Watch "Zach Gill - Party Hard" on YouTube

ADD & Me: A Perspective

Watch "ADHD As A Difference In Cognition, Not A Disorder: Stephen Tonti at TEDxCMU" on YouTube

A friend of mine shared this TED video with me. 

I don't know quite why, but I'm glad he did.

Before I had the chance to watch it, I wrote my own thoughts down based simply on the title. Interestingly we pretty much hit all the same points (although I envy his scholastic and domestic experiences) I suppose this really only speaks to the both of us having the same condition.

The best thing about this video for me, isn't the thought that the world might care about any of this. Nope, the best thing for me was the therapeutic value of knowing there are others out there in the world that I might understand... that might understand me. That's a rare thing. 

My  commentary, before watching this is below in blue. My post viewing addition is in red.

One large problem I have with the oversimplified "blessing" (ADD as the source of simply being labeled as a difference in perspective, conducive to seeing what the rest of the world doesn't) is that it fails to recognize that it also comes with the "curse" of being blind to what the rest of the world feels is obvious. Consequently those of us surrounded by "normal" people are then mislabeled as stupid or forgetful, etc. and are written off as a result.

I've found that many people have a tendency to misinterpret and/or disregard as fiction those things that they don't understand for lack of personal experience. These are the people who also want to dismiss the value of medications. To an extent medication is like any tool: The tool doesn't produce anything in itself, it simply gives you the means to do it. What happens after that is up to the user. However, ADD medication did for me what a crap load of anti-depressants never even seemed to touch and turned everything from a singular, ever growing, insurmountable problem into a series of problems that could be resolved individually and in their own time. That's a hell of a tool!  

I imagine the speaker and I have a pretty good difference in age. Our culture's awareness, understanding and compassion has expanded about ADHD since I was a kid. My childhood was a little more complicated (a little uglier) than his, not caused by but certainly complicated by ADHD. When I was kid, I never heard anyone mention anything about ADHD and I didn't get medication if it was available. 

The speaker here rightly notes the physiological concerns involved in medicating children. What I would add however with the benefit of retrospect, is the great personal value that came as the result of learning to first cope with my condition before I could take any medication for it, because in reality it's only a temporary relief that delays its inevitable return.

People don't generally understand that ADD has many manifestations far beyond those few obvious ones I am at ease to kid around about. There is a good deal of chemistry/science backing the cause of ADD and it's relation to Autism, Alzheimer's and Schizophrenia. So while it may not truly be defined as a disorder per se, for those of us forced to live among those considered to be "normal" it is certainly an affliction of sorts. It's not easy for you, but it sure ain't easy for us... It takes a good deal of self awareness and self discipline to amend what comes so naturally. For those of us with the "H" in there it's even tougher because (contrary to popular belief) the "H" is more about impulse control that hyper-activity.

It's commonly acknowledged that most artists (whatever their caliber or medium) have at least some level of ADD at play in their creativity, but most artists worth their salt aren't people you really want to know. For me, part of growing older is accepting who I am and learning to use what I've got to work with it when changing it takes more time & energy than it's worth. It's taken a good deal of experience but I've found that what I see when I'm not on medication, I'm then better able to communicate when I am on it. People generally recognize that taking Adderall makes me more tolerable to them. The benefit is mutual because what most people don't / can't understand is that it makes them more tolerable to me as well, because those differing perspectives can make for some difficult and trying communications.

So once more blessing or curse?
Depends on the approach I guess, but they are usually one and the same in their source.

So that pretty much ends it. He's on the money.

 

Formica Counter Tops Pt 2

The continuation of an on going conversation.

The issues here are:

1. The perceived cruelty of God, as Father, toward the individual man in allowing suffering.

2. The murder of the innocents, in the plagues of Egypt.

Hope that helps...

One great paradox of parenting is that just as the joy of the child is the joy of the parent, so too it is true regarding their pain as well. In avoiding pain for our children, we also avoid pain for ourselves.

So yes, the natural tendency of a parent is toward the protection of their child, but to spare a child from every pain in life is also to rob them of every lesson that comes with it.

In short, you can only tell a child so many times that the oven is hot. They can know that you're right, or they can learn that you're right, and those that must learn by experience will do so.

I generally try to avoid the rabbit hole of OT deaths that people find objectionable, simply because of the time involved and the Pandora's box we potentially open. But here I'll take exception.

Let me start by saying that many people not following their logic to its conclusion like to say that God can do whatever he wants and so because something isn't done it is simply for lack of want on Gods end. This is untrue.(Of course this presupposes that what we see is all that there is, which we have already acknowledged to be untrue.)

I suppose in a sense God can do anything he wants, but only because what he wants does not violate his own nature and that is the thing he cannot do or he is not God at all. So God as the source of the law cannot be in violation of it, or again he is not God.

A forced love is no love at all, so we are given the choice to love God or rebel against Him, but there is no middle ground.

We are allowed reason and freewill, both serve as blessing and curse, and God sometimes spares us the folly resulting there from, but allows us to suffer the consequences resulting from them at other times.

The extra mile always becomes the expected mile I have found, so the view is more often that we are  suffering some divine punishment, more so that realizing the grace afforded us when we are spared from our own undoings.

All that said, and as previously noted, those who choose to live in rebellion against God are not innocent and as harsh as it sounds,  suffer as those who are not innocent.

Which brings us to the paradox of being a child, that they benefit and suffer for the decisions of their parents and those before them.

That is the best I can do here for now, and it's not a very good at that,  however here is a link to a pretty extensive and insightful article about this very subject: http://christianthinktank.com/killheir.html

I have a half am hour left to sleep, please stop making me think.

Formica Counter Tops Pt 1

This is one side of an on going conversation. For clarity, basically the issues at hand here are:

1. What is the nature and level of concern / involvement regarding God in the affairs of the individual?

2. What does God owe man, and what does man owe God?

Hope that helps...

Part of being created in the image of God, means that we are created with an inherent need for relationship, both with God and with each other.

The concern of God with man then is generally in regard to those things that move us toward the restoration of a once harmonious relationship.

In other words, since the relation is spiritual, the aspects of man’s life and activities that God is concerned with are those aspects that affect man’s spiritual condition, the how and the why, but not the activity itself. (I also happen to think that if more people could adopt this view our generosity in extending shame could be replaced with healing and restoration)

That said, God recognizes and shows concern for the need of man to have satisfaction and purpose by and through his activities as is evidenced in God creating the Garden of Eden and then moving man into it with the charge of tending to the garden.

On a grander scale the day-to-day activities in person's life may play some part in regard to the final outcome of overall events, but for us to understand the complexity of that would require the finite to understand the infinite, which we have acknowledged man cannot do.

It seems to me however that given a man's limited power to change much of anything and rather limited perspective regarding the larger picture about what should in fact even be changed, these things are pretty much irrelevant.

It might just be wiser to accept them and move on rather than pondering them and going no further for lack of resolution that wouldn't be found anyway.

So now, let's step back just a bit. After placing Adam in the garden, Adam's first task is to name all of the animals. At the outset this might seem cruel, that God would have each set of animals, complete with mate, parade before Adam to drive home the fact that what God had done for all of the other animals he had not done for Adam. Adam might even be fair to call it cruel?

Here I will note that the greatest lessons in life often come at the greatest price. It is the only way to understand them in the depth that would make them truly effective.

The simple provision of these things, void of the experience of discovery trends to degrade and devalue them to the recipient, and thus it's a disservice to do so.

That said then it's not at all cruel when we consider that what is happening here is what I believe happens often in our own lives though we fail to comprehend it, or simply lack the patience to. Here it's spelled out for us or we might miss it once more, God recognizes Adam's need although Adam has not recognized it himself.

Certainly God could have simply resolved it right then and there, just as we often ask him to do for us at our whim, but there is apparently a need to make man aware of what it is he needs and the depth in which he needs it.

Only after that then happens does God resolve Adam's need for relationship on that level, and so too may be true in the difficulties of our own lives.

I could elaborate much more on all of this, but for our conversation (this part of it at least) this is sufficient I believe.

As for what God might owe to man, and what man may owe to God, God has already provided, and man must choose to accept and in turn provide as well. At its root it is simply love and the desire to be in relationship each with the other.

There are some other points to be addressed, and now that this much is laid out, hopefully (for your sake) it will be shorter.

The problem is always me

The Stuff of Dreams

What follows is a dream that I had this past Friday night.
It is as detailed and as vague as I recall it.

God v Man

Any cruelties inflicted by God against man is greatly overshadowed by the cruelties inflicted by man against man.

Sometimes When You Are a Man

I am a man among women...

Endless Weekend

Some dread Monday, but the weekend never really ends...

... if you work weekends.

Trading Up

Be careful about which problems in life you wish away. Rest assured they will be replaced.

of Monsters and Men

Monsters are not born in a moment, they are created over the course of time.

Increasing the Volume: 110613

What's Dave Listening to these days?
Besides Christmas music, this:

Thermometers and Barometers

One will accept only that which they are prepared and willing to accept, so that what they take on they do so willingly.

That said the acceptance or rejection of something is only truly an indicator of ones relational position, more than any sort of indication about the thing itself.

Silencer of the Lambs

I'm always surprised at mans' capacity for inhumanity towards his fellow man...

When we think about the tragedies of life that humans have suffered, it seems the tendency is to consider those we read about in history books and headlines. It's big and dramatic and the aftermath is obvious. It's on a collective large scale.

If cruelty could be quantified however, I have to wonder if the collective less obvious cruelty inflicted between individuals in the mere course of everyday relationships would be greater if we took into consideration the subtle aftermath over time that spans across generations.

Our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions and our actions become reinforcement to our thoughts, and so it begins all over again.

It is the everyday actions of living without considering the impact of our actions and words to our own well being, and the impact on those we know that seems to desensitize us and thus prepares us to inflict evil on an even greater scale toward those we don't.

These are the sorts of small, simple actions spawned from things like not giving others the benefit of the doubt, assuming the worst possible motive foremost, responding in kind to unkindness, cruel words followed by the suggestion that we were "joking", these and many more small things that wear people down and give them cause to rise only to their lowest possible level since doing otherwise seems to reap very little reward among our peers. It perpetuates itself and it is a sad cycle that is difficult to break.

Not to suggest we might all become tyrants with the power of life and death over millions, but we do have some measure of the power in the exercise of our social, religious and political worldviews that cannot be disregarded either. If we have relationships then we have the daily choice to build others up or tear them down with our words and actions.

We live in a sensitive, volatile time and we often avoid personal conflict at all costs, but what of the cost of not speaking up against wrong doing even on such a small scale when we consider its larger impact? Perhaps only overlooking the small personal offenses that have been caused to us is a good place to start. Then maybe others will begin to overlook those offenses caused by us so we may begin to move forward.

Regardless of the commonality of our world views, our sense of right and wrong bears more in common than it does in difference. Though it may be our motivator religion does not have to be the ground on which we stand in terms of making a case for wrong doing.

It is better to pull weeds than mow over them so gentle correction at the outset is as I see it, is the best course of action in avoiding the later consequences of a generation of people who would rather have avoided offense over correcting wrong doing and so remain silent.

Thoughts?

America The Poorest Nation on the Planet

If a mighty oak grew 6 inches in a day we would hardly notice, but if our grass grew 3 inches in a week we would notice right away...

Do Things Exist When The Are Not Perceived?

Money, it's a hit

Time is not money nor is money time, but often we sacrifice one to enjoy the other. They are in a word resources.

Cocktales

The funniest sales call I ever received was from a lady in India (I assume by the accent and broken English) who started the call by saying,

" Hello Mr. Baker. I am calling from Cox Communications... That's  C - O - X."

It confused her but I literally laughed out loud.

I had to wonder what sort of hilarity must have taken place previously to make her feel like she'd better start spelling it out.

But I could probably guess...

I Say Captain

Listening is not simply waiting your turn to reply.

Listening is learning and you cannot listen to the thoughts of others while you are preoccupied by your own.

Listen with your heart as well as your mind. Hear what is between the words, what is behind the words.

Listen as though it will never be your turn to speak and then you can truly listen.

Under the Sun

At a certain point in my life I found that of the important lessons in life there are essentially very few to be learned. What I've also found is that those few lessons seem to have a very broad range of applications so I wind up learning them over and over just in new ways.

To the Servants I Say Thank You

The most important work in the world isn't dramatic or entertaining for the most part.

It doesn't come to completion in the span of a movie or a mini series. If it's done correctly it's never actually done, for there will always be a need unfilled.

There is no monetary gain to be had or expected from it.

The people who do this work do it quietly without fuss because they know it's simply what must be done and so they do it.

They do it because they see what's on the line if it doesn't get done.

It's often messy, ugly, tiring and thankless. Hardly anyone notices it until it isn't being done.

The benefits we all gain from these people's work cannot be quantified in terms of money fort money it's not three objective off it.

It it's not measured in time measured by time. Whether it is done well or done poorly it's effects will play out for lifetimes to come.

These people take care of people.

Your life and this world is better because of them. That's all they want.

You may know some of these people.
Thank them. It's the least you could do.

Smile, Nod and Move on

When unsolicited advice with great certainty and no follow through is given to me, I know this is someone with little to no experience in the subject at hand.

When I am asked about my thoughts and led in a direction, I know this is a person with first hand experience.

It is the difference between the law and love.

If you love something, hang on to it

I've heard that if you love something you should set it free. That if it returns to you it's yours and it doesn't it never was.

This of a farce.

I loved something once and so I set it free. Turns out it didn't return to me... it wasn't mine.

In fact I wound up destroying it by doing so. The object of my affection was irreparably shattered.

It simply fell to the ground and broke.

Now I've also heard it said that love is all you need. That too is untrue, since the store owner demanded that I pay for it.

The moral here?

Don't fall in love with material objects, especially crystal unicorns.

View Askew

Throughout history and even today, everybody wants to love a hero and hate a villain, but that's just not how humans work. The fact of the matter is our priorities are so out of whack that we confuse which one is which, and probably wouldn't recognize either of them except in retrospect... and maybe not even then.

Increasing the Volume: 101513

Andrew Bird "Imitosis"
http://youtu.be/4kbMnzarBO8

He's keeping busy, yeah, he's bleeding stones
With his machinations and his palindromes
It was anything but hear the voice
Anything but hear the voice
It was anything but hear the voice that says that we're all basically alone

Poor Professor Pynchon had only good intentions when he
Put his Bunsen burners all away
And turning to a playground in a Petri dish
Where single cells would swing their fists at anything that looks like easy prey

In this nature show that rages every day
It was then he heard his intuition say
We were all basically alone

And despite what all his studies had shown
That what's mistaken for closeness is just a case of mitosis
And why do some show no mercy while others are painfully shy?
Tell me doctor, can you quantify?
He just wants to know the reason why
The reason why

Why do they congregate in groups of four,
Scatter like a billion spores and let the wind just carry them away?
How can kids be so mean?
Our famous doctor tried to glean as he went home at the end of the day

In this nature show that rages every day
It was then he heard his intuition say
We were all basically alone

Despite what all his studies had shown
That what's mistaken for closeness is just a case of mitosis
Sure fatal doses of malcontent through osmosis
And why do some show no mercy while others are painfully shy?
Tell me doctor, can you quantify

Everything Costs Something

There are many things in life that we do not desire until we see the need for them.
Even then we put them off until we can no longer afford not to.
Often times though the longer we wait the more costly they become to attain.
Even of we can bear the cost of them who's to say that at that point even they will even be available to be had anymore.

You have all that you really need

... but do you really need all that you have?

Of whom much has been forgiven

They say that karma's a bitch but most often I find that grace seems to be the bigger bitch.
Of you don't believe just watch the spite boil to the surface when someone does (or doesn't) get whatever it is that everyone around them believes they deserve.
Life isn't fair and let's be real, most of us should be pretty fucking happy that it isn't.
Start appreciating the grace you've received, stop bitching about it in lives of others, and maybe we could go so far as to be the source of it as often as we can not just when it's convenient.
Just a thought.

Truth

Over the course of my life I've probably been to strip malls hundreds of times, so you can believe me when I tell you everyone is always clothed.

There is a Difference

There are times when I feel like I'm doing good, and times that I feel I'm doing well and occasionally there are rate times that I feel I'm doing good and doing it well.

Good Intentions

Good Intentions are the air freshener that only masks the scent for the one that's doing the shitting. Everyone else still smells it a mile away.

Blowing in the Wind

There is this strange ever shifting rationalization that I hear people refer to often when they examine their own lives.

The standard of "better than" and "worse than" in contrast to others. It's a dangerously slippery slope to travel. One that is based in judgment of the situation of others known and unknown. One that leads to both  unwarranted and unmerited content or discontent because we assume that we are somehow different than they. It is a shallow premise for the mere rationalization of our perceived conditions.

Whatever it leaves us feeling it is fleeting at best and based only in our own imaginations. It also seems seductively deceitful in a sense to comfort ourselves about our own well being or suffering based on the perception of the opposing condition we might imagine in the lives of others.

Our standards should instead be based in absolutes that can provide us with either a mark to know when we have arrived or a measure of how much further we have to go. In either event it is a far more accurate gage of our progress. You cannot judge your speed by the surrounding traffic.

We may never arrive, but it is the journey not arriving that is the point. It is a process, not a product, something we forget all too often sacrificing processes for products.

Aim for the unattainable and you may find life to be better than you ever imagined possible.

Solo Cristo Salva
db

Truth

Salvation is not a pyramid scheme

I have no desire to bludgeon people with my faith. I have never seen the purpose of it nor have I seen any long term positive effect as a result of it.

I don't think that it is as important for you to know what I believe, as it is for you to know what it is you believe. That is the path of your choosing.

What I have come to believe is based within my own understanding and experience so I will not pridefully or foolishly believe that any amount of logic that I might impart will somehow convict or sway you, at least not into faith.

That is God's job, not mine. I do not sell God, he sells himself.

I'll gladly share with you what I believe and how I came to believe it, to the best of my recollection. But even if we came to the same conclusions about certain things we would not understand them in the same way, not all of them at least. This is good.

So, I feel no obligation or even desire to make you believe as I do, for I am as flawed as you, if not more so. Consequently I would hope better for you than the simple grasp of truth that I have come to in the course of my own life.

You must work out your own salvation and it will have its own story as you do.

I will say this however, that my hope is that you would seek and find the truth. That you would find a faith in God that is so convicting that you cannot resist living out.

If somehow I am a part of that process, glory be to God then. It has been said that "men may change minds, but only God changes hearts", I do not believe that God is content to settle for men's minds for his desire is their hearts.

He is everywhere, you only have to look.

Solo Cristo Salva

d(-_-)b

Do you see what I see?

Here's a fewer of the funny things I've seen this week.

freedom from choice

Choose your enemies as wisely as you choose your friends. They're not always as far as part of you would like to think.

A Slippery Slope

We relate to things as we experience them and we experience things as we relate to them, but neither may be the actuality of things.

So we believe things to be a certain way because we are certain they are right.

Be careful however not to mistake the certainty in your own way of thinking as being certainty about God's way of thinking.

For how can we profess to seek God when we will not look beyond our own certainties?

Embrace the conflicting arguments, work through them. You find either strength that you are right, or correction from being wrong.

Salvador Dali

R

See a pirate in here?

I didn't until I took this picture.

That's Entertainment

I am the dealer that's not addicted and all the junkies hate me.

The Least Interesting Man In The World

Stay Thursday my friends.

four lines wall into a bar

It is what it is
That much is true
What it becomes
Is up to you

Paper Towel

Increasing the Volume:090613

Watch "Alt-J (∆) - Matilda" on YouTube

Increasing the Volume: 090613a

Watch "alt-J (∆) - Fitzpleasure (Official Music Video)" on YouTube

Guys Like Me

Straight
White
Male
Protestant
Middle Aged
Omnivore
Not too conservative
Not too liberal

The sort of person you don't generally think about unless there's blame to assign or someone that needs to do more.

In Case You're Wondering

The Adderall has worn off and this is the worst time of day. The point when I can't shut it off. Sleep is the best thing that could happen to me now, but try as I might it doesn't come. Just endless thoughts. It's why I write this blog.

This is the time of day when everything positive becomes negative. Progress becomes regress, success failure, and every singular small problem becomes a collective insurmountable problem. There seems to be no point and nothing I seem to do is enough for anyone, including and especially me, and I have to wonder what the point of all this is.

Sometimes people ask me during the day, lightly, if I've taken my medication and I give them a sideways glance. I know they have no idea so I try to let it go. But it hurts none the less.

This is when every demon comes out to play.

It is now that my faith alone sees me through, but this is the time of day that is the biggest reason I don't own a gun.

Morning will come, but not soon enough. If it doesn't, well that's ok too.

Behold the Power of Denial

Everyone believes in something.

Believing you're right, and saying so isn't the problem, that's should be expected.

Believing in something means believing you're right.

Not listening because you believe you're right and cannot be otherwise... that is the problem.

Ignorance and ego is the mental equivalent of drinking and driving.

Someone always get hurt unless they get lucky.

It's Raining

Just had a great idea for a children's song.

It's about a feeble lonely old man that lives alone. One evening he has to run an errand, and goes out while its sprinkling, not thinking much of it.

On his return trip though the weather takes a turn and becomes torrential rain. With no other choice he begins to make a dash for home.

In a rush and almost home, he slips on his walkway and gets a concussion. In pain, and with blurred vision, he manages to pick himself up and get into the house where he's glad to be out of the storm.

Exhausted from the evenings activities he decides to turn in early. Sadly, not too long after going to bed he slips into a coma and dies.

Kids will sing that for years!
Wait, that's already been done.
My bad.

The Memeing of Life

Whenever I hear people say,"What you do when no one is looking, that's what you truly are." I always walk away feeling like shit.

pros and cons

The world is full of prose and cons.

Ant Eye

Tell me what you believe in, and I will know what you don't believe in. Tell me what you don't believe in and that is all I will know.

Mental Masturbation

If I am wrong, show me how and you will have helped me, but if you will only tell me that I'm wrong you have done so only to help yourself.

What's the word

Ignorance and ego: the mental equivalent of drinking and driving.

Crash

Everyone once in a while my kids will notice the position of the sun, or the time on the clock, and they will ask me," Aren't you going to work tonight?".

They are always enthusiastic at my response when I remind them that I don't work at FedEx anymore and we're both happy that I'm home.

So, did I make the right choice?
Without a doubt.

You shall know the truth...

We must seek God void of the expectation of what we should find. To do otherwise is to seek the validation of self.

We must free ourselves from the preconceived notions ingrained in us from partial teachings or by those with with ulterior motives. These are the prisons of the religious, blinders of the soul, designed to enslave not to liberate.

While God may be found in religion, religion will not be found in God and God is what we should seek, not religion.

In the end whatever we may think of God is inconsequential in light of what God may think of us.

My prayer is that we seek and find God's peace along our journeys, rather than simply hoping for it at end of them.

... and the truth shall make you free.

Failure is not an option...

There came a certain freedom of movement, a careless ease, an brutal honesty, when I accepted the inevitable fact that failure is most likely my only option.

Once I began the journey of failing on my own terms, I found the key that unlocks many doors to success was that very acceptance.

So while failure may not be an option how we do it is.

Who Cares

Sometimes what we want is ruined at that moment in which we have to state it.

Sometimes what we need, is simply someone who cares enough to know what we want.

i Wonder

When you have children you feel things that you can never say, sometimes simply because they could never understand and other times because you would rather that your feelings not be s factor unless they consider them for themselves.

When I consider this, I often wonder...

How must God feel when He looks upon us, His children?

Delight, shame?
Joy, sorrow?
Pride, regret?

What must He think of the way in which we treat his creation, and each other?

Perhaps I will never.
Perhaps that's better.

Read the Book

“Animals don't behave like men,' he said. 'If they have to fight, they fight; and if they have to kill they kill. But they don't sit down and set their wits to work to devise ways of spoiling other creatures' lives and hurting them. They have dignity and animality.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down

Over Thinker

Someone once told me I have a tendency to over think things.

I had to noodle on that one quite a while...

The Real Problem

I don't actually want people to think I'm a dick, but I'm not afraid of them thinking it either.

I'll do what it takes.

Most people are afraid of being frank and honest. They see all confrontation as hostile. Quite honestly I don't know how they get through life.

Most of those people, in my experience,  just avoid understanding a lot of people and subjects, and revel in speaking ignorantly about them.

The lies escalate.
The situation compounds.

Faith

Faith is knowing you can't do it and then doing it.

Keep stereotyping

it's super productive.

Love is all you need

FALSE

Love is not all you need

Blah blah Jesus blah blah

First thoughts are usually:

1. It's far more complicated.

2. It's not that complicated.

or

1. You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

2. Now you're flat out lying and you know it.

It's difficult to figure out when to say something and when to just say whatever.

It's really a matter of figuring out who's intentional and who's accidental.

Either choice can be regrettable.

My phone won't let me swear

Games People Play

Hats Amore'

Increasing the Volume: 082913

Watch "The The - Slow Emotion Replay" on YouTube

cat-dog begins

Here's my proof, for any of you who've doubted my crazy story about Abby our beagle that adopted kittens, began lactating, and wouldn't let anyone near them.

Not even their mom.

BTW,  I really came to hate that dog. She was moody and irrational. A real bitch you might say.

Never buy a beagle, no matter how cute.

Consider yourself warned.

Your Place in this World

Your whole life you've asked yourself,
" Why am I here? What am I doing?"

We like to complicate things.
We overlook the obvious.
But it's so simple... and it's easier than you might think.

Now, here, I will share with you what has been revealed to me.

From start to finish, beginning to end the purpose of your life comes down to you only having to do one thing:

The right thing.

When you fail at that, and you will, then accepting God's grace is also the right thing.

My Two Scents

There must be a place in this world that will make sense to me and of me.

I can't wait until I find it.
Is going to be great... maybe.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes from spending lots of time and energy fixing stuff that I thought was broken beyond repair... and then that feeling that follows when I realize it actually was.

Poor people learn more than rich people, if only out of necessity.

and so the day ends

Sticks and Stones

Some words stick around forever, some words pass by unnoticed.

The problem is that which we wish were the case hardly seems to be.

Testing my Patients

If I owned a doctor's office, 

I would have these made 

for my favorite patients... 

(Just saying, if.)

Silent But Deadly

when snuffed was once
a burning flame
the glow of the wick
the light that remains

we watch it fade
as we know it will
the peaceful reveal
how they silently killed

we will stumble alone
helpless and blind
through the blackest of nights
and our folly unwinds

The Undid Don't Exist

It's not what you said, it's how you said it... yeah sometimes.

But sometimes it's simply that you said it, no matter how you said it.

Just because it's true doesn't mean it has to be stated, and the more obvious the issue is the less you probably need to point it out.

Not all thoughts are good thoughts and before anything can be said, it has to be thought.

So take a second to do a little more thinking before you take that next step and say anything at all. Remember in many instances shutting up usually bears less consequence than speaking up.

What's did is did.

Without Vision the People Perish

You will move in the direction of your vision.

Unclear vision yields unclear direction.

Out Through the In Door

Choose carefully which doors you close, a room only has so many exits.

I've seen normal

and you can have it.

No one has it together nearly as much as they'd like you to think.

In fact, from what I've seen of most people's lives, the better it looks on the surface the uglier it is underneath.

Don't waste your life trying to be someone else. Pursue your own brand of crazy and learn from theirs, but theirs will never be yours.

You should be happy about that.

If you can't laugh at yourself

You can laugh at the lesser know verbiage of Gandhi...

Merica

Putting a flag on it doesn't make it yours, that takes blood.

Gandhi Is Laughing at You

Text with a graphic, who could argue it?

So here we have some words that Gandhi is supposed to have said. People love to say,"Oh, that Gandhi was so profound! What a great guy. I almost watched that whole movie." when they hear this little snippet.

In reality we don't have any context surrounding this statement. Enamored by his greatness, we are left to do what we always do to each other anyway, and apply our perception as his reality.

If I've learned anything about how people communicate I've learned this: Don't hear what isn't being said, but certainly listen for it.

People like to imagine Gandhi a lot like they imagine Jesus, always so nice and lovely, never angry or hostile toward anything or anyone.

But anyone who knows about either of those guys knows those are bogus notions. Both of them, they got down right angry. They were passionate about their faith.

Now, it's well known that Gandhi wasn't a Christian and in fact right here he's saying "I don't like Christians". Forget about the justification he offers, this is what he's literally saying, I can't stand Christians... all Christians. Jesus, although I reject the notion of his claims, was a nice enough dude.

People love Gandhi, he can't stand Christians and we love it everytime someone reminds us of that. Do you get it?

Gandhi was a master of language. He didn't say some, or most, he was all inclusive. So this broad stereo type about ALL Christians was no "mistake".

So, Gandhi doesn't like Christians. Why?
They have nothing in common with Jesus... and so consider what if, just what if, at the heart of Gandhi's profound statement that we like to ooh and aah at, was actually this: We got rid of Jesus, why can't we get rid of these people too?

Hey, I'm just thinking.
I could certainly be wrong.

All that said, it's certainly ironic that this meme was shared by "The Christian Left". If that's the case then where did they go?

Gandhi sure would be happy.

What's Really Bugging You?

Where does the logic of so many intelligent people go when they start taking about God?

No rational person would ever say:

I don't believe in the sun, because it seems to me if the sun were the sort of star I could believe exists it certainly wouldn't put out so much radiation and kill my garden.

That's silly.

But they apply that very rational when they talk about God, and they do it all the time.

Science had taught me this about God:

When we consider things far larger than ourselves, things that exist regardless of us, it doesn't really matter what we think they should or shouldn't do. They do what they do regardless of what we think.

Yet somehow we believe God is exempt from this. All seven billion of us think that God should be exactly what we desire as we desire it.

I can only really conclude that we think so because we don't want to recognize God as being bigger than us, like a black hole, that would somehow take away our control.

We'd rather see him something more like an ant whose existence depends on whether or not we feel like allowing it on any given day.

On a bad day we might kill it for no real reason, but, if it doesn't bite us we could easily enough just ignore it and pretend that it doesn't exist at all.

Oh, but it does.

solo Cristo salva

Praise My Name

There are some who can never admire the wonder of God's work all around them because they can't stop admiring the wonder of his work within them.

Not Always

Often times being a good witness simply means being a good friend, and being a good friend often times means simply not being a dick.

351 Prophecies About Jesus

All fulfilled.

http://www.accordingtothescriptures.org/prophecy/353prophecies.html

Read the Red Words First

Don't get so caught up in finding the devil in the fine print that you completely miss finding God in the bold print.

He's there, you just have to look.

I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful

I get anywhere from about 50-100 hits a day on my blog.

A lot of my posts are pretty controversial and polarizing, I know.

But, I've been watching the trends and what I'm finding is that it's a pretty even split among my audience.

About half those people who check it out generally don't comment while the other half simply don't say anything at all.

All I can figure is that I'm either a genius or an idiot.

Given the critical nature of most people, and the insecurity of this one, I'm going with that first option.

Like breathing

Do what needs to get done and do it well, but don't expect anyone to notice because they won't...

...until you stop.

Numbers Up

According to Google there are over 7 billion people in the world.

So, it seems pretty reasonable to think that God will change who he is to accommodate your thoughts about what he should be doing.

Hang in there... I'm sure he'll get to you.

Then all will be right with the world and you'll finally have what you've always wanted... a God you can believe in!

Well, at least until someone else is born.

But, won't that be awesome while it lasts?!

Hope you brought a book. I've got 66 you can check out while you wait. It's up to you... whatevs.

Power Trip

When I turn out the lights on my way to bed and then stub my toe or trip, of course I blame the lights for forcing me to walk in darkness and the sun for causing the night... and then there's that switch that gave me a choice in the first place.

Really I don't get it

Why do so many people combine their certainty of the omnipotence of God with the concept of luck?

That's What God is For...

It's much harder to realize people as they could be when all that they currently are is so overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time...

My Parents

When I consider all the reprehensible things my parents have done to me over the years, and there are quite a few, that I am beginning to see so much of them in me is by far the most incomprehensible thing I've been forced to deal with yet.

It trumps every other reason to dislike them, by far.

Thanks guys...

Casting Stones

Which sin is it
that you commit
that is more forgivable
than the ones I deal with

Which one is it
that makes you so much more

and me so much less
worthy of this unmerited grace

I am unlovable
I've never questioned it
and you have been good
to remind me if I forget

So tell me

Tell me
Please do

What is the secret
of becoming like you 

So the God of love
can love me too

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation

OK
Yeah.

And?

So what.
Who the fuck cares?

No one has time to listen to hear your bullshit about "quiet desperation".

Boo Hoo

You don't think we all got shit to deal with? Just get your shit done and shut the fuck up.

Hey.

You never talk anymore, what's wrong with you?

It's like your shutting me out.

We can't keep doing this...

Open mouth, begin again.

Art

This is religion...

You certainly don't need religion to be self righteous.

Religion however is the only place willing to rebuke that character flaw within itself so flagrantly.

Both the religious and the non religious glorify their Gods. It's just a matter of distinguishing which God it is they're glorifying.

To the religious, God is God, to the non religious man is God.

Therein lies the difference.

Self righteousness may be found in either thinking, but it is inherent to only one.

Some will seek and some will find

A minority of people will find what they were never even looking for because they have the courage and strength to be honest with themselves and others. They will battle the odds, face great adversity for truth and change the world.

History mentions some of them by name, and is full of these people.

But the majority of people will find only and exactly what they are looking for simply because they had great resolve in their denial. They will lead a comfortable life of mediocrity and blind acceptance, going on to change nothing.

History is full of these people too, in a certain way I suppose...

Is this incorrect?

In 1986, a group of Americans were being held hostage by a terrorist group with ties to Iran. In an attempt to free the hostages, Ronald Reagan secretly sold arms and money to Iran. Much of the money that was received from the trade went to fund the Nicaragua Contra rebels who were in a war with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. When the scandal broke in the Untied States it became the biggest story in the country, Reagan tried to down play what happened, but never fully recovered.

The attacks on 9/11 by al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden brought new attention to international terrorism. All of a sudden, Americans coast to coast wore their American flag pins, ate their freedom fries and couldn't wait to go to war with anyone who looked like a Muslim. What Americans didn't realize was that the same group that attacked the United States on 9/11 was funded by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Prepping for a possible war with the Soviet Union, Ronald Reagan spent billions of dollars funding the Islamist mujahidin Freedom Fighters in Afghanistan. With billions of American dollars, weapons and training coming their way, the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden took everything they were given and gave it back to the United States over a decade later in the worst possible way imaginable.

Shop Talkers

When you talk about someone before (or without) talking to them, that's not concern, it's gossip. It's not constructive, it's destructive.

Surfer

Good News For Bad People

I hear about it all the time.

Good things happen to bad people.
Bad things happen to good people.

Good people make bad choices.
Bad people make good choices.

Why?

That's always the next question.

Why?

It seems like a fair question, but I  thinks it's the wrong question.

Why?

Let's face it, in this application the terms good and bad simply mean that which we approve or disapprove of by virtue of our own understanding. Fair by our own standards of such.

So, since there is no unanimous collective standard, and no one knows everything about anyone, or any situation, let's remove those words, and this is what we get:

Things happen to people.
People make choices.

At the heart of it that is all that is really happening.

Everything else then is just perspective.

So You've Tried God and It Didn't Work 5

Here comes another car, get out of the road...

Although not a tall person, I am taller than my kids. I live in a college town so there are always cars parked up and down my street. I also live in a family neighborhood so there are also kids who play on the street as well. The height of the cars parked in the street can often make it difficult for a driver to see the much smaller kids, or the kids to see them.

They may each be oblivious to the other but they still exist and one is about to affect the other drastically.

A car could in all reality come speeding through the neighborhood, and never even see those kids until it was too late.

I however, having the advantage of a bigger view  see far more than either the kids or the driver who is about to put them in mortal danger simply by poor judgment.

So let's picture this, the kids are playing, a car is battling toward them... what should I do?

Seeing both the kids and the mortal danger they were potentially in, I would without hesitation yell to them to get out of the street.

"Get out of the street, NOW!"

My own children, the children that knew me, would listen, without question, without hesitation they would obey, because they trust in me and my motivation.

They know me, and I know them. It is the benefit of relationship.

The driver would recklessly drive on, unaware of the havoc their actions are creating for others.

But it's not just my kids that live in the neighborhood. So let's say that kids that are not my kids are also out there.

If I yelled the same to them they may be prone to question both my motivation and reasoning, by virtue of my tone and their lack of familiarity with me.

We have no familiarity or relationship. They might not understand why it is this stranger is yelling at them...

"This is a public street. Stop yelling at us, we can play wherever we want and you can't stop us! You go away!"

They're right...
So I shrug my shoulders and say," You're right. My bad. Sorry about all the yelling. Carry on."

Of course not. As persistent as they may be about not taking action, I would be equally as persistent that they do. I see and understand what they simply can't.

So if time permitted I would again, in even stronger tone and wording, repeat the same warning.

"Get out of the street, NOW!"

Now they're mad. Who am I to tell them anything?

"It's none of your business where we play! You can't tell us what to do and we're not moving. What's your problem!?"

Bam...dead.

The point? Love isn't always lovely in appearance.

Love can actually  sound a lot like anger, for our own lack of perception, trust and understanding of the motivation and desperation behind the words.

If you can look beyond the wording of the messenger to the heart of the message, you may find that you are in a far different situation than you ever imagined.

Trust, it's what relationships are built on, as they grow so does trust, but trust comes first.

Atheism

An Atheist must still be a theist.

Faith

Faith is not a postcard from some exotic foreign land. Faith is the picture you never took because that's just where you live.

So You've Tried God and It Didn't Work 4

You have asked me not to lie so I will tell you quite frankly what many will not, 

So You've Tried God and It Didn't Work 3

We believe we should not be forced like robots to obey God.

We believe we should have the right to freewill, to choose between right and wrong. That if we have chosen wrongly, it is the fault of God for giving us freewill in the first place, and dooming us to fail.

We believe we should be able to freely at our leisure, choose whatever we might desire. That God which allows us to suffer the natural consequence of doing so is no God at all.

We believe God who does not remove the injustice of consequence from our decisions (as we see fit) is not worthy of worship.

We believe that the infinite should meet the expectations of the finite. That the will of God should conform to the logic and timing of man. If we fail to recognize it, it does not exist.

We believe God should be made in our image. If God does not look like us, sound like us, feel like us, that there is then no God.

We believe fairness is measured by our standards alone. We alone parcel out grace in measured doses.

We believe all of this because in reality, we believe that we are in fact God. That God stands before us in judgment.

We will live until we die, apart from God, as we have chosen. Then we will complain once more when he allows us to continue doing so.

God does not love us... not like we deserve.

Is that about right?

So You've Tried God and It Didn't Work 2

I'm certainly glad God doesn't give up on us as quickly as we tend to give up on him.

So You've Tried God and It Didn't Work

Faith is not something you try, like a restaurant or a theme park it's something you live, like finding yourself in a new and wonderful place...

To be continued.

Enjoy the Silence (repost)

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Enjoy the Silence

I spent some time in Genesis a while back. Corrected: I spent a long time in Genesis. My original intention was to read the Bible cover to cover, 3 years later, I was still in Genesis. I couldn't shake its depth and imagery. 

It's a profound book to say the least, if you read it correctly...
Eventually I did move on, but Leviticus was really only completed because I listened to most of it while driving. Pretty unimpressive, eh?

One of the many things I saw in those readings, is that beginning with Adam and Eve, and up to modern day, we as people really aren't all that different. While science and technology have certainly changed our views on many things, our natural tendencies to seek certain things, and respond to certain situations, is pretty much the same. Perhaps manifested differently, but basically it's the same product in a different package.

When I first started reading about the wandering Jews, I was appalled at their ingratitude. After all God had done, all of the miracles, the rescue from their oppressors, after all of that, they still harbored unbelief.

As I continued to read however, I began to wonder if I was really so different from the people I was reading about.

Would I have responded differently if I had been one of them?

Probably not.

When God was directly among His people, they took Him for granted. They became too comfortable with Him.

When God was distant (or so it seemed) they quickly forgot about Him. They looked elsewhere for their answers.

You really need to read it for yourself to get the full impact, but that's me in a nut shell to be sure.

I'm not sure why, but I thought about this tonight when once again, I was speaking to Jed about my continual addressing of certain issues in my writings.

Text Messages:

Jed: Not so much a matter of not growing. In fact, I would call it the opposite. Seems to me that just because the questions don't change doesn't mean we don't learn. Maybe it just means we aren't satisfied with simple answers. Maybe it means we want to go deeper.

Me: Perhaps asking the questions is enough. Maybe there is no clear answer so that we are forced to continue seeking?

Jed: I think that God is God and I am not. He's cool with us asking questions. But I think when we claim to know the answers, then we are in error.

Hmm...I had to think about this.

Perhaps, there are no clear answers to certain questions so that we are forced to continually re-evaluate our own certainties about how things should be...? or Perhaps asking certain questions, is actually the very point of them, and sometimes (maybe) the best answer we can receive is no apparent answer at all.

I know as a parent that a child will ask for what they think they want, but not always for what they need. Try arguing with a toddler about how tired they are when they want to stay up, or how they can't have candy because they need to eat real food. Oh, and good luck with that!

So, stay with me here...I was having coffee the other day with Shane. He's an intelligent, educated fellow as well. (Not as well as I, as well as Jed.) In our conversation I remarked that one of the many things I like about my friends, is their willingness not only to disagree with me, and to do so vocally, but their ability to do so by leading others to their own conclusions, gracefully and with thoughtful dialogue. This is, I feel, not only a mark of security and intelligence, although it certainly is that, it is also a kind of a testament to the power we find when we combine grace and humility.

Grace? Yes that's powerful, and so is humility, but combined they have the amazing potential to transform their recipients.

We talked about this as well, and I noted that some of the most amazing and impacting acts of grace are those that go unclaimed by those that bestow them. That is to say, blessing someone else in such a manner so that they are either unaware of it, or so that they must simply accept it for what it is, to give God the glory He deserves, because it was given in anonymity.

I reflected on that conversation in conjunction with tonight's, and concluded...This perhaps is one of the keys in understanding why certain prayers seem to go unanswered, and why certain questions seem to remain unanswered. These are usually difficult situations to comprehend, and handing us the answer isn't really the best solution, as much as leading us to the answer might be. This is perhaps a bestowal of God's grace, given to us without our knowing.

We are often, spiritual toddlers, and many times what we seek, is not what we actually need at all, but simply what gratifies, or pacifies us.

This is not the God I know. This is not the God of the Bible. He is not one who would simply give candy to us while we are starving.

So maybe the actual point of of these things, is  that we don't become complacent for Him being too close, or stray for Him for seeming too distant, but that no matter how close or distant we may feel that God is that we continually seek Him...always.

Just may be, the deafening silence of God, is exactly what we need to hear sometimes.

I don't really know, I'm just thinking.

d(-_-)b

PS Happy Birthday Dustin

Originally Posted: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 1:58am From my blog: http://phreshwater01.blogspot.com/2011/06/ssdd.html

Even if you know me

you don't really know me.

Trust me, it's better for both of us.

And so they did

Freedom From Choice

You always have a choice, but it it's wise to remember that nothing is free.

It is always at the very least one thing in exchange for the another. That is the price we pay.

Some choices lead to positions that may limit future choices, but there is always a choice to be made.

You just have to ask yourself,
"Is the gain worth the give?"

Sometimes it is...

It just doesn't matter

I'm going to die and it won't matter when.

There's no way around it.

No time will never be an OK time, so I suppose anytime is an OK time.

Parents make no sound when they speak

The white noise of advice from parent to child suddenly becomes a revelation of profound wisdom when it is heard for the first time from almost any other source.

Children become immune to the voices of their parents when their words no longer engage them.

Stay involved in the lives of your children, it's not ground that can be regained once it's gone, it's gone.

The divide expands...

Just Kidding Doesn't Mean Squat

You had to think it before you could say it.

Why I Don't Go To Shows

Because good or bad it's always depressing.

Fail for Success

If you want to have success in a relationship simply have undisclosed expectations of others, and let them know they should have no expectations of you.

However, of your relationships aren't about success, then just be honest.

Blessed are those

Blessed are those that can ignore the bullshit of others and continue to do what's right.

The Amazing Dog

If I were a space alien and upon stepping off of my ship I saw people everywhere doing this, I think I would be dumb founded about what strange power over people it was that dogs must have.

I as I wrote my report to send back to the people of my planet I think it would probably conclude something like this:

...and so, although contrary to every other evidence, it seems clear, from having observed so many scenes like this, that dogs must somehow be the superior life form.

You are so good looking

I have yet to find a complimentary item that actually offers any compliments.

"Here take this with our compliments." but then never does a compliment follow.

"Here have this with our compliments." and then a list of nice things that people have said about you. That's what complimentary should mean, otherwise just say,"Here you go, we'll pick up the cost." and I'll say thanks.

Acting Natural

There are conflicts in nature that we will never see until we are willing to look within ourselves.

The Good The Bad The Ugly

If I had to guess, I think the reason that being nice seems to get so old, so fast, is that being an asshole apparently never gets old... ever.

Pro Life

It's just a very wrong notion that being pro birth or even anti death is in practice being pro life.

If anyone claims to be pro life, they should be pro life at every stage of it.

That is we are all endowed, BY OUR CREATOR with inherent value.

Science is based in fact

Hey mighty brontosaurus, have you got a lesson for us? -The Police

That's what she said

I've heard tell of an incident in which undisclosed members of the fairer gender have, in the past, made remarks very much the same as yours in wording, however it applied to a situation far more personal in nature.

Carne Adobada Ribs

Why would I order anything else?

What am I doing?

YOU'RE fAmiLIAR

Anyone that would lie for you...

 ...would also lie to you.

Don't act surprised when the liars lie...