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Beauty Must Not be Destroyed by Character
Beauty must not be destroyed by character, nor character by beauty. The magic of the soul is essential to the life of a culture, and is constituted by the religious consciousness and serves not to meet immediate external goals, but to augment the powers of the person. The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land. Nothing but vast wisdom and unlimited power should dare to sweep off people in multitudes; for it is only the one that can know the necessity of the judgment; and what is there, short of the other, that can replace the creatures of the Lord? With the rising of the Sun the visible World appears, so at one stroke, the understanding, by means of its one simple function, changes the dull, meaningless sensation into perception. What the eye, the ear, or the hand feels, is not perception; it is merely its data. By the understanding passing from the effect to the cause, the World first appears as perception extended in space, varying in respect of form, persistent through all time in respect of matter; for the understanding unites space and time in the idea of matter, this is, casual action. As the World as idea exists only through understanding, so also it exists only for the realization. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11
In sculpture, beauty and grace are the principal concern. The special character of the mind, appearing in emotion, passion, alterations of knowing and willing, which can only be represented by the expression of the countenance and the gestures, is the peculiar sphere of painting. For although eyes and colour, which lie outside the province of sculpture, contribute much to beauty, they are yet far more essential to character. Further, beauty unfolds itself more completely when it is contemplated from various points of view; but the expression, the character, can only be completely comprehended from one point of view. Because beauty is obviously the chief aim of sculpture, some believe that crying out is incompatible with beauty. Laocoon, in Greek legend is a seer and priest of the god Apollo; he was the son of Agenor of Troy or, according to some, the brother of Anchises (the father of the hero Aeneas). Laocoon offended Apollo by breaking his oath of celibacy and begetting children or by having the sexual intercourse with his wife in Apollo’s sanctuary. Thus, while preparing to sacrifice a bull on the altar of the god Poseidon (a task that had fallen to him by lot), Lacoon and his twin sons, Antiphas and Thymbraeus were crushed to death. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11
In the afterlife, it is thought that Laocoon does not cry out, and the universal and every-renewed surprise at this must be occasioned by the fact that any of us would cry out if we were in his place. And nature demands that is should be so; for in the case of the acutest physical pain, and the sudden seizure by the greatest bodily fear, all reflection, that might have inculcated silent endurance, is entirely expelled from consciousness, and nature relieves itself by crying out, thus expressing both the pain and the fear, summoning the deliverer and terrifying the assailer. As a work of art, the expression of crying out is missed, and Laocoon is turned into a Stoic, who considered it beneath his dignity to cry out secundum naturam. It is also added to his pain the useless constraint of suppressing all utterance of it. Therefore, many people see Laocoon as the tried spirit of a great man, who writhes in agony, and yet seeks to suppress the utterance of his feelings, and to lock it up inside himself. He does not break forth into loud cries, but only anxious sighs escape him. In the place of the psychology, the purely aesthetic reason that beauty, the principle of ancient art, does not admit of the expression of crying out. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11
The essence of Laocoon can be applied to the family structure of suburban middle-class life in a form of a metaphor. The American Dream is to have a picture-perfect family, beautiful house, successful career, and a peaceful life. So, in middle-class families from the suburbs, people are taught to behave well and always express that they are happy and life is personal and to never go into much detail about anything. Their houses are supposed to be crystal clean, well-maintained, and their yards are immaculate. And much like Laocoon, no matter how much pain you are in, you smile and keep it to yourself and only express it in confidence, behind closed doors. The goal is, not only do people want to look normal, but they want to be normal and be considered to have good mental hygiene. The purpose of having good mental hygiene is it leads to better social acceptance, more career options, and better opportunities for reproduction. What is not pink is not a flamingo. What is not just is not to be done. Come you lost Atoms to your centre draw, and be the eternal mirror that you saw; rays that have wandered into darkness wide return, and back into your Sun subside. The relegation of spirits to Heaven or Hell from the intervening spiritual World depends on the spirits themselves, since their utmost desire (amor regnans) leads them into suitable company. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11
It is clear that God is a specific deity humans have devised, and is a controlling force or intellect within the Universe, and it is clear that God, like the Universe and everything within the Universe, is in a continuous state of change and evolution. God, like matter, energy, or consciousness, is dynamic, not static. It is certainly true that actions speak louder than words, but words become as monuments to thoughts. May God the Father bless us, may Christ take care of us, the Holy Ghost enlighten us all the days of our life. The Lord be our defender and keeper of body and soul, both now and forever, to the ages of ages. Alone with none but thee, my God, I journey on my way. What need I fear when thou art near, oh King of night and day? More safe am I within thy hand than if a host did round me stand. We live in a society that puts a premium on competition and individual effort. One problem with that competing with others fosters desires to demean, defeat, and vanquish them. When we cooperate with others we tend to share their joys and suffer when they are in distress. If you feel you have nothing in common with people whose backgrounds are very different from your own, remember this: if we do not find ways to cooperate and live in greater harmony, everyone will suffer. That, if nothing else, is one thing that we all have in common. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11
Everyone knows what it feels like to be different. Greater tolerance comes from remembering those times. Over-population is major World problem, often reflected at an individual level in crowding. The Earth’s population is expected to reach 12 billion by 2040. Further population increases at the present rate could be disastrous. How many more people can the forests, oceans, croplands, and atmosphere support? The most pessimistic experts believe we have already exceeded the number of people the Earth can sustain indefinitely. Nowhere are the effects of over-population more evident than in the teeming cities of many under-developed nations. Closer to home, the jammed buses, subways, and living quarters of our own large cities are ample testimony to the stresses of crowding. Is there any way to assess the effect crowding has on people? One approach is to study the effects of overcrowding among animals. Although the results of animal experiments cannot be considered conclusive for humans, they point to some disturbing effects. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11
In an interesting experiment, John Calhoun let a group of laboratory rats breed without limit in a confined space. John Calhoun provided plenty of food, water, and nesting material for the rats. All they lacked was space. At its peak, the colony numbered 80 rats. Yet, it was houses in a cage designed to comfortably hold about 50. Overcrowding in the cage was heightened by the actions of the two most dominant males. These rascals staked out private territories at opposite ends of the cage, gathered harems of 8 to 10 females, and prospered. Their actions forced the remaining rats into a small, severely crowded middle area. What effect did crowding have on the animals? A high rate of pathological behavior developed in both males and females. Females gave up nest building and caring for their young. Pregnancies decreased, and infant mortality ran extremely high. Many of the animals became indiscriminately aggressive and went on rampaging attacks against others. Abnormal sexual behavior was rampant, with some animals displaying hyper-sexuality and others total sexual passivity. Many of the animals died, apparently from stress-caused diseases. The link between these problems and overcrowding is unmistakable. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11
However, how does this example apply to humans? Many of the same pathological behaviors can be observed in crowded inner-city ghettos. It is therefore tempting to assume that violence, social disorganization, and declining birthrates as seen in these areas are directly related to crowding. However, the connection has not been so clearly demonstrated with humans. People living in the inner city suffer disadvantages in nutrition, education, income, and health care. These, more than crowding, may deserve the blame. Nevertheless, the laboratory studies using human subjects have produced similar finds with the animals who were crowded in small areas. Crowding is when people feel overstimulated by social inputs or a loss of privacy. Whether high density is experienced as crowding may depend on relationships among those involved. In an elevator, subway, or prison, high densities may be uncomfortable. In contrasts, a musical concert, party, or reunion may be most pleasant at high density levels. Thus, physical crowding may interact with situations to intensify existing stresses or pleasures. When crowding causes a loss of control over one’s immediate social environment, however, stress is likely to result. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11
Stress probably explains why death rates increase among prison inmates and mental hospital patients who live in crowded conditions. Even milder instances of crowding can have a negative impact. People who live in crowded conditions often become guarded and withdrawn from others. Overload is unmistakable. It is the result of high densities and crowding is a state that is called attentional overload. This stressful condition occurs when sensory stimulation, information, and social contacts make excessive demands on attention. Large cities, in particular, tend to bombard residents with continuous input. The resulting sensory and cognitive overload can be quite stressful. City dwellers learn to prevent attentional overload by engaging only in brief, superficial social contacts, by ignoring non-essential events, and by fending off others with cold, unfriendly expressions. Basically, many city dwellers find that a degree of callousness is essential for survival. Simplicity is very frequently said to be a desirable characteristic of the concepts, laws, and theories of natural science. Some people do not even like being asked questions about their personal life at all. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11
Dear God, we give thanks for places of simplicity and peace. Let us find such a place within ourselves. We give thanks for places of refuge and beauty. Let us find such a place within ourselves. We give thanks for places of nature’s truth and freedom, of joy, inspiration, and renewal, places where all creatures may find acceptance and belonging. Let us search for these places in the World, in ourselves, and in others. Let us restore them. Let us strengthen and protect them, and let us create them. May we mend this outer World according to the truth of our inner life and may our souls be shaped and nourished by nature’s eternal wisdom. Pray with simplicity. And when you come before God, do not turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? Find a quiet, secluded place so you will not be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense his grace and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11
Our father in Heaven, reveal who you are. Set the World right; do what is best as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You are in charge! You can do anything you want! You are ablaze in beauty! God, please bless me and enlarge my house and land. Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. Heavenly Father, thank you for your guidance. Forgive me for getting ahead of your plans, and help me know when to stop and listen to your direction. Your ways are perfect, Lord. Thank you for offering gentle grace. Lord, I pray you would move the Spirit more boldly in my life, and I pray against temptation. Help me crave your presence more than anything else. Help me grow in the accomplishments of the Spirit and so walk closer with yourself. I pray for guidance from your Spirit—let your will and promises always be a meditation of my heart. As I face tough choices and hard situations, help me remember that I am your child and your representative around the World. Help me live today in a way that brings honor to your holy name. In Jesus Christ’s name, Amen. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11
God Wants to Heal your Broken Heart and Love your Soul
There is a widespread belief in our modern culture that love is a word which has no meaning. A whole generation of detached, independent, self-sufficient, noncommitted individuals agree. However, human relationships do matter. Yet, people think you can be intimate with someone and then leave then, and nothing bad will happen. As a matter of fact, that is not true because human relationships are desperately important to both our mental and our physical well-being. The fact is that social isolation, the lack of human compansionship, death or absence of parents in early childhood, sudden loss of a love, and chronic human loneliness are significant contributors to premature death. My hope is that the powerful impact of human companionship on our general physical and mental well-being will come into clearer focus. Ouite literally, we must learn to live together or face the possibility of prematurely dying alone. When you face situations that seem impossible, I dare you to pray. When you pray, God releases favor and the angels go to work, and you will see the greatness of God’s power. God has promised to give us the desires of our hearts. #RandolphHarris 1 of 11
The true greatness wears an invisible cloak, under cover of which it goes in and out among people without being suspected; if its cloak does not conceal it from itself always, and from all others for many years, its greatness will erelong shrink to very ordinary dimensions. What, then is the good of being great? You may understand greatness better in others, whether alive or dead, and choose better company from these and enjoy and understand that company better when you have chosen it—also that you may be able to give pleasure to the best people and live in the lives of those who are yet unborn. Great minds must trust to great truths and great talents for their rise, and nothing else. An affection towards self-good may be a good affection or a bad one. If this private affection is too strong (as when excessive love of life unfits a creature for any generous act) then it is undoubtedly vicious; in which case the creature who is moved by it is viciously moved, and will always be somewhat vicious when moved by that affection. A person is only truly great when one acts from the passions; never irresistible but when one appeals to the imagination. #RandolphHarris 2 of 11
There are so many things wrong and difficult in the World, that no person can be great—one can hardly keep themselves from wickedness—unless one gives up thinking much about pleasure or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is hard and painful. If some creature’s earnest and passionate love of life leads one accidentally to do some good, one is not a good creature because of this good deed one does, any more than a person is made honest or good for pleading a just cause or fighting in a good cause merely for the sake of a fee. Great people think they must do right things in the common way. If an action motivated purely by an affection towards self-good happens to be advantageous to the species, that implies goodness in the creature only to the extent that the affection itself is good. However, much good one does by one particular at, if it came solely from that selfish affection then one is in oneself still vicious. And the same holds for any creature whose passion towards self-good, however moderate it is, is one’s real motive in doing something that one ought to have been led to by a natural affection for one’s kind. #RandolphHarris 3 of 11
And whatever external helps a badly disposed creature may find to push one on towards performing a good action, none of this will make one good until one’s temperament changes and one is led directly towards good and against bad—led by some immediate affection, not accidentally. For instance: when a species is thought to be by nature tame, gentle, and favourable to humankind, and a member of it is fierce and savage contrary to one’s natural constitution, i.e. the constitution that is natural to one’s species, we instantly notice the breach of temperament and agree that the creature is unnatural and corrupt. If later one the same creature comes—through good fortune or proper management—to lose one’s fierceness, becoming tame, gentle, and treatable like the rest of one’s species, we will agree that the creature thus restored becomes good and natural. However, if one’s tame and gentle conduct comes only from one’s fear of one’s keeper, and would instantly change if that fear were lost, then one’s gentleness is not one’s real temperament, and one is still as bad as ever. #RandolphHarris 4 of 11
People need hardheaded everyday good sense. Confronted with the grandiose ornamentation and willful obscurity of both the antiscientific armchair pseudoscience and the vaguely rhapsodical metaphysics that are carried on in the name of philosophy and news, we can only regard them as some elaborate but pointless intellectual rituals. To continue to philosophize and generate fake news to make it look like you are working and collect a pay check in this new tradition is worse than a waste of time. It can only too easily confuse and mislead the unwary into mistaking long words for great ideas and into reposing in the comfort of a wholly illusory intellectual self-satisfaction. Because know of the truth is necessary for human salvation, God has supernaturally made them known. Revelation is the communication of some truth by God to a rational creature through means which are beyond the ordinary course of nature. A particular conception of the nature of revelation involves a precise conception of nature of faith, as a human being’s response to revelation. When revelation is conceived as the divine disclosure of religious truths, faith is necessarily understood as the obedient believing of these truths. #RandolphHarris 5 of 11
Faith is a supernatural virtue whereby with the inspiration and help of God’s grace, we believe that what he has revealed is true, not because its intrinsic truth is seen with the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God who reveals it. Scriptures have been called the Word of God and have been virtually identified with revelation. The Bible, as we have revealed in the recent past, is accordingly thought of as being ultimately of divine authorship; it has been written by human beings, but in the writings of it, their minds were directed by the Holy Spirit. Because the scriptures were written as a result of the prompting of the Holy Spirit, they have God for their author. It is no uncommon event, in the experience of us all, to see the possessors of exalted ability occasionally humbled to the level of the most poorly-gifted people about them. Because every effect somehow bears the trademark of the first cause, God’s existence can be proved from the World of nature. We must start a good war. It is better to fight against falsehood and malice with a certain amount of discord, then, by dissimulating, to give way to malice and falsehood for the sake of harmony. #RandolphHarris 6 of 11
A good creature is one who is through one’s natural temperament or the slant of one’s affections carried primarily and immediately, and not secondarily and accidentally, to good and against bad. A bad creature is one who lacks the right affections of the force needed to carry one directly towards good and against bad; or who is carried by other affections directly towards bad and against good. The mind, which is spectator or auditor of others minds, must have its eyes and ears, so as to discern proportions, distinguish sound, and scan each sentiment or thought that comes before it. It cannot let anything escape its judgment. It feels the soft and harsh, the agreeable and disagreeable, in the affections; and it finds a fair and foul, a harmonious and dissonant, as really and truly here as in any piece of music or in the external shapes and appearances of sensible things. And it cannot withhold its admiration and ecstasy, its aversions and scorn, anymore in what relates to one than in what relates to the other of these subjects. There is a common and natural sense of what is sublime and beautiful in things; and someone who denies this would not be taken seriously by anyone who has attended properly to the facts. #RandolphHarris 7 of 11
We need something timeless in order to extract an objective sense from the temporal course of history, so we formed an anti-death clause. While this periodization cannot be verified empirically, it is an example of the critical approach to the question of the unity of historical development. Although it is purely theoretical, it nonetheless gives an axiological grounding to the results of empirical research. How are we to measure the utility of goods that are acquired not for consumption but to be exchanged for other commodities? These goods acquire their utility from the consumption goods for which they are finally exchanged. The utility of such goods is called acquired utility. What we know as the principle of diminishing marginal utility, stats that as the consumption of a good increases, its marginal utility decreases. Consumers will maximize their total utility by purchasing so that the last unit of money spent for any one good gives the same marginal utility as the last unit spent for any other. It is possible to compare the utility one person receives from consuming another glass of beer with the utility another person would receive from consuming another pair of shoes or another beer. Great minds cannot avoid doing extraordinary things. #RandolphHarris 8 of 11
Like a pyramid, a great person stands on a broad base. It is only the prattle porcelain pagoda that tottles on a toe. It is fitting that we should hold the young in awe. How do we know that the generations to come will not be the equal of the present? Only when an individual reaches the age of forty or fifty without distinguishing oneself in any way can one say, I suppose, that one does not deserve to be held in awe. One cannot but give assent to exemplary words, but what is important is that one should rectify oneself. One cannot but be pleased with tactful words, but what is important is that one should reform oneself. I can do nothing with an individual who gives assent but does not rectify oneself or the individual who is pleased but does not reform oneself. Make it your guiding principle to do your best for others and to be trustworthy in what you say. Do not accept as friend anyone who is not as good as you. When you make a mistake do not be afraid of mending your ways. The Three Armies can be deprived of their commanding officer, but even a common person cannot be deprived of one’s purpose. #RandolphHarris 9 of 11
Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but for a little while—yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but Worldly sorrow bring death. See what this Godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this we are encouraged. I arise today through the strength of Heaven; light of the Sun, splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of the wind, depth of the sea, stability of the Earth, firmness of the rock. #RandolphHarris 10 of 11
I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me; God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me. God’s eyes to look before me, God’s ears to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hands to guard me, God’s way to rest before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s hosts to save me afar and anear alone or in multitude. I arise today through the mighty strength of the Lord of creation. And I know that the rest of my days will be the best of my days. Revelation, understood in this way, presupposes faith as its correlate. That God is at work in a certain situation, seeking to draw people into a new life in relation to God. God has revealed himself to a special group. Divine revelation embodies in its life which God has opened a new and better life to humankind. The form of apologetic appropriate to this view is one that defends the right of the believer, as a rational being, given the distinctly religious experience out of which one’s faith has arisen, to trust that experience and to proceed to live upon the basis of it. And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people, maybe more. People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening, people writing songs that voices never shared, no one dared disturb the sounds of silence. #RandolphHarris 11 of 11
In Loving Memory of Todd Harris and Adam West.
This is a kind of Spiritual Adultery that is Spearing Across the Earth
By withdrawing oneself from society and into contemplation, the social nature of human beings and one’s ability to perform good works becomes insignificant, unimportant, and irrelevant. How can we then uphold the requirement of performing good works found in the scriptures? The mysterious process by which our Earthly life instructs us for another state of being tells of that our action obey an unknow law, implicit in ourselves, but which does not conform to our logic. We know that every creature has a private good and interest of one’s own, which nature has compelled one to seek. We know that there is in reality a right and a wrong state of every creature; and that one’s right state is forward by nature and affectionately sought by oneself. And because every creature has a certain interest or good, there must be also a certain end or purpose to which everything in one’s constitution must naturally be related. If anything in one’s appetites, passions, or affections runs contrary to this end, we must count it as being bad for one. In this way, one can be bad with respects to oneself; just as one is certainly bad with respects to other of one’s kind when any of one’s appetites or passions make one any way injurious to them. Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into still subtler form. #RandolphHarris 1 of 9
When first formed visionary schemes, we know them to be absurd, but familiarize them by degrees, and in time lose sight of their folly. This is unacceptable because any interpretation that disallows humans their ability to understand the scriptures produces moral ramifications. Religion undoubtedly contains some perfect daemonists, people who believe that the governing mind or minds are not absolutely and necessarily good—are not confined to what is best, but are capable of acting according to mere will or fancy, because we know whole nations who worship the devil or fiend to who they sacrifice and offer prayers and supplications, really just because they fear him. And we know very well that in some religious there people who do not proclaim any idea of God except that of a being who is arbitrary, violent, a cause of bad, and condemning people to misery—which amounts to substituting a daemon or devil in place of God. One who has nothing external that can divert one must find pleasure in one’s own thoughts, and must conceive oneself what one is not, for who is pleased with what one is? A person can be more an atheist than a theist, or more a daemonist than a theist, depending on which of the relevant opinions predominates thought. Moral standards are to be severe and rigorous in order to prevent condemning the masses to Hell. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9
This globe, the Earth, appears to have a real dependence on something beyond it (e.g. the Sun, the Galaxy, or its fellow planets), then it—the Earth—really is only a part of some other system. And if there is similarly a system of all things, and a Universal nature, every particular being or system must be either good or bad in that general system of the Universe. What about something insignificant and useless? That would be an imperfection, and so would be bad in the general system. Therefore, a being cannot be wholly and really bad except by being bad with respect to the Universal system; and in that case the system of the Universe is bad or imperfect. However, if the evil of one private system is the good of others, if it contributes still to the good of the general system (as when one creatures lives by the destruction of another, one thing is generated from the corruption [= ‘rotting’] of another, or one planetary system or vortex swallows up another) then the evil of that private system is not really bad in itself; any more than the pain of cutting new teeth is bad in a system or body which is so constituted that without this episode of pain it would suffer worse by being defective. The Bible is for everyone to understand and practice, including the poor and uneducated. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9
So we cannot say of any being that it is wholly and absolutely bad unless we can show for certain that what we are calling bad is not also good in some other system or in relation to some other order or economy. However, if the World contained one species of animals that were destructive to every other species, that could rightly be called a bad species, because it is bad in the animal system. And if in any species of animals (for example the human species) one person has a nature that makes one pernicious to the rest, then one can in this respect rightly be called a bad person. Prediction is vague. The notion of prediction is unquestionably an essential part of the subject matter of logic, but the predicates might be extralinguistic and even extramental entities. Thus crucial vagueness, which was to some extend also the source of the medievals’ concer with universals, left open to the possibility that logic might be essentially a science of reality, resembling or subsumed under metaphysics. Prediction occurs only in a proposition, and the only constituents of propositions are utterances; thus, only utterances may be predicated. Some utterances are significant; some are not. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and will all thy mind. You do not need me to go through envy, malice, ill-temperament, or other such hateful passions to show how each is bad and makes the creatures that has them bad. However, perhaps I should point out that even kindness and love of the most natural sort (e.g. a creature’s love for its offspring) is vicious if it is immoderate and beyond a certain degree of intensity. Why? Because excessive tenderness destroys the effect of love, and excessive pity makes us incapable of giving help. Thus, excessive motherly love is a vicious fondness; excessive pity is effeminacy and weakness; undue concern for self-preservation is meanness and cowardice; having too little concern for self-preservation, or none at all, is rashness; and the opposite concern (namely a passion leading to self-destruction) is a mad and desperate depravity. God was manifest in flesh, justified by the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the World, and received up into glory. With God all things are possible, but oftentimes he does his work with awful instruments, there is a peacemaker called Death. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9
To be sure, proof in existence of the ineligible World, also known as the mind of God, the environmental movement protested the consequences of abundant consumption. Yet, it did not therefore, rethink the practices and aims of living itself, but only those of living too extravagantly. Air, water, space, nature: these are the subject of scarcity. Economics focuses on the scarcity of time in which to enjoy abundance. Thus, for the first time ever, humans are faced with this real, permanent problem—the World being overpopulated and there not being enough money nor resources to take care of the rapidly expanding population. While people demand letting illegal immigrants inhabit America, they are not paying attention to the fact that we are losing jobs, for instance, Sears is closing 149 stores this year. Also, new houses, which are 300 square feet, and would not uphold in a storm and have no foundation, are being built in parking lots because people with jobs can no longer afford food and a traditional house or an apartment, but yet Americans want to keep adding more of a strain on their resources. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9
The permanent problem on Earth—how to use this freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy leisure which science and compound interest will have won for them, to live wisely and agreeably and well. A builder of larger social whole, the instinct for peace and quiet, for respite for respite from stimulation and disturbances, in short, for death (not in death as destruction, but death as peace) is an expression that has emerged out of the experiences of immature minds as mediator between this pleasure-seeking mass of instinct and of the reality principle. You cannot always get what you want, but if you try some time, you might just find what you need. We must turn work into something enjoyable. We must treat the World as a garden to cultivate, not as a storehouse to pillage. For as by the existence of the creatures, we come to know there is a creator, so by their loveliness is that we come to know that their Author, and come to love him. We must first experience and come to know the things on Earth before we can come to know and love God. Experience is not only critical to general knowledge, but it is absolutely necessary to our ability to know God and to know the duties of a good life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 9
Love is to be inherently centered upon God. Love is the movement of the soul towards good, or God. Love is a disposition or act of the mind as a reaction to anything which we find pleasure. When we love the creature, we are then wishing something good for it, that is be improved or endure; this love is referred to as benevolence and charity. This love cannot apply to God because we cannot wish upon God anything more since he is absolute. Thus, our love for creatures is the love of benevolence (since we wish them well), but this is not equivalent to what we might call real live, these are only acts of charity. Therefore, we must love God with the love of desire. For our love of God brings no additional goodness to God, but benefits only us; to love creatures would be sinful. Love of desire is a complete love, while benevolence is only partial love. We cannot love something fully if it is not completely loveable. Our heart is so much God’s property and peculiar, and out so entirely to be devoted to him, that this is a kind of Spiritual Adultery to admit any creature in a partnership with one in our love. It is in loving something partially that is completely loveable that we are depriving it of our love and committing ourselves to sin. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9
This World and this life matters. God created our sense organs and real flowers. This World is not just an illusion. The material World is important. If none of this matter, if Earth was not our home, then there would be no reason at all for God to have created our sense organs or any real flowers to begin with. God could easily produce in us the ideas and sensations of flowers with or without there being actual flowers. Likewise, God would have worked in vain in creating our sense organs since these would have nothing to contribute in our experience of the World. For if we must love nothing but what is lovely, and nothing is lovely but what is our good, and nothing is our good but what does us good, and nothing does us good but what causes pleasure in us. I fear so many people live and die as idolaters, and the greatest part of the future will do so; since I guess not one in a million will be found capable of apprehending, and being convinced of this new hypothesis of seeing all things in God. The purpose of Christian doctrine is to enable its subscribers the opportunity for a good life entailing the need for good actions. Turn your heart over to God and know that he is the creator of all that is good and pleasurable and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9
The Morning Star is the Evening Star
Life and the World around us is a painted veil, an illusion though which we penetrate to the reality behind. Religion and virtue seem in many respect to be so nearly related that they are generally presumed to be inseparable companions. We are so willing to think well of their union that we hardly allow it to be permissible to speak or even think of them separately. However, it may by questioned whether this attitude can be theoretically justified. We certainly do sometimes encounter cases that seem to go against this general supposition. We have known people who have the appearance of great zeal in religion, but have lacked even the common affections of humanity, and shown themselves extremely degenerate and corrupt. Others who have paid little regard to religion and been considered as mere atheists have been seen to practice the rules of morality and in many cases to act with such good meaning and affection towards humankind that one seems forced to admit that they are virtuous. In our everyday lives, our wiliness to have dealings with someone may depend on one’s answer to “What are his or her morals?” A person who is aware of the superior pleasures to be found in virtuous action will naturally prefer virtue to mere self-interest. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Our notions of God are projections of our own humor, as we are, so shall we think God to be. God must necessarily be good humored. However, we can never understand this quality unless we possess it ourselves. Hence, the necessity for permitting good humor in the discussion of religion. I give a lot of credence to the grace of God because much of what we do, in fact, more of what we do than we do not do has to do with our fortune and misfortune. And I think there are people who the miseducation has taken a greater toll on than me. And you know, but for the grace of God, I would have been confused about my identity. We cannot understand qualities of mind and character which we do not possess ourselves. The best foundation for rendering a just account of human nature is thorough knowledge of oneself. No one who knows oneself can possibly believe that all human action stem from selfish motives. God is a good-tempered, benevolent being who orders the World. Sincere the affection for virtue is natural, religion is unnecessary to its presence in us. However, theistic opinions about a benevolent God may reinforce the affection. Yet, so many the good example of others and rewards and punishment. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
When religion and morality are separated, a selfish interest in one’s own welfare is not all that is left to provide a foundation for morality. There is more than accounting for the possibility of morality than a simple choice of religion. It is the function of both poetry and religion to provide people with a coherent view of the World that will help them understand both themselves and their fellow human beings, and to provide it in a form that will kindle the imagination as well as the intellect. The ultimate solution is a community small enough for each member to know the other members as individuals. Such intimate person knowledge will bring understanding and sympathy, so that people will be prepared to cooperate for the common good, without the coercion of law. People will indeed value their neighbors’ opinions, but they will not take their neighbors’ opinion on trust. To do so would be useless, because even a true opinion is of little value unless one understands the grounds for holding it. It is only when people see things as they are, in all their intricate interconnections, that they will feel the right emotions and thus lead happy and virtuous lives. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
People see life as if through a veil—the veil of their own prejudices, which are imposed by social institutions. We must transcend their prejudices in order to understand and love our fellow humans. If we are to fear the wrath of God, then there must be some principle by which we regulate our fears. If we are to fear God’s blame, we must already know what is blame worthy. Nothing is blameworthy simply because it displeases God. God and human beings must share a sense of deformity which enables them to identify the morally odious. There is no divine monopoly here. Morality may arise independently of religion. Virtue is natural because human nature provides a foundation for virtue. Why should selfishness or self-interest be the only natural passion? Social feeling or sense of partnership with humankind may be natural. The social feeling must be natural, for how could there be society if this feeling did not exist first? If society is a set of conventional arrangements, then the existence of society implies the pre-existence of a disposition among people to make conventions. Thus, the selfish picture of human nature cannot be the whole story, for if selfishness were the only natural feeling, there would be no society. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
What is more, since the existence of a social feeling is sufficient to account for the origin of society, appeals to the religious sanctions for society are necessarily subsequent to the actual foundation of society and therefore of secondary importance. Virtue is the pursuit of the public interest. There is no real love of virtue without the knowledge of public good. We are disposed to act virtuously by our affection for virtue. This affection for virtue is called the moral sense. This sense is like a harmony in music and a sense of proportion in architecture and art. In a creature capable of forming general notions of things, not only the outward beings which offer themselves to the sense are objects of the affection, but the very actions themselves and the affections of pity, kindness, gratitude, and their contraries, being brought into the minds by reflection become objects. So that by means of this reflected sense, there arise another kind of affection towards those very affections themselves, which have been already felt, and are now become the subject of a new liking or dislike. One way we evaluate ourselves is to compare ourselves to others and to our own ideal self-image. If an ideal image cannot be met, it may have to be discarded or revised, but this is not easy to do. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Once we remove the veil of unreality, the World will be seen as a unity—both in the sense in which science may be said to be a unity (the truth about one field of study cohering with and illuminating the truth about another), and in the sense that a true understanding of our fellow humans will give rise to virtuous behavior. This is the indestructible order that it is the business of poetry to reveal. We live surrounded by an infinite multitude of mysteries. For God, all things are possible, even what one may considered a logical absurdity, that is, causing what has in fact happened not to have happened. The fundamental property of life is daring; all life is creative daring and this an eternal mystery, irreducible to anything finished or intelligible. In human’s very existence, thought has discovered something improper, a defect, a sickness, or sin, and has demanded that this be overcome at its foundation by a renunciation of existence. Disclosure by talking seriously and honestly together on an equal level is the necessary condition for reducing the mystery that one person is for another. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
We need to take better care of ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually. Because the times that are coming up are going to be challenging times. Progress come both in the realization of the need for re-education and further in the re-education process itself. A good beginning to understanding and appreciating life fully is knowing that at some point it will end. Games prevent honest, intimate, and open relationships between the players. Yet people play them because they fill up time, provoke attention, reinforce early opinions about self and others, and fulfill a sense of destiny. We have to learn to make the time period between life’s only two certainties, birth and death meaningful and significant. Human beings place far too much stress upon defining the purpose in and of our lives. Our only purpose in life if purpose is needed, is to be what we are fully, vitally and in context of other people having the same right. We each need to find a purpose or goal in our existence but we should not dwell on it. People are known and respected for their commitment and dedication to the uplift of people. Each of us must know that others may try to push us down or disqualify us, but we will be able to fulfill our destinies. The rest of your life will be the best of your life. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Chicken, Chicken! why did you Not have Beef or Moose Meat Stew?
Living bodies are machines, but machines directed toward the fulfillment of God’s purposes. My father was a business man and I am a business man, too! I want this philosophical work to be businesslike, to settle things. Sometimes, lighthearted moments become somber, when one is dismayed by the insincerity, vanity, and coldness of the human heart. Two people can be friends only if both of them are pure, so that they can be completely open with one another without causing offense. A relationship founded on hypocrisy, censorious, suspicion, and demands is intolerable. Human kindness and human concern are more important attributes in a person than intellectual power or cultivated taste. Many people have an acute need for friendship, and it is striking when one can meet a friend who displays generosity. Children and assistants are greatly influenced by the demeanor of masters and mistress of the house; and the husband who addresses his wife, in their presence, in a derogatory manner, does both himself and her a decided injury. While the wife, on her part, is equally bound to show all due respect to her husband. #RandolphHarris 1 of 15
Every human being possesses an innate perception of what is right. Children and servants are not exceptions to this general rule; and those of us who indulge in unkind expressions towards each other, lower ourselves more than we can, perhaps, understand in the opinions of those about us. Empirical psychology studies the powers of the soul as they are discovered by inner senses. There are two general fields of the soul—the cognitive powers and the will (which includes the feelings of pleasure and pain). The cognitive powers begin with the inferior faculty, or sensibility, because knowledge comes only from sensation. There is a pre-established harmony of soul and body. The soul is an immaterial substance possessing the power of representing the Universe and free will. Rationally, the soul is simple and immortal. The structure of the World and the objects in it are aimed at the fulfillment of God’s wise ends and the study of this method is a good method of studying nature. Good is what increases our perfection and evil is what diminishes it, and perfection is an objective metaphysical concept. #RandolphHarris 2 of 15
Therefore, moral and juridical laws do not depend on God’s will, but on the structure of being. They can be discovered by natural reason independent of Christian revelation. In many cases, a feeling of dislike is engendered, which no after circumstances can obliterate—a feeling near akin to contempt, also; for who can cherish respect for individuals who cannot govern themselves? Human beings are moved to acts by the rational representation of perfection and obligations or duties independent of rewards and punishment for carrying them out. Sin arises when sensibility prevails over reason; but sensibility is ruled by free will. A generous-minded boy will never forget the unkind and taunting words which he has heard an irritable and ill-governed father address to his dearly loved mother; nor will either girls or boys forget similar breaches of politeness and good-breeding exhibited by their mother towards the father. Truly, we have need of patience! and in the family circle it is one of the brightest virtues. #RandolphHarris 3 of 15
Ethics are based on an empirical psychology that describes the virtues, passions, and practical customs. Theology and ethics entirely are the foundation of natural reason. By reason, we mean scientific thought rather than common sense. The human intellect must be extended beyond the limits traditionally set for it by the German philosophical schools. “Cannot you both have patience?” murmured a little gentle boy once in our hearing, while his parent were indulging in unseemly bickerings, and there was a whole volume of reproof in that one sentence. William Wirt Winchester, a pattern of good-breeding, tells his son that—“The most familiar and intimate habitudes, connections and friendships, require a degree of good-breeding both to preserve and cement them. The best of us have our bad sides; and it is an imprudent as it is ill-bred to exhibit them. I shall not use ceremony with you, it would be misplaced between us; but I shall certainly observe that degree of good-breeding which, I am sure, is absolutely necessary to make us like one another’s company long.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 15
This is the best advice which can be given to husbands and wives, parents and children, and also to relatives and friends. The foundation of religion consists in moral distinctions among the acts of humans, whether they be good, evil, or indifferent, is an intelligent and free agent. Truth is the expression of things as they are, and vice constitutes a rejection of the truth; to deny things as they are is virtually to deny the existence of God. To follow nature is to follow God. This does not mean, however, that one should follow exclusively the inclinations of one’s individual nature. Since no one is purely rational, each individual must consider the nature of others. The great law of religion is for each person not to contradict truth, but to treat everything as it really is. Happiness is based on the pleasure—pain thesis, pain being a real evil, pleasure a real good. Ultimate happiness is the excess of pleasure over pain, and it is the duty of everyone to make oneself as happy as possible consonant with the happiness of others. #RandolphHarris 5 of 15
The habit of bantering, which is so often adopted by married people before children and assistances, is very undesirable, and frequently leads to serious consequences. How does a man know what is true? The husband will give a ridiculous appellation to the wife, which will raise a laugh at her expense; but in the end, it may lower him far more than the mother in the opinion of the children; and in their turn, they will often feel more respect and affection for the mother than for the father. Nothing can be more injurious, or inconsistent with true politeness and good-breeding, than the constant habit of fault-finding concerning little petty trifles, when indulged in by either husband or wife, in the presence of others or by themselves. There are men who never come to the table but they will find fault with the dishes served upon it. If roast beef is the chief dish, they will say:–“Chicken, Chicken! why did you not have beef or moose meat stew? I am tired of this everlasting chicken!” #RandolphHarris 6 of 15
Or vice versa. No matter what the wife may have provided, such a man will always evince a desire for something else. We reason about particulars, or from them; but not by them. Action according to right reason and action according to truth are identical. This is the general law laid down by the author of nature, and this constitutes the religion of nature. The senses are inferior to reason but are to be followed, nevertheless, when not contrary to reason. In instances where certainty concerning the truth is unobtainable, one may act on probability but always under the guide of reason. The necessity of education by the cultivation of reason is thus demonstrated. Man’s desires, his passions, must be submitted to reason. Since man is individual and the principles of reason are universal, the laws of nature forbid the individual to transgress the rights of others. All injustice is wrong and evil, and compassion is one of the highest virtues. Man is to be regarded not only as an individual, but also as a social creature, and the purpose of society is common welfare of all the people. #RandolphHarris 7 of 15
Human-made laws are not infallible, but may require alteration from time to time, and no human-made law should contradict a law of nature. Since mutual defense is one of the great ends of society, war against aggression is legitimate and necessary. Now, were the gentleman accused of fault-finding, he would indignantly deny it; and he may be a kind and good and true husband and father, and only have inadvertently fallen into this habit of not being satisfied with what has been provided. A good way to cure him, would be for the wife to hand him a pencil and a card every morning as he leaves the house, and request him to put down what he desires for dinner; so that the daily fault-finding can be, in measure, averted. This would convince him of his practice of picking flaws in the menage; and go far towards effecting a reformation in it. Half of us find fault from habit; but some of us, we fear, do so from an inborn ugliness of disposition. #RandolphHarris 8 of 15
Of the latter class we have little hopes; but the former can cure themselves—and it pleases them. Bad habits are very easily acquired; therefore, young persons must take special pains to avoid them. We are always disgusted with sons and daughters who do not show a marked respect to their parents, elders, and superiors; and who do not scruple to contradict them, and set up their own opinions, with the utmost pertinacity, against those of their parents. And why should our young men put aside the honored name of “Father,” and substitute for it the objectionable words “Governor” or “Old Man?” Some persons may reply, “What signifies a name?” A great deal; and Father is a holy name, given to us directly from God, the Father of all humankind; and he who attains to that rank and stands as a father of the family, occupies a high position, and his children should recognize his sacred office and give him the name assigned to it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 15
No one thinks of calling his mother “Governess” or “Mrs. Governor.” If a daughter should attempt it, it would be esteemed highly irreverent and ridiculous; yet it is not in reality any more absurd a practice. Young persons often fall into erroneous habits from want of thought; therefore, it is needful to remind out young friends of certain little discrepancies regarding good-breeding, which they should carefully endeavor to avoid. Good manners are taught in the house, by line upon line and precept upon precept. Undoubtedly, a well-bred father and mother will not have so much difficulty in rearing polite and well-mannered children as those who are the reverse—not because they ae born so, perhaps; but because, as we have said before, good manners are learned by imitation more readily than by precept and rule. It follows from God’s perfect justice that humans are immortal and that the iniquities and evils of this World will be corrected; a particular providence and a future state necessarily exist. #RandolphHarris 10 of 15
And the God of nature, who is the God of reason and the God of justice, is to be worshipped. Let brothers and sisters be taught to respect each other’s rights; be as thoughtful to please, and as watchful to avoid anything which will perplex and annoy each other, as they would be to a young guest whom they desired to honor; and they will then learn a due observance of home etiquette and politeness. Rude and rough boys are often allowed to treat their sisters in a very disagreeable, overbearing manner, and annoy them on every occasion, by breaking up their baby houses, cutting their hair off their dolls, and destroying their playthings, and speaking very slightingly of “the girls.” We consider such behavior as exceedingly reprehensible, and entirely at variance with all rules of good-breeding. Such boys will also make unkind and rude husbands; for by being permitted to exhibit and indulge such traits of character in their youth, they will be likely to indulge in them in their manhood, and pursue the same pleasing pastimes in their own families. #RandolphHarris 11 of 15
A sister is the best judge of a brother’s abilities in playing the role of a good husband. And a brother can estimate very fairly the position which a sister would hold in a husband’ home. We delight in the freedom of childhood; in its merry—quips and cranks and wanton wiles; and in the cheerfulness of youth, and its many delights and pleasures; but still more charming is the gentlemanly demeanor of brothers toward their sisters. Boastful persons, and such as disregard truth in their statements, are usually to be avoided; these sins, in the lowest point of view, are decidedly against the etiquette of god society. No woman can either resect or love a man who is in the habit of deceiving her; nor can a man esteem or love a woman whose statements do not possess the virtue of truth. Life and mind are products that develop, here and there, in the course of the manifold developments in the natural World. Mind, life, consciousness, and soul are activities of certain types of bodies; they never appear apart from those bodies, although mind, once is has emerged in Nature, may come to guide and thus to master some of the occurrences in the World about it. #RandolphHarris 12 of 15
Men will sometimes conceal from women the realities of their lives on the plea that they are too narrow minded, weak, or simple to understand them; while women, in their turn, conceal the details of their daily life on the score that they do not wish to e interfered with; or for fear lest their hidden pleasures be denied them. Hence arises the theory that wives must be kept in the dark concerning their husbands’ pursuits; and that men must be managed so that they shall not forbid this, that or the other desired pleasure. And this is styled diplomacy in the house circle. Of course, this state of affairs is very uncertain and slippery; and an expose will be threatened daily. Consciousness, far from being the source of the objective World, presupposes it existence. In all this realistic position, both husband and wife feel that they are deceived, yet cannot tell exactly how, when or where; cannot place their hand on the very spot—cannot prove what they suspect. Nature indicates a norm of perfection which the historical processes in this World seldom bring to fulfillment. It is contrasted with an allegedly superior spirit or supernature. #RandolphHarris 13 of 15
Men always know that they are managed even when they cannot see the way; women understand they are deceived;–are sure that excuses given for uncalled-for absences are not the right one—even though they cannot discover the truth. Such things go in the air, and consciousness is evolved even in the senses reveal naught. Such houses, however, are but the stepping-stones to a deeper abyss of woe. A love of truth, a high sense of honor, delicacy of manner, and strict adherence to correct principles, are the chief essentials of home etiquette. Be careful to avoid the habit of sauntering into a room without attending to anything that passes there;–thinking, it may be, of a trifling affair that need not occupy the attention, or very likely not thinking at all. In this way some persons trespass upon the rules of politeness which enjoin that each one should do one’s part in society. Let Nature be, as I love to put it, Heaven and Earth, the Sea, and all that is in them is, and I do not see how one can here complain of ambiguity. Make it a rule wherever you are, to take an interest in all that passes, observe the characteristics of the persons you meet, and listen to and take part in the subjects of their conversations. #RandolphHarris 14 of 15
Nature is what we find around us, whether we are looking on a top closet shelf, or through telescopic instruments at stellar Universes that are distant in both time and space, or at the evidences for ancient cities that long ago disappeared from view. Daily life, technical science, and history alike presuppose. Nature; that is, all these kinds of quests for knowledge presuppose simply that there is much to investigate. As we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, he will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. God has a bank vault of blessings stored up for you. Something new and good is going to happen and the rest of your life will be the best of your life. God has extraordinary miracles coming your way. Angel of God, my Guardian, to whom his lobe commits me here, ever this day and night, be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen. #RandolphHarris 15 of 15
Wisdom Begins in Wonder—God Makes an Impact in His Kingdom!
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. Art is a protest against self-alienation, not as a temporary situation to be overcome in history, but as the permanent human condition. It is a symbol of a human soul. Human societies pass through determinate stages of growth and decay. There is first a purely bestial condition, from which emerges the age of the gods, when the basic social unit is the patriarchal family. In the age of the gods, other of a kind prevails, the brutal instincts of humans being curbed by fear of supernatural powers—the beginnings of religion. The next stage, the age of the heroes, appears as a consequence of the alliances formed between the fathers of families to meet the challenge provided both by internal dissidence among their own dependents (or famuli) and by external attack from lawless vagrants. Oligarchies are established through these alliances, and society is rigidly divided between patrician rulers and plebeian serfs or slaves. Laws are necessarily cruel and inequitable, and the life and poetry of the heroic age is imbued with ferocious and predatory ideals. This stage is followed by the age of men, which is engendered not by abstract reverence for reason and natural law, but by class conflict. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows what is best, what is good for us. The plebeian class demands and gradually achieves equal rights and a legal system that respects its interest. However, the weakening of traditional ties and the questioning of accepted customs and values that results from the establishment of free democratic republics leads inevitably to eventual corruption and dissolution. The end cycle comes either through conquest from without or through inner disintegration and a reversion to primitive barbarism, and a new cycle begins. One example of such a cycle is an instance of the ideal eternal history whose course is run in time by the histories of all nations, and this can be found in the history of Roman civilization. Thus, the mythical figure of Romulus is seen as giving symbolic expression to a period when rebellions among the famuli against the Vichian fathers resulted in the emergence of an essentially feudal society: agrarian clientships were established, and a sharp division, maintained by force, was set between the patrician and plebeian classes. However, in the course of time pressures from below once again forced a change in social and political organization. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the World around us. As progress was made, rights and privileges, previously reserved for the nobility, were extended to the population as a whole, and a system of civil sovereignty was instituted; in contriving such a system, the Roman people went beyond all others in the World and created a truly free popular commonwealth. Yet, the prospects of acquiring personal wealth and power which the system opened up, together with the spread of destructive skeptical doctrines, led in their turn to discontent and unrest among the people. A period of strong authoritarian rule under the Caesars succeeded in temporarily arresting the process of disintegration, but the forces of unbridled individualism and intellectual corruption (called by the barbarism of reflection) proved in the end to be too powerful and Rome finally collapsed under the blows of its enemies. So, what president Trump is trying to do with this travel ban is keep American from collapsing from the blows of our enemies. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
This is no longer the 1970s, we can no longer sit around, bare foot, playing the guitar and singing kumbaya, while women and men dance naked around lily pads. At least 22 people were killed and an estimated 50 others were injured on 2017 May 5, when a fiery eruption of light, followed by an incredible loud noise, blew away everything in its path at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Then people started hollering and screaming like they lost their minds, and running for safety, while a giant cloud of dust clouded their vision. The explosion occurred around 10.30pm, and some said it looked like the gates of Hell opening up. Several people are possible paralyzed as shrapnel hit their spine. The cunning reason, whereby the petty motives of these individuals are used to serve ends that lie beyond the comprehension of the agents concerned, is unknown and currently treated as a terrorist incident. Dear God, filled with compassion for those who love you, and with the love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of these troubles, we cast ourselves to your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present affair which under your special protection. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Music is art, and art was given precedence second only to philosophy and was distinguished much more sharply from religion. Although in art consciousness moves in sensuous medium and not yet in the transparency of pure thought, it is able to circulate freely in this medium and to find itself in the appearances of the World. Music, as art, its essential object is the beautiful, the idea in the form of limited appearance. The beautiful object is the harmonized whole of things in microcosm, which is a community, place, or situation regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristic qualities or features of something much larger. As the synthesis of the objectively beautiful in external reality and the subjectively beautiful in imagination, music is the sign of an ultimately reconciled World, despite the loss of a religiously grounded belief in World order and despite the overwhelming everyday experiences of a fragmentary and chaotic existence. Only God can know in the full sense the nature and workings of the Universe, since it was he who made it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. Material reality can therefore never be transparent to human reason in the manner envisaged by rationalist philosophers. This does not mean, however, that it cannot be known at all, for in the investigation of the physical World, we are not confined to the role of passive spectators with no active part to play in forming the phenomena to be studied. Rather, through the construction of experiments performed in the light of hypothesis, we to some degree imitate nature, creating and re-creating the conditions under which natural processes of determinate kinds may be observed to occur. The things which are proved in physics are those to which we can perform something similar. Please bring this to a happy issue. Please continue to intercede for many of us until our requests are granted. So many people around the World are hurting and scared for their lives. They are scared to fly, go to concerts, a nightclub, drive, or even go for a walk in the park. Above all things, we would like to obtain the grace of God and his blessings for all eternity. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live. Many are afraid that when their kids walk out the door that they may never come back to the house, or that their parents are in danger. God, do not hide your light under a basket, but let it shine for the whole World, for all the centuries to see. We may not suffer torture the way Jesus Christ did, but are still called to let the light of our Christianity illumine our daily lives. Please help us to have the courage to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationships, our conversation—every corner of our day. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God praying always. If we cannot express ourselves well on each of our beliefs, we must work and study until we can. Try to state to yourself what you believe to be the absolute truth of God, and you will be slowing God the opportunity to pass it on through you to someone else. Always make it a practice to stir your own mind thoroughly to think through what you have easily believed. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. God makes in impact in his kingdom. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
All who Rage Against you Will Surely be Ashamed and Disgraced
The most attractive solution to the problems of human existence, to the tragic sense of is, is the hope for eternal life expressed in human’s perennial hunger for immortality. God said, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him or her who curses you; and in you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12.1-3). This hunger has two dimensions—it refers either to the nondestruction of the soul with the Universe or the totality of being. The destruction of a human’s consciousness is an a priori impossibility: We cannot even conceive of the nonexistence of consciousness, since that conception is itself an act of consciousness. Human is nothing if he or she is not everything—to exist is yearning to reach all space, all time, all being. To be a man or a woman is to seek to become God. Unless human is God, he is not even human: Either all or nothing. We ask not only if we can ever know the truth of statements about the past, or whether we can ever be sure of the existence of minds other than our own. #RandolphHarris 1 of 14
The existence of God is the supreme cause. Creatures are infinite, God is infinite. Seeing God as the ultimate cause of all perfections; and recognizing the transcendence of those perfections in God; God created the Universe in a hierarchical order ranging from the first luminous intelligence through lesser intelligences, human, animals, elements, and material principles. In all creatures there is a real distinction between essence and existence, and in all material substances there is only one substantial form. Created intellectual substances, seeing the eternal Ideas in God, illuminate lesser intelligences to know truth. The human mind has four immediately evident (per se nota) rules by which it can investigate theology, the science of the faith: God is the supreme Truth and cause of all truth; primary Truth can neither deceive nor be deceived, therefore his Word should be believed; we should believe everything clearly revealed by God through his spokesmen; Scripture is true precisely because God gave it to us in that way. Unlike these rules, the articles of faith are not immediately evident, but in the light of faith and these rules, the articles of faith become objects of scientific study. #RandolphHarris 2 of 14
Beauty is characteristically pleasurable. Ethical attitudes vary much more, from society to society and even between individuals, than do our beliefs about the external World or other people’s feelings. The patent fact of ethical disagreement forces us to re-examine the bases of our moral beliefs. Furthermore, the disagreements we encounter concerning moral issues often seem to involve deep matters of principle which leave no common ground between the disputants. This is sometimes referred to as the problem of disagreement about ultimate moral principles. It is this problem—whether ultimate moral principles are susceptible of rational justification—which will be examined. Just as the field of ethics comprises responsible human actions of which some are evil and blameworthy, so, among perceptual objects, there are some which have negative aesthetic value. This does not mean that such objects simply lack the characteristics by virtue of which things are beautiful; it means, rather, that they possess recognizable properties that are opposites of those found in beautiful objects. #RandolphHarris 3 of 14
Existence is a mystery, absurdity is a mystery, and anguish is a mystery. Love is the basic force of human existence. It encompasses all conative relations of humans to being and enables them to overcome anguish of their contingency by giving them the rich feeling of their own existence. The relation between beauty and ugliness has commonly been conceived in hedonistic terms, that is, whereas a beautiful object is a source of pleasure in the spectator, an ugly object arouses its opposite, pain. The proper function of art and life is to create pleasure. Yet, it is clear that there is seeming conflict between this view of the World and the empirical fact that works of art often represent objects and events that are ugly. What type of visual art depicts things which in themselves we view with pain. The painting, picture, or news itself arouses pleasure in some, a phenomenon that is explained by our intellectual interest in recognizing the object. Comedy, moreover, imitates people who are ignorable and therefore ludicrous; and though this is a kind of ugliness, the comedy is, for unspecified reasons, kept from being painful. #RandolphHarris 4 of 14
I supposed it is because the protagonist is a good individual who suffers adversity, tragedy is not merely shocking when we live in a place where stateworkers are forced to take furloughs and Governor Jerry Brown eliminates affordable housing, but raises taxes and spends $30,000,000.00 taxpayer dollars to defend illegal immigrants. This initiates the controversy over the paradox of tragedy that has survived to this present day. Taxation without representation is a situation in which a government, in this case Jerry Brown (governor of California), imposes taxes on a particular group of its citizens, despite the citizens not consenting nor having an actual representative deliver their views when the taxation decision is made. Many people are having a hard time finding jobs and housing because it is too expensive and the City of Sacramento decided it was better to build a $600,000,000.00 sport complex and tear down the mall that was under 20 years old, without voter approval and Jerry Brown cut funding for Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which provided houses and apartments that were based on one’s income. #RandolphHarris 5 of 14
Humans are painfully aware of the contingency. That they exist or that one is the particular person he or she happens to be is neither necessary nor permanent. By usurping taxpayer funds, and redistributing them to illegal immigrants, we are displacing many Americans who are born in the United States and lived here all of their lives, but no one is protesting for their rights! This is the same type of situation that trigged the original 13 American colonies to revolt against the British Empire during the Seven Years’ was (1756-1763). Many people believe that the way their tax money is being used is illegal because they have no Parliamentary representation and were denied the right to a trial by jury about the use of their money. How can we support undocumented citizens and build unnecessary bridges when we cannot even afford to take care of our own people nor maintain our infrastructure? As has been shown, this paradox is not the sole instance of the problem of ugliness, but it states the problem most acutely, both because the tragedy is sorrowful or pathetic. Why do we esteem narratives of evil and suffering? #RandolphHarris 6 of 14
Why are we not demanding more affordable housing? The whole ugliness has transcended and instead of protesting about our own needs, everyone is attacking the President about people who have absolutely no right to be here. The tragic melting plot in America has been painful to watch, and therefore ugly. Simply because democrats and the people they have illegally voting for them and causing chaos in America and stealing American tax money wish to hold that ugliness does not exist, and since their thesis runs counter to ordinary belief, they are constrained to justify it. The unreality of the ugliness is enjoined by the media because they fear American will go back to being a lawful and righteous country and the reporters will no longer be able to run amuck and produce lies and wild facts for entertainment. And 50 percent of the people who regularly watch the news say it is too much and they cannot stand it anymore, so perhaps they need to turn the TV off and let the news ratings fall. So, they can fire the pundants and disrupters. #RandolphHarris 7 of 14
Stated theologically, the World and everything in it has been created by an infinitely good God, as an expression of his goodness; stated metaphysically, existence is not neutral with respect to value and disvalue, but is rather an embodiment, through and through, of beneficial value. In such a World view, the apparent presence of evil of any kind poses a problem, and I consider sin and blindness just such problems. However, this aesthetic disvalue is a particular issue for me because my conception of reality is conspicuously aesthetic. Aesthetic aspects of life are beautiful and harmonious. All things are images of the ideas of form and harmony that exist in the mind of God, and together they make up an internally ordered unity. Objects are beautiful by virtue of their form, but if there is so, then ugliness does not exist, since sheer formlessness cannot exist. The opposite of beauty is not anything real, but mere the absence or privation of optimistic value. There is a degrees of value characteristic of metaphysical optimism and idealism. An object may not have the form appropriate to things of its kind, but this lack constitutes a relative deficiency of beauty, not sheer ugliness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 14
Moreover, objects that lack a certain degree of aesthetic value must be seen not in isolation, but as parts of the Universe as a whole. Seeming ugliness sets off, and thereby enhances, the beauty of the World. Jerry Brown, Vivek Ranadive, and other dangerous animals, which are not in any clear way lacking in form, but are considered ugly because they are displeasing or offensive to the sight. They are unbeautiful—the mere negative absence of beauty—conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated—rather than the ugly. Ugliness itself is a species of beauty that is present whenever such concepts as evil and disaster enter into the aesthetic pleasure we gain from the total object. Sometimes we may also want to say people are bad because they express a deficiency or relatively slight degree of aesthetic goodness. The work of Governor Jerry Brown, the City of Sacramento and Vivek Ranadive is less than it promises; they are lacking in vitality, ethics, morals, and charm. The muddy orchestration or incoherent plot structure is, significantly, opposite to orchestral clarity or unity of plot. There is a total absence of compensating virtues. #RandolphHarris 9 of 14
Lying is wrong suggests that the fact that a statement is known to be false is a reason for not making it to someone. Adultery is wrong suggests that the fact that someone is married is a reason for his refraining from the sexual intercourse with any person who is not his spouse. And, again, one ought to be kind suggest that there are reasons for performing kind actions rather than unkind ones. Asserting a moral principle of this kind and denying the suggestion about reasons results in paradox. Saying the governor upholds the law, but then raises taxes and steals money from hard working legal citizens, to redistribute to unlawful immigrants constitutes a lie and fraud. The Bible states that sinners earn the death penalty (Romans 6.23). Forgiveness of those sins requires blood to be shed to satisfy that penalty (Hebrews 9.22). Christ’s sacrifice of himself made is possible to take away the sin of the World (John 1.29). Because he is God, and human beings were created through him (Colossians 1.16), his life is worth immeasurably more than all other human lives throughout history. This, Christ’s sacrifice was more than sufficient as total payment for the death penalty we have earned because of sin. #RandolphHarris 10 of 14
To assuage their anguish, humans must feel in their existence, even of one is lead to suffering. One must learn to experience their uniqueness by expanding the range and the self-consciousness of their perceptions of the World. The central temporal dimension of human existence is the future, which leads to a desire for immortality and to a concern with death. This focus on the future is expressed as a means of both honors and hope and the means of eternal waiting. The structure of the future expresses both human’s determination to continue to live and their permanent dissatisfaction and despair concerning existence. Goals are self-created and are permanent commitments. This covenant with God guarantees a permanent right to the land. It is unconditional, as seen in the statements “God will,” without corresponding obligations. This covenant promises the ultimate return to the land in repentance and faith in circumstances will God will prosper them. This covenant will be fulfilled in the Millennium. Convent theology teaches that God initially made a covenant of works with Adam, promising eternal life for obedience and death for disobedience. Christ is the ultimate mediator of God’s covenant of grace. #RandolphHarris 11 of 14
Truth is subjective, it exists only as it is manifested in authentic belief. Belief, in turn, is an expression of human’s total being and consequently is realized in action. Objective truth is, strictly speaking, a meaningless conception. Through its identity with belief and actions, truth is ultimately an act of will. It is a will to create; and the will as creator wants and loves at the same time. Because of this persona and volitional factor in truth, the opposite of truth is not error but the lie. This subjective view of truth gives a distinct idealistic, even mystical cast to this thought. All knowledge about human and the World is subjective in the sense that it begins with first-person experience. To think of truth as transcending first-person experiences is, strictly speaking, a contradiction, because the very program of transcending first-person experience is a first-person project and concept and a construction. There is, however, another kind of truth, illustrated by mathematics, which is the function of reason alone, whereas true belief is a function of human’s whole being. Reality is a state of permanent flux, so that no two experiences are ever the same. #RandolphHarris 12 of 14
There are two metaphysical alternatives. Reality may be a vast sea of consciousness with my subjectivity at the center. There is no easy way to distinguish this consciousness from a mere dream. Its sole foundation is the fact that I experience it and that I will it to be real. The other view is that the focus of our being may be outside ourselves. We may identify ourselves with the realities of other people, cars, houses, trees, flowers, and mountains. This care and watchfulness over our own actions must be seconded by frequent and serious reflections upon them, not only that we may obtain the divine mercy and pardon for our sins, by an humble and sorrowful acknowledgment of them; but also that we may re-enforce and strengthen out resolutions, and learn to decline or resist the temptations by which we have been formerly foiled. It is an advice worthy of a Christian, though it did first drop from a heathen pen, that before we betake ourselves to rest, we renew and examine all the passages of the day, that we may have the comfort of what we have done aright, and my redress what we find to have done amiss, and make the shipwrecks of one day be as marks to direct our course in another. #RandolphHarris 13 of 14
This may be called the very art of virtuous living, and would contribute wonderfully to advance our reformation, and preserve our innocence. However what we must nor forget to implore the divine assistance, especially against those sins that do most easily beset us: and through it be supposed that our hearts are not yet moulded into that spiritual frame which should render our devotions acceptable; yet, methinks, such considerations as have been proposed to deter us from sin, may also stir us up to some natural seriousness, and make our prayers against it as earnest, at least, as they are wont to be against other calamities: and I doubt not but God, who hear the cry of the ravens, will have some regard even to such petitions as proceed from those natural passions which himself hath implanted in us. Besides, that those prayers against sin, will be powerful engagements on ourselves to excite us to watchfulness and care; and common ingenuity will make us ashamed to relapse into those faults which we have lately bewailed before God, and against which we have begged his assistance. All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. #RandolphHarris 14 of 14
The Authority of Truth
You may be shocked by these words coming from me. However, on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experiences, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my beliefs, I have always been a man who tried to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfold it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth. However, it will not suffice to consider these things once again, nor to form some resolutions of abandoning our sins, unless we maintain a constant guard, and be continually watching against them. Sometimes the mind is awakened to see the dismal consequences of a vicious life, and straight we are resolved to reform; but alas! It presently falls asleep, and we lose that prospect which we had of things, and then temptations take the advantage; they solicit and importune us continually, and so do frequently engage our consent before we are aware. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
It is the folly and ruin of most people to live at adventure, and take part in everything that comes in their way, seldom considering what they are about to say or do. If we would have our resolutions take effect, we must take heed unto our ways, and set a watch before the door of our lips, and examine the motions that arise in our hearts, and cause them to tell us whence they come, and wither they go; whether it be pride or passion, or any corrupt and vicious humour, that prompt us to any design, and whether God will be offended or anybody harmed by it. And if we have no time for long reasoning, let us at least turn our eyes toward God, and place ourselves in his presence, to ask his leave and approbation for what we do. Let us consider ourselves under the all-seeing eye of that divine Majesty, as in the midst of an infinite globe of light, which compasses us about both behind and before, and pierce to the innermost corners of the soul. The sense and remembrance of the divine presence is the most ready and effectual means, both to discover what is unlawful, and to restrain us from it. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
There are some things a person could make a shift to palliate or defend, and yet he dares not look Almighty God in the face, and adventure upon them. If we look unto him we shall be lightened; if we set him always before us, he will guide us by his eye, and instruct us in the way wherein we ought to walk. I am accountable to God for the way I control my body under his authority. Every Christian can have his or her body under absolute control for God. What I must decide is whether or not I will agree with my Lord and Master that my body will indeed be his temple. Once I agree, all the rules, regulations, and requirements of the law concerning the body are summed up for me in this revealed truth—my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is the will of God that human beings should get into a right-standing relationship with him, and his covenants are designed for this purpose. When I have really transacted business with God on the basis of his covenant, there is no sense of personal achievement—no human ingredient at all. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
Instead, there is a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and my life is transformed. Our job is to get the fact and be sober in doing that. Acceptance is the great healer of strife, conflict, and upset. It also corrects major imbalances of perception and precludes the dominance of negative feelings. Everything serves a purpose. Humility means that we will not understand all events or occurrences. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when one chooses—repentance is a gift of God. No matter what or what we are, God restores us to right standing with himself. Put God in remembrance of his promises. Keep not silent. Give him no rest till it comes to pass. When God hears his promises, he dispatches angels with the answers. He sets the miracle into motion. God will change things in your favor. It may not happen overnight, but just stay in faith and keep reminding God what he promises you day in and day out. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
Sometimes we use prayers as an excuse to complain to God about people not treating them right. Or about the price of rent, food, and gas being too high, and that they cannot take it anymore. Instead of complaining, remind God of his promises. Do not keep silent and eventually you will see what God said come true. As consciousness evolves to higher levels, the World changes in appearance and behavior. Everything is viewed whole, perfect, and complete. Father in Heaven, I may not see how it can happen, but I know you have an extraordinary blessing coming my way. Thank you that you make the rivers in the desert and streams in barren places. I am expecting a sudden, rapid, and widespread increase of blessings in my life. I believe that I will see surpassing greatness of you favor and blessings that will advance me years ahead. My hopes and dreams are in your hands and I trust you. Mystery and disappointment are not absolutely indispensable to the growth of love, but they are, very often powerful auxiliaries. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
Secrets and Lies—Author’s Files on Ben Crawford
What vibe did you get in your secret heart? I cannot stress enough to parents, your daughters are special, but so are yours sons, and they also require love, protection, and understanding. I tend to erase it, erase it, erase it, keep trying, erase, keep trying, erase, and finally…well, let the observer make up more than I can represent.
My life is about quality. It is all about sweeping away, putting in…struggle, struggle, struggle and poof—masterpiece! Data on many leading causes of death rates from cirrhosis of the liver, among divorced white males and the general increase in death rates from this disease among all nonmarried groups (except single white females) suggest that unmarried individuals in general consume more alcohol.
There are marked increases in death rates due to motor vehicle accidents and “accidental fires,” with widowed men and women having four- to sevenfold increases in death rates from these causes. Suicide increases fivefold in the widowed white male and fourfold in the widowed nonwhite male and the white female, while death and homicide also increased dramatically.
This doubling of cancer of the respiratory system and then tenfold rise in tuberculosis among divorced white males suggest perhaps differential patterns of cigarette smoking had influenced the results.
Ben Crawford reported: I feel like a monster (in a deep voice). I do not really know what kind of monster. My relationships always start out fine, but then I realize it is not right for me. I end up feeling bad about it, but I just have to leave once I realize that she is not the woman I have been looking for. (There was a long pause, his eyes met mine. He looked like a little boy.)
It happens to me every time I get in a relationship. I cannot seem to stay with anyone. Women end up hating me. I hurt one woman after another. I know it is not their fault. There is something wrong with me, but I do not know what to do.
Analysis: Ben had issues of trying to be a perfectionist, someone everyone loved, and wanted to be, and thought was cool. His requirements for perfection made it impossible for him to find the partner he longed for. He told me his former wife is more like his best friend, and while he had a series of failed relationships, he described himself as his worst enemy.
Ben was not happy being a single man, but at the age of forty-one, he was about to give up. Ben recalled being a young and innocent baby-faced blonde, in his late teens. He desperately wanted to fit in with the other guys name make a name for himself in the entertainment industry. However, one night he had an encounter with several older guys at a bar. He remembered being beat up and tossed around like a rag doll, everything else was a blur.
Ben was fearful of others and suffered intense shame about his experience of being rolled. After his traumatic efforts to disclose what happened, he grew increasingly silent and withdrawn. His friends and family blamed him for the assault and even doubted his story, in spite of the bruises and medical bills. At that time there was no free medical insurance, he had to use his hard earned pay check to patch himself back up.
Some even suggested that Ben had been at fault because he had been partying like everyone else at the bar, and that he was a grown man and should have known what he was getting himself into. For years, Ben has complex and painful reactions to the entire traumatic experience, including the sense of betrayal he felt when those close to him blamed him.
Let us face it, Ben is a very attractive young man, with tan skin, blonde hair, innocent blue eyes, a smile to die for and his tan body is on fleek. Many people have never seen such an attractive young man before, he was the American dream, and sources say he had the nicest butt in legs they had ever seen. Some said he looked white, but had the features of a black man, and they found that extremely attractive.
People were looking to get with him or in him or have him in them. He was so hot, he was like the head cheerleader on the Eagles, but a man. Men and women could not keep their hands off of him. They would rip his clothes off of him like he was a rock star.
As he started to get emotional, Ben told me: I genuinely preferred being in a lasting relationship, if only I knew how to achieve that state. I have sets of extreme standards for myself, as well as others. I am traumatized by self-doubt, and a critical insider voice that never allows a partner to be good enough.
I have a hard time staying with anyone and making a firm decision to stay because I am driven by self-doubt and anxiety about making a mistake. A strong sense of fear paralyses me and I rush to judgmental thinking. However, I am longing for the gifts that only intimate relationships can bring. I want a close relationship in which I could give and receive comfort. I do not care about your eyebrows and my feet might stink sometimes, but if we love each other you have to accept that!
Ben continues: Last year, at this very time, I had been a wanderer, hopelessly without companions, and then you came back into my life, with a letter in your pocket, needing my help. I was darkly and passionately thrilled by all this, and I felt those Netflixs and chills again. I found myself in a cycle of initial delight about my beloved son, only to be followed by heart crushing disappointment. He allegedly never stay single for long, craving the hopeful period of the courtship stage and money. He was out letting people rip him. I was outraged! How could this be true?!
As each promising new day deepened, I felt like I was having a heart attack, and became angry, and eventually backed into a cloud of apologetic guilt. I had turned him into a young version of myself. He was drinking heavily, doing drugs, and allegedly having sex with older men for money. It broke my heart! I wanted to end him. I did not want him gassing and dipping out of nightclubs and turning more tricks than that circus act, that Robbery Fee mistral show.
I dealt with this fear by turning to an intensely critical insider voice that found fault with my former wife and my son. Not a masculine thing to do. Then suddenly there was an agitation in me so great that only lying alone, scrunched up on the bed crying, could comfort me.
Matthew Ryan Phillippe is really a hero. He took on the role as the first gay teenager on TV when he played the character of Billy Douglas on One Life to Live. At the time, being gay was not an easy thing to do. Matthew Shepherd was tied to a car, beaten, and then hanged on a fence. He is dead for being gay, and never did anything wrong. So to take on such a powerful role knowing the potential consequences was amazing.
Ryan probably kept others from killing themselves or being killed for being gay. Ryan is such a great actor and some of his best movies are White Squall, Chaos, Stop Loss, Straight A’s, Little Boy Blue, 54, Lincoln Lawyer, Flags of Our Father, Catch Hell, and a TV show called Secrets and Lies. This man should have earned an Oscar by now, he is one of the most talented and diverse actors in the World. Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington are not as talented nor good looking as Ryan Phillippe.
Ryan Phillippe is now started some kind of technology corporation that matches consumers with products, and you can also play games, win cool prizes and even interact with the determined young man. We are sure his new endeavor, called Deedle (TheDeedle.com) will be a huge success. This man is gold.
Friendship is an Affection of Earth
Dreams were with her the true realities; externals she accepted as other people accepted dreams—with difference. Visions are so wonderful that some people stop short of ascribing them directly to Heaven. The higher the intelligence, the more faith, and the less credulity: Paris rejects more than we, but outbelievers us all. Paris has a more comprehensive view of the moon, than the man in the moon himself. At school, friendship is a passion. It entrances the being; it tears the heart. All loves of after life can never bring its rapture, or its wretchedness; no bliss so absorbing, no pangs of jealousy or despair so crushing and so keen! There are jilts in friendship as well as in love; and, by the behavior of some people in both, one would almost imagine that they industriously sought to gain the affections of others with a view only of making the parties miserable. A treacherous friend is the most dangerous enemy. Friendship makes us warmly espouse the interest of others; but it is very cold to the gratification of their passions. Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking. That new sense which is the gift of sorrow,–that susceptibility to the bare offices of humanity which raises them into a bond of loving fellowship, as to haggard men among the icebergs the mere presence of an ordinary comrade stirs the deep fountains of affections. The beauty and loveliness of friendship is too strong for dim eyes. It is the fate of most people who mingle with the World, and attain even the prime of life, to make many real friends, and lose them in the course of nature. It is the fate of all authors or chroniclers to create imaginary friends, and lose them in the course of art.
Every person’s his own friend, except sometimes some people are nobody’s enemies but their own. True friendship disregards selfish considerations, and rather risks to offend by endeavoring to serve, than aims to please by concurring in what is injurious. Friends must be used as the musicians tune their strings, who finding them in a discord, do not break them, but either by intention or remission, frame them to a pleasant consent: or as riders handle their young colts, who finding them wild and untractable, bring them to a good pace, with a gentle rein, not with a sharp spur, or as the Scythians ruled their slaves not with cruel weapons but with the shew of small whips. The same may be said of friendship at first sight as of love at first sight as of love at first sight: it is the only true one, the only noble one. It bespeaks confidence. Who would go sounding his way into love or friendship, like a strange ship by night, into an enemy’s harbor? Love may do much, but friendship shall do wonders; friendship, the nobler passion of the mind, born with the heart, must still with that survive, when love, the silly baby of the fancy, can be no more. Much less pleasure in being the master of acres than the friend of one. Generosity will not surely permit a worthy mind to doubt of its honorable and beneficent intentions: much less will it allow itself to shock, to offend any one; and, least of all, a person thrown by adversity, mishap, or accident, into its protection. It is the proud consciousness of certain qualities that it cannot reveal to the everyday World that gives to genius that shy, and reserved, and trouble air, which puzzles and flatters you when you encounter it.
Randolph Harris II International Institute 