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Monday, November 21, 2005

Time again

Some days go as planned. Others don't have a plan at all. Plans are needed some days. For some, spontaneity produces the needed rejuvenation for the day's needs. Perhaps, frameworks seem to work best. The day has a plan to get started and to end, but what happens in between can be played by ear.

Into this mix some people throw the idea that everything happens for a reason. I could see how that would be true for spontaneous days or framework days, but not for planned days. Other people like to see everything as random happenings. Still others like to see a blend.

Who knows how it really is. This week is going to be a week full of framework days. Perhaps I can tell you Saturday whether things happen for a reason or not.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Defying time

Some days last forever. Other days seem to go by in a blur. I wonder about the time continuum. I don't know about it. Wormhole travel in space seems to defy time. Traveling the speed of light defies time. Meditation defies time. Death defies time. Defying time seems to be the way to glimpse eternity. I hope to see the Creator of time and eternity someday. I will ask him about being stuck in time, except for those moments that seem to defy time. He might just answer, "Then why did you not spend more moments in eternity?" I don't know exactly how to answer that one. So, I think I'll try practicing moments that defy time more often.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Wearing down

After watching a special on Alexander the Great, I realized that being a soldier in his army required one to be away from home for years at a time. That would be wearing on a person. Fighting constantly in foreign lands on unfamiliar terrain would wear a person down. Being wounded far from home or seeing comrades die on a foreign field would dampen anyone's spirits. I feel like that day after day. It wears one's spirit down. It paralyzes one from doing good. The difference between me and the other guy is that I have a spirit from another world that rejuvenates my mind and bolsters my spirit on a continual basis. I am thankful for that.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Warm

Being warm just feels good. Being warmed also feels good. Warming someone or something also feels good. Being in all three positions on a rotating basis is probably how we ought to operate as human beings.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Night light

My morning walking path is in a park. The park has a cement path that encircles the center of it. On the outside of the park, strategically placed, are street lights. So, it is a safe place to walk. The last 2 days fog descended into the park in the early morning hours. It is a work of beauty. As I circularly walked on those days, the mist gently hit my face, the fog shrouded the far side of the park so that I could see about only 50 yards, and the street lights shone on the ground in a ring of about a 20-yard radius. Simply beautiful.

The ring of light was also intriguing. As I would come up on the light, the light would be surrounded by darkness, but inside the ring of light, no darkness existed. I shared the thought written about the Son of Man by someone close to him. Some of his opening words to a book he wrote contain, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never overpowered it." Those are powerful words when you see so beautifully illustrated in the scene around you a light shining in the fog, mist, and darkness, brilliantly and invitingly, with the darkness unable to penetrate a single ray of that 20-yard radius of light. To me the message is plain: the Son of Man's teachings are worth following—they light my path and lead me through darkness from this life into the next.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

A spirit assault

Tonight at my place of business The Designer of Events designed an event that caused great joy to his people. I especially enjoyed seeing the event unfold because I had been privy to the evolution of the event from the beginning of the event 10 months ago. Also, tonight my mother is recovering from a major surgery. She had to have the surgery in the first place because a doctor had messed up on a minor surgery 2 weeks ago. Also, tonight my wife read to me some words she found about the spirit that triumphs over cancer even if the body succumbs to it. I have great sadness because I hate cancer so much. So, the words were triumphant and sad simultaneously. Also tonight, my daughter continues her defiance of sound advice from her parents (like we are the only parents that has happened too). Also tonight, I ran into a friend who is absolutely on fire for her God. It shows in every statement she makes.

What a night. And that is only one night in the year. In the flash of an eye.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Redefining community

Try as I may, I can't bring myself to waste my time on speeches that reiterate time and again the points of a story which is itself repeated for the 100th time. I see that the idea of community is one of the recurring themes in Paul's letters of the New Testament. But, I don't see the same in the gospels. Perhaps one could contend that Paul is the next step in the evolution of Christianity. First a Messiah would come; then, a traveling evangelist would take the next leg of the journey to spread the message of the Messiah. Perhaps. If not, then each successive generation to Jesus' has the right to interpret the Messiah's message for itself. The idea of community disappears or at least changes shapes into something useful in the society.

So, I need not be bitter about some lame activity I have convinced myself I should avail myself of. Instead, I need to be ecstatic about a message that enables me to live decently in my work community or my circle of friends after work or my children's friends. Although I have been brainwashed to hear speeches that reiterate time and again the points of a story which is repeated itself for the 100th time, I have hit saturation point. I want to shout, "NO MORE!"

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Facets of beauty

5 reasons underlie any learned behavior: opportunity, motivation, personality, incentive, interest. What we learn and to what extent we learn anything depends on the presence or absence and the mixture of these 5 reasons. If I apply this to various aspects of learning a particular value system, then I am not so confused by why the different kinds of people who practice this value system make it look so differently. If I figure the number of combinations (5X4X3X2X1) for these 5 reasons, I get 120. Theoretically, then, 120 people could get together and agree on a value system, but then have different incentives or different motivations or 118 different combinations that cause them to make that value system look different in practice from the others agreeing to the value system.

If each of the 5 reasons also stood for a number, the number increases further. What if there were 10 different ways to express opportunity or opportunity types, 8 personality types, 11 motivation types, 5 incentive types, and 40 types of interest expressed. The number of combinations is then 176,000. That would mean that even if 120 people agreed on a value system, there would be 176,000 expressions of that value system. I have a lot more respect for what the Son of Man tried to establish when I play with the numbers.

And my numbers are probably off, maybe by 2,000,000, because there may be more than 5 underlying reasons and/or more or fewer numbers for each reason. If we as humans ever catch up to the true underlying numbers behind establishing a value system, we would without a doubt understand why the Son of Man began one of his prayers, "Our father in Heaven, may your name be honored." There is honor and beauty in complexity.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Influence

One can gather that the sun is far away, yet it has influence on the earth nonetheless. That's because of its sheer power. One can gather that the moon is close by, but it has influence on the earth's tides and provides light on uncloudy nights. As I think of my own sphere of influence, I have to admit that I have both sun and moon qualities depending on the person I know or have known. There is a Creator for both the sun and moon and the influences they have. So, I have to believe the people in my sphere have been put there for a reason as well.