Failure in the Victory Garden

Saturday, February 9, 2013

One of these things

There's certain things in life that won't get done if you don't do them.

There are also certain things life that will only get done if you do them.

These things are the same things.

I Know Right

Allowing someone to make the right decision also means allowing them to make the wrong decision.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Increasing the Volume 020713

Live: White Discussion

I talk of freedom
you talk of the flag
I talk of revolution
you'd much rather brag
and as the decibels of this disenchanting discourse
continue to dampen the day

the coin flips again and again,
and again, and again
as our sanity walks away

all this discussion
though politically correct
is dead beyond destruction
though it leaves me quite erect

and as the final sunset
rolls behind the earth
and the clock is finally dead
I'll look at you,
you'll look at me
and we'll cry a lot
but this will be what we said
this will be what we said

Look where all this talking got us, baby.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Jesus Ricardo

I imagine, in his day, a lot of people probably thought Jesus was a real dick.

Now that I think about it, a lot of people still do.

Bummer

I Still Miss You

Clipping them is even worse. Try again, use reverse.

You were wrong before you were right

If you can't allow for the possibility that you might not be right, at least consider the possibility that you might not be as right as you would like to believe.

That perhaps there is a right that you've yet to consider.

Remember you were wrong before you were right, if you were ever right at all...

Hate in the name of love

A farmer would never sow corn and expect to reap wheat. Yet here are we sowing hate hoping to reap love.

Monday, February 4, 2013

In the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl, a reporter asked Lewis, "How does it feel to be a Super Bowl Champion?" He responded "When God is for you, who can be against you?"

Ray Lewis + Romans 8:31 usage = American Jesus...pathetic.

Let Me Eat Cake

You don't save room for cake you make room for it.

Just pinched this loaf

At Wild Flower Bread Company

Beaks and Bills

Millions of people across the nation watched yesterday as Money battled Nature.

I hope the outcome of yesterday's game is the same in real life as well.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

2-4-68 What do you appreciate

Here's a bunch of random shit I've thought about recently with my birthday approaching...perhaps I won't see it but I've lived to see every preceding day, so I'd say the odds are I'll see tomorrow as well...

If I wake up tomorrow, I hope that is the biggest problem I have all day.

The anniversary of 45 years of fucking up. That's a lot....

Every year marked with just enough success to keep me going and just enough failure to keep me growing I suppose.

Its strange to think that my life is more than half over and for all I know it may be 99% over.

I hope I die on a Monday morning about 10 before the alarm goes off. After a nice weekend and a great night's sleep.

The days drag on, the years fly by and when it's all over I'm sure I will think to myself, "Well, that was quick."

Life is too short to wish 5/7 of it away.

Not much matters, what matters, matters greatly though.

What matters least in life demands your attention while what matters most waits for it.

Blah, blah, blah...

Good night John Boy.

I couldn't tell you why

I just thought this was cool. It was in the parking lot of Ace Hardware.

Inarticulate, Inconcise and Verbose

Or so I've been told.
Perhaps it is the case, but if it is, it is the sheer result of my own experiences.

So then, in the most "Inarticulate, Inconcise and Verbose" manner possible, here is why....

I can show you where to go, but it's up to you to get there.

I may offer direction.
I may offer clues.
I may even offer to journey with you part or all of the way.

But I can only share the path I have walked, and the experiences I have had which have brought me here.

So I cannot, I will not, magically transport you.

Doing so is most often a disservice to both the inquirer, and the answer,.

We must each arrive of our own accord, by of our own desire. We will only know when or if we have arrived because we have made the effort of the journey.

We cannot actually know, if where we are seeking to go is where we will wind up being. Having a destination, in the end, really only serves to gives us an initial motivating direction. It is only important, for now, that we go.

There is a sort of certainty that only inexperience affords us. I have believed at one point it another that I knew certain things for and about myself, but found in the end that I actually knew little to nothing. It is the same for all of us at any given point.

It is a process, not a product, and we may never actually arrive. Such is life, the experience of our journey often changes the direction of it.

So it is for now simply making the journey that is of the greater importance. Arriving is not the point of the journey and the journeys are ours alone to make.

We can only help to ease the struggle for others, by perhaps forging a path that we once walked. To walk it must be chosen.

Done.

I hope that clears nothing up...it means what you want it to mean, as most things will anyway.

d(-_-)b

Too complicated for you?

Here's the short of it:
I can show you where to go, but it's up to you to get there.

Varying Shades of Grey

The concept of sin presupposes the existence of God.

Any questioning about "if there is a God" cannot be entertained in the same discussion in regard to what the consequences of sin are.

If there is no God, there is no sin, and thus no need for concern regarding right and wrong as the standard for such then becomes subject to personal interpretation based in our feeling of them.

However, if there is a God, there is most definitely sin, and great cause for concern. Right and wrong then have clearly been established and are thus subject to an eternal interpretation without regard to what our feelings may be of them.

If we are discussing sin, then we are also discussing God.

d(-_-)b

The Mighty Oak and the Many Weeds

Person 1: Original question:...if the reality were that everyone ended up in hell, and all because of original sin, would you do anything different?"

me: Fair enough, but...

Let's approach the question from the opposite end. If the case were instead of condemnation resulting from the hopelessness of original sin, but rather the grace of salvation being extended to all, because of it, would we then do anything different?

I believe it is, but it is the difference between loving God and His creation versus fearing either or both of them. Although both will make us do things we would not believe of ourselves, the motivation of love affects the source, its benefactors and everything around them very differently than that of fear. Not unlike the difference between the growth and life of a weed and that of an oak tree is that of fear and love in our lives.

Inevitable condemnation and unconditional love...both are truly incomprehensible, to the giver and the receivers of them, but both are the conditions under which many people operate daily. Who then benefits themselves and others more by living as though either were the case?

So...what then should we do differently?

Everything, I suppose.

d(-_-)b

Person 1: "elaborating, if by some interpretations of it, the sense of relief upon relief is a sin. Taking that kind of approach, and thinking of many of the things that we take relief in are we thereby condemning ourselves by our very own nature?"

Me: We've moved to a much bigger subject, on which I'm not qualified to offer much more than confusion. That of predestination and freewill, but it sure feels like we have a choice and so we must assume that we will be accountable for those choices.

In short, yes, I suppose if we choose to continue living in the manner of our nature having been shown the option of doing otherwise, our nature has condemned us, although out didn't have to. That said this too is a bit of a quandary for me for the far bigger implications it would have.

It is in a sense subjecting God to our standards of fair and unfair, thus making him accountable to us. Having been made in God's image we then return the favor by creating him in ours, and reversing the order of things.
It would be untrue to say that I haven't pondered this same issue without true resolve, but it is the finite trying to grasp the infinite.

Person 2: "I think thar sentence means that you have pondered it without the same resolve."

Me: Perhaps. I've found no satisfactory answer and don't expect that I will. Or should.

Person 3: We are born of sin, but you must repent and ask for forgiveness, and wash away sin through a baptism if you believe in ashes to ashes dust to dust, from dust you came to dust you will return, you may be able to see that death is our destiny we live on borrowed time, and i don't believe in heaven or hell, I live one day a time. And when i die thats the end of me. Totally.

Person 1: when i die, its the end of the world.

Me: There's no magic in baptism according to the Bible, its simply a public symbolic declaration of faith. Any action we could extend on our part toward salvation would there by negate the work of grace achieved on the cross, by virtue of making it unnecessary. Although faith without works is dead, it is only by faith that one is saved. If we're going by Biblical context.

The concept of sin presupposes the existence of God.
If there is no God, there is no sin.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Not Nearly Enough Shit in My Life

I've been to the bathroom eight times today....twice just for solitude.

45 Years of Fucking Up

As I get older it seems the number of things that used to matter to me is greatly decreasing, while the depth of those things that remain is greatly increasing. d(-_-)b

Every mom is a working mom.

That's it.

Annoying as Hell

Statements of the obvious stuff people say but don't mean. Feel free to add to the list....

1) Not to mention: Always means,"I'm about to mention..."

2) If it makes you feel any better: Always followed by something that's not going to make you feel any better.

3) You know what's funny: Nothing funny is about to be said.

4) I'm not judging: Here comes judgment.

5) Can I ask you a question: Clearly you can. Just ask.

6) What are you doing (now or some future date): Commit to availability before I ask you to do something crappy.

7) Not that it matters: It actually matters to some (probably large) extent or I wouldn't have mentioned it.

8) At the end of the day: I'm not talking about tonight.

9a) I was like: I was literally
9b) I was literally: I was like

10) Arguably: Opposing arguments not actually conceivable.

11) Ironically: I'm probably not going to say anything that's actually ironic, just something shitty.

12) How's it going: I don't actually care about how it's going, just say good and let me get on.

13) Guess what: Don't bother guessing I'm going to tell you.

14) You know what: Of course I don't, you didn't precede that with anything that would provide a clue.

15) Got a minute: I need a captive audience. Sixty seconds will not be nearly enough for the diatribe I'm about to subject you to

16) Freedom of religion: Not religions that run contrary to mine.

17) Not trying to toot my own horn: Let me tell you about what I did so you can praise my name.

18) ...as hell?

Qualifications for stating that?

19) I know right?

Jack

five months...
little shit

five years...
learning shit

ten years...
hot shit

fifteen years...
Smoked shit

twenty years...
the shit

twenty five years...
deep shit

thirty years...
piece of shit

thirty five...
over that shit

forty years...
not taking shit

forty five years...
don't know shit,
don't have shit
don't make shit

Honestly...
don't give a shit