A BRIEF COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Time for a Brief Commercial Announcement!     I do that once in a while,  here,  when something really unexpectedly great turns up at my house.    I mean,  everyone has to buy new things once in a while,  and you expect it to be “good”  and new and working well, and you’re happy your old thing has been replaced.

But once in a while,  you just want to share something really outstanding.

Here it is:

One surprisingly wonderful  lawnmower!   Now, I love my push mower,  the old fashioned kind,  quiet, non-motorized,  efficient,  and . .  .  a good workout.

I liked having a gas-powered mower —

—    but every year there are the usual problems:  change spark plugs, which are trouble when you don’t;  tune-up,  trouble when you don’t;   gasoline issues;   NOISE;   and then eventually it gets so hard to start,  even when all the other things are taken care of.

A gas-powered lawnmower is so  . . .   last century!

21st Century —

Son arrived this morning at just the right time to open the box,  assemble it,  which took very little time and effort  ( I could have done it!);  charge the battery,  which took very little time;  and then try it out.

(Sorry for the angle;   I was leaving, in a  hurry.)

Son gave it his imprimatur.    The lawnmower created a smooth, velvety green carpet.    It was easy to use,  intuitive,  and very quiet,  about like having a summer fan going.

They’ve been making these battery-operated  (cordless) lawnmowers for a while,  but I think they’ve got it right now.

Thank you to the company for making this.

Thank you to Son for trying it out and showing me how to use it.

Thank you to Hubbie for his  strict financial planning that made it possible for his “little old lady of a wife”    to purchase a new lawnmower when it was  needed.

Thank you,  Our Dear Lord,  for watching over me and letting it turn out this way.  If even the smallest sparrow is watched over in its little life and death,  then how much more are we loved and cared for –  in the smallest of details!

    Matthew 6:26  –   “Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them.   Are not you of much more value than they?”

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God is the Source of Love.   God is Love Itself.

COOPER’S “WEATHER UPDATE”

This posting is just for fun.

Some of you may remember  the kind of winter my grandson Cooper had this year —  buried under 20+  feet of snow.    It’s where they live.   Donner Pass.   As in . . .   the Donner Party.      I showed you some photos of Cooper and the snow . . . (here).

And this picture could look a lot like his back yard when the sun is just right:

Well, their  giant snow cover is mostly gone,  but it’s still snowing!

This is a ski hill near Donner –  last week.   While we were having our heat wave,  they were . . .   well, it looks like a heat wave on the ski slope too.

Cooper’s Mommy is having a birthday on the Fourth of July.   A couple years ago, during a birthday phone call,  I asked her what she did on that day on her birthday.   She said,   “Oh,   we went to the beach and had a picnic, and then we went snowboarding.”    All in one day.    In July.

But it’s not all fun and games.     After Blizzard and Avalanche season, now we have the Snowmelt season.

This is Lake Tahoe, nearby.   The slow-motion video showed the churning of the waters as  12 Billion gallons of water were flowing into the lake.

The video lasted until evening,  through sunset.

 

Ahhhh,  the Sierras.    In a few short weeks I hope to be there.

To see my grandson, of course.

 

II. LISTENING TO LIFE

 

Why is it that greenery makes us feel good and alive? !!

 

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Our young friend is still in the hospital but out of danger now.   During these past two weeks Son and I have become quite familiar with the hospital:  corridors,  elevators,  restrooms,  and cafeteria.

After you’ve purchased your food,  you have nice choices for where to sit and eat.   I like the long dining room with windows from floor to ceiling.      On the opposite wall from the windows is this:

 

Yes, a Living Wall,  meant to give comfort and hope, I suppose, in a place which must also make us think of death.   This is what it looks like:

 

 

That’s a huge wall!     A pattern of living green plants.    A gentle reminder of how many green plants there are in this beautiful (living)  world.

Another friend who just had a “brush” with doctors in her life recently had her eyes “fixed.”   Cataracts taken out.  After a slight glitch, a slight scare,  we thank God that her eyesight is now perfect!     She tells us that she was amazed to look out her window and see the trees, the grass, the bushes –  all in an amazing array of greens!    So many different shades of green.

We need to look twice and see how beautiful this world is.      Lush green living things will be one thing I’ll  “miss”  when I leave this world.   I know that’s not theologically accurate,   but . . . .)

A close-up of that living wall.   They are real, actual,  living plants.

I’ll “miss”  flowers too.   And the power of big thunderstorms like the one we had tonight.   And wind pushing against me on a fast boat.    The freedom of being out on the open road in a great little car.    Bookshelves full of books.   Rooms full of bookshelves.   Mornings.   Nights.  The beauty of snow.

Sunsets!  Lights!   (The ceiling lights that illuminate the Living Wall.)

These are some of the things that I will leave behind.   But I’d be going towards Life.  A fuller and more abundant, exquisite Life.    Like a wall that is painted compared to a wall that is Living.   And all the things that the earthly pleasure bring to me:   colors,   power and forces,   freedom,   curiosity satisfied,   a new day,  a restful night,    beauty,    Light,  and even  more await as I listen to  — if I listen to the Source of Life.

I “got caught” watching these happy bunnies:

Probably wondering why I had this dumb philosophical look on my face.

Just listening to Life  . . .   listening to Life.

 

I. LISTENING TO DEATH

(Unfortunately, we can hear death speak all around us)

1917 – 2017:    “… or else, Russia will spread her errors throughout the world.”

Interviewer:   “Does that include America?”

Sister Lucia:  “Yes.”

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Of course,  the  Russian people didn’t invent those errors;  the Russian-Soviet government just became expert at implementing them and spreading them into other nations —  by war and, as I said in the last post,  by the spread of economic and Cultural Marxism.

(For you old-timers,  “McCarthyism has come to mean a hysterical search for “communists”  under every bed, in every closet.  However,  when Soviet documents were released in the mid-90s,  it came to light that Senator McCarthy hadn’t been aware of even half of the communist infiltrators into our society.)

Economic and Cultural Marxism:   They bring ruin wherever they are spread.

Venezuela ran out of basic consumer goods,  and toilet paper, and food.   The news reports that the average Venezuelan has lost about twenty pounds;  the hard way.   Here they share handfuls from a garbage bag.

The authorities in Venezuela ran out of something too:   tear gas.

They’ve used it all up trying to keep their angry, starving citizens under control and they’ve put out a request to other countries for more.    Such a beautiful country – but now you have to get permission to cross the border to buy basic goods in the next country.

The United States is heading that way into bankruptcy too.    Illinois, for example, no longer has enough money to run the government – for real.   If you buy a lottery ticket in Chicago, chances are the authorities will not be able to pay you your winnings.     Detroit?    California?    I have so many examples to give you of one-party rule because once they get into office . . .  they find ways to stay.

This isn’t a catalog of woes caused by  communism- socialism –  liberalism – the Progressives – the Democrats –  whatever they want to be called.  It’s just that the same -ism mindset leads to poverty,  oppressive laws,  control of the individual,  loss of choices,  loss of freedom,  and tyranny — and to death.

The reason is awful – ly  simple.   The ideas that begat all these -isms  were begotten themselves by the ultimate Source of death.    Suppose you rejected the Author of Life,  the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.    Suppose you began listening to the voice of God’s Enemy and your writings create a World Undone.

The author of all these bright new ideas that begat all the -isms that plague us today is this man,  Karl Marx.

And he knew what he was doing.   He was a tortured man, and he wrote about what forces inspired his theories:

The hellish vapors rise and fill the brain

Till I go mad and  my heart is utterly changed

“See this Sword,”

the Prince of Darkness  said to me.

For me he beats the time and gives the signs

Even more boldly I play the Dance of Death.

In this, his poem,  he’s telling us that he listened to the Prince of Darkness.    And further,  he tells us that he knows  the consequences:

 Thus heaven I’ve forfeited

I know it full well

My soul, once true to God,

Is chosen for Hell.

He played the Dance of Death and gave that Dance to the world.

Death follows.   Then Hell.

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Can we turn away from Death and begin following the principles of Life?

No.  apparently not.    Not on our own power.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TO SPEAK OF WAR

(In a word:  Why?   Why?   Why?   Why?  Why?  Why?   Why?)  

 

Gloomy Gus speaks  today.

 

So,  listen to a great man,  a man with distinguished military service,  with knowledge, wisdom, and  gravitas, as we like to say nowadays.  He is General Omar Bradley:

We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.  Ours is the world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.    We know more about war than we do about peace;  more about killing than we do about living.

Does this have anything to do with the effect of the Cultural Revolution orchestrated  (successfully)  by the marxist-socialists,  which broke down the ethics and moral norms of our society?

Does this have anything to do with our reliance upon science and technology to solve our problems?      Or upon our Rulers – the State – to fix our problems and give us easier lives?

As a society,  we reject not only the Sermon on the Mount, but we reject its Author.

General Bradley was pessimistic about our ability to stay out of the next war.    The saints of Christianity were analytic.  They say:  “War is a punishment for sin,”   (which is, again, rejecting the Author of the Sermon on the Mount).

Humans can’t go on living as though God is not a factor in today’s world,  no matter how hard we try to keep Him out of our decisions:

God is not dead.

Everywhere I go to read the news eventually an article about WWIII comes up.   It’s beginning to become convincing . . .  .

Somewhere in my mind there is a memory of the recent stories of incidents which generally lead to war.   Threats,  near-misses, and collisions with our naval vessels – any one of which could be seen as a provocation.    Near-misses with our Air Force places,  a five-foot  near miss in the air yesterday!   And   “we” are doing it too;   a fighter plane was attacking an ISIS command post this week,  and “we”  shot it down –  we shot down a fighter plane belonging to another sovereign nation.

Around the world the nations’ troops are being called up,  strengthened,  positioned, made more ready than ever before.   Social and economic conditions are ripe.

Omar Bradley may be right.  This thing about misplaced values may have horrific consequences.   The saints may be right.

Ignorance of ethical values,  rejection of cultural norms, corruption of “family values,”  the weak-willed acceptance of colonization by a people who are opposed to peace and freedom,  and the trivialization of Life in our protection of abortion, euthanasia,  and hideous medical industry practices — will have consequences.

It’s the Law of Human Nature.

 

 

 

 

 

MONDAY, TUESDAY, THURSDAY, WEDNESDAY . . .

(very random “apparentlies”  from the Spruce Tunnel)

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Yes:   –  in the immortal words of Apollonia Corleone,   the short-lived wife of Michael Corleone:        “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday . . .”

This is Tuesday.  Apparently.    When the normal activities of the weekdays are suspended,  every day seems like a weekend day.  Hence, my abortive trip to Sunday morning Mass – last Friday.

Our young lady friend is off her ventilator, finally, and out of the ICU.   She is better, but still has a long way to go.     I’m spending less time at the hospital,  more time on my new (and rather demanding) classes for the summer.    I need to do so well with that topic . . . .

Yet, I haven’t really caught up with Time.  That takes some effort.    How I would like to slide into that state of Perpetual Retirement,  where the only activities are occasional voluntary activities.

“But I have promises to keep,    And miles to go before I sleep.”  *

Speaking of which,  I could use a little snow.    I’ve resurfaced into a heat wave, with a long string of near 90-degree temperatures and almost daily thunderstorms, which menace my electronics.

   I’ve also checked into what the entertainment-news media is going on about.    Same thing.   Same words. Same people.  Same accusations.    Same minor terrorist strikes here and there.  Same perplexities about what to do . . . .  Missing a week and a half has not resulted in any developments.    The world does not need my attention!

This discovery needs my attention:

 

That’s my front yard.

Apparently we had a wind storm this weekend.

Son will know what to do.

It’s apparently going to take some time to return to normal.   Me, that is.  I’m coming out of these past almost two weeks a little shaken.    It was a life-and-death matter, after all, to watch a young lady have to fight for her life – with no definite diagnosis that started it all.   And then to worry anew about the state of her soul and of  my childrens’  souls . . . .  And my own efforts seem weak next to the consequences of getting it wrong.

And, yes, I still studied in my spare moments.  I studied  Gramschi, again;     Herbert Marcuse,  Wilhelm Reich – you probably know where I’m going with this:   the stunning victory of cultural marxism,over our society.     In the Catholic Church this is called:  The Errors of Russia.   Although it didn’t begin with the Russian Revolution,  it nevertheless points to Error,  the kind that will separate you from God – forever.

“Critical Theory”:   Criticize everything;  demonize the cultural norms;  break down society so that it can be replaced with the Slavery of Marxist-Liberalism – because the State is  more important than the individual.  The atheistic State is more important than your immortal soul.

I’m a bit shaken with that realization.     The realization of the complete and utter victory of cultural marxism over the society my children and grandchildren have to live in.   What chance to they have?

What chance do they have to even learn about it, after years of schooling in an apparent  marxist – liberal environment of anti-intellectualism,  anti-analytical thinking,   anti-objective reality,  anti-logic, anti-truth — and the Any Glass theory:  Any glass will do it for you when you’re thirsty.  (No right and wrong, no moral norms, no “judgmental” thinking.)

Apparently, I have a lot of catching up to do.     (Why was I made with this impulse to teach?   I don’t know.    It’s my duty;  it’s what I am.)    I have a lot of catching up in my studies to do.     It’s the only way I can be of use to my classes,  to my family and  friends     . . .   to God.

Crash course for me this summer.    Cramming again.    Not for final exams,  but so I can be a better parent,  a better teacher,   a better blog writer.

 

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.  *  I have struggled and struggled with this poem all my life

Stopping by The Woods One Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

by Robert Frost

 

 

 

HOW’S YOUR TO-DO LIST COMING?

  Got a To-Do list going?   “All the time”?    A big one?

That’s a good sign.   It means you’re at least trying to be organized and get some things accomplished.    Can’t deny that a To-Do list really does help,  even though it puts the burden of responsibilities down in black and white right where you have to look at them.

It means you have work to do.  Life is work-to-do.   Life is work.     When you work it means you’re alive and making choices and doing good things  . . .

.

Consider this To-Do list:

This is the  Progress List in the hospital room of the young lady we’ve been watching over for these past several days.    It’s her  “To-Do” list.

She doesn’t have any of those tasks checked off.

Notice the first one.    “Breathe.”      She hasn’t really accomplished that yet.

So we  watch and hope and pray and keep her company.

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I guess if we have different things on our own To-Do list,  we ought not to complain about it, but rejoice that we have life and health– and work-to-do.

 

 

That’s where our young friend —  still — is.

 

 

ALL ONE LONG DAY

Our home away from home:

Still spending my days in the hospital, keeping vigil over the young lady who has not regained consciousness and is still on a ventilator.     There is no place else I’d rather be than at her bedside.   Son and I think  she might be aware of our presence on some level.   It gives us comfort to think so.

But there’s no way to tell.

  When you spend your time like this,  it’s one l  o  n  g  day inside,   but the days outside of the hospital just go slipping by.  Pardon me if I let  this past Sunday go by – a very important Sunday in Christendom, for this  one is called Trinity Sunday where we emphasize God the Holy Trinity of Persons:   a Trinity in Unicity.   Three Persons,  one undivided  divine substance,  one God.

No theology today (for who can understand a triune Being anyway?)  but just to remind you of the One of a Kind, Unique,  Only  Trinity in Uniticity – One in Three —

No other religion in the history of Mankind has ever presented such a Being.

The old prophet Jeremiah   (well, he was a young man,  but he lived in “olden” times)  ridiculed people who worshiped a lesser god.  He said:  You take down a big tree and make furniture from part of its trunk, and you make  pots and dishes from other parts,  and you make wagons and wheels from other parts of its wood,  and then you . . .  oh,  say,  you have  some extra time so you make an  idol of the leftover wood and set it up on a shelf in your house and say:  “That’s my god!”

Let’s make him fancier:

All kinds of idols.

See, a human is created with the ability to fulfill his duty  as a creature,   which is to worship and glorify and serve his Creator.  It’s built into our nature.     And if man doesn’t  find his way to the One True and Living Creator,   he will create his own god,  even if he’s putting himself in God’s place.

“Mankind”  creating its own god!!     Worshiping his own choices!

   It could be a great and “wise”  teacher, like Buddha.   It could be the sum total of all one’s ancestors.    It could be Nature,   one’s homage paid to rocks and trees and animals and bodies of water,  and  thunderstorms,   etc.

 

One could choose to worship gods represented by  the sun,    distant planets,  the moon,  or –  the crescent moon.   Powerful figures!

 

No,  the One True and Only God actually revealed Himself to the ancient ones who lived in ages past,  and then  to one man,  Abraham,  and  his descendants, and then revealed Himself more  completely to one particular generation of Abraham’s descendants,  the Jews in Roman Palestine,  and then sent out the directive to  “teach the Gospel to all the whole world  (to the ends of the earth).”

No other religion ever experienced by Mankind worships a God who is Triune, yet One.

It’s above our ability to  “invent.”

Some of you heard a portion of the book of Exodus read in church this past Sunday.*  At the top of Mt. Sinai God explains to Moses  a little about Himself,  what kind of God He is. And the response of Moses, great leader of many people  —  is to fall down flat to the ground, to plead for mercy, forgiveness,  and to confess that the people are a “stiff-necked”  people,  having shown that they want to go their OWN way —   and they didn’t know what they were talking about.

Have mercy  on us.

Please.

You are God . . . . . .    and we are . . .   not.

 

 

 

.*  Exodus,  chapter 34 –   ( 6)The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, (8) And Moses made haste to bow his head toward the earth, and worshiped.( 9) And he said, “If now I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thy inheritance.”

COURTNEY LOVE AND SATURDAY’S HOSPITAL VIGIL

It’s Saturday night, another anniversary of that one appalling Saturday a couple thousand years ago,  when Jesus, after having consented to His death, apparently abandoned  this planet Earth.   And why did He consent to die? )

I can tell you.

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I’ve been confined to a relatively small space these last three days, a hospital room where Son and I spend our days keeping vigil. (See two posts ago.)   My life has been encompassed by a 20 X 10 foot room, filled with machines keeping our dear loved friend alive – and stable, so far.

Today every rare fluttering of her eyelids, every attempt to maybe cough,  every entry and exit point of the tubes and wires coming out of her body seemed almost painful to see.    Every so often as the nurses and patient care technicians would come in, my mind would shout out “Don’t hurt her, don’t hurt her.”      “Don’t bother her.”  Don’t . . . Even though they were there to help.

    The word is “cherish.” Or “care about.”   “Be solicitous for.”    We all care about someone, maybe more – when life is normal – than we realize.

Conversely, each person is cared about and loved by someone more than that person might realize. Humans are precious.

It is horribly painful to think about all the beloved people who are in pain and terror and in danger today.     It’s horrible to think about . . . pain.     But, so, when I came home tonight, I read the news – anyway.

On this Saturday,   reminding me of the world the Savior had seemed to  abandon, I read about the demonstrations this weekend  against the establishment of Sharia around the world  and I read with great dismay about the rude and  violent opposition to those who were demonstrating today

Demonstrations not against Muslims   —   against Sharia.

They were demonstrating against the Sharia system that is anti-freedom, anti-free speech, anti-religion, anti-woman, and which allows and promotes child marriage,  sex slavery and rape.

But there were people who were trying to shut down their demonstration.   Here is one anti-demonstrator who missed the point:

People across the country  who are apparently  for  Sharia identify themselves as feminists, ACLU-types, and the ever present liberal-progressive-leftist-democrats.

Perhaps such people didn’t read enough news today.

Perhaps they didn’t read about  all the young ladies who are subjected to the Ko* ran’s permission to rape girls and young children (provided they are “able,”  as they’re told) and women when they are spoils of war;    and the women  must comply or they are to be killed.    Right?

Here are 19 sex slaves this week who tried to refuse their rapists:

They were placed in a locked cage.    Then burned.     To death.

Surely it must have seemed as though God has abandoned them.

I didn’t want my young lady friend to suffer anything in her hospital room today.    My empathy was aroused.   I was primed to  hurt for these young ladies in a cage too – how they must have hurt . . . .   How their families must have suffered for them.

Don’t our leftists know this? Don’t they know what Sharia is all about?

 

The Courage of Courtney Love

Have these people  only selectively read that Ko* ran?    These leftists listen to a moslem woman named Linda Sarsour whose words mark her out as an anti-semite and a promoter of Sharia in the United States.    Courtney Love called her out as “a vile disgrace to women and all mankind.”

This is not the first time Courtney Love has had something important to tell her generation. Just as Kurt Cobain had much to tell us in his short life.   And that is pain is real and uncomforted pain leads to death just as surely as this “vile hatred” that comes from Sharia supporters also leads to death.

So.     Let me tell you why Jesus consented to His death; and why He had to die:    It was the ONLY thing that could address and defeat such pain and hatred (and indifference) and violence against someone who is loved and cherished by someone . . . .

From  the first Passover sacrifice to Easter to now, the remedy has been the same.

His love overcomes.

Going to His love overcomes.

Reading the news will give you reason enough.

 

ATTORNEYS THEN, ATTORNEYS NOW

 

(I’m NOT going to comment on Attorney  J. Comey’s Senate hearing today.   The fact that what you could hear him say is so opposite of what the entertainment-news media is telling you what he said   is up to you to discern.)

Nevertheless.    We do indeed have attorneys.

I heard an attorney explain something very interesting a few days ago.   He said that several decades when he was in law school,  they worked very hard to learn what the law says and how to analyze and  present  evidence in a courtroom that referred back to actual law.

He said in today’s law schools law school students work very hard to become skilled at presenting evidence in a way that would speak to the juries’ emotions,  to form their attitudes about their witnesses and clients,  and to refer to prevailing cultural trends.

The difference is absolutely critical to the survival of a stable and civilized society.

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Ben Franklin is said to have remarked to a woman who asked what kind of government the Constitutional Congress has created for us,  “A republic,  madame,  if you can keep it.”

 

 

A HEARTBEAT AWAY

(Blogging has given me some bad habits;   it’s created an urge to take a picture of everything and blog blab about it.)

We’re  all only a heartbeat away from a very serious crisis —

Chances are you’re having  ordinary days right now;  some good days and  some bad days in which you have to deal with a flat tire,  a lost checkbook,  a missed text,   a bad attitude from a friend . . . .

Today we here in The Spruce Tunnel were struck with a very serious crisis.   Someone we love, someone so close to our family she may as well be a part of it,  someone far too young to be in critical condition,  is on a ventilator and many other machines in the photo,  seemingly  overnight.

Cause soon to be determined.

One day she is interviewing for a brand-new job;  less than two days later she’s in ICU fighting for her life.

Out of the blue,  unexpectedly, we are all reassessing our lives,  our relationships,  our loves,  and what’s really important.     We have a God-given need to make sense out of things.

And the honest quest for answers will lead back to God.

 

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Please pray for the young lady.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D-DAY – COOPER AND OUR YOUNG PEOPLE

D-Day:  The Sixth of June.   1944.     Lest we forget.

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Some of you know Cooper is my grandson.   He’s a typical six-year-old;  he plays and swims and skis and kayaks and white-water rafts (down the beautiful and rather tame Truckee River)  and he golfs and he takes dance lessons and he plays violin, he’s just discovered reading —  and he appreciates some good red balloons!

That’s his home, on Donner Lake,  California.

He can do all those activities  BECAUSE   American   young people did this:

 

16, 17, 18 . . . 20 year olds  . . .   24,  30, 32,   38 year olds . . .  and every young man in between arrived on those Normandy beaches for an impossibly difficult mission.

 

Not everyone made it to the beach:

Up and over, right into German artillery – firing at them.

So many died.   I don’t think they’d want us to forget their story.

Because our young people in uniform do things like that,  Cooper can remain safe and play and learn . . . .

 

 

We MUST make sure our young people are taught this, once again.  

 

“DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS”

(Note:  The “death by a thousand cuts”  usually means a person suffers insult after insult,  slight after slight,   and people wonder “When is that person going to say “Enough!”  ?)

Here’s a little humor (thanks to my Far Far North cousin):

Funny, huh?

Well, maybe not if you’re a coffee pot and your life blood had just been drained out of you.     Mugged!!   Little by little!     Anyone can usually survive a mugging or two, as long as it doesn’t continue.

I think I was a girl of thirteen years old  (too young;  too big an imagination!) when I first discovered that the phrase:  “Death by a thousand cuts”  really referred to a horrendous, horrifying method of torture used by the Chinese many hundreds of years ago.     Western explorers who escaped wrote of this in their diaries.

Mug by mug   —    I mean cut by cut . . .  anyone can survive a cut or two, or even one or two hundred;   but  I think it was a several day process before death released the victim.     The victim is tied down tight,  because any sane man would run;  fight back;  maybe come after these torturers with a small army.

But not sing songs to them of peace and love.    Not apologize for our borders –

      –  as this Katy-Person did recently.    Apparently her recent words of wisdom after the killings in London were that we should look at our neighbors, hold their hands, and tell them we love them.

Peace.  Love.   And more teddy bears and flowers.  To quote my Dad’s favorite phrase:  “Oh,  for goodness’ sakes!”

Our hands are somehow being tied and we are suffering thousands of little cuts – and you know  it’s daily, if you read newspapers from around the world.   Big cuts and little cuts,   it’s still death to the victim.

Someone cried out “Fight terrorism, not Tr um p!”    Maybe the entertainment-news media in the Western World and the “elected” politicians  should temporarily put aside their mission to   Ta ke Do wn Tr um p    and instead focus on the  mission of our enemy,  which is to “take down”  us.    (As they’ve stated so often — especially now during Ramadan when murder and mayhem is encouraged — by imams from many locations.  I know.   I’ve got one of those about 90 miles from here.  I’m not going to put his crazed, hate-filled face in this blog,   but he’s one of many calling for our deaths.)

These two entities,   politicians and media, protect, obscure, and cover up the intents of the radical-islamists.

Apparently, the CNN information outlet has attempted to portray the murderous Muslims in London as an aberration and “most Muslims”  would be outraged at the killings and injuries that “these few” accomplished.  CNN printed out special signs of peace-and-love  for “peaceful Muslims”  to hold up in front of their cameras.

It took them a while to recruit a few Muslim by-standers — what are you going to do?   There weren’t many who would publicly denounce what had just happened. CNN found about eight. . . .

Well,  that didn’t look like a very big “protest.”

So CNN  moved this little group to another location.   (Notice pink pants . . .)

They look rather . . .   stone-faced and uncommitted.     No “outraged”  expressions on their faces.

But CNN had to make it look like there were anti-violence protests all over the city!   The same group of people in yet another location:

Sorry for blurry.   The signs say:  “Turn to Love.”     “Love will win.”   “ISIS will lose.”    Uh-huh;  mmm-hmmmm.       Rah Rah – not.

Nations all over the world are experiencing daily attacks,   big ones, little ones,  big cuts, little cuts.    Death by a thousand cuts –  when will we say  “Enough!”   ??

I guess it’s not when we see our nation threatened,  our culture threatened,  our freedoms threatened.   Maybe when we feel personally threatened.

Because so far altruism and empathy seems to be dormant.

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The victim is tied down tight,  because any sane man would run;  fight back;  maybe come after these torturers with a small army.   

“The victim is tied down,”    immobilized,  mind and body;   misinformed

“any sane man would run,”         if he’s not suicidal

“fight back,”     fight back when threatened with death of ourselves, our cultures,  if we love ourselves and our cultures

“with a small army”   —   it’s war.    They have declared war on us ( in those words)   but we do not declare war on them.

 

 

THE SCIENCE OF PENTECOST

(I know some people – by name! –  who will not read beyond the word “science” in the title!      But,  sheesh, guys,  this is easy. )

Besides,  God made all material things in the natural world and He made all the laws of nature and the  principles which explain (to us)  how the natural world works.   Why wouldn’t we be interested in science?!

So this is about Pentecost*  which Christians celebrated today.      Ascension Day,  ten days ago, and Pentecost  are two sides of the same coin (of reality).   They’re the same movement between  this world and  the Other world.   Here’s how that works:

All matter is supposed to be made up of atoms,  right?

A simplified two-dimensional representation of an atom.       We’ve only recently invented a way to look at an atom, and we’ve only recently invented a device that let’s us see the parts of an atom . . .

(Atom-smashers!!!   —  Or:  Cyclotron.    See “CERN”  and the work it’s doing if you’re interested.)

Now,  that diagram is way out of proportion because the parts of an atom like that are so tiny that the little pictures and the size of the labels take up too much space.  Actually  the space between the parts of an atom are far greater than  the space between the planets in a solar system.

Hopefully, you had time to contemplate these vast distances when you were in high school.    These are vast, vast distances that a person’s mind can just fall into and then begin to contemplate Eternity.

So there is much more “empty” space between the parts of an atom – and each molecule of matter –  that we can almost comprehend.   A solid object   is  basically empty space, so to speak.  And so there is plenty of “room”  for other dimensions to exist at the same place as our physical world.

There is plenty of “room”  to understand Eternity to be penetrating – or rather interpenetrating –  our physical world.    What we see is not all the reality that there is around us.   The natural sciences not only allows for an unseen and very real Other world,   (other dimension),  but actually makes room for it!

The Ascension

So where did He go?        On Ascension Day,  where did Jesus go?   Up?   For a moment He did.   Did He go “up”  past the moon?     Past Jupiter?    Past the Oort Cloud?

Of course not.      You do not reach Jesus by inventing a super space ship and following Him “up” and away.

The movement of Jesus was from our physical world into the Unseeable world,  Eternity,  an unseeable dimension that interpenetrates our physical,  seeable world.

Ten days after this event comes Pentecost.       The Holy Being,   the Spirit,  comes towards us in this physical world,  moves  towards us from the Unseeable world,   and because this is Infinite Holiness –

—   that Infinite Holiness breaking into the physical world brings with it Infinite Energy,  like a fire,   and entered into a small portion of this world,  the Upper Room,   where the followers of Jesus were waiting and praying  (contacting that Unseeable, Infinite world).

It brought with it noise,   like the wind roaring in the trees,   and a shaking that affected that particular building.

And it penetrated the building, the people in the building,  and seemed to split apart,  onto each of the people there,  penetrating them with holy light and energy and power. That’s why pictures show the people with  tongues of fire”  on top of everyone’s head.

The lesson of Pentecost is that everyone who lives in this natural, visible world is intimately close to this Unseeable, heavenly realm    —  and it needs only your permission,  your will,  your humble request,   while you yet live,   for the Holy Spirit to live in you in the same way as It entered into the men and women at the first Pentecost.

Permission or not,   we all enter that Unseeable world when we die.  . .

. . .     either close to that  Infinite Source of Life and Love — or far, far away.   No time.   It’s an eternal now in whatever condition you had chosen.

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. * Pentecost –  Be careful when looking for pictures of Pentecost  (and other religious events).      The modern world displays great contempt for the things of God.

Pentecost?  —

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Note:   “Mary at Pentecost”   Mary,  Queen of Angels.   Of course she was there.   Why isn’t her presence listed in the Bible?     Because she forbade her name to be mentioned.   The new Church needed to understand Jesus, Our Savior;    the living Mother of God among them  would be way too distracting for  this understanding to develop.

“WHAT’S GOING ON IN AMERICA?!”

As a former teacher,   I clearly remember the problem when a gang of little girls start a whispering campaign against someone they don’t like –

      –   and then come to me tattling about all the bad things their enemy does!   There is NOTHING like the  vehemence of their rather sincere accusations  — which are nearly always false!     Doesn’t matter;  they’re enjoying themselves.

Men –  I mean boys do it too.

It gets annoying after a while.

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I’m going to “lift” a sentence from the beginning of the previous post:

I see there has been a lot of hysterical,  illogical,  non-scientific   non-legal pronouncements coming out of Mainstream Media,  Social Media,  and Hollywood actors and actresses.

I guess that works.    I was away from news sources for a while – and then I came back.  It’s almost astonishing,  not quite but almost,  that people in the entertainment-news media who want to be taken seriously are still talking about the Story Without Substance.

The story that every official keeps saying   “there is no evidence for this.”

I made a quick list of phrases  used to apparently prolong this Story Without Substance.

Ready?  Here is a partial list of words and phrases that give you clues about how false/fake the story is:

a new report charges . . .
possibility
U.S.   officials briefed   (but on what?)
unnamed sources
allegedly told   the idea was brought up . . .
it was suggested
unverified       (unverified reports, rumors,   etc)
no reply to our questions  (no reply implies . . .?)
recent reports of possible collusion
news came via anonymous letter
anonymous officials reviewed the letter
looking for suggestions of
the contact was not identified
“reportedly”
supposed meeting
latest claim says  (…  bla bla bla …)
the alleged request for . . .
could be coming from
nine sources say . . .  (unknown unnamed sources)
checking into . . .

 

Recognize these words and phrases?    It’s just a partial list,  you probably know more.

It’s like psy-ops.   You are encouraged by these words and phrases to assume there is some substance to the story that the President or his election committee or his presidential campaign or his family or his . . .   (fill in the blanks)  have colluded with the Russians to defeat the Poor Sick Lady who blames the Russians for her defeat (among other reasons).

No wonder I read in foreign presses that America seems to have lost its mind;   “what is going on over there”?

Not  one fact;  but the accusation persists.

 

They must be having fun.    Pathetic.   Immature.   Annoying.

DEAR YOUNG PEOPLE: THREE WORDS

After today’s announcement about our country’s non-participation in the Paris Accords,  I see there has been a lot of hysterical,  illogical,  non-scientific pronouncements coming out of Mainstream Media,  Social Media,  and Hollywood actors and actresses.

I trust  there are many among us with love for our planet,  love for our country  (The United States of America),  a love for science and invention,  and a can-do attitude.    Therefore,  I give you,  the up-and-coming generation,  THREE WORDS:

Zero.   Point.   Energy.

 

 

Zero.  Point.  Energy.   (it goes by other names and there are variations)

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1.    It’s all around you;  you just have to find a clever  way to get it.

 

2.   It’s challenging, dangerous work;  don’t get killed.

 

3.    “Fossil” Fuels  are not made from “fossils.”    The planet isn’t about to run out of  smooshed dinosaurs – and there is no such thing as peak oil.  Therefore,  you have plenty of time for this project.

 

4.   “Solar power”  and “wind power”  require more electricity  (generated from coal, etc.)   to create its electricity  than what these techniques can  even generate.      So far.    It may take a very long time to make this technology viable.

 

5.   It will soon become apparent to all just how lethal nuclear power plants are.   It is the most deadly way humans have ever invented in order to simply boil water and generate steam.

 

The three words:  Zero Point Energy.    The old-timers will laugh at you;    but you will be on a righteous mission and you’ll save the planet.

Just keep your newly discovered technology:  Open Source!