The mysterious process by which our Earthly life instructs us for another state of being is the informing act of the soul. Between soul and its powers, as well as between the powers themselves, there is only a formal distinction. What are American institutions? Everything is an institution. Having iced water to drink in every room of the house is an institution. Having hospitals in every town is an institution. Travelling altogether in one class of railway cars is an institution. Saying sir is an institution. Plenty of food is an institution. Getting drunk is an institution in a great many towns. Lecturing is an institution. This formal distinction, which obtains between entities that are not exactly the same and yet cannot be separated from other another, also obtains between being and its transcendentals, between animality and rationality in humans, between common nature and haeceitas (material and spiritual substance), between essence and attributes in God, and between the divine attributes themselves. The unique and absolute infinity of God is the attribute that best distinguishes him from creatures and constitutes his absolute perfection. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

While creation is primarily an act of the divine will, so that things exist and are good because God wills them, creation is also a rational act based on the divine intellect. Because of the essential contingence of creatures, God can dispense humans from those precepts of the natural law that concerns his duties toward our fellow creatures, but not from those concerning their relationship to God. Human’s ultimate end consists in love of, rather than in knowledge of, God, for it is the will and not the intellect that is the superior power in human beings. In recent years, philosophers have produced arguments designed to prove that not all human behavior can be predicted or otherwise known in advance, and these arguments have been taken to be relevant to the problem of freedom of the will as well as to the question whether there can be genuine behavioral sciences. Specifically, it is argued that in certain circumstances it is logically impossible that one should come to know decision, and actions for whose occurrence decisions are necessary conditions, in advance of the occurrences of such decisions. This have been interpreted as a refutation of determinism. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

 It is a familiar fact that some prophecies and predictions are self-fulfilling in the sense that the prediction itself produced the predicted event—for example, when all the stock market tip sheets predict that stock x will drop sharply in the next few weeks. We also know, for similar reasons, that some predictions are self-defeating. For example, Jones predicts that he will, as usual, take the easy way out of a difficulty, but then, to prove to himself that he can do better, he does just the opposite. This prediction affected his deliberation and caused him to make a decision opposite to the one he had predicted. Now, the argument which follows does not maintain that person’s predictions of his own future decisions are necessarily or always self-defeating; instead, it maintains that it is logically impossible that by considering cause a person should come to know that his final prediction of what he will decide is not self-defeating, and it maintains that the attempt to achieve such knowledge involves an infinite regress. In other words, this antipredictive argument purports to prove that predictions of one’s own future decisions on the basis of antecedent causal conditions cannot possibly be scientifically complete. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

 For some the strain of contemporary life is already too great. Medicine links the stress ailments—heart disease, mental aberration, ulcers—to the tempo of modern life. I am convinced there is a way to cope with any problem. It is first recognizing what the problem is in terms of non-verbal reality, then stating it so clearly and so concisely that you have directed yourself towards changing what can be changed. And when you have changed what can be changed, you learn to accept the rest. Most psychologist agree that the causes of emotional disorders are severe stress of conflict, overuse of the defense mechanisms common to all of us, and just plain loneliness and alienation from other people. These are elements present in the life of every person, to a greater or lesser extent. The difference between emotional health and illness, then, consists largely of differences in individuals’ ability to cope with these common factors—and perhaps in whether the methods used in coping are called normal by society. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

All of human experience is on a single continuum or scale. We need to understand all parts of that scale—including me and thee and those who are much farther up or down the scale of relative mental health than we are. Sometimes we endure more stress than we can handle and internalize it, but when you are sober, extremely tired, feel like you are drunk, weak, and have a headache, it is important to take a step back because you could be having symptoms of a stroke. When one feels sudden numbness or weakness of face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body, sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech, sudden trouble seeing in one eye or both eyes, sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination, and sudden severe headaches with no known cause, you could be in danger of having a stroke. So, contact your doctor and take time off of work and relax, or remove yourself from the troubling situation. We love and will the World as an immediate, spontaneous totality and we love it, give it affect, energy, power to love and change as we model and change it. This is what it means to be fully related to one’s World, so take care of yourself so that it will always be around for you. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

Traumatized people often have enormous difficulty telling other people what has happened to them. Their bodies reexperience terror, rage, and helplessness, as well as the impulse to stand your ground, or escape, but these feelings are almost impossible to articulate. Trauma by nature drives us to the edge of comprehension, cutting us off from language based on common experience or an imaginable past. It is enormously difficult to organize one’s traumatic experiences into a coherent account—a narrative with a beginning, a middle, and an end. When words fail, haunting images capture the experience and return as nightmares and flashbacks. God, we have done all we know how to do. Now, we are presenting our case based on your word, knowing that you are faithful and true to what you said. God, you did not hide your light under a basket, but let it shine for the whole World, for all the centuries to see. We may not suffer torture in our lives the way you did, but we are still called to let the light of our Christianity illumine our daily lives. Please help us to have the courage to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationship, our conversation—every corner of our day. The rest of our lives will be the best of our lives because of the greatness of God’s power. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6