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What will not Love Discover!
The creation of the World is problem naturally fitted to excite the liveliest of man, its inhabitant. The ancient pagans, not having the information on the subject which we derive from the pages of Scripture, had their own way of telling the story, which follows: The Greeks believed the Earth to be flat and circular, their own country occupying the middle of it, the central point being either Mount Olympus, the abode of the gods, or Delphi, so famous for its oracle. The circular dis of the Earth was crossed from West to East, and divided into two equal parts by the Sea, as they called the Mediterranean, and its continuation the Euxine, the only seas with which they were acquainted. Around the Earth flowed the River Ocean, its course being from South to North, on the Western side of the Earth, and in a contrary direction, on the Eastern side. It flowed in a steady, equable current, unvexed by storm or tempest. The sea, and all the rivers on Earth, received their waters from it. The Northern portion of the Earth was supposed to be inhabited by a happy race named the Hyperboreans, dwelling in everlasting bliss and spring beyond the lofty mountains whose caverns were supposed to send forth the piercing blasts of the north wind, which chilled the people of Hellas (Greece).
Their country was inaccessible by land or sea. They lived exempt from disease or old age, from toils and warfare. Here is a Song of a Hyperborean beginning. I come from a land in the sun-bright deep, where golden gardens glow, where the winds of the north, becalmed in sleep, their conch shells never blow. On the South side of the Earth, close to the stream of Ocean, dwelt a people happy and virtuous as the Hyperboreans. They were named the Ethiopians. The gods favored them so highly that they were wont to leave at times their Olympian abodes and go to share their sacrifices and banquets. On the Western margin of the Earth, but the stream of Ocean, lay a happy place named the Elysian Plain, whither mortals favored by the gods were transported, without tasting of death, to enjoy an immortality of bliss. This happy region was also called the Fortunate Fields and the Isles of the Blessed. We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any real people except those to the East and South of their own country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean. Their imagination meantime peopled the Western portion of this sea with giants, monsters, and enchantresses, while they placed around the disk of the Earth, which they probably regarded as of no great width, nations enjoying the peculiar favor of the gods and blessed with happiness and longevity.
The Dawn, the Sun, and the Moon were supposed to rise out of the Ocean, on the Eastern side, and to drive through the air, giving light to gods and men. The stars also, except those forming the Wain or Bear, and others near them, rose out of and sank into the stream of Ocean. There the sun-god embarked in a winged boat, which conveyed him round by the northern part of the Earth back to his place of rising in the East. Now the gilded car of day, his golden axle doth allay, in the steep Atlantic stream, and the slope of the Sun his upward beam shoots against the dusky pole, pacing towards the other goal of his chamber in the East. The abode of the gods was on the summit of Mount Olympus, in Thessaly. A gate of clouds, kept by the goddesses named the Seasons, opened to permit the passage of the celestials to Earth, and to receive them on their return. The gods had their separate dwellings; but all, when summoned, repaired to the palace of Jupiter, as did also those deities whose usual abode was the Earth, the waters, or the underworld. It was also in the great hall of the palace of the Olympian kings that the gods feasted each day on ambrosia and nectar, their foods and drink, the latter being handed round by the lovely goddess Hebe.
Here they conversed of the affairs of Heaven and Earth; and as they quaffed their nectar, Apollo, the god of music, delighted them with the tones of his lyre, to which the Muses sang in responsive strains. When the Sun was set, the Gods retried to sleep in their respective dwellings. So saying, Minerva, goddess azure-eyed, rose to Olympus, the reputed seat eternal of the gods, which never storms disturbs, rains drench, or snow invades, but calm the expanse and cloudless shines with purest day. There the inhabitants divine rejoice forever. The robes and other parts of the dress of the goddesses were woven by Minerva and the Graces, and everything of a more solid nature was formed of the various metals. Vulcan was architect, smith, armorer, chariot builder, and artist of all works in Olympus. He built of brass the houses of the Gods; he made for them the golden shoes with which they trod the air or the water and moved from place to place with the speed of wind, or even of thought. He also shod with brass the celestial steeds which whirled the chariots of the gods through the air, or along the surface of the sea. He was able to bestow o his workmanship self-motion, so that the tripods (chairs and tables) could move of themselves in and out of the celestial hall. He even endowed with intelligence the golden handmaidens whom he made to wait on himself. Jupiter, or Jove (Zeus*), though called the father of gods and men, had himself a beginning. Saturn (Cronos) was his father, and Rhea (Ops) his mother. Saturn and Rhea were the race of Titans, who were the children of Earth and Heaven, which sprang from Chaos, of which we shall give further account in our next chapter.
There is another cosmogony, or account of the creation, according to which Earth, Erebus, and Love were the first beings. Love (Eros) issued from the egg of Night, which floated on Chaos. By his arrow and torch, he pierced and vivified all things, producing life and joy. Saturn and Rhea were not the only Titans. There were others, whose names were Oceanus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Ophion, males; and Themis, Mnemosyne, Eurynome, females. They are spoken of as the elder gods, whose dominion was afterwards transferred to others. Saturn yielded to Jupiter, Oceanus to Neptune, Hyperion to Apollo. Hyperion was the father of the Sun, Moon, and Dawn. He is therefore the original sun-god and is painted with the splendor and beauty which were afterwards bestowed on Apollo. Hyperion was known for his curly hair. Ophion and Eurynome ruled over Olympus till they were dethroned by Saturn and Rhea. Paradise lost—heathens seem to have had some knowledge of the temptation and fall of man. And fabled how the serpent, who they called Ophion, with Eurnome, (the wide Encroaching Eve perhaps,) had first the rule of high Olympus, thence by Saturn driven.
The representations given of Saturn are not very consistent; for on the one hand his reign is said to have been the golden age of innocence and purity, and on the other he is described as a monster who devoured his own children.* Jupiter, however, escaped this fate, and when grown up espoused Metis (Prudence), who administered a draught to Saturn which caused him to disgorge his children. Jupiter, with his brothers and sisters, now rebelled against their father Saturn, and his brothers the Titans; vanquished them, and imprisoned some of them in Tartarus, inflicting other penalties on others. Atlas was condemned to bear up the Heavens on his shoulders. On the dethronement of Saturn, Jupiter with his brothers Neptune (Poseidon) and Pluto (Dis) divided his dominions. Jupiter’s portion was the Heavens, Neptune’s the ocean, and Pluto’s the realm of the dead. Earth and Olympus were common property. Jupiter was king of the gods, and men. The thunder was his weapon, and he bore a shield called Aegis, made for him by Vulcan. The eagle was his favorite bird and bore his thunderbolts. Juno (Hera) was the wife of Jupiter, and queen of the gods. Iris, the goddess of the rain bow, was her attendant and messenger. The peacock was her favorite bird. *The inconsistency arises from considering the Saturn of the Romans the same with the Grecian deity Cronos (Time), which, as it brings an end to all things which have had a beginning, may be said to devour its own offspring.
Vulcan (Hephaestos), the celestial artist, was the son of Jupiter and Juno. He was born lame, and his mother was so displeased at the sight of him that she flung him out of Heaven. Other accounts say that Jupiter kicked him out for taking part, with his mother, in a quarrel which occurred between them. Vulcan’s lameness, according to this account was the consequence of his fall. He was a whole day falling, and at last alighted in the Island of Lemnos, which was thenceforth sacred to him. From morn to noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, a Summer’s day; and with the setting sun, dropped from the zenith, like a falling star, on Lemnos, the Aegean isle. Mars (Ares), the god of war, was the son of Jupiter and Juno. Phoebus Apollo, the god of archery, prophecy, and music, was the son of Jupiter and Latona, and brother of Diana (Artemis). He was god of the sun, as Diana, his sister, was the goddess of the moon. Venus (Aphrodite), the goddess of love and beauty, was the daughter of Jupiter and Dione. Others say that Venus sprang from the foam of the sea. The zephyr wafted her alone the waves to the Isle of Cyprus, where she was received and attired by the Seasons and then led to them assembly of the gods. All were charmed with her beauty, and each one demanded her for his wife. Jupiter gave her to Vulcan, in gratitude for the service he had rendered in forging thunderbolts. So the most beautiful of the goddesses became the wife of the most ill-favored of the gods. Venus possessed an embroidered girdle called Cestus, which has the power of inspiring love. Her favorite birds were swans and doves, and the plants sacred to her were the rose and the myrtle.
Cupid (Eros), the god of love, was the son of Venus. He was her constant companion; and armed with bow and arrows, he shot the darts of desire into the bosom of both gods and men. There was a deity named Anteros, who was sometimes represented as the avenger of slighted love, and sometimes as the symbol of reciprocal affection. The following legend is told of him: Venus, complaining to Themis that her son Eros continued always a child, was told by her that it was because he was solitary, and that if he had a brother he would grow apace. Anteros was soon afterward born, and Eros immediately was seen to increase rapidly in size and strength. Minerva (Pallas Athene), the goddess of wisdom, was the offspring of Jupiter, without a mother. She sprang forth from his head, competently armed. Her favorite bird was the owl, and the plant sacred to her the olive. Byron, in Childe Harold, alludes to the birth of Minerva, thus: Can tyrants but by tyrants conquered be, and freedom find no champion and no child, such as Columbia saw arise, when she sprang forth a Pallas, armed and undefiled? Or must such minds be nourished in the wild, deep in the unpruned forest, ‘midst the roar of cataracts, where nursing Nature smiled on infant Washington? Has Earth no more such seeds within her breast, or Europe no such shore? Mercury (Hermes) was the son of Jupiter and Maia. He presided over commerce, wrestling, and other gymnastic exercises, even over trade, and everything, in short, which required skill and dexterity.
He was the messenger of Jupiter and wore a winged cap and winged shoes. He bore in his hand a rod entwined with two serpents, called the Caduceus. Mercury is said to have invented the lyre. He found, one day a tortoise, of which he took the shell, made holes in the opposite edges of it, and drew cords of linen through them, and the instruments was complete. The cords were nine, in honor of the nine Muses. Mercury gave the lyre to Apollo, and received from him in exchange the caduceus.* Cere (Demeter) was the daughter of Saturn and Rhea. She had a daughter named Proserpine (Persephone), who became the wife of Pluto, and queen of the realms of the dead. Ceres presided over agriculture. *From this origin of the instrument, the word shell often is used as synonymous with lyre, and figuratively for music and poetry. Thus, Gray, in his ode on the Progress of Posey, says Oh, Sovereign of the willing soul, parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, enchanting shell! The sullen Cares and frantic Passions hear thy soft control. Bacchus (Dinoysus), the god of wine, was the son of Jupiter and Semele. He represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but its social and beneficent influences likewise, so that he is viewed as the promoter of civilization, and a lawgiver and lover of peace. The Muses were the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne (Memory). They presided over song and prompted the memory. They were nine in number, to each of whom was assigned the presidency over some particular department of literature, art or science. Calliope was the muse of epic poetry. Clio of history, Euterpe of lyric poetry, Melpomene of tragedy, Terpsichore of choral dance and song, Erato of love poetry, Polyhymnia of sacred poetry, Urania of astronomy, Thalia of comedy.
The Graces were goddesses presiding over the banquet, the dance, and all social enjoyments and elegant arts. They were three in number. Their names were Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia. Spenser described the office of the Graces thus: These three on men all gracious gifts bestow, which deck the body or adorn the mind, to make them lovely or well-favored show; as comely carriage, entertainment kind, sweet semblance, friendly offices that bind, and all the complements of courtesy; they teach us how to each degrees and kind we should ourselves demeans, to low, to high, to friends, to foes; which skill men call Civility. The fates were also three-Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Their office was to spin the thread of human destiny, and they were armed with shears, with which they cut it off when they pleased. They were the daughters of Themis (Law), who sits by Jove on his throne to give him counsel. The Erinnyes, or Furies, were three goddesses who punished by their secret stings the crimes of those who escaped or defined public justice. The heads of the Furies were wreathed with serpents, and their whole appearance was terrific and appalling. Their names were Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. They were also called Eumenides. Nemesis was also an avenging goddess. She represents the righteous anger of the gods, particularly toward the proud and insolent. Pan was the god of the flocks and shepherds. His favorite residence was in Arcadia. The Stayrs were deities of the woods and fields. They were conceived to be covered with bristly hair, their heads decorated with short, sprouting horns, and their feet like goats’ feet.
Momus was the god of laughter, and Plutus the god of wealth. The preceding are Grecian divinities, through received also by the Romans. Those which follow are peculiar to Roman mythology. Saturn was an ancient Italian deity. It was attempted to identify him with the Grecian god Cronos, and fabled that after his dethronement by Jupiter, he fled to Italy, where he reigned during what was called the Golden Age. In memory of his beneficent dominion, the feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the Winter season. Then all public business was suspended, declarations of war and criminal executions were postponed, friends made presents to one another, and the slaves were indulged with great liberties. A feast was given them at which they sat at table, while their masters served them, to show the natural equality of men, and that all things belonged equally of men, and that all things belonged equally to all, in the reign of Saturn. Fauns,* the grandson of Saturn, was worshipped as the god of fields and shepherds, and also as a prophetic god. His name in the plural, Fauns, expressed a class of gamesome deities, like the Satyrs of the Greeks. Quirinus was a war god, said to be no other than Romulus, the founder of Rome, exalted after his death to a place among the gods. Bellona, a war goddess. Terminus, the god of landmarks. His statue was a rude stone or post, set in the ground to mark the boundaries of fields. Pales, the goddess presiding over cattle and pastures. Pomona presided over fruit trees. Flora, the goddess of flowers. Lucina, the goddess of childbirth. Vesta (The Hestia of the Greeks) was a deity presiding over the public and private hearth.
A sacred fire, tended by six virgin priestesses called Vestals, flamed in her temple. As the safety of the city was held to be connected with its conservation, the neglect of the virgins, f they let it go out, was severely punished, and the fire was rekindled from the rays of the Sun. *There was also a goddess called Fauna, or Bona Dea. Liber is the Latin name of Bacchus; and Mulciber of Vulcan. Janus was the porter of Heaven. He opens the year, the first month being named after him. He is the guardian deity of the gates, on which account he is commonly represented with two heads, because every door looks two ways. His temples at Rome were numerous. In wartime the gates of the principal one were always open. In peace they were closed; but they were shut only once between the reign of Numa and that of Augustus. Then Penates were the gods who were supposed to attend to the welfare and prosperity of the family. Their name is derived from Penus, the pantry, which was sacred to them. Every master of a family was the priest to the Penates of his own house. The Lares, or Lars, were also household gods, but differed from the Penates in being regarded as the Penates in being regarded as the deified spirits of mortals. The family Lars were held to be the souls of the ancestors, who watched over and protected their descendants. The words Lemur and Larva more nearly corresponded to our word Ghost. The Romans believed that every man had his Genius, and every woman her Juno; that is, a spirit who had given them being, and was regarded as their protector through life. On their birthdays men made offerings to their Genius, women to their Juno. A modern poet thus alludes to some of the Roman gods: Pomona loves the orchard, and Liber loves the wine, and Pales loves the straw-built shed, warm with the breath of knife; and Venus loves the whisper of plighted youth and maid, in April (422) ivory moonlight, beneath the chestnut shade. N.B. It is to be observed that in proper names the final e and es are to be sounded. Thus Cybele and Penates are words of three syllables. However, Proserpine and Thebes are exceptions, and to be pronounced as English words. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. – William Randolph Hearst (Isaiah 50.10-11).
The Winchester Mystery House
What are you afraid of? Face your fears while turning the most mysterious mansion in the World! Why should you be afraid to enter after dark? If you meet the Devil at the door-to-nowhere, what could go wrong? Why does your reflection smile more than you do? Why is your shadow walking in the opposite direction? For insightful clues into these phenomena, explore more. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Every Generation has its Improvements
We live in a physical World whose properties are familiar, and, it is around us all the time. We cherish our own space. If you would have your son or daughter to walk honorably through the World, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his or her path, but tech your children to walk firmly over them—not insist upon leading a child by the hand, but let your child learn to go alone. Artists as reporters represent their World, and they even expect their work to have an impact on the World, to reveal hidden or universal truths. The work is about knowing and appreciating the beautiful, and that is how we can make the World a better place. Each photograph represents a particular intellectual, emotional, or expressive quality of the subject, they represent powerful emotions and feelings and passions. In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton demonstrated that objects appear to be a certain color because they absorb and reflect different parts of the visible spectrum. Obviously, not all artists are able to utilize light as fully as architects. Architects, particularly, must concern themselves with light.
However, especially if artist and photographers are interested in representing the World, they must learn to imitate the effects of light in their work. There is something called the atmospheric perspective or aerial perspective, and these rules state that the quality of the atmosphere (the haze and relative humidity) between us and large objects, such as mountains, changes their appearance. Objects further away from us appear less distinct, often cooler, or bluer in color, and the contrast between light and dark is reduced. Some of these photographs throw a veil of matchless color, that lucid interval of Morning dawn and dewy light on which the Eye dwells…and it is a sacrilege to pierce the mystic shell of color in search of form. With linear perspective one might adequately describe physical reality—a building, for instance—but through light one could reveal a greater spiritual reality. In this photograph, the light is much more expressive. It is, in large part, the dramatic play of light and dark in the photograph that contributes to this expressivity. The perspective system employed is used to focus our attention on the building, it is light that draws our attention to the grandeur and beauty. The Heavenly light surrounding the Capitol contrasts dramatically with the darkness of the rest of the composition. The building is symbolically offering you its body as nourishment. This purely spiritual act contracts with the gluttonous Worldly activity going on in the foreground, where a dog knaws at a bone, and a cat searches for leftovers. Light here symbolizes the spiritual World, and darkness our Earthly home. Light and dark have traditionally had strong symbolic meaning in Western culture.
We have only to think of the Christian Bible, and the first lines of the Book of Genesis, which very openly associates the dark with the bad and the light with good. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. In the history of art, this association of light or white with good and darkness or black with evil was first fully developed in the late eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century color theory of the German poet and dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. For Goethe, colors were not just phenomena to be explained by scientific laws. They also had moral and religious significance, existing halfway between the goodness of pure light and the damnation of pure blackness. In Heaven, there is only pure light, but the fact that we can experience color—which, according to the laws of optics, depends upon light mixing with darkness—promises us at least the hope of salvation. In the first, the figures are all passive, sleeping, or dead. In the second, the figures are bathed in an almost pure white light and barely recognizable at the top center of the painting. Figures swirl around him as if life itself is being born out of a vortex.
Although this opposition between dark and light is taken for granted in our culture, many people of color, with reason, find such thinking offensive. They are especially offended by the use of the term value to describe gradations of light and dark, so that black is low, and white is high in value. Artists and art historians alike use the term as a part of a specialized descriptive vocabulary that, in itself, would seem to be art the furthest remove from issues of race and the relative worth of human beings. Nevertheless, it is clear that since Biblical times, Western culture has tended to associate blackness with negative qualities and whiteness with positive ones, and it is understandable why people might take offense at this usage. For this reason, we use the word key instead of value, substituting the musical metaphor for the moral and economic one. If for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, blackness is not merely the absence of color, but the absence of good, for African Americans, blackness is just the opposite. Mighty drums echoing the voices of Spirits…these sounds are rhythmic, the rhythm of vitality, the rhythm of exuberance and the rhythms of Life. These are the sounds of blackness. Blackness—the presence of all color.
When restoring some artwork, technicians found that the dull, somber hues always associated with Michelangelo were not the result of his palette, that is, the range of colors he preferred to use, but of centuries of accumulated dust, smoke, grease, and varnishes made of animal glue painted over the ceiling by earlier restorers. The colors are in fact much more saturated and intense than anyone had previously supposed. Some experts, in fact, find them so intense that they seem, beside the golden tones of the unrestored surface, almost garish. As a result, there has been some debate about the merits of the cleaning. However, it is not a controversy. It is a culture shock. Therefore, agree with your adversary quickly. Do it quickly—bring yourself to judgment now. In moral and spiritual matters, you must act immediately. God is determined to have His child as pure, clean, and white as driven snow, and as long as there is disobedience, God will allow His Spirit to use whatever process it may take to bring us to obedience. The fact that we insist on proving that we are right is almost always a clear indication that we have some point of disobedience. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny. God urged you to come to judgment immediately when He condemned you, but you did not obey. Then the inevitable process began to work, bringing its inevitable penalty. The moment you are willing for God to change your nature, His re-creating forces will begin to work. He will reach to the very limits of the Universe to help you take the right road.
Era of Instability
No amount of education can cure natural dullness or make up for original mental deficiencies. Americans are used to being a nation of immigrants, and even as new immigration sparks public debate about how much is enough, illegal immigrants are now being allowed to get driver’s licenses. With the slowing of the United States economy, 45 percent of America thinks there are too many immigrants entering the country from Latin American countries. Americans have not seen any increase in their economic standing, under this current administration, and the country is $18.1 trillion in debt and only funded until 15 September 2015. Many people believe if we are going to allow immigration, Americans should be seeing prosperity. We are collecting more taxes than this nation has ever collected in history. Taxes are too high and there is a struggle for social, economic, and political dominance in the country. There are currently more than 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States of America, making up 3.5 percent of the nation’s population. A person who is not a citizen of the United States of America, by birth or by naturalization, but crosses the border, without documentation is considered an unauthorized immigrant. Immigrants can visit, study, work, or make their home in this country, but only with the permission of the federal government. The conditions immigrants must meet in order to enter the United States of America are determined by Congress, and the laws that apply to their admission and residency are enforced by the Attorney General of the United States and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Not everyone who wants to enter the United States is allowed to do so. For example, INS refuses to admit people who are mentally ill, who have been convicted of a serious crime, and who carry certain diseases, such as AIDS.
Also, immigrants who want to work in this country may do so, only if they are not depriving American citizens of job opportunities. Mexicans make up about 52 percent of all unauthorized immigrants; there are 6 million unauthorized Mexican immigrants. Sixty percent of unauthorized immigrants live in California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. Unauthorized make up 5.1 percent of the United States labor force, or 8.1 million; and currently the nation is experiencing an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent. And unauthorized immigrants make up about 18 percent of schools population, so they are breaking the law and using taxpayer money, which is adding to the $18.1 trillion deficit. Many Americans are upset because unauthorized immigrants are here unlawfully, and unauthorized immigrants are getting privileges like driver’s licenses, free college education and housing. These factors are what is making immigration an even more problematic issue because many Americans are struggling to pay their bills and send their children to college, but their tax money is going to support a population of over 11.2 million people who are unauthorized to be in this country. What people do not understand is that unauthorized immigrants are criminals, and they are causing ethnic and racial issues in the United States of America. Unauthorized immigrants must obey the laws of this country, even when those laws clash with the customs of their native land. For example, among some communities in Mexico, it is not uncommon for a man or woman to steal a bride from her family. Although this type of behavior is allowed in Mexico, it is considered kidnapping here.
Maria Saucedo, who was only 31, was a legal citizen of the United States of America, and resided in Arizona. She had a beautiful daughter, age 13, but an unauthorized immigrant, Jose Zarate, age 25, went to Maria’s house and used insolent language with her, before shooting Maria in the chest and killing her because she refused to let him date her daughter. The United States of America has been faced with the problem of millions of people entering the country illegally, most of them coming from the Mexico border. The sheer numbers of undocumented immigrants threaten to overburden state and federal welfare programs. People fear that these undocumented workers will release an orgy of brutality and violence across the United States of America. By 2024, Mexicans will be the majority in New York, and by 2028, Mexicans will be the majority in California and America by 2043, Mexicans will be the majority in the United States of America, due to immigration. Many are worried because Mexican radicals have been discussing their plans to conquer America, which Mexico regards as their territory, which was lost in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo in 1846. However, Mexico actually stole land from William Randolph Hearst, his father, Senator George Hearst bought 1,625,000 acres of land in Chihuahua, Mexico in the 1886. However, Pancho Villa looted the Hearsts’ giant Chihuahua ranch called Babicora; some say the same people Mr. Hearst hired to work on his land seized it. Senator George Hearst hired one hundred army men to take back his ranch, but it was under heavy attack. Many Americans fear the same thing may happen to the United States of America, and that Congress does not seem to care because they are giving away America for a short-term political gain. This stale excuse of duty signifies bigotry; self-conceit; an insolent curiosity; a meddle some temper; a cold-blooded criticism, founded on a shallow interpretation of half-perceptions; a monstrous skepticism in regard to any conscience or any wisdom, except one’s own; a most irreverent propensity to thrust Providence aside, and substitute oneself in its awful place. These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his people the things that will soon take place.
The High Cost of Caring
Standing in the rain, thinking of a way to keep these feelings inside. Walk away from here before the words disappear, I will be silent. Health is not just an absence of disease. People who are truly healthy enjoy a positive state of wellness or well-being. If you are in a situation where you experience on going stress and it is impacting your health, and no one is doing anything to remediate the problem, no matter how much you love some of your coworkers, or friends, you have to move on. I do not want stomach cancer or anything like that from stressing about something I cannot control. When emotional shocks are intense or repeated, unpredictable, uncontrollable, and are linked to pressure, stress will be magnified and damage is like to result. Yes, people generally feel more stress in situations over which they have little or no control. For example, Douglas DeGood subjected college students to an unpleasant shock-avoidance task. Some students were allowed to select their own rest periods, while others rested at times selected for them. Participants allowed to control their own rest periods showed lower stress levels (as measure by blood pressure) than those given to choose.
Stress is not always bad. To be totally without stress is to be dead. As noted earlier, stress is the mental and physical condition that occurs when a person must adjust or adapt to the environment. Unpleasant events such as work pressures, martial problems, or financial woes naturally produce stress. However, so do travel, sports, a new job, mountain climbing, dating, and other beneficial activities. Even if you are not a thrill seeker, a healthy lifestyle may include a fair amount of eustress (good stress). Eustress can be energizing. Activities that provoke good stress are usually experiences as challenge and rewarding. A stress reaction begins with the same autonomic nervous system arousal that occurs during emotion. Imagine standing at the top of a wind-whipped ski jump for the very first time. Internally, there would be a rapid surge in your hate rate, blood pressure, respiration, muscle tension, and other ANS responses. Short-term stresses of this kind can be uncomfortable, but they rarely do damage. (Your landing might be another matter, however.)
Warning signs of stress that are emotional include anxiety, apathy, irritability, mental fatigue. Behavioral signs of stress are avoidance of responsibilities and relationships, extreme or self-destructive behavior, self-neglect, and poor judgment. Physical signs of stress are excessive worry about illness, frequent illness, and exhaustion, overuse of medication, and physical ailments and complaints. Other than when it is long lasting, why is stress sometimes damaging and sometimes not? Stress reactions are complex. Let us examine some of the chief factors that determine whether or not stress is harmful. When is stress a strain? It goes almost without saying that some events are more likely to cause stress than others. A stressor is a condition or event in the environment that challenges or threatens a person. Reporters, for instance, suffer from a high rate of stress-related diseases. The threat of injury or death, plus occasional confrontations with drunk or belligerent citizens, takes a toll. A major factor here is the unpredictable nature of journalism. A reporter never knows when they go to cover a story or an active crime scene if a cooperative citizen or an armed gang member is waiting for them. In 2014, 60 journalists were killed. Some reporters are being irresponsible in getting the media caught up in a cross and others are good reporters and just get caught in bad situations.
Pressure is another element in stress, especially job stress. Pressure occurs when a person must meet urgent external demands or expectations. For example, we feel pressured when activities must be speeded up, when deadlines must be met, when extra work is added unexpectedly, or when we must work near maximum capacity for long periods. However, maintaining wellness is a life-long pursuit and, hopefully, productive work that is enjoyed. People who attain optimal wellness are both physically and psychologically healthy. They engage in good thought patterns, show emotional resilience, and they are optimistic and self-confident. People with a sense of well-being also have supportive relationships with others, do meaningful work, and live in a clean environment. Many of these aspects of wellness are present in people who are in a loving state of mind. Understanding stress, and learning to control it, can improve not only your health, but the quality of your life as well. So I do not want to be in a place where I am harassed and disrespected. In is a new year, and if you have warned people, but they are not listening to you, let them go. This does not need to be a repeat of last year. There is something wrong with those people for them to be so mean. They are in pain and want to project it on you and cause dysfunction in your life. However, as soon as you let them go, others who want to help you will come into your life.
What does it mean to feel threatened by a stressor? Certainly in daily situations it does not mean you think your life is in danger. (Unless, of course, you owe money to Lucious Lyon or Enrico the Enforcer.) Threat has more to do with the idea of the control. We are particularly prone to feel stressed when we cannot—or think we cannot control our immediate environment. In short, a perceived lack of control is just as threatening as an actual lack of control. If your answer to the question is, “What can I do about this situation? Is “nothing,” you will feel emotionally stressed. A sense of control also comes from believing you can reach desired goals. It is threatening to feel that we lack competence to cope with life’s demands. Thus, the intensity of the body’s stress reaction often depends on what we think and tell ourselves about stressors. That is why it is valuable to learn to think in ways that ward off the body’s stress response. Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire. Not a root or a branch will be left to them, says the Lord Almighty.
Stand Firm–How Do You Feel?
If a mad scientist were to replace your best friend’s brain with a computer, how would you know that something was wrong? One of the first telltale signs might be an absence of emotion. Emotion is a state characterized by arousal, plus changes in facial expression, gestures, posture, and subjective feeling. Have you ever waited until someone was in a good mood to ask a favor? If you have, you are aware that emotions have a powerful influence on motivation. People who are feeling happy are more likely to help others in need. It is equally apparent, however, that emotions can have a negative impact. Hate, anger, contempt, disgust, and fear all disrupt behavior and relationships. However, we ought to always thank God for being loved by the Lord because from the beginning, God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. May our Lord Jesus Christ, himself, and God our father, who loved us by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned, who have not believed the truth, but have delighted in wickedness. The root of the word emotions means to move, and emotions do indeed move us. First, the body is physically aroused during emotions. Such bodily stirrings are what cause us to say we are moved by a play, an Aaliyah concert, or an act of kindness. Second, we are often motivated, or moved to take action, by emotions such as fear, anger, or joy. Underlying all this, perhaps, is the fact that emotions are linked to basic adaptive behaviors, such as attacking, retreating, seeking comfort, helping others, reproducing, and the like. Adaptive behaviors help our attempts to survive and adjust to changing conditions. Again, we must realize that emotions can be disruptive, as in having stage fright or choking up in an athletic contest. However, more often, emotions are a survival tool. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. A pounding heart, sweating palms, bubbly guts, and other bodily reactions are a major element of fear, anger, joy and other emotions. These physiological changes include alterations in heart rate, blood pressure, perspiration, and other bodily strings. (More on this in a moment.) Most of these changes in activity are caused by adrenaline, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. Adrenaline enters the bloodstream when the sympathetic nervous system is activated. People who have had their adrenal glands removed for medical reasons displayed much less emotional arousal. Pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from the unlovely people, for not everyone has faith.
However, the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the ungodly one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. Emotional expressions, or outward signs of what a person is feeling, are another major element of emotion. For example, when you are intensely upset, your hands tremble, your face contorts, and your posture becomes tense and defensive. Emotion is also revealed by marked shifts in voice tone or modulation. Such expressions are important because they communicate emotion from one person to another. Emotional feelings (a person’s private emotional experience) are a final major element of emotion. This is the part of emotion with which we are typically most familiar. Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
One must manage their own family well and see that their children obey them with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his or her own family, how can he or she take care of God’s church?) One must not be a recent convert, or he or she may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He or she must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that they will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. For example, Pope Francis said there are limits to freedom of speech, especially when it insults or ridicules someone’s faith. If my good friend Dr. Gasbarri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch, it is normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. Gossip, slander, lies, abuse, violence, harassment, and this game of telephone is all part of the devil’s trap to get you banned from Heaven, so that you may perish and burn in hell for all eternity. You should not be spying on your neighbors or minding their business. First of all, your life is not perfect, neither are you, and the only reason you are bullying others is take attention off the fact that you are a failure. Instead of trying harder to be a better person, you pick on others and that is the devil’s trap. Therefore, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Justice; Justness; Injustice (continued)
The Civil War and Its Aftermath: Civil Rights Laws and Constitutional Amendments–Retributive justice pursues and overtakes the guilty to the ends of the Earth. The World, being in the constant commission of vast quantities of injustice, is a little too apt to comfort itself with the idea that if the victim of its falsehood and malice have clear conscience, he or she cannot fail to be sustained under his trials, and somehow or other to come right at last; in which case, say they who have hunted him down, –though we certainly do not expect it—nobody will be better pleased then we. Whereas, the World would do well to reflect, that injustice is in itself, to every generous and properly constituted mind, an injury, of all others the most insufferable, the most torturing, and the most hard to bear; and that many clear consciences have gone to their account elsewhere, and many sound hears have broken, because of this very reason; the knowledge of their won deserts only aggravating their suffering, and rendering the, them the less endurable.
In 1857, the case of Dred Scott v Standford, the Court bluntly ruled unconstitutional the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery north of the geographical boundary, at 36 degrees latitude, on a map of the United States of America. Furthermore, the Court found that slaves were not U.S. citizens. Therefore, they could not bring suits in federal court, as the court concluded that the enslaved Africans might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. Ironically, after the case was decided, Dred Scott’s owner freed him. The Civil War had many causes, including the political conflict between the North and South over nullification, a doctrine allowing states to declare federal laws null and void, and secession, which involved the right of states to leave the Union; the northern states’ increasing political strength in Congress, especially in the House of Representatives; southern agriculture versus northern industry; and the clash of conservative southern culture with more progressive northern ideas. Slavery, though, was clearly the key issue.
During the Civil War (1861-1865), abolitionists continued their antislavery pressure. They were rewarded when President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which provided that all slaves in the states still in active rebellion against the United States would be freed automatically on 1 January 1863. Designed as a measure to gain favor for the war in the North, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves—it freed only those who lived in the Confederacy. Complete abolition of slavery did not occur until congressional passage and ultimate ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in 1865. The Civil War Amendment—the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was the first of three Civil War Amendments. It banned all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Although southern states were required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment as a condition of their readmission to the Union after the war, most of the former Confederate states quickly passed laws that were designed to restrict opportunities for newly freed slaves. These Black Codes prohibited African Americans from voting, sitting on juries, or even appearing in public places.
Although Black Codes prohibited African Americans laws denied most legal rights to newly freed slaves, they differed from state to state, all empowered local law-enforcement officials were allowed to arrest unemployed Blacks, fine them for vagrancy, and hire them out to employers to satisfy their fines. Some states codes went so far as to require African Americans to work on plantations or to be domestics. The Black Codes laid the groundwork for Jim Crow laws, which would later institute segregation in all walks of life. The outraged Reconstruction Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to invalidate state Black Codes. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the legislation, but—for the first time in history—Congress overrode a presidential veto. The Civil Rights Act formally made African Americans citizens of the United States of American and gave Congress and the federal courts the power to intervene when states attempted to restrict male African American citizenship rights in matters such as voting. Congress reasoned that African Americans were unlikely to fare well if they had to file discrimination complaints in state courts, where judges were elected. Passage of a federal law allowed African Americans to challenge discriminatory state practices in the federal courts, where judges were appointed by the President.
Because controversy remained over the constitutionality of the act (since the Constitution gives states the right to determine qualification of voters), the Fourteenth Amendment was proposed simultaneously with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to guarantee, among other things, citizenship to all freed slaves. Other key provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment barred states from abridging the privileges or immunities of citizenship or depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. However, it took federal troops to protect the rights of African Americans. Once federal troops were no longer available, Jim Crow laws started to pop un in the states, which prevented all interracial marriages, and basically made it illegal for Black to interact with Whites, in schools and public places. Southern resistance to African American equality led Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1875, designed to grant equal access to public accommodations such as theaters, restaurants, and transportation. The act also prohibited the exclusion of African Americans from jury service.
As you can see Constitutional Rights and the Federal government are extremely important to everyone is free to live and have protection under the laws. If the States are not monitored, by the all-powerful Federal Government, the states have a tendency to become corrupt. There is no such thing as moral responsibility for past acts, no such thing as real justice in punishing them, for the reason that human beings are not stationary existences, but changing, growing, incessantly progressive organisms, which in no two moments are the same. Therefore, justice, whose only possible mode of proceeding is to punish in present time for what is done in past time, must always punish a person more or less similar to, but never identical with, the one whom committed the offense, and therein must be no justice. Proof must be built up stone by stone. Then end crowns the work. It is not enough that Justice should be morally certain; she must be immorally certain—legally, that is. Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so, some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Which means be kind to each other because the person next to you may be an angel and angels report to God.
The Civil Rights Movement
I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. However, I am not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And God has allowed me to go up to the mountaintop, and I have looked over. And I have seen the promise land. I may not get there with you. However, I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promise land. So I am happy tonight. I am not worried about anything. I do not fear any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming Lord. Those are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoken the day before he was allegedly murdered by James Earl Ray, as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassination unleashed a torrent of civic rage in the community. More than 125 cities experienced uprisings. By 11 April 1968, 46 people were dead, 35,000 were injured, and more than 20,000 had been arrested. However, prior to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, the Congress of the United State of America passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but Dr. King was still trying to sooth a restless nation and spread peace by acting as a psychologist and spiritual healer to he masses.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed because he was trying to get equal rights and equal protect under the law for everyone, and some saw him as a threat because of this. You see, in the 1960s, America was very racist and poor European Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans and Asians, women, and others (minority groups) faced a lot of discrimination, and they were not protected by the laws. Certain people could not get jobs because of the color of their skin, sexuality, gender or economic status, religion, and height and weight. So even if they wanted to work or buy a certain house or rent an apartment, certain people were not allowed to because others did not like the way they looked or who they were, and this caused a lot of people to become poor, homeless or die because they were preventing from gaining resources. However, keep in mind, not all rich men were bigots. Discriminations is unequal treatment of people because of their group membership. Many hotels and restaurants did admit Black people, and many Black people did not venture where they were unwanted or unwelcomed because they were likely to be met with hostility. Many people resented African Americans and others in public facilities, places of entertainment and business establishments, they were believed to be a subordinate race, and their proximity in shops, parks, and on passenger trains suggested an unacceptable equality in public life.
Discrimination may be personal, legal, or institutional. Personal discrimination includes attacks on minority group members, from social slights and insults to murder. In legal discrimination, minority group members are denied lawful access to public institutions, jobs, housing, and social rewards. The third major and most subtle and pervasive kind of discrimination is institutional discrimination, which is unequal treatment of a group that is deeply embedded in government, schools, the media and some public places. Typically, institutional discrimination includes discriminatory practices and traditions that have such a long history that they just seem to make sense. For quite a long time, a similar logic was used by police departments. During the 1960s, largely due to the efforts of the Civil Rights movement, which was started by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., discrimination declined in the United States of America, but it took him losing his life to get equal protection under the law for all minority groups.
Martin Luther King, Jr. launched a series of massive nonviolent demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, which was long considered an intolerant state. Thousands of people, of all cultures, marched to Birmingham in a show of solidarity. Often times these protesters were met by angry mobs of segregationists and brutal violence, as some local police decided not to defend protesters’ basic Constitutional Rights. It is also important to note that not all police nor European Americans were racist, but the nation was, at the time. However, while in Birmingham, Alabama, the police commissioner ordered his officers to use dogs, clubs (much like baseball bats), and fire hoses on the marchers, and Americans across the nation were horrified, as they witnessed the brutality and abuse heaped on the groups of people seeking their Constitutional Rights. The exercise of freedom of speech lead to bombings and deaths, inflicted, in retaliation, for what was deemed civil disobedience, by the people seeking equal protection, under the laws. Basically, people were punished because they wanted the same freedoms that others had.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy requested that the United States Congress pass a law banning discrimination in public accommodations. Seizing the moment, and recognizing the potency of a show of massive support, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for a monumental march on Washington, D.C., to demonstrate widespread support for legislation to ban discrimination in all aspects of life, not just public accommodations. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was held in August 1963, only a few months after the Birmingham demonstrations. More than 250,000 people participated. The Civil rights demonstrators sought national attention for their cause, and photos in print media, and this was very powerful in swaying public opinion. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was able to help pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Outlawed arbitrary discrimination in voter registration and expedited voting rights lawsuits. Barred discrimination in public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce. The Civil Rights Act also authorized the Department of Justice to initiate lawsuits to desegregate public facilities and schools, and provided for the withholding of federal funds from discriminatory state and local programs.
In addition to Prohibiting discrimination, in employment, on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to monitor and enforce the bans on employment discrimination. So, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not the first, but one of the most successful and complete pieces of legislation in the history of the United States of America. There was also a Civil Rights Act passed in 1866 and 1875. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against employees for a variety of reasons, including sex, race, age, and national origin. Strong minds perceive that justice is the highest of the moral attributes—and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. established justice and equality for all. Today, 15 January 2015 is his birthday, he would be 86-year-old today, and I am sure that Dr. King is happy that everyone now has equal protection under the law, and that discrimination is dead. Nonetheless, the tendency of all law-making and all governing should be to reduce the inequalities. Although discrimination is dead, women are still underrepresented in employment. Since the establishment of the body, in 1798, there have been only 46 women in the United States Senate, and currently there are only 20 women serving in the state senate, and 80 men.
Women are still paid, on average 23 percent less than men. For example, if a man makes $100,000.00USD annually, for being a news reporter, a female reporter may only make $77,000.00USD a year; even though she has the same job and the same responsibilities, she makes $23,000.00 less than a man, for the same job, that needs to stop and women need equal pay. And tragically, Senator Barbara Boxer is retiring, so women may not see as much progress in the future. It has been 52 years since the equal pay act became law, but women are still not paid the same as men. To ensure the women move toward equal pay and representation, Attorney General of California, Kamala D. Harris, is running for the Senate Seat. Please vote for her so that women continue to progress in society and are not left behind. Washington needs to be shaken up, and we need a climate of champions who will fight for the next generation. Justice of today pays all the debts of yesterday and nothing else will. Women like Senator Barbara Boxer, Attorney General of California Kalama D. Harris, Jessica Rosenworcel and Naomi Milton of the Federal Communications Commission, and Rebecca Jarvis Chief Business and Economics Correspondent of ABC New York are trying to make a difference. So please keep Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream alive by voting for Donald Trump for President of the United States of American.
The Need for Achievement
The World has arrived at a period which renders it the part of Wisdom to pay homage to the prospective precedents of the Future in preference to those of the Past. The Past is dead, and has no resurrection; but the Future is endowed with such a life, that it lives to us even in anticipation. The Past is, in many things, the foe of mankind; the Future is, in all things, our friend. In the Past is no hope; the Future is both hope and fruition. The Past is the textbook of tyrants; the Future the Bible of the Free. Those who are solely governed by the Past stand like Lot’s wife, crystallized in the act of looking backward, and forever incapable of looking before. Competition and achievement are highly valued in Western culture. In less industrialized nations, the desire to achieve may be low. Some of your friends are more interested than others in success, money, possessions, status, love, approval, grades, dominance, power, or belonging to groups. In each case, we are referring to differences in social motives or goals. Social motives are acquired in complex ways through socialization and cultural conditioning. The behavior of outstanding artists, scientists, athletes, educators, musicians, and leaders is best understood in terms of such learned needs—particularly the need for achievement.
To many people, being motivated means being interested in achievement. The need for achievement can be defined as a desire to meet some internalized standard of excellence. The person with high needs for achievement strives to do well in any situation, in which evaluation takes place. Human reason, fortitude, and perseverance, are adequate to the accomplishment of anything upon Earth. Is that like the aggressive businessperson who strives for success? Not necessarily. Needs for achievement may lead to wealth and prestige, but a person who is a high achiever in art, music, science, or amateur athletics may strive for excellence without seeking riches. The need for achievement differs from a need for power, which is a desire to have impact or control over others. People with strong needs for power want their importance to be visible: they buy expensive possessions, wear prestigious clothes, and exploit relationships. In some ways, the pursuit of power and wealth is the dark side of the American dream. People whose main goal in life is to make a lot of money tend to be poorly adjusted and unhappy.
Many people believe in working out their bodies, in the New Year, but what about the mind? Self-confidence is an important source of motivation in everyday life. A person with self-confidence believes that he or she can successfully reach a goal or carry out an activity, That is why self-confidence affects motivation: it influences the challenges you will attempt, the effort you will expend, and how long you persist when things do not go well. To increase self-confidence, it is wise to do the following: you need to set goals that are specific and challenging, but attainable. Advance in small steps. When you first acquire a skill, your goals should be to make progress in learning. Later, you can concentrate on improving your performance, compared with other people. Get expert instruction to help you mater the skill. Find a skilled model (someone good at the skill) to emulate. Get support and encouragement from an observer. If you fail, regard it as a sign that you need to try harder, not that you lack ability. Some people look at living as hard work. Others think life is full of pleasure and dream of success. When you carry out an activity for enjoyment, to show your ability, or to gain skill, your motivation is usually intrinsic. Intrinsic motivation occurs when there is no obvious external reward or ulterior purpose behind your actions. The activity is enjoyed as an end in itself. Intrinsic motivation is closely related to the higher levels of self-actualization. In contrast, extrinsic motivation stems from obvious external factors, such as pay, grades, rewards, obligations, and approval. Most of the activities we think of as work are extrinsically rewarded.
People are more likely to be creative when they are intrinsically motivated. On the job, for instance, salaries and bonuses may increase the amount of work done. However, work quality is tied more to intrinsic factors, such as self-interest, freedom to choose, and useful feedback. Intrinsic motivation also promotes person involvement in a task. This, in turn, tends to lead to greater creativity. The following, however, are considered to be creativity killers on the job: working under surveillance, having your choices restricted by rules, working primarily to get good evaluation (or avoid a bad one), working mainly to get money. When a person is intrinsically motivated, a certain amount of challenge, surprise, and complexity makes a task rewarding. When extrinsic motivation is stressed, complexity, surprise, and challenge just become barriers to each a goal. A person who is extrinsically motivated wants to take the fastest, most direct route to a goal. Typically, this undermines creativity. How can the concept of intrinsic motivation be applied? Motivation cannot always be intrinsic. Nor should it be. Not every worthwhile activity is intrinsically satisfying. In addition, extrinsic motivation is often needed to develop enough skill or knowledge to make an activity intrinsically rewarding. This can be observed in learning to read, to play a musical instruments, or enjoy a sport.
So, both types of motivation are necessary. However, extrinsic motivation should not be overused. If there is no intrinsic interest in an activity to begin with, you have nothing to lose by using extrinsic rewards; if basic skills are lacking, extrinsic rewards may be necessary at first; extrinsic rewards may be necessary at first; if extrinsic reward are used, they should be small and faded out as soon as possible. It also helps to tell people that they are good at whatever activity you are rewarding. As a reminder, intrinsic motivation is motivation that comes from within, rather than from external rewards; motivation based on personal enjoyment of a task or activity. Extrinsic motivation is motivation based on obvious external rewards, obligations or similar factors. By following these guidelines, you can avoid taking spontaneous interest and satisfaction out of motivation, especially for those learning new skills. There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting and appears to be unresponsive, do not fill it with busyness; just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification—to be set apart from sin and made righteous—or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
Please Wear Seat Belts
It is important to wear your seat belt, especially in these foggy conditions that we are experiencing because many times others cars cannot see you on the road. In the fog, you need at least 1,000 feet between the car in front of you, as the visibility can be zero. The California High Way Patrol reported that fog played a factor, in a collision, which exterminated five people, along Highway 4 and Highway 99, East of Stockton, California, on the morning of 13 January 2015, at about 6.50am. The exact location of the fatal crash was on Farmington Road at Van Allen Road.
Adult seat belt use is the most effective way to save lives and reduce injuries in crashes. Yet millions of Americans do not wear their seat belts on every trip; it is estimated that 87 percent of drivers to wear their seat belts. Nonetheless, motor vehicle crashes and collisions are the leading cause of unintentional injury and death across all groups. More than 2.2 million adult drivers and passengers, in America, were treated in emergency rooms, as the result of being injured in a car accident, and 40,000 people are killed in car accidents, each year.
Car accidents are the leading cause of death for people 54 years of age and under. Protecting yourself and your loved ones means not only being a better drive, but setting a good example. One must understand that to stay save on the roads, you need to reduce your speed, drive sober, and wear your safety belts, which are put in your vehicle, by the auto manufacture, to keep you from flying out the window or hitting your head on the windshield, if you are involved in a car accident.
When used properly, seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injuries by 45 percent and reduce moderate to critical injury by 50 percent. It is estimated that seat belts saved 12,359 lives in 2014. And since 1975, seat belts have saved more than 300,000 lives.
How Serious are the Health Risk of Smoking?
I
n death, there is nothing new and surprising. Nicotine is a natural stimulant found mainly in tobacco, and it one of the most widely used psychoactive drugs in the World, nicotine is also a carcinogen. How does nicotine compare with other stimulants? Nicotine is a potent drug. It is so toxic that it sometimes used as an insecticide! In large doses it causes stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea, cold sweats, dizziness, confusions, and tremors. In very large doses, nicotine may cause convulsions, respiratory failure, and death. For a nonsmoker, 50 to 75 milligrams of nicotine taken in a single dose could be lethal. (Chain smoking, which means one smokes anywhere from 17 to 25 cigarettes a day, will produce this deadly dosage.) Most first-time smokers get sick on 1 or 2 cigarettes. In contrast, heavy smokers may inhale 40 cigarettes a day without feeling it, but it is having a devastating impact on their mind, body and lungs. However, this indicates that smokers build a tolerance for nicotine, but that does not negate the fact that it is hurting your body. Cigarettes contain over 4,000 poisonous chemicals including formaldehyde, arsenic, tar, cyanide, carbon monoxide, nicotine, ammonia, benzene, acetone, and thousands of others that have never been studied. Smoking also causes your skin to wrinkle and you may prematurely age.
Is it true that nicotine can be addicting? Abuse—a vast array of evidence confirms that nicotine is extremely addictive, and for many smokers, withdrawal from nicotine causes headaches, sweating, cramps, insomnia, digestive upset, irritability, and sharp cravings for cigarettes. These symptoms last from 2 to 6 weeks and can be worse than heroin withdrawal. So you can get an idea of how powerful nicotine is, we need to discuss heroin for a moment. Heroin (discetylmorphine) is derived from the morphine alkaloid found in opium and is roughly 2-3 times more potent. Heroin is highly addictive; so just because nicotine is legal, does not mean it is safe, as it is more addictive than some other powerful illegal drugs. While on the topic of heroin, just to show you how dangerous nicotine and heroin is we need to talk about a current event. Just today, 13 January 2015, law enforcement officials arrested 23 drug dealers for selling heroin in the Northern Westchester area, and seized more than $1 million dollars’ worth of drugs. Also, you have to be very careful with nicotine because sometimes it is laced with heroin. Quitting smoking can be very difficult, but it is possible. Nicotine is so addictive that relapse patterns are nearly identical for alcoholics, heroin addicts, cocaine abusers, and tobacco users. A staggering 80 percent of people who quit smoking relapse within a year, but it is possible to quit, you just have to be determined. And if you are not a smoke, please do not try any kind of drugs, as it can be a battle to let them go. Impact on healthy—a burning cigarette releases a variety of potent carcinogens, which are cancer causing substances.
Lung cancer and other cancers caused by smoking are not considered the single most preventable cause of death in North America. Among men, 97 percent of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. For women, 74 percent of all lung cancers are due to smoking. Here are some facts about smoking: every cigarette reduces a smoker’s life expectancy by 7 minutes. Something is the number one cause of death in North America—more than the number of deaths from alcohol, drugs, car accident and AIDS combined. In the United States of America alone, smoking related deaths cost total $50 billion a year, and taxpayers pick up 43 percent of the bill, which equals about $21.5 billion a year. Nicotine is so addictive that 40 percent of the people who develop throat cancers try smoking again. The good news, each year, 25 percent of the people stop smoking are successful. The reason it is so hard to stop smoking is because many tobacco companies manipulate nicotine levels in their cigarettes to keep the smokers addicted. Daily exposure to second-hand smoke, at home or work, causes a 24 to 39 percent increase in cancer risk to non-smokers. One billion people around the World smoke and 5 million people die each year from tobacco related illness, and secondhand smoke kills 600,000 people each year. Smoking can also cause babies to born with defects, low birth weight and unformed lungs, so it can also kill your unborn baby.
If you think smoking is harmless, or that there is no connection between smoking and cancer, you are kidding yourself. The link between tobacco smoking and cancer is undeniable. Skeptics please note: Wayne McLaren, who portrayed the rugged Marlboro Man, in cigarette advertisements, died of lung cancer at age 51. Smokers do not just risk their own health, they also endanger those nearby. Secondary smoke causes 20 percent of all lung cancers. Non-smoking women, who are married to smokers, suffer a 30 percent increase in their risk of developing lung cancer. Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are three times more likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome. It is highly irresponsible of smokers to expose young children to second-hand smoke. And more people die from fires caused by people, who fall asleep smoking, than fires caused by anything else. Is it better for a person to quit smoking abruptly (cold turkey) or taper down gradually? Quitting smoking—for many years, smokers were advised to quit cold turkey. We know that quitting all at once is not always better than tapering off. Going cold turkey makes quitting an all-or-nothing proposition. Smokers who smoke even one cigarette after they have quit tend to feel they have failed. Many figure they may as well continue smoking. Those who quit gradually accept that success may take many attempts, spread over several months. Sometimes it may take years to successfully stop smoking.
Sometimes people only smoke out of peer pressure or to fit in. There was once a guy who had no friends, and the one he did have smoke daily, so in order to hang out with them and fit in, he started smoking, too. Then it became a habit. It took him 13 years to drop the habit because everyone thought that it was cool to smoke. If you have friends who smoke, and you are trying to stop, I suggest you stay away from them, and spend time with them where you all cannot smoke, so you do not relapse. New strategies to stop smoking—if you smoke, and would like to quit, here are some basic steps you can take: delay having that first cigarette of the day. Then try to delay a little longer each day. Also, when you pick up the cigarette think about all the black tar that you are ingesting in your lungs, then gradually reduce the total number of cigarettes you smoke each day. Quit smoking completely, but for just one week. Then quit again, a week at a time, for as many times necessary to make it stick. You may find that your nerves are bad, after you stop smoking, so consider meditation, religion, or even an anti-anxiety medication, until you are able to deal with the stress of day-to-day life.
Gradually stretching the time periods between cigarettes is the key part of the program. Immediately after you stop smoking, your body and lungs start to heal and repair. You blood pressure will go down, carbon monoxide levels in the blood reduce to about half and oxygen levels return to normal in just 8 hours after you stop smoking. After 48 hours, your chances of having a heart attack will already have decreased. All nicotine will have been purged from the body and sense of taste and smell begin to return. After 72 hours, of quitting smoking, bronchial tubes will relax and energy levels increase. Lung capacity will also increase. After two weeks of being smoke free, circulation is greatly improved and will continue to improve for about 10 weeks. Within 3 to 9 months, lung capacity will improve by about 10 percent and coughing, wheezing, and breathing problems related to smoking will resolver. Cilia in the lungs regenerate. There is also an increased ability to detoxify the lungs and reduced risk of infection.
Pregnant women who quit before the fourth month of pregnancy greatly reduce the risk of stillbirth and low birth weight associated with smoking. After 1 year, chances of having a heart attack will have decreased by 50 percent. After 5 years, chances of having a stroke will be that of a non-smoker, and chances of mouth and bladder cancer will decline as well. In 10 years, chances of lung cancer will be the same of a non-smoker, and after 15 years of not smoking, chances of having a heart attack will decrease to that of a nonsmoker. So save your lungs and body and reduce your health care cost by not smoking, and you will also save money. Pack a day smokers will save $180.00 a month, once they stop smoking. The LORD will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior, he will stir up zeal; with a shout, he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies. However, now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. There are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. –The Bible
Randolph Harris II International Institute 