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Wisdom Begins in Wonder—God Makes an Impact in His Kingdom!
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. Art is a protest against self-alienation, not as a temporary situation to be overcome in history, but as the permanent human condition. It is a symbol of a human soul. Human societies pass through determinate stages of growth and decay. There is first a purely bestial condition, from which emerges the age of the gods, when the basic social unit is the patriarchal family. In the age of the gods, other of a kind prevails, the brutal instincts of humans being curbed by fear of supernatural powers—the beginnings of religion. The next stage, the age of the heroes, appears as a consequence of the alliances formed between the fathers of families to meet the challenge provided both by internal dissidence among their own dependents (or famuli) and by external attack from lawless vagrants. Oligarchies are established through these alliances, and society is rigidly divided between patrician rulers and plebeian serfs or slaves. Laws are necessarily cruel and inequitable, and the life and poetry of the heroic age is imbued with ferocious and predatory ideals. This stage is followed by the age of men, which is engendered not by abstract reverence for reason and natural law, but by class conflict. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows what is best, what is good for us. The plebeian class demands and gradually achieves equal rights and a legal system that respects its interest. However, the weakening of traditional ties and the questioning of accepted customs and values that results from the establishment of free democratic republics leads inevitably to eventual corruption and dissolution. The end cycle comes either through conquest from without or through inner disintegration and a reversion to primitive barbarism, and a new cycle begins. One example of such a cycle is an instance of the ideal eternal history whose course is run in time by the histories of all nations, and this can be found in the history of Roman civilization. Thus, the mythical figure of Romulus is seen as giving symbolic expression to a period when rebellions among the famuli against the Vichian fathers resulted in the emergence of an essentially feudal society: agrarian clientships were established, and a sharp division, maintained by force, was set between the patrician and plebeian classes. However, in the course of time pressures from below once again forced a change in social and political organization. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the World around us. As progress was made, rights and privileges, previously reserved for the nobility, were extended to the population as a whole, and a system of civil sovereignty was instituted; in contriving such a system, the Roman people went beyond all others in the World and created a truly free popular commonwealth. Yet, the prospects of acquiring personal wealth and power which the system opened up, together with the spread of destructive skeptical doctrines, led in their turn to discontent and unrest among the people. A period of strong authoritarian rule under the Caesars succeeded in temporarily arresting the process of disintegration, but the forces of unbridled individualism and intellectual corruption (called by the barbarism of reflection) proved in the end to be too powerful and Rome finally collapsed under the blows of its enemies. So, what president Trump is trying to do with this travel ban is keep American from collapsing from the blows of our enemies. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
This is no longer the 1970s, we can no longer sit around, bare foot, playing the guitar and singing kumbaya, while women and men dance naked around lily pads. At least 22 people were killed and an estimated 50 others were injured on 2017 May 5, when a fiery eruption of light, followed by an incredible loud noise, blew away everything in its path at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Then people started hollering and screaming like they lost their minds, and running for safety, while a giant cloud of dust clouded their vision. The explosion occurred around 10.30pm, and some said it looked like the gates of Hell opening up. Several people are possible paralyzed as shrapnel hit their spine. The cunning reason, whereby the petty motives of these individuals are used to serve ends that lie beyond the comprehension of the agents concerned, is unknown and currently treated as a terrorist incident. Dear God, filled with compassion for those who love you, and with the love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of these troubles, we cast ourselves to your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present affair which under your special protection. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Music is art, and art was given precedence second only to philosophy and was distinguished much more sharply from religion. Although in art consciousness moves in sensuous medium and not yet in the transparency of pure thought, it is able to circulate freely in this medium and to find itself in the appearances of the World. Music, as art, its essential object is the beautiful, the idea in the form of limited appearance. The beautiful object is the harmonized whole of things in microcosm, which is a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger. As the synthesis of the objectively beautiful in external reality and the subjectively beautiful in imagination, music is the sign of an ultimately reconciled World, despite the loss of a religiously grounded belief in World order and despite the overwhelming everyday experiences of a fragmentary and chaotic existence. Only God can know in the full sense the nature and workings of the Universe, since it was he who made it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. Material reality can therefore never be transparent to human reason in the manner envisaged by rationalist philosophers. This does not mean, however, that it cannot be known at all, for in the investigation of the physical World, we are not confined to the role of passive spectators with no active part to play in forming the phenomena to be studied. Rather, through the construction of experiments performed in the light of hypothesis, we to some degree imitate nature, creating and re-creating the conditions under which natural processes of determinate kinds may be observed to occur. The things which are proved in physics are those to which we can perform something similar. Please bring this to a happy issue. Please continue to intercede for many of us until our requests are granted. So many people around the World are hurting and scared for their lives. They are scared to fly, go to concerts, a nightclub, drive, or even go for a walk in the park. Above all things, we would like to obtain the grace of God and his blessings for all eternity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live. Many are afraid that when their kids walk out the door that they may never come back to the house, or that their parents are in danger. God, do not hide your light under a basket, but let it shine for the whole World, for all the centuries to see. We may not suffer torture the way Jesus Christ did, but are still called to let the light of our Christianity illumine our daily lives. Please help us to have the courage to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationships, our conversation—every corner of our day. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God praying always. If we cannot express ourselves well on each of our beliefs, we must work and study until we can. Try to state to yourself what you believe to be the absolute truth of God, and you will be slowing God the opportunity to pass it on through you to someone else. Always make it a practice to stir your own mind thoroughly to think through what you have easily believed. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. God makes in impact in his kingdom. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
The Love of Earth is Recognition of God
Love leads to God, through art or in acts. Opinions, whether true of false, are always facts, and as such they deserve and require to be made the object of research and verification. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of humans more than the people of the Earth. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nations seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. We ought be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he looks down from Heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the Earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes their deeds. Experience and intuition give us the harmonious unity that the reason cannot supply. Philosophers are especially prone to torture themselves with unanswerable questions; the wise is content if life is successful on the level of practice. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
My heart assures me, a want of faith is a want of nature. Religion is not only the belief in the kingdom of God, but the attempt to make it come about while recognizing its impossibility. This religion not only has a warmth and poetry, but also represents in its radical from the highest point to which the human mind, or rather the human hearts, is capable of raising itself. Religious doctrines govern practices such are: Beliefs in supernatural beings (God and angels). The demarcation of certain objects as sacred. Ritual acts focused around sacred objects. A moral code believed to be sanctioned by God. Characteristic feelings, such as awe and sense of mystery, which to be aroused in the presence of the sacred objects and which are associated with God. Prayer and other forms of communication with God. A world view, that is, a general of its over-all significance, and a picture of the place of the individual in the World. The individual’s more or less total organization of one’s life is based on a World view, and a social organization bound together by preceding characteristics. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Personality is the unique, limitless part of our life that makes us distinct from everyone else. It is too vast for us even to comprehend. An island on the sea may be just the top of a large mountain, and our personality is like that island. We do not know the great depths of our being; therefore, we cannot measure ourselves. We start out thinking we can but soon realize that there is really only one Being who fully understands us, and that is our Creator. To say that a word is vague is to say that there are cases in which there is no definite answer to whether it applies to something. Thus, middle-aged is vague, for it is not clear whether a person aged 40 or a person aged 59 is middle-aged. Of course, there are uncontroversial a areas of application and nonapplication. At age 5 or 80 one is clearly not middle-aged, and at age 45 one clearly is. However, on either side of the application of the area of clear application there are indefinitely bounded areas of uncertainty. To say that there is no definite answer to the question, is a person 40 middle-aged? is not to say that we have not yet been able to find the answer because of insufficient information. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Our inability to say whether a 40-year-old man is middle-aged is not the result of lack of information about such things as blood pressure and metabolic rate. No additional information would settle the matter, expect indirectly by leading us to tighten up the meaning of the word. The indeterminacy is due to an aspect of the meaning of the term rather than to the current state of our knowledge. Regardless, by the time a person is considered middle-aged, there are certain things that are expected of him or her from oneself and others. American values is a phrase that refers to what people think is right or obligatory and even to whatever they believe to be true. I have spent my life working towards a goal and am not on the path I thought I would be on, but have not let obstacles that have been in my way stop me from trying to reach my goal. However, because I am not seeing the kind of results that I would like and have no idea when I will reach my goal, this does cause anxiety daily. While many young and old adults are playing games, and wasting time, I stay focused on trying to fulfill my destiny. However, I had set of boundaries of when I wanted to accomplish my goals, and by the time I am considered middle-aged I want to be established. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
From time to time, I get worried because I fear I will be old and wrinkled before I reach my goals, and I certainly want to enjoy some of my youth. Many of my days are programed trying to develop my own business, looking at houses, and thinking about retirement, while others have fun. Even though I have no idea when I will reach my goals, I kept in mind that things are not paid for with money, we pay for things with time. For instance, when people take about a mortgage, they know they will pay it off in 10,15, or 30 years. When one wants to buy a vacation house, they think, “It will take me five year to save up enough money.” So, I feel that I am spending my time wisely. Another thing that keeps me going is faith. When you get in agreement with God and believe what he says about you, then what you believe can supersede any natural law. I prayer that we will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power through belief in him. The power of faith is only activated when we believe. When you believe, God will see that it is taken care of. Pleasure, knowledge, aesthetic experience, beauty, truth, virtue, harmony, love, friendship, justice, freedom, self-expression–let this be the foundation of your spirit. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Thinkers may also regard such things as intrinsically good, but only is and because they are pleasant, self-realizing, or excellent. Satisfaction of a desire is the quality of being enjoyed or enjoyable. Being ontologically perfect, or being willed by God, our dreams have an individually dynamic frequency, and activity and novelty in the atom are reminders of the spirit. In the cellular order, internal purposes are introduced. Spirit is eminently creative, and its action follows structures, or a priori methods of logical inference for intellect, of values or norms for will, and of aesthetic unities for feelings. Our dreams may be found implications for both reality and the life of spirit. Our goals and dreams, an emotionally intuited image, observes principles which, although more lucid in the work itself, have general applications in reality. Faith is constructed by a believe out of the continuum of natural pitch from the spirit. The activity of building faith in God is similar to constructing a scale analogous to that of intelligence in separating and ordering the objects of sensation; the discontinuity of the chords of faith is similar to that of quantum phenomena in physics. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere. We cannot always understand them, but we have to trust them. Faith in God expressed the transformation of the spirit in the pursuit of value. It is formal and intellectual and a life can be saved from decay in gigantism or sensuality only by increasing our faith and living by the divine laws, as this is a mode pf passionate affirmation of the human will. Faith in God does not decline; passion either destroys the spirit or saves it by a change to religious ardor. Passion is directed from a temporal and human object to an eternal and divine object. Passion need not retreat from fate, it can be fully satisfied in the divine. It combines transcendence, emotional illumination, and infinite love. Christianity becomes an affirmation of life. You are a child of Almighty God, created to grow, move forward, increase, and constantly break the barriers of the past and advance God’s Kingdom. If you learn the principle of faith, you will see the fullness of what God has in store and make it all the way to dreams and goals. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
And God Granted His Request—Courage can Only be Opened from the Inside
Eternal life in Heaven is promised to the believer that is sealed by the Holy Spirit. You can be sure you have a house of in Heaven when you know God. We shall find our hearts enlarged in charity toward humans; by considering the relation wherein they stand unto God, and the impressions of his image which are stamped upon them. They are not only his creatures, the workmanship of his hands, but such of whom he taken special care, and for whom he hath a very dear and tender regard, having laid the designs of their happiness before the foundations of the World, and being willing to live and converse with them in all the ages of eternity. The meanest and most contemptible person whom we behold is the offspring of Heaven, one of the children of the Most High; and however unworthy he might behave himself of that relation, so long as God hath not abdicated and disowned him by a final sentence, he will have us to acknowledge him as one of him, and as such to embrace him with a sincere and cordial affection. The doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was the main teaching of Jesus Christ, is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever stirred and changed human thought. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
You know what a great concernment we are wont to have for those that do any ways belong to the person whom we love; how gladly we lay hold on every opportunity to gratify the child or servant of a friend and sure our love towards God would as naturally spring forth in charity towards humans, did we mind the interest that God is please to take in them, and consider that every soul is dearer unto one than all the material World; and that God did not account the blood of his Son too great a price for their redemption. Heaven should be considered one of the most important subjects of faith. The fear of eternal torment in Hell could be a strong incentive to choose salvation, but is it is not the foundation of our faith. Heaven is the place where our Savior Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of our Almighty Father God. Jesus is the foundation of our faith; the chief corner stone. Our blessed hope is the appearing of Jesus Christ who will redeem us. It is the Creator’s Grand Army, and he is the Commander-in-Chief. With these facts before you, now try to guess human’s chief’s pet name for this ferocious Commander-in-Chief? I will save you the trouble, but you must not laugh. It is our father in Heaven. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
What is pleasant is good. Knowledge is pleasant. Therefore, knowledge is good. Value means the worth of a thing, and valuation means an estimate of its worth. Philosophers from the time of Plato had discussed a variety of questions under such headings as the good, the end, the right, obligation, virtue, moral judgement, aesthetic judgment, the beautiful, truth, and validity. All these questions belong to the same family, since they are all concerned with value or what ought to be, not with what is, was, or will be. In the next place, for purifying our souls, and disentangling our affections from the pleasures and enjoyments of this terrestrial life, let us frequently ponder the excellency and dignity of our nature, and what a shameful and unworthy thing it is for so noble and divine creatures as the soul of human, to be sunk and immersed in brutish and sensual lusts, or amused with airy and fantastical delights, and so to lose the relish of solid and spiritual pleasures; that the best should be fed and pampered, and the human and the Christian be starved in us. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Did we but mind who we are, and for what we were made, this would teach us, in a right sense, to reverence and stand in awe of ourselves; it would beget a modesty and shamefacedness, and make us very shy and reversed in the use of the most innocent and allowable pleasures. We should mediate often on the joys of Heaven. It will be very effectual to the purpose that we frequently rise our minds towards Heaven, and represent to our thoughts the joys that are at God’s right hand, those pleasures that endure for evermore; for every human that hath this hope in God purifies oneself, event as God is pure. If our Heavenly country be much in our thoughts, it will make us strangers and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul, and keep ourselves unspotted from this World, that we may be fit for the enjoyments and felicities of the other. However, we must see that our notions of Heaven be not gross and carnal, that we dream not of a Mahometan paradise, not rest on those metaphors and similitudes by which these joys are sometimes represented. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
If we focus on the pleasures of the flesh, it might entangle us farther in carnal affections, and we should be ready to indulge ourselves in a very liberal foretaste of those pleasures wherein we had placed our everlasting felicity. However, when we come once to conceive aright of those pure and spiritual pleasures; when the happiness we propose to ourselves is from the sight, and love, and enjoyment of God, and our minds are filled with the hopes and forethoughts of that blessed estate; O how mean and contemptible will all things here below appear in our eyes! With what disdain shall we reject the gross and muddy pleasures that would deprive us of those celestial enjoyments, or any way unfit and indispose us for them. Jesus Christ is the Conqueror of Death, and all the Enemies of our Salvation: he bids his dispels of good cheer, in that he has overcome the World, and therein the Prince of the World. It is not great satisfaction and comfort that we shall fall into such fate, careful, and faithful hands as those of truly Angels; that never miscarried in any executions or embattles of this kind? Nor, indeed, in any others. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
They may object, that they are strangers to, and unacquainted with the way to Heaven; they never went it, not have spoken to any that have gone it. However, there is not enough to silence such reformings? For we have all the satisfaction about it that the care will admit of. It is a point of faith, and not of sense, and we are offered that none have miscarried in, but all have got safe through it; and there is nothing wanting on God’s part to secure and bring them to Bleffednefs in Heaven. The happiness which we obtain by Christ, has also this peculiar advantage, which renders it most estimable and wonderful, in that it contains deliverance from death and destruction, as well as a right to life. It supposed a forgiveness of all trespasses, as well as an admission into Heaven, to behold the Mediator’s Glory there. God’s created natural covering is designed to protect the spiritual life, but our individuality must yield to God so that our spiritual life may be brought forth into fellowship with him. God, bless us and enlarge our territory! Let your blessings be with us, and keep us from harm so that we will be set free from pain. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
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All who Rage Against you Will Surely be Ashamed and Disgraced
The most attractive solution to the problems of human existence, to the tragic sense of is, is the hope for eternal life expressed in human’s perennial hunger for immortality. God said, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him or her who curses you; and in you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12.1-3). This hunger has two dimensions—it refers either to the nondestruction of the soul with the Universe or the totality of being. The destruction of a human’s consciousness is an a priori impossibility: We cannot even conceive of the nonexistence of consciousness, since that conception is itself an act of consciousness. Human is nothing if he or she is not everything—to exist is yearning to reach all space, all time, all being. To be a man or a woman is to seek to become God. Unless human is God, he is not even human: Either all or nothing. We ask not only if we can ever know the truth of statements about the past, or whether we can ever be sure of the existence of minds other than our own. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14
The existence of God is the supreme cause. Creatures are infinite, God is infinite. Seeing God as the ultimate cause of all perfections; and recognizing the transcendence of those perfections in God; God created the Universe in a hierarchical order ranging from the first luminous intelligence through lesser intelligences, human, animals, elements, and material principles. In all creatures there is a real distinction between essence and existence, and in all material substances there is only one substantial form. Created intellectual substances, seeing the eternal Ideas in God, illuminate lesser intelligences to know truth. The human mind has four immediately evident (per se nota) rules by which it can investigate theology, the science of the faith: God is the supreme Truth and cause of all truth; primary Truth can neither deceive nor be deceived, therefore his Word should be believed; we should believe everything clearly revealed by God through his spokesmen; Scripture is true precisely because God gave it to us in that way. Unlike these rules, the articles of faith are not immediately evident, but in the light of faith and these rules, the articles of faith become objects of scientific study. #RandolphHarris 2 of 14
Beauty is characteristically pleasurable. Ethical attitudes vary much more, from society to society and even between individuals, than do our beliefs about the external World or other people’s feelings. The patent fact of ethical disagreement forces us to re-examine the bases of our moral beliefs. Furthermore, the disagreements we encounter concerning moral issues often seem to involve deep matters of principle which leave no common ground between the disputants. This is sometimes referred to as the problem of disagreement about ultimate moral principles. It is this problem—whether ultimate moral principles are susceptible of rational justification—which will be examined. Just as the field of ethics comprises responsible human actions of which some are evil and blameworthy, so, among perceptual objects, there are some which have negative aesthetic value. This does not mean that such objects simply lack the characteristics by virtue of which things are beautiful; it means, rather, that they possess recognizable properties that are opposites of those found in beautiful objects. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14
Existence is a mystery, absurdity is a mystery, and anguish is a mystery. Love is the basic force of human existence. It encompasses all conative relations of humans to being and enables them to overcome anguish of their contingency by giving them the rich feeling of their own existence. The relation between beauty and ugliness has commonly been conceived in hedonistic terms, that is, whereas a beautiful object is a source of pleasure in the spectator, an ugly object arouses its opposite, pain. The proper function of art and life is to create pleasure. Yet, it is clear that there is seeming conflict between this view of the World and the empirical fact that works of art often represent objects and events that are ugly. What type of visual art depicts things which in themselves we view with pain. The painting, picture, or news itself arouses pleasure in some, a phenomenon that is explained by our intellectual interest in recognizing the object. Comedy, moreover, imitates people who are ignorable and therefore ludicrous; and though this is a kind of ugliness, the comedy is, for unspecified reasons, kept from being painful. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14
I supposed it is because the protagonist is a good individual who suffers adversity, tragedy is not merely shocking when we live in a place where stateworkers are forced to take furloughs and Governor Jerry Brown eliminates affordable housing, but raises taxes and spends $30,000,000.00 taxpayer dollars to defend illegal immigrants. This initiates the controversy over the paradox of tragedy that has survived to this present day. Taxation without representation is a situation in which a government, in this case Jerry Brown (governor of California), imposes taxes on a particular group of its citizens, despite the citizens not consenting nor having an actual representative deliver their views when the taxation decision is made. Many people are having a hard time finding jobs and housing because it is too expensive and the City of Sacramento decided it was better to build a $600,000,000.00 sport complex and tear down the mall that was under 20 years old, without voter approval and Jerry Brown cut funding for Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which provided houses and apartments that were based on one’s income. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14
Humans are painfully aware of the contingency. That they exist or that one is the particular person he or she happens to be is neither necessary nor permanent. By usurping taxpayer funds, and redistributing them to illegal immigrants, we are displacing many Americans who are born in the United States and lived here all of their lives, but no one is protesting for their rights! This is the same type of situation that trigged the original 13 American colonies to revolt against the British Empire during the Seven Years’ was (1756-1763). Many people believe that the way their tax money is being used is illegal because they have no Parliamentary representation and were denied the right to a trial by jury about the use of their money. How can we support undocumented citizens and build unnecessary bridges when we cannot even afford to take care of our own people nor maintain our infrastructure? As has been shown, this paradox is not the sole instance of the problem of ugliness, but it states the problem most acutely, both because the tragedy is sorrowful or pathetic. Why do we esteem narratives of evil and suffering? #RandolphHarris 6 of 14
Why are we not demanding more affordable housing? The whole ugliness has transcended and instead of protesting about our own needs, everyone is attacking the President about people who have absolutely no right to be here. The tragic melting plot in America has been painful to watch, and therefore ugly. Simply because democrats and the people they have illegally voting for them and causing chaos in America and stealing American tax money wish to hold that ugliness does not exist, and since their thesis runs counter to ordinary belief, they are constrained to justify it. The unreality of the ugliness is enjoined by the media because they fear American will go back to being a lawful and righteous country and the reporters will no longer be able to run amuck and produce lies and wild facts for entertainment. And 50 percent of the people who regularly watch the news say it is too much and they cannot stand it anymore, so perhaps they need to turn the TV off and let the news ratings fall. So, they can fire the pundants and disrupters. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14
Stated theologically, the World and everything in it has been created by an infinitely good God, as an expression of his goodness; stated metaphysically, existence is not neutral with respect to value and disvalue, but is rather an embodiment, through and through, of beneficial value. In such a World view, the apparent presence of evil of any kind poses a problem, and I consider sin and blindness just such problems. However, this aesthetic disvalue is a particular issue for me because my conception of reality is conspicuously aesthetic. Aesthetic aspects of life are beautiful and harmonious. All things are images of the ideas of form and harmony that exist in the mind of God, and together they make up an internally ordered unity. Objects are beautiful by virtue of their form, but if there is so, then ugliness does not exist, since sheer formlessness cannot exist. The opposite of beauty is not anything real, but mere the absence or privation of optimistic value. There is a degrees of value characteristic of metaphysical optimism and idealism. An object may not have the form appropriate to things of its kind, but this lack constitutes a relative deficiency of beauty, not sheer ugliness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14
Moreover, objects that lack a certain degree of aesthetic value must be seen not in isolation, but as parts of the Universe as a whole. Seeming ugliness sets off, and thereby enhances, the beauty of the World. Jerry Brown, Vivek Ranadive, and other dangerous animals, which are not in any clear way lacking in form, but are considered ugly because they are displeasing or offensive to the sight. They are unbeautiful—the mere negative absence of beauty—conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated—rather than the ugly. Ugliness itself is a species of beauty that is present whenever such concepts as evil and disaster enter into the aesthetic pleasure we gain from the total object. Sometimes we may also want to say people are bad because they express a deficiency or relatively slight degree of aesthetic goodness. The work of Governor Jerry Brown, the City of Sacramento and Vivek Ranadive is less than it promises; they are lacking in vitality, ethics, morals, and charm. The muddy orchestration or incoherent plot structure is, significantly, opposite to orchestral clarity or unity of plot. There is a total absence of compensating virtues. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
Lying is wrong suggests that the fact that a statement is known to be false is a reason for not making it to someone. Adultery is wrong suggests that the fact that someone is married is a reason for his refraining from the sexual intercourse with any person who is not his spouse. And, again, one ought to be kind suggest that there are reasons for performing kind actions rather than unkind ones. Asserting a moral principle of this kind and denying the suggestion about reasons results in paradox. Saying the governor upholds the law, but then raises taxes and steals money from hard working legal citizens, to redistribute to unlawful immigrants constitutes a lie and fraud. The Bible states that sinners earn the death penalty (Romans 6.23). Forgiveness of those sins requires blood to be shed to satisfy that penalty (Hebrews 9.22). Christ’s sacrifice of himself made is possible to take away the sin of the World (John 1.29). Because he is God, and human beings were created through him (Colossians 1.16), his life is worth immeasurably more than all other human lives throughout history. This, Christ’s sacrifice was more than sufficient as total payment for the death penalty we have earned because of sin. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14
To assuage their anguish, humans must feel in their existence, even of one is lead to suffering. One must learn to experience their uniqueness by expanding the range and the self-consciousness of their perceptions of the World. The central temporal dimension of human existence is the future, which leads to a desire for immortality and to a concern with death. This focus on the future is expressed as a means of both honors and hope and the means of eternal waiting. The structure of the future expresses both human’s determination to continue to live and their permanent dissatisfaction and despair concerning existence. Goals are self-created and are permanent commitments. This covenant with God guarantees a permanent right to the land. It is unconditional, as seen in the statements “God will,” without corresponding obligations. This covenant promises the ultimate return to the land in repentance and faith in circumstances will God will prosper them. This covenant will be fulfilled in the Millennium. Convent theology teaches that God initially made a covenant of works with Adam, promising eternal life for obedience and death for disobedience. Christ is the ultimate mediator of God’s covenant of grace. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14
Truth is subjective, it exists only as it is manifested in authentic belief. Belief, in turn, is an expression of human’s total being and consequently is realized in action. Objective truth is, strictly speaking, a meaningless conception. Through its identity with belief and actions, truth is ultimately an act of will. It is a will to create; and the will as creator wants and loves at the same time. Because of this persona and volitional factor in truth, the opposite of truth is not error but the lie. This subjective view of truth gives a distinct idealistic, even mystical cast to this thought. All knowledge about human and the World is subjective in the sense that it begins with first-person experience. To think of truth as transcending first-person experiences is, strictly speaking, a contradiction, because the very program of transcending first-person experience is a first-person project and concept and a construction. There is, however, another kind of truth, illustrated by mathematics, which is the function of reason alone, whereas true belief is a function of human’s whole being. Reality is a state of permanent flux, so that no two experiences are ever the same. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14
There are two metaphysical alternatives. Reality may be a vast sea of consciousness with my subjectivity at the center. There is no easy way to distinguish this consciousness from a mere dream. Its sole foundation is the fact that I experience it and that I will it to be real. The other view is that the focus of our being may be outside ourselves. We may identify ourselves with the realities of other people, cars, houses, trees, flowers, and mountains. This care and watchfulness over our own actions must be seconded by frequent and serious reflections upon them, not only that we may obtain the divine mercy and pardon for our sins, by an humble and sorrowful acknowledgment of them; but also that we may re-enforce and strengthen out resolutions, and learn to decline or resist the temptations by which we have been formerly foiled. It is an advice worthy of a Christian, though it did first drop from a heathen pen, that before we betake ourselves to rest, we renew and examine all the passages of the day, that we may have the comfort of what we have done aright, and my redress what we find to have done amiss, and make the shipwrecks of one day be as marks to direct our course in another. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14
This may be called the very art of virtuous living, and would contribute wonderfully to advance our reformation, and preserve our innocence. However what we must nor forget to implore the divine assistance, especially against those sins that do most easily beset us: and through it be supposed that our hearts are not yet moulded into that spiritual frame which should render our devotions acceptable; yet, methinks, such considerations as have been proposed to deter us from sin, may also stir us up to some natural seriousness, and make our prayers against it as earnest, at least, as they are wont to be against other calamities: and I doubt not but God, who hear the cry of the ravens, will have some regard even to such petitions as proceed from those natural passions which himself hath implanted in us. Besides, that those prayers against sin, will be powerful engagements on ourselves to excite us to watchfulness and care; and common ingenuity will make us ashamed to relapse into those faults which we have lately bewailed before God, and against which we have begged his assistance. All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14
The Authority of Truth
You may be shocked by these words coming from me. However, on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experiences, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my beliefs, I have always been a man who tried to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfold it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth. However, it will not suffice to consider these things once again, nor to form some resolutions of abandoning our sins, unless we maintain a constant guard, and be continually watching against them. Sometimes the mind is awakened to see the dismal consequences of a vicious life, and straight we are resolved to reform; but alas! It presently falls asleep, and we lose that prospect which we had of things, and then temptations take the advantage; they solicit and importune us continually, and so do frequently engage our consent before we are aware. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
It is the folly and ruin of most people to live at adventure, and take part in everything that comes in their way, seldom considering what they are about to say or do. If we would have our resolutions take effect, we must take heed unto our ways, and set a watch before the door of our lips, and examine the motions that arise in our hearts, and cause them to tell us whence they come, and wither they go; whether it be pride or passion, or any corrupt and vicious humour, that prompt us to any design, and whether God will be offended or anybody harmed by it. And if we have no time for long reasoning, let us at least turn our eyes toward God, and place ourselves in his presence, to ask his leave and approbation for what we do. Let us consider ourselves under the all-seeing eye of that divine Majesty, as in the midst of an infinite globe of light, which compasses us about both behind and before, and pierce to the innermost corners of the soul. The sense and remembrance of the divine presence is the most ready and effectual means, both to discover what is unlawful, and to restrain us from it. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
There are some things a person could make a shift to palliate or defend, and yet he dares not look Almighty God in the face, and adventure upon them. If we look unto him we shall be lightened; if we set him always before us, he will guide us by his eye, and instruct us in the way wherein we ought to walk. I am accountable to God for the way I control my body under his authority. Every Christian can have his or her body under absolute control for God. What I must decide is whether or not I will agree with my Lord and Master that my body will indeed be his temple. Once I agree, all the rules, regulations, and requirements of the law concerning the body are summed up for me in this revealed truth—my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is the will of God that human beings should get into a right-standing relationship with him, and his covenants are designed for this purpose. When I have really transacted business with God on the basis of his covenant, there is no sense of personal achievement—no human ingredient at all. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Instead, there is a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and my life is transformed. Our job is to get the fact and be sober in doing that. Acceptance is the great healer of strife, conflict, and upset. It also corrects major imbalances of perception and precludes the dominance of negative feelings. Everything serves a purpose. Humility means that we will not understand all events or occurrences. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when one chooses—repentance is a gift of God. No matter what or what we are, God restores us to right standing with himself. Put God in remembrance of his promises. Keep not silent. Give him no rest till it comes to pass. When God hears his promises, he dispatches angels with the answers. He sets the miracle into motion. God will change things in your favor. It may not happen overnight, but just stay in faith and keep reminding God what he promises you day in and day out. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
Sometimes we use prayers as an excuse to complain to God about people not treating them right. Or about the price of rent, food, and gas being too high, and that they cannot take it anymore. Instead of complaining, remind God of his promises. Do not keep silent and eventually you will see what God said come true. As consciousness evolves to higher levels, the World changes in appearance and behavior. Everything is viewed whole, perfect, and complete. Father in Heaven, I may not see how it can happen, but I know you have an extraordinary blessing coming my way. Thank you that you make the rivers in the desert and streams in barren places. I am expecting a sudden, rapid, and widespread increase of blessings in my life. I believe that I will see surpassing greatness of you favor and blessings that will advance me years ahead. My hopes and dreams are in your hands and I trust you. Mystery and disappointment are not absolutely indispensable to the growth of love, but they are, very often powerful auxiliaries. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
The Mission of the Poet is to Soothe
Never mind the character and stick to the alibi. Nothing like an alibi, nothing. Take the book in your right hand, this is your name and handwriting, you swear that the contents of this, your affidavit are true so help you God, a shilling you must get a change I have not got it. You do not have to focus exclusively on the painful parts of your relational legacy. You must also learn to honor the strengths you gained from your early experiences. Within our vulnerabilities are the seeds of our strength. Despite having endured a very good childhood, I discovered the truth of what my dad always told me, “That which does not kill you, makes you stronger.” I loved when my father would read my bedtime stories because it made me feel safe and warm. The stories helped me to survive the very painful reality that I was facing. In my blue bedroom, there was a delightful World of fantasy, where anything was possible. I was unquestionably dependent on my father’s nighttime visitation; I enjoyed the adventures my father created for me. In these stores, my father created an ever-continuing hero’s tale in which I was a brave little ship’s captain, navigating a magical journey in the Albatross, which was filled with whimsical people who were free to become anything they chose. My father played the role of a former CIA operative, who stopped at nothing to rescue me from sadistic kidnappers. My dad used his brutally efficient skills to take out his heavily armed foes one by one. Fortunately, the day came when we escaped. We were no longer silent and started telling new stories that released us from the shame and isolation. This allowed us to heal because we created a World in which we were whole, powerful, successful, and happy. We became people with a large repertoire of responses and emotions. Virtue is one all over the World, and there is only one faith, one conceivable conduct of life, one manner of strong expression.
Shut Up and Eat that Pot Roast!!!!!!
A reviving personality must be nourished with another kind of new communication—communication with people. Besides opening yourself to the richest of art and knowledge, you must also open yourself to new friendship, particularly to those which can reinforce your newly expanded interests.
Distance is melancholically beautiful, so I have left you for better memory. I have collected all the past dates into a book of verse waiting for your autograph. How long has it been since you noticed yourself warming to someone new, how long since you made even the mildest effort to bring a new person into your life and affections?
I wrote in white clouds, in the blue sky your name, but it was blown away by the wind, and I embroidered it in the sea, but it was broken up by the waves of the sea, so I etched it in my heart, and then nothing would make it disappear. Do not underestimate the difficulty of this process, the true revolution of our times is the disappearance of friendship.
Most of us are so far out of the habit of searching for friends and retaining them that we feel it awkward and painful to begin. Tome goes by slowly, but your baby blue eyes are forever in my heart: they are as pure as crystal, as light as the moon, as deep as abyss and as white as snow…
You have a choice: you do not have to be the victim of loneliness. You can take charge of your present-day relationships by using your awareness and your knowledge of the past. Remembering and understanding the lessons of the past will give you much more control over how you choose to act in the present.
Remembering and getting to the root of your relationship issues can save you from repeating the same mistakes. You can actually choose to avoid that moment when you suddenly realize you have become your mother or father.
We have well-developed wings under your care, roaming in the blue sky homeland. No matter how far and high we fly, there is echo of your instructions. I will never forget your kind words, directing me to the right way.
I will never forget when you were ill, you stood on the platform, teaching us the difficult problems. I will never forget when we blundered, you help us up. I wish the blessing can express our earnings to you. You work hard for the bloom of flowers and maturity of fruits, I will remember your spirits forever.
Just the Beginning
We grow up expecting to be enthralled by true love. We grow up watching fairy tales, listening to popular songs, watching romantic movies like “Sleepless in Seattle,” and looking at advertisements such as Eharmony and learn that love is exciting and glamorous, but it often ends up breaking your heart. Some people ask, if love hurts so much, why do I risk deepening relational vulnerability?
Glimmering pictures of blissful love is too often followed by bitter disillusionment and heartache, leaving one feeling like, “How can I get through to you?” Paris feels like she is doomed, never to experience the fairy-tale rapture of true love, and even if she does experience it, she fears that love might vanish instantly like a dream.
The first year of your relationship is supposed to be the best, it is supposed to be full of romance, passion, and good memories. However, I sat down with a couple who has a bad romance, and this is what I discovered. This young lady called Paris was very in love with this guy.
She would go out of her way to write him love letters every day and go out of her way to do things for him, but the first year of their relationship, he allegedly cheated on her several times, and his friends just totally disrespected her, and her husband called Will still hung out with them and made them a priority, over their relationship. And Paris still was still willing to do anything for him.
As their one year anniversary approach, Paris now feels like her marriage to Will is more of a business because he does not really do much for her, and they go months without seeing each other, and he always needs help with his job, so she has to work every day just to make him happy.
Paris says that her marriage and the thing his friends and her friend have done will forever change the way see feels about the people in her life. She still loves her friends, but someone of them said some cruel things, which made her back away from them, and she does not feel the same towards them. Paris also complains that there is no romance in her marriage, it just seems to mechanical.
Nonetheless, Paris sticks with her husband, and loves him, but admits the romance is gone and it seems more like a business deal. As if she is an employee, and he is her boss. Paris and Will fight a lot because their friends are extremely jealous and keep trying to do things to break them up.
This is Paris’s first relationship and it is not at all what she expected. She used to day dream about what her future with Will would be like, but now the focus is looking happy and taking it day by day, unsure of what to expect. Will is often working and constantly taking trips out of town, so they sometimes go a long while without seeing each other.
Many of the obstacles to happiness in loving relationships arise from friends or incomplete solutions. Since people first began pursuing and rejecting their mates, other people have probably been giving them advice about love. Yet with all this attention that we humans give to love, animals seem to be much more successful than we are.
Why do we have such a hard time making love work for us? The most common thing to do to improve your relationship is to communicate and spend time together. Paris says she just want to walk into the sunset where she and Will can live happily ever after.
To improve your relationship, choose fifteen minutes from each day when you will not be interrupted by children, work, nor friends. Talk to each other about your feelings and be honest. Lovingly listen to each other, and find ways to communicate your support for each other.
Paris admits that she loves her husband and she would not leave him for the World and that being with him has made her smarter, stronger, and she looks better than ever. However, there are some deep-seated reasons why they are not as happy as they should be. Through excessive dedication to their jobs and life-styles, Paris and Will live in a state of complete psychological divorce.
She feels like the human companionship and source of love is missing from her life. Loneliness and grief often overwhelm her, and the toll take on their hearts can clearly be seen. As the mortality statistics indicate, this is no myth or romantic fairy tale—all available evidence suggests that people do indeed die of broken hearts.
Real cost of a deep personal love, for another human being, can only be seen in the shattering loss that is felt when that love is suddenly and permanently taken away. A few hundred years ago, grief was openly recognized as a cause of death. However, a broken hear would never be listed as a cause of death in any hospital. So be sure to express how much you love the person you are with.
I must admit that it is true, I go out of my way to do anything for you because baby I want you to know that I have gotten so close and I require you to show me a sign. When it is lobe that is on my mind, I would die for you. I have been dying just to feel you by my side. To know that you are mine. I believe that our love is something pure and true. I see your face every place that I walk in.
I look at other people with blonde hair and blue eyes and stare at the as if they are you. I hear your voice every time that I am talking, you will believe in me and I will believe in you. I will burn for you (like the Christmas roast and pizza), I will feel pain for you. Our love is one iconic like Angel and Buffy. Instead of pulling us apart, they pushed us closer together. I will never let go.
Secrets and Lies–Make Your Stories Sell!
He who is in the clutches of the law may think himself lucky if he escapes with the loss of his tail. Nature has created inequalities in men and things, and, as human institutions are intended to prevent the strong from oppressing marginalized members of the human population, ergo, the laws should encourage natural inequalities as a legitimate consequence. Secrets and Lies incorporates subliminal angles of the human psyche—obsessions some aspire to conceal, wickedness many refuse to admit. Detective Cornell acts as a malevolent force to Ben Crawford throughout the mini-series, representing the seduction of evil and the fear and torment within Ben Crawford. Once she realizes that Ben is out there, Detective Cornell becomes compelled with finding him and making him pay for a crime he did not commit, allowing the criminal to walk free, so she can inflict the venom of evil into his soul and turn him into a villain before the eyes of the community. detective Cornell knows Ben Crawford is innocent and feels culpability for the part she played in ceasing a man who has already suffered a tragic lose, and destroying his home, family, career, and life. As long as Ben continues to remain free, not only is it a constant reminder that law enforcement and community members tortured and persecuted and innocent man, but it also leaves the city and aggressors with criminal liability and possibly civil liability as well, and they all regret the decisions they made. However, the thugs keep profiling and trying to convict Ben Crawford because they feel if they can just convince themselves, and others that he is bad, it will remove any guilt or liability they have. However, what is done in secret will be brought to the light. So, detective Cornell and the community obsessively purses Ben Crawford. Detective Cornell probably projects her rage and frustration onto Ben Crawford for other things she has done in the past. Ben Crawford and detective Cornell are opposites, he has the World to live for, he is whole and complete and loved, but detective Cornell has committed some egregious sins, and is cold, fragmented, and lost. However, this villain, detective Cornell helps to bring out the hero in Ben Crawford, the audience sees his true qualities of love, compassion, strength, and perseverance, and he grows in the process—David and Goliath, a biblical example.
Although detective initially appears as an evil villain, there comes a turning point where she realizes that she is wrong and that they are putting Ben Crawford’s life in danger. She realizes that they are no better than ISIS and the people who attacked Paris, France, and takes a real interest in “helping” him. The innocents, determination, and compassion that Ben Crawford conveys, allows Ben Crawford to bring out the true detective in Cornell, to fight her way back to being a righteous detective. Yet, detective Cornell’s rage is one of her more enduring characteristics. She is constantly harassing and stalking Ben Crawford and using her job as an investigator to justify her actions, she allows people to interrogate him to see how she can twist and mangle his words, making him look like he committed a murder, even though her constant profiling of Ben has almost gotten him killed twice. However, sometime detective Cornell feels guilty about the ferocity of the evil she inflicts Ben Crawford and his family. Detective Cornell takes extreme measures to judiciously project her anger onto Ben Crawford by expending immeasurable city resources to try and wrongly convict him, at the expense of taxpayers and potentially putting other members of the community in danger. The resources used to make Ben Crawford look guilty could have been used to hire more law enforcement to protect others and pay unfunded pensions. However, detective Cornell’s interactions with Ben Crawford are slowly changing, she is no longer blaming him for her short comings, but instead feels a sadness and tries to connect with him and even protect him by letting him know his life is in danger. Detective Cornell desperately wants Ben Crawford to be saved, and her ability for good surpasses her ever-present anger and frustration. We see detective Cornell reach a point of clarity as she now is trying to save Ben Crawford.
Through the mini-series of Secrets and Lies, we see that people want to disrupt Ben Crawford’s life, and detract him, with strict authority, to slow down his accelerating movement to adulthood. Ben is accused of murder to keep him from growing and expanding beyond this sadistic cult in the small town. They want Ben to stay suppressed and small. However, Ben Crawford is a force of youthful heroism and is oblivious to danger. While the rest of the community is constantly acting, but rarely thinking about the repercussions of their actions. It becomes more and more easy for the audience to relate to Ben Crawford because we see he is righteous, and the rest of the community, and law enforcement are looked at as the bad guys. They see one person struggling, and instead of helping him, they attack him, without even knowing the facts. Not everyone can relate to Ben Crawford’s desire for justice, or his role as an empathetic hero, nor detective Cornell’s journey for domination and force to salvation. This is a story of good and evil and is meant to open the mind and show people that pack mentality is wrong and often times dangerous. Get your facts straight before acting on your limited vision, releasing your fear and frustration onto others. Unauthorized and abhorrent thoughts will sometime invade the best human heart. Remember, we live in a World, were an African American woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested because she refused to move to the back of the bus and let a Caucasian man have her seat. Now Rosa Parks is a legendary hero for calling attention to civil rights. By standing up for herself, Rosa Parks has protected countless lives from being wrongly stalked and harassed by law enforcement like our hero Ben Crawford is done in Secrets and Lies.
