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We are Just Illusion Makers and the Sun Will Always Shine and the Sky Will Always be Blue!

July 23, 2020 12:11 am

Spring is here. Everything is burgeoning, the young women also. Their cloaks are laid aside; presumably my green one, too, has been hung up. This is the result of making a young lady’s acquaintance in the street, not in society, where on e is immediately told her name, her family, where she lives, whether she is engaged. The last is extremely important information for all sober and steady suitors, to whom it would never occur to fall in love with an engaged young lady. Such an ambler would then be in mortal distress if he were in my place; he would be utterly demolished if his efforts to obtain information were crowed with success and with the bonus that she was engaged. This, however, does not bother me very much. An engagement is nothing but a comic predicament. I fear neither comic nor tragic predicaments; they only ones I fear are the langweilige [boring] ones. So far, I have not come up with a single bit of information, although I certainly have left nothing untried and many times have felt the truth of the poet’s words: Nox et hiems longaque viae, saevique dolores mollibus his castris, et labour omnis inest [Night, storm, long journeys, cruel pains all kinds of pains are in his dainty camp]. Perhaps she does not live here in the city at all; perhaps she is from the country, perhaps, perhaps—I can fly into a rage over all these perhapses, and the angrier I become, the more the perhapses. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

I always have money at hand in order to be able to set out upon a journey. In vain do I look for her at the theater, at concerts, at dances, on the promenades. In a certain sense, I am pleased; a young woman who participates in such amusements a great deal is usually not worth conquering; she most often lacks the originality that for me is and remains the conditio sine qua non [indispensable condition]. It is not as incomprehensible to find a Preciosa among the gypsies as in the market places where young women are offered for marriage—in all innocence—good Heavens, who says otherwise! However, it is not right for the would-be disciple to take the new relationship as an excuse for releasing oneself from all personal responsibilities, all personal decisions. One should not expect the teacher to take entire charge of one’s entire life for one. Nor is it right for a teacher to accept such a position, to play a role consisting of father and mother and God combined into a single person toward an individual who has reached adult life. It will not help a disciple to let one evade one’s responsibilities and shrink one’s decisions. If the atmosphere between them is surcharged with emotion alone without the restraining balances of reason and common sense, this is the kind of situation which is likely to be brought about. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

A wise teacher will try to meet disciples upon the proper ground between accepting such helpless dependence and rebuffing it brusquely altogether. Any other meeting would be unhealthy emotionally and unsound intellectually. Why insist on rash personal relations with your friend? Why go to one’s house, or know one’s mother and brothers and sisters? Why be visited by one at your own? Are these things material to our covenant? Leave this touching and clawing. Let one be to me a spirit. A message, a thought, a sincerity, a glance from one I want, but not news pottage. I can get politics and chat, neighbourly conveniences from cheaper companions. Should not the society of my friend be to me poetic, pure, universal and as great as nature itself? In a social system animated by competition for property, the human personality was metamorphosed into a form of capital. Here it was rational to invest oneself only in properties that would produce the highest return. Personal feeling was a limitation since it distracted the individual from calculating one’s best interest and might pull one along economically counterproductive path. Although human personality remains a medium of competition, the competition is no longer confined to individuals. Institutional purposes are now tied to the workers’ psychological arts. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

It is not simply individuals who manage their feelings in order to do a job; whole organizations have entered the game. The emotion management that sustains the smile in a real estate representative competes with the emotion management that upholds the smile on other home builders. What was once a private act of emotion management is sold now as labour in public-contact jobs. What was once a privately negotiated rule of feeling or display is not set by the company’s Standard Practice Division. Emotional exchanges that were once idiosyncratic and escapable are now standardized and unavoidable. Exchanges that were rare in private life become common in commercial life. Thus a customer assumes a right to vent unmanaged hostility against a real estate representative who has no corresponding right—because one is paid, in part, to relinquish it. All in all, a private emotional system has been subordinated to commercial logic, and it has been changed by it. It does not take capitalism to turn feeling into a commodity or to turn our capacity for managing feeling into an instrument. However, capitalism has found a use for emotion management, and so it has organized it more efficiently and pushed it further. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

And perhaps it does take a capitalist sort of incentive system to connect emotional labour to competition and to go so far as to actually advertise a “sincere” smile, train workers to produce such a smile, supervise their production of it, and then forge a link between this activity and corporate profit. When people like you, they like the company you work for, too. It takes considerable sophistication for a company to make this into an ordinary, trivial thought for a worker to be urged to bear in mind. Massive people-processing—and the advanced engineering of emotional labour that makes it possible—is a remarkable achievement. It is also an important one, for a good part of modern life involves exchange between total strangers, who, in the absence of countermeasures and in the pursuit of short-term self-interest, might much of the time act out of suspicion and anger rather than trust and good will. The occasional lapses from the standard of civility that we take for granted remind us of the crucial steadying effect of emotional labour. However, like most great achievements, the advanced engineering of emotional labour leaves new dilemmas in its wake, new human costs, and I shall focus now on these. For without a clear understanding of these psychological costs, we can hardly begin to find ways of mitigating or removing them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

These are three stances that workers seem to take toward work, each with its own sort of risk. In the first, the worker identifies too wholeheartedly with the job, and therefore risk burnout. In he second, the worker clearly distinguishes oneself from the job and is less likely to suffer burnout; but one may blame oneself for making this very distinction and denigrate oneself as “just an actor, no sincere.” In the third, the worker distinguishes oneself from one’s act, does not blame oneself for this, and sees the job as absolutely requiring the capacity to act; for this worker there is some risk of estrangement from acting altogether, and some cynicism about it—“We are just illusion makers.” The first stance is potentially more harmful than the other two, but the harm in all three could be reduced, I believe, if workers could feel a greater sense of control over the conditions of their work lives. The first kind of worker does not see one’s job as one of acting. One has little or no awareness of a “false self.” One is likely to offer warm, personal service, but one is also warm on behalf of the company—“when people like you, they like the company too.” One offers personalized service, but one one’s self become identified with the ized part of it. One is not so good at depersonalizing inappropriately personal behaviour toward one. For these reasons, one is more likely to suffer stress and be susceptible to burnout. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Instead of removing the idea of a “self” from the job either by will or by art, such a person often reacts passively: one stops caring and becomes remote and detached from the people one serves. Some real estate representatives who describe themselves as poor at depersonalizing reported periods of emotional deadness: “I was not feeling anything. It was like I was not really there. The guy was talking. I could hear him. However, all I heard was dead words.” This sense of emotional numbness reduces stress by reducing access to the feelings through which stress introduces itself. It provides an exit from overwhelming distress that allows a person to remain physically present on the job. Burnout spares the person in the short term, but it may have a serious long-term cost. The human faculty of feeling still “belongs” to the worker who suffers burnout, but the worker may grow accustomed to a dimming or numbing of inner signals. And when we lose access to feeling, we lose a central means of interpreting the World around us. As a precaution against burnout many experienced workers develop a “healthy” estrangement, a clear separation of self from role. They may sometimes feel “phony”—because at a given moment they feel that they should not be acting at all or that they are not acting well enough. However, by differentiating between an acting and a nonacting side of themselves, they make themselves less vulnerable to burnout. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

Now when the company institutes a speed-up—when it maintains its call for emotional labour but sets up conditions that make it impossible to deliver—the worker may become estranged from the acting itself. One may refuse to act at all, thus withdrawing one’s emotional labour altogether. Since the job itself calls for good acing, one will be seen as doing the job poorly. One may respond to the constantly negative consequences of this by trying not to take any consequences at all, by trying not to be there. If in the first stance the worker is too much present in the role, in the third stance, one is not present enough. In all three, the essential problem is how to adjust one’s self to the role in a way that allows some flow of self into the role but minimizes the stress the role puts on the self. In all three cases, the problem of adjusting self to role is aggravated by the worker’s lack of control over the conditions of work. The more often “tips” about how o see, feel, and seem are issued from above and the more effectively the conditions of the “stage” are kept out of the hands of the actor, the les one can influence one’s entrances and exits and the nature of one’s acting in between. The less influence one has, the more likely it is that one of two things will occur. Either one will overextend oneself into the job and burn out, or one will remove oneself from the job and feel bad about it. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

Worker control over the conditions of good acting boils down, in the end, to practical politics. The company wanted to take two real estate representatives off two of their sites, but the union was adamantly opposed, and they won. Now that is a multimillion-dollar decision. However, it is a good thing they won. They thought they could have some control over that decision. It was not just money they wanted. They wanted some say over their work lives so they could do the job like they wanted. However, even such actions by organized workers cannot solve the whole problem. For whenever people do acting for a living, even if they have some control over the stage, they inhabit their own stage faces with caution: behind the mask, they listen to their own feelings at low volume. Cheerfulness in the line of duty becomes something different from ordinary good cheer. This applies much more to the real estate representatives, who must try to be genuinely friendly to a line of strangers, than to the commissary worker, who can feel free to hate packing the three-hundredth vanilla Jell-O pudding cup onto a lunch tray. Yet, whoever entrusts oneself to a maser or one’s mind to a teaching, cannot escape one’s own personal responsibility for what one does. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

This is not to absolve either the self-actualized or the author of the teaching from one’s own responsibility, which they also have, but it is to make clear that the followers are it too. If history is seen as time between a beginning and an end, we can say that not beginning and end determine the center, as is the case in spatial measurements, but that he center of history determines its beginning and end from the meaning of an historical process. This means that history lasts as long as he revelatory power of its center is experienced, first by anticipation, then by participation. Before this here may be a pre-history, a meaningless time or, rather, a time whose meaning was unperceived. After it, one could conceive of a post-history, another stretch of time deprived of a center and which itself perhaps would be a pre-history before another center is expected. All this, however, is mere speculation; such a possibility is purely abstract. It helps us to see, nevertheless, that the important point of history is that which gives it meaning, its center. Everything else revolves around it. Properly speaking, the center of history is constitutive of it: the meaning of a period arises out of a revelatory situation. History is constituted by the fact that is center is constituted, or—since this is not an arbitrary act—by the fact that its center is constituted, or—since this is not an arbitrary act—by the fact that a center proves to be a center through creating history. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

By a series of well-timed steps, we have led the audience to the brink of the Christological affirmation. First, we have defined history as the meaning of time. Second, we have shown that his meaning comes to light in moments of intense experience of which one may say, “This is the acceptable time, the Kairos.” At that precise moment, the eternal invades he temporal. Third, we have shown that while each period of history may receive it only from a universal Kairos which will be its center. The fourth step, to which we are now coming, is that Jesus as the Christ is the center of history, the point where salvation manifests itself as the content of history. Before explaining this, I should mention an intriguing point. The center of history cannot be conceived of as future: It cannot be sought for in the future, for the meaning of the future is determined by it. We think that the future will be meaningful only on the basis of a principle which we already possess. However, this is not all: The center cannot lie in the present either. For the present has no historical meaning unless it explains the past too. It has such a meaning only if it is the point in which are joined the historical fate which is born in the past, and the historical decision which provides the future. This is to say that the present must itself refer to some meaningful point in the past, to a past Kairos in the light of which the present is meaningful. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

No present can be a historical center for itself. As a matter of fact, every center of history in any religion or culture has always been seen as a point of reference in the past. If we remember in our analysis of time, the present is, in a sense, both the past and the future, this remark on the past character of the center of history is not as striking as it may seem. At any moment when we are grasped by the power of Kairos, we are in contact with a super-historical reality, and experience the presence of the past in the present. The conclusion which this imposes on Christology does not affect our conscious of the center of history in Jesus as the Christ. However, it does affect our view of the self-consciousness of the Christ. For if the advent of the Christ in Jesus is the center of history for us, it cannot have been the center of history for Jesus. The implications of this will claim our attention later. In 1899 four reporters from Denver, Colorado, met by chance on a Saturday night in a Denver railroad station. Al Stevens, Jack Tournay, John Lewis, and Hal Wilshire worked for the four Denver papers: The Post, the Times, the Republican and the Rocky Mountain News. Each had the unenviable task of finding a scoop for the Sunday edition. They hoped to spot a visiting celebrity arriving that evening by train. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

However, none showed up, so the reporters wondered what on Earth they would do. As they discussed options in a nearby saloon, Al suggested they make up a story. The other three laughed—at first. However, before long they were all agreed—they would come up with such a whopper that n one would question it and their respective editors would congratulate them on their find. A phony local story would be too obvious, so they decided to write about someplace far away. They agreed on China. “What if we say tha some American engineers, on their way to China, told us they are bidding on a major job: the Chinese government is planning to demolish the Great Wall?” Harold was not sure the story would be believable. Why would the Chinese ever tear down the Great Wall of China? “As a sign of international goodwill, to invite foreign trade.” By 11 P.M. the four reporters had worked out the details, and the next say all four Denver newspapers carried the story—on the front page. The Times headlines that Sunday read: “Great Chinese Wall Doomed! Peking Seeks World Trade!” Of course, the story was a ridiculous tall tale made up by four opportunistic newsmen in a hotel bar. However, amazingly their story was taken seriously and soon ran in newspapers in the Eastern United States of America and even abroad. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

When the citizens of China heard that the Americas were sending a demolition crew to dismantle the Great Wall, most were indignant, even enraged. Particularly angry were members of a secret society made up of Chinese patriots already against any kind of foreign intervention. Moved to action by the news story, they attacked the foreign embassies in Peking and murdered hundreds of missionaries from abroad. In the next two month twelve thousand troops from six countries, working together, invaded China to protect their country people. The bloodshed of that time, born out of a journalistic hoax fabricated in a saloon in Denver, was the time of violence known ever since as the Boxer Rebellion. What power the written or spoken word has! The Great Wall is very precious to the people of China, it is a sacred monument, much like a church, and natives often get dressed up like they are going to church to visit the spiritual center. It is also a major tourist attraction. The Great Wall of China receives more than 10 million visitors per year. So it is never good to threaten World Wonders. Nations have risen and nation have fallen to the tongue. Lives have been elevated and lives have been cast down by human speech. Goodness has flowed like a sweet river from out mouth, and so has the cesspool. The tiny tongue is a mighty force indeed. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Words have the power to hurt or to heal, to bring down, or to raise up. And the words we say to ourselves are quite possibly the most powerful words of all. We need to watch ourselves, and our thoughts, and our words, and our deeds, especially as followers of Christ. “And it came to pass that the Nephites who were not slain by the weapons of war, after having buried those who had been slain—now the number of the slain were not numbered, because of the greatness of their number—after they had finished burying their dead they all returned to their lands, and to their houses, and their wives, and their children. Many women and children had been lain with the sword, and also many of their flocks and their herds; and also many of their fields of grain were destroyed, for they were trodden down by the hosts of humans. And now as many of the Lamanites and the Amlicites who had been slain upon the bank of the river Sidon were cast into the waters of Sidon; and behold their bones are in the depths of the sea, and they are many. And the Amlicites were distinguished from the Nephites, for they had marked themselves with red in their foreheads after the manner of the Lamanites; nevertheless they had not shorn their heads like unto the Lamanites. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

“Now the heads of the Lamanites were shorn; and they were naked, save it were skin which was girded about their loins, and also their armour, which was girded about them, and their bows, and their arrows, and their stones, and their slings, and so forth. And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men. And their brethren sought to destroy them, therefore they were cursed; and the Lord God set a mark upon them, yea, upon Laman and Lemuel, and also the sons of Ishmael, and Ishmaelitish women. And this was done that their seed might be distinguished from the seed of their brethren, that thereby the Lord God might preserve his people, that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions which would prove their destruction. And it came to pass that whosoever did mingle his seed with that of the Lamanites did bring the same curse upon his seed. Therefore, whosoever suffered himself to be led away by the Lamanites was called under that head, and there was a mark set upon him. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

“And it came to pass that whosoever would not believe in the tradition of the Lamanites, but believed those records which were brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and also in the tradition of their fathers, which were correct, who believed in the commandments of God and kept them, were called the Nephites, or the people of Nephi, from that time forth—and it is they who have kept the records which are true of their people, and also of the people of the Lamanites. Now we will return again to the Amlicites, for they also had a mark set upon them; yea, they set the mark upon themselves, yea, even a mark of red upon their foreheads. Thus the word of God is fulfilled, for these are the words which he said to Nephi: Behold, the Lamanites have I cursed, and I will set a mark on them that they and their seed may be separated from thee and Thy seed, from this time henceforth and forever, except they repent of their wickedness and turn to me that I may have mercy upon them. And again: I will set a mark upon him that mingleth his seed with thy brethren, that they may be cursed also. And again: I will set a mark upon him that figheth against thee and thy seed. And again, I say he that depareth from thee shall no more be called thy seed; and I will bless thee, and whomsoever shall be called thy seed, henceforth and forever; and these were the promises of the Lord unto Nephi and to his seed. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“Now the Amlicites knew not that they were fulfilling the words of God when they began to mark themselves in their foreheads; nevertheless they had come out in the open rebellion against God; therefore it was expedient that the curse should fall upon them. Now I would that ye should see that they brought upon themselves the curse; and even so doth every human that is cursed bring upon oneself one’s own condemnation. Now it came to pass that not many days after the battle which was fought in the land of Zarahemla, by the Lamanites and the Amlicites, that there was another army of the Lamanites came in upon the people of Nephi, in the same pace where the first army met the Amlicites. And it came to pass that there was an army sent to drive them out of their land. Now Alma himself being afflicted with a wound did not go up to battle at this time against the Lamanites; however, he sent up numerous army against them; and they went up and slew many of the Lamanites, and drove the remainder of them out of the borders of their land. And then they returned again and began to establish peace in the land, being troubled no more for a time with their enemies. Now all these things were done, yea, all these wars and contentions were commenced and ended in the fifth year of the reign of the judges. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal World, that hey might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal World, that they might reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one. For every human receiveth wages of one whom one listeth to obey, and this according to the words of the spirit of prophecy; therefore let it be according to the truth. And thus endeth the fifth years of the reign of the judges,” reports Alma 3.1-27. The disciple’s reverence for the Master can still hold room for sight of the latter’s failings and imperfections. If one gets enough inspiration from the Master to help one’s spiritual life, it would be a foolish decision to leave one because of those failings and imperfections. Graciously cast Thy light, O Lord, upon go on and prosper, and its pastors, by Thy governance, may become acceptable to Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Most High God, the Universe with all its myriad creatures is Thine, made by Thy word, upheld by Thy power, governed by Thy will. However, Thou art also the Father of mercies, the God of all grace, the bestower of all comfort, the protector of the saved. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Thou hast been mindful of us, hast visited us, preserved us, given us a goodly heritage—the Holy Scriptures, the joyful gospel, the Saviour of souls, we came to Thee in Jesus’ name, make mention of His righteousness only, plead His obedience and sufferings who magnified the law both in its precepts and penalty, may we be justified by His blood, saved by his life, joined to His Spirit. Let us take up His cross and follow Him. May the agency of Thy grace prepare us for Thy dispensations. Makes us willing that Thou shouldest choose our inheritance and determine what we shall retain or lose, suffer or enjoy; if blessed with prosperity may we be free from its snares, and use, not abuse, its advantages; may we patiently and cheerfully submit to those afflictions which are necessary. When we are tempted to wander, hedge up our way, excite in us abhorrence of sin, wean us from the present evil World, assure us that we shall at last enter Immanuel’s land where none is ever sick, and the Sun will always shine. Many have a lack of compassion. Almighty please give service to our successful course and people like you are in your heart pleasing because Thou art holy. May the President that commands the nation keep society in their right mind. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

Cresleigh Homes

Our homes in our latest community at #PlumasRanch took influence from modern design trends, like patterned tile and spacious center work islands. The end result is definitely drool-worthy. 🤤

We have TWO homes in the Riverside community that are move-in ready! Check them out on our website. Link in bio. 🙌 https://cresleigh.com/cresleigh-riverside-at-plumas-ranch/move-in-ready-home-site-77/

O merciful God and eternal King, please give a prosperous course to our service; and that we may become pleasing in Thy sight by means of the devotion of Thy people, do Thou preside over Thy holy flock; and guide Thou the wills of all into the observance of Thy commands. During your church, O Lord, thy goodness, shine; and the flocks are everywhere, and to Thy I guarantee my heart. #CresleighHomes

There Was a Young Lady Named Bright Whose Speed Was Faster than Light!!!!!!

July 15, 2020 12:23 am

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. The master gives a candidate the seeds and teaches one how to cultivate them: how to water, nourish, and tend the plants which sprout up from them. The highest type of teacher does not want and will not encourage a blind unquestioning acceptance of one’s own views. In reality, all arguments from experience are founded on the similarity, which we discover among natural objects, and by which we are induced to expect effects similar to those, which we have found to follow from such objects. And though none but a fool or a mad person will ever pretend to dispute the authority of experience, or to reject that great guide of human life; it may surely be allowed a philosopher to have so much curiosity at least, as to examine the principle of human nature, which gives this mighty authority to experience, and makes us draw advantage from that similarity, which nature has placed among different objects. From cases, which appear similar, we expect similar effect. It is only after a long course of uniform experiments in any kind, that we attain a firm reliance and security with regard to a particular event. Now where is that process of reasoning, which, from one instance draws a conclusion, so different from that which it infers from a hundred instances, that are nowise different from that single one? #RandolphHarris 1 of 23

This question I propose as much for the sake of information, as with an intention of reasoning. However, I keep my mind still open to instruction; if any one will vouchsafe to bestow it on me. The true teacher interprets the divine will for one’s disciple but does not impose in on one. Such a guide may proffer advice and tender suggestions but one will never issue orders and dictate decisions. Instead of trying to deprive the student of one’s capacity to intuit truths for oneself, the disinterested teacher will try to create it. Should it be said, that, from a number of uniform experiments, we infer a connexion between the sensible qualities and the secret powers; this, I must confess, seems the same difficulty, couched in different terms. The question still recurs, on what process of argument this inference is founded? Where is the medium, the interposing ideas, which join propositions so very wide of each other? It is confessed, that the colour, consistence, and other sensible qualities of bread appear not, of themselves, to have any connexion with the secret powers of nourishment and support. For otherwise we could infer these secret powers from the first appearance of these sensible qualities, without the assistance of experience; contrary to the sentiment of all philosophers, and contrary to plain matter of fact. Here then is our natural state of ignorance with regard to the powers and influence of all objects. How is this remedied by experience? #RandolphHarris 2 of 23

A genuine teacher will not seek to dominate the soul of a student, will not strive to impose one’s own will upon one. For the teacher desires to see a natural and not a forced artificial growth, to free humans and not to enslave them. The real master spiritualizes one’s disciple but does not debilitate one. The guru who does not want to enslave disciples, will guide them to do what they themselves ought to be doing, but are weakly and foolishly expecting one to do for them. A prudent master prefers not to help people but to help them to help themselves. If you do not put into one’s hands the knowledge and equipment wherewith one can acquire strength, it is a merely a mockery to admonish a weakling to become strong. It is the teacher’s duty to foster one’s disciple’s creativeness, not one’s imitativeness—to encourage the disciples to develop one’s own inspiration. It shows us a number of uniform effects, resulting from certain objects, and teaches us, that those particular objects, at that particular time, were endowed with such powers and forces. When a new object, endowed with similar sensible qualities, is produced, we expect similar powers and forces, and look for a like effect. From a body of like colour and consistence with bread, we expect like nourishment and support. However, this surely is a step or progress of the mind, which wants to be explained. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23

The average teacher takes from one’s own personal experience what helped one most or what one’s own teacher led one to, and passes it on to the student as being “the Path,” the only way to God, the sole method of arriving at truth—whether this particular way or method suits the individual type or one’s degree of development or not. Even if it is contrary to the latter’s entire temperament or need, one almost forces it on the student. As if nothing good existed outside them, the meager student finds oneself imprisoned and locked up in one’s teacher’s personal opinions and practices. The wisest master lets the disciple develop in one’s own way, according to one’s own individuality. However, we all know sometimes it is best to be a stringent teacher and give the pupil guidance and encouragement, but also tear them down a little in the process so they can believe that they have what it takes to succeed and that it takes diligence and hard work to success. Students do not always know what is best for them and putting more effort into their education could save them from hardship. If a student thinks a class will be too hard for him or her, that is the perfect time to send one to the guidance counselor and request a parent teacher meeting. So many youth are so eager to get into the adult World, but they are not ready to deal with comes along with that. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23

Education is really the only way for a student to gain freedom and it is best for them to stay in school and learn while they are young and be amongst their peers, so that when they graduate from high school and college they will have the skills necessary to advance and avoid some of the hardships out there looking to prey on our youth. Often times failure and being held back is what causes a student to fear trying to class that may be more difficult, but fear is what robs the mind of all its power and perhaps missing the mark is just what a student needs. The good thing about school is you can always makes a class up, and just like sometimes you need to read an article or a book more than once to understand it, you may also need to repeat a class so you can master it. Also, when you are young, that is when your brain is developing and if you challenge while you are a pupil, it will grow in ways you cannot image as you mature and it will be stronger. The brain is a muscle and it is a lot better to build that must while it is fresh, before you have to work hard to burn off the dead brains cells to get all your neurons to operate properly. The simpler the organism, the more simply and easily these connections are made—the faster, too, and the more enduringly the dendrite and axons work. Enduring changes in the pathways affect the reception and organization of messages. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23

Such a teacher will be the student’s motivating influence while, paradoxically, encouraging one to preserve one’s independence. When a person says, I have found, in all past instances, such sensible qualities conjoined with such secret powers: And when one says, similar sensible qualities will always be conjoined with similar secret powers; one is not guilty of a tautology, nor are these propositions in any respect the same. You say that the one proposition is an inference from the other. However, you must confess that the inference is not intuitive; neither is it demonstrative: Of what nature is it then? To say it is experimental, is begging the question. For all inferences from experience suppose, as their foundation, that the future will resemble the past, and that similar powers will be conjoined with similar sensible qualities. If there by any suspicion, that the course of nature may change, and that the past may be no rule for the future, all experience becomes useless, and can give rise to no inference or conclusion. It is impossible, therefore, that any arguments from experience can prove this resemblance of the past to the future; since all these arguments are founded on the supposition of that resemblance. Let the course of things be allowed hitherto ever so regular; that alone, without some new argument or inference, proves not, that, for the future, it will continue so. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23

In vain do you pretend to have learned the nature of bodies from your past experience. Their secret nature, and consequently, all their effects and influence, may change, without any change in their sensible qualities. This happens sometimes, and with regard to some objects: Why may it not happen always, and with regard to all objects? What logic, what process of argument secures you against this supposition? My practice, you say, refutes my doubts. However, you mistake the purport of my question. As an agent, I am quite satisfied in the point; but as a philosopher, who has some share of curiosity, I will not say scepticism, I want to learn the foundation of this inference. No reading, no enquiry has yet been able to remove my difficulty, or give me satisfaction in a matter of such importance. Can I do better than propose the difficulty to the public, even though, perhaps, I have small hopes of obtaining a solution? If we do not augment or knowledge, we shall at least, by this means, be sensible of our ignorance. What the wise teacher does is to wait for the right situations to develop in which one’s own efforts can be most fruitful. One has waited for years, reserving the full expression of one’s powers until the crucial hour when the aspirant is ready to receive one. Until then, one must conceal one’s identity. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23

One’s wisdom in refusing to influence the students’ decisions will not be apparent at first. Indeed it will be regarded as unwisdom—and one’s attitude will be felt as unsympathetic. It is not the business of a master to save the disciple from suffering so much as to save one from the faults in one’s self which create suffering. One may suggest and advise but never impose one’s will upon yours. One turns a lamp upon your problems but leaves you free to work them out for yourself. I must confess, that a human is guilty of unpardonable arrogance, who concludes, because an argument has escaped one’s own investigation, that therefore it does not really exist. I must also confess, that, though all he learned, for several ages, should have employed themselves in fruitless search upon any subject, it may still, perhaps, be rash to conclude absolutely, that the subject must, therefore, pass all human comprehension. Even though we examine all the sources of our knowledge, and conclude them unfit for such a subject, there may still remain a suspicion, that the enumeration is not complete, or the examination not accurate. However, with regard to the present subject, there are some considerations, which seem to remove all this accusation of arrogance or suspicion of mistake. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23

It is the mark of a well-qualified teacher that one adapts one’s advice to fit each disciple individually. If everyone is recommended to practise the same method irrespective of one’s competence, one’s personal history and temperament, one’s grace of development and capacity, one’s character-traits and tendencies, in a number of cases it will be largely ineffectual. One’s long-range work is to lift the disciples to one’s own level, but one’s short-range work is necessarily concerned with their levels. One’s refusal to give everything out to everyone must be judged by this light, this recognition of the fact that there exist various levels of understanding, and hence of readiness to learn these things. A teacher of spiritual culture, ideals, principles, and practices must think of the intellectual level of those one seeks to instruct, and address one’s message to that. Because there are different levels of aspirants, different levels of teaching are necessary. It is certain, that the most ignorant and stupid peasants, nay infants, nay even brute beasts, improve by experience, and learn the qualities of natural objects, by observing the effects, which result from them. When a child has felt the sensation of pain from touching a flame or a candle, one will be careful not to put one’s hand near any candle (not recommended); but will expect a similar effect from a cause, which is similar in its sensible qualities and appearance. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23

If you assert, therefore, that the understanding of a child is led into this conclusion by any process of argument or ratiocination, I may justly require you to produce that argument; nor have you any pretence to refuse so equitable a demand. You cannot say, that the argument is abstruse, and may possibly escape your enquiry; since you confess, that it is obvious to the capacity of mere infant. If you hesitate, therefore, a moment, or if, after reflection, you produce any intricate or profound argument, you, in a manner, give up the question, and confess, that it is not reasoning which engages us to suppose the pas resembling the future, and to expect similar effects from causes, which are, to appearance, similar. This is the proposition which I intended to enforce in the present section. If I be wrong, I must acknowledge myself to be indeed a very backward scholar; since I cannot now discover an argument, which, it seems, was perfectly familiar to me, long before I was out of my cradle. The question of helping students more individually is a question of practical functioning. The teacher is not to create a philosophical elite for its own sake but for the larger sake of humankind. There was a young lady named Bright, whose speed was far faster than light; she set out one day in a relative way, and returned home the previous night. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23

It is possible to think of rare and dramatic failings as those most suitable for the analysis here employed. However, it would see that exotic differentness is most useful merely as a means of making one aware of identity assumptions ordinarily so fully satisfied as to escape one’s own awareness. It is also possible to think that established groups who have been marginalized can provide the best objects for this kind of analysis. This could easily lead to imbalance of treatment. Sociologically, the central issue concerning these groups is their place in the social structure; the contingencies these persons encounter in face-to-face interaction is only one part of the problem, and something that cannot itself be fully understood without reference to the history, the political development, and the current policies of the group. It is also possible to restrict the analysis to those who possess a flaw that uneases almost all their social situation, leading these unfortunates to form a major part of their self-conception reactively, in terms of their responsive plight. This report argues differently. The most fortunate of normals is likely to have one’s half-hidden failing, and for every little failing there is a social occasion when it will loom large, creating a shameful gap between virtual and actual social identity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23

Therefore the occasionally precarious and the constantly precarious form a single continuum, their situation in life analyzable by the same framework. (Hence persons with only a minor differentness find they understand the structure of the situation in which the fully stigmatized are placed—often attributing this sympathy to the profundity of their human nature instead of to the isomorphism of human situations. The fully and visibly stigmatized, in turn, must suffer the special indignity of knowing that they wear their situation on their sleeve, that almost anyone will be able to see into the heart of their predicament.) It is implied, then, that it is not to the different that one should look for understanding or differentness, but to the ordinary. The question of social norms is certainly central, but the concern might be less for uncommon deviations from the ordinary than for ordinary deviations from the common. It can be assumed that a necessary condition for social life is the sharing of a single set of normative expectations by pariciptants, the norms being sustained in part because of being incorporated. When a rule is broken restorative measures will occur; the damaging is terminated and the damage repaired, whether by control agencies or by the culprit oneself. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23

However, the norms dealt with in this paper concern identity or being, and are therefore of a special kind. Failure or success a maintaining such norms has a very direct effect on the psychological integrity of the individual. At the same time, mere desire to abide by the norm—mere good will—is not enough, for in many cases the individual has no immediate control over one’s level of sustaining the norm. It is a question of the individual’s condition, not one’s will; it is a question of conformance, not compliance. Only by introducing the assumption that the individual should know and keep one’s place can a full equivalent in willful action be found for the individual’s social condition. Further, while some of these norms, such as sightedness and literacy, may be commonly sustained with complete adequacy by most persons in the society, there are other norms, such as those associated with physical comeliness, which take the form of ideals and constitute standards against which almost everyone falls short at some stage in one’s life. And even where widely attained norms are involved, their multiplicity has the effect of disqualifying many persons. For example, in an important sense there is only one complete unblushing male in America: a young, married, White, urban, northern, heterosexual Protestant father of college education, fully employed, of good complexion, weight, and height, and a recent record in sports. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23

Any male who fails to qualify in any of these ways is likely to view oneself—during moments at least—as unworthy, incomplete, and inferior; at times one is likely to pass and at times one is likely to find oneself being apologetic or aggressive concerning known-about aspect of oneself one knows are probably seen as undesirable. The general identity-values of a society may be fully entrenched nowhere, and yet they can cast kind of shadow on the encounter encountered everywhere in daily living. Moreover, more is involved than norms regarding somewhat static status attributes. The issues is not merely visible but obtrusiveness; this means that failure to sustain the many minor norms important in the etiquette of face-to-face communication can have a very pervasive effect upon the defaulter’s acceptability in social situations. Therefore it is not very useful to tabulate the numbers of persons who suffer the human predicament outlined in this book. The number would be as high as one wanted to make it; and when those with a courtesy stigma are added, and those who once experienced the situation or are destined, if for no other reason than oncoming agedness, to do so, the issues becomes not whether a person has experience with a stigma of one’s own, because one has, but rather how many varieties one has had one’s own experience with. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23

One can say, then, that identity norms breed deviations as well as conformance. Two general solutions to this normative predicament were cited earlier. One solution was for a category of person to support a norm but be defined by themselves and others as not the relevant category to realize the norm and personally to put it into practice. A second solution was for the individual who cannot maintain an identity norm to alienate oneself from the community which uphold the norm, or refrain from developing an attachment to the community in the first place. Even if it is one that occurs in small amount all the time, this is of course a costly solution both for society and for the individual. The process detailed here constitute together a third main solution to the problem of unstained norms. Through these processes the common ground of norms can be sustained far beyond the circle of those who fully realize them; this is a statement, of course, about the social function of these processes and not about their cause of their desirability. Passing and covering are involved, providing the student with a special application of the arts of impression management, the arts, basic in social life, through which the individual exert strategic control over the image of oneself and one’s products that others glean from one. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23

Also involved is a form of tacit cooperation between normals and the stigmatized: the deviator can afford to remain attached to the norm because others are careful to respect one’s secret, pass lightly over its disclosure, or disattend evidence which prevents a secret from being made of it; these other, in turn, can afford to extend this tactfulness because the stigmatized will voluntarily refrain from pushing claims for acceptance much past the point normals find comfortable. God said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you,” God, who is “the God of all grace” reports 1 Peter 5.10, is the giver of grace, but that does not mean we Christians are passive recipients of it. Rather, we are to appropriate His grace. Paul urged Timothy to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” reports 2 Timothy 2.1. Grammatically, the verb is in the imperative mood; that is, it expresses a command or respect. Paul wanted Timothy to do something; he wanted Timothy to appropriate God’s grace and be strong in it. Timothy apparently had a problem with timidity. In the same letter Paul had already said, “God did not give us a spirit of timidity,” and “So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner,” reports 2 Timothy 1.7-8. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23

And to the Corinthian believers Paul had written, “If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you,” reports 1 Corinthians 16.10. Timothy had a problem with timidity, and Paul wanted him to deal with it by appropriating the grace of God, “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” We are not simply passive recipients of God’s grace. Just as the Israelites had to gather day-by-day the manna God graciously provided, so we must appropriate day-by-day the grace that is always sufficient for every need. There is one more truth I want us to see from Paul’s words to Timothy. Timothy needed moral strength because he was prone to timidity. So Paul wrote, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” What is your greatest need just now? Is it contentment in a very difficult situation? Paul would say to you, “Be content in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Is it patience or forbearance in very trying circumstances? Then be patient in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It is moral purity in a romantic relationship? Then be pure in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Whatever you need at this time, you too can experience the reality of God’s words to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God’s grace is sufficient. It is sufficient for all your needs; it is sufficient regardless of the severity of any one needs. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23

The Israelites never exhausted God’s supply of manna. It was always there to be gathered every day for forty years. And you will never exhaust the supply of God’s grace. It will always be there every day for you to appropriate as much as you need for whatever your need is. “Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,” reports Ephesians 3.8. The descendants of Mulek at Zarahemla become Nephites—they learn of the people of Alma and Zeniff—Alma baptizes Limhi and all his people—Mosiah authorizes Alma to organize the Church of God. About 120 Before Christ. And now king Mosiah caused that all the people should be gathered together. Now there were not so many of the children of Nephi, or so many of those who were descendants of Nephi, as there were of the people of Zarahemla, who was a descendant of Mulek, and those who came with him into the wilderness. And there were not so many of the people of Nephi and of the people of Zarahemla as there were of the Lamanites; yea, they were not half so numerous. And now all the people of Nephi were assembled together, and also all the people of Zarahemla, and they were gathered together in two bodies. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23

“And it came to pass that Mosiah did read, and caused to be read, the records of Zeniff to his people; yea, he read the records of the people to Zeniff, from the time they left the land of Zarahelma until they returned again. And he also read the account of Alma and his brethren, and all their afflictions, from the time they left the land of Zarahemla until the time they returned again. And now, when Mosiah had made an end of reading the records, his people who tarried in the land were struck with wonder and amazement. For they knew not what to think; for when they beheld those that had been delivered out of bondage they were filled with exceedingly great joy. And again, when they thought of their brethren who had been slain by the Lamanites they were filled with sorrow, and even shed many tears of sorrow. And again, when they thought of the immediate goodness of God, and his power in delivering Alma and his brethren out of the hands of the Lamanites and of bondage, they did raise their voices and give thanks to God. And again, when they thought upon the Lamanites, who were their brethren, or their sinful and polluted state, they were filled with pain and anguish for the welfare of their souls. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23

“And it came to pass that those who were the children of Amulon and his brethren, who had taken to wife the daughters of the Lamanites, were displeased with the conduct of their fathers, and they would no longer be called by the names of their fathers, therefore they took upon themselves the name of Nephi, that they might be called the children of Nephi and be numbered among those who were called Nephites. And now all the people of Zarahemla were numbered with the Nephites, and this because the kingdom had been conferred upon none but those who were descendants of Nephi. And now it came to pass that when Mosiah had made an end of speaking and reading to the people, he desired that Alma should also speak to the people. And Alma did speak unto them, when they were assembled together in large bodies, and he went from one body to another, preaching unto the people repentance and faith on the Lord. And he did exhort the people of Limhi and his brethren, all those that had been delivered out of bondage, that they should remember that it was the Lord that did deliver them. And it came to pass that after Alma had taught the people many things, and had made an end of speaking to them, that king Limhi was desirous that he might be baptized; and all his people were desirous that they might be baptized also. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23

“Therefore, Alma did go forth into the water and did baptize them; yea, he did baptize them after the manner he did his brethren in the waters of Mormon; yea, and as many as he did baptize did belong to the church of God; and this because of their belief on the words of Alma. And it came to pass that king Mosiah granted unto Alma that he might establish churches throughout all the land of Zarahemla; and gave him power to ordain priests and teachers over every church. Now this was done because there were so many people that they could not all be governed by one teacher; neither could they all hear the word of God in one assembly; therefore they did assemble themselves together in different bodies, being called churches; every church having their priests and their teachers, and every priest preaching the word according as it was delivered to one by the mouth of Alma. And thus, notwithstanding there being many churches they were all one church, yea, even the church of God; for there was nothing preached in all the churches except it were repentance and faith in God. And now there were seven churches in the land of Zarahemla. And it came to pass that whosoever were desirous to take upon them the name of Christ, or of God, they did join the churches of God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23

“And they were called the people of God. And the Lord did pour out his Spirit upon them, and they were blessed, and prospered in the land,” reports Mosiah 25.1-24. We beseech Thee, O Lord our God, that the relief from anxiety which Thy mercy has bestowed upon us may not make us negligent, but rather cause us to become more acceptable worshippers of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O my LORD, may I arrive where means of grace cease and I need no more to fast, pray, weep, watch, be tempted, attend preaching and sacrament; where nothing defiles, where is no grief, sorrow, sin, death, separation, tears, pale face, languid body, aching joints, feeble infancy, decrepit age, peccant humours, pining sickness, griping fears, consuming cares; where is personal completeness; where the more perfect the sight, the more beautiful the object, the more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food, the more musical the ear, the more pleasant the melody, the more complete the soul, the more happy its joys, where is full knowledge of Thee. Here I am an ant, and as I view a nest of ants so dost Thou view me and my fellow-creatures; but as an ant knows not me, my nature, my thoughts, so here I cannot know three clearly. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23

However, there I shall be near thee, dwell with my family, stand in Thy presence chamber, be an heir of Thy kingdom, as the spouse of Christ, as a member of his body, one with him who is with Thee, and exercise all my powers of body and soul in the enjoyment of Thee. As praise in the mouth of Thy saints is comely, so teach me to exercise this divine gift, when I pray, read, see, do, in the presence of people and of my enemies, as I hope to praise Thee eternally hereafter. All the ways of humans are open to God’s eyes. God knows singular things. For all perfections found in creatures pre-exist in God in a higher way, as is clear from the foregoing. Now to know singular things is part of our perfection. Hence God must know singular things. Even the Philosopher considers it incongruous that anything known by us should be unknown to God. If He did not know discord, God would be most ignorant. Now the perfections which are divided among inferior beings, exist simply and unitedly in God; hence, although by one faculty we know the Universal and immaterial, and by another we know singular and material things, nevertheless God knows both by His simple intellect. The aim of a teacher is not to create a philosophical elite for its own sake but for the larger sake of humankind. #RandolphHarris 23 of 23

Cresleigh Homes

If you do not hear from us, look in this cloud-like comforter at @HUBApts. But only after naptime is over. 😉☁️

Take a tour online using HUB’s new virtual walkthroughs on their website! Link in bio. 👉https://sites.google.com/fpimgt.com/hubvirtualtours/home

We humbly beseech and implore Thy Majesty, O Lord, that as Thou hast delivered us from impending dangers, so Thou wouldest graciously absolve us from our sins; that Thou mayest both bestow upon us greater benefits, and make us obedient to Thy commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

The Harris family have been farming for over 100 years. The Fresno County farm has been under continuous family operations since 1937. Since its founding, Harris Farms has grown into one of the largest agribusinesses in the nation.

Originally growing primarily cotton and grain Harris Ranch now boasts a wide variety of vegetables, fruits and nut crops. These include everything from carrots, lettuce, garlic, onions, and tomatoes to melons, oranges, lemons, walnuts, almonds and wine grapes.

Seen here is the founder Jack Harris with his son and owner John Harris. We would like to thank John for providing an environment so conducive to success. We are proud to be a part of the Harris Family, and are honored to carry on the Harris vision and ideas.

Happy Birthday John!

Soldiers, Consider that from the Summit of these Pyramids, Forty Centuries Look Down Upon You!

July 13, 2020 2:15 am

Humans are indeed controlled by their own environment, but we must remember, for the most part, it is an environment largely of their own making. The evolution of a culture is a gigantic exercise in itself of control. Justice is a complete virtue in the fullest sense, because it is the active exercise of complete virtue; and it is complete because its possessor can exercise it in relation to another person, and not only by oneself. Many communities have created restorative justice programs, yet these programs are often reactionary. They typically focus on trying to heal the offender, victim, and the community only after a criminal act has occurred. While these alternative justice programs are important components in restoring justice within communities, they are hampered by Western-imposed structures and Eurocentric concepts of crime and punishment. In the United States of American today, the American criminal justice system holds approximately 2.3 million people in 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories. Every year, 600,000 people enter prison gates, but people go to jail 10.6 million times each year. #RandolphHarris 1 of 26

Jail churn is particularly high because most people in jails have not been convicted. Some have just been arrested and will make bail within hours or days, while many others are too poor to make bail and remain behind bars until their trial. Only a small number (about 160,000 on any given day) have been convicted, and are generally serving misdemeanor under a year; at least 25 percent of people who go to jail will be arrested again within that same year—often those dealing with poverty, mental illness, and substance abuse disorders, whose problems only worsen with incarceration. It is thought that the use of judgement and punishment actually works against the healing process. An already unbalanced person is moved further out of balance. What the threat of incarceration does do is generally keep people from coming forward and taking responsibility for the hurt they are causing. It reinforces the silence, and therefore promotes, rather than breaks, the cycle of violence that exists. In reality, rather than making the community a safer place, the threat of jail places the community at more risk. If people committed crimes by accident and were truly sorry, that argument would be true. However, many people commit crimes because they want to and believer they will not be caught. #RandolphHarris 2 of 26

When a person knows what they are doing is wrong, but keeps doing it, they do not need therapy nor rehabilitation, they need punishment to serve as an inhibitor to breaking the law. Yet, it true that some people do break the law by accident or necessity and rehabilitation may help those individuals, much like it does first time offenders. That is why in some branches of the law judges rely on standards rather than strict rules and precedents, enjoying, in effect, wide discretion, or the law authorizes administrators to decide cases on their merits in the light of very general cans of policy, subject only to procedural safeguards of impartiality. The dominant American justice paradigm is not an extension of the slavery catch and release program and some officers are extremely lenient with suspects, but in many cases it is perceived as a further imbalance and disrespect, for justice does not always seek to restore or heal the offender, the immediate family, friends who are also victims, or the entire community that is forced out of balance by the transgression. Today, it is mostly without social structures, practices, and teachings that could help prevent injustice. #RandolphHarris 3 of 26

Although there is much cultural diversity among North American Indian nations, traditional practices emphasize civil rather than criminal sanctions. The goal of indigenous justice is to promote peace, heal the network of relationships, and eradicate political, spiritual, and emotional injustices. And that model may be a blue print that people consider using, but then it may lead to imprisoning people for not paying debts, or it would allow the wealthy to commit crimes without ever being held accountable. The Great Circle of Justice consists of interrelated socialization structures and practices that provide a multidimensional system of checks and balances that work in unison to retain diversity and harmony within communities and society. The preventative mechanisms are found within the traditional teachings—for examples, in ceremonies, songs, dance, television programs, movies, news, stories, novels, history, kinship relations, education and religion. Society should plant in the minds of people, in order to keep harmony, the concepts of compassion, cooperation, love, unity, equity, coexistence, power, respect, generosity, reciprocity, friendliness, unselfishness, peacefulness, and all other beneficial values which create an intense, diffuse, and enduring solidarity. #RandolphHarris 4 of 26

Peace should be maintained to heal the body and mind, and to establish diversity and harmony, which will prevent injustices to the natural World and protect future generations. The keepers of knowledge can help identify and provide invaluable insights into the traditional teachings found within ceremony, prayer, and foundational narratives and stories. Narratives and stories are not extrinsic niceties, but are basic life forces needed to establish and to preserve communities and develop a common culture of shared understandings, and deeper, more vital ethics. Narratives are relevant because they serve as more than just entertainment. Narratives preserve cultural teachings and history; they transmit knowledge of the community’s norms and values. Teachings can show people how they are to live with each other and the natural World and so them what happens to people who violate the law. The duties and responsibilities of each person in the society are given and reaffirmed every time the people come together for ceremonies and social activities. This is a holistic way to strengthen the prevention of injustice, and restore balance when a transgression occurs. Church helps people, it is a system of checks and balances that depends not only on people not wanting to commit a transgression, but also know that is they commit a violent act that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” report Romans 6.23. #RandolphHarris 5 of 26

Many American Indian nations’ wedding preparation involve young couples being instructed in the importance of marriage to the nation as well as in acceptable behaviour, which includes not abusing each other. Traditional Haudenosaunee marriages, which still occur today, are more than the combining of two people, for they bring together clans and extended family. All present the joining of the couple are reminded of these acceptable norms and their duty in making sure that they are not broken. Such indigenous justice is multidimensional, and a balancing process that contains and is dependent on numerous practices and social structures that function as preventative and restorative mechanisms in the maintenance of justice. For centuries, North American indigenous socialization practices worked to maintain balance within societies. Colonization and imposed Western structures, values, and beliefs, however, have displaced major indigenous political and spiritual structures. The displacement of these traditional structures, practices, values, and beliefs as created disharmony within many communities. Mandatory boarding schools, laws to prevent spiritual practices, and imposed political structures have been implemented to strip North American Indians of their cultural identity, languages, ceremonies, and other cultural values and practices needed to maintain healthy societies. #RandolphHarris 6 of 26

With displacement of traditional indigenous practices has come fractionalization and an increase in the criminal activity, arrest, and incarceration of American Indians. The Bureau of Justice and Statistics has concluded that additional external controls in the form of stricter laws, additional law enforcement officers, and funding are needed to decrease crime. Stricter laws and forms of enforcement, however, are not the answer to the prevention of crimes, and neither will they heal and protect the character of diverse communities, which is why the United States of America’s Supreme Court ruled that 3 million acres of eastern Oklahoma—including most of Tulsa—remains American Indian reservation land. This should help restore the Great Circle of Justice, by identifying, understanding and, where possible, recreating cultural social practices and structures to maintain social balance, diversity, and harmony with their societies. Imposed forms of government and laws via colonization, the loss of lands, and policies to assimilate the North American Indian have caused many of the traditional indigenous justice mechanism to become lost or damaged. Today there are numerous tribal courts that only replicate the Western-imposed beliefs and practices of an adversarial system of justice, instead of using traditional indigenous justice methods and values. #RandolphHarris 7 of 26

Such tribal courts and forms of governance may be a form of internalized colonialism. These types of court continue assimilation and cause disharmony within the community as they do not preserve cultural traditions, and neither do they heal the community. This replication of imposed laws, practices, and ideas had seeped into many aspects of North American Indian governments. Many tribal codes, for example, are now merely restatements of federal and state law and devoid of indigenous knowledge, values, and norms. The Great Circle of Justice needs to be restored within American Indian restoration practices. Peacemaking and tribal courts are often transformed gradually into bureaucratic reactive models unless care is paid to the traditional codes. An important part of traditional codes is their grounding in tradition and their connection with nature. If we follow the traditional codes, then the indigenous “justice-as-healing” paradigm will replace the case-processing, primarily reactive dominant justice paradigm and its adversarial foundation. For the system to work properly, for there to be a needs-meeting justice, communities must assert their power by redefining and redesigning imposed structures. #RandolphHarris 8 of 26

The traditional teachings, socialization practices, and structures that once worked to prevent social injustices can be replanted. As realists, we recognize that there are practices that probably cannot be replicated, such as living in a long house with one’s entire matrilineal, extended family. We suggest, however, that some of the traditional indigenous teachings contain the seeds of how people can once again live in Skennen (peace) or Hozho (balance and Harmony). Prior to colonization, “law” was relatively direct and accessible to indigenous North Americans since it was based on concrete notions of the individual and collective good rather than on a modern abstraction imposed by the nation-state as the ideal (largely for political purposes) to which people must conform (or be punished) in order ostensibly to have security and private property. For most North American Indians, law was accessible: the oral tradition allowed it to be carried around as part of them, rather than confined to legal institutions and inaccessible experts who largely control the language as well as the cost of using the law. Social diversity, the recognition that humans are part of nature (not separate from it), and harmony are essential to justice are what is really meant by the right to equal consideration—to be treated alike unless relevant differences have been proved. #RandolphHarris 9 of 26

Communal restorative justice is essential. It can reduce social and economic injustice and it can continue to limit the impact of imprisonment, especially imprisonment that is directly related to unemployment, debt, suicide, and innumerable diseases. We need to achieve a rational understanding of human emotions, particularly the irrational ones. It is important to understand what the cases or breeding grounds are for hate, love, submissiveness, destructiveness, envy, jealousy—for all the emotions that the greater writers (take Shakespeare or Balzac or Dostoevski, for example) have treated so incisively in their plays and novels. We want to make all those emotions the subject of scientific inquiry. What are the human emotions and how can we understand them? All the psychiatrists want to know is how people can be cured of symptoms that either cause them pain or interfere with their adjustment to society and with their own success in life. However, there is also a moral purpose. We want human beings to be able to understand themselves, to discover their unconscious, so that they can achieve independence. The goal is a rule of reason, the destruction of illusion. We want to see people become free and mature. #RandolphHarris 10 of 26

Our moral goals are those of the Enlightenment, or rationalism. However, these goals go beyond what other psychologists set as their own goals or understand the goals of their field to be. The only goal those psychologists set themselves was to help people function better. The human model we envision as our goal coincides in many respects with that projected by the great philosophers of the Enlightenment. An important concept is unconscious or of repression. This concept is usually forgotten today. When people think of psychoanalysis, the first thing that come to their minds are the ego, the superego, and the id; the Oedipus complex; and the theory of libido. So let us begin with repression. We often act on motives of which we are completely unconscious. A little example will show what I mean. Not so long ago I received a visit from a colleague who I know does not particularly like me. Indeed, I was rather amazed that he wanted to come see me at all. He rand the doorbell; I opened the door; he held out his hand cheerfully: “Goodbye.” Translation: His unconscious mind was already wishing he could be gone. He had not been looking forward to this visit, and he revealed that by saying “goodbye” instead of “hello.” What could either of us do? Nothing at all. #RandolphHarris 11 of 26

Being a psychoanalyst himself, he realized that he had given himself away. He could not apologize by saying: “That is not what I meant to say.” That would have been hopelessly naïve, for we both knew that what a psychoanalyst does with a slip of the tongue is see what it really reveals, not try to make it mean something else after the fact. The situation could be nothing but embarrassing, and we both said nothing. That is just one example of the kind of thing that happens hundreds of times. Or take another example: a sadistic father who beats his son. I think it occurs less often today than it did one hundred years ago, but let us take this example: a sadistic father, a man who takes pleasure in causing others pain or in exercising strict control over them. If you should ask hum why he does what he does (and ordinarily you will not have to bother asking, because such people are usually quite willing to volunteer the information), he will say, “I have to do it so that my son will become (or remain) a decent person. I do it out of love for him.” Do you believe that? Maybe, and then maybe not. However, just look at his face. Notice his expression when he gives his son a whipping. You will see strong emotion in his eyes. What you will see in the face of a man who is full of hate and at the same time fully of joy at being able to beat another human being. #RandolphHarris 12 of 26

The same quality of hate and joy at hurting others turns un in a police officer (not, of course, all of them), in nurses, in prison guards, and in any number of private relationships. Such people will hide is quality more or less, depending on how much self-interest demands that they hide it. However, let us go back to our example of the sadistic father. If we see him in action, we know that his motive is not what he claims it is. It is not his son’s well being that interests him. That is a “rationalization.” His real motive is his sadistic impulse, but he is totally unaware of that. Or take an example of much greater historical importance: Adolph Hitler. In his conscious mind Hitler always assumed he wanted only what was best for Germany: Germany’s greatness, Germany’s vitality, Germany’s position of power in the World, and who know what all. Although he issued the cruelest of orders, he never clearly felt—as far as we can tell—that he acted out of cruelty. He always felt he was acting out of a desire to help Germany. He was acting to make manifest the laws of history; he was acting in the name of fate, in the name of race, in the name of Providence. He was not aware that he had become a man who enjoyed destruction. He could not bear the sight of dead soldiers or destroyed buildings. That is why Hitler never visited the front during World War II. #RandolphHarris 13 of 26

The explanation is not personal cowardice on Hitler’s part but rather a reluctance to see the concrete consequences of one’s own lust to destroy. We observe a similar phenomenon in people who wash compulsively. Their conscience desire is to be clean all the time. However, when we analyze such individuals, we find that they know, in their unconscious minds, that they have blood or filth on their hands. They want to free themselves from what they are consciously carrying about with them: a crime, perhaps only a potential one, a criminal intent they have to be constantly washing away. Therefore, the manifestation of COVID-19, and the need to keep social distancing and washing of the hands could be symbolic that Jesus did not die in vain and the fact that human beings are paying the consequences for continuing in sin and inequity, after all “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Chris Jesus or Lord,” reports Romans 6.23. Hitler himself had an obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was not a compulsive washer, but many observers noticed that he was fastidious beyond the limits of normal cleanliness. There is a parallel between Hitler and the sadistic father. Hitler did not want to own up to the reality of his destructive impulses, but perhaps that is because there was more to his motive than just simple destructiveness. #RandolphHarris 14 of 26

Nonetheless, Hitler repressed his destructive impulses and admitted only his good intentions. Hitler was getting revenge because he felt the Jewish people had taken over Germany and were ruining it economically and also because a Jewish doctor had killed his mother. So he believed that he was a Messiah and was protecting the German race. Much like sadistic fathers have a reason from projecting their hatred on to their sons. It usually has to do with something they suffered in childhood that they want to inflict on their own child as an act or revenge or because they truly believe that their sadistic behaviour will save their son from suffering something they had to endure. In general, however, sadists have a pure lust for destruction. It is usually always present, but remains repressed and rationalized until, one day, there is no keeping I secret any longer. Examples like this—dramatic ones and undramatic ones—can be found everywhere every day. People remain unaware of their real motives because, for any number of reasons, they cannot bear to know things about themselves that either go against their own consciences or against public opinion. If they became aware of their real motives, they would find themselves in a very uncomfortable situation. And so they prefer to remain unconscious of those things and not to come into conflict with what they regard as their “better selves” or what most “respectable people” think. #RandolphHarris 15 of 26

During a family time one evening, my two-year-old daughter, Annie, complained that if she only could see God, say, sitting in a chair, then prayer would be much easier. I pointed out that not only has she never seen God, neither had she ever seen me. She could see my body, but she could not see my I, myself, my ego, nor could she see my thoughts, feelings, and so forth. Persons, I told her, are invisible objects and, since God is too big to have a body, He is not perceivable in the same way a chair or a person’s body is. That evening, I expressed to Annie the Christian understanding of human persons. Historically and biblically, Christianity has held to a dualistic notion of human being. A human being is a unity of two distinct realities—body and soul. More specifically, I am my soul and I have a body. The soul, while not by nature immortal, is nevertheless capable of entering an intermediate disembodied state upon death and, eventually, being reunited with a resurrected body. The forma; name for this position is “substance dualism.” The soul (which is the same thing as the self or the I) is that immaterial, invisible thing that makes me a conscious, living human being. The soul is what I am aware of when I engage in various acts of introspection in which I am aware of what is going on “inside” me. I go where my soul goes. #RandolphHarris 16 of 26

If God took my soul and put it into your body and placed your soul into my body, we would have different bodies. If my soul leaves my body, I leave my body because I am my soul. All reasoning may be divided into two kinds, namely demonstrative reasoning, or that concerning relations of ideas, and moral reasoning, or that concerning matter of fact and existence. That there are no demonstrative arguments in the case, seems evident; since it implies no contradiction, that the course of nature may change, and that an object, seemingly like those which we have experienced, may be attended with different or contrary efforts. May I not clearly and distinctively conceive, that a body falling from the clouds, and which, in all other respects, resembles snow, has yet the taste of salt or feeling of fire? Is there any more intelligible proposition than to affirm, that all the trees will flourish in December and January, and decay in May and Just? Now whatever is intelligible, and can be distinctly conceived, implies no contradiction, and can never be proved false by any demonstrative argument or abstract reasoning a priori. If we be, therefore, engaged by arguments to put trust in past experience, and make it the standard of our future judgment, these arguments must be probable only, or such as regard matter of fact and real existence, according to the division above mentioned. #RandolphHarris 17 of 26

However, that there is no argument of this kind, must appear, if our explication of that species of reasoning be admitted as solid and satisfactory. We have said, that all arguments concerning existence are founded on the relation of cause and effect; that our knowledge of that relation is derived entirely from experience; and that all our experimental conclusions proceed upon the supposition, that the future will be conformable to past. To endeavour, therefore, the proof of this past supposition by probably arguments, or arguments regarding existence, must be evidently going in a circle, and taking that for granted, which is the very point in question. In divine knowledge there is no discursion; the proof of what is as follows. In our knowledge there is a twofold discursion: one is according to succession only, as when we have actually understood anything, we turn ourselves to understand something else; while the other mode of discursion is according to causality, as when through principles we arrive at the knowledge of conclusions. The first kind of discursion cannot belong to God. For many things, which we understand in succession if each is considered in itself, we understand simultaneously if we see them in some one thing; if, for instance, we understand the parts in the whole, or see different things in a mirror. #RandolphHarris 18 of 26

Now, God sees all things in one (thing) which is Himself. Therefore God sees all things together, and not successively. Likewise the second mode of discursion cannot be applied to God. First, because this second mode of discursion presupposed the first mode; for whosoever proceeds from principles to conclusions does not consider both at once; secondly, because to discourse thus is to proceed from the known to the unknown. Hence it is manifest that when the first is known, the second is still unknown; and thus the second is known not in the first, but from the first. Now the term discursive reasoning is attained when the second is seen in the first, by resolving the effects into their causes; and then the discursion ceases. Hence as God sees His effects in Himself as their cause, His knowledge is not discursive. Although there is only one act of understanding in itself, nevertheless many things may be understood in one (medium), as shown above. God does not know by their causes, known as it were previously, effects unknow; be He knows the effects in the cause; and hence His knowledge is not discursive, as was shown above. God sees the effect created causes in the causes themselves, much better than we can; but still not in such a manner that the knowledge of the effects is caused by him by the Knowledge of the created causes, as is the case with us; hence His knowledge is not discursive. #RandolphHarris 19 of 26

“And now Alma, having been warned of the Lord that the armies of king Noah would come upon them, and having made it known to his people, therefore they gathered together their flocks, and took of their grain, and departed into the wilderness before the armies of king Noah could not overtake them to destroy them. And they fled eight days’ journey into the wilderness. And they came to a land, yea, even a very beautiful and pleasant land, a land of pure water and they pitched their tents, and began to till the ground, and began to build buildings; yea, they were industrious, and did labour exceedingly. And the people were desirous that Alma should be their king, for he was beloved by his people. However, he said unto them: Behold, it is not expedient that we should have a king; for thus saith the Lord: Ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one humans shall not think oneself above another; therefore I say unto you it is not experience that yet should have a king. Nevertheless, if it were possible that ye could always have just humans to be your king it would be well for you to have a king. However, remember the iniquity of king Noah and his priests; and I myself was caught in a snare, and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord, which caused me sore repentance. #RandolphHarris 20 of 26

“Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his has in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth. Nevertheless, in this I do not glory of myself. And now I say unto you ye have been oppressed by king Noah, and have been in bondage to him and his priests, and have been brought into iniquity by them; therefore ye were bound with the bands of iniquity. And now as ye have been delivered by the power of God out of these bonds; yea, even out of the hands of king Noah and his people, and also from the bonds of iniquity, even so I desire that ye should stand fast in this liberty wherewith ye have been made free, and that ye trust no human to be a king over you. And also trust no one to be your teacher nor your minister, expect one be a human of God, walking in God’s ways and keeping God’s commandments. Thus did Alma teach his people, that every human should love one’s neighbour as oneself, that there should be no contention among them. And now, Alma was their high priest, he being the founder of their church. And it came to pass that none received authority to preach or to teach expect it were by one from God. Therefore God consecrated all their priests and all their teachers; and none were consecrated except they were just humans. #RandolphHarris 21 of 26

Therefore they did watch over their people, and did nourish them with things pertaining to righteousness. And it came to pass that they began to prosper exceedingly in the land; and they called the land Helam. And it came to pass that they did multiply and prosper exceedingly in the land of Helman; and they built a city of Helam. Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. Nevertheless—whosever puteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus is was with this people. For behold, I will show unto you that they were brought into bondage, and none could deliver them but the Lord their God, yea, even that God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob. And it came to pass that he did deliver them, and he did show forth his mighty power unto them, and great were their rejoicings. For behold, it came to pass that while they were in the land of Helam, yes, in the city of Helam, while tilling the land round about, behold an army of the Lamanites was in the borders of the land. Now it came to pass that the brethren of Alma fled from their fields, and gathered themselves together in the city of Helam; and they were much frightened because of the appearance of the Lamanites. #RandolphHarris 22 of 26

“However, Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened but that they should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them. Therefore they hushed their fears, and began to cry unto the Lord that he would soften the hearts of the Lamanites, that they would spare them, and their wives, and their children. And it came to pass that the Lord did soften the hearts of the Lamanites. And Alma and his brethren went forth and delivered themselves up into their hands; and the Lamanites took possession of the land of Helam. Now the armies of the Lamanites, which had followed after the people of king Limhi, had been lost in the wilderness for many days. And behold, they had found those priests of king Noah, in a place which they called Amulon; and the had begun to possess the land of Amulon and had begun to till the ground. Now the name of the leader or those priests was Amulon. And it came to pass that Amulon did plead with the Lamanites; and he also sent forth their wives, who were there daughters of the Lamanites to plead with their brethren, that they should not destroy their husbands. And the Lamanites had compassion on Amulon and his brethren and did not destroy them, because of their wives. #RandolphHarris 23 of 26

“And Amulon and his brethren did join the Lamanites, and they were traveling in the wilderness in search of the land of Nephi when they discovered the land of Helam, which was possessed by Alma and his brethren. And it came to pass that the Lamanites promised unto Alma and his brethren, that if they show them the way which led to the land of Nephi that they would grant unto them their lives and their liberty. However, after Alma had shown them the way that led to the land of Nephi the Lamanites would not keep their promise; but they set guards round about the land of Helam, over Alma and his brethren. And the remainder of them wen to the land of Nephi; and a part of them returned to the land of Helman, and also brought with them wives and the children of the guards who had been left in the land. And the king of the Lamanites had granted unto Amulon that he should be a kind and a ruler over his people, who were in the land of Helman; nevertheless he should have no power to do anything contrary to the will of the king of the Lamanites,” reports Mosiah 23.1-39. Please spare and forgive us, O benignant Master; please stay the scourge which is deservedly coming down upon us. Please let the multitude of Thy compassions overcome the hateful mass of our sins; please let the great deep of Thine infinite goodness cover the bitter sea of our wickedness. #RandolphHarris 24 of 26

We have eminent examples of Thy benignity in robbers, and harlots, and publicans, and the prodigal son; like them we also make our confession unto Thee, and fall down before Thee; please receive us, O Master, and although we fall short of their conversion and their sincere repentance, let Thine infinite goodness make up for the defect, yea, make up for everything, for in everything we utterly fall short. Every scourage and plague, and every form of destruction, which is bearing down upon us, is slight and small in comparison of our innumerable transgressions. Wherefore on account of the multitude of our sins we have no ground of confidence, O Lord the righteous Judge, whereon to supplicate of Thy goodness a relief from this terrible menace,–but the exceeding greatness of Thy tenderness and the abyss of Thy compassions, O Master full of pity, please compel us boldly to entreat what is beyond our desverings. For this cause, O God of exceeding goodness, O Lord of mercy, we beseech Thee, of Thy gentleness, to stay this sharp sword of untimely death. Please accept, O benignant Lord, the common contrition and heart-felt sorrow of us all, as Thou didst accept the tears of Hezekiah in the affliction of his heart, and didst rescue him from death. #RandolphHarris 25 of 26

Please remember, O benignant One, Thy Cross and Death voluntary Passion, which Thou didst endure for us the condemned. From Thee alone do we beg assistance and relief from these horrors; for with Thee alone are possible things which are impossible with humans. Blessed art Thou forever. Lord Jesus, true God, everlasting Life, redeemer of sinners, I give my body, soul, intellect, will affection to Thee. I call the day, Sun, Earth, trees, stones, wind, rain, frost, snow, my home, bed, table, food, books, drink, clothes, to witness that I come to Thee for rest of soul from the thunders of guilt and dread of eternity. Please grant me a circumcised heart that I may love Thee, a right spirit that I may seek Thy glory, a principle within which Thou wilt own, an interest in the blood that cleanses, the righteousness that justifies, the redemption that delivers, that I may not be found a hypocrite on Judgement Day. For the sake of Thy cruel death take my time, strength, gifts, talents, usefulness, piety, which in full purpose of heart I consecrate to Thee. Let not sin find a place in my heart to becloud my vision, and may no foolish act wither my gift. Please preserve me from the falls by which others stumble, that Thy name may not be blasphemed or wounded, that Thy people may not be grieved, the Thine enemies may not be hardened, that my peace may not be injured. #RandolphHarris 26 of 26

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Please give me a heart full of love to Thyself and to others. Please let me discover in this life what I am before Thee, that I may not find myself another character hereafter. Prepare me for death, that I may not die after long affliction or suddenly, but after sort illness, with no confusion nor disorder, and a quiet discharge in peace, with adieu to brethren. Please let not my days end like rubbish, but give me a silent removing from the World to another. Inscribe these petitions in Thy book, present them to Thy Father, Set Thine Amen to them, as I do on my part of the covenant. We do not keep silence, O Lord, from praising Thee; because by releasing us from the evils which we deserved, Thou enablest us to celebrate Thy good gifts with gladness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #CresleighHomes

This Smile Will Make Me Her Confidant, Which is Always Something!

July 10, 2020 1:12 am

The significant self is one who ha come through the ravages of an insignificance-producing technology, has learned to accept and know oneself, has come to appreciate one’s place in the scheme of things (nature and other people), and has learned how to integrate the various sides of oneself in an authentic and honest fashion. The person who is struggling to be oneself and know oneself and enjoy being alive ever comes back, full circle, to the beginning, to that vaguest of all concepts: Love. Love, more than being a mere feeling, idea, ideal, or notion, is the most complex experience in all human life. It is the cause of more joy and also more misery than anything else we can know. “Monday, then, one o’clock, at the exhibition.” Very good, I shall have the honor of turning up at a quarter to one. A little rendezvous. On Saturday, I finally cut the matter short and decided to pay a visit to my much-traveled friend Adolph Bruun. With that in mind, about seven o’clock in the evening I started out on Vestergade, where someone told me he was supposed to live. However, he was not to be found, not even on the fourth floor, where I arrived all out of breath. As I was about to go down the stairs, my ears picked up a melodious female voice saying in an undertone, “Monday, then, one o’clock, at the exhibition; and that time the others are out, but you know that I never dare to see you at home.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 27

The invitation was not meant for me but for a young man who—one, two, three—was out of the door so fast that my eyes, let alone my feet, could not catch up with him. Why do they not have a gaslight in stairways; then I might have been able to see whether it was worth the trouble to be so punctual. However, if there had been a light, I perhaps would not have managed to hear anything. The established order is still rational, and I am and remain an optimist…Now who is it? The exhibition, to use Donna Anna’s expression, swarms with girls. It is precisely a quarter to one. My beautiful stranger! Would that your intended might be as punctual in every way as I am, or do you wish instead that he may never arrive fifteen minutes early? As you wish—I am at your service in every way…“Enchanting troll woman, fairy, or witch, dispel your fog,” show yourself. You are probably here already but invisible to me; make yourself known, for otherwise I certainly do not dare to expect a revelation. Are there perhaps several up here on the same errand as she? Very possibly. Who knows the ways of an individual, even when he is attending an exhibition? –There comes a young girl through the foyer, hurrying faster than a band conscience after a sinner. She forgets to hand over her ticket; the man in a red uniform stops her. #RandolphHarris 2 of 27

Good Heavens, what a rush she is in. It must be she. Why such premature vehemence? It is not one o’clock yet. Do remember that you are supposed to meet your beloved. Does it make any difference how one looks on such an occasion, or is this an occasion when one must out one’s best foot forward, as they say? When such an innocent young thing is keeping an appointment, she goes at it in a frenzy. She is as nervous as can be. I, however, sit here most comfortably in my chair and contemplate a lovely rural landscape…She is a very daughter of the devil; she storms through all the rooms. You must still try to hide your eagerness a bit; remember what was said to Miss Elizabeth: Is it seemly for a young girl to be so eager to become involved with someone? However, your involvement, of course, is one of the innocent ones. A rendezvous is usually regarded by overs as the most beautiful moment. I myself still recall as clearly as if it were yesterday the first time I hurried to the appointed place with a heart as full as it was unacquainted with the joy awaiting me. The first time I knocked three times; the first time a window was opened; the first time a little wicker gate was opened by the invisible hand of a girl who concealed herself by opening it; the first time I hid a girl under my cape in the luminous Summer night. #RandolphHarris 3 of 27

However, in this opinion there is a considerable admixture of illusion. A neutral third party does not always find the lovers to be most beautiful at this moment. I have witnessed trysts in which, although the girl was lovely and the mand handsome, the total impression was almost revolting and the meeting itself far from beautiful, although it undoubtedly seemed so to the lovers. In a way, one gains in becoming more experienced, for admittedly one loses the sweet disquietude of impatient longing but gains the poise to make the moment really beautiful. It annoys me to see a male become so confused on such an occasion that out of sheer love he has delirium tremens. What, indeed, do peasants know about cucumber salad! Instead of having the composure to enjoy her disquietude, to let it inflame her beauty and make it incandescent, he brings about only an ungainly confusion, and yet he goes home happy, imagining that it was something glorious. However, where the devil is the man? It is now almost two o’clock. Well, they are a splendid tribe, these lovers! What a scoundrel—to let a young miss wait for him! No, but of course I am a much more dependable person! It is probably best to speak to her now as she passes me for the fifth time. “Forgive my boldness, lovely lady; you are presumably looking for your family here. #RandolphHarris 4 of 27

“You have hurried by me several times, and as my eyes followed you I noticed that you always stop in the next to the last room. Perhaps you do not know that there is still another room beyond that. There you will possibly find the ones you are looking for.” She curtseys to me; it is very becoming to her. The opportunity is propitious. I am glad that the man is not coming—the fishing is always best in troubled waters. When a young miss is agitated, one can successfully risk much that otherwise would miscarry. I have bowed to her as politely and formally as possible; I am once again siting on my chair looking at my landscape and keeping my eye on her. To follow her immediately would be risking too much; it might seem as if I were obtrusive, and then she would be on her guard at once. Now she is of the opinion that I spoke to her out of sympathy, and I am in her good favour. –I know for sure that there is not a soul in the last room. Solitude will have a favourable effect upon her; as long as she sees many people around her, she is uneasy; if she is alone, she no doubt will subside. Quite right—she is staying in there. In a while, I will en passant [casually] come in; I have the right to say one line more—after all, she does owe me as much as a greeting. She has sat down. Poor girl, she looks so sad; she has been crying, I think, or at least she has had tears in her eyes. #RandolphHarris 5 of 27

It is shocking—to force such a girl to tears. However, be calm, you shall be avenged; I will avenge you; he will find out what it is to wait. –How beautiful she is now that the various squalls have calmed down and she is at rest in one mood. Her bearing is a harmonious blend of sadness and pain. She is really attractive. She sits there in her traveling clothes, and yet it was not she who was going to travel; she put them on to go out looking for joy, and now they are a symbol of her pain, for she is like one from whom joy is traveling away. She looks as if she had taken leave of her beloved forever. Let him go! –The situation is propitious; the moment beckons. The thing to do now is to express myself in such a way that it will appear as if I were of the opinion that she was looking for her family or a party of friends up here, and yet so warmly that every word is suggestive to her feelings, so I will have the opportunity to insinuate myself into her thoughts. Darn the scoundrel—there a fellow comes full speed into the room; no doubt it is he. Oh, no, what a clumsy fool, now when I have just got the situation the way I wanted it. Oh, well, I shall probably be able to turn this to advantage. I must come into casual contact with them, manage to be brought into the situation. When she sees me, she will involuntarily smile at me, who thought she was looking for her family out here, whereas she was looking for something entirely different. #RandolphHarris 6 of 27

This smile will make me her confidant, which is always something. –A thousand thanks, my child; that smile is worth much more to me than you think; it is the beginning, and the beginning is always the hardest. Now we are acquaintances; our acquaintance is established in a piquant situation—for the time being it is enough for me. You no doubt will stay here scarcely more than an hour’ in two hours I will know who you are—why else do you think the police keep census records? Have I become blind? Has the inner eye of the soul lost its power? I have seen her, but it is as if I had seen a Heavenly revelation—so completely has her image vanished again for me. In vain do I summon all the powers of my soul in order to conjure up this image. If I ever see her again, I shall be able to recognize her instantly, even though she sands among a hundred others. Now she has fled, and the eye of my soul tries in vain to overtake her with its longing. –I was walking along Langelinie, seemingly nonchalantly and without paying attention to my surroundings, although my reconnoitering glance left nothing unobserved—and then my eyes fell upon her. My eyes fixed unswervingly upon her. They no longer obeyed their master’s will; it was impossible for me to shift my gaze and thus overlook the object I wanted to see—I did no look, I stared. #RandolphHarris 7 of 27

As a fencer freezes in his lunge, so my eyes were fixed, petrified in the direction initially taken. It was impossible to look down, impossible to withdraw my glance, impossible to see, because I saw far too much. The only thing I have retained is that she had on a green cloak, that is all—one could call it capturing the cloud instead of Juno; she has escaped me, like Joseph from Potiphar’s wife, and left only her cloak behind. She was accompanied by an elderly woman, who appeared to be her mother. Her I can describe from top to toe, even though I did not really look at her at all but at most included her en passant. So it goes. The girl made an impression on me, and I forgot her; the other made no impression, and I can remember. My soul is still caught in the same contradiction. I know that I have seen her, but I also know that I have forgotten it again, yet in such a way that the remnant of the recollection that is left does not refresh me. With a restlessness and vehemence, my soul, as if my welfare were at stake, demands this image, and yet it does not appear; I could tear out my eyes to punish them for their forgetfulness. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence come my help. #RandolphHarris 8 of 27

Then, when I have chafed in impatience and have calmed down, it is as if presentient and recollection were weaving an image that still cannot take definite shape for me, because I cannot make it stand still in context; it is like a pattern in a fine weaving—the pattern is lighter then the background, and by itself it cannot be seen because it is to light. –This is a strange state to be in, and yet it has its pleasure intrinsically and also because it assures me that I am still young. This I also am able to learn from another observation—namely, that I continually seek my prey among young women. I like them to be more natural, more coquettish; a relationship with her is more beautiful, very interesting; it is piquant, and the piquant is always the last. —I had not expected to be able to taste once again the fresh fruits of falling in love. I have gone under in love-rapture; I have been given what movie stars call a stunner. No wonder that I am a little dazed. So much the better, so much the more do I promise myself out of this relationship. In thinking about a performance it is easy to assume that the content of the presentation is merely an expressive extension of the character of the performer and to see the function of he performance in these personal terms. This is a limited view and can obscure important differences in the function of the performance of the interaction as a whole. #RandolphHarris 9 of 27

First, it often happens that the performance serves mainly to express the characteristic of the task that is performed and not the characteristics of the performer. Thus one finds that service personnel, whether in profession, bureaucracy, business, or craft, enliven their manner with movements which express proficiency and integrity, but whatever this manner conveys about them, often its major purpose is to establish a favourable definition of their service or product. Further, we often find that the personal front of the performer is employed not so much because it allows one to present oneself as one would like to appear but because one’s appearance and manner can do something for a scene of wider scope. It is in this light that we can understand how the sifting and sorting of urban life brings girls with good grooming and correct accent into the job of receptionist, where they can present a front for an organization as well as for themselves. However, most important of all, we commonly find that the definition of the situation projected by a particular participant is an integral part of a projection that is fostered and sustained by the intimate co-operation of more than one participant. For example, in a medical hospital the two staff internists may require the intern, as part of one’s training, to run through a patient’s chart, giving an opinion about each recorded item. #RandolphHarris 10 of 27

One may not appreciate that one’s show or relative ignorance comes in part from the staff studying up on the chart the night before; one is quite unlikely to appreciate that this impression is doubly ensured by the local team’s tacit agreement allotting the work-up of half the chart to one staff person, the other half to the second staff person. This teamwork ensures a good staff showing—providing, of course, that he right internist is able to take over the catechism at the right time. Furthermore, if the team’s over-all effect is to be satisfactory, it is often the case that each member of such a troupe or cast of players may be required to appear in a different light. Thus if a household is to stage a formal dinner, someone in uniform or livery will be required as part of the working team. The individual who plays this part must direct at oneself the social definition of a menial. At the same time the individual taking the part of host or hostess must direct at oneself, and foster by one’s appearance and manner, the social definition of someone upon whom it is natural for menial to wait. This was strikingly demonstrated in the island tourist hotel studied by the writer (hereafter called “Shetland Hotel”). There an over-all impression of middle-class service was achieved by the management, who allocated to themselves the roles of middle-class host and hostess. #RandolphHarris 11 of 27

And to their employees that of domestics—although in terms of the local class structure the girls who acted as maids were of slightly higher status than the hotel owners who employed them. When hotel guests were absent, little nonsense about a maid-mistress status difference was allowed by the maids. Another example may be taken from middle-class family life. In our society, when husband and wife appear before new friends for an evening of sociability, the wife may demonstrate more respectful subordination to the will and opinion of her husband than she may bother to show when alone with him or when with old friends. When she assumes a respectful role, he can assume a dominant one; and when each member of the marriage team plays its special role, the conjugal unit, as a unit, can sustain the impression that the new audiences expect of it. Etiquette in the Southern United States of America provides another example. When few others are in the region, an individual may call his fellow workers by his first name, but when others approach it is understood that mistering will be reintroduced. Business etiquette provides an example: When outsiders are present, the touch of businesslike formality is even more important. #RandolphHarris 12 of 27

You may call your office assistant “Mindy” and your partner “Jim” all day, but when a stranger comes into your office you should refer to your associates as you could expect a stranger to address them: Miss or Mr. You may have a running joke with the switchboard operator, but you let it ride when you are placing a call in an outsider’s hearing. She [Mindy] want to be called Miss or Mrs. In front of strangers; at least, she will not be flattered if your “Mind” provokes everyone else into addressing her with familiarity. Since the god-adjustment line is presented by those who take the standpoint of the wider society, one should ask what the following of it by the stigmatizes means to normals. It means that the unfairness and pain of having to carry a stigma will never be presented to them; it means that normals will not have to admit to themselves how limited their tactfulness and tolerance is; and it means that normals can remain relatively uncontaminated by intimate contact with the stigmatized, relatively unthreatened in their identity beliefs. It is from just these meanings, in fact, that the specifications of a good adjustment derive. When a stigmatized person employs this stance of good adjustment one is often said to have a strong character or a deep philosophy of life, perhaps because in the back of our minds we normals wan to find an explanation of one’s willingness and ability to act this way. #RandolphHarris 13 of 27

A visually impaired persons may be cited: “The disbelief that one’s desire to go on can spring from quite ordinary motives is so generally encountered that as a defense against it you almost automatically develop a rationale to explain your behaviour. You develop a ‘philosophy.’ People seem to insist that you have one and they think you are kidding when you say you have not. So you do your best to please and to strangers you encounter on trains, in restaurants, or on the subway who want to know what keeps you going, you give your little piece. You are an individual of unusual discernment if you can realize that your philosophy is seldom one of your own devising but a reflection of the World’s notion about blindness.” The general formula is apparent. The stigmatized individual is asked to act so as to imply neither that one’s burden is heavy nor that bearing it has made one different from us; at the same time one must keep oneself at that remove from us which ensures our painlessly being able to confirm this belief about one. Put different, one is advised to reciprocate naturally with an acceptance of oneself and us, an acceptance of one that we have not quite extended one in the first place. A phantom acceptance is thus allowed to provide the base for a phantom normalcy. #RandolphHarris 14 of 27

So deeply, then, must one be caught up in the attitude to the self that is defined as normal in our society, so thoroughly must one be a part of this definition, that one can perform this self in a faultless manner to an edgy audience that is half-watching one in terms of another show. One can even be led to join with normals in suggesting to the discontented among one’s own that the slights they sense are imagined slights—which of course is likely at times, because at many social boundaries the markers are designed to be so faint as to allow everyone to proceed as though fully accepted, and this means that it will be realistic to be oriented to minimal signs perhaps no meant. The irony of these recommendations is not that the stigmatized individual is asked to be patiently for others what they decline to let one be for them, but that tis expropriation of one’s response may well be for them, but that this expropriation of one’s response may well be the best return one can get on one’s money. If in fact one desires to live as much as possible “like any other person,” and be accepted “for what one really is,” then in many cases the shrewdest position for one to take is this one which has a false bottom; for in many cases the degree to which normals accept the stigmatized individual can be maximized by one’s acting with fully spontaneity and naturalness as if the conditional acceptance of one, which one is careful not to overreach, is full acceptance. #RandolphHarris 15 of 27

However, of course what is a good adjustment for the individual can be an ever better one for society. It might be added that the embarrassment of limits is a general feature of social organization; the maintenance of phantom acceptance is what many, to some degree, are being asked to accept. Any mutual adjustment and mutual approval between two individuals can be fundamentally embarrassed if one of the partners accepts in full the offer that the other appears to make; every “beneficial” relationship is conducted under implied promises of consideration and assistance such that the relationship would be injured were these credits actually drawn on. That the mind is the crucial component in the spiritual journey cannot be accurately denied. The apostle Paul’s writings are probably the most complete set of biblical instructions about what individual and corporate discipleship are and how they are to be attained. Arguably, the most important text he ever penned about spiritual transformation is Romans 12.1-2. In this wise and tender admonition, the devotional master, Paul, puts his finger on the very essence of how we grow to become like Jesus: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this World,” he tells us, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 27

“Renewing” is anakainosis in the Greek, and its meaning is fairly straightforward: making something new. This is what happens to the mind when it incorporates new thoughts and beliefs. “Mind” is nous and means “the intellect, reason, or the faculty of understanding.” We are so familiar with this verse that some of its oddness or peculiarity is lost on us. However, to see how truly peculiar this teaching is, think of what Paul could have said but did not. He could have said, “Be transformed by developing close feelings toward God,” or “by exercising your will in obeying biblical commands,” or “by intensifying your desires for the right things,” or “by fellowship and worship,” and so on. Obviously, all are important part of the Christian life. Yet Paul chose to mention none of them in his most important precis of the spiritual life. Why is that? What is it about the mind that justifies Paul’s elevation of it to such a position of prominence in religious life? In the preceding verse, Paul reminds us that we should offer our bodies to God because this is the most reasonable way to express service to Him in light of His mercies towards us. Paul mentions the body and its members—our faces, hands, tongues, feet—for two reasons. First, the body is the vehicle through which we interact with the World. For example, to get groceries, it is not enough for me just to think about the grocery store. I have to move my body and go to the store! #RandolphHarris 17 of 27

Likewise, it is not enough to think about showing love to my wife or to feel a desire inside to evangelize a friend. In both cases, I have to move my body—I smile, use my speech to bless or communicate, and so forth Second, my habits dwell in my body and its members. Some people frown so much, gossip so often, or eat certain soothing foods so regularly that routines and habit get deeply woven into their bodies. In the right circumstances, their faces are habituated to frown, their tongues to talk, and their legs to walk to the refrigerator without even thinking about it. To change our habits and to interact differently with the World, we need to retrain our bodies to form new habits that replace old ones. However, how do we gain the motivation, the insights, the perspective necessary to change? Anyone who has struggled with bad habits knows that you do not become transformed by just willing the old habits to go away. This is why preaching that centers too much on exhortation without instruction is ineffective. According to Paul, the key to change is the formation of a new perspective, the development of fresh insights about out lives and the World around us, the gathering of the knowledge and skill required to know what to do and how to do it. #RandolphHarris 18 of 27

And this is where the mind comes in. Truth, knowledge, and study are powerful factors in the transformation of the self and the control of the body and its habits for a healthy life in the kingdom of God. Paul’s teaching about the centrality of the intellect for spiritual renewal was not new. The Old Testament is pregnant with this same idea in its teaching about the nature and role of wisdom in life. It summons us to think long, har, and carefully because God has placed His stamp of reason all about us: “Do you know the ordinances of the Heavens…Who has put wisdom in the innermost being, or has given understanding to the mind?” reports Job 38.33, 36. Wisdom is a particular attitude toward reality, a Worldview…That Worldview assumes…the one God embedded truth within all reality. The Old Testament proclaims that the same rational God who reveals Himself to the prophets also created the World as an orderly, understandable cosmos. And the Old Testament assures us that this God made our minds to be apt for gaining knowledge and understanding so as to avoid foolish living and ignorant beliefs. For those willing to pay the price of exercising their minds and studying diligently, there is knowledge and wisdom in the scriptures. #RandolphHarris 19 of 27

However, just as surely as the Old Testament places a value on wisdom and knowledge, it warns us that they only come to the diligent: “Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding,” Proverbs 2.2. “We are to seek her [wisdom] as sliver, and search for her as for hidden treasure,” reports Proverbs 2.4. A wise life of virtue and knowledge comes to those who, with humility of heart and reverence for God, work hard at using their minds to study, to seek understanding, to capture truth. However, what is it about our makeup that requires us to use our minds in order to change? How does intellectual growth change the soul, and what is it about a well-informed mind that makes it so valuable for gaining a new way of seeing life? In order to answer these questions, we will first have to examine the nature of the soul and the mind it contains a second, investigate how the mind relates to other aspects of the human personality. Here is the thesis of the chapter: the mind is the soul’s primary vehicle for making contact with God, and it plays a fundamental role in the process of human maturation and change, including spiritual transformation. In thought, the mind’s structure conforms to the order of the object of thought. #RandolphHarris 20 of 27

Since this is so, and since truth dwells in the mind, truth itself is a powerful and rationality is valuable as a means of obtaining truth and avoiding error. Therefore, God desires a life of intellectual growth and study for His children. “And it came to pass that Limhi and his people returned to the city of Nephi, and began to dwell in the land again in peace. And it came to pass that after many days the Lamanites began again to be stirred up in anger against the Nephites, and they began to come into the borders of the land round about. Now they durst not slay them, because of the oath which their king had made unto Limhi; but they would smite them on their cheeks, and exercise authority over them; and began to put heavy burdens upon their backs, and drive them as they would a dumb mule—yea, all this was done that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled. And now the afflictions of the Nephites were great, and there was no way that they could deliver themselves out of their hands, for the Lamanites had surrounded them on every side. And it came to pass that the people began to murmur with the king because of their afflictions; and they began to be desirous to go against them to battle. And they did afflict the king sorely with their complaints; therefore he granted unto them that they should do according to their desires. #RandolphHarris 21 of 27

“And they gathered themselves together again, and put on their armor, and went forth against the Lamanites to drive them out of their land. And it came to pass that the Lamanites did beat them, and drove them bac, and slew many of them. And now there was a great mourning and lamentation among the people of Limhi, the widow mourning for her husband, the son and the daughter mourning for their father, and the brothers for their brethren. Now there were a great many windows in the land, and they did cry mightily from day to day, for a great fear of the Lamanites had come upon them. And it came to pass that their continual cries did stir up the remainder of the people of Limhi to anger against the Lamanites; and they went again to battle, but they were driven back again, suffering much loss. Yea, they again even the third time, and suffered in the like manner; and those that were not slain returned again to the city of Nephi. And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves to the yoke of bondage, submitting themselves to be smitten, and to be driven to and from, and burdened, according to the desires of their enemies. And they did humble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long did they cry unto their God that he would deliver them out of their afflictions. #RandolphHarris 22 of 27

“And now the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities; nevertheless the Lord did hear their cries, and began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens; yet the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out bondage. And it came to pass that they began to prosper by the degrees in the land, and began to raise grain more abundantly, and flocks, and herds, that they did not suffer with hunger. Now there was a great number of women, more than there was of men; therefore kind Limhi commanded that every man should impart to the support of the windows and their children, that they might not perish with hunger; and this they did because of the greatness of their number that had been slain. Now the people of Limhi kept together in a body as much as it was possible, and secured their grain and their flocks; and the king himself did not trust his person without the walls of the city, unless he took his guards with him, fearing that he might by some means fall into the hands of the Lamanites. And he caused that his people should watch the land round about, that by some means they might take those priests that fled into the wilderness, who had stolen the daughters of the Lamanites, and that had caused such a great destruction to come upon them. #RandolphHarris 23 of 27

“For they were desirous to take them that they might punish them; for they had come into the land of Nephi by night, and carried off their grain and many of their precious things; therefore they laid wait for them. And it came to pass that there was no more disturbance between the Lamanites and the people of Limhi, even until the time that Ammon and his brethren came into the land. And the king having been without the gates of the city with his guards, discovered Ammon and his brethren; and supposing them to be priests of Noah therefore he caused that they should be taken, and bound, and cast into the prison And they have been priests of Noah he would have caused that they should be put to death. However, when he found that they were not, but tat they were his brethren, and had come from the land of Zarahemla, he was filled with exceedingly great joy. Now king Limhi had sent, previous to the coming of Ammon, a small number of humans to search for the land of Zarahemla; but they could not find it, and they were lost in the wilderness. Nevertheless, they did find a land which had been peopled; yea, a land which was covered with dry bones; yes, a land which had been peopled and which had been destroyed; and they, having supposed it to be the land of Zarahemla, returned to the land of Nephi, having arrived in the borders of the land not many days before the coming of Ammon. #RandolphHarris 24 of 27

“And they brought a record with them, even a record of the people whose bones they had found; and it was engraven on plates of ore. And now Limhi was again filled with joy on learning from the mouth of Ammon that king Mosiah had a gift from God, whereby he could interpret such engravings; yea, and Ammon also did rejoice. Yet Ammon and his brethren were filled with sorrow because so many of their brethren had been slain. And also that kind Noah and his priests had caused the people to commit so many sins and iniquities against God; and they also did mourn for the death of Abinadi; and also for the departure of Alma and the people that went with him, who had formed a church of God through the strength and power of God, and faith on the words which had been spoken by Abinadi. Yea, they did mourn for their departure, for they knew not wither they had fled. Now they would have gladly joined with them, for they themselves had entered into a covenant with God to serve him and keep his commandments. And it came to past that king Limhi and many of his people were desirous to be baptized; but there was none in the land that had authority from God. And Ammon declined doing this thing, considering himself an unworthy servant. #RandolphHarris 25 of 27

“Therefore they did not at that time form themselves into a church, waiting upon the Spirit of the Lord. Now they were desirous to become even as Alma and his brethren, who had fled into wilderness. They were desirous to be baptized as a witness and a testimony that they were willing to serve God with all their hearts; nevertheless they did prolong the time; and an account of their baptism shall be given hereafter. And now all the study of Ammon and his people, and king Limhi and his people, was to deliver themselves out of the hands of the Lamanites from bondage,” report Mosiah 21.1-36. LORD, please teach me the nature of a sacrament as a seal and pledge of love, that Christ is faithful to make himself a present reality to his own who are guests at his table. Assure me by it that his word is made good to my faith, that he by sacramental union is given to me, that I shall have strength not to fall into sin, that I shall have strength not to fall into sin, that his life begun in me will be perfected hereafter, that my covenant with him is confirmed, that he gives himself to all who take him thankfully. As I come to the feast, please help me to recall my neglect of duties towards myself, my family, church, friends, by not instructing, exoring, being an example. Riches are not from an abundance of Worldly goods, but from a contented mind. #RandolphHarris 26 of 27

Please grant me to see my ignorance, not knowing how or what to pray, my unsavourines, not delighting in, but loathing to speak for Thee, my pride, because I would not speak what I could from fear of not doing it well, my lukewarmness, in not reaching for Thy glory, my idleness and sloth, my want of tender love, my apprehension of unfruitfulness in case I should attempt and do no good, and hence sow seed upon rocks. Let me know that even if I have done right, yet I must lament the principles that caused my neglect, that good duties might be done or omitted out of ill principles or motives, and only when these are dealt with shall I know what is my duty and its extent. Please heal me now, as I approach Thy table, and please fill me with all grace, with Thyself. We beseech Thee, Almighty God, to receive with Fatherly tenderness Thy people fleeing from Thine anger to Thyself; that they who dread the scourge that comes from Thy Majesty may be enabled to rejoice in Thy forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Please hear, O Lord, our prayers, and enter not into judgment with Thy servants; for as no righteousness is found in us on which we could rely, so we acknowledge Thee the Fountain of pity whereby we trust both to be cleansed from our sins, and delivered from our distresses; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 27 of 27

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Cowards die many times before their deaths; that valiant never taste of death but once. O God, whose loving-kindness is so transcendant, that from the conversation of one sinner Thou causest the utmost rejoicing to take place in Heaven; look on this small portion of Thy people, that all affliction my be removed, and Thine inheritance may increase in numbers and advance in devotion; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Love is Not Cancelled–Human Nature is so Well Disposed Toward those Who are in Interesting Situations!

June 26, 2020 1:04 am

We have learned that we cannot live alone, in peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations, far away…We have learned to be citizens of the World, members of the human community. We need greater virtues to bear good fortune than bad. Getting past the “E” word is important. Etiquette is the conductive or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social official life. There are a lot of specific guidelines that dictate how people should react in a given situation. However, these guidelines exist for a purpose: to help smooth the way for beneficial interactions between people by prescribing the ways in which we are expected to act and react to people around us. When we use the manners that are expected us of, the Heavens do not part, and crowds do not applaud us; life just goes on smoothly, the way it should. Only when we do not use them does the importance of good manners becomes obvious. For example, one manner states that if you say “Hi” or “Good morning” to a person at work, that person should respond in a like manner, since this is the considerate thing to do. So far, so good. However, if you say “Hi,” and your coworker did not say anything in return, what happens? How would that make you feel? You would probably wonder something like this, “Did I do something to annoy him?” or “Does not anybody ever notice that I exist?” or even “Do I look too attractive?” #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

Manner matter. Use them, and you will make the best impression possible. Still, no one can possibly know all the manners there are or remember precisely how to apply them in every situation. Etiquette is governed by three principles: consideration, respect, and honesty. These provide the framework for defining every manner that has ever been formulated. Each of these principles is timeless. These principles transcend cultural boundaries, cross socioeconomic boundaries, and apply equally to all ages. Consideration is understanding how other people and entities are affected by whatever is taking place. Consideration is empathy. It helps us to assess how a situation affects everyone involved, and then act accordingly. Respect is recognizing that how you interact with another person will affect your relationship with that person, and then choosing to take actions that will build relationships rather than injure them. Respect helps us decide how to choose to act toward others. Honesty is being truthful, not deceptive. There is a critical difference, too, between benevolent and brutal honesty: “I have a problem with that” verses “That is a stupid thing to say.” Honesty ensures that we act sincerely. Etiquette is a code of treating people—and making choices based on—consideration, respect and honesty. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

When you apply the principles of consideration, respect, and honesty consistently, etiquette becomes a tool that lets you build better relationships and be more successful in every aspect of your life. Etiquette is not about doing what is correct. Etiquette is about doing what is right. To be fair, most men’s inconsiderate or disrespectful behaviour is not intentional. Men frequently get lost in their thoughts and go to far-off places in their minds without even realizing the journey has started or considering the consequences. That is when they get in trouble. Men get it right some of the time, but they do not generally spend enough effort really thinking through how their actions will affect the people around them. And that is what good etiquette really is: thinking about what the considerate, respectful things to do would be, and then doing it. By thinking about our behaviour, we turn each action into a conscious choice. The more we practice making those choices, the more often we will make good choices—and the better our lives and the lives of our loved ones will be. And that is what makes etiquette worth the effort. Consideration for the rights and feelings of others is not merely a rule for behaviour in public but the very foundation upon which social life is built. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

The first rule of etiquette—which hundreds of others merely paraphrase or explain or elaborate—is: Never do anything that is unpleasant to others. The art of etiquette really comes down to being thoughtful of the people you encounter in your everyday life. We all tend to associate “proper behaviour” with formal social events—but true etiquette involves behaving with consideration and respect for others in everything that you do, from attending a high-society soiree to simply hanging around the house. Seven key behaviours that are considered bad habits are adjusting, nose picking, swearing, spitting, smoking and chewing tobacco, sloppy dressing, wearing a hat where they should not. The smell of smoke and the health implications of secondhand smoke are bad enough. And the casual way smokers toss their cigarette filters on the ground causes fires that ravage the forests. One cigarette filter carelessly tossed out a car window could do immense damage and cost lives. Please, if you have just got to smoke, dispose of the filter appropriately and safely. Also, dominating the communication makes one look as if one does not listen well. The underlying goal of being respectful and responsible is to treat your significant other like an equal but not like one of the guys. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

You love your significant other, you care for her, you share your life with her. So focus on the qualities that engender those emotions in you and then let her know by talking optimistically about her. The fact is, however, etiquette is not about momentous acts. It is about smoothing the way through life for ourselves and the people around us. Burping and passing gas: It is remarkable how often these came up. While both are bodily functions that sometimes escape without warning, for the most part, it is possible to delay the inevitable until you move away or retire to a restroom. The feelings of our heart, the agitation of our passions, the vehemence of our affections, dissipate all its conclusions, and reduce the profound philosopher to a mere plebeian. Preserving conversation is a discernment and delicacy which arises from polite letters. Humans are reasonable beings; and as such, receives from their science proper food and nourishment: However, so narrow are the bounds of human understanding, that little satisfaction can be hoped for in this particular, either from the extent or security of one’s acquisitions. Humans are a sociable, no less than reasonable being: However, neither can one always enjoy company agreeable and amusing, or preserve the proper relish for them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

Humans are also active beings; and from that disposition, as well as from the various necessities of human life, must submit to business and occupation: However, the mind requires some relaxation, and cannot always support its bent to care and industry. It seems, then, that nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biases to draw too much, so as to incapacitate them for other occupations and entertainments. Indulge your passion for science, but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society. The political implications of person-centered education are clear: the student retains one’s own power and the control over oneself; one shares in the responsible choices and decisions; the facilitator provides the climate for these aims. The growing, seeking person is the politically powerful force. This process of learning represents a revolutionary about-face from the politics of traditional education. What is it that causes a teacher to reverse the politics of the classroom? The reasons are multiple. First I cite my own experience. As my point of view in therapy became more and more trusting of the capacity of the individual, I could not help but question the approach. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

If I saw clients as trustworthy and basically capable of discovering themselves and guiding their lives in an ambience I was able to create, why could I not create the same kind of climate with graduate students and foster a self-guided process of learning? So, at the University of Chicago, I began to try. I ran into far more resistance and hostility than I did with my clients. I believe this had the result of making me more defensively rigid, putting all the responsibility on the class rather than recognizing myself as a part of the learning group. I made many mistakes, and sometimes doubted the wisdom of the whole approach. Yet with all my initial clumsiness the result were astonishing. Students worked harder, earned more, did more creative thinking than in any of my previous classes. So I preserved, and improved, I believed, in my ability as a facilitator. Although I began to talk and write about my experience, and some of my students worked in similar ways with classes they were conducting, there was always the nagging doubt that perhaps this procedure worked simply because of something in me, or some peculiar attitudes we had developed in Counseling Center at Chicago. Consequently it was enormously supportive to find that others had gone through similar struggles, were adopting the principles we had outlined, and were having parallel—indeed almost identical—experiences. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

However, sometimes the students who have been clamoring for freedom are definitely frightened when they realize that it also means responsibility. There is also a healthy skepticism as to the reality of the change. Let one not think the teacher brutal for pouncing on one’s faults. One of the first duties of a spiritual guide is to correct the beginner, show where one has mistaken one’s way, and expose one’s fallacies of thought, and conduct. A competent guide will be quick to perceive and fearless to point out these matters however unpleasant a duty it be and however unpalatable to the pupil. It is part of the task of a spiritual director to point out tactfully but firmly the faults and deficiencies of one’s disciples, to make them more aware of what is needed in their moral self-correction. The spiritual director who is over-sever in one’s correction of the aspirant’s faults, needs correcting oneself. The paternal spiritual guide who coddles one’s bleating disciples renders than a disservice. It is a common experience with abbots of monasteries in the West and with self-actualized beings in the East that attention given to one disciple may rouse the ego’s conceit in one and the ego’s envy in others. The guide who refuses to appease the ego of those who approached one, may nevertheless be eager to help them. Yet they will resent one’s counsel and feel rebuffed! #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

They do not see that one is trying to help them in a wiser way by showing them how to help themselves. Only longer time and further experience may bring them to their sense and show them the logic of one’s advice and the prudence of one’s attitude. Sometimes placing the power of choice in the hands of the student brings a totally different sense of responsibility, and much greater effort. There may be an increase in self-insight, and a growing sense of maturity. When there is a person-centered approach in the classroom, all of these are typical outcomes. “Because I disliked school, I was surprised to find out how well I can study and learn when I am not forced to do it.” “I have never read so much in my life.” “Various ‘free’ discussions have helped me a lot to understand myself.” “It was like I was an adult—not supervised and guided all the time.” Not everyone has been so fortunate in attempting a person-centered approach. Joann Lipshires took over the teaching of three high school seminars in Human Relationships. She had great difficulty working through the problem of negative feelings—her own and those of the students. She thought one of the seminars was “a disaster.” However, her department chair-person encouraged her to continue, and gradually she could say that “I believe that my efforts finally have been successful in providing young people with something they desperately need.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

When she restricted her seminars to fifteen students, provided a more relaxed and comfortable environment, and made a rule that put-downs or killer comments would not be tolerated, her seminars began to follow the patterns that have become familiar. Students were almost unanimously favourable. Her report adds two other aspects that are not always so well documented. She shows how the changes in the school atmosphere, including a greater self-respect, and an improved ability to listen to others affects the politics of the family. Here is one student’s report: “By listening to my mother at home I learned to care about her as well as the things she has to say. I no longer classify her ‘mother’ or ‘parent’ (which to me is a sign of authority which I would defy under any circumstances) but as another human being who deserves just as much love and attention as I or anyone else does. We do not try to change each other’s thoughts on life anymore but we try to change each other’s thoughts on life anymore but we try to understand them first.” A parent of a sophomore who had taken Human Relations had this comment to make: “As a parent of a child who has taken the course Human Relations I would like to recommend it for other students. This course gave my children a chance to think about herself in many ways. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

“It made her realize why she said things and how she felt about others. Her sense of values seems to have taken on a more optimistic form. The honesty in dealing with one’s feelings makes for a better person. I believe this is the type of course that could be taught in grade school.” In addition Ms. Lipshires has the report of two observers—student teachers assigned by the Education Department of a nearby college—on the discipline in her seminars. The reports have a similar tone: “Not only do they enjoy the class, but the trust the teacher places in them is returned by the students’ efforts to keep the class going and orderly.” “Discipline is a problem for most teachers. It is always viewed as the students walking al over the teacher’s authority—‘these kids have no respect!’ In Human Relations there never seems to be any serious discipline problems or even any smaller troubles, like getting everyone’s attention in class. The teacher is the key: she always expresses herself in terms of honest and real feelings and had enormous respect for the feelings of her students.” There could scarcely be a clearer statement of the way discipline by external authority is changed to self-discipline. The spiritual leader who is always soft and sentimental may help some of one’s pupils but one would help them more if, at the same time, one were also hard and firm. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

The first attitude will attract more to a teacher, but without the second to balance it, neither one nor they will get the proper view of life. A true teacher must warn one’s followers against false expectations and irredeemable promises. One of the first tasks of a philosophy teacher is to restrain the missionary fervour of one’s younger pupils and to impress upon them the need of caution, great discernment, and even secrecy in this matter. It is not enough that one has the penetration to perceive the truth; one must also have the courage to tell it to one’s disciples, even though one knows it will shock them. The self-actualizes whose ego still harbours vanity will find it flattered by every new disciple, will be endangered afresh by every widening of one’s personal influence. One finds that the disciples come to one for their emotional comfort, they do not come for their ego’s emotional quietus. They want to remain enclosed in its little circle, not to be taken completely out of it. The kind of master needed and sought after by those who are on the religio-mystic-occult path is one who will take a keen interest in their personal life as well as spiritual welfare, one who is always willing to help them with any and every problem, one who by virtue of residence or correspondence is always and quickly available to them. The philosophic master is not like this but of a different kind. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

One is not a missionary telling others that they must follow the Quest but an educator telling them that they may follow it if they so choose. The title “leader” implies its corollary “follower.” However, a spiritual leader of the kind here described does not want a mass of followers trailing behind one in a partisan spirit. It is enough for one to give others a few inspirations, ideas, insights, and yet leave them free to work on the material as they wish, unobligated to join any movement. It is needful for you to understand that a philosophic teacher never really wants anyone to follow one but only to follow Truth. Sokrates humorously described himself as practising the same vocation as one’s mother who was a midwife—the only difference between them being that whereas she helped women to deliver themselves of infants, he helped people to deliver themselves of the true ideas with which their minds were in labour. His business, like that of all genuine teachers, was not to impart truth as something new and foreign but to assist the student to elicit it from within oneself. Every genuine teacher tries in one’s work to lead the student’s mind in such a way that one’s thinking gradually changes without one’s becoming conscious of the fact at the time, although one will recognize it in retrospect. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

Sokrates makes students think for themselves; stimulates them to solve their own metaphysical, personal, and emotional problems; periodically gives an inner mystical impetus to their meditation practice; and points out the pitfalls and fallacies which lie in their life-path. Because his outlook is so disinterested, because his primary purpose is to liberate and not limit them, to give and not get, such a teacher’s services can never be bought by anyone—although they may be claimed by those who are prepared to cast off the shoes of conventional prejudice at one’s door and who are willing to refrain loyally from imposing upon one their preconceived notions of what characteristics the teaching, the teacher, and the quest should possess. Thus if one will not shackle them, they are in their turn must not shackle one. Such would-be disciples are rare, but such teachers who practise what they preach are rarer still. Jesus as the Christ is the bearer of the New Being in the totality of his being, not in any special expression of it. Various Christologies have concentrated on his words, and his deeds or his suffering. These are enlightening if not cut off from he being of Christ. However, rationalism separated his words, pietism his deeds, and orthodoxy his suffering from his being; these systems forgot that the being of Christ is his work and that his work is his being, namely, the New Being which is his being. #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

When theologians overlook the being of Christ they cannot place the New Bring at the center of their thought. Concentrating on one’s acts, they unavoidably distort their meaning and relevance. They then no longer relate the Christ to the universal quest for a conquest of estrangement. This makes the Christ himself a stranger in humankind. On the contrary, we should remember that the traditional symbols of “salvation,” “redemption,” “grace,” “atonement,” “meditation” as applied to the function of the Christ, emphasize the universality of his role. The New Being in the Christ has universal significance. It is universally expected. On account of this, “Jesus as the Christ is the Saviour through the universal significance of his being as the New Being. What is his significance? Simply that the revelatory correlation in which Peter acknowledged his Messiahship remains revelatory for every human. While Peter was directly thrown into it, being face to face with the Christ in the flesh, we are in a different position. It is the same situation, but the participants in it are removed from it in time and space. The original miracle, together with its original reception, is the permanent point of reference, while the spiritual reception by following generations changes continuously. A whole ecclesiology is evidently implied in this statement. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

The Church will be the community in which one experiences the original revelatory correlation in which Jesus was acknowledged as the Christ. The main point here is that this revelatory constellation has universal score. In this sense it is final, not that no more revelations may take place, but that all other revelations will be subordinated to it. The revelatory event in Jesus as the Christ. He is the miracle of the final revelation, and his reception is the ecstasy of the final revelation. His appearance is the decisive constellation of historical (and by participation, natural) forces. It is the ecstatic moment of human history and, therefore, its center, giving meaning to all possible and actual history…But it is only for those who received him as the final revelation, namely as the Messiah, the Christ, the Man-from-above, the Son of God, the Spirit, the Logos-who-became-flesh, the New Being. “I, Zeniff, having been taught in all the language of the Nephites, and having had a knowledge of the land of Nephi, or of the land of our fathers’ first inheritance, and having been sent as a spy among the Lamanites that I might spy out of their forces, that our army might come upon them and destroy them—but when I saw that which was good among them I was desirous that they should not be destroyed. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

“Therefore, I contented with my brethren in the wilderness, for I would that our ruler should make a treaty with them; but he being an austere and a blood-thirsty man commanded that I should be slain; but I was rescued by the shedding of much blood; for father fought against father, and brother against brother, until greater number of our army was destroyed in the wilderness and we returned, those of us that were spared, to the land of Zarahemla, to relate that tale to their wives and their children. And yet, I being over-zealous to inherit the land of our fathers, collected as many as were desirous to go up to possess the land, and started again on our journey into the wilderness to go up to the land; but were smitten with famine and sore afflictions; for we were slow to remember the Lord our God. Nevertheless, after many days’ wandering in the wilderness we pitched our tents in the place where our brethren were slain, which was near to the land of our fathers. And it came to pass that I went again with four of my men into the city, in unto the king, that I might know of the disposition of the king, and that I might know if I might go in with my people and possess the land in peace. And I went in unto the king, and he covenanted with me that I might possess the land of Lehi-Nephi, and the land of Shilom. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

“And he also commanded that his people should depart out of the land, and I and my people went into the land that we might possess it. And we began to build buildings, and to repair the walls of the city, yea, even the walls of the city of Lehi-Nephi, and the city of Shilom. And we began to till the ground, yea, even with all manner of seeds, with seeds of corn, and of wheat, and of barely, and with neas, and with sheum, and with seeds of all manner of fruits; and we did begin to multiply and prosper in the land. Now it was the cunning and the craftiness of king Laman, to bring my people into bondage, that he yielded up the land that we might possess it. Therefore it came to pass, that after we had dwelt in the land for the space of twelve years that king Laman began to grow uneasy, lest by any means my people should wax strong in the land, and that they could not overpower them and bring them into bondage. Now they were a lazy and an idolatrous people; therefore they were desirous to bring us into bondage, that they might glut themselves with the labours of our hands; yea, that they might feast themselves upon the flocks of our fields. Therefore it came to pass that king Laman began to stir up his people that they should contend with my people; therefore there began to be wars and contentions in the land. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

“For, in the thirteenth year of my reign in the land of Nephi, away on the south of the land of Shilom, when my people were watering and feeding their flocks, and tilling their lands, a numerous host of Lamanites came upon them and began to slay them, and to take off their flocks, and the corn of their fields. Yea, and it came to pass that they fled, all that were not overtaken, even into the city of Nephi, and did call upon me for protection. And it came to pass that I did arm them with bows, and with arrows, and swords, and with cimeters, and with clubs, and with slings, and with all manner of weapons which we could invent, and I and my people did go forth against the Lamanites to battle. Yea, in the strength of the Lord did we go forth to battle against the Lamanites; for I and my people did cry mightily to the Lord that he would deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, for we were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of our fathers. And God did hear our cries and did answer our prayers; and we did go forth in his might; yea, we did go forth against the Lamanites, and in one day and a night we did play three thousand and forty-three; we did slay them even until we had driven them out of our land. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

“And I, myself, with mine own hands, did help to bury their dead. And behold, to our great sorrow and lamentation, two hundred and seventy-none of our brethren were slain,” reports Mosiah 9.1-19. O my Lord, let not my ministry be approved only by humans, or merely win the esteem and affections of my people; but do the work of grace in their hearts, call in Thy elect, seal and edify the regenerate ones, and command eternal blessings on their souls. Save me from self-opinion and self-seeking; water the hearts of those who hear Thy word, that seed sown in weakness may be raised in power; cause me and those that hear me to behold Thee here in the light of special faith, and hereafter in the blaze of endless glory; please make my every sermon a means of grace to myself, and please help me to experience the power of Thy dying love, for Thy blood is balm, Thy presence bliss, Thy smile Heaven, Thy cross the place where truth and mercy meet. Look upon the doubts and discouragements of my ministry and keep me from self-importance; I beg pardon for my many sins, omissions, infirmities, as a man, as a minister; please command Thy blessing on my weak, unworthy labours, and on the message of salvation given; please stay with Thy people, and may Thy presence be their portion and mine. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

When I preach to others please let not my word be merely elegant and masterly, my reasoning polished and refined, my performance powerless and tasteless, but may I exalt Thee and humble sinners. O Lord of power and grace, all hearts are in Thy hands, all events at Thy disposal, set the seal of Thy almighty will upon my ministry. The Apostles’ Creed, scholars believe, dates from After Death 250 and is the oldest creedal affirmation to attain universal acceptance. The purpose of the Creed is to make a Trinitarian confession and to affirm our solidarity with the universal Church of the ages. To do this properly the Creed must never be recited, but confessed. That is, one’s heart and mind must work together to genuinely affirm authentic belief. The “Gloria Parti” (Doxology) is mean to draw us upward in music for the purpose for which we have come—to give glory to God. It should be sung with our whole heart. O God, Who restores us unto eternal life by Christ’s Resurrection, fulfill the ineffable mystery of Thy loving-kindness; that when our Saviour shall come in His majesty, as Thou hast made us to be regenerated in Baptism, so Thou mayest make us to be clothed with a blessed immortality; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

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So We Have Asked the Wrong Question: Satan Said to Eve, “You Will be Like God, Knowing Good and Evil!”

June 19, 2020 1:35 am

A warmer climate, immigrations, and agricultural improvements have led to explosive population growth. We so many new mouths to feed the new growth in populations spelled disaster. Fertility rates combined with reduced harvest means the land can no longer support its population. While the abundance of labour has kept wages low, most Americans in the twenty first century have experienced a steady decline in living standards, marked by famine, poverty and poor health, leaving them vulnerable to infection. Medical examinations of many Americans find them overweight and suffering from prior illness from eating unhealthy foods because they are affordable. The destruction caused by COVID-19 will change humanity in two important ways. On an economic level, the rapid loss of population will lead to some important changes in America’s economic conditions. There will be more food to go around as well as more land and better pay for the surviving farmers and workers. People will begin to eat better and live longer. Living standards will also bring an increase in social mobility. Weakening the tyrannical oppression of the government, which will bring about political reforms. However, COVID-19 will also have an important biological impact. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

Because COVID-19 will wipe out some of the most frail and vulnerable people, it will leave behind a population with significantly different gene pool. Including genes that may help survivors resist the virus. Genetic mutations often confer immunity to different pathogens that work in similar ways. Riches are not from an abundance of Worldly goods, but from a contented mind. Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible. Their lives were not cracked or broken, as others’ were, but were bent into themselves; lost to others, they futilely sought to find themselves. In the same sense as it could be said that one’s journey through life was undetectable, in the same sense no victim fell before one. One lived much too intellectually to be a seducer in the ordinary sense. For some people, individuals are merely for stimulation; they discard them as trees shake off their leaves—one is rejuvenated, the foliage withers. I can think of nothing more tormenting than a scheming mind that loses the thread and then directs all its keenness against itself as the conscience awakens and it becomes a matter of rescuing oneself from this perplexity. The many exists from one’s foxhole are futile; the instant one has troubled soul already thinks it sees daylight filtering in, it turns out to be a new entrance, and thus, like panic-stricken wild game, pursued by despair, one is continually seeking an exit and continually finding an entrance through which one goes back into oneself. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

Such a person is not always what could be called a criminal; one very often is oneself frustrated by one’s own schemes, and yet one is stricken with a more terrible punishment than is the criminal, for what is even the pain of repentance compared with this conscious madness? One’s punishment has a purely esthetic character, for even the expression “the conscience awakens” is too ethical to use about one; consciousness that manifests itself as a restlessness that does not indict one even in the profounder sense but keeps one awake, allow one no rest in one’s sterile restlessness. Nor is one insane, for one’s multitude of finite thoughts are not fossilized in the eternity of insanity. Who is and who is not a psychologist? And what is psychology? The answer to the first question would appear to be quite simple. Anyone who has not studied psychology and has not earn an academic degree in the field is not a psychologist. That would mean practically everyone is a nonpsychologist. However that is not really the case, and I would go so far as to claim that there is no such thing as a nonpsychologist, because we all practice and have to practice our own brands of psychology as we live our lives. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

We have to know what is going on inside other people. We have to try to understand them. We even have to try to predict how others will behave. To do so we do not have to go to a university laboratory. The laboratory of everyday life (to which it is not even necessary to go) gives us ample opportunity to think through and ponder any number of experiments and cases. So we have asked the wrong question. We should ask not whether we are psychologist. Whatever the answer to that question may be, I feel that the study of psychology can help us become better psychologist. That brings us to our second question: What is psychology? This question is much harder to answer than the first one. We will have to take a little time with it. The literal meaning of psychology is “science of the soul.” However, knowing that does not make any clearer to us precisely what this science of the soul is. What does it study? What are its methods? What are its goals? Most people think psychology is a relatively modern science. They have that impression because it is essentially only in the last 100 to 150 years that the word “psychology” ha come into use. However, they forget that there was a premodern psychology that began—let us say—about 500 years Before Christ and continued into the seventeenth century. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

Premodern psychology did not call itself “psychology,” however. It was known as “ethics” or often as “philosophy,” but that does not make it any the less psychology. What was the purpose of that premodern psychology? Our answer can be quite brief: Premodern psychology sought to understand the human soul in the interest of making people better. The motivation behind psychology was therefore moral. Indeed, we could even say religious. Aristotle wrote a psychological textbook, but he titled it Ethics. The Stoics produced a very interesting psychology, and some of you may be familiar with the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. In Thomas Aquinas you will find a system of psychology from which you can probably learn more than you can from most modern textbooks. His discussion of such concepts as narcissism, pride, humility, modesty, inferiority complex, and many more are as interesting and profound as you will find anywhere. Spinoza, too, wrote a psychology and, like Aristotle, entitled it Ethics. Spinoza was probably the first great psychologist to recognize clearly the power of the unconscious when he said that we are all aware of our desires but we are not aware of the motives behind those desires. The modern period has seen the rise of a totally different psychology, which is no the whole not much more than a hundred years old. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

This modern psychology has a different purpose. Its goals is not to understand the soul so that we can become better human beings; its goal is—to state the case crudely—to understand the soul so that we can become more successful human beings. We want to understand ourselves and others so that we can take the upper hand in life, so that we can manipulate others, so that we can shape ourselves in ways that will favour our own advancement. One if we understand how much culture and the goals of society have changed, can we fully grasp the difference between the tasks of premodern and modern psychology. Now, I am sure that by and large people in classical Greece or in the Middle Ages were not all that much better than we are today. Their everyday behaviour was probably even worse than ours. However, despite that their lives were governed by an idea, and that idea was just the business of earning one’s daily pay check (bread) was not enough to make life worth living. Life had to have a meaning, and much of that meaning lay in human growth, in the development of our human powers. And therein lay the relevance of psychology. Modern humans see things differently. They are not as interested in being and becoming more as they are in having more. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

Modern humans want better careers, more money, more power, more respect. However, we know that more and more people are beginning to doubt whether goals like those will really make them happy. Word is getting around, and such doubt is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the United States of America, the richest and most economically advanced country in the World. God never removed Paul’s thorn, despite is anguished pleas. When Paul wrote these words, it had been fourteen years since he had received the surpassingly great revelations. During that time he had suffered many varied adversities. How could he have still needed the thorn to curb any temptation to become conceited? God had an even greater purpose for the thorn. He wanted Paul to experience the sufficiency of His grace. God wanted Paul to learn that the divine assistance of the Holy Spirit was all he needed. God wanted Paul to lean continually on the Spirit for strength. All things are naked to God’s eyes. God necessarily knows things other than Himself. For it is manifest that He perfectly understands Himself; otherwise His existence would not be perfect, since His existence is His act of understanding. Now if anything is perfectly known, it follows of necessity that its power is perfectly known. However, the power of anything can be perfectly known only by knowing to what is power extends. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

Since therefore the divine power extends to other things by the very fact that it is the first effective cause of all things, as is clear. God must necessarily know things other than Himself. And if we add that the very existence of the first effective cause is God, this appears still more plainly, God is His own act of understanding. Hence whatever effects pre-exist in God, as in the first cause, must be in His act of understanding, and all things must be in Him according to an intelligible mode: for everything which is in another, is in accord to the mode of that in which it is. God’s grace assumes our sinfulness, guilt, and ill-deservedness. Here we see it also assumes our weakness and inability. Just as grace is opposed to the pride of self-righteousness, so it is also opposed to the pride of self-sufficiency. The sin of self-sufficiency goes all the way back to the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Satan’s temptation of Eve was undoubtedly complex and many faceted. That is, it included what we would now consider a number of different temptations. However, one of those facets was the temptation of self-sufficiency. Satan said to Eve, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil,” reports Genesis 3.5. Humankind was created to be dependent upon God: physically, “in him we live and move and have our being,” reports Acts 17.28. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

Some people, their religious services are a holy thing to them, unpriced and unpriceable. For it is done at the dictate of one’s higher self. We must recognize a sharp, clear-cut distinction between spiritual teaching as a duty and spiritual teaching as a business. The one expresses one’s true relationship to the disciple, the other seeks financial return from one. Spirituality is no commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace. It must be worked for step by step and won by personal effort. This still remains true even though in the end it is conferred by Grace, for without such preparation the conferment is unlikely, nay almost impossible. This is not less true if the efforts may mostly be buried in the history of past lives. If any religious organization or cult-leader even mentions a price, a fee, or even a contribution as a prerequisite to Grace, initiation, or higher consciousness, then the devotee is being deceived by imposture. It is an ancient tradition that such instruction should be given free and that a teacher is degraded by receiving payment. God is costless. It is, as Jesus pointed out, as free as the wind which comes and goes. Whoever has realized it will gladly teach the way to anyone who is ripe and ready for one’s teachings. If any human puts a price on it and offers to sell it to you, be sure one is offering a false or shoddy imitation. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

Note how Moses recalled the Israelites’ utter extremity and total dependence on God: God humbled them, caused them to hunger, fed them with food they had never seen before, taught them that humans live by the word that comes from God. Maybe this is due to Eve, but although many feminists’ legal theories are powerful and brilliant in many ways, they sometimes rely on gender essentialism—the notion that a unitary, “essential” women’s experience can be isolated and described independently of race, class, sexual orientation, and other realities of experience. The result of this tendency toward gender essentialism, is not only that some voices are silenced in order to privilege others (for this is an inevitable result of categorization, which is necessary both for human communication and political movement), but that the voices that are silenced turn out to be the same voices silenced by the mainstream legal voice of “We the People”—among them, the voices of Black women. This result troubles me for two reasons. First, the obvious one: As a humanitarian, the experience of Black women is too often ignored both in feminist theory and in legal theory, and gender essentialism in feminist legal theory does nothing to address the problem. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

A second and less obvious reason for my criticism of gender essential is that contemporary legal theory needs less abstraction and not simply a different sort of abstraction. To be fully subversive, the methodology of feminist legal theory should challenge not only law’s content but its tendency to privilege the abstract and unitary voice, and this gender essentialism also fails to do. In accordance with my belief that legal theory, including feminist legal theory, is in need of less abstraction, and should introduce the voices of more Black women. However, just because people do not represent everyone equally does not mean that they are racist. Some of the people who are not diverse are antiracist. Yet, just as law itself, in trying to speak for all persons, ends up silencing those without power, feminist legal theory is in danger of silencing those who have traditionally been kept from speaking, or who have been ignored when they spoke, including Black women, poor White women, and sometimes even rich young White men. The first step toward avoiding this danger is to give up the dream of gender essentialism. Second, in using a racial critique to attack gender essentialism in feminist legal theory, my aim is not to establish a new essentialism in its place based on the essential experience of Black women. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

Nor should my focus on Black women be take to mean that other women and even men are not silenced either by the mainstream culture or by feminist legal theory. Third, every experience is unique and no categories or generalizations exists at all. Even a jurisprudence based on multiple consciousness must categorize; without categorization each individual is as isolated as most alienated people believe themselves to be, and there can be no moral responsibility of social change. We need to make our categories explicitly tentative, relational, and unstable, and to do so is all the more important in a discipline like law, where abstraction and “frozen” categories are the norm. Avoiding gender essentialism need not mean that the Holocaust and a corncob are the same. Although the tactful acceptance of clumsy efforts by others to help may be a burden to the stigmatized individual, more is asked of one. It is said that if one is really at ease with one’s differentness, this acceptance will have an immediate effect upon normals, making it easier for them to be at ease with one in social situations. The stigmatized individual is advised to accept oneself as a normal person because of what others can gain in this way, and hence likely one oneself, during face-to-face interaction. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

The line inspired by normals, then, obliges the stigmatized individual to protect normals in various ways. An important aspect of this protection has only been suggested; it will be reconsidered here. Given the fact that normals in many situations extend a stigmatized person the courtesy of treating one’s defect as if it were of no concern, and that the stigmatized is likely to feel that underneath it all one is a normal human being like anyone else, the stigmatized can be expected to allow oneself sometimes to be taken in and to believe that one is more accepted then one is. One will then attempt to participate socially in areas of contact which others feel are not one’s proper place. Thus Black writer describes the consternation she causes in a hotel beauty shop: “The shop was hushed and solemn as I was ushered in and I was hushed and solemn as I was ushered in and I was virtually lifted by the uniformed attendant into the chair. I tried a joke, the usual thing about getting a haircut once every three months even if I did not need it. It was a mistake. The silence told me that I was not a woman who should make jokes, not even good ones.” People do not only expect you to play your part; they also expect you to know your place. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

“Once at an open air restaurant, a waiter rushed to meet me, on the terrace where the tables were, no to help me, but to tell me that they could not serve a woman like me at that restaurant, as people visited to enjoy themselves and have a good time, not to be depressed by the sight minorities.” That the stigmatized individual can be caught taking the tactful acceptance of oneself too seriously indicates that this acceptance is conditional. It depends upon normals not being pressed past the point at which they can easily extend acceptance is conditional. It depends upon normals not being pressed past the point at which they can easily extend acceptance—or, at worst, uneasily extended it. The stigmatized are tactfully expected to be polite and not to press their luck (or they will be arrested); they should not test the limits of the acceptance shown them (because the police are not on their side and looking for a reason to incarcerate them), nor make it the basis for still further demands. Tolerance, of course, is usually part of the bargain. The nature of a “good adjustment” is not apparent. It requires that the stigmatized individual cheerfully and unselfconsciously accept oneself as essentially the same as normals, while at the same time one voluntarily withholds oneself from those situations in which normals would find it difficult to give lip service to their similar acceptance one. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

More emotion management goes on in the families and jobs of the upper classes than in those of the lower classes, generally speaking. That is, in the class system, social conditions conspire to make it more prevalent at the top. In the gender system, on the other hand, the reverse is true: social conditions make it more prevalent, and prevalent in different ways, for those at the bottom—women. In what sense is this so? And why? Both men and women do emotion work, in private life and at work. In all kinds of ways, men as well as women get into the spirit of the party, try to escape the grip of hopeless love, try to pull themselves out of depression, try to allow grief. However in the realm emotional experience, is emotion work as important for men as it is for women? And is it important in the same ways? I believer that the answers to both questions is No. The reason, at the bottom, is the fact that women in general have far less independent access to money, power, authority, or status in society. They are a subordinate social stratum, and this has four consequences. First, lacking other resources, women make a resource out of feeling and offer it to men as a gift in return for the more material resources they lack. (For example, in 2017, overall, 57 percent of men earn $50,000.00 or more annually, while only 42 percent of women earn the same a year.) #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

The pay gap is still 20 percent for woman and Black women with graduate degrees earn 2 percent less than their White female counterparts. Thus, a woman’s capacity to manage feeling and to do “relational” work is for them a more important resource. Second, emotion work is important indifferent ways for men and women. This is because each gender tends to be called on to do different kinds of this work. On the whole, women tend to specialize in the polite and accommodating side of emotional labour and men tend to be more stern and less emotional. This specialization of emotional labour in the marketplace rests on the different childhood training of the heart that is given to girls and to boys. (“What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice. What are little body made of? Snips and snails and puppy dog tails.”) Moreover, each specialization presents men and women with different emotional tasks of mastering anger and aggression in the service of “being nice.” To men, the socially assigned task of aggressing against those that break rules of various sorts creates the private task of mastering fear and vulnerability. Third, and less noticed, the general subordination of women leaves every individual women with a weaker “status shield” against the displaced feelings of others. For example, female real estate agents found themselves easier targets for verbal abuse from buyers so that male sales representatives often found themselves called upon to handle unwarranted aggression against them. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

The fourth consequence of the power difference between the genders is that for each gender a different portion of the managed heart is enlisted for commercial use. Women more often react to subordination by making defensive use of physical beauty, charm, and relational skills. For them, it is these capacities that become most vulnerable to commercial exploitation, and so it is these capacities that they are most likely to become estranged from. For male workers in “male” jobs, it is more often the capacity to wield anger and make threats that is delivered over to the company, and so it is this sort of capacity that they are more likely to feel estranged from. After the great transmutation, then, men and women come to experience emotion work in different ways. Yet, wise teachers try to harmonize the contradictions. They use practical scientific ways along with mystical interior ones. The person who is fluent and articulate makes a better teacher so far as communication is concerned; but the person who has had divine experience, who knows what one is talking about, is still the best teacher of all. If one knows in experience as in theory, and if one possesses the ability to communicate this theory, then the impressions left will not be vague but quite distinct. A teacher who gives a well-argued discourse about Truth helps us, but so does the teacher who announces the Truth in non-discursive terms both are needful in their place. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

The self-actualized is one who not only knows the truth but can teach well what one knows—and not necessarily in words, for silence can also be used as an effective medium. King Benjamin continues his address—the Lord Omnipotent will minister among humans in a tabernacle of clay—blood will come from every pore as He atones for the sins of the World—His is the only name whereby salvation comes—humans can putt off the natural humans and become Saints through the Atonement—the torment of the wicked will be as a lake of fire and brimstone. About 124 Before Christ. “And again my brethren, I would call your attention, for I have somewhat more o speak unto you; for behold, I have things to tell you concerning that which is to come. And he things which I shall tell you are made known unto me by an Angel from God. And he said unto me: Awake; and I awoke, and behold he stood before me. And he said unto me: Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee; for behold, I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy. For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judges of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto thy people, that hey may also be filled with joy. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

“For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from Heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst humans, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases. And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of humans. And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than humans can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people. And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of Heaven and Earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of humans even through faith one one’s name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and hall scourge hi and shall crucify him. And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the World; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of humans. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

“For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned. However, wo, wo unto one who knoweth that one rebelleth against God! For salvation cometh to none such except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord God hath sent his holy prophets among all the children of humans, o declare these things to every kindred, nation, and tongue, that thereby whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though one had already come among them. Yet the Lord God saw that his people were a stiffnecked people, and he appointed unto them a law even the law of Moses. And many signs, and wonders, and types, and shadows showed he unto them, concerning his coming; and also holy prophets spake unto them concerning his coming; and yet they hardened their hearts, and understood not that the law of Moses availeth nothing except it were through the atonement of his blood. And even if it were possible that little children could sin they could not be saved; but I say unto you they are blessed; for behold, as in Adam, or by nature, they shall, even so the blood of Christ atoneth for their sins. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

“And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of humans, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent. For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just; and the infant perisheth not that dieth in his infancy; but humans drink damnation to their own souls except they humble themselves and become as little children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is to come, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent. For the natural human is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless one yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural human and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon one, even as a child doth submit to one’s father. And moreover, I say unto you, that the time shall come when the knowledge of a Saviour shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. And behold, when that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, except it be little children, only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God Omnipotent. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

“And even at this time, when thou shalt have taught thy people the things which the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, even then are they found no more blameless in the sight of God, only according to the words which I have spoken unto thee. And now I have spoken he words which the Lord God hath commanded me. And thus saith the Lord: They shall stand as a bright testimony against this people, at the judgment day; whereof they shall be judged, every human according to one’s work, whether they be good, or whether they be evil. And if they be evil they are consigned to an awful view of their own guilt and abominations, which doth cause them to shrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of misery and endless torment, from whence they can no more return; therefore they have drunk damnation to their own souls. Therefore, they have drunk out of the cup of the wrath of God, which justice could no more deny unto them than it could deny that Adam should fall because of one’s partaking of the forbidden fruit; therefore, mercy could have claim on them no more forever. And their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever. Thus hath the Lord commanded me. Amen,” reports Mosiah 3.1-27. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

Mighty God, I humble myself for faculties misused, opportunities neglected, words ill-advised, I repent of my folly and inconsiderate ways, my broken resolutions, untrue service, my backsliding steps, my vain thoughts. O bury my sins in the ocean of Jesus’ blood and please let no evil result from my fretful temper, unseemly behaviour, provoking pettiness. If by unkindness I have wounded or hurt another, do thou pour in the balm of Heavenly consolation; if I have turned coldly from need, misery, grief, please do not in just anger forsake me: If I have withheld relief from penury and pain, do not withhold They gracious bounty from me. If I have shunned those who have offended me, please keep open the door of Thy heart to my need. Please fill me with an over-flowing ocean of compassion, the reign of love my motive, the law of love my rule. O Thou God of all grace, please make me more thankful, more humble; please inspire me with a deep sense of my unworthiness arising from the depravity of my nature, my omitted duties, my unimproved advantages, Thy commands violated by me. With all my calls to gratitude and joy may I remember that I have reason for sorrow and humiliation; O give me repentance unto life; cement my oneness with my blessed Lord, that faith may adhere to one more immovably, that love may entwine itself round one more tightly, that one’s Spirit may pervade every fibre of my being. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

Then please send me out to make one know to my fellow-humans. The spiritual guide must be someone to be trusted more than any human to be looked to for guidance, knowledge, hope, inspiration, and warning. One respects every confidence that is reposed in one and keeps all confession in the hidden archives of memory. Whatever confidence one receives during the interview, the other person may feel sure that it will not be betrayed. The person who professes to guide others spiritually and to inspire them with high ideals cannot escape being watched. If one resents the ordeal, one’s service o them will be impaired; but if one accept it, one shows thereby that one is not looking for self-glory. Contempt and slander will be the unequal reward some will pay one; miscomprehension and minification will be received from others. One will accept them unconcernedly. No true master will take money for one’s services. O God, the Bread of our life, look upon us; be Thou the Guardian of our bodies; be Thou the Saviour of our souls. Believing that we have received from the holy Alter the Body and Blood of Christ our Lord and God, let us pray to the Unity of the Blessed Trinity, that it may be granted to us evermore, in fullness of faith, to hunger and thirst after righteousness; and that we, being strengthened with the grace of the saving Food, may so do His work, that we may possess the Sacrament which we have received, not for judgment, but for healing, through our Lord Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

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O LORD my God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, make me ever to seek and love Thee, and by this Holy Communion which I have received never to depart from Thee; for Thou art God, and beside Thee there is none else, for ever and ever. #CresleighHomes

The People Will Live on—The Learning and Blundering People Will Live on!

June 9, 2020 12:48 am

Many people experience emotional states they cannot understand and identify. They often wonder at the intensity, origin, explanation, and duration of emotions. They also worry about what they might do as a result of these emotions. They may even questions whether the emotions are “normal” or not. Of course, his happens to all of us at times. It is one of the risks of being thinking, sensitive people. We begin questioning, analyzing our own experiences. We also categorize them, because that is what our rationalistic, scientific society expects. And when we cannot find a neat explanation or pigeonhole for a particular experience, we either bend it to fit another category, deny it, repress it, or project it onto somebody else (“I am not angry; you are!!”). If we cannot do any of these things because we are too honest with ourselves, we may conclude that the feeling is a bad one or a “sick” one. However, we do not have to become the privileged, personal disciple of such a self-actualized individual to benefit by them. If we have met one only once, for however short a time, merely to think of one helps us and merely to know of one’s presence in this World cheers us. Those who are sensitive enough to be able to do so, become by faith and sympathy shares in one’s own divine perception of the World. However, whereas theirs is a glimpse, the self-actualized is abiding. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

If one is intuitively directed to do so or is charged with a mission involving others, the person who dwells in this light may transmit it to those who are receptive. However, if others are hostile to it, there will be no felt result or perhaps even an uneasiness in its presence. This is a service of transmission or Grace, although not to be regarded as arbitrarily or capriciously given. When one penetrates to the still center of one’s being, the thoughts of this and that subside, either to a low ebb or into a temporary non-existence. Since thoughts express themselves in language, when they are inactive speech become inactive too. What one feels is quite literally to deep for thoughts. One falls into perfect silence. Yet it is not an empty silence. Something is present in it, some power which one can direct toward another human and which that human can feel and absorb temporarily—to whatever extent one is capable—if or when one is in a relaxed and receptive mood. If both are physically present, in total silence and bodily stillness, the communication will best take place because that is a state of transformative prayer. People react differently to one’s presence but only a few react rightly. Those are the ones with whom one has a spiritual affinity, and a prenatal link. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

Association with or proximity to such a being not only brings out what is best in them but also, when it ends, invokes the reaction of what is worst. Deliberative democracy models often seem to subject to the argument that they do not protect individual’s basic rights and liberties sufficiently. This objection is rooted in two assumptions: first, insofar as deliberative models appear to make a high degree of consensus or unanimity of public issues a value, it is fair to suspect that such unanimity could only be attained at the cost of silencing dissent and curtailing minority viewpoints. Second, what protection does a deliberative model allow against the tyranny of democratic majorities from imposing its choices and norms upon the minority? When raised against most versions of radical participatory democratic theories that also prioritize political deliberation, I believe that these objections are fair. I think it is fair to ask whether the radical democratic theories of Hannah Arendt, Benjamin Barber, or Mouffe and Laclau allow for a coherent theory of rights such as would protect both basic rights and liberties for all, and defend minority rights against the tyranny of the majority. However, such objections are not applicable to the model of deliberative democracy developed here. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

Precisely because I share with the Kantian liberal tradition the assumption that moral respect for the autonomous personality is a fundamental normal of morality and democracy, the deliberative model of democracy presupposes a discourse theory of ethics to suppl it with the most general moral principles upon which rights claims would be based. Insofar as a discourse theory of ethics considers participants to be equal and free beings, equally entitled to take part in those discourses which determine the norms that are to affect their lives, it proceeds from a view of persons as beings entitled to certain “moral rights.” I have named this moral right the entitlement to universal moral respect, and have attempted in Situating the Self to give a nonfoundationalist but principled justification for the recognition of this norm. I further maintain that within a discourse theory each individual has the same symmetrical rights to various speech acts, to initiate new topics, to ask for reflection about the presupposition of the conversation, and so on. I call this principle of egalitarian reciprocity. In my view the norms of universal moral respect and egalitarian reciprocity are moral rights in that they are entitlements that accrue to individuals insofar as we view them as moral persons. The step that would lead from a recognition of these two moral rights to the formulation of a principle of basic rights and liberties is certainly not very wide. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

Basically, it would involve a hypothetical answer to the questions, If it is plausible for individuals to view one another as beings entitled to universal moral respect and egalitarian reciprocity, which most general principles of basic rights and liberties would such individuals also be likely to accept as determining the conditions of their collective existence? Although the discourse theory shares this kind of hypothetical and counter-factual moral reasoning procedure with Kant and Rawls, it would be different from a Kantian deduction of the concept of right and from Rawlsian construction of the “original position,” in that it would privilege a discourse model of practical debate as being the appropriate forum for determining rights claims. However, are we not thereby landing in a vicious circle, that is, discourses, even to get started, presuppose the recognition of one another’s moral rights among discourse participants; on the other hand, such rights are said to be specified as a result of the discursive situation. I have indicated elsewhere that this is not a vicious circle but rather the hermeneutic circle that characterizes all reasoning about morals and politics. We never begin our deliberations concerning these matters at a “moral ground zero.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

Rather, in moral theory as in everyday morality, in political theory as in everyday political discourse, we are always situated within a horizon of presuppositions, assumptions, and power relations, the totality of which can never become wholly transparent to us. This much we must have learned from all the criticisms of rationalism in the last three centuries. Discourse ethics in this sense presupposes the reciprocal moral recognition of one another’s claims to be participants in the oral political dialogue. I am still enough of a Hegelian to maintain, however, that such reciprocal recognition of one another’s rights to moral personality is a result of a World-historical process that involves struggle, battle and resistance, as well as defeat, carried out by social classes, genders, groups, and nations. What is distinctive about the discourse model is that although it presupposes that participants must recognize one another’s entitlement to moral respect and reciprocity in some sense, the determination of the precise content and extent of these principles would be a consequence of discourses themselves. Insofar as the precise meaning and entailment of the norms of universal moral respect and egalitarian reciprocity would be the subject to discursive validation, we can speak here of a procedure of “recursive validation.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

The methodological procedure of recursive validation rules out the two consequences most feared by liberals vis-à-vis the model of deliberative democracy—namely, too strong a formulation of the conditions of consent, and the tyranny of the majority. The norms of universal moral respect and egalitarian reciprocity allow marginalized groups and dissenters both the right to withhold their assent and the right to challenge the rules as well as the agenda of public debate. For what distinguishes discoruses from compromises and other agreements reached under conditions of coercion is that only the freely given assent of all concerned can count as a condition of having reached agreement in the discourse situation. A sharp distinction has been drawn between the situation of the discredited with tension to manage and the situation of the discreditable with information to manage. The stigmatized employ an adaptive technique, however, which requires the student to bring together two possibilities. The difference between visibility and obtrusiveness is involved. It is a fact that persons who are ready to admit possession of a stigma (in many cases because it is known about or immediately apparent) may nonetheless make a great effort to keep the stigma from looming large. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

The individual’s object is to reduce tension, that is, to make it easier for oneself and the others to withdraw covert attention from the stigma, and to sustain spontaneous involvement in the official content of the interaction. However, the means employed for this task are quite similar to those employed in passing-and in some cases identical, since what will conceal a stigma from unknowing persons may also ease matters for those in the know. It is thus that a girl who gets around best on her artificial leg employs crutches or an artful but patently artificial limb when in company. This process will be referred to as covering. Many of those who rarely try to pass, routinely try to cover. One type of covering involves the individual in a concern over the standards incidentally associated with one’s stigma. Thus the visually impaired, who sometimes have a facial disfigurement in the region of the eyes, distinguish among themselves according to whether this is the case of not dark glasses sometimes worn to give voluntary evidence of blindness may at the same time be worn to cover evidence of defacement—a case of revealing unsightedness while concealing unsightliness. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

The blind, in all conscience, have enough advertisement of their condition without adding a cosmetic factor to it. I can think of nothing that would add so much to the tragedy of a blind person’s position as the feeling that, in the fight to regain one’s vision, one had lost not only the fight but the wholesomeness of one’s appearance as well. Similarly, since blindness ca lead to the appearance of clumsiness, there may occur a special effort to re-learn motor propriety, an “ease and grace of adeptness at all those motions which the sighted World looks upon as ‘normal.’ A related type of covering involves an effort to restrict the display of those failings most centrally identified with the stigma. The most interesting expression of covering, perhaps, is that associated with the organization of social situations. As already suggested, anything which interferes directly with the etiquette and mechanics of communication obtrudes itself constantly into the interaction and is difficult to disattend genuinely. Hence individual with a stigma, especially those with a physical disability, if they are to minimize the obtrusiveness of their stigma, may have to learn about the structure of interaction in order to learn about the lines along which they must reconstitute their conduct. From their efforts, then, one can learn about features of interaction that might otherwise be to much taken for granted to be noted. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

For example, if the properties are to be maintained, the hard of hearing learn to talk with the degree of loudness that listeners feel is appropriate for the situation, and also to be ready to deal with those junctures during interaction that specifically require good hearing. Frances figured out elaborate techniques to cope with “dinner lulls,” intermissions at concerts, football games, dances, and so on, in order to protect her secret. However, they served only to make her more uncertain, and in turn more cautious, and in turn more uncertain. Thus, Frances had it down pat that at a dinner party she should (1) sit next to someone with a strong voice; (2) if someone asked her a direct question, choke, cough, or get hiccups; (3) take hold of the conversation herself, ask someone to tell a story she had already heard, ask questions the answers to which she already knew. Similarly, the blind sometimes learn to look directly at the speaker even though this looking accomplishes no seeing, for it prevents the blind from staring off into space or hanging the head or otherwise unknowingly violating the code regarding attention cues through which spoken interaction is organized. When it comes to examining the subjective value of a particular trend, the individual oneself will often be eager to volunteer information. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

One may point out that one’s rebellion and defiance against authority or against anything resembling coercion were necessary and indeed lifesaving, since otherwise one would have been submerged by a dominating parent; that notions of superiority helped or still help to keep one going in the face of one’s lack of self-respect; that one’s detachment or one’s “do not-care” attitude protects one from being hurt. It is true that associations of this kind come forth in a spirit of defense, but they are also revealing. They tell us something about the reasons why the particular attitude was acquired in the first place, thereby showing us its historical value and giving us a better understanding of the individual’s development. However, over and beyond this, they lead the way to an understanding of the present functions of the trend. From the standpoint of therapy these are the functions of prime interests. No neurotic trend or conflict is merely a relic from the past—a habit, as it were, that once established keeps persisting. We can be sure that it is determined by stringent necessities within the existing character structure. The mere knowledge of why a neurotic peculiarity developed originally can only be of secondary value, since what we must change are the forces that operate at present. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

For the most part, the subjective value of any neurotic position lies in its counterbalancing some other neurotic tendency. A thorough comprehension of these values, therefore, will provide an indication of how to proceed in any particular instance. If, for example, we are aware that an individual cannot relinquish one’s feeling of omnipotence because it permit one to mistake one’s potentialities for realities, one’s glorious projects for actual accomplishments, we shall know that we must examine the extent to which one lives this way in order to ensure oneself against failure, our attention will be directed toward the factors that lead one not only to anticipate failure but to be in constant dread of it. The most important therapeutic step is to bring the individual to see the reverse side of the medal: the incapacitating efforts of one’s neurotic drives and conflicts. Some of this work will have been covered during the preceding steps; but it is essential that the picture be complete in all its detail. Only then will the individual actually feel the need of changing. In view of the fact that every neurotic is driven to maintain he status quo, an incentive powerful enough to outweigh the delaying forces is required. Such an incentive, however, can come only from one’s desire for inner freedom, happiness, and growth, and from the realization that every neurotic difficulty stands in the way of its fulfillment. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

Thus is one tends toward derogatory self-criticism one must see how his dissipates one’s self-respect and leaves one without hope; how it makes one feel unwanted, compelling one to suffer abuse, which in turn causes one to be vindictive; how it paralyzes one’s incentive and ability to work; how, in order to keep from falling into the abyss of self-contempt, one is forced into defensive attitudes like self-aggrandizement, remoteness from oneself, and feelings of unreality about oneself, so perpetuating one’s neurosis. Similarly, when a particular conflict has become visible during the analytical process, the individual must be made aware of its influence upon one’s life. In the case of a conflict between self-effacing tendencies and a need for triumph, all the cramping inhibition inherent in inverted sadism must be understood. The individual must see how one responds to ever self-effacing move with self-contempt, and with rage at the person before whom one cringes; and how, on the other hand, one responds to every attempt to triumph over someone with horror of oneself and a fear of retaliation. It sometimes happens that an individual, even when one become aware of the whole range of adverse consequences, shows no interest in overcoming the particular neurotic attitude. Instead, the problem seems to fade out of the picture. Almost imperceptibly one shoes it aside and nothing is gained. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

In view of the fact that one has seen all the harm one inflicts upon oneself, one’s lack of response is remarkable. Nevertheless, unless the analyst is very astute in recognizing this kind of reaction, the individual’s lack of interest may pass unnoticed. The individual takes up another subject, the analyst follows one, until they arrive again at a similar impasse. Only must later will the analyst become away of the fact that the changes that have taken place in the individual are not commensurate with the amount of work done. If the analyst knows that a reaction of this kind can occasionally be expected, one will ask oneself what factor at work within the individual present one from accepting the fact that the particular attitude with its train of harmful consequences must be changed. One’s drive to triumph over the analyst, to frustrate one, to let one make a fool of oneself, may be stronger than one’s self-interest. One’s tendency to externalize may still be so great that in spite of one’s recognition of the consequences one cannot apply the insight to oneself. One’s need to feel omnipotent may still be so strong that even though one sees the consequences as inevitable one marks a mental reservation that one will be able to get around them. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

One’s idealized image may still be so rigid that one cannot accept oneself with any neurotic attitudes or conflicts. One will then merely rage against oneself and feel that one ought to be able to master the particular difficulty simply because one is cognizant of it. It is important to be aware of these possibilities, because if the factors that choke the individual’s incentive to change are overlooked, the analysis can easily degenerate into mania psycholgica, a psychology for psychology’s sake. Brining the individual to accept oneself under these circumstances constitutes a distinct gain. Even though nothing in the conflict itself has undergone change, one will have a profound sense of relief and will begin to show signs of wanting to disentangle the web in which one is caught. Once this favourable condition for work has been established, changes will soon begin to occur. However, the Lord is trying to help us—all of us—get His gospel deeper in our hearts. We are no expected to find or walk this covenant path alone. We need love and support from parents, other family members, friends, and leaders who are also walking the path. These kinds of relationships take time. Time to be together. Time to laugh, play, learn, and serve together. Time to appreciate each other’s interests and challenges. Time to be open an honest with each other as we strive to be better together. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

These relationships are one of the primary purposes of father families, quorums, classes, and congregations. They are the foundation for effective ministering. To effectively serve others we must see them through the Heavenly Father’s eyes. Only then can we begin to comprehend the true worth of a soul. Only then can we sense the love that Heavenly Father has for all His children. Seeing others as God does it a gift. I invite all of us to seek for this gift. As our eyes are opened to see, we will also be able to help others see themselves as God does. What will matter most is what others learn from you about who they really are and what they can really become. My guess is that they will not learn it so much from simply lectures. They will get it from feelings of who you are, who you think they might become. Helping others understand their true identity and purpose is one of the greatest gifts we can give. Seeing others and ourselves as God does knits our hearts together in unity and love. With ever-increasing secular forces pulling at us, we need the strength that comes from loving relationships. So as we plan activities, meetings, and other gatherings, let us remember an overarching purpose of these gatherings is to build loving relationships that unite us and help us get the gospel of Jesus Christ deeper in our hearts. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

Become suspicious of any attempts to make the concept of symbols all-embracing and therefore meaningless. What then is the unsymbolic statemen that makes symbolic knowledge possible? It is that God is being-itself and as such beyond the subject-object structure of everything that is. It is interesting that symbols are irreducible experiences. A symbol does not only point to something else; it also participates in it. One should say that every statement about God is symbolic; but one should add that, inasmuch as it is symbolic, it precisely orients towards a non-symbolic reality immediately experiences. To say that God is the Infinite, or the Unconditional, or Being-itself is no longer presented as a non-symbolic statement. Rather, these terms precisely designate the boundary-line at which both the symbolic and the non-symbolic coincide. The unity we seek is to be one in Christ, to connect ourselves with Him. To connect our hears with Heaven, we need individual spiritual experiences. Those experiences come as the Holy Ghost carries the word and love of God to our mind and heart. This revelation comes through the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon; through inspired words of living prophets and other faithful disciples; and through the sill, small voice. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

These words are more than ink on a page, sound waves in our ears, thoughts in our minds, of feelings in our hearts. The word of God is spiritual power. It is truth and light. It is how we hear Him! The word initiates and increases our faith in Christ and fuels within us a desire to become more like the Saviour—that is, to repent and walk the covenant path. A symbol is therefore not a mere sign. A sign points to a meaning with which it has no intrinsic connection. It is an agreed, conventional way of saying something. Highway codes are made of signs, not of symbols. A symbol on the contrary has characteristics that distinguish it from a sign. First, a symbol participates in that which it points. This is a consequence of the fact that it became a symbol in the midst of a revelatory situation. Its association with revelation has lingered, and this makes it still participate in the power of that which was revealed. The “beyond itself” to which it points is no other than the revelation that was then perceived. A second characteristic logically follows: it opens up levels of reality which otherwise are closed for us, namely those levels to which we were raised in the original revelatory experience. Thirdly, it not only opens up dimensions and elements of reality which otherwise remain unapproachable but also unlocks dimensions and elements of our soul which correspond to the dimensions and elements of reality. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

A revelation would be unperceived, unless we had the capacity to perceive it. And only in the revelatory experience itself do we gauge the depths of our soul. What we call “ecstasy” corresponds to “miracle.” The miracle is the correlation of elements having revelatory power. The ecstasy is the opening of the soul’s depth to the depths of the situation. Fourthly, symbols cannot be produced intentionally. This is a principle of tremendous importance. That a symbol cannot be invented is evident, once it has been defined by its participation in a revelation creates symbols of itself. This is important for defining the function of theology. Theology as such has neither the duty nor the power to confirm or to negate religious symbols. Its task is to interpret them according to theological principles and methods. The theologian cannot discard traditional Christian symbols; that they are symbols and, as such, endowed with divine power, is enough. This cuts to the ground from under much of liberal Protestantism and its rejection of Catholic symbols. Yet the theologian should criticize symbols: one may discover contradictions between symbols. One may also by one’s prophetic insight contribute to the surge of a new revelatory situation out of which new symbols will grow. The condemns the static character which some attribute to Catholic sacramentalism and Catholic theology. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

Fifthly, symbols, like living beings, grow and die. They grow when the situation is ripe for them, and they die when the situation changes. This seems a difficult point to accept. It creates no problem with respect to artistic or social symbols. With religious symbols, however, a question arises. If these develop from revelatory situations, the revelation that gave them birth will always be a revelation. One may conceive that after years have passed it may have lost some power, that people will no longer fully perceive in what way this particular situation was revelatory. However, the fact will always remain that through these concrete symbols the Ultimate was once perceived. I admit that symbols have become latent and may be revived n favourable circumstances. Yet I maintain that religious symbols can undergo a disintegration, losing their symbolic power. When we choose the most symbolic action or repentance, we choose to change! We allow the Saviour to transform us into the best versions of ourselves. We choose to become more like Jesus Christ. This process of change, fueled by the word of God, is how we connect with Heaven. We must choose repentance for ourselves. The gospel cannot be forced into our hearts. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose what is right. We do this by receiving the word of God through the Holy Ghost and allowing Christ to change us into the best various of ourselves. “And now, behold, my brethren, as I said unto you that I would prophesy, behold, this is my prophecy—that the things which this prophet Zenos spake, concerning the house of Israel, in the which he likened them unto a tame olive tree, must surely come to pass. And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his divine power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh. And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard; and how cursed are they who shall be cast out into their own place! And the World shall be burned with fire. And how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches; and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long; and they are a stiffnecked and a gainsaying people; but as many as will not harden their hearts shall be saved in the kingdom of God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of your in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts. Yea, today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts; for why will ye die? For behold, after ye have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit, that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire? Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you? Know ye not that if ye will do these things, that the power of redemption and resurrection, which is in Christ, will bring you to stand with shame and awful guilt before the bar of God? And according to the power of justice, for justice cannot be denied, ye must go away into that lake of fire and brimstone, whose flames are unquenchable, and whose smoke ascendeth up forever and ever, which lake of fire and brimstone is endless torment. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

“O then, my beloved brethren, repent ye, and enter in at the strait gate, and continue in the way which is narrow, until ye shall obtain eternal life. O be wise; what can I say more? Finally, I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen,” reports Jacob 6.1-13. What a blessing, or what a praise, or what thanksgiving, can we render to Thee, O God, the Lover of humans, for that when we were cast away by the doom of death, and drowned in the depth of sin, Thou hast granted us freedom, and bestowed on us this immortal and Heavenly food, and manifested to us this Mystery hid from ages and generations? Grant us to understand this Thy supreme act of mercy, and the greatness of Thy benignity and Fatherly care for us. Heavenly Father, Thou has placed me in the church which Thy Son purchased by his own blood. Add grace to grace that I may live worthy of my vocation. I am a voyager across life’s ocean; safe in Heaven’s ark, may I pass through a troubled World into the harbour of eternal rest. I am a tree of the vineyard thou hast planted. Grant me not to be barren, with worthless leaves and wild grapes; prune me of useless branches; water me with dews of blessing. I am part of the Lamb’s bride, the church. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

Please help me to be true, faithful, chaste, loving, pure, devoted; let no strong affection wantonly dally with the World. May I live high above a love of things temporal, sanctified, cleansed, unblemished, hallowed by grace, Thy love my fullness, Thy glory my joy, Thy precepts, my pathway, Thy cross my resting place. My heart is not always a flame of adorning love, but, resting in Thy Son’s redemption, I look forward to the days of Heaven, where no languor shall oppress, no iniquities chill, no miss of unbelief dim the eye, no zeal ever tires. Father, these thoughts are the stay, prop, and comfort of my soul. We want to live a life with Christ deep in our hearts, and engaged in our time and talents. If you choose to, if you want to, you can be a big part of something big, something grand, something majestic! You are among the best the Lord has ever sent to this World. You have the capacity to be smarter and wiser and have more impact on the World than any previous generations! God loves you. We are His people, engaged together in His holy work. We will see the Restoration move forward to its ultimate purpose, the redemption of Israel and the establishment of Zion, where Christ will reign as King of Kings. I testify that God continues to do all things necessary to prepare His people for that day. May we see His glorious work as we al strive to come unto Christ. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

Cresleigh Homes

Why do we love @HUBApts kitchens so much? Their streamlined design and modern color palette make us want to cook all day, every day. And we are loving it! https://sites.google.com/fpimgt.com/hubvirtualtours/home4

Please lead us not into temptation, since we have been partkers of the holy Body and precious Blood. And we thank Thee that Thou hast made us meet communicants of the Mystery of glory and holiness which passeth all understandings.

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#CresleighHomes

Better to Write of Laugher than of Tears Because to Laugh is Proper to a Human!

June 7, 2020 10:55 pm

Unlike the child, the youth becomes an individual who thinks beyond the present and forms theories about everything, delighting especially in considerations of that which is not. Not many people believe in actual evil anymore—not even in the Church. We live in a World that embraces relative truths and morality as the modern Church prepares itself for a figurative battle for souls. However, some of us have been preparing ourselves for a much more literal battle of Armageddon between very real forces of evil and those of good. We have some resources left to us from old days when people still believed that darkness walked among us. Those old rituals and spells shield this place from creatures that do not belong among the holy. There is in the brain of each individual the possibility for all these developments but they are not realized. Humans have a great more freedom than they ever use, because they operate out of habits, prejudices, and stereotypes. According to the deliberative model of democracy, it is a necessary condition for attaining legitimacy and rationality with regard to collective decision-making processes in a polity, that the institutions of this polity are so arranged that what is considered in the common interest of all results from processes of collective deliberation conducted rationally and fairly among free and equal individuals. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25

The more collective decisions making processes approximate this model the more increases the presumption of their legitimacy and rationality. Why? The basis of legitimacy in democratic institutions is to be traced back to the presumption that the instances which claim obligatory power for themselves do so because their decisions represent an impartial standpoint said to be equally in the interests of all. This presumption can be fulfilled only if such decisions are in principle open to appropriate processes of deliberation by free and equal citizens. The discourse model of ethics formulates the most general principles and moral intuitions behind the validity claims of a deliberative model of democracy. The basic idea behind this model is that only those norms (id est, general rules of action and institutional arrangements) can be said to be valid (id est, morally binding), which would be agreed to by all those affected by their consequences, if such agreement were reached as a consequences, of a process of deliberation that had the following features: 1) participation in such deliberation is governed by the norms of equality and symmetry; all have the same chances to initiate speech acts, to question, to interrogate, and open the debate; 2) all have the right to question the assigned topics of conversation; and 3) all have the right to initiate reflexive arguments about the very rules of the discourse procedure and the way in which they are applied or carried out. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25

There are no prima facie rules limiting the agenda of the conversation, or the identity of the participants, as long as each excluded person or group can justifiably show that they are relevantly affected by the proposed norm under question. In certain circumstances this would mean that citizens of a democratic community would have to enter into a practical discourse with noncitizens who may be residing in their countries, at their borders, or in neighboring communities if there are matters that affect them all. Ecology and environmental issues in general are a perfect example of such instances when the boundaries of discourses keep expanding because the consequences of our actions expand and environmental issues in general are a perfect example of such instances when the boundaries of discourses keep expanding because the consequences of our actions expand and affect increasingly more people. The procedural specifics of those special argumentation situations called “practical discourses” are not automatically transferable to a marco-institutional level, nor is it necessary that they should be so transferable. A theory of democracy, as opposed to a general moral theory, would have to be concerned with the question of institutional specifications and practical feasibility. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25

Nonetheless, the procedural constraints of the discourse model can act as test cases for critically evaluating the criteria of membership and the rules of agenda setting, and for the structuring of public discussions within and among institutions. According to the deliberative model, procedures of deliberation generate legitimacy as well as assure some degree of practical rationality. However, what are the claims to practical rationality of such deliberative democratic processes? Deliberative processes are essential to the rationality of collective decision-making processes for three reasons. First, as Bernard Manin has observed in an excellent article “On Legitimacy and Deliberation,” deliberative processes are also processes that impart information. New information is imparted because 1) no single individual can anticipate and foresee all the variety of perspectives through which matters of ethics and politics would be perceived by different individuals; and 2) no single individual can possess all the information deemed relevant to a certain decision affecting all. Deliberation is a procedure for being informed. Furthermore, much political theory under the influence of economic models of reasoning in particular proceeds from a methodological fiction: this is the methodological fiction of an individual with an ordered set of coherent preferences. This fiction does not have much relevance in the political World. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25

On complex social and political issues, more often then not, individuals may have views and wishes but no ordered set of coherent preferences. This fiction does not have much relevance in the political World. On complex social and political issues, more often than not, individuals may have views and wishes but no ordered set of preferences, since the latter would imply that they would be enlightened not only about the preferences but about the consequences and relative merits of each of their preferred choices in advance. It is actually the deliberative process itself that is likely to produce such an outcome by leading the individual to further critical reflection on one’s already held views and opinions; it is incoherent to assume that individuals can start a process of public deliberation with a level of conceptual clarity about their choices and preferences that can actually result only from a successful process of deliberation. Likewise, the formation of coherent preferences cannot precede deliberation; it can only succeed it. Very often individuals’ wishes as well as vies and opinions conflict with one another. In the course of deliberation and the exchange of views with others, individuals become more aware of such conflicts and feel compelled to undertake a coherent ordering. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25

More significantly, the very procedure of articulating a view in public imposes a certain reflexivity on individual preferences and opinions. When presenting their point of view and position to others, individuals must support them by articulating good reasons in a public context to their codeliberators. This process of articulating good reasons in public forces the individual to think of what would count as a good reason for all others involved. One is thus forced to think from the standpoint of all involved for whose agreement one is “wooing.” Nobody can convince others in public of one’s point of view without being able to state why what appears good, plausible, just, and expedient to one can also be considered so from the standpoint of all involved. Reasoning from the standpoint of all involved not only forces a certain coherence upon one’s own views but also forces one to adopt a standpoint called the “enlarged mentality.” A deliberative model of democracy suggests a necessary but no sufficient condition of practical rationality, because, as with any procedure, it can be misinterpreted, misapplied, and abused. Procedures can neither dictate outcomes nor define the quality of the reasons advanced in argumentation nor control the quality of the reasoning and rules of logic and inference used by participants. Procedural models of rationality are underdetermined. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25

Nonetheless, the discourse model makes some provisions against its own misuses and abuses in that the reflexivity condition built into the model allow abuses and misapplications at the first level to be challenged at a second, metalevel of discourse. Likewise, the facie fixed but can be revised and subjected to reexamination. Such would be the normative justification of majority rule as a decision procedure following from this model: in many instances the majority rule is fair and rational decision procedure, not because legitimacy resides in numbers but because if a majority of people are convinced at one point on the basis of reasons formulated as closely as possible as a result of a process of discursive deliberation that conclusion A is the right thing to do, then this conclusion can remain valid until challenged by good reasons by some other group. It is not the sheer numbers that support the rationality of the conclusion, but the presumption that if a large number of people see certain matters a certain way as a result of following certain kinds of rational procedures of deliberation and decision-making, then such a conclusion has a presumptive claim to being rational until shown to be otherwise. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25

The simple practice of having a ruling and an opposition party in democracies in fact incorporates this principle: we accept the will of the majority at the end of an electoral process that has been fairly and correctly carried out, but even when we accept the legitimacy of the process we may have grave doubts about the rationality of the outcome. The practice of there being parliamentary opposition says that the grounds on which the majority party claims to govern can be examined, challenged, tested, criticized, and rearticulated. Parliamentary procedures of opposition, debate, questioning, and even impeachment proceedings, and investigatory commissions incorporate this rule of deliberative rationality that majoritarian decisions are temporarily agreed-upon conclusions, the claim to rationality and validity of which can be publicly reexamined. This deliberative mode of democracy is proceduranst in that it emphasizes first and foremost certain institutional procedures and practices for attaining decisions on matters that would be binding on all. Three additional points are worthy of note with respect to such a conception of democracy: first, I proceed from the assumption of value pluralism. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25

Disagreement about the highest goods of human existence and the proper conduct of a morally righteous life are a fundamental feature of our modern value-universe since the end of natural law cosmologies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the eventual separation of church and state. The challenge to democratic rationality is to arrive at acceptable formulations of the common good despite this inevitable value-pluralism. We cannot resolve conflicts among value systems and visions of the good by reestablishing a strong unified moral and religious code without forsaking fundamental liberties. Agreements in societies living with value pluralism are to be sought for not at the level of substantive beliefs but at that of procedures, processes, and practices for attaining and revising beliefs. Proceduralism is a rational answer to persisting values conflicts at the substantive level. Second, the deliberative model of democracy proceeds not only from a conflict of values but also from a conflict of interests in social life. Social life necessitates both conflict of interests and cooperation. Democratic procedures have to convince, even under conditions when one’s interests as an individual or as a group are negatively affected, that the conditions of mutual cooperation are still legitimate. Procedures can be regarded as methods for articulating, sifting through and weighing conflicting interests. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25

The more conflicts of interests there are the more it is important to have procedural solutions of conflict adjudication through which parties whose interests are negatively affected can find recourse to other methods of the articulation and representation of their grievances. Proceduralist models of democracy allow the articulation of conflicts of interests under conditions of social cooperation mutually acceptable at all. Finally, any proceduralist and deliberative model of democracy is prima facie open to the argument, that no modern society can organize its affairs along the fiction of a mass assembly carrying out its deliberations in public and collectively. Here more than an issue of size is at stake. The argument that there may be an invisible limit to the size of a deliberative body that, when crossed, affects the nature of the reasoning process is undoubtedly true. Nonetheless the reason why a deliberative and proceduralist model of democracy does not need to operate with the fiction of a general deliberative assembly is that the procedural specifications of this model privilege a plurality of modes of association in which all affected can have the right to articulate their point of view. These can range from political parties, to citizens’ initiatives, to social movements, to voluntary associations, to consciousness-raising groups, and the like. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25

It is through the interlocking net of these multiple forms of associations, networks, and organizations that an anonymous “public conversation” results. It is central to the model of deliberative democracy that it privileges such a public sphere of mutually interlocking and overlapping networks and associations of deliberation, contestation, and argumentation. The fiction of a general deliberative assembly in which the untied people expressed their will belongs to the early history of democratic theory; today our guiding model has to be that of a medium of loosely associated, multiple foci of opinion formation and dissemination which affect one another in free and spontaneous processes of communication. Such a strong model of deliberative democracy is subject to three different kinds of criticism; first, liberal theorists will express concerns that such a strong model would lead to the corrosion of individual liberties and may in fact destabilize the rule of law. In one’s earlier work, Bruce Ackerman had formulated a theory of “conversational neutrality” to voice some of these concerns. Stephen Holmes has defended the plausibility of certain “gag rules” on public conversation. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25

Second, feminist theorists are skeptical about this model, because they see it as privileging a certain mode of discourse at the cost of silencing others: this is the rationalist, male, univocal, hegemonic discourse of transparent polity that disregards the emotions, polyvocity, multiplicity, and differences in the articulation of the voice of the public. Those who are sufficiently sensitive feel, when they spend a short time with one who has learned to live with God, a large relief from all their ancient burden of anxieties and difficulties and darkness for a while. This effect is so extraordinary, its exalted peace so glowing, that although it passes away its memory will never pass away. One who arrives at this stage becomes so wise and understanding, so strong and dependable, so kind and calm, that those who seek to foster these qualities within their own selves will receive from one’s work—sometimes from one’s mere presence—a powerful impetus to their progress. They will catch fire from one’s touch, as it were, and find a little easier of accomplishment the fulfilment of these aspirations. And those who are able to share in one’s effort to serve, to collaborate with one’s selfless work for the loftier ad more mysterious qualities which pertain to the quest of God: in the paradox of dynamic stillness, inspired action, and sublime prayers. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25

Yet one accepts worship from nobody as one oneself worships none. For one will not degrade oneself into such materiality nor permit others so to degrade themselves through their own superstition or someone else’s exploitation. One’s thoughts are permeated with unusual energy, and strange intensity, so that sensitive persons feel its atmosphere when in one’s presence or react quickly to its spoken an written expression when not. An individual realized that in one’s personal relationships one showed profound irritation in response to any claim the partner made upon him. Even the most legitimate requests were regarded as coercion and the most merited criticisms as insults. At the same time one felt free to demand exclusive devotion and to express one’s own criticisms quite frankly. One realized, in other words, that one accorded oneself every privilege while denying the partner any. It became clear to one that this attitude was bound to mar, if not destroy, one’s friendships as well as one’s marriage. Up to this point one had been very active and productive in one’s analytical work. However, the session after one became aware of the consequences of one’s attitude was pervaded by silence; the individual was mildly depressed and anxious. The few associations that did appear pointed to a strong tendency to withdraw, which was in decided contrast to one’s eagerness in previous hours to establish a good relationship with women. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25

The impulse to withdraw was an expression of how intolerable the prospect of mutuality was to one: one accepted the idea of equality of rights in theory, but in practice one rejected it. While one’s depression was a reaction to finding oneself in an unsolvable dilemma, the tendency to withdraw meant one was groping for a solution. When one recognized the futility of withdrawing, and saw that there was no way out but to change his attitude, he became interested in the question of why mutuality was so unacceptable to one. The associations that appeared immediately thereafter indicated that emotionally he saw only the alternative of having all rights or no rights whatever. He voiced apprehension that if he should concede any rights one would never be able to do what he wanted but would invariably have to comply with the wishes of others. This in turn opened up the whole field of his compliant and self-effacing trends which, although they had hitherto been touched upon, had never been seen in their full depth and significance. For a number of reasons one’s compliance and dependence were so great that he had had to build up the artificial defense of arrogating all rights exclusively to himself. To abandon the defense at a time when one’s compliance was still a stringent inner necessity would have meant to submerge oneself as an individual. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25

Before one could even consider a change in one’s arbitrary settlement the complaint trends had to be worked through. It is clear that we can never exhaust a problem through a single approach; it must be returned to again and again from various angles. This is because any single attitude springs from a variety of sources and assumes new functions in the course of the neurotic development. Thus, for instance, the attitude of placating and “putting up” with too much is originally part and parcel of the neurotic need for affection and must be tackled when that need is being dealt with. Its scrutiny must be resumed when the idealized image is in question. In that light placating will be seen as an expression of the individual’s notion that one is a saint. That it also involves a need to avoid friction will be understood when one’s detachment is under discussion. Again, the compulsive nature of the attitude will become clearer when the individual’s fear of others and one’s need to lean over backward from one’s sadistic impulses come into view. In other instances an individual’s sensitivity to coercion may be seen first as a defensive attitude stemming from one’s detachment, then as a projection of one’s own craving for power, and later perhaps as an expression of externalization, inner coercion, or other trends. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25

Any neurotic attitude or conflict that crystallizes during analysis must be understood in its relation to the personality as a whole. This is what is called working through. It involves the following steps: bringing to the individual’s awareness all the overt and hidden manifestations of the particular trend or conflict, helping one to recognize its compulsive nature, and enabling one to attain an appreciation both of its subjective value and its adverse consequences. The individual, when one discovers a neurotic peculiarity, tends to avoid examining it by immediately raising the question: “How did it come about?” Whether or not one is aware of doing so, one hopes to solve the particular problem by turning to its historical origin. The analyst must hold one back from this escape into the past and encouraged one to examine first what is involved—in other words, to become familiar with peculiarity itself. One must get to know the specific ways in which it manifests itself, the means one uses to cover it up, and one’s own attitudes toward it. If, for instance, the individual’s dread of being complaint has become clear, one must see the extent to which one resents, dreads, and despises in oneself any form of self-effacement. One must recognize the checks one has unconsciously instituted to the end of eliminating from one’s life all possibilities of compliance and everything involved in complaint tendencies. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25

One will understand, then, how attitudes apparently divergent all serve this one purpose; how one has numbered one’s sensitivity to others to the point of being unaware of their feelings, desires, or reactions; how this has made one highly inconsiderate; how one has chocked off any feeling of fondness for others as well as any desire to be liked by them; how ne disparages tender feelings and goodness in others; how one tends automatically to refuse requests; how in personal relationships one feels entitled to be moody, critical, and demanding but denies the partner any of these prerogatives. Or, if it is the patient’s feeling of omnipotence that has come into focus, it is not enough that one realizes that one has this feeling. One must see how from morning till night one sets impossible tasks for oneself; how, for instance, one thinks one should be able to write a brilliant paper on a complex subject at top speed; how one expects oneself to be spontaneous and scintillating in spite of one’s exhaustion; how in analysis one expects to solve a problem the moment one catches a glimpse of it. Next, the individual must recognize that one is driven to act in accordance with the particular trend, regardless of—and often contrary to—one’s own desires or best interests. One must realize that the compulsion operates indiscriminately, usually without reference to factual conditions. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25

One must see, for example, that one’s faultfinding attitude is turned towards friends and enemies alike; that one upbraids the partner no matter how the latter behaves: if the partner is amiable, one suspects one of feeling guilty about something; if one assets oneself, one is domineering; if one gives in, ne is a weakling; if one likes to be with one, one is too easily available; if one refuses anything, one is stingy, and so on. Or if the attitude under discussion is the individual’s uncertainty of being wanted or welcome, one must realize that the attitude persists despite all evidence to the contrary. Understanding the compulsive nature of a trend also involves recognizing reactions to its frustration. If, for instance, the trend that has emerged concerns the individual’s need for affection, one would have to see that one feels lost and frightened at any sign of rejection or diminished friendliness, no matter how trivial the sign or how little the other person means to one. While the first of these steps shows the individual the extent of one’s particular problem, the second impresses upon one’s mind the intensity of the forces behind it. Both arouse an interest in further scrutiny. Therefore, besides worshiping in stupendous truth, we worship “in spirit.” Notice the small “s,” referring to our human spirits, the inner person. True worship flows from the inside out. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25

Worship is not an external activity, but is of necessity first internal. Jesus warned hypocrites with the words of Isaiah: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain,” reports Mark 7.6,7. Thus true worship must spring from within a human’s spirit, from the spontaneous affections of the heart—as it did so regularly from the heart of David. Psalm 130, a Psalm of Ascents, expresses the anticipation of one worshipping in spirit: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning,” reports Psalm 130.5,6. “Wherefore, let us go to and labour with our might this last time that I shall prune my vineyard. Graft in the branches; begin at the last that they may be first, and that the first may be last, and dig about the trees, both old and young, the first and the last; and the last and the first, that all may be nourished once again for the last time. Wherefore, dig about them, and prune them, and dung them once more, for the last time, for the end draweth nigh. And if it be so that these grafts shall grow, then shall ye prepare the way for them, that they may grow. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25

“And as they begin to grow ye shall clear away the branches which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof; and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard. For it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard; wherefore ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad, and the bad be hewn down and cast into the fire, that they cumber not the ground of my vineyard; and this will I sweep away the bad out of my vineyard. And the branches of the natural tree will I graft in again into the natural tree; and the branches of the natural tree will I graft into the natural branches of the tree; and this will I bring them together again, that they shall bring forth the natural fruit, and they shall be one. And the bad shall be cast away, yea, even out of all the land of my vineyard; for behold, only this once will I prune my vineyard. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard sent his servant; and the servant went and did as the Lord had commanded him, and brought other servants; and they were few. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25

“And the Lord of the vineyard said unto them: Go to, and labour in the vineyard, with your might. For behold, this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard; for the end is nigh at hand, and the season speedily cometh; and if ye labour with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come. And it came to pass that the servants did go and labour with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them; and they did obey the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard in all things. And there began to be the natural fruit again in the vineyard; and the natural branches began to grow and thrive exceedingly; and the wild branches began to be plucked off and cast away; and they did keep the root and the top hereof equal, according to the strength thereof. And thus they labored, with all diligence, according to the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard, even until the bad had been cast away out of the vineyard, and the Lord had preserved unto himself that the trees had become again the natural fruit; and they became like unto one body; and the fruits were equal; and the Lord of the vineyard had preserved unto himself the natural fruit, which was most precious unto him from the beginning. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25

“And it came to pass that when the Lord of the vineyard saw that his fruit was good, and that his vineyard was no more corrupt, he called up his servants, and said unto them: Behold, for this last time have we nourished my vineyard; and thou beholdest that I have done according to my will; and I have preserved the natural fruit, that it is good, even like as it was in the beginning. And blessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in labouring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and have brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is no more corrupted, and the bad is cast away, behold ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard. For behold, for a long time will I lay up of the fruit of my vineyard unto mine own self against the season, which seedily cometh; and for the last time have I nourished my vineyard, and pruned it, and dug about it, and dunged it; wherefore I will lay up unto mine own self of the fruit, for a long time, according to that which I have spoken. And when the time cometh that evil fruit shall again come into my vineyard, then will I cause the good and the bad to be gathered; and the good will I preserve unto myself, and the bad will I cast away into its own place. And then cometh the season and the end; and my vineyard will I cause to be burned with fire,” reports Jacob 5.62-77. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25

To ensure a righteous judgment, the Saviour’s atoning sacrifice will clear away the underbrush of ignorance and the painful thorns of hurt caused by others. The doctrine of Christ—which consists of the saving principles and ordinances of faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end—is taught numerous times in all the scriptures of the Restoration but with particular power in the Book of Mormon. The doctrine begins with faith in Christ, and every one of its elements depends upon trust in His atoning sacrifice. The more we understand about the Saviour’s supernatural gift, the more we will come to know, in our minds, and in our hearts, the reality of the truths of the Book of Mormon and how it has the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strength console, and cheer our souls. God himself aoneth for the sins of the World, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also. The thought that rescued Alma is this: Restoring what you cannot restore, healing the wound you cannot heal, fixing that which you broke and you cannot fix is the very purpose of the atonement of Christ. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25

The joyous truth on which Alma’s mind caught hold was not just that he himself could be made clean but also that those whom he had harmed could be healed and made whole. O God, Who Thy deep and ineffable love to humans hast condescended to the weakness of Thy servants, and made us partakers of this Heavenly Table; condemn not us sinners after the reception of Thy spotless Mysteries, but guard us, of Thy goodness, in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit; that being made holy, we may find our portion and inheritance with all the Saints who have pleased Thee from the beginning, in the light of Thy countenance, through the mercies of Thine Only-begotten son Our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ. O Lord, please help me never to expect any happiness from the World, but only in Thee. Let me not think that I shall be more happy by living to myself, for I can only be happy if employed for thee, and if I desire to live in this World only to do and suffer what Thou dost allot me. Teach me that if I do not live a life that satisfies Thee, I shall not live a life that will satisfy myself. Please help me to desire the spirit and temper of Angels who willingly come down to this lower World to perform Thy will, though their desires are Heavenly, and not set in the least upon Earthy things; then I shall be of that temper I ought to have. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25

Please help me not to think of living to Thee in my own strength, but always to look to and rely on Thee for assistance. Please teach me that there is no greater truth than this, that I can do nothing of myself. Lord, this is the life that no unconverted man can live, yet it is an end that every Godly soul presses after; let it be then my concern to devote myself and all to Thee. Please make me more fruitful and more spiritual, for barrenness is my daily affliction and load. How precious is time, and how painful to see it fly with little done to good purpose! I need Thy help: O may my soul sensibly depend upon Thee for all sanctification, and every accomplishment of Thy purposes for me, for the World, and for Thy kingdom. Please Lead us not into temptation, since we have been partakers of the holy Body and precious Blood. And we thank Thee that Thou hast made us meet communicants of the Mystery of glory and holiness which passeth all understanding. Please pour down on us O Lord, the Spirit of Thy love, that Thou mayest preserve in the same piety those whom Thou hast satisfied with the same Heavenly Bread. We have received, O Lord, the glorious Mysteries, and pray Thee by means of them to make us partakers of things Heavenly, while we are dwelling on the Earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25

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Located off Douglas Road and Rancho Cordova Parkway, the residents of Cresleigh Ranch will enjoy, being just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment, and quick access to Highway 50 and Grant Line Road providing a direct route into Folsom. Residents here also benefit from no HOA fees, two community parks and the benefits of being a part of the highly-rated Elk Grove Unified School District. https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/We give Thee thanks, O Lord our God, after having received Thy holy, spotless, immortal, and Heavenly Mysteries, which Thou hast given us for the benefit, sanctification, and healing of our souls and bodies. And we pray and beseech Thee, O good Lord, the Lover of Humans, to grant that the Communion of the holy Body and precious Blood of Thine Only-begotten Son may procure for us faith that needeth not to be ashamed, love without dissimulation, fulness of wisdom, healing of soul and body, repulse of every enemy, fulfilment of Thy commandments, an acceptable defense before the awful judgment-seat of Thy Christ. #CresleighHomes

Please Give Me a Home Where Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word and the Skies are Not Cloudy All Day!

June 6, 2020 2:05 am

Many psychologists think conflict is the cause of many types of emotional disorder. From childhood onward, each of us has goals and desires, but it is not easy to reach them, because they often run into the goals and desires of others. When a person cannot see any way out of a problem, this conflict leads to anxiety—psychological stress. When we cannot resolve a conflict, we all feel anxious. However, the World of a mentally ill person is full of such anxiety—endless frustration because the World seems too much to cope with. The person (and any of us) can react to this frustration in either two ways: fight or withdraw. Individuals are subject to fields of force and energy in their living, much like the forces in physics. Some people, objects, experiences have an attraction for us. We desire, want, need them. They are positive, like the + pole of a magnet. Sine they attract us, we say we tend to approach them. Other objects, people, or situations repel, disgust, or frighten us. We view them not as attractive (+) but as negative (-), and we tend to avoid them. It has been suggested that the stigmatized individual defines oneself as no different from any other human being, while at the same time one and those around one define one as someone set apart. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

Given this basic self-contradiction of the stigmatized individual, if only to find a doctrine which makes consistent sense out of one’s situation, it is understandable that one will make some effort to find a way out of one’s dilemma. In contemporary society, this means that the individual will not only attempt on one’s own to hammer out such a code, but that, as already suggested, professionals will help out—sometimes in the guise of telling their life story or of telling how they handled a difficult situation. The codes that are presented to the stigmatized individual, whether explicitly or implicitly, tend to cover certain standard matters. A desirable pattern of revealing and concealing is suggested. (For example, in the case of the former mental patient it is sometimes recommended that one properly conceal one’s stigma from mere acquaintances but feel secure enough in one’s sanity, and believe enough in the medical, nor moral, nature of one’s past failings, to reveal oneself to one’s spouse, one’s close friends, and one’s employer.) Other standard matters are: formulae for dealing with ticklish situations; the support one should give to one’s own; the type of fraternization with normals that should be maintained; the kinds of prejudice against one’s own kind that one should blink at and the kinds one should openly attack. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

More standard matters include: the extent to which one should present oneself as a person as normal receiving slightly different treatment; the facts about one’s own kind one should take pride in; the facing up to one’s own differentness that one should engage in. Although the codes or lines presented to those with a particular stigma will differ among themselves, there are certain arguments, however contradictory, that are very generally agreed on. The stigmatized person is almost always warned against attempting to pass completely. (After all, expect for the anonymous confessor, it might be difficult for anyone to advocate this tack in open print.) Too, one is generally warned against fully accepting as one’s own the negative attitudes of others towards one. One is likely to be warned against “minstrelization,” whereby the stigmatized person ingratiatingly acts out before normals the full dance of bad qualities imputed to one’s kind, thereby consolidating a life situation into a clownish role: I also learned that the physically disabled must be careful not to act differently from what people expect one to do. Above all they expect the disabled to be disabled; to be disabled and helpless: to be inferior to themselves, and they will become suspicious and insecure if the disabled falls short of these expectations. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

It is rather strange, but the disabled has to play the part of the disabled, just as many women have to be what the men expect them to be, just women; and some subordinates often have to act like clowns in from of their superiors, so that the superior shall not be frightened by competition. I once knew a person, well below average height. who was a very endearing example of this, indeed. She was very small, about four feet tall, and she was extremely well educated. In front of people, however, she was very careful not to be anything other than a tiny woman, and she played the part of the unaware well with the same mocking laughter and the same quick, funny movements that have been the characteristics of atypical people since the royal courts of the Middles Ages. Only when she was among friends, she could throw away her cap and bells and dare to be the woman she really was: intelligent, sad, and very lonely. And, contrariwise, one is usually warned against “normification” or “deminstrelization;” one is encouraged to have distaste for those of one’s fellows who, without actually making a secret of their stigma, engage in careful covering, being very careful to show that in spite of appearances they are very sane, very generous, very sober, very masculine, very capable of hard physical labour and taxing sports, in short, that they are gentlemen or gentlewomen deviants, nice persons like ourselves in spite of the reputation of their kind. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

It should be plain that these advocated codes of conduct provide the stigmatized individual not merely with a platform and a politics, and not merely with instruction as to how to treat others, but with recipes for an appropriate attitude regarding the self. To fail to adhere to the code is to be a self-deluded, misguided person; to succeed is to be both real and worthy, two spiritual qualities that combine to produce what is called “authenticity.” It should be noted that although literature on authenticity is concerned with how the individual ought to behave, and is therefore moralistic, nonetheless it is presented in the guise of dispassionate neutral analysis, since authenticity is supposed to imply a realistic reality-orientation; and in fact at this time this literature is the best source of neutral analysis concerning these identity issues. Two implications of his advocacy might be mentioned here. First, this advice about personal conduct sometimes stimulates the stigmatized individual into becoming a critic of the social scene, an observer of human relations. One may be led into placing brackets around a spate of casual social interaction so as to examine what is contained therein for general themes. One can become “situation conscious” while normals present are spontaneously involved within the situation, the situation itself constituting for these normals a background of unattended matters. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

This extension of consciousness on the part of the stigmatized persons is reinforced, as earlier suggested, by one’s special aliveness to the contingencies of acceptance and disclosure, contingencies to which normals will be less alive. This is merely one aspect of the general tendency for stigmatized individuals to face a wide review and capsulation their life where a normal might not have to. Thus, a stigmatized person who obtains a family and job is sometimes said to have “made something out of one’s life.” Similarly, someone who marries a stigmatized person is said to have “thrown one’s life away.” All this is reinforced in some cases by the individual becoming a “case” for social workers or other welfare officers and retaining this case status for the remainder of one’s life. Secondly, advice to the stigmatized often deals quite candidly with the part of one’s life that one feels is most private and shameful; one’s most deeply hidden sores are touched on and examined in the clinical manner that is current literary fashion. Intense debates regarding personal positions can be presented in fictionalized form, along with thorough-going crises of conscience. Fantasies of humiliation and of triumph over normals can be packaged and made available. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

Here the most private and embarrassing is the most collective, for the stigmatized individual’s deepest feelings are made of just the stuff that verbal and vocal members of one’s category present in a well-rounded version. And since what is available to the stigmatized is necessarily available to us, these presentations can hardly avoid raising the issue of exposure and betrayal, even though their ultimate effect is probably helpful to the situation of the stigmatized. Another subject to be broached gingerly is the idealized image. It would lead us too far afield to discuss here the conditions under which certain aspects of it can be tackled at a fairly early stage. Caution is advisable, however, since the idealized image is often the only part of the patient that is real to one. It may be, what is more, the only element that provides one with a kind of self-esteem and that keeps one from drowning in self-contempt. The individual must have gained a measure of realistic strength before one can tolerate any undermining of one’s image. To work at sadistic trends at an early period in the analysis is sure to be unprofitable. The reason lies, in part, in the extreme contrast these trends present to the idealized image. Even at a later period awareness of them often fills that individual with terror and disgust. However, there is a more precise reason for postponing this piece of analysis until the patient has become less hopeless and more resourceful. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

One cannot possibly be interested in overcoming one’s sadistic trends while one is still unconsciously convinced that vicarious living is the only thing left to one. The same guide to the timing of interpretations can be employed when its individual application depends upon the particular character structure. For example, with a patient in whom aggressive trends predominate—one who despises feelings as a weakness and acclaims everything that gives the appearance of strength—this attitude with all its implications must be worked through first. It would be a mistake to give precedence to any aspect of one’s need for human intimacy, no matter how obvious this need was to the analyst. The individual would resent any move of this kind as a threat to one’s security. One would feel that one must be on one’s guard against the analyst’s wish to make one a “goody-goody.” Only when one is much stronger will one be able to tolerate one’s tendencies toward compliance and self-effacement. With this individual one would also have to steer clear for some time of the problem of hopelessness, since one would be likely to resist admitting any such feeling. Hopelessness for one would have the connotation of loathsome self-pity and mean a disgraceful confession of defeat. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

Conversely, if compliant trends predominate, all the factors involved in “moving toward” people must be thoroughly worked through before any dominating or vindictive tendencies can be tackled. Again, if an individual sees oneself as a great genius or a great lover, it would be a complete waste of time to approach one’s fear of being despised and rejected, and even more futile to tackle one’s self-contempt. Sometimes the scope of what can be tackled at the beginning is very limited. This is so in particular when a high degree of externalization is combined with a rigid self-idealization—a position that will countenance no flows. If certain signs reveal this condition to the analyst, one will save much time by avoiding all interpretations that even remotely imply that the source of the individual’s trouble lies within oneself. However, it may be feasible at this period to touch on particular aspects of the idealized image, such as the inordinate demands that individual makes upon oneself. Familiarity with the dynamics of the neurotic character structure also helps the analyst to grasp more quickly and more concisely just what the individual wants to express by one’s associations and hence what ought to be dealt with at the moment. One will be able to visualize and predict from seemingly insignificant indications one whole aspect of the individual’s personality, and so can direct one’s attention to the elements to watch for. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

One’s position would be like that of the internist who, when one learns that an individual is coughing, perspiring at night, and fatigued in the late afternoon, considers the possibility of pulmonary tuberculosis and is guided accordingly in one’s examination. If, for instance, an individual is apologetic in one’s behaviour, is ready to admire the analyst, and reveals self-effacing tendencies in one’s associations, the analyst will visualize all the factors involved in “moving toward” people. One will examine the possibility of this being the individual’s predominant attitude; and if one finds further evidence one will try to work at this from every possible angle. Similarly, is an individual repeatedly talks of experiences in which one felt humiliated, and indicates that one looks upon the analysis in this light, the analyst will know that one has to tackle the individual’s fear of humiliation. And one will select for interpretation that source of the fear which at the time is most accessible. One may be able, for example, to connect it with the individual’s need for affirmation of one’s idealized image, provided parts of the image have already come to awareness. Again, if the individual shows inertia in the analytical situation and talks of feeling doomed, the analyst will have to tackle one’s hopelessness in so far as that is possible at the moment. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

If this should occur at the very beginning one may be able only to point out its meaning—namely, that the individual has given oneself up. One will then try to convey to one that one’s hopelessness does not spring from a factually hopeless situation but constitutes a problem to be understood and eventually solved. If the hopelessness appears at a later period that analyst maybe able to relate it more specifically to one’s despair of finding a way out of one’s conflicts or of ever measuring up to one’s idealized image. The suggested measures still leave ample room for the analyst’s intuition and for one’s sensitivity to what is going on in the individual. These remain valuable, even indispensable tools which the analyst should strive to develop to one’s utmost. However, the fact that intuition is employed does not mean that the procedure lies merely in the realm of “art” or that it is one where the application of common sense suffices. A knowledge of the neurotic character structure makes the deductions based upon it strictly scientific and enables the analyst to conduct the analysis in an exact and responsible fashion. Nevertheless, because of the infinite individual variations in the structure, the analyst can sometimes proceed only by trial and error. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

When I speak of error I do not refer to such gross mistakes as imputing motivations that are alien to the individual or a failure to grasp one’s essential neurotic drives. What I have in mind is the very common error of making interpretations that the individual is not yet ready to assimilate. While gross mistakes are avoidable, the error of making premature interpretations is and always will be unavoidable. We can, however, reach a more speedy recognition of such errors if we are extremely alter to the way in which an individual reacts to an interpretation and are guided accordingly. It seems to me that too much emphasis has been placed on the fact of the individual’s “resistance”—on one’s acceptance or rejection of an interpretation—and too little on exactly what one’s reaction signifies. This is unfortunate, because it is the kind of reaction in all its detail that indicates what has to be worked through before the individual will be ready to handle the problem the analyst has pointed out. However, in contrast, the response of others to the adept’s presence is curiously opposite in kind: with a few, the finer evolved, it is beautifully comforting, exalting, pacifying, and draws their interests to one. However, with many others it acts in reverse. One’s quiet ease puts them at ill-ease; one’s self-possession disturbs them. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Either an unpleasant sense of guilt insidiously enters their feelings or one of resentment arises against someone who seems quite unlike other people, and whom they cannot therefore meet on even ground, who arouses their suspicious as being probably a fanatical religious heretic. Jesus tells us in John 4.24 that we must “worship in spirit and in truth.” Worshipping “in truth” means that we come informed by the objective revelation of God’s Word about the great God we serve and the precepts He has spoken. In this sense our worship is governed by what we know and believe of God. The better informed we are, the better we can worship. If we know and have taken to the heart passages like Genesis 1, Psalm 139, Psalm 23, the Book of Job, John 7, John 17, Roman 1-3, Revelation 19—to name a few, the better equipped we will be to worship “in truth.” This knowledge of God through his Word ought to heighten our expectations and instill healthy fear and reverence. As Annie Dillard wrote: “One the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the Catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing helmets. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

“Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” People, we need to fill ourselves with God’s truth so our worship will be electrified with proper reality! Paul needed grace, but he also needed the thorn of his flesh. Like us, he was susceptible to the temptation of pride, and the thorn was given to check that temptation. In fact, the Greek text, the phrase translated in the New International Version “to keep me from becoming conceited” was repeated by Paul. The King James Version picks up this repetition with the following translation of verse 7: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” As if to emphasize the need of the thorn, Paul twice stated the Lord’s purpose in giving it to him. It was to keep pride at bay. Paul was a humble man. He considered himself “less than the least of all God’s people” and the worst of sinners (Ephesians 3.8, 1 Timothy 1.15); yet he knew he was susceptible to pride, given the right circumstances. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

And, if God has left Paul to himself, the surpassing greatness of the revelations given to him could have been the right circumstances. All of us are susceptible to pride. And pride stands in direct opposition to grace, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble,” reports James 4.6. Pride is often reflective of a self-righteous attitude. We begin to grow in the Christian life, and we see other believers who are not growing as we are. We are tempted to become proud of our spiritual growth. Or we see some Christians fall before temptation, and instead of being concerned, we become critical because of our own self-righteousness. When I heard a friend—who I considered to be very committed to Christ—was resigned from his Christian organization because he was divorcing his wife for another woman, I remember my reaction. I said to myself, How could he do such a thing? I would never do that. It seemed as if God spoke to me right then: “Oh, would you not? Do not be so confident in yourself.” I was sobered. I realized my “righteous indignation” and disappointment in my friend was accompanied by a sinful attitude of self-righteousness. Pride can manifest itself in very subtle ways. “And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard? #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

“Behold, I knew that all the fruit of the vineyard, save it were these, had become corrupted. And now these which have once brought forth good fruit have also become corrupted; and now all the trees of my vineyard are good for nothing save it be to be hewn down and cast into the fire. And behold this last, whose branch hath withered away, I did plant in a good spot of ground; yea, even that which was choice unto me above all other parts of the land of my vineyard. And thou beheldest that I also cut down that which cumbered this spot of ground, that I might plant this tree in the stead thereof. And thou beheldest that part thereof brought forth wild fruit; and because I plucked not the branches thereof and cast them into the fire, behold, they have overcome the good branch that it hath withered away. And now, behold, notwithstanding all the care which we have taken of my vineyard, the trees thereof have become corrupted, that they bring forth no good fruit; and these I had hoped to preserve, to have laid up fruit thereof against the season, unto mine own self. However, behold, they have become like unto the wild olive tree, and they are of no worth but to be hewen down and cast into the fire; and it grieveth me that I should lose them. However, what could I have done more in my vineyard? Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

“Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and ii have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long, and the end draweth nigh. And it grieveth me that I should hew down all the trees of my vineyard, and cast them into the fire that they should be burned. Who is it that has corrupted my vineyard? And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard—have not the branches thereof overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted? And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Let us go to and hew down the trees of the vineyard and cast them into the fire, that they shall not cumber the ground of my vineyard, for I have done all. What could I have done more for my vineyard? However, behold, the servant said unto the Lord of the vineyard: Spare it a little longer. And the Lord said: Yea, I will spare it a little longer, for it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard. Wherefore, let us take of the branches of these which I have planted in the nethermost parts of my vineyard, and let us graft them into the tree from whence they came. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“And let us pluck from the tree those branches whose fruit is most bitter, and graft in the natural branches of the tree in the stead thereof. And this will I do that the tree may not perish, that, perhaps, I may preserve unto myself the roots thereof for mine own purpose. And, behold, the roots of the natural branches of the tree which I planted whithersoever I would are yet alive; wherefore, that I may preserve them also for mine own purpose, I will take of the branches of this tree, and I will graft them in unto them. Yea, I will graft them in unto them. Yea, I will graft in unto them the branches of their mother tree, that I may preserve the roots also unto mine own self, that when they shall be sufficiently strong perhaps they may bring forth good fruit unto me, and I may yet have glory in fruit of my vineyard. And it came to pass that they took from the natural tree which had become wild, and grafted in unto the natural trees, which also had become wild. And they also took of the natural trees which had become wild, and grafted into their mother tree. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Plucky not the wild branches from the trees, save it be those which are most bitter; and in them ye shall graft according to that which I have said. And we will nourish again the trees of the vineyard, and we will trim up the branches thereof; and we will pluck from the trees those branches which are ripened, that must perish, and cast them into the fire. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“And this I do that, perhaps, the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness; and because of the change of their goodness; and because of the change of their branches, that the good may overcome the evil. And because that I have preserved the natural branches and the roots thereof, and that I have grafted in the natural branches again into their mother tree, and have preserved the roots of their mother tree, that, perhaps, the trees of my vineyard my bring forth again good fruit; and that I may have joy again in the fruit; and that I may have joy again in the fruit of my vineyard, and, perhaps, that I may rejoice exceedingly that I have preserved the roots and the branches of the first fruit—wherefore, go to, and call servants, that we may labour diligently with our might in the vineyard, that we may prepare the way, that I may bring forth again the natural fruit which natural fruit is good and the most precious above all other fruit,” reports Jacob 5.41-61. May Thy spotless Body be the means of my life, and Thy holy Blood of cleansing and remission of my sins. Heavenly Father, Thou hast revealed to me myself as a mass of sin, and Thyself as the fullness of goodness, with strength enough to succour me, wisdom enough to guide me, mercy enough to quicken me, love enough to satisfy me. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Thou hast shown me that because Thou art mine I can live by Thy life, be strong in Thy strength, be guided by Thy wisdom; and so I can pitch my thoughts and heart in Thee. This is the exchange of wonderful love—for me to have Thee for myself, and for Thee to have me, and to give me Thyself. There is in Thee all fullness of the good I need, and the fullness of all grace to draw me to Thyself, who, else, could never have come. However, having come, I must cleave to thee, be knit to thee, always seek thee. There is none all good as Thou art; with Thee I can live without other things, for Thou art God all-sufficient, and the glory, peace, rest, joy of the World is creaturely, perishing things in comparison with Thee. Help me to know that one who hopes for nothing but Thee, and for all things only for Thee, hopes truly, and that I must place all my happiness in holiness, if I hope to be filled with all grace. Convince me that I can have no peace at death, nor hope that I should go to Christ, unless I intend to do His will and have His fulness while I live. Thou hast given us, O Lord, sanctification by the Communion of the most holy Body and precious Blood of Thine Only-begotten Son; grant us the grace and gift of Thy Holy Spirit, and keep us unreproved in life, and lead us on to the perfect adoption and redemption, and the eternal joys to come. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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We thank Thee, loving Master, Benefactor of our souls, for having this say admitted us to Thy Heavenly and immortal Mysteries. Please Guide our path aright; establish us in Thy fear; please watch over our life; please make safe our goings.
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Angel Abroad, Devil at Home—Every Person is Known by One’s Behaviour!

June 5, 2020 2:14 am

This World, life, it is bigger than you and your sorrow and your guilt. You are what you are. What you are does not have to define who you are. You can shape that all your own. Life is about joy more than sorrow. You can tap the darker passions easily—greed, anger, lust, despair—but love lives in the light beyond the shadows. To be able to reach souls through the heart makes them yours forever. Like some children, many people are only good when daddy is watching. However, find a way into their hearts—a bridge between the divine and human—and you change them from the inside out. Make the masses yours from the inside out. Bring beauty and art back to their lives when they think they have lost you forever. To be a true guru is to accept a responsibility. For this, one needs the capacity in oneself and the mandate from God. Only when a person is permanently and consciously established in God may these occult powers be safely acquired and these relations with disciples be safely entered into. Only when other planes of existence are accessible to one and higher being from those planes are instructing one can one really know how properly to live down here and be able to competently instruct others do to so. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

Nobody is entitled to wear the mantle of a master merely because one has received teaching from a master. One is at best only a transmitter of information and not the originator of it. For one may transmit knowledge which one does not oneself understand, which is far over one’s head or which one is even capable of misunderstanding and therefore likely to lead others totally astray. How can such a person be called a qualified master? Let us therefore make a sharp differentiation between those who are competent to be called teachers and those who are merely tansmitters of teaching. It is all right for a teacher to have only a partial and limited knowledge of one’s subject so long as one recognizes it as such, and so long as it is not applied in cases where complete knowledge is essential. It is all right for a teacher to have only a partial and limited knowledge of one’s subject so long as one recognizes it as such, and so long as it is not applied in cases where complete knowledge is essential. So long as some of the truth—perhaps some vital aspects of it—remains hidden from one, so long must one be stern with oneself and reject the temptation of setting up as a master. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

One must live freedom and not in dependence, whether outwardly or inwardly, on followers or disciples: therefore one keeps them at a distance that they in turn may find and experience the truth within themselves. One’s work ends at pointing the way. A professional lawyer or surgeon accepting client is expected to have certain qualifications before one undertakes to serve them. A spiritual prophet who sets out to guide others needs certain qualifications too. One needs the intellectual capacity to explain, teach and clarify, the temperamental patience to put oneself in their position, and the altruistic compassion to work for their benefits. Moreover, given the innate facility, it is easy to teach ethics to others and hard to live those teachings oneself. One needs the ability to set a right example for imitation in one’s own conduct. It is quite wrong to conceive of a spiritual guide in a highly sentimental way. One would reveal one’s incompetence and bungle one’s work for you not less if one were to pamper as to nag you, not less if one were to be emotionally too solicitous about your personal life as too authoritarian. For one would make you more egoistic and less disciplined, more dependent and less self-reliant, more incapable of achieving real progress and less informed about the factors concerned in it. One would, indeed, make one a flabby parasite instead of an evolving entity. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

One is a person whose perception goes farther, whose awareness goes deeper than the rest of one’s fellow humans. It must go so far and so deep that it rests durably in the “I Am” of God. Without this one does not possess the first, the most essential and most important of all the credentials needed for communicating to others the art of attaining God. The second credential, and admittedly a lesser one, is the compassionate desire to effect this communication as much as possible. The third is that one has special power to teach others what one knows. It is possible for one who has mastered one’s own mind to affect that of another person, whether the latter is in propinquity to one or is placed at a great distance from one. This fact becomes especially evident where there is an attempt to learn and practise prayer. What the master can do for a disciple is limited. One can stimulate the latter’s natural aspiration, guide one’s studies, and point out where the pitfalls are; but one can do little more. One cannot take on one’s own shoulders responsibilities which the disciple ought to take. It is the will of a higher power that one, whose own inner eye is open, shall be instrumental in opening that eye for others wherein it is closed. One’s help is provided by what one is—the power of example—and by what one teaches—the power of suggestion. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

What a guide may be able to do in certain cases is to facilitate the awakening of higher consciousness and to make easier the entry of higher truths. One understands the feeling of love which a disciple expresses and one accepts it on the level of the same feeling which one oneself gives in turn to those who are one’s leaders. The attraction is inevitable. However, in the cause of some disciples, it must be kept on a high level and never allowed to mix with lower emotions. It must be pure and, in certain sense, even impersonal. The teacher walks the path of life outwardly alone an uninvolved with any “person” as such. The only way anyone can come closer to one is to approach the attainment of union with one’s own higher self. Do not expect the adept to behave as ordinary human beings, with their desires and emotions, behave. One has committed suicide in that direction. It was the price demanded of one for what little peace one has found. The disciple who poses as a master is a fool. The master who poses as a disciple is self-actualized. One cannot submit to the pressures and claims of a personal relation without falsifying one’s status and adulterating one’s service. One has the power to awaken the Glimpse-experience in other people, but not in all humans. One can succeed with those only who are ready enough or sensitive enough. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

It is usually quite impossible for the average aspirant to determine who is a fully qualified master. However, it is sometimes quite possible to determine who is not a master. One may apply this negative test to the supposed master’s personal conduct and public teaching. If a being claims to have attained the fullness of one’s higher being, we may test one’s claim by the moral fruits one shows. For one ought constantly to exercise the qualities of compassion, self-restraint, nonattachment, and calmness of the optimistic side and freedom from malice, backbiting, greed, lust, and anger on the negative side. Since every neurosis—no matter how dramatic and seemingly impersonal the symptoms—is a character disorder, the task of therapy is to analyze the entire neurotic character structure. Hence the more clearly we can define this structure and its individual variations, the more precisely can we delineate the work to be done. If we conceive of neurosis as a productive edifice built around the basic conflict, the analytical work can roughly be divided into two parts. One part is to examine in detail all the unconscious attempts at solution that the particular individual has undertaken, together with their effect on one’s whole personality. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

This would include studying all the implications of one’s predominant attitude, one’s idealized image, one’s externalization, and so on, without taking into consideration their specific relationship to the underlying conflicts. It would be misleading to assume that one cannot understand and work at these factors before the conflicts have come into focus, for although they have grown out of the need to harmonize the conflicts, they have a life of their own, carrying their own weigh and wielding their own power. The other part covers the work with the conflicts themselves. This would mean not only bringing the individual to see how they operate in detail—that is, how one’s incompatible drives and the attitudes that stem from them interfere with one another in specific instances: how for example, a need to subordinate oneself, reinforced by inverted sadism, hinders one from winning a game or excelling in competitive work, while at the same time one’s drive to triumph over others makes victory a compelling necessity; or how asceticism, stemming from a variety of sources, interferes with a need for sympathy, affection, and self-indulgence. We would have to show one also how one shuttles between extremes: for instance, one alternates between being overstrict with oneself and overlenient; or how one’s externalized demands upon oneself, reinforced perhaps by sadistic drives, clash with one’s need to be omniscient and all-forgiving, and how in consequence one wavers between condemning and condoning everything the other fellow does. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

Or we also see how one veers between arrogating all rights to oneself and feeling one has no rights at all. This part of the analytical work would encompass, furthermore, the interpretation of all the impossible fusions and compromises the individual is trying to make, such as trying to combine egocentricity with generosity, conquest with affection, domination with sacrifice. It would include helping one to understand exactly how one’s idealized image, one’s externalization, and so on have served to spirit away one’s conflicts, to camouflage them and to mitigate their disruptive force. In sum, it entails bringing the individual to a thorough understanding of one’s conflicts—their general effect on one’s personality and their specific responsibility for one’s symptoms. One the whole, the patient offers a different sort of resistance in each of these sections of analytical work. While one’s attempts at solution are being analyzed one is bent on defending the subjective values inherent in one’s attitudes and trends, and so fights any insight into their real nature. During the analysis of one’s conflicts one is primarily interested in proving that one’s conflicts are not conflicts at all, and therefore blurs and minimizes the fact that one’s particular drives are really incompatible. As to the sequence in which subjects should be tackled, Dr. Freud’s advice is and probably always will be of foremost significance. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

Applying to analysis principles valid in medical therapy, Dr. Freud stressed the importance of two considerations in any approach to the individual’s problems: an interpretation should be profitable, and it should not be harmful. In other words the two questions an analyst must have in minds are: Can he individual stand a particular insight at this time? and, Is an interpretation likely to have meaning for one and to set one thinking in a constructive way? What we still lack are tangible criteria of precisely what an Individual can stand and what is conducive to simulating constructive insight. The structural differences from one individual to another are too great to permit of any strict and rigid doctrines prescriptions in regard to the timing of interpretations, but we can take as a guide the principle that certain problems cannot be tackled profitably and without undue risk until particular changes have taken place in the individual’s attitudes. On this basis we can point to a few measures that are invariably applicable: It is useless to confront an individual with any major conflict as long as one is bent on pursuing phantoms that to one mean salvation. One must see first that these pursuits are futile and interfere with one’s life. In highly condensed terms, the attempts at solution should be analyzed prior to the conflicts. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

I do not mean that any mention of conflicts should be analyzed prior to the conflicts. I do not mean that any mention of conflicts should be assiduously avoided. How cautious the approach needs to be depends on the brittleness of the whole neurotic structure. If their conflicts are pointed out prematurely, some individuals may be thrown into a panic. For others it will have no meaning, will simply slide off without making any impression. However, logically one cannot expect the individual to have any vital interest in one’s conflicts as long as one clings to one’s particular solutions and unconsciously counts on “getting by” with them. However, it is crucial that we focus on the Lord in his blessed statements. A Corinthians 12.9 tells us “My grace is sufficient for you,” because it opens to us another dimension of God’s the love. This divine assistance is actually the power of the risen Christ, but it is mediated to us by God’s Spirit. That grace has this meaning in various places of the New Testament and seems to be recognized by all Bible commentators. The word grace does not mean as elsewhere God’s favour but is used by metonymy for [to indicate] the help of the Holy Spirit which comes to us from God’s undeserved favour. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

Paul used grace in this same sense in 1 Corinthians 15.10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. The grace of God, in this connection, is not the love of God, but the influence of the Holy Spirit considered as an unmerited favour. This is not only the theological and popular, but also the scriptural sense of the word grace in many passages. A people sense of the word grace refers to the way we speak when we say something such as, “By God’s grace I was about to love my disagreeable neighbour.” We refer, of course, to God’s enabling in otherwise impossible situation. And we know that the assistance we receive comes to us through the influence or help of His Spirit. We can readily see this popular but biblical use of the word grace in a very familiar Scripture written by Paul, Philippians 4.12-13: “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty of in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” If, in place of the words “through him who gives me strength,” we substitute the words “by His grace,” verse 13 would read, “I can do everything by His grace.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

Although the change of wording sounds strange to our ears because of the familiarity of the above verse, we have no changed the theological statement at all. By His grace and through Him who gives me strength express an identical thought. So we see that grace, as used in the New Testament, expresses two related and complimentary meanings. First, it is God’s unmerited favour to us through Christ whereby salvation and all other blessings are freely given to us. Second, it is God’s divine assistance to us through the Holy Spirit. Obviously the second meaning is encompassed in the first because the assistance of the Spirit is one of the “all other blessings” given to us through Christ. We distinguish these two aspects of grace, however, because the first focuses on God’s grace as the source of all blessings, whereas the second focuses on God’s grace expressed specifically as the work of the Holy Spirit within us. I think that a good training program, there should be two staged of training. The first stage we might call the “brainwashing stage.” If it is to be brainwashing, the trainers should go at it whole hog. “Buster,” you say to your trainee, “your job is to maser the art of impersonating me, or Dr. Freud, or Carl Rogers. Master this, and we will grade you on it.” That is stage one. We might even guarantee that this impersonation practiced under supervision with individuals is harmless. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

If anybody, it hurts the trainee. If it is radically different from one’s usual way of being, it gives one headaches. Stage two might be viewed as a kind of shaping procedure too, but here you do not know what the final product is going to be. That is, as a supervisor, you go over the person’s work; and whenever one’s indoctrination is binding one, you encourage one to dare to respond in a way that seems to one as a fully functioning person to be the appropriate way to respond. Such supervision is itself a kind of psychotherapy. The first stage of training resembles an experimentally produced character disorder, one which is of short duration and relatively easy to unto. Lifelong character disorders are terriby difficult to undo. We can hope stage one of training, the “impression stage,” does not yield an inflexible character disorder. I have been compelled, in my investigations into the structure of the unconscious, to make a conceptual distinction between soul and psyche. By psyche I understand the totality of all psychic processes, conscious as well as unconscious. By soul, on the other hand, I understand a clearly demarcated functional complex that can best be described as a “personality.” In other to make clear what I mean by this, I must introduce some further point of view. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

It is, in particular, the phenomena of somnambulism, double consciousness, split personality, excreta whose investigations we owe primarily to the French school, that have enabled us to accept the possibility of a plurality of personalities in the same individual. It is at once evident that such a plurality of personalities can never appear in a normal individual. However, as the above-mentioned phenomena show, the possibility of a dissociation of personality must exist, at least in the germ, within the range of the normal. And as a matter of fact, any moderately acute psychological observer will be able to demonstrate, without much difficulty, traces of character-splitting in normal individuals. One has only to observe a human rather closely, under varying conditions, to see that a change from one milieu to another brings about a striking alteration of personality, and on each occasion a clearly defined character emerges that is noticeably different from the previous one. “Angel abroad, devil at home” is a formulation of the phenomenon of character-splitting derived from everyday experience. A particular milieu necessitates a particular attitude. The longer this attitude lasts, and the more often it is required, the more habitual it becomes. Very many people from the educated classes have to move in two totally different milieus—the domestic circle and the World of affairs. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

These two totally different environments demand two totally different attitudes, which, depending on the degree of the ego’s identification with the attitude of the moment, produce a duplication of character. In accordance with the social conditions and requirements, the social character is oriented on the one hand by the expectations and demands of society, and on the other by the social aims and aspirations of the individual. The domestic character is, as a rule, moulded by emotional demands and an easy-going acquiescence for the sake of comfort and convenience; whence it frequently happens that humans who in public life are extremely energetic, spirited, obstinate, willful and ruthless appear good-natured, mild, compliant, even weak, when at home in the bosom of the family. Which is the true character, the real personality? His question is often impossible to answer. These reflections show that even in normal individuals character-splitting is by no mean an impossibility. We are, therefore, fully justified in treating personality dissociations as a problem of normal psychology. In my view the answer to the above question should be that such a human has no real character at all: one is not individual but collective, the plaything of circumstance and general expectations. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Where the individual, one would have the same character despite the variation of attitude. One would not be identical with the attitude of the moment, and one neither would nor could prevent one’s individuality from expressing itself just as clearly in one state as another. Naturally one is individual, like every living being, but unconsciously so. Because of one’s more or less complete identification with the attitude of the moment, one deceives others, and often oneself, as to one’s real character. One puts on a mask, which one knows is in keeping with one’s conscious intentions, while it also meets the requirements and fits the opinions of society, first one motive and then the other gaining the upper hand. “And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long tie, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto his servant: Look hither; behold I have planted another branch of the tree also; and thou knowest that this spot of ground was poorer than the first. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

“However, behold, the tree. I have nourished it this long time, and it hath brought forth much fruit; therefore, gather it, and lay it up against the season, that I may preserve it unto mine own self. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said again unto his servant: Look hither, and behold another branch also, which I have planted; behold that I have nourished it also, and it hath brought forth fruit. And he said unto the servant: Look hither and behold the last. Behold, this have I planted in a good spot of ground; and I have planted in a good spot of ground; and I have nourished it this long time, and only a part of the tree hath brought forth tame fruit, and the other part of the tree hath brought forth wild fruit; behold, I have nourished this tree like unto the others. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Pluck off the branches that have not brought forth good fruit, and cast them into the fire. However, behold, the servant said unto him: Let us prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it a little longer, that perhaps it may bring forth good fruit unto thee, that thou canst lay it up against the season. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard did nourish all the fruit of the vineyard. And it came to pass that a long time had passed away, and the Lord of the vineyard said unto his servant: Come, let us go down into the vineyard, that we may labour again in the vineyard. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“For behold, the time draweth near, and the end soon cometh; wherefore, I must lay up fruit against the season, unto mine own self. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard and the servant went down into the vineyard; and they came to the tree whose natural branches had been broken off, and the wild branches had been grafted in; and behold all sorts of fruit did cumber the tree. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard did taste of the fruit, every sort according to its number. And the Lord of the vineyard said: Behold, his long time have we nourished this tree, and I have laid up unto myself against the season much fruit. However, behold, this time it hath brought forth much fruit, and there is none of it which is good. And behold, there are all kinds of bad fruit; and it profiteth me nothing, notwithstanding all our labour; and now it grieveth me that I should lose this tree. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: What shall we do unto the tree, that I may preserve again good fruit thereof unto mine own self? And the servant said unto his master: Behold, because thou didst graft in the branches of the wild olive true they have nourished the roots, that they are alive and they have not perished; wherefore thou beholdest that they are yet good. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto his servant: The tree profiteth me nothing, and the roots thereof profit me nothing so long as it shall bring forth evil fruit. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“Nevertheless, I know that the roots are good, and for mine own purpose I have preserved them; and because of their much strength they have hitherto brought forth, from the wild branches, good fruit. However, behold, the wild branches have grown and have overrun the roots thereof; and because that the wild branches have overcome the roots thereof it hath brough forth much evil fruit; and because that it hath brought forth so much evil fruit thou beholdest that it begineth to perish; and it will soon become ripened, that it may be cast into the fire, expect we should do something for it to preserve it. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto his servant: Let us go down into the nethermost parts of the vineyard, and behold if the natural branches have also brought forth evil fruit. And it came to pass that they went down into the nethermost parts of the vineyard. And it came to pass that they beheld that the fruit of the natural branches had become corrupt also; yea, the first and the second and also the last; and they had all become corrupt. And the wild fruit of the last had overcome that part of the tree which brought forth good fruit, even that the branch had withered away and died,” reports Jacob 5.21-40. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Unto Thee we commend our whole life and hope, O Lord, the Lover of humans, and beseech and pray, and entreat Thee to grant that we may partake of Thy Heavenly and awful Mysteries from this holy and spiritual Table with a pure conscience, unto remission of sins, an pardon of transgressions, and communion of the Holy Spirit, and inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven, and confidence towards Thee, and not to judgment nor condemnation. Giver of all good, streams upon streams of love overflow my path. Thou hast made me out of nothing, hast recalled me from a far country, hast translated me from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light, from death to life, from misery to peace, from folly to wisdom, from error to truth, from sin to victory. Thanks be to thee for my high and holy calling. I bless Thee for ministering Angels, for the comfort of Thy word, for the ordinance of Thy church, for the teaching of Thy Spirit, for Thy holy sacraments, for the communion of saints, for Christian fellowship, for the recorded annals of holy lives, for examples sweet to allure, for beacons sad to deter. Thy will is in all Thy provisions to enable me to grow in grace, and to be meet for Thy eternal presence. My Heaven-born faith gives promise of eternal sight, my new birth a pledge of never-ending life. I draw near to Thee, knowing Thou wilt draw near to me. I ask of Thee, believing Thou hast already given. I entrust myself to The, for Thou hast redeemed me. I bless and adore Thee, the eternal God, for the comfort of these thoughts, the joy of these hopes. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

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Grant, O Lord Jesus Christ, that the Sacrament of Thy Body and Blood, which I, though unworthy, recieve, may not be to me a means of judgment and condemnation, but helpful through Thy loving-kindness to the salvation of my body and soul.

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Randolph Harris II International Institute

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