Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Stories Old Folks Tell

Now it's called genealogy, but when I was a kid, it was just the stories the old folks told.  Now it is important as a source of history.  We have these memories that should be told or written, but surely shared. 

It's funny how we think of history as something that happened two hundred years ago, but the things that happened when I was a child as just my memories.  No, that's history too.  I know it is just my memory, maybe just my history, but it is part of the events and the thinking and the attitude of the period.  And it is still history if it just happened today.

We think that for something to be historical it has to be an explosion or impact great bodies of people or cost lots of money.  No, some of the smallest things are still historical and they may be of great value to future generations if they are recorded.  If Abraham Lincoln's mother had kept a diary, we would have valued her memories on the day of his birth. I have read diaries of ordinary people and been amazed at their insight.  Sometimes I have been astounded at the mundane lives they endured.

Now we write blogs.  Is it the same?  A few are.  In fifteen years thay may be more or less than now.  In a hundred years, they will be trash or treasure.

I guess the thing is that for some of us writing is the important part, and for others the joy is in reading and agreeing or arguing with the author.  History will have to determine the ultimate value, whether what we write is significant or just an exercise for the mind.

Check out this article for more information about genealogy .

Monday, November 22, 2010

Life Games



On Monday morning when I got up
Life was waiting at the door;
standing there, demanding there
that I come out that day.
But the games of life are hard to play.
It was plain to see the pain would be
Too much for me to bear.
Then I thought I'd run away.
Life would follow me, swallow me.
I could hide if I found a place inside.
Then I chanced to see
That Life was there with me,
Inside of me.
I could not get away.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Science Teaches Things It Didn't Know It Knew

The truths and facts science teaches are sometimes analogies and parables for philosophical or spiritual realities.  I have read about black holes for several years, and I have come to believe, the more I read about them, that they are an excellent way to describe some of life's more difficult events.

A black hole occurs when a star collapses.  It burns up all its fuel and becomes so dense and heavy that it no longer glows or shines or gives off any light.  Its gravity is so intense that light cannot escape from the mass.  It is very small because of its compact construction.  It is also highly magnetic and everything that gets close to it is sucked into it.  In the middle of the black hole everything stops. 

I am sure that Stephen Hawking would provide a much better description of the black hole than I can.  This is about all I know about it, but I have experienced black holes.  My husband was in the hospital for a long time several years ago.  He was very ill and he was getting worse every day.  Everyday I was drawn deeper into the black hole of his illness.  They ran tests and tried all kinds of treatments, but he still got worse.

The power of that black hole was slowing time and no light light was coming through.  The edge of the black hole is called the event horizon.  That is the place where you cannot get away from the deep magnetic draw of the dense center.  I could feel the black hole claiming me.

After about three weeks, they discovered what was wrong with him.  Then other things took over and he still got worse.  The black hole would not let go.  Medical science finally got it right and the analogy fell apart.  He left the hospital.

There are other things that act like a black hole.  Depression fits the model.  When everything in your life is drawing you into the blackness that no light can penetrate and no power can untangle, remember the black hole.  Avoid the event horizon because the deeper you allow yourself to sink into its depths, the harder it is to retreat, and it is invisible to everyone else.  Nobody but you knows it's there.

Friday, November 12, 2010

What's Wrong with a Little Fear?

Various prescription and street drugs may caus...Image via Wikipedia
I often comment on trends and events that happen in the world at large as if I had any control or influence to change them.  When I reflect on that, I see how silly it is.  I usually can't even influence my own family, but I still gripe and rave.  Well, here goes--what's wrong with a little fear?  I don't mean the kind of neurotic panic that Monk expressed.  I am not suggesting we hire armed guards to go to the grocery store.  But let's be real:  There are things that we should fear and we should teach our children to be afraid of.

Start with drugs.  We have accepted drugs into our society so completely that nobody thinks they will hurt you.  This includes prescription and recreational drugs.  Get this folks--they are the same.  They work in the same place in your body--the neuronal synapse.  Well, maybe antibiotics really attack a bacteria, but they may play around in the synapse, too.  Some substances never leave your body once they have gotten in.  Some change your body in ways that are permanent.  Some of the lasting effects have not been discovered yet. 

We need to be very cautious about using them.  It's O.K. to tell your children to be fearful of drugs. 

I am amazed at how we reframe and sanitize ideas and language so that really disgusting things become accepted.  Illegal drugs are now called recreational.  It's so much fun to become a blithering psychotic! 

I'm really out of it in the drug thing.  The minor tranquilizers that were prescribed by the doctor caused internal feelings and emotional experiences that I did not enjoy, so to me it was not recreational at all.  I did avoid the ulcer, but I told him that I had to find some other way to deal with my stress and anxiety.  Drugs were not my out. 

Maybe that was a good lesson.  I hope I can share it with other people.  Here it is:  Face the hard decisions in your life.  Taking a drug will not change the reality of your siuation.  When you come down or sober up, life is still there waiting.  The corollary to that lesson is this:  The drugs may have consequences you didn't expect, but living a righteous and honorable life will, too.

Teach your children to fear drugs.  Surely the fear is no worse than the drug.
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Monday, November 8, 2010

Muslim Sharia Law: Americans Wake Up!

I am amazed that the impact of the Muslim residents in American are challenging our laws, government, and freedoms.  I always assumed that people came to America to share our way of life.  In the past three weeks, I have come to understand that Muslims are coming to American to confiscate our land, government, schools, and privileges.

How blind I was!  The Sharia Law is derived from the Koran.  The Muslims want to live under the Sharia Law, but that doesn't mean what I was assuming it meant.  I thought it meant they wanted the freedom to worship and live in their homes as Muslims, wear traditional dress, and eat their special diet.  No!  They want to control everything--where their people can live, and who can enter their territory.   And they want the Sharia Law to prevail in our nation.  They have already made attempts in Oklahoma to institute the Sharia Law so that people who are Muslim would be judged under that system, and, thankfully, it failed.  Now they are moving to other states to try the same thing. 

Wake up, people!  We are Americans, and our country is in danger of becoming a Muslim nation.  The president has been anxious to announce that we are not a Christian nation, but that does not preclude the possibility that we could become something we never thought we'd be.

The style of our laws is intended to guarantee the most possible freedom and the highest level of personal choice in life, work, education, and worship.  It we sit by while the Muslims in our midst take over our laws and government, we will have none of the freedoms we now value.  The freedoms we value are the very thing that makes us vulnerable to this assault.  Be aware and alert to this danger.

This scares me.  I hope it does you too!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

A Fine Romantic Thought

Our society has become so obsessed with sex that we blithely dismiss fornication, adultery, and  the very old-fashioned notion of "living in sin."  A boyfriend or girlfriend now means someone a person is sleeping with.  The idea of family has dissolved into some notion of grandparents and "my baby's daddy."  Teenagers don't date with the intention of becoming engaged and married.  They "hook up" to see if they are good in bed.

Is it any wonder that marriages don't last?  Is it a shock to anybody that children are the liabilities of our foolish attitudes?

I don't know that  civilization ever conformed human behavior to the ideal that men and women should commit to one another and form a loving relationship in marriage before they produce a child, but I think there was the idea presented in past decades. 

Maybe somewhere there are a few people who remember that fine, romantic thought.  It would take a few generations to see the proof and truth of it.  Maybe a few would find comfort and security in the loving relationships and high integrity these ideas produce.  Maybe God would be glorified by the obedience to the principles he laid down.  

What if?  What if we built that kind of society?  Would it last a generation?  Probably not.  But it sure it something to think about.