#I think this and the way that certain celebrities are praised/experience a rise so fast that people start turning on them go hand in hand

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

Very tired of this cycle where a person/celebrity is put on a pedestal only for the celebrity to act human and then people get mad at them for failing to meet the expectations that were forced upon them by those who put them on that pedestal.

[mobagehelllocal]

“do you even lift bro?” extra notes i - iii:

I finally finished rereading all my “do you even lift bro?” stories! Man, I feel like I wrote them ages ago. As I mentioned before, I have been going back to do grammatical edits and what not. In the process, I’ve also been noting down my thought process for writing these pieces, and little easter eggs I put in for fun~ This extra notes will contain my thoughts from versions i to iii! 

*please do not read if you haven’t read “do you even lift bro?” ver i - iii. 

The title came to me immediately upon reading the request hahah. originally, it was meant to just be fluffy and cute... but I think it’s actually pretty funny. To me, at least hahah. 

Divus’s was the one exception, but i’ll get into that later.

The reader personality was based on one of my ocs. She was also the oc in my special Malleus x OC story, “bright eyes.”

I went with her because she was an OC, who, in my opinion, is the epitome of a optimistic fangirl lmao. If you’ve read “bright eyes” then I think you’d understand what I mean hahahah. 

For ver i--I think I definitely wrote Riddle’s first. followed by Leona, Azul, Malleus, Kalim, Vil then Idia. 

One of my best friends is a super huge Riddle stan (if you’re reading this, hi sis!) so I wrote his story primarily with her energy in mind. In short, she would most definitely bench press Riddle. 

Her energy + the base reader personality makes Riddle’s story one of the most fun actually. His reader is probably the most mischievous ones--which I thought balanced out well with Riddle’s actual personality. 

Leona’s story is heavily influenced by pride dynamics. It’s common knowledge that it’s the female lions who hunt hence why in Afterglow Savanna--the women are stronger. Leona is royalty, so I assumed that from a young age he’d be told to wed a strong woman. 

I also need to note that Leona is described as respecting women. here’s the thing, I’m pretty sure it’s specifically women from Afterglow Savanna because they could bench press him. That’s not to say he doesn’t respect all women--he probably just puts women from Afterglow Savanna on a different standard because of his experience with them. Either way, you surprised him greatly, and assume that Leona will not be able to look you in the eye for awhile.

Azul’s story specifically takes place after Jamil SR Lab Coat episodes and Azul’s R PE Uniform episodes. I found their relationship funny, and thought it would be fun to continue off from there. 

Most of Azul’s stories come from me just wanting to fluster the hell out of Azul... that being said, I did delve a bit into the magic of TWST for this one. I remember it was Crowley (was it in the prologue?) who noted that magic is dependent also on how much someone believed in their ability to do something. This is why Azul falls down haha, his will faltered and he stopped believing. 

Jamil doesn’t get a break at all, doesn’t he? The reader and Jamil actually vibe really well because they both understood enough about Kalim to know what he was doing.

I think I remember being pretty stuck on which one to do for this. I think it was reading Jamil’s SSR Dorm Uniform story that really made me have an ‘aha’ moment on how to write it--since something like this happens on there. 

Surprisingly for Vil, once I had figured out that I wanted to write him getting mobbed, and being saved by his reader--it flowed out really fast from there. 

For Vil, I always end up bringing up the issue that he’s something like a celebrity and you are one in the million who adore him. I thought that this was just one way to sort of tackle your relationship together. 

I really enjoyed highlighting how you love Vil different from the rest who adore him. The importance of how you see his flaws and still love him--especially because as an influencer Vil has a certain pressure to appear in a certain way. 

Idia’s was the last one I wrote, but I had a lot of fun because I stuffed it full of references. I figured that Idia’s thought process would be more of him thinking life as a game, that’s why he uses terms like support level often in my writing. 

On that note, I know ‘Gao-Gao Dragon-kun’ is a reference to Tamagotchi, but I decided to just merge up Tamagotchi and Pokemon in this case. Hence why ‘Gao-Gao Shield and Sword’ existed lmao. I didn’t put too much effort in that and just switched ‘Shield and Sword’’s order HAHAH. I did consider making it ‘Gao-Gao Gun and Wand’ though. 

‘Water Crest: The Seven Dorms’ is a reference to Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I felt incredibly clever when I came up with that HAHAH. But also, when he references support levels, he’s talking about a gameplay in Fire Emblem. For people who aren’t familiar with this, essentially, FE has a system wherein the more you use two units together the likely their support will rise. The supports go from C-B-A-S, with S as the highest. When Idia says he works hard on S Support, he literally means he went out of his way to spend time with you and befriend you. Isn’t that cute? When he references SS Support, it actually doesn’t exist HAHA, but he didn’t realize there was “another level” sort of thing xD

When I write funny Malleus stories, the other members of Diasomnia are likely to be hiding in the bushes. Most funny stuff probably fly over Malleus’s head so... The other Diasomnia members pop in to react hahaha.

To Malleus, your tendency to treat him as a regular person, and not treating him as a lord--makes him incredibly fond of you. It’s because you treat him as an equal, that makes him treat you as an equal. I also think this was the piece where he started calling you “bright light.” There’s no deeper meaning to it, he really just sees you as a bright light--like a brilliant star. You, literally, light up the world. :,) 

Ver ii order of writing--Ashton, Dire, Divus. I had come up with the premise of Divus first though. 

I think Dire was the hardest one for me, because I kept worrying about things like--’what if he’s not actually like this,’ or ‘what if that isn’t how he would actually act’ etc etc. but I think it turned out pretty alright.

Dire, for all his claims of being a kind person--I think actually is a kind guy. He does have the tendency to be a little manipulative and whatnot... but at the end of the day he does care.

For Divus, I sniffed GBF Belial’s Perfume because I wanted to get inspired (and I sort of headcanon they smelled alike) but it went horny too fast. 

Divus is naturally intrigued with you, and he’s also very aware you’re attracted to him. So it amuses him to fluster you. He’s very aware of how good-looking he is, and he doesn’t mind flirting with people.

How I chose to portray Divus is actually based on how @avionvadion writes Divus in her story “Once Upon A Dream.” please check it out! It’s a super cute fanfic about a girl in Twisted Wonderland~ 

Ashton... I was surprised at how fast I was able to write his piece actually hahha. I went with a no braincell, but cheerful and all-around good guy. 

I don’t think there was a lot of Ashton to really research about, but... I just tried to make him good guy Gaston... for now xD 

Ver iii--it went Floyd, Jamil, Jade, Rook, Lilia, and Epel.

There’s this scene in, I think, the first episode of Avatar: The Legend of Aang where Appa wouldn’t fly. So Sokka just straight up... insulted? Appa? i guess. Then Appa suddenly COULD fly, and Sokka was just straight up amazed and yelling... Yeah that was my primary inspiration for Floyd’s story.

Floyd... Floyd is twins with Jade, let’s not forget that. I’m sure Floyd is actually really intelligent, he just isn’t in the mood to be sometimes. Hence he’s able to really understand something when you say something seriously. I think Floyd would always take you seriously when you say something important. 

For Jade’s story, my inspiration was the story of my dad tripping. It was only witnessed by him and mom. My mom talked about how terrifying it was to watch a six foot tall man fall down. My dad just found it funny. Hence, I thought, Jade should trip. 

Other than that, the general idea I wanted was that it’s our time to pamper Jade. He’s one of the two characters who I know would love to pamper his reader. So this was his lover’s chance to pamper him. Also, he’s also one of two characters who would have an idea about your insane strength.

Jamil, much like Jade, is the type of guy who pampers the people he loves. He doesn’t take to being pampered too well. He’s not used to it. 

Jamil also appreciates getting his hard work recognized, so I’m sure he has a praise kink hahah. He’s also easily embarrassed. I think Jamil needs someone who acknowledges all of his hard work, who also accepts his mistakes. 

Epel was the last one to write, and actually a genuine struggle for me. I always... end up writing something in relation to his struggles with his face and femininity. Epel is someone who wants to be seen as a real man, so I worried about what he’d think of a reader who had the strength he wanted. 

I figured if it was anyone else, it might inspire jealousy in Epel--but because it was his lover, he was able to push aside his negative feelings and look at the bright side. You’re truly his ideal, and he wants to learn how to be strong from you.

Rook was another tough one. There did exist a version where you surprise him... but the more I thought about it, the more I found it impossible for Rook to not know or not have an idea. He’s the other character who would have an idea about your strength.

On that note, thinking about a romantic partner for Rook... I thought what was best was someone who wouldn’t find him odd. Who would actually try to learn about him. 

Lilia’s... was also pretty easy given he enjoyed hanging upside down a lot in the main story hahah. Lilia cute, I love him. Also, when will Lilia stop messing with Idia? Probably never tbh. 

I touched upon the topic of mortality and immortality, but because I wanted this to be lighthearted--I chose not to pursue it. It would drag the mood down, but honestly--it’s something we can’t ignore and is very integral in relationships with Lilia or Malleus.

[theirrationalzone]

My Top Ten Games of 2020

Let’s just address the giant elephant in the room from the offset: 2020 has been one giant mess of a year. Every event, every major moment this year just felt like the worst case scenario every time.

For a lot of us though, there was one saving grace: video games.

2020 has been a damn fine year for video games. From the return of certain classic franchises to some amazing new entries and experiences. Gaming really managed to thrive in a year where other entertainment mediums such as films and television struggled.

Let’s dive in and take a look at some of the games that made this year a lot more bearable:

10: Watch Dogs Legion

I’ve had a soft spot for Ubisoft’s hack ‘em up franchise for quite a while. I didn’t think the original was as disappointing as it was made out to be and I thought the second one was an underrated gem. When Legion was first announced, I liked a lot of what the game was setting out to do but I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on getting it. I decided to give the game a chance in the end and I’m glad I did.

Legion might suffer from the same pitfalls that have plagued other Ubisoft enterprises, but the recruitment mechanic is one of the coolest systems I have seen in any game ever. The fact that you can recruit any NPC that you see on the streets of London and use their unique talents to complete your objectives is just an awesome thing in and of itself. Its depiction of London is also incredibly fun to explore and cause mayhem in. While I found the writing to be pretty subpar, the game quite buggy and the whole PS5 upgrade fiasco a farce, I still found Legion to be a fun open world experience overall.

9: Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil has been on a real hot streak as of late, hasn’t it? Ever since Capcom made a promise to its fans that the Resident Evil series would go back to what made it so popular in the first place, the series has gone from strength to strength. Last year saw the release of the RE2 Remake which was absolutely excellent in that it kept the spirit of the original while also taking a few liberties of its own. It was only a matter of time before RE3 got the same treatment and well... it did.

I’m just going to spit this out. It’s not as good as the RE2 Remake. It didn’t need to be though. I still think this is a good game that provides a satisfying and fun survival horror experience. It carries over a lot of the elements that made the RE2 Remake such an excellent game and in certain areas (especially the writing) it makes a few improvements. Plus the game looks absolutely stunning thanks to the RE Engine. It is quite short. It is missing quite a bit of content from the original game. It definitely isn’t as replayable as the RE2 Remake. I still had a blast with it though overall. If this really is a blip for the Resident Evil series, then it must be in a really good place right now.

8: Tell Me Why

Dontnod Entertainment have fast become one of my favourite developers in the industry right now. When I first played Life is Strange back in 2015, it felt like a revelation. It weaved a fantastic story with characters you genuinely cared for and took you to a place you never wanted to leave. I’ve enjoyed all of their other ventures since then such as the underrated (if quite janky) Vampyr and Life is Strange 2.

Tell Me Why is another venture that fits the Dontnod MO: A grounded emotional story with slight supernatural elements, a degree of player choice and a setting that makes your jaw drop. The major difference here is the game’s attempt to portray a transgender character. That’s nothing new in and of itself. It’s more the fact that it attempts to accurately portray a transgender male character which is a bit of a rarity in all forms of media. Transgender portrayals (from what I’ve seen) tend to focus on male to female rather than female to male.

I’m in no position to comment on whether the portrayal is accurate or not, but I got the impression that Dontnod really went out of their way to get this right. Their FAQ explains that they worked with GLAAD and the voice actor to get it as right as they could. That alone deserves huge praise, but I also loved the Ronan Twins’ story as they dealt with their harsh past and the uncertain future. The game was a delight from beginning to end and it just looks absolutely gorgeous to boot. Dontnod have done it again.

7: Bugsnax

One of the early delights of the last generation was a little ditty known as Octodad: Dadliest Catch. It was a fun little physics based affair which cast you as a octopus masquerading as a human. The game had a terrific sense of humour and it was just bloody fun to play. Young Horses (the developer of the game) kinda went dark after that. They only really resurfaced to release two bonus levels for that game and then they just disappeared again. Now we know why that was the case...

Bugsnax retains some of the qualities that made Octodad such as a memorable game. A great sense of humour and a unique gameplay hook. You play as a reporter sent to the mysterious Snaktooth Island to interview an explorer called Elizabert Megafig who has discovered these unusual creatures known as Bugsnax. After crash landing onto the island, you discover that Elizabert and her significant other have gone missing. It’s up to you to find out what happened while also documenting and capturing Bugsnax for yourself. Capturing the Bugsnax is a big part of what makes this game such a delight to play. As you unlock more tools to play around with, you can come up with different strategies and methods to capture these weird snack based creatures. It’s pretty awesome. Throw in a lovable set of characters to interact with and a beautiful environment to explore, and you’ve got one of the most lovable games released this year.

6: Mafia: Definitive Edition

The last few years haven’t been too kind to the Mafia franchise in my eyes. I really wanted to like Mafia III when it came out back in 2016. It was a sequel I waited years for and it did have some good qualities such as an excellent story that dealt with some pretty heavy topics, solid gameplay mechanics and an amazing licensed soundtrack. Unfortunately the game had one of the most tedious and boring gameplay loops I think I’ve ever seen in an open world game. It just got so dull after the first couple of hours.

This year saw the announcement of the Mafia Trilogy which was to be a celebration of the entire franchise with a remake of the first game, a remaster of the second and a re-release of the third. Half of this was botched with the remaster of II being poorly put together and the re-release of III receiving a broken patch. Things were looking grim for the remake...

As you can see by it being in this list, we were proven wrong. Mafia: DE is a fantastic remake that pays good lip service to the original while also expanding on certain elements. The story which follows the rise and fall of cab driver turned wiseguy Tommy Angelo is more fleshed out with new sequences and character moments that weren’t in the original. Gameplay still retains the solid shooting and cover mechanics of Mafia III and the driving feels absolutely excellent especially when you put it in simulation mode. Lost Heaven is just gorgeous to behold as well with its bustling neighbourhoods and beautiful countryside. I hope this is the beginning of a redemption arc for Hangar 13 and the Mafia franchise. There is a lot of promise to build upon from here.

5: Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise

Anyone who knows me personally or has followed me on social media for a while knows that I’m a big fan of Deadly Premonition. The 2010 cult survival horror hit pretty much encapsulates why I love video games with its lovable hero, an eccentric cast of characters and surprisingly solid mechanics considering the budget it was made for. It was definitely more than the sum of its parts.

When I found out that a sequel was being made exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, my jaw hit the floor pretty hard. I thought any hopes for a sequel were dashed when SWERY left Access Games (the original dev), and yet here we are. A Blessing in Disguise is a brilliant sequel to the zany original. It captures everything that I loved about the original game to a T while also improving in certain aspects. The story is more ambitious this time with it being both prequel and sequel. A lot of the gameplay elements have been improved. The combat benefits from better aiming controls and an upgrade system for both York and his weapon. Getting from A to B is less wonky (and more fun) thanks to the addition of a skateboard rather than a car.

While I do still think the original is better due to the more creative side quests, the more challenging difficulty and the fact that it functions better from a technical perspective, I’m still a big fan of DP2 and it deserves your attention. Here’s hoping that it makes its way to other platforms in the future.

4: Ghost of Tsushima

This last generation has been good for Sony and its Worldwide Studios. In the last five years, they’ve managed to produce hit after hit after hit. A definite far cry from the first year of the PS4 where they produced some dire exclusives. Infamous Second Son was one of these. Sucker Punch’s first effort on the console was very pretty and a good technical showpiece for the console, but as a game, it was boring and dull. I couldn’t even muster the strength to finish it. The standalone expansion First Light was a huge improvement in my eyes. It cut out a lot of the fluff from Second Son. I knew then that Sucker Punch would eventually give us something amazing. They certainly did in the end...

Ghost of Tsushima is honestly one of the best exclusives that Sony has ever produced. Giving us a brutal tale in the vein of a Kurosawa flick where samurai Jin Sakai is forced to betray his code in order to drive out the Mongol force that has enslaved his homeland; we have a story that is genuinely gripping from beginning to end with an incredibly powerful final duel to boot. The combat is incredibly fun with a brilliant combat system that is easy to pick up but challenging to master. Duels especially show the combat system at its finest. Upgrading your abilities genuinely makes you feel incredibly powerful as you begin to decimate enemies left, right and center. Stealth is solid giving you plenty of tools at your disposal and certainly changes up the gameplay a fair bit. Did I mention that Tsushima Island is one of the most aesthetically pleasing locales in any game to date? Well I’m saying it now. It is one of the most beautiful locales in any game to date.

I’m very excited to see where this new IP goes in the future because this first entry is just incredible. A must buy if you own or plan on owning a PlayStation 4 or 5 in the near future.

3: Astro’s Playroom

Memorable pack-in exclusives are a bit of a rarity nowadays. The last one that sticks in my mind is Wii Sports, and that was a long time ago.

Astro’s Playroom serves as the pack-in title for the PlayStation 5 as it is pre-installed on all units. It’s also my favourite exclusive for the console so far. The main reason for this is that Astro’s Playroom evolves past being just a tech demo for the console and its fancy new controller. It actually is a fun little platformer in its own right. It offers something different with every level. In one level you can transform into a giant ball and attempt to navigate some pretty tight platforms, and in the next, you take control of a rocket ship and navigate through corridors while also avoiding bombs. There is great variety here and to be fair, it shows off the potential of the new DualSense controller fantastically.

Plus the game is just one giant love letter to the PlayStation brand and the games that made it what it is today. You’ll see references to obscure PlayStation paraphernalia such as the Multitap and UMD discs, and also games like Final Fantasy VII and Silent Hill. The final boss of the game in particular is one giant callback to something you might remember if you got a PlayStation 1 back in the day. I won’t say any more, but it made me yelp in joy when I saw it. If you plan on getting a PlayStation 5 in the future, make this the first game you play. You won’t regret it.

2: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

Activision have been on a roll in the last few years with the revitalisation of some of their classic franchises. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon for example have enjoyed newfound success thanks to the excellent N Sane Trilogy and Reignited Trilogy. When it was revealed earlier this year that Vicarious Visions and Beenox would be resurrecting the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise with a remake of Pro Skater 1 and 2, my heart skipped a good few beats.

The Pro Skater franchise means a lot to me personally as I have very fond memories of putting hours into 1 and 2 when I was a kid. Going through the Career mode with each skater, learning the gaps and getting used to doing manuals when they were introduced in 2, it’s all ingrained into me. I’m happy to say that this is probably the best remake I have ever played. It perfectly captures what made those first two entries so special. Each level is beautifully recreated with a ton of new details that serve to enhance these levels. The soundtrack includes all of your old favourites like Goldfinger’s Superman and Rage Against the Machine’s Guerilla Radio along with some fantastic new tracks like Less Than Jake’s Bomb Drop.

The gameplay definitely taps more into Pro Skater 3 and 4 territory with Reverts and Flatland tricks included. These tricks don’t feel out of place and the game does give you the option to play it legacy style if you want. It feels magnificent overall though. The physics are pitch perfect. Creating lines and large combos is still as addicting and rewarding as ever. Online leaderboards certainly tempt you to reach for the stars if you’ve got the ability. Career mode isn’t particularly long, but the pretty robust Create-a-Park editor and solid multiplayer suite should keep you coming back for more. I’ve already put dozens of hours into this and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.

If my number 1 entry on this list didn’t exist, this would be my Game of the Year. As it stands though, this is a very close second.

1: Doom Eternal

How do you follow up one of the best first person shooters in recent memory? Basically turn everything up to eleven and then some. Doom (2016) was such an eye opener when it launched. It gave everything we could have ever wanted from a new Doom game: a whole planet full of demons to kill and some big guns to help them back to where they belong. It was awesome and an easy choice for my GOTY back in 2016.

I anticipated Doom Eternal with bated breath. The excitement was building but the nerves were building with it. How could it live up to the previous one? What if it makes the same mistakes as Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus? Thankfully my worries were unfounded as soon as I loaded up the game and was thrown straight into the fold with a Combat Shotgun and some entry level demons to destroy with it.

Doom Eternal is the FPS genre at its absolute finest. The levels are much bigger with more secrets to find and loads of demons to kill. Said demons are much more plentiful in their ranks and they move faster too. Fortunately enough, you have a huge arsenal to deal death to these demonic denizens from the depths of Hell such as the starter Combat Shotgun, the Plasma Rifle, the Ballista and even a giant sword known as the Crucible. Enemies now have weak points to exploit as well which can turn the tide of battle and it rewards accuracy. Before you know it, you’ll be entangled in a ballet of bullets, beams, blood and guts (HUGE guts mind you.) This game makes you feel like a hero at the end of every fight. It’s so satisfying.

Toss in a soundtrack that will get your blood pumping and your goosebumps raising along with environments that will make your TV or monitor look like a window to a scorched earth, and you have my Game of the Year for 2020. Well deserved for sure. I really need to get on that DLC.

To those of you who actually took the time to read all that, you have my heartfelt thanks. I really appreciate you reading this and I hope my choices made sense.

To those of you who just glanced at each entry and skimmed through the text, I don’t blame you for doing that. I still appreciate you taking a look anyway.

All that’s left for me to say is that I hope each and every one of you has a safe holiday season and I hope that the New Year will be better for all of us.

I’ll see you all in 2021. Stay safe and well, folks.

[trinuviel]

Why is it so significant the parallel between Queen Alysanne and Sansa?

The parallels between Queen Alysanne and Sansa Stark are significant because they may foreshadow Sansa eventually becoming Queen - and if that is so, it also hints what kind of Queen Sansa would be since Alysanne was called Good Queen Alysanne. The possibility of Sansa becoming a good queen is also highlighted in her narrative journey as she learns from her experiences at court.

Queen ship has been a continual theme in Sansa’s narrative arc, evolving in step with how her character develops - and this theme is there for a reason, especially AFTER her betrothal to Joffrey was broken.

In the first book, Sansa’s notion of queenship was a very naive one - the Disney princess dream, so to speak, of pretty dresses, having babies and living happily ever after in a world where everyone is courteous and nice.

That night Sansa dreamt of Joffrey on the throne, with herself seated beside him in a gown of woven gold. She had a crown on her head, and everyone she had ever known came before her, to bend the knee and say their courtesies. (AGoT, Sansa IV)

Later she sees it as a way to save those she loves and to protect herself:

Joffrey was the king now, she thought. Her gallant prince would never hurt her father, no matter what he might have done. If she went to him and pleaded for mercy, she was certain he’d listen. He had to listen, he loved her, even the queen said so. Joff would need to punish Father, the lords would expect it, but perhaps he could send him back to Winterfell, or exile him to one of the Free Cities across the narrow sea. It would only have to be for a few years. By then she and Joffrey would be married. Once she was queen, she could persuade Joff to bring Father back and grant him a pardon. (AGoT, Sansa IV)

He did not hate her, Sansa realized; neither did he love her. He felt nothing for her at all. She was only a … a thing to him. “No,” she said, rising. She wanted to rage, to hurt him as he’d hurt her, to warn him that when she was queen she would have him exiled if he ever dared strike her again …(AGoT, Sansa IV)

In the second book, she is subjected to Cersei’s toxic “wisdom” about how a Queen should act:

“The night’s first traitors,” the queen said, “but not the last, I fear. Have Ser Ilyn see to them, and put their heads on pikes outside the stables as a warning.” As they left, she turned to Sansa. “Another lesson you should learn, if you hope to sit beside my son. Be gentle on a night like this and you’ll have treasons popping up all about you like mushrooms after a hard rain. The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy.”

“I will remember, Your Grace,” said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people’s loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I’ll make them love me. (ACoK, Sansa VI)

Here we see Sansa learn how NOT to be a Queen as she inwardly rejects Cersei’s toxic worldview. Not only does Sansa reject Cersei’s attitude, she also steps up and does Cersei’s job of calming the women when Cersei herself abdicates her queenly responsibilities as she leaves Maegor’s Holdfast during the Battle of the Blackwater.

Sansa is set aside as Joffrey’s betrothed at the end of book 2 and one would think that the theme of queenship would come to an end in her arc. However, it still pops up in the story, fx when Tyrion observes that Sansa has the abilities to have been a good Queen:

She is good at this, he thought, as he watched her tell Lord Gyles that his cough was sounding better, compliment Elinor Tyrell on her gown, and question Jalabhar Xho about wedding customs in the Summer Isles. His cousin Ser Lancel had been brought down by Ser Kevan, the first time he’d left his sickbed since the battle. He looks ghastly. Lancel’s hair had turned white and brittle, and he was thin as a stick. Without his father beside him holding him up, he would surely have collapsed. Yet when Sansa praised his valor and said how good it was to see him getting strong again, both Lancel and Ser Kevan beamed. She would have made Joffrey a good queen and a better wife if he’d had the sense to love her. (ASoS, Tyrion VIII)

The theme of queenship in relation to Sansa is even raised indirectly in the fourth book when she has been taken to the Vale by Petyr Baelish:

"You would not believe half of what is happening in King’s Landing, sweetling. Cersei stumbles from one idiocy to the next, helped along by her council of the deaf, the dim, and the blind. I always anticipated that she would beggar the realm and destroy herself, but I never expected she would do it quite so fast. It is quite vexing. I had hoped to have four or five quiet years to plant some seeds and allow some fruits to ripen, but now … it is a good thing that I thrive on chaos. What little peace and order the five kings left us will not long survive the three queens, I fear.”

“Three queens?” She did not understand.

Nor did Petyr choose to explain.(AFfC, Alayne II)

Baelish never explains his cryptic remark and fans have theorized a lot about who the three queens that Baelish refers to are. Cersei is certainly one of them but few people consider Sansa as a candidate as one of those queens. However, it is important to consider the context for this remark of his. We learn that Baelish’s plans for Sansa include a marriage between her and Harry the Heir as a means to use the Knights of the Vale to retake the North. That would put both Sansa and him in open rebellion to the Iron Throne - and it very likely that he plans to set up Sansa as Queen in the North as a step for him to realize his ambitions of power, which very likely would be him taking the Iron Throne for himself - as in the show.

The show also subtly hints at Sansa as Queen in various ways. Fx in season 3, a very subtle hint that may be foreshadowing is introduced in the very first episode - after Sansa has been set aside - when Ros tells Shae this:

This is a particularly interesting detail because it invokes an age-old tradition of announcing royal births with both a series of gun salutes as well as specially composed bell peals. It is a tradition that is still in use in the United Kingdom where the birth of Prince George in 2013 was celebrated with a special bell peal that lasted 3 hours! (x).  

Thus, Sansa’s birth was celebrated as if she were a royal princess, which is a curious detail since the Starks have not been Kings in the North for several centuries.

This is a detail that was invented for the show - and I cannot help but wonder if this apparently innocuous detail might be a piece of cleverly hidden foreshadowing of Sansa’s eventual fate. She may end up becoming Queen, which isn’t a far-fetched idea since queenship is a theme the runs through her narrative arc in the books - even after she’s no longer betrothed to Joffrey. Sansa is, in many respects, a foil to Cersei and it is through Cersei that she learns how NOT to be a Queen! Neither should we forget that in the moment of crisis during the Battle of Blackwater, it was Sansa who stepped up and performed Cersei’s role when the latter abandoned her duties. (x)

Furthermore, in season 7, the show subtly compares and contrasts Cersei, Daenerys and Sansa as rulers - even though Sansa is not a queen. This is done both through the similarities in their costuming but also through a direct comparison of their actions. Cersei’s forces seizes the food of the Reach in order to feed her allies and Daenerys burns all of these very important resources even though she cannot feed her armies. In contrast, we see Sansa collecting the foodstuffs of the North at Winterfell in order to feed both her people but also any refuges that might seek shelter there. However, she also expressly states that if there’s any surplus food (or if they don’t need it), then it is to be returned to the people who delivered it. Thus, we see Cersei stealing food to prop up her own rule, we see Daenerys destroy food even though she needs it - and in contrast we see Sansa securing food through voluntary donations and planning for it to be returned if it turns out that they won’t need it.

So even though Sansa is not technically a Queen (and we actually see her refuse the Crown of the North when it is indirectly offered), she acts like one - and she’s the one who is shown as a better leader that the two rival Queens in the South.

Thank you for the ask and sorry about the late answer.

[themoonkissedexplorer-blog]

Finding My Rhythm!

My nursery school experience is one I do not often talk about,a kid should not be able to recall how their teacher had a psychotic break in the middle of a lesson ,went into coloring a bunch of books in a frenzy while screaming and had to be carried out , I did not feel so terrible though,this was the same teacher who told me not to sing the national anthem during morning assembly as she was lost on where to place my voice, I was too off key.

This blew my one chance of making friends as an awkward kid.I wasn't accepted in the little boys and girls choir club ,and that was pretty much the only thing we had going on in that school.The whole episode about a teacher losing her wits infront of the class did not sit in too well with the parents ,so before I had made any meaningful connections,I was off with my first bag ,crayons and evenly spaced exercise books to another school.This was not just a nursery school,it consisted of a lower and upper primary too.

My adventures were just beginning,I thought it was going to be a lovely rosy experience but this school had the toughest bunch in it,I immediately stood out as I was able to read ,albeit with some difficulties a few english sentences here and there,the cheerfulness I displayed when raising my hands in class did not work on my favor,I learnt that there was a way things were running in this school and I was not being a good fit.My new school mates praised illiteracy,this were young kids who thought life was out of school and were just passing time .

Reading or even speaking a bit of english alienated me further from making any meaningful connection or friendship,I had to acquire a tough exterior somehow while still maintaining my grades to avoid any trouble with the old lady at home.I labored so hard to make new friends but it seems the kids knew right away I was a bit apprehensive.My resolve towards bullies was pretty simple as I had one objective in mind,turn foe into friend,and the process involved giving in to their demands with a smile.

The first encounter was around lunch hour with Jamila ,a girl who should not have been in class one.Jamila towered even over our mathematics teacher ,one could always spot the tremor in Mrs Wanja's voice as she called out Jamila's name while going through the register.Jamila asked for my shoes and socks without flinching ,I knew they did not fit her so that confirmed the suspicion that she could have been having a family outside school or was possibly running a business for second hand wares,I gave lady Jamila the brightest smile ever and proceeded to give her my new shoes and old pair of socks.

Back home my mother was infuriated and also worried about my slothful like nature but this gradually went to rage when I came home without school uniform the second week and the last straw was when I walked back home with a polythene bag holding my books having given out my first bag as well.My mother had had enough ,I could tell from my��burning ears after she'd pulled them for so long trying to understand what submissive demon had possessed me into giving out everything she was buying for me,she was also worried I was a bit slow.

I had to toughen up ,luckily my cousin Ibrahim and his friend Baraka joined around the same time.With the two I found company and got a bit of respect around school,but it was not enough ,this was all revealed when Jamila towered over us one day after class ,took all our erasers and books and left.A front of three ,and we still got bullied,it was time to think of concise and effective ways to get some respect around school,but outside Jamila's turf of course.I saw in Baraka and Ibrahim friends but I was an outsider in their friendship bond.When they talked me into after school street fighting,I did not ask why I as a female was the fighter and they,two males were managing me.

So we got to watching indian movies in video cafes to learn a few moves and in a day I was ready to take on the world.The mechanism was simple ,Ibrahim and Baraka would get into trouble with someone,to weasel out of it they would throw in a challenge,a fight, and the prize was just respect .They'd meet me outside my class after school,we would then proceed to the back of the school and I would immediately be thrown in to the ring.The first few fights were peanuts ,I was in the best form,thin and fast and throwing in a few shah ru khan moves here and there I would have my opponent begging for mercy in no time at all.

I became quite popular as a result and in class three I was completely unafraid to raise my hands  in class or speak english , but that was till the day we challenged Atman who had sat on Ibrahim's desk and refused to budge.With growing tenacity ,I walked into Ibrahim's class just before the lesson started and told Atman about the pain that was about to rain down on him.I should have observed Atman clearly I understand that now,Atman like jamila seemed the type of guy or kid as I was unable to discern later who would not be going home to do homework but in a certain degree to solve real life problems like rent,or issues like was the gardening hoe returned by the neighbor,or trouble himself about financial issues and the rising price of a loaf of bread.

 Atman was all muscle,muscles were bulging throughout every visible part of him.It did not last long ,one minute I was holding my fist defiantly the next I was face down in the middle of the desk with my legs up in the air,my promoters had taken off and were nowhere to be seen.I went home looking like I had been fished out of a muddy pond,mom took one look at me and took me off to a private school-yet again,another unsuccessful attempt at making friends.

The private school covered what remained of my upper primary years,I was fast tracking into the puberty phase .I had some vague notions of what a private school would be like ,ideas we had passed around in my former schools while walking home when the big new school buses for private schools with english names printed across carrying all this bright faces would zoom past us.We thought to ourselves that the kids must have been born in big hospitals with fancy doctors and the first stream of words they heard were probably bunch of english words.

Fancy we thought,this were a different type of people who only conversed in this words we see in text books,fascinating!I was thrust into yet another environment that I did not fit in,I remember my new class gasping as I read an english statement with the knowledge of the school I was from,a mish mash of tenses. I rose through the ranks slowly in this new establishment by doing a lot of homework for people but it all paid off as I was chosen to be a head girl,attempt at making friends yet again ineffective because power tends to push people away.

Mother says she was worried about me for quite sometime,I was always colliding with bicycles while going to the shop,losing money,forgetting change,zoning off and creepily staring at people ,and my mouth would go off and say the wrong things in a family reunion like aunty Letifa's late night meetings with the village chief which would come as quite a surprise to her husband.So I treaded on looking for people to fit in with, I did not find that escape in high school as the zoning off and staring into space became a topic and people would allude to me when conversing about characters that were not quite okay in the head,the straw that broke the camels back was when I attempted a dance during the entertainment hour in my third year.

I let the beat completely take over me and started gyrating and convulsing to it,I moved like a white girl they said while laughing so I let dancing become a private affair while showering.I was made to feel awkward all through and it happens to date,but I always celebrated the fact that I was different and I was always convinced that there had to be a breed of people I would fit right in with.I  have felt like a box was being designed for me at each stage and I was expected to fit in.Growing up,I had to explain myself to my peers why I enjoyed reading,but at some point ,books became my only solace,and my adventures were restricted to my wandering imagination.

I went camping recently and a picture was taken of me on top of a tree,I spent the next two days on social media being asked by people what brain malady had overtaken me and made me climb a tree.I was shocked,that even as a twenty six year old I was put on the stand to validate my actions as if it was any ones business.I spent so much time growing up trying to fit in to the idea of normal ,what everybody expected of me ,but at each step I was amiss because I was either not tough enough,my hips were too narrow or my ideas too wild.But I stopped trying to fit in a long time ago,I learnt that life is that big dance floor and as I let go and let the rhythm of life overtake me,no matter how absurd my convulsions and gyrations may seem to others ,when I open my eyes I will find some people close to me.

[almostnoisydonut]

𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓣𝓲𝓭𝓮 𝓦𝓪𝓲𝓽 𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓝𝓸 𝓜𝓪𝓷

‘No one is so powerful that he can stop the march of time’ – this is what the phrase ‘time and tide wait for none’ means. Although the origin of this phrase is not sure, yet it is obvious that it has ancient origins and predates modern English. The mere mention of the ‘tide’ being beyond man’s control brings to mind images of King Canute’s story. He showed the limitations of a King’s powers by failing to make the sea obey his orders. The word ‘tide’ in this phrase originally didn’t imply what the present meaning is – ‘the rising and falling of the sea’.  It denoted ‘a period of time’. At the time when this phrase was coined the word ‘tide’ meant a season or a time or a while.

This phrase is also sometimes mentioned as ‘time and tide wait for no man’. Nevertheless, it signifies the importance of time. In literature time has often been referred to as “Once upon a time” and then as the story progresses we discover how time passes, how it comes to a standstill, how it flies sometimes and how the character develops as time goes by. Time was a great teacher for King Lear in Shakespeare’s play ‘King Lear’. His character undergoes a sea-change with passage to time. His tow elder daughters failed the test of time. It was the youngest one, the reticent Cordelia, who faced the stormy times and came out a winner in being united with her father. But then time was a cruel teacher. Both Lear and Cordelia had to pay the price of their lives. Time had not waited for them. How time flies!’ they say. Rightly has Ben Hecht said, “Time is a circus always packing up and moving away.”  

Time is to be treated as a precious commodity. It’s as important as life itself. What is life? Is it a mere breathing exercise? How do we define time? We often refer to the term ‘lifetime’. What makes a life is not the whole life at one go. Rather it consists of moments stitched together. We should live life in parts, so to say. Live a whole lifetime in a whole day. Live as if there’s no tomorrow. This doesn’t mean being rash. But start enjoying your life, you never will be able to when times change. You never can judge what time has in store for you. Being alive and living is a totally different thing. If you go to accumulating wealth hoping that you’ll indulge yourself, do something for your family and enjoy life one day, you are grossly mistaken. When a man dies he will never wish he would have spent some more time in the office. As we say, ‘opportunity is here’, similarly, ‘time is here and now’. Time should never be wasted. “I wasted time and now doth time waste me”, says Shakespeare.

Time has been mentioned in literature in different ways.  Even the mythical and cyclic depiction of time had influenced many writers. 

No matter how many pains you take, you cannot use the ‘undo’ command in life and edit again.

Another quality of time is its uniformity and impartial nature. It works at the same pace for the wealthiest and for the poorest one. An hour means sixty minutes both for a king and a pauper. All are slaves of time. What we can do is make the most of the time at hand, as the old proverb goes ‘make hay while the sun shines’.

We can broadly divide time into three categories – past, present and future. But actually it is indivisible. It’s a wonder how soon a past is created. You wink and eye and the moment is past. You will never find back the time wasted by you, there will only be tales of past. Future too is not revealed to us. We never know what is going to happen. ‘There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip’. So we should live in the present. It is only in the present that the essence of life is contained. We cannot depend on either the past or future which is not in front of us. Live life as it unfolds itself before us, that is, in the form of present.

Time doesn’t give you chances. There are no retakes in real life. Time teaches you with experience but it has been called the cruelest teacher. Why? Because it never waits and you can’t change your actions later. So much destruction has been caused in the world. The two World Wars have been there. Atom bombs have been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It seemed as if the country of Japan would be destroyed, its economy would never be able to recover. But time didn’t come to a standstill. Japan is one of the leading nations of the world. This is because the Japanese didn’t wait for the time, rather they acted. People lose their loved ones. Their lives are shattered by the death. Life doesn’t seem to be moving ahead. But things change because time doesn’t wait for the mourner to get back to life again. Time is a great healer too. It goes on and on, just like a stream. Indeed, time is the stream of life. Just like the bubbles some people fade away, some new ones take their place and the process goes on. Life goes on.

Time and tide are natural phenomena. Like other agents of nature, they too have no consideration and regard for any individual. Man cannot change their course. They are beyond the control of human hands. Man finds himself helpless before them. In ancient times there were no steamships. There were huge boats equipped with sails. They were called ships. Their launching in the sea was a difficult affair, which depended on the tide. The sailors had to wait for weeks and sometimes for months, because their ships could not sail without the help of a tide. As soon as the tide came, they sailed their ships away with it. If they missed the chance, they had to wait for the next tide about which there could be no certainty. A tide never waits for any sailor. It is for the sailor to wait and take advantage of the tide when it comes. It is for the sailors to take advantage of the tide. If they fail they suffer the consequences. 

Time is running fast. Yesterday will never come again. Even this moment when you are reading these lines will never come again. Time is an opportunity. If time will not come again, it means the opportunity will not come again. It is, therefore, necessary that one should grasp the opportunity as it comes. Missing an opportunity means missing the chance for ever, because one does not know whether the opportunity will recur or not. No amount of repentance would compensate the loss caused by such a failure. Nature is impersonal. It does not matter to it if a certain individual fails to make use of an opportunity offered by it. It is because of this aspect of the matter that wise men are always prepared to act with full vigour when time comes. They never postpone things.

Since we all know the story of the rabbit and the tortoise, this story is perfect for the idiom. But if you don’t know anything about the story let me narrate it. Once there was a tortoise who was slow in running he was always criticized by others for his slow pace.

But instead, there was a rabbit in their community who used to run fast. Moreover, everyone praised him for his speed. So to show his skills and to humiliate tortoise the rabbit challenged him for a race. The tortoise accepted the challenge because he never wanted any more humiliation.

The race was scheduled after two days. To win the race, the rabbit practiced hard. Moreover, he started celebrating his victory beforehand. The tortoise was humble he had never thought of winning the race. Yet he was eager to give his best.

So the race started on the third the day of the challenge. Everyone knew that the rabbit would win. Therefore the rabbit was overconfident of himself. The rabbit ate a lot before the race thinking if he would even walk then also he will win the race. But the tortoise had a determination to give his best.

After some time the race started the tortoise was very slow but he kept on moving. On the other hand, the rabbit was running at a very fast pace.

Therefore he was able to reach half the distance of the race track within a few minutes. After reaching that distance he thought that he should take rest. So he lied down under a tree to take a little rest. But soon he went to sleep without realizing because he had eaten so much food before the race. While he was sleeping the tortoise constantly moved with time. Neither did he stop nor did he take any rest.

Thus he was able to cross the rabbit while he was sleeping. When he was about to reach the finish line the rabbit woke up. He rushed towards the finish line. But it was too late till then the tortoise was much ahead than him. So he crossed the finished line in the first place. The Rabbit cried after losing the race. While the tortoise was celebrating the victory.

After reading the story you must be sure that ‘time and tide wait for none’. Because the tortoise worked hard and utilized the time so he was able to succeed in the race. Also, our life is like that only, to achieve success we must work hard with time. Moreover, we should always utilize our time in the best manner. Only then we will be able to achieve success in life.

[verse-aday-blog]

“Ten Remarkable Interpretations”

1 I’m not too old to dance meadowlarks: great punctuation locks in black and blocks, crepuscular and vain the sun in its descent. “You kicked up dust” of which the Ural mountains are but dim reminders through a wooded alley loud as if disturbed in the unbuttoned fog that grays a pedestrian’s silhouette while the passport picture reaching out to me is true or false to tetrahedral nation-states dead in winter water, enzyme ice. I cannot fear to be forgotten a child born another book the dust at dusk of skilled sculptors whose cities sink the swollen toad, her pride flamingoes, lilies, and boy flowers the center of a blue-black vault, history on it, an apron.

2 Language is a victim of its own success while into the carriage comes a louder lyric me of which the Cockscomb Mountains are like apples rotting in the dust that none of us would be content with and a caterpillar’s cud to chew poor tucks can kill, pour tanks, and call. People are forced to live, work, yearn with bourgeois linearity to change this nerdy life upon row upon row upon row of the river pulled further and further apart under the unswallowed elegy of a collared stork. Then productivity as reproductivity ends. Motion gets immobilized by perception into things perceptions get but perception gets it wrong is language. Let’s use it.

3 Doing is highly thought of and frequently abandoned as at a bus stop beside a stunted gingko, and time is tossed a laundry pile large as the crown of a tree or the gravid animal of Pythagoras, and every mathematician dies while runnels vacillate or do nothing astrophysically speaking. Let’s go for eggs and to the bakery. My kid wants to be a puppeteer. But someone must polish glass and since then the refugees weep wax and travel over agate pastures and gag. But we have to trust philosophy—and deny the property where depiction most perfectly depiction depicts. In a faux chateau of finance the proposition is a picture of corn cakes, last crumbs, weapons passing from hand to hand. Let’s rest. Life is fast. As the city rat, resuming, says: “Rudeness is rude.”

4 It can be argued from horseback—the horse a ruby roan as night falls on the shores before an infant knows of time— that there is something in mathematics shorn of ideology. I propose too that there are many things with their capacity to collide or combine with other things in the vicinity (that gravitational field of monsters)— and budding dust small flies: they totter. The public does not need to be convinced. An idiom like Kierkegaard on Halloween gathering twigs and fathering eggs while a stunted thorn frolics in the shade now dead inconsistently down the large white sea does what a poem does, making itself understood.

5 Every situation can be taken as subject to a proposition at stake at this stage of the state. Rejection of a context need not be of one’s own hoeing of the sun, one’s head a building site. Say I rode in on a vicious mule surrounded by leaves under the northern star, the eternal conflict. Say I beat my brow and only put on shows, withered webs, a rigmarole, an atrocity to which I’ll give no words. I refuse it representation. The janitor is innocent, autumn is ill, and cruelty is the rule. I swear you’ll be my father until I die from a flea bite or while beating a metal drum, eating honey and corn like a girl again with an umbrella under a redwood tree with all of which I am in a certain sense one. The roof on trust of hover can’t render love pathetic. I claim too much and yield to the Bighorn Mountains of which the truth of history is but an indifferent silence.

6 Because we refuse to personify the gaping east or deformed west or cranial north or sacrificial south we must accept this box and these panoramas to which we were led through sliding doors just as certain Alpine cliffs reproduce the “head” variants of Mayan “script” with an impersonal cluck to the jeweler. Wherever a human is to be found, there you will find occupation, a skyscraper, a 9-foot copper weathervane, imperial pickles a force plundering an unarmed ceramic bowl. Urban greenbelts lift a feisty allegorical vegetation in human voice above an opium fish, a dime in cinders under the wind and there are wealthy men, skin not yet charred. They are popular as hardware, music, poached eggs, modesty, multicolored snapdragons and the alphabet sacrificed in times of need. I live under the authority of a stucco beehive and a soldier says affectionately to me, You there!

7 We think, we approach, we exist sweep and speak, on ziplines or not. Sayings spread as amusements for children women and men by pony-poets, beetle-poets, crow-poets are voiced by the words themselves and not by anyone speaking them. I dab fingernail polish on six croquet balls. Which of the names of Hercules do you hear and in which of your ways of which the hill behind the soldier bathed in sweat is like a general’s nose or the yellow bowl upturned beside the kitchen sink after I wash it to dry. It’s now a wedding finch a reference to whistling rain a great honesty in the far sacerdotal south. Do they piss on the spider, the aged face of the great organizer on slender evidence, the rising sun that hangs a puppet from my hands?

8 The mountaineer rappels at midnight the wall a wall a wall a woman recalls: a contingent object—it might never have existed then you look at your fists and there are the letters o in admonition, odor, foot. A dog shakes premonitions from its coat lovers of time—time of all kinds— winged insects, mosquitoes mostly but also moths. Welcome, unwelcome, buffeted? Who can make durable wax? Who can knot? The baker is a man and brutalizes wheat and all attempts recall a textual residue of celebrating rats a game of backgammon with dancing kissing getting drunk hugging singing crying when we were leaving war a stumbling block reconstructed and constructed o xank history thistle e tspung hatchet corvid head over human heels, facing a direction wrong or right.

9 Pity combatants on the line who self-concretize, becoming paving stones but I say too loudly that of which I don’t know how to say enough borrowing transcription from a local pebble held in a palm from which a puppet tugs as if pulled by the revolutions of the planets Mercury Saturn or Mars over nearly twelve and a half million days marking time, which is the subject matter of history in which the sun itself bakes the bread then drawn from the oven and cooling under the proprietary nakedness of the caustic trees. So, asked a bee of experience, “How is it that umbrellas are raised against the future of the sun?” Remnants of the past don’t expect us, remnants of the past didn’t foretell us. Our songs are sonically shattered over shortwave by a scop singing the praises of his patron, the racist acquitted—he nods and flees the derelict pattern.

10 People work under the clouds and are direct inheritors of the things that happen every twenty days. What saddle do we use? A wolf has been caught and it sweats. My own sleeps do not unfold in easy procession which is called lustrous, erect, major, and will in some field cease altogether. Then tell me what you have to say. The chains obey, the dogs piss under glass, voracious fish leap from the beams, we do arbitrary things—appear and disappear as leonine as dogs. The first person is made for oneself, denizen of a cult or rubbish heap ready for the evening show in the cavern of centuries. The second is made for you, a respectable human of greenish hue. We had a drink and it cost a house into which we moved, music coming from stone. By Lyn Hejinian, from The Spectacle

[darkhei-noam]

100 Suggestions for Seekers, Spiritual Activists, and Indigo Children

1. Speak to the homeless.  2. Become sensitive enough that you’re overwhelmed with awe when you come upon old bridges and other long-standing architectural elements.  3. Social media fasts every Friday night through Saturday early evening.  4. Simple gratitude mantra recited every morning – whether you mean it or not.  5. Read Alberto Caeiro’s poetry in the moments closest to sleep – especially in the summer months.  6. Stop using the language of “belief” to describe the encounter with God.  7. Don’t employ hyperbolic cynicism on social media platforms.  8. If you earn more than $135k give away all monies above $135k. 9. Keep a small running list of friends who need to be “thought of” and think about them (even briefly) each day.  10. Annual ritual ablution in any natural (or unnatural) body of water for sake of “washing oneself clean” and to reinforce inner-conviction that no matter what we have done, there is almost certainly the possibility to begin anew.  11. Strive to reach hospitality metrics of 180 people hosted in your home (annually).  12. Seekers who are also heavy drinkers should give up drinking.  13. Visit the site of a tragedy or trauma that affected someone else (not you) and sit there quietly, maybe praying on behalf of all those directly and indirectly impacted by the event.  14. Donate (new) toys to the children of immigrants.  15. Don’t worry about what people will think about you if you pause to offer (audible) praise for the food you are about to eat.  16. Occasional genuflection all the way down to the bare earth. Hold for ten seconds.  17. Always greet passersby with a bright countenance and, if appropriate, greetings.  18. Get to the place where sometimes you can transform doing the dishes into an act of divine service.  19. Don’t shirk your responsibility to take care of the people you’re closest to.  20. Silent retreats are not necessary, but honor any rising feeling that you’ve spoken too much.  21. Study the spiritual autobiographies of seekers.  22. Presume that most changes that’ll take place in your life will come about almost entirely by serendipitous or mysterious means and only very partially as a result of your will or intentionality. 23. Cultivate a recognition that you are not actually you but that what you are is 1) Light 2) Compassion raging to break free 3) God’s breath.  24. Abandon spiritual teachers who suggest they have the answers. Seek spiritual teachers who ask the best questions.  25. Don’t worry as much about growing your own food as you do about whether every child in a 5-mile radius of your home has access to fresh food.  26. Resist popular temptations to wear dark sunglasses inside.  27. While there may be social benefits to some types of gossip, seekers should never speak ill of others behind their backs, and should gently redirect conversation if someone else wants to gossip in this way with them. 28. Unless your criticism of another is absolutely centered in a loving desire for that person to grow, do not offer it. And never feign loving desire.  29. Many friends may come to you seeking advice. Your wisdom will be judged by your capacity to ask open-ended questions that invite friends to answer their own spiritual quandaries.  30. Don’t sleep with a phone close to your bed.  31. It’s OK to hang images of saints and other righteous individuals on your walls as long as you understand that these images only represent the inner-saint-and-righteous-individual within your own self.  32. It’s OK not to be a God person but then you must have another spiritual mechanism that reminds you, “You’re not the center of this universe – It’s not all about you.”  33. If a beggar walks into Starbucks and folks are ignoring him or her, calmly greet this person and without any fanfare buy them a cup of coffee.  34. The study of sacred texts is less about acquiring wisdom as much as it is about communing with Wisdom.  35. Blessing and insight are definitely found within the obstacles of the day-to-day and you should forgive yourself for never finding them there.  36. Once a week, stand before a mirror and take a really good look at yourself.  37. When you hear about a wrongful death as a result of police brutality, write the deceased’s name on a piece of paper and go out into a public space and just hold that name up for an hour.  38. If your heart’s in the right place, religious law can be broken.  39. All pop love songs are allegories about God’s love for each and every individual.  40. Reject the commercialism of the holiday season but recognize giving gifts as a vehicle to get beyond your small self.  41. Restrict your consumption of meat to Sabbaths, holidays, and other occasional celebrations.  42. The body is the palace of the soul – not the prison of the soul.  43. In moments of despair: retreat, forgive, and refocus.  44. It’s OK to be a gentle stoner, but anything that gets shot in your veins is a source of illusion and dead ends.  45. Even solitary mystics will someday seek a community of practice.  46. Walk in cemeteries.  47. Never engage in road rage.  48. Make generous exclamations of delight whenever you eat.  49. Light bonfires at the darkest moment of winter.  50. Ensure that every stranger is greeted.  51. Strong coffee, for vision’s sake.  52. Compulsive desire to perform secret acts of charity.  53. Try and learn the personal story of one new individual every day.  54. Always live in proximity to a wooded or wild area such that if the need arose you could be alone in nature within five minutes.  55. Amulets are OK, but should be worn discretely.  56. If and when the challenges that beset you are many more and much greater than you can handle, take a vacation day, get hydrated, and recite: “I know that sometimes we go bankrupt. I know that sometimes we bottom out. Dear God, accompany me and walk beside me. I possess the inner resources to get through this. And if I don’t, that will be OK too”.  57. Wearing a beard is permitted, but the wearer must often joke about being a seeker with a beard and thus reveal certain self-consciousness and self-doubt.  58. Reverent acknowledgement of very old trees.  59. Carry small printouts of powerful texts in your jacket pockets.  60. Be capable of providing a “thick description” of at least one spiritual tradition that is not your own.  61. Over the course of a spiritual journey, there may be moments in which the God you are familiar with, the God around whom your community is built, will appear to you in an unfamiliar guise and perhaps even in the mask of another people’s God. You should be able to breath through these times, appreciating them for their depth and humor.  62. After the seeker has glimpsed a little of what she seeks, the seeker must transmit and translate these glimpses to others.  63. Pay close attention to the deaths of artists and writers. When a writer or poet dies consider for a moment if you have any of his or her books on your shelf. If you do, take one down and leaf through it for a bit. Carry it with you in your briefcase for the day. 64. Gather some of your closest friends and everyone’s children and take a walk down through the woods on a rainy, but not bitterly cold winter day. Go further than you might think appropriate for the children. The walk should feel as much “ordeal” as “outing”. Someone should have the capacity and gear to make tea. 65. Wear clean clothes and brush your teeth a lot.  66. As you walk through the streets on your way to wherever, keep in mind that you might be called upon at any moment to intervene on behalf of another person’s wellbeing and safety.  67. Pray for the repealing of the 2nd amendment.  68. Recite 100 expressions of gratitude and wonder each day.  69. There is something called mindfulness based meditation and then there is something else called mindlessness based meditation. Both are legitimate paths.  70. Travel to distant lands is a vehicle for self-discovery, but so is therapy and true friendship.  71. Your consciousness is the most recent fruit of a billion year evolutionary process. Do not ever forget that.  72. Elitism is not an aspiration. 73. No need to follow a regimented diet as long as you eat simply and with plenty of deep-seated gratitude.  74. Being weird for God is one of the great delights of this life.  75. Living a happy life is not the goal. Living a meaningful life is the goal. And often the pursuit of meaning is very difficult.  76. It’s OK to yell at drivers to slow down as long as you’re only concerned about the wellbeing of children and not taking it as an opportunity to enjoy belittling another.  77. When trying to attend to the question, “How good do I really need to be?” have the chutzpah to insist, “Really fucking good”.  78. Forgive others for whom the trauma of history has impacted their capacity to accept others without bias, but strive to accept all without bias.  79. Make time to mentor others whether personally or professionally or spiritually.  80. Don’t forget the look of your own handwriting.  81. Do not practice a spirituality that has you despair having been placed in this world.  82. Try to undermine your faith in order to stay spiritually limber and soft.  83. Greetings performed with a kiss to each cheek.  84. Spiritual leadership means being able to remain calm in moments of communal crisis and being able to fall apart in moments of personal crisis.  85. For a seeker, the death of a loved one is an opportunity to gaze behind the curtain that is typically drawn over daily consciousness.  86. Transform sleepless nights into experiences rich with the potential for communion.  87. Take great pleasure at the sight of people doing silly things, like a pack of friends all holding hands and walking through the city.  88. Become concerned if your heart is unmoved by scenes of misfortune that get in your way.  89. Some type of religious costume ought to be worn on occasion.  90. Do whatever you need to do in order to beam light from your navel.  91. Be known for zealously seeking to understand what’s going on inside people before judging them.  92. Every once in a while let in the crushing humility that is induced when contemplating the massive scale of the cosmos and time.  93. Speak to God as if you are speaking to a close friend.  94. Forgive crass humor.  95. Be kind to all animals.  96. Get up on a hill and stare at the sun toward evening.  97. Don’t be rough with children.  98. Don’t own too many shoes.  99. Smile often.  100. Always believe there’s more to seek.

— Rabbi Joshua Bolton

[dailyshare]

DOCUMENTATION ON SOCIAL POLICIES AND SERVICES TO THE PERSON AND THE COMMUNITY

https://the-basic-dream.blogspot.com/2020/12/documentation-on-social-policies-and.html

LIFE CYCLE

Seneca: shortness of life

I. Most mortals, Pauline, complain about the wickedness of nature, because we are brought into the world for a small period of time, because these periods of time granted to us go by so fast, so fast that, except for a very few, life abandons others in the very beginning of life. Nor of this calamity, common to all, as they believe, only the crowd and the insane populace complained; this state of mind aroused complaints also of celebrities. Hence the famous exclamation of the most illustrious of doctors, that life is short, art long; hence the dispute, not very decent for a sage, of the demanding Aristotle with the nature of things, because it is been so kind to animals, that they can live five or ten generations, and instead has granted a much shorter time to man, born to so many and so great things. We do not have a short time, but we have lost a lot of it. Life is long enough and has been given to us with breadth for making the most large companies, if all were used with diligence; but when it passes in waste and indifference, when it is not spent for anything good, driven in the end by extreme necessity, we realize that it is passed and we did not notice its passing. That's it: we don't get a short life, but we give it back, and we are not poor in it, but prodigal. As sumptuous and regal riches, when they have reached a villain master, are dissipated in a moment, but, although modest, if they are entrusted to a good keeper, they increase with the investment, so our life extends a lot for those who know how to manage it well. 

II. Why we complain of the nature of things? It has behaved in a benevolent way: life is long, if you know how to use it. There are those who are caught from insatiable greed, who from the empty occupations of a frenetic activity; one is drenched in wine, another languishes in inertia; one is stressed by an ambition always dependent on the judgments of others, another is tossed about by all lands from a reckless greed for trade, for all seas from the mirage of profit; some torture the craving of war, eager to create dangers for others or worried about their own; there are others who wear down ungrateful servility of the powerful in voluntary slavery; many are prisoners of the lust for beauty or the care of their own; most, who have no stable references, are pushed to change their opinion by a fickle and unstable lightness and discontented with himself; some do not like anything to steer their course, but they are surprised by fate numb and neglectful, so that I have no doubt that what is said, in the form of an oracle, in the greatest of poets: 

“Small is the portion of life we ​​live”. In fact, all the remaining space is not life, but time. The vices are pressing and besiege on all sides and do not allow to rise or raise one's eyes to discern the truth, but crush them immersed and nailed to pleasure. They are never allowed to take refuge in themselves; if sometimes a moment of respite, as on the high seas, where even after the wind there is disturbance, they sway and never find peace at their passions. Do you think that I speak of these, whose evils are evident? Look at those, whose good fortune is run:

they are suffocated by their possessions. How many riches are a burden! To those who spit blood eloquence and the daily display of one's wits! How many are pale from constant pleasures! How many does not leave a breathe the haunting crowd of customers! So, review all of them, from the humblest to the most powerful:

this one is looking for a lawyer, this one is present, that one tries to produce evidence, that one defends, that is judge, no one claims his freedom for himself, one is consumed for one another. Infòrmarsi of these, whose names yes they learn, you will see that they recognize themselves by these signs: this is a lover of that one, that of that other; nobody it belongs to itself. In short, the indignation of some is extremely unreasonable: they complain about the haughtiness of the Gods powerful, because they do not have time to meet their wishes. Dare to complain about the pride of others who does not do you have time for yourself? That at least, whoever you are, albeit with an arrogant face but sometimes he looked at you, has lowered his ears to your words, he welcomed you by his side: you never deigned to look inside yourself, to listen to you. There is therefore no reason to blame anyone for these services, since you did them not because you desired being with others, but because you couldn't be with yourself.III. Although they agree on this point only, more illustrious wits than ever shone, never enough wonder at this tarnishing of human minds:

they do not tolerate that their fields are occupied by anyone and, if even the slightest dispute arises about the modality of the boundaries, they rush to stones and weapons: they allow others to invade their own life, indeed they themselves do so enter his future masters; there is no one who is willing to divide his money: to how many each distributes his life! They are stingy in keeping possessions; as soon as it comes to waste of time, it becomes a lot prodigal in that one thing in which avarice is a virtue. And so like to quote one from the crowd of elders: “Let's see that you have reached the end of human life, you have a hundred or more years on you: come on, take stock of your life. Calculate how much creditors have been stolen since this time, how much women, how much patrons, how much customers, how much quarrels with your wife, as the punishments of the servants, as the duty visits through the city; add the diseases, that there we are procured with our hands, add the time that lay unused: you will see that you are less than you are accounts. Go back to when you were still in a purpose, how many days have happened as well as there you planned, when you had the availability of yourself, when your face has not changed expression, when your soul has been courageous, what positive things have you achieved in such a long period, how many have plundered your life while you did not realize what you were losing, how much it took away a vain sorrow, a stupid joy, a greedy greed, a pleasant discussion, how little you have left of yours: you will understand that you die ahead of time ". So what's the reason? Live as if you were to live forever, it never occurs to you of yours transience, do not mind how much time has already passed; you lose it as from a rich and abundant income when perhaps that very day, which is given to a certain person or activity, is the last. Are you afraid of everything like mortals, you desire everything as immortal. You will hear most say: “From the age of fifty I will rest, a sixty years I will retire to private life ". And what guarantee do you have for such a long life? Who will allow these things go as you planned? You are not ashamed to reserve for yourself the leftovers of life and to set aside for the healthy reflection only time that cannot be used in anything else? How late is it then to begin live, when it must end! What a foolish lack of human nature to defer good intentions to fifty-sixty years and therefore wanting to start life where few have gone! IV. You'll see more men slip out of their mouths powerful and higher-ranking words with which they aspire to free time, praise it and place it before all their possessions.

Sometimes they wish to get off that pedestal of theirs, if it could be done safely; indeed, even if nothing presses and disturbs from the outside, luck collapses on itself. Divus Augustus, to whom the Gods they conceded more than anyone else, he never ceased to wish himself rest and to ask to be relieved of commitments public; his every speech always fell on this, the hope of free time: he relieved his fatigue with this comfort, however illusory yet pleasant, that one day he would experience for himself. In a letter sent to the senate, after having promised that his rest would be not without decorum or in contrast with the his past glory, I found these words: “But these things would be more beautiful to be able to put them into practice than promise her. However, the desire for that much desired time has led me, since so far the joy of reality is made wait, to taste some pleasure from the sweetness of the words. " Time seemed so great to him free, who, since he could not enjoy it, was looking forward to it with his imagination. He who saw everything depend on he alone, who established the destiny for men and peoples, was thinking of that very happy day when he would abandon your own greatness. He knew from experience how much sweat those glowing goods cost all over the earth, how many hidden labors they hide. Forced to fight with weapons first with fellow citizens, then with colleagues, finally with his relatives, he shed blood on land and sea: after having gone to war through Macedonia, the Sicily, Egypt, Syria and Asia and almost all the coasts, turned armies weary of the Roman massacre against foreigners.

While pacifying the Alps and taming the enemies mixed in the midst of peace and empire, while moving the borders beyond the Reno, the Euphrates and the Danube, in Rome the daggers of Murena, Cepione, Lepidus, Egnazio and others. He had not yet escaped the snares of these and his daughter and many young nobles bound by the bond adultery as from an oath terrified the weary age and even more and more a woman was to be feared with an Antonio. He had cut off these wounds with the same limbs: others were being reborn; like a full body too much blood, it always cracked somewhere. And so he yearned for free time, in whose hope and in which thought his worries subsided: this was the vow of him who could make the others satisfied with their vows.

[wakingeve]

“The reason Jesus raised the dead is because not everyone dies in God’s timing. Jesus could tell, and He would interrupt that funeral, He would interrupt that process that some would just call the sovereignty of God. And He’d raise the little girl, he’d raise the adult person from the dead.”

That’s the reason Bill Johnson, senior pastor at Bethel Church Redding, asserts for his church’s request for prayer to raise a dead two-year-old girl according to his interpretation of this portion of the gospel but it begs the question: is that the real reason Jesus raised the dead?

Johnson released a video message Wednesday in response to the outcry and criticism explaining that he and his church family believe God has called them to follow the precedent that Jesus set forth by commanding His followers to raise the dead.

“Saturday, just a few days ago, we had a great tragedy, one of the key individuals in our world, their 2-year-old little girl died, quite unexpectedly, just out of nowhere. So we’ve been praying for the miracle of God. Mom and dad, Andrew and Kelly, have asked us to pray for resurrection. We’ve joined with them,” Johnson said in a video clip posted on Instagram.

Johnson addressed their church’s beliefs in the video.

“We have a biblical precedent, Jesus raised the dead! Not only that, He introduced Himself as the resurrection and the life. In fact, in John 11 verse 40, He says, ‘If you believe you will see the glory of God,’” Johnson said.

“So seeing what Jesus has accomplished, what He did in His lifetime, and then when you add to that He commanded His followers, His disciples, in Matthew Chapter 10, verse 8, ‘to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cast out devils, to cleanse the lepers.’ None of those are things that we can actually do. Yet He commanded us because somehow, in our Yes, He gives us the ability to carry out His mission. Being commissioned means we’ve said yes to His mission,” the Redding, California-based church leader continued.

  The leader said when there is breakthrough or a miracle, Jesus gets the credit, adding, “but when it doesn’t work, we don’t blame God. We give him the glory. We give him the praise. We celebrate his goodness, his kindness, because nothing about our experience – difficult or not – changes who he is.”

Johnson said he and his church members are committed to living with a conviction and a devotion to what Jesus taught them to do. While in this period of believing for a miracle and hosting worship services to pray for Olive to “wake up,” some have criticized the church and its leadership for giving the family “false hope” or interfering with God’s will, but the minister says he believed this death was not God’s timing. 

“Some have asked, ‘isn’t this interrupting the sovereignty of God?’ And my response is, ‘First of all, we don’t ever want to violate the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign. He chooses what He wants and we cooperate with Him. There’s no question.’ But then my question is, why did Jesus raise the dead? Did He violate the sovereignty of God? Did the Father will one thing, and Jesus will another? Of course not!” Johnson emphasized.

He added: “The reason Jesus raised the dead is because not everyone dies in God’s timing. Jesus could tell, and He would interrupt that funeral, He would interrupt that process that some would just call the sovereignty of God. And He’d raise the little girl, he’d raise the adult person from the dead.”

Johnson maintained that Jesus set a precedent for the church to follow and that is what they are doing at a time when they are unsure of how to proceed other than believing for a miracle.

Playing God

The dangers of interpreting scripture are very real. Christ’s encounter with the devil in the desert proves even Satan has knowledge of the Scripture. The key is discerning who is speaking them in Truth. Christ demonstrates that same knowledge and greater discernment in His response to the devil (See Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13).

The danger in taking Scripture at piecemeal (or even face value) rather than in its intended context is that we are behaving just like the devil. We are putting God’s words together in a way that justifies our own behavior rather than exalts the actual glory of God. In essence, we too, like the devil, are guilty of playing God.

Johnson uses a quote from John 11:40 where the author is retelling the account of Jesus Raising Lazarus’ from the Tomb. Jesus is speaking to Lazarus’ sister, Martha.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”

Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.”

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,

Fast forward a few lines and a very perturbed Jesus is speaking:

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”

Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”

Why is Jesus perturbed?

Because the people are not understanding what he is preaching. They are looking only at the reality of the situation and the physical actions occurring rather than the spiritual implications of what Christ is actually demonstrating.

Why does Scripture say Jesus raised the dead?

It has nothing to do with him noticing that Lazarus’ death was ill-timed. The answer is right there in Scripture:

So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father,* I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here (that unbelieving, see only the physical account and not the spiritual crowd who had perturbed Jesus) I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”

In fact, none of the accounts of those Jesus raises from the dead give any indication in Scripture that their death is out of timing with God. What is clearly demonstrated is Jesus’ power over death in those circumstances. A demonstration which Jesus only performs at certain times according to the Father’s will.

Is Jesus the resurrection and the life? Absolutely! But does that mean that all of us are to experience our Resurrection Day all at once just because someone in church stands up and says, he believes our day is here? No!

This is one of my problems with the Church today. There is so much focus on using the gifts of the Holy Spirit to imitate Jesus to the world and not enough focus on imitating Jesus’ prayer life, his discernment, and his unity with the Father. Knowledge and Love of the Giver is more important than using His gifts. Christ came to show the world the Father not glorify himself in reckless use of power. He prayed more than he performed miracles. The Bible records Jesus praying continually while it records only 7 major miracles. If the Acts Church appear to be demonstrating the gifts more than they are praying then either the Scriptures are simply leaving out prayer recordings because it’s a matter of public record they too would have prayed continually like Jesus or they were already imitating Him falsely. There is more to the Word of God than what is written, there is more to the lifestyle of Jesus than what is read.

Knowledge and Discernment of the Scriptures is vital in this Age, lest we be lead astray following the doctrine of demons who are not God but only playing at trying to be Him (Read 1 Tim. 4:1).

Playing Church

Johnson concludes his argument with a final vague explanation of how his church will operate moving forward.

“There’s no manual that tells us to fast this many days, pray this many hours. We don’t have any of that. What we do have is a biblical precedent, Jesus’ lifestyle and Jesus’ commands,” he said, adding, “Someone asked, ‘How long do you pray, when do you quit praying?’ I don’t have a good answer. We’re kind of in the middle of that journey right now.”

Is that true? Is there really no manual? Have we no other guidance than simply ‘Jesus’ lifestyle and commands’?

Pope Francis and others don’t seem to agree and offer another explanation of Jesus’ raising the dead.

“Jesus can raise everyone from the tomb of a dead, tired soul,” Pope Francis says.

His remarks came during a late afternoon visit to the Church of St. Gregory the Great on the outskirts of Rome. Before he celebrated Mass, he met with young people, the sick and elderly and heard the confessions of a number of parishioners.

“Come out from the dark cave of pride, sin and death and into the light of a new life with Christ,” Pope Francis said. “Take away the stone of shame” that is keeping you trapped inside a life that is dead or painful and be raised up again by Christ.”

In his homily and during his Angelus address at noon with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the pope spoke about the day’s Gospel reading from the Gospel of John (11:1-45), which recounts Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

When Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb, he asked that the stone sealing the entrance be taken away. He then “cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus come out!’ And the dead man came out,” the Gospel says.

Jesus is saying the same thing to people today, the pope said at the Mass, “because we’re all marked by death” and sin. “All of us have some areas, some parts of our hearts that are not alive, that are a little dead and other people have a lot of their heart that’s dead — a real spiritual necrosis!”

The parts of a person’s heart that have died have become “tombs of sin,” he said, and some people become trapped inside, either because they are afraid or embarrassed to come out or they have become “attached” to their sin and corrupted.

The pope asked people to think about what part of their hearts have died, that have become a dark tomb, and then listen to Jesus calling, like he called Lazarus: “Come out!”

“Christ doesn’t give up in front of the tombs we have built by our choosing evil and death, by our mistakes, our sins,” the pope said. Jesus “calls us incessantly to get out of the darkness of the prison we’ve locked ourselves into by making do with a false, egotistical, mediocre life.”

“‘Come out!’ is a beautiful invitation to true freedom,” he said.

“Our resurrection begins here, when we decide to obey Jesus’ command, to come out into the light, to life,” he said.

Just as Jesus asked that the burial cloths that were wrapped around Lazarus’ hands, feet and face be untied, so Christians today need to uncover their true selves.

“Many times we are masked by sin; the masks must fall and we will rediscover the courage of our original face,” created in the image of God.

There is no limit to how much love and mercy God offers to everyone, he said.

I have the utmost respect for Pastors who are trying to lead their flock in Truth. The community at Bethel has no doubt brought a wealth of deposits to the Faith in areas of worship and healing evangelism. However, it is obvious from Pastor Johnson’s message that a little more surety could be added to their faith. This is where Faith and Reason must begin to align together within the Church Body. We cannot rely solely on the gift of faith where the work of reason is also necessary. Jesus demonstrated both Faith and Works of Reason were necessary to advance the Kingdom.

If we’re to follow Johnson’s formula of Biblical precedence then it should be obvious that Jesus was never unsure about anything he did. Everything Jesus did was done in accordance with the will of Our Heavenly Father and with perfect accuracy. There was no room for error or wounding on part of an over zealous Christ who “got it wrong” or “heard another Jesus” speaking. If the Church is to advance in this Apostolic Age, it needs to stop playing dress up and start demanding of itself a greater maturity in both discernment and accuracy. This can only be done in places where hearts are committed to the Battle of Prayer and becoming completely united, undivided, with the heart of the Father through Jesus and the works of Wisdom by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Johnson was truly right about one thing, Jesus did command us to raise the dead and since we do not have the ability to do so in our own strength “He commanded us because somehow, in our Yes, He gives us the ability to carry out His mission. Being commissioned means we’ve said yes to His mission.” My only question is are we going about the same mission or are we playing church? Pretending we don’t know what Jesus was really preaching that day, refusing to listen to others in the Church who can offer spiritual guidance and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

If your faith rests solely in the interpretation of one person’s account of the Scriptures, you are sorely missing out on the fuller expression of the Gospel.

To believe that any one man (or even a few) is capable of receiving the full deposit of faith in his lifetime is prideful. If we are to live by the lifestyle and commands of Jesus then we have to recognize that his entire life is the embodiment of every soul to have ever lived. Within Jesus is the wisdom given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Enoch, Elijah, and all the prophets through John the Baptist. Jesus is the living embodiment of the collective Wisdom deposited into mankind (1 Corinthians 1:30). No one man can pull that out of Him. Jesus is the singular man who pulls Wisdom out from all of us.

In the tradition of the Jews and the Apostles, there is a collective Truth handed down through the Ages that is represented in the saints of all churches, the popes, bishops, priests and even martyrs. Among Catholics it is known as the Magisterium or “Deposit of Faith” which has been collected and protected and defended (even if at times imperfectly) throughout the Ages since Jesus handed the key of David – ‘O Key of Wisdom’ – to Peter.

So, yes, there is a manual for us all to follow.

And, I pray we do start following it, together. So that we can stop playing church and start being the Church.

There is no need for us to wander without answers when we have been given the gift of Jesus’ Wisdom in the Holy Spirit. My prayers go out to the fellowship at Bethel that they might discover the fullness of Truth, with an undivided heart, a greater level of discernment, and demonstrate Him with accuracy, so that more might be healed and come to know the real Christ than are wounded and led astray by the other Christ (2 Corinthians 11:14).

May the Body of Christ truly unite ourselves to Christ’s mission, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” John 17:21. Come Holy Spirit! Before we desire your gifts may we desire more the heart of the Giver. Grow us in prayer and discernment that we may be made worthy of your gifts.

The Danger Against Playing Church, Playing God: Bethel Responds to #WakeUpOlive “The reason Jesus raised the dead is because not everyone dies in God's timing. Jesus could tell, and He would interrupt that funeral, He would interrupt that process that some would just call the sovereignty of God.

[sinfulfolk]

Bookstores: Amazon's Bookstores

If you are a connoisseur of bookstores, like I am, then you might find this to be an unusual post, because despite my previous posts praising the shining stars of the indie book world — mainstays like Kepler’s in Silicon Valley, Powell’s in Portland, Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, and The Strand in New York — I am now going to praise a new type of bookstore on the scene.

Years ago, Hugh Howey made some great points about why more physical bookstores — even ones created by Amazon — would be a good thing for the larger marketplace of books, and would create a larger reading base overall.

Like writer Hugh Howey, I love Amazon’s new physical bookstores. They’re located in major metropolitian areas, where readers tend to collect and form bookish communities. And these bookstores are amazingly focused on creating the very best readerly experience ever. Hugh Howey has posted a longer piece on his experience with Amazon bookstores. I’m with Hugh, I think these bookstores will definitely move the needle in a positive direction for people who love books.

Here are a few reasons why I love Amazon’s new bookstores so much. There are comfort-and-reading reasons, and there are commercial reasons, and finally, there are literary reasons. Let me enumerate them one by one.

First, it’s obvious that Amazon Bookstores are employing people who know books well and love books. One of my local indie bookstores is an absolute dream — I love Browsers, and I shop for books there every single week. I know all the staff, and they even pick out books they know I will like. However, I’ve been in bookstores where I am treated like I am an intrusion (I will not name the bookstore). Books are mis-arranged and no one seems to care. They don’t know their local authors. They don’t know their stock, and they don’t seem to really care about building a bookish community. Although Barnes & Noble tries harder (surprisingly), I’m saddened to see their books section gradually getting taken over by other kinds of merchandise.

At Amazon Bookstores, the opposite is true. When I enter the bookstore, I’m greeted by people who clearly know their stock, all the books are face out and easy to read, and they are arranged in “similarity” queues, so if I’m looking for a certain kind of book, I can easily find it. Every book has a review posted, and every book is arranged for optimal scanning. There are troves of books that are good discoveries near at hand, and there is everything I’m looking for in a bookstores. It’s a pure reading pleasure at Amazon Bookstores, and I will be going back many many times.

Second, there are ethical reasons to go with Amazon as a publisher and a retailer. Although there are legitimate questions about a warehouse culture and how they’ve taken over Seattle, there are also good things about Amazon. To start with, as an author, I’d argue that they have essentially saved America from the tyranny of the Big 5 publishers. I know my way around book contracts, and I’ve turned several down because they were seizing IP rights, and treating authors like dirt. Furthermore, their editors were over-worked, under-paid and even ignorant about other imprints within their own publishing house.

It’s important to note that Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Publishing efforts lit a fire under the nascent world of self-publishing, and have made it possible for many authors to make a living across many domains, from Kathryn Le Veque’s wonderful medieval romances to Hugh Howey’s science-fiction writing. (One wonders why no traditional publisher did this first?) I’ve even put my toe in the water here, self-publishing a few science fiction and horror short stories, and I’ve learned the ropes on self-publishing. My longer novels have been published until recently with smaller traditional publishing houses. However, with my novel The Eagle Tree, I signed with a traditional publishing house owned by Amazon Publishing because their contracts were very fair (David Vandagriff reviews all my contracts), and their editors were absolutely a dream to work with. (I won’t even mention the fact that up until 2015, a traditional big 5 publisher put female authors of color in their own ghetto) Amazon publishing definitely lifts up editors, writers and voices of all genders and backgrounds.

Third, for me there were personal commercial reasons to go with Amazon publishing. You might disagree with these reasons, but the data speaks for itself. The high level takeaways are that Amazon now accounts for up to 79% of all ebooks. Furthermore, it’s not just in ebooks that Amazon is making an impact. The data demonstrates that Amazon is now gaining enormous ground in print book sales, at the expense of Barnes & Noble and big-box retailers primarily (note that indie bookstores are indeed resurgent, which is one thing that my little series on bookstores celebrates!). In fact, up to half of actual printed book sales in the United States are now sold via Amazon. The reach and impact of Amazon is impossible to over-estimate for authors. Amazon knows how people read, and how to reach these readers. That’s why the promotion efforts and publicity that Amazon made so much sense to me, and helped to propel my novel The Eagle Tree to national bestseller status.

Finally, it’s clear to me that the literary community writ large has failed the reading public. There’s a real problem when we have a WASP-set of New York City based literati pushing a certain type of Philip-Roth style fiction on the reading public as the highest standard, when the majority of the reading public doesn’t read that kind of fiction. This is a problem for readers, it’s a problem for writers who want to make a living and most of all, it’s a problem for the sustainability of literature. Stephen King has pointed this out multiple times. So have romance authors (who constitute over 50% of all books sold), and science-fiction authors (who sell much better than literary fiction). Hugh Howey, a former bookstore employee and bestselling author, described this situation well in a post:

Part of the problem is that the major publishers ignore the genres that sell the best. This is a head-scratcher, and it nearly caused a bald spot when I was working in a bookstore. I knew where the demand was, and I wasn’t seeing it in the catalogs. Readers wanted romance, science fiction, mystery/thrillers, and young adult. We had catalogs full of literary fiction. Just the sort of thing acquiring editors are looking for and hoping people will read more of, but not what customers were asking me for.

Amazon Bookstores get this big important thing about how people actually read. They use all the reams of data at their disposal to curate a selection of books that are actually of interest to people who actually read. Amazon Bookstores don’t distinguish between some author who received a seven figure advance from some publishing house for his memoirs of picking his nose in Manhattan, or a self-published fantasy author who happens to write about elves and dragons and lives in Montana. They stock the books that people read.

There’s a side question, of course, about whether or not we should treat books as “vegetables” or “dessert.” This little metaphor is meant to illustrate the canard that is sure to rise once I state that we should democratize literature (which is essentially what Amazon Bookstores do for the curated and carefully chosen books on their shelves). Books should be read because they are good for you and improve the world, not just because you enjoy them or are entertained by books. Books should be vegetables — you should read them — not just dessert. I think there’s a middle ground, which is that books can nourish and sustain you, and also be an excellent read. Donna Tartt proved this with her books. So has John Irving. So has Toni Morrison. All of these writers know how to tell a rip-roaring fast-moving story that holds their readers enthralled, yet still communicate deeper, darker, more meaningful truths. These kinds of books are well represented at Amazon Bookstores.

If you love bookstores, you owe it to yourself to visit your local Amazon bookstore and determine for yourself if Amazon is making things better for readers and writers.

Here’s where you can find my books on Amazon (both online in the physical bookstores)   [Read more BOOKSTORE POSTS] Pinterest – Ned Hayes Bookstore Board

Bookstores: Amazon’s Bookstores was originally published on Ned Hayes

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You can slow down time by making even the smallest moments into lasting memories using 3 steps Building a reservoir of good memories can increase your happiness and make time seem less like it's speeding by. You can do this by creating moments of elevation — attending things that are sensory, raising the stakes on events, or breaking the script. Celebrate moments of pride — even when you achieve small things. Do things with your friends and family that build connection — but require some sort of struggle, like board games or touch football. Your first kiss. Graduation. Your first job. Your wedding day. Birth of your first child. These are the big memories that we all cherish. But there are other little memories that stick out because they had such a powerful emotional impact on you. Moments that enriched your life, bonded you with others and helped you define who you are. Well, the latter are just "magic" right? Serendipity. Can't engineer that. They just "happen"… *Writer rolls his eyes so hard he gets a migraine.* Yeah, and sometimes they don't . More often than not, one day rolls into the next, one month rolls into the next, you blink your eyes and you're staring down the barrel of another New Year's Day saying: where the heck did the time go? Serendipity can be a bus that never arrives. So why do we leave special moments to chance? And why do we not do more to create those special memories for others — the way we'd like them to make some for us? We get tired. We get lazy. And then boom — suddenly CVS is loaded with Christmas ornaments and it signals the end of another year. No good. If we want great memories we have to make them. But how do you do that? What makes some little moments so powerful? And others the epitome of "meh"? Chip and Dan Heath have a new book that lays out the science you need to know — The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. Time to learn how to construct more events that will restock your reminiscence reservoir. Boost your nostalgia number. Fill your flashback fund. Let's get to work… 1. Create moments of elevation Parties. Competing in sporting events. Taking off on a spontaneous road trip. What do they have in common? From The Power of Moments: "Moments of elevation are experiences that rise above the routine. They make us feel engaged, joyful, amazed, motivated." If you feel the need to pull out a camera, it's probably a moment of elevation. (Unless you're taking a selfie. In that case, just put it away, you narcissist.) So what is it at the core of a moment of elevation that we can add to any event to make it more special? Remember the 3 S's: sensory, stakes, and script. Boost sensory appeal: This is why concerts, museums and great meals stick in your memory and why sitting on the couch is so forgettable. Engaging the senses more intensely makes moments stand out. Raise the stakes: Competing in a sporting event is more exciting than watching one. In fact, betting on a sporting event makes watching one more entertaining. If there's something to gain or lose, you'll be paying attention. Break the script: Don't do the usual thing. Don't just get coffee or have dinner. Boring. Take your default and flip it on its head. Defy expectations and strategically surprise people. Southwest Airlines broke the script by tweaking their normal flight safety announcement. One of the lines they added was: "If you should get to use the life vest in a real-life situation, the vest is yours to keep." People loved it. In fact, those who heard the new messages actually flew more. And that resulted in an extra $140 million per year for Southwest. Breaking the script produces delightful moments. Strelka/Flickr The Heath brothers write, "The most memorable periods of our lives are when we break the script." Sounds kinda pat and corny — but it's true. Research shows that when older people look back on their lives, a disproportionate number of their big memories happened in a very narrow window: between ages 15 and 30. That's not even 20% of the average lifespan. Is this because our memory is sharper then? Or because young adulthood is a "magic" time? Heck, no… It's because after 30 life can get pretty darn boring. After their third decade has passed, most people don't do anything as novel as falling in love for the first time, leaving home, going to college, or starting their first job. So months and years blur together because nothing new and shiny happens. But neuroscientist David Eagleman says that when you inject novelty into your life, you prevent the blur. Surprise stretches time. So break the script and interrupt the blur with moments of elevation. (To learn more about the science of a successful life, check out my new book here .) So boosting sensory appeal, raising the stakes and breaking the script can turn little moments into big memories. What else has that power? 2. Celebrate moments of pride A graduation party. The ceremony where you received your black belt. Or that special session when the parole board declared you "rehabilitated." You want to commemorate achievements. When you have your skill noticed by others, you can puff your chest out and take a second to feel really good about yourself. And this is not a "nice to have." Research shows we need these. From The Power of Moments: "Carolyn Wiley of Roosevelt University reviewed four similar studies of employee motivation conducted in 1946, 1980, 1986 and 1992. In each of the studies, employees were asked to rank the factors that motivated them. Popular answers included 'interesting work," 'job security,' 'good wages,' and 'feeling of being in on things.' Across the studies, which spanned 46 years, only one factor was cited every time as among the top two motivators: 'full appreciation of work done.'" According to one survey the Heath brothers found, the #1 reason people leave their jobs is "a lack of praise and recognition." So take the time to appreciate what you've accomplished and to let others celebrate with you. Now I know what some people are thinking: But I don't achieve big stuff very often… But you've already made big strides that you never took the time to revel in. Surface the milestones that already exist. How long have you and your BFF been friends? Ever celebrated that? Didn't think so. (No, that does not make you a bad friend. I still like you. You're cool.) The Heath brothers tell the story of one couple that even looked back and actually celebrated fights the two of them had during their first year of marriage. Why? Because they got past them. They overcame the obstacles. That's worth appreciating. Michael Dodge/Getty Images And for extra credit, set goals. Build milestones on the road ahead. Why? Because the more finish lines you set, the more moments of pride you'll be able to celebrate. Not only does that feel good, it will motivate you. George Wu at the University of Chicago looked at the data on how long it took over nine million runners to complete marathons. Most took about 3.5 to 5 hours. But the results weren't evenly distributed. There's this huge spike right before the 4 hour mark. Why? 4 hours is arbitrary, right? Yeah — but it's a nice round number. And for many it is achievable if they push themselves. People saw that "arbitrary" time limit approaching and kicked in the afterburners so they could say, "I finished in under 4 hours." And so many did. Celebrate moments of pride. You don't have to win a Nobel Prize. In fact, celebrating a silly milestone "breaks the script" and may be even more memorable. Set goals so you have more moments of pride to motivate you to achieve and have more things to celebrate in the future. (To learn the seven-step morning ritual that will make you happy all day, click here .) So you've elevating and celebrating milestones. Great. But relationships are what brings us the most happiness. (And ice cream. Ice cream brings happiness, too.) So how do we make memories that deepen our relationships with others? (And may involve ice cream?) 3. Build moments of connection Vacations. Reunions. Holidays. The times that bond us with others where we feel all kinds of warm fuzzies. These are the moments when some of the most powerful memories are formed. What does the research say deepens the connections you feel with others? Struggle. Yeah, struggle . No, I'm not saying you should get in an argument with Uncle Jack again. Anthropologist Dimitris Xygalatas (say that three times fast) found that groups that went through "high-ordeals" bonded far more than those that went through "low-ordeals." Struggling together made people closer. This is why fraternities haze. Why soldiers feel like they are kin. So what the heck does this have to do with relaxing vacations and get-togethers with friends? Less watching movies and more playing board games as teams. Less shopping and more touch football. If it ends with high-fives, you're probably in the ballpark. Mark Guim/Flickr And even better if it's a team activity that is connected to meaning . Yes, that even means helping your friend paint their new kitchen and having beers after. You're helping them turn "that house" into "their home." Even if it sounds like a chore beforehand, we often look back fondly on those times…. especially if your friend paints himself into a corner. (To learn the 4 rituals from neuroscience that will make you happy, click here .) Okay, we've learned a lot. Hopefully it was a memorable moment — but just in case, let's round it all up and learn how to make the most powerful memories of all… Sum up This is how to create happy memories that will last a lifetime: Create moments of elevation : Boost sensory appeal (light some fireworks). Break the script (don't wait for the 4th of July). Raise the stakes (hope you don't get arrested). Celebrate moments of pride : If your first book comes out and someone insists you go someplace special that night, do it . Otherwise you wouldn't have a vivid memory. You wouldn't have photos. All you would have is some random date to remember like in 8th grade history class. Build moments of connection : Struggle. Working together on something, especially something meaningful, bonds us together. So just help Gary move this weekend and stop whining. How do you make the most powerful memories of all? You don't have to use just one of the tips above to improve a moment — you can use them all . Celebrate a friend's "moment of pride" with the "struggle" of a paintball match and "break the script" by also making it a costume party with everyone getting decked out in full military regalia — from the Revolutionary War. Now that's memorable. And insane. But insane is memorable. And not boring. You now know how to make great memories that can last you the rest of your life. You can make them for friends as well — even better, share them with friends… But usually we don't. We do the hum-drum and the days blur together. Life becomes stale and boring and we die a little inside. But you don't have to. Break the script. Don't let the script break you. Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here . NOW WATCH: Here's what those white marks on your nails say about your health November 16, 2017 at 03:35AM