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Friendship Makes the World Happy
Friendship makes us warmly espouse the interest of others; but it is very cold to the gratification of their passions. To be sure, problems of identify occur at other times too. However, in a very real sense, puberty signals that it is time to begin forming a new, more mature self-image. Many problems during adolescence stem from unclear standards about the role young people should play within society. Are they adults or children? Such ambiguities make it difficult for adolescents to form clear images of themselves and of how they should act? Answering the question, “Who am I?” is also spurred by cognitive development. After adolescents have attained the stage of formal operations, they are better able to ask questions about their place in the World, and about moral, values, politics, social relationships, and private thoughts. Then too, being able to think about hypothetical possibilities allows the adolescent to contemplate the future and ask more realistically, “Who will I be?”
Many teenagers are preoccupied with imaginary audiences (people they imagine are watching them). In other words, teenagers may act like others are aware of their thoughts and feelings. Sometimes this leads to painful self-consciousness—as in thinking that everyone is staring at a bad haircut you just received. The imaginary audience also seems to underlie attention-seeking performances involving outlandish dress or behavior. In any case, adolescents become very concerned with controlling the impressions they make on others. For many, being on stage in this way helps define and shape an emerging identity. I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness. He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever—holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be might in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice. Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered forever. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes. He scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever; his horn will be lifted high in honor. The unlovely man will see and be vexed, he will gnash his teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing. The adolescent search for identity often results in increased conflict with parents. This is especially true in early adolescence. However, some conflict with parents is probably necessary for growth of a separate identity. A complete lack of conflict may mean that adolescent is afraid to seek independence. Actually, adolescents and parents usually agree to a large degree about basic topics such as religion, marriage, and morals. The largest conflicts tend to be over more superficial differences regarding styles of dress, manners, social behavior, and the like. In the majority of cases, adolescents who ask their parents for emotional or practical support actually receive it.
Adolescents naturally desire more freedom, but they do not want their parents to abruptly abandon them. Teenagers do best when they are given gradual increases in personal freedom and more opportunities to make decisions. Problems occur when parents crack down too hard or throw their hands up and surrender control over the adolescent’s behavior. LORD, I say to you, you are my God, hear my cry for mercy. Oh, Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, who shield my head in the day of battle—do not grant the wicked their desires, do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud. Let the heads of those who surround me be covered with the trouble their lips have caused. Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. Let slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down men of violence. I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.
Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live before you. LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening of the sacrifice. Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. Let not my heart be drawn to what is unlovely, do not take part in bad deeds with men who are ungodly; let me not eat of their delicacies. Let a righteous man join me—it is a kindness; let him bless me—it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it. Yet my prayer is every against the deeds of wrong. The rulers of the wrong doers will learn that my words are well spoken. However, my eyes are only fixed on you Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge, there is nowhere else I would rather be—do not give me over to death.
Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evildoers. Let the ungodly fall into their own nets, while I pass by safety. Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you LORD; I say you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me. LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness, and come to my relief. DO not bring your kin into judgment, for no one living id righteous before you. In high school were you a jock, preppy, brain, hacker, surfer, cowboy, punk, mod, rapper, princess, prince, cheerleader, gargoyle, or warlock? Increased identification with peer groups is quite the common during adolescence.
A peer group consists of people who share similar social status. To an extent, membership in such groups gives a measure of security and a sense of identity apart from the family. Other than this, group members provide practice in belonging to a social network. Children tend to see themselves more as members of society as a whole. Therefore, gaining a broader, member of society perspective can be a major step toward adulthood. But are not groups also limiting? Yes, they are. Conformity to peer values peaks in early adolescence, but it remains strong at least through high school. Throughout this period there is always a danger of allowing group pressure to foreclose (shut down) personal growth. By the end of high school, many adolescents have not yet really explored various interest, values, vocations, skills, or ideologies. Perhaps that is why many students view moving on to work or college as a chance to break out of earlier roles—to expand or reshape personal identity.
For many who do choose college, the effect may be more a matter of placing further changes in identity on hold. By doing so, students keep open the possibility of changing majors, career plans, personal style, and so on. Typically, commitment to an emerging adult identity grows stronger in later college years. The search for identity may be intensified during adolescence, but it does not end there. For example, the process of selecting a career often starts in childhood and continues into young adulthood. At school, friendship is a passion. It entrances the being; it tears the soul. 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 keen. Though her heart was not large enough to harbor more than one light love at a time, it had room for many warm friendships; and she was the warmest, most helpful, and most compassionate of friends, far more serious in friendship then in love.
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 affection. There are jilts in friendship as well as in love; and, by the behavior of some men 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. Out of love to oneself, one must speak better of a friend than an enemy. In his friendships and affection, man is subject to some inscrutable moral law, similar in its effects to what the chemists call affinity. The LORD, who remains faithful forever, He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. Love is nothing in comparison with the intimacy of two congenial friends.
Circumstance, Surprise, and Suspicion
Blessed are the pure in heart, but it is inconceivable that a statue went on to provide that lack of purity of heart and its symptoms should be defined by a Government Department in the rules and orders having the same effect as if they were contained in the Act. We forget that we are dealing with a fundamental and inevitable human impulse, and that it is our business to preserve those aspects of it which are good and to minimize those which are evil. They love darkness, and we know of whom that was first said. That love of darkness is shrewd. For, if we think of it, any attempt whatever to define obscenity—once we have put aside the vague emotional terms of abuse, foul, filthy, lewd, disgusting, et cetera (a Latin term for the expression that means: and other things; and so forth; and the rest)—in cool and precise. Individuals change as they grow. People are affected by their environments and the way they are treated. Two individuals may respond very differently to the same situation because they are different people terms cannot bring us to any crime against society.
Such as a child may chalk on the pavement without endangering the structure of society—he is less likely to find himself on the episcopal throne than in prison, unless by the strenuous exertions of his friends he is sent to a lunatic asylum. So great for the official mind in this matter are the advantages of darkness! We still live in a society which meekly permits a man to be fined or even sent to prison for the unfashionable use of perfectly correct synonyms. Even a bishop may have to protect himself against a word. I remember being amused as a schoolboy by an incident that happened to the then Bishop of Winchester (Samuel Wilberforce, nicknamed on account of his extreme urbanity, “Soapy Sam”). He had preached a sermon in a country church on behalf of the restoration fund, and the local paper reported that he declared the church to be “nothing but aa damned barn.” Fortunately, his secretary was able to write the editor that the word actually used by his lordship was “damp.”
David, a middle-aged contractor, came to see me because his violent rage attacks were making his house a living hell. He told me a story about something that had happened to him the summer he was twenty-three. He was working as a lifeguard, and one afternoon a group of kids were roughhousing in the pool and drinking beer. David told them alcohol was not allowed. In response, the boy attacked him, and one of them too out his left eye with a broke beer bottle. Thirty year later, he still had nightmares and flashbacks about the stabbing. He was merciless in his criticism of his own teenage son and often yelled at him for the slightest infraction, and he simply could not bring himself to show any affection toward his wife. On some level, he felt that the tragic loss of his eye gave him permission to abuse other people, but he also hated the angry, vengeful person he had become. He had noticed that his efforts to manage his rage made him chronically tense, and he wondered if his fear of losing control had made love and friendship impossible.
I introduced David to a procedure called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). I asked David to go back to the details of his assault and bring to mind his images of the attack, the sounds he had heard, and the thoughts that had gone through his mind. Just let those moments come back, I told him. I then asked him to follow my index finer as I moved it slowly back and forth about twelve inches from his right eye. Within seconds, a cascade of rage and terror came to the surface, accompanied by vivid sensations of pain, blood running down his cheek, and the realization that he could not see. As he reported this sensation, I made an occasional encouraging sound and kept moving my finger back and forth. Every few minutes, I stopped and asked him to take a deep breath. Then I asked him to pay attention to what was now on his mind, which was a fight he had in school. I told him to notice that and to stay with the memory. Other memories emerged, seemingly at random: looking for his assailants everywhere, wanting to hurt them, getting into barroom brawls. Each time he reported a new memory or sensation, I urged him to notice what was coming to mind and resumed the finger movements.
At the end of that visit, he looked calmer and visibly relieved. David told me that the memory of the stabbing had lost its intensity—it was now something unpleasant that had happened a long time ago. “It really sucked, and kept me off-kilter for years, but I am surprised what a good life I eventually was able to carve out for myself. The following week, dealt with the aftermath of the trauma: how he had used drugs and alcohol for years to cope with his rage. As we repeated the EMDR sequences, still more memories arose. David remembered talking with a prison guard he knew about having his incarcerated assailant killed and then changing his mind. Recalling this decision was profoundly liberating: He had come to see himself as a monster who was barely in control, but realizing that he had turned away from revenge put him back in touch with a mindful, generous side of himself. David said that he also was doing his stuff, his sarcastic thing, and he did not know he was kidding. The blacker side of these role have crept into his personality. He like playing those sarcastic characters, and he lived doing it in his private life too, as a joke. It became part of his social humor.
Next David spontaneously realized that he was treating his son the way he had felt toward his teenaged attackers. He then asked if I could meet with him and his family so he could tell his son what had happened and ask for forgiveness. Days later, he reported that he was sleeping better and said that for the first time in his life he felt a sense of inner peace. A year later he called to report not only that he and his wife had grown closer and had started to practice yoga together, but that also he laughed more and took real pleasure in his gardening and woodworking. The most interesting problems in human culture have always existed on the borders between the professions, industries, system, and the critical areas which affect our daily lives. Entertainment, and increasingly all media trivialize these boundaries. As a result, the border between reality and unreality which has always been thin and constantly shifting has become even more fragile and dynamic in our times than ever before.
The Winchester Mystery House
Whatever happens, respect the place and the spirits that are still occupying the area. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Enlightening the Dark Side of the Mind
Feeling is so subtle. You cannot reject its coming, neither can you keep it back, however you try, when it ebbs. My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word. I have done what is righteous and just; do not leave me to my oppressors Ensure your servant’s well-being; let not the arrogant oppress me. Your statues are wonderful; therefore, I obey them. The unfolding of your words gives me light; it gives understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands. Turn to me and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name. Direct my footsteps according to you word; let no sin rule over me. Redeem me from the oppression of me, that I may obey your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees. Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed. My zeal wears me out, for my enemies ignore your words.
When I was a medical student, I spent the Summer working for Jan Bastiaans, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands who was known for his work treating Holocaust survivors with Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). He claimed to have achieved spectacular results, but when colleagues inspected his archives, they found few data to support his claims. The potential of mind altering substances for trauma treatment was subsequently neglected until 2000, when Michael Mithoefer and his colleagues in Southern Carolina received Federal Drug Administration (FDA) permission to conduct an experiment with Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy). MDMA was classified as a schedule I controlled substance in 1985 after having been used for years as a recreational drug. As with Prozac and other psychotropic agents, we do not know exactly how MDMA works, but it is known to increase concentrations of a number of important hormones including oxytocin, vasopressin, cortisol, and prolactin. (Never used drugs, unless prescribed to you by a trained medical profession.)
Most relevant for trauma treatment, MDMA increases people’s awareness of themselves; they frequently report a heightened sense of compassionate energy, accompanied by curiosity, clarity, confidence, creativity, and connectedness. Michael Mithoefer and his colleagues were looking for medication that would enhance the effectiveness of psychotherapy, and they became interested in MDMA because it decreased fear, defensiveness, and numbing, as well as helping to access inner experience. They thought that MDMA might enable patents to stay within the window of tolerance so they could revisit their traumatic memories without suffering overwhelming physiological and emotional arousal. In 2013, between 9 to 28 million people between the ages 15 and 65 used ecstasy (0.2% to 0.6% of the World’s population). MDMA is generally illegal in most countries. Limited exceptions are sometime made for research.
The initial pilot studies have supported that expectation. The first study, involving combat veterans, firefighters, and police officers with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has beneficial results. In the next study, of a group of twenty victims of assault who had been unresponsive to previous forms of therapy, twelve subjects received MDMA and eight received an inactive placebo. Sitting or laying in a comfortable room, they then all received two eight-hour psychotherapy session, mainly using internal family systems (IFS) therapy. Two months later 83 percent of the patients who received the MDMA plus psychotherapy were considered completely cured, compared to the 25 percent with the placebo group. None of the patients has adverse side effects. Perhaps most interesting, when the participants were interviewed more than a year after the study was completed, they had maintained their gains.
By being able to observe the trauma from the calm, mindful states that IFS calls Self, mind and brain are in a position to integrate the trauma into the overall fabric of life. This is very different from traditional desensitization techniques, which are about blunting a person’s response to past horrors. This is about association and integration—making a horrendous event that overwhelmed you in the past into a memory of something that happened a long time ago. Nonetheless, psychedelic substances are powerful agents with a troubled history. They can easily be misused through careless administration and poor maintenance of therapeutic boundaries. It is to be hoped that MDMA will not be another magic cure released from Pandora’s box. It is time for you to act, O LORD; your law is being broken. Because I love your commands more than gold, more than pure gold, and because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path.
Obedience and Punishment Orientation
Leave behind you all the hesitations and puzzles, confirm your belief in life and compress your pursuit and love into a tremendous impetus to boost yourself into a hopeful tomorrow. Time is stealing away, allot for no procrastination and fantasies. Over 190 people were killed in the country of Turkey on 15 July 2016, and 754 arrested, and more than 1,154 injured. Life presents us with a common, yet precious gift. That is youth. Let us repay it with our enthusiasm and diligence. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in a man. Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD. My yearning is a breeze that blows all the year round. Whenever your curtain flutters, it is I who is calling you below my voice. How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. The primary motivation for sticking with and rooting for the disadvantaged team may be concerns with justice and fairness for the meek.
I will seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. Throw heart onto the cloud and let missing kiss the passionate horizon. Then wind brings blue to you and that is the thing I am eager for. When you look up at the blue sky and step into the memory with white clouds—my darling, how many sweetness you pick up in the rut lifted by the years? I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that some from your mouth. I always sing that familiar song even in my dreams. I wonder if you miss the past events like me. I rejoice in following your statues as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your decrees; I will not neglect your word. How I want to fly to your side and to accompany you on your way of pursuit for knowledge and write out impressive statements. Do good to your servant, and I will live; I will obey your word.
When evening mist envelops the Earth quietly, my concern for you becomes stronger and stronger like the twilight at dusk. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. I am a stranger on Earth; do not hide your commands from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. You rebuke the arrogant, who are cursed and who stray from your commands. I am lonely Albatross yearning for a warm harbor. No matter how far it is, I will sail lightly over and call at it to tell it about the yearning in the White Squall. Remove from me scorn and contempt, for I keep your statues. Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees. Giver my love—every morning, every leaf with morning dew and every evening, every beach with golden glow in my lingering missing. Love is a great happiness to human. Love means that a man not only demands happiness from life, but also presents happiness to beloved. Your statues are my delight; they are my counselors.
Sweet love between us is like a song of happiness, beautiful melody and notes fill out life with happiness. I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life accord to your word. I recounted my ways and you answered me; teach me your decrees. Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders. You dip in passionate love and write me warm poems, at last you make sweet honey with your heart. My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law. Give me flawless memory, and a pure friendship. Give me a gentle heart, and an eternal beauty. I have chosen the way of the truth; I have set my heart on your laws. Love is a taciturn agreement between two hearts. A glance between a pair in love tells far more love’s essence than a huge encyclopedia. I hold fast to your statues O LORD; do not let me be put to shame. I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. It is wrong to neglect all the other meanings of life merely for love as the first meaning of life is to live. Man has to live, and then love will have something to fall back on.
Teach me O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. Love is calling of the heart, love is selfless dedication, it is like the delta breeze in the World and the spring of life. The World will turn to a happy World as long as we give our honest love out. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. On the balance of love, I prefer to be tiny gauge graduation rather than be the heavier weight measuring the distance between heart. Turn my heart towards your statues and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. Please smile, my dear. If you weep, my face will be wetted; if you grieve, my heart will ache. Fulfill your promise to your servant, so that you may be feared. Love is the key to the secret life. With love subtracted, life will become tasteless and colorless. Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good. How I long for your precepts! Preserve my life in your righteousness.
Once together with you, we walked through that beautiful forest. That momentary magnificence is well worthy of my life-long memory. May your unfailing lobe come to me, O LORD, your salvation according to your promise; then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word. Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, illuminate our hearts and warm our life, for I have put hope in your laws. I will always obey your law, for ever and ever. I have the most valuable gift to present you with, which is my pure heart. The gentleness of you at the time you lowered your head is as charming as hibiscus rising out of water. I miss you deeply. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I will speak of your statues before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in your commands because I love them. Your name will always resound in my heart proudly; let my compatriots hear this loud and happy song and this song is your name. I life up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.
Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. The arrogant mock me without restraint, but I do not turn from your law. I remember your ancient laws, O LORD, and I find comfort in them. Indignation grips me because of the wicked, who have forsaken your law. My heart will be with your forever, as long as you are honest to me, I will never change my mind at the crossroad of love. Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge. In the night I remember your name, O LORD, and I will keep your law. This has been my practice: I obey your precepts. I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. Why do people fight a losing battle? Why do people persist when the odds are against them? Humans seem to have a beneficial or pleasurable response to fair treatment and a disgust or protest response to unfairness. Research results show that unfair treatment seems to be intrinsically aversive and fair treatment inherently pleasurable. Justice is the essential characteristic of moral reasoning.
Our Social Medium
When people are forced to submit to overwhelming power, as is true for most abused children, and women and men trapped in domestic violence, and incarcerated men and women, they often survive with resigned compliance. The best way to overcome ingrained patterns of submission is to restore a physical capacity to engage and defend. Some people, however, become deskilled by fear and are vulnerable to attacks because their executive function—their frontal lobes go off-line, and they freeze. However, when you mind your own business and mentally have the message, “Do not mess with me,” in your mind, you are not likely to be bothered by people hiding in the bushes. Still, people cannot put traumatic events behind until they are able to acknowledge what has happened and start to recognize the issues they are struggling with. As a teenager from the middle of nowhere, you have limited prospects. You spend your free time watching reports about the war effort and imagine a life more exciting. We must also face the fact that, to most Americans, violence is fun. We watch in on television and in the movies regularly. The bar-room fight in Little Boy Blue, starring Ryan Phillippe, is a matter of comedy or semicomedy to many. Football players are armored and padded like medieval knights so that they can provide violence with the least damage to themselves. Wrestling, the acting out of violence, commands a wide audience. The roller derbies attract fanatic followers who look on, not to watch expert roller skating, but to exult in the fights and near-fights, the elbowing and the falls. Ice hockey is a game in which we simply concede that fights are a part of the sport.
Violence is actually a problem that faces not only psychologist, but every human being everywhere. It is one thing to proclaim, as psychologist do, that violence is not instinctive in human nature. It is another to demonstrate ways in which aggression can be controlled and eliminated, and replaced by cooperation. We are firmly committed to the idea that human nature is not instinctively violent—that we all start out neutral in this regard. It is in the learning that occurs in the house, the neighborhood, the classroom, the playground, the streets, shops, offices, military, institutions, and other places that we acquire the skills and attitudes needed to do violence. Cooperation, respect, appreciation, mutual interaction, and selflessness are often taught ineffectively, irrelevantly, or too late. It is organized violence on top which creates individual violence at the bottom. It is the accumulated indignation against organized wrong, organized crime, organized injustice, which drives the political offender to act. Talking peace is not enough Much violence is spawned by frustration. Frustration will always be found where people’s basic needs go unsatisfied. Where poverty is the frustrator, it is up to not only the government, but also to individual citizens and groups to pressure for the eradication of poverty, and treat mental illness. Individual responsibility is the key. If I get a head at the expense of another individual—or of whole groups of people—that inequality pollutes the society of which both he and I are a part of, and I cannot be surprised at the violence that result.
There are people who work in mental hospitals and admit to beating patients up for fun, and say “No one will believe them anyway because they are crazy. I mean, look where they are.” Some violence is created by mental and emotional disorders, for which successful treatment is sometimes available. However, society needs to create an improved climate of acceptance for these programs of help and therapy that are available. The stigma attached to mental illness must be eradicated, and so must the feeling of shame or weakness that keeps many people from seeking available professional help when they require it. The problem of wars between nations is similar to but similar from that of person fighting person. It seems perfectly clear to me that we can never make any real progress towards permanent peace so long as we recognize the institution of war as legitimate and clothe it with glory. I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply cannot build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the World gradually being turned into wilderness. I think that it will come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return. Political corruption sometimes seems too big a problem for any individual or group to tackle. Fear of using our rights, as well as ignorance of the channels open to us, still keeps most ordinary citizens from acting to solve such problems. The better human qualities are: wisdom, and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. So please do the right thing.
Deliverance Promised for Little Boy Blue
God implants in the hearts of his pupils a desire to advance his ends, but human agents are compelled to employ natural means. There are people who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. What God says is best, is best, though all the people in the World are against it. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. All of the little signs we instinctively register during a conversation—the muscle shifts and tensions in the other person’s face, eye movements and pupil dilation, pitch and speed of the voice—as well as the fluctuation in our own inner landscape—salivation, swallowing, breathing, and heart rate—are linked by a single regulatory system. All of the function listed above are product of the synchrony between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS): the sympathetic, which acts as the body’s accelerator, and the parasympathetic, which serves as its brake. These are the reciprocals that the English naturalist and geologist, Charles Robert Darwin, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution spoke of. And working together, they play an important role in managing the body’s energy flow, one preparing for its expenditure, the other for its conservation.
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for arousal, including the stand your ground or escape response. Almost two thousand years ago the Roman physician Galen gave it the name “sympathetic” because he observed that it functioned with the emotions (sympathos). The SNS moves blood to the muscles for quick action, partly by triggering the adrenal glands to squirt out adrenaline, which speeds up the heart rate and increases blood pressure. The second branch of the ANS is the parasympatheric (“against emotions”) nervous system (PNS), which promotes self-preservative functions like digestion and wound healing. It triggers the release of acetylcholine to put a brake on arousal, slowing the heart down, relaxing muscles, and returning breathing to normal. Feeding, shelter, and mating activities depend on the PNS. There is a simple way to experience these two systems for yourself. Whenever you take a deep breath, you activate the SNS. The resulting burst of adrenaline speeds up your heart, which explains why many athletes take a few short, deep breaths before starting competition. Exhaling, in turn, activates the PNS, which slows down the heart. One should pay particular attention to the exhalation, since deep, long breaths out help calm you down. As we breathe, we continually speed up and slow down the heart, and because of that the interval between two successive heartbeats is never precisely the same.
A measurement called heart rate variability (HRV) can be used to test the flexibility of this system, and good HRV—the more fluctuation, the better—is a sign that the brakes and accelerator in your arousal system are both functioning properly and in balance. We had a breakthrough when we acquired an instrument to measure HRV, and later we will talk about how HRV can be used to help treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Polyvagal Theory (Polyvagal refers to the many branches of the vagus nerve or the pneumogastric nerve—which connects numerous organs, including the brain, lungs, heart, stomach, and intestines), provided a more sophisticated understanding of the biology of safety and danger, one based on the subtle interplay between the visceral experiences of our own bodies and the voices and faces of the people around us. It explained why a kind face or a soothing tone of voice can dramatically alter the way we feel, It clarified why knowing that we are seen and heard by the important people in our lives can make us feel calm and safe, and why being ignored or dismissed can precipitate rage reactions or mental collapse. It helped us understand why focused attunement with another person can shift us out of disorganized and fearful states. Basically, we have to look beyond the stand your ground or defense methods and put social relationships front and center in our understanding of trauma. It is also suggested new approaches to healing that focus on strengthening the body’s system for regulating arousal are also helpful. Human beings are astoundingly attuned to subtle emotional shifts in the people (and animals) around them. Slight changes in the tension of the brow, wrinkles around the eyes, curvature of the lips, and angle of the neck quickly signal to us how comfortable, suspicious, relaxed, or frightened someone is.
Our mirror neurons register their inner experience, and our own bodies make internal adjustments to whatever we are ready to pounce on them or run away. When the message we receive from another person is “You are safe with me,” we relax. If we are lucky in our relationships, we also feel nourished, supported, and restored as we look into the face and eyes of the other. Our culture teaches us to focus on personal uniqueness, but at a deeper level we barely exist as individual organisms. Our brains are built to help us function as members of a tribe. We are part of that tribe even when we are by ourselves, whether listening to music by Paris Hilton, or that other people created, watching a Golden State Warriors basketball game at the Oracle arena or on television (our own muscles tensing as the players run and jump), or preparing a spreadsheet for a sale meeting (anticipating the boss’s reactions). Most of our energy is devoted to connecting with other. If we look beyond the list of specific symptoms that entail formal psychiatric diagnoses, we find almost all mental suffering involves either trouble in creating workable and satisfying relationships or difficulties in regulating arousal (as in the case of habitually becoming enraged, shut down, overexcited, or disorganized). Usually, it is a combination of both. The standard medical focus on trying to discover the right drug to treat a particular “disorder” tends to distract us from grappling with how our problems interfere with our functioning as members of our tribe. Every man, woman, and child will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty (Jehovah is the name some use) has spoken. All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God (Jehovah) forever and ever.
The Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom
Why should a man so carelessly cast away himself, by giving heed to a stranger? God does not desire the spiritual death of a sinner, however, God’s justice cannot let His mercy operate for the comfort of one person, as the divine grace is not divined to space. The evil that takes false nobility, by grabbing itself in the royal magnificence of good, rise up and listen to me; you who feel secure will tremble. The scoundrel’s methods are wicked, he makes up evil schemes to destroy the humble with lies, even when the pleas of the needy is just. However, the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds (TheDeedle.com) he stands. In this silvery World, the white snowflakes are my missing and blessing for you. Wish you stretch out your hands and accept my best wishes. May the flower of happiness be fragrant in your future days. Without rhythm, there would be no poetry; without colours, could there be life? May Summer endow you with magnificent colors, boundless hopes and a bright future. A door just opened on a street—I, lost, was passing by—an instant’s width of warmth disclosed, and wealth, and company. While I was lost in the happy bustle which this announcement produced in my charming household, Ryan was at one with me in thinking with intensity of the castle. The case which has called him to Sacramento, California USA was not complicated enough to absorb all his attention, and he had the professional faculty of keeping a part of his mind free when its services were not required. Ryan recognized the fact that he was paying up, as there had always been a chance of his having to pay up, for the voluntary exclusions of his past.
The door as sudden shut, and I, Randolph, was passing by contrast most, enlightening misery. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar. In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror. It seems not inappropriate to mention here the other celebrated national games of the Greeks. The first and most distinguished were the Olympic, founded it was said by Jupiter himself. They were celebrated at Olympia in Elis. Vast numbers of spectators flocked to teem from every part of Greece, and from Asia, Africa, and Sicily. They were repeated every fifth year in midsummer, and counted five days. They gave rise to the custom of reckoning time and dating events by Olympiads. The first Olympiad is generally considered as corresponding with the year 776 Before Christ, so they predate the human Bible and possibly their God. The Pythian games were celebrated om the vicinity of Delphi, the Isthmian on the Corinthian isthmus, the Nemean at Nemea, a city of Argolis. The exercise in these games were of five sorts: running, leaping, wrestling, throwing the quoit, and hurling the javelin, or boxing. Besides these exercises of bodily strength and agility, there were contest in music, poetry, and eloquence. Thus these games furnishes poets, musicians, and authors the best opportunities to present their production to the public, and the fame of the victors was diffused far and wide.
The labyrinth from which Theseus escaped by the clew of Ariadne was built by Daedalus, a most skillful artificer It was an edifice with numberless winding passages and turnings opening to one another, and seeming to have neither beginning nor end, like the river Maeander, which returns on itself, and flows now onward, and now backward, in its course to the sea. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure houses, in undisturbed places of rest. Daedalus built the labyrinth for King Minos, but afterwards lost the favor of the king, and was shut up in a tower. He contrived to make his escape from the castle, but could not leave the island by sea, as the king kept strict watch on all the vessels and permitted none to sail without being carefully searched. “Minos may control the land and sea,” said Daedalus, “but not the regions of the air. I will try that way.” He next equipped his son in the same manner and taught him how to fly. Past events are dreams in memory. You are the only being to imagine me. The waterdrops on green leaves are my tears of missing. My son, I charge you to keep at moderate height, for if you fly too low the damp will clog your wings, and if too high the heat will melt them. Keep near me and you will be safe. You will see those arrogant people no more, those people of an obscure speech, with their strange, incomprehensible tongue.
Secrets and Lies—Dinner at Steak ‘N Shake and the Chain of Command
The will is placed in the soul, and who can enter there but he that created the soul? What are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God? When your judgments come upon the Earth, the people of the World will learn righteousness. Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprighteness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the LORD. O LORD, your hand is lifted high, however, they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them. My love falls into your sea, splashing a beam of blue moonlight, and this moonlight floats my heart. Your love-lit eyes are like sparkling stars, dispelling loneliness from my heart. Wish you a bright future and not forget me. If life is a flower, love is the honey of the flower. May your future be as beautiful as flower and as sweet as honey. In that day, the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people. He will be a spirit of justice to who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth. Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To child(ren) weaned from their milk to those just taken from the day school?
I felt a clearing in my mind as if my brain had split; I tried to match it, seam by seam, but could not make them fit. The thought behind I strove to join unto the thought before, but sequence raveled out of reach like balls upon the floor. These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore, once more, I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish. The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have eyes for evil will be cut down—those who with a word make a man out to be guilt, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice will be vanquished. Woe to the obstinate children, to those who carry out plans that are not mine forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin; who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. However, Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace. Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace. Who has not found the Heaven below will fail of it above. God’s residence is next to mine, His furniture is love. Are friends delight or pain? Could bounty but remain, riches were good.
Fate slew him, but he did not drop; she felled—he did not fall—impaled him on her fiercest stakes—he neutralized them all. She stung him, sapped his firm advance, however, when her worst was done, and he unmoved, regarded her, acknowledged him a man. Finite to fail, but infinite to venture. For the one Albatross that struts the shore many’s the gallant, overwhelmed creature nodding in navies nevermore. Who never wanted, –maddest joy remains to him unknown; the banquet of abstemiousness surpasses that of wine. Within its hope, though yet ungrasped desire’s perfect goal, no nearer, least reality should disenthrall thy soul. The LORD will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail. The voice of the LORD will shatter Assyria; with his scepter he will strike them down. For wise and good reasons, God made the knowledge of Himself scarce any otherwise attainable by us, than that of the existence of other beings absent to sense. The devil may work against us, but God sense us men when we want them. The high official gave their orders to a middle class of functionaries and middle-ranking priest, whose task it was to ensure that their superiors’ orders were carried out by such specialists as soldiers, scribes, junior priests, craftsmen and artists, who were paid for their services not in money but in food and other goods. Egyptian society had a distinct hierarchic structure that is often symbolized by a pyramid. Titular owner of all the lands, quarries, and mines in Egypt, head of government, supreme commander of the army, chief of the priesthood and sole intermediary between the gods and mankind, the pharaoh was all powerful.
The Winchester Mystery House
Those who tour The Winchester Mystery House will discover a beautiful mansion where ghostly hound howl occurs on stormy nights. This is one of Santa Clara’s oldest homes where spirits whisper to guests. Come and experience an architect’s dream house that turned into a home for the undead. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Many People on Earth Suffer from Folie Circulaire
Talk of love making people jealous and suspicious—it is nothing to social ambition! I used to lie awake at night wondering whether I could get time and money enough. I hope you managed to make yourself comfortable, father? Is it not a jolly little house? It is such a blessing to have a few quiet weeks with you. Your hair is wonderful. However, you have told me so little that I can only guess what has been happening; but in the rush are alive, and there is no time to keep on hating anyone without cause, and if that woman is still nasty enough to want to injure you with other people it must be because she is still afraid of you. From her standpoint there is only one reason for being afraid of you; and my own idea is that, if you want to punish her, you hold the means in your hand. There only thing I can tell her is to find a new man to fix her eyes on because if she keeps coming around you, she will perish like a thief on the streets of Oakland, California USA.
And my longing for shelter and security was intensified by the passionate desire to triumph over her, as only wealth and predominance cold triumph over her. As your son and representative, I at least present an invulnerable front to my enemy. As she walked beside you, shrinking in every nerve fro, the way in which your look and tone made free of her, yet she told herself that the momentary conflict and pain and suffering she caused was an endurance of your mood and the price she must pay for her ultimate power over you, she tried to calculate the exact point at which concession must turn to resistance, and the price you would have to pay be equally clear to you. However, your dapper self-confidence seemed impenetrable to such hints, but behind closed doors, you had an abortion of emotions and promised to terminate anything that reminded you of her.
My blood tingled with the grossness of the rebuff; but she got checked the first lead of your anger, when you told her that she has no one for herself to blame if you gave her the impression that she was even worthy of life. Her word-play was always too quick for you, but you caught on to what she is doing, and closed the door in her face telling her that was the final good bye. If she ever talked to you again, the police said that you both would be ruined behind bars because what you have done to your son and they are sick of how you do not spend time with him, but he worships you. Let me pause for a moment, your behavior has raised eyebrows and people want to show you and tell you how you did him and made him feel. However, your son is not allowed to do anything without your permission. You keep him held hostage and no one ever gets to spend time with him.
I have seen so many draw close to your son and seek his attention, he was so sad he made the angels cry, but you watch as he falls down like rain. And when he reaches for you, it seems as if he reaches in vain. It is just not fair, this thing called loving. When he stands there, you act as if you feel nothing. He would have done anything for you, he still loves you, and he adores you. All day, to keep from falling apart, he spent the evenings laughing with two women. That harlot you were running with damn near killed him. He is more in love with you than he was this time last year; you have to face that the situation has changed. You may not be as desirable as you once were. People see the pictures that harlot posts, and they believe the stories about you, but your son does not want to believe them. Stop the tracks and state facts. How they gone be talking trash, they act like you just got up in it, you been with that boy forever. These women and some of the men have split personalities and are schizoid, and in a hysteria.
Well, why should they not hear your reasons for doing it, then? We are neither of us such new hands that a little plain speaking is going to hurt us. Having concocted the illness as a fiction, I was drawn to the fact that these women have been feeding your son poison and exposing him to things he is allergic to and slandering him to end his life, and they have almost accomplished their goal several times. This alteration between stupor and activity, interspersed with anger displayed by these women is an illness called Folie Circylarie. Suffers experience a circular rhythm of mood, a cycle of mild depression, rage, and random bodily activity, interspersed with anger, hate and loss of rational thoughts, some men also suffer from it and they attack your son without cause. Folie Circylarie is a form of hysteria and manic depression by the independence of the mood periodicity from outward circumstances. The disease is impossible to interrupt without hypnosis.
The Winchester Mystery House
From clanking and wailing in The Winchester Mystery House and strange lights to eerie voices heard on a tape recorder left on overnight, there are hundreds of haunted rooms in this Victorian mansion. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Can I Get to Your Heart, Can I Get to Your Soul?
I hate to see you cry, my love is by your side. I run, but I am running to you. You will not see me cry, I am crying inside. In this World, no matter how many more years I will live and how far I will further travel, what I can never forget is your encouragement and expectations. In these special days, my dear God, how I wish I could once again listen to your endearing inculcation…God, your youth is beautiful because it likes prosperous spring willows, gurgling spring, surging waves and galloping wheels. I wish you are young forever. A heart lack of attention requires most Sunshine. God, how many times you comfort me with your warm big hands. I will cherish and treasure your love and your deep feelings forever. I will never forget your love, when I am in low spirits, it is you who push black clouds off my heart and bring me lovely Sunlight. God you warm every pupil’s heart with fire-like intensity of the beautiful on a Summer’s day, while recreating in the fields. Countless hearts are guided and encouraged by you, even your back was watched by ardent eyes. I am your Albatross guiding you in this White Squall, no need to be Little Boy Blue.
LORD, you have established peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. LORD, our God, other gods have ruled over us, and in your name we have accomplished honor. They are now dead; they live no more; those departed spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin; you wiped out all memory of them. You have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land. We have not given birth to people of the World. However, your dead will live, their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the Earth will give birth to its dead. Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of Earth for their sins. The Earth will disclose the blood shed upon her, she will conceal her slain no longer. Once one has gained friendship, hardship and agony will decrease and mirth and happiness will increase many times. Friendships had the expertise and observation of the best doctor the diligence and discretion of the best nurse and the care and patience of the best Father. The seed of friendship with my father, God, is deeply embedded in your heart and mine. When Father’s Day comes, it will bud into a flower of fragrant lilac and vanilla, that will belong to you and me.
The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have eyes for evil will be cut down—those who with a word make a man out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice. No longer will your son be ashamed; no longer will your face grow pale. What you have left with me is a beautiful reminiscence and what you have impressed in my mine is purity and friendship. When I suggest a toast of vintage cranberry juice in my memory to you, I am the first to get drunk. If we say that the father is to be an evergreen tree, he then must be watered with the water welling up from my heart, his son; if we say that the father-son bond is to be a never withering flower, the Sun will shine on it rising from one’s heart. As your son, I am able to make your tree of life evergreen. With this tree and my presence, I will comfort you when you are moody; I will make your life fraught with luster. I appreciate your personality very much which is like a minor, you would rather be broken than distout faces. Trickling sluggish river flowing to the White Squall, it will exist forever although losing the Albatross itself.
You dedicate yourself silently without leaving fame, but the value of the Albatross and life will exist forever with your career. You are the best-looking man to ever exist with your soft pillow lips, almond shaped blue eyes, perfectly architectured face, well balanced and symmetric, golden hair and golden skin that reflects so handsomely in the Summer Sun. Oh, Dear God, why do you rush away from me and not stay for awhile and delight in a meal and mirth. I have opened my heart, house, mind, and body to you. Revenge and rehabilitation might be mine and a stroke—there was something dazzling in the completeness of the opportunity. I am standing silent, gazing away from you down the autumnal stretch of the deserted lane. And suddenly fear possessed me—fear of myself, and of the terrible force of the temptation. All my past weakness were like so many eager accomplices drawing me toward the path their feet had already smoothed. I turned quickly, and held out my hand to you, God. At any rate, you engaged me so long that the sweet words were being handed when I caught a phrase on my other side, you never avoid the heaviness of big mountain, you never despise the shallowness of the pool, you are stead as rock and look storms as the real God in my study and life. I acknowledge the God you are and will stand in awe of the God of the Universe, Earth, and Sacramento. My worship is made up of your lips and heart and the rules you taught me—facing the World with a soul. You can make it so real because you cannot deny you have blown my mind, and when I see you, God, I just do not want to let go. Do not let go.
