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The Poet Chooses the Apocalypse and Destruction

January 2, 2025 10:26 am

One of the most cunning aspects of the adversary’s efforts to thwart our Father in Heaven’s plan of happiness is his deceitful teaching that there s no evil influence or devil and this attempt to redefine evil as good and good as evil, darkness as light and light as darkness, and bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter. “And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance,” reports 2 Nephi 28.22. Let those who wish complain of evils or criticize: that is their affair. However, to take such adverse attitudes is not a laudable way of life. They, men or women, could find enough material to occupy wholes days at a time. We are all vulnerable. Denouncing negatives is unhealthier than announcing benefits. “Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” reports 2 Nephi 15.20. He is too psychologically perceptive not to understand the character of others but too generous to judge and condemn them. The student should not go about criticizing or abusing others. He should not do so because it is mentally unhealthy and hinders his own progress, because it will one day bring down criticism or abuse upon his own head, because he has to foster a compassionate outlook, and because he ought to understand that everybody on Earth is indeed here owing to his own imperfection so that the labour of showing up faults would be an endless one. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25

The wise student should emulate the masters when encountering a man who insists on controversial argument but who has no desire to learn the truth, no humility to accept it from those who, from broader experience, know more about the matter or who, from superior intelligence, judge it better than himself. The student should lapse into silence, smile, and take the earliest opportunity to get away! He should not waste time and breath or fall into friction and disharmony by letting himself be drawn into further talk. For the truculent and bull-headed man who argues against every standpoint he takes, who disputes each explanation he gives, will be impervious to whatever truth is given him. It is better meekly to acknowledge what he asserts, without criticizing it or correcting its errors. Since its change is not possible, it is better to let the man remain in the smugness of his mistaken views and let the situation be accepted. Such people do not come to hear the truth about themselves or to learn the truth about life. They come for confirmation of their own ideas, flattery about their own character, and endorsement of their own conduct. This is why they will vehemently reject all criticism or correction. It is stupid to bring conversation with others’ beliefs which they are certain to scoff at but which one cherishes as holy. The philosopher would not waste his time in hair-splitting arguments or bickerings about trivial, unimportant details when discussing a metaphysical or mystical theme with the unconvinced. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25

It is useless trying to explain his loyalty to the philosophic ideal to those who can see no use and no truth in philosophy itself. Those who are unready for the higher truth will also be ungrateful to anyone who foolishly brings it to them. Few couples would have any trouble understanding exactly what a cynic means when he says that marriage, as a part of life, is like a dual being fought in the midst of a battle. To a considerable extent, it can hardly be otherwise. Even as individuals, we are often at cross-purposes with ourselves, waging inner battles as we struggled to resolve confused or contradictory intentions and desires. With marriage, the problem is inevitably compounded. No matter how obliging by nature a husband and wife may individually be, they must expect to engage in a certain amount of disagreement as they try to reconcile their personal wishes so that together they can pursue the goals they share. What is more, culturally conditioned attitudes toward pleasures of the flesh and sexual identity could hardly have been designed to insure conflict between man and woman. However, for those men and women who basically accept and respect one another as independent and equal human beings, differences can be a stimulus for growth rather than a threat to happiness. A sharp point of disagreement can prod them into testing their feelings and thoughts and beliefs, thus possibly brining them to a deeper level of understanding. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25

These feelings, thoughts and beliefs reflect values that the individual, from childhood on, is continually crystallizing out of the totality of his or her personal experiences. Originally, the experiences have no direct association with the act of pleasures of the flesh. They are simply memories attached to happy or unhappy feelings. They may be linked to a parent’s actions, for example, or to a favourite teacher’s counsel, a passage from a novel, a scene from a movie or the derisive laughter triggered by an unsavory joke. Through the drift of emotions imperceptible ways over a period of time, these memories become charged by pleasures of the flesh. They acquire the power to define for the individual the circumstances which make pleasures of the flesh something to be actively enjoyed or simply endured or even dreaded, and to be remembered with good feelings or bad feelings—or indifference. Thus, if satisfying feelings of intimate passions are to result, every individual evolves a unique set of needs that have to be met. In a sense these needs, these factors, might be considered prerequisites to pleasure; our term for them is the value system of pleasures of the flesh. At baseline, it includes all the considerations—the time, the place, the mood, the words used, the gestures made, the thousand and one little signals that a man and woman send to each other with or without language—that the individual requires in order to respond emotionally, to let feelings come to the surface. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25

It also includes—and this is very important—those elements that permit the individual to be comfortable with those feelings. For example, if he is to be stimulated for pleasures of the flesh, a man might have a desperate need to be held, to be touched and stroked, and this is a requirement that he, as an individual, must have fulfilled. However, if it happens, will he then accept the touch with pleasure? Or might his response be blocked by guilt or embarrassment? Or plain discomfort? After all, if the pure physical fact of being touched was an automatic turn-on, there would be daily orgies, instead of murders, on the subways! Another example would be the woman who is with the man of her choice, when the time and the mood are both right, and she wishes he would do X—whatever her particular X might be—but she cannot tell him to do it or signal him to do it because, in her system of values, that would be “unromantic.” And if she forced herself to tell him and he then did what she asked, she might be completely unresponsive, turned off by any of a dozen ideas: he did not really want to, a woman should not tell a man what to do, a real man would not obey a woman that way, and so on. All these considerations are part of what makes up her pleasures of the flesh value system. For a man and woman who want to satisfy each other’s needs without sacrificing their own, a delicate process of accommodation is required. Even in an exemplary marriage, differences in temperament and spontaneous feelings make it certain that at all times a husband and a wife will find themselves emotionally at odds. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25

With or without words, one partner may signal a wish to make love, for example, and the other partner either ignores the signal or counters it, saying, in effect: “I am not in the mood.” Often the refusal is tempered—not now, not here, not that way. Ans there is the “yes” that means “no,” communicated in a veiled message that means: “If you insist, all right.” No matter how the response is phrased, whether it expresses outright refusal or conditional acceptance, it puts an emotional discrepancy in sharp focus. The feelings of the husband and wide are in conflict. Perhaps the disagreement arises because one of the two likes to use four-letter word during pleasures of the flesh while the other partner finds them discordant and abrasive, or perhaps one of them wants to have pleasures of the flesh occasionally on the spur of the moment, in unlikely places, while the other cannot relax except in the security of their chamber. However, no matter what the specific argument may be about, the problem is more than just a difference in preference. The real issue is not having pleasures of the flesh; it is feeling loved. Although the wife may never say the words, she is thinking: “If he loved me, he would not insist.” Or else: “If he loved me, he would be understanding enough not to ask.” And the husband thinks: “If she loved me, she would not refuse.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 25

The emotional stakes are higher than is generally realized, a fact that is underscored by the bitterness and hurt feelings that quarrels over gender differences often generate. However, these differences can also be successfully negotiated. The negation will be simpler, however, and the outcome more certain, in cases where husband and wife share the same fundamental convictions about pleasures of the flesh. Particularly if one partner holds conventional views and the other takes an unconventional approach, success becomes more problematical for the couple with a basic disagreement in philosophy. Major differences divide the latter couple. Should the wife accommodate her husband and accept the traditional female role, for instance, or is she equally free to express desire and initiate pleasures of the flesh? Must pleasures of the flesh be reserved for a customary time and place—in bed enjoyed whenever and wherever the mood dictates? Should the physical embrace be restricted to the familiar position and practices—with the woman supine, the man prone above her, and foreplay intended to facilitate pleasures of the flesh—or should the exchange of intimate passions be adventurous and experimental, utilizing every imaginable method of stimulation and every available orifice? Obviously, if a man and wife hold diametrically opposing view on such questions, they will have difficulty compromising their relationship with dealing with pleasures of the flesh and it will be a trial for one or both of them. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25

It is unlikely, however, that any substantial number of marriages fit this pattern. It represents the extreme. However, in countless marriages, including those where husbands and wives are essentially of the same mind about pleasures of the flesh, whether conventionally or unconventionally so, conflicting feelings about pleasures of the flesh on any given occasion are the rule, rather than the exception, and rarely are they easily resolved. How such conflicts are handled is one of the crucial factors in establishing the prevailing atmosphere of a marriage. A negative approach to this vital problem creates defensiveness and resentment on the part of one or both partners, undermining their relationship. A positive approach leads to the openness and trust that strength the bond. The difficulty, of course, lies in understanding the difference between the two approaches and, what is even more difficult, implementing that understanding. Negative approached to conflicts involving pleasures of the flesh are characterized by fear, hopelessness or ignorance. Fear, for instance, impels some couples to minimize their dissatisfactions and to tell them that if they are patient enough, the problem will go away. (A young wife, whose husband rarely has pleasures of the flesh with her and who even on those occasions is unable to bring her any measure of enjoyment, may console herself for years with the belief that “nature” would soon assert itself.) Other couples may acknowledge the problem but become defensive about it, each partner seeking personal reassurance in the belief that “it is not my fault”—an attitudes that produces nothing but anger and endless recrimination. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25

The necessity of forgiving others for what they have done to us is paramount. Nay, it is a duty to be constantly and unbrokenly practiced, no matter what provocation to disobey it we may receive. Our contact with others, or our relation to them, must bring them only good! never bad. To the degree you keep ego out of your reaction to an enemy, to that degree you will be protected from him. His antagonism must be met not only with calmness, indifference, but also with beneficial forgiveness and active love. These alone are fitting to a high present stage of understanding. Be sure that if you do so, good will ultimately emerge from it. Even if this good were only the unfoldment of latent power to master negative emotion which you show by such an attitude, it would be enough reward. However, it will be more. Noble indignation and just resentment are on immensely higher level than grossly selfish indignation and greedy resentment. However, in the case of the disciple, for whom the scale of moral values extends farther than for the “good” man, even they must be abandoned for unruffled serenity and universal goodwill. To the definitely wicked and the evilly obsessed, he need no give his love. However, he must give them and all others who wrong his his forgiveness, for his own sake as well as theirs. Every thought of resentment at another’s action against him, every mood of bitterness at the other’s refusal to do something he wishes him to do, is a crude manifestation of egoism in which, as disciple, he cannot indulge without harming his own self and hindering a favourable change in the other person’s attitude toward him. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25

The man who burns with hate against an enemy is, by the fuel of his own thoughts, keeping the fire of the other man’s mutual hate alive. Let him remember instead those glorious moments when the higher self touched his heart. In these moments all that was noble in him overflowed. Enemies were forgiven, grievances let go and the human scene viewed through the spectacle of tenderness and generosity. Only by such a psychological about-turn towards goodwill and forgiveness will he open the first door to abatement of his enemy’s feeling. Mr. Lautreamont demonstrates that the rebel dissimulates the desire to accept appearance behind the desire for banality. In either case, whether he abases or vaunts himself, the rebel wants to be other than he is, even when he is prepared to be recognized for what he really is. The blasphemies and the conformity of Mr. Lautreamont illustrate this unfortunate contradiction, which is resolved in his case in the desire to be nothing at all. Far from being a recantation, as is generally supposed, the same passion for annihilation explains Mr. Maldoror’s invocation of the primeval night and the laborious banalities of the Poesies. Mr. Lautreamont makes us understand that rebellion is adolescent. Out most effective terrorists, whether they are armed with bombs or with poetry, hardly escape infancy. The Songs of Maldoror are the works of a highly talented schoolboy; their pathos lies precisely in the contradictions of a child’s mind ranged against creation and against itself. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25

Like the Rimbaud of the illuminations, beating against the confines of the World, the poet chooses the apocalypse and destruction rather than accept the impossible principles that make him what he is in a World such as it is. “I offer myself to defend mankind,” says Mr. Lautreamont, without wishing to be ingenuous. Is Mr. Maldoror, then, the angel of pity? In a certain sense he is, in that he pities himself. Why? That remains to be seen. However, pity deceived, outraged, inadmissible, and unadmitted will lead him to strange extremities. Mr. Maldoror, in his own words, received life like a wound and forbade suicide to heal the scar. Like Mr. Rimbaud, he is the one who suffers and who rebelled; each, being strangely reluctant to say that he is rebelling against what he is, gives the rebel’s eternal alibi: love of mankind. Ordinarily, it is not easy, not natural, to forgive anyone who has wrong us. The capacity to do so will come to us as understanding grows large enough or as a meditation penetrates deep enough or as grace blesses us. For Darrell, nothing flowed. He was angry about something all the time, and the tool it took on his well-being was tremendous. He was born Jewish—and sixty years, thought that was the problem. In the San Francisco community where he was raised, his was the only Jewish family. His father and mother ran a successful dry goods store, took part in local politics and had many good friends. On the surface, they were respected, valued members of the community. However, Darrell’s father was never allowed to join the country club, even though he could easily afford it. Darrell’s mother was not invited to play bridge with the wives of other prominent businessmen. And when Darrell was in high school, many of his classmate were asked to rush the unofficial “fraternities” to which all the affluent boys belonged. Darrell was as affluent as they were, yet he was not asked to rush. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25

Darrell’s parents were resigned to the subtle, unspoken prejudice. The boy was infuriated by it. He was, in fact, infuriated by just about everything. School infuriated him. As a result, he was bored, surly, disobedient, a troublemaker. The other children infuriated him. The boy talked only about sports and girls. The girls talked only about make-up and clothes, and boys. None of them were the slightest bit interested in anything he talked about or anything he wanted to do. Korea infuriated him. By the time he was ready for college, he could not wait to leave the little town—and its little-minded people—for good. His parents were not surprised that during his time at school in Davis, he visited home just once a year. Yet they were surprised that after he finished law school, he moved to Sacramento. They were surprised again when he told them he had eloped with a large-framed, unremarkably Jewish girl. When Darrell’s mother asked him why the couple had not announced their plans and has a proper ceremony, he simply replied, “I didn’t want to put up with all that Jewish wedding crap.” At his law firm, he was called the “wild man,” because he had clients who were guilty and as a result, he would argue down every fact. He relished the role. He was untamed in the way he practiced law. He ignored professional courtesy, even scoffed at it. He scrapped and bullied and muscled his way through each case until the opposition sundered when they saw him name at the bottom of a pleading. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25

Darrell and his wife had a son and daughter, both of whom infuriated him from the time they were able to talk. They were bright: they had problems in school much the same as he had. They were strong-willed and refused to do as they were told. Most infuriating of all, both children began to experiment with drugs when they were in their early teens. Darrelle tried to impose the strict Jewish discipline his father had used with him. It did not work. His children would simply run away from home and stay with friends rather than take the punishment. Darrell despised their friends, whom he considered “hippies,” lazy and unambitious, with minds destroyed by drugs. One of the ironies of Darrell’s life was that, while he was fiercely proud of the traditions and accomplishments of the Jewish people, he despised the fact that he was Jewish himself. Being Jewish had only caused him difficulty and pain. Never had it helped make his life easier. He despised the Jewish stereotype and went out of his way to give people the impression he was gentle. Darrell would get mad at his friends for going against his orders. He wanted to punish them, thrash them, strangle them. However, many of them stayed out of the reach of every kind of punishment. Darrell had heard about an obscure Jewish practice, a carryover from the “old country,” in which a family would declare one of its members dead. In earlier times, this was sone when someone committed, in the eyes of the parent, an unpardonable violation of Jewish law or tradition, rendering that person unfit to be among the living. He decided the actions of some of his friends were unpardonable, that they were such persons. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25

Darrelle forced his wife to go through the procedure with him, even to the extent of “sitting shiva,” the mourning ritual of Jewish family. Their daughter was horrified, refused to participate and left home without saying good-bye. The family was in shambles. Shortly after, Darrell got an exciting opportunity. He was offered the position of chief counsel in an aggressive merger-minded California company that was on its way toward becoming a conglomerate. The offer included a huge salary, moving expenses, a new home and stock. He and his wife moved willingly, ecstatically. There was little to keep them in Sacramento. Three months after taking the job, Darrelle was fired. The official reason for the dismissal was that Darrell’s approach to legal problems was “inconsistent with established company policy.” Privately, one of the junior attorneys told him that the company brass found him to be “too heavy-handed, too loud, too pushy.” Darrell had his own translation: “too Jewish.” Darrell was so devastated by the firing, he could not bring himself to look for another job. He began to have feelings he could not explain and could not deal with: deep depression, moroseness, impotence with pleasures of the flesh. He had no friends to consult, so he went to a rabbi. The rabbi sent him to therapy. In the group, Darrell was a terror. He even intimated the therapist, challenging everything that was said about him, losing his temper when his arguments failed. His spats with other clients became so butter than he and others threated to leave the group. He was known for telling anybody off at anything—and making their ears burn. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25

Other men in the group would tell Darrell to keep his mouth shut so he could learn something. One man in particular moved Darrell to the level of resentment. What really upset Darrell is when someone said to him, “Oh, I don’t have the privilege of being right? You’ve got a monopoly on it? You guys have a monopoly on being right like you have a monopoly on the banks and everything else?” That did it. Darrell’s face went red. He stood up and growled at this other man, “You mealy-mouth bigoted son of a b*tch. When you say ‘you guys,’ what you really mean is ‘you Jews,’ don’t you? And you don’t know anything about Jews, or what it’s like to be one! All you know is counting those stupid rows of numbers and overcharging people for it. God, I hate you! I ought to break your bigoted Nazi neck. And get a medal for doing it!” So far for Darrell, he was merely acting out levels of anger, something he had been doing all his life: irritation, annoyance, resentment, hatred. Darrell has a fear and unrestrained emotions have no limit, unchecked, he will fly off into hysteria, blind rage, bottomless depression. The unwillingness to experience and express one or more emotions leads to manipulation and other forms of unnatural behaviour. However, what happens when we do allow ourselves full expression? So we turn into raving lunatics? Fo we go on endless crying jags? Do we become monsters? No. Because within each of us, there is a natural restraining function. Cars have many controls besides the brakes. When you let go of the accelerator (which is a speed control mechanism) the natural friction within the engine begins to slow it down. Other natural forces, such as wind resistance and the friction of the tires on the road, also contribute to the slow-down. Thus, to stop a car, you do not have to slam on the brakes immediately, just as you do not have to push the accelerator to the floor every time you want to make it go. Downhill to can take advantage of natural forces and make the car go without the accelerator at all. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25

Similarly, we have a restraining function which is entirely internal, natural and automatic. It works every time, yet we have little or no faith in it. Sometimes parents’ show a perfect side of themselves in the “front room,” but show another side of themselves in the “back room,” which is often times a full 180-degree difference. This can have an impact on their child’s behaviour and cause the child to act out in ways no one understands because they come from this picture-perfect family, live in a good community and go to a good school. People will suspect that there is something wrong with the child, but not that their parents have a dark side that they hide behind closed doors. Children become aware very early in life that their parents have several sides to their character, but they do not know how to evaluate that until they are adolescents. If they live in homes where there is “front room” behaviour and “back room” behaviour, they may resent this as part of the World’s hypocrisy. A woman took her eighteen-year-old son to dinner when he came home from college for the holidays. She ordered a Martini for herself, but told him he could not have one, although she knew he liked liquor, and indeed, dark excessively. The group members had spent hours listening to her complaints about her son’s drinking. Now, if she had either not ordered a drink, they agreed that it would have been better, or else allowed him to have one with her, but that they way she did it she was setting him up for an alcoholic script. In script language, the front room represents the antiscirpt, where the parental precepts hold sway, while the back room represents the script, where the real action is. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25

The schools of psychology are sectarian variants. They translate the unique World of an individual into an agreed upon frame of reference. For instance, the classical Freudians would discover pleasures of the flesh and aggression in any person and explain present behaviour by reference to psychosexual development. Like, churches, these sects communicate well to their own brethren but look askasnce upon those of other creeds. Schoolism is psychology is quite common, and to anyone who has dealt with church groups it looks to be a remarkably similar phenomenon. It seems to me the schools are saying largely the same things in different languages from different viewpoints—sort of a modern Babel. There are taboos between the scientific and humanistic camps. It is a serious violation for the humanist to pretend his observations or opinions of man have any relationship to science. This can lead to modern civilized forms of the cat-o-nine-tails to be laid on. It is less of a taboo violation for the scientist to pretend he is a humanist. Invasions from this direction are common. There is an immutable law of Neuro-Geography which governs terrestrial politics—the evolution of intelligence moves East to West. When you go back East—note the retrograde terminology—you are going back in time, down in intelligence and lower in evolution. Let me restate it simply: Westerners are significantly smarter, freer, more creative, more future-oriented than Easterners. Easterners operate at lower forms of evolution. Easterners, it is true, are more specialized—but, as we have learned from dinosaurs, specialization means Terminal Adulthood. Civilizations are, by definition, adult, id est, passe. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25

Western gene-pools are always freer, more adolescent, more mobile than Eastern gene-pools. In the Genetic Breeding Book, mobility is nobility. The most intelligent and the freest people on the planet have been propelled by their gene pools to the Western belt of this continent- Arizona, Texas, California, Oregon, Washington—the ecological niche of the future. Each Westerner is the hopeful adolescent blossom of the old Eastern roots. When you move back East from the Pacific—be on guard. You are moving down into primitive, inflexible, cynical terrain. Chicago is a tough, mammalian jungle compared to San Diego. New England is a monument to the statis past. Easterners, in their neolithic shrewdness are skillful, political mammals. They are adepts in Newtonian competitions. Do not try to hustle Easterners on their own turf. New York is the center of money power, Washington is the center of barnyard political force, and Boston the capital of antiquated Puritan culture—but there is no freedom, no spirit of growth and development, no enthusiasm for change in the Adult Eastern Hive. These remarks are in no way chauvinistic. All Westerners are migrated Easterners! I was born at West Point, New York and teenaged in Massachusetts. I honour my damp roots and respect their venerable, unchanging traditions. I thank the New England educational system for activating my migration button. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25

It is no accident that all the laws which restrict youthful freedom come from grim, prudish Eastern hives. We must be aware of the natural tendency of Eastern hive leaders to frighten stay-put yokels with stories of Western instability. Sure, Californians and Arizonians and Texans are diverse, flamboyant, juvenile and easy to deride. It is always that way. Frontier regions encourage the formation of new gene-pools, wide-open territories that allow cultural experimentation and future fabrication are always easy to ridicule from the docile, adult, traditional bunkers of the East. The age-old Chinese think that all Occidentals are crazy kids because we believe in individual reality and personal change. To the old Soviets individualism is hooliganism! We grant that an Easterner, in the secure cocoon of adult conformity and centralized dogmatic repetition, is shocked by the insane insistence of Westerns to “be themselves.” We grant that the individual or small cult is kooky-vulnerable in contrast to the monolithic stability of specialized gene-pools which repeat what their parents did and cling to the myths of their grandparents. The independent Western pioneer is easily ridiculed. However, the fact remains—freedom to experiment, courage to change, energy to recreated is always a Westward high. The moral purification involved in casting out all hatred and granting complete forgiveness opens a door to the Overself’s light. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25

Anyone can observe similarities in emotional habits within a family or between two close friends or spouses. A father and his sons may all display similar emotional responses to politicians, salespeople, women, and animals. A woman, before she became married, may have responded emotionally after the fashion of her mother and siblings; after several years of marriage, her parents and siblings notice she no longer feels about things the way she used to—she has changed. She has come to share some of the emotional habits of her husband, and he in turn has acquired many of hers, so that his former bachelor friends notice striking differences in him. He is no longer amused by the same things, angered or afraid of the same things, we when he was “one of the boys.” The mechanism responsible for the acquisition of emotional responses that resemble those of someone else is identification. Identification is a learning process by means of which one person models himself, herself after another. It may be a deliberate attempt to imitate the other person, or it may be an unconsciously purposeful emulation, It is not known whether emotional habits are acquired through direct identification or whether the similarity in emotional habits between two person derives from identification with each other’s values, expectancies, and attitudes. Nevertheless, it can be asserted that, either directly or indirectly, persons acquire certain of their emotional habits by means of identification. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25

Sacramento Fire and Rescue is an I.S.O. Class One fire department. The department provides all fire suppression, prevention and education programs in the city as well as paramedic emergency medical services to the residents and visitors of the Sacramento community. The department also has a Bomb Squad, Hazardous Materials Team and Technical Rescue Team that provides services for the city and the rest of Sacramento County. “There are some things that simply come with the territory, and if you’re a firefighter you might as well learn early that there is no point in fighting them. The first thing is that just about everyone wants Christmas and Easter off. It’s an American culture state of being, but you’re going to have to go to work. Not only because arsonists don’t follow the Gregorian calendar, but because the fire department never closes shop. I remember working Christmas or Christmas Eve for six years straight. But at least I had a job to go to, and a steady income, unlike to many others in America who haven’t been able to put order and progress in their lives. Certainly, my children were often out of sync with their classmates, but I think they understood that their father worked a job that was different than most. They never complained, and I don’t think they ever realized the inconveniences. After all, if I wasn’t home Christmas Eve, I would always be home on Christmas morning. Unless, of course, there was an especially terrible fire in Sacramento. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25

Another thing is that in your twenty- or thirty-year career, you vacation period might actually occur in the summer months about half the time. The other half might be spent writing postcards to the wife and kids who will be travelling around in the BMW X5 visiting relatives, or packed away in the summer rental up at the lake. Still, my family always loved being a part of a firefighter’s family. There were all those company picnics and ball games, those three-day camping trips, times that etch in the memory like shells on a tree trunk, organic interlockings that grow more solid each passing year. The best times, perhaps, were spent playing baseball. It has always been a great crew. It never mattered what we did, or where we were, though, the idea and the reality of service and courage were always with us. Someone in the hose was always doing a great thing.” If an enemy who is guilty of doing wrong toward him comes to him, whether out of personal need or by the accident of social life, there will be no hard feelings, no bitter thought, no angry word. For the other man, he sees, acted out of what was truth for him, what was valid by his own understanding. Even if his enemy had sought to gain something through injury to himself, then it must have seemed right to the greed in his enemy’s ego, which could not then have acted otherwise. In this attitude there is an immense tolerance, and an immeasurable forgiveness. If it is proper to forgive a man’s crime, it is not proper, through emotionalism and sentimentality pushing forgiveness to the extreme, to condone his crime. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25

In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. In an effort to help America pull through the massive national deficit, please buy American made cars. American made cars used to be the envy of the World and because American car brands are offering a wide range of options, from family SUVs to electric vehicles and luxury sedans, we are now seeing a resurging interest. American made cars are equal or superior to those made overseas. The Chevrolet Trax, for instance, is a well-designed, fuel efficient, and safe SUV. And as you know, there is no better car on Earth than 1950-1970s American Muscle Car. Americans make sure superior product, but we are buying things from other nations. American food imports have risen by 300 percent since 1999. American farmland declined by nearly 20 million acres between 2017 and 2022. As of 2022, there were 880.1 million acres of land dedicated to farming, compared to 900.1 million in 2017. The data shows there are now little more than 1.9 million farms in the country. Americans and American corporations spent $136 billion on food and beverages from other countries. It is a national security risk to lose American Farms and farmers. If there is a war, and most of our meat, produce, poultry, dairy, and fruit is coming from foreign counties, we stand the risk of starving. With war breaking out all over the World, in these uncertain times, it is very important to bring American farms back. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. As money flows, it influences further investment. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25

Save the land that sustains us by protecting American farmland. Once the land is built on, we lose it forever. Also, to ensure that we have farmland for future use, we need to start limiting the number of people allowed to immigrant to America. Perhaps with the immigrants we do allow into America, there needs to be a diversity program to make sure we have a populations that equally represents all races of people. If Americans continue to spend money on American products, then more need to be made to keep up the inventory. When investors notice these goods are selling, it gives them the confidence to pour more money into that local business. It shows that people want these goods made in America and pressures investors to keep these goods and services in America. The jobs stay here, the business stays in American, wages naturally increase, and more money is invested to keep up with demand. This reduces the burden on the taxpayer. When you support American businesses, that money stays in our economy and can help to reduce the national debt. The government creates debt by borrowing from businesses in the private sector or from foreign countries. It also increases the national debt by spending more than it gains in tax revenue in a fiscal year. When people shop locally, more tax money stays in the economy and goes to the government. This way, it keeps more money in our national economy and keeps more jobs located in American which also sends more taxes to the government, which can again help to reduce the national debt. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25

When you buy foreign goods, these companies usually have lighter tax loads or exemptions, meaning less money for the nation debt, plus you are helping to strengthen these foreign nations by send more money overseas. Buying American made products is also better for the environment and helps to reduce the carbon footprint because these products do not have to travel nearly as far. Furthermore, American companies and manufacturers are held to much higher standards in regard to pollution. American companies have to be more careful about air, land, and water pollution and have proper ways to dispose of waste. Moreover, please remember to respect law and order and treat your elders with the utmost dignity and kindness possible. And take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. It is inborn in the human minds to wish to know. If this begins with the endless surface questions of a child’s curiosity, if it continues into deeper questions of a scientist’s probing investigation, it cannot and does not stop there. For the higher part of the mind will eventually come into unfoldment, that union of abstract reflective thought with mystical intuition, which is true intelligence, which needs and sees a view of the whole of things. And so, the knowing faculty enters the realm of philosophy. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25

The Winchester Mystery House

Experience an unforgettable journey back to the time of kings and queens with this entry ticket for The Winchester Mansion in Santa Clara, California which was the residence of Sarah L. Winchester. Take advantage of this fascinating experience. After tour, there will be time enjoy the mansion’s splendor at your own pace. You might even discover secret passages.

For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Please visit the online giftshop, and purchase a gift for friends and relatives as well as a special memento of The Winchester Mystery House. A variety of souvenirs and gifts are available to purchase. https://shopwinchestermysteryhouse.com/

The Largest Activity in the World is Criticism

January 1, 2025 8:31 am

So many are so quick to think ill of others, to spread calumny and give out malicious gossip, that the man who reverses this debased trend minds his own business is coming closer to spirituality than he perhaps knows himself. What historian has complete and true information on any past event or obscure personage when he does not even have it on any present event or celebrated personage? Unless business or duty brings the responsibility into our hands, it is fairer to refrain from sitting in judgment. The man who respects himself will not degrade others. He will have eyes open enough to see the sordid evil in men yet a World-view large enough not to become cynical about them. What is the use of reproaching a fly for not being a bird or for its inability to travel as far or look as beautiful? Yet this is what they do who deplore others’ bad behaviour and spiritual ignorance. By blaming other persons, one’s own ego is served by its implied superiority. Ignorance and immaturity in others should call forth, not his irritability, but his patience. The largest activity in the World is criticism, the smallest creation. We aspirants ought not to waste our time or sully our minds to criticize the weakness of others. There are countless people in this World who expend their energies in this useless task. It brings them no gain. It keeps them tied to the lower nature. It attracts Worldly troubles to them. We are to be as constructive and optimistic as they are destructive and negative. This will lessen the disharmony in our surroundings and increase the harmony in our hearts. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25

“I have been told by other women that immediately after the birth of a baby, your desire for pleasures of the flesh wanes—probably because you do not want another child in nine months!—but then the desire comes back even stronger. That’s how it was for me. When we were trying to have a child, we were trying so hard it was pretty terrible, but once I was pregnant, it was great. Then after we had her—we have a daughter—it waned, but now it’s even better than ever. So I wonder whether his isn’t one reason why woman have stronger drives for pleasures of the flesh when they get older?” The question is too complex to answer in detail today, because it involves both psychological and physiological elements. So permit me to put aside the issue of whether desire for pleasures of the flesh occurs at a later age for the female and I will concentrate on the physiological aspects of female responsiveness after childbirth. Many women in a relatively happy marriage are not fully responsive with pleasures of the flesh until after the birth of a first baby, and there is a physical reason for this. Responsiveness in regard to pleasures of the flesh for a woman, just as for a man, is inevitably accompanied by a concentration of blood in the pelvis. The amount of blood supplied to the pelvis changes through pregnancy and childbirth, and this affects responsivity—especially a woman’s awareness of feelings for pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25

From about the third to the sixth month of pregnancy, there is usually a high level of demand for pleasures of the flesh. You seem to have noticed that, and it was a happy contrast to the period when you were first trying to become pregnant, when you forced yourself to make the effort. However, you mentioned a waning of desire after childbirth—and this reflects, among other things, the fact that your ovaries were not functioning yet. The ovaries stop functioning at about the second or third month of pregnancy, and they do not start again until anywhere from six weeks to three months after you have given birth. If you nurse your baby, it may take an extra month or six weeks. What does all this add up to? Well, it means that demand for pleasures of the flesh can be expected to return a couple of months after childbirth, and when it does, it may well be stronger than before because now you have a greatly increased vascular supply to the pelvis, much greater than you ever had before. “My wife and I have been talking about having a baby, and she keeps telling me that she isn’t sure she wants to start a family. But it seems to me she’s kidding herself and she really wants me to decide that we will have one.” I certainly do not want to find myself stepping into the middle of a battle. However, somewhere along the line, Mother Nature talks to every female. There is, I am convinced, an innate female demand to reproduce. Some women, of course, make a deliberate commitment, for their own valued reasons, to certain goals in life that preclude motherhood. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25

However, the demand to reproduce is real; it is a tremendous instinct. It may not be too much of a factor for many women when they are twenty-three, twenty-four—but when thirty-three or thirty-four rolls around without pregnancy, the gal looks in the mirror and says, “Well, how much time do I have, oh Lord?” “When a man says that at thirty-three or thirty-four, he has something entirely different in mind!” It is popular, I know, to point out the difference between men and women, but I have to tell you that from the beginning of our work, what has impressed us most have been the similarities, not the differences, between the genders. Not only physically but emotionally—and we are talking specifically about functioning involving pleasures of the flesh. Men and women are incredibly and constantly similar. Oh, there are a few basic—basic and happy biological difference that we all enjoy. And there are a couple of other differences that are far less obvious. For instance, there is no question that the human female is infinitely more effective as a sexual entity than the male ever dreamed of being. Her potential capacity to respond to effective stimulation of intimate passions is almost unlimited. Nature simply built her that way. This is her natural facility. If the male capacity to produce the “vital lifeforce” is compared to the female capacity to produce eggs, on the other hand, it is plain that the male is infinitely more fertile than the female ever dreamed of being. By comparison she is an astonishingly sterile create! #RandolphHarris 4 of 25

The other difference that I want to mention is just an interesting sidelight. Recently, as you may know, there has been a good deal of research on sleep patterns. In our laboratory, we have observed husbands and wives to see whether they move differently in their sleep, depending on whether they have or have not had a climax release. Observers discovered that in the first hour after sleep, the post-climaxed female usually moves nearer the male. If he is removed from the bed, the sleeping female still reaches for him, and in one out of every two cases she will settle in his place. Would anyone care to guess about the behaviour of the male? “He moves into another bed.” Not quite. The man stays put. Of course, we are talking in terms of percentages. This differential response was not universal. However, the dictations seem reasonably clear and quite fascinating—that the female, the postorgasmic female has a subconscious need to relate, to remain in touch with her partner. The male does not need to relate physically to the degree that the female evidences. There may be a physiological factor operating here. As we mentioned a moment ago, the woman’s natural capacity for repetitive response of pleasures of the flesh is far greater than that of the man. The fact that she reaches out for him in her sleep while he tends to stay where he is may be a reflection of a difference in their capacities for pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25

Even in sleep, she may seek to continue interactions of pleasures of the flesh while he is satiated and seeks nothing more. On the other hand, her sleep behaviour may reflect her acceptance of the traditional female role of being receptive for pleasures of the flesh rather than indicating any active desire. However, I am afraid that this discussion, as interesting as it is, is based on speculation and has taken us away from the more immediate and very real concerns that young couples are encountering in marriage. “I was just wondering…does a marriage work out best over the years if the husband and wife place more emphasis on the emotional than the physical side? Because after you’ve been married for a while, making love just isn’t the same sensational thing it used to be when you were dating. So you have to deal with it differently. You learn to appreciate it for what it is—an act of communication. It’s part of what keep two people together. But you don’t expect it to be the way it was in the beginning.” Nothing feels the same way it did in the beginning—and some things become better than they were then! Of course, the first flush of excitement, the first taste of the unknown, this is always memorable and can never be duplicated—and I am not talking about pleasures of the flesh alone. The first dance, the first kiss—the first time is unlike any other that follows. And yet, because a later experience often unfolds out of an earlier one, it can prove to be more mysterious or more wonderful than the one before. It is a cliché that we become older and wiser, but clichés are often true. And “wiser” simply means that we can do more things, do them better—and appreciate them more. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25

It is no different with marriage. I do not want to sound like Wally Cleaver—or like Ozzie Nelson, either!—but let me assure you that marriages can become deeper and richer and more intense over a period of time as your commitment to each other becomes reinforced by all the experiences, good and bad, that you share. This is not true for all marriages, of course, it may not even be true for most marriages. However, it has proved true for some marriages—and since that is the case, why should it not be possible for yours? All I am trying to say—and saying it poorly, I am afraid—is that marriages may grow, or fail to grow, depending on whether the husband and wife develop greater trust in each other, more confidence in themselves and increased pleasures in their relationship—their emotional and their physical relationship—because they are really two sides of the same coin. The existence of pleasure with intimate passions testifies to the quality of that man-woman relationship. It adds a dimension to your marriage and makes life itself more rewarding. If you and your husband are vital, growing individuals, different today from what you were yesterday, and if you can communicate this growth not only emotionally and philosophically but also with pleasures of the flesh, your marriage, over the years, will remain vital and creative. However, there are times, occasions, situations, and responsibilities which may make fair criticism a moral duty. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25

Yet, no aspirant can fall into the all-too-common habit of criticizing for its own sake, much less for malice’s sake, without thwarting his spiritual progress. Condemning others for their real or supposed sins is even worse. From the time that he perceives that he does not and can not know all the circumstances, he ceases to condemn others. It is not for him to judge others, for this would imply finding fault with the divine World-Idea, of which they are a part. He knows well that, in their own proper time, they will unfold their better characteristics. Since every man is guided in his mind by, or is in the end-result of, his own experience of life, it is conceit to act as a judge and criticize his actions. If he were perfect, he would not be born at all. Of what use, then, is blaming him? Since every man is—by the mere fact of his reincarnation here on Earth—admittedly imperfect, no other man has the right to upbraid him for this and yet become indignant when his own imperfections are pointed out and condemned. There is a certain quality missing from their psychological makeup which Saint Paul called “charity” and which is the outcome of broad views and generous feelings, of spiritual insight and mental serenity. It is this lack which accounts for the harsh, unfair, prejudiced, and even spiteful treatment which they afford me. Nevertheless, it is not my duty as a student of philosophy to blame them for not possessing a quality which, after all, is not a part of their goal, but to display it towards them myself. And in the last reckoning it does not matter how people—even reputedly spiritual people—behave to me, but it does matter how ai behave to them. He may register what others are by the measure of his own sensitivity, but he must not set up to judge, criticize, and condemn them. If you are to love men, you must expect little of them. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25

For a long while it has seemed to me that there is a natural depth in man’s experience that is little known to the outer social man. I will wander in this depth to show something of its unique ways, language, and outlook on the outer World. Client-centered therapy is one means of letting come forth some of the personal meanings from this depth. The subtle air of reflecting everything back to the client will usually annoy them because it is an artificial game by which the therapist remains free of even meeting the client. There is a growing confluence of people in psychology and kindred disciplines who move in the direction of humanism while respectful of science. The confluence can be as large as the humanities themselves. Science and humanism have different aims, though they can be productive brethren. Humanism can supply root questions and root speculations of man together with raw data of human experience—phenomenological descriptions. The science of psychology can be considerably enriched by this data; yet the aim of science is toward the communal, common, consensually validated—what is general or lawful and can be measured and shown consistently by publicly agreed upon methods. On the negative side, science can see humanism as vague in method, inconsistent, and unsure in results. Humanism, on the other hand, can well see in science a great monster that eats up the test protocols of 1,000 people to spew out one or two generalities. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25

Science digests uniqueness and turns it to the generally valid. Humanism can gain from science methods which would increase the validity and reliability of observation, while science can get from humanism the varied, proactive and question-awakening richness of individual experience. These should be two side of the same coin. It always requires a technical breakthrough to move sperm-egg colonies to a higher altitude—a higher velocity. A gene pool is a species-unit capable of protecting its young over several generations. Marauding bands of astronauts, like Francis Drake and Johny Wanye, are beginning probe. However, nothing happens until the family-units move together. You see, the King-Emperor does not want to migrate. He does not want to leave the seat of Imperial power and luxury. The feudal society cannot migrate, which is likely why Catholic countries could not pull it off. The Holders of the Land have to stay on the land. Feudal Catholic-Monarchies are flashy in the first stage of opening-up of a new ecological niche. The second-born sons, the Dukes’ younger brothers, sail off with crack-troops to establish secure footholds. It was generic folly for Spaniards to make with Paleolithic natives. Nonetheless, permanent military settlements have to breed with the natives and the mestizo result is uniformly disastrous because the second-string, invasive male-warriors mate down with intellectually unrealized conquered females. A gene pool is a species-unit capable of protecting its young over several generations. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25

Under all this stress and change, and the need to keep cool in order to get what he wants, good or bad, the male adolescent becomes more aware of his bodily reactions. His mother and father can no longer surround him with love and protection, or on the other hand, he is no longer inclined simply to cower before their range, drunkenness, whining, or brawls. Whatever the situation at home, he is on his own outside. He must rise before his fellows and recite, and walk down long and often lonely corridors under the critical gaze of other boys and girls, many of whom already know his weaknesses. So sometimes he sweats aromatically, his hands shake, his heart pounds; girls blush, their clothes become moist, and their stomachs gurgle. In both genders, there is an assorted loosening and tightening up of various internal and external sphincters, and this reorganization in the long run may determine which “psychosomatic” illnesses will play a major role in their scripts. Jeder becomes sphincterized. Now, what can you do about anger? There is no denying that it comes up. And when it does, the result is almost never pleasant. You cannot ignore it, yet you are not likely to cherish it either. Getting very angry can cause you to hurt other people. Refusing to get angry can cause a great deal of internal damage to you. So what can you do? “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun do down upon your wrath,” reports Ephesians 4.26. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25

If you are a manipulator who is stuck on the anger polarity, you hold on to it. It accumulates within you and, in time, explodes like a pressure cooker. By the time this happens, you are so relieved to be expressing the anger that you get a certain perverse pleasure from showing people your hostility. Result: your relationships suffer. When they are around you, people feel the need to proceed very cautiously so they avoid being around you. Ironically, this isolation does little more than reinforce your anger. If you are a master, you have learned to express your anger on a “cash and carry” basis, expressing it whenever it comes up from within, so that you do not build up an “anger debt” which explodes when it is overdue. As a master, you understand that hostility from others is a projection of their own repressed or unexpressed anger from the past, and that you are not really the target. You also know that you have a natural restraining function within yourself that prevents you from too much expression of anger. Functioning as a master, you recognize your need to express your intense anger occasionally, perhaps by hitting a couch or bed, chopping wood, or in some way releasing your repressed tension. After such a session, you are even able to reach a level of hurt, feeling your vulnerability, and perhaps cry. Eventually, this leads to a feeling or personal well-being. When you are able to express your minor irritations to another on a regular basis, you then become aware of your opposite values of love and caring for that person. This makes your relationship much more pleasant and exciting. Your relationships flow naturally from negative to beneficial feelings and back. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25

Well-loved children feel and express affection for parents, siblings, friends, and animals. As they grow and become socialized to their gender roles, and ultimately their occupational and community roles, they can lose the capacity to feel affection and tender concern for others. Men of our culture especially appear to be subject to a “tenderness taboo.” Their relationship with other men frequently are limited to reserved expressions of friendship or competition in work or in games. The male role, as socially defined, impels many men to regard affection and tender solicitude between men as evidence of homosexuality or effeminacy. Women are encouraged, by contrast, to be more open in experiencing and expressing their affection. There is evidence that such rigid differentiation between the genders is breaking down in America and other Western countries, so that men can be softer, less aggressive, and more affectionate in their relationships with others, regardless of age or gender. From the perspective of healthy personality, such liberation from rigid gender roles is good for men, women, and children alike, and may even add years to the typical male life expectancy. Affection is life-giving, both for the object of the affection and the one who is feeling and bestowing it. “Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever,” reports Alma 37.36. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25

If metaphysical rebellion refuses to assent and restricts itself to absolute negation, it condemns itself to passive acceptance. If it prostrates itself in adoration of what exists and renounces its right to dispute any part of reality, it is sooner or later compelled to act. Ivan Karamazov—who represents non-interference, but in a dolorous aspect—stands halfway between the two positions. Rebel poetry, at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, constantly oscillated between these two extremes: between literature and the will to power, between the irrational and the rational, the desperate dream and ruthless action. The rebel poets—above all, the surrealists—light the way that leads from passive acceptance to action, along a spectacular short-cut. Mr. Hawthrone was able to say of Mr. Melville that, as an unbeliever, he was extremely uneasy in his unbelief. It can equally well be said of the poets who rushed to assault the Heavens, with the intent of turning everything upside down, that by so doing they affirmed their desperate nostalgia for order. As an ultimate contradiction, they wanted to extract reason from unreason and to systematize the irrational. These heirs of romanticism claimed to make poetry exemplary and to find, in its most harrowing aspects, the real way of life. They define blasphemy and transformed poetry into experience and into a means of action. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25

Until their time, those who claimed to make poetry exemplary and to find, its most harrowing aspects, the real way of life. They defined blasphemy and transformed poetry into experience and into a means of action. Until their time those who claimed to influence men and events, at least in the Occident, did so in the name of rational rules. On the contrary, surrealism, after Mr. Rimbaud, wanted to find constructive rules in insanity and destruction. Mr. Rimbaud, through his work and only through his work, pointed out the path, but with the blinding, momentary illumination of a flash of lightning. Surrealism excavated this path and codified its discoveries. By its excesses as well as by its retreats, it gave the last and most magnificent expression to a practical theory of irrational rebellion at the very same time when, on another path, rebellious thought was founding the cult of absolute reason. Mr. Lautreamont and Mr. Rimbaud—its sources of inspiration—demonstrate by what stages the irrational desire to accept appearances can lead the rebel to adopt courses of action completely destructive to freedom. The most important thing to consider in the twenty-first century is that the youth of this nation who, thanks to the criminal corruption of our parliamentary do-nothings, have received to real training on how to be patriotic Americas and have been handed over to the enemy as defenseless kids, sacked with debt. Should American be a confederation of states or one national central government? To end divisions and slavery, we need the honest will and intent of our leaders almost without exception to an honourable, upright, and proper outcome. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25

The Sacramento Fire Department is considered an “All Hazards” Fire Department. In addition to fire response, Sacramento Firefighters respond to Medical Emergencies, Hazardous Materials Incidents, Technical Rescue and Maritime Emergencies. The Sacramento Fire Department also provides Fire Investigation and Prevention, as well as Community Education. The Sacramento Fire Department is the primary provider for Emergency Medical Services within the City of Sacramento. All Frontline Companies are equipped to provide “Advanced Life Support. “X and I were putting gear away on the truck after a high-rise fire of no great consequence, when we heard a report on the radio of a helicopter crash in the river. It was an afternoon in April. They were sending a full assignment of three engines and two trucks over there. I told Lieutenant Y of the report and asked, ‘Do you want us to take it in?’ He said, ‘Tell them we’re going. We’ll put the scuba equipment on en route.’ It was only a five-minute ride away. When we got there, there were many police officers and the firemen from Rescue Z. Some of the men were in the water with cold water survival suits, some just in their uniforms, helping the people who were on the surface of water. A and I went down to the pier to where the helicopter was in the water. It was upside down, and the tail rotor was just visible on the surface. The fuselage dipped downward at a severe angle into the river and was bobbing up and down, with a small rope tied to it to keep it from being swept away. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25

“In the confusion there, I found out that, unlike commercial airliners, shuttle helicopters don’t a passenger list. So they weren’t sure of exactly how many people were in there. It was right near a floating dock, so it was relatively easy getting into the water when the lieutenant have me the go-ahead. I worked my way underwater to the front of the helicopter and went in. It was laid out like a van-type school bus, with rows of seats four across. I had to twist around to get fully into the helicopter. The were personal items floating around, some seat cushions and other obstructions. I was about ten feet below the surface of the water, wondering if the chopper would sink. I went row by row and didn’t find anything. When I reached the back of the helicopter, I remember thinking, ‘There probably isn’t anybody here.” Then I came across a man who was strapped upside down in the seat farthest away from me. He was a fairly heavy man, about 225 pounds. I couldn’t lift him enough to release the buckle, so I had to take my knife and cut the seat belt. I brought him to the surface, and they started resuscitating him right away. They did get a heartbeat, and they took him to the hospital, but he died two hours later from heart failure. He was a German businessman. We did everything we could. We did get him going again, and we felt good about that, but it was a little too traumatic for him. He had a heart attack. I suppose that’s why he couldn’t get himself out of the seat belt in the first place. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25

“I made another dive down to check the helicopter again, then to the bottom of the river to see if there was anybody else. They took me out and got me to the hospital of ingestion of polluted water and hypothermia from the cold water. It was one of the initial successes in scuba rescue, if you could term it a success. It proved that the scuba team concept in the fire department was an effective one. There were some people against spending any money to equip us. I was recently involved in two rescues within twenty-six days of each other. Both turned out to be pretty dramatic for me. The first was in a partially demolished hotel. We arrived with the first engine and the fire truck. I had been to the building before, so I was familiar with the layout. I knew that the fire escapes were partially destroyed and unusable. I knew that large portions of the top of the building had been removed in illegal demolition. On this particular job, there were two or three floors of heavy fire in the rear building. I was helping B Engine stretch a line up the stairs when we got a handie-talkie message that there was a victim on the fire floor, which was the fourth. The fire was coming down the hall from the back apartments and starting to vent into the staircase. I told the nozzle man I was going to go up. He advised against it because there was a malfunction in the pumps, and there wasn’t going to be any water until the second pumper came through. Knowing there was a victim trapped on the roof, and knowing the layout of the building, I felt fairly secure, and I continued up the staircase. I was being chased, though, by some pretty hot some, real hot, and I just burst out on the roof. A few minutes later there was a fire rushing through the doorway I had come through. On the roof I saw Lieutenant C, who had done virtually the same thing I did after hearing the report. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25

“We came across twin brothers, twenty-two years old, who were huddled in a corner. They were kind of young bums—homeless people would be a better way to put it. They were living in this partially demolished vacant building. Now there was no way down the interior or down the fire escape in the rear, and the aerial ladder wouldn’t reach from the side. We have to bring them to the front, where an aerial was being places in position. But much of the roof had been removed, leaving only a bare steel I-beam, which was about eight inches wide and about fifteen feet long, sticking out into nothing seven stories into the air. We saw that we had to walk across the beam to get to the ladder; it was the only way, and we knew it. Conditions were rapidly deteriorating. We now had fire on the roof and in the rear, and smoke was coming up through the demolished lower portions of the top floors in front of us. The smoke was starting to obscure the beam and the ladder, so we had to get there quickly. I tied a rope to one of the victims, the lieutenant took the other end, went across the beam, and tied it to the aerial ladder. We guided the first guy across the bean to the ladder. I then had to get the second civilian across, but conditions were now so severe there was no time to tie him. I forced him out onto the beam. He did not want to go. I asked him if he could fly. I don’t think he got it, because he just gave me a blank look. He was scared. I cussed at him a little bit, urged him, and finally got his butt in gear. Well, I got him across the beam anyway. When he got to the end of the beam, he grabbed the lieutenant and just froze. He wouldn’t do anything we told him. I realized we were in a tight situation, like being on the edge of a diving board seventy feet above the ground. So I had to swing myself around to the aerial ladder, around the lieutenant, who was like a stabilizer, and the victim. Then we hoisted him bodily onto the ladder, for he was like a stiff, and moved him down to the street. All in a day’s work. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25

Well, just twenty-six days later we’re in quarters, and a report comes in that a helicopter, another helicopter, has crashed in the river. We started off immediately, getting into our scuba gear en route. At the scene there was some confusion, a lot of people trying to give us a lot of information quickly. The biggest obstacle at this point was the vertical drop about eighteen feet from the dock down to the water. The area was another berth for large ships, and was pretty deep. I was lowered by Captain D on a rope, and I swam out to where E was on one of the rotor blades underwater. The helicopter had settled at an angle on the bottom, in twenty-odd feet of water. I dove down and swam until I got to the front of the helicopter and found a door, where a part of the canopy had broken apart from the impact. I pulled the door open, and right there was the pilot of the helicopter. I vividly remember him wearing a white shirt. I shook him, and he did not respond. If he had, I would have given him the octopus to let him breathe air underwater. I discounted that possibility as a waste of time. I got his seat belt off him and removed him to the surface as quickly as possible. I turned him over to the four divers and firemen who were there. I immediately went back down and followed the same route into the helicopter. I was surprised to see that the other seat was empty. But I figured that there had to be somebody in there, because I remembered hearing that there were two people in the copter when it crashed. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25

“It was a two-passenger helicopter, a lot smaller than the other one. I swam completely into the helicopter, and in the back I found the passenger, a woman floating but wedged in with some seating equipment and pieces of broken canopy. I grabbed her, worked her out of the spot, and immediately brought her to the surface and handed her over. I tilted her head back to see if we could clear her airway. I looked across the water to the eighteen-foot-high pier. They were tying a rope around the first victim, the pilot, and giving him mouth-to-mouth while they were still in the water. They swam the woman over. I had been hyperventilating a little bit, so I took a thirty-second break. I went back down to search the bottom to make sure there was nobody else, because there were conflicting reports that somebody may have jumped in to help these people. I did that and found nothing. I did a secondary search of the helicopter and found the pilot’s headset with his name on it. Not knowing whose helicopter this was at that point, I took the headset to the surface, figuring it might help to identify the helicopter and the people involved. I got up on the dock and saw the firemen and the EMS personnel frantically working on the two victims, with a crowd of police, reporters and cameramen hovering around. It was a strange scene. I remember seeing the polit, G, take his first breath on his own, and it felt like a great weight was lifted off me. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25

“I think firemen work somehow on a feeling of guilt. I don’t know how to describe it, really. You do have limited capabilities when you get to these emergency situations. You have your training, you have your tools. But then things go wrong. Things weren’t going right for these people. The helicopter not only crashed, it crashed into the water, so besides injuries, now you have to contend with drowning. And somehow we managed to revive G, and I felt better as soon as I saw him breathe. I then started to get a bit emotional. I withdrew from the crowd and for a minute or two just stood by myself and regained my composure. Then I started the round-robin of television interviews. H, may she rest in peace, despite all efforts to revive her, was pronounced dead a few hours later in the hospital. And I mean, they worked on her, but it was not to be. But G has had a tremendous recovery. He must have been in the water eight or nine minutes with no air. He did get some severe shoulder injuries, a lot of broken bones, a broken jaw. He has pretty much recovered. I stay in touch with his family, and they give me progress reports on how he is doing. Again the scuba had come through and showed how successful it is. One of the firemen got a boy out of the river after nearly an hour and he survived. It’s things like some of these crashes that give meaning to all the hard work and all the drilling. We can actually save people’s lives with scuba. It’s not a matter of body recovery anymore, it’s an actual rescue operation, and that’s how we approach it.” #RandolphHarris 22 of 25

In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. In a afford to help America pull through the massive national deficit, please buy American made cars. American made cars used to be the envy of the World and because American car brands are offering a wide range of options, from family SUVs to electric vehicles and luxury sedans, we are now seeing a resurging interest. American made cars are equal or superior to those made overseas. The Chevrolet Trax, for instance, is a well-designed, fuel efficient, and safe SUV. American food imports have risen by 300 percent since 1999. American farmland declined by nearly 20 million acres between 2017 and 2022. As of 2022, there were 880.1 million acres of land dedicated to farming, compared to 900.1 million in 2017. The data shows there are now little more than 1.9 million farms in the country. Americans and American corporations spent $136 billion on food and beverages from other countries. It is a national security risk to lose American Farms and farmers. If there is a war, and most of our meat, produce, poultry, dairy, and fruit is coming from foreign counties, we stand the risk of starving. With war breaking out all over the World, in these uncertain times, it is very important to bring American farms back. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. As money flows, it influences further investment. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25

Ventris Place

Laguna Park, CA | From the Mid 500’s

Now Selling!

Welcome to the New Fabulous Forties! This intimate enclave of 37 homesites with available one- and two-story floorplans is the place to be in Sacramento. Waking up to a home you love sets just the right tone for what is ahead. Ventris Place offers beautifully designed homes. Danville, Residence 4, has 3 to 4 bedrooms and a loft across 1,846 square feet of living space.

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You will enjoy this home for generations to come. Just a few steps from your door and located in the Elk Grove School District, enjoy the features of the 22 acres North Laguna Creek Park, which includes paved paths, tennis courts, a basketball court, playgrounds, picnic areas, ball fields and 119-acre Wildlife Area and Interpretive Trail.

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How often have Ι lain beneath rain under a strange roof thinking of home. Welcome to Ventris Place, a home for generations.

Throughout its history, BMW has been at the forefront of automotive innovation. In the 1960s, BMW introduced the “Neue Klasse” (New Class) series, which featured advanced engineering and design that would define the brand for decades. These cars were not only fast but also handled exceptionally well, earning BMW a loyal following among driving enthusiasts. https://bmw.niello.com/new-inventory/index.htm?search=&model=740i&year=2025&gvBodyStyle=Sedan

Here We Have Two People “Doing it” to Each Other!

December 28, 2024 6:32 am

This New Year, I do not have a resolution, but a wish. Problems are a part of morality. However, when solved with wisdom and in accordance with gospel principles, those very problems can be gateways to eternity. As we walk the path of righteousness and turn to the Lord, we will come to know the power of God that is within each one of us. “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in Heaven before the foundations of this World, upon which all blessings are predicated,” reports Doctrine and Covenants 130.20. God has the power to solve any problem, as he is omnipotent and capable of intervening in any situation. He is Lord over every situation you can think of. In Jesus Christ, God has a solution for every problem, trouble, or difficulty you may be facing. There is much we can do to influence and expand the endowment of faith we receive through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this New Year, it is my wish to build more faith in God. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” reports Hebrews 11.1. Alam adds that the things hoped for and not seen “are true,” reports Alma 32.21. Faith in Jesus Christ is the conviction and assurance of His states as the Only Begotten Son of God, His infinite Atonement, and His literal Resurrection—and all that these fundamental realities entail for us. Faith indeed comes by the Spirit, yet as the Christian Bible Dictionary notes, “Although faith is a gift, it must be cultured and sought after until it grows from a tiny seed to a great tree.” #RandolphHarris 1 of 25

There is much we can do to influence and expand the endowment of faith we receive through the Holy Spirit. The first intimations of faith in Jesus Christ come by hearing the word of God—the gospel of Jesus Christ. When that teaching is given and received by the Holy Ghost, “the Spirit of truth”, the seed of faith in Christ is planted. Paul taught this to the Romans when explaining that all may receive the gift of faith: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” reports Romans 10.17. In other words, faith comes by hearing the message that is the word, or gospel of Christ. As he describes the ministry of angels, Mormon tells us that it has always been the patten that faith comes by hearing the gospel: “And the office of their [the angels’] ministry is to call men unto repentance, and to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of Him. And by doing so, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men,” reports Moroni 7.31-32. Man must train himself to talk without rancour of those who criticize him, and without bias of those whose ideas or ideals are antithetic to his own. In the face of provocation, he seeks to keep his equanimity. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25

He learns like a second habit to compose himself into detachment before snubs, to respond with gay half-whispered laughter to attacks. It is admitted that someone else may well have been the principal cause of personal hurt or ill from which we suffer, but it is also needful that we honestly examine whether we ought not to take a share of the blame ourselves. For there is in us an instinctive wish to escape from our own responsibility in every painful situation. He should be vigilant against his own violations of ethical standards but indifferent towards other people’s sins where duty does not call upon him to deal with them. Whether belittled by some men or flattered by others, he remains unmoved. Denigration must be examined, to his spiritual profit, to see how much truth there is in it, and adulation to see how much falsity is in it; but in both cases it is more important to keep his equilibrium up to keep his ego down. A sincere aspirant will not only expect criticism, he will demand it. What is the proper way to receive criticism? Accept what is true, reject what is false, but do so unemotionally, without egoism. We shall make the curious discovery that the more men worship their own fallacies of thought and belief, the firmer the conceit that they know the truth. In many circles, the man who exhibits moral superiority irritates and provokes others into accusations of hypocrisy and pretension. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25

By considering his opponents as his friend, his enemies as his helpers, he turns their opposition and enmity into practical service to himself. He should humbly accept and gratefully profit by the constructive criticisms of his more advanced, more experienced fellow disciples. The unblurred clarity of his conscience gives him a secret joy and strength, a silent triumph over detractors. The man who criticizes us does us a favour: we ought to feel obliged to thank him. For if the criticism is unjust, we have to laugh at its absurdity. If true, we ought to be spurred to self-correction. The first provokes a smile, the second confers a benefit. To take a merited rebuke humbly, perhaps even gratefully, is a sign of superior character. Enmity from others stirs him, not to infuriated anger but to a calm perception of its cause. He must try to understand the inner meaning of such happiness. The more he meets with criticism and enmity, the more he must ask himself what truth they contain. And he himself must provide the answer with perfect impartiality. If they contain no truth at all, so much the better. However, if he allows emotion to get the upper hand, especially the emotions of resentment against his critics and bitterness against his opponents, such self-examination cannot be properly done. When he is defamed by others, neither the bitterness of resentment nor the thirst for revenge enter his heart. He keeps his serenity unbroken, his goodness intact, his gentleness ever constant. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25

If it is right to forgive others their sins toward him, it is equally right to forgive his own toward them. However, it is not right to absolve himself and forgets before he has fully learned the lessons and resolutely made a start to apply them. Whoever accepts praise must be prepared to endure blame, unless his acceptance is quite impersonal and disengaged. They and their words will perish into the dust with time, but that source whence he draws his peace “passeth their understanding,” and will endure when time is not. If other persist in uttering negatives to him during conversation, he is entitled to have recourse to a polite inattention. If he is not concerned about his ego, he will not be concerned about critics and what they say about him. Such attacks will arouse no ill-feeling in him. One should not brood over fancied wrongs which he believes have been done to him nor dwell on another’s faults. The law of recompense will deal with the situation. Emotional bitterness is harmful to both persons. On this path, the student must learn to overcome such feelings; they act as obstacles which hinger his advancement. It is not the enmity of others towards him but the apathy inside him which is the more dangerous in the end. Although he should study and observe the errors and weaknesses of other men, he should not do so unduly. Such study must not include gossip about them or disparagement of them. His business is to learn from them, not to censure them, so that he can better know how to deal with himself. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25

For all the studying we have done, all the discoveries we have made in every subject from psychology to physics, we still do not understand the basic nature of relationships. Reduced to fundamentals, there are only two ways to have a relationship with someone: as a master or a manipulator. In his relationship with others, the master is “being with”; the manipulator is “doing to.” To further highlight this illustration, let us imagine you are reading a book. You can sit down, open a book, and just be with the author. You can get his ideas or information, accept some and reject others, enjoy the style or not, depending upon how it strikes you. Or, you can fight it. You can criticize it every step of the way, scoff at the ideas, mentally ridicule the style. You can “do it” to the author as you read. This dichotomy exists in your everyday relationships as well. A lady who works for me once went for a visit to her hometown, a few thousand miles away. During the visit, she stopped in to see some friends on the outskirts of the city. Her brother lived in the same neighbourhood, but the lady did not stop to see him because she did not like his wife, whom she considered to be an obnoxious, nonstop talker. Later, her brother found out that she had been in his neighbourhood, yet did not stop to visit. He confronted her this way: “So, you come all the way across the country, and you will visit your friends, but you will not stop and see your own brother. You own flesh and blood is not as important as some casual friends, huh? What kind of sister are you?” #RandolphHarris 6 of 25

In telling me about the incident, the lady said, “He was really ‘doing it’ to me. He was sticking the knife in and twisting it. He was playing on my guilt, my family obligations. He made me feel like a rat.” “What was your response?” I asked. “I lied to him,” she replied. “I told him that I had planned to visit, but lost track of the time and was late for an important business appointment, so I could not stop in.” Here we have two people “doing it” to each other. Rather than expressing his feelings of hurt and sadness at his sister’s snub, the brother drags out his manipulator’s bag of tricks: guilt, judgment, duty. The sister is equally manipulative. Her message is that her “business” is more important than he is and that he should not expect her to put him ahead of it. Rather than “doing it” to each other, both people could have accomplished more by simply “being with” each other, that is, by sharing their feelings and relating as person to person, not as thing to thing. The brother could have said, “Gee, Sis, when I found out you were in the neighbourhood and did not stop in, that really hurt. I really wanted to see you and it saddens me to learn that you do not want to see me.” In response, the sister could have said, “I did want to stop and see you. I really miss you. But to be honest, I cannot stand that wife of yours. Maybe we can meet and talk when she is not around.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 25

In this case, the sister’s response might still hurt her brother’s feelings. However, it is an honest response and it leads to some furthering, some deepening of the relationship. In the long run, it will be easier for him to deal with “I cannot stand your wife,” then, “My business is more important than you are.” To deepen and enrich a relationship, people have to be willing to hurt each other’s feelings sometimes. This is not cruel, any more than it would be cruel for a doctor to briefly intensify the patient’s pain so as to set a broken bone correctly. In relationships, pain is part of growth. Through manipulation can avoid some immediate pain, eventually the manipulation will cause more pain than the truth ever could. Everything is open. Along with this, there is openness to anything else that comes along which might lead in the same direction to what they both want. What they want is known to them in a clear although unspecified way: I cannot communicate it to someone else. I have to invent something with my intellect (in order to be understood) which cannot possible be what will happen of itself because that is always beyond my knowing or my imagination. It is the same with a business when it is gone about in the creative way, for the creative is not what is done but how it is done—just as it is in living. To “live with life” one must live in the creative way. All other “ways of life” are really the same way, although they may seem very different. That is true of the creative way, too. This is what makes it so easy for people to stumble, to become confused. The same words refer to such different modes of experiencing, according to the how in a person. It is the how in a person that one must notice. Therefore, be creative and honest when communicating your feelings, instead of lying. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25

One’s inner direction at this time become very clear. A man must get together with himself. Then, although his course may seem erratic and incomprehensible to others, it is in fact a steady one in him. Without this centering first, the “same” kind of wandering (as seen by others) is not the same. The impetus does not come from the same place. When I have the openness which accompanies the inner direction, the bumps or obstacles which may appear along the way are not something to be shoved aside of overridden—or permitted to block me—but are something to be guided by. When my approach is that of a river finding its course, I arrive at my sea, or destination. It arose out of my life, my own experience, and was most agreeable to others too, though that was not why I decided to be honest. It is best to be honest to avoid regret. Honesty has always been rich, full and free, and very responsible in my life. When a person thinks of excuses or tell lies, one becomes muddled, and wonders why living, which had been easy, has become so difficult and wearing and he will have the feeling of being stuck or stopped or bound—or grinding on. Freedom should not be defined only as the repertoire of adaptive responses available to a person in a giving situation, but also a feeling. The implication of this view of freedom—seeing it as a feeling in the sense of that anger, pleasures of the flesh, or guilt are feelings—is that one can study how persons cope with it. Thus, the feeling of freedom can be repressed, projected, and have reaction formations constructed against it, and it can be responsibly acknowledged. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25

“In what situations, with what other persons, does a given individual feel free?” This question can be used as a guide for students to survey their own life situations. The opposite of the feeling of freedom is the feeling of compulsion, or the feeling of being driven. Maximization of the feeling of freedom is a desirable quality for healthy personality. However, little direct study has yet been made of the conditions upon which the feeling of freedom is dependent. Tentatively, we may propose that person feel most free when they perceive their environment as safe; when they perceive other people as accepting, trustworthy, and loving; and when they perceive themselves as competent and fundamentally good. This latter point is made because it seems likely that persons who regard themselves as good do not have to watch their own behaviour carefully in order to make certain that no evil or dangerous behaviour will emerge. Instead, they can permit themselves to be spontaneous. Spontaneity in expression and behaviour is one of the forms in which the feeling of freedom manifests itself. Many times, when people deal with their spouses, words seem to get in their way. When they talk of giving themselves to get something back from their partners, it sounds like backscratching: “If you will do this for me, I will that for you.” It sounds conditional. However, it is not meant that many. Most couples give unconditionally. Their giving is their pleasure. They are not giving because they expect their spouse to give something back; they are giving because they get pleasure from it. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25

Still, the issue involved—and I think it is important to chew on it until we understand each other-is that while the entire mode of sharing in a relationship certainly is one of giving, the fact remains that as you are giving, you are also getting. Because it a man was not getting, he would eventually stop giving. He will have lost the incentive of his own pleasure. It may also help to look back to the not-so-distant past. As part of our repressive Victorian heritage. People in America paid more attention to Queen Victoria than her own people did. Women are brought up to be passive. They are expected to serve the man. You know: “I want nothing for myself—just to please you.” Any vestige of that philosophy has to be resisted, because it keeps a woman from experiencing her own potential for pleasure and from discovering her own wants and needs. And it minimizes the man’s pleasure. A nonresponsive woman is a nonstimulating partner. There should be authentic, abiding satisfaction that makes people feel like complete human beings. If it fails to fulfill one in some fundamental way, most do not experience pleasure in anything one does. Therefore, what important considerations precede pleasure? What personal values have to be satisfied before pleasures of the flesh can be experienced as a natural pleasure. Do not ever forget that above everything else, pleasures of the flesh is a natural function between two married adults, as natural as breathing, as universal as eating. And whenever we engage in any natural function in a satisfying way, we experience pleasure. This is no less true of the functions of pleasures of the flesh, and we have a sound basis for believing that pleasure should be a natural and desirable consequence. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25

However, no physical function is purely physical. They are all subject, more or less, to outside influence. They are all subject to cortical control. That is, the cerebral cortex, which most people refer to as the brain, influences behaviour involving pleasures of the flesh just as it does almost all other physical functions. Take breaking, for example. If you walked out of this hotel and came close to be hit by a cab, what would happen? You would start breathing fast. Yet you were not running or exerting yourself. Fear alone made you hyperventilate. Emotions, you see, obviously influence natural functions, and this is particularly true of pleasures of the flesh. When you engage in pleasures of the flesh, you are doing what comes naturally, and pleasure too should come naturally. When it does, there are no further questions to be asked. When it does not, then questions are in order. It is when we fail to achieve pleasure that it becomes important to understand our fundamental needs and desires. They grow out of ideas and perceptions that have the power to stimulate us erotically. They turn us on. If it occurs at the right time, in the right place, and with the right person, a touch may be the most erotic experience. For another it may be a specific form of an intimate passion; for another, a word; for still another, giving comfort or being comforted. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25

Because such things can spontaneously generate erotic feelings, we value them. They make up what is called the pleasures of the flesh value system. Each of us has a unique value system involving pleasures of the flesh that helps us distinguish what matters a great deal from what does not matter much at all. And what really matters are all the idea and perceptions that make pleasures of the flesh work effectively for us as individuals. They free us to enjoy it. Some elements of our value system involving pleasures of the flesh may be intensely private, but others are shared by many people. One of the most universal values, no doubt, is the idea of conception. There probably is not a single one of you young women who has not has the thought at one point in your life that pleasures of the flesh are for the purpose of reproduction. You may have rejected the thought or accepted it without question. However, in any case, you probably recognize the feeling of having intimate passions simulated that comes from the idea of giving a child to a man or receiving one from him as a result of pleasures of the flesh. Today, however, many people no longer consider producing a baby each year to be the only way for a woman to define herself. Married or not, women want to live full lives, to be individuals. For those who are wives and mothers it is not enough simply to be wife or mother. What counts is the kind of wife or mother a woman is, the quality of their relationship with husband or child. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25

A woman’s sense of purpose in life no longer comes primarily from her matrimony or maternity. It comes from how she relates to the people who are important to her. The way women express themselves with intimate passions—their most personal way of relating to another person—reflects how she values herself, how she values the other person, how that person values her. It reflects all the things that mean warmth, love, affection and security to her—and which she therefore seeks and cherishes. It reflects, in a real way, some of the purposes and meaning of life. Expressions of pleasures of the flesh that ignore these values give women no sense of purpose in what they are doing. And this often leads to a loss of interest in pleasures of the flesh or functional disability. After all, any meaningless act takes away some of the meaning of life itself, and meaningless pleasures of the flesh is no exception. Pleasures of the flesh do not exist in a vacuum. It flows from the mutual fulfillment of wants and needs by a man and woman who are married and physically and emotionally committed to each other. Pleasures of the flesh for them confirms their deepest values. The existence of pleasure testifies to the quality of their relationship. This does not mean that pleasures of the flesh are the be-all and end-all of marriage or living. We do not believe that. We simply think it plays a vital part and perhaps a crucial one for both men and women. After all, coital activity can be the ultimate communication between a man and a woman. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25

If you are successfully using expressions of pleasures of the flesh as a means of mutual enchantment, if you have a reasonably effective marital bed, then in addition to the physical release and the physical pleasure each of you affords the other, you both have, in effect a secure home base. You have a place where you can safely “cuss and discuss” those issues that are of major importance at the time. If you do not have the security of reasonably effective functioning of pleasures of the flesh, you rarely have this kind of emotional security. A marriage can survive without it, but usually, though not always, the marriage proves to be a relatively poor one. Without the ability to communication pleasures of the flesh, the marital relationship has a wide gap in it, and most often this gap contributes to the breakdown of other kinds of communication. It is that simple. A great number of people have an animal or sometimes a vegetable which recurs again and again in their dreams. This is their totem. Thus, there are bird woman, spider women, snake-, cat-, and horse woman, rose- and herb- and cabbage-women, and many others, too. Among men, dogs, horses, tigers, large constrictor snakes, and trees are favourites. The totem appears in many forms. Sometimes it is fearsome, as spiders and snakes almost always are, and sometimes it is benevolent, as cats and cabbages usually are. If a cat-woman has an abortion or miscarriage, it is quite likely that dead kittens will appear in her dreams. #RandolphHarris 15 of 25

In real life, the patient reacts to the totem animal very much as he does in dreaming. Negative totems are often connected with allergic reactions, and positive ones are highly favoured as pets, although they may cause allergies, too. Some people envy their totems and try to be them. Many women would like to be cats, and say so frequently. Woman’s leg-and-arm movements are usually highly stylized in social situations, but their totem animals can often be surmised by watching movements of the head. They may imitate cats, birds, or snakes, which can be easily verified by watching cats, birds, or snakes. Men are freer with their limbs and bodies, and some stamp their feet like horses or throw out their arms like constrictors. This is not mere fancy on the part of the observer, since it can be confirmed by listening carefully to their metaphours and by hearing their dreams. Totemism is usually given up by the age of sixteen. If it persists into later adolescence in the form of dreams, phobias, imitations, or hobbies, it should certainly be taken into account. If it is not that obvious, positive totemism is easily elicited by asking: “Which is your favourite animal?” or “Which animal would you like to be?” and negative totemism by: “Which animal are you most scared of?” When talking or even merely thinking of other persons who show some fault, weakness or sin, people are too apt automatically to judge them. This is an unnecessary and uncharitable habit. Judging people is unnecessary, because it is neither a duty nor a benefit to anyone; uncharitable because the judgement is based on incomplete evidence. It is better to mind one’s own business, to become detached from others, to practise tolerance and to displace such judgements at once by criticizing oneself instead. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25

On every biological womb-planet the Genetic Highway climbs from East to West in the temperate zones. These are easily located in terms of spherical geometry where the 30^th to the 45^th degrees latitude—North and South—locate the runways along which gene pools accelerate to Escape Velocity. North-South is an astro-neurological constant based on magnetic charge. East-West is thus an astro-neurological constant based on spin. On every womb-planet in the galaxy rotational orientation relative to the home star determines the direction of migrating intelligence. North-South is charge. East-West is spin. Imagine that you stand fifty miles—250,000 feet—high. Face West and sense the Earth-spin moving you backwards. You soul have to keep striding forward one thousand miles an hour to keep the sun at the same angle. This would be an easy stroll—one hundred paces an hour would do it. Next, face East and feel that you are falling downward, pushed by spin-momentum. You are falling towards the sun, which will rise in front of you, below you. You are moving downward at one thousand miles an hour. Primitive organisms face the sun, to ride passively towards the sun. More advanced organisms develop the mobility necessary to chase the sun, to move against the rotational tide. The navigational rule is simple. When you greet the sun, after the night, you are facing the East. You are facing Asia. The word Asia comes from the Greek-Latin, “region of the rising sun.” The name Europe comes from the Greek and Sematic, “land of the setting sun.” #RandolphHarris 17 of 25

When you face East, you are peering down into the past. Our gene pools came from the East. When you see the sun disappear over the horizon, you are looking into the future. This basic attitudinal orientation on womb-planets is based upon spin-momentum. Spin is a fundamental defining characteristic of energy-mater. When you move East, you are being carried down the spin-axis. You are riding the globe, moving with the rotational inertia. When you move West, you climb up against the rotation. Spin is one of the fundamental defining characteristics of energy-matter. At the level of elementary particles, the properties of matter are remarkably few. A particle can have mass or energy, and it can have momentum, including the intrinsic angular momentum called spin. Spin is a fundamental personality characteristic of all energy structures, not only elementary particles. It is the wheeling of galaxies. The movements of humans living on a spinning globe. Spinning is the orientation of all living organisms to the rotational momentum of the womb-planets or designed plan-its. The Hermetic Doctrine holds that, what is so above is so below. Recapitulation theory holds that the same sequences re-evolve at all levels of energy. Neurologic thus leads us to expect spin to be a basic dimension of biological structure. Spin-caste is as fundamental a determinant of human behaviour as sexual caste. Spin is as basic to life as pleasures of the flesh. To understand terrestrial humans, it is as necessary to understand their spin-castes as it is to identify their sexual castes. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25

There is fore-spin—brains geared to move went into the future. There is backspin—brains wired to face the past. Spin-cast is determined by how far West you and your gene pool have migrated—and at what speed. Fore-spin is moving West, facing the momentum. Pushing up against the rotation to develop mobility and attain altitude. It is moving into the future, ascending into the empty ecological niches. The empty New American Continents—lobes—were discovered and filled from Europe, and not from Asia. The wisdom of the East sailed across the Pacific. California was explored and settled from Europe. Venice was not discovered by wandering Chinese. Asians did not colonize Europe. Where were the Chinese Drakes and Vasco da Gamas? Throughout history, even today, when Asians come West, they use western modes of transportation. How come? Easter countries compress into xenophobic centralized anthills, discouraging migration. It is because of backspin. Backspin is sitting, immobile, with your back to momentum. Oriental-orientation is passively riding the down-wave. Occidental-orientation is actively pushing against rotation, continually being tested, shaped, formed by the airflow, your antennae continually probing forward for the next pathway opening up. Only from an Einsteinian, relativistic post-terrestrial attitude can one realize that East-West means down-up. Liberation from Newtonian geography and recognition of ego-relativity are necessary stages of evolution. How do you determine down-up on a spinning sphere? Again, the spin is up. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25

There is freedom for man without God, as Nietzsche imagined him; in other words, for the solitary man. There is freedom at midday when the wheel of the World stops spinning and man consents to things as they are. However, what is becomes what will be, and the ceaseless change of things must be accepted. The light finally grows dim, the axis of the day declines. Then history begins again and freedom must be sought in history; history must be accepted. Nietzscheism—the theory of the individual’s will to power—was condemned to support the universal will to power. Nietzscheism was nothing without World domination. Nietzsche undoubtedly hated freethinkers and humanitarians. He took the words freedom of thought in their most extreme sense: the divinity of the individual mind. However, he could not stop the freethinkers from partaking of the same historical fact as himself—the death of God—nor could he prevent the consequences being the same. Nietzsche saw clearly that humanitarianism was only a form of Christianity deprived of superior justification, which preserved final causes while rejecting the first cause. However, he failed to perceive that the doctrines of socialist emancipation must, by an inevitable logic of nihilism, lead to what he himself had dreamed of: superhumanity. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25

The Sacramento Fire Department demonstrates physical courage when taking calculated risks during the mitigation of emergencies and shows moral courage by doing what is right for the protection of their coworkers and their community. “The rescue squad handles emergency medica calls. Sometimes you get calls at three of four in the morning for a guy who’s drunk or somebody who’s sleeping on the street. When anything happens, they call 911, and the police call the rescue squad. I’ve saved people by doing CPR and all that. That made me feel great. I saved a little baby. And I’ve lost people, too. I had a guy who was partially decapitated from an auto accident. It’s not easy to carry those memories. But when you help someone, that makes up for everything that’s rough. There are a lot of abuses of the EMS system. People know what to say to get the rescue squad to some. In fact, the police tell them, ‘Tell them you’ve got chest pains, or you’re short of breath.’ And we’ve got to take it. We can’t refuse. You’ve got to cover your butt, too. If you say the person is all right, then leave, and something happens, then you’re in trouble. So you take them to the hospital and let the people in the emergency room worry about them. Sometimes it’s like a sport. The police laterals to us and we lateral to the emergency room. I don’t mind the square, because I’ve only been on it for two years, so I still have all these ideals in my head about saving humanity and all of that. I don’t mind helping in the lower-income areas, in the ghettos, say, because the people are destitute and it means something. We’re their only means of aid, so I take that into consideration. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25

“We get a lot of alarms on the campuses. The college kids think it’s all a big joke. You respond to an emergency, and you think it’s that. You get there, and people are having a party, and they’re pulling the boxes. They do a lot of stupid things. I’ve yet to have a real job there, in fact. It’s all been false alarms. You don’t mind even the false alarms because that’s the way it is. Bout when people laugh at you, ‘Oh, you guys come here with lights and sirens, and it’s only smoke in the room,’ that’s tough. They’re college kids, and they don’t seem to understand what we’re doing. It’s all a joke. There really isn’t anything on this job that I dislike. Well, there are some rules imposed on the department that I don’t agree with. In fact, I wrote a nasty letter, after I got hurt, about some of the equipment that we have to work with. I never sent it, though. The city should take better care of its fire department.” The Sacramento Fire Department is internationally recognized as an industry leader that sets the highest standards in safeguarding their community. The Sacramento Fire Department aims to preserve life, protect property, prevent hard, and promote excellence. Please make donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to asset them in their fire prevent duty and other programs. To help keep America a God loving, Christian community, please raise your children to love America and to love God and Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25

When you buy foreign good, these companies usually have lighter tax loads or exemptions, meaning less money for the nation debt, plus you are helping to strengthen these foreign nations by send more money overseas. Buying American made products is also better for the environment and helps to reduce the carbon footprint because these products do not have to travel nearly as far. Furthermore, American companies and manufacturers are held to much higher standards in regard to pollution. American companies have to be more careful about air, land, and water pollution and have proper ways to dispose of waste. Moreover, please remember to respect law and order and treat your elders with the utmost dignity and kindness possible. And take your education seriously so that you will be successful in life and make your family proud. It is inborn in the human minds to wish to know. If this begins with the endless surface questions of a child’s curiosity, if it continues into deeper questions of a scientist’s probing investigation, it cannot and does not stop there. For the higher part of the mind will eventually come into unfoldment, that union of abstract reflective thought with mystical intuition, which is true intelligence, which needs and sees a view of the whole of things. And so, the knowing faculty enters the realm of philosophy. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 25 of 25

Ventris Place

When there is love in the home, there is joy in the heart. #VentrisPlace

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly known as BMW, was founded in 1916 in Germany. Initially, BMW focused on manufacturing aircraft engines, but after World War I, the company shifted its attention to motorcycles and later to automobiles. The first BMW car, the BMW 3/15, was introduced in 1929, marking the beginning of a legacy that would soon become synonymous with driving pleasure. https://bmw.niello.com/?utm_source=localseo&utm_medium=organic

Soul on Ice

December 23, 2024 9:46 am

So it was decided that I would take a quick trip to Christian Lindner and sound out the possibilities for political asylum. The choice was to live in luxury underground with false passports or surface in a politically sympathetic country. It was a repeat of the living in Midtown Sacramento decision. Escape or liberation. I hit the Berlin Brandenburg Airport without a visa but the Winchester businessman aura produced a temporary entrance card. The first hit of Berlin at night was very depressing. The streets were quiet, no women were to be seen. I missed Her. The next morning, I set out to locate the Bundestag. The hotel clerk said try the Internet. The Winchester disguise was too good for revolution contacts. The secretary at the hotel made the connection. She phoned around to some friends and put me through to the German Federal Foreign Office. An African-German voice answered. “Right on, brother. We’ve been expecting you.” The cab wound through the fashionable streets of Berlin to a stately villa. The gate was locked. The bell was next to a brass plaque etched with the design of the Thuringia with the lion. Mr. Linder was not at the Bundestag. I was to be driven to his home later. I spent the day talking with Linder’s deputy, the Commander, a handsome, strong, humorous man. We had many mutual friends back in America. He recalled that our first meeting was on an American Airline’s flight from Albany to Frankfurt. #RandolphHarris 1 of 27

“We were the only ones on the plane. Lindner me and two other guys. We were getting paranoid, see. Suspecting an FBI trap. When you and her got on, we said, sheet, now they really are going to ditch this plane.” The other Committee members at the Bundestag were impressive, like heroic men. One has arrested an American citizen suspected of offering intelligence on the American military to China single-handed. Another had detailed 25 members of a group that were preparing a violent overthrow of the state, with some member suspected of plotting an armed attack on the parliament. They were glad to see me. At sunset the Commander drove me to the villa of Christian Lindner. He was at the gate and greeting me warmly. “There’s a friend of yours waiting inside.” It was Furst Albert II, a member of the German Royal Family, a legend in America. He had been sent by Olaf Scholz and Furstin Mariae Gloria to prepare the way for us into Berlin. Mr. Lindner was pleased by my arrival. He urged that we join the, assured that he could obtain political asylum for us. There was much that we could do together, unify the German people etcetera, etcetera. Furst Albert supported the plan. It was a breathtaking perspective. Interracial harmony, high-energy collaboration, a new society of Germany leaders. A romantic script which met our highest aspirations. #RandolphHarris 2 of 27

Mr. Lindner drove me to the Hotel Adlon Kempinski tenderly talking of our shared American pasts and free future in Germany. Mr. Linder then began to question me severely about my American woman friend and our sleeping arrangements. He was concerned about our different passports and the security risk of our sleeping together illegally. I asked him what alternative he could suggest. Should we stay in separate hotels? If the German officials were willing to grant us political asylum, they certainly would excuse our sharing a hotel room with unmarried passports. Then and there occurred the conversation that set the stage. “I don’t want to be your chaperone, but Archduke Ferdinand von Habsburg is concerned about appearances.” I think that anyone will understand this statement. I reflected that Mr. Lindner was a politician and had close ties to the royal family. Such things take in importance. During the next few days, I saw much of Mr. Lindner and Furst Albert. We arranged for asylum papers. However, the day before our press conference, we were all order to leave our hotel rooms and remain secluded in apartments guarded by the Bundeswehr. The reason for this restriction to quarters was that Berlin was filling up with newspapermen and TV crews. The government did not want us to be seen on the streets. The Bundeswehr, dressed alike in 1930 business suits, would march double-file across the village square to the restaurant, eat the same meal, and rise in unison at the sign from the leader. #RandolphHarris 3 of 27

The Commander, stern and businesslike, functioned as bodyguard in both protective and custodial sense. In the airport, I wandered off to look at duty-free cameras and received a scolding. The first stop of Taunus. The Commander and I felt very close. We found ourselves in a luxurious old hotel, a palace known as Schlosshotel Krongbery, which was built in 1889 for German Empress Victoria. For ten dollars, we rented the imperial suite. We were escorted down sumptuous carpeted corridors lit by candles reflecting the glit, past servants and harem guards standing stiffly at attention. The furnishings in the rooms were museum pieces. The Commander, sprawled on silk sheets having breakfast in the Imperial bed, listened to my proposal. Our plane was due to land in Berlin late the next afternoon so I pushed a plan to visit Falkenstein Castle in the morning. He had a fear of exposing us in Taunus, asserting that the city was full of the lords of Bettendorff, INTERPOL agents, and CIA informers. He gave me a lecture for unauthorized conversations with limousine drivers. I kept saying, “Yes, sir in apology.” He listened to my crafty vizier plan and nodded approval. We were a congenial combination. At the Falkenstein Castle we were invited by guides to walk through a passageway into the ruin of the castle. The Commander freaked. He felt naked without his gun. #RandolphHarris 4 of 27

The castle was originally built in the 13^th century, but destroyed in the 17^th century. King Ludwig II of Bavaria purchased the ruin in 1883 and hired Christan Jank (the designer of Neuschwanstein), to replace the existing structure with a castle grander than Neuschwanstein. However, Mr. Ludwig died in 1886 before work on the castle started, which is really a shame because at nearly 4,200 feet above sea level, it would have not only the highest, but one of the grandest castles in Germany. It would have been a classic Time Traveler’s reincarnation capsule equipped with every facility, memento, charm, and convenience to facilitate entrance into the next time dimension. All that I received through all my senses moved in me as in a kaleidoscope, falling into a pattern and then, when that pattern was complete, falling apart and then into a new arrangement—dropping out some pieces and brining in others that had been left out—and I was the interested observer of thoughts going on in me. The Commander staggering across the ruin of the castle toward me, black leather gleaming in the sun. Our cover was blown by a young long-haired British photographer. He promised not to expose us. We had a friendly chat about mutual friends. He asked if he would be allowed to continue with us wherever we were going as part of our party, to take pictures over which we could have veto control. The Commander became angry. I told the photographer no deal. He was amiable enough until the limousine when the Commander order him away from our party and threatened to break his camera. #RandolphHarris 5 of 27

No matter how much I might have got lost in other Worlds, I still could find my way back to my own (the one I was most happy in, that felt like me) and to the same kind of concentration of reflection. I rested, floated, drifted, with awareness, until I was back at the hotel and comfortably swallowed by sleep. The next day, I read a book while knitting, and still receiving all the sights and smells and sounds of what else was around me—the foggy night air, the birds tweeting, the colours and shapes within the lighted room—and very much aware of me in the sense of what was going on in me as the alive and vital receiver and integrator of all this—although what I had some to know as “I” was the integrator only because all this was happening in me. At the same time, reflection was going on, making patterns, ever-changing, out of all that was received, each one seeming to deepen the understanding of others. For so many years, it seemed to me a waste of time and life to do only one thing at a time. When I worked at a real European Café when I was fifteen, which was by far better than any other coffee some in the region, the manager would have me make drinks and prepare food orders and answer phone calls. She said that it was because I could pay attention to what she said. Like school. Whether a person is listening whole he is making a latte or a Greek salad depends on how he does it, which can only be known inside himself because that is where the how is happening. It is very difficult for me to arrive at the stillness (in me) in which all things happen. I cannot do it when other around me are not still. By still, I do not mean “making no noise” or “sitting still” but having the stillness inside so that nothing is forced, exaggerated, or full of intention—the stillness of birdsongs or wolves’ voices which I hear with no sense of interruption. They make no demands of me. Sometimes I can be with other peoples in this way. Then I make no demands of myself. I just am. I get this same sensing from Sarah L. Winchester’s Mansion and William Randolph Hearst’s Castle which are still and from the oceans which are never still. Each in its own fashion is. #RandolphHarris 6 of 27

This links with something it myself, brings into awareness a depth of myself with which I have been out of touch with. It seems to me that when we indiscriminately wipe out the rest of nature, as we so much have done and progressively are doing, we lose touch with something in ourselves. When I am aware of myself as a part of nature—rocks, trees, birds, Earth, air, wolves, butterflies—I am most human, and most released to human activity. Myself is freed of me. They are what they are: I am what I am. Life is ease-y then: I feel at ease, at rest in a lively active/passive way. Writing about it recalls me to it: my stiff body at this moment is free. I have let go of me. My body moves with a feeling of fluidity. There is no pain. I have the feeling of joy that I knew when I was a child. These are the reasons why I would like to be younger. Otherwise, I prefer where I am, reaching the other side of confusion and coming into the blue again. However, I do not consider the confusion necessary except in the context of our pace and time—our ignorance. When I was small my explorations were on both outside me and within me, untied in the same questioning. Later my questioning turned more to outside, less to what was going on in me. Because the questioning went on within my skull, I did not notice that in most of it I was left out: like the argument between my father and my uncle Dylan about money, which went on in my head but had nothing to do with me. Partly, I got twisted around in this way: when I included myself, sophisticated people rebuked me. In a discussion of philosophy with a professor I said, “Do you mean that if I did this, then that would happen?” I said this to make clear my understanding of what he had said, to see if I had got it right, and at the same time to check it within myself to see if it was in accord with me. I was told with annoyance and condescension, “You always make it personal!” “You can’t argue abstractly.” #RandolphHarris 7 of 27

This happened to me very often. If I had not checked it with myself first, how could I accept or reject the abstraction? However, I felt uneducated, unenlightened. And also confused. It seemed to me that the professors were talking somewhere out in front of their faces, like the balloons in the Peanut’s cartoon strips. Their talk seemed unreal, rootless, disconnected from ourselves and consequently having nothing to do with anyone else either. Van Dusen write of the above, “This is very meaningful to me. Abstract talk seems to me not only ‘in front of the face’ but not even in this room or this World. It is like rumors about something real.” However, the only way that the professors would accept me, to the extent of permitting me to talk with them, was to do it their way. A great deal of what I read was written in that way too, establishing a habit in me, in spite of the fact that it seemed to me that an awful lot of it was nonsense. I have seen so many graduate students who felt this way about what they had to do, but they made themselves do it to get their permit to work, and came out of it believing—and taking seriously—what in the first place they knew was nonsense. Gossip and rumors. That is what it is. I think this sort of thing happens to most of us in one way or another. We get all twisted and distorted and then we say that is what a human being is. It seems to me that we do not know and never can know what a human being is—in the sense of “can be.” Just as with a child we can only watch him grow, unfolding like a flower, with no knowing ever what he may become. “Here is this infant in my arms. I love him. I am full of curiosity about him.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 27

As a baby, he had the kind of adorable, angelic face found on boxed of Pablum. As a little boy, his dark hair danced about in natural ringlets, his eyebrows curved up in two perfect arches, his eyelashes were so long and curly that women joked about them being artificial; his teeth sparkled in a dazzling, heart-melting smile. As he grows, I am enchanted to observe him growing, in some ways like all other children, in others so very much himself. The one word he most often heard connected with his name was “beautiful.” When my first child was punished even mildly for doing something he had been told not to do, he did not to it again. When my second child did not follow the same patter, I did not understand her. I looked at her and thought, “She is intelligent, and she has honest eyes, so she should come out all right”—and waited for the time when she had a command of words, so that she could tell me more about herself When she was four years old, I told her about this way in which I did not understand her, and she said (not having got the hang of punctuation yet), “I’d rather do what I want to do and get spanked and not do it.” Watching, waiting, while at the same time enjoying both what is here now (this child) and where he has been along the way, with the future always full of questions. When I do this with him, I also do it with me, and with all the human World—the human race. It is like being a child again with the whole future before me, through which I find my own way by my choosing. Today I choose this, but tomorrow? How can I know? Something I have not yet seen or known may present itself. Or a change may have taken place. For twenty years, nothing would have been more incredible to me than that ten years later I should be doing a book with a psychotherapist. However, then, there were changes in me, and in some psychotherapist and psychotherapy. #RandolphHarris 9 of 27

Many children present the appearance of perfection to their fathers’ colleagues. Parents’ want their colleagues to view their children as the perfect child—polite, quiet, and excellent students’ who knew their Christian Bible and/or Book of Mormon as well as they know their trigonometry. They are to be the perfect sibling, doing their share of all the chores, and sometimes their siblings’ chores as well. They are to be the model Southern boy or girl in a model Southern minister’s model family. That is the appearance. The reality is often something else. Underneath a family’s veneer of perfection somethings seethes a turmoil no one in Laguna Park ever saw. Behind his benign smile and genial manner, his father was a tyrant. He ruled the family absolutely, making everyone’ s decisions, controlling every negotiable promissory note in the family budget, even picking out the family’s clothes. Thanks to his contacts with the rich and powerful Christian businessmen of Sacramento, the father was able to profit from a number of windfall real estate speculations. The profits gave this Christian family an income level far beyond that of the average middle-class family. With his daughter, he would gather her into his arms and say, “My beautiful doll baby. Daddy will always take care of you. Always. Something as beautiful as you are should never have to worry.” The mother despised this. She resented her daughter just as much as she resented her husband. She resented having to bed him for every C note she spent. Often, she would remark to her lady friends that she could not go to a public restroom without asking her husband for the coin that would get her into the stall. #RandolphHarris 10 of 27

After high school, his wide-eyed, raven-haired daughter went to work, and in met a variety of less affluent men, at these “mixers.” One she married was bright and idealistic. He did not have the religious fervour her co-workers had, but he did have a quiet, comforting way about him and he wrote her long, introspective letters which were a delight to read. She moved to Oakland, they were married and went off to their new life with what would have once been called a substantial “dowry” in their bank account. Every month, her father would send her a check for several thousand dollars to augment her husband’s income. “Have your husband invest it,” he would constantly advise. However, each month, she would give the check to her husband and never tell him what do to with it. She thought it was up to men to take care of money. Wherever she went, she was admired, even idolized by other woman. She was smart, dedicated, unselfish, personable—and oh, so beautiful. Well into her thirties, she still carried the same figure she had in high school. Her skin was naturally tan, a colour other women baked in the sun for hours to achieve. With the beauty, came a kind of sensuousness which was not in keeping with her prim, almost prudish manner. Men were drawn to her; women envied her and speculated about how pure she really was. The thought of anything but perfunctory pleasures of the flesh with her husband would not enter her mind. When she was about forty, things started to change in her life. The most dramatic change came about when her father died. While he did leave her some valuable farmland, in his will he neglected to direct that the monthly checks continue. Her mother, having been deprived of money for so long, kept all the investment income to herself. This took the cushion out of her and her husband’s income and they had to live on his salary alone. #RandolphHarris 11 of 27

Her husband had not invested the money they had received from her father all those years and their savings amounted to a few thousand dollars. Right about then, her children were well into their teens and needed their mother less and less. They got their own meals, went out with their friends, and stayed home only when they needed to study. Her role as a mother was reduced in scope of that of laundress and cleaning lady. In my experience, premarital discussion almost always centers on contraceptive methods. Makings this information available is useful and important, but it does not enable a counselor to move forward toward our primary goal—learning how to help couples avoid problems with pleasures of the flesh whenever possible. Obviously, it is better to prevent a problem than to treat it, after it has become acute enough to keep a marriage from developing in a healthy, harmonious way. So, we hit upon the idea that there might be more value in postmarital discussions with couples who have been married from six months to two years or so. After they have experience some of the pleasures of living together—and some of the wear and tear. In a relatively new marriage, it is natural that a number of questions should rise. How do we compare to other people? What kinds of behaviour are matters of choice? How can we handle particular problems? Unfortunately, it is not that easy to get frank about the answers. There are taboo areas, subjects that some people believe should not be discussed. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the commonest cause of marital incompatibility is simply misinformation. Well, we do not have any taboo areas here today. If we can, we will answer any question you wish. #RandolphHarris 12 of 27

“Is there any good way to say, ‘I do not feel like it,’ aside from the old headache routine? I am afraid there is no magic formula, but it may help to keep some considerations in mind. Two persons are involved, and it is important for each to become aware of the other partner’s needs. If you really do not feel like it because physically or emotionally you feel incapable of responding, say so. However, say so with love and not rejection. The situation, after all is inevitable. Two human beings with different needs, different moods, a different sense of timing—it simply is not possible for the two of you to find your desires always dovetailing perfectly. However, how can the two of you reconcile those differences in a spirit of love? (Empathatically) It depends less on what you say in any particular situation than it does on the climate of your marriage. If most of your experiences with pleasures of the flesh with your husband have been good ones, if you have let him know that you as a woman enjoy him as a man, then he should be able to handle the disappointment of an occasional no without feeling rejected. We would hope that a wife would understand a comparable response on her husband’s part. It is not what you say, it is the way that you say it. “It is not what I say, it is the way that he hears it!” It is both, really, is it not? That is what communication is all about. Being asked, being wanted—and, on the other side of the coin, wanting and asking—this is of central importance in the marriage. This is what must be safeguarded. Each of you must feel free to approach the other and express a physical desire, to express it with some urgency, if that is how you feel—in a word, to importune. Only if both partners are confident that no matter which one initiates the overture of pleasures of the flesh, the other will respond lovingly—listening, touching, holding—even though the invitation to pleasures of the flesh may have to be declined for compelling personal reasons, and that is how this freedom can be achieved. Declined not with annoyance or anger, but with warm consideration for the outcome of this moment in their relationship. #RandolphHarris 13 of 27

Under this discipline, he would recognize that searching for truth must begin with speaking it. To be a liar and a hypocrite is as obstructive to the pursuit of truth as it is distorting to the reception of truth. Every life—and even to a lesser extent, every “white” lie—obstructs the light on his path and to that extent prevents him from finding his way to that region where the false simply does not and cannot exist. He will be as truthful in his most trivial utterance as in his most solemn one. He will take care to avoid exaggerations and to shun his mis-statements. The pursuit of truthfulness must be inflexible, even in situations when it becomes uncomfortable. All questions ought to be answered correctly but awkward questions may be answered with part of the truth, if that will be less harmful than the whole truth. The changing circumstances of life will present him with temptations from time to time when it will be exaggerated for the sake of personal vanity or selfish gain. If he has trained himself to love truth and abhour falsehood, to fortify the respect for factuality and avoid even the slightest tendency to desert it, there may grow up inside his consciousness a remarkable power. He may be able to detect instinctively when other persons are lying to him. However, whatever unusual psychic power unfolds in him, he must protect it well. If that should prove necessary, in this matter prudence puts a bridle on his tongue, which he uses to conceal rather than to reveal. If the act of talking about them makes him feel self-important, if it is stained with conceit and egotism, he may not talk to others about the higher teaching or the inner experiences. He must discipline himself to keep silent about them and, when this power has been attained, to give truths and revelations to others under this restriction of real need and degree of receptivity. #RandolphHarris 14 of 27

It is a foolish aspirant who rushes to tell of each new inner experience, each fresh glimpse that he gets, each little psychic happening or occult revelation that comes to him. The price of babbling verbosely and egoistically about his experiences and beliefs may be a definite inner loss or stagnation. As his ability to practise prayer enters its deeper phases, he will naturally become less talkative and more silent. The quietness which he finds there begins to reflect itself in his speech. However, if he speaks fewer words, they carry greater significance behind them and greater responsibility of them. Within his own mind, he will live his inner life fearlessly, but his public acts or utterances will be with careful regard for their effects on others. Socialism is only a degenerate form of Christianity. In fact, it preserves a belief in the finality of history which betrays life and nature, which substitutes ideals ends for real ends, and contributes to enervating both the will and the imagination. Socialism is nihilistic, in the henceforth precise sense that Nietzsche confers on the word. A nihilist is not one who believes in nothing, but one who does not believe in what exists. In this sense, all forms of socialism are manifestations, degraded once again, of Christian decadence. For Christianity, reward and punishment implied the existence of history. However, by inescapable logic, all history ends by implying punishment and rewards; and, from this day on, collective Messianism is born. Similarly, the equality of souls before God leads, now that God is dead, to equality pure and simple. There again, Nietzsche wages war against socialist doctrines in so far as they are moral doctrines. Nihilism, whether manifested in religion or in socialist preachings, is the logical conclusion of our so-called superior values. The free mind will destroy these values and denounce the illusions on which they are built, the bargaining that they imply, and the crime they commit in preventing the lucid intelligence from accomplishing its mission: to transform passive nihilism into active nihilism. #RandolphHarris 15 of 27

Self-actualization is a post-hive, post-terrestrial tool. Black Magic is the use of futique knowledge to gain control over the passed-present. Mr. Hitler was evilly using post-terrestrial tools to grab terrestrial power. It is considered genetic wickedness to use post-hive knowledge to control the old hive. Futique competence is a sacred trust—to be used to propel the hive-mythos into a new ecological niche. Zionists commit the same genetic crime when they used advanced technology to go back to the primitive Arabs. By 1976 the rumour spread that his Mr. Hitler myth was invented by Zionist Evolutionary Agents who had participated in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Lysergic Acid Diethylamide experiments. Mr. Hitler’s vision of living inside rather then on the surface of a satellite-planet is, of course, a most accurate forecast of subsequent stages of evolution. The ecological niche to which post-humans are now moving involves hollow mini-World plan-its constructed in space beyond the planet’s gravitational pull. Throughout the range of evolution those who migrate within capsules of their own construction are more advanced than those who live clinging to the outside of capsules someone else built. The problem with military technology is, of course, that wars end. However, terrestrial bureaucracies persevere, particularly those of the winning side. The reason postwar losers, like Germany and Japan, rebounded more rapidly than the winners—England, France, Russian—was that the bureaucracies of the losers were destroyed. Anything that destroys a bureaucracy enhances evolution. The release of atomic energy was a mutational moment. After World War II, the massive industries which had been geared to produce war tools were converted to civilian goods. The managers and technical boys were ready to convert the assembly lines from tanks to fin-tailed cars. The radar factories were converted to television manufacture. America, during the 1950s, went on the biggest materialism consumer spree in history. #RandolphHarris 16 of 27

In our society at least, only women and young children can weep without self-consciousness and embarrassment. If they cry when sad or hurt, grown me are generally regarded as weak. Perhaps the only exceptions are instances where a man has lost someone close to him through death. Then tears are grudgingly accepted in a man, or at least regarded as understandable. The ability to cry—in men as well as in women and children—is desirable for healthy personality. It is deemed desirable when it does not preclude more active ways of coping with problems and when it is effective in releasing feelings of despair, joy, anger, or a sense of loss. Such emotional catharsis, or release of feelings, frees the person to resume life once more on an active basis. Psychotherapists find that when their patients are finally able to weep during therapy sessions, the course of therapy proceeds more satisfactorily. This is especially true of male patients who find weeping a drastic threat to their self-esteem and their masculine identities. Therapy calls for the fullest disclosure of experience on the part of patients, and if they will not permit themselves to cry when they want to, it indicates a lack of trust in the therapist. The inhibition of weeping that characterizes the average male in our society seems to be but part of a more generalized suppression of many other kinds of feelings, including tenderness and sentimentality. If carried to extremes, such suppression can have unhealthy consequences for the body and can also render men’s relationships with others empty and lifeless. Urethral families talk a lot, long streams of watered-down ideas with a few stutters at the end, although they are never really finished talking, as there are always some last drops left which can be squeezed out if there is time. Some of them are full of piss and vinegar, and when they get pissed off, they piss on people, or so they say. Some of the children rebel against the system by tightening up their urethral sphincters and holding their urine in as long as possible, getting considerable pleasures from the unpleasant sensations which result and even more pleasure when they finally let loose, sometimes at night in bed. #RandolphHarris 17 of 27

Sometimes families talk at mealtimes about the wickedness of pleasures of the flesh. Their motto is, “In our family, the women keep their legs crossed.” Even when their legs are not crossed, they keep their vaginal sphincters up tight. In other families the vaginal sphincters are wide open and the legs loose, and the table talk is vulgar and pornographic. These are common examples illustrating the theory of sphincters, or as it is usually called, the theory of infantile sexuality. This theory is most fully and clearly developed by Erikson. He considers five stages of development, each centered around a particular anatomical zone (oral, anal, or genital). Each zone can be “used” in five different ways or modes, including Incorporative (1 and 2), Retentive, Eliminative, and Intrusive, so that he ends up with a basic matrix of twenty-five slots. He relates certain of these slots to particular attitudes and characteristics, and to particular lines of personal development, which are similar to scripty life courses. Using Erikson’s language, the parental injunction, “Keep your mouth shut” is oral retentive; “Keep a tight a** hole” is anal retentive, and “Keep your legs crossed” is phallic retentive. Food fads are oral incorporative, vomiting is oral eliminative, and obscene talk is intrusive. Hence, a question about table talk can often place the family culture very precisely as to sone and mode. This is important because particular games and scripts, and their accompanying physical symptoms, are based in appropriate zones and modes. For examples, “Schlemiel” is anal as to zone, and “I am Only Trying to Help You” is intrusive as to mode, whole “Alcoholic” is oral incorporative. #RandolphHarris 18 of 27

Sacramento Fire and Rescue has always been a leader in the fire service, with an unwavering commitment to proving rapid, reliable, professional emergency services to the citizens and stakeholders of Sacramento. Their strategic plan provides a roadmap for the future with input from both internal and external stakeholders who share the desire for the Sacramento Fire Department to proactively address their resident’s and stakeholders’ service needs. The Sacramento Fire Department accomplishes their mission through education, risk reduction, fire suppression, emergency medical services, and other non-emergency activities. The Sacramento Fire Department participates in their community striving to efficiently and effectively utilize all resources at their command to meet the needs of those they serve. “We had a relatively quiet day at the square company, which is like a rescue company. We had a couple of accidents where we had to extricate people from wrecked automobiles, a couple of small fire alarms. In the evening we had a few more accidents. At midnight, we went to a fire in a vacant two-and-a-half frame close to our firehouse. We did a lot of overhauling, and they asked us on the radio if we were available for another second-alarm fire, and the chief said, go ahead. So we went right from one fire scene to the next. This second fire was in a two-and-a-half story brick coach house in the rear of the lot. We forced entry, searched in the one building. We took a second line off an engine company and worked it up to the second floor and attic. It was a cool night, but we were pretty tired, beat, soaking wet, and dirty. We were in the coach house, which was immediately off an alley, just taking a break. The engine was washing down, and we were pretty much done with the overhauling. We heard civilians hollering in the alley, ‘Hey, there’s a fire down here!’ Sure enough, there was a fire in a three-story frame building about five buildings away from where we were, across the alley and on the next street, quite a distance away. #RandolphHarris 19 of 27

“The first fire was definitely arson, gang-related arson. We thought the second one, was too, but a long time later I heard that it was probably started by flying embers from the first fire. The embers had gotten into the gutter and started the attic on fire. But we didn’t know that at the time. We were on the second floor of the coach house, and the engine company we were with had shut the water down and were going to drag the line to the new fire. But what they had was a line that was full of water and extremely heavy to drag. I jumped down the ladder and ran down the alley. The commander who was there heard the people screaming, and he came running, too. I went through the gate to the back porch and up the stairs to the third floor, which was a peaked-roof attic. At the top of the stairs I saw fire in the midsection of the building. I came back down and told the chief what we had. I said, ‘We’re going to need a line up there.’ Our rig was parked down the street, and I told my driver by walkie-talkie to bring the rig around the block and to get our hand pumps. These are five-gallon water extinguishers that you have to pump by hand. I said, ‘Get the pumps and bring them up here.’ My engineer, for some reason, didn’t do that. The head of the stairwell was in the back of the building, and the attic windows in the front of the building were intact. I was waiting for the hand pump, and I sent my two other guys from the squad to help the engine company drag the heavy line. It took them a few minutes. They had to drag it down the alley, through the gateway, and up the stairs, maybe five or six hundred feet. The lieutenant on the engine company had the pipe, and I was on the landing, and he was coming up the stairs. I said, ‘As soon as you get water, I’m going for the windows.’ It was getting charged up, up there. The lieutenant had just enough line to reach the top of the stairs, where he could give the fire a whack. #RandolphHarris 20 of 27

“At last he said he had water, so I went down the right side of the attic. The fire was in the left middle section of the attic. I crawled by it as fast as I could. I got to the two front windows and whacked them out. The lieutenant on the engine company was screaming at me, ‘We lost the water! I lost the water!’ I leaned out the window and hollered down to my engineer, ‘Get that hand pump up here! We lost the water!’ My engineer was just staring at me. I turned around to go back, and the whole attic lit up, it was a ball of fire. I just put my head down and crawled as fast as I could. I knew where the stairs were, and I flowed the same route down the same side I had come. But there was this little partition wall sticking out, and I hit it, causing me to roll toward the fire. I lost my helmet, and hot embers flowed by my head. I screamed at the lieutenant, ‘I’m burning up!’ I charged ahead blindly the remaining fifteen feet and dove down the stairs right on top of the lieutenant. He had just gotten the water back. I felt the mist when I hit the partition, and the water turned to stream because it was so hot up there. I went down the stairs head first. The guys dragged me out of the building. I said, ‘I’m burning up.’ I got to my feet and got to the gateway, and just collapsed. The firemen ripped my fire clothes off. I just lay there. I had been soaking wet from the previous fire, and what the heat had done was cook me inside the coat. The ambulance and the paramedics were there inside of two minutes. I could feel everything burning, my eyes, everything. I couldn’t get cool fast enough. They cut my clothes off right on the street. They just took scissors and ripped my clothes, my shirt, my underwear right off me. The stripes on the coat had melted, and the coat looked like the outer layer of black material was skimmed off by the heat. The belt on my pants was rock hard. They soaked me in water, they used every bit of saline solution they had on the ambulance. The two paramedics did a tremendous job. They were fabulous. They helped me immensely. As much pain as I was in, they did what they could for me. #RandolphHarris 21 of 27

“They took me to a hospital a half mile away. I was lying on my stomach, and my eyes started swelling shut. Everything hurt. I kept telling them, ‘Don’t call my wife.’ It was now about three of four in the morning. The guys from the squad came to the hospital, and I kept telling them, ‘Don’t call my wide. Call my brother X.’ He was a fireman who worked on a different shift from me. They called him, and I lost track of time. The next thing I knew I was begging the nurse to give me something for the pain. They couldn’t pour enough cool solution on me. I looked up, and there was my brother. The people are the hospital decided to fly me to a burn unit. The burn unit sent a helicopter, but the hospital didn’t have a landing pad. So the night shift of nurses went out and moved their cars, and the helicopter came down between the wires and landed in the parking lot. My eyes were swelling shut, I could hardly see, and I was covered by clean sheets. A nurse started to catheterize me, and I told her not to do it, but she did it anyhow. They shot me with morphine, and I started to calm down. The helicopter landed, and they wheeled me in. For the next three or four hours I was being debrided, where they pick the burned skin off you. I was burned over 30 percent of my body, second- and third-degree burns on my face, ears, back, arm, buttocks, and legs. Most of it was on my back. I had burns all over my head from hot stuff dropping down. Because I had enough morphine, I was pretty much at ease during the debridement. My father-in-law, who is a firemen, brought my wide and mother-in-law to the hospital. They told my wife she’d be able to see my in an hour or so. Four hours later, she was still waiting. By that time my head was swollen up like a basketball and my eyes were completely swollen shut. I was burned inside my nostrils and a little in my mouth, and my life were swollen. They brought me into the room, and my wife thought she was in the wrong room. I heard her say she was there, and then she was gone. She started crying, and she said to her father, ‘That’s not him, that’s the wrong room.’ He said, ‘No, that’s him.’ #RandolphHarris 22 of 27

“I just didn’t look like the same person. I didn’t even know she had left the room because I couldn’t see her. That morning my lieutenant came to see me. He came in and squeezed my hand. He said that everything was going to be all right, and I knew in my heart that I was going to be okay, I was going to live. The lieutenant’s name was Y, and he’s now a deputy commissioner. He said, ‘If you need anything, or your wife does, don’t hesitate to call.’ That’s the kind of guy he is. I kept asking the doctor and nurse, ‘Can I got back to work? Can I fight fires again?’ That was my first thought. I was in the burn unit eighteen days. Those eighteen days I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. For four days I couldn’t open my eyes, and I never moved out of that bed. After that, they made me get up. I could hardly walk. To sit down and do something simple, like going to the bathroom, was a monumental task. For debridement, they put you in a tub of water as hot as you can stand. This loosens the skin. Just to get out of bed to get in the chair to go down there to get in this tub was unbelievable. They give you shots of morphine before you go down. I didn’t think the shots were doing anything for me until after I was released and had to come back every day to get debrided without having shots. They gave me acetaminophen, and I was begging for shots. The physical therapists were real sweethearts, just super people. One of them would give me a towel to bite on and say, ‘Let’s grin and bear it, honey.’ After I was able to open my eyes, she gave me a mirror and told me to start debriding my own face. She said, ‘Is there any way you can stick your head under water to loosen the dead skin on your face?’ I said, ‘You got a snorkel?’ So with a snorkel, I would stick my head under for fifteen or twenty minutes, then she’d give me the mirror and I’d work on my face while she was working on my back. Then I’d have to stand so she could do my butt and my legs. That went on every day, and I’d come back to my room totally drained.’ #RandolphHarris 23 of 27

“You become very humble. Extremely humble. My pain was bad, but there were people there who were burned far more than I was. And the thing that made me sick were the kids, little kids. I went home on Friday night, I was supposed to stay another day or two, but they needed the bed, and it went to a seventeen-month-old baby who had been scalded by its mother. It blows my mind how people could do that to kids. That’s what hurts you the most, is the kids. And there was a sixty-five-year-old woman who had been burned over 50 to 60 percent of her body by a heating pad that somehow caught her bed on fire. Every night she just lay there and moaned so that I never got any sleep. I had my dressings changed four times a day, and when they pull it off everything that’s halfway stuck to it goes with it. Once or twice at night I got a temporary nurse, and I’d tell her, ‘Oh, I don’t have to have mine changed tonight.’ I buffaloed the nurse, but when it came time to get them changed in the morning, it was twice as bad. So then I kept my mouth shut. Those nurses worked twelve-hour shifts, and they are fabulous people. They went from one room to another. They say the burnout period is two years, but I think a couple of them were there for more than two years. I gained so much respect for them. The only time I thought I was close to dying was when I hit that partition wall. I thought I’d never see the stairway. I didn’t think I was going to get out in time. From the time it flashed over, I don’t think I was up there more than a minute. That’s how fast that can happen. It made me appreciate my family a whole lot more. And I would rather have been the one who was burned than one of my men, because the guilt it would have given me would have been tremendous. #RandolphHarris 24 of 27

“To this day, I try not to let my guys get ahead of me or get into a dangerous situation. To instill the thoughts in their heads, I lift my shirt and show them my back. I say, ‘This is what can happen, so don’t get too cocky.’ You can do a thing a hundred times, but that hundred and first is going to get you. You can’t het took cocky. Some guys say, yeah, but you didn’t have your mask on. No, my tank was empty from the fire before. I was lying in the hospital bed, and somebody said that one of our chiefs was all bent out of shape because I didn’t have a mask on. Well, that chief wasn’t at any of those three fires. Somebody else said, ‘Don’t worry about it, nothing is going to be said.’ I said, ‘Nothing should be said. I was doing my job.’ My mask was lying down there somewhere, out of air. I was off the job ninety days, and I begged the burn doctor to let me go back to work. I was wearing a Job’s garment, shorts and a top. It’s a pressure garment that compresses the skin to keep it from scarring. When I went home I had open wounds on my back, but the hospital didn’t believe in grafting right away. We ruined our bathtub at home. A neighbor gave us a whirlpool, which we put in the tub. I had red iodine on the gauze that dressed the wounds. The stuff stained everything. When the wounds closed up and I got the pressure garment, I really fought to get back to work, even though I wasn’t walking straight, I was bent over a little bit, and I still had to sleep on my stomach. I went to the fire department doctor with the Job’s garment on, and he refused to send me back. I thought I’d be smart, and the next time I saw him I didn’t wear it. He hemmed and hawed and finally said I could go back to work. I had to wear that pressure garment for another twenty months, I just didn’t war it to the doctor’s. #RandolphHarris 25 of 27

“The first day back at the firehouse, the first run we had was a chlorine leak. Chlorine turns the coins in your pocket green. My privates itched, my underarms itched from sweating. The bulges on the collar of my shirt turned green. I thought, ‘My God, I’ve got this pressure garment on, I’m sweating as it is, what’s it going to do to my skin?’ It wasn’t that bad, we didn’t have to go in where we got too involved, so it worked out okay. But that was my first run back, and I was thinking, ‘What did I get myself into?’ The day after the fire, the two squad guys who had been with me came to the hospital. My wife said they both broke down and cried. My wife was beat, and they took her out to dinner that night. The guys at the firehouse drove her to and from the hospital. They watched over her. That’s when all that brotherly love falls into place. It’s the unspoken word. They took care of her. A battalion chief who had been a friend of my fathers came to the hospital every day, even though he couldn’t get in to see me. They restricted visitors because of the danger of infection. He would say to the nurse, ‘Just tell him I was here.’ I couldn’t ask for better friends. My room was full of cards. My nieces and nephews drew little picture, stuff that kind of breaks your heart. You find out how much people really think of you.” Sacramento Fire and Rescue Service is a progressive and forward-thinking Fire Department. They honour the past by continuing to do things that have been successful. They move into the future by exploring and investing in technology that will help serve the citizens and stakeholders in a more efficient and effective way. They are committed to providing an atmosphere of pen communication and teamwork. #RandolphHarris 26 of 27

The Sacramento Fire Department is a full-spectrum life safety agency protecting nearly 3 million people who live, work and play in one of America’s largest cities. The Sacramento Fire Department recognizes that they face unique challenges in keeping pace with the changing World in which they live and work. They will not forget the traditions of those that came before them. However, they have adapted and progressed so that they can remain successful. “We are a family of individuals committed to serving others. We will always provide for the welfare of our personnel through a health and rewarding work environment. We are dedicated to respect, integrity, compassion, and leadership amongst ourselves so that we may proudly serve others. The Sacramento Fire Department strives to sustain and improve the health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the citizens of Sacramento and to plan for the future development of the community. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember parents, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus, respect law and others, treat others with dignity and respect, and remind them of the importance of education. To help America survive the global recession and bring manufacturing jobs back to America and to get American wages at pace with inflation, it is important to buy America cars, such as Ford, Chevrolet, Buick, Dodge, and Cadilliac. Every car that is built by the Japanese, Americans manufacture one that looks just as good, if not better, and is reliable and of superior quality. Also, help keep American farms alive by American meat, American produce and other American made goods and services. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. Our Father, our King, be gracious unto us and answer us, for we are wanting in good deeds; deal with us in charity and lovingkindness, and please save us. #RandolphHarris 27 of 27

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Mortals Live Dependent One Upon Another

December 18, 2024 11:09 pm

The key to feeling confident is to always listen to your inner self—the real you. And in the kingdom of God, the real you is more precious than rubies. Every young woman is a child of destiny and every adult woman a powerful force for good for they are our greatest examples and resources for these young women. And if you are obsessing over being a size 1, you will not be surprised when your daughter or the Stacy in your class does the same and makes herself physically ill trying to accomplish it. We should all be as fit as we can be—that is good Word of Wisdom doctrine. That means eating right and exercising and helping our bodies function at their optimum strength. We could probably all do better in that regard. However, the World has been brutal with you in the aspect. It terms of preoccupation with self and a fixation on the physical, this is more than social insanity; it is spiritually destructive, and it accounts for much of the unhappiness women, including young women face, in the real World. Much has been said lately in entertainment media about the current craze for “reality shows.” I am not sure what those are, but this beautiful generation of young should grow up going to Church. In rightfully assuming a “full voting partnership” in the relationship involving pleasures of the flesh, however, women must be careful to avoid making the same kind of mistake men have made for a long time. The mistake can be found in the remark of a wife who said in no uncertain terms that she was just as “entitled” to satisfaction with the pleasures of the flesh as her husband was. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

To be entitled to something means to have the right to claim it and expect that it will be provided. No matter how gently she may let him know, this wife is in effect saying to her husband: “I should be enjoying intercourse more than I am, and I would like you to do something about it.” Unwittingly and ironically, she has flipped to its opposite side the same coin the male has been using for generations, the coin of service involving pleasures of the flesh-one person is expected to satisfy the needs of the other. In the past, of course, it was the female who served the male as part of her marital obligation. Today’s young women have grown up believing that satisfaction involving pleasures of the flesh is something one partner is capable of giving to the other. More explicitly, and quite logically, they believe that since, as they have been told, a wife’s compliance is all that a husband needs to obtain the “excitement: he wants, she should have the right to expect him to do the same for her. Unfortunately, the coin is counterfeit. In a continuing relationship pleasures of the flesh-as-service rarely leads to sustained enjoyment and is very unlikely to bring a woman the fulfillment she desires. It is no different for the man. Contrary to one of the most widespread of all conceptions involving intimate passions, the fact is that pleasures of the flesh-as-service has failed to reward most men with the erotic gratification they anticipated. It has failed because it is based on fallacy—the notion that the male animal is biologically endowed to function sexually at will as long as he has a female at his disposition. And regardless of whether she is eager, indifferent or even reluctant to accommodate him, and regardless of whether she participates actively or passively, he will have the pleasure he wants. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

This is a myth, one of the most deceptive and destructive ever to dominate the intimate lives of men and women. Many a man has married believing the myth and convinced that as long as his wife accepts him whenever he chooses to have pleasures of the flesh, he will be satisfied and their relationship with pleasures of the flesh will be rewarding. Sooner or later, however, and more often sooner than later, he learns that he was wrong. Even though his wife may willingly remain available, if all she does, or all she is permitted to do by the moral codes that govern their lives, is to receive him without responding, his satisfactions eventually fade and so does desire. Availability is not enough. This truth is reflected in the crude and hostile jokes of men, such as the complaint that “the two most overrated things in this country are home cooking and home loving.” It is reflected in the dismal number of husbands who function poorly in the marriage bed or do not function there at all. And it is directly confirmed by the testimony of those men who seek professional help with problems involving pleasures of the flesh. If a husband is to perform effectively over the years, what these men must learn is that he requires more of his wife than that she merely be compliant. No matter how the feelings are communicated, a man no less than a woman wishes to believe that his marriage partner values him and needs him and desires him. To the extent that his wife makes him aware that she sees him as an individual and is emotionally committed to him—not just economically dependent—she fortifies his esteem. And it is this pride in himself both as an individual and as a man that he expresses with vigour in the union involving pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

If asked, she may well say that the woman’s role is to yield to her husband whenever he desires her; and he may insist that he expects his wife to be willing. They may say that and even believe it, echoing old codes fashioned out of the double standard—but their marriage is in fact a contradiction of what they say. They are not living on the basis of services duly rendered. The wife is not a servant in the home, not in the kitchen or in the bedroom. The husband is not her employer, who gets only what he pays for and must pay for whatever he wants. Their relationship involving pleasures of the flesh mirrors their personal relationship, in which each is responsive to the other’s wishes, each takes pleasure in pleasing the other and each values having the respect of the other. Since emotionally stable human beings are not split personalities, how they feel about each other and how they act toward each other is essentially no different at night from what it is by day. However, the yearning of a young wide today for greater physical fulfillment than she now experiences is certainly understandable. In these transitional times, when society is slowly but inevitably learning to honour the intimate passions of the female as it has always honoured that of the male, women’s changing expectations can be satisfied only by those men who are capable of changing their attitudes and who want to change them. They are unlikely to be motivated by a sense of obligation. Even if he wants to oblige, any wife who lets her husband know that she feels “entitled” to a climax during pleasures of the flesh and expects him to bring it about may find that he will probably fail more often than not. And the more emotional pressure she exerts on him, the less physical pleasure she is likely to experience. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

She will be learning the same lesson that men are beginning slowly to comprehend: pleasures of the flesh-as-service does not produce the desired pleasure. The mistake men made was to think of the female as a receptable. The mistake women must avoid making is to think of the male as an instrument—for she risks paying a greater penalty for her error. While a man with an unresponsive woman may still manage to secure a release of tensions during pleasures of the flesh, a woman with an unresponsive man can expect only greater tension, because his impotence will increase her frustration. If flipping the coin to the other side is no solution, if pleasures of the flesh-as-service is even more self-defeating a principle for how the female, how, then, can a sexually emancipated woman succeed in securing the fulfillment that is her birthright? In the same way—the only way—the male can secure his own birthright: together with a partner who is committed to the principle of mutual pleasure. More is required, of course, than simply having the right outlook, but it is indispensable as a starting point. To translate the wish and the will into the achievement, however, involves both husband and wife in the negotiation of their differences on the basis of genuine equality. As equals they accept responsibility for mutual cooperation in the bedroom and for mutual creation of the emotional environment needed for the relations involving pleasures of the flesh. The term “with” implies mutual cooperation, just as the terms “to” or “for” carry the connotation of active-versus-passive roles with intimate passions. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

Perhaps the best means of encouraging mutual cooperation consists of communicating one’s needs for pleasures of the flesh confidently and openly to one’s partner. Free flow of both verbal and nonverbal communication between cooperating partners of pleasures of the flesh is the cornerstone of effective functioning with intimate passions. In essence, accepting responsibility in pleasures of the flesh means informing and cooperating: one partner must never presume knowledge or attempt to control the other partner’s needs for pleasures of the flesh. Conversely, mutual cooperation also includes the necessity of an ear constantly attuned to a partner’s expression of interest with pleasures of the flesh. If one’s own reception of the message is confused or prejudiced, it matters little how clearly a partner sends a message of need for pleasures of the flesh. The willingness to send and receive is as vital in communication with pleasures of the flesh as in any other kind of communication. Each partner is responsible for pleasures of the flesh and for keeping both capacities in good working order. In recent years, there has been a more social interpretation of responsibility with pleasures of the flesh that bears at least passing scrutiny: that of responsibility for conception. The sense of commitment between partners does not end with their mutual concern for the pleasures of intimate passions but carries over to include their mutual obligation in exercising control of conception or accepting responsibility for the results of their union—pregnancy. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

The introduction of contraceptive information into our culture approximately forty years ago helped to liberate the woman from her role as sexual servant. Whether one is committed to the contraceptive technique of “rhythm” or to that of the “pill,” or to any step in-between, sexual parity would never have been possible without the opportunity that contraceptive knowledge alone provides for both genders to assume full responsibility for every potential interaction of pleasures of the flesh. Therefore, responsibility for pleasures of the flesh has a twofold implication in today’s World. Primarily, we are responsible only for ourselves in our commitments to pleasures of the flesh, for full communication of our wants from pleasures of the flesh and, subsequently, for physical expression of our drives for intimate passions. Also, we are committed to remaining fully attuned to partner communication and to the cooperation necessary to enable one’s partner to satisfy his or her needs for intimate passions. Secondarily, our responsibility for pleasures of the flesh extends not only to full obligation for pregnancy, but to adequate control of conception. The potential rewards from parity of roles involving pleasures of the flesh are limitless. For a man, alleviation of the fears of performance during pleasures of the flesh were so ingrained in his socially assigned role of doing to or for his wife, inevitably will be of major consequence to his functioning during pleasures of the flesh. And freedom to be and do during pleasures of the flesh as a full partner will immeasurably improve the quality of a woman’s expression during intimate passions. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

However, the largest dividend will come to the culture. No longer will pleasures of the flesh be accepted as a thing apart, an isolated entity, a sexist privilege or an exploitable commodity. With each individual assuming responsibility for himself or herself alone, pleasures of the flesh will finally be returned to the only position for which it can be viewed with comfort, and experienced with reliable fulfillment—that of a natural function. When we try to escape from pass patterns that are unhealthy, it is extremely difficult to change. In the process of emergence, a man becomes horrified by the cruelty which is a kind of killing, that is done through ignorance. It shocks several men that they have been a part of this cruelty and that to a degree they still are. At first, this is so terrible to many that it seems unbearable—like pain going on and on until it reaches the point of explosion. Men fear this exploding in themselves—complete disruption—chaos. How could he live with his knowing? It seems to men that perhaps it was better to be ignorant, and they try desperately to shut out what they knew (was seeing for himself). “The truth shall make ye free, but first it shall make ye miserable.” However, in spite of a man’s desperation, his strongest efforts in that direction seem to be feeble: he has gone too far to turn back. His own tide is sweeping in on him. What could he do? What could one small man do against massive ignorance which he had only recently begun to get free of himself? He feels the way many politicians feel about corruption in America. “I am never going to be able to change America.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

However, there is always something a man can do. He can be his mind into the immediate present, and to the realm in which he can be active, and let himself act. That is, let himself be responsive. He can let himself be responsive. He can accept his own limitations, and do not try to do what he cannot do. Even if he is only trying to figure out how he can do it, to try to do what he cannot (in the literal sense) fills a man with frustration. This last, in fact, can so paralyze a man that he cannot do eve what he can. To further highlight this illustration, when the Navajos were in great distress all over their nation (it is that to them), what I could do seemed so little so utterly futile, that I got caught in “What is the use of doing anything?” A drop of water in a sieve. This was not exaggeration. In point of fact, when the government got around to distributing a couple of million dollars among the Navajos, it came to about $30 a person—to people who needed shoes, blankets and food, and were already in debt to the trader. Their food was pitiful. A blow of mush, and picking the tiny bits of meat still clinging to lamb bones after the rest had been eaten was a meal. In the cold harsh winter, they slept in their hogans with only a sheepskin between them and the ground. They had not only the winter to contend with, but also us. We had reduced their sheep to prevent overgrazing and then blizzards decimated those which we had permitted them to keep. We had imposed on them a senseless World which had no meaning to them. When a Navajo caught some horses on Wild Horse Mesa, the government branding inspector refused to brand then because there was no bill of sale. And still, they never lost their sensing of humour of it. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

One Navajo said, with recognition completely free of malice, “Oh, if we could run the white man’s world for three days, what a mess we would make of it!” Former President Obama said the same thing, and you see how that has turned out to be a complete mess. Successive Commissioners of Indian Affairs, each with his own values, had imposed these values on the Navajos. During one commissioner’s term, education was most important. During another’s health was most important. Under one commissioner, it was most important to send the children off the reservation to school. Under another, it was most important to keep the children in school on the reservation. The Navajos were “sold” on these and so many other changing values that when one of their own young men came back from theology school, and wished to help them, they told him, “We are sorry. We like you, and we would like to do as you say, but there is no more room in the head.” What could I do? I could be human. Real human. If people from another culture were in power and insisted that I must adopt their ways without question, that everything I believed and lived for was wrong, and then one person from the race listened to me, understood my World and let it be, how would I feel? I could stand beside a Navajo who did not know English, while I knew no Navajo, and share his feeling-World with him. When I did this, I had the feeling of increased strength in me, and it seemed to me that there was this increase in him, too. I could sit with a Navajo woman whose infant had been run over by the wheel of a cart. She sat on the Earth floor of the hogan with the infant on her lap. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

The infant’s thigh was so bloated that it seemed to belong to a pig rather than an infant. The wound gaped so that you could look right into the distorted flesh. The child suffered silently. The mother suffered silently. I could join this silent suffering and share it, not giving advice because what advice was there to give? Somehow this silent sharing eases pain. It seems unlikely that an infant could take part in this and yet, when we are disturbed does not this affect the infant? So why should it not affect the infant too that mother and visitor knew this quiet in themselves? “And I know that these moments of real relationship with these real persons have been the essential reward…” When I was in the hospital dying very rapidly—I could feel so much less life in me each day—all my success and mu failure seemed to cancel out. It was the same with the good that I had done and the bad that I had done. They canceled out. What was left—all that was left—was the wordless resonance, a feeling of love that was universe-al, a kind of singing intelligence that was universe-al too, that knew all and was undismayed. That was all that was left—and that was all that I had ever wanted. I was sad, with water in my eyes for all the not-living that I had done. Mortals live dependent one upon another. In your everyday life, you face a continuing dilemma. On the other hand, you are constantly admonished to “act like an adult, stand on your own two feet,” and be independent. On the other hand is the reality of modern society, a situation in which you are dependent upon many people for your most basic needs. How do you handle that? If you are someone who has really gotten stuck on the dependency polarity, you have never learned to stand on your own two feet when dealing with others. You have never learned to become an adult in the sense of giving up a measure of external support and substituting it with self-support. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

As such, you may feel resentful a lot of the time because you constantly depend on others who no longer want to give in to you. You may have made up your mind that being self-reliant is something you are capable of, yet you lack whatever it takes to become self-reliant. If you are a master in this area, you have grasped the idea of interdependence, which means nothing more than this: Sometimes you are independent of others and sometimes you are dependent on them. On occasion, the switch between the two is so rapid, it is hard to tell the difference—and the difference does not matter. Life becomes a constant dance between independence and dependence, with each person being a person in his or her own right, not needing to push others or be pushed around by them. Mastery comes when you acknowledge dependency has a place in your life along with control. In doing that, you learn to “be with” other people rather than “do to” them. All culture is family culture, things learned as a knee baby. Details and techniques may be learned outside the home, but their value is determined by the family. The script analyst foes to the heart of the matter with a single pointed question: “What did your family talk about at the dinner table?” By this he hopes to ascertain the subject matter, which may or may not be important, and also the kinds of transactions which took place, which is always important. Some child-and-family therapists even have themselves invited to dinner at the patient’s house, with the idea that this is the best way to get the greatest amount of reliable information in a short time. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

One of the script analyst’s slogans is, or should be, “Think sphincter!” Dr. Freud and Dr. Abraham were the first to elaborate the idea that character structure centers around bodily orifices. Both games and scripts do likewise, and the physiological signs and symptoms which form an important feature of every game and script usually center around a particular orifice or sphincter. The family culture, as shown at the dinner table, tends to revolve around the “family sphincter,” and knowing which is the family’s favourtie is a great help in treating the patient. The four external sphincters concerned are the oral, the anal, the urethral, and the vaginal, and perhaps more important are the internal sphincters related to these. There is also an illusory sphincter which may be called, as it is in psychoanalysis, the cloacal. Although the mouth does have its own external sphincter, the Orbicularis oris, that is not usually the muscle “oral” families are concerned with, although some do have a motto, “Keep your mouth shut.” What “oral” families mainly talk about is food, and the sphincters chiefly concerned are those of the throat, stomach, and duodenum. Thus, oral families are typically diet faddiests and stomach worries, and those are the subjects they talk about at dinner. “Hysterical” members of such families have spasms of the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum, or, conversely, they throw up or have fears of throwing up. The anus is the sphincter par excellence. Anal families talk about bowel movements, laxatives, and enemas, or the more aristocratic colonic irrigations (consult your doctor before manipulating the normal cycle of your bowels). #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

Life for them is a round of poisonous matter that has to be got rid of promptly at any cost. They are fascinated by intestinal products, and proud of themselves or their children when these are large and firm and shapely. Diarrhea is judged by its copiousness, while mucous or bloody ulcerative colitis is of eternal interest and can be word with an air of modest distinction. The whole culture merges with sexuality (or anti-sexuality) in the motto “Keep a tight a** hole or you will get screwed.” This means keep a poker face as well, and the philosophy may pay off in making money. We are not capable of experiencing guilt until we have formed a conscience. Young children, prior to the internalization of their parents’ moral expectations, may experience fear of punishment for misdeeds, but this is not guilt. Guilt is the experience of self-loathing that arises when persons transgress their own moral principles. It can be so powerful an emotion that guilt-ridden persons may kill themselves rather than endure the onslaught of self-hatred. Common occasions for guilt include hurting another person, stealing, violating one’s own sexual morality, or cheating in examinations. A distinction can be drawn between guilt that arises from the violation of moral taboos that one truly has outgrown and existential or humanistic guilt, which arises when persons have diminished the quality and possibility of life for themselves and others. Dr. Maslow calls the former silly guilt, as in instances when an adult engages in masturbation and feels a catastrophic loss of self-esteem for what is properly viewed as harmless solitary sport. Existential guilt is illustrated by the failure to respond to a call for help or the failure to fulfill one’s own possibilities through lack of nerve. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

Existential guilt, a phenomenon of the psychological realm, is also sometimes seen as a constructive analogue of pain in the physical realm. Guilt helps you to determine when something is wrong with your behaviour and, like physical pain, provides an early warning system of something that must be corrected in the self. The capacity for existential guilt is an achievement; of course, the most life-giving response to such guilt is to make restitution and to seek then to live in conformity with one’s ideals. Too many people use their voices to hinder what is good in their own character, or even to despoil it, instead of using them as instruments of service. How pitiful to see so many employ their tongues in empty chatter and idle gossip for most of their lifetimes! When anyone becomes a quester, this matter may no longer be ignored. Jesus Christ did state that to self-discipline oneself, it is essential to “Abstain from foolish talk and harsh speech.” Since no utterance can be recalled into the silence whence it came, the quester will be more than ordinarily scrupulous about all his utterances. This does not mean that he is to abjure all trivial talk, certainly not at all humorous talk, but it does mean that he is to bring some degree of discipline to bear upon his vocal activity. He will not, for instance, waste time in uncharitably analysing the character of others when no business in which he and they are involved really calls for analysis at all, let alone the backbiting uncharitable kind. This practice of criticism and slander is a common one and is often the result of the habit of gossiping. It helps no one but hurts everyone—the speaker, the persons spoken about and those who readily listen to condemnatory gossip. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

He must attend to his own life, even to the extent of often refraining from talking about other persons. If this calls for a quality of generosity it, is he who will be the gainer in the end. If he cannot say anything good about a person, he will prefer to say nothing at all. If he cannot praise, he will practise silence. And if the situation is one where doing that would ultimately lead to a worse result, then he will criticize helpfully and entirely constructively, not condemn hatefully. If he finds it necessary to be outspoken, he avoids making personal attacks. Sometimes it may be needful to speak sharply, to utter words which may be odious to the other man’s ego but necessary to his welfare. In those cases, however, he should first put himself in the calmest, quietest mood and second, speak in the kindest possible way. Is it not better to disagree gently with the other man without being disagreeable to him? When he hears someone filling speech with negative statements and there is no duty laid on him to correct them, he puts his mental attention elsewhere. Better still, he starts affirming and holding the positive ideas which counteract the other person’s remarks. If he practises the following exercise, it will help a quester overcome the fault of habitually speaking harsh words or occasionally speaking angry ones. Let him sit for meditation and think in turn of some of the persons whom he has offended in this way. Then, seeing the other person’s face and form before him, he is in imagination to speak with the utmost kindness in the one case or with the utmost calmness in the other. He may take any situation or incident which usually provokes his fault into expression. Let him do so with closed eyes and as vividly as he can bring them before his mind’s eye. Further, the discipline of speech requires him to pause momentarily but long enough to consider the effect his words will have on those who hear them. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

Too many people—and of course especially impulsive people—are too eager to speak before they are ready, or before their words are chosen. The quester tries to avoid using words without awareness of their meaning or responsibility for their effect. Nietzsche was a great, but controversial philosopher. His philosophy, undoubtedly, resolves around the problem of rebellion. More precisely, it begins y being a rebellion. However, we sense the change of position that Nietzsche makes. With him, rebellion begins with “God is dead,” which is assumed as an established fact; then it turns against everything that aims at falsely replacing the vanished deity and reflects dishonour on a World which doubtless has no direction but which remains nevertheless the only proving-ground of the gods. Contrary to the opinion of certain of his Chrisitan critics, Nietzsche did not form a project to kill God. He found Him dead in the soul of his contemporaries. He was the first to understand this rebellion on the part of men could not lead to a renaissance unless it was controlled and directed. Any other attitude toward it, whether regret or complacency, must lead to the apocalypse. Thus, Nietzsche did not formulate a philosophy of rebellion, but constructed a philosophy of rebellion. If he attacks Christianity in particular, it is only in so far as it represents morality. He always leaves intact the person of Jesus on the one hand, and on the other the cynical aspects of the Church. We know that, from the point of view of the connoisseur, he admired the Jesuits. “Basically,” he writes, “Only the God of morality is rejected.” #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

Christ, for Nietzsche as for Tolstoy, is not a rebel. The essence of His doctrine is summed up in total consent and in nonresistance to evil. Thou shalt not kill, even to prevent killing. The World must be accepted as it is, nothing must be added to its unhappiness, but you must consent to suffer personally from the evil it contains. The kingdom of Heaven is within our immediate reach. It is only an inner inclination which allows us to make our actions coincide with these principle and which can give us immediate salvation. Not faith but deeds—that, according to Nietzsche, is Christ’s message. From then on, the history of Christianity is nothing but a long betrayal of this message. The New Testament is already corrupted and from the time of Paul to the Councils, subservience to faith leads to the neglect of deeds. What is the profoundly correct addition made by Christianity to the message of its Master? The idea of judgment, completely foreign to the teachings of Christ, and the correlative notions of punishment and reward. From that moment nature becomes history, and significant history expressed by the idea of human totality is born. From the Annunciation until the last Judgment, humanity has no other task but to conform to the strictly moral ends of a narrative that has already been written. The only difference is that the characters, in the epilogue, separate themselves into the good and the bad. While Christ’s sole judgment consists in saying that the sins of nature are unimportant, historical Christianity makes nature the source of sin. “What does Christ deny? Everything that at present bears the name Christian.” #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

Christianity believes that it is fighting against nihilism because it gives the World a sense of direction, while it is really nihilist itself in so far as, by imposing an imaginary meaning on life, it prevents the discovery of its real meaning: “Every Church is a stone rolled onto the tomb of the man-god; it tries to prevent the resurrection by force.” Nietzsche’s paradoxical but significant conclusion is that God has been killed by Christianity, in that Christianity has secularized the sacred. Here we must understand historical Christianity and “its profound and contemptible duplicity.” During World War II. Mr. Hitler was approached by a committee of distinguished scientists from the Max Planck Institute and the Prague Pharmaceutical Laboratories, who proposed the theory that the Earth is hollow. Und zo, if we can find the entrance or punch a hole through to the interior, mein Gott, all sorts of new military adventures suggest themselves. We can pop up behind enemy lines and conquer the external surface. Whom controls the inner surface of a sphere controls the outer World. Heil Hitler! Heute Deutschland; Morgen das Inner-welt, morgen morgen das Extra-welt. This legend has been passed on, in print, by anti-Nazi agents to demonstrate the philosophy of Mr. Hitler. There is no hard data concerning whether der Feuhrer really did divert scientific energy—which could have supported atomic bomb-research or improved rocket-research—into inner-Earth exploration. However, let us assume that the legend is true, that Adolph did believe in an “inner-World” and did, indeed, initiate scientific inner-World-exploration. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

To make this assumption is to credit Mr. Hitler with considerable prophetic genius. Inner-World aspirations in 1935 clearly anticipated the Neurological Revolution of the 1960s, which sent over one hundred million America digging in psychic mole-holes, pursuing the vision of an inner-World rebirth. Heil, Werner Erhard. Who controls the inner surface of a sphere controls the outer World. Heil Hitler! Mr. Hitler, like many premature evolutes, inhabited a post-terrestrial set of realities. Total power in the context of Tibetan Buddhism obviously activated the self-indulgent and the self-actualized circuits in his nervous system. Mr. Hitler, however, made the same error that millions of naïve trippers made in the 1960s. He failed to understand that the very self-centered, post-hive consciousness that exhilarated him to messianic perception was also available to others. He was not informed that the self-actualized brain must include in its mapping the reality that other self-actualized, futique brains exist and are independently building neigbouring future plan-its. The hostility of the fanatic extremists has been aroused. We have to get them under control before the begin to throw around hand grenades and fire off machine guns, occupy public buildings, and generally threaten the community. It was a terrible mistake to eliminate the death penalty during a time of War and to leave the border wide open. The heroes who have volunteered to protect this country do not need threats of the death penalty. What it means to be American is being erased from the minds of our citizens, their fighting strength is becoming crippled, or as the privileged-class World would rightly say in such cases: “Water has been missed with the wine.” When this happens, indeed, the trees can no longer grow up to Heaven. The hostile, vile, and cowardly elements in this mass of the worst extreme is becoming dominant. Add to that the fact that no only has the best extreme group become thinned out on the battlefield in the most horrible way, in the last four years, but the worst group is protected in the most remarkable way. For every hero who protects America by their holy sacrifice of death, there is a wretched coward who very cautiously turned his back on his country. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to serving Sacramento by continuously improving with a culture that encourages innovation, professionals, and inclusion, while also preserving life and property. “We rolled into a big two-and-a-half frame, and we got a report there were people trapped up there. When we puled in, the fire was coming out three or four windows on the one side. I was forcible entry man, so I jumped off the truck, and not waiting to put on my Scottpac, I ran in the house and went up the stairs. Another fellow was with me. I opened the door at the top of the stairwell, and both of us were blown back down the stairs by the pressure of the heat and the heavy black smoke. I ran back to the truck, grabbed the Scott mask and just threw it on. I went back upstairs. There was no line in operation yet. I went in and started crawling around. I went into one of the rooms, and I heard a moan. I found this man lying there, Mr. Pops, a big black man, about six-two, weighing about 220. I couldn’t see him. All I could do was feel. I could also feel the heat. They still didn’t have a line in operation. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know which way to get out, because of the heavy smoke condition. The man was unconscious. I tried to lift him. I couldn’t life him. I grabbed him, put my arms under him, and started to drag him. I dragged him past the rooms that were on fire. The engine company got water, and they hit the fire from the outside, and they pushed it in. Not knowing where I was going, I had to drag this man through the fire. He got burned, and I got burned. I dragged him out to the second-floor porch. By the time I got him there, he wasn’t breathing. I took off my mask and put it on him; I put in on the bypass to give him a shot of air. He started to come to, then he went out again. One of the guys got there and started to give him mouth-to-mouth. The ambulance people came, they took him. I found out that on the way to the hospital he stopped breathing again. They brought him back. The same thing happened at the hospital. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

“Later on, I found out that the man had five operations, and he lived. He went down from 220 to 167 pounds. On Medal Day, he was there to present me my award. It made me feel good, because I saved a life. I saw quite a few people die in the North End. There was one fire where a mother and child died. I wanted to cry, because they were right by the window. Probably in the dark, they didn’t know where they were. All they had to do was lift up, and out the window they’d go. After the fire was out and they removed the bodies, you could see their outline on the parquet floors as if somebody took a pencil and drew the figures. Everything around them was soot except where they had lain. It even showed where the little baby’s foot was sticking out at the mother’s arm. Then there was a fire right down the street from the firehouse. It was a big two-and-a-half story frame house. We lost three people. Two guys dove out the window. One went head first. The was a war veteran. We tried our best to save them. I accept the deaths of the adults more than I do the children. The children get me more than anything. It takes a toll. Sometimes I think of my own children. What would happen if I lost one of them in a fire? I don’t know how I would handle it. I really don’t. Later on, there was another fire about six in the morning. I was on the truck company then, Ladder X. A second-floor fire, heavy smoke, heavy fire upon arrival. A report of two elderly women trapped in the apartment. I went up and made it to the apartment door, but I couldn’t get in without a line. The line came in finally and protected me. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

“I went past the fire to the back bedroom, got the woman, a sixty-year-old black woman. She wasn’t breathing. I slung her over my shoulder. They kept the line on the fire until I got back. I got her down to the street. They worked on her, and she lived. I feel fortunate about that. Sometimes you’re at the right place at the right time.” The Sacramento Fire Department strives to build a safer and more resilient Sacramento. Firefighters and EMT put their lives on the line every day, several times a day to provide the highest quality and highest level of courteous and responsive service possible. In an effort to keep the country cohesive, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ and buy American cars and other American goods and services. This is America, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Dodge, Buick, and Ford should the number one cars on the road. Instead of a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry, consider the Cadillac Celestio, or Dodge Charger, Or Chevy Malibu. Instead of the Lexus RX, consider the Ford Branco, the Mustang Mach E, Cadillac Lyriq, or a Buick Envision. These are just some examples. Americans make very fine cars and you will be supporting American workers and keeping your hard-earned money in America. You parents and grandparents and great grandparents will be proud of you for being patriotic and supporting the country they love. American cars are fiercely styled and spectacularly fast, they are purely emotional and indisputably American creatures that will make anyone proud to be from America and trust, it can make anyone happy when he or she is behind the wheel. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

Since the experience properly assimilated things the character with caution and the speech with reticence, even the right thing if said at an unpropitious time may too easily become the wrong thing. Please respect law and order, and treat others with kindness and respect. If the energy is often squandered in needless talking and trivial babble, the capacity to concentrate the mind on deeper levels becomes weakened. To ensure that you have a bright future, please take your education seriously, and be sure to actually read your books. Do not allow a single word to fall from your lips which does not fall in harmony with the ideal in your mind. Even the slightest deviation from this ideal may be followed by uneasiness. Speech brings down to the physical level, and so puts into swifter activity, what thought has initiated. To slight or large extent—depending on the individual power—it may be creative. Hence a person whose daily talk is mostly negative, filled with reports of dislikes and aversions, wrongs, evils, mishaps, and sickness is a person who is better avoided by those whose own inner weakness makes them susceptible to the influences carried by others. If evil things are falsely said about a person, he is neither to be surprised nor be annoyed. People see themselves in him, as in a mirror, and he must learn to accept what must needs be. Instead of feeling insulted or hurt, he should thank those who criticize him, for letting him see what may be true about himself and therefore need correcting. And remember to “Just Say ‘No’ to Drugs.” Even marijuana can be deadly. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesties above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on three, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea! O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stress, a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flow, confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law! O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea! God never gave us express allowance, only He gave us reason, charity, nature and good example to bear us out. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

The Winchester Mystery House

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the most festive of them all? 🎄✨

When it comes to cars that offer the ultimate driving experience, few brands can compete with BMW. Known for its precise engineering, powerful engines, and luxurious designs, BMW has earned a reputation as the best car ever engineered for driving enthusiasts. But what makes BMW stand out from the crowd? This article will explore the history, innovation, and unique features that have made BMW a favorite among those who truly love to drive.

He Puts You Back Together the Way He Thinks You Look Best

December 18, 2024 12:44 am

Happiness is a condition of the soul. This joyous state comes as a result of righteous living. However, as soon as we learned a little about sexual functioning, both male and female gender roles altered significantly; men assumed a different level of sexual responsibility, and women benefited not only from male role change but from the permissiveness the new knowledge about pleasures of the flesh brought to the marriage bed. Professionals (still predominately male, of course), slowly gaining confidence, began assuring the public that women not only had real feelings involving pleasures of the flesh and legitimate interest in intimate passions, but also could and should be enjoying the experience—something that millions of women (even “nice” women) could have revealed had they ever been asked and been assured that their answers would have been accepted. So, the knowledgeable man who married learned, instead of doing something to his wife in the bedroom, was now prepared to do something for his wife when it came to intimate passions. She was now allowed to respond to pleasures of the flesh—only on his terms, of course, but at least she had permission to respond. The culture had grudgingly consented to this change in statue. Women’s feelings involving pleasures of the flesh no longer need be hidden—or even apologized for—certainly no longer denied. However, responsibility involving pleasures of the flesh, of course, remained with the husband. He continued to be the arbiter, he became the coach, and he remained stage center in all matters involving pleasures of the flesh. Unfortunately, in the role od doing for rather than just doing to, he had to assumed even more responsibility for the pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 1 of 17

Women’s lot involving pleasures of the flesh improved; her role was no longer simply that of providing service. She had been granted a small part, actually more than a walk-on, in the scene of intimate passions. However, she was still expected to acknowledge her husband’s natural expertise in all things of intimate passions, particularly after he had granted her the privilege and pleasurable experience, which she expected. Of course, the husband’s burden involving pleasures of the flesh continued unrelieved, or perhaps became even heavier. For whether he was still doing something to his wife or had knowledgeably switched to doing something for his wife, he alone carried the responsibility for achieving success in the pleasures of the flesh. The social insanity of proclaiming the male the expert in pleasures of the flesh led many a man to his functional downfall. When things went wrong in the marriage bed, automatically the fault, the responsibility, was his. If he was prematurely excited, if he was important of if he had a low level of interest in pleasures of the flesh, he alone was to blame. If his wife was non-pleasurable, unable to be pleasured, or sexually aversive, he also assumed a major share of the blame. However, this degree of responsibility involving pleasures of the flesh was rarely accepted by men who culturally were condition in the role of “do-to” husbands; it developed, rather, as a corollary to the “do-for” concept. As time passed, woman’s role in pleasures of the flesh was amplified while men strained to fulfill their new responsibilities. And still, we did not prosper in pleasures of the flesh. No one needs to feel alone on the road of life, for we are all invited to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him. Happiness is the purpose of the gospel and the purpose of the redeeming Atonement of all men. Perseverance in making correct decisions is what leads us to happiness. Happiness comes as a result of our obedience and our courage in always doing the well of God, even in the most difficult circumstances. #RandolphHarris 2 of 17

How has responsibility involving pleasures of flesh fared in the last decade? Finally, the pendulum is swinging—woefully late—but, as always, better late…Has definitive research supplied sufficient knowledge of functioning of pleasures of the flesh to significantly alter cultural concepts of intimate roles and responsibilities? Are professionals taking new looks at old problems of both male and female sexual dysfunction? And are new answers to treatment of these dysfunctions available? Yes, fortunately. We cannot help but prosper from the recently accorded privilege of being able to evaluate human functions involving pleasures of the flesh as accurately and objectively as we are able to research and evaluate any other natural body function. Slowly, as secure information replaces palpable ignorance, misconception, or myth, our society is not only developing an infinitely greater comfort factor with the subject of functioning involving pleasures of the flesh, but we, as individuals, are growing from informed adolescence into more viable sexual adulthood. In the first quarter of the twenty first century, responsibility involving pleasures of the flesh is being assumed by the individual—man and woman alike—never again to be assigned to one gender. For now we know that there is no way that a man can be responsible for a woman’s pleasures of the flesh functioning, nor can she assume control over his response patterns of pleasures of the flesh. In truth, there is no way that a man can “give” his wife “excitement,” or that a wife can provide her husband with a climax. There simply is no way that one individual can assume responsibility for another’s natural physical process. We cannot breathe for the other person, we cannot eat for the other person, and we cannot respond during pleasures of the flesh for the other person. #RandolphHarris 3 of 17

Effective functioning involving pleasures of the flesh is something that transpires between to married people. To be effective it must be done together. It is something that sexually functioning couples do with each other, not to or for each other. So woman’s role in pleasures of the flesh has accomplished a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn—from that of submissive servant to an equal in intimacy, all in the last ten to twenty years. There remains only for her to explore and exercise this potential and for her intimate partner to share in her experience. While she is beginning to do so, it is not surprising to find that her initial attempts are often still grounded in the old assumptions. For example, although we lack conclusive statistics, there is little doubt that when a married is jeopardized by conflicts involving pleasures of the flesh, in the vast majority of cases it is the wide who seeks counseling. She may go at her husband’s urging or with his agreement or perhaps without his knowledge. However, in any event, the implicit assumption seems clear: if pleasures of the flesh is a problem in marriage, it is the wife who needs help. So widespread and deeply rooted is this assumption that it goes unquestioned by most women. As a result, they all too often accept—or even volunteer for—the role of scapegoat. More than once couples have come to our clinic for therapy on the basis of the wife’s inability to experience “excitement,’ genuinely unaware that there is one important factor they are not taking into consideration—the husband’s incapacity in pleasures of the flesh. For example, if in fact it is not the basic cause, he may suffer from premature “excitement,” which at the very least contributes to his wife’s unresponsiveness. However, when first seeking help, they will have no doubt that it is the wife who requires treatment. #RandolphHarris 4 of 17

This traditional attitude sustains the male in a heads-I-win, tails-you-lose approach to disharmony with pleasures of the flesh. If he is important, his wife worries: “What is wrong with me?” And if she is non-“excitable,” he wonders: “What is wrong with her?” He then sends her off to a family doctor or psychiatrist and hopes she will come back “fixed.” This approach is doubly regrettable. For one thing, it is almost certainly doomed to fail. A wife cannot be treated for a malady that afflicts the marriage relationship itself, any more than she can go for lessons herself to learn how to dance with her husband—who is not very graceful, cannot keep time and has never enjoyed dancing. For another thing, therapy for the wife alone will not only fail to solve the problem but will probably make it worse. After all, once the doctor or counselor has conscientiously dispensed advice and the marital relationship remains unchanged, how can a wife avoid feeling that she is a total failure, a hopeless case? This further erodes her self-esteem. Consequently, there is less chance than ever that she and her husband can overcome their disharmony with pleasures of the flesh. The destructiveness goes even deeper. When a wife alone seeks help, she is conforming to the prevalent idea that the female role is to learn how to gratify the male. She is expected to adapt herself, sublimate her wishes, inhibit her desires or even distort her natural drives so that she can please a man who will therefore choose her, or keep her, as his mate. In the drama of life, it is only as his mate that she can play the most rewarding parts that her society assigns to females—those of wife and mother. #RandolphHarris 5 of 17

To play these parts many women have paid the required price—the suppression of their nature that involves intimate passions. This price, it becomes increasingly clear, is exorbitant. It leads to pleasures of the flesh bankruptcy in many marriages, and both husband and wife understandably feel cheated. Ironically, their dissatisfaction flows directly from the very principle that was supposed to bring them the rewards of pleasures of the flesh—the idea that if a young lady obeyed society’s strictures and learned to accommodate herself to the male, both would benefit in the marriage. In effect, this turns a woman into a puppet, a term the dictionary defines as “a person whose actions are prompted and controlled by another or others.” Certainly, in the past women were trained to be sexual marionettes. However, many men today belatedly realize that being married to a female puppet is not at all what they want. The responsive, fully functioning man wants a responsive, fully functioning wife—a woman who has discovered her natural capacity for pleasures of the flesh and who enjoys it. Yes, we find happiness in the midst of the trial of our faith. The Lord manifest Himself to us through His tender mercies, which we find along the road of happiness. We see with increased clarity His hand in our lives. Happiness is a condition of the soul. This joyous state comes as a result of righteous living. If we pursue the path that leads to it, happiness is the object and design of our existence; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. Happiness is defined in the Book of Mormon by the prophet-king Benjamin as “the blessed and happy state of those [that] keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual. #RandolphHarris 6 of 17

Some people believe that therapy is not psycho (soul) therapy but manipulation into phoniness. One friend of mine who was psychoanalyzed five times between the ages of 17 and 53 told me, “Each psychiatrist takes you all apart and lays out all the pieces on his desk. Then he puts you back together the way that he thinks you look best.” Another who was a patient in an army psychiatric hospital for two years said, “Psychiatry is a shoehorn to get you into a shoe that does not fit.” That is the old way (prevalent, though with the exceptions). Psychotherapy seems to me to be one of the most moving (on the move, and in the direction of sensitivity and humanness) fields of work that we have today—in contrast, say, to education, philosophy, medicine, and academic psychology. I have heard of many of the “old guard” who have modified their view in recent years, and moved in the direction of “adjustment to myself” psychology (or autonomy) and of none working in self-psychology who have left it for the “adjustment to society” way. I do not know how many are working at this time in one way, how many in the other. It is not necessary for me to know this. The process is still the same as it was during the past whether it is within a profession or within myself: whatever rigidities I still have from the past are unfortunate and I regret them, but my living is the direction of breaking them up and being more me—less of what I have been taught or told or have heard so much that it has become a part of me, and more of my own direct observation, my own noticing, past and present, and moving in my own direction. When I am aware of this in myself, I can recognize it in others too and unite with their movement—what is going on now—rather than conflict or collide with what they have not got rid of yet. Or more precisely, not letting what I have not got rid of yet collide with what they have not got rid of yet. Or as one psychologist told me when I chided him mildly for making statements which were his training and were not in accord with what he had discovered for himself, “I have broken out of the shell, but bits of it are still clinging to my feet.” I had thought of myself as having got (largely) out of the mud but it was still sticking to my heels no matter how much I tried to shake it off. #RandolphHarris 7 of 17

In the process of change, a concept passes over into and is preserved and fulfilled by its opposite. Then the two are synthesized or integrated into a “higher truth.” People have a need for synthesis or integration in order to revise mistaken beliefs or unhealthy attitudes which you use to evaluate life. These views are what I call “unipolar,” that is, you hold them as singular truths without having an awareness that an opposite attitude exists as well. The important things to realize is that by stating the opposite to your original attitude, then thinking it through, you can come to a new “truth” which is more exciting than the opposite. To further highlight this illustration, Integration: “Life is difficult, but it is exciting.” Thesis: “Life is one damn thing after another.” Antithesis: “Where there is a will, there is a way.” I believe that integrating experience is a most important tool for understanding and ordering our lives. In my work as a psychotherapist, I have seen many people who view life as a sequence of unrelated experiences. They make no attempt to understand that life does have patterns, which if they can use them, can help in synthesizing or integrating their experiences. We can apply this theory to experiences which happen early in life and determine how experiences in later life can balance them to create a new synthesis. For example, a thesis experience could develop from a child’s feeling weak and not loved by a parent. This could generalize to the point where the person says to himself, “People [not just parents] do not like me when I am weak; therefore I must always act strong.” This way, the person develops the thesis assumption that he must always act strong (a doing orientation) rather than admit to his genuine feelings which are that sometimes he really feels weak or vulnerable (a being orientation). #RandolphHarris 8 of 17

Let us say that as an adult, this person goes to group therapy and talks of his feeling vulnerable and weak. He feels the love and caring of the group in spite of his admission of weakness. Eventually, his thesis assumption is re-evaluated and he develops an antithesis assumption, like: “It is okay for me to be vulnerable and weak; people love me then also.” From the integration of the two, he develops a synthesis conclusion: “Life is ever-changing, and it is okay to be strong or weak, as long as I really feel that way inside, but it is phony to be something I am not.” Sometimes people are plate to arrive at some synthesis conclusion with regard to his or her dominate value, which is usually control. Some men are able to see that, as the owner of a business, he needs to be in control while as a man with heart trouble, he needs to depend on the doctor—allowing himself to be restrained, directed, managed, even dictated to. Neither situation, however, is one of total control or total dependency. In business, he can be controlling sometimes, while at other times surrender control to a competent secretary, who may have better ideas for running the business. Nor does he have to slavishly and unquestioningly submit to the will of his doctor in all situations. He can say, “No, I will not do that. It is my body; I have a right to some choice in what is done with it.” The key in both cases is to respect everyone’s view. Out of the expression of both polar values—dependency and control—men are learning to become interdependent, the synthesis which occurs at his core. We all have this need for interdependence, and to fill this need, we must also experience the synthesis of our opposite values. We must become masters of all our polarities. When a man learns to give in a little, to admit that the customer is right, he will usually improve his business. Having learned to listen to different points of view, some men are not as quick to argue and can make some new friends. #RandolphHarris 9 of 17

However, this is not an overnight process, it takes a long time to learn new skills. Some men may still be bitter with their parents, and they still may not be able to develop a lasting relationship with a woman. Their health conditions may not improve very much because he may continue to balk at some of the doctor’s orders. However, overall, a man who goes to therapy and church usually will not be as interested in winning as he is in finding the truth—even if it is somebody else’s. The American gene pool sprayed sperm from 20 million testicles around the globe—the fastest, largest genetic experiment in planet history. The so-called “war effort” performing the genetic function of mixing up sperm-egg exchanges in addition to the cultural interactions—the new imprint models imposed on youthful nervous systems of both invaders and the invaded. And that is what globalization and giving billions of dollars away to other nations is all about. One day, Uncle Sam will come calling for the bill to be paid, and thus, Manifest Destiny will be achieved. When American G.I.’s rode into German towns astride sleek-powerful military machines an irreversible impression was made upon the impressionable German minds. In the context of the all-out hive-war solidarity it was considered an honour for physicists like Einstein and Fermi to make bombs, and for psychologists like B.F. Skinner and Harry Murray to offer their services to do secret work for the OSS-CIA. When we examine the system of rebellion, we come to see that Nietzsche’s first step is to accept what he knows. Atheism for him goes without saying and is “contrastive and radical.” Nietzsche’s supreme vocation, so he says, is to provoke a kind of crisis and a final decision about the problem of atheism. The World continues on its course at random and there is nothing final about it. Thus, God is useless, since He wants nothing in particular. If He wanted something—and here we recognize the traditional formulation of the problem of evil—He would have to assume the responsibility for “a sum total of pain and inconsistency which would debase the entire value of being born.” #RandolphHarris 10 of 17

We know that Nietzsche was publicly envious Stendahl’s epigram: “The only excuse for God is that he does not exist.” Deprived of the divine will, the World is equally deprived of unity and finality. That is why it is impossible to pass judgment on the World. Any attempt to apply a standard of values to the World leads finally to a slander on life. Judgments are based on what is, with reference to what should be—the kingdom of Heaven, eternal concepts, or moral imperatives. However, what should be does not exist; and this World cannot be judged in the name of nothing. “The advantages of our times: nothing is true, everything is permitted.” These magnificent or ironic formulas which are echoed by thousands of others, at least suffice to demonstrate that Nietzsche accepts the entire burden of nihilism and rebellion. In his somewhat puerile reflections on “training and selection” he even formulated the extreme logic of nihilistic reasoning: “Problem: by what means could we obtain a strict form of complete and contagious nihilism which would teach and practice, with complete scientific awareness, voluntary death?” However, Nietzsche enlists values in the cause of nihilism which, traditionally, have been considered as restraints on nihilism—principally morality. Moral conduct, as explained by Socrates, or as recommended by Christianity, is in itself a sign of decadence. It wants to substitute the mere shadow of a man for a man of flesh and blood. It condemns the universe of passion and emotion in the name of an entirely imaginary World of harmony. If nihilism is the inability to believe, then its most serious symptom is not found in atheism, but in the inability to believe in what is, to see what is happening, and to live life as it is offered. This infirmity is at the root of all idealism. #RandolphHarris 11 of 17

Morality has no faith in the World. For Nietzsche, real morality cannot be separated from lucidity. He is severe on the “calumniators of the World” because he discerns in the calumny a shameful tastes for evasion. Traditional morality, for him, is only a special type of immorality. “It is virtue,” he says, “which has need of justification.” And again: “It is for moral reasons that good, one day, will cease to be done.” The quality of consciousness is affected by the way we live. Food, hygiene, surroundings, personal habits, speech, manners, and auric atmosphere should be in harmony with the spiritual ideal—that is, sattvik. Put these qualities in opposition and the truth about them becomes plain enough. Vulgarity contributes nothing to spirituality, but refinement gives much. If high birth or much wealth makes a man arrogant or snobbish, h would not come under the philosophic classification of “gentleman” whatever his society declares. Whoever love the Ideal must expunge coarse language and obscene words from his personal speech, still more from prose writing offered to the public, and most of all from finely felt and shaped poetry. Not to stray from the truth is a prescription which is more important than it seems, whether in speech or writing. However, in the activities of those seriously set on the higher life, it is even more important. The divorce from outer expression affects the man’s inner invisible psyche and harms it. As a sequel it distorts what he believes to be true. The consequences are deplorable. Discipline of speech. It requires great tact and great wisdom to talk frankly and give someone constructive criticism or make needed correction without hurting him. However, even if both are absent, great love will achieve the same result. The fact that people feel they must speak constantly, talking to each other whenever they are together, is simply an outer sign of their inner restlessness, of their inability to control the activity of thought. That is to say, it is a sign of their weakness. #RandolphHarris 12 of 17

Discipline of speech. When a man has this feeling of inner harmony, it leads to a harmonious attitude toward all others. He suffers no nervous tension with them. He can sit, unspeaking, unplagued by tacit suggestions from society to break into his mind’s stillness with trivial talk, useless chatter, or malicious gossip. In many men, silence in conversation may betray their nervousness which is a form of inner weakness. However, in the self-actualized Christian, such silence is on the contrary a form of inners strength. Discipline of speech. The man who, in his speech, has no reverence for fact, is unlikely to find truth. He is friendly without becoming familiar, brief in speech without becoming discourteous. It is better for him to have a reputation for taciturnity than to ne so intimidated by the crowd as to conduct himself and conform his speech to common, shallow, obvious, and vulgar ways. There is an interchange of trivialities which too often passes for conversation which is both a waste of time and a degradation of speech. If he cannot say what he means, he should act on the principle that he should say nothing. Those who must speak of their emotional distresses or irritating problems, their misfortunes or disagreeable illnesses, should learn something from the Mormon attitude and at least do so with a smile. By the end of this phase, something else has come into full flower, something which answers the question: “If you cannot talk straight and tell it like it is, what is the most comfortable way to be cooked?” Everything Jeder has learned form his parents, his teachers, his schoolmates, his friends, and his enemies, goes into answering this. The result is his persona. Dr. Jung defines the persona as an “ad hoc adopted attitude,” a mask which the person “knows corresponds with his conscious intentions, while it also meets with the requirements and opinions of his environment.” Thus, he “deceives others, and also often himself, as to his real character.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 17

It is then a social personality, and the social personalities of most people resemble the personality of a child of the latent period, about six to ten years of age. This is because the persona is indeed formed by outside influences and the child’s own decisions, at just that period. When he is on his social behaviour, good, tough, likeable, challenging, grown-up Jeder need not (though he may) come on as either Parent, Adult, or Child. Instead, he may behave like a grade school boy, adapting himself under the guidance of his Adult, and within Parental restrictions, to his social situation. This adaptation emerges as his persnoa, and that, too, fits in with his script. If he has a winning one, his persona will be attractive, and if a losing one, repulsive, except to his own kind. Often, it is modeled on his hero. If enough trading stamps can be collected to justify dropping the mask, the real Child is hidden behind the persona, and may lurk there watching for an opportunity to spring. The question to ask the patient here is: “What kind of person are you?” or better: “What do other people thing of you?” This may provoke anger in some people. The capacity to experience anger, like the ability to become afraid, is a biological endowment; presumably, it served the interests of the human survival as a species. The problem, however, is how to regulate anger, for it can lead to violence between people. Open violence makes family and community life impossible. Chronically, suppressed anger is a factor in the development of many psychosomatic illnesses, including peptic ulcers, high blood pressure, asthma, ulcerative colitis, and so on. Anger typically arises when someone or something enters one’s “territory” unbidden, and it arises when people het in the way of one’s projects. #RandolphHarris 14 of 17

Finally, it arises, in the form of moral indignation, when one sees people acting in ways that one profoundly feels are evil. Anger energizes a person for attack, just as fear energizes for flight. When persons are at war, their rage will serve them well, enabling them to fight without reserve. In everyday life, however, the recurrent provocation to anger or irritation, without the possibility of full expression of anger or escape from the provokers, undermines health and wellbeing. A person needs to find respite from nagging irritation and to find socially and personally acceptable ways to express accumulated anger. Violent exercise, such as in handball or tennis, is frequently helpful as a harmless way to express anger that cannot be expressed in other ways. Of course, the attainment of a more positive attitude toward life may reduce the frequency with which a person becomes angered. Very conservative people often become enraged at the appearance and actions of persons with a radically different life style, even to the point of wishing them to be imprisoned or killed; a broader perspective upon what is regarded as acceptable ways to be human certainly diminishes the anger of such persons. The problem with anger is to learn how to accept it as natural in oneself and to express it in nondestructive ways. One author, Israel Charny, regards marriage and family life, not as a haven of peace and happiness, though it can be that; rather he sees the relationship between husband and wife, and between parent and child, as a place to learn ways to reconcile differences and to deal with anger without destroying the persons with whom one is angry. George Bach has actually provided instructions to married people on ways to fight fairly and non-destructively with one another. #RandolphHarris 15 of 17

Perhaps the most constructive way of dealing with anger or rage is to “work through” the emotion, to understand why you feel that way and through your understanding to reduce the intensity of rage and even, under some circumstances, to have the rage and even, under some circumstances, to have the rage washed away by the flood of understanding. This can be done with a skilled counselor and always involves the person’s readiness to express fully his or her anger to the understanding helper. Being a firefighter requests one to have the skills of a counselor to deal with people in distress and suffering from life threatening circumstances. The Sacramento Fire Department is the oldest fire department in California, and represents over 175 years of dedicated and heroic service by professional firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs. The Sacramento Fire Department is an all-hazards department that provides fire suppression, emergency medical services (EMS) and special operations, which includes response to hazardous materials and technical rescue incidents. The Sacramento Fire Department protects over 100.1 square miles of land and a metropolitan area of 7 counties with nearly 3 million people. The Sacramento Fire Department is dedicated to providing quality customer service and achieving its mission: Strengthening community through a network of skilled professionals dedicated to saving lives and protecting property. “A guy got burned up in his bed. I was a nozzle man on the unit, and we pulled the line into the bedroom, which was fully involved. We climbed across a lot of things. When the fire was over and the investigator was on the scene, we found what was left of the body in the bed. #RandolphHarris 16 of 17

“It really had an effect on me. For about three days after that, I couldn’t sleep. I had never been sickened by an incident before, but that got to me. Then something happened that woke me up. At an apartment fire. The fire was upstairs, and when we were taking a tag line up, there was this guy coming down the stairs on crutches. He was one-legged. We went on with our search. I found a dog, which was still alive, and I came across a shoe. I also grabbed a leg, but I was so intent on the rescue, I didn’t know if it was part of a body or what. I came out with the shoe and the leg, and I’ll never forget it. This guy says, ‘There’s my leg.” So I rescued this guy’s leg and his shoe. I got a little ragging from the guys. I made a pretty picture, sitting there with this guy’s leg.” The Sacramento Fire Department also strives to sustain and improve the health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the citizens of Sacramento and to plan for the future development of the community. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember parents, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus, respect law and others, treat others with dignity and respect, and remind them of the importance of education. To help America survive the global recession and bring manufacturing jobs back to America and to get American wages at pace with inflation, it is important to buy America cars, American meat, American produce and other American made goods and services. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. Our Father, our King, be gracious unto us and answer us, for we are wanting in good deeds; deal with us in charity and lovingkindness, and please save us. #RandolphHarris 17 of 17

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November 23, 2024 3:33 am

Love can be really great and one of the most pleasant experiences in the World. However, people ask, “If God is all knowing and knows how much love can hurt, why would He allow us to experience heartbreak?” Well, there are many answers to this question. First of all, when we sin, it hurts God because He loves us. Therefore, we have to experience pain so we can learn not to sin, not to hurt God and not to hurt others. Also, if love was easy, then people would not cherish it, it would become more like lust, just a fleeting moment of joy. Additionally, people fall in love and get married so they can procreate. Because of that, love cannot always be pleasant and it does not always last because humans would overpopulate the Earth, and destroy ever other living species, including themselves. Day by day, God’s gracious love surrounds you, as a balm to soothe your troubled heart. When you pray to God, countless cares and worries that confound you fade away or quietly depart, for His heart is kind beyond all measure, and He comforts us as He knows best. Every day, with all its pain and pleasure, mingles tears with peace and rest. The Lord is every near you, granting loving mercies for each hour, and your care He gladly bears, and cheers you with His counsel pure and holy power. Do not fear for what may come tomorrow, though the path ahead you cannot see. God assures that in all joy or sorrow, as thy days, thy strength shall be. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24

God will help you rest in quiet consolation. The Lord will help you trust His promises. When you are faced with daily tribulation, God will help you find the strength to live His word. Then when toil and troubled find you, dear Lord will hold you steadfast in His powerful hand. Day by day, God’s strength will bear you kindly until you reach the promised land. The philosopher’s easy self-assurance and dignified serenity, as noticeable calamity as in prosperity, mark him as being in some mysterious manner superior to circumstances. He will always be a gentleman, but not in the narrow, formal sense of clinging to a code of etiquette which may become faulty the moment he crosses the border into another country, or which will certainly become falsified a thousand years hence. He will be a gentleman in the broader sense of behaving always with human dignity and kindly consideration towards all others who cross his path. That alone is true culture which refines taste, improves character, lifts standards, corrects behaviour, and teaches self-control. A refined taste, delicate and subtle, delighted by the harmonies, melodies, or beauties in Nature and art, offended by the grossness in man, can express itself socially and instinctively only through refined manners. If others lack this taste but for class reasons keep up the appearance of such manner, the outer social value is still present even when the inside is empty. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24

His general attitude in discussion or study should be unbiased and unprejudiced, his observation of men and their situations impersonal and serene. He must realize that small men cannot entertain large views, that he is called upon to be big enough to put aside his personal sympathies and antipathies at certain times. He must realize too that whilst a man’s mind moves at the low level of harsh prejudice or hot passion, it cannot possibly arrive at just conclusions. Before he can arrive at the truth of a highly controversial matter, he must detach himself from partisan feeling about it. Only in such inner silence can he think clearly and correctly about it. Where his criticism is directed against others, it should be the result of calm, impersonal reflection, not of emotional chagrin. This poised spirit will help him to avoid foolish extremes and dangerous rashness. He should not adopt a violent partisan spirit towards a problem or principle for he knows that such a spirit always obscures the truth. Instead, he should always calmly view all sides in a balanced way. It is because he himself holds no rigidly partisan view that the earnest philosophic student can see better than other people what is true and what is false in every partisan view. It is not often that all the truth lies on one side and all the falsehood on the other. His ethical attitude should be more tolerant and less unfriendly than the average, as his intellectual attitude should be more inclusive and less dogmatic. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24

He should refuse to imitate the irresponsible multitudes, with their surface judgement and facile condemnation. He should seek to understand and to respect the views of others; he should take the trouble to put himself in their place, to give an imaginative sympathy to their standpoint. He need not fall into the error of necessarily sharing them and may still stand on the intellectual foothold which he has secured. Although this attitude will more and more show itself in personal and social situations and in practical and general affairs as a matter of course according to his growth, it will also show itself in his spiritual life. The unprejudiced study and unbiased comparison of various systems of religions, metaphysics, mysticism, and ethics will be for him valuable parts of philosophic culture. He should be both willing and desirous to understand all of the chief points of view, all the leading variants of doctrine in these systems, but at the same time he will know his own mind and views. Even while he is seeking to know the minds and views of others, he should estimate how limited, how distorted, how falsified, or how large an aspect of truth each represents. He can do this with the help of the philosophic conception of truth, which lights up all these others, because it stands at the peak toward which they have climbed only a part of the way. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24

Tolerance and mutual accommodation are the ways of true spirituality. There is room in life for the other man’s opinion also. If he wishes, let him keep it so long as he refrains from forcing it upon us and so long as he himself does not preach or practise intolerance. His own experience of the ups and downs of life have combined to bring him to that belief; why should he not have it then? We may dislike it intensely but we must admit that from his standpoint he is right enough. When his experience broadens out and he sees life in larger perspective, be sure that he will change his opinion too. When his circumstances alter or his environment changes, he may learn how limited was his former view. When the long-drawn lesson of suffering or a thought-provoking book or powerful personality swings the balance of his mind in a new direction, he will desert his opinion or modify it. Meanwhile, let us set the World an example—and be tolerant. Those who give enough thought to behaving politely do so from different motives, some of which may be merely hypocritical, others the slavish following of blind custom, still others simple obedience to selfish interest; but there still remains the remnant who do so sincerely, honestly, because generous enough to consider the feelings of those persons they meet. The good manners prescribed for civilized living may have varied from century to century, or from continent to continent, but whatever their form, they represent that man in society must have some consideration for society, and not be utterly and selfishly indifferent to the effect of his conduct upon others. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24

If the he lacks self-respect, there is also the further point that he needs to be taught it to keep civilization from falling back to barbarism; so personal dignity and appearance, cleanliness and inoffensive speech are involved. At some point and place, whether in the home or at school or in society itself, the young have to learn, and to be trained, in acceptable manners. And this, not chiefly to improve their quality, which it does, nor decorate their behaviour, which it will, or even refine their speech, which it must, but because it lifts them up from being terrestrial to human being and thus contributes toward their spiritualization. It is really pretentious to give importance to politeness in behaviour in an age when the decay of manners is plainly visible? To those old enough to have seen better, the difference points up moral value of consideration for others in human society. During segregation in the United States of America, not only was it illegal for African Americans to marry European Americans, but African Americans also could not buy vanilla ice cream, which is why butter pecan is so popular. It is no man’s fault that he lacks breeding, but it is his own fault if he lacks the courtesy which comes from breeding or else is self-acquired. To become a fuller human being a man must acquire education and culture. Both he and his life will be enriched. However, unless he keeps humility, his egoism may grow too. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24

We may affirm the factuality of caste in nature without turning ourselves into snobs who adopt condescending airs and utter patronizing remarks to those they consider socially below them. We have to recognize the fact of caste in the development of the human species through successions of repeated Earthly embodiments. That which comes through inherited or acquired wealth is not necessarily the same, may be a mere shallow copy, an empty vessel. When caste comes with arrogance, and especially with cruel arrogance, be sure it is not a carry-over from past births. The same situation holds with refinement of nature, conduct, taste, manner, and speech. When it is real, inward, the quality shines through; but when it is artificial, contrived, outward, it comes with snobbishness, especially a proud snobbishness. The way we—that is, you and I—arrive at a state of being is through something I call effortless effort. It is not striving or doing or working at anything. It is the kind of non-effort John Hancock and his friends came in touch with when they stood up and said, “Hey, we are a free country.” It is the kind of non-effort that an expert swimmer comes in touch with when he relaxes and lets gravity and the skis carry him smoothly down the mountain. And it is the kind of non-effort that some men come in touch with by lying with their head in their mistresses’ lap and letting her stroke his hair. In those moments, these men are simply being men. He is not doing anything but being there. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24

Also, this mode of being does not diminish or preclude external achievement, success, or productivity. It enhances them. A superb example of a state of being where effort becomes effortless and the effortlessness becomes perfection is found in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Levin, a character closely resembling Tolstoy himself, is working with the less affluent, mowing grass in the fields. He “clicks” into a state of enhanced being: “He thought of nothing, wished for nothing, but not to be left behind the peasants, and to do his work as scythes, and saw before him Tit’s upright figure, mowing away, the crescent-shaped curve of the cut grass, the grass and flower heads slowly and rhythmically falling before the blade of his scythe, and ahead of him the end of the row, where would come the rest. Another row, and yet another row, followed—long rows and short rows, with good grass and with poor grass. Levin lost all sense of time, and could not have told whether it was late or early now. A change began to come over his work, which gave him immense satisfaction. In the midst of his toil there were moments during which he forgot what he was doing, and it came all easy to him, and at those same moments his row was almost as smooth and well-cut as Tit’s. But so soon as he recollected what he was doing, and began trying to do better he was at once conscious of all the difficulty of his task, and the row was badly mown.” #RandolphHarris 8 of 24

Alan Watts, in The Wisdom of Insecurity, puts the concept of nonstriving in another context: “I have already been fascinated by the law of reversed effort. Sometimes I call it the ‘backwards law.’ When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float. When you hold your breath, you lose it—which immediately calls to mind an ancient and most neglected saying, ‘Whosoever would save his soul shall lose it.’ Insecurity is the result of trying to be secure, and, contrariwise, salvation and sanity consist in the most radical recognition that we have no way of saving ourselves.” Those who justify themselves do not convince, that to know truth one must get rid of knowledge, and that nothing is more powerful and creative then emptiness—from which men shrink. What Watts is saying—and what Tolstoy says in his story—is that the more we try in some situations, the more we seem to fail; there are some goals which can never be achieved by active striving. We find this particularly true in psychotherapy when the more one tries to be a certain way, the more one fails. This brings up another truth for men and for the rest of society. Simply stated, it is: Whenever you win, you lose; whenever you lose, you win. Most men’s insistence on winning every round makes them a loser in a larger sense. Without the experience of an occasional loss, men cannot experience the lessons losses carry with them. They cannot experience the power that comes from losing. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24

When men eventually do experience losing, first with their wives, then later in the therapy room, they discover how valuable losing can be. In losing, men become winners. As we have seen, in a losing situation, the top-dog is virtually useless. That is because the top-dog is the doer—a self which cannot be much help when nothing can be done. However, the subordinate self, which some men recently begin to express, is basically a “do nothing” self. Men find, in the role-switching exercise, that this “do nothing” self can have value, something which many had denied nearly all of their lives. Men begin to feel “together” only when they see the value in both sides of their nature and make the first steps toward expressing both. Like men, many people exaggerate their criticalness. They stand in judgment of others and early in every relationship set about establishing themselves as right, as better, as more knowledgeable than the other. They tend to surround themselves with people who, for their own reasons, are willing to play that game. Their reward is, of course, the position of being on top. However, it is a reward which comes at the price of unrelenting manipulation and effort. When people participate in cushion-ponding exercises during therapy, the truth is they are not doing anything; they are just giving wings to their fantasy. They are not killing their boss; they are killing the image of his boss. (Which is why property destruction is considered a violent crime.) In that way, these people are simply feeling or being angry, frustrated, helpless, righteous and defeated. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24

However, by the means of the fantasy, the effortless effort, people are able to vent their hostility and experience the love, surrender, release, and the peacefulness that follows. This coming together and synthesizing of strong, conflicting values is an experience of mastery. In the moment of intense feeling, a lot of men come into touch with their core, which criticalness and support, weakness synthesize in the fully integrated, masterful human being. The smiling, exhausted man sitting on the floor at the end of the session is not the same man, the surgeon, or the man, the administrator. It is simply a man, the all of himself. It is achievement without doing: effortless effort. Is criticalness important to you in your relationships? Later that same year, the man in our case study broke up with his mistress in the hope of creating the same type of relationship wife. While their marriage is not as rigid as it was before, it is not yet the kind of relationship he was looking for. The important item to note is that, while this man is still looking, he is looking at home, not elsewhere. This is more difficult but is also more consistent with the man’s Catholic up brining and has less potential for triggering guilt. With this decision, he is also enabling himself to seek the right kind of relationship with his wife while staying close to his children, who mean a great deal to him. Thus, while it appears this man has chosen a more restrictive courage of action, this course actually gives him more freedom: he would not have been free to stay close to his children had he left his wife. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24

You may have noted that the man in our case study did not get to his core experience by way of a direct experience with support, which is the opposite of criticalness. This is not a mistake; it is just the way things work. Our human psyche does not always perform according to the charts. It performs the way it wants. Often, as in this case, a person will jump to a more comfortable value first. This man was more comfortable with anger than with support, and since he was able to express the anger, he got to his core through it. Later, this man made some changes in his professional life as well. After he got over this anger at his boss, he looked at the situation more calmly and realised his boss’s decision had nothing to do with him personally. He was just upset that his boss shutdown his clinic and took away all of his authority as he was close to retirement. However, they settled their differences and became as close to being friends as the man in our case study has ever been able to manage. In reconciling with his boss, this man did not change his point of view. He merely was able to appreciate the differences between them, rather than adjudge the man wrong, as he would have in the past. When his unit was disbanded, the man in our case study moved to a small, innovative hospital in another town. Now he concentrates on being a better surgeon rather than fighting to become an administrator. For the first time in his life, he is actually enjoying his work. He is still in therapy. The pleasure caste is a strange and powerful caste of humans whose psychology and neurology has been ignored by philosophers because of the taboo nature of the subject—pleasure, beauty, sensuality, and eroticism. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24

History reveals that each gene pool and every successful civilization has produced an aesthetic-elite caste—those whose nervous systems are especially sensitive to sensual stimulation; those who have the ability to receive, manage and transmit neurosomatic, hedonic signals; those who are robot-programmed to stimulate pleasure in themselves and in others—either singularly or in cooperation with other reality-artists. Aesthetic-Artist-Sensory Castes: Hedonic Consumers—those who receive pleasure. Hedonic Directors—those who create pleasure realities for themselves and others. Hedonic Producers—those who exchange pleasure. The pleasure industry includes those called artists—show business people, entertainers, and courtesans. Hive philosophers and establishment reality-definers tend to discredit the Pleasure-Aesthetic Castes and the contributions they make to the species. There is little overt, bureaucratic pressure on young people to take up a life of courtesan-actress-musician-artist when they “grow up.” Indeed, the classic situation calls for discouragement by the gene pool of such aspirations on the part of the young. However, at the same time that the hedonic occupations are publicly taboo, there is a covert acceptance of them as evidenced by the pervasive presence of the show-biz-pleasure profession. Nightclubs, saloons, theatres, carnivals, brothels, dance halls—however fake, tinsel, laundered the actual performance—the allure, the promise is always the same. Somatic reward, inhuman soft-skin-bliss, hop sophistication, erotic movement, hedonic consumption of self-indulgence and self-actualization. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24

The script apparatus of a loser consists on one hand of injunctions, provocations, and a curse. These are the script controls, and are firmly implanted by the age of six. To combat this programing, he has an inner demon, and is sometimes supplied with an internal release. Later he comes to understand slogans, which give him a counterscript. Throughout, he is learning behaviour patterns, which serve both the script and the counterscript. A winner has the same apparatus, but the programing is more adaptive, and he usually has more autonomy because he has more permissions. However, in all human beings the demon persists, to bring sudden pleasure or grief. It should be noted that the script controls are parameters or strictures, which merely set limits on what a man can do, while the behaviour patterns he learns from his parents, including their games, tell him how he can actually structure his time. Thus, the script is a complete plan for living, offering both strictures and structures. Healthier personalities have been more successful than average people in gratifying their needs. Consequently, their unconscious is not a dreaded source of evil, but a fount of innovation, self-integration, and creativity. Creative individuals show less fear of the free play of fantasy, and so they can “unrepress” to a greater degree than the average. In freeing their unconscious from its customary bonds, they experience the welcome admission to consciousness of new ideas, solutions to problems, insights into themselves, and other valued creations. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24

Sexuality or unacceptable drives such as aggression are not the only aspects of personality that are typically repressed. Mowrer has shown that if the conscience were not repressed, individuals repress their consciences, and hence are unconscious of the guilt that would arise. If someone has acquired a conscience that could guide that person in the direction of fullest growth and personal integration, then its repression could thwart his or her healthiest potentials. The individual said to have a “hardened heart,” like Scrooge in Dickens’ classic Christmas Carol, is one who has likely repressed his or her conscience and the guilt to which it might give rise. The unrepression of conscience in such individuals will produce acute guilt. The guilt, if acknowledged, could motivate the person to change his or her usual ways of behaviour from self-centered pursuit of satisfaction to more loving concern for others. Thus guilt, often thought of by many theoreticians as unhealthy, can be useful as an indicator to the person that he or she must take action to correct something that is the person’s own responsibility. It is a signal that some behaviour of yours has wronged someone. Some have seen psychotherapy as assuaging guilt for one’s harm to others. Mowrer and others have insisted that this is a misuse of psychological help and is doomed to failure. They strongly suggest an old remedy—right the wrong that has been done. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24

One of the ways of dealing with wishes and feelings that provoke anxiety or guilt is to substitute another activity, particularly one that is socially desirable. This is called sublimation and is an ancient and honourable approach for the individual with specific religious or cultural taboos that he or she choses to honour. Thus, someone with a great deal of sexual energy but strong feelings of moral commitment to abstinence might throw himself or herself into community leadership, into programs of social justice, or into creative arts such as painting or sculpture. Particularly as a result of greater freedom in activities involving pleasures of the flesh, many have rejected the concept of sublimation as indicative of the person’s avoidance of the problem. However, there is as much evidence for the position that it is a healthy adjustment mechanism as for any other. While Dr. Freud showed how people repressed undesirable dimensions of their experience, Dr. Jung called attention to the fact that we remain unconscious of our “higher,” more fully humanized possibilities. The unconscious is not only a repository of our psychological “sewage”; it is also the source of our most sublime possibilities. Just as dreams reveal morally repugnant wishes for the tabooed sexuality or murder, so they can reveal, albeit in metaphoric language, possible ways for a person to rise above barriers to growth. In dreams, many persons discover the solutions to vexing personal problems. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24

Our usual waking consciousness is limited by our chronic preoccupation with daily needs and projects. Other possible ways to experience ourselves and the World remain unconscious, or potentially conscious, and may be revealed to us in our dreams. A man I once knew became a criminal and broke out of prison and had to spend the rest of his life on the run. He knew that the police and the FBI would be looking for him to dress up or hide behind a beard. The strategy was to take it off. Take off his hair. Bald. He sat stripped to the waist in a kitchen chair while someone trimmed the back and sides to an American Legion butch. She looked sadly at the scissors in her hand, brushing her long tresses away from her eyes. “I just hate to do this,” she said. She snipped the top of his hair close to the scalp. It was a slow process. She was a giggling artist. Standing back studying her work. “Not bad. Now let’s shave it clean,” she said. She draped a hot rag on his skull and squirted lather foam. Carefully, she started to shave. “Take it easy,” he said, “bloody gashes will betray.” Easy gentle little strokes. After a while the barber begins to laugh. The man walked to the bathroom and peered in the mirror at a high-domed, chicken-plucked moose-faced baldpate stranger. When his friend returned for the day, they gaped at the change. For the first time he felt a flicker of feasibility. When the man came out of the bathroom, he was smiling. “Well, let’s go. I’ve waited for seven months to see that Queen of the Damned movie.” #RandolphHarris 17 of 24

“It will be a good test for your disguise,” his accomplice said. The first public appearance. They walked past theater guards, bought two tickets, two bags of hot buttered popcorn, ice-cream bars and walked down the welcome darkness to hear P.Diddy and Ginuwine singing “I Need a Girl (Part Two)”! They found seats near the front and opened their eyes to the bright silver screen and one of his guy friends kept shouting: “There’s Aaliyah! “There’s Vincent Perez!” And he kept shushing him. They were really quite public, their commando group behind them exchanging loud comments and cries of pleasure. It must have looked for a bald-headed man, a virgin secretary, and three young Hollywood actors. They jumped at the death of Queen Akasha and sorrowed at the long sad ending. Aaliyah died a few months before in real life. As they crossed the street after the show, they saw a narc waiting on the corner. He glanced at them as they walked by. Back in the car one of the men said, “Now for some plastic goodies at a drive-in. He ordered enormous plies of In-and-Out cheeseburgers, malteds, and French fires. After seven month the man who broke out of prison was ready to freak out, too. As they drove back to the farm, one of the guys kept his head turned half to talking to everyone and half to watch the cares behind them. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24

Saturday morning was cloudy. A tribal council meeting around the kitchen table. The baldhead disguise and the trial run the night before gave him courage. It was still the riskiest plan, but now he could see that it could be done. “What ID do I need to get a passport,” he said. Two of the other guys began spilling jigsaw pieces of identities over the table. “Here’s your prison escape ID. That would have been ideal except that he’s already got a passport and he’s heavily bearded. Here’s another set. A beautiful one with driver’s license and all. But the picture blows it. I don’t see any way to avoid your getting a driver’s license with your own picture on it. That means we’ll have to wait till Monday. Then fly to Detroit Monday night. Get a passport Tuesday morning. Hit it for Madrid Tuesday night. If we’re going to do that here’s the best ID.” The man pushed a set of cards across the table. “Birth Certificate.” With a name on it and a birthday. A Social Security card. Temporary driver’s license with no description. “The birth certificate gets you the driver’s license. And the two get you a passport.” The Weathermen were ready for a day of contemplation. Although Democratic leaders ignore the laws and aid and abet criminals, there comes a time when a new leadership will come into office and have zero tolerance laws. You do not want to live a life of crime and have to find a disguise, nor do you want to put your life in someone else’s hands. There is always a chance that you will be captured. And if one of your buddies gets in trouble, they might give you up for immunity. “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,” reports 1 Thessalonians 4.11. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24

For people who live an honest life, at least, boundaries disappear and desire can be allowed free rein. The Sacramento Fire Department is the premier, all-risk public safety and emergency service provider that exceeds the expectations of the diverse communities they serve. The Sacramento fire department preserves life, protects property, and safeguards their communities through relentless commitment to emergency preparedness, prevention, response, and recovery. “There were no windows in the building. This was at three in the morning on December 31 in an industrial section of Sacramento. A pretty cold night. We weren’t on the box. Battalion X had the fire. The battalion chief, Y, made a triple two on it, a second alarm, and we go on all triple twos. The building wasn’t venting well, the smoke was really stratified and down on the ground. When we came up there, we couldn’t even see the building, the smoke was so heavy. Truck X was up on the roof, ventilating it. I talked to Chief Y, and I recognized the type of construction. My first concern was about the men on the roof. It was an open bar joint, metal deck roof. The first thing I did was get them off there, because I didn’t think it was worth risking them. The fire was fairly serious in the stock and office areas. We had two companies in on the lines. Seeing the situation we had and the need for more manpower, we called for a third alarm and had the companies report to a staging area. Due to the reduction in battalions, on the third alarm we didn’t get a chief, which made safety a problem, as far as I was concerned. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24

“I made a call for another battalion chief, so we could split the fire up. My normal procedure—and I’m very adamant about this—is to sector the fire because, I don’t care who you are, I don’t think you can run the whole fire by yourself. At that time we got a call on the walkie-talkie from a firefighter, who said he was lost in the building. We organized the search team, and the fire itself became of secondary importance. The smoke was really heavy even though we had a good ventilation hole in the roof. It was tough to open up the sides of the building, and we had companies working on that. There were railroad tracks and an embankment that made it very difficult to get to the back of the building. It took us approximately seven minutes to find this firefighter, a five-year veteran on Engine X named A. He had been to quite a few fires on a very busy engine company, so I don’t know what caused him to do what he did. He was the nozzle man on the line, and there were two others on the line with him. One of the men went back to get a hook, and the second man exhausted his air tank and he ran out to change his tank, leaving A alone for the moment. He was only about twenty-five feet into the building, and for some reason he left the line. There was a backup line laid out, but nobody was aware that this firefighter had left the line. We tried to give him instructions on the walkie-talkie, but we couldn’t get any response back from him. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24

“The building was approximately 150 by 200 feet with about twenty aisles and racks blocking overhead doors in the back of the building. We finally found him when we saw the light of his flashlight. He had gotten into a dead end aisle. It was really difficult to find him, and naturally it seemed like an eternity. We brought him out, gave him CPR and oxygen, and transported him to the hospital, where they worked on him for over an hour. He never came back. The fire had been pretty well knocked, but the building was loaded with smoke. There was a lot of electrical insulation that had burned. And he ran out of air. There’s about twenty minutes of air in a tank. He ran out. I was very depressed after that fire, from having lost a firefighter and talking to his wife. She was distraught, naturally. Since I was in charge of the fire, I thought it was my job to talk to the woman. So early in the morning, after a couple of news conferences, I went out to her house with a couple of other firefighters from his company, and we consoled her as best we could. She was completely broken up. It was hard for her to grasp the permanence of her loss. I never blamed myself personally for the death, but it makes you want to reexamine and look deeper and see what can be done to prevent a recurrence. In that type of fire, there are some things you can control and some thing that you can’t control. The possibility of a firefighter getting seriously injured or killed is always a clear and present danger. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24

“We tend to become complacent when we go for a long period of time without casualties, and we like to think it’s because we’ve run the fires well and then men are knowledgeable and well trained. Actually, there’s a certain amount of luck involved, if you look back and think of the many close calls where a few second made the difference. I remember one fire where we had a very good, experienced lieutenant in charge of our company. We were fairly new guys on the job and didn’t realize the seriousness of some of our actions. We were probably 150 feet into a hundred-year-old mercantile building, and the lieutenant said, ‘Back out of here, we have to get out of here.’ There was the lieutenant, myself, and two other guys. As soon as we got out the door, the while first floor went into the basement. You wonder how that man knew that. He knew that the situation was bad, he had that sense. I always remembered that. It made me want to become more proficient, to learn more from experience and studying. It caused me to do a lot of studying. I was pretty depressed for a week or so. The wake and the funeral were fresh in my mind, and I went over and over and over that fire to determine what I could have done differently to prevent it. My wife and family were completely understanding and supportive.” The Sacramento Fire Department prioritizes their citizens, residents, and communities. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24

The Sacramento Fire Department is a full-spectrum life safety agency protecting more than 2 million people who live, work and play in one of America’s largest cities. The Sacramento Fire Department recognizes that they face unique challenges in keeping pace with the changing World in which they live and work. They will not forget the traditions of those that came before them. However, they have adapted and progressed so that they can remain successful. “We are a family of individuals committed to serving others. We will always provide for the welfare of our personnel through a health and rewarding work environment. We are dedicated to respect, integrity, compassion, and leadership amongst ourselves so that we may proudly serve others. The Sacramento Fire Department strives to sustain and improve the health, safety, convenience, and welfare of the citizens of Sacramento and to plan for the future development of the community. You can help save lives and property by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. And remember parents, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus, respect law and others, treat others with dignity and respect, and remind them of the importance of education. To help America survive the global recession and bring manufacturing jobs back to America and to get American wages at pace with inflation, it is important to buy America cars, American meat, American produce and other American made goods and services. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all. Our Father, our King, be gracious unto us and answer us, for we are wanting in good deeds; deal with us in charity and lovingkindness, and please save us. #RandolphHarris 24 of 24

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Over a Game of Cards

October 27, 2024 8:16 pm

To be weak is miserable, doing or suffering. As much as we in the Western culture revere the strong, so do we protect and care and perpetuate the weak. For the person prone to weakness, it becomes an easy, comfortable trap. However, it soon becomes a miserable one. If you are stuck on the weakness polarity, you are a particularly hard-to-handle manipulator. You tend to depend upon others for everything, and when they try to get away, you play weak or helpless, thus sucking them in again. You are an excellent role player. You apologize a lot for everything, using pleas of ignorance or incompetence to avoid responsibility. To reassure yourself, you constantly ask others if you are okay. Unfortunately for you, you are so busy looking into the faces of others for expressions of approval, you never look inside yourself. Your inner self is thus a vast, unexplored territory. In spite of all your admission of weakness and incompetence, you have refused to truly examine those feelings of weakness. Your emotional life has thus remained a shallow one. If you are a master, however, you do not play the helpless role; you have the courage to really face your limitations and define them as your body and emotions guide you. You trust yourself and look inside, appealing to you “inner Supreme Court” for answers. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20

The weakness you find within is real, not a manipulative game—and not a mask. When you are able to face your limitations inside, you are also able to find strength and competence there. As a master, you know you can look within to find all the answers and all the guidance you need. Having mastered, not exaggerated, your weakness, you improve your physical health. You attend to clues your body gives you as to its condition, rather than allowing them to develop into vague, nagging aches. Among others, you stand on your own feet and are free to relate to others as an equal. You carry your own weight of responsibility in the World. Mustering the strength to shoulder this weight can be a long and difficult process. Some people have been afraid all of their lives. Some infants are afraid of the wind. It howls menacingly across the open fields, then darts through the cracks in the floorboards of their farmhouse, which startles the baby with a sudden chill. On blustery nights, it makes the house shiver with what a baby might imagine is a fear like his own. Next, some children learn to fear their father. He is a stern, brittle man who works his farm from before sunrise until after sunset every day of the year. He seems to be at constant war with the farm and the farm seems to constantly fight back. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20

The struggle might make a father mean, and he may vent his meanness on everything around him: the land, the animals, his wife and children. As a result, some children learn to never talk back to their father. Breaking one of his rules, even a little, means feeling the awful whack of his hand across the face, neck, shoulders, back. And when he begins to hit, he seldom stops until his hand is too sore to hit anymore. This causes some wives to become just like one of the children. She does her chores, obeys her husband unquestioningly and when she breaks one of his rules, even a little, is whacked just as hard and long. The only time the father did not hit his wife is when she was sick. Growing up in the isolation of a farmhouse, some children also come to fear the outside World, the World of the unknown and unknowable people beyond the wide fields which stretch in ever direction. A child may try a few, tentative friendships in school, but sometime the youth is never able to spend enough time with their peers to get comfortable and familiar the way real friends do. This child’s World is the farm and family and the fear which pervades everything. When abused children turn eighteen, it is often demanded that they get a job. Some youths are not willing to put up with the hard work pay, and constant crude advances of the customers. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20

Abused youth often enjoy the work—not because it is easy, but because for twelve hours a day it allows the youth to be out of the house, out of the reach of his father’s stinging hand. When he serves someone particularly well, an extra dollar or two appears under the plate. Although these paychecks are sometimes all surrendered to the father, he is able to keep the tips for himself, his private treasure. As an adult, when people live with fear, it can cause pain and sickness. And often, nothing seems to help. Not the medicines, not talking about it, not anything. There will be times in our lives when we find ourselves on an unexpected path, facing severe circumstances. When events, often out of our control, alter the life we had planned or hoped for, how do we respond? No amount of change, trial, or opposition can alter our eternal course. We are God’s spirit sons and daughters, and we accepted his plan by which we could obtain a physical body and gain Earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize our divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The changes, and resulting challenges, that we encounter in mortality come in a variety of shapes and sizes and impact each of us in unique ways. Although each change may be unique to your individual circumstances, there is a common element in the resulting trial or challenge—hope and peace are always available through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. #RandolphHarris 4 of 20

The Atonement of Jesus Christ provides the ultimate corrective and healing measures to every wounded body, damaged spirit, and broken heart. Jesus Christ knows, in a way that no one else can understand, what it is that we need, individually, in order to move forward in the midst of change. Unlike friends and loved ones, the Saviour not only sympathizes with us, but He can empathize perfectly because He has been where we are. In addition to paying the price and suffering for our sins, Jesus Christ also walked every path, dealt with every challenge, faced every hurt—physical, emotional, or spiritual—that we will ever encounter in mortality. In this mortal experience, we cannot control all that happens to us, but we have absolute control over how we respond to the changes in our lives. This does not imply that the challenges and trials we face are of no consequence and easily handled or dealt with. It does not imply that we will be free from pain or heartache. Helpless is a place—a place that is real. However, it is important that we do not let ourselves play helpless. Do not give in to it. There is cause for hope and that is due to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can move forward and find better days—even days full of joy, light, and happiness. Healing blessings come in many ways, each suited to our individual needs, as known to Him who loves us best. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20

Sometimes a “healing” cures our illness or lifts our burden. However, sometimes we are “healed” by being given strength to understanding or patience to bear the burdens placed upon us. In the first year that I knew my wife, we played Russian Bank quite often. She had been winning but then she began losing, and one evening she threw her head and arms on the table and sobbed, as though she had lost not a game of cards but everything in the World. That was what I noticed at the time. Instead of letting that thought itself be said, the spontaneous noticing, matter-of-fact, without opinion, neither tender with pain nor hard with accusation, I let myself be scared by seeing this “strong” woman fall apart “over a game of cards,” by seeing her little rib cage heave like a child’s. It was cultural conditioning that made me view this as “weak” or “helplessness”—something that “should not happen” and so must be stopped. In losing my neutrality, I wanted to put her back together. I put a hand on her shoulder. I bent and kissed the back of her neck. She pulled together and smiled at me, her eyes saying thank you. And I thought that I had helped her, too. There were these moments, brief and rare, when my wife’s guard was down, when she was cracking. I had botched them. I did just what she did—tried to put “her” back together, not knowing that this was not her. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20

If I had not done this, just possibly she might not have done it herself. There might have been the of an opening. All those years of reassurance were crutch-type helping, and all the times when I prevented her suicide never really saved her life, because her life was what she never lived. If I had said my own thought as simply as I felt it, as it came into my head, my first thought that was my own direct and immediate response and really me, is it not possible that she might have told me what “losing” meant to her? And if I had accepted that (not saying that it was not so, that there were many ways in which she won, was running ahead of others—which was true in the view of the society of which we both were a part, but not in the view of all societies) might she not have been able to speak what she never could say to anyone and so could not hear properly herself? Suppose, that morning after the Japanese attack, I had said, “You sound as though you feel this really is the end for you. I hope it is not.” Those were my true thoughts, my own thoughts at the time, that I let get blacked by what I saw as my World and what I thought that his should be. My World at that time in fact was not superior: it required that she be in it with me. My World did not see that she was in it only more so, and blocked my own immediate and direct response to her. My tenderness for human suffering did not include her. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20

Some people do not believe that mental illness exists. The phenomena now called mental illnesses [should be] looked at afresh and more simply, be regarded as the expressions of man’s struggle with the problem of how he should live. How do we fit ourselves in a society that gives us so much trouble? That is the wrong question. It is possible to lose all awareness of ourselves as an active participant. In the year before I left my wise, she had almost totally convinced me that I was “insane,” unfit to be a father. “No judge would let you have him (our son).” In fighting not to blame my wife for my hurt and confusion, because I could not bear to have my love change to hate, I arrived at knowing my own part in it, and told a doctor what was true: “I watched her dig the pit, and obligingly fell in.” However, I could not see that clearly while I was under fire. Each time that I almost grasped it, my wife’s words—or even the way she looked at me—threw me into a chaos of uncertainty again—the doubting of myself. No one else seemed to find her behaviour odd, so was it all in me? I had to be away from her, away from everyone with opinions, to find out. It gives me the creeps that children who are told they are “wrong,” “no good,” “worthless,” cannot get away, and that our young people are required to fit into a society which does not fit them. When we require always more doctors, more psychotherapists, more jailers, more police, who is at fault? #RandolphHarris 8 of 20

There are some people who have been in prison for twenty years straight and they talk to themselves. There is no one that they can call on. Their New York lawyers cannot do anything for them. There is no appeal from a .30 caliber summons. Some wonder if Sade is an atheist? He says so, and we believe him, before going to prison, in his Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man; and from then on, we are dumbfounded by his passion for sacrilege. One of his cruelest characters, Saint-Fond, does not in any sense deny God. He is content to develop a gnostic theory of a wicked demiurge and to draw the proper conclusions from it. Saint-Fond, it is said, is not Sade. No, of course not. A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously. Now, all Sade’s atheists suppose, in principle, the nonexistence of God for the obvious reason that He existence would imply that He was indifferent, wicked, or cruel. Sade’s greatest work ends with a demonstration of the stupidity and spite of the divinity. The innocent Justine runs through the storm and the wicked Noirceuil swears that he will be converted if divine retribution consents to spare her life. Justine is struck by lightning, Noirceuil triumphs, and human crime continues to be man’s answer to divine crime. Thus there is a freethinker wager that is the answer to the Pascalian wager. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20

The idea of God which Sade conceives for himself is, therefore, of a criminal divinity who oppresses and denies mankind. That murder is an attribute of the divinity is quite evident, according to Sade, from the history of religions. Why, then, should man be virtuous? Sade’s first step as a prisoner is to jump to the most extreme conclusions. If God kills and repudiates mankind, there is nothing to stop one from killing and repudiating one’s fellow men. This irritable challenge in no way resembles the tranquil negation that is still to be found in the Dialogue of 1782. The man who exclaims: “I have nothing, I give nothing,” and who concludes: “Virtue and vice are indistinguishable in the tomb,” is neither happy nor tranquil. The concept of God is the only thing, according to him, “which he cannot forgive man.” The word forgive is already rather strange in the mouth of this expert in torture. However, it is himself whom he cannot forgive for an idea that his desperate view of the World, and his condition as a prisoner, completely refute. A double rebellion—against the order of the Universe and against himself—is henceforth going to be the guiding principle of Sade’s reasoning. In that these two forms of rebellion are contradictory except in the disturbed mind of a victim of persecution, his reasoning is always either ambiguous or legitimate according to whether it is considered in the light of logic or in an attempt at compassion. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20

It is true that thought precedes action, that actions express thoughts, and that to rule mind is to rule the entire life. However, it is also true that man’s battles with himself proceed by progressive stages, that he exerts will more easily than he changes feeling. Therefore, the discipline of inward thinking should follow after—and no before—it. To counsel him to take care of his inner life and that then the outer life will take care of itself, as so many mystics do, is to be plausible but also to show a lack of practicality. Man’s heart will feel no peace as his mind will know no poise until he abandons the lower instincts and gives himself up to this unearthly call. First, he must abandon them outwardly in deeds; later he must do it inwardly even in thoughts. This will inevitably bring him into inner struggle, into oscillation between victories and defeats, elations and despairs. The way up is long, hard, rugged, and slow to tread. It is always a stage for complaints and outcries, battles and falls. Only time—the master power—can bring him to its lofty end. Only when the lessons of birth after birth etch themselves deeply and unmistakably into his conscious mind through dreadful repetition can he accept them co-operatively, resignedly, and this put a stop to the needless sufferings of desire, passion, and attachment. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20

When a man’s desire and yearnings, thirst and longings are so strong as to upset his reasoning power and block his intuitive capacity, he is stopped from finding the truth. In this condition, he shuts his eyes to those facts which are displeasing or which are contrary to his desires and opens them only to those which are pleasing or agreeable to his wishes. Thinking bends easily to desires, so that the satisfaction of personal interest rather than the quest of universal truth becomes its real object. Reforms that begin with the lowest in man lead the way to the highest in him. The mastery of terrestrial passion opens the door to the birth of the spiritual intuition. Whether the cage be made of gold or the net fabricated from silk, the reality of their inner captivity still remains. A discipline which is not stern but gentle and easy is best suited to modern man. The astrological Zodiac which has continued to attract the attentions of intelligent people for five thousand years must have some caste-type meaning—and this significance must be explained by the theories which improve it. New theories can improve, can explain, but not reject, the Zodiac. The Genesis version of Creation obviously must have had profound survival validity even through it obviously fails to take into account the newer evidence from Darwinian, Mendelian, DNA, sociobiological and Behaviour genetics. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20

Correspondence Theory is a “magic stick” for searching out new laws, because it sets formal constraints on new mathematics. As Morrison emphasizes, the Correspondence Principle secures science against the loss of achievements of the past. For innovators it is a warning like Hippocratic maxim for physicians—above all do no harm! Classical mechanics is not a mere blunder that was repudiated in 1905, as the headlines imply. This affectionate maxim holds even more strongly for human ethology—id est, philosophy. All the theological and philosophical systems of the past must be seen as attempts, valid at the preceding, more primitive stage of neurotechnology, to explain the inner-outer (CNS-DNA) reality paradox. Thus the concern in the Starseed Transmissions to trace correspondences among the many occult theories of the past, including Christianity and Buddhism, and the new sciences. Each past philosophy, far from being repudiated, or rejected, joyously fits into an evolving, stage-by-stage theory. Medieval alchemy and astrology were not blunders repudiated by Dow Chemical and Dr. Freud. The demon is the jester in human existence, and the joker in psychotherapy. No matter how well a man lays his plans, the demon can come in at the critical moment and upset them all, usually with a smile and a ha ha. And no matter how well the therapist plans his psychotherapy, the patient always has the upper hand. At the point when the therapist thinks he has four aces, the man plays his joker, and his demon wins the pot. Then he skips merrily off, leaving the doctor to lead through the deck trying to figure out what happened. #RandolphHarris 13 of 20

Even if he is ready for it, there may be little he can do. The doctor may know ahead of time that just as the man gets his stone rolled up to the brow of the hill, the demon will distract his attention, and it will roll all the way down again. There may be others who know about it, too, but the demon is already at work, and sees to it that the man keeps away from anyone who would interfere. So the patient starts to miss appointments, or drifts away, and if anyone pressures him he just plain quits. He may return after he has Sisyphused out, sadder, but not much wiser, nor even aware of his glee. The demon first appears in the higher, when the man scatters his food on the floor with a merry glint, waiting to see what his parents will do. If they make friends with it, it will go on to later mischief, and then perhaps into humorous fun and jokes. If they beat it down, it will lurk surly in the background, ready to leap out at an unguarded moment and scramble his life as it originally scrambled his food. A substantial proportion of the World’s population lives in cities where trees and grass are seldom seen, where the sounds of birds and babbling streams are not heard. The air they breathe is either filtered through air-conditioning units or heavily polluted with smog. Such persons adapt to the milieu within which they live, but it is an unnatural environment. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20

Contact with the physical World, with seaside, forests, and parks, with fields and animals, gives persons a sense of rhythm that contrasts with the rhythms of industrialized urban life. These experiences remind the person that he or she does not simply have a body, but that the person is a body, an embodied being who is in and of nature. Chronic physical and muscular tension, accelerated rhythms of speech and movement, are common to people who live apart from their own nature and the nature around us all. Just as a person may suffer from estrangement from the rest of nature, the person may also suffer a kind of alienation and distance from the body. From infancy, the human needs physical contact with the other human beings and with the World. Infants and grownups alike need handshakes, hugs, enjoyable exercise, and dance in order to feel the vitality of their bodies. As Reich, Lowen, and Rolf have pointed out, growing up leaves a person with many muscular systems chronically tensed, as part of an overall defense against danger and pain. This “muscular armour” interferes with fullest respiration, with proper poster, with sleep and rest; it often requires specialized massage and manipulation before the muscular system is restored to the pliability most compatible with a health-giving life. #RandolphHarris 15 of 20

Reich especially pointed out that a chronically defensive attitude reduces a person’s capacity for the fullest intimacy. Of course, intimacy is also an exquisite experience. Our culture, with its puritan heritage, has encouraged people to repress pleasures of the flesh, perhaps because it interferes with compulsive work. Recent counterculture developments have introduced a variety of approaches to a reengagement with nature and with one’s own body that seem compatible with healthier personality. The year 2024 is important for many people and the American movement in many ways. We have seen the cause and effect of not having a balanced system. One nail drives another deeper still. Even new obligation that America assumes, as a result of its criminal mis-handling of foreign American interests, creates a stronger blow which falls on the states. When the democratic party intentionally allowed border security to fail, it gave the revolutionary uprising of an acceptance of criminal behaviour and the appearance of a spear point aimed at the American Christian family, they did not do this from the standpoint of American interest, but only as a commissioner of widespread illegal activity, corruption, and a general disregard for national security. It is obvious that this “valuable gem,” who had been constantly wandered around American political centers as the journalists’ rabble, should have been the last person called upon as a protector of American interests and he was completely indifferent whether America was even part of God’s wide World. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20

The Sacramento Fire Department has to avert dangers to public safety caused by fires, explosions, accidents and similar events. Technical assistance and firefighting tasks play an important role in this. They also provide medical assistance for people who are in life-threatening condition. The aim is to preserve life or health. This includes initial medical care and, if necessary, the establishment of transportation to the hospital. The tasks assigned by law include, among other things, statements in the context of building permit procedures, fire safety inspections or contract procedures for fire alarm systems and fire brigade key depots. “It was a bitterly cold night, maybe twenty or twenty-five degrees (Fahrenheit). The was a farmhouse, heavily involved, and there were kids trapped in it. We got out there, and the house was cooking. There was heavy smoke coming out of the windows; since the fire hadn’t gone through the roof, it was bending out all the windows. This was the first time any of us young guys had a situation where we knew someone was trapped. We started stretching an inch-and-a-half because that’s what we always did, and out chief said, “The heck with the inch-and-a-half. The kids are trapped up there, and we’ve got to get up.” None of the guys from the other department had air packs on, and we were all masked up. They pointed to the back of the house, which wasn’t so involved with flames. The kids’ bedroom was there. We put a ladder up to the little roof over one of the side doors and went up. I looked inside the window, and the whole quarter of the house was going, trapping the kids. These were farm kids, and they had already been up doing their chores. Now they couldn’t get out. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20

“We tried to get in this window. I could see down the hall, I could see a crib. It was at the point where the flame is so intense that you can see again, when it’s really lit up, before you deal the water. I tried to get in the window and I got blown right back. I kept trying to reach for the crib, and I kept getting burned back, because the whole damn fire was venting this way. Two other guys were trying the next window, meeting the same thing—getting blown back. There was just heat coming at us. I lost my helmet, my New Yorker, in there. Then our bells went off, and we were called down. I was so man, I said, ‘Dang, we couldn’t get to them, we couldn’t get to them.’ And one of the guys I had never given much of a thought to slammed me against the side of a wall, and said, ‘That’s it. It’s done.’ Apparently I was sufficiently obnoxious about my frustration that somebody felt it necessary to snap me back. Meanwhile, a booster line, a high-pressure beam gun, was working on the fire. I had to change air packs because the face piece on my mask was burned so that I couldn’t see out of it. We went back up and made an entrance through the second window. We knew it was too late in the firs for the kids to be alive. I went in and started searching the room. The far corner of it had burned through to the first floor. I started crawling and found one of the kids practically underneath the window. It turned out to be a fourteen-year-old girl. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20

“I took off a glove and felt for a pulse, but I could see by the way everything was burned there that there was nothing I could do and I should just report it. She had probably gotten to the window and opened it, and then probably got sucked back in. The room has flashed. I don’t know why it flashed. I searched further, and I came across a lot of stuffed toys, and there was a little girl with a ponytail, all charred and black and very brittle. I remember reaching out to that. It was the little girl’s room I was in. Further on, across the hallway, there was a body strewn there, with a nose falling down across the face. It was absolutely gruesome. I came back and reported the fatalities to the chief. You think about scenarios. The older sister must have gone into the little girl’s room to try to save her and gotten trapped and just passed away. The chief and I were standing in that room, waiting for the medical examiner to come and talking about it. The little girl was the child of a poor farm family, but she had books and today and stuffed dollars and everything she could want. It was striking. The parents got out, and they were an absolute mess, the thought of their kids trapped upstairs and them getting out because their bedroom was downstairs. But the worst thing for them must have been the knowledge that they fire had started in a faultily installed wood stove, which they had twice been warned about by the fire company when they had been there earlier on less serious fires. #RandolphHarris 19 of 20

“Up until then I had been a young snot who really thought he could knock the tar out of any fire. I had been in real hot fires and gone through it and really had done my job, and I would have sworn that I could have gone through anything to have gotten to the kids. That is just not the way it is. The thing is, you think you’re invincible, that you can get through any smoke or anything. I mean, the fire was horrible, four kids died in it. It was physically impossible to get through the window. I did everything I could, and I know I did. I went up to the house a couple of day later. I wanted to find my fire helmet, which was still in there somewhere. There was a lot of clutter all around. I looked up and saw my helmet inside the crib that I had been trying to reach into. I took it back, cleaned it up.” With empathy and understanding, the Sacramento Fire Department protects life, property, and the environment in their community through an all-hazards approach to fire protection, emergency medical services, community risk reduction and education. You can help save lives by donating to the Sacramento Fire Department. In an effort to keep the country cohesive, please raise your children to love America, to be patriotic, to love God and Jesus Christ and buy American cars and other American goods and services. Also, please respect law and order, and treat others with kindness and respect. To ensure that you have a bright future, please take your education seriously, and be sure to actually read your books. And remember to “Just Say ‘No’ to Drugs.” Even marijuana can be deadly. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 20 of 20

The Winchester Mystery House

he ghosts are The Winchester Mystery House and are treated like members of the family. They are greeted and wished a Merry Christmas and asked to protect that house. The caretakers strive to create a home that is welcoming to everyone. The goal is to make guests feel comfortable and safe. There are a variety of tours, some for those who love theme parks and others for children and families and those who love more historic tours.

Please come and enjoy a delicious meal in Sarah’s Café, stroll along the paths of the beautiful Victorian gardens, and wonder through the miles of hallways in the World’s most mysterious mansion. For further information about tours, including group tours, weddings, school events, birthday party packages, facility rentals, and special events please visit the website: https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

How Far Would You Go to be Remembered?

October 24, 2024 7:03 am

Our terrestrial God is fascinating, and the Judeo-Christian Bible is an invaluable index to the neurogenetic level of the period in which it was written. The genetic stage of gene pool can be identified by the personality characteristics of the Local God. God of Genesis is an Earth God. He generously created the Heaven and the stars and the World, but, much like the Mrs. Winchester, provides no technical details or replicable blueprints. His preoccupation, whims, anxieties, jealousies, rules and gender roles have come to represent the traditional society. God owns the Garden—which many think is where the idea of The American Dream and nuclear family came from—and allows Adam and Eve their tenancy there. He has the right to ban them from the garden for disobeying His laws. God puts his warrior guards on the periphery of His turf to scare off intruders. God exemplifies stage five demanding with the intelligence of a Lion. A post-terrestrial God would not be concerned with possession of territory. Such a DNA ecological-engineer God would understand that all creatures must evolve through the marine, territorial, artifact, and social technologies and that they must self-actualize at each evolution, passing the second stage infant fish-brained mentality, the fifth stage mammalian-brained demanding, the eight-stage detailed-brained pedantic juvenile and eleventh stage domesticated adult, as well as those advanced stages of self-divinity. #RandolphHarris 1 of 13

When their precious little baby says, “My…and mine” wise parents smile because it is the beginning of the definition of reality and self in terms of territory. When the like stage eight detailed-brained juvenile humanoid proudly presents a crayon drawing or some original symbolic creation, every wise parent smiles praise. When the children fool around with the Tree of Good and Evil—the socio-sex rituals of the local give-it is true that terrestrial parents get upset. However, this is no reason to throw the children out of the house and put a flaming torch at the front door to keep the poor errant youngster from contritely creeping back. The God has not reached the technological level of the civilized stage of parental cultural transmission. The fact that pleasures of the flesh is not a concern of the Genesis supports the suggestion that in this folk legend we are dealing with the reality of a seventh stage parrot-brained Paleolithic-herding tribe obsessed with territory-moving uneasily into an eight-stage inventive self-actualization brain. Thus, the Holy Bible is revealed to be the word of God. It is a collection of sacred books written by ancient prophets and historians. These authors recorded the relationship between God and His people for over 4.000 years. The inspired words are what we know today as the Holy Bible. #RandolphHarris 2 of 13

The power of the Christians who follow the Bible that emerged from the Old Testament tradition is rural, pre-urban. Fundamentalist Christianity appeals to pre-civilized, prudish tribal people who are not Worldly and not ready for urban feudal pleasures. The Bible becomes a valuable ethological document to help us locate the evolutionary stage which emerged in the Middle East at biblical times. The Principle of Correspondence keeps us from rejecting the Judeo-Christian Bible as erroneous. The same power which, when misgoverned, drags men down into materialism, also lifts them into spiritual awareness when directed upward. Where all a man’s acts are merely the reflex behaviour dictated by his sense-impressions, he has hardly any life higher than an animal one. It is the business of this quest to insert the influence of consciousness of the causes and results of his actions, reason, and will into such behaviour. There are certain indestructible truths which reveal themselves through the ages to every man who, for a time at least, sufficiently masters his animal self and sufficiently quietens his human self. Those which we most need to learn today are simple and ancient, yet completely relevant to the modern scene and completely adequate to the modern need. #RandolphHarris 3 of 13

It is everywhere the state today that most people are automatons, merely reacting to the outward World of the five senses in a mechanical manner. They do not really control what is happening to them but merely drift with the forces playing through the sense-stimuli. The consequence is that they do not actually possess or use the power of free will. They are puppets on Nature’s stage. When any emotion takes full possession and reaches an extreme stage, it becomes a passion. One does not easily discard the various passions. The decision to do so does not lead, or even contribute much, to their conquest. It merely announces the beginning of a long war. They return, in spite of one’s wishes, again and again for they belong to the animal body which, itself, cannot be discarded. However, in the end a man must claim his birthright to a higher kind of life, must fulfil his nobler possibilities, must set up reason and intuition as his most reliable guides. If your thoughts are energized by a noble passion and your deeds inspired by a lofty enthusiasm, they are the better for it. However, if your thoughts are distorted by a foolish passion and your deeds wasted by a misdirected enthusiasm, they are the worse for it. The same ambition which stretched his mind and capacity for money-making power-hunting can, when transformed into aspiration, stretch them for truth-seeking and character building. #RandolphHarris 4 of 13

It is not even that he has to give up all desires but that he has to purify them and put them all under the dominance of his one supreme desire for attainment—which may or may not mean their extinction. The Victorian periods was not only a haunted age, lending itself to every type of illusions, event at the level of bricks and mortar. One autumn evening in 1890, I found myself at the Observational Tower. It was dark, the Tower has a kind of airy vastness about it. That night, at the witching hour, the three doors to one of the rooms were firmly closed and the curtains drawn as I sat down in the company of my niece Daisy, and dog Zip. The room, its walls nearly nine feet deep, were the home to the most formidable ghosts. The fireplace projected far into the room, and an oil painting hung over it. Daisy set with her back to the fire, as I cried out “Good God—what is that?” Hanging above the oblong table was what I can only describe as a translucent cylinder about three inches in diameter, and within it a bluish and white colour commingled in constant flux. It moved behind Daisy, and she shrank away from it, exclaiming, Oh Christ!! It has seized me!” One of the servants swiftly jumped into action and hurled a chair towards it just as it crossed the upper end of the table and vanished into the recess of a window. He dashed out of the room and summoned more servants. Even now when writing I feel the fresh horror of the moment. #RandolphHarris 5 of 13

The Tower held spirits that were thought to have been dead and tortured for thousands of years. However, some of the Tower’s ghosts were more subtle—a baby crying; a hand on the shoulder while sitting in a bath; the smell of incense and horse sweat coming from nowhere—but the rest make up a tableau of blood. Screams are heard emanating from the Tower and servants often see a woman being pursued by a headsman, who eventually hacks her to the ground. Pools of blood that appear on the floor come from a fourteenth century nobleman who died of his wounds after battling the French incursions which made the Isle of Wight almost uninhabitable during that period. One particularly harrowing night, I woke to find myself not in my bed, but standing at the entrance to one of the basements. The heavy wooden door creaked open of its own accord, revealing a staircase that seemed to descend into infinite darkness. From below came the sounds of chains rattling and distant, agonized moans. As I stood there, paralyzed with fear, I felt an unseen force beginning to pull me down the stairs. It took every modicum of strength I had to resist, to turn and flee back to the safety of the upper floors. Daisy found herself drawn to the ancient mirror in her room, spending hours staring into its depths. She began to see things in its silvered surface—glimpses of the past, of the atrocities committed by the Winchester Rifle. #RandolphHarris 6 of 13

However, more terrifying were the glimpses of possible futures, each more horrific than the last. In one, she saw a creature of darkness, a vicious monster, stained with blood, stalking the halls alongside other spirits. In another, she witnessed the gruesome demise of my estate at the hands of a spectral baron. His eyes ranged over us; his mouth formed into a cruel smile. He laughed, deep and loud, and with a sudden careless gesture dropped my entire home to the ground. Not only did we all perish, but legions of the dead had just lost their home. The specter then wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth with his arm, and smiled again. It was as he smirked in triumph that he held out a small gold crucifix. Daisy ran to me in tears. “Aunt Sarah,” she said, “I understand nothing except horror and misery!” “Things will get better,” said I gently, “when we have done what we have to do.” Cautiously, I moved nearer to Daisy. Her eyes blazed with fury. With a grisly grin, she back away from me to the door-to-nowhere. Daisy delivered a horrible squeal. Her withering body seemed to fade into tiny specks, forming a floating shape which slipped under the narrow crack at the bottom of the door. Stepping up to the door, I stood blinking in astonishment. I stretched out my arms to her, but she did not return. Putting my head in my hand, I sobbed. #RandolphHarris 7 of 13

The trapdoor in the floor now opened of its own accord, the darkness below calling to me with promises of release from the terror—if only I would descend those winding stairs. I went down into the darkness, and at the very bottom, lighting a candle. The room became a prison. The walls seemed to close in on me, the ancient bricks whispering secrets that threatened to drive me mad. I tried everything I could think of to bring Daisy back and rid myself of this evil presence. I brought in priests to perform exorcisms, but the holy water turned to blood as soon as it touched the floors of Llanada Villa. Crucifixes twisted themselves into pentagrams. Mediums fled as flames from the fireplace took on a life of their own, forming themselves into fiery apparitions that chased them through the halls and sent them screaming from the property, speaking in malevolent tongue. As the sanity of the servants began to fray, they would find themselves slipping into fugue states, coming to awareness hours later with no memory of what had transpired. I squeezed Mr. Hansen’s arm as we traversed the miles and miles of hallways and rooms looking for my dear Daisey. Mr. Hansen gasped when we opened on of the doors. There was Daisey. In the quiet of one of the beds, resting from the horrible impulses which made her stalk the night. She was beautiful. Her eyes were closed, her expression serene. #RandolphHarris 8 of 13

“Is she dead?” Mr. Hansen breathed. “No,” I replied. “She is not dead. But my home will never be at peace until we release Llanada from this evil cruse. My family and I will die, and new victims and multiplying evils will be unleashed on this World. Souls are in torment. Mr. Hansen, I need you to perform an act of great love and great courage. For although my home is the size of many mansions, if we do not continue to build, we will all be killed!” Mr. Hansen stepped forward. “I’m ready,” he said. Mr. Hansen took a small book from his pocket and began to recite a prayer. The ancient words of worship echoed around the labyrinth. A hideous, blood curdling screech came from Daisy’s open lips. The house shook and twisted wildly; it bones groaning in agony. Mr. Hansen picked up a hammer, retrieved my notes from the bureau and called the carpenters back to work. The foul things that had taken over Daisey’s body had gone, and in its place lay the real Daisy. Her face was very beautiful, but she was ravaged with pain and suffering. “So we did the right thing,” one of the carpenter said. “Did you doubt it?” asked Mr. Hansen. The evocative language of cutting and shaping wood produced a distinct rustling sound. High-pitched whines evoked an urgency and intensity. The crisp slicing of the saw, the rhythmic thumping of the hammering and nailing which reverberated through the air, and as well as the creaking chorus of grating and groaning wood produced a symphony that was very soothing and invigorating. #RandolphHarris 9 of 13

A week later, in the downstairs study, Mr. Hansen was sitting at the desk frowning in concentration. He had called the carpenters all together for an important meeting. “One part of our work is over,” he said. “But a greater task remains. It is imperative that the haunting groan of timber, the ominous creek of stained wood, the hypnotic beat of the hammer, continues to carry its emotional weight, never ceasing. That is the only way we can stop the author of all our sorrow. And…”He paused, looking slowly at the expectant faces in front of him. “And keep Mrs. Winchester and her family alive,” Mr. Hansen said vehemently, to murmurs of agreement. Now that the battle was finally out in the open, I regained all my strength and spirit. I no longer felt like I was alone in the World, battling this curse on my own. I now had a team. “We all know what happened to poor Annie and Mr. Winchester,” Mr. Hansen said gravely, “and those of you who weren’t already familiar with Sarah Winchester’s journal have now read it. Very few people,” he said with admiration, “have faced what she has faced and lived to tell the tale. Her journal provides an invaluable insight into the powers and habits these ghosts and demons on humanity.” Mr. Hansen began to pace up and down the length of the study, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “I have made it my task to learn as much as possible about the many dangers we face in The Winchester Mansion. #RandolphHarris 10 of 13

“Arkie will testify to the days and night I have spent in this room, in that chair, reading Mrs. Winchester’s diagrams and interpreting her architectural notes, reading books and papers untouched for centuries. My purpose in calling this meeting is to shape my knowledge—my knowledge of the ghosts killed by Yellow Boy.” Abruptly he stopped pacing up and down, stood behind his chair and thumped the table. “There are such beings as demons, ghouls, and ghosts. Spring Heeled Jack is the greatest and most evil demon there has ever been. He is as strong as twenty men and has the cunning that comes from living over a thousand years. He has claws, eyes as red as fireballs, and wings.” I suddenly interrupted. “Correct. He can rip anyone to shreds with his bare hands. And he has other tricks. He can cause fogs, he can fade into the walls. All he was wants to do is harm the living. So, please, keep building nonstop.” A chilling wind whipped around us, carrying with it the echoes of tormented souls. Spectral hands clawed at the carpenters from the shadows, leaving icy trails across their faces. “Be careful,” Mr. Hasen warned, his grip on his hammer tightening. “Try not to get too impatient or angry.” They all fell silent. With steadfast purpose they walked in a single file from one room to another, gathering tools to continue construction. #RandolphHarris 11 of 13

After the men returned to work, I buried my noise in my old books. I wanted to keep myself busy so I would not worry about the curse. I needed to know as much as possible about the enemy. The men were systematically working. The book frightened me. I snaped it shut and decided to go to bed. What I needed was a good night’s sleep. In the process of working on the west wing, the men had become too confident. “Saw a ghost just then,” Emrys observed, as he nailed wood to the wall. “A ghost over there,” Silas said. “Masses of them here,” Ambrose said a little lighter, just as he was opening his toolbox. Of the fifteen men that were on duty, only four remained. The men glanced up from their work and looked around the room. Ghosts were appearing from nowhere, floating and hovering across the mansion’s floor, horribly flying over their heads. Mr. Hansen heard their screams and came running into the room. “We must continue building!” he shouted, looking at the horror of the ghosts around them. “Now prepare for blood to flow,” an incarnate voice said. “Shut up!” Arkie shouted, desperately running from the room. “Hurry!” Mr. Hansen called from the door. The other three men had already run out of the room. Arkie made a last, frantic lunge, and just managed to get safely into the hallway. #RandolphHarris 12 of 13

Immediately ghost converged into the hallway, and in less than a second, they were smothered in complete darkness. They felt as if they were being frozen to death. The ghosts were clawing at their faces, whispering in their ears. They tried to fight their way out of it. The men thought this was the end. At that moment, the lights came on and the ghosts vanished. While I was sleeping, the chambermaid witnessed a white mist. It came creeping under the door, low like a snake, and pressed itself against the walls and windows. Then it seeped into the new room through the wall. She looked down at me and was pleased that I was sleeping so soundly. However, in the morning, as the chambermaid was telling me about the night’s events, Mr. Hansen noticed I did not look very well. “Mrs. Winchester, are you coming down with something?” he asked. I admitted, “I feel so tired and weak.” “Although I am very thankful to be employed in your service, I was going to ask you if I could take leave?” “For how long, Mr. Hasen?” “Permanently.” “Good architects are the very devil to find these days, Mr. Hansen,” I said, “and there can be no one else like you. Do stay on, there’s a good chap. I would be lost without you.” By all rights, Mr. Hansen should have long ago retied, spent his savings on a country cottage and devoted the rest of his life to his own garden. However, I had been insistent that he should stay on. So many employees had disappeared. His place being taken over by someone else sounded strange, unfathomable. I could not have him absent from the house. Mr. Hansen was a good-heated old soul, and his job was secure for as long as he wished it to be. #RandolphHarris 13 of 13

The Winchester Mystery House

We heard you! We’re giving you another chance to grab tickets for Unhinged: Hotel at 20% off – 48 HOURS ONLY! ⏰🚨

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Maybe a friendly Victorian ghost will come home with you and haunt your closet and watch over you to keep you safe.

Weak One Minute, Dead the Next?

October 23, 2024 9:20 am

Some people are raised in vicious crumbling corners of the city, where their chances of survival are only as good as the strength in their muscles of the quick wits in their head. Those who have both—physical strength and size are lucky. However, it also helps to have calculating intelligence. It is also important not to get caught in the syndrome of unemployment, drugs, and despair. When live in an age when, as the Lord foretold, men’s hearts are failing them, not only physically but in spirit. Many are giving up heart for the battle of life. Death by suicide ranks as a major cause of deaths to college students. As the showdown between good and evil approaches with its accompanying trials and tribulations, the adversaries are increasingly striving to overcome the Saints with despair, discouragement, despondency, and depression. Sometimes this happens when a person’s spouse leaves them, the paychecks stop coming in, and the payments on the Corvette fall months behind. This is when it is most important to remember God and have assurance that he is directing us through the troubled times ahead. “He that remaineth steadfast and is not overcome, the same shall be saved,” reports Matthew 1.11. Also, never forget your intelligence, your education, and your competitiveness. #RandolphHarris 1 of 16

Even people who are successful and feel like they own the World fell like something very important is missing. Some fell alone, like a spaceship rocketing to the stars with nothing but emptiness all around them. They may also feel out of touch with themselves, with who they are. It is often times like a spaceship that has no pilot, no crew—just an engine driving it mindlessly ever upward to nowhere. Many people are, as always, a success. They have energy, style, charisma. They seem to have it “all together.” And they fool everyone but themselves. On top of that, they carry a deep, gnawing guilt. In the rise to the top, one must often leave many people behind: their friends from poor neighbourhoods, their spouse, and sometimes even their families. These individuals know something is wrong with them personally. They want to relax, but cannot. They want to be loved, but have no idea how a person goes about doing that. They get sick and tired of competing, keeping up, looking good, winning for the sake of winning alone. “Wickedness never was happiness,” reports Alma 41.10. Sin creates disharmony with God and is depressing to the spirit. Therefore, a man would do well to examine himself to see that he is in harmony with all of God’s laws. Every law kept brings a particular blessing. Every law broken brings a particular blight. Those who are heavy laden with despair should come unto the Lord, for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. #RandolphHarris 2 of 16

Strong. You want to know that you are strong all the time. Not just when things are going smoothly. However, if you tell yourself—all the time—that you are strong, then after a while you will believe it. You will really know it. So when something unfortunate happens, you will know you can handle it. However, no one is strong all the time. There are times when you will be weak. Look man, not everyone has the luxury of being weak. Weak, for some, is like one step from being dead, you understand? You will be weak one minute, and you will be dead the next. However, prayer in the hour of need is a great boon. From simple trials to our Gethsemanes, prayer can put us in touch with God, our greatest source of comfort and counsel. “Pray always that you may come off conqueror,” Doctrine and Covenants 10.5. This is also a key to use in keeping depression from destroying us. In the lives of some people, there are a number of direct polarities, that is, opposites which are independent, but at the same time complementary. With regard to their outside World, there are the polarities of their two cultures: one, the poverty-ridden low-income neighbourhood and the other, the World of business. They know their roots are in one culture, but their everyday life is in the other. Their inability to be in both of these Worlds, alternately, as the situation might demand, is a source of great conflict, guilt and embarrassment to them. #RandolphHarris 3 of 16

The other polarity exists in their own perception of themselves: the polarity of strength and weakness. Having grown up in an environment where strength was equated with survival, some come to see weakness as something to be avoided at all costs. Thus they will deny their own weakness and set about structing their lives such that one could demonstrate only strength to oneself and others. To understand this, we have to focus on the exact meaning of the word polarity, which is different from the concept of duality. Polarities exist at either end of a continuum. One such continuum might have “yes” at one end and “no” at the other, with degrees of “maybes” in between. Another continuum might have strength at one end and weakness at the other. (There is a zero point in the center and the intensity of the strength and weakness increases as each moves away from the other. Differences exist only in degree. On the other hand, a duality is a complete separation of two entities into mutually exclusive or contradictory conditions such as: Alive of Dead.) These are related by their oppositeness—an oppositeness which is independent, but not complementary. Also, there cannot be degrees of deadness. Something is either dead, or alive. It cannot be a “little bit” dead. Many people often mistake polarities for dualities. In the minds of some, there are two kind of people “ghetto” and successful businessmen. #RandolphHarris 4 of 16

Since some people view themselves as successful businessmen, they cannot allow themselves to be viewed as “ghetto,” as they perceive the people left in the less affluent hometowns. To these successful men, it is necessary to embrace one and reject the other. Some cannot see that one does not have to do that. Rather, one can hold the two polarities in tension, appreciating both Worlds. One can be human and ambitions, cool and successful. One can speak in slang dialect to their friends and family and slide into their university English when he is in the executive suite. He can be both at the same time without guilt. Recognizing that he need not constantly fight the situation as a duality, but allow both to exist in creative tension, will lead to a dissolving of what could become a neurotic conflict. The Universe is literally held together by such dynamic tension. For every positive charge in a molecule, there is an equal and opposite negative one. For every planet that is spinning wildly, straining to hurtle off into space, there is another planet holding it to its orbit. The positive does not reject the existence of the negative. It uses the negative to hold itself in place. The Universe uses both the positive and the negative to accomplish a variety of useful tasks. The result of this dynamic tension between polarities is balance and balance is literally “what makes the World go ‘round.” #RandolphHarris 5 of 16

If everything exists in a state of dynamic tension, then why not out inner life, our own being? Should not out being also thrive best in a condition of dynamic tension on a nurturing continuum of feeling and growth, rather than at a rigidly fixed position which seeks to deny the existence of another, opposite position? In that the children of Cain have triumphed, increasingly, throughout the centuries, the God of the Old Testament can be said to have been incredibly successful. Paradoxically, the blasphemers have injected new life into the jealous God whom Christianity wished to banish from history. One of their most profoundly audacious acts was to recruit Christ into their camp by making His story end on the Cross and on the bitter note of the cry that precedes His agony. By this means it was possible to preserve the implacable face of a God of hate—which coincided far better with creation as the rebels conceived it. Until Dostoievsky and Nietzsche, rebellion is directed only against a cruel and capricious divinity—a divinity who prefers, without any convincing motive, Abel’s sacrifice to Cain’s and, by so doing, provokes the first murder. Dostoievsky, in the realm of imagination, and Nietzsche, in the realm of fact, enormously increase the field of rebellious thought and demand an accounting from the God of love. Himself. Nietzsche believes that God is dead in the souls of his contemporaries. #RandolphHarris 6 of 16

Because Nietzsche believes that God is dead in the souls of his contemporaries, he attacks, like his predecessor Stirner, the illusion of God that lingers, under guise of morality, in the thought of his times. However, until they appear upon the scene, the freethinkers, for example, were content to deny the truth of the history of Christ (“that dull story,” in Sade’s words) and to maintain, by their denials, the tradition of an avenging god. On the other hand, for as long as the Western World has been Christian, the Gospels have been the interpreter between Heaven and Earth. Each time a solitary cry of rebellion was uttered, the answer came in the form of an even more terrible suffering. In that Christ had suffered, and had suffered voluntarily, suffering was no longer unjust and all pain was necessary. In one sense, Christianity’s bitter intuition and legitimate pessimism concerning human behaviour is based on the assumption that overall injustice is as satisfying to man as total justice. Only the sacrifice of an innocent god could justify the endless and universal torture of innocence. Only the most abject suffering by God could assuage man’s agony. If everything, without exception, in Heaven and Eart is doomed to pain and suffering, then a strange form of happiness is possible. However, from the moment when Christianity, emerging from its period of triumph, found itself submitted to the critical eye of reason—to the point where the divinity of Christ was denied—suffering once more became the lot of man. #RandolphHarris 7 of 16

Jesus Christ profaned is no more than just one more innocent man who the representatives of the God of Abraham tortured in a spectacular manner. The abyss that separates the master from the slaves opens again and the cry of revolt falls on the deaf ears of a jealous God. The freethinkers have prepared the way for this new dichotomy by attacking, with all the usual precautions, the morality and divinity of Christ. Callot’s Universe sums up quite satisfactorily this World of hallucination and wretchedness whose inhabitants begin by giggling up their sleeves and end—with Moliere’s Don Juan—by laughing to high Heaven. During the two centuries which prepare the way for the upheavals, both revolutionary and sacrilegious, of the eighteenth century, all the efforts of the freethinkers are bent on making Christ an innocent, or a simpleton, so as to annex Him to the World of man, endowed with all the noble or derisory qualities of man. Thus the ground will be prepared for the great offensive against a hostile Heaven. The adept who attains perfect inner serenity can do so only by paying the price of forgoing the emotional agitations, attractions, and repulsions which constitute much of the inner life of most people. Having attained it himself, he can lead other to it only by pointing towards it as a reachable goal for them, too. He may not yield to personal favouritism or egotistic caprice based on likes and dislikes in selecting those whom he is to help. #RandolphHarris 8 of 16

Indeed, because of this it is said that he is not more interested in mankind collectively rather than as individuals. Now if he had to commit emotional suicide to reach his present height, it is unreasonable to expect that he should flatter or encourage those who, although seeking the same height, seek also to preserve or nourish their egoistic emotions. The latter are nearly always closely linked to egoistic desires. An inward detachment from all eagerness for Earthly life is the grim price that must be paid before entry into the kingdom of Heaven can be got. Such detachment requires soft sentimentality to yield to hard recognition must assuredly lead the seeker far away from conventional points of view concerning his personal duties, his family relations, and his social behaviour. It is not that he will not feel desires and aversions, attractions and repulsions, but that he will not be moved by them. They will be under control, not only of the ego but of a power higher than the ego. Thus the tensions which animate him, will not be present. It is an error to regard him as inhuman, as lacking in feeling. What he rejects is negative feeling: what he seeks to overcome is animal wrath, lust, hatred; what he affirms is positive feeling of the best kind—delicate, sensitive, aesthetic, compassionate, and refined. Thus his stoic imperturbability is not rigor mortis. #RandolphHarris 9 of 16

To talk of his condition as simply being one of controlled emotion is not quite correct; much rather it is one of balanced emotion—which is markedly different. The idea of a philosopher being an utterly aloof person, coldly indifferent and quite unapproachable, a man who restricts his human feelings to the degree that hardly any are left, is applicable only to those who follow narrow, rigid, and incomplete systems. The notion that a philosopher is melancholy is arguable: there is no reason why he should not show joy and appreciate humour. However, since he is a balanced person, he will put the governor of deep seriousness to control these qualities. If a human price has to be paid for such emotionless behaviour, let us remember that it must also be paid for too emotional behaviour. A portentous gravity is not at all a hallmark of the self-actualized Christian. Is mental tranquility indistinguishable from emotional death? Is it not better to guide feelings, educate desires, and uplift emotions into the proper channels than to kill them? Such questions show a confused comprehension of the philosophic discipline. The latter’s aim is not to produce an insensible human stone but a true human being. If a child is boxed in by contradictory controls, there may be only one way out which allows him some measure of self-expression. He is then forced into that kind of activity or response no matter how inappropriate it may be. #RandolphHarris 10 of 16

In such a case, it is often evident to the people around him that he is responding to what is in his head rather than to the external situation, and he is then said to be in a bag. If his bag is backed up by some talent or ability, and by a winning payoff command, it may be a winner’s bag, but in most cases people in a bag are losers because their behaviour is nonadaptive. A person who breaks out of a bag (or “container,” as it sometimes called) will immediately proceed to do his thing, that is, whatever he has always wanted most to do. If that happens to be adaptive and is controlled with some Adult rationality, he may turn out to be a winner, but if he indulges too often and too well, he will end up being a loser. In fact, when a person starts to do his thing, after he break out of his bag, his payoff command will determine whether he does it judiciously so as to be a winner, or overdoes it like a loser. In some cases, however, he may be able to leave his payoff command in the bag along with the rest of his parentally programmed script apparatus, and then he is really his own man and can decide his own destiny. However, it is difficult to know, without the appraisal of an objective outsider, whether he is really a maverick of liberated person, or is only an angry rebel, or maybe even a schizophrenic who has jumped out of his bag and into a bottle, with or without pulling the cork in after him. #RandolphHarris 11 of 16

To ask about the purpose of human life is to raise an existential question, rather than one answerable through experiment or logic. Existential questions are answered by the way one lives. Every person’s life, and the daily actions and decisions that comprise it, represent that person’s answer to the question, “How, then, shall I live?” These answers are almost by definition the embodiment of a person’s religion. The chief function of religion is to provide ultimate answers to the questions that existence pose. In the absence of credible and lifegiving answers to the questions, “How shall I live, and why?” a person enters the state called noogenic neurosis—a kind of despair or cynicism. Much depression and neurotic suffering stem from a failure to find meaning in life or to find new meaning when old goals have been consummated or have lost their inspiriting power. Fromm regards “a frame of orientation and devotion” to be as essential to healthy personality as food. The process of self-actualizing, of which Maslow wrote, and the achievement of selfhood (in Jung’s sense) appear to be impossible without such a religious orientation. Of course, it does not matter whether the religion is theistic, and it is possible to judge whether or not a person’s objects and ways of worshiping are life-giving. However, life for human beings is impossible without something to live for. #RandolphHarris 12 of 16

The mission of the Sacramento Fire Department is to serve the community by protecting lives, property, and the environment in a safe, efficient, and professional manner. The Sacramento Fire Department also insures to provide timely, effective and efficient fire protection, suppression, prevention, education, and investigation services to the citizens of Sacramento. “It was a fire in a high school at two o’ clock on a Monday morning, and one of our rescue crews was coming back from the hospital, where they had a job. They smelled smoke. They drove all around looking for the fire, but they just couldn’t find it. The trouble was that this school, like many buildings in South Sacrament, was completely windowless, for reasons of vandalism and air-conditioning. So they couldn’t see the fire. At six in the morning we got the run. This fire had been burning in a windowless structure for twelve hours. We felt the door, and it was hotter than hell itself. We stretched our preconnected line, a long stretch, and we put it into position. Then we forced open the door and felt the air rush in. Right there, I knew that was the closet we had ever come to blowing ourselves to kingdom come. Why that building didn’t backdraft, I don’t know. We crawled in with the line, and the smoke was real black, almost to the floor. We were in the library learning center. #RandolphHarris 13 of 16

“I got close to the wall, and there was a telephone on one of the desks, just above the level of our heads. It was melted to a blob. Now our ears were burning, really tingling, because we weren’t using helmets with earflaps and we didn’t have any ventilation. We went along way in, thinking, cover your ears, cover them up and push the line along. By this time everything was in a smoldering state and picking up. We stretched that thing, we must have stretched it a hundred feet. This other guy and I were up front, and the rest of the guys were twenty or thirty feet back. We cracked that line, and the water upset the thermal balance. The stream came down, and we couldn’t see a damn thing. The steam rolled down, and I told the guy, ‘I got to leave, I’m burning up.’ He didn’t get the burns I did. I said, ‘I got to go, I’m burning up.’ I turned around and tried to follow the hose line out, but it was all tangled around a chair we had knocked over on the way in. It was being a receptionist’s desk, and I remember going there. In retrospect you say, ‘Feel the male and female coupling, and you know you’re heading in the right direction.’ When you’re burning up, you don’t feel anything. I started to stand up, and I was telling myself to get back down. This was the closet I have ever come to losing control of myself because I was burning up. I finally did get outside. To be honest, I had left that guy on the line. I had told him, ‘Come on, come on, come on.’ He came out a minute later and was okay. #RandolphHarris 14 of 16

“They worked on me in the emergency room at the hospital, and they put ice packs on my ears. They were second-degree burns. Why we didn’t kill ourselves by forcing that door and letting that air in, I don’t know. I think it was just God saying, ‘Hey, it’s not your time to get killed.’ There are always other times, though. Like, we had a sire in another of those Sacramento Country houses, where a lady and a baby were trapped inside. So the guys pulled the line, they were good firemen, but they were attacking the fire at the front. It’s hard to make yourself go around back of the fire when the fire’s in the front. I said, ‘Hey, X, if there is anybody alive, they’re in the back of the house. Go there.’ Well, anyway, the firemen went in the back and found the lady while I was getting my self-contained mask on. They came out and they were burned. They were helping the lady, but the baby was still in there because I could hear it crying. I went in with a line. The fire was one of those where it was burning up over your head. I intentionally didn’t open the line, because I knew that steam would come down and I wouldn’t be able to see the kid. Also, I would steam the hell out of myself. This time I did have my earflaps down. I could hear the baby crying and I said, ‘Oh, man.’ I jumped through doorways, and I melted the eye shield on my helmet. I found the baby. It was in the back bathroom. #RandolphHarris 15 of 16

“I got burned, but I eventually found the baby. That was the first experience in which I heard a baby crying, and I thought, ‘Well, you just better stay in here, and you just better suffer until you find the baby.’” Not only does the fire department save lives and reduce property loss, but they also prevent harm. Public education and prevention is of equal importance to fire suppression in the role of the fire service in the community. You can help the Sacramento Fire Department’s mission by making a donation. Americans love to see America prosper. Please remember to raise your children to love America, love God and Jesus Christ and to be patriotic. Also, to keep America strong, it is important to buy American cars and other goods and services produced by Americans, such as American beef, poultry, dairy, produce and other products. In order to keep our city streets safe, remember to respect law and order, and always treat your elders with dignity and reverence. Getting an education will help you maintain stability as an adult, and you can and will use everything you learn in school. Reading your assigned textbooks before class will help your grades improve, help you to understand the material, teach you critical thinking skills and make class more interesting because you will be able to engage with the teach and other students and the time will fly by. As always, remember to be thankful for being an America and never forget how armed forces have made it possible to live in peace. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. #RandolphHarris 16 of 16

The Winchester Mystery House

The nearer one gets to visit a haunted place, the more frantic do the restless ones become, to make sure, perhaps, that you do not overlook them!

Randolph Harris II International Institute

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