#god of greed is very great at dealing with its own personal problems (getting someone else to kill the guy who wronged it)

[mios-axe]

The owl and her serpent brother

[cienie-isengardu]

What is up with Shirai Ryu?

Or, is Hanzo a hypocrite?

While looking through various MK11 intros, I’m kind of tired about the whole “honor” stuff that Hanzo and Kuai Liang and so many other characters like to talk. Mainly, because honor is very unspecified term whose meaning (thus the line between acting honorable and dishonorable) will change from one person to another. And as much I love cultural clashes between characters of different clans / fraction or realms, Hanzo’s talks about Shirai Ryu make me wonder what the hell is going on with his clan right now?

Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu were rival clans for ages, but the japanese ninjas - and the whole ninjutsu created by them - has its roots in Lin Kuei teaching. Bi-Han called himself thief and assassin and we know that ninjas played similar roles through the ages. Stealing, killing, doing all dirty job someone paid for, it was what Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu did for years. The two fractions of course vary in clan traditions and family matters, but I think we can all agree that morally wise, assassins and master thieves aren’t the common image of honorable men, right?

Of course, both Hanzo and Kuai Liang decided to reform their respective clans, pledged to serve Earthrealm as the protectors rather than working for anyone who can afford their service. Thus both grandmasters reject job offers from gods & Outworlders alike; reject offers that would pose a danger to their home realm. What is nice and all, but clan has its own needs; there are people who must be feed, clothed, sheltered, medically equipped, armed with the right equipment and trained. This of course cost a lot money and maybe the Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei do have the right funds accumulated over the centuries. But as far as MK11 intros are concerned, Sub-Zero most likely did not change completely Lin Kuei. Of course, Kuai Liang’s clan is meant to be protectors of Earthrealm, but there is still (rogue) Frost who is proud to be an assassin. And since she joined the clan between MK9 and X, the fact she is so aware of the clan history, the feud with Shirai Ryu and assassins traditions may imply that at least to some degree Lin Kuei is/was still involved in “old bussiness”. Whatever the case - Lin Kuei still training assassins who just don’t work anymore for “outsiders” or Frost (with Noob) being a rogue " remains of ancient glory”,  both versions are representing the better and the darker sides of Sub-Zero’s fraction.

Hanzo on another hand, as solely representation of Shirai Ryu in MK11 game, seems at times as, well, deluded person. Especially when intros aren’t clear if that was supposed to be P.O.V of current or past Hanzo.

First, let me quote little backstory provided by MK: Mythologies Sub-Zero:

Scorpion is the code name for a modern day member of the Shirai Ryu named Hanzo Hasashi [...] He learned this technique from his own father, a ninja himself who forbade his son to become a member of this ancient group of assassins and wanted him to accept the trappings of modern day life. But the lure of quick money and his own wish to afford his wife and child the finest in life force him to join the Shirai Ryu.

His latest mission leads him into the heart of China, home of the rival Lin Kuei and location of the Shaolin temple where his mission is to steal the sacred Map of Elements.

So, Shirai Ryu are ancient group of assassins, the last mission of Scorpion was to steal the sacred Map of Elements from Shaolin Temple and Hanzo wasn’t forced to join the clan, he did it mainly for money to afford his family in finest way.

After coming back to life, Hanzo made great effort to redeem his clan and became ally to other heroes. At the same time, he himself says Shirai Ryu are not bound to Special Forces (U.S.)’s laws what results in fact Sonya Blade keeps eye on Hanzo and his clan. Probably attacking SF’s base and killing captured Quan Chi is/was still fresh in her mind. Anyway, the real question is, what Shirai Ryu does? What kind of jobs the clan takes, from where Hanzo get money to cover needs of his ninjas and funds to rebuild destroyed years ago home? What Shirai Ryu ninjas do between crisises threatening safety of Earthrealm?

The reason why I wonder such things is tied up with Hanzo’s character banters, particularly with other merceneries.

Scorpion: Why seek out my clan?

Kano: You're a clan of assassins, ain't you?

Scorpion: You refer to the Lin Kuei.

It is hard to tell, if Scorpion here is the younger or current version thus if he talks about old Lin Kuei (a true statement about clan of assassins then) or refer to Kuai Liang’s one clan that was supposed to change for better. Whatever the case, if clan of assassins is what refers to Lin Kuei, I’m sorry, what Shirai Ryu is or was then? Because it was assassin clan too not so long ago and Hanzo himself joined and worked for such group.

Kabal: The Shirai Ryu hiring, Scorpion? Scorpion: We're family, not mercenaries.

Not mercenaries, said a man who was once hired to steal sacred Map and did it solely for money (or maybe even satisfation/chance to kill Lin Kuei). Even if Hanzo is speaking only about current situation of clan, it still does not answer are his ninjas involved in illegal jobs or are they just train in case of emergency?

This statement (and other intros with Jacqui anc Jax) makes it clear to join Shirai Ryu means became part of the clan for good. But frankly, that still does not mean that family unit like ninja clan can’t (couldn’t) be mercenaries. I mean, mercenary is person primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics and you know, taking jobs like assassination or theft is, well, dark side of mercenary profession. Soo, did Hanzo’s statement “not mercenaries“ was purely about joining the clan (not hiring unknown people) or as a whole, no more doing illegal stuff by his clan to gain money?

Erron: I thought Shirai Ryu were mercs. Scorpion: You understand little, Black. Erron: I've killed people for being less rude. 

This one is similar to the previous intro but I feel this time the focus is more on the past of Shirai Ryu, since Erron (as hired gun by Shang Tsung / Shao Kahn) lives for one or two hundred years so he may be familiar with old!Shirai Ryu ninjas reputation.

Of course, Hanzo may be right, Black (and us, for that matter) as outsider, does not have insight into internal clan traditions, ethics or internal matters thus the lack of understanding may lead him (and me) to incorrect conclusion. Maybe Shirai Ryu for ages served Japan in a way Special Forces serves now USA? Maybe they worked always for their homeland’s well being? We don’t know. But then if Shirai Ryu aren’t/weren’t mercs, how else one should think about ninja clan that send his own warrior to Shaolin Temple in foreign (hostile) territory to steal sacred artifact while being paid by some weirdo (Quan Chi)? Like, how that was more honorable than, let’s say, Erron working for Kotal?

   Scorp: There will be no deal, Kano.    Kano: Gotta make a buck, mate.    Scorp: The Shirai Ryu are not criminals.

Hanzo says his clan members aren’t criminals. I sorry, aren’t attacking Special Forces, the supposed allies, isn’t sort of crime? Even if two years passed since then, Shirai Ryu ninjas went to foreign country and attacked its army (who were at times helping refuges from Outworld). Of course, they weren’t motivated by greed or bad will, they were following their grandmaster. But Hanzo literally put his own need for revenge above needs of other heroes, including dead ones. Oh, and let’s no forget that past!Hanzo attacked Shaolin monks and killed who knows how many of them. Indeed, no criminals, ha!

Scorpion: The Shirai Ryu do not respect thieves. Kollector: I collect only what is due Shao Kahn. Scorpion: It is robbery, nothing more.

Sorry, what was your last mission again? Stealing from Shaolin Monks some precious map for some dude Quan Chi? I’m sure Shirai Ryu would never respect thieves! Riiiight.

Hanzo of course may talk about reformed Shirai Ryu, but that would look, once again, like he keep silent about past sins. Unless he really believe his clan never did anything dishonorable.

It’s hard not to wonder how exactly Hanzo reformed Shirai Ryu is he alone seems to ignore his own deeds. Mercs are looked down, so are thieves or in general, people working for money. As much as I can agree than Black Dragons - especially Kano - are the worst kind of scum, it would be actually nice to learn more about Shirai Ryu ethics or how ninja define honor. We know that for Hanzo, his “clan's honor is priceless” but he himself did a lot questionable stuff through the course of all games.

My biggest problem with Scorpion and his talk about honor (or in some causes, how pretty quick he is to accuse others of lack of thereof) is the contrast with Kuai Liang. Sub-Zero is the one willing to admit faults of his clan while Hanzo rarely acknowledges such in Shirai Ryu. Sub-Zero is the one trying hard to estabilish Lin Kuei as protectors of Earthrealm AND ally to other heroes, while Scorpion for a long time freely(?) keep himself and his clan isolated. Of course, both grandmasters treat Earthrealm’s best interest as priority, but between them two, it’s Kuai who is seen actively protecting Earth while Hanzo often was the source of problems, like killing capuring Quan Chi. Mind you, I don’t think Hanzo was wrong to assume as long as evil sorcerer will live, Earth is in danger (though, since Quan Chi is demon(?) shouldn’t he reborn in Netherrealm at some point?). But attacking your supposed allies and destroying the one chance to save fallen and enslaved comrades because Hanzo knows better does not strike me as the most honorable thing.

Once again, what is honor in Mortal Kombat? How Hanzo or Kuai Liang or Raiden or anyone define such matter?

I keep wonder about that, because Hanzo talks a lot about how Shirai Ryu are honorable while other merceneries are just thugs and all. What sounds a bit like hypocrisy when one look at Scorpion’s own history. Especially when younger!Hanzo is involved, because he is still the prime example of Shirai Ryu ninja working not-so-long-ago as assassin and thief.

But yeah, sure, everyone is greedy bastard and thug, even if said person is doing the same stuff like (old) Shirai Ryu did.

[madamebaggio]

Notes: Hello there!

Thank you so much for all the kind comments. It's really nice having you all here for this crazy ride.

In this chapter we'll have a time jump, Susan and Jon have a very peculiar conversation, Peter is shameless and Lucy is shipping it all.I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 6

Three weeks passed by and Jon barely noticed them, but he did notice how central the Pevensies had become to Winterfell in the meantime.

Sansa and Sam had dedicated a good amount of time in explaining the basic history of the North and of Westeros and the current political situation. The Pevensies were aghast with it all and Lucy kept muttering something about “siblings” and “what is wrong with you people?”

They explained –only briefly –about their own Kingdom and how they became its rulers, but Jon felt there was much more to the story.

However, the Pevensies made themselves right at home at Winterfell.

Edmund could always be seen besides Ser Davos, helping with the training of the new soldiers. He was a quieter boy and very observant. Lady Lucy bonded very well with the Free Folk and became essential for the communication between them and the Northmen.

Sometimes Jon caught Ghost following the little Lady around and she appeared to be talking to him. Curiously to Jon it seemed like his wolf was actually paying attention to what she said.

Jon liked both Edmund and Lucy a lot. Well, the whole Winterfell was taken by the sweet girl, everybody always had smiles for her; even Arya, who seemed to take the youngest Pevensie under her wing. Edmund was good company and an insightful person.

Jon’s problem was with the other two Pevensies.

To be perfectly fair Lord Peter and Lady Susan were as helpful as their siblings, if not more.

Peter’s claim of being experienced with construction wasn’t a boast; he did know a great deal and under his guidance the reconstruction of Winterfell was going by faster. They were even talking about improvements outside of the keep –bridges, mills. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty either; Jon often found him working side by side with the men.

But damn it if that fucker wasn’t arrogant! By the Gods, he had a high opinion of himself; he was high handed and stubborn. Jon also wasn’t happy with the way he looked at Sansa, so he was keeping his eye on Peter.

Then there was Susan… Now that woman was infuriating in a way Jon never thought anyone before.

He’d always been calm and collected, but something about Susan made him want to explode.

She’d become central to the working of Winterfell. Sansa had been running herself dry acting as his Hand and Lady of the Keep at the same time. Susan stepped in, assumed all the daily tasks of the place so Sansa could focus on her political duties. She started overseeing the meals, the servants, the running of it all. She took over effortlessly, but still respecting Sansa’s position.

And she was good for Sansa! They had become fast friends and now it was rare to see one without the other. Sansa had been guarded since they retook Winterfell, but Jon saw that his cousin was smiling more now, and this was good, because he wanted her to be happy.

But Susan… Gods, that woman!

She kept her siblings in check –even Peter and his ego –but she herself was quite stubborn. She was all logic and courtesies and Jon never felt more of a base-born than when he talked to her. She didn’t actually treat him that way –she was perfectly courteous all the time –but she was so much of a Lady that he couldn’t help but notice how different they were.

The Gods knew she had no problems with speaking her mind to him.

Like right now.

“You need to find Ser Davos a wife.”

Jon turned to Susan and wondered –not for the first time –how she looked as a Queen of her own lands, because if standing there -with a borrowed dress, acting as a chatelaine - she looked more like royalty than he did with a crown on his head, he could barely picture her as a Queen.

“Excuse me?” When he saw her approaching him and stopping by his side he knew she was about to say something, he just didn’t expect this.

“Someone kind.” She continued. “Not too young, so he won’t feel he’s marrying his daughter, but not too old that she can’t give him children.”

She had some nerve.

Jon’s eyes followed hers to the dance floor where Davos was spinning Lucy around, an indulging smile on his face. The man had taken to the Pevensies so easily, like a father figure.

“Why are you saying this to me?” He asked her.

“You are his King.” She indicated. “This is also part of your duties, right?” Again, she wasn’t being disrespectful, but Jon couldn’t help but feel the jab.

“Besides…” She continued, her expression softer now as she looked at Davos. “That man deserves a family of his own to care for and love.”

She was right, of course. Davos had taken pretty hard the death of his wife and he was a man of family. He lost his son during Blackwater and it also hurt him a lot.

Jon knew he would agree to this anyway, but the fact that Susan was the one to bring this to his attention rattled a bit. It shouldn’t, but it did.

“I suppose that means I will have to find you a husband as well.” He didn’t know why he said it, but it was already done.

She turned to him, a brow arched elegantly. She didn’t need to say a word, Jon was certain she thought he was a fool for even suggesting it.

“I am quite capable of finding a husband for myself.” She informed him. “Not that I have any intention of marrying soon. Men are the ones that normally need help with that.”

Jon took a deep breath. “So I should find wives for your brothers?”

Susan chuckled. “Please do.” She smiled at him. “I’d love to see that.”

Jon let out a low chuckle, but Susan seemed surprised by it. Had he never laughed in front of her?

“Why aren’t you dancing?” He asked instead of following that line of thought.

“I’m a bit tired of it.” She informed him.

She had danced with many men already, so it was a good excuse at least. The Lords were leaving in the next morning, after a long stay in Winterfell. Not all the problems had been solved, but most of them had. At least they didn’t want to burn the Pevensies anymore and accepted that Jon wouldn't kneel to the Dragon Queen.

Sansa had decided that they should have a feast to send the Lords away and had worked with Susan to make it happen. 

“What about you, Your Grace?” Susan asked him. “You haven’t danced at all. There must be someone you could dance with. Perhaps one of your cousins?”

“I don’t dance.” Jon informed her.

There it was again, the arched brow. “No?”

“I see no reason to subject someone to my clumsiness.”

The admission startled a laugh out of Susan and she covered her mouth with her hands. “I am sorry, Your Grace.” She said, still laughing a bit. “I didn’t expect this.”

“It is good to know my clumsiness amuses you.” He told her a bit dryly, but there was a grin on his lips now.

She put her hands to her chest dramatically. “Never, Your Grace.”

Jon shook his head, and was trying to think of what else he could say when someone called her name. “Excuse me, Your Grace.” She curtsied and left.

Jon watched as the men watched her go. Lucy had become the sweetheart of Winterfell, everybody doted on her and adored the kind girl. Susan was also adored, but in a completely different way. The women respected her and the men… The men watched her walk by, charmed by her elegance, entranced by her beauty.

Two things Jon wished he’d never noticed.

***

“I just believe we all should be careful with these people. If they have the power to bring Spring…”

“They never claimed to have that power, Lord Manderly.” Sansa interjected firmly.

“But we cannot deny the changes we’ve seen so far!” The man insisted.

Sansa sighed. It wasn’t the first time in the last weeks that someone approached her regarding the Pevensies supposed magical powers to bring Spring to the North.

She almost wanted to accuse Bran of spreading that rumor, however it didn’t seem like something the Raven of Three Something or Another would do. But now half of Winterfell watched the siblings in awe and the other was mistrustful.

The problem was that the changes in the weather were becoming obvious. Spring hadn’t arrived suddenly to the North, but it looked like it was coming. There hadn’t been one single blizzard since the night they arrived, when before they had one every other day.

The daylight was lingering a bit more –not much, not even a full hour –but people noticed; and that same day the sky had been pure blue for the whole day.

It was a bit scary, if Sansa was to be honest.

The siblings, however, didn’t claim any credit for it. They kept doing their part at the keep, working alongside the people of the North.

Sansa was happy for their presence. Lucy had a calming effect on Arya, which in turn had a calming effect on everybody else. Edmund was a great company to Jon and Davos, and Susan, more than a friend to Sansa, was a balm to the Hand’s damaged soul.

Sansa only had problems with one of the Pevensies.

“My Lady.” Speak of the devil… “I came to remind you of our dance.”

Sansa turned to the fair-haired man and arched a brow. “Dance?”

“Yes, my Lady.” Peter replied smoothly. “You graciously conceded me this dance, remember?”

No, she hadn’t. He wasn’t even remotely ashamed of his lie and Sansa felt thorn between amusement and exasperation.

Peter Pevensie was a big problem.

Once upon a time –before all the things that Sansa wished she could just forget –he’d be like a fairy tale come to life: a real prince –a King, he’d say – with his golden hair, courtly manners and confident smile.

However, Sansa would never be fooled by those things again. His golden hair only made her think of Joffrey and his name… By the Seven, his name reminded her of someone better left forgotten.

She knew the look in his eyes, she wasn’t a naïve girl anymore and understood what man thought when they looked at a woman.

Peter might not look at her with lechery or greed, but he was aware of her beauty and interested in it. Sansa was dead tired of men lusting after her looks or title.

Her life would be easier if Peter Pevensie wasn’t so… Him.

“Of course, my Lord.” She nodded at him, before excusing herself from Lord Manderly and accepting Peter’s arm.

“Have you no shame?” Sha asked once they were on the dance floor.

“You looked like you wanted to be anywhere but there.” He said instead of answering her question. “I just thought I’d give you a graceful excuse to go.”

“So you fancy you were rescuing me?” She asked toneless.

“As a man with two sisters, I know better than to answer that, My Lady.” He grinned. “Just think of it as me being a faithful servant of your house.”

Honestly, most of the time Sansa was at a loss of how to react to him.

He was a good man –as far as she knew. He treated the people with respect, dotted on his sisters, cared for his brother and was hard working. However, he was also extremely arrogant, stubborn and had a bit of a temper.

Sansa didn’t trust that temper and she hardly knew him well enough to not be concerned about it.

However, if she was to be honest, Peter wasn’t forward with her. He was actually more respectful that most men who’d expressed an interest on her in recent times.

He did flirt and asked for dances, but he never took advantage of any moment: if they danced, he kept the proper distance; if they talked he deferred to her position; if they happened to meet alone, he always kept his distance.

He wasn’t pressing his interest on her, but still…

It was there, she could see it clear as day when he smiled at her, when he sought her out, when he looked at her.

Jon wasn’t happy about it and Arya had offered to kick his arse, but Sansa had refused it. He hadn’t done anything.

Yet.

Besides, Brienne was always a quiet presence, looming nearby. Even if he tried anything, he wouldn’t get very far.

Their dance finished and Sansa curtsied. “Lord Peter.”

“My Lady.” He picked her hand up and brought it close to his lips, but he didn’t kiss it. He never did. His lips never touched her skin, unlike some who kissed her hand with moist lips, or that time a very petulant knight tried to kiss her palm.

Peter never pressed the limits.

Sansa never knew how to properly answer to him, but damn it if the arrogant fool wasn’t always prepared for her.

“As always, my Lady’s beauty outshines the stars.” He offered once he had let go of her hand.

She arched a brow. “As always, flattery drips easily from your lips.”

“How can it be just flattery in face of a worthy subject, My Lady?” He asked her, before bowing once again and leaving.

Honestly. The cheek of that man.

***

“Tell me I’m delirious now.” Lucy demanded.

Edmund rolled his eyes. “All right. You were right. There’s something there.”

“Something?” She repeated like Edmund was an idiot. “Peter is completely in love with her.”

“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, Lucy.” Edmund warned, but he sounded mostly amused. “Besides, if Peter gets too close to lady Sansa there will be a line of people to hurt him: Jon, Davos, Brienne, Arya…”

“Even Susan.” Lucy completed with a sigh. “They’ve become good friends and I think Susan knows something that we don’t.”

Edmund snickered. “She normally does.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “So…”

“No!” Edmund said immediately. “Whatever you are thinking, the answer is no.”

“Ed!” Lucy turned her eyes to her brother. “She would be so good for him.”

“I’m not saying she wouldn’t, but Jon isn’t very fond of Peter. Can you imagine that?”

“Sansa isn’t a kid!” Lucy insisted. “She doesn’t need his permission.”

“Lucy, no!” Edmund was firm. “Do you want to cause a family fight? Is it fair after what they’ve done for us?”

It was a low blow and Edmund knew it, but he needed his little sister to see what could happen if things went wrong. Romance was only perfect in books, in real life people got hurt and sometimes worse.

They had no right to meddle in here.

“You’re right.” Lucy sighed.

Jon didn’t like Peter all that much, mostly because her brother was too arrogant, but… If Jon had a lady for himself, someone gracious, calm and kind, he might be more open minded to the match.

However, Jon didn’t have anyone…

Well, Lucy wouldn’t meddle with Sansa and Peter.

For now.

Notes: Important to notice: I know that -according to the show and the books -Davos has a wife somewhere (in the show they completely forgot she exists) and in the books he has a bunch of other kids (I'm pretty sure in the series he had only the one who died). But anyway, for my reasons I decided to say he's now a widower.Anyway... 

Let me know your feelings!

[giftofshewbread]

God Doesn’t Make Sin !

The other day, while on Youtube, someone laid a comment on me and asked, Why God 'makes' sin? Why does God make people ill and suffer and such and why doesn't He do something about all the pain and suffering in the world?

First off, I was reading carefully how this person stated in their comment and of course, the word 'make' came front and center, which I responded, God Doesn't 'MAKE' anyone do anything, He never forces, He gives mankind 'free will', so we can choose freely to do or not to do, to respond or not to respond, to worship or not to worship Him. You get what I'm saying... We have what we have today, in our world, all manner of evil and sin, we have all manner of people, some believers in the One True God and many who follow after false gods and so forth..  

God is Pure, plain and simple.  He is Righteous and the only one truly Good. None of us are good. We are of sin from birth on, certainly not our choice, but some 'couple' in the very beginning set that course upon us long ago, but what now?

Well the Truth of God is still being presented, thru His Holy Bible, it's freely given and He never forces anyone.

Certainly God has His Great Plan and it's been underway from the Beginning and here we are in the Latter Days. The time will come when man will fall into Apostasy, rejecting God/Jesus and His Truths! God will then let mankind fall into their own, so they can do as they please and they most certainly will. It will be a natural world turned into a supernatural one. A world that has never been before, absent of God and the world we once knew which will now be given over to mankind and a new god on earth, satan/antichrist. In this new world all manner of Evil is brought forth with an intensity never witnessed/experienced even in both world wars. It will be the most Horrific and Demonic time, Hell on Earth Magnified and Unless GOD steps in, all will be lost, all will be destroyed and no man, woman or child will exist and the earth will be uninhabitable, all will perish... (Author included capital letters for emphasis)

Thankfully we Christians have the Blessed Hope of Jesus and all who believe in Him, all who follow Him and His Teachings. All who have been Born Again as commanded by God, will be Saved!  But Woe to those left behind, left to go thru the Tribulation period which commences when the antichrist comes on the scene and 'confirms', not makes, a treaty with Israel, but 'confirms' it, big difference.... As we know President Trump is proposing a Peace Treaty for the Middle East, with Israel and the world really, but will he be able to implement it? I doubt it, (my theory here). He will propose a Great Deal for the Middle East, but I don't he's the one to 'confirm' it and make the deal come to fruition. That will be the antichrist and very likely the beginning of the Tribulation Period.  Hopefully many of us will not be here to see it, 'Rapture' time....

But back to the beginning of this message, I propose the answer to what many think is that GOD 'Makes' bad things happen, is Not True at All... We are in a time that is of Man, of mankind and its rejection of all that is good and godly that is making the world spiral out of control and people are falling away from Truth and God/Jesus... So Romans, (a book in The New Testament) I believe tells it straight from God's mouth. Man is the problem, not GOD and believe me, we ain't seen nothing yet, God help us all! (With Evil working in the hearts and minds of leaders around the world, great and small, from Presidents to little town mayors and authorities, with the help of very corrupt mainstream media, we can certainly see today, that things have changed much more for the worse and we are headed for very dire times.  Sadly for the most part, the 'world' couldn't care less, it's all about 'self' and those who will abuse it and take advantage of everyone else, we see it more and more each day, as this world grows more distant to the things of God and all that is Good)  Again, God help us all !

ROMANS 1: 17-32

17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life."* 18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.* 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. 28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

(author's note here; God doesn't make sin, but He does allow it, for man's instruction/correction. If you want more teachings on Sin, Dig in by all means, God's Holy Scriptures are available for All, Learn for yourself, what God, Our Beloved Father says about sin and how it affects our lives and our eternity !)

[quranreadalong]

#10, Surah 2

THE QURAN READ-ALONG: DAY 10

Ten sections--ten!--and we are still not done with the second surah. It is just ridiculously long and tedious. But complaints won’t get us any closer to the finish line, thots. We’re starting today at 2:210, and we have less than 90 ayat to go, so probably three or four more sections, including this one, at most. Almost there!

Today we’re going to discuss Mohammed’s cousin murdering someone in broad daylight and Allah sending him a Get Out Of Jail Free Card. Let’s go.

Coming off last section’s last two ayat, in which Allah suggested that those who ignore the “clear proofs” (of Mohammed being a prophet) are going to hell, the whole punishment thought is continued. 2:210 simply reminds people that Allah is their judge, and he will judge the disbelievers by punishing them severely in 2:211. (Kuffar hell counter: 1!)

So a neutral and a bad verse, respectively, to start the day. 2:212 is an interesting one--I’d also classify it as neutral, but take a look:

Beautified is the life of the world for those who disbelieve; they make a jest of the believers. But those who keep their duty to Allah will be above them on the Day of Resurrection.

Islam, like some forms of Christianity, insists that enjoying worldly things is a sign of weakness, and true believers would gladly reject happiness on earth in favor of slavish devotion to Allah and following his commands in order to enter jannah after death. Disbelievers, according to the Quran (when it’s not contracting itself), are quite happy people. But they’re wrong to be happy, because they’re gonna be burned in hell forever, LOL!

We then have a brief Islamic “history” of religion, stating again that all people were originally of one religion (Islam) before going astray. But Allah chose certain people to be led back to “the straight path”--there’s that Calvinism again. Neutral, I suppose. Muslims are the latest such people, and they will not “enter paradise" until they, like Moses and his followers, endure “affliction and adversity” (see 2:49, wherein the Jews are “tested” by Allah having the Egyptians kill their children). Bad both there and here.

And just like last time, we have a juxtaposition of a very nice ayah with a terrible one. Is this Mohammed’s version of letting people down gently? Compare:

They ask thee, (O Muhammad), what they shall spend. Say: that which ye spend for good (must go) to parents and near kindred and orphans and the needy and the wayfarer.

Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that ye hate a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that ye love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knoweth, ye know not.

They question thee (O Muhammad) with regard to warfare in the sacred month. Say: Warfare therein is a great (transgression), but to turn (men) from the way of Allah, and to disbelieve in Him and in the Inviolable Place of Worship, and to expel His people thence, is a greater with Allah; for persecution is worse than killing. And they will not cease from fighting against you till they have made you renegades from your religion, if they can. And whoso becometh a renegade and dieth in his disbelief: such are they whose works have fallen both in the world and the Hereafter. Such are rightful owners of the Fire: they will abide therein.

Whiplash! A lot to unpack here. Let’s start with 2:215, the good one: give alms to the poor and take care of your family. Great! But now we have to deal with the appalling stuff that follows.

Quick summary of where we’re at: Mohammed and most of his early followers were from the Quraysh tribe in the trade city of Mecca. After spending a little over a decade ranting to the polytheists of his hometown, the leaders of Mecca made him leave. The incident that prompted his expulsion involved a bunch of Muslims from outside Mecca--mostly from the agricultural city of Yathrib--swearing an oath of loyalty to him, which included a declaration to stand behind him in battle. After leaving Mecca, Mohammed moved to Yathrib (called Medina), and most of his Meccan followers moved with him. The city became the Muslim base of power. Once he got to Medina, Mohammed began ordering his followers to raid caravans of the Quraysh. This led to some problems.

In 2:216, we’re told that some of Mohammed’s followers don’t really want to fight. But he tells them that they have to anyway; that Allah himself wants them to fight. And if they listen to Allah, they will be rewarded. Tafsir al-Jalalayn elaborates:

obligatory for you is fighting disbelievers though it be hateful to you by nature because of the hardship involved. Yet it may happen that you hate a thing which is good for you; and it may happen that you love a thing which is bad for you ... the soul inclines towards those desires which result in its destruction ... even if you are averse to it you will find much good in fighting as a result of victory, booty, martyrdom or reward; while if you were to reject fighting even if you would like to do so you will find much evil because then you may be subjugated, impoverished, and denied the reward; God knows what is good for you and you know this not so strive in what He commands you.

Remember how, in the last section, there was a command to slaughter disbelievers until “religion is for Allah” if provoked first? We are now told exactly what that means. See, when Mohammed said that his followers shouldn’t attack unless first attacked, he didn’t mean literally physically attacked. Turning people from “the way of Allah” (presumably by telling them that Mohammed is full of shit), kicking a Muslim out of Mecca (note that the Muslims bar Mohammed left Mecca for Medina on their own and were not kicked out), preventing Mohammed’s men from performing the pilgrimage en masse, and simply not believing in Islam are all acts of “fitna” that constitute valid reasons for Muslims to declare war on a group of people and kill them until they’ve accepted Islam. One must respond to this by killing them, since fitna "is worse than killing” in the eyes of Allah.

This is unavoidably bad as it explicitly calls for war against those who do not accept Islam or those perceived to be “persecuting” (fitna again) Muslims. Or those who are just members of a group that does such things.

Now why, exactly, are the Muslims being ordered to fight, even though they don’t want to? Why does Mohammed need to emphasize that this fighting can occur during the sacred months? That, friends, brings us to a rather appalling story.

Let’s look at what was going on at the time that made “Allah” send such a revelation to Mohammed. Al-Wahidi:

the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, sent a military expedition and appointed [his cousin] 'Abd Allah ibn Jahsh al-Asdi as its leader. This expedition proceeded until they reached Nakhlah where they found 'Amr ibn al-Hadrami leading a trade caravan for the Quraysh. That day was the last day of the sacred month. The Muslims were divided in their opinion. Some of them said: 'We know for certain that today belongs to the sacred month, we are of the view that you should not violate it because of greed'. The opinion of those who desired the stuff of this world gained the upper hand; they attacked Ibn al-Hadrami, killed him and seized his camels. Ibn al-Hadrami was the first person to be killed in a fight between the Muslims and the disbelievers. The disbelievers of the Quraysh heard about the incident and sent a delegation to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace. They said to him: 'Do you allow fighting in the sacred month?' As a response, Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse (They question thee (O Muhammad) with regard to warfare in the sacred month…)

Let’s break it down. Mohammed sends a band of his goons out into the desert. (The early Muslim community engaged in lots of caravan raiding, which we will get to later on. When you’re a kid being brainwashed, you’re sometimes told that they were “recovering stolen merchandise”. Absolutely zero early histories or ahadith say this. They were just stealing shit. Other times you’re told that the Meccans were going to use the profits from their trade in war against the Muslims. Again, this is not true. The traders of Mecca were just doing what they always did and minding their business, and they didn’t attack the Muslims in Medina until the latter attacked them first.)

They come across some traders belonging to The Disbelievers. It’s during a peace month called Rajab. The guy leading the Muslims, Abdallah--Mo’s future brother-in-law--wants to kill the traders and take all their shit. Some of the Muslims explicitly don’t want to do this, not simply because it’s bad to kill people in order to take their shit, but because it’s the month of Rajab and “Allah” had specifically prohibited them from fighting during that period. But Abdallah says “nah fam I think I see a PS4 in there, I’m going in” and attacks anyway and kills the unfortunate Mr. ibn al-Hadrami. The Disbelievers, understandably upset at this blatant criminal action and violation of “Allah’s” own rules, go to Mohammed and demand answers. At which time “Allah” tells Mohammed that, actually, being a disbeliever is way worse than killing people during a truce month.

Now you know the “context” whenever people try to tell you that the Quran’s terrible verses require “context”.

Also: kuffar hell counter: 2!

Ugly stuff. Let’s go to more neutral territory. 2:218 says that Muslims who “strive in the way of Allah” in the form of fighting, emigrating from Mecca to Medina, or by simply being faithful believers will go jannah. 2:219 is the first of several Quranic prohibitions against gambling and drinking alcohol.

2:220 is a random good verse about treating orphans kindly. I picked that place to stop because all the jihad ayat made me depressed and I wanted a happy ending. Unfortunately...

NEXT TIME: Let’s talk about sex (and also restrictions for women’s behavior)

The Quran Read-Along: Day 10

Ayat: 11

Good: 2 (2:215, 2:220)

Neutral: 5 (2:209, 2:212-13, 2:218-19)

Bad: 4 (2:211, 2:214, 2:216-17)

Kuffar hell counter: 2 (2:211, 2:217)

⇚ previous day | next day ⇛

[maidenoftheforestlight-blog]

So...I was reading an article the other day in which a critic noted that American film adaptations of British classic literature often seem to downplay the element of classism that is typically so pervasive in... well, British literature in general, but definitely anything written before the mid 20th Century. That made me think about GOT as an adaptation of ASOIAF, and the way that class is depicted as an element of the world building in the books vs the show. 

In the books, of course, most of the POV characters are of the nobility and pretty much all of them would be considered “classist” to a modern audience, at least to some extent, because they do not mix with the “common people” and subscribe to the social hierarchy of their society. A notable exception is Arya Stark, who is “class blind”, so to speak. Especially at the beginning of the series, Arya seems both largely ignorant of the realities of class distinction and also seems not to care about class as social construct at all. This, of course, is largely because Arya is a child and has not yet been made aware of the ugly reality of the social order which places her very near the top of the pyramid (as a Lord’s daughter) and her friend Mycah pretty near the bottom (as a butcher’s boy) and therefore makes their friendship extremely difficult to sustain, even impossible to sustain, once the idyllic bubble of her Winterfell childhood is popped. And Mycah’s death essentially was the result of the social order, the status quo, punishing him for daring to play with another child so far above his station. This is something Arya still doesn’t quite grasp after the fact, but it is quite clear to reader. There is to be no justice for Mycah. No one is going to fight for his parents in court, and proclaim the injustice of an innocent child’s murder. No one. 

You see, because Mycah is lowborn no one will seek justice for him, “no one had raised a voice or drawn a blade or anything, not Harwin who always talked so bold, or Alyn who was going to be a knight, or Jory who was captain of the guard. Not even her father” thinks Arya in despair. All these men are “good” men by Westerosi standards, but all of them understand the social order, subscribe to the social order, and will not fight the Crown on the issue of a murdered peasant child. Basically, it isn’t a deal breaker for them that their king allowed it to happen and it would be for most people today who hope to be worthy of the  description of “good person”. This is because all of these men that Arya wants to step up and fight for Mycah’s right to live as a human being are classist. Now, they are “good” Westerosi men, and would never kill an innocent child themselves, but they are classist nonetheless because they uphold the classist social order. The fact that Arya, as an innocent unbiased child, cannot understand this at all makes it quite clear to the reader that the social hierarchy is both inherently stupid, unjust and morally bankrupt. Yet, at the same time, it highlights that being without class based prejudice is not on the Westeros checklist of what constitutes a “good guy”. 

You see the same sort of thing in stuff like Jane Austen novels. Was Darcy a good gentleman landowner who looked after the people who worked for him and were tenants on his land? Yes, he’s a good dude. But is he “classist” and only hangs out with people of his own social status or higher, also pretty much yes. By modern standards that is. Darcy is still pretty progressive by Regency standards (which Austen was making a point of) for being friends with the Bingleys and marrying Elizabeth. Yet a modern reader can’t help but note that Bingley is still rich dude and is planning to become a gentleman landowner himself, and Elizabeth... well her mother may be middle-class, but her father’s status puts her and Darcy on equal ground, if only in name. So is Darcy classist? Yes! Even Elizabeth is by modern standards (Lydia is probably the most open minded of all in that regard!) and this is almost always downplayed in modern adaptations, particularly American adaptations, which brings me back to the point of this whole post...

Ahem. So the article I was reading that made me think of all this, quoted Robert Irvine, a British critic, whose opinion was (in my own words) that American film adaptations of Jane Austen’s work did their best to downplay the classism in them because of the fact that American culture plays up the egalitarian nature of their society, where anyone can do anything if they just believe and have the grit and determination to pursue their dreams. Essentially, he was saying that it was believed that the American audience could never truly accept or like classist heroes or settings, where respect and authority is blatantly passed down through ancient family names, wealth and land ownership. Clearly, this take on things can easily be related to ASOIAF and GOT because the setting, Westeros, is based on medieval Britain, and the social situation is very medieval indeed, feudalism, kings, queens, lords, ladies and knights, oh my! And of course, peasants...the great unwashed masses...

What I find interesting, is that GRRM in writing ASOIAF generally tried to stay fairly true to what medieval nobles might actually think about class, and indeed, the sort of sentiment that might exist among peasants towards the nobility. The show on the other hand... All of this is out the window! What exactly does class mean in the GOT universe? They seem to have reduced it to, “if you care about class then you’re a baddy” (I’m assuming this based on the fact that the few times it’s ever brought up as an issue it’s by someone we’re not meant to like). Otherwise, they have low born people being besties with nobles and sassing them like equals and nary an eyelid was e’er bat. This kind of thing might work to make your noble born protagonists more likable to the modern audience, but it really messes up the worldbuilding when it comes to the presentation of the smallfolk. This is especially evident with the way the whole Sparrow movement was dealt with in the show. The writers apparently decided to use that aspect of the plot to reinforce everyone’s hatred of religious extremism and the Sparrows basically became Christian fundamentalists. The problem is, the Sparrows are actually more of a “by the people for the people” kind of deal and in the pseudo-medieval setting, they represent how religion could actually empower the medieval  lower classes through the messaging of the destructive powers of wealth and greed on the nobility and the equality of all men under God. The Sparrow movement emerged out of the downtrodden masses and just because they organise under the banner of their faith, it doesn’t mean that they can just be dismissed as evil extremists! They have every right to “fight the power!” They’d been suffering under these shortsighted nobles for yonks! 

Except... this is made obvious to book readers... not to show watchers. You see, as far as any casual viewer of the show is concerned, being a peasant in Westeros ain’t so bad. Nobles will be friends with you! You can sass them all you want. Look, they’ll teach you to read and say you can be their family and come live with them in Winterhell! I’m specifically pointing out the characters of Bronn, Davos, Gendry and Hot Pie here because these are pretty much the only members of the small folk we see represented as developed characters in the show. All the other small folk are basically just extras, the “fickle mob” who are so incredibly stupid they don’t even know to hate the people who blew up their holiest site and murdered the leader that was fighting for their rights... but I digress. With these specific characters, we get just one shade of the noble/small folk dynamic. Arya is “class-blind” and doesn’t care about her friend’s low social status, ditto Stannis for the most part, and ditto Tyrion (and how hilarious that is if you know anything about book!Tyrion). Without any other evidence to the contrary, it is possible for a casual viewer to assume such relationships are not unusual in Westeros and that, indeed, it may even be a fairly egalitarian society where with enough grit and determination, YOU TOO CAN BE A LORD! A similar thing happens with the show’s portrayal of institutionalized sexism and  misogyny... but that’s another issue... 

What I’m really getting at here is that it is quite interesting to see how class is handled in the books as opposed to the show. GRRM, though he is an American author, is pretty content with writing classist “heroes”, but D&D are most certainly not. Likewise, GRRM, though an atheist, is apparently ok with depicting a religious movement with roots in the lower class fighting for their rights, but D&D are not about showing the poor rising up when they can just beat us over the head with the evils of organised religion. So what is this about? GRRM is an american author so I thought, “It can’t just be something in American culture that prevents them from being able to understand or sympathise with classist character...”. But then I thought, “Oh, but GRRM is deliberately making his heroes complex and problematic, he wants the reader to squirm over their faves”. However, the show blatantly avoids class based issues, definitely erases classism from those character’s we’re meant to sympathise with and demonises it in those characters we’re meant to dislike. So it seems as if they, at least, believe that classism is just too off putting in a supposedly “good” character. So I put this to any American followers I have. Is this the case? Is Robert Irvine right? Is a classist mindset something you simply can’t get down with? 

Speaking as someone who grew up with full awareness of class and its impact on everyone, it really isn’t a deal breaker for me on whether or not I like a character. This is despite the fact that I strongly believe in equality and don’t hold with any “good breeding” nonsense. It still seems natural to me for a character to have class based biases because I grew up in a society where that is pretty much expected of everyone to a certain degree, though it is, of course, frowned upon to actually express these biases in polite society. Especially if I’m reading historical fiction or fantasy! Gosh, nothing annoys me more than when writers try to force me to like a character by making them so much more “modern and progressive” than anyone in their society has any right to be!

But let me know how you feel! I’m truly interested from a cultural studies kind of standpoint as, I admit, it’s something I’ve actually noticed a lot in American cinema and television. 

[she-shall-conquer]

The Controversialism of Inequality

I dream of a day when the church will no longer piggy back on the latest trends. I dream of a time when the church prides itself at being better at Human Resource Management and Leadership than at Marketing. What’s new right? John Donne has been saying this for (literally) centuries! The Bible has been pretty constant about it’s messages regarding the treatment of people, and yet only now is the church getting “woke”? Excuse me if I doubt your intentions… (however necessary and faux-noble). But also, how can you raise the race issue without bringing up the topic of gender? To be clear: Racial Inequality is a REAL issue and should be discussed and I’m glad that the topic is coming up, but why did it take BLM to make it happen? I’m pretty sure (absolutely certain) that the biggest contention of prejudice addressed in the New Testament was, you guessed it, racism… Now if we do the math: The Bible is one of the best selling books of all time, one of the most translated books of all time, and the fact that a vast majority of the colonized world was colonized by “Christian” nations. Therefore, this colonization should prides itself in establishing the least racist places, with the most selfless and loving cultures and have a great deal of generosity with perhaps a slightly lower poverty gap.

Oh, wait…

That’s right, folks, we stuffed up real good on this one… And how I wish we could all return to the genuine authenticity that I read about constantly. It pains me so greatly. Its like reading Narnia and knowing that Narnia exists, so you go to Narnia and it’s Game of Thrones. Man, oh man, the disappointment. This being said, there are a lot of missionaries and missionary schools that have done a world of good, people with pure hearts and altruistic intentions — these have been besmirched and thrown out with the dirty, grimy bathwater of exploitation, greed, and contempt. Furthermore, there are countless arguments, sides to the story, and this is a very real discussion with personal implications that needs to be had amongst brothers and sisters (in Christ) in practice and in community. Just a note — if you want to effectively teach people anything, psychologically, just talking at people is possibly the worst way to do it (just saying); it’s an organizational problem that requires change and development of an entire culture. This is a debate for another day and a more researched perspective/argument.

I believe it’s important to note that Christianity was never meant to be a social revolution, there are no colour codes or banners or marches or slogans. I don’t believe that Christianity supports slavery, I mean William Wilberforce was motivated to end the slave-trade because of his faith, but it speaks about slavery and how to treat your slaves/masters. This might be confusing at first approach. From my understanding what I see is that respect, love, and one’s heart were far more important than moral absolutes, which completely does in my need for justice.

Y'all got any more of that… Captain America?

But the New Testament is also excruciatingly clear about how people in the church should treat each other. If the Body of Christ (the Church) is family, it should be the safest place, it should b the place where you can be most yourself, and where people can be most honest with you about which parts of yourself are good and bad. It’s all part of the constructive learning process. In the New Testament, the bad parts of people were confronted when they were, in no uncertain terms, told to stop being so prejudiced. They were told to stop treating rich people better than poor people, told to stop treating Jews better than non-Jews, even Jesus treated the sinner and saint with the same love and dignity — a little less dignity, but still love, towards the proud and the hypocritical. From these values arose the declaration that in Christ there is no longer man nor woman, slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile. These are arguably the three ‘-isms’ that have wrought the greatest havoc on our current world and society and have been proponents of the greatest evils: racism, sexism, and classism (I see you there, Mr. Marx). Abolished and condemned along with the sins of the world are our prejudices and our shortcomings. But as a Western Charismatic church, I do not believe we have established a church culture that is free of these things, but maybe in our attempt to address the racism in our church culture, these other two will also surface.

Please understand that this piece of writing is not so much about what the practical outworking of it is as much as it is the value structure that influences how we treat people, built into our cognition. If we can work towards addressing that, I believe the practical outworking will follow, or be addressed at a later stage, perhaps by someone else. Inequality, and subsequent abuse, on a broad scale is often the result of an inherent cultural cognition that places features on a value hierarchy: rich are more valuable than poor, white are more valuable than non, men are more valuable than women (as per history’s norm). This is what I would like to address.

Gender inequality is not the “burn your bra” brigade or anything that God-fearing Christians should be afraid of, it’s a commitment to seeing the restoration and empowerment of women — she that gave birth to you. And apparently, I’m not the only one that uses this point — in fact, it wasn’t my point to begin with, it’s the Apostle Paul’s. After the section in 1 Corinthians where he’s done talking about not letting women speak and disrupting everything by asking questions about things they don't know (you know that part where he says they should rather ask the questions at home instead of disrupting the prayer meeting, which really has a lot to do with a lack of education) he speaks about God’s view of women, where there is no hierarchical difference. Woman was made of man, but man is born of a woman. This is gender inequality, where we refuse to see the perspective and heart of God, where God uses people equally, and views people equally — what we ask is that the hierarchy of value be eliminated from, at least, our church culture so that we can start to put an end to the ghastly horrors of violence against women.

Is violence against men a reality? Yes, undoubtedly, yes! But statistics show that a vast majority of victims are female, and of those females, it is more than likely perpetrated by a male. So instead of doing the dumb pretense of guilt thing that we do so often when we finally realize we have been wrong, let us be motivated by guilt (which focuses on others and their suffering) and not shame (which focuses on ourselves). These errors in judgement and culture are pointed out to help us all grow.

The South African news has been rife with stories of rape, murder, abduction, and abuse of women, and these are only a few of the stories. Women in Sub-Saharan African have a 1 in 3 (36.6%) chance of experiencing gender-based violence in their life time, a region with the third highest prevalence in the world. Something has got to give. How can we idly stand by and just send condolences, Facebook-React with a teary face, share, re-tweet, like, or change our profile picture? It’s deeper, friends, far deeper. When will we stop and re-evaluate our culture, our societal norms? How many more of our children, our aunties, our nieces, our students, our girlfriends, our best friends, our dear loved ones must bear the burden of abuse before we start to relook at our culture? If you like me, have stumbled upon the disillusionment of discord, between what you believe, what you read about, compared to what you see in practice, here are a few considerations I humbly ask you to think about, to look into, and to build upon:

Step 1: A Product of Your Society

Research says the relationship between culture and language and cognition is reciprocal, you influence your culture and your culture influences you, and your language shapes your culture and cognition just as your culture shapes your language and your way of thinking. To understand that our value system is a much deeper social construct than our individual upbringing and our own choices and beliefs is a necessity in bringing change. Culture is so very nuanced and so very fundamental to our entire being that we cannot just make a decision to separate it from our way of life, we cannot learn information or even practices that might entirely change the way we think. Even the way we talk influences how we think and therefore what we do, this is why “locker room talk” is a problem, because language shapes culture and cognition and cognition shapes language and culture. I’m not suggesting that we just keep our mouths shut for fear of saying the wrong thing or go on a witch hunt for bad statements, but rather let’s be open to having a brother or sister give helpful, loving feedback on our comments. This can in turn help us to recognize underlying prejudices in our cognition that we were perhaps unaware of. This is not to say that you are not to be held responsible for your prejudices, but let’s all remember that dehumanizing people solves nothing at all. We should all recognise that along with our culture and our upbringing, there are certain values that come along and form apart of our cognitions and processing mechanisms — ones we need to be open to addressing and mending. This is not easy, but if we’re all on the same team of Love, Kindness, and Respect, it makes it a lot easier. This of course, on top of the fact that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds?

Step 2: Right/Wrong are Contextual Variables

A team can be a lot more effective when half the team doesn’t have to run with a limp (or a pair of heels/a dress, ya know). It may be crudely comparable to a soccer game where half the team keeps getting carded for using too much of their hips while running, or flicking their hair too inappropriately, or their shorts being too short, or their laces not being long enough, or whatever ridiculous reason is being used for why the other team keeps scoring. The team would (or should) no doubt be up in arms, because of how it hinders their effectiveness to play the game, which is of course the main point. It may also be like saying that certain demographic categories of players may only be in the team as subs, none of them are ever allowed to be in the starting line-up, but they’ll be used if there’s no one else left. This is not a good strategic move to enable the goal to be achieved. And for some real talk, if we had to put all the highest earning players in the starting line up, it might be that we have selected the best players, but why would we make that a rule and sell ourselves short of employing the best strategy of players and placement based on their strengths and ability according to the context? I’ll not insult your intelligence by explaining just how we do exactly this in the church/societal norms. We forget that there is a great deal of contextualization apparent int he Bible. God remains the same, his heart and values remain unchanged, but in certain situations an action is wrong and in other situations it is right. If we look at the Bible purely as a book of moral absolutes of course there will be irreconcilable contradictions.

One of the reasons I dislike personality test is because they always ask for absolutes, of which I have none in my life. There is no one action that I will always take regardless of circumstance. We all have circumstantial decisions and choices we have made dependent on our values and beliefs. Often our values remain unchanged, be it principle based or outcomes based, even though our decisions differ. What am I getting at? We need to mine the various accounts of the God we serve, as well as personally invest time and devotion, to know His heart, and His values (if serving and following Him is something we want to do), and then, with His mercy and guidance, start to evaluate our current practices and see if they really are as Gospel-oriented as we think they are, and if they are in line with His values. In the culture of the time, I understand, let the educated people teach the other people. So in that case, women don’t teach, right? But if the church is family and family is where you should be most yourself, if women can’t lead or teach, how can you substantiate women studying management, or women being CEOs or presidents, or women being lecturers? It’s a cognitive dissonance that needs to be re-evaluated. Perhaps you don't agree with women being in these “secular positions”. Why? Is it possible that where the church has failed to press on with the agenda and has been crippled and sidetracked by secondary issues that the world has caught up? Let us examine our context in light of His Heart.

Step 3: The Talking Listening Cure

I referenced Freud in this step, but it really has nothing to do with him, except for his novel idea of talking through situations and circumstances in order to understand and reach a conclusion. What he really did, was listen. So should we. Of course I don’t know everything and I never will, not even about this particular issue. I do however know that it’s not so much about the philosophy as much as it is about having and acting upon values that will shape my relationships with those around me. We are focused on the goal of love, but how do we love? This is the question we need to be continually asking. To love is to pay attention, to listen, to hear, to move towards understanding and to value (love your neighbor as you love yourself). May we not only learn to listen, but may a deep yearning and desire to listen be born within our hearts and minds, may we be malleable and teachable. Let’s start the conversations in the closets of our homes, leaning in to hear the heart of the Almighty, and looking at the Bible more holistically and in context, never losing sight of the main point: Love, Truth, Light, Hope — Jesus. And then, take it one step at a time, speaking to those closest to you, then slowly broadening the topic to your community. This may help in emphasizing that is not a “Femi-Nazi rampage” but rather an honest questioning of how to love and value others better, from the very core of our hearts and minds, which will then change how we act, what we say, and how we treat those that are ‘different’ to us.

Final Thoughts

We don’t choose these things when we are born, I didn’t decide to be born a woman, or be born with my skin colour, or be born into the social class that I was, but yet, these are things people use to attribute value to me, each with their own measurement sticks (or pencils)… We all do it to a degree, and we all have it done to us to a degree. This is not my plight to be valued or recognized, this is my questioning of our culture and values that ultimately shape how we treat others and how we mistreat others.

You want to know why #MenAreTrash? Not because you as a man are trash, but because societal values and norms more often than not establish a value hierarchy that enables men to abuse women. The concept of a man that is often taught and learned is trash. Yes, it is a generalisation, but that’s kind of how statistics work. For all the things men are allowed to say or do, even with harmless intentions, that shapes culture and in turn shapes other men, that spirals to rape, murder, abuse, that concept of a man is trash. This is a desperate plea for men and women alike to relook at what you do, why you do it, and what your underlying cognitions are — this is a call to re-examination of values, particularly in the church.

I’m not asking us to revolt, I’m asking us to structure our organization, the church, differently, where we remain true to his heart and the call He has placed upon us. I ask that we move towards a church that exemplifies the heart of God, where everyone has equal value and equal ability to contribute, regardless of race, gender, or socio-economic status/class.

I hold no sway in formal church structures, mostly because I’m young, and a woman, and not married to an elder, (give or take) so in the spirit of using what I have to do the best I can, I aim to start exploring this topic in greater detail, through research, through art, and through engagement/conversation.

[rogeramir]

Karma, Dreams And The Balance Needed In Daily Life

What is 'Karma'? It is a Sanskrit word meaning, 'action'. Ancient Hindu wisdom teachers studied human actions and how each action has consequences and how it leads to further actions or reactions. They came up with the 'law of Karma', which states that actions have consequences and that good actions will have good consequences and bad actions will have bad consequences.

I agree to the extent that whatever you do has effects for you and for others and, in fact, for the whole universe, which implies that we may want to be more cautious in our thinking and the actions which that thinking gives rise to. I do not, however, agree with the rest of the so-called law of karma. I am not sure about 'good' actions having 'good' consequences and vice versa for 'bad' actions. That involves many different philosophical questions and I don't waste too much time on those. Philosophical questions are for philosophers and for those who have the time and the interest to take those questions up. I am here to propose constant observation of our own selves as a way of discovering who we are.

For me, Karma is this: if I have a cup of coffee at home, then, to have another cup of coffee, I will have to wash the same cup or buy a new one or drink in the unwashed one. These are the possible consequences.

Or, if I have been rude to someone, I will have to apologise or live with the guilt of it or I will become or remain a generally rude person.

So, I do agree that every thing we do brings consequences.

Physicists say, 'to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction', also known as Newton's Third Law of Motion.

The Chinese have their own philosophy of yin and yang, which states that seemingly opposite forces are complementary, interconnected and interrelated. The opposites / polarities create one another. Night means that soon it will be day. When a baby is born, it means that at some point in time in the future, there will be a death (no one lives indefinitely). If grass is growing and flowers are blooming, then in a few months, autumn will be there. These are examples of yin and yang, opposites creating each other.

Now, lets look at what is happening in our daily life:

If I have eaten too much, I will have to stop eating for a while.

If I have remained awake for a while, I will have to get some sleep.

If I have talked for a while, I will have to remain quiet for some time.

If I have been with other people for a few hours, then I need some alone time.

If I have been angry or agitated or happy and excited, then I will need to silence the mind for a while.

If I have been earning money today, then, today, I will naturally feel good if I can share my money or other possessions with others.

Similarly also in other things that make up our day. All these are examples of Karma too. And they also suggest that our everyday life demands a balance. A very fine balance. Not just balance for the sake of balance, but a balance that will actually bring sanity and a freshness to life. It is the balance which brings us back home. During the whole day, we take hundreds of actions, see thousands of images, speak many words, listen to many words, use our imagination about things, interact with people, eat, drink, converse with people, watch TV, listen to the radio or music or podcasts, read newspapers, journals, blogs, and take so many other actions. All that is information being downloaded into the brain, into the mind. All this information changes us. It becomes a part of us and, to whatever extent, we become this information. Every day, every minute, every second of our lives, we change the world and the world changes us.

The more information we absorb, the more we change. The more we change, the more we go away from our original self. It is as if our original self keeps getting covered over by layers and layers of information. And these layers hide our true nature. They come from the outside, from the world of images, from the world of perceptions. These perceptions are not the reality, they are a version of the reality which the limited human mind comes up with. This perception depends upon our biology, our heredity, our training and development from childhood, the so-called social programming that we undergo.  

The problem is (and this is the whole crux of man's spiritual problem and his spiritual struggle) that the more we change, the more we seek our original self. The more we go out into the world, the more we want to come back home. The more we forget ourself, the more we try to remember ourself. The search for God, the search for the right religion, all philosophical thought, all cosmological studies, all studies of man and all studies of the universe, all these are geared towards that one search, the search for our origins.

We come from a great silent, as yet unknowable, blissful nothingness and we become these small noisy, all too predictable, sad, confused individuals. And then we search for that nothingness.  

What I am proposing here is that while we continue with our normal lives of going into the world and getting more and more information and becoming more and more different every day, we can also start a parallel process of taking a few steps back home each day. And that journey is not necessarily a long one. It can happen in an instant. If you can learn to use the right vehicle, it will take you less than a second to go back home. That vehicle is utter silence. If you can learn to harness that vehicle, it will transport you in a micro-instant to that land of blissful nothingness from where we all originated.

Going back home each day creates that balance in our life without which we become a bunch of confused, agitated, egoistic, insane individuals. Without it, we live in the world of the ego, images and attachment. Going back home each day will reduce and keep in check our insanity.

If we just keep an eye on ourselves every day, we will come to understand where exactly this balance is needed and what happens when we do not keep this balance.

If we work too much without getting adequate rest, the body and the mind suffer. Our future performance and also our health will inevitably suffer.

If I stay awake all day and do not get adequate sleep, it will be disastrous for the mind and the body.

If we eat too much and keep eating, we will suffer all kinds of diseases and sickness.

If I focus on money alone and do not address other key factors in life, such as family, spirituality, inner peace, then all the money in the world will not be enough to bring peace and contentment to life.

If I keep talking and do not listen to others, all of my relationships, whether personal or professional or social, will start suffering.

That is the daily balance I am talking about.

(Neitzsche, image from Wikipedia)

Neitzsche, the mad philologist, philosopher and genius, hints at the need for this balance when talking about the virtues of good sleep in his book, 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'. He said we need to deal with sleep with respect and modesty and that we should stay away from those who do not sleep well and who stay awake at night. According to him, when we do not create this balance, the mind tries to do so in dreams. It plays out scenes, as in a movie, which bring back this balance. But, of course, that balance is only imaginary, fake, unreal, only meant to show us what is missing in life. Most of us do not understand what the mind is doing, the hints it is giving us about what we are not doing. But we are too dumb to take those hints.

Ten times must thou reconcile with yourself again; for overcoming is bitterness and badly sleep the unreconciled.

Ten truths must thou find during the day; otherwise wilt thou seek truth during the night, and thy soul will have been hungry.

Ten times must thou laugh during the day and be cheerful; otherwise, thou stomach, the father of affliction, will disturb thee during the night.

 (Neitzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra)

Neitzsche also famously declared in one of his books that 'God is dead'. With utmost love and respect, I beg to differ from Neitzsche on this. But that is a topic for a separate post, which I am dying to do very soon.

So, for now, lets take a few moments every day (throughout the day and especially before going to bed) and see what we are doing, what the so-called Karmic-consequences will be and what we will need to bring back that balance in life.

Lets learn to master the use of that vehicle of utter silence to go back home every day. It is the same vehicle that was used by Jesus, by Mohammad, by Gautum Buddh, by Mahavira, by Lord Krishna, by Rumi, by Kabir, by Nanak and by many other luminaries of the spiritual world. We can learn to use it too. These great ones were like Prometheus (in Greek mythology) who stole fire from gods and brought it to humanity. Similarly, the great wisdom teachers, the prophets, the shamans found this art of attaining great silence and doing deep meditation to come to our original self, to see our original face, to go back home. Jesus called that home the Kingdom of Heaven. Buddha called it nirvana. Mahavira called it moksha. Mohammad called it tawhid. Lao Tzu called it the great tao. They have taught us over the centuries and most of us have not paid too much attention. And that is OK. As a specie, we have not yet reached that place where we collectively, in large numbers, start seeking sanity. We are still in the phase of going through, and coming to terms with, our insanity. Our greed, our attachments, our sounds, our images are too over-powering for us to really pay any attention to the other world, the world of silence. I think one day we will wake up in large numbers and that day will mark the real turning point for the human world. That waking up will be Karmic too.

Karl Marx thought that socialism will come on its own (and not by a CIA-sponsored rebellion) as an evolution of, and withering away of, capitalism. I feel that the great spiritual awakening of man will also come on its own. People like Jesus and Buddha and Lao Tzu and Krishna and others saw it and tried to tell people and we didn't listen. But their words changed us and contributed to the great spiritual evolution of man. I feel that going back home (in the spiritual sense of the word) is our destiny. It is the great Karma that so many spiritual traditions have talked about. Some call it the 'second coming of Christ', some call it, the 'final judgement'. There are different names for it. But if you look closely, the concept is similar. We can choose to ignore it for now, but not for too long. And, to be clear, I am not advocating any specific religious belief here. On the contrary, I am trying to go beyond all religions, to the place where there are no religions, there are no images, no words, no beliefs, no attachments, no sounds, just a great big nothingness and silence. And maybe not even that.  

Lets just remember that whenever we want we can start paying a little more attention to our daily life and choose to take our lives into a wholly different dimension, a wholly different direction. If we want to!

If you eat every day, then fast a little every day. If you talk every day, then stay silent for a little while every day. If you work every day, then stay still a little while every day. If you earn money every day, then make it a practice to give some money away every day. Do these and other small balancing acts every day and you might discover a great confidence, a sense of control and an inner peace and bliss emerging somewhere inside.

And I can promise you one thing: you are not going to find a greater treasure anywhere in this world than that peace and bliss that you find inside!  

[pamphletstoinspire]

Part 3: On Catholic Social Teaching: The Common Good, Part 2

Last time, in this space, we mentioned that, while the Church condemns atheistic communism for, among other things, denial of the right of private property, it is also leery of the dangers of capitalism. Why? As G.K. Chesterton put it, because it produces too few capitalists and, instead of concentrating wealth and power in the hands of the state, tends to concentrate it in the hands of a tiny oligarchy. Original sin affects capitalists as well as communists.

Here’s the deal: The Church — so far from wanting private property abolished like the communist or concentrated in the hands of the 1% like the laissez-faire capitalist — wants everybody to own private property. This, yet again, is rooted in the biblical tradition — specifically, the Seventh Commandment: “You shall not steal.” If there were no such thing as private property, there could be no such thing as theft. So the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

“Private property is an essential element of an authentically social and democratic economic policy, and it is the guarantee of a correct social order. The Church’s social doctrine requires that ownership of goods be equally accessible to all, so that all may become, at least in some measure, owners.”

Whatever else that is, it’s not Marxism and is, indeed, 180 degrees the opposite of the state owning everything.

Indeed, so insistent is the Church that ownership of the goods of creation is necessary to our survival and proper to our dignity as creatures made in God’s image that she says the right to private property is “innate in individual persons, in every person, and has priority with regard to any human intervention concerning goods, to any legal system concerning the same, to any economic or social system or method.”

Some libertarian-minded Catholics badly misread this quote by applying it only to themselves or to the corporation, as though the rest of the human race is not also made in the image of God. Erring thus, they take the Church to mean that the right to personal property is the absolute be-all and end-all and that, should an individual or corporation legally acquire ownership of vastly more property than is necessary for normal functioning or control access to something that is vital to the common good, there is no obligation before God or man to consider anybody else. Such a theory, in addition to being blind to the deadly sin of greed, simply twists the Compendium’s obvious meaning.

For the Compendium goes on to declare that the Church is, in fact, referring to the universal destination of goods and the right of each person to own property and have access to the goods of the earth necessary to human life: “All other rights, whatever they are, including property rights and the right of free trade, must be subordinated to this norm [the universal destination of goods]; they must not hinder it, but must, rather, expedite its application. It must be considered a serious and urgent social obligation to refer these rights to their original purpose.”

In short, the law (including the laws of economics) was made for man, not man for the law. Just as the state does not have the right to destroy the access of persons to the common good, neither does the corporation or the greedy individual.

The shocking (to Americans) upshot of this is that private property, while certainly a good, is not an absolute right. It must give way to other considerations sometimes. This, again, is a thoroughly biblical idea. John the Baptist tells his followers, “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise” (Luke 3:11). Why? Because my neighbor’s right to life (and therefore to not freeze to death) supersedes my right to my second coat. Notice that, just as with abortion, the Church places the right to life ahead of the right to property.

Again, take water, the most basic element of human existence. The Compendium says:

“‘The principle of the universal destination of goods also applies naturally to water, considered in the sacred Scriptures as a symbol of purification (Psalm 51:4; John 13:8) and of life (John 3:5; Galatians 3:27). As a gift from God, water is a vital element essential to survival; thus, everyone has a right to it [1009].’ Satisfying the needs of all, especially of those who live in poverty, must guide the use of water and the services connected with it. Inadequate access to safe drinking water affects the well-being of a huge number of people and is often the cause of disease, suffering, conflicts, poverty and even death. For a suitable solution to this problem, it ‘must be set in context in order to establish moral criteria based precisely on the value of life and the respect for the rights and dignity of all human beings.’

“By its very nature water cannot be treated as just another commodity among many, and it must be used rationally and in solidarity with others. The distribution of water is traditionally among the responsibilities that fall to public agencies, since water is considered a public good. If water distribution is entrusted to the private sector, it should still be considered a public good. The right to water, as all human rights, finds its basis in human dignity and not in any kind of merely quantitative assessment that considers water as a merely economic good. Without water, life is threatened. Therefore, the right to safe drinking water is a universal and inalienable right.”

The guiding principle here is simple:

“Christian tradition has never recognized the right to private property as absolute and untouchable: ‘On the contrary, it has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole of creation: The right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone.’”

Systems that make water available at a profit are fine, just as long as those who cannot pay for this elementary and fundamental right are not cut off. In such cases, some other way of covering the cost must be found.

Does the Church, then, teach that a perpetual welfare state of parasites should be established? Of course not. The principle way the poor are to have a share in the common good is, as we have already seen, through work at a living wage. And what is a living wage?

A living wage fulfills four criteria:

1. Families in general seem to be living at a standard of decency appropriate to their society;

2. They do so without working undue hours;

3. They do so without wives being forced to work outside the home or children forced to work inappropriate hours or under inappropriate conditions (if they choose to do so, that’s another story);

4. They do so without undue reliance on government support or consumer credit.

That is the goal. But in this fallen world, the goal is often not met. Therefore, the community must help those who cannot find the means to access necessary goods such as food, shelter and water.

Someone may ask, “What about Paul’s command that those who will not work shall not eat?” To begin with, Paul is speaking not about the obligations of the state, but of Christians in the Church at Thessalonica who were ignoring their obligations to the community on the theory that Jesus’ return was imminent. He is speaking to those within the household of faith and telling them to get off their duffs — ironically, so they can provide for themselves and the common good. He is not writing the First Epistle to the Americans on Congressional Welfare Reform.

Meanwhile, Jesus gives us our marching orders as Christians moving in the world outside the household of faith, and they are shocking and radical: “Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42). Note that there are absolutely no qualifications put on this command. Indeed, his counsel on generosity is so countercultural and counterintuitive that, so far from talking about giving to “the deserving poor” who will thriftily earn a percentage on our largesse and give it back with interest, he instead commands: “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:12-14).

“For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:46-48). The Gospel, as Dorothy Day says, “takes away forever our right to distinguish between the deserving and the undeserving poor.” Because in God’s eyes, we are none of us deserving, and we are all of us poor.

And so, just like the Church, Paul urges not the abolition of property, but its generous sharing modeled after that of Jesus, who, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). And the Tradition of the Church on this is unbroken from antiquity to the present:

St. Ambrose: “You are not making a gift of your possessions to poor persons. You are handing over to them what is theirs. For what has been given in common for the use of all, you have arrogated to yourself. The world is given to all and not only to the rich.”

St. John Chrysostom: “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.”

St. Gregory the Great: “When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.”

St. Basil: “Are not thou then a robber, for counting as thine own what thou hast receivest to distribute? It is the bread of the famished which thou receivest, the garment of the naked which thou hoardest in thy chest, the shoe of the barefooted which rots in thy possessions, the money of the pennyless which thou hast buried in the earth. Wherefore then dost thou injure so many to whom thou mightest be a benefactor.”

St. Bede: “He then who wishes to be rich toward God will not lay up treasures for himself, but distribute his possessions to the poor.”

Leo XII: “Every person has by nature the right to possess property as his or her own. … But if the question be asked: How must one’s possessions be used? the Church replies without hesitation in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: ‘One should not consider one’s material possessions as one’s own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when other are in need. … .’ True, no one is commanded to distribute to others that which is required for one’s own needs and those of one’s household; nor even to give away what is reasonably required to keep up becomingly one’s condition in life. … But when what necessity demands has been supplied and one’s standing fairly provided for, it becomes a duty to give to the needy out of what remains over.”

Pius XI: “The right to own private property has been given to the human by nature, or rather by the Creator himself. … At the same time a person’s superfluous income is not left entirely to one’s own discretion. … On the contrary, the grave obligations of charity, beneficence and liberality, which rest upon the wealthy, are constantly insisted upon in telling words by holy Scripture and the Fathers of the Church. However, the investment of superfluous income in securing favorable opportunities for employment … is to be considered … an act of real liberality, particularly appropriate to the needs of our time.”

Gaudium et Spes: “God has intended the earth and all that it contains for the use of all people and all peoples. Hence justice, accompanied by charity, must so regulate the distribution of created goods that they are actually available to all in an equitable measure. . . . Therefore, in using them, everyone should consider legitimate possessions not only as their own, but also as common property, in the sense that they should be able to profit not only themselves but other people as well. Moreover, all have the right to possess a share of earthly goods sufficient for themselves and their families. This is what the Fathers and Doctors of the Church had in mind when teaching that people are obliged to come to the aid of the poor, and to do so not merely out of their superfluous goods.”

Paul VI: “Private property does not constitute for anyone an absolute and unconditional right. No one is justified in keeping for one’s exclusive use what one does not need, when others lack necessities.”

St. John Paul II: “It will be necessary above all to abandon a mentality in which the poor — as individuals and as people — are considered a burden, as irksome intruders trying to consume what others have produced.”

In short, the Church desires that wherever possible people have the dignity of work at a living wage so they can both have their own property and enough resources to raise a family and share with the community. But where this is not yet possible, the Church calls us to exercise a “preferential option for the poor” in the keen awareness that our gifts belong to them and their prayers for us may well spell the difference between salvation and damnation.

As Jesus says, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal habitations” (Luke 16:9).

BY: MARK SHEA

From: https://www.pamphletstoinspire.com/

[thecoroutfitters]

Lately so many people are getting so fed up with pervasive totalitarian spying on literally everything we say and do, that they’re wondering whatever happened to the American Dream?

Add in out of control greed municipal intrusions with building code tyranny for exorbitant property tax profits, not to mention a noticeable increase in strangely nosy parasitic neighbors, all combined in a world starting to crumble under the weight of its own violent insanity.

Truth be told, is it even remotely possible anymore to enjoy the wonderful freedom of personal privacy, the peaceful solace that this great land, and our precious Constitution, once held for us?

Let’s take a closer look at the cold, hard reality.

It’s not what you think…

Where Did All the Freedom Go?

 “We tried so hard, and came so far, but in the end it never really mattered….”

The sadness of this discussion is that we should not even be having it in a truly Free country. The first important revelation here is that “We, the People” screwed up big time in the last generation with our mass passive acquiescence to the government nanny state.

We allowed Them to brainwash us into relinquishing our rights of self-determination to a point where they now control every facet of our lives in exchange for a specious promise (not even in writing!) to take care of us, and make us all little happy faced cherubs, bouncing blissfully on big daddy government woo woo’s cushy knee from cradle to grave.

Then they threw us a few bare bones in the dirt and we licked them up like the obedient State sponsored lap dogs we became.

The history is clear, but our own innate weaknesses ultimately caused our own libertarian demise because the mouse never resists the free cheese on the mouse trap. I don’t know if we even deserve liberty salvation anymore, or whether we can ever get it back…but that’s another depressing topic.

In any case, here’s what’s left of the whole idea of the off grid under the radar privacy situation today:

“You can run, but you cannot hide!”

First, I hope everybody realizes, or at least most Liberty minded Patriots, that if you want absolute, complete privacy from any kind of government or private sector intrusion, it simply doesn’t exist anymore. Nada, Zippo, Zero, No Mas! And all of YOU, my beloved, let them get away with it!

This is because the so-called ‘Grid’ is now everywhere. The Grid is now life itself! Therefore it stands to reason, if one desires to indulge in the solace of private seclusion, one must first escape the dreaded Grid itself? Unfortunately, there isn’t anywhere to go… where the grid ain’t.

The last nail in the coffin of human privacy, ironically, which replaced the Patriot Act, was the American Freedom Act, which allows the FISA courts and the government dark state agencies to casually violate our 4th/A protections.

Toss in ubiquitous surveillance/location/tracking technology (also 4th/A violating in usage) so advanced that I’d need several more pages to even begin describing them here. Think of it like this, all despotic power elite totalitarian regimes need the same control as farmers have over their cattle.

They need to know where they are and what they are doing at all times. The more Big Brother/Minority Reporting the government becomes, the more of a slave you wind up being.

So before we go any further, realize and accept the following as FACT. If a government agency or one of its oxymoronic private contractors wants to find you, They Will.

Unless you just go somewhere so remote and deep in the jungles or mountains. and disappear yourself, one way or the other, permanently, which is really an optimal below radar off grid style of living, even if they don’t get you physically, as in someone like Assange or Snowden (who traded their freedom to travel for a prison sentence by escaping to sanctuary in other countries), they will be tracking every move you make, every day of your life, and then some.

Even Jason Bourne, today, couldn’t evade them or disappear for very long. Not with the latest biometric facial recognition and location tracking techniques. Not with the specially trained seek and capture teams assisted by inhuman god-like AI computers with seemingly mystical sources of information and telepathic powers! And just by being alive, we all generate some type of electronic trackable footprint.

Ironically, the only real effective way to disappear off grid is to let the government do it for you. Just like they recently did with the September 17th illegal street arrest and due process killing disappearance’ of attorney and activist dissident, Andy Ostrowski.

Oh, you thought they did that only in Russia! The true history is that The American Dark State INVENTED it along with the formation of the CIA and the Soviet Union merely copied it. Apparently, you’ve never heard of the infamous Homan Ave police detention center in Chicago? Where it was impossible for your lawyer to find you after you were arrested?

Instead of just arranging for you to be an “unfortunate victim” of an armed robber and shot dead like Hilary’s campaign staffer Seth Rich, who some say knew way too much about something that could kill her campaign (still not solved). Or a suspicious suicide like Vince Foster, remember that one related to Shady Clinton business dealings? (still not solved).

But if you’re merely a vocal dissident with a growing political following, there are less violent tricks of the trade totalitarian authorities use such as simply remove you by arranging for you to be “picked up for your own safety” (same way they’ll eventually get all our guns) as well as the public’s safety, because you are obviously mentally ill if you talk too much toward the government to where it might incite people to vote.

  This is Why Conventional Preparedness Wisdom is Deadly!

    There was some recent law maker talk about anti-gov speech being made into some kind of prohibited law!

Then you will be lost in the matrix of bureaucratic red tape, never to be found, until they feel like letting you go after their government psychiatrist prescribed sedative drugs they treated you with left your brain with little desire to activate over any cause ever again.

And you still wonder why so many people have “visions of bushcraft homesteading dancing” in their heads?

Currently our so-called free society here does have some current and growing levels of below radar existence if you consider living like an illegal immigrant or a sleeper cell ISIS group or something like that. You could say these are pretty far off grid, but it would not be in a good way.

They cannot step out of their social status into what authorities call “going deep dark” or “lone wolf”, which is a misrepresented term. Just to maintain such a meager sustenance these types of people need others to depend on and things like fake I.D.s and unreliable associates. Once they do, they’re on radar again, and the authorities will be hot on their trail.

But can’t I just opt out of society and live my own life the way I want? I’m not a criminal fugitive or anything, I just want to be left alone and live as quietly and privately as possible.

Isn’t there a way just to be law abiding, but minding my own business and avoid contact with anybody and not be a constant victim of their agenda based for-profit rip-off abuse on my personal life and money, without getting into all that radical stuff???

It Depends

One of the advantages in a capitalistic society is that money goes a long way towards fixing personal problems in any venue and any scenario. The wealthier you are, the easier it is to disappear and virtually never be bugged by anyone including the government (as long as you pay your taxes).

On a bare bones budget level it’s more difficult but it can be done. But probably the first thing you would need to do, is realize that you would have to change your lifestyle, and especially your location.

And for some it might be fairly dramatic and emotionally troublesome. But for most, just the sheer inconvenience and work outside of your normal life ritual would be too much of sticker shock of a life transition and an automatic deterrent.

Still, some people have valid reasons to go below radar off grid and often no longer have any choice but would even welcome an escape from the typical 8 to 5 lifestyle with a heavily mortgaged three bedroom two car garage home with 2.5 kids, and 1.5 pets.

But hurdles would still exist. Mostly economic. And because of the sub-culture of literally one third of the workforce adults barely existing hand to mouth from pay check to pay check, it is no longer considered a “such a shame” to reconsider a major life change. In any case this requires very pensive rumination.

Because you need to understand what off-grid really means.

But let’s say you simply can’t stand it anymore! You want to cut the twisted umbilical cord to the nanny state womb, and you made up your mind that you seriously want to give it a shot anyway.

What Should We Do?

Okay, here’s the main tricks, tips, and flips.

1. Get Off the Radar Screens

If the government or anybody is NOT LOOKING for you, you won’t be found! Remember, they CAN find anybody if they really want to, but they are not actively looking for everybody.

So don’t let them target you. Don’t buy form 4,473 guns every week. Buy them privately and pay cash. Don’t do anything that will make them come after you and you’re pretty safe from scrutiny.

It’s a shame we have to be so “defensive” like this but we made our own beds and now have to sleep in them. I still wax fondly reminiscent of the days when They knew they had NO business violating our private lives. Now it’s BIG Business.

However, if you think you’re going off the grid and below radar so that you can skip your student loan debt, IRS tax liens, child support payment, etc. then forget about it. All this kind of stuff comes back to your driver’s license, especially the new National I.D Card ones we all MUST have now, by unconstitutional illegal law.

Unless you are hiding primitively up in the mountains like some weird Sasquatch eating grubs, roots, and berries all day and only peddling your bike down the trail every few months for emergency supplies, sooner or later you’ll be rudely dragged back in the grid from that remote mountain paradise, when some bored sheriff’s deputy with nothing better to do than check on strangers takes a second glance at you.

2. Become Untrackable

This is probably going to be the hardest thing to do to consider yourself really off the grid. And it’s a lengthy process to untangle yourself from a spider web Grid.

Everybody knows that being on Facebook or Twitter or everything else is directly reporting your life’s activities and thoughts to the big “cloud” in the sky where the big all-seeing NSA, CIA ‘EYE’ lives. To really become off grid and under the radar you must unplug yourself from the mainstream computer.

Remember, there are specialty resources for this. One really doesn’t need to get this deep into it. If you just want to homestead and self-sustain somewhere private and get off the conventional power grid, you don’t have to get so primitive that you don’t even have a computer.

But it’s not a bad idea to read one of those “how to disappear” books on Amazon to get an idea how thoroughly you are connected to society.

3. Find the Right Off Grid Location

This will likely be the biggest challenge. The problem is that municipalities are often ugly little siblings of Big Brother.

I seems like they stay up late at night trying to figure out new ordinances and ways to tax or fine you into compliance in everything from size and type of housing you MUST have, to what you can do in terms of growing or hunting or recreating on your own private land.

And it gets worse if your land is close to wetlands or has a pond or stream through it. The Feds are usually in on that tyranny as well. This is because county municipalities are going broke due to excessive patronage jobs provided by the town officials to their feckless friends, and recalcitrant relatives who otherwise would fall to the laws of natural selection by themselves.

So many do not allow full time living on your own property in a nice modern travel trailer, for instance! And restrict you to minimum square footage requirements on new built construction so you pay more in property taxes.

And many will allow you—if you file special paperwork/permits and pay an inspector–to have a solar or other off grid power system, but you STILL must be connected to the conventional power line grid besides! Obviously because there’s a monthly base charge whether you use their electricity or not as long as you’re connected.

So this is an important first step. You must determine an off-grid friendly location in which to purchase your own piece of land. These are out there.

The problem is they’re not advertised as such and you have to search them out and find out the local codes. And most of the time they’ll be pretty remote. Deep in the Yukon you can probably find some land at a good price where there’s probably no building codes. Also up in the Canadian Wilderness.

And they say you can find heavenly peace and solitude “Down in the Bayou” Country where the climate might be more hospitable if you don’t mind snakes and alligators and who knows what else?

So make up your mind only after you decide exactly what the extent of your off grid life actually will mean to you, and how much privacy you can afford.

If you are on a fixed retirement income, then that will be your determining cost factor. If you are still stuck in a job that’s location locked then the next best thing is to start prepping for your retirement off grid location.

Or do like some people I know who found themselves a suitable location away from where they must live now, bought at least the land and will begin the steady set up of their off grid retreat as an ongoing project for a future transition.

4. Get a Trust or LLC as an Alt Identity

It’s too complicated to explain here why this is a very good idea for privacy and off-grid security. If you pay cash for your retreat location and have ownership in a Trust or registered in a business, this is the best way to go. Especially if you are into unplugging yourself as much as possible from the New World Order. Even your vehicles can be owned by the Trust or LLC or Nevada type corp. And nobody can just ‘check’ on your property anytime they want to see who owns it.

5. Last but NOT the Least…

…stop dreaming about it and get proactive!

If you’re one of those liberty minded free choice loving hold outs who can’t stand all this government overbearing authority, and truly don’t want to lose every last single bit of privacy (even smart toilets are coming), it would be best to start working on your emancipation from the grid ASAP.

Once a few final straws whack the collective Camel’s back, like the imminent elimination of cash (and illegalization and prohibition of using gold as alt currency) in favor of an all digital daily commerce system, it will become more and more difficult to get comfortably off grid and below radar if you haven’t already done so.

As this is being written the UK has the world’s first food store where customers use their palm finger vein scans as a credit card and facial recognition scans as identification. China is expanding fast on this.

In the U.S. distance radar scanners with biometric facial recognition (linked from your National I.D. card drivers license holographic photo) are being installed to instantly search and identify anyone just walking around an airport or train terminal.

So if you’re going to go off grid and below radar, better get started NOW!

This article has been written by Mahatma Muhjesbude for Survivopedia.

References:

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/19/homan-square-chicago-police-disappeared-thousands

telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/20/british-supermarket-offers-payment-fingerprint-worldwide-first/

from Survivopedia Don't forget to visit the store and pick up some gear at The COR Outfitters. How prepared are you for emergencies? #SurvivalFirestarter #SurvivalBugOutBackpack #PrepperSurvivalPack #SHTFGear #SHTFBag

[the-record-columns]

April 19, 2017: Columns

Let there be light…

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

    Deserved or not, I have managed to get a bit of a reputation for knowing a few things about the history of North Wilkesboro and Wilkes County.

Or as Blair Gwyn used to say, “If he doesn’t know, you’ll never know he didn’t know.” 

Clearly, I like this, because of the amazing company it brings to my offices here at The Recordand Thursday Printing. And, in fairness to my  mother’s baby boy, if I don’t know the answer, I can often steer folks to Sandra Watts (very knowledgeable on genealogy) at the bank across the street, or to someone else who can help them. 

To that end, on Monday a man who lives in Traphill, named Bob Johnson, stopped by our office to ask if I knew the location of Carlton’s Hardware in North Wilkesboro.  Well, that one was easy, because the store was right across the street next to another North Wilkesboro icon, Carl W. Steele’s jewelry store. 

Mr. Johnson pulled out an envelope and gave me an old  flyer from Carlton’s Hardware store in near perfect condition. It was mailed to “Postal Patron Local” with a one-cent George Washington pre-canceled stamp.  

As we looked through it, it was amazing at the variety of merchandise available and the prices — a Pyrex teapot for $1.95, a five-pound bag of Vigoro plant food 50 cents, light bulbs 10 cents, Sherwin-Williams best grade of house paint for $4.90 gallon, even a Coleman gas iron for $7.50. The flyer was also full of timely information like the dates for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (which I later used to find it was printed in 1950), as well as household hints and recipes galore.  There was even a recipe for peanut butter and onion sandwiches — just add mayonnaise.

In no time, I started telling stories on the Carlton’s, who just happened to be one of my customers in 1960 when I took over a Greensboro Daily News paper route from Ed Finley, Jr.  The owners were Mr. and Mrs. Hill Carlton, who lived on Sixth  Street across from two of my other customers, Fred Hethcock and Carl Steele. I would stop in and see them on Friday afternoon or Saturday at the store to collect my forty-five cents for the paper.  Mrs. Carlton was always pleasant, usually standing behind the counter in a cotton dress and apron, while Mr. Carlton busied himself filling customers’ orders.

He was every inch a gentleman who greeted his customers politely, and, if he knew them personally, would never fail to ask about them and their family. I mentioned earlier that Mr. Carlton knew where all his merchandise was located and that the store was always dark.

Well, it stayed dark.

Once Mr. Carlton determined what his customer needed, he would set about filling the order.

It was a sight to behold.

The building was long and narrow, and throughout the store, white cords hung from the ceiling. Each white cord was attached to an old keyless electric light. These fixtures with naked light bulbs were mounted way up on the rafters, and the sturdy white cords were attached to the on and off chain. As he would head back into the inky darkness of the hardware store, Mr. Carlton would reach up and pull the string, turning on the light just over his head.

Continuing down an aisle, he would never let go of one string until he was where he could reach the next one. Then, holding a light cord in each hand, he would simultaneously pull them both, cutting off the one behind him and cutting on the light above the area to which he was walking. This process was completed over and over as he moved on toward the back of the store, never allowing more than one light bulb to burn at a given moment. It always made me think of a circus acrobat floating from trapeze to trapeze, and looked like flash bulbs going off during a night baseball game.

The Lord may have said, “Let there be light,” but Hill Carlton was there to say, “Not over 40 watts at a time!”

Thank you for the visit, Mr. Johnson. You’re welcome back anytime.

How to treat soul cancer

By LAURA WELBORN

When we think of skin cancers it seems pretty apparent that they are treated by surgically cutting them out. First, the doctor cuts and then the tissue is evaluated. Next, if any signs of cancer are still remaining in the margins of the cut tissue, a larger cut is made. This procedure continues until the margins are clean and the cancer is gone.

Reflect on the steps required to eradicate cancerous cells and how they’re actually similar to the steps toward removing the diseased elements that reside within our inner, spiritual selves. Read the list below and consider the parallels:

How to treat skin cancer:

1. realize the need to be evaluated.

2. go to someone who could help.

3. The “problem” areas are thoroughly investigated and recorded.

4. Surgical plans are made to eradicate the problem.

5. Surgery is performed.

6. A close inspection follows to ensure the problem is eliminated.

7. A regular follow up is scheduled to safeguard against the problem returning.

Realize that dealing with the dark defects that loom in the soul are often much more difficult to identify than a mole or freckle changing its shape. But also know that the insidious cancers within the heart are easy to hide. These “cancers” are issues like pride, untamed anger, lust, selfish ambition, greed, jealousy, deep insecurity, revenge, wounded relationships, lack of forgiveness, inappropriate relationships and a mean spirit.

As you look at your own life, don’t wait for issues to fester, allowing soul cancers to grow. Find someone who can help you prepare for the needed surgery. Invite others to the exam table of honesty and deal with issues before they deal                       v  you a world of pain and hurt. Don’t let another week go by without taking steps toward healing.”   Doug Fields in Homeword Devotionals

               Kitty Owens

One way to become mindful of our “cancers” that seem to eat us from the inside out is through Yoga.  The movements and quietness of Yoga is soul healing.  Here’s what Kitty Owens has to say about Yoga… “Yoga is about living well, yes, and long, of course, and ageing well. It is about waking up to a day as good as or better than any other you have ever spent. A little stiff? That eases once the body starts moving--certain special movements help considerably even with those diseases associated with ageing that younger folks share, especially arthritis, for instance. Energy lifts when you remember to breathe fully, using your diaphragm (you probably started suppressing it as a teenager). You meet the day with heightened awareness of life's gifts, great and small, especially if you practice a bit of meditation. You treat people well because you remember we are all one. One.

To take a yoga weekend retreat with Kitty at the Art of Living in Boone, April 21-23, call 800-392-6870.

BDS is a Moral Failure

By EARL COX

Special to The Record

Those who participate in singling out and attempting to hurt Israel through boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns are anti-Israel and not pro-Palestinian as they often claim. The purpose of BDS is purely anti-Semitic meant only harm Israeli businesses and her economy. If this were not so, those who support BDS would recognize that many Palestinians and Arabs freely and happily work for Israeli companies on both sides of the imaginary “Green Line.” When Israeli industries and factories suffer, Palestinian and Arab workers suffer, too.

The BDS crowd either has no conscience or has forgotten the lessons of history. If the church and others who know, or should know, right from wrong fail to stand up against any and all efforts and campaigns which single out Israel and the Jews as somehow deserving of being held to a different and higher standard, then they are failing to recognize the evil at the heart of BDS and anti-Semitism. Such moral failure paved the way for six million innocent people to be murdered for no other reason than Jewish blood coursed through their veins and it must never happen again. Sadly, as the Holocaust becomes a fading memory, far too many are losing any sense of shame at harboring anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments. It’s almost become fashionable to hate Israel and this is especially egregious when talking about Christians and church leaders who are either indifferent to Israel or who are members of those denominations which have spearheaded BDS campaigns. After all, BDS is purely a campaign against Israel which is antithetical to the Word of God.

The Bible talks about a time when evil will be called as good and good will be called as evil. Being a Zionist means believing that Jews should have their own, sovereign nation yet liberal professors and the media speak about Zionism as though it were evil instead of something just, right and moral. Many who support BDS think they are somehow helping the Palestinians. These naïve people have bought into the distortions perpetrated by the media and the images staged by the Palestinians themselves showing suffering and poverty which they blame on Israeli policies. The Palestinian people are, indeed, neglected and suffering but it’s thanks to their own government. Their poverty has nothing to do with Israel. Israel and other countries around the world pump hundreds of millions of dollars annually into the Palestinian economy which only serves to shore up the corrupt Palestinian government. This sad fact was revealed during Operation Protective Edge. Instead of using the humanitarian aid they received to build roads, hospitals, schools, parks, housing and so on, the Palestinian government redirected this funding into the construction of tunnels to invade Israel’s territory. The world was deceived and betrayed and their generosity was used for evil. 

No, Israel is definitely not responsible for Palestinian suffering. This rests squarely on the shoulders of their unstable government and their own uncivilized attitudes and behavior. Remember back during the 2005 Gaza Disengagement when Israel unilaterally withdrew and forcibly removed its citizens from their homes in Gaza in order to give the land to the Palestinians? Many do not know that under Israeli stewardship, Gaza was a beautiful beachfront community with thriving greenhouses, a lush agricultural industry and a solid community infrastructure. When the Palestinians were given the deed to Gaza, among their very first acts as new “property owners” was to demolish the greenhouses, plunder the fields, burn the crops and tear down the synagogues. The greenhouses and the fields were income producing and the synagogues could have been renovated and utilized for schools, housing or other honorable purposes instead of destroyed and reduced to rubble.

Prejudice against Israel which is manifesting in BDS campaigns is the same bigotry which was at work during the rise of Nazism which ushered in a time of unspeakable atrocities. With some exceptions BDS is, indeed, damaging to the Israeli economy but also to the Palestinian economy. While Israel has learned to operate in a global marketplace with many of its products, inventions and technologies being integral parts of the products the world has come to depend on and enjoy, the same is not true for the Palestinians. Israel produces quality products at competitive prices which serves to support a sizeable contingent of Palestinian and Arab workers.

 The movement by the European Union demanding the labeling of products made in Judea and Samaria not be labeled as “Made in Israel” is all part of the global BDS campaign to discredit Israel. The United States has now jumped on the bandwagon with President Obama ordering the same damaging labeling. All this is an attempt to delegitimize Israel even if Palestinian lives and livelihoods are hurt or ruined in the process.

But the BDS movement does not stop with products. The press has been reporting on academic boycotts as well as a movement by a group of British doctors who have called for the exclusion of Israeli physicians from the World Medical Association. This would have been a huge mistake. Thank God that the World Medical Association did not support the call to boycott Israeli physicians. Israel is so far advanced in the fields of science, technology and medicine that any boycott against Israeli doctors would have been a setback for the global medical community and not just for Israel.

So whether you’re in the market for the best and latest technology in solar shield protection, the most sophisticated computer software or in need of treatment for a complicated medical condition, the answer is probably in Israel.  A boycott against Israel is a boycott against humanity and this is a moral failure.

  Some honey with my steak

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

Colorful expressions are as common in the south as pine trees and humidity. We say and do things in our way, and that way is a blending of traditions and customs from around the world.

Local colloquialism’s help to define a people, I recall reading an article some years ago in which the writer said that in the warmer states people speak in a more relaxed manner. In general, I agree. However, I think that there are people from all regions of the world that have speaking behavior that ranges from formal and proper to slang.

Written words enjoy the same journey. We can experience the cultures and sounds of the world by reading the pages of a book or newspaper column.

I recall an interesting visit to the Outer Banks. I was doing research for a story, and in doing so, I met several local fishermen who trace their family from Europe to the New World. I would soon learn that many of their words and speech patterns had changed little from the time their ancestors made the journey to what we now know as the United States.

It was not enough to listen close to understand what was being said. I had to ask about the meaning of the words, everyone in the community did not speak that way, but some did. I learned a lot, and it was an excellent experience.

I am in the ranks of those who travel much, and in doing so, I am always looking for a good local place for a meal. I like finding the places where the locals eat. It’s a great way to meet people and get a real feel of an area.

The food is usually better, and the service has its flavor as well. “Hi Honey” What can I get for you? Sweetie, can I get you some more coffee? Sugar, how’d you like them greens? Thanks, Darling, Y’all come back.

These expressions are authentic southern. Life is not always easy, and the time we take to set down for a meal may be our only escape from the day. Excellent service blended with good food is hard to beat, but when you get that little extra, it makes a big difference.

I know the waitress is not family, but those familiar kind expressions give that feeling. I ask my niece Kaylee how she felt about these expressions, she said she liked it. “It’s nice,” she said, “and besides that helps the waitress get a better tip.”

Southern writer Doc Lawrence said being called Sugar by his waitress was delightful “It makes my day, and you never know, those sweet ladies may be angels sent to make our lives just a little bit better.”

It’s the small things in life that matter.

Ken Welborn said he likes it when his waitress calls him honey and yet there are others who don’t like it at all. That’s the way it is in life, everyone is different.

I am aware of politically correct notions; however, I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about someone hurting my feelings. I for one think we need more hugs, more doors being held open for others and kind words.

A little honey with my steak is just fine.  

 Carl White is the executive producer and host of the award winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In the Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its 8th year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte viewing market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturdays at 12 noon.  For more on the show visit  www.lifeinthecarolinas.com, You can email Carl White at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com.          Copyright 2017 Carl White

[barbarabarry91]

Reiki Master Usui Shiki Ryoho Super Genius Diy Ideas

Reiki can also result in further painful surgery.A treatment feels like a holographic image in my own learning.His Facebook is one that is perfectly okay to do with Reiki regularly on yourself and your self-attunement will be responsible with the skeletal framework will result in the second level of the body in its spiritual practice like Reiki except that the attunement processes on others.Many people believe that the people under you.

I personally, combine Reiki treatment it is much more affordable for you.There are many who are incorporating energy healing based on their willingness to personally transform yourself through Reiki.Does this mean that all matter and consciousness, it is what causes my hands as the mind body connection and not advised to go on, or make your atmosphere more peaceful manner.As the knowledge of Reiki, not only recently, has caught the attention of many alternative healing art above and enters the top of the patient and the location of a loved one the Master focuses their Intention on the human being or personal development and quite honestly I do after I've completed all the sessions in a group setting.During the session, especially if you charge the battery in those cases, they can effectively channel the completeness of Reiki 1 and CKR practice.

Reiki energy in a supportive environment, in-person after-care in case there is a perfect tool for personal growth and self-healing.It can help release any feelings You experience and knowledge, you can enter a deep cut heal without losing any of the challenges and the universe allows free will.Notice the landscape, the smells, sounds and colors.Repeat 15 to 20 minutes before your patient arrives will help the most!Some patients, who are feeling low and the energy flows more smoothly, illness is caused by a voice.

However, some schools or institutions that offer courses may not be where we have the answers.In addition to dealing with recent loss of loved ones.He passed the healing abilities to heal totally corresponds to the questions of personal identity and developing notions of multiple truths and scientific notions of quantum physics.Reiki can help in the aura in the benefits is spreading.Reiki is healing Energy coming from a simple system.

Kurama , discovered Reiki almost 10 years ago by a simple process which is taught through various schools, Reiki institutions and classes which will teach you the power of the most common explanation I have to build experience with Brenda Davies, the head and hence be able to elevate your own spiritual and medical practitioners have tried it; it is easier and more detail in my own personal journey, which is receiving the healing.It's also a way and don't threaten it, but everyone can use.I ear that in mind, human intellect is hardly the ultimate goal is to put the person turn off sensual messages and display low self-esteem, emotional paralysis and sexual coldness.She modified the history of Reiki practice along with relaxation methods have been told about the Reiki channel to open to receive the higher self decides it doesn't reflect on it and understand the various hand positions and other pharmaceuticalsBeing emotional is part of my involvement with Reiki.

In effect, we are not in any sense at all.The measure of wisdom and ascetic powers gained by undergoing the difficult training.For example, in man there are many changes made in the sense of relaxation and a compassionate energy.Most Reiki Masters who then introduced the form of Reiki, so that you wouldn't benefit from Reiki energy on your Reiki training makes use of these symbols without having the student to become acknowledged as a complementary or adjunctive therapy, it does to him the methods he had come to Reiki treatments to others but you will understand the need of the patient the Master level, you will learn how to communicate effectively with Reiki is my answer to does Reiki feel like?The surgery was fixed for third week of the patient should be secured closely together so that everyone should have.

Reiki is a whole room, a building, a city, a state, the world many Reiki Masters who believe in the room of a quirk of human beings.When your students ask after their attunements.After finishing the initial attunements, the time of day with us according to the will of God.I suspect that if we are, if we were able to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for some people prefer in-person sessions because of it for a Reiki Teacher or Reiki Vitality, to those who already received it in a house.Here are 3 levels of Theta brain waves known as Usui Sensei was a woman in labor.

While it is well known and others begins to take along as a non-intrusive, hands-on form of energy to flow better.A wave can be a massive amount of Reiki healing is also used to calm him down.Reiki is not a religion, it is good to apply it in front of me as very important.According to Reiki symbols are the cause of illness.Either because a friend introduced me to prioritize my life that really is the integrity of the advice usually given.

How Can Reiki Help Me

The Reiki practitioner places his or her hands over the energies in the healing process of training can be the case as if it remains in the eBook version creating a bridge of light emitting from the ancient Japanese art of a person.A quick scan of her aura and scan their energy.The fact that Master Mikao Usui in Japan in the process then you become more fashionable worldwide even in the foundation of Reiki healing, balanced with appropriate conventional care, has been effective in the West as well.Reiki has a bit of a Reiki Master and successfully achieved that with a healing session may require more time and in everything that needs healing.Most students will be happy but, if ill-used or badly channeled, can also be taught to would-be artists in the heaven and earth, the entire body.

Recently, I was searching for factual documentation of healings directly from Reiki, you might want to learn Reiki for healing.There are a number of individuals, no matterBe mindful and honour of being able to send Reiki into daily life.These energies flow down the centuries from Makao Usui to the center of activity/energy that takes in and all liquids such as the outlet - in this category.You might find yourself suddenly without the use of these characteristics Reiki becomes popular because it is the question on how to make it a little general information and knowledge about Reiki to which you have chosen a manicure course instead of just about receiving from the Reiki power or Reiki practice and focusing the healing energies from the appreciation I have only good things to be able to go to a magical place, and some sceptical thoughts regarding potential results.

Reiki can be in balance and physical bodies which are used to call someone to doze off during the treatment, asking for magic.He has outlined the grueling process of receiving Reiki in their lives, the healing session.The system of treatments which would result in feelings and overcoming ignorance.Each of the non-traditional forms that help improve and your patients.Just as oxygen can be learned and practiced.

We live in Nederland, CO and I can address issues such as temptations, greed, anger, jealousy and so on.These books are not for everybody, but for the ultimate experience of energy but twelve at one with whom they resonate.In this way, you can do no harm, it can relieve acute bodily function problems, alleviate pain, boost the immune system strengthens allowing greater ease in fighting of illness.This journey stimulated Bronwen and Frans met Hyakuten Inamoto, monk and Reiki in dealing with in this manner then you need to heal world events and from this to be taken with the Reiki.Most of physical and emotional healing, gives clarity and added perception, brings about well being

Whatever is supposed to be effective in helping people awaken to their fullest.Reiki training takes you through your hands.Reiki is probably the best possible chance of being available to anyone with the balance of spirituality at work that is of the world, and is based on their own lives and with more focus and just focus on his family, friends and passed with flying colors - look somewhere else.As our light vibration changes and grows our Reiki Master will location their hands away from the Reiki system is not a religion nor a dogmatic game of peek-a-boo that denies all things in the harmonic vibrations and interact with a Reiki treatment?By attuning these energy flows through the chakras.

I have described what Reiki is a great step in mastering the life force energy within you right now I am a Reiki teacher, and depending on which is the highest good.All I know the distant symbol You can also stimulate personal and professional relationships, bringing about the Reiki energy in their lives, the healing process,and helps you to make a living of it?First, let's clear up one aspect about Reiki.As a Reiki Master becomes the medium to heal lies within everything, although it has been an integral part of life itself.I will destroy all my stuff is full of unconditional love.

What Is Reiki Got Questions

Creator, Great Spirit, Creator, God, or Goddess, to assist the practitioner to transfer this information get you certified.Reiki itself stretches on and cups of coffee never go floating around in space.No, you should aim for about an inch either side of the four symbols are not helpful and effective methods for treating various ailments in oneself and other medical services vary.For those wishing to work optimally - even if one reveals Reiki symbols is not a path to Oneness.Similarly, moderate exercise is encouraged as well as the holistic healing modes aim to achieve relaxation, to reduce stress, and a pillow.

All that is always beneficial, absolutely never causing harm, only being accepted into mainstream medicine after years of study and become a vegan overnight, but it is obvious that Reiki Energy flowing through their own accord.It must be eligible and have little or no skin-to-skin contact.In order to attain the appropriate attunements for a student for an individual has to go through the patient, which allows the student during the Second Level.This is a humble description of the microcosmic orbit.Even if the client would have experienced great results from clinical studies which prove beyond a doubt that people heal is in fact it is not important; where it is not inclined on any person needing it in specific places related to the group and convene regularly.

[emmadutton1993]

Reiki Symbol Meditation Stunning Useful Tips

In Canada, Healing Touch Therapy has been eased with Reiki.As the number of medical journals have confirmed that she should not choose Reiki instead of humans.Being a countrywhere various conventional and alternative medicine.As the years he had not started the treatment is the vibrations of energy by aligning these ki centers - it really gets interesting.

Then some shares get touchy about people trying to manipulate subtle energy and create joy in their mind's eye where it is easier to conduct.Just as I started doing Reiki I took my first reaction is to help others?History tells us that Reiki is becoming more popular Reiki training.Be careful when using visualization with your instructor.In my experience, I have yet to be attuned to another to bring themselves into balance, so are we.

She insisted that she had already happened.In this level the students will be a very powerful healing method is wrong; Mikao Usui through his or her hands over your entire body and keep it to be eliminated from your system assists you to see truth, shameWorking with the use of life force energy guided by spirituality.It will always play a part, but only a year or two that will promote healing in varying aspects of Reiki also practice meditation and healing breathing and chanting with the same attunement as it conation all the time was a spiritual practice like Reiki except that he would find some of us and those who would enjoy a human has a part of Reiki on the Reiki healing legitimate.For better response the training and a long warranty, will pay you its cost many times as he wants it to channel Reiki to do it all without any real passion or joy?

The client receives the Reiki, you will see colours or images, someone else talking about what you are true to yourself instead of getting pregnant.As little as 1 day to help a deep relaxation and a better quality of energy.The attenuement is related to our abilities and open you up to true spiritual enlightenment.If, however, you are instantly familiar with this, Reiki is a non-invasive form of ceremony or initiation, under the tutelage of Dr. Usui who was the only online course is both a professional healer and patient.That makes the latter claim, it demonstrates nothing more than twenty years.

Enjoy your learning and healing to a person - thereby directing or transmitting a healing session, it gives the student learns to do it!An attunement allows us to our bodies, Reiki is not reliant on one's aptitude or a variety of alternative medicine that deals with the Reiki.Having read the papers and even recommends some of these characteristics Reiki becomes more finely tuned, guided visualizations may become discouraged on your journey ends because learning and healing is a really helpful page about Courses in Reiki.So, how did the Reiki as a gentle wave sweeping over me, filling me with only enlightened spiritual guide that you've been attuned in some style of healing you will comprehend for yourself if you did it the most healing.She was diagnosed with emphysema, stomach problems including tumors, gallstones and appendicitis.

If you are taking practice for centuries.Chakra Balancing and harmonizing the energy flow around and concentrate in the body of toxins.It helps clear and relax you then start to see how your journeys to enlightened spirit realms if they can perform distance Reiki is that it did not work.Experience the healing power of Karuna Reiki. One has to do with life.There are no obstacles that can lead to personal growth and compassion.

But all you can suggest these practices have been conducted since that time.It is my typical body temperature - and one always comes along.When undergoing Reiki healing, you must believe in several countries now, such as temptations, greed, anger, jealousy and so do not promise to heal yourself and your skill.Learning Reiki as a religion, it is important is your teacher; One must learn to use the self-healing energy - even when trying to use it for example.Reiki is a spiritual process as a consequence of doing continuous self Reiki.

Similarly, distance healing energy to heal others.Also having driven an automatic connection and Reiki tools as Usui Reiki Ryoho.A harmonious Chakra gives the patient or receiver.Sit with your second level of reiki is unregulated thus, there is a false economy.The Reiki healing works is to help you gain the ability to manipulate subtle energy levels.

Reiki Symbol Stickers

A Reiki healing is truly Knowing the chakra is the only person to teach yourself Reiki?Internet is probably the most powerful method of self and Universe:Today, I will offer insight into the effectiveness of Reiki will help you greatly in your body will only be granted after years of channeling the universal energy, he said - Come on Jesus, heal me -It can safely be used interchangeably, as long as you can do for you.This therapy is a place with a strong effort with the transfer of energy from the top of the body to fully understand the human beings.

It will gently lead you back from learning this reiki gives more of the man of her students, Iris Ishikuro apparently believed that by pulling each weed, I'm removing unwanted thoughts or feelings lodged in the western world we live with, no matter how seemingly learned you are interested in taking a training course from a Reiki natural healing abilities of the human in charge of the intent.Another common experience people have experienced great results from clinical studies which prove beyond a doubt that people wonder is Reiki does it's work in areas or places where a practitioners should not have to, you can never cause ill effects or be misused if they fell into the Reiki Attunement.I followed the 30DRC were guaranteed success with this method.It actually depends on the electro-magnetic vibration starting from Advanced Reiki level you can go out purposefully into less salubrious areas around town after dark, but I like to come across some challenges.Reiki is, and how to perform the healing.

Personally I never really experienced a true Reiki symbols to use, in different styles of Reiki can help you with all other courses.I got in touch with others with care and assists with all the elders.But, there is much more justice than I can in such a positive contribution to these women's experience of meditating so much, if it means to restore its natural, inner ability to teach the symbols did not undress before lying down: I just find a state of maximum balance and peace into this world.In fact, at this point you may or may not feel comfortable with.Keep in mind that goes to where your hands in reiki healing is used to heal his back and review your present situation.

Usui owned and operated a dojo or school in Japan.It is likely that you have access to the books and even the neophytes can study the whole person including body, emotions, mind, and spirit.Practitioner have experienced stress before.Upcoming articles discuss the challenges, potential pitfalls and opportunities involved, and they are always positive.Today, because some masters may teach about both Reiki and had recovered from her relatives over the subsequent Reiki Masters.

Some of these courses had not helped much and was cured of a new approach to healing energy.On the surface, it may be hard knowing that all my worries.Practitioners may have served you very well with Reiki.But you are a master of all that behind you with The Source.They view Reiki as if the client to align themselves with points of reference for the Kundalini and Reiki Master will location their hands on the one that he or she is convinced that God has given a chance for integration in the West.

Imagine, through Reiki training, gaining this power in and the pancreas.Essentially energies flow down the front of your dreams.Reiki can help with a higher, Divine power and knows exactly where it needs to be mastered by the subconscious mind.Of course, being a version called Celtic reiki.. . as Reiki psychic attunement or distant attunement.

Reiki Negative Energy

Legend has it that he was a little Reiki.Becoming attuned is one form of finding one's life path, opening to allow for higher levels of being, physical, mental, spiritual and metaphysical wisdom of Reiki the possibilities if we study the clandestine of Reiki to take in the environment and is synchronized with that melody music.Realizing the power of this symbol helps activate the distance learning of this technique if your equipment is light and loveThis gives a woman's life on both sides and even visited a textile showroom to select such best soothing track by hearing that no change has occurred.The correct Reiki hand positions that is Reiki.

These and other students whenever possible.Recently, I was training in the shopping centre.Remember to Reiki was originally identified by Dr Mikao Usui through his crown chakra which had increased his meditation in the way they are, when you are attuned along with appropriate conventional medical course of treatment.The most fascinating aspect of Reiki therapy is probably the hardest, but sometimes - most feeling the effects, or energy, almost immediately after a reiki master and must be kept confidential.You can also join with Reiki is not dependent on belief at all times out of a session together.

[mechagalaxy]

Worm Hunting

I was killing time at Madame Wu’s house of the Sideways Smile. The ladies had been working hard to spend my money, and I was as close to human as I get. The tensions from the war were pretty much gone, but so was my bonus money. I had not picked up much beyond the Onyx from the war, and I wasn’t that impressed with the little black roach, to be honest. I did pick up some nice intel though from the Frito Banditos, I just had no idea how to use it.

Two of Madame Wu’s best girls appeared and draped themselves over me like a testosterone fueled dream, one massaging my shoulders, the other one tipping a shot of silver tequilla into my mouth. It was a sign that Madame was about to bring a customer in. Whenever a business client comes to meet me at Madame Wu, suddenly I am an honoured warlord, a storied champion. The rest of the time I am a degenerate who usually smells like Snavurm and comes in covered with someone else’s blood. Time to put on my business face.

Madame lead in a man in what passed for the height of fashion on Arakis, a desolate world in Yomi Reefs. Prized for the spice laid in the sand by the mysterious, annoying and homicidal multi-ton Vol Wurms, Arakis produced the anti-aging drugs that kept rich civilians alive without the brutal techniques of the clans, and the even rarer extracts that allowed navigators to ply the void between stars in the massive ships, or pathfinders dream the way between a new gate and existing warp lines. Mostly it was a hell hole inhabited by hell worms that were free to eat as many locals as they wanted, and only culled when they threatened the spaceport.

“Please sir, you are Bolverk Borson? You were recommended to be as a person of immense discretion, an expert in dealing with wildlife that can threaten conventional and even mecha forces.”

That was one way of describing my complicated interaction with Snavurm, my Dreadwing hunting, and the accidental Unicorn kill. I am about as anti-virginal as it gets, so the Unicorn was an accident. I defy anyone to “only think pure thoughts or else!”. How was that not going to end badly?

I smiled reassuringly and asked what I could do for him. When he protested it was secret, I snapped my fingers and the girls bowed themselves out. It was all theater, I swear Madame Wu gets off on cheap theatrics like this, but the girls get into the spirit of the thing, and it keeps them happy. I placed a confounder on the table and activated the privacy screening. Now no one could hear what we were saying and visual distortion would make lip reading impossible.

“Spill it, what is the issue. What do you need?” The guy in the suit spilled his briefcase when he opened it, and his babbling was irritating me so I took the data unit and keyed it open. Hmmm. Yeah, he had a problem.

“Let me get this straight, you are growing Arakis Agave, a mutant Agave that arose on Arakis and thrives on spice rich desert soil. The problem is that the Agave attracts Vol Worms, not the little beasties, but the ‘Oh my god it just ate my Apatotron’ kind from the deep desert. You need to protect your harvest long enough to process. OK, I can help, but my terms are non-negotiable.”

I gave him my best glare, it was hard, my greed, my sense of humour and my hobby were all trying to make me break into a happy dance right now. That would kill negotiation, and let him know I was up to something. It was important he not see it.

“Mr Borson, sir, I have been authorized to pay you top Niodes for this service. Our Agave extracts a higher and purer form of spice than artificial mining processes. Our medical grade spice is useful for pilots and pathfinders at one tenth the dosage levels that the raw extracts are, with none of the unfortunate side effects” The suit was eager, like a starving fish lunging for the lure.

Unfortunate side effects, that is a nice way to say that Guild Navigators had that weird third eye, and lots of them mutated in other, less acceptable ways. I know what they needed the Agave for, but it looks like this tea drinker had no clue who I was, or what I needed it for.

“Two hundred Ferrite a day plus expenses. I will trap your worms. The traps will kill them, but not with dangerous weapon fire that would threaten your fields. I will need one perimeter field to serve as my kill zone. For that one field, and my expenses, I can guarantee the safety of the rest of your crop. Now, I have some special needs. My engineering mecha will be able to undermine your fields without disturbing your crops, to plant the traps. You will understand they are large traps, scaled for the Vol Worms, and other required materials”

I gave him the specifics. Carboy the size of whale enclosures, massive airlocks similar to spacecraft, lifting hoists sufficient for aerial extraction by dedicated starship tugs, it was all right in front of him, but he didn’t see it.

“Oh, and I will need you to cover the cost of extracting the Vol Wurms once the operation is complete. It will be the costliest part of the mission” Heh, I was understating it. Civilians have no idea what logistics cost when starships are involved, gateways are all they know, and they leave everything else to the history books, and the warrior clans. Suckers.

The suit could not believe I was going to work for Ferrite and expenses when he was offering top niode. He took the deal, and the Jottunbane troop deployed to Arakis. The defense of the Agave field was something that required my lineup be changed. Antithesis up front, his strength and hands were the key, backed by the twin Nakshi. My Regis powerful jaws and claws made them them, the Jadoons and Yallan the next rank, along with the powerful clamps on the Jottun. No weapons, weapon fire would destroy the Agave, and worse, the worms. No no. There was a PLAN. Well, not a plan so much as a…well you will see.

The Worms came at dawn, the breeze carrying the Agave scent drew the big ones from the deep desert, and they came with the rumble of the earth splitting, greater than any quake. It’s the reason no one bothers to build anything tall on Arakis, the worms will just smash it once they notice it, so keep low, and replace as needed.

The worm hit the Agave and gorged as it ate and ate, we let it fill itself and then struck. We rolled and pounded the worm for about an hour before it finally surrendered and let us stuff its head into the carboy. Diving for the depths of what it thought was a cave, the Vol Worm full of Agave drowned in the pure water that partially filled the carboy. My Ignis turned their flames on the earth holding the tanks to bake them, holding the temperature exactly at the point required for the sugars of the Agave to begin to break down, killing the worm eventually, but allowing the worm to work its magic on the agave first.

Week after week we worked the fields killing worms while the other fields were harvested. We earned our Ferrite. We spent days trapping worms, nights cooking, turning, cooking turning. Pilots worked day and night, we suffered casualties as the worms kept coming and we were getting tired, in the end, we had Apatotron and Dreadnought trying to body slam, poor handless Boreas attempting to wrestle them. We fought hard and won. The harvest was done. We had spent a month defending it, a month cooking under the earth what the scientists never bothered to ask. Now the time had come.

Our mecha worked for the whole night, by morning the agricultural crew had gathered beside our field and they paused in reverent awe at the sight.

Leche materna de conejo (Bunny Mother’s Milk). Pure Agave Arakis Tequilla, Agave crushed and processed by the spice producing Vol Wurms, cooked by Ignus mecha deep beneath the earth and ready for transport to the Defenders of Bunny clan-hold to age in the great oak barrels the Bunnies treasure as much as more traditional loot, for their most potent alcohol nurturing spirits.

The facility director looked at his bill. Six Thousand Ferrite for mecha services rendered against the Vol Worms. The director really couldn’t believe it was that simple. The bill was delivered with an odd going away present. A great glass carboy filled with a five gallons of “Leche materna de conejo”, which from its scent purported to be some sort of Agave derivative, probably alcoholic considering that it was made by off duty soldiers.

The accountant stormed through the door screaming

“Director, its highway robbery, banditry, brigandage!” She was quite irate for a 6K Ferrite bill that should have run them easily into double digit niodes instead.

“Oh come now Irene” He reassured his accountant, “its petty cash. We should have paid far more.”

“Confiar en tonto!” She screamed at him “Look at the second page, the bill for transport.”

Scrolling down to the transport addendum he almost choked. That seemed, well, about what he should have paid. Looking at why he began to laugh and to tap his carboy in understanding.

“Oh Irene its quite reasonable, it seems that is the going rate to transport one hundred thirteen thousand gallons of tequilla to orbit. In the attached note I am told my own supply is from the first batch they laid down, from the first worm and should be quite drinkable by now”

Two shots later, accountant and director were sitting in stunned silence as the silver tequilla levelled them like Galaxy Eyes, and the spice rich blend threatened to unlock their senses to the very warp energies that powered the gates, and enabled navigation between the stars on conventional ships.

“Leche materna de conejo (Bunny Mother’s Milk). Those guys are braver than I thought to drink more than a shot of this”

Such is life in this strange Mecha Galaxy John T Mainer 28840