Randolph Harris II International Institute

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But the Flower-Fed Buffaloes of the Spring Left Us Long Ago!

ImagePlant the seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacle and weaknesses. There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them come about through encouragement from someone else. Encouragement is oxygen for the soul. There was a brief two-day seminar with Otto Rank, and I found his therapy (not in his theory) he was emphasizing some of the things I had begun to learn. I felt stimulated and confirmed. I employed a social worker, trained in Rankian “relationship therapy” at the Philadelphia School of Social Work, and learned much from her. So my views shifted more an more. At Ohio State University, I was greatly enriched as I presented my views of clinical work to bright and questioning graduate students. Here too, I began to realize that I was saying something new, perhaps even original, about counseling and psychotherapy. My dream of recording therapeutic interviews came true, helping to focus my interest on the effects of different responses in the interview. This led to a heavy emphasis on technique—the so-called nondirective technique. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

ImageHowever, I was finding that this new-found trust in my client and this capacity for exploring and resolving his problems reached out uncomfortably into other areas. If I trusted my clients, why did I not trust my student? If this was fine for the individual in trouble, why not for a staff group facing problems? I found that I had embarked not on a new method of therapy, but a sharply different philosophy of living and relationships. Controversies over the multiculturalism have been bitter and divisive. Proponents claim that a multicultural curriculum, for example, can facilitate an appreciation for diversity, increase tolerance, and improve relations between and among racial and ethic groups. Opponents claim that multicularualists devalue or relativize core national values and beliefs, shamelessly promote “identity politics,” and unwittingly increase racial tensions. Multiculturalism is often posed as the celebration of “differences” and unique form of material culture expressed, for example, in music, food, dance, and holidays. Such an approach tends to level the important differences and contradictions within and among racial and ethnic groups. Different groups possess different forms of power—the power to control resources, the power to push political agenda, and the power to culturally represent themselves and other groups. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

ImageDifferent groups also have distinct perceptions of group position, which are related to, and implicated, in the organization of power. Some scholars and activists have defined racism as “prejudice plus power.” Using this formula, they argue that people of colour cannot be racist because they do not have power. However, things are not that simple. In the post-Civil Rights era, some marginalized racial groups have carved out a degree of power in select urban areas—particularly with respect to administering social services and distributing economic resources. This has led, in cities like Oakland and Miami, to conflicts between different ethnic groups over educational programs, business opportunities, and political power. We need to acknowledge and examine the historical and contemporary differences in power that different groups possess. White Americans do not experience their ethnicity as a definitive aspect of their social identity. Rather, they perceive it dimly and irregularly, picking and choosing among its varied strands that allow them to exercise an “ethnic option.” Ethnicity is flexible, symbolic, and voluntary for most White respondents in ways that it is not for non-White. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

ImageThe loose affiliation with specific European ethnicities does not necessarily suggest the demise of any coherent group consciousness and identity. In the twilight of ethnicity, White racial identity may increase in salience. Indeed, in an increasingly diverse workplace and society. Whites experience a profound racialization. The racialization process foe White is evident on many college/university campuses as White student encounter a heightened awareness of race, which calls their own identity into question as every culture in America tries to define what is the true American race. With national security debates and security measure being put in place, Latino are trying harder to assert their heritage as the true Americans. Some Whites are feeling isolated because they have been taught to be more accepting of other cultures, while they see their heritage being stripped away with antique statues being ripped down and destroyed. Other White see this as a time to ban together and assert their supremacy by joining law enforcement and targeting other ethnic groups to ensure their demise. Blacks feel they never had the choice to be American or not and have been used to support and build this country and are being replaced by preferred immigrants who get treated better and more government support than anyone else. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

ImageFor many Blacks, they have always felt like an outside group, while they understand that Britney Spears is the American Dream. She represents the true American with her blonde hair, blue eyes and red blood. In fact, the colours of the flag establish White identity, the red is for their blood, the white for their blonde hair and the blue for the colour of their eyes. And due to the fact that Britney Spears is one of the most influential and noticeable Americans Worldwide, many believe this is why she has suffered so many hardships. People are mad at Americans and America and took their frustration out of her. However, it is not only because of her heritage, but also because she achieved the American Dream at a young age by working hard, while other face oppression they cannot seem to overcome. Asians are kind of an outlier because their test scores, incomes, and educational levels, on average, tend to the be the highest of any group and their families tend to support each other, which creates a level of envy and people blame them for disasters they may not be responsible for. However, Eastern Europeans are becoming known for appealing to Japan for their IT skills. While America borrows heavily from China, if we are so concerned about national security, would it not make more sense to print our own money and potentially face hyperinflation, than to sell out and give other countries influence in our government? #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

Image Focus group interviews with White students at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals many of the themes and dilemmas of White identity in the current period: the “absence” of a clear culture and identity, the perceived “disadvantages” of being White with respect to the distribution of resources, and the stigma of being perceived as the “oppressors of the nation.” Such comments underscore the new problematic meanings attached to “White,” and debates about the meaning will continue, and perhaps deepen, in the years to come, fueled by such social issues as affirmative action, English-only initiatives, and immigrations policies. President Trump is having such a hard time keep the nation together because democrats are playing the victim cards and trying to seem like they are the saviour or our nation by pretending to care about people who have illegally immigrated to America. When the only reason they are supporting people, who have illegally immigrated, is to get more votes and stay in office. It is the same reason American had its first “Black” president and why Joe Biden is running with a woman. These are gimmicks to appeal to marginalized groups to stay in power. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

ImageRacial meanings are profoundly influenced by state definitions and discursive practices. They are also shaped by interaction with prevailing forms of gender and class formation. An examination of both these topics reveals the fundamental instability of racial categories, their historically contingent character, and the ways they articulate with other axes of stratification and “difference.” Extending this understanding, it is crucial to relate to racial categories and meanings to concepts of racism. The idea of “race” and its persistence as a social category is only given meaning in a social order structured by forms of inequality—economic, political, and cultural—that are organized, to a significant degree, along racial lines. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object is persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Power is a collective. The individual only has power in so far as one ceases to be an individual. Alone—free—the human being is always defeated. However, if one can make a complete, utter submission, if one can escape from one’s identity, if one can merge oneself to a political party so one is that party, the one is all-powerful and immortal. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

ImagePower is power over human beings. Over the body—but, above all, over the mind. Obedience is not enough. Unless one is suffering, how can you be sure he or she is obeying your will and not one’s own? Power is inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of World we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the Utopias that the old reformers imagined. It is a World of fear, social distance, treachery, and torment. A World of trampling and being trampled upon, a World which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our World will be progress toward more pain. The ancient civilizations were founded upon justice and love. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our World there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy—everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which survived from before the Revolution. We have cut links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. Are you beginning to realize what that World will be like? The fictional news media is already playing ticks with reality. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

ImageThe process of creating an unreal reality is conscious, or else it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt. The media and many politicians use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary. The lie is always a leap ahead of the truth. All past oligarchies have fallen from power either because they ossified or because they grow soft. This is why democrats make illegal immigration seem like it is about helping innocent women and children, but with people coming into this nation without being screened, you have no idea what diseases or viruses they may be carrying nor what their true purposes are. And the same people that support illegal immigration and the same exact people that want to keep Americans locked in their homes to “flatten the curve,” of economic prosperity. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

ImageGovernments fail because either they become stupid and arrogant or fail to adjust themselves to the changing circumstances, and were overthrown, or they became liberal and cowardly, made concessions when they should have used force, and once again were overthrown.  They fell, that is to say, either through consciousness or through unconsciousness. If one is to rule, and to continue ruling, one must be able to dislocate the sense of reality. For the secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one’s own infallibility with the power to learn from past mistakes. World-conquest is believed in most firmly by those who know it to be impossible. Manifest destiny tells us that the World will be one big American Dream, and do you want it to be a World with too many government restrictions and social policies or one of Capitalism, where people are allowed to have freedom, work, earn money and achieve success? Or do you want the government to limit your success and make you shared the fruits of your labour with people who sit around eating, sleeping, rolling around in the bed gossiping, and partying all night? Some of these issues I worked out while at Ohio State, and when I was given an opportunity to start a new Counseling Center at the University of Chicago, setting my own policies and selecting my own staff, I was ready to formulate and act on what was for me a new approach to human relationships. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

ImageI have come to trust the capacity of persons to explore and understand themselves and their troubles, and to resolve those problems, in any close, continuing relationship where I can provide a climate of real warmth and understanding. I am going to venture to put the same kind of trust in a staff group, endeavouring to build an atmosphere in which each is responsible for the actions of the group as a whole, and where the group has a responsibility to each individual. Authority has been given to me, and I am going to give it completely to the group. I am going to experiment with putting trust in students, in class groups, to choose their own directions and to evaluate their progress in terms of their own choosing. The depth of thought is a part of the depth of life. Most of our life continues on the surface. We are enslaved by the routine of our daily lives, in work and pleasure, in business and recreation. We are conquered by innumerable hazards, both good and evil. We are more drive than driving. We do not stop to look at the height above us, or to the depth below us. We are always moving forward, although usually in a circle, which finally beings us back to the place from which we fist moved. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

ImageWe are in constant motion and never stop to plunge into the depth. We talk and talk and never listen to the voices speaking to our depth and from our depth. We accept ourselves as we appear to ourselves, and do not care what we really are like. Like a tidal wave, we injure our souls by the speed with which we move on the surface; and then we rush away, leaving our bleeding souls alone. We miss, therefore, our depth and our true life. And it is only when the picture that we have of ourselves breaks down completely, only when we find ourselves acting against all the expectations we had derived from that picture, and only when an Earthquake shakes and disrupts the surface of our self-knowledge, that we are willing to look into a deeper level of our being. Rage at oneself is externalized in three main ways. Where giving vent to hostility is uninhibited, anger is easily thrust outward. It is turned then against others and appears either as irritability in general or as a specific irritation directed at the very faults in others that the person hates in oneself. An illustration may make this clear. A patient complained of her husband’s indecision. Since the indecision concerned a trivial matter, her vehemence was directly out of proportion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

ImageKnowing her own indecision, I suggested that she had revealed how mercilessly she condemned this in herself. Whereupon she suddenly felt an insane rage, with her impulse to tear herself to pieces. The fact that in her idealized image she was a tower of strength made it impossible for her to tolerate any weakness in herself. Characteristically enough, this reaction, in spite of its highly dramatic nature, was completely forgotten at the next interview. She had seen the externalization in a flash but was not yet ready to relinquish it. The second way takes the form of an incessant conscious or unconscious fear or expectation that the faults which are intolerable to oneself will infuriate others. A person may be so convinced that certain behaviour on one’s part will arouse profound hostility that one may be honestly bewildered if no hostile response is encountered. A patient, for instance, whose idealized image contained elements of wanting to be as good as Prince Lestat in Anne Rice’s Blood Canticle, was greatly astonished to find that whenever she took a firm stand or even expressed anger, people like her better than when she acted like a saint. As one would guess from this kind of idealized image, the patient’s predominant tend was compliance. Issuing originally from her need for closeness to others, it was greatly reinforced by her excitation of hostile response. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

ImageIncreased compliance is in fact one of the major consequences of this form of externalization, and illustrates how neurotic trends continually augment each other in a vicious circle. Compulsive compliance is increased because the idealized image, containing in this configuration elements of saintliness, drives the person to greater self-effacement. The resulting hostile impulses then arouse rage against the self. And the externalization of the rage, leading to an increased fear of others, in turn reinforces compliance. The third way of externalizing rage is to focus on bodily disorders. Rage against the self, when not experienced as such, apparently created physical tensions of considerable severity, which may appear as intestinal maladies, headaches, fatigue, and so on. It is illuminating to see how all these symptoms disappear with the speed of lightening as soon as the rage itself is consciously felt. One may be in doubt whether to call these physical manifestations externalization or to regard them merely as physiological consequences of repressed rage. However, one can hardly separate the manifestations from the use patients make of them. As a rule they are more than eager to ascribe their psychic troubles to their bodily ailments and these in turn to some external provocation. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

ImageThere is nothing psychically wrong with them, they are interested to prove; they just suffer from intestinal trouble due to wrong diet, or from fatigue due to overwork, or from rheumatism due to damp air, and so on. As to what the neurotic accomplishes by externalizing one’s rage, the same may be said here as in the case of self-contempt. One additional consideration should, however, be mentioned. The lengths to which such patients go will not be fully understood unless one is cognizant of the real danger attached to these self-destructive impulses. The patient cited in the first example had only a momentary impulse to hear herself to pieces, but psychotics may really carry it through and mutilate themselves. There is a self-destructive instinct. If not for externalization, it is probable that many more suicides would occur. It is understandable that Dr. Freud, being aware of the power of self-destructive impulses, should have postulated a self-destructive instinct (death instinct)—though by this concept he barred the way to a real understanding, and so to an effective therapy. The wisdom of all ages and of all continents speaks about the road to our depth, not the road to our death. It has been described in innumerably different ways. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

ImageHowever, all those who have been concerned—mystic and priests, poets and philosophers, simple people and educated people—with that road through confession, lonely self-scrutiny, internal or external catastrophes, prayer, contemplation, have witnessed to the same experience. They have found that they were not what they believed themselves to be, even after a deeper level had appeared to them below the vanishing surface. That deeper level itself became surface, when a still deeper level was discovered, this happening again and again, as long as their very lives, as long as they kept on the road to their depth. All things are said to be seen in God and all things are judged in Him, because by the participation of His light, we know and judge all things; for the light of natural reason itself is participation of the divine light; as likewise we are said to see and judge of sensible things in the Sun, for example, by the Sun’s light. The lessons of instruction can only be seen as it were by their own Sun, namely God. As therefore in order to see a sensible object, it is not necessary to see the substance of the Sun, so in like manner to see any intelligible object, it is not necessary to see the essence of God. Intellectual vision is of the things which are in the soul by their essence, as intelligible things are in the intellect. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

ImageAnd thus God is in the souls of the blessed; not this is He in our soul, but by presence, essence and power. Jacob recounts Jewish history: the Babylonian captivity and return; the ministry and crucifixion of the Holy One of Israel; the help received from the Gentiles; and the Jews’ latter0day restoration when they believe in the Messiah. About 559-545 Before Christ. “The words of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, which he spake unto the people of Nephi: Behold, my beloved brethren, I, Jacob, having been called of God and ordained after the manner of his holy order, and having been consecrated by my brother Nephi, unto whom ye look as a king or a protector, and on whom ye depend for safety, behold ye know that I have spoken unto you exceedingly many things. Nevertheless, I speak unto you again; for I am desirous for the welfare of your souls. Yea, mine anxiety is great for you; and ye yourselves know that it ever has been. For I have exhorted you will all diligence; and I have taught you the words of my father; and I have spoken unto you concerning all things which are written, from the creation of the World. And now, behold, I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come; wherefore, I will read you the words of Isaiah. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

Image“And they are the words which my brother desired that I should speak unto you. And I speak unto you for your sakes, that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God. And now, the words which I shall read are they which Isaiah spake concerning all the house of Israel; wherefore, they may be likened unto you, for ye are of the house of Israel. And there are many things which have been spoke by Isaiah which may be likened unto you, because ye are of the house of Israel. And now, these are the words: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the Earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. And now I, Jacob, would speak somewhat concerning these words. For behold, the Lord has shown me that those who were at Jerusalem, from whence we came, have been slain and carried away captive. Nevertheless, the Lord has shown unto me that they should return again and again. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

Image “And he also has shown unto me that the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, should manifest himself unto them in the flesh; and after he should manifest himself they should scourge him and crucify him, according to the words of the Angel who spoke unto me. And after they have hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of Israel, behold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them. And the day cometh that they shall be smitten and afflicted. Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, for thus saith the Angel, many shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful; they shall be scattered, and smitten, and hated; nevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them that when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered together again to the lands of their inheritance. And blessed are the Gentiles, they of whom the prophet has written; for behold, if it so be that they shall repent and fight not against Zion, and do not unite themselves to the great and abominable church, they shall be saved; for the Lord God will fulfill his covenants which he has made unto his children; and for this cause the prophet has written these things.  #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

Image“Wherefore, they that fight against Zion and the covenant people of the Lord shall lick of the dust of their feet; and the people of the Lord shall not be ashamed. For the people of the Lord are they who wait for him; for they still wait for the coming of the Messiah. And behold, according to the words of the prophet, the Messiah will set himself again the second time to recover them; wherefore, he will manifest himself unto them in power and great glory, unto the destruction of their enemies, when that day cometh when they shall believe in him; and none will he destroy that believe in him. And they that believe not in him shall be destroyed, both by fire, and by tempest, and by Earthquakes, and by bloodsheds, and by pestilence, and by famine. And they shall know that the Lord is God, the Holy One of Israel. For shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? However, thus saith the Lord: Even the captives of the might shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for the Mighty God shall deliver his covenant people. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

Image“For thus saith the Lord: I will content with them that contendeth with thee—and I will feed them that oppress thee, with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob,” reports 2 Nephi 6.1-18. Lord, have mercy upon your children. Christ, have mercy upon your people. Lord, have mercy upon humanity. O Christ, hear us. Be merciful, please Spare us, O Lord. Be merciful, Deliver us, O Lord. From all evil, O Lord, deliver us. From our sin; from unholy thoughts; from pain and anguish; from the snares of the devil; from the power of demons; from all tribulation at this time; from everlasting damnation; from Thine exceedingly dreadful wrath; by the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation; by Thine Advent; by Thy Nativity; by Thy Baptism; by Thy Passion and Cross; by Thy glorious Resurrection; by Thy wonderful Ascension; by the grace of the Holy Ghost the Comforter; in the hour of his departure; we sinners do beseech Thee to hear us; that Thou remove from us Thy wrath; We beseech Thee to hear us, O Lord. That it may please Thee to give us a humbled and contrite heart; that it may please Thee to give us a fountain of tears, that it may please Thee to give us perfect faith, hope, and love. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

ImageWe beseech thee that Thou wouldest take away from us all murmuring and impatience; that it may please Thee mercifully to raise us from the bed of sickness; that it may please Thee to restore us in health and safety to Thy holy Church; that it may please Thee to give us pardon of all sins; that it may please Thee to give us Thy grace; that it may please Thee to give us eternal life; that it may please Thee to bless us with Thy holy right hand; Son of God; O lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the World; have mercy upon us, and upon the Earth, O Lord. O Lover of Thy people, Thou hast placed my whole being in the hands of Jesus, my redeemer, commander, husband, friend, and carest for me in Him. Keep me holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; may I not know the voice of strangers, but go to Him where He is, and follow where He leads. Thou hast bathed me once for all in the sin-removing fountain, cleanse me now from this day’s defilement, from its faults, deficiencies of virtue, harmful extremes, that I may exhibit a perfect character in Jesus. O Master, who didst wash the disciples’ feet, please be very patient with me, be very condescending to my faults, go on with me till Thy great work in me is completed. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

ImageI desire to conquer self in every respect, to overcome the body with its affections and lusts, to keep under my flesh, to guard my humahood from all grosser sins, to check the refined power of my natural mind, to live entirely to Thy glory, to be deaf to unmerited censure and the praise of humans. Nothing can hurt my new-born inner human, it cannot be smitten or die; nothing can mar the dominion of Thy Spirit within me; it is enough to have Thy approbation and that of my conscience. Keep me humble, dependent, supremely joyful, as calm and quiet as a nursing child, yet earnest and active. I wish not so much to do as to be, and I long to be like Jesus; if Thou dost make me right I shall be right; Lord, I belong to Thee, make me worthy of Thyself, please. Our natural knowledge begins from sense. Hence our natural know can go as far as it can be led by sensible things. However, our mind cannot be led by sense so far as to see the essence of God; because the sensible effects of God do not equal the power of God as their cause. Hence from the knowledge of sensible things the whole power of God cannot be known; nor therefor can His essence be seen. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

ImageHowever, because they are His effect and depend on their cause, we can be led from them so far as to know of God, whether He exits, and to know of Him what must necessarily belong to Him, as first cause of all things, exceeding all things caused by Him. Hence we know that God’s relationship with creatures so far as to be the cause of them all; also that creatures differ from Him, inasmuch as He is not in any way part of what is caused by Him; and that creatures are not removed from God by reason of any defect on His part, but because He superexceeds them all. Reason cannot reach up to simple form, so as to know “what it is,” but it can know “whether it is.” God is known by natural knowledge through the images of his effects. As the knowledge of God’s essence is by grace, it belongs only to the good; but the knowledge of Hum by natural reason can belong both good and bad; and hence Augustine says, retracting what he had said before: “I do not approve what I said in prayer, ‘God who willest that only the pure should know truth.’ For it can be answered that many who are not pure can know many truths,” for example by natural reason. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24Image

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So the Heart be Right, it is No Matter which Way the Head Lieth!

EPQYCk4UYAAo7zXNothing improves a person’s hearing more than praise. An ounce of praise can accomplish more than a ton of faultfinding. And if one looks for it, something worthy of praise can be found in most individuals. If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are. The future of humans, unless history changes courses, people all over the World will lose their most human qualities, will become soulless automatons, and will not even be aware of it. The moral callousness of the First World War was only the beginning. However, many people are still wondering can human nature be changed in such a way that humans will forget their longing for freedom, for dignity, for integrity, for love—that is to say, can humans forget that they are human? Or does human nature have a dynamism which will react to the violation of these basic needs by attempting to change an inhuman society into a human one? Political parties do not even pretend that their system is intended to make individuals happier, because humans, being frail and cowardly creatures, want to escape from freedom and are unable to face the truth. The leaders are aware of the fact that they themselves have only one aim, and that is to power. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

ImageTo our leaders, power is not a means; it is an end. And power means the capacity to inflict unlimited pain and suffering to another human being. Power, then, for them creates reality, it creates truth. In my graduate training in clinical psychology, I was learning two major ways of relating to individuals who come for help. At Teachers College the approach was to understand about the individual through test, measurement, diagnostic interviews, and perspective advice as to treatment. This cold approach was, however, suffused with warmth by the personality of Dr. Leta Hollingworth, who taught us more by her person than by her lectures. Later, when I interned at the then new and affluent Institute for Child Guidance, I was exposed to a very different atmosphere. Dominated as it was by psychoanalysts, I learned more about the individual. I learned that one cannot be understood without an exhaustive case history seventy-five pages or more in length, going into all the personality dynamics of the grandparents, the parents, the aunts and uncles, and finally the “patient” oneself—possible birth trauma, manner of weaning, degree of dependency, sibling relationships, and on and on. Then there was the elaborate testing, including the newly imported Rorschach, and finally many interviews with the children before deciding what sort of treatment one should have. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

ImageIt nearly always came out the same: the child was treated psychoanalytically by the psychiatrist, the mother was dealt with in the same fashion by the social worker, and occasionally, the psychologist was asked to tutor the child. Yet I carried on my first therapy case there. It started with tutoring but developed into more and more personal interviews, and I discovered the thrill that comes from observing changes in a person’s behaviour. Whether those were due to my enthusiasm or my methods I cannot say. As I look back, I realize that my interests in interviewing and in therapy certainly grew in part out of my early loneliness. Here was a socially approved way of getting really close to individuals and thus filling some of the hungers I had undoubtedly felt. The therapeutic interview also offered a chance of becoming close without having to go through what was to me a long and painful process of gradual and deepening acquaintance. By the time I have completed my work in New York, I knew—with all the assurance of the newly trained—how to deal with people professionally. In spite of the wide difference between Teachers College and the Institute, they both helped me arrive at somewhat the same formula. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

ImageThe formula can be stated as follows: “I will gather an enormous amount of data about this individual: one’s history, one’s intelligence, one’s special abilities, one’s personality. Out of all this I can form an elaborate diagnostic formulation as to the cause of one’s present behaviour, one’s personal and social resource for dealing with one’s situation, and the prognosis for one’s future. I will endeavour to interpret all this in simple language to the responsible agencies, to the parents, and to the child if one is capable of understanding it. I will make sound suggestions which, if carried out, will change the behaviour, and I will reinforce those suggestions by repeated contact. In all of this I remain thoroughly objective, professional, and personally aloof from these persons in trouble, except insofar as personal warmth is necessary to build a satisfactory rapport.” This sounds a bit incredible to me now, but I know it is essentially true because I can recall the scorn I felt for one psychiatrist, not an analyst, who simply dealt with problem children as though he liked them. He even took them to his home. Clearly he had never learned the importance of being professional! #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

ImageThus when I went to Rochester, New York, as a member of the Child Study Department—really a child guidance clinic for delinquent children and those who were wards of the social agencies because of their poor home environment—I knew what to do. I was so sure, that I remember (painfully) telling PTA and community groups that our clinic was rather similar to a garage: you brought in a problem, received an expert diagnosis, and were advised how the difficulty could be corrected. However, my views were gradually eroded. Living in a stable community, I found I had to live with the consequences of my advice and recommendations—and they did not always workout. Many of the children I worked with were housed temporarily in the detention home next door, so I could see them day after day. I was astonished that sometimes, after a particularly “good” interview where I had interpreted to a boy all the causes of his misbehaviour, he refused to see me the next day! So I had to win him back to find out what had gone wrong. I began to learn, experientially. Then as director of the new and independent Rochester Guidance Center, which replaced the Child Study Department, we had more self-referrals, where we had no authority whatsoever over child or parent and had to build a relationship if we were to help. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

ImageThen came a few incidents which markedly changed my approach; I shall tell you about the one that stands out most vividly in my mind. An intelligent mother brought her very seriously misbehaving boy to the clinic. I took the history from her myself. Another psychologist tested the boy. We decided in conference that the central problem was the mother’s rejection of her son. I would work with her on this problem. The other psychologist would take the boy on for play therapy. In interview after interview I tried—much more softly and gently now, as a result of experience—to help the mother see the pattern of her rejection and its results in the boy. All to no avail. After about a dozen interviews I told her I thought we had both tried but were getting nowhere, and we should probably call it quits. She agreed. Then, as she was leaving the room, she turned and asked, “Do you ever take adults for counseling here?” Puzzled, I replied that sometimes we did. Whereupon she returned to the chair she had just left and began to pour out a story of the deep difficulties between herself and her husband and her great desire for some kind of help. I was bowled over. What he was telling me bore no resemblance to the neat history I had drawn from her. I scarcely knew wat to do, but mostly I listened. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

ImageEventually, after many more interviews, not only did her marital relationship improve, but her son’s problem behaviour dropped away as she became a more real and free person. To jump ahead a bit, she was the first client I ever had who continued to keep in occasional touch with me for years afterward, until her boy was doing well in college. This was a vital learning for me. I had followed her lead rather than mine. I had just listened instead of trying to nudge her toward a diagnostic understanding I had already reached. It was a far more personal relationship, and not nearly so “professional.” Yet the results spoke for themselves. From the words of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, let us concentrate on one verse: “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” And from this verse, let us make one word—the word “deep”—the subject of our meditation. And from the 130th Psalm let us concentrate on that one verse: “Out of the depth I have cried unto Thee, O Lord;” and let us make one word—the word “depth”—also the subject of our meditation. The words “deep” and “depth” are used in our daily life, in poetry and philosophy, in the Bible, and in many other religious documents, to indicate a spiritual attitude, although the words themselves are taken from a spatial experience. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

ImageDepth is a dimension of space; yet at the same time it is a symbol for a spiritual quality. Most of our religious symbols have this character, reminding us of our finitude and our bondage to things that are visible. We are and we remain sensuous beings even when we deal with spiritual things. There is, on the other hand, a great wisdom in our language. It is the embodiment of innumerable experiences of the past. It is not by chance alone that we use certain visible symbols and do not use others. Therefore, it is often useful to find the reasons for the choices of the collective mind of former generations. It may become of ultimate significance to us, when we see what is implied int the terms like “deep,” “depth,” and “profound,” for the expression of our spiritual life. It may give us the impulse to strive for our own depth. “Deep” in its spiritual use has two meanings: it means either the opposite of “shallow,” or the opposite of “high.” Truth is deep and not shallow; suffering is depth and not height. Both the light of truth and the darkness of suffering are deep. There is a depth in God, and there is a depth out of which the psalmist cries to God. Why is truth deep? And why is suffering deep? And why is the same spatial symbol used for both experiences? These questions shall guide our meditation. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

ImageAll visible things have a surface. Surface is that side of things which first appears to us. If we look at it, we know what things seems to be. Yet if we act according to what things and persons seem to be, we are disappointed. Our expectations are frustrated. And so we try to penetrate below the surfaces in order to learn what things really are. Why have people always asked for truth? Is it because they have known that the truth which does not disappoint dwells below the surfaces in the depth? And therefore, people have dug through one level after another. What seemed true one day was experiences as a superficial the next. When we encounter a person, we receive an impression. However, often if we act accordingly we are disappointed by one’s actual behaviour. We pierce a deeper level of one’s character, and for some time experience less disappointment. However, soon one may do something which is contrary to all our expectations; and we realize that what we know about one is still superficial. Again we dig more deeply into one’s true being. Since has been carried on this way. Science questions the common assumptions which seem to be true to everyone, to the lay-person as well as to the average scholar. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

ImageThen the genius comes and asks for the basis of these accepted assumptions; when they are proved not to be true, an Earthquake in science occurs out of the depth. Such Earthquakes occur when Copernicus asked if our sense-impressions could be the ground of astronomy, and when Einstein question whether there is an absolute point from which the observer could look at the motions of things. An Earthquake occurred when Marx questioned the existence of an intellectual and moral history independent of its economic and social basis. It occurred in the most eruptive way when the first philosopher questioned what everybody had taken for granted from times immemorial—being itself. When they became conscious of the astonishing fact, underlying all facts, that there is something and not nothing, an unsurpassable depth of thought was reached. In the light of these great and daring steps toward the deep things of our World, we should look at ourselves and at the opinions we take for granted. And we should see what there is in these things of prejudice, derived from our individual preferences and social surroundings. We should be shocked to notice how little of spiritual World is deeper than the surface, how little would be able to withstand a serious blow. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

ImageSomething terribly tragic happens in all periods of human’s spiritual life: truths, once deep and powerful, discovered by the greatest geniuses through profound suffering and incredible labour, become shallow and superficial when used in daily discussion. How can and how does this tragedy occur? It can and does unavoidably occur, because there can be no depth without the way to the depth. Truth without the way to truth is dead; if it still be used, it contributes only to the surface of things. Look at the student who knows the content of the hundred most important books of World history, and yet whose spiritual life remains as shallow as it ever was, or perhaps becomes even more superficial. And then look at the uneducated worker who performs a mechanical task day by day, but who suddenly askes oneself: “What does it mean, that I do this work? What does it mean for my life? What is the meaning of my life?” Because one asks these questions, that person is on the way into depth, whereas the other person, the student of history, dwells on the surface among petrified bodies of thought, brought out of the depth by some spiritual Earthquake of the past. The simple worker may grasp truth, even though one cannot answer one’s questions: the learned scholar may possess no truth, even though one knows all the truths of the past. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

ImageSo much for the implications of this process. Let us see now how it specifically helps allay tension between the self and the idealized image. For no matter how a person may regard oneself consciously, the disparity between the two will take an unconscious toll; and the more one has succeeded in identifying oneself with the image, the more deeply unconscious will be the reaction. Most commonly it is expressed in self-contempt, rage against the self, and a feeling of coercion, all of which are not only extremely painful but in various ways incapacitate a person of living. Externalization of self-contempt may take on the form either of despising others or of feeling that it is others who look down upon oneself. Both forms are usually present; which is the more prominent, or at least the neurotic character structure. The more aggressive a person is, the more right and superior one feels, the more readily will one despise others, and the less likely would it be to enter one’s mind that others could look down on one. Conversely, the more complaint one is, the more will one’s self-recriminations for one’s failure to measure up to one’s idealized image tend to make one feel that others have no use for one. The effect of the latter is particularly damaging. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

ImageWhen others feel that no one has a use for them, it makes a person shy, stilted, withdraw. It makes one overgrateful—indeed abjectly grateful—for any affection or appreciation shown one. At the same time one cannot accept even sincere friendliness at its face value, but vaguely takes it for a kind of undeserved charity. One is rendered defenseless against arrogant persons because part of one agrees with them, and one feels that one’s being treated contemptuously is quite in order. Naturally such reactions breed resentment, which if repressed and piled up may gather explosive strength. In spite of this, experiencing self-contempt in an externalized form has a distinct subjective value. To feel all one’s own scorn would smash whatever spurious self-assurance the neurotic may have and bring one to the verge of collapse. It is painful enough to be despised by others, but there is always hope of being able to change their attitude, or a prospect of paying them back in kind, or a mental reservation that they are unfair. When it is oneself one despises, all this is of no avail. There is no court of appeal. All the hopelessness of the neurotic unconsciously feels in regard to oneself would come into clear relief. One would start not only to despise one’s actual frailties but feel that one is altogether contemptible. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

ImageThis even one’s good qualities would be drawn into the abyss of one’s sense of unworthiness. In other words, one would feel oneself to be despised image; one would see it as an unalterable fact for which there was no help. This points to the advisability in therapeutic procedure of not touching upon self-contempt until the patient’s hopelessness is diminished and the grip of the idealized image considerably loosened. Only then will the patient be able to face it and come to realize that one’s unworthiness is no an objective fact but a subjective feeling stemming from one’s merciless standards. It taking a more lenient attitude toward oneself one will see that the condition is not unalterable, that the attributes one so objects to are not really despicable but are difficulties one can eventually overcome. We shall not understand the neurotic’s rage at oneself or the dimensions it assumes unless we keep in mind how immeasurably important it is for one to maintain the illusion that one is one’s idealized image. The fact that one not only feels despair at one’s inability to measure up to it but is absolutely infuriated at oneself is due to the sense of omnipotence that is an invariable attribute of the image. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

ImageNo matter how insurmountable the odds were against one in childhood, one, the omnipotent, should have been able to overcome them. Even if one realized intellectually how great one’s neurotic entanglements are, one nonetheless feels an impotent rage at having been unable to dispel them. This rage reaches a climax when one is confronted with conflicting drives and realizes that even one is powerless to attain contradictory goals. This is one of the reason why the sudden recognition of a conflict may throw one into a state of acute pain. “Behold, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cry much unto the Lord my God, because of the anger of my brethren. However behold, their anger did increase against me, in so much that they did seek to take away my life. Yea, they did murmur against me, saying: Our younger brother thinks to rule over us; and we have had much trial because of him; wherefore, now let us slay him, that we may not be afflicted more because of his words. For behold, we will not have him to be our ruler; for it belongs unto us, who are the elder brethren, to rule over this people. Now I do not write upon these plates all the words which they murmured against me. However, it sufficeth me to say, that they did seek to take away my life. And it came to pass that the Lord did warn me, that I, Nephi, should depart from them and fess into the wilderness, and all those who would go with me. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Image“Wherefore, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did take my family, and also Zoram and his family, and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me. And all those who would go with me were those who believed in the warnings and the revelations of God; wherefore, they did hearken unto my words. And we did take our tents and whatsoever things were possible for us, and did journey in the wilderness for the space of many days. And after we had journeyed for the space of many days we did pitch our tents. And my people would that should call the name of the place Nephi’ wherefore, we did call it Nephi. And all those who were with me did take upon them to call themselves the people of Nephi. And we did observe to keep the judgments, and the statutes, and the commandments of the Lord in all things, according to the law of Moses. And the Lord was with us; and we did prosper exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance. And we began to rise flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind. And I, Nephi, had also brought the records which were engraven upon the plates of brass; and also the ball, or compass, which was prepared for my father by the hand of the Lord, according to that which is written. And it came to pass that we began to prosper exceedingly, and to multiply in the land. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

Image“And, I Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I know their hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people. And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance. And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s temple. However, the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and work-personship thereof was exceedingly fine. And it came to pass that they would that I should be their kind. However I, Nephi, was desirous that they should have no king; nevertheless, I did for them according to that which was in my power. And behold, the words of the Lord had been fulfilled unto my brethren, which he spake concerning the, that I should be their ruler and their teacher according to the commandments of the Lord, until the time they sought to take away my life. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

Image“Wherefore, the word of the Lord was fulfilled which he spake unto me, saying that: Inasmuch as they will not hearken unto thy words they shall be cut off from his presence. And he has caused the cursing to come upon them, yes, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin f blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities. And cursed shall be the seed for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done. And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey. And the Lord God said unto me: They shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did consecrate Jacob and Joseph, that they should be priests and teachers over the land of my people. And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

Image“And thirty years has passed away from the time we left Jerusalem. And I, Nephi, had kept the records upon my plates, which I had made, of my people thus far. And it came to pass that the Lord God said unto me: Make other plates; and thou shalt engraven many things upon them which are good in my sight, for the profit of thy people. Wherefore, I, Nephi, to be obedient to the commandments of the Lord, went and made these plated upon which I have engraven these things. And I engraven that which is pleasing unto God. And if my people are pleased with the things of God they will be pleased with mine engravings which are upon these plates. And if my people desire to know the more particular part of the history of my people they must search mine other plates. And it sufficeth me to say that forty years had passed away, and we had already had wars and contentions with our brethren,” reports 2 Nephi 5.1-34. Unto Thee, O Lord, we commend the soul of Thy servants, that dying to the World, they may live to Thee; and whatever sins they have committed through the frailty of Earthly life, do Thou clear away by Thy most loving and merciful forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

ImageAlmighty God, as I cross the threshold of this day I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends, to Thy care; watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me. Incline my heart to Thy ways; mould me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms clay; let those around me see me living by Thy Spirit, trampling the World underfoot, unconformed to lying vanities, transformed by a renewed mind clad in the entire amour of God, shining as a never-dimmed light, showing holiness in all my doings. Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands. May I travel miry paths with a life pure from spot or stain. In needful transactions let my affection be in Heaven, and my love soar upwards in flames of fire, my gaze fixed on unseen things, my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility, mockery of Earth and its vanities. May I view all things in the mirror of eternity, waiting for the coming of my Lord, listening for the last trumpet call, hastening unto the new Heaven and Earth. Order this day all my communications according to Thy wisdom, and to the gain of mutual good. Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable. May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one. If my life should end today, let this be my best day. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20Image

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Thank you for all of your interest in #PlumasRanch! If you haven’t seen these homes yet, check out the virtual tours on our website! Even better: check out our new blog — our first post features convenient links to all of our virtual tours. Link in bio. 🙌 https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-now-offering-virtual-tours/

ImageHuman beings, like plans, grow in the soil of acceptance. Nothing else can quite subsitute for a well-chosen, well-timed, beautiful home.
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My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold a Rainbow in the Sky!

ImageEnjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize that they were the big things. One must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose. In the finalreckoning we are not the disciple of this or what person but rather the disciple of God. The 1997 President’s Initiative on Race elicited numerous comments regarding its intent and focus. One such comment was made by Jefferson Fish, a psychologist at St. John’s University in New York, who said: “This dialogue on race is driving me up the wall. Nobody is asking the questions, ‘What is race?’ It is a biologically meaningless category” (quoted in Petit, 1998: A1). Biologists, geneticists, and physical anthropologists, among others, long ago reached a common understanding that race is not a “scientific” concept rooted in discernible biological differences. Nevertheless, race is commonly and popularly defined in terms of biological traits—phenotypic differences in skin colour, hair texture, and other physical attributes, often perceived as surface manifestation of deeper, underlying differences in intelligence, temperament, physical prowess; and sexuality. This, although race may have no biological meaning, as used in reference to human differences, it has an extremely important and highly contested social one. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

ImageClearly, there is an enormous gap between the scientific rejection of race as a concept, and the popular acceptance of it as an important organizing principle of individual identity and collective consciousness. However, merely asserting that race is socially constructed does not get a how specific racial concepts come into existence, what the fundamental determinants of racialization are, and how race articulates with other major axes of stratification and “difference,” such as gender and class. Each of these topics would require an extensive treatise on possible variables shaping our collective notions of race. The following discussion is much more modest. I attempt to survey ways of thinking about, bringing into context, and interrogating the changing meaning of race in the United States of America. My intent is to raise a series of points to be used as frames of reference, to facilitate and deepen the conversation about race. My general point is that the meaning of race in the United States has been and probably always will be fluid and subject to multiple determinations. Race cannot be seen simply as an objective fact, nor treated as an independent variable. Attempting to do so only serves, ultimately, to emphasize the importance of critically examining how specific concepts of race are conceived of and deployed in areas such as social-science research, public-policy initiatives, cultural representations, and political discourse. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

ImageReal issues and debates about race—from the Federal Standards for Racial and Ethnic Classification to studies of economic inequality—need to be approached from a perspective that makes the concept of race problematic. A second point is the importance of discerning the relationship between race and racism, and being attentive to transformation in the nature of “racialized power.” The distribution of power—and its expression in structure, ideologies, and practices at various institutional and individual levels—is significantly racialized in our society. Shifts in what “race” means are indictive of reconfigurations in the nature of “racialized power” and emphasize the need to interrogate specific concepts of racism. The present historical moment is unique, with respect to racial meanings. Since the end of World War II, there has been an epochal shift in the global racial order that had persisted for centuries. The horrors of fascism and a wave of anticolonialism facilitated a rupture with biologic and eugenic concepts of race, and challenged the ideology(ies) of White supremacy on a number of important fronts. Scholarly projects in genetics, cultural anthropology, and history, among others, were fundamentally rethought, and antiracist initiatives became a crucial part of democratic political projects throughout the World. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

ImageIn the United States, the Civil Rights Movement was instrumental in challenging and subsequently dismantling patterns of Jim Crow segregation. (The original “Jim Crow” was a character in a nineteenth-century act, a negative stereotype of a Black man. As encoded in laws discrimination the phrase refers to both legally enforced and traditionally sanctioned limitations of Blacks rights, primarily in the U.S. South.) The strategic push of the Movement in its initial phase was toward racial integration in various institutional arenas—exempli gratia, schools, public transportation, and public accommodations—and the extension of legal equality for all regardless if “Colour.” This took place in a national context of economic growth and the expansion of the role and scope of the federal government. Times have changes and ironies abound. Domestic economic restructuring and the transnational flow of capital and labour have created a new economic context for situating race and racism. The federal government’s ability to expand social programs, redistribute resources, and ensure social justice has been dramatically curtailed by fiscal constraints and the rejection of liberal social reforms of the 1960s. Demographically, the nation is becoming more diverse and open to inclusion because more ethic groups are now growing and visible. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

ImageAll these changes have had a tremendous impact on racial identity, consciousness, and politics. Racial discourse is now littered with confused and contradictory meanings. The notion of “colour-blindness” is now more likely to be advanced by political groups seeking to dismantle policies, such as affirmative action, initially designed to mitigate racial inequality. Calls to get “beyond race” are popularly expressed, and any hint of race consciousness is viewed as racism. In this transformed political landscape, traditional civil rights organizations have experienced a crisis of mission, political values, and strategic orientation. Integrationist versus “separate-but-equal” remedies for persistent racial disparities have been revisited in a new light. Ore often the calls are for “self-help” and for private support to tackle problems of crime, unemployment, and drug abuse. The civil rights establishment confronts a puzzling dilemma—formal, legal equality has been significantly achieved, but substantive racial inequality in employment, housing, and health care remains, and in many cases has deepened. All this provides an historical context in which to situate evolving racial meanings. Over the past 50 years changes in the meaning of race have been shaped by, and in turn have shaped, broader global/epochal shifts in racial formation. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

ImageThe massive influx of new immigrant groups has destabilized specific concepts of race, led to a proliferation of identity position, and challenged prevailing modes of political and cultural organization. When we assess the changes in, and issues relevant to, racial meaning created in demographics shifts, heterogeneity is an important term to consider. Heterogeneity is the existence of differences and differential relationships within a bound category. Over the past several decades, there has been increasing diversity among so-called racial groups. Our collective understanding of who Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians are has undergone a fundamental revision as new groups entered the country. The liberalization of immigration laws beginning in 1965, political instability in various areas of the World, and labour migration set in motion by global economic restructuring all contributed to an influx of new groups—Laotians, Guatemalans, Haitians, and Sudanese, among others. In the United States of America, many of these immigrants encounter an interesting dilemma. Although they may stress their national origins and ethnic identities, they are continually racialized as part of a broader group. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

ImageMany first-generation Black immigrants from, for example, Jamaica, Ethiopia, or Trinidad, distance themselves from, subscribe to negative stereotypes of, and believe that, as ethnic immigrants, they are accorded a higher status than, Black Americans. Children of Black immigrants, who lack their parents’ distinctive accents, have more choice in assuming different identities. Some try to defy racial classification as “Black Americas” by strategically asserting their ethnic identity in specific encounters with Whites. Others simply see themselves as “Americans.” Panethnic organization and identity constitute one distinct political/cultural response to increasing heterogeneity. Panethnicity is defined as the development of bridging organizations and solidarities among subgroups of ethnic collectives that are often seen as homogeneous by outsiders; such a development, they claim, is a crucial feature of ethnic change, supplanting both assimilation and ethnic particularism as he direction of change for racial/ethnic minorities. The rise of panethnicity is a response to racialization, driven by a dynamic relationship between the group being racialized and the state Elites representing panethnic groups find it advantageous to make political demands backed by the numbers and resources panethnic can mobilize. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

ImageThe state, in turn, can more easily manage claims by recognizing and responding to large blocs, as opposed to dealing with specific claims from a plethora of ethically defined interest groups. Different dynamics of inclusion and exclusion are continually expressed. Conflict often occur over the precise definition and boundaries of various radically defined groups and their adequate representation in census counts, reapportionment debates, and minority set-aside programs. The increasing heterogeneity of racial categories raises several questions for research to answer. It has been suggested that an individual’s social identity divides up the World of people and places for one, and that one’s personal identity does this too, although differently. It is these frames of reference one must apply in studying the daily round of a particular stigmatized person, as one wends one’s way to and from one’s place of work, one’ place of residence, one’s place of shopping, and the places where one participates in recreation. A key concept here is the daily round, for it is the daily round that links that individual to one’s several social situations. And one studies the daily round with a special perspective in mind. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

ImageHaving this unique perspective, to the extent that the individual is a discredited person, one looks for the routine cycle of restrictions one faces regarding social acceptance; to the extent that one is discreditable, for the contingencies one faces in managing information about oneself. For example, an individual of an underrepresented racial group can expect, as suggested, to cease gradually to be a shocking surprise to those in one’s own neighbourhood, and there one can obtain a small measure of acceptance; at the same time, trying to limit one’s exposure to the community will have less effect here than they will in parts of the city where one is unknown and otherwise treated less well. Some of the common techniques the individual with a secret identity employs in managing crucial information about oneself can now be considered. Obviously, one strategy is to conceal or obliterate signs that have come to be stigma symbols. Name-changing is a well-know example. A person who has a substance abuse issues provides another example: [Re a New Orleans anti-drug drive:] “Law enforcement began stopping addicts on the street and examining their arms for needle marks. If they found marks, they pressured the addict to sign a statement admitting one’s condition so one could be charged under the ‘drug addicts law.’ #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

Image“If the law could find no marks on a person they usually let one go. If they found marks they would hold one for seventy-two hours and try to make one sign a statement.” It should be noted that since the physical equipment employed to mitigate the “primary” impairment of some encumbrance understandably becomes a stigma symbol, there will be a desire to reject using it. An example is the individual with declining eye sight who avoids wearing bifocal glasses because these might suggest advanced age. However, of course, this strategy can interfere with compensatory measures. Hence the making of this corrective equipment invisible will have a double function. The hard of hearing provide an illustration of the using of these unapparent correctives: “Aunt Mary [a hard of hearing relative] knew all about early sound receptors, innumerable variations of the ear trumpet. She had pictures showing how such receptors had been built into hats, ornamental combs, canteen, walking sticks; hidden in arm chairs, in flower vases for the dining-room table; even hidden in men’s beards.” A more current illustration is “inviso-blended lenses”—bifocals which do not show a “dividing line.” #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

ImageThe concealment of stigma symbols sometimes occurs along with a related process, the use of disidentifiers, as can be illustrated from the practices of James Berry, England’s first fully professionalized hangman: “It is doubtful whether violence on Berry was ever really planned, but his reception in the streets was such that he took good care whenever possible to avoid being recognized. He told one interviewer that on a number of occasions when travelling to Ireland he concealed his rope and straps about his person so that he was not given away by the Gladstone bag, which was almost as much a mark of his trade as the little black bag was of the Victorian doctor. His sense of isolation and being disliked by everyone he met probably explained the extraordinary episode when his wife an small son accompanied him to Ireland for an execution, although the explanation he offered was that it was to conceal his identity, since—he rightly guessed—no one would suppose that a man walking along holding the hand of a ten-year-old boy would be the executioner on his way to hang a murderer. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

ImageFew are the teachers, guides, priests, and leaders of beings who do not put into their work the false opinions and favoured prejudices that they themselves have been taught or have acquired. Few, also, are those who have scrupulously striven to become as free from these things as they possibly could me. Such teachers are unable to free themselves from the relativity of their own position. Hence they give instructions which are pertinent only to those who wear the crown of the self-actualized. The appeal of a teacher will depende upon the depth of one’s own inspiration, and the appeal of one’s teaching will depend upon how well it fits in with the prevailing thought and the pressing need of one’s epoch. The modern teacher should be the individual of the World, not a person of the out of touch elite. One should be one who does not practise a fastidious ascetism, does not frown on human frailty. Such a person begins one’s teaching by making other people feel that wisdom is priceless and holiness is beautiful. One must so manage the two tendencies that they balance each other. Insofar as one deals with the eternal verities, one can utter only the old, old truth. Insofar as one belongs to one’s period one must restate them in a contemporary way. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

ImageThe possession of such power and influence, although it is directly limited to spiritual matters, is directly manifested in Worldly matters too; for people have to live and act in the World. One will gain more esteem as a teacher, and certainly as a leader, who is known to be honourable, conscious of one’s responsibilities and obligations, whose character is well-balanced and whose promises are solid, whose statements are backed by facts and whose doctrines are worthy of trust. One is a true messenger who seeks to keep one’s ego out of one’s work, who tries to bring God and humans together without oneself getting between them. Such a teacher would not claim to be an intermediary with God but rather a counsellor with humans. No master who is a true channel for the divine life will accept the adulation of others for oneself. Their flattery will never be allowed to fool one. Instead, one will always transfer it where it belongs—to that life itself. One will accept none of the homage for oneself; one knows it is not due to one, but to the higher power which intermittently uses one. One is not a leader anxious to appear infallible before the members of one’s group. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

ImageAn aspect of asking prayer is intercessory prayer— “for all the saints.” There are many worthy petitions to make, but “saints”—believers in Jesus Christ—are to have a large place in our prayers. Notice that this call to pray “for all the saints” occasions Paul’s request for prayer for oneself: “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should,” reports Ephesians 6.19-20. Paul knew what others’ prayers could do for him. Petitionary prayers for others beings grace to their lives. Few people know that the stupendous achievement of William Carey in India was fueled by his bedridden sister who prayed for him for over fifty years. Tennyson beautifully gave verse to Paul’s wisdom, saying: “If thou shouldest never see my face again, pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this World dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are people better than sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain if, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friend? For so the whole round Earth is every way bound by god chains about the feet of God.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

ImageHow beautiful is the five-fold anatomy of petitionary prayer: In-Spirited—prayer  “in the Spirit;” continual—prayer “on all occasions;” varied—“all kinds of prayers and requests;” persistent—“be alert and always keep on praying;” and intercessory—“for all the saints.” Certainly we ae challenged and motivated. Joseph in Egypt saw the Nephites in vision—he prophesied of Joseph Smith, the latter-day seer; of Moses, who would deliver Israel; and of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. About 588-570 Before Christ. “And now I speak unto you, Joseph, my last-born. Thou wast born in the wilderness of mine afflictions; yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow did thy mother bear thee. And may the Lord consecrate also unto thee this land, which is a most precious land, for thine inheritance and the inheritance of thy seed with thy brethren, for thy security forever, if it so be that ye shall keep the commandments of the Holy One of Israel. And now, Joseph, my last-born, whom I have brought out of the wilderness of mine afflictions, may the Lord bless thee forever, for thy seed shall not utterly be destroyed. For behold, thou art the fruit of my loins; and I am a descendant of Joseph who was carried captive into Egypt. And great were the covenants of the Lord which he made unto Joseph. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

Image“Wherefore, Joseph truly saw our day. And he obtained promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of his loins the Lord God would raise up a righteous branch unto the house of Israel; not the Messiah, but a branch which was to be broken off, nevertheless, to be remembered in the covenants of the Lord that the Messiah should be made manifest unto them in the latter days, in the spirit of power, unto the brining of them out of darkness unto light—yea, out of hidden darkness and out of captivity unto freedom. For Joseph truly testified, saying: A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins. Yes, Joseph truly said: Thus saith the Lord unto me: A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins. And unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the brining of the to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers. And I will give unto hi a commandment that he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes; for he shall do my work. And he shall be great like unto Moses, whom I have said I would rise up unto you, to deliver my people, O house of Israel. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

Image“And Moses will I raise up, to deliver thy people out of the land of Egypt. However, a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins—and not to the bringing forth my word only, saith the Lord, but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them. Wherefore, the fruit of thy loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter says, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord. And out of my weakness he shall be made strong, in that day when my work shall commence among all my people, unto the restoring thee, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. And thus the prophesied Joseph, saying: Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise, which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of my loins, shall be fulfilled. Behold, I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Image“And his name shall be called after me; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation. Yea, thus prophesied Joseph: I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, I will preserve thy seed forever. And the Lord hath said: I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much, for I will not make him mighty in speaking. However, I will write unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand and I will make a spokes-person for him. And the Lord said unto me also: I will raise up unto the fruit of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokes-person. And I, behold, I will give unto him that he shall write the writing of the fruit of thy loins, unto the fruit of thy loins; and the spokes-person of thy loins shall declare it. And the words which he shall write shall be the words which are expedient in my wisdom should go forth unto the fruit of thy loins. And it shall be as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them from the dust; for I know their faith. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Image“And they shall cry from the dust; yea, even repentance unto their brethren, even after many generations have gone by them. And it shall come to pass that their cry shall go, even according to the suppleness of their words. Because of their faith their words shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto their brethren who are the fruit of thy loins; and the weakness of their words will I make strong in their faith, unto the remembering of my covenants which I made unto thy fathers. And now, behold, my son Joseph, after this manner did my father of old prophesy. Wherefore, because of this covenant thou art blessed; for thy seed shall not be destroyed, for they shall hearken unto the words of the book. And there shall rise up one mighty among them, who shall do much good, both in word and indeed, being an instrument in the hands of God, with exceeding faith, to work mighty which is great in the sight of God, unto the bringing to pass much restoration unto the house of Israel, and unto the seed of thy brethren. And now, blessed art thou, Joseph. Behold, thou art little; wherefore hearken unto the words of thy brother, Nephi, and it shall be done unto thee even according to the words which I have spoken. Remember the words of thy dying father. Amen,” reports 2 Nephi 3.1-25. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

ImageSovereign Lord, our God, Almighty, we beseech Thee to save us all, Thou only Physicians of souls and bodies. Sanctify us all, Thou that healest every infirmary; and heal also this Thy servants. Raise them up from the end of pain by Thy tender mercy; visit them in mercy and compassion; drive away from them all sickness and infirmity; that being raised up by Thy mighty hand, they may serve Thee with all thankfulness; and that we, being made partakers of Thine ineffable benignity, may praise and glorify Thee, Who doest works great and wonderful, and worthy to be praised. For it is Thine to pity and to save; and to Thee we ascribe glory, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now and forever, unto ages of ages. May the Lord forgive all thy sins and heal all thine infirmities, and save thy life from destruction, and satisfy thy desire in all things, Who only liveth and reigneth, One God in Trinity, through everlasting ages. Compassionate Lord, Thy mercies have brought me to the dawn of another day, wain will be its gifts unless I grow in grace, increase in knowledge, ripen for spiritual harvest. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

ImageLet this day know Thee as Thou art, love Thee supremely, serve Thee wholly, admire Thee fully. Though grace let my will respond to Thee, knowing that power to obey is not in me, but that Thy free love alone enables me to serve Thee. Here then is my empty heart, overflow it with Thy choicest gifts; here is my blind understanding, chase away its mist of ignorance. O ever watchful Shepherd, lead, guide, tend me this day; without Thy restraining rod I err and stray; hedge up my pat lest I wander into unwholesome pleasure, direct my feet that I be not entangled in Satan’s secret snares, nor fall into his hidden traps. Defend me from assailing foes, from evil circumstances, from myself. My adversaries are part and parcel of my nature; they cling to me as my very skin; I cannot escape their contact. In my rising up and sitting down thy barnacle me; they entice with constant baits; my enemy is within the citadel; come with almighty power and cast him out, pierce him to death, and abolish in me every particle of carnal life this day. One who has found authentic peace within oneself is in a position to assist others who are still seekers, but one who has not yet transcended mere theories and erudite studies about peace can only give them some more thoughts to add to the burden they already carry. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21Image

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Let Us Live then and be Glad while Young Life is Before Us!

ImageEnjoy your own company. Learn to welcome solitude and work on your own inner being—your character. Solitude allows you opportunity to think deep thoughts. To think about where you have been. To think about where you are going. To think about why you feel so strongly about certain issues. To think about how different your values are from those other people you know. To think about wat all people have in common. To question yourself about why you cling to bad habits. To praise yourself for your strengths. To challenge yourself to follow your dreams. Reflection and solitude feed the soul. Again, all you have to do is pause to rest. Nature herself, when we let her, will take care of everything else. It is our impatience that spoils things. Perhaps we can come a little closer to the nature of memory by looking at it in the company of its traditional associates, common sense and imagination. The internal senses, as the are called, are distinguished from the external senses. They are three in number: common sense, memory, and imagination. The common sense was the faculty that unified the data of the external or special senses. Each sense did what is “proper” to it, the eye seeing, the ear hearing, and the like. What was “common” to disparate sensations was organized into a whole by the common sense. The result was a shape or figure of an object. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageCommon sense also gave meaning to successive affective aspects of experiences, such as pleasure and pain, and oragnised experience into things to be pursued and things to be avoided. To some philosophers, notably Avicenna, the evaluation of sensory experience was distinctive enough to furnish evidence of a separate power, the estimative faculty. The common sense moreover, supplied the dimensions of consciousness or awareness of experience. No sense was aware of its own activity, but the common sense identified the work of each sense. Hence, one “knew” that one as subject was undergoing or “receiving” the experience. In brief, common sense was the receiver, organizer, and evaluator of stimuli from the special senses. In the vocabulary of Schoolmen, its products were the “common sensibles,” as St. Thomas Aquinas said, or in modern parlance, perceptions. Its work dealt with the realities of concrete, everyday experience. In the system of communication among things mental and sensory, the common sense passed along its products to the memory for storage. The basic material of memory, then, was held to be a first-level classification of experience—possibly one could say, first-level abstraction—that in character was much closer to the World of the senses than to the life of the intellect. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageThe imagination as an internal sense was the sole faculty having the power to handle images in the absence of the stimulation that originally gave rise to them. A person might look at London Bridge and go on about one’s business. Later one’s visions of it were the work of the imaginative faculty, imagination. It also made images of its own and in this, its creative role, it was often called fancy. In its reproductive capacity, say imagining London Bridge in the absence of the object, was the imagination responsible for recall or was the memory? Some theorizers, Descartes for example, held that common sense acted like a seal and impressed shapes on the imagination, which retained them, at least for a time. If imagination remembered the shapes of things and recalled them, did memory in its proper role have nothing to do with images? Believers in Galen would quote him: “that part of the soul which imagineth, whatsoever the same may be, seemeth to be the selfe that also remembereth.” Followers of Aristotle maintained that sense images go directly to the imagination which transmits them to the memory. There they are kept until wanted, whereupon the imagination returns and scans the record, behaving much like a person who writes something, lays it aside, and returns to read. In this account, some of the stuff of memory included images. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageAs the retentive faculty, memory also stored the products of the understanding and reason. These products were much more abstract than those of common sense and imagination, ranging from the less abstract forms only slightly removed from the sensory levels of experience to the highest abstractions humans were aware of when they thought in terms mathematical, philosophical, and theological. It seems clear, then that, memory is the recorder, the storehouse, the treasury, of a human’s entire experience. However, it is not clear whether memory is held to be solely, or even primarily, responsible for recall and recollection. Especially in recovering and reinstituting a particular image from the past, one’s imagination seemed to be chiefly involved in the effort and to be doing much of the remembering. In the seventeenth century keen analysts of human nature were less ready then Schoolmen to draw neat borderlines among the psychological functions. When we assert that the senses respond to individuals only, that individuals pass entire into the memory, that individuals are impressions and images, we are implying that the end product of sensory activity is an image of a particular object—the sensory counterpart of a particular tree, a musical note, a spoken word. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageSense experience involves selection and rejection among stimuli emanating from objects—and that is all. The forms and shapes of things are part of the data presented to the senses. The sense do not interpret their own movements. Whatever the object of sensation, the object produces, in so far as it can, a likeness and image of itself, in imitation of incorporeal and spiritual nature. However, the immaterial copy of a material object was not merely that of a particular shape; upon it was impressed the species of the object as well. So what went into the memory whole was the shapes and species of things. The memory records the species of things, as a good register, ready when called for by the imagination and reason. Among human’s faculties we find no place for a common sense. We never use the term, nor do we allude to it. We never speak of common sensibles. Do we attribute any of the functions to this faculty to memory? As we have remarked, we give to memory the task of evaluating sense experience, because secondary objects—sense images—please or displease but in memory. Possibly this is another way of saying that the affective and emotional aspects of experience are stored in memory and that in the storehouse through some process of association they become guides to decision and conduct. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageWe seem to have found no spot for an estimative faculty. This power, responsible for evaluating sense-bound or practical experience as distinct from intellectual or contemplative activity, sometimes has another name, the cogitative faculty. The French Academie, for example, takes note of those who recognize a knowing soule. All beings who possess this power are not sensitive creatures merely, but show a certain virtue and vigour, as of cogitation, of knowledge and memorie, that they may have skill to preserve their life, and know how to guide and govern themselves according to their natural inclination. A cogitative power so understood must not be confused with Bacon’s vis cogitiva, a power of thought fundamental to the functioning of all of human’s faculties. The passage in which Bacon announces that thinking goes on whenever humans exercise any of their faculties is important to us here in two ways. First, the distinction drawn among the mental faculties are broad ones in which Bacon is thinking in terms of genus and species. The genus of mental life is vis cogitiva; the species can be considered as memory, imagination, reason and the will and affections. On this basis, the faculties share in an activity that is substantial, not merely formal. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

Image The faculties can be designated in part by noting their most general manifestations. Indeed, in the passage under scrutiny, reason is taken broadly enough to include understanding, as it does when Bacon, classifying all knowledge in sweeping terms, relates philosophy to reason. Second, in employing broad language Bacon assigns to memory the functions of remembering and recollecting. It is evident that to him memory was something more than a repository of experience. In the human being, memory referred to a kind of thinking, possible only because experience of all sorts and from all sources of stimulation could be both retained and recalled. The material of memory came from other kinds of thinking. At the higher levels of organized behaviour, the materials were products of understanding, reason, and will; at the lower levels of behaviour they were the experiences of the special sense, the affections, and the appetite. Among the qualities of affective states as they relate to memory were the pleasant and unpleasant. These became the guides to future action; they gave meaning to expectation. In the middle of things, as it were, was imagination. This faculty not only created images of its own and revived sense images but translated abstract thought into objects of sense. These, too, were engraved in memory, and on demand of the other faculties they were summoned up again. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageIn recognizing an art of memory and placing it among the intellectual arts, Bacon was doubtless well aware that reasoning must presuppose memory. Reason typically isolates items of experience, analyzes them, and combines them into statements and patterns of which the classic examples are deduction, induction, and analogy. Such intellectual activity is reducible to separate, sequential operations. Each must be held in mind until the full pattern is completed. So memory is involved in reasoning. It is no merely evident in each insane of reasoning, but it also provides a storehouse of materials upon which the intellect can draw whenever it wishes. On these matters Edward Reynolds, a near contemporary of Bacon’s, is more explicit. Memory “preserveth” each separate act of the understanding “until a through [sic] concoction be wrought; so proportionably is the Faculty of Memory given to Reason, as a meanes to consolidate and enrich it.” In retaining experience, memory remembers not only the species of things brought to it by the senses, but it functions as “Consors & co-operatrix Rationis…a joynt-worker in the operations of Reason; which the Latins call Reminiscentia, or Recordatio; including some acts of the Understanding: Which is a reviewing, or (as we speake) a calling to minde of former objects, by discourse, or rationall searching for them.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageThe dependence of intellectual life upon memory led Aristotle, so Reynoldes reminded his readers, to regard remembrance as the remote ground of all the arts. Hobbes also linked memory to the retention of sense experience and to the “cause” and “coherence” of thoughts or conceptions. Sense always had “some memory adhering to it.” Certain sequences or coherences of thought, called reminiscence, experience, and expectation, were the chief manifestation of memory. It is somewhat surprising to find that Bacon has nothing to say about the physiological basis of memory. Another near contemporary of Bacon’s Sir Kenelm Digby, tried to explain remembrance by postulating vibratory, undulatory behaviour of atom-like particles in a “liquid vaporous” substance. The movements were analogous to those of musical sounds. Similar and simultaneous movements reinforced each other. A particular movement long at rest was revived by a similar undulatory motion. However, Bacon’s interest in the phenomena of recall, the art of memory, and the general nature of the faculty did not lead him int physiological speculations. In sum, Bacon regarded memory as a human’s power of recording and recalling their experience. It received and stored images from the external senses and it organized the affective accompaniments of sensory life in ways that made them meaningful guides to action. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageIn common with human’s other faculties memory at work appeared to be thinking; hence, remembering was memory at work appeared to be thinking; hence, remembering was memory thinking. Memory kept the records of human’s analytical, critical, and imaginative thinking which in its symbolic and imageful garb was peculiarly the work of understanding, reason, and imagination. It not only kept the intellectual record; it was essential to its making. If they were to reason at all, humans had to remember. In reflecting on memory and its relationship to other faculties, one becomes aware of two striking, possibly unique, features. The explanation of human’s behaviour is being managed without recourse to as many “entities” and divisions of the soul as was the usual practice. The soul customarily had at least three parts or levels of being: vegetative, sensible, and rational. This vocabulary was abandoned by Bacon. The sensible soul was usually divided into two parts: the external or special senses, and the internal senses. Human’s internal sensory powers had numbered as many as seven, although common practice in the seventeenth century reduced the number to three: common sense, memory, and imagination. Bacon eliminated the common sense. As a result—or perhaps the cause—of the reduction in the number of human’s parts, a second important feature becomes evident. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageHuman’s sensory functions are closely associated with their intellectual functions, and vice versa. Bacon found that the faculties overlapped in their operations and that it was impossible to fix precise boundaries. The operations were often mutually dependent and the communication direct. Yet a rational act or a memorative act could be recognized as such, and hence was subject to study and improvement, without knowing exactly where reason began and memory left off. The operations of the faculties were very different, yet they closely linked and so near neighboured that they could be discerned separately: the understanding cannot work without the memory being present, representing unto the same the figures and fantasies agreeable thereunto, it behooved that the understanding part busy itself in beholding the phantasms, and that the understanding part busy itself in beholding the phantasms, and that the memory cannot do it, if the imagination do not accompany the same we shall easily understand, that all the powers are united in every several ventricle [of the brain], and that the understanding is not solely in the one, nor the memory solely in the other, nor the imagination in the third..but that this union of powers is accustomably made in human’s body [as is the union of the four natural abilities: digestive, retentive, attractive, and expulsive. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageAs we first turned away from God in our thoughts, so it is in our thoughts that the first movements toward the renovation of the heart occurs. Thoughts are the place where we can and must begin to change. There the light of God first begins to move upon us through the word of Christ, and there the divine Spirit begins to direct our will to more and more thoughts that can provide the basis for choosing to realign ourselves with God and his way. The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow or require our minds to dwell upon. We are not totally free in this respect. However, we do have great freedom here, and even though “dead in trespasses and sins,” we still have the ability and responsibility to try to retain God in our knowledge—if only in an inadequate and halting manner. And those who do so will surely makes progress toward him; for if we truly do seek God as best we can, he, who always knows what is really in our hearts, will certainly make himself known to us. It is because of this fact that we always remain responsible before God, even though we are spiritually dead. By “thoughts” we mean all of the ways in which we are conscious of things. That includes our memories, perceptions, and beliefs, as well as what we would ordinarily refer to when we say “I thought of you yesterday,” or “I was just thinking of our meeting tomorrow.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageNow clearly, our thoughts are one of the most basic sources of our life. They determine the orientation of everything we do and evoke the feelings that frame our World and motivate our actions. Interestingly, you cannot evoke thoughts by feeling a certain way, but you can evoke and to some degree control feelings a certain way, but you can evoke and to some degree control feelings by directing your thoughts. Our power over thoughts is of great and indispensable assistance in directing and controlling our feelings, which themselves are not directly under the guidance of our will. We cannot just choose our feelings. Our ability to think and represent things to ourselves also enables us to bring vast ranges of reality—and non-reality—before us. This is not always done in a way that is adequate to what we think about or in a way that is even correct. It is actually a part of the greatness of thought that it is not limited to accuracy or even reality. It can consider—bring before our mind—what is not the case but could be, or what ought to be though it is not, as well as what never should be. Our essential nature as active and creative beings depends upon our ability to envision what is not the case as well as what is. Our ability to plan for the future must constantly run ahead of reality. And this we do in thought. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageA will that runs ahead depends, of course, upon our abilities to think; and what we think, imagine, believe, or guess sets boundaries to what we can will or choose, and therefore to what we can create. As our senses present a landscape for our body and its actions, so our thoughts present the “lifescape” for our will and our life as a whole. Within that “thought lifescape” (including our perceptions) we make the decisions that determine what we will do and who we will become. The realm of thought involves four main factors. These are ideas, images, information, and our ability to think, but the two most powerful ones are ideas and images. “And now, my sons, I speak unto you thee things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the Heavens and the Earth, and all things that are in them are, both things to act and thing to be acted upon. And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of human, after he created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto humans that they should act for oneself. Wherefore, humans could not act for oneself save it should be that one was enticed by the one or the other. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Image“And I, Lehi, according to the thing which I have read, must needs suppose that an Angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen from Heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God. And because he had fallen from Heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all humankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the Earth. And they have brought forth children; yea, even the family of all the Earth. And the days of the children of human were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of humans. For he gave commandment that all humans must repent; for he showed unto all humans that there were lost, because of the transgression of their parents. And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remined in the garden of Eden. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

Image“And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. However behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that humans might be; and people could raise their beautiful children true to their heritage; and humans are, that they might have joy. And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that one may redeem the children of humans from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given. Wherefore, humans are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto people. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all people, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for one seeketh that all humans might be miserable like unto oneself. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Image“And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit; and not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil which is therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hades, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom. I have spoken these few words unto you all, my sons, in the last days of my mortal probation on Earth; and I have chosen the good part, according to the words of the prophet. And I have none other object save it be the everlasting welfare of your souls. Amen,” reports 2 Nephi 3.14-30. If the machine were used deliberately to vanquish human inequality, hunger, overwork, dirt, illiteracy, and disease could be eliminated within a few generations. And in fact, without being used for any such purpose, but by a sort of automatic process—by producing wealth which it was sometimes impossible not to distribute—the machine did raise the living standards of the average human being very greatly over the past one hundred and fifty years. However, by lack of understanding some people remain sane. They simply swallow everything, and what they swallow does them no harm, because it leaves no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

ImageLord Jesus, Great High Priest, Thou hast opened a new living way by which a fallen creature can approach Thee with acceptance. Help me to contemplate the dignity of Thy Person, the perfectness of Thy sacrifice, the effectiveness of Thy intercession. O What blessedness accompanies devotion, when under all the trials that weary me, the care the corrode me, the fears that disturb me, the infirmities that oppress me, I can come to Thee in my need and feel peace beyond understanding! The grace that restores is necessary to preserve, lead, guard, supply, help. And here Thy saints encourage my hope; they were once poor and are now rich, bound and are now free, tried and now are victorious. Every new duty calls for more face than I now possess, but not more than is found in Thee, the divine Treasury in whom all fullness dwells. To Thee I repair for grace upon grace, until every void made by sin be replenished and I am filled with all Thy fullness. May my desires be enlarged and my hopes emboldened, that I may honour Thee by my entire dependency and the greatness of my expectation. Do Thou by with me, and prepare me for all the smiles of prosperity, the frowns of adversity, the losses of substance, the death of friends, the days of darkness, the changes of life, and the last great change of all. May I find Thy grace sufficient for all my needs. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageI divine all teachers into two classes: titular gurus and real gurus. The former are quite common, the gap between their doctrines and their behaviour being noticeable, whereas the latter are rare indeed for they have achieved a conquest over the ego which reveals itself in their conduct and reflects itself in their lives. The demand for inspired teachers is always insistent but the supply is wholly insufficient. Unless the teacher is an inspired one one will be of little help to the would-be mystic. By inspired, we mean either in communion with one’s higher self or fully united with it. Almighty and everlasting God, Wo succourest those that labour under perils and afflictions, we humbly beseech Thy Majesty, that may please Thee to send Thy holy Angel to uphold with Thy comfort Thy servants, who in this house are suffering distress and affliction; that they may both receive Thy present assistance, and attain eternal healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Please visit Thy servants, O Lord, as Thou wast pleased to visit Peter’s mother-in-law and the centurion’s servants. Restore them, O Lord, to their former health; that they may be enabled to say in the courts of Thine house, “The Lord hath chastened and corrected me, but He hath not given me over unto death, He Who is the Saviour of the World.” Grant this, O Lord, Who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, God, throughout all ages. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

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I am humbled by my realization of the sacredness of the time we are given and stunned by our irreverence for the time we have. Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savour you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the Earth, or burry my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky, and want, more than all the World, your return.  #CresleighHomes

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One Half of the World Cannot Understand the Pleasures of the other, but in Charity there is No Excess!

ImageA professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep. Excellence in education is the key to our nation’s future. If we are truly to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow, we must empower all our students with the best schools and guidance possible. At a time when we face stark choices about how best to strengthen our economic future, our commitment to education and to children must stand absolutely firm. We have a sacred obligation to put our children’s needs first and to make the essential investments that will help them to succeed. The importance of the family for the moral development of individuals was far more often recognized by political theorists of the past than it is by those of the present. Hegel, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Mill, and Dewey are obvious examples that come to mind. Rousseau, for example, shocked by Plato’s proposal to abolish the family, says that it is “as though there were no need for a natural base on which to form conventional ties; as though the love of one’s nearest were not the principle of the love one owes the state; as though it were not by means of the small fatherland which is the family that the heart attaches itself to the large one.” Defenders of both autocratic and democratic regimes have recognized the political importance of different family forms for the formation of citizens. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

ImageOn the one hand, the nineteenth-century monarchist Louis de Bonald argued against the divorce reforms of the French Revolution, which he claimed had weakened the patriarchal family, on the grounds that “in order to keep the state out of the hands of the people, I is necessary to keep the family out of the hands of women and children.” Taking this same line of thought in the opposite direction, the United States Supreme Court decided in 1879 in Reynolds v. Nebraska that familial patriarchy fostered despotism and was therefore intolerable. Denying Mormon men the freedom to practice polygamy, the Court asserted that it was an offense “subversive of good order” that “leads to the patriarchal principle, [and] when applied to large communities, fetters the people in stationary despotism, while that principle cannot long exist in connection with monogamy.” However, while de Bonald was consistent in his adherence to an hierarchical family structure as necessary for an undemocratic political system, the Supreme Court was by no means consistent in promoting an egalitarian family as an essential underpinning for political democracy. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

Image For in other decisions of the same period—such as Bradwell v. Illinois, the famous 1872 case that upheld the exclusion of women from the practice of women from the practice of law—the Court rejected women’s claims to legal equality, in the name of a thoroughly patriarchal, though monogamous, family that was held to require the dependence of women and their exclusion from civil and political life. While bigamy was considered patriarchal, and as such a threat to republican, democratic government, the refusal to allow a married woman to employ her talents and to make use of her qualifications to earn an independent living was not considered patriarchal. It was so far from being a threat to the civil order, in fact, that it was deemed necessary for it, and as such was ordained by both God and nature. Clearly in both Reynolds and Bradwell, “state authorities enforced family forms preferred by those in power and justified as necessary to stability and order.” The Court noticed the despotic potential of polygamy, but was blind to the despotic potential of patriarchal monogamy. This was perfectly acceptable to them as a training ground for citizens. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

ImageMost theorists of the past who stressed the importance of the family and its practices for the wider World of moral and political life by no means insisted on congruence between the structures of practices of the family and those of the outside World. Though concerned with moral development, they bifurcated public from private life to such an extent that they had no trouble reconciling inegalitarian, sometimes admittedly unjust, relations founded upon sentiment within the family with a more just, even egalitarian, social structure outside the family. Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville—all thought the family was centrally important for the development of morality in citizens, but all defended the hierarchy of the material structure while spurning such a degree of hierarchy in institutions and practices outside the household. Preferring instead to rely on love, altruism, and generosity as the basis for family relations, none of these theorists argued for just family structures as necessary for socializing children into citizenship in a just society. The position that justice within the family is irrelevant to the development of just citizens was not plausible even when only men were citizens. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

ImageJohn Stuart Mill, in The Subjection of Women, takes an impassioned stand against justice in the family being considered irrelevant to the development of just citizens. He argues that the inequality of women within the family is deeply subversive of justice in general in the wider social World, because it subverts the moral potential of men. Mill’s first answer to the questions, “For whose good are all these changes in women’s rights to be undertaken?” is: “the advantage of having the most universal and pervading of all human relations regulated by justice instead of injustice.” Making marriage a relationship of equals, he argues, would transform this central part of daily life from “a school of despotism” into a “s school of moral cultivation.” He goes on to discuss, in the strongest of terms, the noxious effect of growing up in a family not regulated by justice. Consider, he says, “the self-worship, the unjust self-preference,” nourished by a boy growing up in a household in which “by the mere fact of being born a male he is by right superior of all and every one of an entire half of the human race.” Mill concludes that the example set by perpetuating a material structure “contradictory to the first principles of social justice” must have such “a perverting influence” that it is hard even to imagine the good effects of changing it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

ImageAll other attempts to educate people to respect and practice justice, Mill claims, will be superficial “as long as the citadel of the enemy is not attacked.” Mill felt as much hope for what the family might be as he felt despair at what it was not. “The family, justly constituted, would be the real school of the virtues of freedom,” primary among which was “justice, grounded as before on equal, but now also on sympathetic association.” Mills bot saw clearly and had the courage to address what so many other political philosophers either could not see, or saw and turned away from. Despite the strength and fervor of his advocacy of women’s rights, however, Mill’s idea of a just family structure falls short of that of many feminists even of his own time, including his wife, Harriet Taylor. In spite of the fact that Mill recognized both the empowering effect of earnings on one’s position in the family and the limiting effect of domestic responsibility on women’s opportunities, he balked at questioning the traditional division of labour between the genders. For him, a woman’s choice of marriage was parallel to a man’s choice of a profession: unless and until she has fulfilled her obligations to her husband and children, she should not undertake anything else. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

ImageBut clearly, however equal the legal rights of husbands and wives, this position largely undermines Mill’s own insistence upon the importance f marital equality for a just society. His acceptance of the traditional division of labour, without making any provision for wives who were thereby made economically dependent upon their husbands, largely undermines his insistence upon family justice as the necessary foundation for social justice. Thus even those political theorists of the past who have perceived the family and the wider social order, which suggests that families themselves need to be just. Even when they have, as with Mill, they have been unwilling to push hard on the traditional division of labour within the family in the name of justice or equality. Contemporary theorists of justice, with few exceptions, have paid little or no attention to the question of moral development—of how we are to become just. Most of them seem to think, to adapt slightly Hobbes’s notable phrase, that just men spring like mushrooms from the Earth. Not surprisingly, then, it is far less often acknowledged in recent than in past theories that the family is important for oral development, and especially for instilling a sense of justice. As I have already noted, many theorists pay no attention at all to either the family or gender. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

ImageIn the rare case that the issue of justice within the family is given any sustained attention, the family is not viewed as potential school of social justice. In the rare case that a theorist pays any sustained attention to the development of a sense of justice or morality, little if any attention is likely to be paid to the family. Even in the rare event that theorists pay considerable attention is likely to be paid to the family. Even in the rare event that a theorist pays any sustained attention to the development of a sense of justice or morality, little if any attention is likely to be paid to the family. Even in the rare event that theorists pay considerable attention to the family as the first major locus or moral socialization, they do not refer to the fact that families are almost all still thoroughly gender-structured institutions. Among major contemporary theorists of justice, John Rawls alone treats the family seriously as the earliest school of moral development. He argues that a just, well-ordered society will be stable if its members continue to develop a sense of justice. And he argues that families play a fundamental role in the stages by which this sense of justice is acquired. From the parents’ love for their child, which comes to be reciprocated, come the child’s “sense of one’s own value and the desire to become the sort of person that they are.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

ImageThe family, too, is the first of that series of “associations” in which we participate, from which we acquire the capacity, crucial for a sense of justice, to see things from the perspectives of others. This capacity—the capacity for empathy—is essential for maintaining a sense of justice of the Rawlsian kind. Rawlsian justice is a theory of justice as fairness describes a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights and cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. The goal is to create a permanently peaceful and tolerant international order. For the perspective that is necessary for maintaining a sense of justice is not that of the egotistic or disembodied self, or of the dominant few who overdetermine “our” traditions or “shared understandings,” or (to use Nagel’s term) of “the view from nowhere,” but rather the perspective of every person in the society for whom the principles of justice are being arrived at. The problem with Rawls’s rare and interesting discussion of moral development is that it rests on the unexplained assumption that family institutions are just. If gendered family institutions are not just, but are, rather, a relic of caste or feudal societies in which responsibilities, roles, and resources are distributed, not in accordance with innate differences that are imbued with enormous social significance, then Rawls’s theory of moral development would seem to be built on uncertain ground. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

ImageThis problem is exacerbated by suggestions in some of Rawls’s most recent work that families are “private institutions,” to which it is not appropriate to apply standards of justice. However, if families are to help form just individuals and citizens, surely they must be just families. In a just society, the structure and practices of families must give women the same opportunities as men to develop their capacities, to participate in political power and influence social choices, and to be economically secure. However, in addition to this, families must be just because of the vast influence that they have on the moral development of children. The family is the primary institution of formative moral development. And the structure and practice of the family must parallel those of the larger society if the sense of justice is to be fostered and maintained. While many theorists of justice, both past and present, appear to have denied the importance of at least one of these factors, my own view is that both are absolutely crucial. A society that is committed to equal respect for all of its members, and to justice in social distributions of benefits and responsibilities, can neither neglect the family nor accept family structures and practices that violate these norms, as do current gender-based structures and practices. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

ImageIt is essential that children who are to develop into adults with a strong sense of justice and commitment to just institutions spend their earliest and most formative years in an environment in which they are loved and nurtured, and in which principles of justice are abided by and respected. What is a child of either gender to learn about fairness in the average household with two full-time working parents, where the mother does, at the very least, twice as much family work as the father? What is a child to learn about the value of nurturing and domestic work in a home with a traditional division of labour in which the father either subtly or not so subtly uses the fact that he is the wage earner to “pull rank” on or to abuse his wife? What is a child to learn about responsibility for others in a family in which, after many years of arranging her life around those needs of her husband and children, a woman is faced with having to provide for herself and her children but is totally ill-equipped for the task by the life she agreed to lead, has led, and expected to go on leading? Difficulties already present in partnerships are sometimes brought in the open in person-centered climates. A young could had been living together and were planning to marry. They were together in an encounter group and asked the group’s permission to explore their relationship with the help of the participants. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

ImageAs they began to open up to each other, it was clear that they knew each other hardly at all. They had differing goals and sharply differing perceptions. For example, the young woman thought of herself as reasonably adequate, certainly not inferior. She was astonished and hurt to find that her lover saw her as much inferior to him in social status and intellect. As they explored their differences, they became much more open with each other, but their partnership seemed highly precarious. Yet a letter more than a year later told me of their marriage, their growing areas of mutual interest and work, and their current satisfaction with their relationship. Evidently the risk they took in exploring their profound differences had deepened the bonds of partnership rather than breaking them. The areas of difference may occur in a variety of fields. In one couple the husband is hedonistic, works when he had to, regards himself as essentially “a lazy bum,” while his wife is strongly imbued with a work ethic. Says she, “My heart skips a beat when I hear him say, ‘I just want to be rich and have fun.’” She thinks he should be more serious about his work. It is an indication of the incredible complexity of human relationships that the work-oriented wife is, with her husband’s consent, a topless go-go danger, while the “lazy bum” is business! However, exploration of their differing goals is helping to bring them together. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

ImageAt the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus enjoined His followers to prayerful tenacity: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; known and the door will be opened to you,” reports Matthew 7.7. The language is unusually compelling because the three verbs (“ask…seek…knock”) indicate an ascending intensity. “Ask” implies requesting assistance for a conscious need. It also suggests humility, for the Greek word here was commonly used by one approaching a superior. “Seek” involves asking, but adds action. The idea is not just to express need, but to get up and look around for help. “Knock” includes asking, plus seeking, plus persevering—for example, one who keeps pounding on a closed door. The stacking of these verbs is powerful, and the fact that they are present imperatives gives them even more punch. Jesus’ words actually read: “Keep on asking, and it shall be given to you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it shall be opened to you.” Such tenacity is exactly what Paul has in mind in his call to petitionary prayer when he says to “be alert and always keep on praying.” Men and women, do we pray with Scriptural persistence for our families? For the Church? Are there individuals, groups, causes, souls for which we hold up our hands in prayer? There ought to be, for God answers persistent prayer. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

ImageNow, the simplicity of spiritual formation is possessed in its intention. Its aim is to bring every element in our being, working from inside out, into harmony with the will of God and the kingdom of God. This is the simple focus. We must keep it constantly before us and not be distracted by other things, no matter how good they may appear. Of course, we cannot realize this goal on our own. However, there is no need for that. God has made provision for achieving this aim. To “grow in grace” means to utilize more and more grace to live by, until everything we do is assisted by grace. Then, whatever we do in word or deed will all be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. “And whatever you do whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” reports Colossians 3.17. The greatest saints are not those who need less grace, but those who consume the most grace, who indeed are most in need of grace—those who are saturated by grace in every dimension of their being. Grace to the is like breath. Spiritual formation is holistic. Each dimension of spirituality is not separate, so we must keep a sharp awareness that they are always profoundly influencing one another in the flow of real life. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

ImageReal life means the totality of the events we are actually involved in and the actions we actually carry out. In Spiritual formation the process and the outcome in Christ is beneficial to our lives. There are no formulas—no definitive how-tos—for growth in the inner character of Jesus. Such growth is a way of relentless seeking. However, there are many things we can do to place ourselves at the disposal of God, and “if with all our hearts we truly seek him, we shall surely find him,” reports Jeremiah 29.13. Or, as the prophet Azariah said, “If you seek Him, He will let you find him,” We can count on God’s goodness. The Second Book of Nephi—an account of the death of Lehi. Nephi’s brethren rebel against him. The Lord warns Nephi to depart into the wilderness. His journeyings in the wilderness, and so forth. In chapter 1, Lehi prophesies of a land of liberty—his seed will be scattered and smitten if they reject the Holy One of Israel—he exhorts his sons to put on the armor of righteousness. About 588-570 Before Chris. “And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had mad an end of teaching my brethren, our father, Lehi, also spake many things unto them, and rehearsed unto them, how great things the Lord had done for them in bringing them out of the land of Jerusalem. And he spake up them concerning the rebellious upon the waters, and the mercies of God in sparing their lives, that they were not swallowed up in the sea. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

Image“And he also spake unto them concerning the land of promise, which they had obtained—how merciful the Lord has been in warning us that we should flee out of the land of Jerusalem. For, behold, said he, I have seen a vision, in which I know that Jerusalem is destroyed; and had we remained in Jerusalem we should also have perished. However, he said, notwithstanding our afflictions, we have obtained a land of promise, land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him who he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shell be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall blessed forever. And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would over run the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

Image“Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever. However, behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having  a knowledge of the creation of the Earth, and all people, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the World; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them. Yea, he will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

Image“Yea, as one generation passeth to another there shall be bloodsheds, and great visitations among them; wherefore, my sons, I would that ye would remember; yea, I would that ye would hearken unto my words. O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of humans, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gul of misery and woe. Awake! And arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the Earth. However, behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love. And I desire that ye should remember to observe the statuses of the judgments of the Lord; behold, this hath been the anxiety of my soul from the beginning. My heart hath been weighed down with sorrow from time to time, for I have feared, lest for the hardness of your hearts the Lord your God should come out in the fullness of his wrath upon you, that ye are visited by sword, and by famine, and are hated, and are led according to the will and captivity of the devil. O my sons, that these things might be a choice and a favoured people of the Lord. However, behold, his will be done; for his ways are righteous forever. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

Image“And he hath said that: Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land; but inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from my presence. And now that my soul might have joy in you, and that my heart might leave this World with gladness because of you, that I might not be brought down with grief and sorrow to the grave, arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity; that ye may not be cursed with a sore cursing; and also, that ye may not incur the displeasure of a just God upon you, unto the destruction, yes, the eternal destruction of both soul and body. Awake, my sons; put on the armour of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity and arise from the dust. Rebel no more against your brother, whose views have been glorious, and who hath kept the commandments from the time that we left Jerusalem; and who hath been an instrument in the hands of God, in bringing us forth into the land of promise; for were it not for him, we must have perished with hunger in the wilderness; nevertheless, ye sought to take away his life; yea, and he hath suffered much sorrow because of you. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

Image“And I exceedingly fear and tremble because of you, lest he shall suffer again; for behold, ye have accused him that he sought power and authority over you; but I know that he hath not sought for power nor authority over you, but he hath sought the glory of God, and your own eternal welfare. And ye have murmured because he hath been plain unto you. Ye say that he hath used sharpness; ye say that he hath been angry with you; but behold, his sharpness was the sharpness of the power of the word of God, which was in him; and that which ye call anger was the truth, according to that which is in God, which he could not restrain manifesting boldly concerning your iniquities. And it must needs be that the power of God must be with him, even unto his commanding you that ye must obey. However, behold, it was not he, but it was the Spirit of the Lord which was in him, which opened his mouth to utterance the he could not shut it. And now my son, Laman, and also Lemuel and Sam, and also my sons who are the sons of Ishmael, behold, if ye will hearken unto the voice of Nephi ye shall not perish. And if ye will hearken unto him I leave unto you a blessing, yea, even my first blessing. However, if ye will not hearken unto him I take away my first blessing, and it shall rest upon him. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

Image“And now, Zoram, I speak unto you: Behold, thou art the servant of Laban; nevertheless, thou hast been brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and I know that thou art a true friend unto my son, Nephi, forever. Wherefore, because thou hast been faithful thy seed shall be blessed with his seed, that they dwell in prosperity long upon the face of this land; and noting, save shall be iniquity among them, shall hard or disturb their prosperity upon the face of this land forever. Wherefore, if ye shall keep the commandments of the Lord, the Lord hath consecrated this land for the security of thy seed with the seed of my son,” reports 2 Nephi 1-32. All-sufficient King, when I come into Thy presence I see the gory of Thy perfections, the throne f eternal and universal empire, the ten thousand times ten thousand who minister to Thee. Impress my mind with the consciousness of Thy greatness, not to drive me from Thee but to inspire me to approach thee; not to diminish my confidence in Thee, but to lead me to admire Thy great condescension. Thou has been mindful of me and visited me, taken charge of me from birth, cared in all conditions for me, fed me at Thy table, drawn the curtains of love around me, given me new mercies every morning. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

ImageSuffer me not to forget that I look for yet greater blessings—a hope beyond the grave, the earnest and foretastes of immortality, holiness, wisdom, strength, peace, joy—all these thou hast provided for me in Christ. I grieve to think how insensible I have been of the claims of Thy authority, and the endearments of Thy love; how little I have credited Thy truth, trusted Thy promises, feared Thy threats, obeyed Thy commands, improved my advantages, welcomed Thy warnings, responded to Thy grace; but notwithstanding my desert I yet live. May Thy goodness always lead me to repentance, and Thy longsuffering prove my salvation. O God, by Whose command the moments of our life run their course; receive our prayers for Thy servants lying sick, on whose behalf we implore Thy mercy; that our fears on account of their danger may be turned into joy at their recovery; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Almighty and everlasting God, the eternal Salvation of believers, hear us for Thy servants, for whom we implore the assistance of Thy mercy; that their healthy may be restored to them, and they may give thanks to Thee in Thy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O God, Who didst add fifteen years to the life of Thy servant Hezekiah; please let Thy power raise up Thy servants from the bed of sickness unto health; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22Image

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It is Warm Work and this Day May be the Last to Any of Us at a Moment—But I Would Not be Elsewhere for Thousands!

ImageI have found that if you love life, life will love you back. I accept life unconditionally. Life holds so much—so much to be happy about always. And keep in mind, a pint of example is worth a gallon of advice. Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high aesthetic band, if you walk down Picadilly with a poppy or lily in your medieval hand. And everyone will say, as you walk your flowery way, “If he or she is content with a vegetable love which would certainly not suit me, why, what a most particularly pure young man or young woman this pure young person must be!” The confusion of moral values and artistic design found expression in the Aesthetic Movement, a credo of the late nineteenth century. At its heart was the belief that good design or beauty is elevating and that bad design or ugliness is corrupting. Followers of the Aesthetic Movement believed that Truth and Beauty were intertwined and that Falsehood and Ugliness were one. Aesthetics, then, had a moral implication, and good proportion, honesty, and harmony with natural laws were as much a characteristic of personal morality as of design. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

ImageThis movement began in England and was Championed by the “Goths,” that is, the supporters of the Gothic Revival. In general, they wanted to restore the ritual and mystery of the medieval church and remove the more recent “low church” alterations which bring the congregation and the priest closer together. They came to believe in Gothic as the peculiarly English style (despite the Abbe Suger, Notre-Dame de Paris,Saint-Denis, and Chartres). Aesthetic Movement devotees generally fell into two camps. One camp led by John Ruskin (he celebrated the buildings of medieval Venice and believed that Gothic design was superb because it was the honest work of true crafts-people who worked anonymously and cared more for the glory of God than the glory of artistic fame), the great art critic of his time, felt that art must be inspired by nature to be true good, that no creation of compass and rule with mechanical repetition could ever hope to contain the spark of true art. Gothic Venice stood for an organic, communal way of life, and the beauty of its buildings reflects a wholesome social order. The most famous practitioner in this branch of the Aesthetic Movement was William Morris, whose plant-design wallpapers and carpets became very popular. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

ImageThe Aesthetic Movement, was also known as “art for art’s sake,” and it permeated British culture during the latter part of the nineteenth century, as well as spreading to other countries such as the Untied States of America. The idea that beauty was the most important element in life, lead writers, artists, and designers to create works that were admired simply for their beauty rather than any narrative or moral function. The movement blossomed into a cult devoted to the creation of beauty in all avenues of life from art and literature, to home decorating, to fashion, and embracing a new ornate style. The other camps of aestheticians had a number of famous leaders. They believed that the direct imitation of nature in the applied arts was fakery. They deplored the use of perspective and modeling in wallpapers and carpet and insisted on flat, “conventionalized” forms for flat surfaces. Charles Locke Eastlake was a spokes-person for this camp. He wrote Hints on Household Taste and made the Aesthetic Movement popular in America. Another one of the most famous people in the Aesthetic Movement was Sarah Winchester with her World famous, marvelous, Gothic Queen Anne Victorian mansion. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

ImageOwen Jones, the chronicler of ornament and cofounder of the South Kensington School (later part of the Victoria and Albert Museum) was a famous champion. Another, of many, noteworthy people, and later infamous, spokes-person for this group of aesthetes was the writer Oscar Wilde. It is through his persecution as a homosexual that the word “aesthetic” has come to have conflicting implications. As a result, the Aesthetic Movement came to be regarded as both a moral crusade and an “immoral effeminate” circle at the same time. To understand this movement, however, one must look at the World against which they were reacting. The middle of the nineteenth century saw the end of crafted home furnishings in America. Just as the Rococo Revival style became popular, it became possible to make everything by the carload. Curved parlor chairs with naturalistically carved roses at the crest became the rage. Wallpapers with roses and ribbons were printed in so many modulated colours that they seemed three-dimensional. Wall-to-wall, Aubusson, patterned carpets had more roses and arabesque. China was transfer-printed with French shepherdesses and more roses. All of this factory-made prettiness in the French tastes was cloying to English aesthetic tastes. Badly made furniture and lumpy vases with oddly placed roses made them cringe. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

ImagePeople usually worked together to give the exteriors of Victorian houses a bright, elegant look and to highlight the carving and detail on the pillars and panels. Sometimes flowers on the houses might be painted a colour like navy blue on the capital as a lark. An element many Queen Anne’s have is a tower or a turret with a witches cap. Victorians were big on celebrating holidays, which is why one can find many religious and occult symbols and patterns on these estates. When we turn to the great tradition of Western political thought with questions about the justice of the treatment of the genders in mind, it is to little avail. Bold feminists like Mary Astell, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Thompson, Harriet Taylor, and George Bernard Shaw have occasionally challenged the tradition, often using its own premises and arguments to overturn its explicit or implicit justification of the equality of women. However, John Stuart Mills is a rare exception to the rule that those central position in the tradition almost never question the justice of the subordination of women. This phenomenon is undoubtedly due in part to the fact that Aristotle, whose theory of justice has been so influential, relegated women to a sphere of “household justice”—populated by person who are not fundamentally equal to the free men who participate in political justice, but inferiors whose natural function is to serve those who are more fully human. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

ImageThe liberal tradition, despite its supposed foundation of individual rights and human equality, is more Aristotelian in this respect than is generally acknowledged. In one way or another, almost all liberal theorists have assumed that the “individual” who is the basic subject of the theories is the male head of the household. Thus they have not usually considered applying the principle of justice to women or to relations between the genders. When we turn to contemporary theories of justice, however, we expect to find more illuminating and beneficial contributions to the subject of gender and justice. As the mission of the family and the falseness of their gender-neutral language suggest, however, mainstream contemporary theories of justice do not address the subject any better than those of the past. Theories of justice that apply to only half of us simply will not do; the inclusiveness falsely implied by the current use of gender-neutral terms must become real. Theories of justice must apply to all of us, and to all of human life, instead of assuming silently that half of us take care of whole areas of life that are considered outside the scope of social justice. In a just society, the structure and practice of families must afford women the same opportunities as men to develop their capacities, to participate in political power, to influence social choices, and to be economically as well as physically secure. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

ImageUnfortunately, much feminists intellectual energy in 2020 has gone into the claim that “justice” and “right” are masculinist ways of thinking about morality that feminists should eschew or radically revise, advocating a morality of care. The emphasis is misplaced, I think, for several reasons. First, what is by now a vast literature on the subject shows that the evidence for differences in women’s and men’s ways of thinking about moral issues is not (at least yet) very clear; neither is the evidence about the source of whatever differences there might be. It may well turn out that any differences can be readily explained in terms of roles, including female primary parenting, that are socially determined and therefore alterable. There is certainly no evidence—nor could there be, in such a gender-structured society—for concluding that women are somehow naturally more inclined toward contextuality and away from universalism in their moral thinking, a false concept that unfortunately reinforces the old stereotypes that justify separate spheres. The capacity of reactionary forces to capitalize on the “different moralities” strain in feminism is particularly evident in an Apostolic Letter from Pope John Paul II, “On The Dignity of Women,” in which he refers to woman’s special capacity to care for others in arguing for confining them to motherhood or celibacy. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

ImageSecond, I think the distinction between an ethic of justice and an ethic of care has been overdrawn. The best theorizing about justice, I argue, has integral to it the notions of care and empathy, of thinking of the interests and well-being of others who may be very different from ourselves. It is, therefore, misleading to draw a dichotomy as though they were two contrasting ethics. The best theorizing about justice is not some abstract “view from nowhere,” but results from the carefully attentive consideration of everyone’s point of view. This means, of course, that the best theorizing about justice is not good enough if it does not, or cannot readily be adapted to, include women and their points of view as fully as men and their points of view. But what are the conditions that change the equilibrium and mobilize aggression? What are the causes of “innate” aggression in animals and humans? If we can figure this out, we can then start to understand why some people feel threated by the equality of women. In reviewing both the neurophysiological and the psychological literature on animals and human aggression, the conclusion seems unavoidable that aggressive behaviour of animals is a response to any king of threat to the survival. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

ImageOr, as I would prefer to say more generally, to the vital interests of the animal—whether as an individual or as a member of its species. This general definition comprises many different situations. The most obvious are a direct threat to the life of the individual or a threat to one’s requirements for sex and food; a more complex form is that of “crowding,” which is a threat to the need for physical space and/or to the social structure of the group. However, what is common to all conditions for the arousal of aggressive behaviour is that they constitute a threat to vital interests. Mobilization of aggression is the corresponding brain areas occurs in the service of life, in response to threats to the survival of the individual or of the species; that is to say, phylogenetically programmed aggression, as it exists in animals and humans, is a biologically adaptive defense reaction. That this should be so is not surprising if we remember the Dr. Darwinian principle in regard to the evolution of the brain. Since it is the function of the brain to take care of survival, it would provide for immediate reactions to any threat to survival. Do men think they will be robbed of their roles as providers and be forced to submit and be subordinate? #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

ImageWell, some people also believe that the lessening of women’s dependence on their husbands is what is to blame for the weakening of the family stability. Some people believe that paid work is “men’s” and it is “fathers” who bequeath wealth or poverty on their children. Aggression is by no means the only form of reaction to threats. The animal reacts to threats to one’s existence either with rage and attack or with fear and flight. In fact, flight seems to be the more frequent form of reaction, except when the animal has no chance to flee and therefore fights—as the ultima ratio—the final argument and also the last resort. Dr. Hess was the first to discover that by the electrical stimulation of certain regions of the hypothalamus of a cat, the animal would react either by attack or by flight. As a consequence he subsumed these two kinds of behaviours under the category of “defense reactions,” indicating that both reactions are in defense of the animal’s life. So with the oppression of women, it may be a primitive function in the brains of some people, that is triggered as a response to make sure there will still be homemakers and someone to produce children. This urge to discriminate against women could be a subconscious behaviour that some are not aware of because they have not been made to go to therapy and unearth the issues they are having subconsciously. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

ImageBy ignoring that people need help and not punishing those who are not acting righteously, we are producing and allowing a sick society to flourish. Any animal, regardless of it species, reacts to a life-threatening attack with one of two patterns of behaviour: either with flight, or with aggression and violence—that is, fight. The brain always acts as a unit in directing any behaviour; consequently, the mechanisms in the brain that initiate and limit these two dissimilar patterns of self-preservation are closely linked to one another, as well as to all other parts of the brain; and their proper functioning depends on the synchronization of many complex and delicately balanced subsystems. A further important impediment to criticism and accusation is directly linked up with the basic anxiety. If the outside World is felt to be hostile, if one feels helpless toward it, then taking any risk of annoying people seems sheer recklessness. For the neurotic the danger appears all the greater, and the more one’s feeling of safety is based on the affection of others the more one is afraid of losing that affection. For one annoying another person has an entirely different connotation from what it has for the normal person. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

ImageSince one’s own relations to others are thin and fragile one cannot believe that others’ relations toward one are any better. Hence one feels that annoying them involves the danger of a final break; one expects to be dropped altogether, to be definitely spurned or hated. Besides, one assumes consciously or unconsciously that others are as much terrified as one is of being found out and criticized, and therefore one is inclined to treat them with as much delicacy as one would have them use toward one. One’s extreme fear of making or even feeling accusations put one in a special dilemma because, as we have seen, one is filled with pent-up resentment. In fact, as everyone knows who is acquainted with neurotic behaviour, plenty of accusations do find expression, sometimes in veiled, sometimes in open and most aggressive forms. Since I nevertheless asset that there is an essential meekness toward criticism and accusation it is worth while to discuss briefly the conditions under which such accusations will find expression. They may be expressed under the stress of despair, more specifically, when the neurotic feels one has nothing to lose by it, when one feels that one will be rejected in any cause, regardless of one’s behaviour. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

ImageSuch an occasion arises, for example, if one’s special efforts to be kind and considerate are not returned right away or are rejected. Whether one’s accusations are discharged explosively in one scene, or whether they last for some time, depends on the duration of one’s despair. One may in a single crisis thrust upon others all one has ever held against them, or one’s accusations my extend over a longer period. One really means what one says, and expects the others to take it seriously—with the secret hope, however, that they will realize the depth of one’s despair and therefore condone one. Even with no despair a similar condition exists if the accusations concern person whom the neurotic consciously hates and from whom one expects nothing good. In another condition, which we shall discuss presently, the very element of sincerity is missing. If one feels that one is, or is in danger of being, found out and accused, the neurotic can also be accusatory with more or less vehemence. The danger of upsetting others may then appear as the lesser evil compared to the danger of being disapproved of. One feels oneself in an emergency and makes a counter-attack, like an animal which is apprehensive by nature and strikes out when in danger. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

ImagePatients may thrust violent accusations upon the analyst (or wife, husband, child, and so forth) at the time when they are most afraid of something being uncovered, or when they have done something for which they anticipate disapproval. Unlike the accusations made under the stress of despair, attacks of this kind are made blindly. They are expressed without any conviction of being right about them, for they are born out of a sheer feeling of the need to ward off an immediate danger, regardless of what means are used. While they may incidentally contain reproaches which are felt to be real, in the main they are exaggerated and fantastic. Deep down the neurotic does not believe in them oneself, does not expect them to be take seriously and is greatly amazed if the others does so, if the other, for example, enters into a serious argument or shows signs of being hurt. When we realize the fear of accusation that is inherent in the neurotic structure, and when we realize furthermore the ways in which this fear is dealt with, then we can understand why on the surface the picture is often contradictory in this respect. A neurotic person is often unable to express a warranted criticism, even though one is full of intense accusations. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

ImageEvery time one loses something one may be convinced that the maid or his wife has stolen it, but be quite unable to accuse her or even to object because she has not served dinner punctually. The accusations which one does express have often somehow a character of unreality, are not to the point, have a false colouring, are unwarranted or entirely fantastic. As a patient one may fling at the analyst wild accusations of ruining him, but be unable to express a sincere objection to the analyst’s taste in coffee. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy is impossible, to forget, whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it is needed, and the promptly to forget it gain, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that is the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, one again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you have just performed. Even to understand the word “doublethink” involves the use of doublethink. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

ImageThese open expressions of accusations are not usually sufficient to discharge all the pent-up resentment that is present. In order to do that indirect ways are necessary, ways which allow the neurotic to express one’s resentment without being away that one does. Some of it comes out inadvertently, some is shifted from the person one really means to accuse to comparatively indifferent persons—a woman may scold her maid, for example, when she had a grudge against her husband—or to circumstances or fate in general. These are safety valves which in themselves are not specific for neuroses. The specifically neurotic method for expressing accusations indirectly and unconsciously is to use the medium of suffering. By suffering the neurotic may present oneself as a living reproach. A wife wo becomes ill because her husband comes home late expresses her grudge more effectively than by making a scene, and also reaps the advantage of appearing in her own eyes as an innocent martyr. The family is a crucial determinant of our opportunities in life, of what we “become.” It has frequently been acknowledged by those concerned with real equality of opportunity that the family presents a problem. However, though they have discerned a serious problem, these theorists have underestimated it because they have seen only half of it. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

ImageThey have seen that the disparity among families in terms of the physical and emotional environment, motivation, and material advantage they can give their children has a tremendous effect upon children’s opportunities in life. We are not born as isolated, equal individuals in our society, but into family situations: some in the social middle, some poor and without homes, and some superaffluent; some to a single soon-to-be-separated parent, some to parents whose marriage is fraught with conflict, some to parents who will stay together in love and happiness. Any claims that equal opportunity exists are therefore completely unfounded. Decades of neglect of the poor, especially of poor African American and Hispanic House-holds, accentuated by the policies of the Reagen years, have brought us farther from the principles of equal opportunity. To come close to hem would require, for example, a high and uniform standard of public education and the provision of equal social services—including health care, employment training, job opportunities, drug rehabilitation, and decent housing—for all who need them. In the Book of Mormon, in 1 Nephi, Chapter 21, the Messiah will be a light to the gentiles and will free the prisoners—Israel will be gathered with power in the last days—Kings will be their nursing fathers—Compare Isaiah 49. About 588-570 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

Image“And again: Hearken, O ye house of Israel, all ye that are broke off and are driven out because of the wickedness of the pastors of my people; yea, all ye that are broke off, that are scattered abroad, who are of my people, O house of Israel. Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far; the Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name. And He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; and said unto me: Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain; surely my judgement is with the Lord, and my work with God. And now, saith the Lord—that formed me from the womb that I should be His servant, to bring Jacob again to him—through Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And He said: It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the Earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to Him who humans despiseth, to Him whom the nations abhorreth, to servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

Image“Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, O isles of the sea, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee my servant for a covenant of the people, to establish the Earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that sit in darkness: Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high paces. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the Sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. And then, O house of Israel, behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north and the west; and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O Heavens; and be joyful, O Earth; for the feet of those who are in the east shall be established; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for they shall be smitten no more; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. However, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not. For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

Image“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall make haste against thy destroyers; and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about and behold; all these gather themselves together, and they shall come to thee. And as I live saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on even as a bride. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants; and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children whom thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the first, shall again in thine ears say: The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart: Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? And who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where have they been? Thus saith the Lord God: behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall by thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the Earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for thy shall not be ashamed that wait for me. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

Image“For shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives delivered? However, thus saith the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be take away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with one that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob,” reports 1 Nephi 21.1-26. With the work of God in our sanctification, transforming work of progressive sanctification is the work of God’s Spirit. He is the One who changes us more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. This transformation is much more than merely a change of outward conduct. It is a renovation of our inner beings, or as someone has said, it is a transformation of the essential being. It means our motives as well as our motivations are being constantly changed, so that we can say with the psalmist, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long,” and “I rejoice in the following your statues as one rejoices in great riches,” reports Psalm 119.47 and 14. However, although the verb be transformed is in the passive voice, it is in the imperative mood; that is, it is a command to do something. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

ImageThis indicates that we as believers are not passive in this transforming process. We are not like blocks of marble being transformed into a beautiful sculpture by a master sculptor. God has given us a mind and hearth with which to respond to and cooperate with the Spirit as He does His work in us. That thought leads naturally to the Scripture passage that is considered to be the classic statement of the working together of the believer with the Holy Spirit who is at work within him. “Therefore, my dream friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and act according to His good purpose,” reports Philippians 2.12-13. O God, Who ever governest Thy creatures with tender affection; incline Thine ear to our supplications, and graciously regard Thy servants, who are suffering from bodily sickness; and visit them with Thy salvation, and bestow the medicine of Heavenly grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Lord, Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in thy presence, in Thy service, to Thy glory. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

ImageO God, Who hast vouchedsafe to humankind the remedies that bring salvation, and the gifts of eternal life; preserve to Thy servant the gifts of Thy power, and grant that not only in one’s body, but also in one’s soul, one may experience Thy healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Please give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, assists every hour, that I may not be one moment apart from Thee, but may rely on Thy Spirit to supply every thought, speak in every word, direct every step, prosper every work, build up every mote of faith, and give me a desire to show forth Thy praise; testify Thy love, advance Thy kingdom. I launch my bark on the unknow waters of this year, with Thee, O Father, as my habour, Thee, O Son, at my helm, Thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails. Guide me to Heaven with my loins grit, my lamp burning, my ear open to Thy calls, my heart full of love, my soul free. Give me Thy grace to sanctify me, Thy comforts to cheer, thy wisdom to teach, Thy right hand to guide, Thy counsel to instruct, Thy law to judge, Thy presence to stabilize. May Thy fear by my awe, Thy triumph my joy. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23Image

Cresleigh Homes 

Capture3With a #CresleighRanch home you have room to roam… even during a shelter in place order. 😉 At #BrightonStation Residence 4 enjoy a sliding glass door into your new backyard or toasting marshmallows in this Great Room fireplace. 🙌 Check out the interactive floor plan and virtual tour on our website. Link in bio! https://cresleigh.com/brighton-station/residence-4/

ImageAnd can I ever bid these joys farewell? Yes, I must pass them for a nobler life, where I may find the agonies, the strife of human hearts: for lo! I see afar, O’ersailing the blue cragginess, a car and steeds with streamy manes–the charioteer looks out upon the winds with glorious fear: and now the numerous tramplings quiver lightly along a huge cloud’s ridge; and now with springtly wheel downward come they into freshers skies, tipt round with silver from the Sun’s bright eyes. Still downward with with capacious whirl they glide; and now I see them on the green-hill’s side in breezy rest among the nodding stalks. The charioteer with wond’rous gesture talks to the trees and mountains; and there son appears shapes of delight, of mystery, and fear, passing along before a dusky space made by some mighty oaks: as they would chase some ever-fleeting music on they sweep.

Image “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. However, I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and he parched ground into the springs,” reports Isaiah 41.17.18 Life is not about accomplishment; it is all about doing, participating, progressing, growing, learning. “I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name,” reports Isaiah 45.3

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#CresleighHomes

When Reading the History of Political Thought, Just Simply Add Woman and Stir!

cropped-en5misfu0aivjuk.jpgEnthusiasm is the light that makes the Sun shine on achievement. Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. Life is not a destination; it is a journey. It is not a series of goals; it is a series of steps, of events unfolding as you make your way. The Theosophic teaching that the master takes on the karma of his pupil is often misunderstood. So many students think that the master hesitates to accept a pupil because of the heavy liability of accepting one’s karma. The measure of truth in this belief is that the master does have some moral responsibility for the self-injuring mistakes committed by the pupil as a direct consequence of special knowledge entrusted to one or for society-injuring misuse of special powers transferred to one or around into activity within one because of special instructions given by the teacher—in either case before one was sufficiently strong morally and pure in motive. However, the general karma of the pupil is not accepted nor can it be accepted by any master. That is the pupil’s making and one must work it out. If the student thinks the teacher ever laces obstacles or temptations in anyone’s way, one is mistaken. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

ImageThe teacher does not have to place obstacles in your life; it is done by life itself, or, more precisely, by the karma arising from the individual character and its special needs. The teacher may not them and act accordingly, but one does not create them. In the end, the student creates one’s own obstacles and one’s own temptations by one’s thinking, by one’s character, and by one’s karma. One is not only an in instructor but is too often called upon to play the role of mentor, to be a wise counselor at all times and a trusted friend in difficult times, to solve personal problems and guide personal decisions. This ideal person is yet to be found, alas! However, the wish for one is strong enough to clothe lesser being in imagined perfection. Those who regard one as an unreliable visionary are not less victims of prejudice than those who regard one as an omniscient prophet. Even the person who talks from God’s inspiration can convince only those other people who are ready. Not all are sensitive to one’s spell. They equate human’s powers with God’s powers, blandly refusing to see that one can create nothing but can only provide the conditions which makes some creations possible. They exaggerate what is true, that one possessed, potentially, certain Godlike attributes, into what is untrue, that one can do what God does. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

ImageIt is a self-deception to believe that the master can interfere in all sorts of miraculous ways in the disciple’s Worldly life or intervene in all sorts of arbitrary ways in one’s spiritual life. The master’s true function, the most important role one can play in the disciple’s career, is to assist the latter’s efforts to withdraw into one’s inner self, to guide, strengthen, and protect one’s endeavour to practise deep and meaningful prayer. There is a common belief in the Old World—picked up by and transferred to some in the New World—that without submission to a leader, master, guru whose guidance is to lead them and whose power is to life them int Heaven, they can never win access to this goal. When it refers to authentically enlightened people, it is an exaggerated belief, and a false one when it refers to all others. Blind acceptance of it has precipitated a case of neurosis in some cases, and much feeling of morbid frustration in most cases where seekers have failed to find a guru or, finding, have become disappointed or disillusioned afterwards. There is no celestial witch-doctor, no angelic magician coming to change their characters overnight. Those who do not understand that true development is self-development will look for, even demand, a guru’s “magic,” as they believe it to be. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

ImageWhen people demand supernatural abilities from a master, this will lead them to frequent one’s vicinity or even live in it permanently, in order to be more or less constantly under one’s mesmeric influence. Thus they come to depend increasingly on an outside source—another person—and remain ungrown. The disciples exert so much pressure and encouragement on the guru to do what one cannot do for them that they go on believing their own desires in the matter, that is, their ego, rather than one. They think one can give them total protection against risks, perils, and falls on the spiritual path. That is impossible. The guru is not omniscient and not almighty. One is still a limited human being. Why force one into accepting a false position? The idea of a master as being some sort of free perfect and infallible counsellor in all the domestic personal and professional perplexities of life is an appealing one. If it were true where there would be many more disciples. However, it is only a romantic piece of wishful thinking. Many academics in recent years have become aware of the objectionable nature of using the supposedly generic male forms of nouns and pronouns. As feminist scholars have demonstrated, these words have most often not been used, throughout history and the history of philosophy in particular, with the intent to include women. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

ImageThere is always some agency to deny the memories and significance of others, like the unreal news media, to rewrite the past. It has become a commonplace in 2020 for some people are paid more than most of the rest of us to debase history, trivialize truth, and annihilate the past on a daily basis. Those who do not learn from history used to have to relive it, but only until those in power could find a way to convince everybody, including themselves, that history never happened, or happened in a way best serving their own purposes—or best of all that it does not matter anyway, expect as some dumbed-down TV documentary cobbled together for an hour’s entertainment. People can make you say anything and they can make you believe anything because that is just what they do—they get inside, they steal space in your head and make you question your soul, of what we believe to be an inviolable inner core of the self, into harsh and terminal doubt. You have to live—do live, from habit that becomes instinct. This is a World where every sound one makes is overheard, there are video cameras on every corner, on cars, on houses, on people, in hotel rooms, and, except in darkness, and maybe even then, every movement is scrutinized. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

ImageSome people discriminate against women because they dislike them. They know the reason. It is because they are considered to be delicate, beautiful, loving and clean-minded, and they mange to carry themselves in that manner. There are individuals who dislike all women, and especially the successful, young, and pretty ones. Women strike some people as dangerous and just a glance at a woman gives them a moment filled with morbid terror. The idea may even cross their mind that there is something divine about these woman, and that makes them feel a peculiar uneasiness, which has fear mixed up in it as well as hostility whenever a woman is anywhere near them. These individuals hate women because they are young and pretty and not overtly interested in pleasures of the flesh, because they want to go to bed with these women, and the women are out of their league. Therefore women, are a threat to some because they are an aggressive symbol of chastity. This makes some people want to remove women from the registers, gives them the desire to wipe out every record of everything a woman has done. They want to deny the existence of women, so they are forgotten. Totally abolish them, annihilate them, vaporize them from the face of the plant. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

ImageHowever, man is a selfish create and knows that he must procreate in order to survive and rubbing musty elbows with other men in the elevator does not endure survival. So, some live in shame and fear and pretend to be heterosexual, but have clandestine love affairs with other men and pray on boys in hopes no one finds out about their true desires. But men can never replace woman. That is why God blessed the with the miracle of child birth, to ensure the prosperity of the human race. Man, mankind, and he are going out of style as universal representations, though they have by no means disappeared. However, the gender-neutral alternative that most contemporary theorist employ are often even more misleading than the blatantly sexist use of male terms of reference. For they serve to disguise the real and continuing failure of theorists to confront the fact that there are some socially relevant physical differences between women and men, and the even more important fact that the genders have had very difference histories, very different assigned social roles and “nature,” and very different degrees of access to power and opportunity in all human societies up to and including the present. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

ImageFalse gender neutrality is not a new phenomenon. Aristotle, for example, used Anthropos—“human being”—in discussions of “the human good” that turn out not only to exclude women but to depend on their subordination. Kant even wrote of “all rational beings as such” in making arguments that he did not mean to apply to women. However, it was more readily apparent that such arguments or conceptions of the good were not about all of us, but only about the male heads of families. For their authors usually gave at some point an explanation, no matter how inadequate, of why what they were saying did not apply to women and of the different characteristics and virtues, rights, and responsibilities they thought women ought to have. Nevertheless, their theories have often been read as though they pertain (or can easily be applied) to all of us. Feminist interpretations of the last fifteen years or so have revealed the falsity of the “add women and stir” method of reading the history of political thought. The falseness of the Gender-neutral language of contemporary political theorists is less readily apparent. Most, though not all, contemporary moral and political philosophers use “men and women,” “he or she,” “persons,” or the increasingly ubiquitous “self.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

ImageSometimes they even get their computers to distribute masculine and feminine terms of reference randomly. Since they do not explicitly exclude or differentiate women, as most theorists in the past did, we may be tempted to read their theories as inclusive of all of us. However, we cannot. Their merely terminological responses to feminist challenges, in spite of giving a superficial impression of tolerance and inclusiveness, often strained credulity and sometimes results in nonsense. They do this in two ways: by ignoring the irreducible biological differences between the genders, and/or by ignoring their different assigned social roles and consequent power differentials, and the ideologies that have supported them. Thus gender-neutral terms frequently obscure the fact that so much of the real experience of “persons,” so long as they live in gender-structured societies, does in fact depend on what gender they are. False gender neutrality is by no means confined to the realm of theory. Its harmful effects can be seen in public policies that have directly affected large numbers of women adversely. It was used, for example, in the Supreme Court’s 1976 decision that the exclusion of pregnancy-related disabilities from employers’ disability insurance plans was “not a gender-based discrimination at all.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

ImageIn a now infamous phrase of its majority opinion, the Court explained that such plans did not discriminate against women because the distinction drawn by such plans was between pregnant women and “non-pregnant persons.” Examples of false gender neutrality in contemporary political theory will more frequently in our discussions. Ackermans’ Social Justice in the Liberal State is a book containing scrupulously gender-neutral language. He breaks with this neutrality only, it seems, to defy existing gender roles; he refers to the “Commander,” who plays the lead role in the theory, as “she.” However, the argument of the book does not address the existing inequality or role differentiation between the genders, though it has the potential for doing so. The full impact of Ackerman’s gender-neutral language without attention to gender is revealed in his section on abortion: a two-page discussion written, wit the exception of a single “she,” in the completely gender-neutral language of fetuses and their “parents.” The impression given is that there is no relevant respect in which the relationship of the two parents to the fetuses would be so slight as to reasonably play only a minor role in the discussion of abortion. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

ImageHowever, this would have to be a society without gender—one in which sexual differences carried no social significance, the genders were equal in power and interdependence, and “mothering” and “fathering” a child meant the same thing, so that parenting and earning responsibilities were equally shared. We certainly do not live in such a society. Neither is there any discussion of one in Ackerman’s theory, in which the division of labour between the genders is not considered a matter of social (in) justice. In such a context, a “gender-neutral” discussion of abortion is almost as misleading as the Supreme Court’s “gender-neutral” discussion of pregnancy. A second illustration of false gender neutrality comes from Derek Phillip’s Toward a Just Social Order. Largely because of the extent of his concern—rare among theorists of justice—with how we are to achieve and maintain a just social order, Phillips pays an usual amount of attention to the family. He writes about the family as the locus for the development of a sense of justice and self-esteem, of an appreciation of the meanings of reciprocity, of the ability to exercise unforced choice, and of an awareness of alternative ways of life. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

ImageThe problem with this otherwise admirable discussion is that, apart from a couple of brief exceptions, the family itself is presented in gender-neutral terms that bear little resemblance to actual, gender-structured life. It is because of “parental affection,” “parental nurturance,” and “child rearing” that children in Phillips’s families become the autonomous moral agents that his just society requires its citizens to be. The child’s development of a sense of identity is very much dependent upon being raised by “parental figures who themselves have coherent and well-integrated personal identities,” and we are told that such a coherent identity is “ideally one built around commitments to work and love.” This all sounds very plausible. However, it does not take into account the multiple inequalities of gender. In gender-structure societies—in which the child rearers are women, “parental nurturance” is largely mothering, and those who do what society regards as “meaningful work” are assumed not to be primary parents—women in even the best of circumstances face considerable conflicts between love (a fulfilling family life) and “meaningful work.” Women in less fortunate circumstances face even greater conflicts between love (even basic care of their children) and any kind of paid work at all. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

ImageIt follows from Phillips’s own premises that these conflicts are very likely to affect the strength and coherence in women of that sense of identity and self-esteem, coming from love and meaningful work, that he regards as essential for being an autonomous moral agent. In turn, if they are mothers, it is also likely to affect their daughters’ and sons’ developing sense of their identity. Gender is clearly a major obstacle to attainment of a social order remotely comparable to the just one Philips aspires to—but his false gender-neutral language allows him to ignore this fact. Although he is clearly aware of how distant in some other respects this vision of a just social order is from contemporary societies, his use of falsely gender-neutral language leaves him quite unaware of the distance between the type of family that might be able to socialize just citizens and typical families. The combined effect of the omission of the family and the falsely gender-neutral language in recent political thought is that most theorists are continuing to ignore the highly political issues of gender. The language they use makes little difference to what they actually do, which is to write about men and about only those women who manage, in spite of the gendered structures and practices of the society in which they live, to adopt patterns f life that have been developed to suit the needs of men. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

ImageThe fact that human beings are born as helpless infants—not as the purportedly autonomous actor who populate political theories—is obscured by the implicit assumption of gendered families, operating outside the range of theories. To a large extent, contemporary theories of justice, like those of the past, are about men with wives at home. For three major reasons, this state of affairs is unacceptable. The first is the obvious point that women must be fully included in any satisfactory theory of justice. The second is that equality of opportunity, not only for women but for children of both genders, is seriously undermined by the current gender injustices of our society. And the third reason is that, as has already been suggested, the family—currently the linchpin of the gender structure—must be just if we are to have a just society, since it is within the family that we first come to have that sense of ourselves and our relations with others that is at the root of moral development. In one of His prayer parables, the Lord dramatized what He wants from all believers. Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. #RandolpHarris 14 of 19

ImageHe said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about people. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ For sometime he refused. However, finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she will not eventually wear me out with her coming!’” (Luke 18-1-5) The cultivation of persistence was a recurring motif in Jesus’ teaching on prayer. In Gethsemane Jesus challenged His disciples when they failed to persevere by saying, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak,” reports Mark 14.38. In the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi, chapter 20 The Lord reveals His purposes to Israel—Israel has been chosen in the furnace of affliction and is to go forth from Babylon—Compare Isaiah 48. About 588-570 Before Christ. “Hearken and hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, or out of the waters of baptism, who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, yet they swear not in truth nor in righteousness. Nevertheless, they call themselves of the holy city, but they do not stay themselves upon the God of Israel, who is the Lord of Hosts; yea, the Lord of Hosts is his name. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

ECBvjJrU4AA2qN7“Behold, I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them. I did show them suddenly. And I did it because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is iron sinew, and thy brow brass; and I have even from the beginning declared to thee; before it came to pass I showed them thee; and I showed them for fear lest thou shouldst say—Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image hath commanded them. Thou hast seen and heard all this; and will ye not declare them? And that I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning, even before the day when thou heardest them not they were declared unto thee, lest thou shouldst say—Behold I knew them. Yes, and thou heardest not; yes, thou knewest not; yet, from that time thine ear was not opened; for I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb. Nevertheless, for my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain from thee, that I cut thee not off. For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, yes, for mine own sake will I do this, for I will not suffer my name to be polluted, and I will not give my glory unto another. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

Image“Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel my called, for I am he; I am the first, and I am also the last. Mine hand hath also laid the foundation of the Earth, and my right hand hath spanned the Heavens. I call unto them and they stand up together. All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; who among them hath declared these things unto them? The Lord hath loved him; yes, and he will fulfil His word which he hath declared by them; and He will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall come upon the Chaldeans. Also, saith the Lord; I the Lord, yea, I have spoken; yea, I have called him to declare, I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. Come ye near unto me; I have not spoken in secret; from the beginning, from the time that it was declared have I spoken; and the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me. And thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I have sent him, the Lord thy God who teacheth thee to profit, who leadeth thee by the way thou shouldst go, hath done it. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments—then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Thy seed also had been as the sand; the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed before me. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

Image“Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter to the end of the Earth; say ye: The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. And they thirsted not; he led them through the deserts; he caused the water to flow out of the rock for them; he clave the rock also and the waters gushed out. And notwithstanding he hath done all this, and greater also, there is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked,” 1 Nephi 20.1-22. Almighty and everlasting God, the Maker of all creation, mercifully hear our prayers, and grant many and happy years to Thy servants in Detroit, Michigan, and the state of Mississippi, and the people of Chattanooga, Tennessee for not only has COVID-19 hit them hard and is about to leave them without homes, but the people in Chattanooga lost their homes to a natural disaster and their entire town was destroyed. Dear, God, we thank you for all the blessings we have been afforded, and you didst cause us to come forth from our mother’s wombs into this life, that we may spend all our lives so as to please Thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Love beyond compare, Thou art good when Thou givest, when Thou takest away, when the Sun shines upon me, when night gathers over me. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

ImageThou hast loved me before the foundation of the World, and in love didst redeem by soul; Thou dost love me still, in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust. Thy goodness has been with me during another year, leading me though a twisting wilderness, in retreat helping me to advance, when beaten back making sure headway. Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead; I hoist sail and draw up anchor, with Thee as blessed pilot of my future as of my past. I bless Thee that Thou hast veiled my eyes to the waters ahead. If thou hast appointed storms of tribulation, Thou wilt be with me in them; if I have to pass through tempests of persecution and temptation, I shall not drown; if I am to die, I shall see Thy face the sooner; if a painful end is to be my lot, grant me grace that my faith fail not; if I am to be cast aside from the service I love, I can make no stipulation; only glorify Thyself in me whether in comfort or trial, as a chosen vessel meet always for Thy use. O God, the Life of the faithful, the Saviour and Guardian of those that fear Thee, Who, after the expiration of a year, hast been pleased to bring Thy servants to our natural birthday; increasing in us the grace of the Protector of life, and multiply their days with many years; that having, by Thy favour, been carried through a happy life, they may be enabled to attain the height of Heavenly joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19Image

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ImageLocated off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/move-in-ready-home-site-61/Image

Faith and the World: Oh, Earth, You are too Wonderful for Anybody to Realize You!

ImageAn aim in life is the only fortune worth finding. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. Drugs make people susceptible to ideas, and that is why propaganda is so effective. Gaslighting is a manipulation tactic used to gain power, and it works too well. In order to gain more power, gaslighting makes a victim question their reality by putting them through situation that are prohibited by law and thought to not be practiced in modern society. Gaslighters tell blatant lies, and they deny they said something even though one may have blatant proof that they did. These aggressors often use what is near and dear to one as ammunition to upset you. They may assault you, steal vandalize your property, break and enter into your home, cyberstalk you and spy on you. The goal is to try and wear a person down over time, usually by a variation of a violation of your rights and physical and mental attacks. Gaslighters often use law enforcement as tools to act as intimidators. Often times people who use these tactics display actions that do not match their words, and sometimes what they say means nothing when the real issue is their actions. Another tactic is they try to make a person schizophrenic by praising them and then cutting them down so an individual is always questing their own thought process and self-value. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

ImagePeople who try to use mind control also project their own problems and insecurities onto a victim, as gaslighters are masters at manipulation. They will often tell people you are crazy because dismissing your credibility is one of the main ways to make sure no one believes what one is saying. Legal subordination between members of the same gender or opposite gender is wrong in itself, and now is one of the chief hindrances to human improvements; and it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other. So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, it gains rather than loses in stability by having a prepondering weight of argument against it. For if it were accepted as a result of argument, the refutation of the argument might shake the solidity of the conviction; but when it rests solely on feeling, the worse it fares in argumentative contest, the more persuaded its adherents are that their feeling must have some deeper grounds, which the arguments to not reach; and while the feeling remains, it is always throwing up fresh intrenchments of argument to repair any breach made in the old. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

ImageAnd there are so many causes tending to make the feelings connected with this subject the most intense and most deeply rooted of all those which gather round and protect old institutions and customs, that we need not wonder to find them as yet less undermined and loosened than any of the rest by the rest by the progress of the great modern spiritual and social transition; nor suppose that the barbarism to which people cling longest must be less barbarism than those which they shake off. The study of objected image that preconscious perception grew out of the observation that subjects dreamed about parts of a projected image that were not immediately recalled. In fact, people seem to record subconsciously a lot more than they consciously relate. Further, what they record subconsciously does not lie passive but works actively on the mind. Subliminal projection uses this phenomenon by planting sensations in minds that are not aware of the process. Although no conclusive evidence exists to confirm the effectiveness of subliminal projection in practical situations such as buying popcorn, the possibility itself is suggestive. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

ImageEducation is a foundation of facts and values, and the aim of education is to make people free. The biological principle upon which humanistic education rests is that humans are all different. Unfortunately for humankind, the opinion in favour of the present system, which entirely subordinates women as a weaker gender to men, who are viewed as the stronger gender, rests upon theory only; for there never has been trial made of any other; so that experience, in the sense in which it is vulgarly opposed to theory, cannot be pretended to have pronounced any verdict. And in the second place, the adoption of this system of inequality never was the result of deliberation, or forethought, or any social ideas, or any notion whatever of what conduced to the benefit of humanity or the good order of society. It arose simply from the fact that from the very earliest twilight of human society, every women (owing to the value attached to her by men, combined with her inferiority in muscular strength) was found in a state of bondage to some man. Laws and systems of polity always begin by recognising the relations they find already existing between individuals. They convert what was a mere physical fact into a legal right, give it the sanction of society, and principally aim at the substitution of public and organized means of asserting and protecting the sights, instead of the irregular and lawless conflict of physical strength. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

ImageTo avoid the tyranny that seems inevitable, education is the great equalizers for the masses and will greatly contribute to the freedom of humanity. This program should include environmental studies, the facts of individual diversity and genetic uniqueness and the values of freedom, tolerance and mutual charity. The forces of evil propaganda must be combatted by a critical study of language, which should include a full study of the devices that are used against freedom. Those who have already been compelled to obedience by the masses have become in this manner legally bound to it. Slavery, from being a mere affair of force between the master and the slave, become regularized and a matter of compact among the masters, who, bind themselves to one another for common protection guaranteed by their collective strength the private possessions of each, including the people they enslave mentally and/or physically. In early times, the great majority of the male gender were slaves, as well as the whole of the female. And many ages elapsed, some of the ages of high cultivation, before any thinker was bold enough to question the rightfulness and absolute social necessity, either of the one slavery or of the others. We must find a willing to help society and yet make them aware of the wiles of mind-manipulators. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

ImageAbove all, values need to be taught—individual freedom, charity and compassion, and intelligence. With these values, humans should be able to pierce through the veil of propaganda, and they would be able to remain free. Those who wish to control humankind want to believe that all people are easily categorized and easily manipulated, that all are essentially the same, and that individuals are not very important in the historical process. We do not want to see demagogues and charlatans abusing humankind, the environment, nor animals or other living being—animate or inanimate. We must refrain from creating a nation of Mary’s sheep. It is important that value is placed on genetic differences and on environmental differences, and people are taught respect for human differences. At the same time, respect for the integrity of the social order, which allows freedom to be exercised has to be preserved, without making it a dictatorship masquerading as a free society. Less than two hundred and fifty-four years ago, people might still by law hold human beings in bondage as saleable property; within the present century they might kidnap them and carry them off, and work them literally to death. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

ImageThis absolutely extreme case of the law of force, condemned by those who can tolerate almost every other form of arbitrary power, and which, of all others, presents features the most revolting to the feelings of all who look at it from an impartial position, is the law of civilized and the Christian World within the memory of persons now living: and not only in the past did slavery exist, but the slave trade, and the breeding of slaves expressly for it, was a general practice between slave states. Yet not only was there a greater strength of sentiment against it, but it was also considered the customer abuse of force: for its motive was the love of gain, unmixed and undisguised; and those who profited by it were a very small numerical fraction of the country, while the natural feeling of all who were not personally interested in it, was unmitigated abhorrence. The possessor of the undue power, the person directly interested in it, only one person, while those who are subject to it and suffer form it is literally all the ret. The yoke is naturally and necessarily humiliating to all persons, expect the one who is on the throne, together with, at most, the one who expects to succeed to it. How different are these cases from that of the power of men over women! I am not now prejudging the question of its justifiableness. I am showing how vastly more permanent it could not but be, even if not justifiable, than those other dominations which have nevertheless lasted down to our own time. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

ImageWhatever gratification of pride there is in the possession of power, and whatever person interest in its exercise, is in this case not confined to a limited class, but common to the whole male gender. Instead of being, to most of its supporters, a thing desirable chiefly in the abstract, or, like the political ends usually contended for by factions, of little private importance to any but the leaders, it comes home to the person and hearth of every male head of family, and of every one who looks forward to being so. The clodhoppers exercise, or is to exercise, one’s share of the power equally with the highest noble person. And the case is that in which the desire of power is the strongest: for everyone who desires power, desires it most over those who are nearest to one with whom one’s life is passed, with whom one has most concerns in common, and it who any independence of one’s authority is oftenest likely to interfere with one’s individual preferences. If, in the other cases specified, power manifestly grounded only on force, and having so much less to support them, are so slowly and with so much difficulty got rid of, much more must it be so with this, even if it rests on no better foundation than those. We must consider, too, that the possessors of the power have facilities in this case, greater than in any other, to prevent any uprising against it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

ImageIn struggles for political emancipation, everybody knows how often its champions are bought off by bribes, or daunted by terrors. In the case of women, each individual of the subject-class is in a chronic state of bribery and intimidation combined. In setting up the standard of resistance, a large number of the leaders, and still more of the followers, must make an almost complete sacrifice of the pleasures of the alleviations of their own individual lt. If ever any system of privilege and enforced subjection had it yoke tightly riveted on the necks of those who are kept down by it, this has. All causes, social and natural, combine to make it unlikely that women should be collectively rebellious to the power of men. They are so far in a position different from all other subject classes, that their masters require something more from them than actual service. People do not want solely the obedience of women, they want their sentiments. All me, expect the brutish, desire to have in the woman most nearly connected with them, not a forced slave but a willing one, not a slave merely, but a favourite. They have therefore put everything in practice to enslave their minds. The masters of all other slaves rely, for maintaining obedience, on fear; either fear of themselves, or religious fears. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

ImageThe masters of women wanted more than simple obedience, and they turned the whole force of education to effect their purpose. All women are bought up from the very earliest years in the belief that their ideal of character is the very opposite to the of men; not self-will, and government by self-control, but submission, and yielding to the control of others. All the moralities tell them that it is the duty of women, and all the current sentimentalities that it is their nature, to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections. And by their affections are meant the only ones they are allowed to have—those to the men with whom they are connected, or to the children who constitute an additional and indefeasible bond between them and a man. When we put together three things—first, the natural attraction between opposite genders; secondly, the wife’s entire dependence on the husband, every privilege or pleasure she has being either his gift, or depending entirely on his will; and lastly, that the principal object of human pursuit, consideration, and all objects of social ambition, can in general be sough or obtained by her only through him, it would be a miracle if the object of being attractive to men had not become the polar star of feminine education and formation of character. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

ImageAnd, this great avail themselves of it to the utmost as a means of holding women in subjection, by representing to them meekness, submissiveness, and resignation of all individual will into the hands of a man, as an essential part of attractiveness in pleasures of the flesh. Can it be doubted that any other yokes which humankind have succeeded in breaking, would have subsisted till now if the same means had existed, and had been as sedulously used to bow down their minds to it? If it had been made the object of the life of every young plebeian to find with one, and a share of one’s personal affection, had been held out as the prize which they all should look out for, the most gifted and aspiring being able to reckon on the most desirable prizes; and if, when this prize had been obtained, they had been shut out by a wall of brass from all interests not centering in him, all feelings and desires but those which he shared or inculcated; would not serfs and seigneurs, plebeians and patricians, have been as broadly distinguished at the day as men and women are? And would not all but a thinker here and there, have believed the distinction to be a fundamental and unalterable fact in human nature? #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

ImageTo deal with overpopulation, the birth rate must be reduced so that it does not exceed the death rate, and natural resources managed to increase food and fuel. In the absence of a Pill for birth control, some way must be found to reduce the birth rate—and problems of all sorts are involved here. And how soon can the industrial and social potential of underdeveloped nations be enhanced? Both food and raw materials will be in short supply by the end of the century. Does humankind really want to solve the problems they have? The urge towards freedom diminishes as long as people are well fed, but if conditions change, they will rise up in their chains. If youth does not value freedom, the future will surely be slavery. And not only do the young fail to see the value of freedom, they also wish for some form of benign totalitarian control. Overpopulation and overorganization may be inevitable even if people rise to the banner of freedom now, but the freedom fighters are few and time is short. The dodo, now extinct, is what humankind will become if we do not think about freedom now. We will no longer be able to fly, through we may wish to fly to escape our captor later. Humans will sacrifice their wings of freedom to become flightless like the dodo, and regret the act latter, when the game is up. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

ImageSometimes when people finally achieve the social status they desire, they will no longer mock or hold disdain for people they could not stand when they were not able to achieve the social status they wanted. Nonetheless, personal liberty is absolutely essential to human dignity and happiness. When people kill, they kill the Bible: those who senselessly kill, kill God’s image; but one who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye. Realizing that suffer and frustration are necessary for creation, some accept voluntary exile in preference to stability and conformity. The World structure has changed, human nature has not improved: people are still petty, hypocritical, malicious, dishonest, emotionally sterile and quite capable of revenging themselves on others for their own lapses of accepted “good taste.” For, what is the peculiar character of the modern World—the difference which chiefly distinguishes modern institutions, modern social ideas, modern life itself, from those of times long past? It is, that human beings are no longer born to their place in life, and chained down by an inexorable bond to the place they are born to, but are free to employ their faculties, and such favourable chances as offer, to achieve the lost which may appear to them most desirable. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

ImageHuman society of one was constituted on a very different principle. All were born to a fixed social position, were mostly kept in it by law, or interdicted from any means by which they could emerge from it. Nobody things it necessary, still, to this day, to throw each operation into the hands of those who are best qualified for it. Nobody thinks in necessary to make a law that only a strong-armed person shall be a blacksmith. Freedom and competition suffice to make blacksmiths strong0armed people, because the weak-armed can earn more by engaging in occupations for which they are more fit. In consonance with this doctrine, it is felt to be an overstepping of the proper bounds of authority fit beforehand, on some general presumption, that certain persons are not fit to do certain things. It is now thoroughly known and admitted that is some such presumptions exist, no such presumption is infallible. Even if it be well grounded in a majority of cases, which it is very likely not to be, there will be a minority of exceptional cases in which it does not hold; and in those it is both an injustice to the individuals, and a detriment to society, to place barriers in the way of their using their faculties for their own benefit and for that of others. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

ImageIn the cases, on the other hand, in which the unfitness is real, the ordinary motives of human conduct will on the whole suffice to prevent the incompetent person from making, or from persisting in, the attempt. Nephi is commanded to build a ship—his brethren oppose him—e exhorts them by recounting this history of God’s dealings with Israel—Nephi is filled with the power of God—his brethren are forbidden to touch him lest they wither as a dried reed. About 591-591 Before Christ. “And it came to pass that we did again take our journey in the wilderness; and we did travel nearly eastward from that time forth. And we did travel and wade through much affliction in the wilderness and our women did bear children in the wilderness. And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like uno the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings. And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of humans keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the things which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

Image“And we did sojourn for the space of many years, yes, even eight years in the wilderness. And we did come to the land which we called Bountiful, because of its much fruit and also wild honey; and all these things were prepared of the Lord hat we might not perish. And we beheld the sea, which we called Irreantum, which being interpreted, is many waters. And it cam to pass that we did pitch our tents by the seashore; and notwithstanding we had suffered many afflictions and much difficulty, yea, even so much that we cannot write them all, we were exceedingly rejoiced when we came to the seashore; and we called the place Bountiful, because of is much fruit. And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been in the land of Bountiful for the space of many days, the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And it came to pass that I arose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord. And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters. And I said: Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me? And it came to pass that the Lord told me whither I should go to find ore, that I might make tools. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

Image“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did make a bellows wherewith to blow the fire, of the skins of beast; and after I had made a bellows, that I might have wherewith to blow the fire, I did smite two stones together that I might make fire. For the Lord had not hitherto suffered that we should make much fire, as we journeyed in the wilderness; for he said: I will make thy food become sweet, that ye cook it not; and I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. Yea, and the Lord said also that: After ye have arrived in the promised land, ye shall know that I, the Lord, did deliver you from destruction: yea, that I did bring you out of the land of Jerusalem. Wherefore, I, Nephi, did strive to keep the commandments of the Lord, and I did exhort my brethren to faithfulness and diligence. And it came to pass that I did make tools of the ore which I did molten out of the rock. And when my brethren aw that I was about to build a ship, they began to murmur against me, saying: Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Image“And thus my brethren did complain against me, and were desirous that they might not labour, for the did not believe that I could build a ship; neither would they believe that I was instructed of the Lord. And now it came to pass that I, Nephi, was exceedingly sorrowful because of the hardness of their hearts; and now when they saw that I began to be sorrowful they were glad in their hearts, insomuch that they did rejoice over me saying: We knew that ye could not construct a ship, for we knew that ye were lacking in judgment; wherefore, thou canst not accomplish so great work. And thou art like unto our father, ed away by the foolish imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions. Behold, these may years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Image“And we know that the people who ere in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they have kept that statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people; and our father hath judged them, and hath led us away because we would hearken unto his words; yea, and our brother is like unto him. And after this manner of language did my brethren murmur and complain against us. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, spake unto them, saying: Do ye believe that our fathers, who the children of Israel, would have been led away out of the hands of the Egyptians if they had not hearkened unto the words of the Lord? Yea, do you suppose that they would have been led out of bondage, if the Lord hand not commanded Moses the he should lead them out of bondage? Now ye know that the children of Israel were in bondage; and ye know that they were laden with tasks, which were grievous to be borne; wherefore, ye know that it must need be a good thing for them, that they should be brought out of bondage. Now ye know that Moses was commanded of the Lord to do that great work; and ye know that by his word the waters of the Red Sea were divided hither and thither, and hey passed through on dry grounds. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

Image“But ye know that the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, who were the armies of Pharaoh. And ye also know that they were fed with manna in the wilderness. Yea, and ye also know that Moses, by his word according to the power of God which was in him smote the rock, and there came forth water, that the children of Israel might quench their thirst. And notwithstanding they being led, the Lord their God, their Redeemer, going before them, leading them by day and giving them light unto them by night, and doing all things for them which were expedient for humans to receive, they hardened their hears and blinded their minds, and reviled against Moses and against the true and living God,” reports 1 Nephi 17.1-30. I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving be made for everyone. Varied prayer grows out of what we have learned about continual prayer, because it we pray continually, the various situation we encounter will demand a variety of prayers. Think of the variety of appropriate to life’s situations—prayer to resist temptation, prayer for wisdom, for power, for self-restraint, for protection of others, for growth, for conviction. On all occasion with all kinds of prayer request will we learn to survive. I always pray before I drive. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

ImageWe must have a vibrant inner spiritual reality which emanates with all kinds of prayer requests. Grant Thy servants whom Thou hast united to us by the intimacy of holy affection, or by the bonds of blood, or hast associated with us in the unity of faith, to be subject to Thee with their whole heart; that being filled with the Spirit of Thy love, they may be cleansed from Earthly desires, and be made worthy, by Thy grace, of Heavenly blessedness. O Lord, the World is artful to entrap, approaches in fascinating guise, extends many a gilded bait, presents many a charming face. Let my faith scan every painted babuble, and escape every bewitching snare in a victory that overcomes all things. In my duties give me firmness, energy, zeal, devotion to Thy cause, courage in Thy name, love as a working grace, and all commensurate with my trust. Let faith stride forth in giant power, and love respond with energy in every act. I often mourn the absence of my beloved Lord whose smile makes Earth a paradise, whose voice is sweetest music, whose presence gives all graces strength. However, by unbelief I often keep Him outside my door. Let faith give entrance that he may abide with me forever. Thy word is full of promises, flowers of sweet fragrance, fruit of refreshing flavour when culled by faith. May I be made rich in its riches, be strong in its power, be happy in its joy, abide in its sweetness, feast on its preciousness, draw vigour from its manna. Lord, please increase my faith. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21Image

 

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ImageO God, Who bestowest Thy mercy at all times on them that love Thee, and in no place art distant from those that serve Thee; direct the way of Thy Children in Thy will, that having Thee for their Protector and Guide, they may walk without stumbling in the paths of righteousness; through Jesus Christ our Lord!

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The Ballot is Stronger than the Bullet—In Giving Freedom to the Slave, We Assure Freedom to the Free!

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To know others is wisdom, to know oneself—enlightenment. In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the third remembering, the fourth practicing, the fifth—teaching others. When one has accepted whatever comes, the only important thing is to meet it with courage and with the best one has to give. The master and slave is a thought experiment of two self-consciousness. In this thought experiment, the two-self-conscious beings are in a battle for mutual recognition, which in turn, undermines the notion of autonomy and reflect an interaction between the self and the social. This further confirms that understanding that we cannot understand individuals as outside of everyday life and social relations. Therefore, both master and slave re interconnected where the master cannot be defined outside of the slave and the slave cannot be defined outside of the master. The two are in mutual interdependence and relation. The claim is that we are mutually dependent on others. This is seen clearly in one of the most prominent social institutions that influence our understandings of justice, the family. Beginning as early as Frederick Engel’s (1884) “The Monogamous Family,” the supremacy of the family as a socializing institution remains one of the most influential social relationships today. Previous scholars considered the family to be an exemplar of kindness and consideration for others, but rarely examined it. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

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The family was frequently viewed as a reflection of humans. Family life and practices, however, are often structured around notions of gender inequality, particularly in patriarchal societies where the mother/wife and children are constructed as subordinate and are valued less. Innate sex has been constructed as one of the clearest legitimizes of rights and restrictions. The principle which regulates social relations between men and women is the legal subordination of women through marriage, and the division of labour within family and the large social structures is not often challenged. Feminist theorists have long claimed that family structures based on unequal gender divisions of labour have significant impact on all women, whether they live and reside in traditional family structures or not. However, there may be a false gender neutrality and blatant neglect of critical theories of justice that interrogate the traditional gender roles of the family; instead, some advocate that there cannot be a just society without just family structures. It is theorized by some scholars that we are not born isolated, equal individuals, but that instead we are born into a family situation where some are poor, some wealthy, some to parents who have a contentious marriage, and some to parents who have strong, loving bond and any claims that equal opportunity exists are therefore completely unfounded. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

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In addition to family, other social institutions and relations complicate and influence how we understand each other, particularly how we understand difference. Race relations play a significant role when it comes to understanding social relations and intersections because they are one of the guiding forces in how we understand out place compared to others. Race continues to be one of the most influential social categories. Some think about race in terms of multiplicity, intersectionality, and hybridity. For others, however, race is a social construction, racism is real and have very real consequences and researchers and scholars are urged to look at the process of racialization and the many way racial meanings are constructed and imparted to social groups and processes. Unfortunately, most social science research on race tends to neglect the intersecting and overlapping forms of stratification and difference. In addition to the family and other socially constructed institutions, media too, particularly in our current time, play an influential role in the way people understand themselves in relation to the social World. The (biological or cultural) essence of essentialism refers to a lay belief in the existence of underlying natures that constitute and differentiate social categories. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

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Racial essentialism entails the tendency to understand social categories as expression of discrete, fixed, natural, uniform, and defining characteristics that are shared by all members, and are informative about them. Endorsement of essentialist beliefs has commonly been associated with negative outcomes, such as legitimization of existing social hierarchies, acceptance of racial inequality, and strict and rigid prejudice policies against marginalized groups by the dominant group. Investigations of racial essentialism typically understanding the defining characteristics of an identity category (id est, race) in terms of a biological essence. However, people may also understand racial categories in terms of cultural characteristics, rather than purely biological or genetic characteristics. Essence is an elusive concept; it is difficult to define precisely what comprises the imagined essence of an identity category. Racial essentialism is a genetic or biological essence that defines all member of a racial category. However, the imagined essence of a racial group need not be biological; people also define racial groups in terms of particular cultural characteristics, or conflate race and culture. Cultural essentialism is the idea that people are more or less passive carriers of their culture, whereby their attitudes, beliefs and achievements are supposed to reflect typical cultural patterns. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

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Applied to racial identity, cultural essentialism is the belief that racial categories are associated with distinct, fixed, and stable cultural patterns (emempli gratia, values, beliefs, practices, and lifestyles); these cultural patterns definitively and permanently shape the psychological characteristics of individuals within a racial group, and differentiate them from members of other racial groups. However, people can also use the cultural forms of essentialism to advance collective interest. Specifically, both ethnic minority and ethic Dutch participants in the Netherlands expressed cultural essentialist ideas at times, but they did so for different ends. For instance, ethnic minority participants expressed cultural essentialist ideas to argue against assimilationist polices, claiming that they could not possibly “become just like the Dutch” in order to fully integrate into Dutch society. Ethnic Dutch participants expressed cultural essentialist ideas—specifically, the belief that a person absorbs the ethnic culture within which one is raised, with the implication that Dutch and other ethnic groups are fundamentally different types of person—to argue for restrictions on entry of immigrants into the country. However, ethnic Dutch participants also discussed ethic identity in non-essentialist terms, particularly to argue that minority groups can—and should—assimilate to Dutch culture. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

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One of the most salient issues woven into discussions of justice and social relations is the conception of power. Power is embedded in social relations and is relative, rather than absolute, to a given situation, relationship, or interactions. People from dominant groups tent to interpret and deploy essentialism in ways that reproduce the unjust status quo. What happens if we decolonize scientific gaze and consider the issues of essentialism from the standpoint of marginalized or racially subordinate identity positions? Research suggest that people from subordinated categories may often resist essentialist understandings; for example, when they aim to overcome discrimination by challenging constructions of an identity category as a homogeneous entity. This resistance may be particularly true of biological essentialism of race. Historically, people have developed and deployed arguments about genetic differences between racial groups to argue that certain groups of people are naturally inferior in ability, fitness, or intelligence compared to dominant groups, thereby legitimizing forms of racial oppression such as colonialism, slavery, and segregation. Among people from dominant categories, endorsement of cultural essentialism may imply a belief that racial inequality reflects the essential superiority of their own cultural practices and essential inferiority of other practices. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

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Society has its rituals and taboos. Some people are who they are because they are outcast, not because they are perfect members of the dominant group. Alienation seems to be the origin of identity. Pain and self-analysis are necessary evils. Any individual can be remade, but society must be protected from a person whose behaviour would destroy it. Building on hegemony, leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over other, we attempt to provide an understanding of hegemony as a powerful, albeit fragile, conceptual tool. Hegemony, as defined is the power or dominance that one social group holds over another. Family, peer and social groups, political and social institutions, and the mass media all play particularly important roles in the maintenance and development of hegemony as dominant ideologies are reproduced and reinforced within these basic social units. Hegemony is both the power and dominance one group holds over another and is a method for gaining and maintaining power. Hegemony implies willing and/or tacit consent and agreement by those in the subordinated role and is sustained by the major socializing institutions. It is important to pay particular attention to the way media maintains hegemonic control. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

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Media hegemony means the dominance of certain aspects of life and thought by the penetration of a dominant culture and its values into social life. Media hegemony serves as a crucial shaper of culture, values and ideology of society. The television news departments embed messages that convey the nature of society, the nature of relations of production with society. Journalist can unconsciously facilitate the ideological hegemony by the way they use cultural categories and symbols. Further, reporters are inclined to choose and report those issues that are favourable to the dominant ideology and the status quo. This selection process hinders social change by diffusing certain types of news reports to the public. To a large extent, the formation of public opinion is based on the information spread by status quo-oriented news media. It is believed that prejudiced news reporting will hinder international social change because the news media may shape negative stereotypes about certain individuals, groups, regions, or countries. When analyzing and critiquing Justice, hegemony is one of the most important concepts to understand and provides a place to begin building a theory of justice. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

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As previously stated, everyday life, personhood, and social relations are complex. As such, it may be a good idea to envision a new theory on justice as socially and historically contextualized. We must advocate for politics that recognize, rather than represses, difference; a politics that acknowledges and affirms group identity and difference. An ideal speech situation is found when communication between individuals is governed by basic implied rules. In an ideal speech situation, participants would be able to evaluate each other’s assertions solely on the basis of reason and evidence in an atmosphere completely free of any nonrational coercive influences, including both physical and psychological coercion. Furthermore, all participants would be motivated solely by the desire to obtain a rational consensus. This represents the idea of justice as a structure of institutionalized relations that are free from domination. This theory of justice focuses on relations of interaction, focuses primarily on forms of social organization and contacts an a priori universal aspect without producing a conception of justice which claims transhistorical application. Therefore, the study of justice takes into account social, historical, and contextual matters and works to include and bring to light the complexities of everyday life. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

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Social relations and intersections can been seen both at the micro-level (communities, families, etcetera) and at the macro-;level (dealings nationally, internationally, and with the state). Social relations must also be understood as power relations. Historically, power relations have been contextualized within the framework of dominance and subordination. These relations are depicted in colonial relationships. There is a need to further interrogate the colonizer/colonized relationships that continue to exist today. The process of colonization in any form creates relationships based on oppression rather than reciprocity, domination rather than consensus. The relationship between people and the state is often conflictual. The relations between colonizer and colonized is one of domination and submission which leads us to ask, what do we owe other persons in life? I think that, somehow, research evidence is out of place in a talk such as I have been giving. In a workshop a man communicated with the group what he had some really difficult experiences immediately after the workshop, including spending time with “a father-in-law who does not care much about me as a person but only in what I concretely accomplish. I was severely shaken. It was like going from one extreme to another. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

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“I again began to doubt my purpose and particularly my usefulness. But time and again I would hearken back to the group, to things you have said or done that gave me a feeling that I do have something to offer—that I do not have to demonstrate concretely to be worthwhile—and this would even the scale and lift me out of my depression. I have come to the conclusion that my experiences with you have profoundly affected therapy. None of you have to care about me, none of you needed to seek me out and let me know of things you thought would help me, none of you have to let me know that I was of help to you—yet you did, and as a result, it has far more meaning than anything I have so far experienced. When I feel the need to hold back and not live spontaneously, for whatever reason, I remember that twelve persons, just like these before me, said to let go and be congruent, to be myself, and of all unbelievable things, they even loved me more for it. This has given me the courage to come out of myself many times since then. Often it seems, my very doing this helps the others to experience similar freedom. I have also been able to let others into my life more—to let them care for me and to receive their warmth. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

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“I remember the time in our group encounter when this change occurred. It felt like I have removed long-standing barriers—so much so that I deeply felt a new experience of openness toward you. I did not have to be afraid, I did not have to fight or fearfully pull away from the freedom this offered my own impulses—I could just be and let you be with me.” The second excerpt is taken from the report of a woman who had come with her husband to this workshop in human relations, although she and her husband were in separate groups. She talks at some length about her experience in revealing her feelings to the group and the results of taking that step. “Taking the plunge was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I have hidden my feelings of hurt and loneliness from even my closet friends while I was feeling them. Only when I had suppressed my feelings and could speak jokingly or causally could I share painful things at all, but that did not help me work through them. You knocked down the walls that were holding back hurt, and it was good to be with you and hurt—and not withdraw. Also, before, it has been so painful to me to be misunderstood or criticized that I chose not to share truly meaningful events, good or bad, most of my life. Only recently have I dared risk the hurt. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

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“Only recently have I dared risk the hurt. In the group I faced these fears and was relieved beyond measure to find that my feelings in response to your criticism and misunderstandings (so blessedly devoid of hostility, I felt) were not deep hurt, but more curiosity, regret, irritation, perhaps sadness, and [I felt] a deep sense of gratitude for the help I experienced in looking at part of me I had not seen nor wanted to face before. I am sure my perception of your concern and respect for the person, even when my behavior might irritate or alienate you, makes it possible for me to accept all of this and find it helpful. There were times I felt very afraid of the group, though never of you individually. I needed very much at times to talk with just an individual, but during the course of the week discovered that most of you at some time or other were a real help to me. What a release to find so many instead of just leaders. This experience opened me to a deeper trust in people, increased my ability to be open with others. One of the nicest results is that now I can completely relax. I did not realize how much constant tension I was under until I suddenly was not. I am now much more sensitive to the time when my emotions or fatigue make me a poor listener, for I find that my own inner hurts and anxiety, even suppressed, interfered with my really listening to another. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

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“Since then I have been able to listen better and to respond more helpfully than ever before in my life. I have been far more aware of what I was feeling and experiencing myself—an openness to myself I never had before. Congruence was more an ideal than reality to me. Frankly, I could it disconcerting to experience and frightening to express. This was the first really safe place I had found to see what I was like, to experience and express myself. I now find that a lack of congruence in myself is painful. The release and joy in my being open to what I was experiencing within and being able to keep this openness between us was new and uplifting. I am deeply grateful to you who have made it possible for us to be so much more open with each other.” I trust that you will se in these experiences some of the elements of growth-promoting interpersonal communication that have had meaning for me. A sensitive ability to hear, a deep satisfaction in being heard; an ability to be more realm which in turn brings forth more realness from others; ad consequently a great freedom to give and receive love—these, in my experience, are the elements that make interpersonal communication enriching and enhancing. Of course, of a macro-level, things can be more complicated. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

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The moral precepts of God are written on our hearts as well as being an external code. The Spirit inclines our hearts and give us a desire to obey. The Spirit enables us t obey the law’s commands. The Spirit, by removing our hostility and writing the law on our hearts, actually causes us to delight in God’s law. The Spirit, by showing us God’s grace, produces a response of love and gratitude. We obey, not out of fear or to earn favor, but out of gratitude for favor already given. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are accepted by God through the merit of Christ. By relying solely on this perfect righteousness, we feel accepted by Him. Thus, in our Christian life, we work from a position of strength, because we have been accepted through Jesus, and through Him, we have “made it.” Lehi’s seed are to receive the gospel from the Gentiles in the latter days—the gathering of Israel is likened unto an olive tree whose natural branches will be grafted in again—Nephi interprets the vision of the tree of life and speak of the justice of God in dividing the wicked from the righteous. About 600-592 Before Christ. “And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been carried away in the Spirit, and seen all these things, I returned to the tent of my father. And it came to pass that I beheld my brethren, and they were disputing one with another concerning the things which my father had spoken unto them. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

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“For he truly spake many great things unto them, which were hard to be understood, save a person should inquire of the Lord; and they being hard in their hearts, therefore they did not look unto the Lord as they ought. And now I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of thing things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of humans. And it came to pass that I was overcome because of my afflictions for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all, because of the destruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall. And it came to pass that after I have received strength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations. And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive tree, and also concerning the Gentiles. And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known to us. Behold, I said into them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts? Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you. #RandolphHarrris 16 of 19

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“Behold, I say unto you, that the house of Israel was compared unto an olive tree, by the Spirit of the Lord which was in our father; and behold are we not broken off from the house of Israel, and are we not a branch of the house of Israel? And now, the thing which our father meaneth concerning the grafting in of the natural branches through the fulness of the Gentiles, is, that in the latter days, when our seed shall be manifested in body unto the children of humans, then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed—and at that day shall the remnant of our seed know that they are of the house of Israel, and that they are the covenant people of the Lord; and then shall they know and come to the knowledge of their forefathers, and also to the knowledge of the gospel f the Redeemer, which was ministered unto their fathers by him; wherefore, they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer and the very points of his doctrine, that they may know how to come unto him and be saved. And then at that day will they not rejoice and give praise unto their everlasting God, their rock and their salvation? Yea, at that day, will they not receive the strength and nourishment from the true vine? Yea, will they not come unto the true fold of God? #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

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“Behold I say unto you, Yea; they shall be remembered again among the house of Israel; they shall be grafted in, being a natural branch of the olive tree, into the true olive tree. And this is what our father meaneth; and he meaneth that it will not come to pass until after they are scattered by the Gentiles; and he meaneth that is shall come by way of the Gentiles, that the Lord may show his power unto the Gentiles, for the very cause that he shall be rejected of the Jews, or of the house of Israel. Wherefore, our father hath not spoken of our seed alone, but also of all the house of Israel, pointing to the covenant which should be fulfilled in the latter days; which covenant the Lord made to our Father Abraham, saying: In thy seed shall all the kindred of the Earth be blessed,” reports 1 Nephi 15.1-18. Are you seeking to build and maintain your relationship with God on the basis of keeping the law, this is, on the basis of your personal performance, or on the basis of the merit of Jesus Christ? Do you view God’s moral precepts a source of bondage and condemnation for failure to obey them, or do you sense the Spirit producing within you an inclination and desire to obey out of gratitude and love? Do you try to obey by your own sheer will and determination or do you rely on the Spirit daily for His power to enable you to obey? #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

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O God, Who by the grace of the Holy Ghost hast poured the gifts of love into the hearts of Thy faithful people; grant unto Thy servants, for whom I implore Thy mercy, health of body and soul; that they may love Thee with all their strength, and with perfect affection fulfil Thy pleasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thou great I Am, please fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at the thought of a Being with whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, a mighty God, who, amidst the lapse of Worlds, and the revolutions of empires, feels no variableness, but is glorious in immortality. May I rejoice that, while people die, the Lord lives; that, while all creatures are broken reeds, empty cisterns, fading flowers, withering graces, He is the rock of ages, the foundation of living waters. Turn my heart from vanity, dissatisfactions, from uncertainties of the present state, to an eternal interest in Christ. Let me remember that life is short and unforeseen, and is only an opportunity for usefulness; give me a holy avarice to redeem the time, to awake at every call to charity and piety, so that I may feed the hungry, clothe the naked, instruct the ignorant, reclaim the vicious, forgive the offender, diffuse the gospel, show neighbourly love to all. Let me live a life of self-distrust, dependence on thyself, mortification, crucifixion, prayer. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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But of All Plagues, Good Heaven, Thy Wrath Can Send, Save Me, Oh, Save Me, from the Candid Friend!

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With all the changes and challenges you face each day, there is never been a greater need to take the time to determine your priorities, and then with renewed focus, align your daily actions with your purpose or goals. Since you cannot know it all or do it all, it is vital that you learn to take the time to contemplate what it is you need to know and what you need to do. And keep in mind, the art of being wise is to know what to overlook. For what do we give thanks? Are there limits to giving thanks? Our text says—“In everything give thanks!” This does not mean—give thanks for everything, but give thanks in every situation! There are no limits to situations in which to thanks, but there are limits to thing for which thanks can be expressed. This is again a question the answer to which might lead us into a new understanding of the human predicament. In the letter to 1 Timothy 4.4 we read—“For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayers.” In these words, thanksgiving receives a new function. It consecrates everything created by God. Thanksgiving is consecration; it transfers something that belongs to the secular World into the sphere of the holy. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22

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Thanksgiving is not transformed, as superstition in and outside of Christian beliefs would transform it, but it is elevated to represent the divine. It has become a bearer of grace. Therefore, we say “grace” when we give thanks for our daily food, and thus consecrate it. Every created thing can be a bearer of holiness, an object of thanks, of consecration. There are no limits to thanksgiving in this respect. We can give thanks for our bodily and our mental powers, for the darkness of our unconscious as well as for the light of our consciousness, for the abundance of nature and the creations of history, for everything that is and manifests its power of being. We can give thanks for all these despite their rejection by those who, through World-hating asceticism and fanatical puritanism, blaspheme the God of creation. Everything for which we can give thanks with a good conscience is consecrated by our thanks. This is not merely a profound theological insight; it is also a practical standard in situations where we are uncertain about accepting it, we can give thanks for it, we witness to its goodness as crated. In giving thanks seriously, we consecrate it to the holy source of being from which it comes. And we even take the risk that Protestant Christians must take—that their conscience may fall into error and consecrate something which should be rejected. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22

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One reason we have this new attitude toward sin and God’s law is that we “died” to the law. Such a statement may sound strange after we have learned insistently about the importance of God’s law as a moral rule in the believer’s life. However, through the law reveals God’s moral will for us, the law in itself has no power to enable us to obey it. Because the law commands obedience without providing any enabling power, it is in this sense a course of bondage. And because we were hostile to God’s law prior to our salvation (The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so, reports Romans 8.7), it was also a source of provocation to us. Instead of being a means of obedience to God, the law actually provoked us and incited us to sin (What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have know what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law has not said, “Do not covert.” However, sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead, reports Romans 7.7-8). Such a human’s actions, however much they outwardly appear to be like those of other beings, are done under the impulsion of a higher will than the personal. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22

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“So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to one who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. However, now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code,” reports Romans 7.4-6. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin,” reports Romans 3.20. “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace,” reports Romans 6.14. “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law,’” reports Galatians 3.10. From these passages we understand that we died to the observance of the law as a requirement for attaining righteousness before God. We died to the curse and condemnation that resulted from our inability to perfectly keep the law. Then we see in Romans 6.14 that being under the law is opposite of being under grace. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22

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Because of our sin against the law, being under law implied the wrath of God, whereas grace implies forgiveness and favour. Law implies a broken relationship with God, whereas grace implies a restored relationship with Him. So when Paul said we died to the law, he meant we died to that entire state of condemnation, curse, and alienation from God. The most important thing for us to see in our death to the law, however, is the purpose of our death. We died to the law in order that we might live in the realm of grace. We died to the law that we might bear fruit to God. And according to Romans 7.6, we died that we might “serve [God] in the new ways of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code [the law].” The new way of the spirit is not a new and less rigorous ethic than the old way of the written code. The difference does not lie in the content of the moral will of God. Since that is a reflection of the holy character of God, it cannot change. Rather, the difference lies in the reason to obey and in the ability with which to obey. Verse 6 gets right to the heart of what it means to live by grace. For serving in the new way of the Spirit is the same as living by grace instead of by works. Although it is clearly God’s design that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, far too many Christians still serve in the old way of the law. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22

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There are no limits to giving thanks in the whole of creation. However, are there not limits in our life? Can we honestly give thanks for the frustrations, accidents, and infirmaries that strike us? We cannot in the moment when they take hold of us. Here is one of the many situations where piety can degenerate into dishonesty. For we rightly resist such evils. We want to remove them; we are often angry against our destiny and its divine ground. And there are depths of suffering, bodily and mental, in which even the question of thanking or not thanking does not appear. Out of the depths the psalmist cries to God; he does not thank Him. This is honest, realistic—a realism born out of the awareness of the divine presence. And I believe that at some time in our lives all of us have had experiences that were nothing but evil when they happened, but that became a good later and the object of honest thanks. And we also cannot give thanks for our own acts that make us guilty or for those that make us good. We cannot give thanks for that which makes us guilty; and sometimes things for which we have given thanks become evil by our own guilt. Nor should we give tanks for that in us which makes us good. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22

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The thanks of the pharisee for one’s good work is an outstanding example of thanks which should not be given. In reality, one does not thank God when one is thankful for one’s own goodness, but thanks oneself. How many of us thank ourselves when we give thanks to God! However, one cannot thank oneself, because the sacrifice of thanking, if given to oneself, ceases to be a sacrifice. Thanks to oneself is not thanks, even when prayers of thanks to God are hidden ways of thanking oneself, as after work well done or success achieved by great toil. It I a surprising experience to read the Bible, and especially the last third of the books of Psalms, with the questions of thanks in one’s mind. One discovers that the praise of God fills page after page in which the misery of all beings, including the writers of those books, is also most drastically described. Reading them, we feel as though we walk in another realm. We cannot reproduce in ourselves what is happening to these beings. (We are not in the mood of praising, hardly in the mood of thanking.) We look into the depth of our predicament and do not see much reason for praise and thanks. And if we think that it is our duty to God to thank Him, of if we participate in church services that include praise and thanks, we do not feel that we have truly expressed our state of mind. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22

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Although this experience of not feeling that we have truly expressed our state of mind is not invariable, it is a predominant trait of our religious situation. It expresses itself in the messages of our best present preachers and theologians. It is a dominating theme of our great poets and philosophers. We are not called to pas judgment on these beings. We have a part in them. They express us as they express themselves. And we should thank those who do it seriously, and often out of deep spiritual suffering. The differences of our situation from that of former periods becomes visible when we read about the passion and intensity with which the members of the early church gave thanks for the gift of the Christian message in a World of pagan glory, disintegration and despair. Is the same passion and intensity in us when we give thanks for the gift of God which is the Christ and His church? Who can honestly answer “yes”? And do we not sense the same difference when we read how the fighters of the Reformation thanked God for the rediscovery of the good news of the divine acceptance of those who are sinners? Is the same infinite concern in us as was in them? Who can honestly answer “yes”? We must therefore be grateful to those who express our present situation honestly. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22

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When I am not prized and appreciated, I not only feel very much diminished, but my behaviour is actually affected by my feelings. When I am prized, I blossom and expand, I am an interesting individual. In a hostile or unappreciative group, I am just not much of anything. People wonder, with very good reason, how did he ever get a reputation? I wish I had the strength to be more similar in both kinds of groups, but actually the person I am in a warm and interested group is different from the person I am in a hostile or cold group. Thus, prizing or loving and being prized or loved is experienced as very growth enhancing. A person who is loved appreciatively, not possessively, blooms and develops one’s own unique self. The person who loves nonpossessively is oneself enriched. There is some consolation: We are not separated from the ever active presence of God, and we can become aware of it in every moment. Our hearts can become filled with praise and thanks without the use of words; and sometimes we may also find those words of praise and thanks. However, this is not the first step, and, often, not even the last. Let us not follow those who use what is called the present religious revival to force us back into forms of prayer and thanks that we cannot honestly accept, or that produce joy and thanks through self-suggestion. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22

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The repetition of the words that reinforce class consciousness make the mind one coherent conviction. People become so wrapped up in explanations that their social construction of reality becomes deep—so deep that their fictious responses seem natural. These psychological revolutions that are formed create confusion because they are not natural nor heart felt. Therefore, let us keep ourselves open to the power that carries our life in every moment, that is here and now, that comes to us through nature and through the message of Jesus as the Christ. May we keep open to it, so that we may be filled with silent gratefulness for the power of being which is in us. And then perhaps words of thanks, words of sacrifice and consecration, may come to our tongues, so that we again may give thanks in truth and honesty. Almighty God! We raise our hearts to Thee in praise and thanks. For we are not by ourselves and nothing is ours except what Thou hast given us. We are finite; we did not bring anything into our World; we shall not take anything out of our World. Thou hast given us the life which is ours so long as it is Thy will. We thank Thee that we have being, that we share in the inexhaustible riches of life, in the smallest and in the largest part of it. We praise Thee when we feel strength in body and soul. #RandolphHarris 10 of 22

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We give thanks to Thee when joy fills our hearts. We are gratefully aware of Thy presence, be it in silence, or in words. Awaken us to such awareness when our daily life hides Thy presence from us, when we forget how near Thou art to us in every place and in every moment, nearer than any other being is to us, nearer than we are to ourselves. Let us not turn aware from Thy giving and creating presence to the things Thou hast given us. Let us not forget the Creator behind the creation. Keep us always ready for the sacrifice of giving thanks to Thee. Thine is what we are and have. We consecrate it to Thee. Receive our thanks when we say grace, consecrating our food and with it all that we receive in our daily life. Prevent us from using empty words and forms when we give thanks to Thee. Save us from routine and mere convention when we dare to speak to Thee. We thank Thee when we look back at our life, be it long or short, for all that we have met in it. And we thank Thee not only for what we have loved and for what gave us pleasure, but also for what brought us disappointment, pain and suffering, because we now know that it helped us to fulfill that for which we were born. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22

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And if new disappointments and new sufferings takes hold of us and words of thanks die on our tongues, remind us that a day may come when we will be ready to give thanks for the dark road on which Thou hast led us. Our words of thanks are poor and often we cannot find words at all. There are days and months and years in which we were or are still unable to speak to Thee. Give us the power, at such times, to keep our hearts open to the abundance of life, and in silent gratefulness, to experience Thy unchanging, eternal presence. Take the silent sacrifice of a heart when words of thanks become rare in us. Accept our silent gratefulness and keep our hearts and our minds open to Thee always! We thank Thee for what Thou hast given to this nation far beyond the gifts to any other nation! Let us remain thankful for it, so that we may overcome the dangers of shallowness of life and emptiness of heart that threaten our people. Prevent us from turning Thy gifts into causes of injury and self-destruction. Let a grateful mind protect us against national and personal disintegrations. Turn us to Thee, the source of our being, eternal God! Amen. An Angel tells Nephi of the blessings and cursings to fall upon the Gentiles—there are only two churches: the Church of the Lamb of God and the church of the devil—than Saints of God in al nations are persecuted by the great and abominable church—the Apostle John will write concerning the end of the World. About 600-592 Before Christ. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22

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“And it come to pass, that is the Gentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God in that day that He shall manifest Himself unto them in word, and also in power, in very deed, unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks—and harden not their hearts against the Lamb of God, they shall be numbered among the seed of thy father’ yea, they shall be numbered among the house of Israel; and they shall be a blessed people upon the promised land forever; they shall be no more brought down into captivity; and the house of Israel shall no more be confounded. And that great pit, which hath been digged for them by that great and abominable church, which was founded by the devil and his children, that he might lead away their souls of humans down to hell—yea, that great pit which hath been digged for the destruction of humans shall be filled by those who digged it, unto their utter destruction, saith the Lamb of God; not the destruction of the soul, save it be the casting of it into that hell which hath no end. For behold, this is according to the captivity of the devil, and also according to the justice of God, upon all those who will work wickedness and abomination before him. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22

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“And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me, Nephi saying: Thou hast beheld that if the Gentiles repent it shall be well with them; and thou also knowest concerning the concering the covenants of the Lord unto the house of Israel; and though also hast heard that whoso repenteth not much perish. Therefore, wo be unto the Gentiles if it so be that they harden their hearts against the Lamb of God. For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of humans; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to be the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken. And it came to pass that when the Angel has spoke these words, he said unto me: Rememberest thou covenants of the Father unto the house of Israel? I said unto him, Yea And it came to pass that he said unto me: Look, and behold that great and abominable church, which is the mother of abominations, whose founder is the devil. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22

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“And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belondeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church , which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the Earth. And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the Earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the Earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon the face of the Earth; and their dominions upon the face of the Earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw. And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitude upon the face of all the Earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the Earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22

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“And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon that great and abominable church, insomuch that there were wars and rumors of wars among all the nations and kindreds of the Earth. Ans as there began to be wars and rumors of wars among all the nations which belonged to the mother of abominations, the Angel spake unto me, saying: Behold, the wrath of God is upon the mother of harlots; and behold thou seest all these things—and when they day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the Earth, whose founder is the devil, then at that day, the work of the Father shall commence, in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he hath made to his people who are of the house of Israel. And it came to pass that the Angel spake unto me, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld a man, and he was dressed in a white robe. And the Angel said unto me: Behold one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Behold, he shall see and write the remainder of these things which have been. And he shall also write concerning the end of the World. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22

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“Wherefore, the things which he shall write are just and true; and behold they are written in the book which proceeded out of the mouth of the Jew, or, at the time the book proceeded out of the mouth of the Jew, the things which were written were plain and pure, and most precious and easy to the understanding of all people. And behold, the things which this apostle of the Lamb shall write are many things which thou hast seen; and behold, the remainder shalt thou see. However, the things which thou shalt see hereafter thou shalt not write; for the Lord God hath ordained the apostle of the Lamb of God that he should write them. And also others who have been, to them hat he shown all things, and they have written them; and they are sealed up to come forth in their purity, according to the truth which is in the Lamb, in the own due time of the Lord, unto the house of Israel. And I, Nephi, heard and bear record, that the name of the apostle of the Lamb was John, according to the words of the Angel. And behold, I, Nephi, am forbidden that I should write the remainder of the things which I saw and heard; wherefore the things which I have written sufficeth me; and I have written but a small part of the things which I saw. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22

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“And I bear record that I saw the things which my father saw, and the Angel of the Lord did make them known unto me. And now I make an end of speaking concerning the things which I saw while I was carried away in the Spirit; and if all the things which I saw are not written, the things which I have written are true. And thus it is. Amen,” reports 1 Nephi 14.1-30. Pray continually, and in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. Is continual prayer possible? Yes and no. It is, of course, impossible to carry on a running dialogue while we are working or at other times, but the prayer called for here is not so much the articulation of words as the posture of the heart. There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we can be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. However, deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship, and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings. The time of business does not differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different cuisines, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were on my knees. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22

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My heart is ever lifted up to God at all times and in all places. In this I am never hindered, much less interrupted, by any person of thing. In retirement or company, in leisure, business, or conversation, my heart is ever with the Lord. Whether I lie down or rise up, God is in all my thoughts; I walk with God continually, having the loving eye of my mind still fixed upon God, and everywhere seeing God that is invisible. Thus, we see that a life of continual prayer is not only possible, but some actually live it out. Understand that this life is not meant just for some, or for a spiritual elite, but for all of us. Continual prayer is God’s will for every Christian, no exceptions. I can do it; you can do it. Business people, students, young parents—all can do it. We are to have a perpetual inner dialogue with God. We must always be looking up, even when driving to work or mowing the lawn. Almighty and everlasting God, be Thou present to our duties, and grant the protection of Thy presence to all that dwell in this house; that Thou mayest be known to be the Defender of Thy family, and the Inhabitant of this dwelling; through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour and Redeemer, my we be granted entrance into Heaven and always remain at God’s side. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22

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Hear us, holy Lord, Father Almighty, everlasting God, and be pleased to send Thy holy Angel from Heaven, to guard, cherish, protect, visit, and defend all who dwell in this habitation; through Jesus Christ our Lord may all of us be blessed and receive eternal life. O Spirit of God, help my infirmities; when I am pressed down with a load of sorrow, perplexed and knowing not what to do, slandered and persecuted, made to feel the weight of the cross, help me, I pray Thee. If Thou seest in me any wrong thing encouraged, any evil desire cherished, any delight that is not Thy delight, any habit that grieves Thee, any nest of sin in my heart, then grant me the kiss of Thy forgiveness, and teach my feet to talk the way of Thy commandments. Deliver me from carking care, and make me a happy, holy person; help me to walk the separated life with firm and brave step, and to wrestle successfully against weakness; teach me to laud, adore, and magnify Thee, with the music of Heaven, and make me a perfume of praiseful gratitude to Thee. I do not crouch at Thy feet as a slave before a tyrant, but exult before Thee as a child with a father. Give me power to live as Thy child in all my actions, and to exercise family-ship by conquering self. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22

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Preserve me from the intoxication that comes of prosperity; sober me when I am glad with a joy that comes not from Thee. Lead me safely on to the eternal kingdom, not asking whether the road be rough or smooth. I request only to see the face of Him I love, to be very content with bread to eat, with raiment to put on, if I can be brought to Thy house in peace. Then the events of this wide World I would seize like a strong giant, and my spirit teaze till at its shoulders it should proudly see wings to find out an immortality. Stop and consider! Life is but a day; a fragile dew-drop on its perilous way from a tree’s summit; a poor Indian’s sleep while his boat hastens to the monstrous steep of Montmorenci. Why so sad a moan? Life is the rose’s hope while yet unblown; the reading of an ever-changing tale; the light uplifting of a maiden’s veil; a pigeon tumbling in clear Summer air; a laughing school-boy, without grift or care, riding the springy branches of an elm. O for ten years, that I may overwhelm myself in posey; so I may do the deed that my own soul has to itself decreed. Then will I pass the countries that I see in long perspective, and continually taste their pure fountains. The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one; yet the light of the bright World dies with the dying Sun. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22

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First the realm I will pass of Flora, and old Pan: sleep in the grass, feed upon apples red, and strawberries, and choose each pleasure that my fancy sees; catch the white-handed nymphs in shady places, to woo sweet kisses from averted faces—play with their finger, touch their shoulders white into a pretty shrinking with a bite as hard as lips can make it: till agreed, a lovely tale of human life we will read. And one will teach a tame dove how it best may fan the cool air gently over my rest; another, bending over her nimble tread, will set a green robe floating round her head, and still will dance with ever varied ease, smiling upon the flowers and the trees: another will entice me on, and on through almond blossoms and rich cinnamon; till in the bosom of a leafy World we rest in silence, like two gems up curled in the recesses of a pearly shell. We beseech Thee, O Lord, make Thy servants always to join together in seeking Thee with their whole heart, to serve Thee with submissive mind, humbly to implore Thy mercy, and perpetually to rejoice in Thy blessings; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Stretch forth, O Lord, Thy mercy over Thy servants, even the right hand of Heavenly help; that they may seek Thee with their whole heart, and obtain what they rightly ask for; thought Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 22 of 22

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MILLS STATION AT CRESLEIGH RANCH

Rancho Cordova, CA |

Now Selling!

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2,317 square feet – $475,743
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Fully finished two-story home located in the growing Cresleigh Ranch community! This sleek and modern home features a contemporary kitchen with painted white cabinetry, quartz counters, tiled back splash and stainless steel appliances! The open floor plan is full of natural light and durable Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) flooring throughout the main floor. The Master Suite is located on the first floor and has direct access to the covered patio and rear yard. The high ceilings is a must see in this home! Secondary bedrooms and loft are located upstairs. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/move-in-ready-home-site-61/Image

Watch the Walkthrough of Residence #2

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