My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold a Rainbow in the Sky!

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize that they were the big things. One must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose. In the finalreckoning we are not the disciple of this or what person but rather the … Continue reading →

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April 22, 2020 1:25 am

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

Enjoy your own company. Learn to welcome solitude and work on your own inner being—your character. Solitude allows you opportunity to think deep thoughts. To think about where you have been. To think about where you are going. To think about why you feel so strongly about certain issues. To think about how different your … Continue reading →

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April 21, 2020 12:59 am

Living on a Leash—The Cinderella Syndrome

Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed. What is the true picture of your life? Imagine that there is an hourglass on your desk. Connecting the bowl at the top with the bowl at the bottom is a tube so thin that only one grain of sand can pass through it at a time. That is the true picture of your life, even on a super-busy day. The crowded hours come to you always one moment at a time. That is the only way they can come. The day brings many tasks, problems, strains, but invariably they come in single life. You want to gain emotional poise? Remember the hour glass, the grains of sand dropping one at a time. The Image is all the accumulated organized knowledge that the organism has about itself and its World. It includes everything that the organism has learned—values as well as facts—organized by whatever concepts, images, or relations it has been able to master. Imagines can be organized into structures they call “plans.” A plan is any hierarchical process that can control the order in which a sequence of actions is to be performed. At its simplest a plan is just a kind of elaborate concept. It is an idea of the steps needed to get from one situation to another—from London to Liverpool, for instance. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

More elaborately, the steps in a plan might be: if hungry, you can get food by going to the kitchen, to the fridge, opening the door, getting out some cold Harris Ranch Beef, putting it on the grill, and so on. The nature of such a plan comes partly from experience (map) and partly from current information. A person may have a large repertory of plans, depending on where the starting-point is at which the situation arose, say, of being hungry. Equally, there may be a large variety of end-points, any of which would mean the satisfaction of the hunger. Hunger can be satisfied by eating. I can eat sandwiches or all other ways of satisfying hunger. I can buy sandwiches or all other ways of getting sandwiches. I can buy sandwiches at the corner shop or all other places to buy sandwiches. In each case, only one alternative plan, out of a huge number of possibilities at each level, is actually written out, to keep the example on the page; the reader has to use his or her imagination to fil in all the unstated alternatives. At each level in the sequence, information from the rest of the map or from the rest of the model can affect this process. A each level, alternative can be considered, and the alternative with the lest objections or the most advantages (minimizing displeasure or maximizing pleasure, whatever that may mean o a particular individual) can come to the force. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

For instance, the plan to alleviate hunger has steps that can take us to four different levels. From level 1 hunger can be satisfied by eating to level 2 I can eat sandwiches or all other ways of satisfying hunger could be changed by the knowledge that this would be the third lot of sandwiches of the say. A not very attractive images results and so that part of the plan could be dropped and another plan, “buy apples and pears,” substituted. Or there could be a change of plan at level 4 which states I can buy sandwiches at the corner shop or at other places to buy sandwiches, because yesterday the people at the corner shop has been rude to a customer, which has led to today’s decision to buy elsewhere. What can be said about the processes involved in the selection, evaluation, and correction of plans? There is a practical version called the “TOTE”—nothing to do with the racetrack, the word is an acronym for the sequences TEST-OPERATE-TEST-EXIT. A TOTE is a looped sequence, a feedback organization such that when an action (an operation) is undertaken, after which there is another test, and if things are still not right, there is another action, and so on, round and round in a loop. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

The interpretation toward which the argument moves is one that has been called “cybernetics hypothesis,” namely that fundamental building-block of the nervous system is the feedback loop. Action is initiated by an incongruity between the state of the organism and the state that it is being tested for, and the action persists until the incongruity is removed. In words, a message comes in that something is happening peripherally (input). This message is TESTED centrally and may feel congruous with the map of how things should be, and that is the end of that (exit). However, if the message does not feel congruous with the map of how things should be, something is done: an OPERATION, which when TESTED, is then congruous with how thing should be and that is the end of it (exit). It can be seen that there may be several turns round the loop. Something is happening which, when tested, feels incongruous with how things should be. So something is done which, when tested, is incongruous with how things should be. So something is done which, when tested, is incongruous with how things should be. So something is done which, when tested, is (at last) congruous with how things should be and that is the end of it—exit. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

However, for example, is a person passes into a class they are not qualified for, one who passes can also suffer the classic and central experience of exposure during face-to-face interaction, betrayed by the very weakness one is trying to hide, by the others present, or by impersonal circumstances. The situation of the stutterer is an example: “We who stutter speak only when we must. We hide our defect, often so successfully that our intimates are surprised when in an unguarded moment, a word suddenly runs away with out tongues and we blurt and blat and grimace and choke until finally the spasm is over and we open our eyes to view the wreckage.” The epileptic subject to grandma seizures provides a more extreme case; one may regain consciousness to find that one has been lying on a public street, incontinent, moaning, and jerking convulsively—a discrediting of sanity that is eased only slightly by one’s not being conscious during some of the episode. I might add that the lore of every stigmatized grouping seems to have its own battery of cautionary tales of embarrassing exposure, and that most member seem able to provide examples from their own experiences. Finally, one who passes can find oneself called to a showdown by persons who have now learned of one’s secret and are about to confront one with one’s having been false. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

This showdown possibility can even be formally instituted, as in mental healthy hearings and the follow: Doreen, a Mayfair girl, says that court appearances are “about the worst part of it [id est, being a woman of the evening]. You go in through that door and everyone’s waiting for you and looking at you. I keep my head down and never look on either side. Then they say those awful words ‘Being a common woman of the evening…” and you feel awful. All the time not knowing who is watching you at the back of the court. You can say ‘guilty’ and get out as soon as you can.” The presence of fellow-sufferers (or the wise) introduced a special set of contingencies in regard to passing, since they very techniques used to conceal stigmas may give the show away to someone who is familiar with the tricks of the trade, the assumption being that it takes one (or those close to him or her) to know one: “Why do you not try a chiropractor?” she [a casual acquaintance] asked me, chewing corned beef, giving no slightest indication that she was about to known the bottom out of my World. “Dr. Fletcher told me he is curing one of his patients of deafness.” My heart skittered, in panic, against my ribs. What did she mean? “My dad is deaf,” she revealed. “I can spot a deaf person anywhere. That soft voice of yours. And that trick of letting your sentences trail off—not finishing them. Dad does that all the time.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

These contingencies help t explain the ambivalence previously mentioned that the individual may feel when confronted with one’s own kind. As Wright suggests: “A person who wishes to conceal one’s disability will notice disability-revealing mannerisms in another person. Moreover, one is likely to resent those mannerisms that advertise the fact of disability, for in wishing to conceal one’s disability one wishes others to conceal theirs. Thus it is that the person who is hard of hearing and who strives to hide this fact will be annoyed at the senior citizens who cups his or her hand behind her ear. Flaunting disability is a threat to one because it stirs up the guilt of having scorned one’s own group membership as well as the possibility of one’s own exposure. One may prefer surreptitiously to realize the other person’s secret and to maintain a gentlemen’s or gentlewomen’s agreement that both should play their “as if” roles to having the other person challenge one’ pretense by confiding one’s own. Control of identity information has a special bearing on relationships. Relationships can necessitate time spent together, and the more time the individual spends with another the more chance the other will acquire discrediting information about one. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

Further, as already suggested, every relationship obliges the related persons to change an appropriate among of intimate facts about self, as evidence of trust and mutual commitment. Close relationships that the individual had before one came to have something to conceal therefore become compromised, automatically deficient in shared information. Newly formed or “post-stigma” relationships are very likely to carry the discreditable person past the point where one feels it has been honourable of one to withhold the facts. And, in some cases, even very fleeting relationships can constitute a danger, since the small talk suitable between strangers who have struck up a conversation can touch on secret failings, as when the wide of an impotent husband must answer questions as to how many children she had and, having none, why so. The phenomenon of passing has always raised issues regarding the psychic state of the passer. First, it is assumed that one must necessarily pay a great psychological price, a very high level of anxiety, in living a life that can be collapsed at any moment. A statement by a wife of a mental patient will illustrate: “…and suppose after George gets out everything is going well and somebody throws it up in his face. That would ruin everything. I live in terror of that—a complete terror of that.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

I think that close study of passers would show that this anxiety is not always found and that here our folk conceptions of human nature can be misleading. Secondly, it is often assumed, and with evidence, that the passer will feel torn between two attachments. One will feel some alienation from one’s new “group,” for one is unlikely to be able to identify fully with their attitude to what one knows one can be shown to be. And presumably one will suffer feelings of disloyalty and self-contempt when one cannot take action against “offensive” remarks made by members of the category one is passing into against the category one is passing out of—especially when one finds it dangerous to refrain from joining in this vilification. As discreditable persons suggest: “When jokes were made about ‘queers’ I had to laugh with the rest, and when talk was made about women I had to invent conquests of my own. I hated myself at such moments, but there seemed to be nothing else that I could do. My whole life became a lie. The tone of voice sometimes used [by friends] to refer to spinsters would shock me, as I felt I was cheating by in fact being in the state which married people looked at askance, while having the apparent status of a married women. I also felt somewhat dishonest with unmarried women friends who did not talk about these matters but eyed me with some curiosity and envy for having an experience which I did not in fact enjoy.” #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

Another thing, it seems to be assumed, and apparently correctly, that one who passes will have to be alive to aspects of the social situation which others treat as uncalculated and unattended. What are unthinking routines for normal can become management problems for the discreditable. These problems cannot always be handled by past experience, since new contingencies always arise, making former concealing devices inadequate. The person with a secret failing, then, must be alive to the social situation as a scanner of possibilities, and is therefore likely to be alienated from the simpler World in which those around one apparently dwell. What is their ground is one’s figure. A young man who is near blind provides one example: “I managed to keep Mary from knowing my eyes were bad through two dozens sodas and three movies. I used every trick I had ever learned. I paid special attention to the color of her dress each morning, and then I would keep my eyes and ears and my sixth sense alter for anyone that might be Mary. I did not take any chances. If I was not sure, I would greet whoever it was with familiarity. They probably thought I was nuts, but I did not care. I always held her hand on the way to and from the movies at night, and she led me, without knowing it, so I did not have to feel for curbs and steps.” #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

A young boy with a “stricture,” who cannot pass water when in the presence of others, wanting to keep his differentness a secret, finds himself having to plot and plan and be wary, where others are merely having to be boys: “When I went away to boarding school at the age of ten there were new difficulties, and new ways of dealing with them had to be found. Generally speaking, it was never a case of making water when one wanted to, but always a case of doing so when one could. I felt it necessary to keep my disability secret from the other boys, since the worst thing that can happen to a boy at his prep. School is to be in any way “different;” so I went when they did to the school latrines, though nothing happened there but the increase of my envy of my fellows’ freedom to behave naturally, and even challenge one other to see how high up the wall they could reach. (I should have liked to join in, but if anyone challenged me, I had always ‘just finished.’) I used various stratagems. One was to ask to be excused during class, when the latrines would be deserted. Another was to stay awake at night and sneak to the restroom when the dormitory’s others occupants were asleep, or at least when it was dark and I could not be seen.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

Similarly, one learns of the constant wariness of stutterers: “We have many ingenious tricks for disguising or minimizing our blocks. We look ahead for “Jonah” sounds and words, so-called because they are unlucky and we envy the whale his ease in expelling them. We dodge “Jonah” words when we can, substituting non-feared words in their places or hastily shifting our thought until the continuity of our speech becomes as involved as a plate of spaghetti.” And about the wife of a mental patient: Concealment often becomes cumbersome. Thus, to keep the neighbours from knowing the husband’s hospital (having reported that he was in the hospital because of suspicion of cancer), Mrs. Newsom must rush to her apartment to get the mail before her neighbours pick it up for her as they used to do. She has had to abandon second breakfasts at the coffee shop with the women in the neighbouring apartments to avoid their questions. Before she can allow visitors in her apartment, she must pick up any material identifying the hospital, and so on. And from a homosexual: “The strain of deceiving my family and friends often became intolerable. It was necessary for me to watch every word I spoke, and every gesture that I made, in case I gave myself away.” #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

A similar scanning may be illustrated among colostomy patients: “I never go to local movies. If I do go to the movie I select a large house like Radio City where I have greater choice of seats and can pick an end seat where I can rush to the bathroom is I have gas. When I go on a bus I pick my seat just in case. I sit on an end seat or near the door.” In all of this, special timing may be required. Thus, there is the practice of “living on a leash”—the Cinderella syndrome—whereby the discreditable person stays close to the place where one can refurbish one’s disguise, and where one can rest up from having to wear it; one moves from one’s repair station only that distance that one can return from without losing control over information about oneself: Since irrigation does constitute the primary defense against the occurrence of spillage, as well as representing a reparative activity of great emotional significance, patients with a colostomy frequently schedule travel and social contacts in relation to the time and effectiveness of irrigation. Travel is usually restricted to the distance which can be traversed in the interval between irrigations at home, and social contacts are limited to periods between irrigation which are believed to afford maximum protection against spillage or flatus. Patients can, therefore, be considered as living “on a leash” which is only as long as the time interval between irrigations. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

There is a final issue to be considered. As already suggested, a child with a stigma can pass in a special way. Parents, knowing of their child’s stigmatic condition, ay encapsulate one with domestic acceptance and ignorance of what one is going to have to become. When one ventures outdoors one does so therefore as an unwitting passer, at least to the extent that one’s stigma is not immediately apparent. At this point one’s parents are faced with a basic dilemma regarding information management, sometimes appealing to medical practitioners for strategies. If the child is informed about oneself at school age, it is felt one may not be strong enough psychologically to bear the news, and in addition may tactlessly disclose these facts about oneself to those who need not know. On the other hand, if one is kept too long in the dark, then one will not be prepared for what is about to happen to one and, moreover, may be informed about one’s condition by strangers who have no reason to take the time and care required to present the facts in a constructive, hopeful light. All you have to do is pause to rest. Nature herself, when we let her, will take care of everything else. It is our impatience that spoils things. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

Redemption comes through the Holy Messiah—freedom of choice (agency) is essential to existence and progression—Adam fell that humans might be—humans are free to choose liberty and eternal life. About 588-570 Before Christ. “And now, Jacob, I speak unto you: Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren. Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain. Wherefore, thy soul shall be blessed, and thou shalt dwell safely with thy brother. Nephi; and thy days shall be spent in the service of thy God. Wherefore, I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fulness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men. And thou hast beheld in thy youth his glory; wherefore, thou art blessed even as they unto whom he shall minister in the flesh; for the Spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And the way is prepared from the fall of human, and salvation is free. And humans are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto humans. And by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law human are cut off. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

“Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever. Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth. Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of he law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered. Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the Earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be though the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise. Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make intercession for all the children of humans; and they that believe in him shall be saved. And because of the intercession for all, all people come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of Him, to be judged of Him according to the truth and holiness which is in Him. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

“Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement—for it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain dead, having no life neither sense nor insensibility. Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing must needs destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes, and also the power, and the mercy, and the justice of God. And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

“And if there is no God we are not, neither the Earth; for there is no God. And if there is no God are not, neither the Earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither the Earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither the Earth; for there could have been no creation of things; neither to act nor t be acted upon; wherefore, all things must be vanished away,” reports 2 Nephi 2.10-13. When you do something, keep track of how you feel before, during, and after. Thou art the blessed God, happy in thyself, sources of happiness in Thy creatures, my Maker, Benefactor, Proprietor, Upholder. Thou hast produced and sustained me, supported and indulged me, saved and kept me; Thou art in every situation able to meet my needs and miseries. May I live by Thee, live for Thee, never be satisfied with my Christian progress but as I resemble Christ; and may conformity to his principles, temper, and conduct grow hourly in my life. Let Thy unexampled love constrain me into holy obedience, and render my duty my delight. If others deem my faith folly, my meekness infirmity, my zeal madness, my hope delusion, my actions hypocrisy, my I rejoice to suffer for Thy name. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

Please keep me walking steadfastly towards the country of everlasting delights, that paradise-land which is my true inheritance. Support me by the strength of Heaven that I may never turn back, or desire false pleasures that wilt and disappear into nothing. As I pursue my Heavenly journey by Thy grace let me be known as a being with no aim but that of being a burning desire for Thee, and the good and salvation of my fellow humans. Look, O Lord upon Thy servants, who are suffering from their bodily infirmaries, and please refresh the soul which Thou hast created; that being bettered by Thy chastisement, it may straightway feel itself saved by Thy healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O God, with Whom it is an easy thing to give life to the dead; please restore the sick to their former health, and let none that implore the healing of Thy Heavenly mercy be in want of the remedies of Earthly medicine; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Christ our Lord, Who are the Physician of salvation, grant unto the sick and the assistance of Heavenly healing. Look upon all faithful people who are sick, and who love to call upon Thy Name, and take their souls into Thy keeping, and vouchsafe to deliver them from all sickness and infirmity. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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April 20, 2020 2:57 am

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

A professor is someone who talks in someone else’s sleep. Excellence in education is the key to our nation’s future. If we are truly to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow, we must empower all our students with the best schools and guidance possible. At a time when we face stark choices about how best … Continue reading →

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April 18, 2020 12:35 am

A Person Should Know Something of One’s Own Country, too, Before One Goes Abroad!

Almost all our misfortunes in life some from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know people thoroughly, to judge events sanely is, therefore, a great step toward happiness. Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light. The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences. We must make sure that life does not fade away into a shadow-World in which, finally, even the date of the year becomes uncertain. For then even the names of people will become vaporized and therefore will be considered to have never existed. However, even if all disparities are somehow eliminated, we will still not attain equal opportunity for all. This is because what has not been recognized as an equal opportunity problem, except in feminist literature and circles, is the disparity within the family, the fact that its gender structure is itself a major obstacle to equality of opportunity. This is very important in itself, since one of the factors with most influence on our opportunity in life is the social significance attributed to pleasures of the flesh. The opportunities of girls and women are centrally affected by the structure and practices of family life, particularly by the fact that women are almost invariably primary parents. #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. What nonfeminists who see in the family an obstacle to equal opportunity have not seen is that the extent to which a family is gender-structured can make the gender women belong to a relatively insignificant aspect of their identity and their life prospects or an all-pervading one. This is because so much of the social construction of gender takes place in the family, and particularly in the institution of female parenting. Moreover, especially in recent years, with the increased rates of single motherhood, separation, and divorce, the inequalities between the genders have compounded the first part of the problem. This disparity among families has grown largely because of the impoverishment of many women and children after separation or divorce. The division of labour in the typical family leaves most women far less capable than men of supporting themselves, and this disparity is accentuated by the fact that children of separated or divorced parents usually live with their mothers. The inadequacy—and frequent nonpayment—of child support has become recognized as a major social problem. Thus the inequalities of gender are now directly harming many children of both genders as well as women themselves. #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

Enhancing equal opportunity for women, important as it is in itself, is also a crucial way of improving the opportunities of many of the most disadvantaged children. As there is a connection among the parts of this problem, so is there a connection among some of the solutions: much of what needs to be done to end the inequalities of gender, will also help to equalize opportunity from one family to another. Subsidized, high-quality day care is obviously one such thing; another is the adaptation of the workplace to the needs of parents. One of the things that theorists who have argued that families need or cannot be just, or who have simply neglected them, have failed to explain is how, within a formative social environment that is not founded upon principles of justice, children can learn to develop that sense of justice they will require as citizens of a just society. Rather than being one among money co-equal institutions of a just society, a family is its essential foundation. It may seem uncontroversial, even obvious, that families must be just because of the vast influence they have on the moral development of children. But this is clearly not that case. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

Unless the first and most formative example of adult interaction usually experienced by children is one of justice and reciprocity, rather than one of domination and manipulation or of unequal altruism and one-sided self-sacrifice, and unless they themselves are treated with concern and respect, they are likely to be considerably hindered in becoming people who are guided by principles of justice. Moreover, the sharing of roles by men and women, rather than the division of roles between them, would have a further beneficial impact because the experience of being a physical and psychological nurturer—whether of a child or of another adult—would increase that capacity to identify with and fully comprehend the viewpoints of others that is important to a sense of justice. In a society that minimized gender this would be more likely to be the experience of all of us. Almost every person in our society starts life in a family of some sort or other. Fewer of these families now fit the usual, though by no means universal, standard of previous generations, that is, wage-working father, homemaking mother, and children. More families these days are headed by a single parent; alternative styles of parenting is no longer so rare; many children have two wage-working parents, and receive at least some of their early care outside the home. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

There are so few who can mature with a good grace. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. While its forms are varied, the family in which a child is raised, especially in the earliest years, is clearly a crucial place for early moral development and for the formation of our basic attitudes to others. It is, potentially, a place where we can earn to be just. It is especially important for the development of a sense of justice that grows from sharing the experiences of others and becoming aware of the points of view of others who are different in some respects from ourselves, but with whom we clearly have some interest in common. How effectively suffering expresses accusation depends on the inhibitions toward raising accusations. Where the fear is not too intense, suffering may be demonstrated dramatically, with open reproaches of the general content, “Look how you have made me suffer.” This in fact is a condition under which accusations ca be expressed, because suffering makes accusations appear warranted. There is also a close connection here with the methods used to obtain affection, which we have already discussed; accusatory suffering serves at the same time as a plea for getting pity and as an extortion of favours in reparation for harm done. The greater the restraint in making accusations the less demonstrative is the suffering. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

This may go so far that the neurotic will not even bring to the attention of others the fact that one is suffering. Altogether, we find the greatest variation in one’s demonstrations of one’s suffering. Because of the fear that besets one on all sides the neurotic is constantly shuttling between accusations and self-recriminations. One result is a permanent and hopeless uncertainty as to whether or not one is right in criticizing or in considering oneself wronged. One registers or knows by experience that very often one’s accusations are not warranted by reality but are provoked by one’s own irrational reactions. This knowledge too renders it difficult for one to recognize whether or not one is really wronged, and hence prevents one from taking a firm stand when necessary. The observer is inclined to accept or interpret all these manifestations as expressions of particularly keen guilt feelings. This does not mean that the observer is neurotic, but it does imply that one as we well as the neurotic’s thinking and feeling are subject to cultural influences. To understand the cultural influences which determine our attitude toward guilt feelings we would have to consider historical, cultural and philosophical questions that would far surpass the scope of this essay. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

However, even in passing over the problem entirely it is necessary at least to mention the influence of Christian conceptions on questions of morals. This discussion of guilt feelings can be very briefly summarized as follows. When a neurotic person accuses oneself or indicates guilt feelings in some kind, the first question should be not “What is one really feeling guilty about?” but “What may be the functions of this self-recriminating attitude?” The main functions we have found are: expression of one’s fear of disapproval; a defense against this fear; and a defense against making accusations. When Dr. Freud and with him the majority of analysts tend to consider guilt feelings as an ultimate motivation they reflect the thinking of their time. Dr. Freud recognizes that guilt feelings arise from fear, for he assumes that fear contributes to the generation of the “super-ego,” which he makes responsible for guilt feelings; but he tends to believe that demands of conscience and feelings of guilt, once established, operate as an ultimate agency. Further analysis indicated that even after we have learned to react with guilt feelings to the pressure of conscience and accepted moral standards, the motivation behind these feelings—though it may show only in subtle and indirect ways—is a direct fear of consequences. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

If it is granted that guilt feelings are not in themselves the ultimate motivating power it becomes necessary to revise certain analytical theories which have been built up on the assumption that guilt feelings—particularly those of a diffuse character, which Dr. Freud tentatively called unconscious guilt feelings—are of paramount importance in bring about the neurosis. I shall mention only the three most important of these theories: that of the “negative therapeutic reaction,” which contends that the patient prefers to remain ill because of one’s unconscious guilt feelings; that of the super-ego as an inner construction which inflicts punishment upon the self; and that of moral masochism, which explains self-inflicted suffering as the result of a need for punishment. We must apply ourselves diligently to working out or salvation. It is important to display the evidences of salvation in our daily lives through our obedience to God’s commands and through putting on the Godly character traits that are called the fruit of the Spirit. And, the tense of the verb continue to work out indicates “continuous, sustained, strenuous effort.” Here again we see that sanctification is a process, and a process in which we, as believers, are very actively involved. Maintain confidence that God’s spirit is working through us. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

God is working to enlighten our understanding of His will, to stimulate in our emotions a desire to do His will, and to turn our wills so we actually obey. Most of all, God gives us the enabling power so that we are able to do His will. So progressive sanctification very much involves our activity. However, it is an activity that must be carried out in dependence of the Holy Spirit. It is not a partnership with the Spirit in the sense that we each—the believer and the Holy Spirit—do our respective tasks. Rather, we work as God enables us to work. God’s work is possessed behind all our work and makes our work possible. The Holy Spirit can and does work within us apart from any conscious response on our part. We have seen this in the initial act of sanctification where God created within us a new heart and gives us an entirely new disposition toward Him and His will. God is not dependent on us to do His work. However, we are dependent on God to do our work; we cannot do anything apart from God. In the process of sanctification there are certain things only the Holy Spirit can do, and there are certain things He has given us to do. For example, only God can create in our hearts the desire to obey God, but He does not obey us. We must do that, but we can do so only as God gives us the enabling power to obey. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

We feel and know we are eternal. To understand all is to forgive all. So we must depend on the Holy Spirit to do within us what only God can do. And we must depend on God just as much to enable us to do what He has given us to do. So whether it is His work or our work, in either case, we are dependent on Him. We are not just dependent on Him; we are desperately dependent on God. Because we so often equate Christlike character with ordinary morality, we fail to realize how impossible it is for us to attain any degree of conformity to Christ by ourselves. However, if we take seriously the long lists of Christlike character traits we are to put on, we see how impossible it is to grow in Christlikeness apart from the sanctifying influence and power of the Spirit in our lives. Christlike character traits are: Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, forbearance, forgiveness, thankfulness. That is fourteen beneficial character traits we are to put on (and there are others in Scripture), in addition to the many negative traits—pride, envy, jealousy, lust, covetousness, selfish ambition—we are to put off. Surely we must say with Paul, “And who is equal to such a task?” reports 2 Corinthians 2.16. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

We have all been to the circus or the carnival or the county fair and watched with amazement the juggler tossing and catching his four of five clubs. Think what it would be like to juggle fourteen! Yet that is essentially what we are called to do when we are told to put on fourteen—or more—different character traits, as well as trying to put away some bad one. Only the Holy Spirit is equal to such a task. Only the Holy Spirit can orchestrate such a diverse and well-rounded development of Christian character. And yet we are told to clothe ourselves with these Christlike qualities. We are to do it; we are responsible. However, in Galatians 5.22, Paul called the qualities the “fruit of the Spirit”—the result of the Spirit’s work in our lives. Putting together those two thoughts leads to the conclusion that we are both responsible and dependent. We are responsible to clothe ourselves with Christlike character, but we are dependent on God’s Spirit to produce within us His “fruit.” We cannot make one inch of progress in sanctification apart from the powerful working of the Spirit in us. And God does this, not because we have earned it with our commitment and discipline, but because of His grace. #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing—including the working of the Spirit in our lives—in Christ Jesus, that is, by His grace through the infinite merit of Christ. As we pray for the sanctifying influence and power of the Spirit in our lives, we can do so in confidence that God will answer our prayers because His answers are not dependent on us and our holiness, but on the merit of His Son. We have seen, then, a threefold view of sanctification or holiness. We have seen that our holiness is first of all an objective, perfect holiness, which is ours by virtue of our union with Him who is perfectly holy. Then we have seen that there is an initial act of sanctification in which a person’s basic disposition toward God and His law is changed. This change is experienced by the believer, but is not dependent on the believer. It is solely a work of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, we have seen that this initial act of sanctification is followed by the continuous action of the Holy Spirit throughout our lives as God works in us “to will and to act according to His good purpose,” reports Philippians 2.13. In every one of these views of sanctification we see the grace of God. God in His grace sees us perfectly holy in Christ. God in His grace sends His Holy Spirit to create a new heart within us and to write His law on our hearts, thus changing our basic disposition. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

And God in His grace continues to work in us through His Spirit to transform us more and more into the moral and spiritual likeness of His Son. It is important to keep your features perfectly under control. When you are in a public place, it is terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carries with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory is announced, for instance) is itself a punishable offense in the eyes of society. It is called a face crime. Consider that from the summit of these pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equally in the eyes of the law, and that they are endowed by God with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If one cannot measure something, one cannot understand it. If one cannot understand it, one cannot control it. If one cannot control it, one cannot improve it. Trust people and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

There are risks and costs to a program of action. However, they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of a comfortable inaction. When we become conditioned to perceived truth and closed to new possibilities, the following happens: We see what we expect to see, not what we can see. We hear what we expect to hear, not what we can hear. We think what we expect to think, not what we can think. To place oneself under another’s spiritual tutelage is an act which may be dangerous or may be auspicious. It depends on the other—on whether one’s mind is really irradiated with the divine effulgence or whether it is darkened by its own ego. In The Book of Mormon, in chapter 22 of 1 Nephi, Israel will be scattered upon all the face of the Earth—the Gentiles will nurse and nourish Israel with the gospel in the last days—Israel will be gathered and saved, and the wicked will burn as stubble—the kingdom of the devil will be destroyed, and Satan will be bound. About 588-570 before Christ. “And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had read these things which were engrave upon the plates of brass, my brethren came unto me and said unto me: What meaneth these things which ye had read? Behold, are they to be understood accord to thing things which are spiritual, which shall come to pass according to the spirit and not the flesh? #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

“And I, Nephi, said unto them: Behold they were manifest unto the prophet by the voice of the Spirit; for by the Spirit are all things made known unto the prophets, which shall come upon the children of humans according to the flesh. Wherefore, the things of which I have read are things pertaining to things both temporal and spiritual; for it appears that the house of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the Earth, and also among all nations. And behold, there are many who are already lost from the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem. Yea, the more part of all the tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea; and whither they are none of us knoweth, save that we know that they have been led away. And since they have been led away, these things have been prophesied concerning them, and also concerning all those who shall hereafter be scattered and be confounded, because of the Holy One of Israel; for against Him will they harden their hearts; wherefore, they shall be scattered among all nations and shall be hated of all people. Nevertheless, after they shall be nursed by the Gentiles, and the Lord has lifted up His hand upon the Gentiles and set them up for a standard, and their children have been carried in their arms, and their daughters have been carried upon their shoulders, behold these things of which are spoken are temporal; for thus are the covenants of the Lord with our fathers; and it meaneth us in the days to come, and also all our brothers and sisters who are in the house of Israel. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

“And it meaneth that the time cometh that after all the house of Israel have been scattered and confounded, that the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the Gentiles, yea, even upon the face of this land; and by them shall our seed be scattered. And after our seed is scattered the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the Gentiles, which shall be of great worth unto our seed; wherefore, it is likened unto their being nourished by the Gentiles and being carried in their arms and upon their shoulders. And it shall also be of worth unto the Gentiles; and not only unto the Gentiles but unto al the house of Israel, unto the making known of the covenants of the Father of Heaven unto Abraham, saying: In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the Earth be blessed. And I would, my brethren, that ye should know that all the kindreds of the Earth cannot be blessed unless He shall make bare his arm in the eyes of the nations. Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to make bare His arm in the eyes of all the nations, in bringing about his covenants and his gospel unto those who are of the hose of Israel. Wherefore, He will bring them again out of captivity, and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance; and they shall be brought out of the obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Saviour and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

“And the blood of that great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the Earth, shall turn upon their own heads; for they shall war among themselves, and the sword of their own hands shall fall upon their own heads, and they shall be drunken with their own blood. And every nation which shall be at war against thee, O house of Israel, shall be turned one against another, and they shall fall into the put which they digged to ensnare the people of the Lord. And all that fight against Sion shall be destroyed, and that great whore, who hath perverted the right ways of the Lord, yes, that great and abominable church, shall tumble to the dust and great shall be the fall of it. For behold, saith the prophet, the time cometh speedily that Satan shall have no more power over the hearts of the children of humans; for the day soon cometh that all the proud and they who do wickedly shall be as stubble; and the day cometh that they must be burned. For the time soon cometh that the fulness of the wrath of God shall be poured out upon all the children of humans; for they will not suffer that the wicked shall destroy the righteous. Wherefore, He will preserve the righteous by His power, even if it so be that the fulness of His wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire. Wherefore, the righteous need not fear; for thus saith the prophet, they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

“Behold, my brethren, I say unto you, that these things must shortly come; yea, even blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke must come; and it must needs be upon the face of this Earth; and it cometh unto people according to the flesh is it so be that they will harden their hearts against the Holy One of Israel. For behold, the righteous shall not perish; for the time surely mist come that all they who fight against Zion shall be cut off. And the Lord will surely prepare a way for His people, unto the fulfilling of the words of Moses, which he spake, saying: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that all those who will not hear that prophet shall be cut off from among the people. And now I, Nephi, declare unto you, that this prophet of whom Moses spake was the Holy One of Israel; wherefore, he shall execute judgment in righteousness. And the righteous need not fear, for they are those who shall not be confounded. However, it is the kingdom of the devil, which shall be built up among the children of humans, which kingdom is established among them which are in the flesh—for the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the World, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the World, and to do all manners of iniquity. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

“Yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble and quake. Those who must be brought low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble; and this is according to the words of the prophet. And the time cometh speedily that the righteous must be led up as calves of the stall, and the Holy One of Israel must reign in dominion, and might, and power, and great glory. And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the Earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture. And because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth. And now behold, I, Nephi, say unto you that all these things must come according to the flesh. However, behold, all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people shall dwell safely in the Holy One of Israel if it so be that they will repent. And now I, Nephi, make an end; for I durst not speak further as yet concerning these things. Wherefore, my brothers and sisters, I would that ye should consider that the things which have been written upon the plates of brass are true; and they testify that a being must be obedient to the commandments of God. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

“Wherefore, ye need not suppose that I am my father are the only ones that have testified, and also taught them. Wherefore, if ye shall be obedient to the commandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved at the last day. And thus it is. Amen,” reports 1 Nephi 22.1-31. Spiritual help cannot be given indiscriminately and at the same time given wisely. It should be conditioned by readiness, worthiness, and willingness to receive it. It should be offered only by those who are properly equipped, suitably qualified, and purely motivated. Building up personality is a job for Christ. I should not care to entrust my personality, such as it is to any individual of a lower intellectual and moral standard them that. This critique is also applicable to spiritual teachers, as well as psychotherapists, against whom it was directed. O God of Heavenly powers, Who by the might of Thy command drivest away from people’s bodies all sickness and all infirmity; be present in Thy goodness to this Thy servant, that one’s weakness may be banished and one’s strength recalled, and one’s health being thereupon restored, one may bless Thy holy Name, through our Lord Jesus Christ. O Sovereign Lord, Thou art the creator-Father of all people for Thou hast made and dost support them; Thus art the special Father of those who know, love and honour Thee, who find Thy yoke easy, and Thy burden light, Thy work honourable, Thy commandments glorious. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

However, how little Thy undeserved goodness has affected me! how imperfectly have I improved my religious privileges! how negligent have I been in doing good to other! I am before Thee in my trespasses and sins, have mercy on me, and may Thy goodness bring me to repentance. Help me to hate and forsake every false way, to be attentive to my condition and character, to bridle my tongue, to keep my heart with all diligence, to watch and pray against temptation, to mortify sin, to be concerned for the salvation of others. O God, I cannot endure to see the destruction of my kindred. Let those that are untied to me in tender ties be precious in Thy sight and devoted to Thy glory. Sanctify and prosper my domestic devotion, instruction, discipline, example, that my house may be a nursey for Heaven, my church the garden of the Lord, enriched with trees of righteousness of Thy planting, for Thy glory; let not those of my family who are amiable, moral, attractive, fall short of Heaven at last; grant that the promising appearances of tender conscience soft heart, the alarms and delights of Thy word, be not finally blotted out, but bring forth judgment unto victory in all whom I love. There are risks and costs to a program of action. However, they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of a comfortable inaction. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21

Cresleigh Homes

Mills Station Residence 3 at Cresleigh Ranch

Feeling cooped up? #MillsStation Residence 3 has the answer! A covered patio right off the kitchen provides ventilation and easy access to your courtyard space! 💙 Interested in seeing more? We have interactive floor plans and photos of this home’s elevations on our website. Link in bio. 👉 https://cresleigh.com/mills-station/residence-3/

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April 17, 2020 12:18 am

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

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. I accept life unconditionally. Life holds so much—so much to be happy about always. And keep in mind, a pint of example is worth a gallon of advice. Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do … Continue reading →

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April 16, 2020 12:55 am

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

Enthusiasm is the light that makes the Sun shine on achievement. Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity. Life is not a destination; it is a journey. It is not … Continue reading →

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April 15, 2020 12:19 am

Justice and the Human Good–A Dream Left Uninterpreted is Like a Letter Left Unread!

The biggest dream in life is the American Dream, which is supposed to represent Heaven. Use the stones that life throws at you to lay the foundations of your future. Worry can drag yesterday’s clouds over today’s Sunshine. Perceptual researchers have given us a lot of information and guidance thus far. In the future, perhaps, … Continue reading →

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April 14, 2020 1:31 am

First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of One’s Country People!

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It is not the mountain ahead that wear you out—it is the grain of sand in your shoe. Due to feminism and feminist theory, gender is coming to be recognized as a social factor of major importance. Indeed, the new meaning of the words reflects the fact that so much of what has traditionally been thought of a sexual difference is now considered by many to be largely socially produced. Feminist scholars from many disciplines and with radically different points of view have contributed to the enterprise of making gender fully visible and comprehensible. At one end of the spectrum are those whose explanations of the subordination of women focus primarily on biological differences as casual in the construct of gender, and at the other end are those who argue that biological difference may not even lie at the core of the social construction that is gender; the view of the vast majority of feminists fall between these extremes. The rejection of biological determinism and the corresponding emphasis on gender as a social construction characterize most current feminist scholarship. #RandolphHarris 1 of 19

Of particular relevance is work in psychology where scholars have investigated the importance of female primary parenting in the formation of our gendered identities, and in history and anthropology, where emphasis has been placed on the historical and cultural variability of gender. Some feminists have been criticized for developing theories of gender that do not take sufficient account of differences among women, especially race, class, religion, and ethnicity. While such critiques should always inform our research and improve our arguments, it would be a mistake to allow them to detract our attention from gender itself as a factor of significance. Many injustices are experienced by women as women, whatever the differences among them and whatever other injustices they also suffer from. The past and present gendered nature of the family, and the ideology that surrounds it, affects virtually all women, whether or not they live or ever lived in traditional families. Recognizing this is not to deny or de-emphasize the fact that gender may affect different subgroups of women to a different extent and in different ways. The potential significance of feminist discoveries and conclusions about gender for issues of social justice cannot be overemphasized. #RandolphHarris 2 of 19

Conclusions about gender issues of social justice and potential feminist discoveries undermine centuries of argument that started with the notion that not only the distinct differentiation of women and men but the domination of women by men, being natural, was therefore inevitable and not even to be considered in discussions of justice. Despite the fact that such notions cannot stand up to rational scrutiny, they not only still survive but flourish in influential places. During the same two decades in which feminists have been intensely thinking, researching, analyzing, disagreeing about, and rethinking the subject of gender, our political and legal institutions have been increasingly faced with issues concerning the injustices of gender and their effects. These issues are being decided within a fundamentally patriarchal system, founded in a tradition in which “individuals” were assumed to be male heads of households. Not surprisingly, the system has demonstrated a limited capacity for determining what is just, in many cases involving gender. Sex discrimination, sexual harassment, abortion, pregnancy in the workplace, parental leave, child care, and surrogate mother have all become major and well-publicized issues of public policy, engaging both courts and legislatures. #RandolphHarris 3 of 19

Issues of family justice, in particular—from child custody and terms of divorce to physical and sexual abuse of wives and children—have become increasingly visible and pressing, and are commanding increasing attention from the police and court systems. There is clearly a major “justice crisis” in contemporary society arising from issues of gender. There has been a great resurgence of theories of social justice. Political theory, which has been sparse for a period before the late 1960s except as an important branch of intellectual history, has become a flourishing field, with social justice as its central concern. Yet, remarkably, major contemporary theorists of justice have almost without exception ignored the situation I have just described. They have displayed little interest in or knowledge of the findings of feminism. They have largely bypassed the fac that the society to which their theories are supposed to pertain is heavily and deeply affected by gender, and faces difficult issues of justice stemming from its gendered past and present assumptions. Since theories of justice are centrally concerned with whether, how, and why persons should be treated differently from one another, this neglect seems inexplicable. #RandolphHarris 4 of 19

These theories are about which initial or acquired characteristics of positions in society legitimize differential treatment of persons by social institutions, laws, and customs. They are about how and whether and to what obvious subject for such inquires. However, as we shall see, this does not strike most contemporary theorists of justice, and their theories suffer in both coherence and relevance because of it. This is a remarkable case of neglect. We are also attempting to rectify it, to point the way toward a more fully humanist theory of justice by confronting the question, “How just is gender?” Why is that when we turn to contemporary theories of justice, we do not find illuminating and beneficial contributions to this question? How can theories of justice that are ostensibly about people in general neglect women, gender, and all the inequalities between the sexes? One reason is that most theorists assume, though they do not discuss, the traditional, gender-structured family. Another is that they often employ gender-neutral language in a false, hollow way. While the democratic movement is professing to fight for the working classes against capitalism, in reality it is concerned only with establishing and perpetuating their own power. The masses are only there to be used—for their idealism, their class resentments, their willingness to work for cheap—and be sold out, again and again. #RandolphHarris 5 of 19

There has arisen a sort of schizophrenic manner of thinking, in which words like “democracy” can bear two irreconcilable meanings, and such things as concentration camps and mass deportations can be right and wrong simultaneously. For instance, it is deemed acceptable to lock one race or class of people up, but acceptable to allow people to flood into the nation without documentation and do nothing about it. However, the reason is that African Americans and Hispanics are becoming more stable and affluent and influential and are moving away from the democratic party because they no longer government programs to survive and so to stay in power and get a supermajor, the democratic party has to court and seduce a new party of voters, even if they are not citizens. Doublethink is a form of mental discipline whose goal, desirable and necessary to all Party members, is to be able to believe two contradictory truths at the same time. This is nothing new, of course. Most of us do it. It is called compartmentalization. Compartmentalization is a defense mechanism, or a coping strategy, which does not impart a very good connotation. Put simply, it is how our minds deal with conflicting internal standpoints simultaneously. #RandolphHarris 6 of 19

An example of compartmentalization is, while democrats were focused on the President and the Russia Witch hunt, they ignored the Novel Coronavirus outbreak, which is now a pandemic and is threatening the entire World, while President Trump created a thriving economy and high employment. President Trump is a threat to the democrat’s way of life because he puts Americans first and that is not what the media nor democrats want. Every day public opinion is the target of rewritten history, official amnesia and outright lying, all of which is sinisterly and sarcastically termed “news,” as if it were no more harmful than a walk through the park, on a warm Spring day. We know better than what these reporters tell us, yet hope otherwise. We believe and doubt at the same time—it seems a condition of political thought in a modern superstate to be permanently of at least two minds on most issues. Needless to say, this is of inestimable use to those in power who wish to remain there, preferably forever. And as you see, this form of tyranny has the potential for fatal mischief. Well, of course, the TV news media should not be altogether trusted as the main source of information, which is why so many people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their children to school. Parents want well informed adults, who know how to research and think for themselves. #RandolphHarris 7 of 19

If creative flexibility is the method of education, how can one possibly train people to that way of practicing? When one in training, one should be given a rigid way of being so that one has a model to wean oneself to, so one can wean oneself from the ways of being one learned from mother, father, Sunday school, one’s neighbourhood, and the unreal TV news, and so on. These ways will not necessarily be effective in a daily exchange. However, I think it is good to learn something orthodox to give one a sense of professional identity, a badge. Yet, that is only half training. The other half is provided through supervision. Once a master is persuaded that the pupils have mastered the basic discipline, then one must afford encouragement and challenge to one’s student. When the student is wrestling with a concrete problem presented by a real-life situation, one is, as it were, being tempted to break discipline. If it seems to one and one’s supervisor that something is called for, but that if one does it, one will not be a good Rogerian (one who negotiates using a strategy in which common goals are identified and opposing views are described as objectively as passion in an effort to establish common ground and reach an agreement), then the supervisor must encourage one’s pupil to say, “Away with Rogerianism. Full speed ahead.” However, in a responsible way, because one and one’s supervisor must deal with whatever happens next. #RandolphHarris 8 of 19

In the neurotic’s extraordinary difficulties in criticizing and making accusations there are several determining factors in one’s adult personality. In the first place this incapacity is one of the expressions of one’s lack of spontaneous self-assertion. In order to understand this deficiency it is necessary only to compare one’s attitude with the way the healthy person of our culture feels and behaves in regard to making and expressing accusations, or more generally speaking, in regard to attack and defense. The normal person is able to defend one’s opinion in an argument, to refute an unwarranted accusation, insinuation or imposition, to remonstrate internally or externally against neglect or cheating, to refuse a request or an offer if one does not like it and if the situation allows one to refuse it. One is able to feel and express criticism if necessary, to feel and express accusations, or deliberately to withdraw from or to dismiss a person if one wants to. Furthermore one is able to defend or attack without disproportionate emotional tension and to hold a middle course between exaggerated self-recriminations and an exaggerated aggressiveness which would lead one to unwarranted, violent accusations against the World. To be able thus to take the happy medium is possible only on the basis of conditions which in neuroses are more or less lacking: a comparative freedom from diffuse unconscious hostility and a comparatively secure self-esteem. #RandolphHarris 9 of 19

When this spontaneous self-assertion is lacking the inevitable consequence is a feeling of weakness and defenselessness. A person who knows—perhaps without every having thought about it—that if the situation demands it one can attack or can defend oneself, is and feels strong. A person who registers the fact that one probably cannot do this is and feels weak. We register as accurately as an electric clock whether we have suppressed an argument out of fear or out of wisdom, whether we have accepted an accusation out of weakness or out of a sense of justice, even though we may successfully deceive our conscious selves. For the neurotic person this registering of weakness is a constant secret source of irritation. Many a depression starts after a person has been unable to defend one’s arguments or express a critical opinion. However, given the life of faith in the community of the Church, the reception of the sacraments rightly administered and the audition of the Word of God soundly preached, a Christian is defined as one who is saved by grace through one’s faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour. The Saviour speak to one in the Word and comes to one in the sacraments. Christianity is more than any other faith or community the realm of principle. However, salvation must reach to the depths of the being. The modern World has sounded these depths. #RandolphHarris 10 of 19

God’s graciousness is beyond and above human merit, and God’s graciousness is afforded us in spite of human’s intellectual doubts. Furthermore, God’s graciousness is even within human’s existential split. In chapter 18 the Ship Nephi was working on is finished—the births of Jacob and Joseph are mentioned—the company embarks for the promised land—the sons of Ishmael and their wives join in revelry and rebellion—Nephi is bound, and the ship is drive back by a terrible tempest—Nephi is freed, and by his prayer the storm ceases—the people arrive in the promised land. About 591-598 Before Christ. “And it came to pass that they did worship the Lord, and did go forth with me; and we did work timers of curious craft. And the Lord did show mw from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship. Now, I Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men. And, I Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things. #RandolphHarris 11 of 19

“And it came to pass that after I had finished the ship, accord to the word of the Lord, my brethren beheld that it was good, and that the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine; wherefore, they did humble themselves again before the Lord. And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came unto my father, that we should arise and go down into the ship,” reports 1 Nephi 18.1-5. Our natural knowledge begins from sense. Hence our natural knowledge can go as far as it can be led by sensible things. However, our mind cannot be led by sense so far as to see the essence of God; because the sensible effects of God do not equal the power of God as their cause. Hence from the knowledge of sensible things the whole power of God cannot be known; nor therefore can His essence be seen. However, because they are His effects and depend on their cause, we can be led from them so far as to know of God “whether He exists,” and to know of Him what mist necessarily belong to Him, as the first cause of all things, exceeding all things caused by Him. Hence we know that His relationship with creatures so far as to be the cause of them all; also that creatures different from Him, inasmuch as He is not in any way part of what is caused by Him; and that creatures are not removed from Him by reason of any defect on His part, but because He superexceeds them all. #RandolphHarris 12 of 19

God is known by natural knowledge through the images of His effects. As the knowledge of God’s essence is by grace, it belongs only to the good; but the knowledge of Him by natural reason can belong to both good and bad. For it can be answered that many who are not pure can know many truths, id est, by natural reason. “And it came to pass that on the morrow, after we had prepared all things, much fruits and meant from the wilderness, and honey in abundance, and provisions according to that which the Lord had commanded us, we did go down into the ship, with all our loading and our seeds, and whatsoever thing we have brought with us, every one according to one’s age; wherefore, we did all go down into the ship, with our wives and children. And now, my father had begat two sons in the wilderness; the elder was called Jacob and the younger Joseph. And it came to pass after we had all gone down into the ship, and had take with us our provisions and things which had been commanded us, we did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land. And after we had been driven forth before the wind for the space of many days, behold, my brethren and the sons of Ishmael and also their wives began to make themselves merry, insomuch that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness. #RandolphHarris 13 of 19

“And I, Nephi, began to fear exceedingly lest the Lord should be angry with us, and smite us because of our iniquity, that we should be swallowed up in the depths of the sea; wherefore, I, Nephi, began to speak to them with much soberness; but behold they were angry with me, saying: We will not that our younger brother shall be a rule over us. And it came to pass that Laman and Lemuel did take me and bind with cords, and they did treat me with much harshness; nevertheless, the Lord did suffer it that he might show forth his power, unto the fulfilling of his word which he had spoken concerning the wicked. And it came to pass that after they had bound me insomuch that I could not move, the compass which had been prepared of the Lord, did cease to work. Wherefore, they knew not whither they should steer the ship, insomuch that there arose a great storm, yes, a great and terrible tempest, and we were driven back upon the waters for the space of three days; and they began to be frightened exceedingly lest they should be drowned in the sea; nevertheless they did not loose me. And on the fourth day, which we had been driving back, the tempest began to be exceedingly sore. #RandolphHarris 14 of 19

“And it came to pass that we were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea. And after we had been driven back upon the waters for the space of four days, my brethren began to see that the judgments of God were upon them, and they should repent of their iniquities; wherefore, they came unto me, and loosed the bands which were upon my wrists, and behold they had swollen exceedingly; and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof. Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions. Now my father, Lehi, had said many things unto them, and also unto the sons of Ishmael; but, behold, they did breathe out much threatenings against anyone that should speak for me; and my parents being stricken in years, and having suffered much grief because of their children, they were brought down, yea, even upon their sick-beds. Because of their grief and much sorrow, and the iniquity of my brethren, they were brought near even to be carried out of this time to meet their God; yea, their gray hairs were about to be brought down to lie low in the dust; yea, even they were near to be cast with sorrow into a watery grave. And Jacob and Joseph also, being young, having need of much nourishment, were grieved because of the afflictions of their mother; and also my wife with her tears and prayers, and also my children, did not soften the hearts of my brethren that they would loose me. #RandolphHarris 15 of 19

“And there was nothing save it were the power of God, which threatened them with destruction, could soften their hearts; wherefore, when they saw that they were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea they repented of the things which they had done, insomuch that they loosed me. And it came to pass after they had loosed me, behold, I took the compass, and I did work whither I desired it. And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did cease, and the storm did cease, and there was a great calm. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did guide the ship, that we sailed again towards the promised land. And it came to pass that after we has sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did pitch our tents; and we did call it the promised land. And it came to pass that we did begin to till the Earth, and we began to plant seeds; yea, we did put all our seeds into the Earth, which we had brought from the land of Jerusalem. And it came to pass that they did grow exceedingly; wherefore, we were blessed in abundance. And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the mule and the horse, and the goat, and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were for the use of humans. #RandolphHarris 16 of 19

“And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and silver, and of copper,” reports 1 Nephi 18.6-25. As God works miracles in corporeal things, so also He does supernatural wonders above the common order, raising the minds of some living in the flesh beyond the use of sense, even up to the vision of is own essence. He continues to work in our lives to conform us more and more to the likeness of Hid Son. As Paul said, “He who began a good work in your will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christs,” as reported in Philippians 1.6. This continuing work of God is called “progressive sanctification.” It differs from initial sanctification in two respects. Initial sanctification occurs instantly at the moment of salvation when we are delivered from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Christ (see Colossians 1.13). Progressive sanctification continues over time until we go to be the with Lord. Initial sanctification is entirely the work of God the Holy Spirit who imparts to us the very life of Christ. Progressive sanctification is also the work of the Holy Spirit, but it involves a response on our part so that we as believers are actively involved in the process. O God, of infinite mercy and boundless majesty, Whom no distance of place nor length of time can part from those for whom Thou carest; please be present to Thy servants who everywhere confide in Thee. #RandolphHarris 17 of 19

And God, through all the way in which they are to go be pleased to be their Guide and their Companion. May no adversity harm them, no difficulty oppose them; may all things turn out happily and prosperously for them; that by the assistance of Thy right hand, whatsoever they have asked for with a reasonable desire, they may speedily find brought to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Thou Most High, in the way of Thy appointment I am waiting for Thee, my desire is to Thy name, my mind to remembrance of Thee. I am a sinner, but not insensible of my state. My iniquities are great and numberless, but Thou art adequate to my relief, for Thou art rich in mercy; the blood of Thy Son can cleanse from all sin; the agency of Thy Spirit can subdue my most powerful lusts. Give me a teacher, wakeful conscience that can smite and torment me when I sin. May I be consistent in conversation and conduct, the same alone as in company, in prosperity and adversity, accepting all Thy commandments as right, and hating every false way. May I never be satisfied with my present spiritual progress, but to faith add virtue, knowledge, temperance, Godliness, brotherly kindness, charity. May I never neglect what is necessary to constitute Christian character, and needful to complete it. #RandolphHarris 18 of 19

May I cultivate the expedient, develop the lovely, adorn the gospel, recommend the religion of Jesus, accommodate myself to Thy providence. Keep me from sinking or sinning in the evil day; help me to carry into ordinary life portions of divine truth and use them on suitable occasions, so that its doctrines may inform, its warnings caution, its rules guide, its promises comfort me. With this in mind, we must always keep on praying. Exodus 17 describes aged Moses standing atop a hill, arms lifted up to Heaven interceding for Israel, which was engaged in a pitched battle with the Amalekites below. As long as his arms were extended upward, Israel prevailed, but when in weariness they began to fall, the Amalekites dominated. Poor Moses was in agony as gravity drew his hands toward destruction. However, then cam Arron and Hur, who placed a stone under Moses and, standing on either side, held his hands up to God until Sunset and Victory came (vv. 10-13). That story graphically emphasizes that there is a mysterious efficacy to persistent prayer. This is not to suggest that God regards prayer as a meritorious work—so that when there are enough prayers, Her answers. Rather, He sovereignly chooses to encourage persistence in prayer and to answer it to His everlasting glory. I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony. #RandolphHarris 19 of 19

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Rancho Cordova, CA |

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April 13, 2020 2:49 am

The Pledge of Allegiance Asserts that Our Republic Preserves Liberty and Justice for All!

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. With the way the state of California is being ran, it is becoming a vision of a glittering, sinister World in which society will be hardened into a caste-system and the workers will be permanently enslaved. It is also becoming a state without purpose, in which politicians toil cynically and faithlessly. No society of that kind will last more than a couple of generations, because a ruling class which thinks principally in terms of a “good time” will soon lose its vitality. The aim is not economic exploitation, because someone has to pay taxes and earn money for cooks to steal, but the desire to bully and dominate. There is a power hungry, sadistic, hardened vibe. Human beings will eventually increase the population so greatly that there will be an exhaustion of natural resources, which will usher in an era of famine and a shortage of everything, but plastic waste. Of course, theses are the dangers of a society, ran by the media, who partake in devil worship and witch burning. The World cannot abandon God and Capitalism, nor law and order and return to the old system of regulations and disabilities. Discrimination is also a problem because if a fit person is excluded, there is a real loss, while the exclusion of thousands of unfit people who are granted opportunities because of nepotism is no gain. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

If the constitution of the electoral body disposes them to chose unfit persons, there are always plenty of such persons to choose from. Limitation of the field of selection deprives society of some chances of being served by the competent, without ever saving it from the incompetent, which is why people are fleeing California. We should aim to live in a World without discrimination of race of gender. And the discussion must be a real discussion descending to foundations, and not resting satisfied with vague and general assertions. If it be said that the doctrine of equality of the races and genders rests only on theory, it must be remembered that the contrary doctrine also has only theory to rest upon. Through all the progressive period of human history, the condition of the human race and women has been approaching nearer to equality with the majority and men. This does not of itself prove that the assimilation must go on to complete equality; but it assuredly affords some presumption that such is the case. Even the preliminary knowledge, what the difference between the genders now are, apart from all questions as to how they are made what they are, is still in the crudest and most incomplete state. What woman by nature can do, it is quite superfluous to forbid them from doing. RandolphHarris 2 of 20

If women or people of different ethnic backgrounds have a greater natural inclination for some thing than for others, there is no need of laws or social inculcation to make them majority of the do the former in the preference to the latter. Whatever women’s services or other marginalized groups are most wanted for, the free play of competition will hold out the strongest inducements to them to undertake. And, as the words imply, they are most wanted for the things for which they are most fit; by the apportionment of which to them, the collective faculties of the two genders or different cultures can be applied on the whole with greatest sum of valuable result. It is also not the place of the dominant group to decide what is natural work women or other groups, and they cannot be made to accept the condition said to be natural to them. We as a society pride ourselves on our democratic values. We do not believe that people should be constrained by innate differences from being able to achieve desired positions of influence to improve their well-being; equality of opportunity is our professed aim. The Preamble to our Constitution stresses the importance of justice, as well as the general welfare and the blessings of liberty. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

The Pledge of Allegiance asserts that our republic preserves “liberty and justice of all.” Yet substantial inequalities between genders still exist in our society. In economic terms, full-time working women (After some very recent improvement) earn on average 71 perfect of the earnings of full-time working men. One-half of poor and three-fifths of chronically poor house-holds with dependent children are maintained by a single female parent. The poverty rate for elderly women is nearly twice that for elderly men. On the political front, two out of a hundred U.S. senators are women, one out of nine justices seem to be considered sufficient representation on the Supreme Court, and the number of men chosen in each congressional election far exceeds the number of women elected in the entire history of the country. Underlying and intertwined with all these inequalities is the unequal distribution of the unpaid labour of the family. An equal sharing between the genders of family responsibilities, especially child care, is “the great revolution that has not happened.” Women, including mothers of young children, are, of course, working outside the household far more than their mothers did. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

And the proportion of women who reach high-level positions in politics, business, and the professions command vastly disproportionate amount of space in the media, compared with the millions of women who work at low-paying, dead-end jobs, the millions who do part-time work with its lack of benefits, and the millions of others who stay home performing for no pay what is frequently not even acknowledged as work. Certainly, the fact that women are doing more paid work does not imply that they are more equal. It is often said that we are living in a post-feminist era. This claim, due in part to the distorted emphasis on women who has “made it,” is fake, no matter which of its meanings is intended. It is certainly not true that feminism has been vanquished, and equally untrue that it is no longer needed because its aims have been fulfilled. Until there is justice within the family, women will not be able to gain equality in politics, at work, or in any other sphere. The typical current practices of family life, structured to a large extent by gender, are not just. Both the expectation and the experience of the division of labour by gender make women vulnerable. As I shall show, a cycle of power relations and decisions pervades both family and workplace, each reinforcing the inequalities between the genders that already exist within the other. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Not only women, but children of both genders, too, are often made vulnerable by gender-structured marriages. One-quarter of children in the United States now live in families with only one parent—in almost 90 percent of cases, the mother. Contrary to common perceptions—in which the situation of never-married mothers looms largest—65 percent of single-parent families are a result of marital separation or divorce. Recent research in a number of states has shown that, in the average case, the standard of living of divorces women and the children who live with them plummets after divorce, whereas the economic situation of divorced men tends to be better than when they are married. A central source of injustice for women these days is that the law, most noticeably in the event of divorce, treats more or less as equals those whom custom, workplace discrimination, and the still conventional division of labour within the family have made very unequal. Central to this socially created inequality are two commonly made but inconsistent presumptions: that women are primarily responsible for the rearing of children; and that serious and committed members of the work forces (regardless of class) do not have primary responsibility, or even shared responsibility, for the rearing of children. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

The old assumption of the workplace, still implicit, is that workers have wives at home. It is built not only into the structure and expectations of the workplace but into other crucial social institutions, such as schools, which make no attempt to take account, in their scheduled hours or vacations, of the fact that parents are likely to hold jobs. Now, of course, many wage workers do not have wives at home. Often, they are wives and mothers, or single, separated, or divorced mothers of small children. However, neither the family nor the workplace has taken much account of this fact. Employed wives still do by far the greatest proportion of unpaid family work, such as child care and housework. Women are far more likely to take time out of the workplace or to work part-time because of family responsibilities than are their husbands or male partners. And they are much more likely to move because of their husbands’ employment needs or opportunities than their own. All these tendencies, which are due to a number of factors, including the gender segregation and discrimination of the workplace itself, tend to be cyclical in their effects: wives advance more slowly than their husbands at work and thus gain less seniority, and the discrepancy between their wages increases over time. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

Then, because both the power structure of the family and what is regarded as consensual “rational” family decision-making reflect the fact that the husband usually earns more, it will become even less likely as time goes on that the unpaid work of the family will be shared between the spouses. Thus the cycle of inequality is perpetuated. Often hidden from view within a marriage, it is in the increasingly likely event of marital breakdown that the socially constructed inequality of married women is at its most visible. This is what I mean when I say that gender-structured marriages makes women vulnerable. These are not matters of natural necessity, as some people would believe. Surely nothing in our natures dictates that men should not be equal participants in the rearing of their children. Nothing in the nature of work makes it impossible to adjust it to the fact that people are parents as well as workers. That these things have not happened is part of the historically, socially constructed differentiations between the sexes that feminists have come to call gender. We live in a society that has over the years regarded the innate characteristic of sex as one of the clearest legitimizers of different rights and restrictions, both formal and informal. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

While the legal sanctions that uphold male dominance have begun to be eroded in the past effects of socialization, still works powerfully to reinforce gender roles that are commonly regarded as of unequal prestige and worth. The sexual division of labour has not only been a fundamental part of the marriage contract, but so deeply influences us in our formative years that feminists of both genders who try to reject it can find themselves, struggling against it with varying degrees of ambivalence. Based on the linchpin, “gender”—by which I mean the deeply entrenched institutionalization of sexual differences—still permeates our society. To return now to self-recriminating attitude, another function that they serve, in addition to protecting against a fear of disapproval and inviting absolute reassurance, is to prevent the neurotic from seeing the necessity for change and in fact to serve as a substitute for change. To make any changes in a developed personality is extremely hard for everyone. However, for the neurotic person this task is twice as hard, not only because one has a greater difficulty in recognizing the necessity for change, but also because so many of one’s attitudes are necessitated by anxiety. Consequently one is mortally frightened at the prospect of having to change, and one shrinks back from recognizing the necessity for it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

One of the means of shirking this knowledge is to believe secretly that self-recrimination one can “get by.” This process can frequently be observed in everyday life. If a person regrets having done something or having failed to do it, and as a consequence wants to make good or to change the attitude which was responsible, one will not submerge oneself in guilt feelings. If one does do this it indicates that one shirks the difficult task of changing. It is indeed so much easier to be remorseful than to change. Incidentally, another way in which the neurotic many blind oneself to the necessity for change is to intellectualize one’s existing problems. Patients who are inclined to do this find a great intellectual satisfaction in gaining psychological knowledge, including knowledge concerning themselves, but let it remain at that. The intellectualizing attitude is then used as a protection which prevents them from experiencing anything emotionally, and thus from realizing that they would have to change. It is as if they looked at themselves and said: how interesting! Self-recriminations may also serve to ward off the danger of accusing others, for it may appear the safer way to take guilt on one’s own shoulders. Inhibitions toward criticizing and accusing others, thus reinforcing the tendencies to accuse one’s self, play such a great role in neuroses that they should be discussed at a greater length. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

As a rule such inhibitions have a history. A child growing up in an atmosphere that creates fear and hatred and restrains one’s spontaneous self-esteem has deeply accusatory feelings against one’s surroundings. Not only, however, is one unable to express them, but if one is sufficiently intimidated one does not even dare to become aware of them in one’s conscious feelings. This is partly because of a simple fear of punishment, and partly because of one’s fear of losing the affection one requires. These infantile reactions have a solid basis in reality, inasmuch as parents who create such an atmosphere are scarcely every able to take criticism, because of their own neurotic sensitivities. The ubiquity of this attitude that parents are infallible is due, however, to a cultural factor. The position of parents in our culture is based on authoritative power which may always be relied on to enforce obedience. In many cases benevolence rules the relationships in the home, and there is no need for the parents to stress their authoritative power. Nevertheless as long as this cultural attitude exists it does somehow throw a shadow on the relationships, even when it remains in the background. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

When a relationship is based on authority, criticism tends to be forbidden because it would undermine the authority. It may be openly forbidden and the ban be enforced by punishment, or, much more effectively, the prohibition may be more tacit and be enforced on moral grounds. Then the criticism of children is checked not only by the individual sensitives of the parents, but also by the fact that the latter, pervaded by the cultural attitude that it is a sin to criticize parents attempt implicitly and explicitly to influence the children to feel the same way. Under such conditions a less intimidated child may express some revolt, but in turn is made to feel guilty. A more intimidated child does not dare to show any resentment and gradually does not even venture to think that the parents may be wrong. One feels, however, that someone must be wrong, and thus comes to the conclusion that, since the parents are always right, it must be one who is at fault. Needless to say, this is usually not an intellectual but an emotional process. It is determined not by thinking but by fear. In this way the child begins to feel guilty, or more accurately, one develops the tendency to seek and find fault within oneself, instead of calmly weighing both sides and considering the whole situation objectively. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

One’s reproaches may lead one to feel inferior rather than guilty. There are only fluctuating distinctions between the two, depending entirely on the implicit or explicit emphasis on morals which is customary in one’s surroundings. A girl who is always subordinated to her sister and out of fear submits to the unjust treatment, chocking the accusations she really feels, may tell herself that the unequal treatment is warranted because she is inferior to her sister (less beautiful, less brilliant), or she may believe it is justified because she is a bad girl. In both cases, however, she takes the blame on herself instead of realizing that she is being wrong. This type of reaction does not necessarily persist; it may change if it is not to deeply ingrained, if the child’s surroundings are changed, or if persons enter one’s life who appreciate one and emotionally support one. If such a change does not take place the inclination to transform accusations into self-accusations becomes in time stronger rather than weaker. At the same time that resentment against the World is gradually piling up from several sources, the fear of expressing resentment is also growing, because of the increasing fear of being found out and the assumption of the same sensitivity in others. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

We have now worked our way through some difficult material that has required careful study and thought. We have distinguished and out into proper relationship profound aspects of human existence and divine operation. However, it is very important that we not lose sight of the simplicity of spiritual formation in Christ. Otherwise its practical implementation, by individuals in their own life or by leaders for their groups, will falsely appear to be extremely difficult or even impossible. The effect of this will be (and often is) that spiritual formation is not seriously undertaken, even by Christian groups, or that it is undertaken in such a way that it is bound to fail or achieve only minor degrees of success. Individuals sometimes hear of disciplines for the spiritual life, for example, and rightly understand how important they could be for growth in Christlikeness. Perhaps they learn what an effective role the disciplines have played for “great ones” with Christ in the past or present. However, they are unable to practice such disciplines to much good effect, because they do not have a sense of how such practices fit into the overall process of spiritual formations in Christ. In particular, I find, they are unable to put special practices, such as the disciplines of solitude, Scripture memorization, or fasting into a seamless unity with the rest of their life. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Hear, O Lord, our prayers, and graciously accompany your children on their journeys; and as Thou art everywhere, do Thou everywhere bestow on them Thy mercy, that being by Thine assistance defended against all adversities, they may enjoy the fulfilment of their just desires; through Jesus Christ our Lord. “And it came to pass that according to his (God) word he did destroy them; and according to his word he did do all things for them; and there was not anything done save it were by his word. And after they had crossed the river Jordan he did make them mighty unto the driving out of the children of the land, yea, unto the scattering them to destruction. And now, do ye supposed that the children of this land, who were in the land of promise, who were driven out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were righteous? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. Do ye suppose that our fathers would have been more choice than they if they had been righteous? I say unto you, Nay. Behold, the Lord esteemth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favoured of God. However, behold, this people had rejected every word of God, and they were ripe in iniquity; and the fulness of the wrath of God was upon them; and the Lord did curse the land against them, and bless it unto our fathers; yea, he did curse it against them unto their destruction, and he did bless it unto our fathers unto their obtaining power over it. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

“Behold, the Lord hath created the Earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it. And he raiseth up a righteous nation, and destroyeth the nations of the wicked. And he leadeth away the righteous into precious lands, and the wicked he destoryeth, and curseth the land unto them for their sakes. He ruleth high in the Heavens, for it is his throne, and this Earth is his footstool. And he loveth those who will have him to be their God. Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, yes, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he made; wherefore, he did bring them out of the land of Egypt. And he did straiten them in the wilderness with his rob; for they hardened their hearts, even as ye have; and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might he healed; and the labour which they had to preform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished. And they did harden their hearts from time to time, and they did revile against Moses, and also against God; nevertheless, ye know that they were led forth by matchless power into the land of promise. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

“And now, after all these things, the time has come that they have become wicked, yea, nearly unto ripeness; and I know not but they are at this day about to be destroyed; for I know that the day must surely come that they must be destroyed, save a few only, who shall be led away into captivity. Wherefore, the Lord commanded my father that he should depart into the wilderness; and the Jews also sought to take away his life; wherefore, ye are murderers in your hearts and ye ae like unto them. Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an Angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the Earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder. And ye also know that by the power of his almighty word he can cause the Earth that it shall pass away; yes, and ye know that by his word he can cause the rough places to be made smooth, and smooth places shall be broken up. O, then, why is it that ye can be so hard in your hearts? #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“Behold, my soul is rent with anguish because of you, and my heart is pained; I fear lest ye shall be cast off forever. Behold, I am full of the Spirit of God, insomuch that my frame has no strength. And now it came to pass that when I had spoke these words they were angry with me, and were desirous to throw me into the depths of the sea; and as they came forth to law their hands upon me I spake unto them, saying: in the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God, even unto the consuming of my flesh; and whose shall lay one’s hands upon me shall wither even as a dried reed; and one shall be as naught before the power of God, for God shall smite one. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto them that they should murmur no more against their father; neither should they withhold their labour from me, for God had commanded me that I should build a ship. And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou Earth, it should be Earth; and if I should say it, it would be done. And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of humans, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship? #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said many things unto my brethren, insomuch that they were confounded and could not content against me; neither durst they lay their hands upon me nor touch me with their fingers, even for the space of many days. Now they durst not do this lest they should wither before me, so powerful was the Spirit of God; and thus it had wrought upon them. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: Stretch forth thine hand again unto thy brethren, and they shall not wither before thee, but I will shock them, saith the Lord, and this will I do, that they may know that I am the Lord their God. And it came to pass that I stretched forth my hand unto my brethren, and they did not wither before me; but the Lord did shake them, even according to the word which he had spoken. And now, they said: We know of a surety that the Lord is with thee, for we know that it is the power of the Lord that has shaken us. And they fell down before me, and were about to worship me, but I would not suffer them, saying: I am thy brother, yea, even thy younger brother; wherefore, worship the Lord thy God, and honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee,” reports 1 Nephi 17.31-55. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

Lord of the could and fire, I am a stranger, with a stranger’s indifference; my hands hold a pilgrim’s staff, my march is Zionward, my eyes are toward the coming of the Lord, my heart is in Thy hands without reserve. Thou hast created it, redeemed it, renewed it, captured it, conquered it. Keep from it every opposing fore, crush in it every rebel lust, mortify every treacherous passion, annihilate every Earthborn desire. All faculties of my being vibrate to Thy touch; I love Thee with soul, mind, body, strength, might, spirit, affection, will, desire, intellect, understanding. Thou art the very perfection of all perfections; all intellect is derived from Thee; my scanty rivulets follow from Thy unfathomable fountain. Compared with Thee the Sun is darkness, all beauty deformity, all wisdom folly, the best goodness faulty. Thou art worthy of an adoration greater than my dull heart can yield; invigorate my love that it may rise worthily to Thee, tightly entwine itself round Thee, be allured by Thee. Then shall my walk be endless praise. Holy Things for holy persons. There is One holy, One Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father, to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Thou Whom camest into the World to save sinners, of whom I am the chief—I confess to Thee like the robber, Remember me, Lord, in Thy kingdom. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

Cresleigh Homes

Want to peek inside this #MillsStation home? 👀 Join us tomorrow, Saturday April 11th at 1pm for an IG LIVE tour of Home Site 63, a move-in ready home with a Residence 1 floor plan. 😍 Find out more about #CresleighRanch on our website. Link in bio! https://www.instagram.com/cresleighhomes/

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April 11, 2020 12:44 am

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