Daily pages of reflection...for knowledge, understanding, to wisdom
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Distracted World

March 16, 2017
Year 2, Day 75 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

In popular culture there is a rather constant urge to offer something new.  So the former music must be replaced by the current style, which may or may not be better than that which it replaces.  The point of virtue for the new is acceptance by the public, not to be measured by the literary quality of the lyrics or the nature of sound in the music.  In style of dress, the year must be changed by the hemline, the fabrics, the color, the current perception of sexual charm, the oddities of jewelry and hair styling.  Currently the style shows are offering models, not dressed for every-day life, but in costumes that are bizarre more fitting for secular parties.  I… Read more

World Citizens

March 15, 2017
Year 2, Day 74 | No Comments
Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

All living persons, good or bad, are world citizens in the mind of God.  They have a place in the world where they may savor life, and reflect on the miracle of self-consciousness and meaning.  Some citizens are Christians, some are Muslims, and some are of other faiths, faiths that are precious to them, including civic religion which is a human context without god involvement.  Each of these admits some elements of exclusivity.  For the faithful at every level there is nothing that matches his or her faith.  That exclusivity is not cause for conflict, attack, revenge, arrogance, but is identified as difference in a vital matter in which only one is more effective (in truth and rightness) than the… Read more

Good Ol’ Days

March 14, 2017
Year 2, Day 73 | No Comments
Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

A pundit, in late 2010, stated that it is bizarre to think that: Fifty years from now the good ol’ days will be remembered – in old women who will have exposed tattoos, and the remembered music of elders will be rock singers and loud electronics, and etcetera.  This statement arrests our thinking.  Some observers include spiked hair and slovenly dress in critique.  Today the culture tends to evaluate with some fervor, the traditional periods of the past.  For example, fifty years after the television series of families, in domestic bliss, raising children in contexts of wholesomeness, there is the claim that life was never like that.  The criticisms generally fall into the pride of the times when the preceding… Read more

Education and Belief

March 13, 2017
Year 2, Day 72 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

Although I believe that much of theory and research in psychology has been skewed, even distorted, by preoccupations with Freudianism and other theories, the field appears to me to be improving.  Research is becoming more objective, speaking for itself.  Current careful procedures will yield more conclusive results.  This progression is as it ought to be, and deserves the attention of life students who are concerned about the human condition, and how to improve it.  It is both sensible, and dutiful that we seek and adapt to the rules of nature in our earthly sojourn – under God.  Tension with persons in many fields of knowledge is not only relating to the matter of the reality of a personal God, but… Read more

Language

March 12, 2017
Year 2, Day 71 | No Comments
Section of The Infant Jesus and St. John the Baptist, Guido Reni, n.d.

Our concern about reality and truth may begin with agreements and understandings about languages –   their limitations and uses.  Scholars have studied the confusing factor of symbolism in animals and human beings.  For us the chief symbols are words.  In this sense ladder is not a ladder, but a word symbol that stands for a thought related to a thing, and the symbol is an English word which may mean something else in another language.  In the passing of time, there has arisen a movement to relate the meaning of symbols to evolutionary process.  For the Christian much of the effort seems misdirected, drawn from an unproved point that symbolism is simply a biological development.  Biology has something to do… Read more

Lightness of Being

March 11, 2017
Year 2, Day 70 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

I believe with more than ordinary conviction the simple statement of Proverbs 17:22: A merry heart doeth good like a medicine . . .  After hearing me speak several times, a publisher wanted a little book on humor from me, so I wrote a little one.  It is quite modest.  I did not really research the topic, except for a couple of ideas.  One was related to the medicinal value of humor.  I read how many humorists and comedy people had lived long lives.  However, my primary interest was in Norman Cousins, who was an eminent person in literary circles at the time.  Found to have a debilitating disease that would be fatal, and finding nothing that provided hope for… Read more

Life Tally

March 10, 2017
Year 2, Day 69 | No Comments
Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

Daily, I check out the serious news, especially relative to events and themes that touch human lives for problem solving – for their families, health, education, government/politics, economics/work, and faith.  I use the common media represented in respected newspapers, magazines, and electronics.  I am appalled at the accompanying gossip and racy stories, even themes that should not appear in public.  For reasons that escape me, some reporters stall in the puberty period of life, in the belief that the period is sniggering about matters that should be either private or avoided in the pernicious carnality of mankind, stimulated by inner prurient interests.  Not only does this reporting help in some of the patterns of deplorable contexts, but they invigorate the… Read more

Distortion

March 9, 2017
Year 2, Day 68 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

A news report for October 18, 2011, noted some of the cost of alcoholic beverage use in the United States: Heavy drinkers cost the U. S. economy over $220 billion in lost productivity, higher health costs and a busier crime system.  The article noted this was an annual cost, and that smoking added another $193 billion.  Further, this did not account for the pain and suffering brought upon persons by the habits.  The study was made by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and labeled as conservative.  There were additional costs, perhaps greater than those known, that can’t be evaluated.  One of these is that deaths, caused by drunken drivers, are a major factor in the statistics of the… Read more

Fishing Activists

March 8, 2017
Year 2, Day 67 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

Armed rebellion is a form of activism that is in the extreme.  Mild (respectful) activism occurs in media of communications, advocate forms, in open peaceful support of an issue, in debates and conferences, including parliaments and congresses.  Persuasion leads to improvement: terror to jungle life. These may be accompanied by strong emotional contexts, or mild, in an attempt to present an objective support to a matter for attention.  Public demonstrations that include setting fire to cars, breaking windows, resisting police are milder forms of rebellious activism than open rebellion to warfare, but any violence reveals human failure – moving from humanity to a form of bestiality.  Intelligence has yielded to brutality. This last is identified with the uses of firearms… Read more

Evangelism

March 7, 2017
Year 2, Day 66 | No Comments

During my lifetime the advertising business has increased many times what it was at the time of my birth.  Auto travel introduced road-size, outsized, sales boards.  Electronics have turned night light into an incessant appeal to buy this or that product.  Internet, television and radio are funded by advertising.  Periodically these systems have taken a few more seconds here and there from their entertainment to install an increasing number of commercials.  A local study revealed that about a quarter of an hour is taken by commercials each hour.  We can easily continue this litany in printed materials, in the naming of stadia, and so on and so on.  Our nation has become consumer driven.  We fail the economy unless we… Read more

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