Today was a frustrating day! I have several projects going on here at the house, and I have materials to do a number of things. The problem is I need dry weather. Yesterday was the first day of summer in Brasil. Oddly, that means rainy season! So that is one frustration. I am also very frustrated with the way things have been in the U.S. politically. "Fiscal Cliff," Gun Control, many things get under my skin. It seems no one can agree to solutions for anything! At one point today I was ready to release a tyrade on Facebook. I had seen a number of statements that made my blood boil. As I began to type, my laptop was giving me more grief than usual. You see, about a year ago, I left it on my veranda and it started to rain. the roof of our veranda leaks in a few places and my laptop was right under one of those. The Touch pad and keyboard haven't been the same. After making numerous corrections due to a combination of my poor typing and a keyboard that keeps doing random "stuff" my page dissappeared! Then after I started over it did it again! Needless to say, my facebook "friends" were spared my ranting.
After I calmed down some, I happened to pick up a book by Former Prophet and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley. The book is "Stand a Little Taller" a book with 365 daily thoughts of counsel and inspiration. I randomly opened to a page and found this: "Charity is a Virtue Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfection - Colossians 3:14. Charity for others, seeing and reaching beyond our own wants and comforts, cultivating kindness and gentility towards others from all of life's situations and circumstances - these are of the essence of civility, a virtue to be admired, a virtue to be aquired."
I have written about this before. In fact,Charity is probably my favorite subject, so seeing this at this time made me stop and think about my own attitudes lately and gave me inspiration to return to my blog. I had a number of things to say about the state of America, that I may throw out for thoughts at another time, but today I feel we need to be reminded of this.
I would like to reiterate the idea that if we want to change the world we MUST start with ourselves. This will hopefully extend to our families and friends and then to others and eventually, maybe even our enemies. Charity works like that. Pure love has a power that is contageous. It reaches out and fills our souls. I saw a video the other day with people doing small acts of kindness. Not only did it effect the recipients of the kindness, but others observing these acts were inspired to do similar acts and it went forward. Wouldn't we all like to live in a world where this is the norm, and not the exception? It starts with me.
I know I have need to repent and I hope others who are inclined to read this will feel the same way. I fall short often. but I am striving to love all of mankind. This, I believe, is a noble and worthy goal. and I would challenge all of us to consider it.
Just a question for any who happen to read my ramblings. Even though I have taken up residence in Brasil, I love the good ole USofA and have a lot of thoughts about it. I am thinking of writing some of those here. Do you think it would be better to start another blog for this purpose? Comment please.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
I'm baaaack
Many circumstances in the last year or more have kept me from writing. Not to mention I am the worlds worst (best?) procrastinator.
Today I feel like getting away from the original intent of this blog. I hope those who followed me in the past don't mind. I have some thoughts on politics and religion I feel like getting off my chest.
I have watched with anxiety and aticipation the major parties' conventions the last two weeks. As I watched the president's speech at the end of the Democrats' convention it dawned on me that both parties are saying almost the same things (with the exception of abortion and gay issues). Both sides are concerned with the economy and promise to create jobs. Both spoke of hope and belief in the American people. Both talked about the importance of improving education. It seems in most cases we all have the same goals. The only difference is how each party plans to reach them. And that is where the disagreements are. Niether side believes the other side will get there with their plans. Both also think the other side doesn't seem to have a real plan, although both have told us basically what they want to do.
I am reminded of a time in my youth when I had a friend who's father was an "evangelist" for a certain church. We often discussed our different faiths. My friend once told me, as we talked of why there were so many churches, "We all seem to have the same goal ( reaching heaven), We just have different roads to get there". This is the case in religion and politics. We all basically want the same things. We just pick different ways to get them. The path we choose to reach our goals is the source of so many discussions and always evokes emotional responses. This is why it is so difficult to discuss religiion or politics, even with those we love and care about.
The interesting thing to me in politics is that the main argument has been the same since the forefathers started our country. Actually this same argument goes back much farther than our country. Experiments in different types of government seem to transend time. Many civilizations seemed content to have a king or other all powerful ruler. It made a lot of decision making easy and relieved them of any personal responsibility. Intrinsically I believe we all want certain individual rights. Our country was based on the premise that we all have "certain unalienable rights" and that these were given to us by a creator. The gap of over twenty years between the start of our revolution and finally getting a constitution was because of these differences. of course some of that time was taken up fighting a war, but it was still some time before the founders agreed on the constitution. There were factions who wanted to return to the same kind of government they fought to be free of.
Thankfully, the man they wanted to be king, George Washington, refused. Many others knew the dangers of a strong federal government, so the fight that has dominated American politics is between individual rights and strong central Government. Early on, the reason for the parties that were formed was broken down as "States rights" vs. Strong central Government. If we analyse the two parties today it comes down to the same thing. There are advantages and drawbacks to both. Perhaps we can discuss the pros and cons in another post.
Today I feel like getting away from the original intent of this blog. I hope those who followed me in the past don't mind. I have some thoughts on politics and religion I feel like getting off my chest.
I have watched with anxiety and aticipation the major parties' conventions the last two weeks. As I watched the president's speech at the end of the Democrats' convention it dawned on me that both parties are saying almost the same things (with the exception of abortion and gay issues). Both sides are concerned with the economy and promise to create jobs. Both spoke of hope and belief in the American people. Both talked about the importance of improving education. It seems in most cases we all have the same goals. The only difference is how each party plans to reach them. And that is where the disagreements are. Niether side believes the other side will get there with their plans. Both also think the other side doesn't seem to have a real plan, although both have told us basically what they want to do.
I am reminded of a time in my youth when I had a friend who's father was an "evangelist" for a certain church. We often discussed our different faiths. My friend once told me, as we talked of why there were so many churches, "We all seem to have the same goal ( reaching heaven), We just have different roads to get there". This is the case in religion and politics. We all basically want the same things. We just pick different ways to get them. The path we choose to reach our goals is the source of so many discussions and always evokes emotional responses. This is why it is so difficult to discuss religiion or politics, even with those we love and care about.
The interesting thing to me in politics is that the main argument has been the same since the forefathers started our country. Actually this same argument goes back much farther than our country. Experiments in different types of government seem to transend time. Many civilizations seemed content to have a king or other all powerful ruler. It made a lot of decision making easy and relieved them of any personal responsibility. Intrinsically I believe we all want certain individual rights. Our country was based on the premise that we all have "certain unalienable rights" and that these were given to us by a creator. The gap of over twenty years between the start of our revolution and finally getting a constitution was because of these differences. of course some of that time was taken up fighting a war, but it was still some time before the founders agreed on the constitution. There were factions who wanted to return to the same kind of government they fought to be free of.
Thankfully, the man they wanted to be king, George Washington, refused. Many others knew the dangers of a strong federal government, so the fight that has dominated American politics is between individual rights and strong central Government. Early on, the reason for the parties that were formed was broken down as "States rights" vs. Strong central Government. If we analyse the two parties today it comes down to the same thing. There are advantages and drawbacks to both. Perhaps we can discuss the pros and cons in another post.
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