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We Have Sentenced Ourselves to Lives in a Tower of Babel
It is not enough for man to be emotional about his faith. He ought also to be able to give a coherent statement of the reasons for it. Strengthening families is our sacred duty as parents, children, extended family members, leaders, teachers, and individual members of the Church. The importance of spiritually strengthening families is taught clearly in the scriptures. Father Adam and Mother Eve taught their sons and daughters the gospel. The sacrifices of Abel were accepted by the Lord, whom he loved. Cain, on the other hand, “loved Satan more than God,” and committed serious sins. Adam and Eve, “mourned before the Lord, because of Cain and his brethren,” but they never ceased to teach their children the gospel (see Moses 5.15, 18, 20, 27; 6.1, 58). When academic learning runs to excess to the point of becoming dry pedantry bereft of common sense, it becomes a nuisance to those who seek truth. “Do not be upset! Control yourself. Take it easy,” cautions the manipulator. And well that person might, for dealing with feelings is a big part of his or her problem. Manipulators always prevent you from confronting them with the impact of your ideas or emotions. They cannot allow you to get angry with them anymore than they can allow you to get close to them. We must understand that each of our children comes with varying gifts and talents. Some, like Abel, seem to be given gifts of faith at birth. Others struggle with every decision they make. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
As parents, we should never let the searching and struggling of our children make us waver or lose our faith in the Lord. A major defense against manipulation, our own and others, would be for us to learn how to become honestly expressive of our feelings. The truth is that most of us do not understand what it means to experience our feelings either physiologically or consciously, even though we live with them every day of our lives. As a result, we have never learned to communicate our feelings directly, effectively, or accurately. We spend a lot of our time telling others what we think rather than what we feel. Often our body language and tone of voice belie what we say, and we wonder why others do not seem to get our messages. Confusion prevails because we have sentenced ourselves to lives in a “tower of Babel.” As His true followers, the Savior wants us to love others as He loves them—more unconditionally, more purely, more perfectly. Many of us do not realize that we really feel our emotions in our bodies. It would be useful, therefore, to look at the five basic emotions and their physical manifestations. Anger. What is the physiological evidence when you feel angry? How do you know when you are angry? You may feel as if you want to fight. Your body stiffens; you breathe faster; your heart beats rapidly; you get tense and have the sensation of heat. When you are angry, a great deal of physical energy builds up, and your body feels as if it must do something. Expressing angry by saying things like, “I am so angry right now I feel like sending you to the moon without a spaceship,” is good medicine. Repressed anger is dangerous to your body and your relationships. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
Fear. When your body is fearful, how do you know? The feeling is almost the opposite of anger. Your mouth gets dry; you feel cold; your palms begin to sweat. Shake hands with someone who is frightened, and you usually will feel the cold sweat. Mormon urges us to “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of His Son, Jesus Christ.” Like faith, Christlike love is a gift of the Spirit, is granted upon the principles of personal righteousness and in accordance to our level of obedience to the laws upon which it is predicated. Like faith, love must be exercises to grow. We all live our lives one day at a time, and each of us, regardless of our age or circumstances, is presented each day with choices in our relationships with others. As we deny ourselves and reach out to serve others, the Spirit will refine us and teach us and we will come to learn what Saint Paul meant: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” Our compassionate service to others will grow and divine love and change us, and “when He shall appear, we shall be like Him.” If instruction and education leave a person in ignorance of the World-Idea and in illusion concerning the world and self, then they are in complete, and inadequate to prepare him for life. Those who are unable to think or afraid to think may leap eagerly at the gospel of avoiding thought altogether. For them, a bland blankness may bring peace. However, how long can it last in the face of life’s stern insistent problems, tragedies, or responsibilities? #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
Hurt. Even to ourselves, most of us seem afraid to admit hurt. It feels weakening to be hurt. It feels like a swift blow to the chest. Emotional hurt is painful, and we sure want to avoid the pain. When we really feel hurt, we often act angry to cover it up. Or we simply push it deep inside. Back in childhood, no doubt, someone told us that big kids do not cry. Most od us do not have the courage of despair—we are actually afraid to feel bad. Yet, unexpressed hurt can be a noose about the neck of an individual that stifles all feeling. We recall all too poignantly the desperate look in the eyes of a man who blurted: “I wish more than anything that I could have a real 24-carat feeling of being hurt.” Habits of a lifetime denied him the enormous relief of melting into tears. Brigham Young taught, “We should commence our labors of love and kindness with the family to which we belong; and then extend them to others.” Kind Benjamin counseled parents to teach their children, “to love one another, and to serve one another.” President Kimball taught that, “God does notice us, and He watches over us. But it is usually through another mortal that He meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom.” The spiritually paralyzed mind often skims the surface of things with great brilliance but the poor thing is completely unable to penetrate them. We are living in a region where aberrations of Christianity are excess abound so freely, the value of a scientific attitude is immense. If supported by intelligence; rather they will be richer, deeper, and balanced. It is not enough to purify the moral nature of evil and sin. It is also needful to purify the intellectual nature of error and delusion. Hence moral discipline must be complemented by an intellectual one. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
Joy. If you have ever watched the fans when the marginalized team has just scored the winning touchdown, you have an idea of the physical manifestation of joy. One’s whole-body tingles in delight. The body surges with energy. When joy surfaces, it is impossible to be tired or depressed. Football games, or any sport, are where we give ourselves permission, en masse, to express the joy we ordinarily withhold in our attempts to maintain “dignity.” Somewhere in our lives, we learned to keep our delight hidden away. Perhaps we got the superstitious notion that if the gods knew of our joy, they would take it away. Of if others noticed us acting happy, they would try to rob us of our delight. Or if our internal authority got too boisterous, our marginalized internal being would bring us to defeat. Joylessness is a malady of adulthood. Wordsworth says it well in Ode: Intimations of Immorality: “Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing Boy, but he beholds the light, and whence it flows, he sees it in his joy…at length the Man perceives it die away, and fade into the light common day.” For some of us, it is possible to recall the feelings of joy we experienced in early childhood before we allowed adult worries and responsibilities to dim the light of our perceptions. As grown-ups, we became poor receivers of those things that ignite joy. There is a great truth in Christ’s statement that we must be “like little children to enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” If there is one prime feature of the modern mentality, it is that reason has replaced faith. We begin by calling into question what our forefathers believed. In the good old days, we assumed everything and probed nothing; now we assume nothing and prove everything. The change is fundamental. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
Finally, there is love. Love is many things, but it is also a feeling. Physiologically, love feels like a welling-up in the center of our bodies, accompanied by a desire to touch and hold the loved one. Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other. Love in all its manifestations is the primary way we are able to step across the boundaries of our solitude to make contact with others. King Benjamin counseled his people to yield to the enticings of the Holy Ghost, put “off the natural man and [become] a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and [become] as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love.” Love’s authenticity is commensurate with the lover’s ability to experience and express anger, fear, hurt, and joy. To express love to another, we have to be able to express the four other feelings, and certainly this has important implications in human relationships, especially marriage. For example, one person can never have a true and lasting relationship with another until he or she is able to fight with the other. Love and anger are complementary opposites. Often, we find that our warmest feelings of love rise out of the heat of anger. Honestly expressing anger resolves conflicts more quickly and reduces resentment on both sides. When we are able to show that we are angry, that we are afraid, that we can be hurt, that we can be joyful—then we can love. When we really level with each other and tell the other how we feel, only then do we begin to feel closeness. Love, by this set of standards, is clearly the true fulfillment of all other feelings. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
Fidelity with pleasures of the flesh is still important today, even though it does not seem like it because of what we see in the media. One lady tells us, “I’ve lost a good job because of my affair. I made it very blatant, and now I can see I was asking to be caught. So here I am at thirty-three, and I really don’t know where to go or what to do.” A man told us, “I had my first extramarital activity two or three years into the marriage…I fancied myself some sort of gay blade. So I decided, I’m going to get laid somewhere. And I did. And I kept on doing this for probably eight years.” The value and meaning of marriage has become a matter of considerable controversy. Some critics, for example, maintain that monogamy—with its emphasis on mutual commitment as the basis for an exclusive union of one man and one woman—is no longer a realistic way of life. They view conventional marriage as more of a hindrance than a help to men and women struggling to develop their individual potentialities while coping with the stresses of contemporary society. Such an outlook would certainly be affirmed by all the men and women who participated in the two preceding symposiums. Apparently, unable to find the full and enduring satisfactions they want and need in a relationship that involves pleasures of the flesh with the one person they married, they feel compelled to search elsewhere for the pleasures they lack. Without passing judgment on them—indeed, with full appreciation of their courage and, in some cases, their desperation in reaching out for what they desire—it seems worthwhile to try to put the subject of extramarital pleasures of the flesh in perspective, to examine briefly the nature of commitment in the intimate passions and its relevance to marriage. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
When a man and woman first commit themselves to each other with pleasures of the flesh, they do so for reasons that have been impressed upon them by society since childhood. They have been told to believe that on the basis of their union, they will find physical, emotional and social fulfillment—and some people would include spiritual fulfillment as well. These are dimensions of human needs that have been intricately woven into “patterns” for commitment; woven and rewoven by successive generations from concepts of love and pleasures of flesh, which reflected prevailing religious and cultural philosophies. Unfortunately, the concepts of pleasures of the flesh reflected even today in these patterns for commitment continue to embody ideas from the past that are demonstrably inaccurate or false or that are now completely unrealistic and incompatible with contemporary concepts of love. Pleasures of the flesh is a conjugal duty, for example, or as an economic barter is not as palatable as it once may have been. Out of this unfortunate heritage of erroneous notions about the nature and functions of pleasures of the flesh arise a number of the difficulties that plague many married couples. Personal discomfort and anxiety, or hostility between partners, often can be traced to such depressingly familiar beliefs that pleasures of the flesh are the price that must be paid for love or that pleasures of the flesh are separate from love. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
However, what can be said with any validity about love and pleasures of the flesh? There now exist a few significant scientific facts which might possibly serve as the basis for a tentative reassessment of expression with pleasures of the flesh in relation to love and other values as the basis of the man-woman bond. To do so, however, would require a reasonable definition of love. Having observed that love is interpreted in many ways—according to the values, perceptions and circumstances of those individuals who attempt to define the word—we choose to accept as an unalterable fact that love in its infinite variability is and always will be subject to individual interpretation. It seems futile, for example, to define love as passion—that is, some subtle combination of emotional, romantic and spiritual feeling—for someone to whom love means, with equal justness, authentic and sustained kindness or emotional and economic sustenance or protection from harm. To attempt to revise either definition so that it will better accord with the values prized by some other person would mean diminishing equally cherished values. To do so would be not only fruitless but potentially destructive. Therefore, the emotional components of love, in any of its forms of expression, are being discussed. When it seems appropriate or necessary, it might be useful for you to apply your personal interpretation as it has developed out of a lifetime of beliefs, feelings and experiences. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
Since love, pleasures of the flesh and commitment, however, tend to be inextricably woven together in our society’s pattern for man-woman relationships, it should be noted that the combination is arbitrary. Society, past and present, has chosen to assign pleasures of the flesh and love to the marriage covenant. However, the lining of pleasures of the flesh and love reflects a tacit assumption that this is how it must be in spite of the fact that from an objective standpoint, love need not necessarily be a condition of pleasures of the flesh for a person to function in intimate passions and pleasures of the flesh need not necessarily be a condition of love for a person to be emotionally fulfilled. Pleasures of the flesh and love are separate life forces, each capable of being sustained without the other. Pleasures of the flesh, like any natural function, theoretically can be integrated with any psychologically valued stimuli and will then produce effective physical response, and love certainly has a recorded history of being able to sustain itself admirably in the face of overwhelming physical disabilities or even when the lovers choose to live celibate lives. Chastity is sexual purity. Those who are chaste are morally clean in their thoughts, words, and actions. Chastity means not having any relations with pleasures of the flesh before marriage. It also means complete fidelity to husband or wife during marriage. Physical intimacy between husband and wife is beautiful and sacred. It is ordained of God for the creation of children and for the expression of love within marriage. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
Sometimes our spurious certainty of pseudofeelings is shaken, and the patient then goes through a period of bewildering uncertainty which is painful but constructive. A person for instance who believed she liked everybody because she should do so may then ask: “Do I really like my husband, my pupils, my patients? Or anybody at that? And at that point, the questions are unanswerable because only now can all the fears, suspicions, and resentments that have always prevented a free flow of beneficial feelings, and yet were covered up by the shoulds, be tackled. This period is called constructive because it represents a beginning search for the genuine. The extent to which spontaneous wishes can be crushed by the inner dictates is amazing. To quote from a patient’s letter written after she discovered the tyranny of her should: “I saw that I was quite simply unable to want anything, not even death! And certainly not ‘life.’ Until now I had thought my trouble was just that I was unable to do things; unable to accept or to control my irritability, unable to make myself more human, whether by sheer will power, patience, or grief. Now for the first time I saw it—I was literally unable to feel anything. (Yes, for all my famous supersensitivity!) How well I knew pain—every pore of me clogged with inward rage, self-pity, self-contempt, and despair for the last six years and over and over again and again! Yet I saw it now—all was negative, reactive, compulsive all imposed from without; inside there was absolutely nothing of mine.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
The creation of make-believe feelings is the most striking in those whose idealized image lies in the direction of goodness, love, and saintliness. They should be considerate, grateful, sympathetic, generous, loving, and so in their minds they have all these qualities. They talk and go through the motions as if they simply were that good and loving. And, since they are convinced of it, they even can be temporarily convincing to others. However, of course, these make-believe feelings have no depth and no sustaining power. Under favorable circumstances, they may be fairly consistent and then, naturally, are not question. Madame Wu, in Pavilion of Women, started to question the genuineness of her feelings only when difficulties arose in the family situation and when she met a man who was straight and honest in his emotional life. More often, the shallowness of the made-to-order feelings shows in other ways. They may disappear easily. Love readily makes way for indifference, or for resentment and contempt, when pride or vanity is hurt. In these instances, people usually do not ask themselves: “How does it happen that my feelings or opinions change so easily?” They simply feel that here is another person who has disappointed their faith in humanity, or that they never “really” trusted him. All of this does not mean that they may have not slumbering capacities for strong and alive feelings, but what appears on more conscious levels often is a massive pretense with very little that is genuine in it. In the long run, they give the impression of something unsubstantial, elusive, or—to use a good slang word—of being phonies. An irruptive anger often is the only feeling that is really fair. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
Is there a “moral” here, or is it simple mechanics? When I am looking outside, I cannot notice me. When I ask people to name the planets, it is very unusual for them to include earth. When I have been asked to count the people present, to set places for dinner, I have often forgotten to include myself. When I have not this intentness outside, it is much easier for me to include myself. It seems to me that my intellect does the “seeing” when I exclude me. When my total organism is receiving, I am included—and then I also know that whatever goes around me is to some extent affected by the fact of my being present. Literally, nothing is that same without me. Even the thoughts in my mind have an effect both on my seeing and on what is being seen, in terms of people. I think it was James Jeans who said, “Man cannot lift a little finger without disturbing all the stars.” It takes a thought to life my finger. So even my “unconscious” gets into it, because my finger may be lifted as a response without conscious thought. Awareness of these possibilities gives me pause, makes me more tentative and gentler, and at the same time more quietly insistent that I must have what is good for me, for all of us. It is best for me (for all of us) to leave what makes me forceful or explosive. “Controlling” my force, in the sense of hiding it, does not remove it. If I cannot let it wash away, dissolve, so that my gentleness is present, then it is best that I remove myself (not necessarily forever)—however much it may go against the conventions of the society in which I live. Among some people labeled “schizophrenic” and among Hawaiians, Hopis and Navajos, I have noticed often this withdrawal before anger or explosiveness takes place. “If I stay, I shall say what I do not wish to say.” “If I stay, there will be trouble. I wish to leave before that happens. Reason begins by being skeptical of everything else. It ends by becoming skeptical about itself. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
Ida Rolf, an extraordinary physical therapist, developed a technique for altering posture by means of deep manipulation of the entire body musculature, muscle by muscle. The purpose is to soften the fascia, those membranes that sheath each muscle fiber in the body. The fascia becomes tightened and constrict muscle into chronic tension as a consequence of blows, emotional stress, and occupation-linked postural defects, such as the forward droop of the head found in many scholars. The configuration of muscle spasm and flaccidity that defines a person’s characteristic posture pulls the skeleton out of alignment, so that excessive energy is consumed in standing, sitting, or walking. “Rolfers” believe that the change in posture brought about by this “structural integration” technique will improve sleep, energy level elimination, sexuality, and overall health. I received a course of Rolfing treatments and found that the pressure of knuckles and elbow upon muscle (in order to stretch the fascia) is painful, but not unbearable. My posture was improved by the realignment of the musculature of my thighs, back, and abdomen, but since my posture and overall health were good before Rolfing, I cannot notice any dramatic changes; however, in some colleagues and friends with bad posture and health, the alterations in appearance have been quite noticeable. They stand taller and are more energetic and more coordinated in their movements. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
In the Sacramento Fire Department, team members are required to write a personal mission statement. A mission statement describes your fundamental purpose. It guides the planning and implementation of your vision. It is a description that encompasses your own personal objectives, long-term goals, and guiding philosophy—all of which touch your professional life, as well. In a corporate environment, a mission statement is a description of what an organization wants to accomplish in business. Similarly, your own mission statement should embrace your personal and professional goals. And the best goals come from what motivates you. Once you have reflected on your values and your motivations, you should be able to craft your mission statement without too much trouble. Remember, a mission statement should not be the Ten Commandments for the rest of your life. It should project perhaps three to five years into the future. Just as you will do with your vision, you should revisit your mission statement and adjust it as your life circumstances change—because they will change. Here is an example of a possible mission statement that supports the vision statement we talked about in the last report. “During the next four years in college, I want to achieve excellent grades (B+ or higher) in all my coursework. I will also seek experience in a leadership role in a club, team, or activity, and I will actively seek internships, networking opportunities, and other hands-on experience. In addition, I will volunteer in at least one community service organization on a regular basis. I will keep in close touch with my family as often as possible and help my parents with my younger siblings.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
Notice anything mission? The mission statement takes the aims of the vision statement and makes them more concrete. The tone of the mission statement is confident and determined. Do any of the aims expressed in this mission statement seem unreasonable or unreachable? “I enjoy the challenge of working for the Sacramento Fire Department. You see so many people who dread their jobs. A friend of mine who lives across the street is an engineer. He makes a lot of money, but he’s not happy. He envies me. He envies my time off during the week when I’m doing things, or when I’m with my kids. I might not make that much money, but I certainly am happy. I think that’s important. I’m not really looking for promotion. My next step is to be lieutenant, because I’m the driver now. A lieutenant has a tremendous amount of paperwork, and to me, for the additional money you make, it’s not worth it. I just enjoy the firefighting end of it. I think we have the best country in the world, maybe because of going to Afghanistan and seeing how hard people had it there. I really learned to love our country back then. We have American flags on our trucks, two on the front and one on the back. One of the younger members asked me, ‘Why do you have all those flags on the truck?’ I told him that America is the best country in the World. You should be proud of those flags. They’re not there for decoration. They mean something.” #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. To help our firefighters, pleasure donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to ensure they have all the resources they require. 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 17 of 25
The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America, out pacing Christianity. While American was once a nation of generations, there are still many indigenous people lift and others who have been here for generations. To protect America and make sure it will remain a land of the free and home of the brave, we must be patriotic and put Americans first. Democrats and Atheists would like nothing more than red blooded American warriors to become slaves in their own country. They would like nothing more than to close American schools so children can be forced into child labor again. It is not time to roll back, nor will it ever be to remove protection for American citizens. If you have not noticed, crime is spreading to communities that had never seen crime before. Homelessness is on the rise. In fact, Democratic controlled California brags about being the world’s “fifth largest economy,” but it also has the largest homeless population in the nation. If they are all officially counted, California has approximately 4 million homeless people. The highest home prices in the nation, the highest taxes and the most unfriendly business regulations known to man. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
The average home price in California is nearly $1,000,000.00 USD, while the average salary is $96,036.00, meaning that most Californians cannot even afford to buy a home. California is having an affordability crisis. In 2025, many people in California saw their bills increase by an estimated $500 a month. This includes things like food, automobile insurance, homeowner’s insurance, electricity. In fact, more than 3 million people in California are facing household hardship, and more than 300,000 of them are facing eviction soon. This comes at a time when California is having a shortage of affordable housing. This is caused by nearly half a century’s old laws that discourage homes sales and encourage higher rents. Meanwhile, China, where we are sending all of our jobs and money has more than 50 ghost cities. Ghost cities are regions will housing has been overdeveloped to the point that these places are uninhabited. Because California is so hostile towards people and businesses, more than 360 companies have fled the state since 2020. Businesses like Chevron, SpaceX, Oracle, and Hewlett Packard are amongst the names on that list. Also, more than 500,000 people a year are abandoning California because it is too expensive to live in, crime is out of control, and they are losing their jobs due to companies relocating. More than 100 companies have announced layoffs in California for 2025. Intel is cutting 15,000 jobs, PayPal 2,500 and Meta has terminated 4,000 employees. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
The California crisis created by Democrats is driving up home prices and mortgages and rents all over the nation and the world, making living unaffordable for all, and advocates say the crisis is far from over. Accordingly, California has more than 3.5 million illegal immigrants. Having the Southern American boarder open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risks to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security relevant alerts, such as end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure is the 2025 Palisades fires because Southern California ran out of water, when they are located next to an ocean and they could have simply created desalinating plants to help with the water shortage. The water is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
The American government should know all exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them prior to the situation becoming a crisis. Failure to take such mitigating actions is dangerous and significantly elevates risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. The American government must understand that significant time and resources must be invested in America. They must also encourage corporations to plan for both mitigating safety vulnerabilities in the short term and eliminating them in the long term. For instance, a company might begin by reaching out to the federal, state or local government and requesting tax incentives to provide security to dangerous communities, to help the government repair bridges and potholes. America needs an approach to eliminate safety vulnerabilities in American cities. There needs to be a road map by the end of 2025, outlining a prioritized approach to eliminate crisis situations in America. There is enough money to send aid to foreign nations, but the American government does not have enough money to care their infrastructure, provide adequate resources, nor end the affordable housing crisis. Nor is there enough money to fund other national critical functions (NCFs). These bad practices of putting America and Americans last is considered exceptionally risky, particularly to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
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. As an incentive to buy American made cars, President Trump plans to made interest on loans for American cars tax deductible. Americans surely make superior products, 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. Las Vegas is running out of buildable land and is expected to reach its maximum number of homes in 2032. So, home prices are expected to rise dramatically. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
Additionally, State Farm did ask the California Department of Insurance if they could raise homeowner insurance rates by 22 percent, but this request was denied. However, in 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1107, also known as the Protection California Drivers Act, into law which increases the minimum auto lability limits for bodily injury to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. Senate Bill 1107 also increased the minimum liability limits for property damage to $15,000 per accident and the DMV deposit for uninsured drivers to $75,000. The bill went into effect on January 1, 2025. This means that drivers with existing policies with lower limits will renew at the new minimum limits on or after January 1, 2025, and insurance premiums could increase by as much as 54 percent. America is in a state of crisis right now because of mismanagement by democrats. If elected for an unprecedented third term, to make housing more affordable and to offset the cost of homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance, President Trump plans to abolish property taxes. Much like the land crisis in Las Vegas, we could also run out of land to farm and will not be able to grow or cultivate our own food. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. Also, country of origin labeling is very important so Americans can know where their food is coming from and have the ability to support American farmers and ranchers. 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. And in the future, there may be food wars. Also, to ensure that we have farmland and buildable land 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 population 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. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. As you can see, President Donald Trump and his pledge to “Make America Great Again,” is exactly what America needs to save the country and the American people. And yes, diversity is important, so you can see why it is also important to preserve blonde hair and blue eyes as the people with these characteristics are becoming a minority in America. “Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved home and the war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’ And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
Cresleigh Park Haven
Rancho Cordova, CA | low $500s
Now Selling!
Cresleigh Park Haven Residence Two: This two-story plan balances comfort and function with its open main living area, upstairs laundry, and generous bedroom layouts. This floorplan provides the perfect blend of privacy and open concept living.
The primary suite features dual walk-in closets and an en-suite bath, perfect for everyday ease and relaxation. This is the only home to boast a covered patio – ideal for bringing indoor/outdoor living to life.
The spacious great room, dining area, and modern kitchen flow seamlessly, making it easy to entertain or unwind in comfort. Enjoy the luxuries included in a Cresleigh Home such as hand-set tiles in the entryway, kitchen, and wet areas, a large eat-in kitchen island, ample storage, and the All-Ready Smart Home package.
At Cresleigh Park Haven, we make home design simple with expertly curated design packages tailored to your style and budget. Choose from a variety of finishes to personalize your dream home. https://cresleigh.com/park-haven/residence-2/
More than just a neighborhood, Cresleigh Bluffs is thoughtfully crafted design maximizing use of every space, and the perfect place to call home.
Do not miss out. Contact our sales team today to learn more and schedule your tour! And be sure to ask about buyers’ incentives. Currently, there are privately funded programs, with a cash value equivalent of up to $48,000, available to help homes buyers with upgrades, landscaping, or other costs associated with your home purchase.
Harris Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electric has been in business for 30 years. How many businesses can say that? We take pride in everything we do – no matter how big or small the service call might be. We’re here to help your home be as safe and comfortable as possible for you and your family. We take that responsibility very seriously as a company. Harris will ensure you have the information you need to decide what to do next, whatever your home is facing. We’ll perform a diagnosis and detail what issues are present before starting any work. This gives you a personalized quote and service plan specific to your home’s needs – not some random quote based on the best guess. The only way we can do our best work is to make sure we handle the issues at hand. https://www.callharrisnow.com/about-us/
BMW stands out due to its focus on driving dynamics and engineering excellence. While other luxury brands prioritize comfort and opulence, BMW is known for creating cars that are fun to drive and offer a unique connection between the driver and the machine. https://www.brianharrisbmw.com/
Randolph Harris San Francisco Taxation & Mergers
Randy advises clients with regard to business transition, taxable and tax deferred mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructuring, integrated tax planning, federal and state tax controversy resolution, and real estate transactions. https://www.jmbm.com/l-randolph-harris.html
Old Soldiers Never Die
Our problems can never be solved by dealing with them as we do, in passion and prejudice, unless indeed we find a new passion for Rightness and a new prejudice for Truth. The integrity of a man’s intellectual conscience will one day demand from every man a search for spiritual knowledge to confirm, sustain, or even replace his present spiritual faith. The studies should stimulate him to start, continue, or intensify the exercises, regimes, and practices, but they cannot act as a substitute for them. When it is hard to balance the claims of opposing doctrines, it is easier to substitute feeling for thinking. A manipulator’s life involves four fundamental characteristics: deception, unawareness, control, and cynicism. The actualizer’s life is marked by four opposing characteristics: honesty, awareness, freedom, and trust. Manipulators use deception, tricks, techniques, and maneuvers. They put on an act, and play roles to create an impression. Their expressed feelings are deliberately chosen to fit a “secret agenda.” Unawareness is another technique used my manipulators. They miss meaning and significance in experience, through the use of a collection of common heuristics and logical fallacies that lead individuals to focus on cues that are consistent with their opinion and filter out cues that are inconsistent with their viewpoint. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
Manipulators control people by deliberately concealing their motives from their opponents. Manipulators tend to be cynics. They distrust themselves and others. Down deep, they do not trust human nature. They see relationships as having only two alternatives: to control or to be controlled. In a sharp contrast, actualizers tend to be honest and authentic. Actualizers are able to be and to express their feelings, whatever they may be. There is a congruence between an actualizer’s feelings and expressions, actions and situations. Actualizers also tend to be very aware. They have an accurate perceptions, appropriate responses. Actualizers fully see and listen to themselves and others. They find meaning and significance in life experience. Actualizers express their freedom through spontaneity. They have the freedom to be and to express their potentials, and this allows them to master life rather than be puppets. They are subject, instead of being objects. Actualizers also have deep trust in themselves and others. They can relate to and cope with life in the here and now. Without deserting the use of sharp reasoning, yet without abandoning the piety of worshipful feeling, an actualizer follows obediently the light which has been show him. Using the symbols of the Light of Christ, it is a harmonious cooperation of head and heart. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
Humans have many actualizing potentials. Some we come to appreciate or value more than others. The more we can appreciate all aspects of ourselves, the more fully actualizing we become. We can be angry at times, loving at others, strong sometimes and weak sometimes. We must fearlessly subpoena our faith to appear before the court of common sense; if it is afraid to do that, it is not worthy of being held. As actualizers, we want vigorous facts, not the vague sentimentalities. However, as manipulators, each aspect ourselves that we disvalue becomes an act of disowning a part of ourselves. And what we disown, we must treat as “things.” When we do something we dislike, we say, “That is not like me!” “It came over me,” instead of “I regret that I did that”or “I am sorry I said that.” Soon this tendency to disown or to deny ourselves spreads into all areas of our lives. When the home team is losing, it is no longer “our team” but “that team.” Similarly, one’s spouse becomes a “nag,” a “ball and chain,” a “meal ticket.” When you feel like an “it,” others about you seem like “its” too. As actualizers, we appreciate ourselves and others and do not need to manipulate others to control them. We operate from a position of self-worth rather than from a position of deficiency. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
The manipulator, always assuming a deficiency in self and others, is compelled to fight. Life is a battle with strategy, tactics, tricks, or games necessary for survival. When a manipulator loses a battle or contest, he or she feels that everything is lost. The actualizer, assuming sufficiency in self and others and not hampered by the manipulator’s battle gear, sees life as an endless array of exciting opportunities to learn and to grow and to share. While the manipulator is a many-faceted person of antagonistic opposites, the actualizer is a many-faceted person of complementary opposites. From Dictator to Leader. The leader guides and serves rather than controls and dictates. The leader is forceful and decisive, yet not domineering and arbitrary. The complementary opposite to the leader is the empathizer. The empathizer not only talks, but also listens and is aware of his or her weaknesses. Although the empathizer has high expectations of self and others, he or she can understand and accept human fallibility. The actualizer integrates his or her leadership and empathy. The qualities of leadership and empathy are dependent upon each other. Without empathy, a leader is more likely to be a dictator; without leadership, the quality of empathy may be hollow. #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
From Calculator to Respecter. The respecter, rather than using or exploiting others, creatively participates in cooperative endeavors with others. The respecter, trusting and respecting the qualities of self an others, is able to bring out the best in both. The complementary opposite of the respecter is the appreciator. The appreciator is able to celebrate and admire the talents of others without envy. He or she can tolerate differences in others and does not need to have others to think, believe, and behave the same as he or she thinks, believes, and behaves. The actualizer integrates his or her respect and appreciation. A respecter without appreciation is a calculator. Appreciation without the creativity and cooperation of a respecter is like a birthday card bought but never given. From Bully to Assertor. The assertor, confident of his or her rights and strength, is direct and straightforward. Assertors do not view others as enemies to be vanquished, but are also not afraid to stand up and be counted. The complementary opposite of the assertor is the cater. The carer is not the obsequious Nice Guy, but is affectionate and friendly. The actualizer integrates his or her assertion and caring. An assertor without caring is a bully. And a carer who will not assert his or her needs is just playing the “martyr” role. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
From Judge to Expresser. The expresser is not judgmental of others, but is able to express his or her convictions strongly and well. The complementary opposite of the expressor is the guide. The guide does not presume to protect and teach others, but willingly encouraged others onto the path of understanding. A guide, knowing that each person must find his or her own way, offers the greatest gift one can give to another: belief in him or her. The actualizers integrates his or her expression and guidance. The actualizer does not think for others but with others, having his or her own opinions and beliefs at the same time he or she allows others to have theirs. The mystical attack upon intellect has sufficient basis to justify it up to a certain point. However, when it goes beyond that point and unreservedly praises the holy imbecile and listens with bated breath to his utterances, it renders a disservice to mysticism. If all this enormous human evolution is to end in men feeling like children and acting like fools, is there not a danger that they may go father and turn into idiots? Life, today, is too challenging to be met successfully by the brainless or foolish. It is also nonsense for any mystic of the religious devotional school to say that intellect is useless and unnecessary on the spiritual path. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
It may be so on his particular path—although even there his assertion is arguable—but it is certainly not so on the other paths. How can it harm a seeker to acquire all possible knowledge about the quest, to know all that he can gather from the history of mysticism, the biography of mystics, the psychology of mystical states, and the philosophy of mystical thinkers? Thus equipped, he is surely better equipped to find his way in what is, after all, a dim and obscure territory. And how can he learn these things without studying books, listening to lectures, discussing ideas, and exchanging experiences with others? If men of high intelligence are trained in theology, at some point the intelligence is forsaken or led to subserve faith. The cleavage of the mental functions in the form of an irrational attitude towards religion combined with a rational attitude towards everything else, is quite common. It is not distant from the mental disease called schizophrenia. Each mistake in action is the result of a preceding mistake in thought. What is lost by bringing a higher intelligence to they study of spiritual topics? If the person is sufficiently balanced to use it properly—nothing. Too many mystics of the emotional-devotional type have, while rightly scorning intellect’s limitations, wrongly decried reason’s services. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
Dynamite serves the mining engineer and the road builder very well. Fire serves the kitchen cook very well. However, if he or she brings dynamite into contact with fire in the kitchen, both may destroy the individual. Knowledge is not only one’s power but also one’s protector. When the aspirant has great devotion to the Overself but little understanding of it, Nature will halt him at a certain stage of his spiritual career and compel him to redress the balance. Whatever the prevailing attitude, a great deal of the process is always externalized; it is experienced as going on between self and others. Variations in this regard concern the particular aspect that is externalized, and the way in which it is done. Roughly, a person may primarily impose his standards upon others and make relentless demands as to their perfection. The more he feels himself to be the measure of all things, the more he insists—not upon general perfection but upon his particular norms being measured up to. The failure of others to do so arouses his own irritation with himself for not being, at any moment and under all conditions, what he should be may be turned outward. Thus, for instace, when he is not the perfect lover, or is caught in a lie, he may turn angrily against those he failed and build up a case against them. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
Again, he may primarily experience his expectations of himself as coming from others. And, whether these others actually do expect something or whether he merely thinks they do, their expectations then turn into demands to be fulfilled. In analysis, he feels that the analyst expects the impossible from him. He attributes to the analyst his own feelings that he should always be productive, should always have a dream to report, should always talk about what he thinks the analyst wants him to discuss, should always be appreciative of help and show it by getting better. If he believes in this way that others are expecting or demanding things of him, he may, again, respond in two different ways. He may try to anticipate or guess at their expectations and e eager to live up to them. In that case, if he fails, he usually also anticipates that they would condemn him or drop him at a moment’s notice. Or, if he is hypersensitive to coercion, he feels that they are imposing upon him, meddling in his affairs, pushing him or coercing him. He then minds it bitterly, or even openly rebels against them. He may object to giving Christmas present, because they are expected. He will be at his office or at any appointment just a little later than expected. He will forget anniversaries, letters, or any favor for which he has been asked. He may forget a visit to relatives just because his mother had asked him to make it, although he liked them and meant to see them. He will overact to any request made. He will then be less afraid of the criticism of others than resentful of it. His vivid and unfair self-criticism also becomes tenaciously externalized. He then feels that others are unfair in their judgement of him or that they always suspect ulterior motives. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
Or, if his rebellion is more aggressive, he will flaunt his defiance and believe the he does not in the least care what they think of him. The overreaction to requests made is a good lead to recognizing the inner demands. Reactions which strike us ourselves as being out of proportion may be particularly helpful in self-analysis. Also, we may draw certain faulty conclusions from self-observations. For example, a busy executive whom I saw occasionally, was asked by phone whether he could go to the pier and meet a refugee writer coming from Europe. He had always admired this writer and had met him socially on a visit to European. Since his time was jammed with conferences and other work, it would actually have been unfeasible to comply with this request, particularly since it might have involved waiting on the pier for hours. As he realized later on, he could have reacted in two ways, both of them sensible. He could either have said that he would think it over and see whether he could make it, or he could have declined with regret and asked whether there was anything else he could do for the writer. Instead, he reacted with immediate irritation and said abruptly that he was too busy and never would call for anybody at the pier. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
Soon after this, he regretted his response, and later went to some length to find out where the writer was located so that he could help him if necessary. He not only regretted the incident; he also felt puzzled. Did he not think as highly of the writer as he had thought he did? He felt sure that he did. Was he not as friendly and helpful as he believed himself to be? If so, was he irritated because he was put on the spot in being asked to prove his friendliness and helpfulness? Here he was on a good track. The mere fact of his being able to question the genuineness of his generosity was for him quite a step to take—for, in his idealized image, he was the benefactor of mankind. It was, however, more than he could digest at this juncture. He rejected this possibility by remembering that afterward he was eager to offer and give help. However, while closing one avenue in his thought he suddenly hit upon another clue. When he offered help the initiative was his, but the first time he had been asked to do something. He then realized that he had felt the request as an unfair imposition. Provided he had known about the writer’s arrival, he would certainly have considered on his own the possibility of meeting hum at the boat. He now thought of many similar incidents in which he had reacted irritably to a favor asked and realized that apparently, he felt as imposition or coercion many things which in actual fact were mere requests or suggestions. He also thought of his irritability over disagreements or criticism. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
The conclusion he arrived at was that he was a bully and wanted to dominate. Reactions of this kind are easily mistake for tendencies to dominate. What he had seen on his own was his hypersensitivity to coercion and to criticism. He could not stand coercion because he felt in a strait jacket anyhow. And he could not stand criticism because he was his own worst critic. In this context, we also could pick up the track he had abandoned when questioning his friendliness. To a large extent, he was helpful because he should be helpful and not because of his rather abstract love for humanity. His attitude toward concrete individuals was much more divided than he realized. Thus, any request plunged him into an inner conflict: he should accede to it and be very generous also he should not allow anybody to coerce him. The irritability was an expression of feeling caught in a dilemma which at that time was insoluble. The effects the should have on a person’s personality and life vary to some extent with his way of responding to them or experiencing them. However, certain effects show inevitably and regularly, though to a greater or lesser degree. The should always produce a feeling of strain, which is all the greater the more a person tries to actualize his shoulds in his behavior. He may feel that he stands on tiptoe all the time, and may suffer from a chronic exhaustion. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
Or he may feel vaguely cramped, tense, or hemmed in. Or, if his should coincide with attitudes culturally expected of him, he may feel merely an almost imperceptible strain. It may be strong enough, however, to contribute to a desire in an otherwise active person to retire from activities or obligations. Furthermore, because of externalizations, the shoulds always contribute to disturbances in human relations in one way or another. The most general disturbance on this score is hypersensitivity to criticism. Being merciless toward himself, he cannot help experiencing any criticism on the part of others—whether actual or merely anticipated, whether friendly or unfriendly—as being just as condemnatory as his own. We shall understand the intensity of this sensitivity better when we realize how much he hates himself for any lagging behind his self-imposed standards. Otherwise, the kinds of disturbance in human relations depend upon the kinds of prevailing externalization. They may render him too critical and harsh of others or too apprehensive, too defiant, or too complaint. Most important of all, the shoulds further impair the spontaneity of feelings, wishes, thoughts, and beliefs—id est, the ability to his own feelings, etcetera, and to express them. The person, then, can at best be “spontaneously compulsive” (to quote a patient) and express “freely” what he should feel, whish, think, or believe. We are accustomed to think that we cannot control feelings but only behavior. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
In dealing with others, we can enforce labor but we cannot force anybody to love his work. Just so, we are accustomed to think that we can force ourselves to act as if we were not suspicious but we cannot enforce a feeling of confidence. This remains especially true. And, if we needed a new proof, analysis could supply it. However, if the should issue an order as to feelings, imagination waves its magic wand and the border line between what we should feel and what we do feel evaporates. We consciously believe or feel then as we should believe or feel. For instance, Mac was a brave soldier and took good care of his men. However, one day, through ignorance or disobedience a lot of them got killed, and Mac blamed himself. That, along with malaria, malnutrition, and a few other things, caused him to break down. When he recovered, he worked and worked and worked so he would not think, but no matter how hard he worked he never seemed to get ahead, and there was always more work to be done if he wanted to get out of debt. Mac was a caterer and went to all sorts of weddings and other celebrations, but he never had anything to celebrate himself. He was always an onlooker, helping other people feel good with food, drunk, comfort, and advice, and that made him feel needed, as much as he could feel that way. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
The worst time was at night when he was alone and his thoughts went round and round. The best times were on Saturday night, when he got drunk and could forget and was almost one of the crowd. This started long before he went into the army. His mother ran away with a soldier when he was six, and when he knew she was gone for sure, he fell into a raging fever and tried to die, because that meant she did not need him. He began to work hard very early in high school, but whenever he got a little ahead, his father would somehow trick him out of the money. If he bought something for himself, his father would sell it. He was jealous of the other boys at school because they had mothers, and got into lots of fights. He did not mind bloody noses in the schoolyard, but he could not stand the sight of dead bodies in the war. He was a good marksman, but he always felt sorry for the enemies he killed, not did he hold it against them that his own men got killed. Because he blamed himself for that, he felt that his dead buddies were watching from somewhere, so he was very careful not to add insult to injury by having a good time. Except when he was drunk, and that did not count—or did it? He could never be sure. Once or twice, he tried to crash his car, and did het badly banged up, but survived. His chief way of trying to kill himself was by smoking heavily even when he had bronchitis. After a long period of treatment, he made friends with his mother, and that made him feel better again. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
Clinical Analysis. Thesis: The old soldier was not good enough for his mother and failed his friends. As a result, he is condemned to work hard forever without getting ahead. He is a spectator in life and cannot join in the fun. He is always willing to help others, and that means more work, but it makes him feel needed. Death will be his only release, but he cannot hurt the ones who love him by actual death by suicide. All he can do is slowly fade away. Clinical Diagnosis: Compensated schizophrenia. Song: Old Soldiers Never Die. Roles: Failed Rescuer, Persecutor, Victim. Switches: Victim (of mother and father) to Rescuer (of men) to Victim (of circumstances). Parental Precept: “Work hard and help people.” Parental Pattern: “Here is how to endure it—drink.” Parental Injunction: “Do not get ahead.” Position: “I am not-O.K.” Decision: “I will work myself to death.” Sweatshirt: Front—“I am a nice guy.” Back—“Even if it kills me.” Pastime: Reminiscing about the war. Game: “I am Only Trying to Help You.” Antithesis: Stop killing yourself. Permission: Tune in and get ahead. Classification—Old Solider is a nonwinner’s script because it is a point of honor with old soldiers not to get ahead. It is a Goal-Structured Cannot script with the slogan: “You cannot get ahead until they need you again.” It is based on an “After” plan, “After the war is over, you can only fade away.” The waiting time is filled by helping people and soldier talk. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
The educated mind is repelled by superstition, the reasonable mind by fanaticism. Yet both need the fortifying support of a spiritual teaching. Every error rejected and every truth accepted strengthens a man in character and mind. Parts of the organizational structure of the Sacramento Fire Department are built from military traditions. Not everyone can become a fire fighter, EMT, or paramedic. Those who do succeed in achieving this status understand the vital mission of the Sacramento Fire Department. They understand that they must be healthy and in good physical condition and assertive enough to enter a dangerous situation yet mature enough to work as a member of a team. The job requires a person who has the desire to learn, the will to practice, and the ability to apply the skills of the trade. A fire fighter, EMT, and paramedic are constantly learning as the body of knowledge about fires expands and the technology used in fighting fires and saving lives evolves. The job can also be stressful, however. The most frequent reasons for “stressing out” fall into three main categories: The unsettling effects of change, the feeling that an outside force is challenging or threatening you, the feeling that you have lost personal control. Life events such as marriage, changing jobs, divorce, or the death of a relative or friend are the most common cases of stress. Although life-threatening events are less common, they can be the most physiological and psychologically acute. They are usually associated with public service career fields in which people experience intense stress levels because of imminent danger and a high degree of uncertainty—police officer, fire and rescue worker, emergency relief worker, and the military. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
You may not plan to enter a high-stress career, but as a college student, you may find that the demands of college life can create stressful situation. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) notes some of the more common stressors for college students: Increased academic demands, being on your own in a new environment, changes in family relations, financial responsibilities, changes in your social life, exposure to new people, ideas, and temptations, awareness of your sexual identity and orientation, preparing for life after graduation. Symptoms of distress fall into three general, but interrelated, categories—physical, mental, and emotional. Review this list carefully. If you find yourself frequently experiencing these symptoms, you are likely feeling distressed: Headaches, fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, hypertension (high blood pressure), heart problems, such as palpitations, inability to focus/lack of concentration, sleep disturbances, whether it is sleeping too much or an inability to sleep, sweating palms/shaking hands, anxiety, and problems with pleasures of the flesh. Even when you do not realize it, stress can cause or contribute to serious physical disorders. It increases hormones such as adrenaline and corticosterone, which affect your metabolism, immune reactions, and other stress responses. That can lead to increases in your heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and physical demands on your internal organs. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
Behavioral changes are also expressions of stress. They can include: Irritability, disruptive eating patterns (overeating or under eating), harsh treatment of others, increases smoking or alcohol consumption, isolation, compulsive shopping. A sustained high level of stress is no laughing matter. It can affect every area of your life—productivity in the workplace and classroom, increased health risks, and relationships, to name just a few. However, you can learn to manage your stress. The first step is understanding yourself better—how you react in different situations, what causes you stress, and how you behave when you feel stressed. Once you have done that, take the following steps: Set priorities. Use the time-management tips. Make a To-Do list. Decide what is really important to get done today, and what can wait. This helps you to know that you are working on your most immediate priorities, and you do not have the stress of trying to remember what you should be doing. Practice facing stressful moments. Think about the event or situation you expect to face and rehearse your reactions. Find ways to practice dealing with the challenge. If you know that speaking in front of a group of friends frightens you, practice doing it, perhaps with a trusted friend or fellow team member. If the pressure of taking test causes you to freeze up, buy some practice tests and work with them when there are no time pressures. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
Examine your expectations. Try to set realistic goals. It is good to push yourself to achieve, but make sure your expectations are realistic. Watch out for perfectionism. Be satisfied with doing the best you can. Nobody’s perfect—not you, not your fellow Cadet, nobody. Allow people the liberty to make mistakes, remember that mistakes can be a good teacher. However, if you keep making the same mistakes over and over, people are going to think that there is something wrong with you. Live a healthy lifestyle. Get plenty of exercise. Eat healthy foods. Allow time for rest and relaxation. Find a relaxation technique that works for you—prayer, sports, reading a book, taking a bath, playing video games, or breathing exercises. Look for the humor in life, and enjoy yourself. Learn to accept change as part of life. Nothing stays the same. Develop a support system of friends and relatives you can talk to when needed. Believe in yourself and your potential. Remember that many people from disadvantaged backgrounds have gone on to enjoy great success in life. At the same time, avoid those activities that promise release from stress while actually adding to it. Drinking alcohol (despite what all those TV commercials imply), drinking caffeine, smoking, and overeating all add to the body’s stress in addition to their other harmful effects. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
Here are some other strategies for dealing with stress: Schedule time for vacation, breaks in your routine, hobbies and fun activities. Try to arrange for uninterrupted time to accomplish tasks that need your concentration. Arrange some leisure time during which you can do things that you really enjoy. Avoid scheduling too many appointments, meetings, and classes back-to-back. Allow breaks to catch your breath. Take a few slow, deep breathe whenever you feel stressed. Breathe from the abdomen and, as you exhale, silently say to yourself, “I feel calm.” Become an expert at managing your time. Read books, view videos, and attend seminars on time management. Once you cut down on time wasters, you will find more time to recharge yourself. Learn to say, “no.” Setting limits can minimize stress. Spend time on your main responsibilities and priorities rather than allowing other people’s priorities or needs to dictate how you spend time. Exercise regularly to reduce muscle tension and promote a sense of well-being. Tap into your support network. Family, friends, and social groups can help when dealing with stressful events. All of us can improve our ability to recognize when we are under too much stress or anxiety. We can also improve our ability to turn to the Lord for help. “Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved,” reports Psalm 55.22. By seeking guidance from the Lord to make a plan of what to do and when and how, the Savior will help us to manage our stress and anxiety. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
“I don’t want to be on an ego trip, but I tell you there is nothing else in the World like firefighting. I have dedicated myself to it, and I’ve trued to implement a lot of things in the Sacramento Fire Department. As you get higher in rank, obviously, it gives you a better chance to do those things. I have a large family, and there are always money concerns. You say, ‘I wish I could afford to pay my kids’ way through college completely.’ I have a number of children who have completed college. I have a couple of degrees in fire science. I did teaching at a community college. I’ve done a lot of things in the Sacramento Fire Department to improve protective clothing and to improve our fire ground tactics to make things safer for firefighters. Obviously I could have made more money doing something else, but it wouldn’t be the same career. After twenty-seven years, if you’re doing a job, and you still like going to work and look forward to going to work, then you know it’s worthwhile. Money isn’t everything, I guess, compared to the special feeling you have being a firefighter. I have a son now who is going to take the fire exam. He had gone to college for a couple of years, then stopped. It’s really hard to postpone gratification. If he wants to be a firefighter, that’s great. I know he’ll make a living. Hopefully, he’ll have equal opportunity and a fair opportunity for promotion. That’s one of the sad parts of the fire service. We don’t want to eliminate anybody from equal treatment, but I think you end up with reverse discrimination, when other firefighters are entitled to something and don’t get it. A career in the fire service—there’s nothing like it. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. To help our firefighters, pleasure donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to ensure they have all the resources they require. 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 23 of 23
The Winchester Mystery House
Happy halfway to Halloween from the sheet ghost 🎃 it isn’t just a season, it’s a lifestyle 🏖️👻
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Sit Down on the Camel and Take a Picture
The value of religious knowledge lies in the fact that it is a safeguard against error for it shows how to discriminate between reality and the appearance of it. Neither the deceptions of individuals nor the errors of religious experience can succeed. The expansive type, for whom mastery of life is crucial, tends to identify himself with his inner dictates and, whether consciously or unconsciously, to be proud of his standards. He does not question their validity and tries to actualize them in one way or other. He may try to measure up to them in his actual behavior. He should be all things to all people; he should know everything better than everybody else; he should never err; he should never fail in anything he attempts to do—in short, fulfill whatever his particular should are. And, in his mind, he does measure up to his supreme standards. His arrogance may be so great that he does not even consider the possibility of failure, and if it occurs, discards it. His arbitrary rightness is so rigid that in his own mind he simply never errs. Moses’ concern for his people proved to be justified in the years following their entry into the land of Canaan. It was when they became settled in this goodly land that they began to take their abundance for granted and to forget the real source of these blessings. Moses had counseled them: “For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barely, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
“A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and His judgements, and His statutes, which I command thee this day: Least when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brough thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage…And thou say in thine heart, my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth,” reports Deuteronomy 8.7-14, 17. Even if a man succeeded in getting others to accept his views, even if everyone accepted them, it is unlikely that they will accept them always. Every opinion has been written down in the books, including the opinion that truth requires us to hold no opinion. “Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you. But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the Kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ, ye shall obtain riches, if you seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted,” reports Jacob 2.17-19. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
Suggestions from outside enters largely into the opinions and beliefs, the views and outlook, of masses of people. It is just as true, possibly truer, of the mystically minded, be they seekers or gurus, be they Eastern or Westerners. What is really known—rather than echoed back—dwindles down to a residue. The coveting of wealth so often has resulted in avarice, dishonesty, and greed. The acquisition of wealth has frequently produced pride, self-satisfaction, and arrogance. An episode during the time of Alma in the Book of Mormon illustrates the cycle that has so often occurred when people are blessed materially by the Lord and then turn away from Him. In the instance referred to, the Nephite people were struggling to overcome the effects of a devasting civil strife and a Lamanite invasion, not unlike the struggles more than half of Americans face today. Not only had there been great loss of life; the destruction to lands and to property had been sufficient to seriously jeopardize the prospects of recovery. Alma describes conditions in these words: “But the people were afflicted, yea, greatly afflicted for the loss of their brethren, and also for the loss of their flocks and herds, and also for the loss of their fields of grain, which were trodden under foot and destroyed. And so great were their afflictions that every soul had cause to mourn; and they believed that it was the judgements of God sent upon them because of their wickedness and their abominations; therefore they were awakened to a remembrance of their duty. #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
“And they begun to establish the church more fully; yea, and many were baptized in the waters of Sidon and were joined to the Church of God,” reports Alma 4.2-4. He may be poised in the tranquility of these grand concepts or poisoned by the negative fogs of false ones. Convert a man to your opinion and you have him for long; compel him to adopt it and you have never really got him. The spiritual reawakening among the people had a dramatic effect. Peace returned to the land. The Church prospered in its rapid growth. Not surprisingly, the people soon began again to enjoy an abundant life. The spiritual blessings granted by the Lord were accompanied by the acquisition of material wealth. Unfortunately, the Nephites failed to meet this test. Within three years from the time of their earlier tragedy, Alma describes his people in this way: “The people of the church began to wax proud, because of their exceeding riches, and their fine silks, and their fine-twined linen, and because of their many flocks and herds, and their gold and their silver, and all manner of precious things, which they had obtained by their industry; and in all these things were they lifted up in the pride of their eyes,” reports Alma 4.6. History repeatedly confirms that the abundance of earthly possessions can be both a blessing and a curse, depending upon the way these things are viewed and used. When we consume them on our own lust, we invoke tragedy. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
We must work hard to elicit the truth from the medley of beliefs and opinions which rule us, and to extract the reality from the medley of illusions and glamours which hold us. Any fool can say, “I know,” that is, can have an opinion. Mass stupidity is not, and never can be, a satisfactory substitute for individual intelligence. Wealth is a relative thing. Conditions vary dramatically from place to place in the World today. America is indeed a chosen land that President Trump is helping to restore. That which some consider to be the necessities of life, to others would be abundance, and even extravagance. In any set of circumstances, the challenges related to an improvement in material prosperity remain the same. The message that echoes to us from the pages of history and from the counsels of the Lord and His prophets is clear: Seek ye first the kingdom of Heaven. Seek not for riches to consume them on your own lusts. Thou shalt not covet. Clothe the naked. Feed the hungry. Relieve the sick and the afflicted. Pay tithes and offerings. In all things, acknowledge the Lord. Be grateful. Be humble. The words of Moses to the tribes of Isreal have appropriate application for us: “Fear the Lord thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Here therefore, O Isreal, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey,” reports Deuteronomy 6.2-3. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
And, “when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good…which He hath given thee,” reports Deuteronomy 8.10. Far too often private opinions are passed off as God’s oracles, man-made institutions as God’s instruments, and group propaganda as factual history. The masses, lacking both discrimination and information, are led like sheep by the mass media. How credulous fool attain supernormal wisdom? How can the man who is unable to discriminate intelligently in small matters suddenly become able to discriminate in transcendent ones? The jump is not possible. The more a man is engulfed in his imagination, the less necessary it is for him to make actual efforts. It is sufficient, then, that in his mind his mind he is supremely fearless or honest, no matter how beset his is by fears or how dishonest he actually is. The border lines between these two ways of “ I should” and “I am” is vague for him—for that matter, probably not too sharp for any of us. The German poet Christian Morgenstern has expressed this concisely in one of his opens. A man was lying in a hospital with a broken leg after having been run over by a truck. He read that in the particular street in which the accident happened trucks were not allowed to drive. And so, he arrived at the conclusion that the whole experience was only a dream. For, “sharp as a knife,” he concluded that nothing can happen that should not happen. The more a person’s imagination prevails over his reasoning, the more the border line disappears and he is the model husband, father, citizen, or whatever he should be. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
Most people do not know the difference between an opinion and a truth, and do not make the effort to distinguish between them. It is not better to force illusions into accord with the realities than to go on being pleasantly deceived by them? The self-effacing type, for whom love seems to solve all problems, likewise feels that his should constitute a law not to be questioned. However, when trying—anxiously—to measure up to them, he feels most of the time that he falls pitiably short of fulfilling them. The foremost element in his conscious experience is therefore self-criticism, a feeling of guilt for not being the supreme being. When carried to the extreme, both these attitudes toward the inner dictates render it difficult for a person to analyze himself. Tending toward the extreme of self-righteousness may prevent him from seeing any flaws in himself. And tending toward the other extreme—that of too readily feeling guilty—entails the danger of insights into shortcomings having a crushing rather than a liberating effect. The resigned type, finally, to whom the idea of “freedom” appeals more than anything else, is, of the three, most prone to rebel against his inner tyranny. Because of the very importance which freedom—or his version of it—has for him, he is hypersensitive to any coercion. He may rebel in a somewhat passive way. Then everything that he feels he should do, whether it concerns a piece of work or reading a book or having relations with pleasures of the flesh with his wife, turns—in his mind—into a coercion, arouses conscious or unconscious resentment, and in consequence makes him listless. If what is to be done is done at all, it is done under the strain produced by the inner resistance. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
We must not be doctrinaires, we must not sit at the sanctified feet of the god opinion. The intellectual purificatory work begins by clearing his mind of errors, illusions, and superstitions. These things lead him astray, both during prayer and out of it, from his search for truth. He may rebel against his should in a more active way. He may try to throw them all overboard, and sometimes go to the opposite extreme by insisting upon doing only what he pleases when he pleases. The rebellion may take violent forms, and then often is a rebellion of despair. If he cannot be the ultimate of piety, chastity, sincerity, then he will be thoroughly “bad,” be promiscuous, tell lies, afford others. Sometimes a person usually complies with the shoulds may go through a phase of rebellion. It is usually then directed against external restrictions. J.P. Marquand has described such temporary rebellions in a masterly way. He has shown us how easily they can be put down, for the very reason that the restricted external standards have a mighty ally in the internal dictates. And then afterward the individual is left dull and listless. Finally, others may go through alternating phases of self-castigating “goodness” and a wild protest against any standards. To the observant friend such people may present an insoluble puzzle. At times, they are offensively irresponsible in pleasures of the flesh or financial matters, and at others they show highly developed moral sensibilities. #RandolpHarris 8 of 24
So, the friend who has just been despairing of their having any sense of decency is reassured about their being fine persons after all, only to be thrown into severe doubts again shortly thereafter. In others, there may be a constant shuttling between an “I should” and “no, I will not.” “I should pay a debt.” No, why should I?” “I should keep to a diet. No, I will not.” Often these people give the impression of spontaneity and mistake their contradictory attitudes toward their should for “freedom.” Sincerity is not enough. Every aspirant needs this, of course, but he also needs other things. An aspirant may be totally sincere, yet may take a wrong direction. His mind may be filled with erroneous beliefs despite his sincerity. So to his sincerity, he should add right knowledge, for this will guide him, this will uphold him, and this will safeguard him. The result of a solely intellectual outlook devoid of religious faith or mystical intuition, is failure to offer mental peace or cherish moral goodness. Self-actualized people have a different sense of humor from the ordinary type. It is not hostile. It is not at someone else’s expense. It focuses more on the foolishness of the human situation. Their humor is usually thought-provoking, and many times they are able to laugh at themselves. President Lincoln’s humor, for example, was very much in this vein. He told one story that many believed could have applied to himself. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
It seems that a woman on horseback on a narrow trail came upon a man on a horse. She stopped her horse, looked the man over, and blurted out, “Well, for the land’s sake, you are the homeliest man I ever saw!” The man replied, “Yes ma’am, but I can’t help that.” “No, I suppose not,” she replied, “but you might stay at home. Here is another story President Lincoln told, perhaps, to point out that common sense has a wisdom that transcends logic: “If three pigeons sit on a fence and you shoot and kill one of them, how many will be left?” President Lincoln asked. The answer was, “Two, of course.” To which he responded, “No, there won’t, for the other two will fly away.” We are not casting stones at intellectual knowledge; it has a place. However, let it be kept in its place. Let it not become a usurper. The higher mysticism first satisfies the intellect’s demands, then transcends them. It does not, like the lower mysticism, reject or ignore them. Although the intellect admittedly cannot grasp reality, it is nevertheless necessary in order to set a standard, to show what reality is, as such, so that it shall be recognized. A pair of scales cannot weigh themselves but they are necessary in order to weigh other things. Similarly, the intellect cannot yield reality but can measure it so to speak or indicate what is and what is not reality. Hence, it is most valuable as a corrective mysticism and religious experience. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
The moral code which a man obeys is itself the result of his view of life, whether the latter be imposed on him from without or developed from within. To the Prophet Joseph Smith the Lord said: “I have made the earth rich, and behold it is my footstool, wherefore, again I will stand upon it.” When the mystical bent of mind is not steadied by rational reflection, there is grave danger of mistaking satisfaction for truth, utility for knowledge. “And I hold forth and deign to give unto you greater riches, even a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 38.17-18. Dr. Maslow’s “healthy champions” all had some unselfish involvement with others. They behaved as though each member of the human race were a personal family member of the human race were a personal family member, worthy of affection in spite of the way each person may act. However, the self-actualizers also could express “righteous indignation” toward cruelty, hypocrisy, or phoniness in others. They tend to have deeper and more meaningful interpersonal relations than the average adult—close relationships with a few, rather than superficial relationships with many. These people are more able to be nondemanding and noninterfering with those they love, delighting in the loved ones for themselves, not for what the loved ones can provide in return—love without guile, design, or calculation of any selfish kind. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
Dr. Maslow called this kind of love being love. Such a love, he said, “makes for less abstracting, less viewing of less-then-the whole, less atomizing or dissecting…structuring, organizing, shaping, modeling…” of the loved one, and the object of such love “remains more whole, more unified, which amounts to saying more itself.” A “being” lover sees more easily the nature of the loved one in his or her own right and in his or her own style of being. The opposite of being love Dr. Maslow called deficiency love, which is a manipulative kind of love. Manipulative lovers like to dissect the loved ones to discover and declare their faults as a means of gaining control over the loved ones. They like to mold and recreate the loved ones. Manipulators love because they feel a sense of lacking something in themselves, and they expect the loved one to fill their personal void. If the loved one fails to provide all the demands, their love is absolutely conditional and can be withdrawn. The futility and unwisdom of utter reliance upon feeling, unchecked by reason, was tragically evidenced by the sad case of Nijinsky, the famous Russian dancer, who after delighting audiences in the World’s chief capitals became insane and for more than twenty years had to withdraw from his artistic careers and pass most of his days in a sanatorium. Nijinsky kept a diary in the early days of his illness, in which we find sentences like the following: “I am God. I am God. I am God.” Throughout those pages, Nijinsky insist on feeling rather than thinking as a source of wisdom, and feeling he defines as “intuitions, proceeding from the unconscious.” The man who claimed to be God was, however, unable to fulfill himself as a human being. Why? Because he was really unbalanced for he rejected utterly the claims of Reason, and he denounced “mental” people as being “dead.” #RandolpHarris 12 of 24
Yes, mystical experience must collaborate with rational thought. However, there is a higher kind of mysticism, which prunes away the accidental and penetrates to the essential. Intellectual knowledge is certainly relative. However, what lies beyond it is for us ultimate truth. That there may be a truth beyond this in turn need not concern us at present, for nobody could either dispute it or demonstrate it. The urge for higher knowledge is not at act of the ego but prompting from the Overself. That it gets mixed, in tis earlier phases, with egotistic desires is true but these slowly fall away. Actualized people, Dr. Maslow’s research found, have a more efficient perception of reality than do others. They can see or perceive others intuitively and correctly. They cannot be conned. They do not come into situations with preconceptions, but seem able to leap to right conclusions. They also have a freshness of appreciation, and their senses are not dulled by seemingly common, everyday experiences. They experience joy in the miracles of everyday life that the rest of us hardly see, hear, or feel—a baby’s smile, a loving glance, a cooling delta breeze, a heartful compliment, a warm bed, a sunset, a lovely person’s profile. Each of Dr. Maslow’s subjects had some life task to fulfill that enlisted much of his or her time and energy. It was as if each of them had found and recognized some specific purpose to their being in the World that they pursued with great persistence. They did not ask what America could do for them, they asked what they could do to Make America Great Again. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
America, to a self-actualized person, could be as large as just that—the world—or as small as a neighborhood or family. The intellect is a faculty that man is endowed with, not by Satan to trap him, but in accordance with the divine World-Idea. Man is learning how to use it. If he is using it wrongly today, the consequences will tutor him in time and he will use it rightly tomorrow. When the mystical bent of the mind is not steadied by rational reflection, there is grave danger of mistaking satisfaction for ruth, utility for knowledge. Socrates taught that character was somehow dependent on intelligence: the better quality of the one was a consequence of the better quality of the other. Therefore, cultivate clear intelligence, he said. Long after, Spinoza repeated this advice. The subjects of Dr. Maslow’s study depended on their own potentialities and latent resources, rather than on others, for their continued growth. Their sense of self and their stability can be described, Dr. Maslow said, as “self-contained.” This independence of the physical and social environment accounted for their serenity in the face of deprivations, frustrations, and set-backs that might drive others to the brink of death by suicide. They did not depend on others’ love and respect for their own development. Their ability to get to such a point of independence, however, was largely made possible because they had received in the past love and respect from others. #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
The need of coping with life forces us to develop intelligence or else to go on suffering the consequences of being stupid! Even the world-picture of a higher condition available to those who will work and sacrifice for it is not without value. It shows a model to use and emulate, a standard to seek and form oneself by. Self-actualized people are accepting of the real nature of themselves and others. Dr. Maslow said that just as, “one does not complain about water because it is wet, or about rocks because they are hard,” a self-actualized person does not complain about human nature in himself or in others.” Healthy people do not feel guilty, shame, sadness, anxiety, or defensiveness about things that are part of their nature as humans. They do not say to themselves, “I am so ashamed that I am so short,” or “I would not want to be seen with her; she is not very attractive.” Healthy people do not feel guilty about improvable shortcomings, such as laziness, jealousy, prejudice, and hurting others. What makes healthy people feel bad are the discrepancies between what is and what might be, not in the inherent nature of things or persons, but in the conditions or situations that might be changed or improved. In truth, we cannot change ourselves. We can find ourselves and develop what we find. That is what actualization is—becoming our real selves. That is easy today, but how does it happen? How do we know who we really are? What is a self, anyway? #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
It is not enough to mean well, it is not enough to believe one is doing right, it is not enough to be earnest, sincere, innocent of evil motives. It is just as essential to possess a balanced mentality, sound reasoning capacity, and unbiased attitude. The Spanish Inquisitors were sometimes saints, Mr. Hitler was an ascetic. Many who have brought misery upon mankind were men of excellent private character: the defects of these people were mental rather than moral, and led them to bad thinking and worse judgment. The moral of this is plain: If not more so than others, intelligence must be cultivated as fully. The role of reason in the human psyche is to keep its balance. You may have not thought of it, but the concept of self can vary from person to person. Some of us think of self primarily in terms of the physical: size and shape, color of skin, hair, and eyes, our attractiveness or unattractiveness; in terms of sensations: hungry or full, in pain or in pleasure, well or sick, tried or energetic; in terms of feelings: bored or interested, happy or sad, angry or loving. Others think of self primarily in terms of work or primary occupation: a professor, a firefighter, a truck driver, a parent, a counselor. And still others think of self conceptually: good or bad, kind or cruel, smart or stupid, friendly or surly, accepted or misunderstood. #RandolphHarris 16 of 24
We can see ourselves as if in a vacuum—alone with no connection to our environment and others; as an outlines totally defined by a background of our environment and others; or as a being who is partially defined by our environment and others and partially defining our environment and others. However, consciousness of one’s self is always a unique act—I can never know exactly how you see yourself and you can never know exactly how I relate to myself. This is the inner sanctum where each man must stand alone, and where we must find the strength to stand as individuals and, through our own affirmation and choice, learn to love each other. Developing a strong sense of self is a prerequisite to actualization, and it requires a leap of faith. You do not have to prove your self-worth; you may assume it. As an acorn does not have to prove it has the potential to become a tree before it can grow, a human does not have to prove his or her own unique self-hood to realize it. A way to begin to discover your unique self is to keep a daily journal, or a diary entitled, “This is Me.” Each day, write a description of yourself, a one-line entry, or several pages. Be sure to describe yourself in terms of your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, actions, and experiences alone and with others. You may be surprised at how much you discover about yourself and how the horizons of yourself begin to widen. (However, in the day of people trying to get famous and trying to set others up, you may want to put your journal or diary in a locked safe or locked box.) #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
There has always been in all of humanity a sprinkling of those who are described in the scriptures as the blind, the halt, the lame, the deaf, the withered, the dumb, the important folk. We refer to them as having learning or communication disorders, as the hearing or visually impaired, as those with motor or orthopedic limitations. We speak of intellectual or emotional impairment, of intellectual disabilities, and mental illness. Some suffer from a combination of these, and all of them cannot function without some help. Unlike the acorn, which can become only a tree, the range of what you are is far less limited. As a person, a unique individual, you have freedom, choice, and responsibility. As a manipulator, you abdicate all three. The education of man is worth no more than what he is worth inside himself. If he is evil within, he will be aided by a developed intellect to do more harm to others than he would have been able to do without it. If the good is within, he will have more capacity through education to do good to others. A thorough master and understanding of the Hidden Teaching—even if it be intellectual only—will help to refine, educate, and to some extent, even to dissolve the ego, if the knowledge thus obtained is applied. Truth is a dynamic, not a narcotic. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
The primary mission of the Sacramento Fire Department and EMTs is to save lobes and protect property and the environment through prevention, education, suppression, and rescue activities. Some of the actual activities may vary from one fire department to another depending on the locations of the department and what other community organizations are present, but the primary mission of the fire department remains the same. “The Sacramento Fire Department is committed to proving the highest level of public safety service to our community. We protect lives and property through fire suppression, emergency medical and transportation services, disaster service, fire prevention, and public education. Our members will Prevent Harm, Survive and Be Professional!” The culture of the Sacramento Fire Department can be defined as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize the institution. Stress is a fact of life, whenever you are and whatever you are doing. You cannot avoid stress, but you can learn to manage it so it does not manage you. Changes in our lives—such as going to college, getting married, changing jobs, or illness—are frequent sources of stress. Keep in mind that changes that cause stress can also benefit you. Moving away from home to attend college, for example, creates personal-development opportunities—new challenges, friends, and living arrangements. That is why it is important to know yourself and carefully consider the causes of stress. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
Learning to take time, and although you cannot avoid stress, the good news is that you can minimize the harmful effects of stress, such as depression or hypertension. They key is to develop an awareness of how you interpret, and react to, circumstances. This awareness will help you develop coping techniques for managing stress. For example, as a captain of the Sacramento Fire Department, managing stress will requires techniques that include an awareness of yourself and your firefighters and EMTs. As you will see, the stress you encounter as a student differs in intensity from what you may experience in the fire department, particularly while on duty, fighting a fire, or provided superior medical care. The principles and techniques you use to manage stress are similar, however, as reported by this lieutenant: “I have learned a lot about how I deal with fatigue and stress from the job. I have found that finding a little time for myself each day or even each week allows me to regenerate and focus. Having a sense of humor and not taking things so personally have also helped reduce my stress levels. Keeping a notebook with me at all times and writing tasks, missions, or even just things to do has helped me keep my mind at ease, rather than thinking that I have forgotten to do something. Maintaining communication with my family and friends, and family in the Sacramento Fire Department, whether through e-mail or phone conversation, also keeps me grounded. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
“A school fire was probably the most traumatic experience I ever had as a firefighter. It was my day off from the newspaper. I was with Squad X, and we were a third-alarm squad on that fire. They jumped it from two to five alarms. As we went in, we could see the column of smoke, and we could see the ambulances and the police vehicles coming away from the fire with the injured. When we got in, we were ordered to the roof of this U-shaped building. We had to go up an aerial ladder, and in order to get the ladder we had to run through a crowd of parents, who were running back and forth across the street looking for their children. So we went up to the roof, started opening it up, then we got a three-inch line up there and we were throwing water across a courtyard. We didn’t know at that point what had happened. All this jumping had taken place on the other side of the building. By that time a whole wing of the second floor was fully involved in fire. Fire was coming through the roof. Then they ordered all squad companies to the front of the building. When we came down, a priest came up to us and said that there were seventy-fire children inside the building. At that point, I decided I had to go to work as a reporter. They had plenty of firemen on the scene, but I was the only reporter. So I took off my helmet and went to work as a reporter. At it turned out, ninety-three children and two nuns were killed in that fire. I was very busy while all of it was going on, but a few days later it got to me. I had seen many horrible things in the past, but never anything quite as horrible as this, because anything that affects children hits you harder. It was a few days later that I really got shook up about what had happened and what I had seen. But when you’re young, you’re resilient, and you get over it. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
“Years later, I woke up one night with a real sweaty nightmare about that fire. I dreamed about a woman I had seen for maybe three second. I had run past her to get the ladder to go up to the roof. If I saw her today, I would still know her. She had long curly black hair, high heels on, a pink blouse, white slacks, and she had a look on her face—a look of absolute anguish, looking for her child. I hadn’t thought about it at all, and here, ten years later, I wake up in cold sweat dreaming about this woman. And I couldn’t understand why. So I got up and went into my kids’ bedroom to see how they were, and then I realized what it was. My eldest son had just turned eight years old. That was the age—eight, nine, ten—of the children who were killed in that fire. I guess it was, subconsciously, always in my mind. When my own child reached that age, I was so appreciative of having my child that I must have empathized with that woman years later. As a parent I had much more feeling about that fire than I had when I was single. What is interesting about it is the way things stick in your mind, the psychological impact of what you are seeing without knowing it. Today they have counseling for emergency service people, which we didn’t have in those days. Everybody was supposed to be an alpha male. The truth is that us alpha males were bothered by what we saw and what we had to do at times. Today we have counseling, and we understand that what firefighters and EMTs do and see has a tremendous impact on them. #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
“Recently, the City of Sacramento Fire Department, where I am on the board, responded to a terrible accident, in which three young people were killed. We immediately gave that shift the advantage of having some counseling if they needed it. As it turned out, most of them wanted it. So we realize the toll that all of this takes on our people. I think it’s very healthy to do that type of thing. I don’t think the people at the newspaper, where I work, give much of a thought to my firefighting activity. Most people look on it as a rather strange thing for a person to be doing, but I got used to that years ago. Since it’s not something they would want to do, they wonder why anybody would want to do it. They don’t know the great experiences that we as firefighters have, the things we share with each other, and the satisfaction that comes from doing it. To me, being a firefighter is an enrichment of my life. I’ve never had much enjoyment from watching a fire. It would be a pretty frustrating thing. If I’m in another city and they have a fire, I’ll go an observe and try to learn their way of doing things. But there really isn’t a lot of satisfaction simply watching a fire.” It has always seemed to me that the one great theme around which Shakespeare hung all his writing was, in his torn words: “There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Certainly, right thinking is even more important than right action. For if two men both perform the same deed rightly but one does so on false reasons and the other on true ones, the first is always liable to slip later into wrong action but not the second. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. To help our firefighters, pleasure donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to ensure they have all the resources they require. 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 24 of 24
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Recuse Fever–They Do Not Need to be Loved by Everyone
All knowledge is beneficial to man in varying degrees. The knowledge of his own soul, being the highest degree of human knowledge, offers the greatest degree of benefit to man. Unless a man exercises his reason—and that at its subtlest pitch—how is he going to wake up from this dream of spinning planets which he sleeps by the mesmeric power of some unseen and unknow Sage? The Light of Christ influences people for good and prepares them to receive the Holy Ghost. One manifestation of the Light of Christ is what we call a conscience. The Light of Christ proceeds forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space. It is the light which is in all things, which gives life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed. This power is an influence for good in the lives of all people. In the scriptures, the Light of Christ is sometimes called the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of God, the Spirt of Christ, or the Light of life. The Light of Christ should not be confused with the Holy Ghost. It is not a personage, as the Holy Ghost is. Its influence leads people to find the true gospel, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. By forming clearer ideas of the Overself’s activity, man can better cooperate with it, and more effectually remove the obstacles which obstruct that activity. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
Conscience if a manifestation of the Light of Christ, enabling us to judge good from evil. The light of Christ is the divine energy, power, or influence that proceeds from God through Jesus Christ and gives life and light to all things. Man did not first know through his eyes or hands that electricity exists but only through his powers of reason. We know in our best moments that we are merely recipients of power, goodness, and understanding. What the higher self is trying to do in us may be obstructed through ignorance or assisted by knowledge. Intellect is most useful as a servant but most tyrannical as a master. It may hinder progress or accelerate it. Hence, although the philosopher thinks as keenly as any other man, he does not allow his whole self to be submerged in the thinking process. When man refuses to use his intelligence in settling his affairs it is only because he has not sufficiently developed his intelligence to be able to use in this way. However, philosophically speaking, he is blinded by the ego and so seeks satisfaction rather than truth. Such a one does not know that truth brings satisfaction in its train. The magnificent spectacle of the Universe does have a meaning but it is only discoverable when we put such prejudices aside and accept the deliverances of analytic reason concentrated in its impeccable and searching quest. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
As we study from the best books, we protect ourselves against the menacing jaws of those that seek to gnaw at our spiritual roots. As man’s conception of the truth becomes clearer, his aspiration to realize it in his life becomes stronger. This is so and must be so. It is wise to be intellectually familiar with the various ways of approach to the Overself, for this expands one’s outlook and enlarges one’s tolerance; but one should also know what is the correct way for oneself. The intelligence which man possesses will not merely enable him to distinguish between truth and falsity in the consideration of external things, but will finally fulfil itself in enabling him to distinguish between the truth and falsity about his own internal being. That is to say, it will lead him to the knowledge of his own true self, his Overself. Many of the opinions which have found lodgment in his head are not there through impartial investigation or intelligent enquiry but through theaccidents of prejudice, bias, or heredity. We live in a day in which misfortune about our beliefs abounds. In times such as these, a failure to protect and deepen our spiritual roots is an invitation to have then gnawed on by an invitation by those who seek to destroy our faith in Christ and our belief in His restored Church. In Book of Mormon times, it was Zeezrom who sought to destroy the faith of the believers. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
His actions and words were a snare of the adversary, which he laid to catch the people, that he might bring them into subjection unto him, that he might encircle them about with chains. Those same snares exist today, and unless we are spiritually vigilant and build a secure foundation on our Redeemer, we may find ourselves bound with Satan’s chains and being led carefully down the forbidden paths spoken of in the Book of Mormon. “And after they had tasted of the fruit, they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost,” reports 1 Nephi 8.28. The intelligence which man possess will not merely enable him to distinguish between truth and falsity in the consideration of external things, but will finally fulfil itself in enabling him to distinguish between the truth and falsity about his own internal being. That is to say, it will lead him to the knowledge of his own true self, his Overself. The increase in Sabbath day observance is but one example of members spiritually fortifying themselves by heeding prophetic invitations. Further strengthening is evidences in the increase in temple and family history work as families gather their ancestors through temple ordinances. Our spiritual roots go deeper as sincere personal and family prayer become bastions of our faith and we repent daily, seek the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and learn of our Savior and His attributes and strive to become like Him. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
In all intellectual and scholastic studies, there is a secondary result which, whether recognized or not, is their most valuable one when judged from an evolutionary standpoint. It is the power of concentrated attention. Even if the student fails to master his subject or to solve his problem, nevertheless to the extent that he sincerely and diligently tries, this power is necessarily drawn upon, used, and developed. Both the mental effort needed to attend to the subject or problem and the desire to wrest the meaning of it, benefit the student even when his studies fail in their specific object. From the one he progresses a step forward toward greater ability to concentrate. From the other he gets a stimulus to his aspiration for truth. One day, both will be applied to the spiritual quest. He lifts himself above the herd, and becomes a student of philosophy, who sees who most people come to rest or even go to sleep in mere opinion. They have not enquired further whether it be truth—perhaps because they lack either the intellectual competence to do so or the preliminary knowledge of comparative opinion which shows up its contradictoriness, perhaps because they begin to find truth displeasing to their biased temperament and disagreeable to their prejudiced mind, perhaps because they are overawed by the massive impressiveness of tradition, authority, and established institutional teaching, or finally perhaps because the truth might prove disturbing to their personal position. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
When clever, able, experienced, and idealistic men tell you, for example, that a particular doctrine negates all that Christ stood for, and when other men, equally clever able experienced and idealistic, tell you that it fulfills Christ’s ideals, then you have a clear illustration of the truth that some people are able to hold on to their present views only by shutting their eyes and stopping their ears to other ones. The intellectual study of these truths is not without great values. It prepares him for their eventual realization, nourishes his soul, strengthens his higher will, and encourages his finer hopes. Moreover, holy reverence is born of itself as he meditates on the picture of universal intelligence which thus unfolds before his gave. When it is said that all is opinion, it must further be said that all views of God exist in the minds of men as their opinions, too. The value of such opinions is only what these men give to it. For a view which is beyond the mental capacity of an unevolved person is of little value to him, whereas it may be life-saving to an evolved truth-seeker. If the critical sense were lacking, how could a man perceive the insufficiency of earthly aims, the transitoriness of earthly life, and the unsatisfactoriness of earthly happiness? And without such perfection why should he turn away to seek spiritual satisfactions? #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
Every man who has enough capacity to reflect upon his life-experience, has also to acknowledge that some power superior to himself—let him call it chance or God, fate or spirit—exists. “And know ye that ye shall be judges of this people, according to the judgement which I shall give unto you, which shall be just. Therefore, what manner of men ought yet to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am,” reports 3 Nephi 27.27. Our Savior Jesus Christ, is the Light of the World, and He beckons us to follow Him. We must look to Him at all times and especially so if there are dark and stormy nights when the tempest of doubt and uncertainty, like rolling fog, creeps in. Should the pointed fingers “from the other side of the river of water, [where] a great and spacious building [stands]” (1 Nephi 8.26) appear to be directed at you in the attitude of mocking, demeaning, and beckoning, I ask that you immediately turn away so that you are not persuaded by cunning and devious means to separate yourself from truth and its blessings. However, this alone will not be enough in this day when perverse things are being spoken, written, and portrayed. Elder Robert D. Hales taught us, “Unless you are fully engaged in living the gospel—living it with all of your heart, heart, might, mind and strength—you cannot generate enough spiritual light to push back the darkness.” Surely, our desire to follow Christ, who is the Light of the World, means we must act on His teaching. We are spiritually strengthened, fortified, and protected as we act on the word of God. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
It is the philosopher’s business to reject falsehood and therefore he refuses to swallow misleading statements merely because they have been well-baited on the surface with the sugar of true ones. So much that we esteem as solid fact is quite often nothing more than merely imagination. Enquiry is necessary. The same intellect whose activity deters most men from discovering God’s presence within themselves can be used to discover this presence. Something like this was noticed by Francis Bacon in England, and he put his idea into one of his essays. Time and thought, experience and experiment, study and practice initiation and instruction are all needed to teach a man how to distinguish between the final truth and its countless counterfeits. With growing enlightenment and increasing confidence, he becomes more expert. The intensity with which a view is held tells us something about its holder, nothing about the truth of that view. When they must form an opinion, come to a decision, make a judgment, or choose between alternatives, men consult past experience, listen to authority, obey tradition, or yield to the strongest elements in their own personal character. The imagination creates its own idols which it worships as the true God. Therefore, reason must be called in to cast them down. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
Disillusionment about pseudo- or half-truths often precedes discovery of the real or full truth. Too many simple persons, whether Easten or Occidentals, do not seem able to distinguish between mere mythology and authentic history. The development of a discriminating faculty is as necessary in religion as in the marketplace. If the mind has been trained to reject a falsehood, be it born from within self or received from others, it will be better able to let the Truth shine unhindered in itself. The first value of correct teaching is that it purges the seeker of many errors in understanding. This purgation in its turn saves him from committing many errors in conduct. Here is its practical value. The second value is that its light instantly exposes imposture, charlatanry, exploitation, or evil in other teachings and in their exponents. There are true as well as false opinions, adequate as well as groundless beliefs. We may freely hold opinions and beliefs, provided they are supported by sufficient evidence. The greater the light in our lives, the fewer the shadows. However, even in an abundance of light, we are exposed to people and comments that misrepresent our beliefs and try our faith. “The trying of [our] faith worketh patience,” reports James 1.3. With this insight, Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “A patient disciple…will not be surprised nor undone when the Church is misrepresented.” Besore enlightenment can be received into consciousness, a measure of sharpness to discern the real from its appearance, as well as of detachment, must be acquired. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
In a way, the term actualization (to make or become real) is another chapter in the history of the human endeavor to define what constitutes a good life, what it is to have a life well-lived. A great body of writings, from antiquity to the present, documents the human impulse to know what makes life good, meaningful, and, therefore, worthwhile. In the Christian Bible, we find Christ telling us, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly,” reports John 10.10. Indeed, the Christian Bible is rich with commentary about what makes a worthwhile life. Classical drama and the Greek philosophers addressed the nature of humankind in terms of meaning and potential. The great literature of the Renaissance included many work of this nature, such as The Courtier by Castiglione, The Governor by Sir Thomas Elyot, and Utopia by Sir Thomas More. The common threads in all of these writings are what enriches an individual life (intrapersonal), how an individual contributes to the common good (interpersonal) and what is the human place in eternity (spiritual and conceptual). Dr. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in a sense, is a part of this tradition, but his studies and writings emphasize the darker side of the human being. His concern is with what makes a human life “bad.” He studied the human as being diseased, and his revolutionary concept has influenced nearly every aspect of our culture and has confined much of psychology to a medical model. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
Reacting against the Freudian emphasis on disease and returning to the larger tradition as described above, Dr. Abraham Maslow studied healthy humans and discovered the concept of “self-actualization.” Whereas many psychologists, following Dr. Freud’s medical model, believed that we could understand psychological health by first understanding psychological illness, Dr. Maslow suggested the alternative viewpoint. He taught that we can understand psychological health by studying the lives of people who have achieved a high degree of interpersonal satisfaction and self-fulfillment, the healthy champions. It is largely from his research that we draw our understanding of these people. The persons he studied included acquaintances, friends, and such public and historical figures as President Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Einstein, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Addams, Schweitzer, G.W. Carver, and Henry David Thoreau. Although these individuals cannot be described as perfect by any standard (no human is), their lives and the qualities that informed them, as discovered and defined by Dr. Maslow, provided valuable guidelines to us. In general, he said: By definition, self-actualizing people are gratified in all their basic needs…They have a feeling of belongingness and rootedness, they are satisfied in their loved needs, have friends and feel loved and loveworthy, they have status and place in life and respect from other people, and they have a reasonable feeling of worth and self-respect. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
His study discloses the fact that self-actualizing persons whose basic needs are satisfied have additional motivations of an even higher nature. Some are conceptual: they delight in bringing about justice, they try to set things right, to clean up bad situations; they manage somehow simultaneously to love the world as it is and to try to improve it; in all cases [studied] it was as if they could see both good and evil realistically. Some higher motivations are interpersonal: they do not need loved by everyone; they like to reward and praise promise, talent, virtue; [they have] great pleasure in their children and in helping them grow into good adults. Some are intrapersonal: they love doing things well, “doing a good job”; they enjoy taking on responsibilities (that they can handle well); and certainly, do not fear or evade their responsibilities. Even though a mere 1 percent of the population, by Dr. Maslow’s reckoning, is fully self-actualized, knowing of real people with these qualities furnishes the rest of us with models for emulation. Such models are necessary precursors to change because they help us to form the “idea” of a new, manipulation-freer life. Unless we can concretely envision ourselves, “being real,” we are stuck with our old masks and deceptions. We learn to discriminate in practical affairs and among material things as to what they seem to be and what they really are. However, the faculty can be applied on a much higher level of existence and a more abstract one, depending on the cultural or personal quality of a man. Its highest application is to separate the Truth about God, the Universe, and oneself from its appearances and their Realities. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
Being real has a great deal to do with appreciating our own uniqueness, as Martin Buber expresses it in his book The Way of Man: Every person born into this World represents something new, something that never existed before something original and unique. “It is the duty of every person…to know and consider that he is unique in the World in his particular character and that there has never been anyone life him in the World.” Every man’s foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, and be it even the greatest, has already achieved. Dr. Maslow’s “healthy champions,” seem to understand their singularity in the World, as described by Mr. Buber, but they also have many common characteristics. In the film Maslow and Self-Actualization and in his books, he describes some of their common traits. With contradictions eliminated or reconciled, with errors corrected and new fertile concepts introduced, and with his ideas ranged in an orderly pattern, he can attain some intellectual clarity. Not only was there some fact as well as some exaggeration in Anatole France’s assertion—sceptic and cynic though he usually was—that “all is Opinion!” but it could be restated as “All is secondhand opinion!” They wittingly or unwittingly impose their own opinions, theories, beliefs, and concepts upon the object perceived or the happenings experienced. The result may come near to, or be far from, the truth, depending on their advancement, but it is unlikely to be the whole truth. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
We have a puritanical attitude toward physical contact in the United States of America and northern Europe. Touching, embracing, and holding hands all appear to be restricted to relationships between parents and young children or between married men and women. In Latin countries, such as France or Italy, and in Asiatic and African countries, it is more common to see men holding hands as they walk down the street or embracing upon greeting one another. Physical contact is given more meanings there than as a prelude to arousal of pleasures of the flesh or an expression of parental concern, as has been the case in our culture. We appear to observe strong taboos relating to touching, yet touching and massage are direct ways to awaken a dormant sense of embodiment. Dr. Jourard conducted a study of touching among college students, their parents, and their friends. Several hundred students were asked to show, on a questionnaire, the areas of their bodies on which touches had been exchanged with their mothers, fathers, closet same-gender friend, and close friend of the opposite gender. The data indicated that not a great deal of touching went on between these students and their parents and their same-gendered friends. With the opposite-gender friend, considerably more touching was exchanged, presumably an expression of affection and erotic caressing. However, the data showed that many of the students tested did not have a lover and were virtually “out of touch” with the people in their lives. These findings suggest that many Americans may be starved for sensual physical contact without being aware of what they are missing. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
The experience of total body massage (not just back rub) slowly and sensuously conducted can produce extreme relaxation, and a softening of the these “muscular armor” from which many people suffer. Esalen Institute. The growth center at Big Sur, California, pioneered in introducing such massage to larger public. Bernard Gunther’s books Sense Relaxation and What to Do Till the Messiah Comes are readable accounts of ways to relax another person through massage, and to heighten one’s capacity to sense the world through touch as well as taste and smell. Physical contact is coming gradually to be incorporated into the helping repertoires of psychotherapists, in both the psychiatric and psychological professions, in recognition of the fact that problems of a psychological nature occur to an embodied person, and hence have somatic concomitants that can be treated directly. Locate the neurogenetic centers where the future action is happening. There you will find Evolutionary Agents—the Out-Castes. Counter-Evolutionary Agents consistently make the mistake of focusing on today’s bureaucrat-power-holders, who are already outdated by the predom species. In slow moving pre-technological eras, this was a passable strategy. Evolutionary Agents always focus on the predom species—the stages to come. Mr. Aristotle hung out with teenage Alexander of Macedon, not the reigning Philip. Locate the Western Frontier centers and exchange signals with the youthful elite who are always visible in frontal-lobe regions. #RandolphHarris 15 of25
In every terrestrial society there are pupal training centers to which the most successful gene pools send their most intelligent larvals. The future of each gene pool is blueprinted in the minds of its superior adolescents. Teenage brains are the hatcheries of future-realities. In Eastern countries, you will find university students docile and insectoid obedient. Guess what this hive devotion predicts for the future of China. In the midbrain Sematic countries, you will find university students violently nationalistic and fanatically patriotic. In French elite academies, you will find serious technocrats. Mon Dieu imagine what that means for the future of France. Tant Pis. At the frontal lobe, Sun Belt Universities, you will find the young of the predom species obsessed with disciplined self-actualized hedonic freedom. Sign up for the college lecture circuit on the Western Front. There you will learn what is going to happen. And perhaps, maybe, you can influence this hatching future a tiny, tiny bit. We speak of colors as loud, harsh, soft, or mellow without even noticing that we do this, and of people as being cold, or warm, or bright, or dull, or sweet, or sour or crusty. It is not at all confusing to the senses to be “mixed up” in this way unless I get mixed up about it. Our categories, in any case, are not as clearly defined as we link to think them. In the garden the other day, a young woman sniffed and asked, “What smells like beer?” It was the roses. Perhaps, not all roses smell like beer, but these roses did—I had written “do” but changed it, as I do not know even if the roses on this bush always smell the same. I have not noticed. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
That taste and smell are related is something that we are taught, but we can notice for ourselves that other senses are related too. “I smell purple” is not a ridiculous statement but opens me to possibilities which I have been ignoring. It is no “sillier” than “I feel blue.” When I was suffering an infirmary, I noticed that pains “have” color, shape, movement, temperature and voice. It seems to me that the ability to notice may be more a matter of our noticing than of individual differences. If I “forget my pain” (as I am told to do), I cannot notice it. And so with dreams. And with the experiencing of something much greater than myself in me. Whatever I dismiss, I cannot explore. Like the doctor in New Jersey who was furious when penicillin was discovered because his bacteria cultures were killed by molds too, and he kept throwing them out instead of studying them as Alexander Fleming did. What else are we not noticing that would be helpful to us? Therefore, Americans, remember, it is important to not only be loyal in what you do and say, but you must prove it by doing conscientious, good, and honest work in the service of the MAGA movement. It goes without saying that the well-qualified members of the Party are not regular Republicans, they are elite, patriotic, God-loving Americas and are preferred to non-members of the party who are equally well-qualified, but nobody is hired on the basis of their membership in the Party alone. The determined manner in which the new business manager stands for these principles and gradually carries them out in spite of all resistance proves to be a great advantage to the movement. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
Training to become a fire fighter with the Sacramento Fire Department is challenging. The art and science of extinguishing fires is much more complex than most people imagine. The Sacramento Fire Department and their EMTs are challenged—both physically and mentally—during this course. They must keep their body in excellent condition so that they can complete their assignments; they must also remain mentally alter to cope with the various conditions they will encounter. Fire fighter and EMT training expands their understanding of recuse and fire suppression—that is, the various activities involved in recovery and in controlling and extinguishing fires. When you join the Sacramento Fire Department, you join a profession with a long and noble history of protecting and serving the community. By the time you complete the course with the Sacramento Fire Department, you will be well equipped to continue a more than centuries-old tradition of preserving lives and property threatened by fires. The Sacramento Fire Department and their EMTs have an understanding of the many duties and responsibilities of the fire service and emergency medical system, and they have a feeling of personal satisfaction about their accomplishments. However, for the Sacramento Fire Department and their EMTs complete physical fitness is not just about exercise, but also includes good nutrition and a sensible diet. They maintain a healthy body weight and body fat percentage through sound diet and exercise to ensure the best health, fitness, and physical performance. All of these things are relevant to maintaining military readiness and achieving peak performance. #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
Knowing the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Guidelines and understanding the Food Pyramid to determine your daily requirements of carbohydrates, proteins, and fat will help you make healthy food choices and improve your physical fitness. In addition, USDA has an interactive website to help you track your diet. Visit: www.myplate.gov, where you can personalize your diet by age, gender, and general fitness level. A health diet has the right kinds of foods in the right amounts. The Food Pyramid, now replaced by the Food Plate, was preferred because it represented many things. The pyramid shape is an ancient shape and is universally regocnized as a symbol of stability and strength. Its broad base supports a narrow peak, representing a solid foundation with the ability to rise towards the heavens. This ancient architectural form has inspired awe and reverence in various cultures throughout history. In the Sacramento Fire Department, they envision a person walking up the pyramid as a need for physical daily activity and different individuals’ different nutrition needs. The different width of the food ground bands indicates the need for proportion—how much should choose from each group. The six color bands symbolize the food you need daily from each group for good health. The six color brans symbolize the food the Sacramento Fire Department and EMTs need daily from each group for good health. #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
Orange (grains): USDA recommends you eat at least three ounces of whole-grain bread, cereal, crackers, rice, or pasta every day. Half your grains should be whole. To make sure you are eating whole grains, look for the word “whole” before the grain on the list of ingredients. Green (vegetables): You should vary vegetable servings, eating more dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, and dried beans and peas. Red (fruits): Eat a variety of fresh, frozen, canned, or dried fruit, but go easy on fruit juices, which may contain empty calories in the form of added sugars and sweeteners. (R.W. Knudsen Family makes some healthy juices, one of my favorite is Just Cranberry, you can pick it up at Walmart, along with some other healthy options.) Yellow (oils and fats): Most of your fats should come from fish, nuts, and vegetable oils. Limit your consumption of solid fats like butter, stick margarine, shortening, and lard. Although Crisco fried chicken is a classic Southern Delight, not just because of the nostalgia, but because of the warmth, rich flavor, texture, and tradition of this crispy and golden delicacy, when possible, consume foods with omega fish oils, which help maintain your cardiovascular health. Blue (milk, an important source of calcium): Now, I know some of you love to drink Half and Half because it is rich and creamy, choose low-fat or fat-free milk. If you do not or cannot drink milk, choose lactose-free products or other sources of calcium, such as hard cheese (cheddar mozzarella, Swiss, or parmesan), cottage cheese, and low-fat or fat-free yogurt (including frozen yogurt). Purple (meat, beans, and eggs): You may notice that this band, like the yellow band for oils, is thinner than the others. This visually reminds you to “Go lean on protein.” Choose low-fat or lean meats and poultry that are baked, broiled, or grilled rather than friend. Vary your choices, including more sustainably sourced fish, beans, peas, nuts, and seeds (however, if you have digestive issues, avoid all seeds). If meat typically covers most of your plate, take another look at the classic Food Pyramid. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
Substance to avoid for proper health and fitness—to reflect a mature decision and to set a good example for their unit, the Sacramento Fire Department and EMTs have a diet that mirrors a wise lifestyle choice that helps them live a longer, more productive life. The Sacramento Fire Department and EMTs avoid substances that detract from their physical performance or harm their health (drugs, tobacco, alcohol, etcetera). Many people in our society have traditionally believed that alcohol—wine, beer, or hard liquor—relaxes you, increases your self-confidence, and alters your perception of stress or fatigue. It is true that for most people, light consumption of alcoholic beverages can be a pleasant social diversion. However, habitual, heavy drinking or binge drinking can cause severe dehydration, decreased performance, dependence, and harm to your metabolism. If they even choose to drink at all, the Sacramento Fire Department expects their firefighters and EMTs to exercise their judgment and drink responsibly, which includes obeying all laws regarding drinking and the legal drinking age. And never drink to “quench your thirst” before, during, or after a workout. (I know some fitness models encourage people to have a shot of Vodka before workouts, but that could be life threatening.) Cigarettes, cigars, marijuana, crack cocaine, cocaine, vaping, MDMA all could be laced with heroin and/fentanyl and could be deadly. Not only that, but they contain a whole gamut of cancer-causing chemicals that provide no beneficial health effects, and vaping can lead to irreversible lung damage. Some maintain that the “buzz” from tobacco leads to improved performance and reaction times, but no medical evidence supports this position. If you do not smoke at all, in the interest of good physical fitness, it is best. If you do smoke, however, limits your intake and avoid smoking before, during, and after workouts. Smoking increases your heart rate and blood pressure. (And do not normalize smoking marijuana, it is dangerous and children may adopt the habit, and remember, it is still federally illegal and known to cause excessive weight gain. Just because everyone is having premarital does not mean it is not against the Law of Chastity and not a sin in the eyes of God.) #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
Furthermore, controlled substances are those strictly regulated by the government and may require medical prescriptions. You should use such substances only under medical supervision. Other drugs such as amphetamines, narcotics, steroids, and other so-called “performance enhancing drugs” are illegal and banned by the Sacramento Fire Department. These drugs change performance by increasing central nervous system arousal. They increase your heart rate and blood pressure and they may cause dizziness, nauseas, irritability, insomnia—even death. No one in the Sacramento Fire Department or who is interested in good physical fitness consumes these substances; they can only detract from your performance in both the short and long term. They Sacramento Fire Department forbids their use. Keep in mind, health and fitness are integral parts of the Sacramento Fire Department’s life. They are critical for readiness and important to the well-being of the individual Fire Fighter and EMT. Although not a cure-all, a properly planned fitness program yields many physical and mental benefits. Effective physical training can improve your body composition (decrease body fat and increase lean body weight), ability to work, mental alertness, self-confidence, and general well-being. Exercise also decreased metabolic and mental health risks, such as high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, anxiety, depression, and much more. With assistance from your Sacramento Fire Department instructors, you are able to apply the Sacramento Fire Department’s general fitness principles to create a self-directed physical training program that meets your needs and fulfills your personal and personal goals. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
“In one month, we have fifty people apply for jobs with the Sacramento Fire Department, but where was a hard core of only ten or fifteen men who were in it for the firefighter. I’ve noticed this is typical, the same ten or fifteen guys you can count on. These are the ones who will take the courses, show up for the drills, and whenever they are available, they will never miss a fire. They can have a 100-degree Fahrenheit fever, and if that alarm goes off, they are going to drag out of bed and get to the fire. Your bond as a firefighter or EMT is always with that hard-core group who are the active firefighters and medical team. Fire Fighters and EMTs with the Sacramento Fire Department have great pride in his company, whether he is full-time, part-time, or training. Outsiders can’t understand that. On Squad X in Sacramento we always felt we were the best, we could meet any challenge. We called ourselves gladiators. We thought we were invincible. The same thing was true on other companies that I have been on. We thought that we could meet whatever we had to face, and we always did—a great feeling of accomplishment. People say it’s an unusual job. It’s not a job at all. A great part of my life would be empty if it were not for the Sacramento Fire Department. Firefighting is a way of life. You will be in a rotten fire situation—filthy dirty, cold, coated with ice—it’s been a long hard night, and yet you feel sorry for the people who have not had that experience. Among firefighters and EMTs, you feel good about each other and about yourself. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
“Outsiders can’t understand the feeling you get when a bell rings and you know you’re gonna go. The tension you feel when a box comes in, when you’re not due on the box, but you’re due on the second. Waiting to see if they’re going to pull the second alarm or not. Everybody gets up and goes to the bathroom, because you don’t know if you’re going to get another chance. Then all of the sudden there is a feeling of exhilaration when the bell starts ringing, they’ve pulled the second alarm and you’re going. You’re going to be challenged. The feeling you get when you’re on your ways and you look up and see that column of smoke or that glow, and you know you’re going to have a working fire. It isn’t that you want something bad to happen to someone else, that’s not it at all. It’s the feeling of all, the strangest feeling, is the one that you have when you’re on your way there, and they tell you on the radio that people are trapped. I call it “rescue fever,” and it comes over the whole company. It’s a shot of adrenaline. You do things you didn’t believe were physically possible. The idea that somebody is trapped in there, and you’re going to have to get them. I’ve always admired what firefighters have been able to do. Sometimes it’s also a bit frightening, because it has led people do try to do more than they should have and get themselves into extremely dangerous situations. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
“The feeling you get when you are in, and the entire building is involved, and you know that it’s going to a second or third alarm. There is just your one engine there, you’re laying out that one line, and you know that help has been called for but hasn’t gotten there yet. There is that state of suspended animation—you’re throwing water from that one two-and-a-half-inch line, and it doesn’t mean a thing in that volume of fire. Then you start hearing the sirens coming from the other apparatus. You have this confidence that the system is going to work. It may take ten, twenty, thirty companies to do it, but in the end you’re going to get the job done. One of the greatest satisfactions of all is when you’re in the trenches, where you have a big fire, and there you are, one company, the five or six of you are right at the point where that fire has to be stopped. There are maybe a hundred guys out there and twenty or thirty pieces of apparatus, you just know when it’s your company that has gotten into the right position and you’re the ones who made the stop on the fire. When I was in high school, I played football Oakland Coliseum, and I get the same thrill fighting fires. It’s totally overwhelming. Adrenaline flowing superstrength. Everything. It’s the excitement I’m in it for. I like to work on the older guys when they say we’re not being paid enough. Although it is true, we love our careers. You get many fires in Sacramento. We’re becoming the arson capital of the World.” #RandolphHarris 25 of 25
Join OKO Designs on May 25th for a fun and hands-on 3-hour stained glass workshop at The Winchester Mystery House. You will learn how to select, cut, grind, and copper foil glass, then solder your pieces together into a beautiful Daisy ornament. Perfect for beginners! ✨
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Please note: All participants are required to sign a waiver and watch a safety video prior to the workshop—both are included in your booking confirmation email. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Harris Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electric has been in business for 30 years. How many businesses can say that? We take pride in everything we do – no matter how big or small the service call might be. We’re here to help your home be as safe and comfortable as possible for you and your family. We take that responsibility very seriously as a company. Harris will ensure you have the information you need to decide what to do next, whatever your home is facing. We’ll perform a diagnosis and detail what issues are present before starting any work. This gives you a personalized quote and service plan specific to your home’s needs – not some random quote based on the best guess. The only way we can do our best work is to make sure we handle the issues at hand. https://www.callharrisnow.com/about-us/
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Randolph Harris San Francisco Taxation & Mergers
Randy advises clients with regard to business transition, taxable and tax deferred mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, restructuring, integrated tax planning, federal and state tax controversy resolution, and real estate transactions. https://www.jmbm.com/l-randolph-harris.html
The City of Oakland is an equal-opportunity employer that values workforce diversity, inclusion, and equity. Oakland has a long history of activism around issues of justice and equity. Both oppression and this resistance to oppression have shaped the city’s historical roots and the lives of its residents to this day. As public servants in one of the most diverse cities in the nation, we strive to develop employees who understand the harm and impacts of systemic inequity to create lasting, meaningful outcomes for everyone. Oakland strives to establish an environment that embraces the richness of culture, community, and individualism of employees.
I Should be Able to Melt the Heart of a Criminal
Although, many people think life is hard, we are less alone when we realize we are not alone. Of course, life it hard, it is supposed to be because life is a test. However, our Saviour always understands. Life being is part of the Heavenly Father’s plan. The trials we face do not mean that the plan is failing. They are part of the plan meant to help us seek God. We become more like Him when we endure patiently. Sometimes, amid our struggles and thoughts of our shortcomings, we forget the point of life’s trials: to turn us to Christ and to our Heavenly Father. “Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the Earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down His life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise,” reports 2 Nephi 2.8. The Saviour knows our struggles in detail. He knows you great potential to grow in faith, hope, and charity. Heaven can give us strength and wisdom beyond our own. No matter tribulation and no matter delays in promised blessings, we can be of good cheer; for Christ has overcome the World, and we are with Him. If the Saviour was standing here today, He would express His endless love for you, His complete confidence in you. He would tell you that you, “do all things through him who strengthens me,” reports Philippians 4.13. #RandolphHarris 1 of 23
Life is sometimes hard because of manipulators. We believe that the modern manipulator has developed from our “scientific” emphases as well as from our marketplace orientation, which sees humans as things to know about, to influence, and to manipulate. Witness the presidential campaigns or any manor election to see how the electorate is analyzed and fed images designed to influence their votes based on opinion polls. The candidates are frequently advised not to reveal too much of their true selves, but to display themselves as metaphors of whatever the current poll indicates will satisfy public opinion—a televised visit to a family farm, a picture of the candidate hugging an elderly person at a retirement community. Wearing a hard hat. A military helmet. A baseball cap. A thing. Things can be dissected or manipulated without damage to their natures, but a human being is not a thing. People cannot be dissected without being destroyed; they cannot be manipulated without being harmed. Yet, the very objective of the marketplace is to achieve this “thingness” in people! In the marketplace, people are no longer persons but customers. To the sales manager, they are prospects; to the tailor they are suits; to the bond salesman they are bank accounts. Even at hair salons, where a rather intimate service is performed, the customer is a tipper. #RandolphHarris 2 of 23
All of this tends to depersonalize us and deprive us of our individuality, and we resent it. We all want particularity, but that is not what we have when we are hooked into our commercial World, where the quality of individuality is destroyed. When the con artists of the selling games cajole us with stock phrases, meaning not a bit of it, we resent it and them. We are all in the same boat. We all have the manipulative potentials we have come to resent in others. We have at our disposals a variety of manipulative actions and intentions. Sometimes we are “avoiding and withdrawing.” Sometimes “blaming and attacking.” Sometimes “pleasing and placating.” We seem different to different people and different manipulations to others. This is the reason that we cannot judge someone by another’s opinion. Too often, another’s opinion of someone is based on having seen only certain sides of that person. There is often a lot of manipulation that takes place in marriages. A man name Jason admitted to committing adultery. However, unlike many other adulterers he knows, he never has really cared for the people he has affairs with. He mostly lusts after other women, as long as he is able to like them. Jason admits that there must be more than a physical attraction for the affair to last more than once or twice, and he has never had a so-called “one-night stand.” Sometimes people are unwilling to have an affair with other people because they do not find them as attractive as their spouse. At other times, people just want to have an affair because they are in a foreign land and think it is stimulating or romantic. #RandolphHarris 3 of 23
When a person discloses that they are having an affair, it is not always about being honest and getting rid of guilt. It could be a manipulative way of trying to get their spouse to leave them. While having an affair, some people are as determined as they can be—they want out of their marriage. Getting out of a marriage does not mean that one is looking to remarry someone else, but having someone to go through a divorce with helps. Especially when children are involved, a divorce is a really very, very heavy thing. When having serial affairs, people do realize that they will never experience commitment nor peace, but they still do it. It is because they love the ballet. For a moment, one is into oneself, and all of their being is expressed. Pleasures of the flesh can also be another reason why people have affairs. Sometimes the same love style gets boring because one loses motivation and knows what to expect, and this may be the initial reason they start going elsewhere. Stimulating creativity in the bedroom is not always a possibility for everyone because there is not enough room in the house. In the act of consoling one another, some people even have affairs with their siblings as a way of releasing frustrations. Others have affairs with their adult kids. With cases of incest, from the research conducted, these people do not feel guilty about having affairs with family members. The only concerns they have are “creating a line of bleeders or idiots.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 23
Genetic distortion is a great taboo against incest. The less traumatic kinds of incest involve, first, brother and sister; and second, father and daughter. By far the most traumatic type of incest is mother-son. The last type may be the least frequent of all, as far as overt expression of pleasures of the flesh is concerned. However, a domineering, smothering type of mother is responsible for what can with some fairness be described as a psychosocial incest relationship. Males can be crippled in this situation without ever having been to bed with their mothers. As adults, they suffer from sexual dysfunction, particularly primary or secondary impotence. In terms of explicit sexual expression of incest, it is important to distinguish between single incidents and continuing relationships. These two references during the symposium to incest were of single incidents and these are either readily forgotten or relegated to the past with a minimum od distress. On the other hand, incestuous relationships that have been maintained for long periods of time and that have not been psychosocially released when physical activity is terminate, cause the greatest difficulty in later life. One other factor ought to be mentioned here. When infidelity has been absorbed into a pattern of life and when the individual has the freedom to act in accordance with private needs, it is not at all unusual to have an incestuous opportunity utilized in response to the impulse of the moment. #RandolphHarris 5 of 23
The instance given of the man with his sister, seeking solace and support in terms of his own personal insecurities and his fears of his wedding night, is quite understandable and probably not particularly traumatic for either brother or sister. Incest may seem like a far cry from where we are today in America. However, it is akin to, “Love is love.” Incest has become more prevalent in entertainment. Incest is explicitly condemned in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Leviticus 18.6 sates, “None of you shall approach any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord.” In 1 Corinthias, Paul rebukes the church, saying, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immprtality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for man has his father’s wife” (Leviticus 18.8). Life is difficult for everyone. Therefore, take the trials of life and turn to Jesus Christ. He believes in us. He will strengthen us and lift our burdens. You can overcome the spiritually and emotionally exhausting plagues of the World. Despite the distractions and distortions that swirl around us, you can find true rest—meaning relief and peace—even amid your most vexing problems. Even if it is not what we wanted, to endure faithfully, it is essential to accept God’s will. What is Jesus has wavered in His commitment to do His Father’s will? His Atonement would not have become accomplished. The dead would not be resurrected. The blessings of immortality and eternal life would not be. However, Jesus did endure. He paid for all our sins and suffering and paid the price for our return to our Father. Because He endured with faith, each of us can enjoy the blessings of eternal life. #RandolphHarris 6 of 23
Expect no favourable opinion of spiritual truth from a man who looks at life through the medium of the senses alone, whose reason is enslaved by them, and whose intuition is effaced by them. To depend on feeling as a guide to truth is to depend on a truncated method which is inadequate to the task. The only complete basis for our enquiry is feeling plus reason, the only results which possess unquestionable validity are those achieved by feeling plus reason. The power of intuition alone can enable us to discriminate between the real and the unreal and it alone can eliminate all doubts by eliminating contradictions. There is no reason why itself should not be appeased. This intellectual power is not to be allowed to crush the Heaven-born intuitional sense by its sheer wight but is to be fused with it. The intellect can present opinions—some very plausible and logical, others very weighty and fact-supported. However, only the intuition can penetrate those layers after layer of spiritual experience which reveal the truth about man’s link with God. If the intellect’s workings are not warmed by the heart’s movements, it can only approach the reflected images of truth, not truth of itself. The disputations which follow the activity of intellect melt away in the harmonies which follow the upwelling of intuition. The sin of the intellectual is when he allows intellect to block intuitive feeling, to serve only the animal body or to disregard the testimony of all those who, since early antiquity, have solved the problem of being and experienced the mind at its best level. Such men may have the finest brains, the greatest erudition, but themselves remain uncorrupted by these possession. #RandolphHarris 7 of 23
The intellect is not competent to establish the existence of God, which only a higher faculty can know and consequently make any valid assertions about. However, neither is it competent to disprove the existence of God since it can disprove only those finite matters which it can deal with: God, being, infinite, is outside its reach in every way. The intellect cannot be used to ascertain the ultimate truth without becoming involved at the end in inexplicable contradictions. Some of them are: There is an ego—there is no ego. The World is real—the World is unreal. Any idea or statement about fundamental being, whether of man or cosmos, can be countered by its opposite. If not accompanied by the balancing cultivation of the intuition, the simple education of the intellect, whether as a hoarding of information or a training in reasoning, becomes mere vanity. What we need is a third point of view which shall fall into neither of these two extremes of emotional credulity or rational scepticism, whilst reconciling what is sound in both. This exists in the intuitive point of view. There is always a risk that in taking a too intellectual view of the Universe and in practising a too methodical system of yoga, the aspirant may get caught in the machinery of both intellect and method. If he is unable to extricate himself then, whatever benefit he derives from both will always be on the lower plane. The transcendental insight which he seeks will then be as elusive as ever. If he seeks guidance concerning the correct course to pursue, he can better get it from the still center of his being than from the restless chopping of his intellect. It is better to be intelligent when he is searching among ideas and doctrines than to be credulous—otherwise he may mistake human absurdity for divine mystery—but he can be so only if intuitive feeling is at work along with the reasoned thinking. #RandolphHarris 8 of 23
His own mind acts as a medium which interprets each experience, event, object. Hence it colours necessarily if unwittingly or even reshapes what is received by consciousness. And in the case of the Real, the end results for him is a paradox. He cannot know It without transcending himself. He cannot transcend himself without rising above the knower-and-known duality. Where intuitive feeling will guide him aright to his best decisions, calculating intellect will not infrequently step in with doubts or fears and rob him of them. The contribution of intellect is indispensable. However, it is not enough. It leaves a most important part of the psyche—the intuition—still untouched. Let us consider some demands: I should always be understanding, sympathetic, and helpful. I should be able to melt the heart of a criminal. Again, this is not entirely fantastic. Rare people, such as the priest in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, have achieved this spiritual power. I had a patient to whom the figure of the priest was an important symbol. She felt she should be like him. However, she did not, at this juncture, have any of the attitudes or qualities which enabled the priest to act as he did toward the criminal. She could act charitably at times because she felt that she should be charitable, but she did not feel charitable. As a matter of fact, she did not feel much of anything for anybody. She was constantly afraid least some body take advantage of her. Whenever she could not find an article, she thought it had been stolen. #RandolphHarris 9 of 23
Without being aware of it, her neurosis had made her egocentric and bent on her own advantage—all of which was covered up by a layer of compulsive humility and goodness. Was she at that time willing to see these difficulties in herself, and to work at them? Of course not. Here, too, it was a question of a blind issuing of orders which could lead only to self-deception or unfair self-criticism. In trying to account for the amazing blindness of the shoulds, we again have to leave many loose ends. This much, however, is understandable from their origin in the search for glory and their function to make oneself over into one’s idealized self: the premise on which they operate is that nothing should be, or is, impossible for oneself. If that is so, then logically, existing conditions need not be examined. This trend is most apparent in the application of demands directed toward the past. Concerning the neurotic’s childhood, it is not only important to elucidate the influences which set his neurosis going, but also to recognize his present attitudes toward the adversities of the past. These are determined less by the good or the bad done to him than by his present needs. If he has developed, for instance, a general need to be all sweetness and light, he will spread a golden haze over his childhood. If he has forced his feelings into a straight jacket, he may feel that he does love his parents because he should love them. If he generally refuses to assume responsibility for his life, he may put all the blame for all his difficulties on his parents. The vindictiveness accompanying this latter attitude, in turn, may be out in the open or repressed. #RandolphHarris 10 of 23
He may finally go to the opposite extreme, and seemingly assume an absurd amount of responsibility for himself. In this case, he may have become aware of the full impact of intimidating and cramping early influences. His conscious attitude is quite objective and plausible. He may point out, for instance, that his parents could not help behaving the way they did. The patient sometimes wonders himself why he does not feel any resentment. One of the reasons for the absence of conscious resentment is a retrospective should that interests us here. Though he is aware that what has been perpetrated on him was quite sufficient to crush anybody else, he should have come out of it unscathed. He should have had the inner strength and fortitude not to let these factors affect him. So, since they did, it proved that he was no good from the beginning. In other words, he is realistic up to a point; he would say: “Sure, that was a cesspool of hypocrisy and cruelty.” However, then, his vision becomes blurred: “Although I was helplessly exposed to this atmosphere, I should have come out of it like a lily out of a swamp.” If he could assume a matter-of-fact responsibility for his life instead of such a spurious one, he would think differently. He would admit that the early influences could not fail to mold him in an unfavourable way. And he would see that, no matter what the origin of his difficulties, they do disturb his present and future life. For this reason, he had better muster his energies to outgrown them. #RandolphHarris 11 of 23
Instead, he leaves the whole matter at the completely fantastic and futile level of his demand that he should not have bene affected. It is a sign of progress when the same patient at a later period reverses his position and rather gives himself credit for not having been entirely crushed by the early circumstances. The attitude toward childhood is not the only area in which the retrospective should operate with this deceptive counterfeit of responsibility, and the same resultant futility. One person will maintain that he should have helped his friend by voicing a frank criticism; another that he should have brought up his children without their becoming neurotic. Naturally, we all regret having failed in this or that regard. However, we can examine why we failed, and learn from it. We must also recognize that in view of the neurotic difficulties existing at the time of the “failures,” we may actually have done the best we could at that time. However, for the neurotic, to have done his best is not good enough. In some miraculous way, he should have done better. Similarly, the realization of any present shortcoming is unbearable for anybody harassed by dictatorial should. Whatever the difficulty, it must be removed quickly. How this removal is effected varies. The more a person lives in imagination, the more likely it is that he will simply spirit away the difficulty. Thus, a patent who discovered in herself a colossal drive for being the power behind the throne, and who saw how this drive had operated in her life, was convinced by the next day that this drive was now entirely a matter of the past. She should not be power ridden; so she was not. After such “improvements” occurred frequently, we realized that the drive for actual control and influence was but one expression of the magic power she possessed in her imagination. #RandolphHarris 12 of 23
Personality refers to the characteristics ways in which an individual experiences and acts in life situations. Action affects not only the external environment, but also the health of the body. A Physical-Health-Promoting Personality. The meaningful question to ask is “What regimen, what ways of behaving in the World will promote health?” The most obvious answer to this question relates to such matters as diet, rest, and sensible exercise. People who have been adequality educated in general hygiene will follow a diet that maintains health, energy, and weight; they will care for their teeth; they will sleep enough to restore their energy; and they will exercise enough to keep fit. A more subtle factor in the production and maintenance of physical health is morale, or “spirit.” Increasing evidence indicates that when persons find their loves challenging and satisfying, their bodies work better and they resist infectious illness better. Meaningful work, enjoyable leisure, love and friendship are inexpensive healthy insurance. When I was sick and spent so much time noticing what was going on in me, in both my body and mind (could I be without either one?), and tried to write about it, I struggled much too hard before I have up. Intent on my goal, I was trying to force it, instead of considering whether this goal was possible. At last, it was forced on me that the only way I could do it would be to write each aspect on a separate transparent sheet, lay all the sheets on tip of each other and hold them against the light so people could look through them. Then all they would see was muddle. And before the first sheet had been written, something in it and all the others would have changed. To have any fixed ideas about myself is nonsense: I can only notice what is going on in me now. #RandolphHarris 13 of 23
Saint-Just gives an impassioned speech in which he calls for the death of Louis XVI. He believes the king to stand in the way of the French Revolution and enlightenment ideas. The only purpose of Saint-Just’s speech is, once and for all, to block every egress for the King except the one leading to the scaffold. If, in fact, the premises of The Social Contract are accepted, this is logically inevitable. At last, after Saint-Just, “kings will flee to the desert, and nature will resume her rights.” If passed judgment on Louis XVI or if it pronounced a security measure, it was quite pointless of the Convention to vote a reservation and say that it did not intend to create a precedent. In doing so, it refused to face the consequences of its own principles and tried to camouflage, with shocking hypocrisy, its real purpose, which was to found a new form of absolutism. Jacques Roux, at least was speaking the truth of the times when he called the King Louis the Last, thus indicating that the real revolution, which had already been accomplished on the economic level, was then taking place on the philosophic plane and that it implied a twilight of the gods. Theocracy was attacked in principle in 1789 and killed in its incarnation in 1793. Brissot was right in saying: “The most solid monument to our revolution is philosophy.” On January 21, with the murder of the King-priest, was consummated what has significantly been called the passion of Luuis XVI. It is certainly a crying scandal that the public assassination of a weak but goodhearted man has significantly been called the passion of Louis XVI. #RandolphHarris 14 of 23
It is certainly a crying scandal that the public assassination of a weak but goodhearted man has been presented as a great moment in French history. That scaffold marked no climax—far from it. However, the fact remains that, by its consequences, the condemnation of the King is at the crux of our contemporary history. It symbolizes the secularization of our history and the disincarnation of the Christian God. Up to now, God played a part in history through the medium of the kings. However, His representative in history has been killed, for there is no longer a king. Therefore, there is nothing but a semblance of God, relegated to the Heaven of principles. The revolutionaries may well refer to the Gospel, but in fact they dealt a terrible blow to Christianity, from which it has not yet recovered. It really seems as if the execution of the King, followed, as we know, by hysterical scenes of suicide and madness, took place in complete awareness of what was being done. Louis XVU seems, sometimes, to have doubted his divine right, though he systematically rejected any projected legislation which threatened his faith. However, from the moment that he suspected or knew his fate, he seemed to identify himself as his language betrayed, with his divine mission, so that his language betrayed, with his divine mission, so that there would be no possible doubt that the attempt on his person was aimed at the King-Christ, the incarnation of the divinity, and not at the craven flesh of a mere man. His bedside book in the Temple was the Imitation. #RandolphHarris 15 of 23
The calmness and perfection that this man of rather average sensibility displayed during his last moments, his indifference to everything of this World, and, finally, his brief display of weakness on the solitary scaffold, so far removed from the people whose ears he had wanted to reach, while the terrible rolling of the drum drowned his voice, give us the right to imagine that it was not Capet who died, but Louis appointed by divine right, and that with him, in a certain manner, died temporal Christianity. To emphasize this sacred bond, his confessor sustained him, in his moment of weakness, by remining him of his “resemblance” to the God of Sorrows. And Louis XVI recovers himself and speaks in the language of this God: “I shall drink,” he says, “the cup to the last dregs.” Then he commits himself, trembling, into the ignoble hands of the executioner. This holds an important lesson for our future. The importance of the individual will no longer lie in the state’s domain of political power. I see them as important ethnic and cultural centers. Evolution is speeding up. The 21st Century evolution has accelerated with a rapidity that is almost impossible for us to understand. For three billion years, the intelligence of life forms on this planet grew with almost invisible acceleration. It took more than two billion years to slowly evolve the muscular technologies that propelled animals a few miles per hour and which produced the muscular force of an elephant. #RandolphHarris 16 of 23
Then, with the mechanical revolution, the curve rockers upward. The horizontal axis of is time indexed in billions of years. The vertical/energy axis can be calibrated in terms of number of inventions, energy produced and consumed mobility in terms of speed and altitude, expansions of perception—microscopic or telescopic. Whatever energy index we chart, the climb rate shot up almost vertically after 1946. The human species is riding an energy-intelligence boom that has dramatically changed our conceptions of evolution. Darwinian theories be blind natural selection are now seen as primitive chauvinism of 19th Century British imperialism. Next, consider the Genetic Highway. Here, the horizontal axis scopes the neurographic time zones—from primitive, prehistoric Africa to current California. The vertical axis is calibrated in the DNA time. The dom-species in Africa is hunter-gatherer. The Africans are thus two million years behind California—the Western Front. It is interesting to observe that Africa lacks the more civilized gene-colonies and that Europe and Russia and China lack the mammalian-primitive gene-colonies. Europe is left brain. African is right brain. The genetic wave, that in less than a century hurtled North Americans through three stages of evolution, was gleefully surfed by several Evolutionary Agents. One of the most successful was Henry Ford. In one generation, Agent Ford took a species of domesticated primates from behind horse drawn plows and poppled them into mechanical ground-vehicles constructed of steel, glass, and rubber—thus multiplying their intelligence. #RandolphHarris 17 of 23
Mr. Ford put his countrymen and countrywomen into the driver’s seat! He offered the driver’s seat—Throne of Self-Actualization—to the average working hum-ants of his gene pool. It came equipped with several self-actualizing technologies permitting neurological choice and stimulating Intelligence Increase. The steering wheel allowed individuals to select their own directional course, and to change it at will. The accelerator allowed individuals to select their speed—an Einsteinian concept, indeed. Brakes added another dimension to self-control. Gear shifts. Transmission. Self-starters. Fluid power. Dynaflow. Overdrive. Convertibles. We see the birth of a new language of self-determination. Succsing generations demanded for their bodies and their brains exactly those power-freedom—mobility characteristics that were built into our cars. As the greatest stroke of genetic public relations, Mr. Ford called his invention the automobile! This word means self-mover. Evolutionary Agents all over the galaxy smiled knowingly when the term automobile flashed out through the Van Allen Belt. Free-wheeling Americans called it the self-mover! Old World Europeans, of course, did not catch on. It was called horseless carriage in England. Coche in Spain. Carro in Mexico. Voiture in France. Meccina in Italy. The genetic implications of auto-mobile were endless. Average people could move their bodies or their brains where they wanted to go. Now that cars are starting to drive all by themselves, I guess we will go back to calling them automobiles and self-movers. The evolution of intelligence is a function of velocity and mobility. Henry Ford and his fellow agents rocketed the Genetic Intelligence Quotient of the species. When the technological primates climbed into the driver’s seat, they were soon off to the moon—carrying their automobile bodies and their automobile brains. #RandolphHarris 18 of 23
A critical part of public safety is putting knowledge to work. Skill development is an active learning process (learning by doing), and the student’s intimate involvement in the learning experience dramatically increases retention. Have you ever noticed during sports competition that the individual or team that tries first often loses? Your ability to cope with challenges of fighting fires depends greatly on your level of physical fitness. Physical fitness not only determines how well you perform in fighting fires, but also enhances your quality of life, improves your productivity, and brings about beneficial physical and mental changes. Your physical fitness benefits both the Sacramento Fire Department and you. The Sacramento Fire Department needs physically fit firefighters, and when you are fit, you are more likely to lead an enjoyable, productive life. As a member of the Sacramento Fire Department, how important is your level of physical fitness? How does your fitness affect your unit’s readiness? You are probably tired of hearing how important it is to be in great shape as a firefighter, but it is a basic truth. You do not have to be the best at everything, but you definitely need to be one of the most physically fit firefighters in your house. Morales improves when your firefighters are constantly trying to beat you in a run or weight lifting competition. When it comes to fighting fires, physical fitness is crucial. If you allow your firefighters to deploy in poor condition, you have failed them. Being physically fit out here will help the Sacramento Fire Department to bear some of the rigors of the job: less sleep, very random and increasingly changing rest patterns, extreme heat, heavy weights, to name a few. #RandolphHarris 19 of 23
Staying in shape while employed as a firefighter can be a tough task, because you often lack the time or facilities to exercise. However, solid cardiovascular fitness will make a significant different in higher elevations, and upper body and leg strength may prevent exhaustion from heavy gear in hot conditions. Your physical fitness in your ability to perform physical work, training, and other activities throughout your daily work schedule. Physical fitness is multidimensional, and—based on your goals—some will be more valuable than others. Five key components define your physical fitness: Cardiorespiratory (CR) endurance—how efficiently your body delivers oxygen and nutrients for muscular activity and transports waste from the cells. Muscular strength—the greats amount of force your muscle or muscle group can exert in a single effort. Muscular endurance—the ability of your muscle or muscle group to perform repeated movements for extended periods. Flexibility—the ability to move your joint (elbow or knee, for example) or any group of joints through their entire normal range of motion. Body composition—the amount of body fat you have un comparison with your total body mass. Improving the first three of these components will improve your body composition by decreasing your body fat. Excessive body fat detracts from other fitness measures, reduces your physical and mental performance, detracts from your appearance, and increases overall health risks. One measurement of body fate is as a percentage of total weight. Body fat standards for males ages 17-20 is 20 percent, females ages 17-20 30 percent, makes 21-27 22 percent, females 21-27 32 percent, males 28-39 24 percent, females 28-39 34 percent, males 40+ 26 percent, females 40+ 36 percent. Besides your physical fitness, you should also work to improve your motor fitness. Motor fitness—speed, agility, muscle power, eye-hand coordination, and eye-foot coordination—directly affects a firefighter’s performance. Appropriate training will improve these elements up to each firefighter’s individual potential. #RandolphHarris 20 of 23
Public safety is extremely important to the Sacramento Fire Department. It plays a major role when dealing with the community and even their families. “I have two years more to go in medical school, and right now I’m geared toward emergency medicine. I like the immediacy of it, the life-and-deathness of it and being able to make a big different quickly. A lot of medical people frown on emergency medicine because they say there is no patient follow-up, you’re not following your patient through. But for a lot of people who come through that door in life-and-death situations, you could be the most important medical person in their lives. You are the whole medical profession to them. It’s very important to me to get back into the fire service. I have to bee in a field of medicine that will allow me to do that. I sent fourteen applications to medical schools. Medical schools cut 85 percent of the applicants without seeing them. Even if you get interviewed, your chance is 25 percent or less. You wait around, and you go to the mailbox every morning. Rejection, rejection, an interview. I went to an interview at Dartmouth, which really where I wasted to go. I sat down with this gentleman in his office, and he didn’t like me from the word go. This was a medical doctor, and he was looking at my records for the first time. He said, ‘I see you are some kind of Renaissance man,’ as if that where a derogatory thing. #RandolphHarris 21 of 23
“‘I don’t think I can let a person like you into this medical school,’ he said. ‘When you make a commitment to medicine, you have to drop everything and go after that. I see that you worked as a fireman and as a paramedic all through your entire time at college.’ I tried to explain to him that the way I was raised, I learned that you have to have a commitment to your fellow man. I said that when I was in college, sometimes I was the only EMT or paramedic in the village, and that for a couple of people I made a big difference. He had the arrogance to say, ‘Come on, how many lives did you really save?’ The man had no idea of what I was all about. I got the rejection letter two weeks later. I’m in Sanford University School of Medicine. My roommate’s father is a fire marshal with twenty-two years’ experience in the Sacramento Fire Department. I remember going over to their house, and he started questioning me. ‘You come up on a house and there is nobody inside. There is fire showing in the front windows. What do you do?’ I said, ‘You go in, you get behind the fire, and you push it out the windows.’ He said, ‘Oh.’ I’m afraid I’m going to have to explain my professional life as an emergency medical man to a whole lot of people.” There is an old saying that reminds us that if we do not study and understand history, we are bound to make the same mistakes as those that have occurred in the past. It is also true that we should identify what works so we can expand and continue proven, high-quality practices. Often progress comes from trying out new, unproven ideas. We applaud all the courageous and imaginative administrators who tried and failed, but kept trying, learning from their failures, and finally succeeding. These are the unsung heroes of our time—the visionaries, risk takers, and true leaders. #RandolphHarris 22 of 23
If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. To help our firefighters, pleasure donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to ensure they have all the resources they require. 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 23 of 23
Never has there been a building so talked about. You will find The Winchester Mystery House in what was once the countryside known as “Winchester Valley,” where it has left past guests feeling a little spooked passing through certain rooms. It is well known for its reputation of being the world’s most haunted location. Do you fear the dark? Does the idea of the supernatural scare you? Do you sometimes anticipate the worst that can happen to you? Do you shiver when you read about victims of violent crime and think “that could have been me?” Does life seem insane? When you walk through the twisting hallways of The Winchester Mansion, are you apprehensive about what might be around the next corner? While standing at the door-to-nowhere, have you ever worried that life may have no meaning? Are you anxious that the next day might be your last? Do your days sometimes seem irremediably gloomy? Are you afraid of dying? We have examined your case thoroughly and think you will find the antidote for your condition at The Winchester Mystery House. A daily dose of horror is just the tonic you need. If fortifies the spirit with bracing jolts of terror. It inoculates the soul against fears that hound us all. It quickens the reflexes against life’s inhospitable surprises and tempers the imagination with thoughts unthinkable. Here you will find madmen in a variety of shapes and sizes who will help make things seem more rational. Feeling a bit self-absorbed? There is nothing like a tale of Mrs. Winchester’s hauntings to give you the right perspective.
The Winchester Estate dates back to the late 19th century, and it has a history that is packed full of legends and stories of spirits. The guided post-sunset walk takes visitors through the history of the mansion, while also offering a chance to spot some of the more well-known Winchester ghosts. There are stories of a little girl playing in the hallways and tugging at bedcovers at night and a woman in white who crosses the courtyard and passes through the walls. Lightening in colours no one can name sear across the infinite and multihued sky in jagged shards the size of which no one can conceive. Alien winds scream their impossible being in warring cacophony of notes no one can ever believe at volumes none can bear. And when the winds pick up on the fourth floor of the mansion, they make an eerie whining noise. It sounds as if everything around you is screaming. Right before a quick scratching sound, then something flares. A small spot of light glides like a firefly toward you. Another flare, then a dull yellow flow. A thin man has been said to step into the light. “Found some others out there,” is all he says before disappearing before your very eyes, and then everything is absolute darkness. Outside, the winds are said to kick up; it screams across the night. Well, maybe it is the wind. We all know the story of The Winchester Mansion.
The carpenters, who worked day and night for 36 years to build the mansion, that was once nine stories high, containing as many as 600 rooms. They knew the area was dense in spiritual energy. The hallways often possessed a great river of shadows. As these men felt a moan rising from a core of solid fear, they were so afraid that they would stand frozen for the space of one deep, shuddering breath. It was believed even the objects they could see were enemies, because they were keeping secrets. They knew, but were not telling. The cold quiet of The Winchester Mansion was a familiar song. Often, Mrs. Winchester’s guests would crough down, huddling against the floor, until help arrived. The mansion is situated over the crossing of two Ley Lines. In these areas, the veneer between the physical and spirit realms is thinner and much more permeable. This permeability and natural energy allow entities to manifest much more readily than in a normal location. Any thought or action in these areas, whether positive or negative has a much stronger and more focused effect. In the case of The Winchester Mansion decades of compounded suffering, negativity and strong emotional experiences have left a marked effect on the atmosphere in and around the mansion.
Some tour guides have heard chanting coming from outside the mansion and have heard their names being called. Others have reported seeing a woman hovering in the mansion. Many who have seen Mrs. Winchester claimed that she was “supernaturally beautiful, her skin glistens, and there’s a kind of light in her eyes that you can’t look away from.” Although her journals are sometimes vague, Mrs. Winchester experienced bizarre poltergeist activity during construction. She mentions to a friend the incredible amount of poltergeist activity that occurred during the time spent building the front of the mansion. One night, when darkness fell, the mansion was filled with eerie music like nothing Mrs. Winchester had ever heard before. Creatures from her maddest nightmares filled into the Grand Ball Room in some kind of funeral procession. She watched from the hallway, terrified of being seen yet unable to turn away. The very last thing she saw was her maid at the end of the procession, following the creatures off into the darkness. Later that night, Mrs. Winchester watched the shadows of leaves on the wall and drifted into a peaceful, safe, sleep, happy that the nuisance of her waking hours was gone. The very next day, on September 5, 1922, construction efforts were suddenly stopped when the ladders several carpenters were working from were pushed away from the wall, forcing them to jump several stories. Moments later, it was discovered that Mrs. Winchester had passed away in her sleep.
Mr. Hasen, one of Mrs. Winchester’s foremen, had written about his tools getting moved to the far corners of the room when his back was turned. Mr. Hansen was left staring in disbelief at a kaleidoscope World of shifting, flickering lights, a surfaceless void with an unimaginably distant vanishing point near which huge amorphous shapes twisted and withered in a constant fury of becoming. He had seen a hint that the matter that made up the forms of this World which everyone accepted as solid and separate was in fact all one and that only probability kept everything as it was and kept our reality apart from a multiverse of others. A solitary bead of sweat formed high on his brow and trailed a meandering pattern down his cheek and through the stubble that lay below. Although the sky was clear, the moon was but a crescent; its weak glow lit only a corner of the night ceiling. Through the darkness, beyond the curtain of trees. The mansion’s cry intruded upon his thoughts. Its shrillness disturbing him from his rapture. lost in a spell of Llanada Villa, Mr. Hansen walked slowly through the mansion. Climbing the stairs, he heard a hoarse voice whisper, “And what do you dream?” He had a moment to think, to realize, that he had never felt this way before, then the emanations flooded him, carrying him away on waves of darkness. He gave in weakly to the sensations that swept over him. As the mansion cried out again, its cry pierced the night, resounding like the cry of a thousand lost souls. That night, he went to his cold bed and dreamt of men with furlined capes and armor who became fearsome beast and tore through lines of their enemies.
Although they were paid three times the going rate, provided with medical care, subsidized groceries, and lived in Victorian cottages that were once on the estate, carpenters employed by Mrs. Winchester frequently suddenly left and did not come back, never giving a reason to their departure. However, it is suspected that the vast distances in the mansion had something to so with it. These carpenters would sometimes come to work to unfamiliar walls. After working for three hours with panic on his back, every minute having seemed like an hour, one man said, “I had been through a Hell of distance and time, indeed–and the Hell is still with me.” Wandering to the window and parting the drapes, he found it to be very late. He still felt disoriented, adrift, and threatened, but he sensed that he could he was free. With his pounding heart, he walked out into the dark mansion. There were no other carpenters present, and few caretakers. Others might be afraid of ghost, but the panic had taken care of that. If you already felt menaced for no reason, then the real dangers held no terror for you. He walked for many miles, past more rooms, libraries, and long closed rooms. Then he noticed a young woman walking on the other side of the mansion. Without thinking twice, he crossed over and joined her. They stopped, and he poured out his heart, his nameless fear. She held his hands. They agreed to meet again. However, he was left once more alone on a large room, wondering if it had been real. So he cut over to the hallway and started back. The mansion rest of the mansion was deserted, too, his steps echoing hollowly on the mahogany floor. It was dark, and only the light from the windows was visible. He could hear more than see. The panic had gotten stronger again, and he needed to return to the security, if marginal, of his home.
Gradually, he became aware of a man walking about a hundred feet behind. He himself stopped and pretended to look out the window. He wanted the man to pass him. However, the man stopped when he reached him, then went down some steps to the third floor. The man smiled, opened a bag, and offered him some Brandy. He went down and accepted. When he woke up, he was lying on his stomach, which felt warm and wet. There was no pain. However, when he tried to get up, he found that he could not. So, he crawled up the steps into the ballroom on the 4th floor. The crawling went all right, at first. However, then he became weaker. And he grew conscious of the thin red trail he was leaving behind him. The panic, suddenly and forever, was gone. It had indeed been replaced, expunged, by the reality. All that was left was a certain sadness. The mansion that has survived such a long history, is a marvel to see in person. Today, it stands four stories high, and has an estimated 160 rooms, of which 110 are open for tour. There has been some restoration over the years and ongoing maintenance. Come inside the mansion to see the priceless architecture and learn of its history. The guided tours are exquisitely led by a well prepared and enthusiastic team, who make sure that you and all guests are entertained by the great stories. 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.
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. Even if you do not believe ghost stories, you might still get goosebumps passing through the most infamous basement. Enjoy panoramic views and discover quirky features such as secret staircases, doors that open to nowhere, stairs to the ceiling, hidden trapdoors, and other unusual features.
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/
Harris Plumbing, Heating, Air, & Electric has been in business for 30 years. How many businesses can say that? We take pride in everything we do – no matter how big or small the service call might be. We’re here to help your home be as safe and comfortable as possible for you and your family. We take that responsibility very seriously as a company. Harris will ensure you have the information you need to decide what to do next, whatever your home is facing. We’ll perform a diagnosis and detail what issues are present before starting any work. This gives you a personalized quote and service plan specific to your home’s needs – not some random quote based on the best guess. The only way we can do our best work is to make sure we handle the issues at hand. https://www.callharrisnow.com/about-us/
BMW continues to dominate the luxury car space. With its top ranking in Consumer Reports’ Auto Brand Report Card and consistent market share growth, BMW has demonstrated its ability to produce high-performing, reliable vehicles that meet consumer demands.
BMW stands out due to its focus on driving dynamics and engineering excellence. While other luxury brands prioritize comfort and opulence, BMW is known for creating cars that are fun to drive and offer a unique connection between the driver and the machine. https://www.brianharrisbmw.com/
Have You Ever Played the Self-Torture Game?
We must be on our guard against the impressive obscurities of immature philosophers. The sense of guilt is the most important problem in the development of civilization and the price we pay for our advance for civilization is a loss of happiness through a sense of guilt. Have you ever played the Self-torture Game? This is what is known as an inner war between the person with all the power and authority and the marginalized individual. The other day, I had a talk with a friend of mine and I told her, “Please get into your nut: mistakes are not sins,” and she was not half as relieved as I thought she would be. Then I realized, if mistakes are not a sin any more, how can she castigate others who make mistakes? The person with all the authoritative perfectionist in us, who must judge and criticize others, must in all fairness apply the same rules to itself. And the marginalized person, helpless one in us, who cowers at the self-flagellation, retreats to “I tried. If I am not perfect, I cannot help it.” The person with all the power who wants others to see how important they are (I am the supervisor of this office, and I know best what to do and how to do it”) at the same time, when confronted with a real challenge, quake with the fear that they will not be able to handle it. A review of the characteristics of these warring factions might seem vaguely familiar. #RandolphHarris 1 of 20
A client of ours has been keeping a daily journal of his experiences and feelings, which documents his personal authoritative/marginalized battle (the authoritative voice is in bold print): “I cannot stand myself for my anger. I once saw a repressive sign on a desk that said, ‘Keep your temper, no one else wants it.’ That is exactly how I feel about myself right now.” “My problem is that my awful thinking always seeks to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It is almost like I am afraid to win anything. I feel more comfortable in defeat.” “Mom always taught me to fight, so I gathered from that that if I left others alone, they would do the same for me. I did not know all these aggressive people existed out there.” “If I’m going to buck up to these people, I need to be firm and stay that way.” “I am afraid I will say too little, yet afraid I will say too much.” “These people have horrible, obnoxious faults, and they are not hidden, but written on their faces. That is why I clash with them.” “I feel terrible about myself. It proves to me that I am a terrible person for all this verbal violence and that people cannot stand me.” The concept of the internal authority and the marginalized persona is essential to understanding the mechanics of manipulation and to finding ways to overcome the lengthy, dead-end dialogues we have with ourselves. Do not confuse such a dialogue with the conscience. The voice of the conscience is direct, constructive, and wise. The voice of the authoritative/marginalized persona manipulator is indirect, convoluted, and destructive. #RandolphHarris 2 of 20
Our client’s journal shows a tortuous battle between his authoritative and marginalized persona. His authoritative persona exaggerates his expectations of others—they must be faultless and totally amenable to his needs—so he blames and attacks others for their shortcomings on both counts. Then his authoritative persona emerges—he must be careful, or the others might blame and attack him—and he retreats into his weakling role of avoiding and withdrawing, whereupon his authoritative persona flogs him for his own imperfection. He should have been able to stand up to others without yelling and making a fool of himself. He should have been able to assert his own rights. He should not have been such a weakling. He should be perfect. While his authoritative persona is shoulding him, his underdog is berating him for hurting others’ feelings, recommending that it would have been safer had he played the “injured party” role. “Next time, lay a little guilt on the guy. Then clam up and let him wonder what is wrong,” his marginalized counsels. The battle between the internal authoritative and the marginalized persona in the manipulator is one unto death—the death of self-esteem and happy, productive relationships. In achievements, in the glory of success and power must go as far as a certain point. If it begins to affect us negatively, we must refrain from proceeding farther. #RandolphHarris 3 of 20
Neurotic claims are concerned with the World outside himself: he tries to assert the exceptional rights to which his uniqueness entitles him whenever, and in whatever ways, he can. As if he were indeed above them, his feeling entitled to be above necessities and laws allow him to live in a World of fiction. And whenever he falls palpably short of being his idealized self, his claims enable him to make factors outside himself responsible for such “failures.” Unlike Pygmalion, who tried to make another person into a creature fulfilling his concept of beauty, the neurotic sets to work to mold himself into a supreme being of his own making. He holds before his soul his image of perfection and unconsciously tells himself: “Forget about the disgraceful creature you actually are; this is how you should be; and to be this idealized self is all that matters. You should be able to endure everything, to understand everything, to like everybody, to be always productive”—to mention only a few of these inner dictates. Since they are inexorable, I call them “the tyranny of the should.” The inner dictates comprise all that the neurotic should be able to do, to be, to feel, to know—and taboos on how and what he should not be. He should be the utmost of honesty, generosity, considerateness, justice, dignity, courage, unselfishness. He should be perfectly compassionate, the perfect husband, teacher. #RandolphHaris 4 of 20
He should be able to endure everything, should like everybody, should love his parents, his wife, his country; or, he should not be attached to anything or anybody, nothing should matter to him, he should never feel hurt, and he should always be serene and unruffled. He should always enjoy life; or, he should be above pleasure and enjoyment. He should be spontaneous; he should always control his feelings. He should know, understand, and foresee everything. He should be able to solve every problem of his own, or of others, in no time. He should be able to overcome every difficulty of his as soon as he sees it. He should never be tired or fall ill. He should always be able to find a job. He should be able to do things in one hour which can only be done in two to three hours. This survey, roughly indicating the scope of inner dictates, leaves us with the impression of demands on which, though understandable, are altogether too difficult and too rigid. If we tell a patient that he expects too much of himself, he will often recognize it without hesitation; he may even have been aware of it already. He will usually add, explicitly or implicitly, that it is better to expect too much of himself than too little. However, to speak of too high demands on self does not reveal the peculiar characteristics of inner dictates. These come into clear relief under closer examination They are overlapping, because they all result from the necessity a person feels to turn into his idealized self, and from his conviction that he can do so. #RandolphHarris 5 of 20
When it comes to infidelities, many people have completely happy stories to tell, but some do express bad experiences. Some men think that their affairs enhance their awareness of pleasures of the flesh. These are men who are usually terribly, terribly uptight inhibited because of religion and their careers. Some men like the idea of having two wives, and it can be especially fulfilling because their illegitimate wife is willing to do things like camping out and other things one’s legitimate wife does not want to do. It gives these types of men a sense of freedom and allows them to accept their legitimate wife for who she is. One man in particular has been having an extramarital affair for six years, and he feels very, very happy about it. No guilt at all. However, he and his wife also have been living apart, and everything is fantastic. His marriage seems to more so have evolved into an open marriage. He and his wife talk a lot, but sometimes they go days without speaking, and no one is angry about it. However, if the marriage is going to last or not, he does not know. Yet, the affair has allowed him to appreciate his wife and all other human beings. Many husbands—and wives—who are engaged in extramarital pleasures of the flesh have a great need to rationalize their behaviour. It is their way of justifying what they are doing, a justification that is almost always expressed in extravagant language. #RandolphHarris 6 of 20
In the case of this particular man, he maintains that his extramarital affairs have made everything better—they have enabled him to appreciate his wife, with whom he has, as he expressed it, absolutely marvelous pleasures of the flesh with; it makes him happier with himself because he can now be open about his affairs; and it even leads him to be delighted with just about everybody in the whole World, as previously stated. This kind of rationalization is another instance of “protesting too much.” Interest is always directed to what the other side of the coin must be—because this man, as any other individual will do in a similar situation, is really talking to himself, persuading himself that what he says is true. To put it another way, he probably does not believe it to be true or he would not have to go to so much trouble to insist that it is. He is trying to explain away the feelings of guilt that persist and he is simultaneously concerned with making himself appear, at least in his own eyes, to be a good man, someone who has overcome the emotional limitations that most people suffer from. The fact remains, however, that individuals like this feel hollow—and sound hollow to objective observers. Like everything else that you value, your must make time for it. At some point, a person may start to feel more and more guilty and more and more miserable to one feels like the most worthless creature on Earth. #RandolphHarris 7 of 20
There are three levels of understanding: (1) ordinary intellectual acquisition of information; (2) temporary emotional conditions, mental glimpses, and mystical experiences of unusual uplift; (3) permanent perception of the Real. We must beware of falling into unreason at any point on this path. For it is reason that leads up to insight even though it is incapable of reaching beyond itself. It is not that reason must be abandoned and all its values thrown aside, but that reason itself now points to the intuition which transcends it. “My work was good, and it was well done,” says reason, “but to take you farther, into a sphere that is not properly mine, where an entirely different faculty must bear you, would be imposture.” The intellect cannot know its source but it can explain why it cannot know. More, it can go farther and tell us that there is a source and that it is transcendent, wrapped in eternal stillness. Man’s self is not his thoughts but the consciousness which makes those thoughts possible. He stands in somewhat the same relation to them that they stand to the body: he uses them and partially expresses himself through them. If it be concrete, no thought can assume a clear and distinct form in the mind of a man until he has pinned it to a picture, or if it be abstract, words. During the time that anyone is engaged in the activity of thinking, he is not in himself but in the thoughts. #RandolphHarris 8 of 20
No idea can give us full and lasting support, for after all it is only a thought; but a true idea can give us much help over many years. However, only being established in Being can support us in every way and all the time. We cannot underestimate the importance of the leading ideas which direct and control man’s thinking. Man possesses creative power. He may pour his molten imagination into new molds, then solidify it, and through sheer intensity of will give birth to his own brain-child. Scripts are artificial systems which limit spontaneous and creative human aspirations, just as games are artificial structures which limit spontaneous and creative intimacy. The script is like a piece of decorated, frosted glass which Jeder’s parents place between him and the World (and themselves), and which he then secures and keeps in good repair. He peers at the World though it, and the World peers back, hoping to see at least a flicker, and perhaps a burst, of his true humanity. However, since the World is peering through its own frosted glass, the visibility is no better than that between two skin divers with cloudy face pieces at the bottom of a muddy river. The Martian has rubbed his face piece with No-Fog, so he can see a little better. The mind can be put to a high or a base purpose. It can be a friend or a devil at your side. #RandolphHarris 9 of 20
The body image comprises persons’ body-ideal and their body concept. A person’s body-ideal and their body concept. A person’s body-ideal can be assessed with respect to its healthy or unhealthy implications. An unhealthy body-ideal is one that is rigid and unchanging and that includes dimensions impossible for the individual to conform with. Thus, we observe an unhealthy body-ideal in a woman who, at age forty, feels she is ugly and unattractive because she no longer looks the way she did when she was nineteen. If she devotes extreme attention to her appearance to the neglect of other values, her body-ideal is unhealthy. Similarly, a young man with a slender physique who rejects his body appearance because he is not heavily muscled and proportioned like a football hero may be said to have an unhealthy body-ideal. A healthy body-ideal is one that is not too discrepant from the culture concept of an ideal body but that is revised by the person to make allowances for individual, idiosyncratic dimensions and features. With increasing age, healthy personalities will modify their body-ideals, so that they can continue to regard themselves as reasonably attractive at each stage of live. They do not aspire after an impossible (for them) degree of beauty. Rather, at each stage of life, they strive to look their best and then let the matter drop, in order to attend to other important concerns. #RandolphHarris 10 of 20
When it bursts, twisting and dewey-damp out of the dark, cozy cocoon, does a butterfly understand what is happening? There are no maps to describe how it feels during the high-point of mutation. When it is being squeezed back up the Columbia River, bettered, pushed against the current, leaping rocks, flipping forward, upward, does a salmon understand what is happening? Such dramatic migrations and metamorphoses are simple transitions compared to the bewildering, bumpy voyage of the individual humans and human gene pools in the last several generations. The human brain goes through extraordinary changes. After nine months of exciting embryonic metamorphosis, it is squeezed into terrestrial life as a peculiar, slug-like larval with an enormous head and shrunken, totally helpless body. The amoeboid-bliss of the neonate is shortly shattered by the activation of new neural circuits and the sequence of dramatic changes in physiology—biting, crawling, walking, running, talking. Compared to every other species, the human being is in continual metamorphosis. Indeed, the outstanding neurogenetic characteristic of the human is this continual larval change—Homo protean. In addition to this developmental variability, those who have lived through this first quarter of the 21st Century have been whirled through a sequence of historical changes unparalleled on this womb-planet. #RandolphHarris 11 of 20
A person born in 1900 moved from horse-carriages to Soyuz Apollo in one life time. From gaslight to nuclear fusion. Mutations-migration occur in cycles. Each generation since 1900 has ridden a series of enormous waves—all-changing reality breakers, with no chance to catch a breath. Thus, for the first time in human history, we have some dozen mutant groups swirling around at the same time—and aware of each other’s changes via electromagnetic communication. Those who just barely, gasping, made it from the Spanish-America War through World War I were then asked, with no respite, to deal with the Roaring Twenties, Communism, the Depression, World War II, Hiroshima, Cold War, television, Lunar landings, drugs, Hustler, cloning. No one has been permitted to stand still. It is dizzying, Mr. Einsteinian exercised in relativity—totally bewildering a species that had been assured by Newton that every action had an equal and opposite reaction. Nope, no more. The new rule is that every action leads to a multiple interaction, intersection. It is all waves to surf, moving faster and higher. If intellect were an undesirable faculty to use and thinking were part of the evil in us, then this assertion should not itself be supported by any argument for that would be illogical and inconsistent—since it involves the use of thinking! Most of us move from one standpoint to another, whether it be a lower or a higher one, because our feelings have moved there. The intellect merely records and justifies such a movement and does not originate it. #RandolphHarris 12 of 20
When you utter the words, “I know,” you inevitably imply a duality of a thinker and his thought, of subject and object. Only those thoughts are true for such a man can lodge comfortably with the other thoughts already reposing in his mind! We ordinarily know any object while we are both separate and distant from it. Dynamite reposes in moral neutrality. The use that is made of it determines its goodness or badness. In the same way, reason and thought are spiritually neutral. They hinder or help the inner life only according to the way they are used, the roads which they take, and the aims which they set for themselves. Saint-Just introduced Mr. Rousseau’s ideas into the pages of history. At the King’s trial, the essential part of his arguments consisted in saying that the King is not inviolable and should be judged by the Assembly and not by a special tribunal. His argument he owned to Mr. Rousseau. A tribunal cannot be the judge between the king and the sovereign people. The general will cannot be cited before ordinary judges. It is above everything. The inviolability and the transcendence of the general will are thus proclaimed. We know that the predominant theme of the trial was the inviolability of the royal person. The struggle between grace and justice finds its most provocative illustration in 1793 when two different conceptions of transcendence meet in mortal combat. Moreover, Saint-Just is perfectly aware of how very much is at stake: “The spirit in which the King is judged will be the same as the spirit in which the Republic is established.” #RandolphHarris 13 of 20
Saint-Just’s famous speech has, therefore, all the earmarks of a theological treatise. “Louis, the stranger in our midst,” is the thesis of this youthful prosecutor. If a contract, either civil or natural, could still bind the king and his people, there would be a mutual obligation; the will of the people could not set itself up as absolute judge to pronounce absolute judgement. Therefore, it is necessary to prove that the people are themselves the embodiment of eternal crime. Saint-Just, therefore, postulates that every king is a rebel or a usurper. He is a rebel against the people whose absolute sovereignty he usurps. Monarchy is not a king, “it is a crime.” Not a crime, but crime itself says Saint-Just; in other words, absolute profanation. That is the precise, and at the same time ultimate, meaning of Saint-Just’s remark, the import of which has been stretched too far: “No one can rule innocently.” Every king is guilty, because any man who wants to ne king is automatically on the side of death. Saint-Just says exactly the same thing when he proceeds to demonstrate that the sovereignty of the people is a “sacred matter.” Citizens are inviolable and sacred and can be constrained only by law, which is an expression of their common will. Louis alone does not benefit by this particular inviolability or by the assistance of the law, for he is placed outside the contract. He is not part of the general will; on the contrary, by his very existence he is a blasphemer against this all-powerful will. He is not a “citizen,” which is the only way of participating in the new divine dispensation. “What is a king in comparison with a Frenchman?” Therefore, he should be judged and nothing more. #RandolphHarris 14 of 20
However, who will interpret the will of the people and pronounce judgment? The Assembly, which by its origin has retained the right to administer this will, and which participates as an inspired council in the new divinity. Should the people be asked to ratify the judgment? We know that the efforts of the monarchists in the Assembly were finally concentrated on this point. In this way the life of the King could be rescued from the logic of the bourgeois jurists and at least entrusted to the spontaneous emotions and compassion of the people. However, where again, Saint-Just pushes his logic to its extremes and makes use of the conflict, invented by Mr. Rousseau, between the general will and the will of all. Even though the will of all would pardon, the general will cannot do so. Even the people cannot efface the crime of tyranny. Cannot the victims, according to law, withdraw their complaint? We are not dealing with law, we are dealing with theology. The crime of the king is, at the same time, a sin against the ultimate nature of things. A crime is committed; then it is pardoned, punished, or forgotten. However, the crimes of royalty is permanent; it is inextricably bound to the person of the kind, to his very existence. Christ Himself, though He can forgive sinners, cannot absolve false gods. They must disappear or conquer. If the people forgive today, they will find that crime intact tomorrow, even though the criminal sleeps peacefully in prison. Therefore, there is only one solution: “To avenge the murder of the people by the death of the King.” #RandolphHarris 15 of 20
Face it, the democrats have been and always will be people who refuse to admit the obvious, but they cannot slow the “wheel of history” and they can certainly never stop it. It is time to impeach Gavin Newsom. Of the nation’s 771,500 people who are known to be experiencing homelessness, over 187,000 (24 percent) are in California. Instead of building more prisons, California released 76,000 inmate with little notice, including violent and repeat felons, as it further trims the population of what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system. At 2,000,000, California also has the highest number of illegal immigrants in the nation. The cost of illegal immigration in California totals $23 billion annually, and costs the nation $250 billion annually. Meanwhile, the median house price in California is $861,020, while the median income is approximately $62,000.00. Gavin Newsom brags about California being the, “5th largest economy,” but the state is burning down, flooding, and has the highest crime rates ever. If Gavin Newsom has enough money to support illegal immigrations, but not Americans, perhaps taxes need to be cut so that less money is wasted. Many people are literally dying to get into affordable housing, but the units are limited and there are income limits and maximums. So, the extremely poor do not even qualify for affordable housing and those with incomes too high, but so much debt that they cannot afford to rent, do not qualify either. It is time we hold Governor Gavin Newsom accountable and impeach him. The people of California must be guided to a new life and given a destiny to draw boundaries when political forces no longer serve the citizens. #RandolphHarris 16 of 20
It has likely never been more difficult to direct a public safety agency than it is today. Dwindling state resources, ever evolving risks, heightened expectations, and increased public scrutiny. The Sacramento Fire Department is mitigating these challenges by assessing situations accurately and reliably against desired outcomes, establishing values, and ethical standards. Assessment occurs continually during planning, preparation, and execution it is not solely an after-the-fact evaluation. Accurate assessment requires the Sacramento Fire Department to use instinct and intuition based on experience and learning. It also demands a feel for the reliability and validity of information and its sources. Periodic assessment is necessary for the Sacramento Fire Department to determine organizational weakness, if any, and prevent mishaps. Accurately determining causes is essential to training management, developing team leadership, and initiating quality improvements. There are many different ways that the Sacramento Fire Department gathers information for assessment purposes. These include asking team members questions to find out if information is getting to them, meeting people to inquire if tasks and objectives are appropriate, and checking for plan synchronization. Assessing can also involve researching and analyzing electronic databases. No matter which techniques the fire department uses, it is important that information be verified as accurate. #RandolphHarris 17 of 20
To accomplish missions consistently, the Sacramento Fire Department maintains their team’s motivation. One of the ways they do this is by recognizing and rewarding good performance. When the Sacramento Fire Department recognizes individual and team accomplishments, it creates beneficial motivation and actions for the future. When the Sacramento Fire Department Recognizes individuals and teams in front of superiors and others, it gives those contributors an increased sense of worthy. When they feel their contributions are valued, this encourages firefighters and civilians to sustain and improve performance. Sharing credit has enormous payoffs in terms of building trust and motivation for the firehouse and community. The Sacramento Fire Department also encourages a performance improvement mindset in their unit—one that allows for conformity but goes beyond merely meeting standards—to strive for increased efficiencies and effectiveness. The Sacramento Fire Department uses several actions that are characteristic of performance improvement: They ask incisive questions about how tasks can be performed better, anticipate the need for change and action, analyze activities to determine how desired ends states are achieved or affected, identify ways to improve unit or organizational procedures, consider how information and communication technologies can improve effectiveness, and model critical and creative thinking and encourage it from others. By encouraging a climate of reflection about the organization, the Sacramento Fire Department facilitates the concept of lifelong learning. Competent firefighters do the nation, the state, the city, the fire department, and themselves proud. In leading others, their leadership extends beyond the chain of command. The Sacramento Fire Department leads by example, and they communicate well. #RandolphHarris 18 of 20
The Sacramento Fire Department develops leadership skills in others by creating an optimistic environment, seeking self-improvement, and providing support. Support includes fostering growth, helping people learn, and providing counseling, coaching, and mentoring. The Sacramento Fire Department also supports mission accomplishment by providing direction and guidance, developing and executing plans, and accomplishing those missions consistently and ethically. At the end of the day or a career, the members of the Sacramento Fire able to look back confidently and say that your efforts have helped create a community of excellence. They are able to say that they have made a beneficial difference. “The greatest unknown in a forest fire is the weather, not knowing what the weather is going to do. Of course, there are times when you can’t see the whole fire and you don’t know what’s coming up out of the canyon bottom at you, or if you’re down there you don’t know what’s coming down on you from up top. Especially at nighttime in unknown country. Our crews are put into the toughest places. They’re expected to go in there and work up to twenty-four hours without relief. They are pretty much self-contained units. They have all their own tools, their own food packs, their own water, and everything. It’s very difficult work, time-consuming, and hard on the body after a while, in daytime temperatures of eighty to a hundred degrees. They work long, long hours, using axes and shovels and chain saws, constantly working. And it really tears them down. So they are really pushing now on physical stamina. These guys have to be in good health and good shape for a lot of different reasons.” #RandolphHarris 19 of 20
If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. To help our firefighters, pleasure donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to ensure they have all the resources they require. 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
Never has there been a building so talked about. You will find The Winchester Mystery House in what was once the countryside known as “Winchester Valley,” where it has left past guests feeling a little spooked passing through certain rooms. It is well known for its reputation of being the world’s most haunted location.
The Winchester Estate dates back to the late 19th century, and it has a history that is packed full of legends and stories of spirits. The guided post-sunset walk takes visitors through the history of the mansion, while also offering a chance to spot some of the more well-known Winchester ghosts. There are stories of a little girl playing in the hallways and tugging at bedcovers at night and a woman in white who crosses the courtyard and passes through the walls.
The carpenters who worked day and night for 36 years to build the mansion that was once nine stories high, containing as many as 600 rooms, knew the area was dense in spiritual energy. The mansion is situated over the crossing of two Ley Lines. In these areas, the veneer between the physical and spirit realms is thinner and much more permeable. This permeability and natural energy allow entities to manifest much more readily than in a normal location. Any thought or action in these areas, whether positive or negative has a much stronger and more focused effect. In the case of The Winchester Mansion decades of compounded suffering, negativity and strong emotional experiences have left a marked effect on the atmosphere in and around the mansion.
Some tour guides have heard chanting coming from outside the mansion and have heard their names being called. Others have reported seeing a woman hovering in the mansion. Although her journals are sometimes vague, Mrs. Winchester experienced bizarre poltergeist activity during construction. She mentions to a friend the incredible amount of poltergeist activity that occurred during the time spent building the front of the mansion.
Mr. Hasen, one of Mrs. Winchester’s foremen, had written about his tools getting moved to the far corners of the room when his back was turned. Although they were paid three times the going rate and lived in Victorian cottages once on the estate, carpenters employed by Mrs. Winchester left suddenly and did not come back, never giving a reason to their departure. On September 5, 1922, construction efforts were suddenly stopped when the ladders several carpenters were working from were pushed away from the wall, forcing them to jump several stories. Moments later, it was discovered that Mrs. Winchester had passed away in her sleep.
The mansion that has survived such a long history, is a marvel to see in person. Today, it stands four stories high, and has an estimated 160 rooms, of which 110 are open for tour. There has been some restoration over the years and ongoing maintenance. Come inside the mansion to see the priceless architecture and learn of its history. The guided tours are exquisitely led by a well prepared and enthusiastic team, who make sure that you and all guests are entertained by the great stories. 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.
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. Even if you do not believe ghost stories, you might still get goosebumps passing through the most infamous basement. Enjoy panoramic views and discover quirky features such as secret staircases, doors that open to nowhere, stairs to the ceiling, hidden trapdoors, and other unusual features.
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/
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From the Moment I Marry You, I Will be Unfaithful
A manipulator is defined in psychological terms as “one who exploits, uses, and/or controls himself or herself and others, as things, in certain self-defeating ways.” The success of the manipulation depends on the level of conviction and force of the denial. Manipulators undercut true spontaneity and the ability to express themselves directly and creatively. They are numb automatons, wasting hours trying to recapture the past or ensure the future. They talk about their feelings but are rarely in vital contact with them. In fact, they are quite glib about their troubles but generally quite inept at coping with them. Manipulators grope along under a sea of masks and concealments, unaware of the real richness of being. An actualizer, by contrast, may be defined as a person who appreciates and trusts himself or herself and others, learns from the past and plans for the future but lives in the present. Actualizers, having a keen awareness of their feelings and accurate perceptions of their surroundings, experience and express their emotions in congruence with their circumstances. They do not have “hidden agendas” behind their expressions of love, for example. And when they express anger, there is an obvious reason for it. Actualizers, being accurate perceivers, have trust in their own capabilities and the abilities of others and do not have unrealistic or unreasonable expectations of either. Liking themselves, they are able to notice and appreciate the likability of others. They are more cooperative than competitive, more appreciative then critical, and experience joy in their work and creativity in their play. #RandolphHarris 1 of 24
Actualizers are problem solvers more than problem reciters. They are unencumbered by masks of deception, and “what you see is what you get.” The paradox is that each of us is partly a manipulator and partly an actualizer. The goal, of course, is to tip the scale to the side of the actualizer. A person who is actualizing listens to his or her feelings, communicates needs and preferences, admits to faults or misbehaviours, offers real help when needed, can be honestly and constructively assertive, and is preeminently a person of open mind and responsive heart. The manipulator, on the other hand, habitually conceals and camouflages real feelings behind a repertoire of behaviour that runs the scale from servile flattery to arrogant hostility to withdrawn snobbishness in the continuous campaign to serve his or her own wishes or unconscious needs. We believe that most manipulators are not totally aware of the compulsive and defeating nature of their approaches to life. If confronted, they will respond defensively with, “That is just the way I am” or “How dare you say that.” The first step toward actualizing is to entertain the possibility that you are a manipulator and to embrace the idea that you can change. However, change may not be the best word to describe what we mean about actualizing. #RandolphHarris 2 of 24
Actualizing is not like changing the tire on your car or changing into new clothes. Your self is not an external thing to be owned, used, and discarded for a better model. Your self is what you are, not what you have. You are not a thing, but a being. Manipulation, at its worst, is an expression of lost trust in the vitality of the real self (the core self) and of the subsequent need to compulsively over control one’s own personality and one’s ongoing interactions with others. The myriad ways human beings manipulate themselves and one another can be reduced by modern psychological theory to four major patterns. We manipulate ourselves and others by habitually acting overly: nice (we mainly express love), aggressive (we mainly express anger), helpless (we mainly express weakness), pompous (we mainly express strength). When we express one emotion predominately, the emotion is not always appropriate to the situation. Our emotions become habits to meet our “secret agendas” and are, therefore, not genuine. By expressing one emotion predominately, we also deny the opposite, equally important, part of ourselves that contributes to our wholeness. A polarity, two opposing things connected on a continuum—such as day and night and every second of every hour between midnight and noon—is needed for the “whole.” #RandolphHarris 3 of 24
Therefore, the polar opposites of love on one end and anger on the other, weakness on one end and strength on the other, are necessary for human “wholeness.” Psychological health of the personality is attained by integrating and coordinating the polarities of love and anger, strength and weakness, in the service of the actualizing core. Without this integration, the personality (the healthy core) is fragmented, at war with itself. Through the eyes of such a fragmented personality, the World is a battleground and others are enemies. It is the World of the person with the most authority, power, or influence in a group or organization, and the less favoured, disadvantaged. The habouring of extensive claims is one of the relevant factors contributing to inertia, which in its open or hidden form is perhaps the most frequent neurotic disturbance. In contrast to idleness, which can be voluntary and enjoyable, inertia is a paralysis of psychic energies. It extends not only to doing things but to thinking and feeling as well. All claims, by definition, substitute for the neurotic’s active work at his problems, and hence paralyze him with regard to his growth. In many instances, they contribute toward a more comprehensive aversion to all efforts. The unconscious claim, then is that the mere intention should be enough to bring about achievement to get a job, to be happy to overcome a difficulty. #RandolphHarris 4 of 24
A man is entitled to overcome hardships and obstacles with out any output of energy. Sometimes this means that others should do the actual work—let Georgiades do it. If this does not happen, he had a reason for discontent. Thus, it often occurs that he becomes tired at the mere prospect of doing some extra work, such as moving or shopping. Sometimes, in analysis, an individual fatigue can be removed quickly. One patient, for instance, had many things to do before going on a trip and felt fatigued even prior to starting in on his work. I suggested that he might take the problem of how to get everything done as a challenge to his ingenuity. This appealed to him, the fatigue disappeared, and he was able to accomplish everything without feeling rushed or tired. However, although he had thus experienced his ability to be active and joy in being so, his impulse to make efforts of his own soon receded, for his unconscious claims were still too deeply entrenched. The more vindictive the claims involved, the stronger the degree of inertia seems to be. The unconscious argument, the, runs as follows: Other are responsible for the trouble I am in—so I am entitled to repair. And, if I made all of the effort, what kind of repair would it be! Naturally, only a person who has lost constructive interest in his life can argue that way. It is no longer up to him to do something about his life; it is up to “them,” or to fate. #RandolphHarris 5 of 24
The tenacity with which the patient adheres to his claims and defends them in analysis points to the considerable subjectivity value they must have for him. He has not one but several lines of defence and shifts them repeatedly. First, he has no claims at all, he does not know what the analyst is talking about; then they are all rational; then he proceeds to defend their subjective foundations which serve as justification. When at last he realizes that he does have claims and that they are unwarranted in reality, he seems to lose interest in them: they are unimportant or at any rate harmless. He cannot help, though seeing in time that the ensuing consequences to himself are manifold and serious: that, for instance, they make him irritable and discontented; if he himself were more active instead of always expecting things to come to him, that it would be much better for him; that, indeed, his claims paralyze his psychic energies. He also cannot close his mind to the fact that the practical gains he derives from his claims are minimal. True, by exerting pressure on others he can sometimes rush to make them cater to his demands, expressed or unexpressed. However, even so, who is made happier by it? As far as his general claims on life are concerned, they are futile anyhow. Whether or not he feels entitled to be the exception, psychic or biological laws apply to him. His claim for the combined excellencies of others does not change an iota. #RandolphHarris 6 of 24
Diana had been married for many years to a brilliant, charming and very disturbed man. He had fantasies, fantasies involving pleasures of the flesh, about his wife being in bed with somebody else, of her having an affair with somebody else. And when he found out a year ago that she actually washaving an affair, he flipped completely and threatened to kill the man and threatened to kill her. It is only because she is not on love, no longer in love, with her husband that she can see him very objectively. Although she is not in love with her husband anymore, her love is the same kind of man, threatens all sort of violence. There is certainly a pattern. She has had several affairs, but this is the only one that has lasted over a long period of time. Diana had lived with her husband for about twenty years, and they had been married for fourteen years. Her husband did not want to marry her. However, she pressured him. She pressured for marriage because of a child who was getting old enough to know that they were living together outside of marriage, and she pressured for it because she was deadly afraid that her son would be taken away from her, that her father would find out. Diana pressured for marriage for all those reasons, and for a lot of other conventional reasons. And finally, he said, “I will marry you because you’re pressuring me; but from the moment I marry you, I will be unfaithful.” He put this threat into action the very next day. He wanted to prove his point and he did. #RandolphHarris 7 of 24
Nevertheless, his reaction to Dianna’s affair was very extreme. With all his very expansive personality, his aplomb, his charm, he had a terrible insecurity which showed itself in impotence in business, in impotence of pleasures of the flesh, and so on, and this was the final blow. And the final blow has also to do with the fact that her lover was his best friend. Dianna’s husband was not capable of having intimate relationships with many people. And this other man was the one person with whom he had been intimate: the one person to whom he would tell his little infidelities, his big infidelities, his erotic fantasies. Diana started her affair a year before the marriage, and she had much premarital experience. For several years, she was almost promiscuous. Instead of being the actress she wanted to be, the writer she wanted to be, the anything she wanted to be, she became involved with a series of very unfulfilling people. Sometimes the realization of the adverse consequences and of their intrinsic futility does not really impact a person; it does not carry conviction. An analyst can only hope that these insights will uproot the severity of the situation, but instead of being uprooted, somethings they are driven underground. Pressing further, we can get an insight into the depth of the individual’s unconscious irrational imagination. While intellectually realizing hopelessness of the situation, unconsciously Diana, like many others, holds on to the belief that with the magic of her will power nothing is impossible. #RandolphHarris 8 of 24
People like Diana believe that if they wish hard enough, what one wishes will come true. If one insists hard enough that things will go one’s way, they will. If it has not yet come true, the reason does not lie in one’s reaching out for the impossible—as the analyst wants to make one believe—but in one’s not having willed them vigorously enough. This belief puts a somewhat different complexion on the whole phenomenon. We have seen already that the patient’s claims are unrealistic in the sense one one’s arrogating to oneself a dangerous fantasy. Also, we have seen that these situations are frankly fantastic. Now we recognize that it is pervaded by expectations of magic. And only now do we grasp the whole extent to which the claims are an indispensable means of actualizing her idealized self. They do not represent an actualization in the sense of proving her excellence by achievement or success, but they provide her with necessary proofs and alibis. She must prove that she is above psychic and natural laws. And if time and again she sees that others do not accede to her claims, that laws do apply to her, that she is not above common troubles and failures—all of this is no evidence against her unlimited possibilities. It merely proves that, as yet, she has had an unfair deal. However, if only she upholds these situations, some day her dreams will come true. The claims are her guaranty for future glory. #RandolphHarris 9 of 24
As you can see, cognitive scripts are mental templates that can subtly influence our decisions, career choices, and identities. The parental programing in “Until” scripts is the loudest of all, since it usually consists of outright commands: “You cannot have pleasures of the flesh until you are married, and you cannot get married as long as you have to take care of your mothers (or until you finish college).” The Parental Influence in “After” scripts is almost as outspoken, and the hanging sword gleams with visible threats: “After you get married and have children, your troubles will begin.” Translated into action now, this means “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” After marriage, it shortens to “Once you have children, your troubles will begin.” “Over and Over” scripts produce always a bridesmaid and never a bride, and others who try hard again and again, never quite succeed in making it. “Open-Ended” scripts end with aging men and women who lose their vitality without much regret and are content with reminiscing about past conquests. Just as women with such scripts wait eagerly for the menopause, with the hope that that will solve their “problems with pleasures of the flesh,” so the men wait until they have put in their time on the job with similar hope of relief from obligations of pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 10 of 24
At the more intimate level, each of these scripts has it sown bearing on the actual “excitement.” The “Never” script, of course, besides making spinster and bachelors and women of the evening and pimps, also makes frigid women who never have one, not a single one in their whole lives, and also produces impotent men who can have climaxes providing there is no love, the classical situation described by Dr. Freud of the man who is important with his wife but not with women of the evening. The “Always” script produces nymphomaniacs and Don Juans, who spend their lives continually chasing after the promise of a climax. The “Until” script favours harried housewives and tired businessmen, neither of whom can get aroused by pleasures of the flesh until every detail of the household or the office has been put in order. Even after they are aroused, they may be interrupted at the most critical moments by games of “Refrigerator Door” and “Note Pad,” Little things they have to jump out of bed to take care of right now, such as checking the refrigerator door to make sure it is closed, or jotting down a few things that have to be done first thing in the morning at the office. “After” scripts interfere with pleasures of the flesh because of apprehension. Fear of pregnancy, for example, keeps the woman from having an enjoyable climax and may cause the man to have his too quickly. #RandolphHarris 11 of 24
Coitus interrupts, where the man withdraws just before he climaxes as a method of birth control (which is not safe nor effective), keeps both parties in a jumpy state right from the beginning, and usually leaves the woman stranded high and wet if the couple is too shy to use some way for her to get her satisfaction. In fact, the word satisfaction, which is usually used in discussing this particular problem, is a giveaway that something is wrong, since a good climax should be far more substantial than the pale ghost called satisfaction. The “Over and Over” script is one which will ring a bell for many women losers, who get higher and higher during pleasures of the flesh, until just as they are about to make it, the man climaxes, possibly with the woman’s help, and she rolls all the way down again. This may happen night after night for years. The “Open-Ended” script has its effect in older people who regard pleasures of the flesh as an effort or an obligation. Once over the hill, they are “too old” to have pleasures of the flesh, and their glands wither away from disuse, along with their skins and often their muscles and brains as well. Now they have nothing to do but fill in time until their pipes rust away. In order to avoid such vegetating, a script should not have a time limit on it, but should be designed to last a whole lifetime, no matter how long that lifetime may be. #RandolphHarris 12 of 24
The potency of pleasures of the flesh, drive, and power of a human being are to some extent determined by his inheritance and his chemistry, but they seem to be even more strongly influenced by the script decision he makes in early childhood, and by the parental programing which brings about those decisions. Thus, not only the authority and frequency of his activities involving pleasures of the flesh throughout his whole lifetime, but also his ability and readiness to love, are to a large extent already decided at the age of six. This seems to apply even more strongly to women. Some of them decide very early that they want to be mothers when they group up, while other resolve at the same period to remain virgins or virgin brides forever. In any case, activity involving intimate passions in both genders is continually interfered with by parental opinions, adult precautions, childhood decisions, and social pressures and fears, so that natural urges and cycles are suppressed, exaggerated, distorted, disregarded, or contaminated. The result is that whatever is called “pleasures of the flesh” becomes the instrument of gamy behaviour. The simple transaction of Greek myths, the pows, bams, and kazams tjhat tok place on Mount Olympus, which form the basis for the original version of the script, are elaborated into the trickery and subterfuges of folk tales, so that Europa becomes transformed into Little Red Riding Hood, Proserpina into Cinderella, and Ulysses into the stupid prince who is changed into a frog. #RandolphHarris 13 of 24
A man’s intellect can become enchanted by its cleverness in pursuing any questions, either abstract or about his neighbour’s, but there are some questions which can never be anything but speculation. They cannot arrive at knowledge. What he can know, but looking into himself and questioning himself, is his own love of various kinds and which kind of love endures in him without change, with everlasting happiness, which is not to be sought in any one or any thing but in himself, although he may experience it with others. What release him to this is good. He chooses it. The sense of stillness, endlessness: the sense of the sacred and holy…for in this peace there are no queries and nothing to be done. It is its own doing. The cessation of desire, not because it has been repressed or suppressed—given up—but because of its fulfillment. Within himself he finds his peace. Then, it flows outward, let into the World through him. Through living this sometimes, experiencing it, he knows the “cessation of desire” does not mean the end of delight, but is delight itself. This knowing often slips into the background, sometimes gets lost behind a cloud, but still it is there and this softens a man’s desires, makes him more tentative in his wishes and more ready to give them up or let them change their form. It is not a dead end, with things remaining as they are. He is vividly aware of movement and change, and his own participation and involvement. It does not mean that, “This is all there is, so shut up and drink your premium cranberry juice.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 24
That is the view of life that my schizophrenic friend is afraid he would be forced to accept in a mental hospital, and it is what keeps many men from going to a psychiatrist when they feel that they desperately need help in find their way. It is also what gives men so much trouble in childhood and adolescence: the battle between “grownup” and themselves. It is the man’s difficulty with very many people now. They call “supernatural” (“Stay away from it!”) what to many is natural, as much a part of them as blood and bones. It seems to some men that what is called “supernatural” is dangerous only when ego latches onto it for the enchantment of itself, and he becomes God—above all others—or has some revelations made only to him, his personal self, which he must convey to others who cannot arrive at it without him. Or else he may sit alone in his specialness, requiring that everything be done for him. Separation—not unity. When everyone else is in Heaven, he shall be there, too. Reasoned thinking may contribute in two ways to the service of mystical intuition and mystical experience. First and commonest is a negative way. It can provide safeguards and checks against their errors, exaggerations, vagaries, and extravagances. Second and rarest is a beneficial and creative way. It can lead the aspirant to its highest pitch of abstract working and then invite its own displacement by a higher power. #RandolphHarris 15 of 24
Like the two sides of the same coin, so it is that a thing thought of is thought of always by comparison with something not itself, that all our thinking is therefore always a necessarily dualistic, and that it cannot hope to grasp Oneness correctly. Hence, the logical completion of these thoughts demands that it must give up the struggle, commit voluntary suicide, and let Oneness itself speak to it out of the Silence. However, this must not be done prematurely or the voice which shall come will be the voice of our own personal feelings, not of That out of which feeling itself arises. Thinking must first fulfill, and fulfill to the utmost, its own special office of brining man to reflective self-awareness, before it may rightly vacate its seat. And this means that it must first put itself on the widest possible stretch of abstract consideration about its own self. That is, it must attempt a metaphysical job and then be done with it. This is what the average mystic rarely comprehends. He is rightly eager to slay his refractory thoughts, but he is wrongly eager to slay them before they have served him effectively on his quest. These studies do indeed open up loftier faculties of human intelligence, facilities which bring us to the very borderland of insight. To learn that Reality is beyond the intellect’s capacity to know it is to learn something about it. To learn what it is not may seem useless to some people but that does prepare the mind, as well as the way, for the beneficial knowledge of it through insight. #RandolphHariis 16 of 24
The nature of beauty is one of the most enduring and controversial themes in Western thought. Perhaps the most familiar basic issues in the theory of beauty are whether beauty is subjective—located “in the eye of the beholder”—or rather an objective feature of beautiful things. We even have rigid cultural ideals pertaining to noses. The ideal nose is not the majestic protuberance of a Cyrano de Bergerac or the proud, delicately curved sweep of an aquiline “beak.” Instead, it must, at least in the woman, be short, medium-width, uptilted “snub” so that an onlooker can see the nostrils. This, obviously, is a Caucasian ideal that does not grant beauty to many Americans. Many women feel their facial beauty is marred because their noses differ from this stereotype, and so they undergo plastic surgery to achieve the valued snub. Whether or “nose-bobbing” is a health thing to do depends on its consequences for the total personality. Some persons may undergo a healthy personality change following the operation, whereas other may go through life after such an operation feeling they are fakes. Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others. #RandolphHarris 17 of 24
History, indeed, evolution itself, can be charted in terms of the growth of freedom-of-the-individual. It is the amount of direction-control of transportation-communication attained by the individual. It is the opportunity of free-responsible individuals to signal each other and link-up in more complex networks inevitably leading to migration. Freedom is defined as the amount of mobility—velocity—altitude, and communication-scope attained by the individual. The Social Contract is, primarily, an inquire into the legitimacy of power. It is concerned with principles and for the very reason is bound to be controversial. It presumes that traditional legitimacy, which is supposedly of divine origins, is not acquired. Thus, it proclaims another sort of legitimacy and other principles. The Social Contract is also a catechism, of which it has both the tone and the dogmatic language. Just as 1789 completes the conquests of the English and American Revolutions, so Rousseau pushes to its limits the theory of the social contract to be found in Hobbes. The Social Contract amplifies and dogmaticallyexplains the new religion whose god is reason, confused with nature, and whose representative on Earth, in place of the king, is the people considered as an expression of the general will. Until Rousseau’s time, God created kings, who, in their turn, created peoples. After The Social Contract, peoples create themselves before creating kings. As for God, there is nothing more to be said, for the time being. #RandolphHarris 18 of 24
Here we have in the political field, the equivalent of Newton’s revolution. Power, therefore, is no longer arbitrary, but derives its existence from general consent. In other words, power is no longer what is, but what should be. Fortunately, according to Rousseau, what is cannot be separated from what should be. The people are sovereign “only because they are always everything that they should be.” Confronted with this statement of principle, it is perfectly justifiable to say that reason, which was always obstinately invoked at that period, is not particularly well treated in the context. It is evident that, with The Social Contract, we are assisting at the birth of a new mystique—the will of the people being substituted for God Himself. “Each of us,” says Rousseau, “placed his person and his entire capabilities under the supreme guidance of the will of the people, and we receive each individual member into the body as an indivisible part of the whole.” This political entity, proclaimed sovereign, is also defined as a divine entity. Moreover, it has all the attributes of a divine entity. It is, in fact, infallible in that, in its role of sovereign, it cannot even wish to commit abuses. “Under the law of reason, nothing is done without cause.” If it is true that absolute freedom is freedom in regard to oneself, it is totally freed. Thus, Rousseau declares that it is against the nature of the body politic for the sovereign power to impose a law upon itself that it cannot violate. It is also inalienable, indivisible; and, finally, it even aims at solving the great theological problem, the contradiction between absolute power and divine innocence. #RandolphHarris 19 of 24
The protection and safety of persons and property involve many and various public agencies and private organizations. Leader development is a deliberate, continuous, sequential, and progressive process grounded in the Values of the Sacramento Fire Department. It grows firefighters into competent and confident leaders capable of directing teams and organizations to execute decisive action. Firefighters develop as leaders through their lifelong synthesis the knowledge, skills, and experiences that they gain through institutional training and education, organizational training, operational experience, and self-development. And they train others to develop leaders for the future. Achieving focuses on accomplishing the mission. It begins in the short term by setting objectives. In the long term, achieving gets results in pursuit of those objectives. Getting results means getting the job done on time and to standard. The successful leaders in the Sacramento Fire Department have the following competencies: Provides direction, guidance, and clear priorities that involve guiding teams in what needs to be done and low. Develops and executes plans for accomplishing missions and tasks, anticipating and conducting the necessary actions. Accomplishes missions consistently and ethically, using monitoring to identify strengths and correct weaknesses in organizational, group, and individual performance. #RandolphHarris 20 of 24
“I’m a little bit different. I don’t hang around the firehouse. When I have to go on call, I go on call. When the call’s done, I respond back to the hall. I clean up the apparatus, I repack it, I hand houses, whatever I have to do. I may stay five or tend minutes, and then I excuse myself and go back to my family. These people in the company are wonderful people, but I do have my family, and they’ve been very supportive and wonderful to me. And I enjoy being with my family. But I’ll go down to the fire hall when nobody’s there. I’m supervisor of a truck, and I’ll go down and check out my truck from head to toe. I’m responsible for that truck, and if it were to go on a scene and it was short something, that would be my responsibility. So I make sure it has enough breathing apparatus, it’s full of water, flashlights, the whole bit. I’m a people person, I can mix with people very well. And I listen to them really well. I don’t have to tell them anything, I just let them talk. That’s what they primarily want in a crisis, when it winds down, to tell their feelings to someone who is knowledgeable. I’m a father or a brother figure. I’ve noticed on a lot of scenes that I’ve talked to somebody, I’ll get kisses or hugs from these little old ladies. And it’s a wonderful feeling. I go away really feeling that I did something. I really made a difference in this person’s life today. A lot of times I never see them again, but I really feel I did what I was supposed to do, that was my job, and I feel good about it. #RandolphHarris 21 of 24
“With any house fire, any construction fire, you’re always in danger. Fires are never the same. If you start feeling it’s going to be just a routine fire, then maybe you better get out and get yourself a desk job, or just not do it for a while. I remember a couple of occasions where we had some large house fires, and they had propane tanks in the garage that we weren’t aware of—until one of them blew. Thank goodness nobody got hurt by it, but that’s a scary feeling. It almost sounds like a bomb going off right next to you. And you say to yourself, okay, is there going to be another one, what’s the deal here? You don’t know what to expect. And you can never let it surround you, never get stuck in the middle. You’ve always got to have a way out of this stuff. Being in total darkness doesn’t bother me a lot. I’ve never been claustrophobic, and I seem to have a very good sense of direction. I think that as long as I keep following my training, like always stay to your left or stay to your right, and don’t change it. We do that at home with the kids. We live in a big house, so we train them what to do if there is a fire and the power goes out. We’ll say, ‘Okay, the smoke alarm’s going off, what are you going to do?’ We try to have everybody get it together, think. Before you do anything, think. How are you going to get out of here? Remember where you are. How did you get in there? #RandolphHarris 22 of 24
“I’ll tell you, there have been several times I’ve been just scared to death. But I think that keeping your head together gets you out of a lot of messes. When you’re feeling around in the darkness, the things you feel—you never know if you’re going to feel a body. A lot of times your imagination runs away with you, and you think it’s a body, or you think it’s a child. You always think the worst when you’re crawling around in an unknown place. You don’t know the house, and before you go in there you size it up and try to get a good idea of the layout, but you never know what people have in their houses—what kind of additions they’ve put in, like false ceilings or traps in the floor. So you have to be very, very careful. It’s almost like you have to think it is as a game. Not like a fun game, but like an intellectual game. That’s what it is.” When it comes to critical situations, ten seconds can mean life or death. One thing we witness all the time during emergency situations is people ignoring the sirens of fire trucks and ambulances. Often times, people even try to outrun the emergency vehicles and this can create dangerous situations. Citizens, remember to give the right-of-way to any law enforcement vehicle, fire engine, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle using a siren and red lights. Failure to pull over may result in a ticket. Drive to the right edge of the road and stop until the emergency vehicles(s) have passed. When approaching a stationary emergency vehicle with flashing emergency signal lights (hazard lights), move over and slow down. #RandolphHarris 23 of 24
If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. To help our firefighters, pleasure donate to the Sacramento Fire Department to ensure they have all the resources they require. 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 24 of 24
Never has there been a building so talked about. You will find The Winchester Mystery House in what was once the countryside known as “Winchester Valley,” where it has left past guests feeling a little spooked passing through certain rooms. It is well known for its reputation of being the world’s most haunted location.
The Winchester Estate dates back to the late 19th century, and it has a history that is packed full of legends and stories of spirits. The guided post-sunset walk takes visitors through the history of the mansion, while also offering a chance to spot some of the more well-known Winchester ghosts. There are stories of a little girl playing in the hallways and tugging at bedcovers at night and a woman in white who crosses the courtyard and passes through the walls.
The carpenters who worked day and night for 36 years to build the mansion that was once nine stories high, containing as many as 600 rooms, knew the area was dense in spiritual energy. The mansion is situated over the crossing of two Ley Lines. In these areas, the veneer between the physical and spirit realms is thinner and much more permeable. This permeability and natural energy allow entities to manifest much more readily than in a normal location. Any thought or action in these areas, whether positive or negative has a much stronger and more focused effect. In the case of The Winchester Mansion decades of compounded suffering, negativity and strong emotional experiences have left a marked effect on the atmosphere in and around the mansion.
Some tour guides have heard chanting coming from outside the mansion and have heard their names being called. Others have reported seeing a woman hovering in the mansion. Although her journals are sometimes vague, Mrs. Winchester experienced bizarre poltergeist activity during construction. She mentions to a friend the incredible amount of poltergeist activity that occurred during the time spent building the front of the mansion.
Mr. Hasen, one of Mrs. Winchester’s foremen, had written about his tools getting moved to the far corners of the room when his back was turned. Although they were paid three times the going rate and lived in Victorian cottages once on the estate, carpenters employed by Mrs. Winchester left suddenly and did not come back, never giving a reason to their departure. On September 5, 1922, construction efforts were suddenly stopped when the ladders several carpenters were working from were pushed away from the wall, forcing them to jump several stories. Moments later, it was discovered that Mrs. Winchester had passed away in her sleep.
The mansion that has survived such a long history, is a marvel to see in person. Today, it stands four stories high, and has an estimated 160 rooms, of which 110 are open for tour. There has been some restoration over the years and ongoing maintenance. Come inside the mansion to see the priceless architecture and learn of its history. The guided tours are exquisitely led by a well prepared and enthusiastic team, who make sure that you and all guests are entertained by the great stories. 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.
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. Even if you do not believe ghost stories, you might still get goosebumps passing through the most infamous basement. Enjoy panoramic views and discover quirky features such as secret staircases, doors that open to nowhere, stairs to the ceiling, hidden trapdoors, and other unusual features.
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/
Individual Freedom is the Key to Evolution
When one learns to discern, analyze and synthesize, this called a fact, and this is when one obtains knowledge. Knowing how to critically think and not accept the appearance of things, rather than looking deeper into the matter, is extremely important. Instead of allowing people to manipulate you, it is important to make connections between disparate pieces of information. For a particular plague of modern humans, manipulation is universal, endless and ageless. We read this in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible in II Samuel, for instance, that David was so smitten with the beautiful wife of Uriah, that David gave orders for Uriah to be sent into the most dangerous part of the battle, where he would surely be slain, and Bathsheba would be freed. A gross manipulation. If we read further, we also see how David’s latter days were tormented by his guilty love of the lady, and then how his handsome, rebellious son “stone the hearts of the men of Israel” and plotted to be king in his father’s place. Yes, the ancients manipulated people for control and were themselves manipulated. The paradox of modern humans is that they are intelligent beings with scientific knowledge of these things, yet they permit themselves to live in a state of low-grade vitality and awareness. Generally, they do not suffer deeply, but how little they know of true creative living! Instead, manipulators behave as automatons. #RandolphHarris 1 of 22
Their World offers vast opportunities for enrichment and enjoyment, perhaps a wider scope than has ever been available before. Yet, they wander aimlessly, not really know what they want deep within, and are thereby unable to attain it. They seem to feel that the time for fun, for pleasure, and for growing and learning is childhood and youth, and they abdicate life itself when they reach maturity. They go through a lot of motion, performing adultritualized procedures, like going to work, reading the paper, puttering around the house, walking through a mall—but the expression on their faces indicate a lack of any real interest other than superficial attention to what is going on. Facial expression seems limited to poker-faced, bored, aloof, or irritated. Above all, manipulators are complainers. “Why is he not ever on time?” “Get out of my way, I am in a hurry!” “Why cannot those kids behave?” “What miserable weather!” “Can you not do anything right?” The rotten core of behaviour—the part that is always there, but that nobody wants to admit to—is that manipulation is an attempt to get someone else to provide for you what you refuse to provide for yourself. The best example is the manipulator’s quest for happiness. Instead of saying, “What can I do for myself to develop my inner potentials, to expand the richness of my own personality, to tap my ability to create pleasure and a sense of well-being?” the manipulator says, “If it were not for you, I would be happy. I am bored and it is your fault. If you would do what I told you to do, everything would be okay, and I would be happy. If things were different, I would be happy. #RandolphHarris 2 of 22
The bottom line is that manipulators cannot and will not be happy, even, even if you sacrifice your mind, heart, and body for them because they will always be left with an empty and lonely person inside themselves. Blaming society, one’s spouse, the job or the kids is only a smokescreen. Manipulators bore themselves with their impoverished beings. They frustrate themselves with their inner emptiness. They delude themselves with superficial role playing. Manipulating one’s World by playing certain roles is characteristic of the neurotic, of the underdeveloped, and of the immature. The hallmark of the modern manipulator is to be demanding rather than aware. No matter the manipulative style, manipulators are childishly demanding. The aggressive manipulator demands. The loving manipulator cajoles. The weakling manipulator needs. The strong manipulator overpowers. It is an exceptionally clear-cut theory of personality disturbances—or human demandingness—that hypothesizes that people do not get upset but instead upset themselves by insisting that (a) they should be outstandingly loved and accomplished, (b) other people should be incredibly fair and giving, and (c) the World should be exceptionally easy and munificent. Discontent shows in tendency in any life situation to focus on what is lacking, or on what is hard, and thus to become dissatisfied with the whole situation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 22
For instance, a man is engaged in a most satisfactory work and has a family life which is largely constructive, but he had not enough time to play the piano, which means much to him; or perhaps one of his daughters has not turned out well; and these factors loom so large in his mind that he cannot appreciate the good he has. Or consider a person whose otherwise peasant day can be spoiled by the failure of some ordered merchandise to arrive on tome—or one who experiences in a beautiful excursion or trip only the inconvenience. These attitudes are so common that almost every one must have encountered them. Persons having them sometimes wonder why they always look on the dark side of things. Or they dismiss the whole matter by calling themselves “pessimistic.” This, aside from being no explanation at all, puts on a pseudophilosophical basis an entirely personal incapacity to tolerate adversities. Through this attitude people make life harder for themselves in many ways. If we consider it unfair, any hardship becomes ten times harder. My own experience in the day coach is a good illustration of this. As long as I felt to be an unfair imposition, it seemed almost more than I could endure. Then, after I had discovered the claim behind it—although the seats were just as hard, the time it took just as long—the very same situation became enjoyable. The point applies equally to work. #RandolphHarris 4 of 22
Any work we do with subversive feeling of its being unfair, or with a secret claim that it should be easy, is bound to become strenuous and fatiguing. In other words, through the neurotic claims we lose that part of the art of living which consists of taking things in our stride. Certainly, these are experiences which are so severe as to be crushing. However, these are rare. For the neurotic, minor happenings turn into catastrophes and life becomes a series of upsets. Conversely, the neurotic may focus on the bright aspects in the lives of others; this one has success, that one has children, another has more leisure or can do more with it, the houses of others are nicer, their pastures are greener. Although this is simple enough to describe, it is difficult to recognize, particularly in ourselves. It seems so real, so factual, this thing of paramount importance which we lack and which somebody else has. The bookkeeping is thus distorted both ways: in regard to self and to others. Most people have been told not to compare their own lives with the bright sports of others but rather with the totality. However, even though they realize the validity of this advice, they cannot follow it because their distorted vision is not a matter of oversight or intellectual ignorance. It is, rather, an emotional blindness—id est, a blindness which results from inner unconscious necessities. #RandolphHarris 5 of 22
The consequences are a mixture of envy and insensibility toward others. The envy has the quality of Nietzsche called Lebensneid, an envy which does not pertain to this or that detail but to life in general. It goes without the feeling of being the only one to be excluded, the only one to worry, to be lovely, panicky, cramped. The insensibility, too, does not necessarily predicate an entirely callous person. It results from pervasive claims and then acquires a function of its own, that of justifying the person’s egocentricity. Why should others, who are all better off then he, expect anything of him? Why should he, who is in greater need than anybody around—he, who is more neglected or ignored than others—not be entitled to look out for himself alone! Thus, the claims become more firmly entrenched. Another consequence is a general feeling of uncertainty about rights. This is a complex phenomenon and pervasive claims are but one of the determining factors. The private World, in which the neurotic feels entitled to everything, is so unrealistic that he becomes confused about his rights in the World of actuality. Being filled with presumptuous claims on the one hand, he may be too timid to feel or assert his rights when he actually could and should do so. The patient, for instance, who on the one hand felt that the whole World should be at his service was timid about asking me for a change of hours or for a pencil to jot down something. #RandolphHarris 6 of 22
Another person, hypersensitive when neurotic claims for deference were not fulfilled, did put up with flagrant impositions on the part of some friends. The feeling of having no rights, then, may be the aspect under which the patient suffers, and it may become the focus of his complaints while he is unconcerned about the irrational claims which are the source of the trouble, or at least a relevant contributing source. To understand intellectually is good but to glimpse intuitively is better. Best of all, is not merely to look at truth but to enter into it. When you are going through the intellectual analysis, you must think as sharply as possible. You have to hack your way through these woods by the sharpness of your thinking. This is where the clarity of thoughts and their formulation into exact phraseology is so necessary. You must not be vague and hazy about ideas; you must penetrate them with clear understanding. It is only later when you have reached the meditation stage that this activity is put into abeyance, because then the effort is to still thought. This, we see how reason, so far from being despised as “anti-spiritual,” has actually led us, when allowed to complete its work and not stopped by materialist intolerance, to the profound spiritual truth of our being. What we have next to do is to realize this truth through ultramystic exercises. Nevertheless, the endeavour to grasp what is beyond its reach is not a wasted one, for it carries the intellect to the very limits of its own being and then invokes its higher counterpart to come to the rescue. #RandolphHarris 7 of 22
This man name Alejandro was married when he was twenty-three. It will be eighteen years in June. He and his wife had a very good physical relationship before they were married and since they were married—it was out of sight. However, the idea of other women was always in the back of his mind. It was about seven years into the marriage before he actually slept with another woman. And this has happened with about seven people during the last ten years. IN some cases, they slept together two or three times. Just about every relationship that have had has been with somebody that he has known quite well, that he is fond of. After they have pleasures of the flesh, they seem to develop a deeper friendship. The get to know each other and stop pretending, which allows their relationship to become more dynamic. What is shocking, or maybe not so much is that many of these women are mutually Alejandro and his wife’s friends. Usually, Alejandro does not make a pass at these women unless he feels comfortable with them. Alejandro has always been kind of a debonair playboy, a real Casanova. To him, pleasures of the flesh were just another aspect of friendship. Eventually, her terminated his romantic relationship with one of the women, but remains in touch with one of them, and he admits he would enjoy pleasures of the flesh with them again, but his wife is really the one woman that he would choose to be with. #RandolphHarris 8 of 22
Alejandro grew up middle-class and does not believe that his wife has any idea about his various affairs. He also does not think his wife has had any affairs, but seems accepting of having an open marriage. Many years ago, one of Alejandro’s friends, who he believed was having affairs, came home one day and found his wife in bed with another men, and divorced her on the spot. Alejandro wondered how could he do that. If he found his wife in bed with another man, Alejandro believes that he would be comfortable with it. However, if she were having an affair because something was wrong with him, then he would be upset. This is perhaps the most sophisticated approach to infidelity that a man can have. For him, pleasures of the flesh are approached in a rather relaxed and casual way. For the man, the satisfactions are both physical and social—but there is little or no passion involved. This is an advantage as far as infidelity itself goes, since it minimized the possibility that any affair will develop into more than a casual relationship. However, it is simultaneously a disadvantage, on the personal side, because it indicates a possible incapacity for deep feeling, emotional as well as with pleasures of the flesh. Although it is always risky to make assumptions based on such limited testimony, it does seem probable that Alejandro has a rewarding enough relationship with his wife so that he is not driven by any overwhelming physical or emotion need to have affairs with other woman. #RandolphHarris 9 of 22
In fact, his extramarital affairs seem to be as much a reflection of his curiosity about other woman as an expression of a need for pleasures of the flesh. Furthermore, his control over the situation—and this includes not only making the women come to him but also restricting his partner to women who belong in his social circle and who are friends of his wife as well—is another indication of an approach to infidelity that is more French in character than American, in the sense that it is almost a game played according to a very definite rules. This kind of behaviour is often found among very wealthy families, where pleasures of the flesh outside of marriage is permissible as long as no one takes it seriously. With these types of men, when this happens, they are “all of a piece” (no conflict) which is a very good way to be. “Good” because it has all the qualities of “good”—peace, love, joy and steadiness. There is nothing to block his learning whatever interests him—and many things do interest him because he is not blocked in that, either. A playboy, when he is allowed to have his playboy bunnies has a feeling of flowing, changing, growing, and he is aware of the spirit which moves me—the non-possessive (non-attached) love that the Greeks called agape and the Romans called caritas. Perhaps many people only see one kind of love because we have only one word “love”? Or have we dropped out the other words because we see only one kind of love, which is possessive? Have we become so obsessed by possession (land, houses, BMWs, people, things, always buying all of them in one way or another) that this is the only kind of love we know? #RandolphHarris 10 of 22
All of these scripts have their aspects that involve pleasures of the flesh. “Never” scripts may forbid either love of pleasures of the flesh, or both. If they forbid love but not pleasures of the flesh, they are a license for promiscuity, a license which some sailors and soldiers and wanderers take full advantage of, and which women of the evening and courtesans uses to make a living. If they forbid pleasures of the flesh but not love, they produce priests, altar boys, nuns, and people who do good deeds such as raising orphan children. The promiscuous people are continually tantalized by the sight of devoted lovers and happy families, while the philanthropists are continually tempted to jump over the great wall. “Always” scripts are typified by young people who are driven out of their homes for the sins which their parents have prompted them to. “If you are pregnant, go earn your living on the streets” and “If you want to take drugs, you are on your own” are examples of these. The father who turned his daughter into the storm may have had lecherous thoughts about her since she was ten (ten? eight?), and the one who threw his son out of the house for smoking dope may get drunk that night to ease his pain. First, there must be intellectual understand of the truth of his real being, then he can advance to the practice which lead to its realization. He should always try to distinguish between knowledge which is acquired by the intellect and spiritual intuition which is bestowed by spirit. Where ordinary thinking cannot penetrate, holy thinking can. #RandolphHarris 11 of 22
Men in our society are highly breast-conscious, and many men equate attractiveness in a woman with a prominent bosom. Because most women want to be attractive to men, they consider a flat bust to be a handicap. The reasons for this cultural emphasis on the breasts are not readily determined. Some anthropologists and psychoanalysts believe it is a derivative of painful weaning experiences undergone by male children in our society. Probably, however, the reasons are more complex. Nevertheless, if they have not been naturally endowed with them, many women want to have prominent breasts, and they may strive to cultivate them by assorted exercises such as are advertised by health clubs, or they will war brassiere padding of one kind or another. There is nothing intrinsically unhealthy in a woman who wears “falsies” in order to appear buxom. Personality health is assessed in terms of a number of different criteria, including what the person does to, with, or for her body. So long as males deem breasts to be an index of attractiveness, then woman who wish to attract male attention are justified in doing all that is practicable to gain that end. There are certain deep questions which a developed intellect will have to ask but which cannot be answered in the intellect’s own language. The intellect’s finest function is to point to the way to this actual living awareness of the Overself that is beyond itself. This it does on the upward path. However, it has a further function to perform after that awareness has been successfully gained. That is to translate that experience into its own terms, and hence into ordinarily comprehensible ones, both for its own and other people’s benefit. #RandolphHarris 12 of 22
Find the genetic runway on your planet, face the setting sun and move West. To find the genetic river, first locate your heart. Since it is on your left side, you know you will manipulate with your right hand. The large land mass is to your right when you face the setting sun. Face West at the shadow. Move between the swamp on your left and the iceberg on your right. On other planets, spin-eccentricity slides the big land-mass south. Do not get bogged down in the hot swamps to your left. Then all left-right north-south codes are reversed. This is a galactic constant. The Heart is always located on the equator-side when you move West. For Protection. The superior-technology-danger always comes from the north. The right-hand hunts. The left hand is used for gathering. You will find the fruit trees growing on your south side. The question of how is already settled. Keep just ahead of the wave. Use the West-Ward ecological niche as base. Do not get bogged down in the hot swamps to your left. Do not get frozen in the structures to your right. So the only question is when? Since everything spiral through the 24 Stage cycle, simply located your spot on the species-cycle, the cultural history cycle, and the personal-individual cycle and keep moving upward and outward at increasing velocity, making more precise linkups. History, indeed, evolution itself, can be charted in terms of the growth of freedom-of-the-individual. #RandolphHarris 13 of 22
Freedom—amount of mobility—velocity-altitude, and communication-scope attained by the individual. Amount of direction-control of transportation-communication attained by the individual. The opportunity of free-responsible individuals to signal each other and link-up in ore complex networks inevitably leading to migration. “If the King only knew, if the Czar only knew…” was the frequently expressed sentiment of the French and Russian people during periods of great distress. It is true in France, at least, that, when the monarchy did know, it often tried to defend the lower classes against the oppressions of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. However, was this, essentially, justice? From the absolute point of view, which was the point of view of the writers of the period, it was not. Even though it is possible to appeal to the king, it is impossible to appeal against him in so far as he is the embodiment of a principle. If and when he wants to, he dispenses his protection and assistance. One of the attributes of grace is that it is discretionary. Monarchy in its theocratic form is a type of government which wants to put grace before justice by always letting it have the last word. Rousseau in his Savoyard curate’s declaration, on the other hand, is only original in so far as he submits God to justice and in this way inaugurates, with the rather naïve solemnity of the period, contemporary history. From the moment that the freethinkers began to question the existence of God, the problem of justice became of primary importance. The justice of the period was, quite simply, confused with equality. The throne of God totters and justice, to confirm its support of equality must give it the final push by making a direct attack on His representative on Earth. #RandolphHarris 14 of 22
Divine right to all intents and purposes was already destroyed by being opposed and forced to compromise with natural right for three years from 1789 to 1792. In the last resort, grace is incapable of compromise. It can give in on certain points, but never on the final point. However, that does not suffice. According to Michelet, Louis XVI still wanted to be king in prison. In a France entirely governed by new principles, the principle that had been defeated still survived behind prison walls through the mere power of faith and through the existence of one human being. Justice has this in common with grace, and this alone, that it wants to be total and to rule absolutely. From the moment they conflict, they fight to death. “We do not want to condemn the King,” said Danton, who had not even the good manners of a lawyer, “we want to kill him.” In fact, if God is denied, the King must die. Saint-Just, it seems, was responsible for Louis XVI’s death; but when he exclaims: “To determine the principle in virtue on which the accused is perhaps to die, is to determine the principle by which the society that judges him lives,” he demonstrates that it is the philosophers who are going to kill the King: the King must die in the name of the social contract. However, this demands an explanation. There have been and always will be people who refuse to admit the obvious, but they cannot slow the “wheel of history” and they can certainly never stop it. However, if anybody dared to seriously oppose this crazy system of centralization, the same parties would come forward and ostracize and condemn him as “someone who is not in touch with the current State,” and this we have seen by former Vice President Kamla and former President Joe Biden and his entire family’s security clearance being revoked. #RandolphHarris 15 of 22
To prepare for increasingly demanding operational environments, the Sacramento Fire Department invests more time in self-study and self-development than before. Besides being multiskilled, the Sacramento Fire Department and EMTs learn to balance the demands of diplomat and warrior. By acquiring these capabilities, allows the firefighters and EMTs to succeed across the spectrum of conflicts, and the is critical. In no other profession is the cost of being unprepared as unforgiving, often resulting in mission failure and unnecessary casualties. In the physical arena, the Sacramento Fire Department must maintain high levels of fitness and health, not only to earn continuously the respect of subordinates, peers, and superiors, but also to withstand the stresses of leading and maintaining their ability to think clearly. While physical self-development is important, the firefighters and EMTs exploit every available opportunity to sharpen their intellectual capacity and knowledge in relevant domains. The conceptional concepts affecting the fire department’s intelligence include agility, judgment, innovation, interpersonal tact, and domain knowledge. A developed intellect helps firefighters and EMTs think creatively and reason analytically, critically, ethically and with cultural sensitivity. When faced with diverse operational settings, the Sacramento Fire Department draws on intellectual capacity, critical thinking abilities, and applicable domain knowledge. They create these capabilities by frequently studying doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedure. Firefighters and EMTs put the information into context with personal experiences, fire department history, and geopolitical awareness. Take the time to learn languages, customs, belief systems, motivational factors, and operational principles. #RandolphHarris 16 of 22
Self-development is continuous, and the Sacramento Fire Department pursues it during both institutional and operational assignments. They prepare themselves for these leadership positions through lifelong learning. Self-awareness is a component the firefighters and EMTs use to prepare themselves. It helps them become better adjusted and more effective. Self-awareness enables the Sacramento Fire Department to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, if any, across the range of environments and progressively leverage strengths their techniques. Every leader has the ability to be self-aware. Competent leaders understand the importance of self-awareness and work to develop it. Self-awareness is being aware of oneself, including one’s traits, feelings, and behaviours. The public can also learn these techniques to assist in savings lives. When it comes to critical situations, ten seconds can mean life or death. One thing we witness all the time during emergency situations is people ignoring the sirens of fire trucks and ambulances. Often times, people even try to outrun the emergency vehicles and this can create dangerous situations. Citizens, remember to give the right-of-way to any law enforcement vehicle, fire engine, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle using a siren and red lights. Failure to pull over may result in a ticket. Drive to the right edge of the road and stop until the emergency vehicles(s) have passed. When approaching a stationary emergency vehicle with flashing emergency signal lights (hazard lights), move over and slow down. If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. Moral courage is the willingness to stand firm on values, principles, and convictions. It enables you to stand up for what you believe is right, regardless of the consequences. #RandolphHarris 17 of 22
The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. Having the Southern American boarder open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risks to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security relevant alerts, such as end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure is the 2025 Palisades fires because Southern California ran out of water, when they are located next to an ocean and they could have simply created desalinating plants to help with the water shortage. The water is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. #RandolphHarris 18 of 22
The American government should know all exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them prior to the situation becoming a crisis. Failure to take such mitigating actions is dangerous and significantly elevates risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. The American government must understand that significant time and resources must be invested in America. They must also encourage corporations to plan for both mitigating safety vulnerabilities in the short term and eliminating them in the long term. For instance, a company might begin by reaching out to the federal, state or local government and requesting tax incentives to provide security to dangerous communities, to help the government repair bridges and potholes. America needs an approach to eliminate safety vulnerabilities in American cities. There needs to be a road map by the end of 2025, outlining a prioritized approach to eliminate crisis situations in America. There is enough money to send aid to foreign nations, but the American government does not have enough money to care their infrastructure, provide adequate resources, nor end the affordable housing crisis. Nor is there enough money to fund other national critical functions (NCFs). These bad practices of putting America and Americans last is considered exceptionally risky, particularly to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. #RandolphHarris 19 of 22
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. As an incentive to buy American made cars, President Trump plans to made interest on loans for American cars tax deductible. Americans surely make superior products, 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. Las Vegas is running out of buildable land and is expected to reach its maximum number of homes in 2032. So, home prices are expected to rise dramatically. #RandolphHarris 20 of 22
Additionally, State Farm did ask the California Department of Insurance if they could raise homeowner insurance rates by 22 percent, but this request was denied. However, in 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1107, also known as the Protection California Drivers Act, into law which increases the minimum auto lability limits for bodily injury to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. Senate Bill 1107 also increased the minimum liability limits for property damage to $15,000 per accident and the DMV deposit for uninsured drivers to $75,000. The bill went into effect on January 1, 2025. This means that drivers with existing policies with lower limits will renew at the new minimum limits on or after January 1, 2025, and insurance premiums could increase by as much as 54 percent. America is in a state of crisis right now because of mismanagement by democrats. If elected for an unprecedented third term, to make housing more affordable and to offset the cost of homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance, President Trump plans to abolish property taxes. Much like the land crisis in Las Vegas, we could also run out of land to farm and will not be able to grow or cultivate our own food. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. Also, country of origin labeling is very important so Americans can know where their food is coming from and have the ability to support American farmers and ranchers. As money flows, it influences further investment. Save the land that sustains us by protecting American farmland. Once the land is built on, we lose it forever. And in the future, there may be food wars. Also, to ensure that we have farmland and buildable land 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 population 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. #RandolphHarris 21 of 22
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. 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. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. 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 22 of 22
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The Masters Calculate, at a Usurious Rate, the Price of their Own Blood
As far as America is concerned, those political parities that put their selfish interest first during this national security crisis, ahead of the Republic, are primarily to blame for the intermezzo of chaos, corruption, inflation, debt, and crime wave. That our people are not used to thinking in terms of foreign policy can be seen best by state of the nation. Manipulation of the masses is the only way to control people’s inevitable irrationality. The truth is that we are all manipulators some of the time. We all use deceptive means to get the particular response we want from another person. Uncertain that we are acceptable as we truly are, we try to convince others by being who we think they want to see; we don the mask of the manipulator. For some of us, the mask is sinister. It is the mask of the person with the most authority, power, or influence in a group or organization, and we use it to play tough, judgmental, overbearing, or mean. For the rest of us, the mask is angelic. It is the mask of a person who has little status in society, and we use it to play helpless, protective, gullible, or adoring. As manipulators, we refuse to allow ourselves to be who we are. At the same time, we refuse to allow others to be who they are. Instead, we get stuck and stay stuck in unsatisfying relationships. We document errors as they are encountered, but the process of documentation soon becomes overwhelming. #RandolphHarris 1 of 27
Learning about yourself is interesting, but it is useless unless you can apply what you learn to your relationships with others. Likewise, improving your relations with others is almost impossible to do without first improving your sense of self. Thoughts, feelings, actions, and bodily sensations can be summarized as four basic conditions of human experience on two polarities. Love opposing anger, and strength opposing weakness. Or anger opposing love, and weakness opposing strength. Like everyone else, you are capable of both love and anger, and you are strong as well as weak. Love is not better than anger, and strength is not better than weakness. They are simply conditions of your existence, opposing forces in your make-up. However, the polarities of love and anger, weakness and strength, have a great deal to do with your manipulation, and they will play a major role in your overcoming them. When a slave rebels against his master, the situation presented is one of man pitted against another, under a cruel sky, far from the exalted realms of principles. The final result is merely the murder of a man. The servile rebellions, peasants rising, beggar outbreaks, rustic revolts, all advance the concept of a principle of equality, a life for a life, which despite every kind of mystification and audacity will always be found in the purest manifestations of the revolutionary spirit—the terror attack of America in 2001, for example. #RandolphHarris 2 of 27
Spartacus’ rebellion, which took place as the ancient World was coming to an end, a few decades before the Christian era, is an excellent illustration of this point. First, we note that this is a rebellion of gladiators—that is to say, of slaves consecrated to a single combat and condemned, for the delectation of their masters, to kill or be killed. Beginning with seventy men, this rebellion ended with an army of seventy thousand insurgents, which crushed the best Roman legions and advanced through Italy to march on the Eternal City itself. However, this rebellion introduced no new principle into Roman life. The proclamation issued by Spartacus goes no father than to offer “equal rights” to the slaves. The transition from fact to right, is, indeed, the only logical acquisition that one can find on this level of rebellion. The insurgent rejects slavery and affirms his equality with his master. He wants to be master in his turn. Spartacus’ rebellion is a continual illustration of this principle of positive claims. The slave army liberates the slaves and immediately hands over their former masters to them in bondage. According to one tradition, of doubtful veracity it is true, gladiatorial combats were even organized between several hundred Roman citizens, while the slaves sat in the grandstands delirious with joy and excitement. However, to kill men leads to nothing but killing more men. For one principle to triumph, another principle must be overthrown. #RandolphHarris 3 of 27
The city of light of which Spartacus dreamed could only have been built on the ruins of eternal Rome, of its institutions and of its gods. Spartacus’ army marches to lay siege to a Rome paralyzed with fear at the prospect of having to pay for its crimes. At the decisive moment, however, within sight of the sacred walls, the army halts and wavers, as if it were retreating before the principles, the institutions, the city of the gods. When these had been destroyed, what could be put in their place except the brutal desire for justice, the wounded and exacerbated love that until this moment had kept these wretches on their feet. In any case, the army retreated without having fought, and then made the curious move of deciding to return to the place where the slave rebellion originated to retrace the long road of its victories and to return to Sicily. It was as though these outcasts, forever alone and helpless before the great takes that awaited them and too daunted to assail the Heavens, returned to what was purest and most heartening in their history, to the land of their first awakening, where it was easy and right to die. Then began their defeat and martyrdom. Before the last battle, Spartacus crucified a Roman citizen to show his men the fate that was in store for them. During the battle, Spartacus himself tried with frenzied determination, the symbolism of which is obvious, to reach Crassus, who was commanding the Roman legions. #RandolphHarris 4 of 27
Spartacus wanted to perish, but in a single combat with the man who symbolized, at that moment, every Roman master; it was his dearest wish to die, but in absolute equality. He did not reach Crassus: principles wage war at a distance and the Roman general kept himself apart. Spartacus died, as he wished, but at the hands of mercenaries, slaves like himself, who killed their own freedom with his. In revenge for the one crucified citizen, Crassus crucified thousands of slaves. The six thousand crosses which, after such a just rebellion, staked out the road from Capua to Rome demonstrated to the servile crowd that there is no equality in the World of power and that the masters calculate, at a usurious rate the price of their own blood. The cross is also Christ’s punishment. One might imagine that He chose a slave’s punishment, a few years later, only so as to reduce the enormous distance that henceforth would separate humiliated humanity from the implacable face of the Master. He intercedes, He submits to the most extreme injustice so that rebellion shall not divined the World in two, so that suffering will also light the way to Heaven and preserve it from the curses of mankind. What is astonishing in the fact that the revolutionary spirit, when it wanted to affirm the separation of Heaven and Earth, should begin by disembodying the divinity by killing His representatives on Earth? In certain aspects, the period of rebellions comes to an end in 1793, and revolutionary times begin—on a scaffold. #RandolphHarris 5 of 27
Because we believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honouring, and sustaining the law, we support military service. We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that He holds men accountable for their action in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society. America must not be manipulated into being the victim of its own defaults. Seldom did Heaven’s judgment follow the act of sinning as rapidly as in case of Democratic leaders and federal judges. The same parties, which have placed their own interest above the Republic, to complain to the voting masses about the potential losses of the individual States’ sovereign rights and financial assistance for not upholding federal law, are witnessing without exception how they have overbid their power in fulfillment whose final consequences naturally have led to profound altercations in internal America, due to their matchless hypocrisy. It is unbelievable hypocrisy for the representatives of these different states to complain because they are flustered by the disasters they have created, when it was clear all along that the consequences of their illegal actions would lead to far-reaching internal changes in America. They may retard, but they cannot stop the revolutions of history. #RandolphHarris 6 of 27
Neurogeographical location determines the stage of neuroevolution. If you could voyage around the brain, you would find that where you are determines what you are doing and thinking. If you are in the mid-brain, you expect everyone to be running around concerned with mid-brain functions—territoriality. We expect the Mid-East to be involved in mid-brain functions—and they are Arab-Zionist mammalian competition. When you trip South to the African cortex, you expect nonlogical, intuitive, magical thinking—and that is what you will find. When you climb up to the left-frontal lobe, you expect to find concern with the future—and that is what we find in America. The passengers on the Mayflower were not stern, straightlaced, middle-aged religious zealots. The stuffy ones were Puritans, and they remained in Britain, protesting what they considered to be the liberal ways of the Church of England. The pilgrims were mostly young Elizabethans in their twenties and thirties. They wore colourful clothes, not those black hats and gray gowns you see in the paintings. They enjoyed good times, including the imbibing of strong spirits and the telling of bawdy stories. Not only did they believe in a simple form of worship without trappings and fanfare; they also believed strongly in individual freedom and—here is an important part of their success story—they became devoted capitalist two years after their arrival at Plymouth Rock. #RandolphHarris 7 of 27
On the ninth day, they rounded the tip of Provincetown and the Mayflower, dropped anchor in Cape Cod Bay; the Pilgrims sat down together and drafted the first written covenant calling for civil self-government and individual freedom. Independence was born. It was the forerunner of the United States Constitution. It was the Mayflower Compact. Because the Pilgrims had not possessed enough money to rent and provision the Mayflower for its lengthy voyage, they financed their trip with the profit-seeking British businessmen. The Pilgrims agreed to work for the profit of a joint stock company. They were to invest their labour, and share in the profits. The London merchants were to invest their money and also shared in the profits. It was the night independence was born. Each Pilgrim received a share of stock. Everything that was produced was to go into a common fund. At the end of seven years, they were to sell whatever was left, beyond the necessities of living, and divide the proceeds according to the distribution of the shares of stock. The British investors had demanded a communal setup in the New World. It would make the distribution of profits and land much more convenient at the end of the seven years of the contract. And though war and acts of terrorism have raged on the Earth since the days of Cain, “the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people,” reports Isaiah 11.11. #RandolphHarris 8 of 27
The intellect which changes hour by hour has no existence in the absolute sense. And it surely does not represent the ultimate possibility of experience. Thus, one can stop its movement for a time through profound meditation and be then aware of a deeper level of mind whence all these intellectual changes spring up but which is itself relatively unchanging. How to know whether this deeper level is worthy to be called enduring reality is a questions that is beyond most mystics. Humanity is discovering that it cannot solve its old problems in the old way—the logical thing to do is to try a new way. In an age of materialistic intellect and materialistic religion such as ours, that nee ways must consist of turning towards a spiritualized intellect and a spiritualized religion. The first step for the intellect to take is humility; the first step for the religious feeling to take is obedience. The intellect must sink down in the self-abasement of constant prayer to the Higher Power; the religious feeling must obey sincerely and honestly the admonitions given it by the great prophets. The intellect must no longer go on deceiving itself and the religious feeling must no longer go on deceiving God. The intellect has to become baffled and exhausted by its own activity in search of the Overself, must despairingly know that it has no possible chance of ever knowing the truth by its own self-defeating procedures, must realize that it is running round and round in a circle, and must finally abandon the effort altogether. #RandolphHarris 9 of 27
At this very point, a great opportunity awaits the seeker, but it is also here that so many go off at a tangent and miss their chance. Either they label the quest futile and illusory, losing further interest, or they take shelter in a hierarchical religious organization which imposes strict principles and demands complete submission to its authoritarian rule. The intellect can never stop asking questions. It has millions always in reserve. However, in the end, there is only one important question. So why not ask it in the beginning and save this long circular detour? When logic fails, men often betake themselves to occult, mystic, and even primitive paths. If the end is to sublimate thinking altogether, why go on collecting more and more thoughts from teachers and traditions—all outside one’s self? How haughty the intellect may become. It does not understand that there is an invisible circle around it labelled “Pass Not!” However, those who believe that “love” solves everything, that “love” entitles one to everything, must then exaggerate the depth or the value of love—not by way of conscious pretense but by actually feeling more love than there is. The necessity to exaggerate often has repercussions which may contribute to building a vicious circle. This is particularly true for claims put on the grounds of helplessness and suffering. #RandolphHarris 10 of 27
Many people, for instance, feel too timid to make inquires by telephone. If the claim is made that somebody else make the inquiry for him, the person concerned feels his inhibitions greater than they actually are in order to validate them. If a woman feels too depressed or helpless to do her housekeeping, she will make herself feel more helpless or more depressed than she is—and then will in fact suffer more. One should not, however, come to the hasty conclusion that it is desirable for others of the environment not to accede to neurotic claims. Both the acceding and the refusing can make the condition worse—that is, in both cases the claims may become more emphatic. Only if the neurotic has begun or is beginning to assume responsibility for himself, refusing usually helps. “I was married when I was twenty-one, right out of college, to a boy I thought I was in love with—just the person I thought was good for me and whom I thought I could make very happy. But from the first moment that we experienced any privacy, I was unhappy. I think I married too young, but I also felt, as soon as I had lived with him for a while, that he just wasn’t for me. But I managed to pretend—we lived together for four years, very miserably, not enjoying any kind of sexual life. And then, quite accidentally, a few months ago I met a man—really a boy—and I started having an affair with him. #RandolphHarris 11 of 27
“At the beginning I used to enjoy sleeping with him, because I felt that I was pleasing somebody and I was with somebody who was also pleasing me. Besides, it was illicit and exciting and very transient. But recently I broke it off because it began to dissatisfy me. It turned out that the fact that it was extramarital had no meaning for me. I mean, for years I felt guilty about wanting to sleep with another man, even though I never did. When I finally did it, I didn’t the feel guilty I expected. I just felt that I had gotten married too young and I didn’t like being tied down. Right now, I think a lack of emotional motivation has made it impossible for me to enjoy sex with my husband. Until recently, my husband had been committed to me, but he is very, very distressed at the fact that I’m not satisfied with him. I mean, whatever I tried to hide came through in bed, and there’s just no hiding anything there, I guess.” There is nothing more harmful than the idea that poor relationships involving pleasures of the flesh can be “cured” by learning techniques from a book or the Internet. Nothing good is going to happen in bed between a husband and wife, unless good things have been happening between them before they got into bed. There is no way for a good technique of intimate passions to remedy a poor emotional relationship. For a man and a woman, to be delighted with each other in bed, both must want to be in that bed—with each other. #RandolphHarris 12 of 27
Many young women of this generation are females in transition. They believe, intellectually at least, in their right to pleasure in regards to pleasures of the flesh—but they do not know how to go about discovering it. This is because, they are not fully sure of who they are. Their early encounters with pleasures of the flesh illustrate this point. These woman are able to function physically, apparently without too much guilt, but they have never learned to function emotionally—that is, they have never felt free or secure enough to be able to try to find out why pleasures of the flesh consistently prove to be emotionally unrewarding. These woman are sufficiently emancipated to engage in pleasures of the flesh but they are still prisoners of the past in the sense that they believe that their satisfaction with pleasures of the flesh is something that would happen all by itself, and that it was up to the young man to supply it. From listening to these stories, one things that has become obvious to me is that much like men, these women were initially attracted to their husbands because of his physical appearance. Perhaps he became less appealing to her because he put on weight and that caused her to lose interest. Love is very complex. However, it is clear that men and women like certain body images. That would explain why she had an affair with a man she found visually appealing. #RandolphHarris 13 of 27
With her husband, she was, at first, physically aroused by his presence, which means simply that he stood for something that she found pleasing, but it may not have just been his physical appearance, it could have been a combination of his physical appearance and his social attributes. Her excitement, therefore, was almost completely a reflection of her romanticized notion of what she thought that he represented. However, the failure of her relationship is also partly her fault because she failed to communicate with him in such a way that they either improved the satisfactions of their total relationship, including pleasures of the flesh, or ended their marriage. Many young women today are living—or trying to live—in accordance with two conflicting and often contradictory sets of rules. One set refers to the traditional relationship of a man and a woman. A woman chooses as a husband the man who makes the best possible match that she can hope for; she judges this by his background, his education, his family, his ambitions, and it may even include her estimate of him as a potential father. Perhaps where contemporary relationships have gone wrong is they see pleasures of the flesh as something they should do for fun, not just procreation, and this becomes the bedrock on which many marriages must stand or fall. Companionship is totally lost. Many young women today believe this intellectually but have yet to translate it into emotional terms. #RandolphHarris 14 of 27
No matter how confident people are in their relationships, at first, the ground under them will still be quaking because they have not achieved the kind of physical relationship that holds the promise of rewarding them both. This also has to do with feelings. When people remove themselves from the illusions, then they live with the actuality alone, and when the actuality changes, they change with it, responding to things as they are. What actually happens is there is nothing to hold them together. It is a lot like two men dating and because they cannot have kids, they lose their common bond. When relationships are based on lust and pleasures of the flesh, without a children birth, there is less to solidify the relationship, unless it has been long-term and the couple has acquired a lot of assets. This makes an entirely different social situation, and it could be said that you cannot change a whole society. We say that of ourselves, but at the same time we impose our concepts on others and make their societies change. If we removed these concepts from ourselves, what would happen? Is it kindness and “sympathy” to be distressed about others? Or is it as unkind, in its effect on others, as to be cold? It seems to me necessary that we get beyond both and arrive at caring without disturbance. Some people are made to feel unperceptive, unsympathetic, like a barbarian, lacking in decent human feeling when they should be distressed. So, when you make yourself distressed—you will come to see it their way, not your own. #RandolphHarris 15 of 27
However, others will tell you that you should not be distressed—“Do not be emotional!”—and sometimes these contradictory command come to a person from the same individual, at different times. You are expected to be whatever the other person was, in relation to any particular set of circumstances, and at the time, you may not realize this, and it can be very confusing to you that when you do what you are being told to do, you get rebuked for it and told that you “should be” that other way. Best not to worry about direction at all. Just be. Direction is already there. When you are being your authentic self, your caring will be present, and your not-caring will be present too, It is neither and both—just as a blue light washes out both a yellow light and itself and makes a white light, and yellow and blue paint mixed together become a green which contains both but is neither. However, you cannot mix your caring and not-caring. You have to throw out both, and what remains is what you want, the reality of you. No illusions. When you feel smashed or trapped or bound or pushed, it is helpful to ask yourself, “What illusion is fouling me up now?” The illusion is what you think about something. The facts just are. Winning or losing, the script is a way to structure the time between the first Hello and the last Good-by at the grave. #RandolphHarris 16 of 27
This life time is emptied and filled by not doing and doing; by never doing, always doing, not doing before, not doing after, doing over and over and over, and doing until there is nothing left to do. This gives rise to “Never” and “Always,” “Until” and “After,” “Over and Over,” and “Open-Ended scripts. These are best understood by reference to Greek myths, since the Greeks had a strong feeling for such things. “Never” scripts are represented by Tantalus, who through all eternity was to suffer from hunger and thirst in sight of food and water, but never to eat or drink again. People with such scripts are forbidden by their parents to do the things they most want to, and so spend their lives being tantalized and surrounded by temptations. They go along with the Parental curse because the Child in them is afraid of the things they want the most, so they are really tantalizing themselves. Some intellectuals have too many questions, give up in the end and turn agnostic or join the Catholic Church or, like Hume, spend the rest of their years shallowly. Unless intellectual thinking understands its own limitations and therefore knows when to stop its own activity, it will not lead man to truth but mislead him. However, if and when it is willing to deny itself at the correct time, it will allow intuitive thinking to be born and that will lead him still nearer to the goal. The same man at different times of his life may hold different views. It is unrealistic to demand that everyone should be consistent throughout the course of a lifetime. #RandolphHarris 17 of 27
Projecting confidence on the job and other situations requires moral courage. While physical courage allows that Sacramento Fire Department to defend their ground, even when the fire is blazing out of control and time is running critically short, moral courage empowers these leaders to stand firm on their values, principles, and convictions in the same situation. As a leader with moral courage, members of the Sacramento Fire Department take full responsibility for their decisions and actions. They are willing to critically look inside themselves, consider new ideas, and change what caused failure. Moral courage is fundamental to living the Sacramento Fire Department’s Values of integrity and honour. It does not take long for a team member to become suspicious of a leader who acts confident but does not have the competence to back it up. Having the appropriate levels of domain knowledge is vital for a firefighter, in turn, to display confidence through their attitudes, actions, and words. Leading by example demands that the Sacramento Fire Department stays aware of how their guidance and plans are executed. They cannot remain in safe, dry headquarters, designing complex plans without examining what their team members and civilians are experiencing. They have to courage to get out where the action is, whether it is in a burning building or a forest fire. #RandolphHarris 18 of 27
The Sacramento Fire Department, connects with the community by sharing hardships and communicating openly to clearly see and feel what does on from the public’s perspective. True warrior leaders lead from the front and share the experience of their community. Seeing and feeling the plan transform into action empowers the Sacramento Fire Department to better assess the situation and influence the execution by their immediate presence. If they stay a safe distance from the front, they risk destroying their communities trust and confidence. Competent leadership and communication are what allows the Sacramento Fire Department to get results. Although communication is usually viewed as a process of providing information, communication as a competency involves more than the simple transmission of information. The Sacramento Fire Department understands that communication needs to achieve a new understanding. They create new or better awareness because communication is critical information and being presented in a clear fashion is important to reaching a shared understanding of issues and solutions. It is by conveying thoughts, presenting recommendations, bridging cultural sensitivities, and reaching consensus that they are able to achieve success. The Sacramento Fire Department knows that they cannot lead, supervise, build teams, counsel, coach, or mentor without the ability to communicate clearly. #RandolphHarris 19 of 27
“When I married my wife, I was a cement finisher. On my time off, I’d always go to the firehouse. At the time her father was a fire lieutenant in that area. But I met my wife through her brothers. I went to high school with them. Also, her father knew my father. We got married shortly before I was called for the city ambulance job, and then, nine months later, I was called to be a fireman. She had a complete understanding of the fire department. She knew how to accept me coming home tired, or me going out and watching baseball with the guys after being up all night. She knew how to handle it pretty well, until I got injured. We have two children. Our daughter is ten, and our son is eight. Our son goes to Catholic school a block away from our house. His teacher told the kids, ‘Bring a picture of someone helping someone.’ I happened to have a picture of myself when I carried a woman out of a building, and, since there was no ambulance there, I was giving her oxygen. My son took the picture and gave it to his teacher, saying proudly, ‘That’s my dad.” So he’s proud of what I do, and I want to keep it that way. Would I want him to be a fireman? Sure. But I’m not going to press it into his head. I had a pair of fire boots that were given to me when I was seven years old. I saved them for him, and he’s got them now. He’s got his own fire helmet and his own fire coat. But I’m not going to force it on him. My daughter is an easygoing, loving person, like my wife. Happy-got-lucky. She likes school. #RandolphHarris 20 of 27
“I’m a God-fearing person. There are certain standards I live by. My wife and I don’t go to church every Sunday, but we make our kids go. We try to set an example for them. We’re sending them to parochial school, so they can learn religion, discipline, and certain things about life they wouldn’t learn at a public school. That’s why I work two jobs—to send them to a Catholic school. I don’t care if I have to pay, and I’m going to feel the same way about college. My second job was as a cement finisher, until I got burned. After that, being in the sun a lot wasn’t too good for my skin. There was a chief in the department who was retiring. He was fire marshal and safety instructor at a hospital. I’m state-certified as an instructor, so I asked him if he ever needed help to let me know. Two months later he called me and said the job was open. It’s a part-time job, and only five minutes from home. I give monthly classes on fire safety to all the employees. I enjoy giving these classes, and I really get into it. They had taken pictures of me the night I went into the burn center. I got the slides, telling the head nurse at the hospital that the only thing I wanted them for was to teach people what can happen when you get burned. You can feel more confident trying to teach someone something, when you’ve been there.” Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the commandments of God. #RandolphHarris 21 of 27
One thing we witness all the time during emergency situations is people ignoring the sirens of fire trucks and ambulances. Often times, people even try to outrun the emergency vehicles and this can create dangerous situations. Citizens, remember to give the right-of-way to any law enforcement vehicle, fire engine, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle using a siren and red lights. Failure to pull over may result in a ticket. Drive to the right edge of the road and stop until the emergency vehicles(s) have passed. When approaching a stationary emergency vehicle with flashing emergency signal lights (hazard lights), move over and slow down. If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. Moral courage is the willingness to stand firm on values, principles, and convictions. It enables you to stand up for what you believe is right, regardless of the consequences. #RandolphHarris 22 of 27
The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. Having the Southern American boarder open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risks to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security relevant alerts, such as end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure is the 2025 Palisades fires because Southern California ran out of water, when they are located next to an ocean and they could have simply created desalinating plants to help with the water shortage. The water is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. #RandolphHarris 23 of 27
The American government should know all exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them prior to the situation becoming a crisis. Failure to take such mitigating actions is dangerous and significantly elevates risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. The American government must understand that significant time and resources must be invested in America. They must also encourage corporations to plan for both mitigating safety vulnerabilities in the short term and eliminating them in the long term. For instance, a company might begin by reaching out to the federal, state or local government and requesting tax incentives to provide security to dangerous communities, to help the government repair bridges and potholes. America needs an approach to eliminate safety vulnerabilities in American cities. There needs to be a road map by the end of 2025, outlining a prioritized approach to eliminate crisis situations in America. There is enough money to send aid to foreign nations, but the American government does not have enough money to care their infrastructure, provide adequate resources, nor end the affordable housing crisis. Nor is there enough money to fund other national critical functions (NCFs). These bad practices of putting America and Americans last is considered exceptionally risky, particularly to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. #RandolphHarris 24 of 27
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. As an incentive to buy American made cars, President Trump plans to made interest on loans for American cars tax deductible. Americans surely make superior products, 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. Las Vegas is running out of buildable land and is expected to reach its maximum number of homes in 2032. So, home prices are expected to rise dramatically. #RandolphHarris 25 of 27
Additionally, State Farm did ask the California Department of Insurance if they could raise homeowner insurance rates by 22 percent, but this request was denied. However, in 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1107, also known as the Protection California Drivers Act, into law which increases the minimum auto lability limits for bodily injury to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. Senate Bill 1107 also increased the minimum liability limits for property damage to $15,000 per accident and the DMV deposit for uninsured drivers to $75,000. The bill went into effect on January 1, 2025. This means that drivers with existing policies with lower limits will renew at the new minimum limits on or after January 1, 2025, and insurance premiums could increase by as much as 54 percent. America is in a state of crisis right now because of mismanagement by democrats. If elected for an unprecedented third term, to make housing more affordable and to offset the cost of homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance, President Trump plans to abolish property taxes. Much like the land crisis in Las Vegas, we could also run out of land to farm and will not be able to grow or cultivate our own food. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. Also, country of origin labeling is very important so Americans can know where their food is coming from and have the ability to support American farmers and ranchers. As money flows, it influences further investment. Save the land that sustains us by protecting American farmland. Once the land is built on, we lose it forever. And in the future, there may be food wars. Also, to ensure that we have farmland and buildable land 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 population 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. #RandolphHarris 26 of 27
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. 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. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. 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 27 of 27
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.
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/
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/
We wish to express our gratitude to our families and friends and to our many associates and clients, whose lives touched our lives and whose ideas helped us to grow. We would also like to thank our employees and care takers for putting the technical ideas of this estate into conversational style, and we are, of course, extremely thank to all of our patrons for helping to keep the legacy of the Winchester Family alive. The Winchester Mystery House is full of surprises. What was your favorite, “Oooh!” moment during your visit at the mansion? (And for those of you who still have to check it off your bucket list… we will hopefully see you soon.) https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
I’m Never Going to See Daddy Again
Retrospectively reflecting on life, one will come to realize that the most difficult days were the most beautiful. Idea is not the ultimate reality, it is only a manifestation of something which is its ultimate reality. The latter seems to be an abstraction. Intellectually, it must be so because it is beyond the power of finite, human mentality to conceive it. However, it may not be beyond the power of a higher faculty lying latent within us to have the experience of this reality—at least for a time. It is not known how to verify whether this is so or not unless the intellect humbly realizes its own limitations and voluntarily abnegates itself at a certain stage. In most cases this is done prematurely, hence the self-deceptions and hallucinations which are rife in mystical circles, but in the philosophical mystic’s case it would come only after the fullest use of critical thought and analytic reasoning. This is the proper moment for such a suicidal act. For in the end, he will be brought to such an abrupt term. Perhaps Jesus’ statement, “Except ye become as little children ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of Heaven,” is appropriate here, if understood as an invitation not to foolishness but to surrender of all human pride. If you are trying to grasp the great Mystery, do not make the mistake of unwittingly holding on to the intellect while doing so. When he has climbed to the peak of a series of abstract thoughts, they may end abruptly and the higher faculty of intuition may then become active. #RandolphHarris 1 of 25
The philosophic mystic seeks to stimulate thinking to its highest degree until finally it turns round on itself and examines the very nature of the ego—of the personal mind. Both practices lead in the end to the same result, the stoppage of thinking. Is it not strange that the most intense, the most active pursuit of thought leads to human knowledge, whereas the complete cessation of thought leads to divine knowledge! When it leads to its own rest and the mind transcends all thoughts, thinking achieves its highest object. For the intellectual knowledge puffs up a man, insight humbles him, has indeed the very opposite effect. For the intellectual type, the essence of his need is to see that he is not his thoughts, that they are but projections thrown up out of consciousness. He is that consciousness, the very knowing principle itself. A time comes when the searching intellect humbly recognizes at last that it can never recognize pure Spirit, but only its ideas, opinions, fancies, and imaginations about Spirit. If it follows this up to the fullest consequence and ceases all its theological or metaphysical or occult studies, it lays itself open to be penetrated by the intuition. The work done by original deeply penetrative thinking can go far, can uncover much not yet known; but it cannot solve the mystery of the thinker himself, unless it renounces its right to do so and lets the diviner Self take over in utter silence. #RandolphHarris 2 of 25
The same intellectual quality which obstructs the inner path or blinds the inner eyes of so many sceptical people actually helps the path of less egocentric persons. The intellect is not to be condemned. However, its presumptuousness in arrogating supreme, unchecked, and unbalanced control of man, is to be condemned. The mind will go on having doubts and asking questions, making problems for itself and creating illusions, as it has always done in the past. That is, it will do so until it attains Truth, or abides in the Stillness. He need not abandon rigorously logical thinking because he is cultivating mystically intuitive feeling. However, he should know its limitations. He must not depend on lesser faculties alone—good though they are in their place—when a higher faculty exists, when the intuition shines out of its certitude. Not the impure, ego-warped, narrowed, emotion-swayed and intellect-dried thing which serves so many; not man dictating to God but more humbled before God. A seeker must become free from fanaticism before the eyes can see. Let no one impose suggestion’s power not authoritarian rule; rather should the mind empty itself until Pure Consciousness is there. Weak minds which perceive the defects of logic, instead of rising above it into reason, fall below it into instinct or impulse. The silent mind receives spiritual guidance and allows grace to approach; the thinking mind delas with the World and attends to its activities. #RandolphHarris 3 of 25
Only when the intellect, after admiring its own massive historical achievements, will turn upon itself and perceive how puny is that by contrast with the still-awaited answer to the question, “What am I?—only then will the possibility of higher forces coming to its aid be realizable. Into crowded minds no revelation is possible, In the stillness of the mind, that admits, “I do not know,” illumination is more apt to be achieved. In telling us where knowledge must end and mystery must begin, in being forced to describe the Absolute by telling us what it is not and then confessing that it can go no farther, the intellect surrenders to its limitations and acquires that quality of humility which is an essential condition receiving grace. Correctly used, its limitations understood, its emotional and egotistic biases discounted, intellect may enable a man to think properly. It can then have a liberating effect; otherwise, it is likely to have a corrupting one. The limitations of intellect must be recognized, for then only will a man be ready to try the philosophic techniques whereby words are used to rise above words, thoughts directed so that he may extract himself from all thoughts. To develop intellect and then to know when to drop it, is to becomes its master. It then fulfills it proper purpose and serves man instead of dominating—and therefore unbalancing—him. #RandolphHarris 4 of 25
When a patient cannot attain happiness and goes to an analyst, the analyst will appreciate the patient’s wish for happiness as a good motive for coming to analysis. However, he will also ask himself why the patient, with all his desire for happiness, is not happy. He has many things which most people would enjoy: a pleasant home, a nice wife, financial security. However, he does not do much of anything; he has no vigorous interest of any kind. There is a great deal of passivity and self-indulgence in the picture. It strikes the analyst in the very first interview that the patient does not talk about his difficulties, but rather, in a somewhat petulant way, presents a chart of wishes. The next hour confirms the first impression. The patient’s inertia in the analytic work proves to be the first hindrance. So the picture becomes clearer. Here is a person, tied hand and foot, unable to tap his own resources and filled to the brim with tenacious claims that all the good things in life, including contentment of soul, should come to him. Another example illustrating the claim for help without effort throws further lights on its nature. A patient who had to interrupt his analysis for a week was upset by some problem that had emerged in the precious analytical session. He expressed his wish to get over the difficulty before he left—a perfectly legitimate wish. So I tried hard to get at the root of the particular problem. #RandolphHarris 5 of 25
As the hour went on, I sensed an increasing irritability on his side. Upon my direct question, he confirmed it y saying that of course he was irritated; he did not want to be left with his difficulty for a whole week and I had not yet said any thing to alleviate it. I pointed out that his wish was certainly sensible, but that apparently it had turned into a claim, which did not make any sense. Whether or not we could come any closer to solving the particular problem would depend upon how accessible it was at this juncture, and how productive he and I could be. And, as far as he was concerned, there must be something that was preventing him from making efforts toward the desire end. After a good deal of back and forth which I omit here, he could not help seeing the truth of what I had said. His irritability disappeared; his irrational claims and his sense of urgency also disappeared. And he added one revealing factor: he had felt that I had caused the problem, so it was up to me to set it right. How was I responsible for it, in his kind? He did not mean that I had made a mistake; it was simply that in the previous hour he had realized that he had not yet overcome his vindictiveness—which he had barely started to perceive. Actually, at that time he did not want to be rid of it, but only of certain upsets accompanying it. Since I had failed his claim to be freed from these immediately, he felt entitled to raise vindictive claims for retribution. #RandolphHarris 6 of 25
With this explanation, he had pointed to the roots of his claims: his inner refusal to assume responsibility for himself and his lack of constructive self-interest. This paralyzed him, prevented him from doing anything for himself, and made for a need that somebody else—here the analyst—should take all the responsibility and set things right for him. And this need, too, turned into a claim. This example points to a fourth characteristic of neurotic claims: they can be vindictive in nature. The person may feel wronged, and insist on retribution. That this can occur is in itself old knowledge. It is obviously so in traumatic neuroses, in certain paranoid conditions. There are many descriptions of this characteristic in literature, among others Skylock’s insisting on his pound of flesh and Hedda Gabler’s laying claim to extravagant luxuries at the very moment when she has learned of the probability that her husband will not get the professorship they have hoped for. However, if not regular, whether vindictive demands are a frequent element in neurotic claims. Naturally the individual’s awareness of them will vary. In the case of Skylock, they were conscious; in the example of the patient’s anger at me, they were on the threshold of awareness; in most instances they are unconscious. From my experience, I doubt their ubiquity. However, I find them to be so frequent that I have made it a rule always to look out for them. #RandolphHarris 7 of 25
In the context of the need for vindictive triumph, the amount of largely hidden vindictiveness we find in most neuroses is rather great. Vindictive elements are certainly operating when claims are made with reference to past frustration or suffering; when they are made in a militant manner; when the fulfillment of claims is felt as a triumph and their frustration as defeat. Words were what God used to create the World. “God said, Let there be light, and there was light” reports Genesis 1.3. His words conveyed creative power. Your words convey power too. They can strength, uplift, and comfort. They can also weaken, discourage, and destroy. Words undoubtedly reveal your attitudes and influence your behaviour. This is especially true in talking about pleasures of the flesh and intimacy. Your words can craft an environment about pleasures of the flesh that is strengthening and uplifting—or the opposite. Words matter! And the words you use in conversations can foster spiritual, intellectual, and emotional intimacy that will help prepare you for a complete expression of pleasures of the flesh in marriage. Talking about intimacy and pleasures of the flesh—at the appropriate times and in appropriate ways—is an important part of preparing for marriage. One woman we talked to called Leah, had been married for three years. She described herself as chronically distressed. Leah was sexually molested by a stranger. #RandolphHarris 8 of 25
Actually, Leah was abducted in a car and sexually abused. She often had nightmares about it for many years. However, at sixteen, she met a boy and fell madly in love and was with child, and the boy was forced to marry her. Leah’s mother did the forcing. Leah’s father was not told about it until afterward. Before she became pregnant, everything was fine, and she thought that she loved him and he loved her. After she had the child, though, it was terrible because she was totally rejected. The marriage lasted two years—he was in the army, so they were not together very often—and they had it annulled when she was nineteen. Leah stayed with family until she was twenty-three, and then she remarried. Retrospectively, Leah realized that when she married her second husband that she felt desperate. She wanted marriage very much because it meant a certain amount of freedom. After being married for ten years, Leah wanted freedom very much. After being in the marriage for seven years, Leah had two affairs. She lost a good job because of her affair. Leah felt pressured to get marriage at a young age and after having two children so early on, the great deal of responsibility took a heavy toll on her. Leah feels that she never grew up, and like she did something she should be punished for. The chemistry in her marriage had faded away, and the affairs were a trip into fantasy-land for her. She assumed that the affairs would make her feel refreshed, energized and attractive, but instead, they made her feel guilty. #RandolphHarris 9 of 25
Your body is created in the image of your heavenly parents. It is important to learn about your body and use the appropriate terminology. This will result in a better sense of identity and it shows respect for your marvelous bodies. Be especially careful to choose words and media that place pleasures of the flesh and gender within a gospel perspective. Healthy sexual intimacy is a sacred union, a mutual giving and receiving of each other’s bodies in an environment of trust and respect to deepen loving martial bonds. The purpose of pleasures of the flesh is to create children and also to strengthen the emotional, spiritual, and physical connection between spouses. Throughout your life, it is important to find beneficial, appropriate ways to talk about intimacy and pleasures of the flesh. Doing this can help empower you as you navigate sexuality and its many facets clearly and openly. However, if you talking about pleasures of the flesh and intimacy feels uncomfortable or scary for you, you should have clear, plain discussions with your parents, Church leaders, or other adults you trust about pleasures of the flesh. However, avoid talking about pleasures of the flesh casually, disrespectfully, or crudely with friends or other people, since those conversations might lead to wrong ideas about pleasures of the flesh and intimacy and may unintentionally make you excited and aroused to engage in pleasures of the flesh. #RandolphHarris 10 of 25
Learn about your anatomy, your emotions, and how these things together can motivate you to seek for a loving marriage. You can start developing emotional and intellectual intimacy within friendships and with people you trust in a safe environment. This does not mean talking about pleasures of the flesh; it means talking about things in life that really matter to you. You can practice this by expressing sincere feelings, opening up about your own experiences, and listening as your close friends do the same. Mastering these social and emotional skills gives you plenty of ways to form close, rewarding relationships without needing to rely on physical intimacy to create a connection. Remember that physical intimacy does not lead to emotional intimacy, so take the time to develop real friendships before looking for romantic relationships. Deep, open communication is linked to feelings of satisfaction and stability within relationships and with later satisfaction with pleasures of the flesh within the bonds of marriage. Couples who take the focus off their physical relationship tend to spend more time becoming friends, developing trust, communicating, and sharing common interests and ideas. Be friends first, and sweethearts second. Couples who focus on friendship and connection—without relying on physical arousal—build stronger relationships. Try learning more about each other’s families, beliefs about the World, or favourite way to serve others. You could also try a new skill or hobby together. #RandolphHarris 11 of 25
The one here who frowns on all this is the silly separated ego who is far from being any god. The point is central. The one who questions, doubts, feels separated is the limited ego. The one who does not notice separation is the other one—the Person among persons. The mentally ill person disowns his inner aspects and finds them intruding into his World. It is profitable that alternate sides of self become acquainted. Psychotherapy (and living) is the process of wandering over boundaries to enlarge the scope of one’s land. The other self should be encouraged to come forth, give its heed, let it live. This autonomous other self is heard in silence, whispers in feelings, comes calling as a neighbour, modestly stands as background to all that vaunted ego does. When ego sleeps, it speaks clearer and implies lands beyond the bounds of the limited self-identity. It is restful for us to contemplate how our thoughts are given, history is given, awareness is given, how it is all given. The mystery of I-Thou can be crossed in love and friendship when two become one. In appreciating the beauty of the World one savours the things of the World and finds in them one’s inner riches. This World, the World I know, is the World coloured with my meanings. If the World is no longer viewed as the physicist’s abstract, objective World—a totally impersonal other-than-one’s self, all this becomes more reasonable. That World is a conceptual construction convenient to physics but grossly inaccurate in the psychology of persons. #RandolphHarris 12 of 25
The personal World, the only one each of us really knows, is the World painted in the tones of all one’s own personal meanings. The World shuts off when I sleep. Its time slows down when I am bored and accelerates when I am involved. My boss is not an objective other. My boss, seen by me, known by me, reflects as much of myself as of him. The World of persons is a personal World. Lightning and thunder are beautiful to me. Are they something else to you? Where is the objective impersonal lightning and thunder? They are part of the “reported events” which does not mean much to a person. The impersonal objective World is the one no one cares about! In a deep sense one can know the quality of a person by the World he manages to find. The one who finds the World of ruthless competition, where people will do anything to succeed, even harm others, and becomes like this will be consumed by evil and greed. They very good person is as plastic and varied as people themselves. What has been described here is the World of persons, the one we live in. In it what I see in your is an image of myself. And what you see in me is an image of you. It is a World of mirrors. In it is a useless and obscuring fiction that there is a World. That is a fiction—a conception of some people that conflicts with their own experience. There are many interlocked Worlds. It is awesome and responsible to consider one’s World as one’s own representation. Then I am responsible when this World get mean and small, angry or guilty. I am not only my brother’s keeper. I am my brother. #RandolphHarris 13 of 25
There are times of mergence when the rustle of leaves, or the plaintive call of a bird is the whole of the World. This whole is peaceful, nothing to be done—no questions—no search—all in a simple sound. In rocks or furniture, I see stolid, permanent satisfaction with things just as they are. In silent matter is our deepest understanding. The natural depth of man is the whole of creation. Look at the scope of yourself. Freedom, “that terrible word inscribed on the chariot of the storm,” is the motivating principle of all revolutions. Without it, justice seems inconceivable to the rebel’s mind. There comes a time, however, when justice demands the suspension of freedom. Then terror, on a grand or small scale, makes its appearance to consummate the revolution. Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being. However, one day, nostalgia takes up arms and assumes the responsibility of total guilt; in other words, adopts murder and violence. The servile rebellions, the regicide revolutions, and those of the twenty-first century have thus, consciously, accepted a burden of guilt which increased in proportion to the degree of liberation they proposed to introduce. This contradiction, which has become only too obvious, prevents our contemporary revolutionaries from displaying that aspect of happiness and optimism which shone forth from the faces and the speeches of the members of the Constituent Assembly in 1789. Is this contradiction inevitable? Does it characterize or betray the value of rebellion? These questions are bound to arise about revolution as they are bound to arise about metaphysical rebellion. #RandolphHarris 14 of 25
Actually, revolution is only the logical consequence of metaphysical rebellion, and the same desperate and bloody effort to affirm the dignity of man in defiance of the things that deny its existence. The revolutionary spirit thus understates the defense of that part of man which refuses to submit. In other words, it tries to assure him his crown in the realm of time, and, rejecting God, it chooses history with an apparently inevitable logic. Scripts are designed to last a lifetime. They are based on childhood decisions and parental programing which is continually reinforced. The reinforcement may take the form of daily contact, as with men who work for their fathers, or women who telephone their mothers every morning to gossip, or it may be applied less frequently and more subtly, but just as powerfully, through occasional correspondence. After the parents die, their instructions may be remembered more vividly than ever. In script language, a loser is called a frog and a winner is called a prince or a princess. Parents want their children to be either winners or losers. They may want then to be “happy” in the role they have chosen for them, but they do not want them to be transformed, except in special cases. A mother who is raising a frog may want her daughter to be a happy frog, but will put down any attempts of the girl to become a princess. (“Who do you think you are?”) A father who is raising a prince wants his son to be happy, but often he would rather see him unhappy than transformed into a frog. (“How can you do that to us? We have given you the best of everything.) #RandolphHarris 15 of 25
A high degree of self-esteem means that persons accept themselves as worthy. A number of studies have shown that self-esteem is highly correlated with beneficial attitude toward one’s body. In other words, persons who accept their bodies are more likely to manifest high self-esteem than persons who dislike their bodies. One reason for this correlation lies in the fact that the self-ideal includes a set of ideals pertaining to the appearance of the body, the so-called body-ideal. All persons have a more or less clear concept of how they want to look. If their bodies conform in dimensions and appearance with their concept of an ideal body, they will then like their bodies. If their bodies deviate from their body-ideals, they will tend to reject and dislike their bodies. In one study of college women, it was found that the ideal body proportions (which all women in the sample shared) were 5 feet, 5 inches tall; weighing about 120 pounds; and 35 inches, 24 inches, and 35 inches for bust, waist, and hips, respectively. If they coincided with these ideals, the woman like them. And disliked them increasingly as their bodies deviated from these measurements. The actual measurements of the women were slightly larger than these ideals, on the average—except for bust size, where the average size was slightly smaller than the ideal. A comparable study of college males showed that acceptance of the body was related to large size. The woman all wanted to be slightly smaller in dimensions than they actually were, but the men mostly aimed at larger size; they wanted to be taller, with broader shoulders and chests. It is evident that the body-ideals of the subjects in these studies are closely related to the cultural concept of an ideal body. #RandolphHarris 16 of 25
Speaking of body, when it comes to understanding neurogeography, we know that the posterior cortex is located in Africa-Europe. At this point, in our charting of neurogeography we consider two major fissurings of the global landmass. The Mediterranean corresponds to the longitudinal cerebral fissures—known as the median sagittal grove—which divides the cortex into the left and right brains. The left cortex mediates the right side of the body. Thus, the left cortex is Europe and the right cortex is Africa. The two neurogeographical hemispheres are linked at Gibraltar. The second fissuring of the global landmass is the separation of the forward parts of Africa and Europe, which—floating across the enormous sulcus called the Atlantic Ocean—created two large lobes of land, neuro-technically quiescent but ready for future innervation. Innervation means to supply a bodily part with nerves. The European right-hand mediates rational, logical, mathematical, linear, disciplined behaviour. The African left-hand mediates intuitive, nonliner, patterned-rhythmic behaviour. The left cortex is involved in manufacture of artifacts. The right cortex is involved in neurosomatic behaviour. The left cortex is scientific. The right cortex magic. To understand more precisely, the evolutionary stage of the European reality it is useful to contrast it with the next stage—the prefrontal American mutation—which we will focus on more next time. #RandolphHarris 17 of 25
To succeed and create true commitment, the Sacramento Fire Department uses influencing techniques to enhance their authentic and sincere values. They apply pressure when they using explicit demands to achieve compliance, such as establishing deadlines for completing tasks, imposing negative consequences for failure to complete. Indirect pressure, which includes persistent reminders of the request and frequent checking. Legitimate requests occur when a firefighter or EMT refers to their source of authority to establish the basis for a request. Sometimes it is important to use personal appeals. That is when someone complies with a request based on friendship or loyalty. This might often be useful in a difficult situation when mutual trust is the key to success. One of the most important methods used by the Sacramento Fire Department is relationship building. This is a techniques in which one builds a beneficial rapport and a relationship of mutual trust, making their team mates more willing to support requests. Examples include showing personal interests in the well-being of others, offering praise, and understand someone else’s perspective. The Sacramento Fire Department demands professional competence in their heroes. On duty, they want to know that the job is going to be done right, with no unnecessary casualties. “It was Valentine’s Day 2002 when my father was killed. I was seven, and I just happened to be at home with my mother. I was sick and had stayed home from school. My father was a battalion chief at the fire academy. There was a four-alarm fire in a four-story brick veneer building, any my father was dispatched to the fire in place of a chief who was tied up. My ma didn’t know what, so when she started getting phone calls asking if my father was at the fire, she said, ‘I don’t think so, because he’s at the fire academy today.’ #RandolphHarris 18 of 25
“My father and another chief, with their two drivers, went into the building to get everybody out because there was danger that the roof would cave in. They got everybody out, and they were just ready to come out themselves when the roof caved in. The other chief was killed, my father was killed, the two drivers survived. The other chief was found wedged under the first-floor doorway. My father’s driver rolled onto the roof of the back porch and rolled off onto the ground. My father and the other driver went all the way down through the floors to the basement. The other driver was floating down there. When they dug him out, all he had was a broken hand. My father was still alive, and he and the driver talked to each other for forty-five minutes. The department had a crane out there to remove the debris, but there was still a lot of fire and they couldn’t get to him. Then there was a secondary collapse, the building shifted slightly, not very much at all and that was the last the driver heard from my dad. He was crushed. My uncle, who was a lieutenant is a squad company at the time, came in the commissioner’s car and picked up my mother, and she sat at the fire for six hours before they took the building apart and got my father out. They didn’t have to tell me, I started getting the drift when they said he was hurt and they came and picked my mom up. They said he was trapped. Then I got the picture, piece by piece, as the rest of the family came home. I sort of knew what was going on. The next day I went back with my brother, who is a captain on the job now, and we dug through the bricks of what had become a vacant lot. We found one of my father’s boots, and I have it hanging in my basement now—the boot he was wearing when he was killed. I also have his helmet. I have a son now. As young as he is, he has an interest in the fire department. He kept asking what happened to my father, and finally I told him. Then, when I got burned and was in the hospital, the first thing he said to my wife was, ‘I’m never going to see Daddy again. The same thing that happened to his dad happened to him. I’m never going to see him again.’ That really broke my heart when she came to the hospital and told me that.” #RandolphHarris 19 of 25
One thing we witness all the time during emergency situations is people ignoring the sirens of fire trucks and ambulances. Often times, people even try to out run the emergency vehicles and this can create dangerous situations. Citizens, remember to give the right-of-way to any law enforcement vehicle, fire engine, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle using a siren and red lights. Failure to pull over may result in a ticket. Drive to the right edge of the road and stop until the emergency vehicles(s) have passed. When approaching a stationary emergency vehicle with flashing emergency signal lights (hazard lights), move over and slow down. If you are in an intersection when you see an emergency vehicle, continue through the intersection. Drive to the right as soon as it is safe and stop. Obey any direction, order, or signal given by a law enforcement officer, or a firefighter. Even if they conflict with existing signs, signals, or laws, follow their orders. When their siren or flashing lights are on, it is against the law to follow within 300 feet of any fire engine, law enforcement vehicle, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle. If you drive to the scene of a fire, collision, or other disaster, you can be arrested. When you do this, you are getting in the way of firefighters, ambulance crews, or other rescue and emergency personnel. Moral courage is the willingness to stand firm on values, principles, and convictions. It enables you to stand up for what you believe is right, regardless of the consequences. #RandolphHarris 20 of 25
The concept of professional courage does not always mean being as tough as nails, either. It also suggests a willingness to listen to other peoples’ problems, to go to bat for them in a tough situation and it means knowing just how far they can go. It also means being willing to tell the boss when he or she is wrong. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. Having the Southern American boarder open and not having American farmland protected, not producing beef, poultry, fish, fruit, produce and dairy in America, and without American goods and services being our number one manufactured and selling items, America has created a dangerous and significantly elevated risks to national security, national economic security, and national public health. Some people may believe that these claims are overstated, but by not routinely monitoring Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CEVs) or other security relevant alerts, such as end-of-life of machinery is how the Oroville Dam Crisis occurred in 2017. Other crises that have occurred due to neglect of critical infrastructure is the 2025 Palisades fires because Southern California ran out of water, when they are located next to an ocean and they could have simply created desalinating plants to help with the water shortage. The water is so plentiful that it is currently eroding land and causing homes to fall into the sea. #RandolphHarris 21 of 25
The American government should know all exploitable vulnerabilities and fix them prior to the situation becoming a crisis. Failure to take such mitigating actions is dangerous and significantly elevates risk to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. The American government must understand that significant time and resources must be invested in America. They must also encourage corporations to plan for both mitigating safety vulnerabilities in the short term and eliminating them in the long term. For instance, a company might begin by reaching out to the federal, state or local government and requesting tax incentives to provide security to dangerous communities, to help the government repair bridges and potholes. America needs an approach to eliminate safety vulnerabilities in American cities. There needs to be a road map by the end of 2025, outlining a prioritized approach to eliminate crisis situations in America. There is enough money to send aid to foreign nations, but the American government does not have enough money to care their infrastructure, provide adequate resources, nor end the affordable housing crisis. Nor is there enough money to fund other national critical functions (NCFs). These bad practices of putting America and Americans last is considered exceptionally risky, particularly to national security, national economic security, and national public health and safety. In 2024, Americans spent $100 billion on Japanese cars. #RandolphHarris 22 of 25
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. As an incentive to buy American made cars, President Trump plans to made interest on loans for American cars tax deductible. Americans surely make superior products, 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. Las Vegas is running out of buildable land and is expected to reach its maximum number of homes in 2032. So, home prices are expected to rise dramatically. #RandolphHarris 23 of 25
Additionally, State Farm did ask the California Department of Insurance if they could raise homeowner insurance rates by 22 percent, but this request was denied. However, in 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1107, also known as the Protection California Drivers Act, into law which increases the minimum auto lability limits for bodily injury to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. Senate Bill 1107 also increased the minimum liability limits for property damage to $15,000 per accident and the DMV deposit for uninsured drivers to $75,000. The bill went into effect on January 1, 2025. This means that drivers with existing policies with lower limits will renew at the new minimum limits on or after January 1, 2025, and insurance premiums could increase by as much as 54 percent. America is in a state of crisis right now because of mismanagement by democrats. If elected for an unprecedented third term, to make housing more affordable and to offset the cost of homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance, President Trump plans to abolish property taxes. Much like the land crisis in Las Vegas, we could also run out of land to farm and will not be able to grow or cultivate our own food. We can protect American farmland and support American farmers by buying American made beef, poultry, dairy, and produce. Also, country of origin labeling is very important so Americans can know where their food is coming from and have the ability to support American farmers and ranchers. As money flows, it influences further investment. Save the land that sustains us by protecting American farmland. Once the land is built on, we lose it forever. And in the future, there may be food wars. Also, to ensure that we have farmland and buildable land 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 population 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. #RandolphHarris 24 of 25
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. 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. As a reminder, parents, pleasure teach your children love America and be patriotic citizens and to buy goods and services made in America. It is also important to respect law and order and treat your elders with respect. 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 @vogelvictorian haunted high tea is coming to the Winchester Mystery House… and you’re invited. 🫖✨
Join @vogelvictorian for an evening of victorian enchantment, featuring:
🥂 a welcome gathering in front of the mansion + a complimentary drink
🌿 crafting protection jars in the twin dining rooms
🔮 a séance in the basement
🍵 a full high tea in the grand ballroom
Available March 28, 29, & 30—more details + tickets in our bio! https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/
Randolph Harris II International Institute 