse of Mrs. Winchester and Mr. Winchester, Sr., while on tour, if you repeat the invocation thirteen times before your visit. Life is broken for her, there hah passed a glory from Earth, and that upon all pleasures and joys of this World she looks with the solemn calm of one for whom all things are dark with the shadow of a great sorrow. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13
Winchester Mystery House
A 160-room mansion built to appease the spirits who died at the hands of the Winchester Rifle 👻
We’re one week away from Friday the 13th! Missed out on tickets for Flashlight Tours? Don’t worry, we have ghoulishly fun plans All Hallows’ Eve 👻🎃🍿🏠
All Hallows’ Eve:
👉 link in bio. 🗝 winchestermysteryhouse.com
Thou Hast Been Delivered from the Powers of Satan–He Was Declared “Not Guilty” and Set Free!
The Level is a symbol of fraternal equality recognizing the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. It is a tragic fact that there are many psychoneurotic individuals and others suffering from mental disorders, who are under malign psychic influence. Whatever treatment is given such individuals, including those who are now receiving institutional care, might be more successful by having the patients take up residence at an altitude of not less than five thousand feet. The electric shock and deep-freeze therapies used by several psychiatric institutions may achieve temporary success, but the price will be extracted later. Where a thought of fear constantly recurs and plunges one into anxiety or even despair against all the evidence of fact and reason, one is no longer normal but is the sufferer of a phobia. Sufferers from the manic phase of mental disorders are unstable in temperament and soon change their aims, policies, or goals, for none of these is clear enough. In our studies, the term “the unconscious” is not used in the narrow meaning of certain arbitrarily selected innate trends, a meaning given it by the psychoanalysts, but in a broadly scientific sense, as containing in potential latency all the possibilities gained in the conscious life and all the deposits of former Earth lives, and not only the personal possibilities, but also the super-personal or cosmic ones. It may be that the patients who are advised by their analysts to take up painting pictures as a form of therapy benefit by the concentration involved in the work, as well as by the relaxation of transferring their thoughts for a while from their own self-affairs. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16
There are different ways of escape for those who have problems. Some of them, such as inebriation, contraband, barbiturates and other paraphernalia, prophylactics and pleasures of the flesh, are frankly acknowledged to be so; others are less easily recognized as such and these include art and religion. Professor Stefan de Schill, psychoanalyst: A compulsion neurosis, of which there are several kinds, is caused by a person (technically called “a compulsive”) feeling guilty over unclean thoughts. One’s dry washing of hands is an outer symbol of one’s attempt or wish to get rid of them. Or one’s feet swinging, fingers tapping the table, and ear-pulling are nervous habits which betray tension. (2) Any good standard work on psychiatry deals with these habit patterns, these neuroses, which annoy or irritate others. In the catatonic state, the whole force of the person is turned inward and concentrated upon an idea or a picture or a happening which may be of a purely mental kind. They may or may not be aware of what is happening around them but they are unable to leave the condition at will; it must pass away of its own accord. What has the person who is obsessed, insane, paranoic, or hysterical really done? One has fixed one’s attention on a particular thought, idea, belief, or mental picture and one will not let it go. If the thought contradicts reality, we call one insane. In changing thought for the better, one of the first activities is to cleanse it of undesirable attributes, to wash them away by beneficial energetic willed control, immediately reacting to their appearance with a very definite mental exclamation of “No!” A mind filled with negative qualities cannot possibly be a healthy mind and is certainly unsuitable for high spiritual flights. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16
Neurotics talk about their quest but too often fail to apply its disciplinary principles, live in a perpetual muddle because they consider reasoning and planning to be anti-spiritual, and remain indecisive and unsettled because they are swaying from one emotion to another. They are easily excited, elated, or depressed. The fact is too often ignored that they have to go through a first stage in which they simply prepare themselves as grown-up human beings before trying higher flights. This is as much in their own interests as in society’s, for they will then be better able to deal with others and help themselves. Surely it is more prudent to take up an ideal which is not too far off, which may be an intermediate one that seems reachable and realizable. However, the must recognize this situation for what it is, practice a humble patience, and not try to put the burden of duty elsewhere. They are really looking for someone to nurse them out of their neurotic condition which, of course, mean a passage from emotional adolescence to adult responsibility. Too often the emotionally sick are excessively possessive and will no let go of someone. The neurotic turns minor situations into great crises. Dr. Freud thought that giving emotional support to distressed persons would probably come through forms of hypnosis or self-hypnosis. Today more and more use is made of methods of relaxation, imaging, suggestion, meditation, optimistic thinking, and kindred ways of countering stress or improving healing. “Let me hear what the Lord God is saying in me!” That was the cry of the Psalmist (85.8). However, just as piercing are my own humble cries, My Holy Friend. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16
As the boy Samuel found out to his joy, and as the author of First Samuel noted, blessed is the soul that hears the Lord jabbering and chartering within (1 Samuel 3.9). Let me see if I can recall the particulars. Let us continue out chatsworth, O Lord. That is to say, let us pick up our conversation where it left off, at Chatsworth, our secret rendezvous, the little room within my soul that can be reached only inside my cell. Blessed are the ears that pick up the Godly Whispering, if I may borrow an expression from 1 Kings (19.12), and at the same time block out the Worldly Whisperer! Blessed are the ears that listen, not to Untruth mouthing off out in the street, but to Truth instructing inside the monastery! Blessed are the eyes that blink in distress at the World outside, but stare unblinkingly at the World inside! Blessed are those who get beyond the entrance of the interior life and strive daily to grasp what is hidden in Deepest Heaven! Blessed are those who make time for God of the ages and at the same time cut themselves off from all the distractions of the age! O my soul, take note of these beatitudes and bar the gates before your sensuality charges in! Only then can you hear what your Lord God is saying in you. “I am your salvation!” That is what the psalmist wanted the Lord to say (35.3). And that is what I, your Beloved Lord, am saying to you, My dear friend. I am your peace, I am your life, and what is more, I have many things to say to you. First, be on your best behaviour when we have our chats, and you will soon learn to enjoy them. Second, let the eely Transitoriness slip—grasp the eternal things only. Third, they are sweet, they are nice, all those petty yet pretty Temporalities, but they will drag you under the bushes every time. Fourth, all those creatures in the World, what help would they be if you were deserted by the Creator? #RandolphHarris 4 of 16
To sum up, dear friend of Mine, unclench your fists, and let everything you have fly out of your hands. Clean yourself up nicely and stay faithful to your Creator. Then you will begin to behold Beatitude. God’s power is immeasurable. He is the living mighty one. Now everything that is immeasurable is infinite. Therefore the power of God is infinite. Active power exists in God according to the measure in which He is actual. Now His existence is infinite, inasmuch as it is not limited by anything that receives it, as is clear from what has been said, when we discussed the infinity of the divine essence. Wherefore, it is necessary that active power in God should be infinite. For in every agent is it found that the more perfectly an agent has the form by which it acts the greater its power to act. For instance, the hotter a thing is, the greater the power has it to give heat; and it would have infinite power to give heat, were its own heat infinite. Whence, since divine essence, through which God acts, is infinite, as was shown above, it follows that His power likewise is infinite. The Philosopher is here speaking of an infinity in regard to matter not limited by any form; and such infinite belongs to quantity. However, the divine essence is otherwise, as was shown above; and consequently so also His power. It does not follow, therefore, that it is imperfect. The power of a univocal agent is wholly manifested in its effect. The generative power of humans, for example, is not able to do more than beget humans. However, the power of a non-univocal agent does not wholly manifest itself in the production of its effect: as, for example, the power of the sun does not wholly manifest itself in the production of an animal generated from putrefaction. #RandolphHarris 5 of 16
Now it is clear that God is not a univocal agent. For nothing agrees with Him either in species or in genus, as was shown above. Whence it follows that His effect is always less than His power. It is not necessary, therefore, that the infinite power of God should be manifested so as to produce an infinite effect. Yet even if it were to produce no effect, the power of God would not be ineffectual; because a thing is ineffectual which is ordained towards an end to which it does not attain. However, the power of God is not ordered toward its effect as towards an end; rather, it is the end of the effect produced by it. The Philosopher (Phys. Viii, 79) proves that if a body had infinite power, it would cause a non-temporal movement. And one shows that the power of the mover of Heaven is infinite, because it can move in an infinite time. It remains, therefore, according to one’s reckoning, that the infinite power of a body, if such existed, would move without time; not, however, the power of an incorporeal mover. The reason of this is that one body moving another is an unvocal agent; wherefore it follows that the whole power of the agent is made known in its motion. Since then the greater the power of a moving body, the more quickly does it move; the necessary conclusion is that if its power were infinite, it would move beyond comparison, fasters, and this is to move without time. An incorporeal mover, however, is not a univocal agent; whence it is not necessary that the whole of its power should be manifested in motion, so as to move without time; and especially since it moves in accordance with the disposition of its will. The Overself takes over one’s identity not by obliterating it but by including it through its surrender. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16
The glimpse state my come on in different ways. Sometimes it disinclines the human from moving. However, if one must attend to some matter which requires one to go across a room or out of the house, one’s feet will seem to move of themselves, but very, very slowly. Before the glimpse can occur, the aspirant may have to pass through a major crisis of one’s inner life, sometimes of one’s outer life too. The mental pressure and emotional strain may leave one feeling utterly confused, perhaps even utterly forlorn. However, its sudden culmination in the glimpse will replace darkness by light, chaos by direction, and blindness by sight. It comes unexpectedly in relaxed moments, when enhanced physical or mental ease suspends the ego’s activity. Caught by the grace, and drawn into its stillness, one may find the physical body reproducing the same conditions by becoming quite immobile. If not of the heart, it may give one a catch of breath when the stillness is first felt if it comes unexpectedly and abruptly. The Divine Power is without shape, is pure Spirit; so the worshipper who accepts or creates any concept of it, or who sees it in spectral celestial vision, oneself furnishes a vehicle for it. In the cause of the concept, it arises from association of ideas: in the case of the vision, by expectancy or familiarity. In both cases, mind speaks whatever language, assumes whatever aspect appeals to the human thinking about God! The idea, ideal person, inspired prophet, or human redeemer whose image is best established in a person’s mind by custom and familiarity is in most cases the channel used by the Overself when bestowing the glimpse. Little by little the stress dissolves, the clamant duties to do this or that fall away as the recognition that this is a benedictory visitation comes closer. The glimpse may move so gently into awareness that the beginning is hardly noticed. Or it may move in with a rush that overwhelms one. With it, knowledge, understanding, meaning, nobility, and divinity fill the aura around one at the moment. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16
It is the awareness of a Presence, a felt but hushed benignity, which signals this kind of entry, this glimpse; but there are other kinds, more forceful yet not more superior. If the glimpse comes unexpectedly in most cases, it comes unaccountedly in others. In the beginning of what one really wants to happen, this feeling of an inward-drawing presence. This awareness is a new experience so it flickers on and off, unadjusted. Who knows? It may come to you so quietly, so devoid of sounds and expectation, that so many smile at what begins to happen to you. However, then it may come like a cloudburst. The glimpse may come in the depth of meditation where expectancy places it. However, it may also come at unexpected moments. Either gently and slowly the ego is taken over or violently and quickly the “I” is seized. This may happen during meditation or at any time when one is somewhat relaced, out of it. And then the long looked-for event will happen. A presence, nay a power, will suddenly make itself felt and control one out of oneself by an irresistible impetus moving like a tidal wave. It will come to one as quietly as the moon comes into the sky. The glimpses are not controllable. They come or go without consulting us. The glimpse may come only once or twice in a lifetime to one quester yet repeat itself twentyfold to another person. There are scattered moments of inner rapture underived from Earthly things, although they may be started off by Earthly things. The beauty of these glimpses is heightened by the delight of their unexpectedness. The coming of a glimpse is not predictable, although it may be encouraged by contact with Nature, appreciation of art, or practice of meditation. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16
It is less predictable than the clearing of haze which so often hovers over the nearby Swiss lake. “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” said Jesus in this connection. There are moments when all one’s acutest thought-movement is stilled and one finds oneself bereft of power, forced into utter submission to the divine Overself. If it starts with a faint awareness of being caught in a still moment, it ends in a full experience. The glimpse shows up something of one’s higher identity. What is interesting also is that its advent is unpredictable, its form changeable: but it is always fascinating. I do not know the name of the ancient Chinese poet who write these lines but they refer to the glimpse: “For about thirty years I wandered, searching for the real Tao everywhere…but at this moment, seeing the peach blossoms, I am suddenly enlightened, and have no more doubts.” They come in their own mysterious seasons, stay with us in all their brief beauty, and depart as mysteriously and as elusively as they came. A man hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He begins to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels oneself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his own physical body…and sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and friends who have already died, and a loving, warm spirit of a kind he has never encountered before—a being of light—appears before him…He is overwhelmed by intense feelings of joy, love, and peace. Despite his attitude, though, he somehow reunited with his physical body and lives. This passage from Raymond Moody’s best-selling book Life After Life is a composite near-death experience. Near-death experiences are more common than you might suspect. Several investigators each interviewed a hundred or more people who had come close to death through physical traumas such as cardiac arrest. In each study, 30 to 40 percent of such patients recalled a near-death experience. When George Gallup Jr. interviewed a national sample of Americans, 15 percent reported having experiences a close brush with death. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16
One-third of these people (representing some 8 million people by Gallup’s estimate) reported an accompanying mystical experience. Some claimed to recall things said while they lay unconscious and near death. (However, then, anesthetized surgical patients in a “controlled coma” are sometimes not as out for the count as surgical teams might suppose. Occasionally, they can later recall operating-room conversation or obscure facts or words presented over headphones.) Mr. Moody’s description of the “complete” near-death experience sounds peculiarly like the psychiatric researcher Ronald Siegel’s description of the typical hallucinogenic experience. Both offer a replay of old memories, out-of-body sensations, and visions of tunnels or funnels and bright lights or beings of light. Patients who have experienced temporal-lobe seizures have also reported profound mystical experiences, as have solitary sailors and polar explorers while enduring monotony, isolation, and cold. Oxygen deprivation can produce such hallucinations. As oxygen deprivation turns off the brain’s inhibitory cells, neural activity increases in the visual cortex, notes Susan Blackmore. The result is a growing patch of light, which looks so much like what you would see while moving through a tunnel. Perhaps, then, the bored or stressed brain manufactures the near-death experience. The near-death experience, argued Siegel, is best understood as “hallucinatory activity of the brain.” It is like gazing out a window at dusk: we begin to see the reflected interior of the room as if it were outside, either because the light from outside is dimming (as in the near-death experience) or because the inside light is being amplified (as with barbiturates). #RandolphHarris 10 of 16
Some near-death investigators object. They say that those who have experienced both hallucinations and near-death phenomenon typically deny their similarity. Moreover, a near-death experience may change people in way that a drug trip does not. Those who have been “embraced by the light” may become kinder, more spiritual, more believing in life after death. And even if the near-death experience is hallucinatory, might it not also be genuinely mystical, an authentic and rare opportunity for spiritual insight? Skeptics reply that these effects stem from the death-related context of the experience. When near death, people Worldwide sometimes report intuitions of another World, though their content varies with the culture. Under stress, the brain draws on what it knows. Prayer cannot guarantee against a return of any troubles which it succeeds in eliminating when their cause still remains uneliminated. Although prayer will unquestionably contribute to purification of feelings and liberation from passions, it is not usually enough by itself to give more than temporary success; moreover it is beset with psychic dangers. Not all persons can undergo it safely. Yet it is worth consideration. As the purificatory regime begins to show its effect, there will be clearly visible or strongly pronounced evidence of the stirring up discharges of unpleasant impurities from the body through skin, bowels, urine, and mouth. Prayer throughout its course and an unfired regime only in its early stages, eliminates so much waste toxins that it may be like taking a diuretic. The cleansing effects of prayer follow only after the disturbing effects. For when the waste matter and excess mucous is stirred up (so that they can be carried away and thrown away), there results unpleasant physical symptoms and unhappy mental ones. However, all this vanishes within two or three days in the case of long fasts, or certainly as soon as eating is resumed in the case of short ones. The purifying process of an unfired prayer works in the same way as that of medication sometimes. It does not make a single effort with a single result but rather a series of efforts with a series of results. Hence the distressing elimination symptoms are periodic and recurring, being successive and deepening stages of cleansing. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16
The inner urge in its favour is needed to sanction prayer; the instructive incentive must be felt before embarking on it. Otherwise, it will merely be forced concentration. Everyone, except the persons whose physical constitution unfits them for it, should mark their entry upon the path of purification starting with a short prayer. If one has never prayed before, it may be modified prayer during which one abstains from all negative information, comments, and words but takes well comedies, uplifting music, pleasant environments, or a safe vacation Two to four days is sufficiently log for this purpose. Otherwise the best time to pray is at the opening of the seasons of spring and summer. Spring marks the beginning of the ancient new year, he real new year, around March 21. The more an aspirant purifies oneself by using this simple method of physical praying, the more will one be able to obtain a corresponding mental purification. After the first year or two, one will find it possible to go on to a fuller mode of praying, during which nothing be praise of the Lord and optimistic thoughts should be communicated. Oliver Cowdery preached the firs sermon delivered by an elder of the new church on Sunday, April 11, 1830. Large numbers of people came to hear him and several were baptized that day. Joseph then went to Colesville, New York, held meetings here, and others were baptized. Some who believed wanted to come to church without being baptized, saying other minsters had already baptized them. A revelation was given on this subject in which the Lord said: This is a new and everlasting covenant; even that which was from the beginning. Wherefore, although a human should be baptized an hundred times, it availeth one nothing; for you can not enter in at the strait gate by the Law of Moses, neither by your dead works. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16
For it is because of your dead works, have caused this last covenant, and this church to be built up uno me; even as in days of old. Wherefore, enter ye in at the gate, as I have commanded. Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum and Samuel Smith, Joseph Knight, and Joseph Smith, Sr., were instructed as to their duties in the church and were warned to be faithful in their work in a revelation given through Joseph Smith, Jr., in April. Two gems of wisdom were included in this revelation. The Lord said: Beware of pride, lest thou shouldst enter into temptation. You must take up your cross, in which you must pray vocally before the World, as well as in secret, and in your family, and among your friends, and in all places. In June Joseph received a revelation from God about things which had happened many hundreds of years before when Moses lived on the Earth. God told Joseph many things that happened to Moses, records of which had been lost or left out of the Bible when it was compiled. These helped Joseph understand more about the World and God’s purposes. The first conference of the church was held in June, 1830. The meeting was opened with prayer and singing, and the members partook of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Those who had been baptized recently were confirmed, and other were ordained to the priesthood. God’s Spirit was with these people in mighty power. Many saw wonderful visions and knew what God wanted them to do to help in the work. They were happy to know God needed them as he had the disciples who lived in Jesus’ day. The Lord blessed His people. Many of the sick were healed, and other miracles were performed. While they enjoyed these wonderful blessings, the new church began to have its troubles. Many people in the World did not believe the wonderful story told by Joseph and his friends. They did not believe the Lord would speak to people in that day or that Angels visited the Earth. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16
The unbelievers hated the men who taught these things and gathered together in groups, or mobs, to express their feelings. They did everything they could think of to break up the meetings and keep God’s servants from preaching and baptizing. One Saturday the church people built a dam across a little stream of water in order that there might be water deep enough to baptize on the next day. The mob of unbelievers broke down the dam so there could be no baptism on Sunday. However, early Monday morning the men of the church rebuilt the dam and a number of the people were baptized before the mob realized what was happening. At a meeting that evening the new members were to be confirmed by the laying on of hands, but before the meeting began the mob had a constable arrest Joseph for preaching about the Book of Mormon. After talking with Joseph, the constable discovered that he was not the evil man the mob had said he was. The officer confided in Joseph that the mob planned to kill him, and suggested that Joseph go with him to escape trouble. When the mob saw that Joseph was escaping, they chased him and the constable. The horse was going as fast as it could when a wheel came off the wagon. Joseph was fearful lest the mob should catch up with them, but they hurriedly put the wheel back on the wagon and escaped. That night, while Joseph slept on a bed in the corner of the room where they found refuge, the constable slept on the floor with his feet against the door and a loaded gun at his side in order that one might protect his new friend. Joseph was brought into court the next day. Many false charges were made against him. His enemies brought people who swore that Joseph had done all sorts of evil things, but they were so hopelessly mixed up in their stories that the judge did not believe them. After several attempts to prove him guilty of something—just anything—he was released. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16
No sooner was he released than he was again arrested and taken to another country to appear before another court. Here he was badly mistreated. Men spat on him and abused him. They gave him nothing to eat except crusts of bread and water. Again he was brought before the court and his enemies tried to find some fault with him, but they could not. He was declared “not guilty” and set free. Joseph regrated that the people he so much wanted to help had mistreated him. He prayed for strength. As he prayed he knew that no matter what men did to him he would have to go on preaching the wonderful message of Jesus. The Lord comforted Joseph by a revelation given in July, 1830, saying: Thou hast been delivered from all thine enemies, and thou hast been delivered from the power of Satan, and from darkness! Thou shalt continue in calling upon God in my name, and writing the things which shall be given thee by the Comforter, and expounding all scripters unto the church, and it shall be given thee, in the very moment, what thou shalt speak and write. Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for lo, I am with you, even unto the end of thy days. Perhaps Joseph thought how the apostles of Jesus’ day were persecuted. Perhaps he remembered that some of the men who made it possible for everyone to have the Bible gave their lives for the cause. Other humans who have tried to help God in ways that were new and different in all periods of the World’s history have suffered at the hands of those who did not want to see changes made. Joseph knew he had been called to help Jesus Christ restore His church again to Earth. He knew that even though he was to suffer as had other men before him, he would continue to serve the Lord in whatever work he was instructed to do. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16
Instructions were given Joseph in this same revelation. Jesus Christ, the Lord, continued, saying: Attend to thy calling and thou shalt have wherewith to magnify thine office, and to expound all Scriptures. Thou shalt take no purse, nor scrip, neither staves, neither two coats, for the church shall give unto thee in the very hour what thou needest for food, and for raiment, and for shoes, for money, and for scrip. Yea, and also, all those whom thou hast ordained. And they shall do even according to his pattern. Amen. You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to le the soft soul of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mind. Meanwhile the World goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the World offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—over and over announcing your place in the family of things. May the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be acceptable unto Thee, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Thou who establishes peace in the Heaven, grant peace unto all America. Amen. May it be Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, to grant our portion in Thy Torah, and may the Temple be rebuilt in our day. There we will serve Thee with awe as in the days of old. As long as an enemy is judged solely by one’s appearance, one’s victory is assured. It the end, it may be our certainty that we are infallible, which may prove our downfall. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16
Love a very private primary suite and bath? This home is for you.
CRESLEIGH MEADOWS AT PLUMAS RANCH
Plumas Lake, CA |
Now Selling!
Cresleigh Meadows is now selling! Found just north of Feather River Boulevard, Cresleigh Meadows is home of the largest neighborhood in Plumas Ranch as well as the popular Bear River Park. With four floor plans available, ranging from approximately 2,000 – 3,500 square feet offering, three to five bedrooms, we are certain you will find the home that fits your needs and lifestyle.
Popular design elements include open floor plans, large kitchen islands, and flex spaces are staples in Cresleigh homes. Multi-generational living options also available in select homes.
Homeowners will love the convenient commuter access to nearly Sacramento and Yuba City.
Best of all, each Cresleigh home comes fully equipped with an All Ready connected home! This smart home package comes included with your home and features great tools including: video door bell and digital deadbolt for the front door, connect home hub so you can set scenes and routines to make life just a little easier. Two smart switches and USB outlets are also included, plus we’ll gift you a Google Home Hub and Go! https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-meadows-at-plumas-ranch/
The Most Beautiful Adventures are Not those We Go to Seek!
Powerful ideas do not die with those who gave them birth, as long as those seeds are planted in their followers. At this point in history, Jesus is surrounded with flocks wherever He is, but all is not well. Sometimes one will feel that one is being led into an experience, a mood, or an idea. At other times one may feel oneself being drawn inward quite deeply as if the very roots of one’s egoic being were penetrated; more rarely as if one has been drawn beyond the ego itself. When this consciousness takes hold of a human, it takes one by surprise. Infinity is so utterly different from what one was experiencing a few minutes earlier that its wonder, its truth, its beauty, its love fills one abruptly, as if in descent from the skies. The element of surprise and the delight of novelty are present and give the Glimpse its rapturous turn. The glimpse may come to one with a suddenness which makes the surrounding circumstances quite incongruous. The glimpse takes you unawares. When the humor of a particular situation or scene, happening or idea strikes a person one may burst out into sudden laughter. It is not long-forming but explosive, not built-up like a wall brick-by-brick but flashed across the darkness like lighting. One’s mind has this possibility of an abrupt move, and unexpected leap. Just so does it still possess this same possibility with regard to the discovery of truth. Enlightenment is always “sudden” in the sense that during meditation or reverie or relaxation the preliminary thought-concentrating gustatory period usually moves through consciousness quite slowly until, at some unexpected moment, there is an abrupt deepening, followed by a slipping into another dimension, a finding oneself alive in a new atmosphere. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21
A passing sign of progress in arousing latent forces and a physical indication that one is on the eve of noteworthy mystical experience may be a sudden unexpected vibratory movement in the region of the abdomen, in the solar plexus. It usually comes when one has been relaxed for a short time from the daily cares, or after retiring to bed for the night. The diaphragmatic muscle will appear to tremble violently and something will seem to surge to and fro like a snake behind the solar plexus. This bodily agitation will soon subside and be followed by a pleasant calm and out of this calm there will presently arise a sense of unusual power, of heightened control over the terrestrial nature and human self. With this there may also come a clear intuition about some truth needed at the time and a revelatory expansion of consciousness into supersensual reality. These moods descend without invitation and depart without permission. This is the crucial point when ordinary compulsive mental activity fades away and stillness supervenes, perhaps very briefly, perhaps for some minutes. For some time, one is tense with the feeling of being about to receive a new revelation. Many are happy to make the trip to the Heavenly Kingdom, but few there are who will cart and haul that cross of Jesus’s. Many enjoy the sweet sentiments He utters, but few, that tart words He sometimes has to say. Many will wolf down the food with the Famous Man, as Jesus son of Sirach put it in his Book of Wisdom (6.10), but few will join Him in the fasts. They are all there in the good times, but few will take on the tough tasks He inevitably asks. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21
Yes, many like to be seen breaking bread with Jesus but, as Matthew has described (20.22), they are nowhere to be found when the passion cup is passed. Many are wowed by His miracles; few are wooed by His cross. Many just love chatting with Jesus so long as He is not rude about their not embracing His rood. What is the moral? Many praise Jesus Christ and bless Him as long as the good times roll. However, when He absents Himself for a few moments or just goes off for a while to pray, they become bellicose, then lachrymose, then comatose. We should love Jesus for His own sweet sake, and not because of any magic He will do in our behalf. And so when the bad times rock, we will bless Him as though the good times had never left. Even if He will never want to give us consolation again, we will still praise Him and thank Him for what He once did. Here are some questions for us. How can the love of Jesus, pure as it is, have no particular price tag, not terrestrial taint? Can those who spend all their time hunting down consolations not be called mercenaries? Are not those who think of nothing but their own comfort and profit hoarders of stuff rather than lovers of Christ? Can anyone be found who wants to serve God without counting the cost? Some considerations. Rare is the person who is so spiritual that one is denuded oneself of every material thing! Is there anyone who is truly poor in spirit and bereft of every creaturely thing? Can any of us be discovered whose interior life is like the Proverbial “gift of great price from a foreign land” (31.10)? If a Devout gave all one’s substance, that is good, but it is not everything. If one’s penitential practices were punishing and public, that is good too, but one still has a long way to go. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21
If one understands all knowledge, that is fine, but there is so much more to know. “If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angles, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal,” reports 1 Corinthians 13.1. Even if one has great virtue and indeed flaming devotion, it is still a long way to Purgatory. Why? For one has one step farther to go and according to Luke 10.41-42, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.” It is the most important step of all. What is that? That one leave behind not only all created things, but also oneself. That is to say, dump one’s selfish pride by the side of the road. Empty out one’s petty pockets. And when one has done all this, which one knows has yet to be done, then and only then will one come to the realization that of oneself one is nothing. One day we ay come to think we are rather skilled in the service of the Lord. Some of our peers may even encourage us to think we are slick. However, even if there is some truth to it, we should still describe ourselves as just another clumsy oaf. “When you have done everything that is required of you, repeat after me,” Revealed Truth has spoken in the Gospel of Luke, “we are truly the bumbling and stumbling servants,” (17.10). We have to be truly poor in body and spirit before we can say with the Psalmist, “Yes, I am a leper, and a pauper too” (25.16). Nevertheless, no one is richer or stronger than the person who knows how to leave one’s material self and all one’s trash behind and place oneself on the rutted, deeply rutted, road to Humbletown. Each glimpse is not just a repeat performance, it is a fresh new experience. Each time the glimpse comes, it is as if it had never come before, so fresh, so sparkling is its never-failing wonder. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21
The higher awareness comes on imperceptibly and little by little. However, as it silently gathers itself, like a cloud, it also breaks like a renovating cloud—vehement, sparkling, and splashing. The belief, which prevails in Japan, China, and other lands, in a sudden abrupt enlightenment when one thinks quietly or says aloud, “Ah! so this is IT,” has a factual basis. This satori, as the Japanese call it, may be either a temporary or a permanent glimpse. The most beautiful adventures are not those we go to see. Such is the coming of a glimpse—at the moment of arrival, unsought. Although such glimpses come mostly when a human is alone, come in quiet solitude, they need not do so. They have sometimes come to one in a crowded street or on a well-filled ship. The signs of this visitation are not always the same. It may delicately brush one with the feeling of its presence or forcefully stimulate one with the strength of its being. The beginner usually has to go through an emotional experience in order to receive a mystical experience, but the proficient is under no necessity to do so. It comes into the orb of one’s awareness as an unstruggled and unsensational happening, so easily, so smoothly, that there is no dramatic emotion. The sensitive informed and experienced person may get intimations, may feel the glimpse coming even before the actual joyous event. In tat moment one feels on the very verge of eternity, about to lose oneself in its impersonal depths. When the opportunity to gain a glimpse of one’s Overself draws near, it will be foreshadowed by certain happenings, either of an inward or an outward nature, or both. The book of life may be understood in two senses. In one sense as the inscription of those who are chosen to life; thus we now speak of the book of life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21
In another sense the inscription of those things which lead us to life ay be called the book of life; and this also is twofold, either as of things to be done; and thus the Old and New Testament are called a book of life; or of things already done, and thus that divine energy by which it happens that to each one one’s deeds will be recalled to memory, is spoken of as the book of life. Thus that also may be called the book of war, whether it contains the names inscribed of those chosen for military service; or treats of the art of warfare, or relates the deeds of soldiers. It is the custom to inscribe, not those who are rejected, but those who are chosen. Whence there is no book of death corresponding to reprobation; as the book of life to predestination. Predestination and the book of life are different aspects of the same thing. For this latter implies the knowledge of predestination. The book of life implies a conscription or a knowledge of those chosen to life. Now a human is chosen for something which does not belong to one by nature; and again that to which a human is chosen has the aspect of an end. For a soldier is not chosen or inscribed merely to put on armor, but to fight; since this is the proper duty to which military service is directed. However, the life of glory is an end exceeding human nature. Wherefore, strictly speaking, the book of life regards the life of glory. The divine life, even considered as a life of glory, is natural to God; whence in His regard there is no election, and in consequence no book of life; for we do not say that anyone is chosen to possess the power of sense, or any of those things that are consequent on nature. For there is no election, nor a book of life, as regard the life of nature. The life of grace has the aspect, no of an end, but of something directed towards an end. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21
Hence nobody is said to be chosen to the life of grace, except so far as the life of grace is directed to glory. For this reason those who, possessing grace, fail to obtain glory, are not said to be chosen simply, but relatively. Likewise they are not said to be written in the book of life simply, but relatively; that is to say, hat it is in the ordination and knowledge of God that they are to have some relation to eternal life, according to their participation in grace. “Let them be blotted out from the book of living,” reports Psalms 68.29. Some have said that none could be blotted out of the book of life as a matter of fact, but only in the opinion of humans. For it is customary in the Scriptures to say that something is done when it becomes known. Thus some are said to be written in the book of life, inasmuch as humans think they are written therein, on account of the present righteousness they see in them; but when it becomes evident, either in this World or in he next, that they have fallen from that state of righteousness, they are then said to be blotted out. And thus a gloss explains the passage: “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living.” However, because not to be blotted out of the book of life is placed among the rewards of the just according to the text, “One that shall overcome, shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot one’s name out of the book of life,” reports Apocalypse 3.5. And what is promised to holy humans, is not merely something in the opinion of humans, it can therefore be said that to be blotted out, and not blotted out, of the book of life is not only to be referred to the opinion of humans, but to the reality of the fact. For the book of life is not only to be referred to the opinion of humans, but to the reality of the fact. For the book of life is the inscription of those ordained to eternal life, to which one is directed from two sources; namely, from predestination, which direction never fails, and from grace; for whoever has grace, by this very fact becomes fitted for eternal life. This direction fails sometimes; because some are directed by possessing grace, to obtain eternal life, yet they fail to obtain it through moral sin. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21
Therefore those who are ordained to possess eternal life through divine predestination are written down in the book of life simply, because they are written therein to have eternal life in reality; such are never blotted out from the book of life. Those, however, who are ordained to eternal life, not through divine predestination, but through grace, are said to be written in the book of life not simply, but relatively, for they are written therein not to have eternal life in itself, but in its cause only. Yet though these latter can be said to be blotted out of the book of life, this blotting out must not be referred to God, as if God foreknew a thing, and afterwards knew it not; but to the thing known, namely, because God knows one is first ordained to eternal life, and afterwards not ordained when one falls from grace. The act of blotting out does not refer to the book of life as regards God’s foreknowledge, as if in God there were any change; but as regards things foreknown, which can change. Although things are immutably in God, yet in themselves they are subject to change. To this it is that the blotting out of the book of life refers. The way in which one is said to be blotted out of the book of life is that in which one is said to be written therein anew; either in the opinion of human, or because one begins again to have relation towards eternal life through grace; which also is included in the knowledge of God, although not anew. Probability is founded on the presumption of a resemblance between those objects of which we have had experience and those of which we have had none; and therefore it is impossible that this presumption can arise from probability. The argument up to date shows that miracles are possible and that there is nothing antecedently ridiculous in the stories which say that God has sometimes performed them. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21
This does not mean, of course, hat we are committed to believing all stories of miracles. Most stories about miraculous events are probably false: if it comes to that, most stories about natural events are false. Lies, exaggerations, misunderstandings and hearsay make up perhaps more than half of all that is said and written in the World. We must therefore find a criterion whereby to judge any particular story of the miraculous. In one sense, of course, our criterion is plain. Those stories are to be accepted for which the historical evidence is sufficiently good. However, then, as we saw at the outset, the answer to the question, “How much evidence should we require for this story,” depends on our answer to the question, “How far is this story intrinsically probable?” We must therefore find a criterion of probability. The ordinary procedure of the modern historian, even if one admits the possibility of miracle, is to admit no particular instance of it until every possibility of “natural” explanation has been tried and failed. That is, one will accept the most improbable “natural” explanations rather than say that a miracle occurred. Collective hallucinations, hypnotism of unconsenting spectators, widespread instantaneous conspiracy in lying by persons not otherwise known to be liars and not likely to gain by the lie—all these are known to be very improbably events: so improbably that, except for the special purpose of excluding a miracle, they are never suggested. However, they are preferred to be the admission of a miracle. Such a procedure is, from the purely historical point of view, sheer midsummer madness unless we start by knowing that any Miracles whatever is more improbable than the most improbable natural event. Do we know this? We must distinguish the different kinds of improbability. Since miracles are, by definition, rarer than other events, it is obviously improbable beforehand that one will occur at any given place and time. In that sense every miracle is improbable. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21
It is immensely improbable beforehand that a pebble dropped from the stratosphere over London will hit any given spot, or that any one particular person will win a large lottery. However, the report that the pebble has landed outside such and such a shop or that Mr. So-and-So has won the lottery is not at all incredible. When you consider the immense number of meetings and fertile union between ancestors which were necessary in order that you should be born, you perceive that it was once immensely improbable that such a person as you should come to exist: but one you are here, the report of your existence is not in the least incredible. With probability of this kind—antecedent probability of chances—we are not there concerned. Our business is with historical probability. Ever since Hume’s famous Essay it has been believed that historical statements about miracles are the most intrinsically improbable of all historical statements. According to Hume, probability rests on what may be called the majority vote of our past experiences. The more often a thing has been known to happen, the more probable it is that it should happen again; and the less often the less probable. Now the regularity of Nature’s course, says Hume, is supported by something better than the majority vote of past experiences: it is supported by their unanimous vote, or, as Hume says, by “firm and unalterable experience.” There is, in fact, “uniform experience” against Miracle; otherwise, says Hume, it would not be a Miracle. A miracle is therefore the most improbable of all events. It is always more probable that the witnesses were lying or mistaken than that a miracle occurred. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21
Now of course we must agree with Hume that if there is absolutely “uniform experience” against miracles, if in other words they have never happened, why then they never have. Unfortunately we know the experience against them to be uniform only if we know that all reports of them are false. And we can know all the reports to be false only if we know already that miracles have never occurred. In fact, we are arguing in a circle. There is also an objection to Hume which leads us deeper into our problem. The whole idea of Probability (as Hume understands it) depends on the principle of the Uniformity of Nature. Unless Nature always goes on in the same way, the fact that a thing had happened ten million times would not make it a whit more probable that it would happen again. And how do we know the Uniformity of Nature? A moment’s thought shows that we do not know it by experience. We observe many regularities in Nature. However, of course all the observations that humans have made or will make while the race lasts cover only a minute fraction of the events that actually go on. Our observations would therefore be of no use unless we felt sure that Nature when we are no watching her behaves in the same way as when we are: in other words, unless we believed in the Uniformity of Nature. Experience therefore cannot prove uniformity, because uniformity has to be assumed before experience proves anything. And mere length of experience does not help matters. It is no good saying, “Each fresh experience confirms our belief in uniformity and therefore we reasonably expect that it will always be confirmed”; for that argument works only on the assumption of Uniformity under a new name. Can we say that Uniformity is at any rate very probable? Unfortunately not. We have just seen that all probabilities depend on it. Unless Nature is uniform, nothing is either probable or improbable. And clearly the assumption which you have to make before there is any such thing as probability cannot itself be probable. The odd thing is that no human knew this better than Hume. His Essay on Miracles is quite inconsistent with the more radical, and honourable, scepticism of his main work. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21
Throughout the Second Wave era the mass media grew more and more powerful. Today a startling change is taking place. As the Third Wave thunders in, the mass media, far from expanding their influence, are suddenly being forced to share it. They are being beaten back on many fronts at once by what I call the “de-massified media.” Newspapers provide the first example. The oldest of the Second Wave mass media, newspapers are losing their readers and staff. The estimated total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2020 was 24.3 million for weekday and 25.8 million for Sunday, each down by 6 percent from the previous year. Nor were such losses due merely to the rise of television. Each of today’s mass-circulation dailies now faces increasing competition from burgeoning flock of mini-circulation weeklies, biweeklies, and so-called “shoppers” that serve not the metropolitan mass market but specific neighbourhoods and communities within it, providing far more localized advertising and news. Having reached saturation, the big-city mass-circulation daily is in deep trouble. De-massified media are snapping at its heels. The United States of America has experienced and explosion of electronic journals and mini-magazines—thousands of them aimed at small, special-interest, regional, global, or even local markets. And it is not all bad news. Their programs focus on things their producers like. They are not really targeting an audience, but producing and sharing things they are interested and that they believe will help others, so their content is not the same as the doom and gloom of the mass media, which people find appealing because no one wants made to feel sad, fearful or anxious. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21
For instance, pilots and aviation buffs today can chose among literally scores of periodicals edited just foe them. Teenagers, scuba divers, retired people, women athletes, collectors of antique camera, tennis enthusiasts, skiers, and skateboarders each have their own press. Every organization, community group, political or religious cult and cultlet today can afford to produce is own publication. Even smaller groups churn out periodicals on the Internet that have become ubiquitous in American and International offices, homes, and classrooms. The news media and magazines have lost their powerful influence in national life, especially with people trying to safe trees and also the fact people now know news is not necessarily true nor honest work. It is entertainment which is trying to compete with fictional television shows. Many people, however, have the intentions to maintain the peaceful enjoyment of what belongs to one, and prefers on every occasion the public utility to one’s own interest. Between the 1920s and the end of the second World War, the very limited amount of African American suburbanization generally took one of two forms. The first was the all-African American suburb. Almost all of these suburbs were poor, and the majority were unincorporated. In the south, it was common for non-European Americas to live in small hamlets and less-developed areas on the city’s periphery. These low-income shantytown neighbourhoods often even lacked community water and sewage and were suburban in name only. While such small communities were technically in the suburbs, socially and economically they were not of the suburbs. An example of this type of suburb was the African American suburb of Kinloch, 6 miles outside the city limits of St. Louis. Kinloch, surrounded by more affluent European America suburbs, did not become incorporated until 1948. It was typical of early African American suburbs insofar as because of a limited tax base, it had poor school, potholed roads, and minimal government services. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21
The roads from Ferguson, the suburb east of Kinloch, actually stopped short of Kinloch at an overgrown easement only to start up again on the Kinloch side of the border. As late as 1970 some of these African American “suburban” neighbourhoods could be seen south of Washington, D.C., across the district line. During the interwar period, some solid working class-African American suburbs also existed, such as Robbins, southwest of Chicago. At this time the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) directly supported segregated housing by refusing to make loans in other than all-one-race areas. Until 1950 FHA regulations specially prohibited making loans that would permit racial integration. The Federal Housing Administration’s official manuals cautioned against infiltration of inharmonious racial and national groups, a lower class of inhabitants, or the presence of incompatible racial elements, in the new neighbourhood. Thus, federal policies prohibited loans that would encourage the integration of neighbourhoods. During World War II, the FHA consistently refused to insure war-housing projects for African American workers. The formal regulations were not changed until the Kennedy years of the early 1960s, and the policies really did not change until the Open Housing Act of 1968 barred housing discrimination. However, the outlawing of discriminatory policies did not eliminate informal practices of racial steering, where African Americans were shown housing only in areas already having African American residents. The second form of African American suburbanization prior to World War II included small communities of African Americans found in the most elite suburbs. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21
African Americans living in such suburbs were not equal-status homeowners. Some of them did not have professional jobs. The 1930s census showed, for example, that along Chicago’s prestigious North Shore, 5 percent of Glencoe’s and 4.3 percent of Kenilworth’s residents were African American. Overtime some of the African Americans without professional jobs purchased or built small homes in the less desirable sections of the community. Such African American populations contained the seeds of social change. For example, Evanston, on Chicago’s North Shore, as of 1930 listed 7.8 percent of is population as African American. Evanston as of that date already had a separate aspiring middle-class African American neighbourhood for those working on the North Shore. Overtime this nucleus would grow to be a substantial portion of the Evanston community. One reason for the new interest in human spirituality is that its source in intuition is radically different from the rational, densely factual nature of science and therefore generates feelings. New Age Spirituality—alternative and usually individualistic forms of spiritual consciousness illustrated by New Age bookstore sections—feeds off both waning of communal religion and the advance of science. In an age where many religions—and ever more—coexist, religious dogma may seem less credible. Yet science fails to answer our ultimate questions: Why are we here? How should be live? What is our ultimate destiny? If the old faith seems unbelievable and the new science seems to demystify life, then people will find mystery and meaning in new places. It has been said that when some people cease believing in Gog, they do not believe nothing, they believe anything. Nature abhors a spiritual vacuum. The quest for meaning is fundamental to our being. The human mind has a genuine desire to plumb the depths of the unspoken, to find deeper significance and truth, to reach out to another realm of existence. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21
New Age “soft spirituality” is essentially irreligious. “I am not religious,” one hears, “but I am very spiritual.” This is the privatized spirituality of radical individualism, the solo spirituality of pop cultural. This is the spirituality of religion, minus the things one does not like about religion, such as the authoritative status of sacred texts and communally shared beliefs. New Age spirituality differs from biblical spirituality not only in its individualism but also in its understanding of human nature. Biblical spirituality places its most basic distinction between all of creation (both people and animals) and God who is creator. In the Old Testament book of Isaiah God declares, “I am God; there is none like me.” The Holy Spirit is given to provide us with a deeper knowledge of both God and a wisdom that goes beyond rational and scientific forms of knowing. However, biblical spirituality still maintains the distinction between God and mortal, finite humans. New Age spirituality replies that we are emanations of God: The divine is within you. You are immortal. You are a soul who inhabits your body, and thus able to travel out of body, read others’ minds, and glimpse the future. Your spirit or soul may also have inhabited another being, and may again be reincarnated in someone to come. You are undying and capable of communicating with those who, also undying, have passed to the other side, the spirit World. You do not need God to give you hope of life beyond death, because there is no death. You are already an eternal spirit. At your body’s death, you will meet a gentle being of light (which already had been experienced by those near-death survivours whose spirits temporarily vacated their bodies). #RandolphHarris 16 of 21
New Age spirituality offers other comforting messages. Angels protect us. There are no fortunate random coincidences, but rather angelic or divine interventions. Evil is not real (though some are spiritually impoverished). Fear, loneliness, and pain can be dismissed. Given positive attitudes, optimum health, serene bliss, and joy of pleasures of the flesh awaits us. And then there is the New Age elevation of intuition. IF you feel it, it is true. Truth is much less a matter of logic and verification than of personal experience and testimony. Neale Donald Walsch illustrates this radical individualism in his disdain for history and community and in his elevation of the individua self. Walsch has had “conversations with God” (so reads the title of the book he has written), and here is what God says: The wisdom of faith traditions is “not authoritative.” So “listen to your feelings. Listen to your Highest Thoughts. Listen to your experience. Whenever any one of these differ from what you have been told by your teachers, or read in your book, forget the words.” We are being held together by some kind of bonding or gluing, or held together by some central unifying force that rules the other parts and holds them together as the force of gravity does or the focus around which perspectives organize themselves—such a power, central and hierarchically organized, is postulated by Plato and has been the most generally accepted metaphor in Western thought from its beginnings. No doubt there are minds almost entirely held together in one or other of these ways. As a rule, however, which metaphor is most useful at any time depends on a number of factors: the kind of person under discussion, the kind of structures which are falling apart, and so on. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21
When we think of neural connections, and when we think of the association of ideas, we tend to think of structures held together by connecting bonds. Neural connections exemplify this kind of cohesion. Sense-impressions build up into perceptions, which integrate into concepts and ever more complex structures. Variations in integration and coherence are seen to determine structure so that the very nature of structure could be defined in terms of bonds—there are more neural associations within a structure than between structures. Regions of the personality are bonded together more or less strongly depending on the number of associations between them. The number of associations determines the extent of integration. A relative absence of associations defines a gap or fissure—the fewer the associations, the wider the split. As anyone knows who has glued things, the things to be stuck together need to be held firmly in a kind of frame until the glue holds. Then the frame is no longer needed. The concepts of boundary and space are boundaries and frames of this kind. Frames provide restrictions or limitations which can be used to further the integration within. A picture must be painted on a certain canvas; a poem must be written in sonnet form. Within the frame there is space for a creative live. When there is a frame that gives space and protection, all the resonances and echoes and reverberation of an individual’s experiences have time to work themselves out. They do not get lost; they are not cut off prematurely. Ego-relatedness normally provides a frame. It provides the safety within which various experiences may come to be connected and associated, although they occurred at different times in different contexts. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21
Good parenting provides the frame within which psychological associations can ramify and become strong. In this way, good parenting leads to personalities which have strong and well-integrated structures. With less ego-relatedness, the individual has less space and time to get this inter-connecting process going, and so it retains more dissociated experiences. When people experience themselves as lacking a containment, something is rushing through them—a noise, a sensation, an impression—which they cannot hold on to. This sense, of something rushing through, may be how we experience unintegrated sensory streams of unprocessed uncontained stimulation. It is what falling apart sometimes feels like: what is going on does not make sense to us. Not making sense is the same as not being organized into a meaningful pattern. Or we may be unable to find a framework of meaning into which to organize what is happening. Boundaries seems to facilitate organization; insecure boundaries seem often to hinder it. There is an interesting connection between uncontained state and the autistic individual’s desperate clutching of hard objects. In some states of mind, holding one to something with firm contour might feel much like being something with firm contours. The common element would be there is something firm for holding something formless. Firm contours seem to be needed, whether they belong to the infant (in us) or they belong to whatever the individual feels held and contained by. Whether the something firm is my skin or yours seems less important than the fact that it prevents me feeling a rushing shapeless flowing away. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21
The function of the boundary frame are reminiscent of Pribram’s “bag of skin,” and Winnicott’s “membrane.” Our skins provide a compelling metaphor for such holding functions, more flexible and organic than the idea of a frame. The skin protects. The vulnerable skinless self and its care, means that especially when an infant, something or someone is needed to give one space and protect against impingement from without, and also from within—from loneliness, pain, rage. Failure in the holding environment, perhaps because of illness in the mother (or caregiver), can mean that the individual’s line of life is interrupted and its development hindered by the need for defence against primitive anxiety. However, it can also be seen that failure of the father to protect the mother in the crucial weeks after one’s birth can contribute to this state of affairs. If the circle made by the father, or by some person fulfilling the father’s function is broken, the mother cannot abandon herself without anxiety to her infant’s needs. The parents, who are normally the child’s holding environment, may at times be fiercely tested, especially at times when feelings are strong. Once again, we have reached a set of ideas where parallels can be perceived between what good parents do and what psychotherapists do. The reader has probably practiced at recognizing these passages by now. It is important that whoever hold the infant (of the older child or the adolescent or the adult) is strong enough to hold on to, either to prevent explosion and fragmentation, or to form the framework for such disintegration and for subsequent integration. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21
The survival of the mother who does not retaliate, together with the father who comes to represent the indestructible environment, allows for freedom of the instinctual life—the source of spontaneity—within the family circle. In the earliest days, it is the caring adult whose insightful and coping skills protect, as with a shielding skin, the helpless and defenceless infant. In favourable circumstances, however, these functions will gradually be taken over by the competent developing infant. Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden, suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood. Please teach us to care and not to care. Please teach us to sit still, even among these rocks. Our peace in one’s will and even among these rocks, sister, mother, and spirit of the river, spirit of the sea. Please suffer me not to be separated and please let my cry come unto Thee. O inscribe all the children of Thy covenant for a happy life. May all the living do homage unto Thee forever and praise Thy name in truth, O God, who are our salvation and our help. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, Beneficent One, unto whom our thanks are due. Grant lasting peace unto America Thy people, for Thou art the Sovereign Lord of peace; and may it be good in Thy sight to bless Thy people America at all times with Thy peace. In this book of life, blessing, peace and ample sustenance, may we, together with all Thy people, the house of America, be remembered and inscribed before Thee for a happy life and for peace. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who establisest peace. In every system throughout antiquity there is an ascetic preliminary side which purifies the mind and the body and then only does meditation start. Without such purification, that is, asceticism, all the dangers of meditation—hallucination, misuse of occult powers, egotistic fancies, mediumship, and so on—are free to raise, but with it there is better protection against them. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21
Cresleigh Homes
Statement light fixtures complete a room, and the additional lighting pumps up the glam factor! The size of the bedrooms at Brighton Station Residence 4 let you be bold and creative! 🎉 https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-4/
The two-story foyer and floor to ceiling windows creates immediate interest, The articulated plan form animates entire great room layout, with its wood accents and extravagant chandeliers. The formal dining connects seamlessly with the kitchen through a butler’s pantry, and there is also an office space in the kitchen, which would be perfect for a bill room or a place for the kids to do their homework..
The T-shaped island defines and dramatizes the culinary kitchen, which is open to the great room. Beyond the large sliding door is a patio with a built-in fireplace and a beautiful yard perfect for entertaining or watching the kids while you prepare a meal.
The best journey takes you to a Cresleigh home. https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-ranch/
Randolph Harris II International Institute 