tortoise and the hare

This "tortoise and the hare" fable of Aesop's has many marvelous applications in many fields and in many nations that attest to its enduring vitality, applicability, universality in such fields as cosmology, physics, mathematics, history, literature, art, philosophy, astronomy, etc. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare

DUCKS ON FROZEN LAKE

As ducks congregate on the frozen lake, I am struck once again by the degree to which self-organization saturates every sphere of existence, from interstellar to subatomic levels. That manifestation negates random chance as the principal organizational fact for existence of life. Random chance may well be 1/64 of the cluster, as ancient Egyptian sages had held, and demonstrated with their depictions in eye glyphs, but that ancient fact also derides Charles Darwin's work, which had elevated random chance, or natural selection, as it is called, to primacy!

ANCIENT PALESTINE

"Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies . Where Sodom and Gomorrah reared their domes and towers, that solemn sea now floods the plains, in whose bitter waters no living thing exists--over whose waveless surface the blistering air hangs motionless and dead --about whose borders nothing grows but weeds, and scattering tufts of cane, and that treacherous fruit that promises refreshment to parching lips, but turns to ashes at the touch. Nazareth is forlorn, about the ford of Jordan where the hosts of Israel entered the Promised Land with songs of rejoicing, one finds only a squalid camp of fantastic Bedouins of the desert; Jericho the accursed, lies a moldering ruin, today, even as Joshua's miracle left it more than three thousand years ago; Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and their humiliation , have nothing about them now to remind one that they once knew the high honor of the Savior's presence; the hallowed spot where shepherds watched their flocks by night, and where angels sang Peace on earth, goodwill to men, is untenanted by any living creature, and unblessed by any feature that is pleasant to the eye. Renown Jerusalem itself , the stateliness name in history , has lost all its ancient grandeur and become a pauper village; the riches of Solomon are no longer there to compel the admiration of visiting Oriental queens; the wonderful temple which was the pride and glory of Israel is gone, and the Ottoman crescent is lifted above the spot where, on the most memorable day in the annals of the world, they reared the Holy Cross. The noted Sea of Galilee, where Roman fleets one rode at anchor and the disciples of the Savior sailed in their ships was long ago deserted by the devotees of war and commerce, and its borders are a silent wilderness; Capernaum is a shapeless ruin; Magdala is the home of beggared Arabs; Bethsaida and Chorazim have vanished from the earth, and the 'desert places' round about them where thousands of men once listened to the Savior 's voice, and ate the miraculous bread, sleep in the hush of a solitude that is inhabited only by birds of prey and skulking foxes . "Palestine is desolate and unlovely. And why should it be otherwise? Can the 'curse' of a Deity beautify a land? "Palestine is no more of this work-day world . It is sacred to poetry and tradition --it is dream land." P. 485-486, THE INNOCENTS ABROAD OR THE NEW PILGRIMS' PROGRESS by Mark Twain (1984)

GLORIOUSLY WONDROUSLY MADE

GLORIOUSLY WONDROUSLY MADE Entangled holistically, seemingly quantum movements, moments, emissions, commissions, wonders, remissions, mysteries, histories, genealogies--align, combine and recombine to make up, to become, to constitute, to result in each one of us uniquely, inexorably! We are Glorious! mighty wonders of God!

White people need 'treatment'

"[O]n February 20, 1852, Gerritt Smith circulated a letter to Governor Washington Hunt [New York], in which he argued whites, not blacks, were depraved, and that colonizing white racists was an 'infinitely better solution ' to the race problem than trying to rid the country of blacks. 'It is we, the whites, not they, the blacks, who need 'treatment,' he argued. See Stauffer, 'Black Hearts of Men,' p. 195, and 'Letter from Gerritt Smith to Governor Hunt, Feb. 20th, 1852 (broadside), reprinted in 'Frederick Douglass ' Paper, March 4, 1852." P. 131-132, note 63, THE WORKS OF JAMES MCCUNE SMITH: BLACK INTELLECTUAL AND ABOLITIONIST edited by John Stauffer (2007)

HISTORY

We tend to view history sequentially and vertically. Not laterally and horizontally . As such much depth of field and context is lacking. It is like studying through a straw. As we view history, we also view time, with the same results, lack. Perhaps , in addition to learning of simply one person, or one event, we would benefit better by knowing of other persons or events, that were contemporaneous with them. For example, take Galileo, the Italian priest who advanced the provable fact of heliocentrism beyond the prevailing belief in geocentricm. He proved that the earth and other planets orbited the sun, not that the sun and the other planets orbited the earth. Galileo advanced beyond Copernicus' circular orbits conception, proving the to be spherical. Galileo lived in the 17th century. As such, he was alive at the same time as Sir Isaac Newton, the great English natural philosopher and mathematician, and William Shakespeare the poet and playwright of great renown. Galileo Galilei of Pisa lived from 1564-1642. Galileo was born in the same year as Shakespeare and he died the year Newton was born. http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/G/GalileoG.html

NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST

NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST "Everything must change. Nothing stays the same," are the opening lyrics in "Everything Must Change," a popular song with spiritual resonance. Its truth is crystallized in the African American epic. Indeed, the song continues . "The young become the old, and mysteries do unfold. That's the test of time. Since, no one and nothing goes unchanged." That wide sweep would certainly include the dark sons and daughters of the Nile River valley civilizations of whom Homer, Plato, Herodotus sung, whose temples, monuments, papyri, pyramids, and Sphinx still speak volumes to a modern world. The daily amazing deliverance of those often battered, tattered, and scattered rudiments of Earth's original man and woman, whose bewildered progeny: beige, brown, and black descendants were, compelled wave-upon-wave, to bear that weary cross of affliction, as they were the transshipped, branded, whipped, rebuked, and scorned slaves of rapacious "white" men, are within that song These white, allegedly "Christian," men brought them in chains into new natal lands, many thousands of nautical miles from their former "African" tribes, over centuries of miles, in time and space. They "meant it for evil but God meant it for good!" And God's will prevailed. The offspring of these same despised, spurned, cursed, crushed, commingled captives, who were so often serially beaten, reheated, remelted, retooled, were also transmuted, were transfigured from all that they once were, or once knew, into what they were divinely destined to become, are still becoming, revived as one! Transformed. They are also being redeemed, resurrected from those legendary "dry bones in the valley," of which their ancestors sung. They have been remade, renewed, reinvigorated, dynamically, into new creatures, with new families, new names, new persons, new songs, new nationalities, new powers, new testimonies, new ideas, new skills, new hopes, new dreams, in new lands; becoming newly triumphant narratives in God's ever unfolding mysteries, just like His son, Jesus Christ!

BOTH WAYS

BOTH WAYS If a modicum of evil can infect an entire body of good, then it would follow that a modicum of good can also disinfect an entire body of evil. No body and nobody is entirely evil nor entirely good. Such is given to be humanity's plight on this planet: To be cosmic spirits encased in man's human flesh. Knowing little, and sensing less, yet still here, still alive; still grateful for God's grace. Amen.

DADDY'S ASPHALT DRIVEWAY

One of the collateral benefits of being the first lawyer in the family is that you become the resource person for all things legal big or small and rightly so! I recall the time that daddy called me about a small claims suit that had been filed against him by a neighbor, with respect to an asphalt driveway that daddy had put in for him. Daddy said that he had given the man a break on the already-fair price to begin with. Still, the man was complaining about nothing. I knew the man to whom Daddy made reference, but had had no dealings with him, ever. And that man knew of me from growing up there. I told Daddy to take some pictures of that driveway and to take those pictures along with his asphalt receipts with him to Small Claims Court in Clayton, Missouri. Then, I forgot all about it and went back to working. About a month later Daddy called back and told me that he had won his case! He said that the judge threw the case out, after he saw the receipts and pictures. He said the judge had really perked up when the neighbor had mumbled, "His son is a lawyer," under his breath. The judge asked "Your son is a lawyer?" Daddy replied "Yes." The judge then asked him where I had gone to law school, and where I was then working? When Daddy told him that I had graduated from Howard Law School and that I was then an Assistant United States Attorney in Kansas City, the judge smiled and said, "Mr. Coleman, you've done a fine job. Case dismissed. Costs to defendant." Needless to say, this made me and Daddy very happy.

BIG MAMA HAZEL AND BUDDY

Our paternal grandmother, Atlas Stanford Coleman, holds my older sister, Hazel, and my older brother , Elvis Jr., in her lap, while our father, Elvis Mitchell Coleman, looks down from his photograph in his army garb. This exquisite graphic work was performed by my nephew, Kevin Kimble's wife, Lisa!

STUPID EXHIBITIONISTS

https://www.facebook.com/TheFortySeveners/videos/1028059107251760/ STUPID EXHIBITIONISTS Ignorance does not exist in isolation. It has a supporting infrastructure in order to subsist. Anyone who would publicly argue that the earth is flat, or that would drink a concoction of jet fuel & Mountain Dew, is more of a stupid exhibitionist that simply ignorant. Ignorance is lack of knowledge . Stupidity is willful ignorance . Everyone is ignorant; many too are stupid. But stupid exhibitionists are the least common folks, thankfully !

truth-centric

I AM TRUTH-CENTRIC I am neither ethnocentric nor theocentric, nor any other centric. Instead, I am simply truth-centric. Truth is its own reward, as it is eternal, universal, transcendent. That means that wherever or whenever the truth may be found, or, may have been, found; or, yet may be or may have been proven, propounded, or propagated; in whatever form, I am for it, so long as it is true, regardless of that truth's subject matter, or votary!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT "Big boss man! Can't you hear me when I call?" This line from the great Jimmy Reed's "Blues" song, "Big Boss Man," aptly sums up a basic human duty and need, acknowledgment. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XklUL-3v9Dc Another good one is "You had me at 'hello.'" From the Cuba Gooding movie, "Jerry McGuire." Call and response need each other, whether verbal or not. The element of acknowledgement is so basic, is so fundamental, that it is in the Bible "In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths." https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/… This duty of acknowledgement may be more than human, is more than human. Animals, plants, fish, even microbes all exhibit it, & demand it. "Speak when you're spoken to," is an enduring parental admonition. Babies cry for acknowledgment , notice, attention, adoration , love. Their plaintively persistent cries penetrate concrete, steel, hearts. As that baby cries, so too do adults cry when UNACKNOWLEDGED. However, adults' or their groups' cries" may be lethal, violent, vengeful, petulant, didactic, or in any number of forms; because not being acknowledged is not being respected, and not being respected, requires remonstrance!

NATURAL LAWS

How wonderful are nature's laws! At 32F water freezes; boils at 212F. Certainty prevails always. No need to pray, plead, chant, bow, pledge! Man's laws are just the opposite! Pretensions to the contrary aside!

AMAZING BLACK WEST POINT MILITARY CADETS OF 1971

This photo of United States Military Academy is courtesy of TripAdvisor http://avery.cofc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Black-Power-Cadets-Seidule-Version-21.pdf This amazing story about the 1971, black West Point cadets' throttling of President Richard M. Nixon's plan to build a Confederate monument on the grounds of the U.S. West Point Military Academy, as part of his Republican Southern Strategy to get reelected, will amaze you. as it did me!

LEADERSHIP

AMEN TO MIN, GOD OF FERTILITY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Min_(god)

DIIVINELY COGNATE

DIVINELY COGNATE ARE WE Wicked people, those who know that they are wicked wrongdoers, rationalize their wickedness and wrongdoing, in order to be able to feel good about their deeds and to justify themselves and their wicked actions, past and present to others. Certain wicked people, however, are so thoroughly reprobate about their wicked wrongdoing, are so morbidly callous about shrouding it, that they are actually damnably demonic, living gargoyles at large! The first class of persons seem to have perforated, semipermeable souls, synaptic souls, that are still crossing over, chiasmic & plastic. The second class, the nadir, are soulless shrouds in human flesh, who have come to lie, kill, deceive. The first class might be reasoned with, somewhat, but not the other. Those who do not fully apprehend the divine presence of "God" in themselves innately, continuously, inversely are these. Their seeming differences are matters of degrees. "God" being, as used here, eternal energy that antedates alpha and that postdates omega; that is, was, and that ever shall be; & in whose "larder" is order, whence flows all. Mankind is simply a divine cognate. Opposites: apogee and perigee; male and female; North Pole and South Pole ; day and night; matter and antimatter ; life and death ; space and time; joy and pain, sunshine and rain; ad infinitum! http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cognate Divinely cognate is apprehension. It is one's amenability to cognition, to good ambition, intuition, rendition, remission, submission. It is one's own personal perception of the presence of the divine immanence.

LEVELS OF KNOWLEDGE

Levels of knowledge Not to know is the basic human condition. Not to want to know is a curse. Feeling no need to know is abject superstition. Killing those who seek to know is the worst!

EVENTUALITIES

EVENTUALITIES Living too close to the water, you eventually get wet . Living too close to the edge, you eventually fall in. Living too close to squalor or rubbish, you eventually get rats. Living too close to criminality, you eventually are caught up in it. Living too close to any known risk, eventually affects, impacts you. Life's cosmic conveyor belt is laden with eventualities that end in death. Eventualities like "death and taxes" are not comparable, as claimed. Death, unlike taxes, always collects its due from the living, eventually!

MOCKING ASCRIPTIONS

MOCKING ASCRIPTIONS There is no black government in the United States of America , yet one is ascribed to us implicitly . There is no black economy in America , yet one is ascribed to us, tacitly. There is no one black church in America, yet one is ascribed to us, theologically. There is no black education in America , but it is ascribed to us, scholastically . These ascriptions of government, of economy, church, and education , are used to mock us by omission. They are straw horses, scarecrows, false representations. We are involuntary Americans, who were dragged here, sold as slaves; then, by plebiscite of the whites, we were made "citizens" here by ratification of the 13th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. These acts all occurred before we were given the power to deliberate upon them, much less to vote upon them, under the 15th Amendment . Whenever we have dutifully tried to establish governments, economies, churches or education, as we were repeatedly forced to do to survive, and to advance as human beings, whether in so-called "Contraband Camps," during the Civil War; or in separate-but-equal communities thereafter, our efforts were frustrated by laws or by the terrorist destruction occasioned by scofflaw cops or by crazed lynch mobs, who were immune from suit, and/or exempted by their "whiteness" from prosecution. Yet, these illusory ascriptions remain to mock us, in news stories, in political debates, in funded studies, all of such being mythological, but treated as real! The saddest part of all is that all that we ever really wanted to be was Americans in fact, in law, indeed. When oh when?

TEMPLATES

TEMPLATES One's template of understanding, conception classifies and organizes information; even processes factual inputs derived from the senses, the spirit, the mind; then it assimilates syncretizes, synthesizes the same. Enrich therefore your template at all times by inquiry, study, activity, observation, prayer, computation .

PREPARATIONS

BE PREPARED FOR WHATEVER Start preparing right now for whatever it is that you may seek. It is never too soon to prepare. More often, it is way too late! Teach your children to prepare now! And not to procrastinate . The decisions that you make today surely influence others, tomorrow . Actions you take today determine subsequent actions of tomorrow . Today is tomorrow in gestation. An idea is action in formulation . All of your people, places, things, actions, words, thoughts, must all be singularly focused on your end. Even then, despite all your doing, chance, fate, grace, will still be in. So be it! Be prepared for whatever!

mathematics confession

MATHEMATICS CONFESSION I flunked a math course at Howard University my second semester, Sophomore year. The course was "Elementary Functions." I took it over in summer school with another guy who had also flunked. We met each other outside class, looking warily at the grade sheet. We did not know each other until then. Misery bonded us, united us, fired us up! So, we studied together each day that summer after work. We both got "B's" this time from the same professor, who never gave out "A's!" We had so much fun, studying, preparing, to win, we hated that the class had to end! Morale: Rigorous paired study rocks! Do it with someone, anyone as motivated as you! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_function

BEAUTIFUL BLACK BABY

NEVER AN AMERICAN EQUATION

NO AMERICAN EQUATION Omitting any variable from any mathematical equation is bad enough, but omitting a constant, from its formula, is even worse. Either omission will throw it off, to greater or lesser degrees in time. Blacks are more than variables in American life. They are constants. Left utterly out of the American equation, except as bracketed placeholders, there was never an actual, national American "equation," only organic error, and miscalculated effrontery.

LIFE AS THE KING'S PARADIGM

"LIFE" AS THE "KING'S" PARADIGM Our main theory of existence--or theology, if you will-- starts with a beginning." In the beginning , God created the heaven and the earth." Even our physicists' "Big Bang theory" has a beginning nearly 14 billion years ago in a super hot , super dense, extremely small dot, its origin unknown, that somehow exploded, unleashing the elements, the stars, planets, forces, mankind. I submit, respectfully, that science and theology notwithstanding, that there is no "beginning;" that there is no "end;" that there is an eternal energy flow that we know, embody, experience very briefly as "life." "Life," then, or the living, is the predominant fact, main pattern, or paradigm that matters to man. What is dead, lacking "life," is of no consequence to mankind say our scriptures, not even to God. http://biblehub.com/luke/20-38.htm No modern man has articulated and demonstrated the power of "God" in our lives, in this modern era, like he whom we honor today, who talked to & walked among us. It is Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in America , Monday, January 18, 2016. I am 65 years old. Therefore, I was alive when this great man, this great leader and visionary, lived on the earth and died upon it. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a Baptist church pastor who was educated in the church and home of his father, Martin Luther King, Sr. From there, he went to Morehouse College in his native Atlanta, Georgia , where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1948; then he attended Crozer Theological Seminary, in Upland, Pennsylvania, for a Bachelor of Divinity Degree in 1951, then to Boston University, in Boston, Massachusetts, for his Ph.D. Degree in 1955, in systematic theology. Thumb-nail biography mandates mention of his marriage to Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his incomparable helpmate and love, and their generation of 4 children. Steeped, then, in both black culture and white scholarship, he formally entered the lists as Pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he succeeded Dr. Vernon Johns. In life, away from academia, when the concrete conditions of black folks in Montgomery were thrust upon him by chance and circumstance, he did not demur nor disappoint. Rather, he entered the fray, fusing black cultural power with white scholastic power, into a potent syncretic synthesis of the best of each, and every other encountered. First as nominal, titular leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, that epochal 381-day, successful bus boycott, Dr. King later became the oft-disputed, though never repudiated, national leader of African Americans, in fact, by vital force of persuasion, and by the self-effacing power of his excellent leadership example. Dr. King, though a Christian, was larger than his creed; though an American, was larger than his country. He grew In his life, even more so in his death, he yet grows, as a global icon and inspiration, "Oh death! where is thy sting? Grave where is thy victory?" Having studied Doctor King's life and works, I draw inspiration from them and power. He sought a superior paradigm, one that was broad enough to encompass all of mankind , one with the "strength to love," as he wrote in a book. That strength to love is found in life, for while all mankind may not revere the same God, or any God, they most definitely love life! So let life be the principal paradigm of man ! In short, worship life; study life; create more life; perpetuate life! There is no light absent darkness; no night absent day; no male absent female; no life absent death. "Life" as we know it, then, subsumes science and theology; reconciles all opposites; subsumes the living and the dead as eternal, continuous energy flows of many forms, world without end. Amen!

POLYCHROME IS BEST

Polychrome enriches Monochrome Insularity is boring and unnatural . Writers writing only for writers? Musicians just for musicians ? Preachers just for preachers? Cooks cooking just for cooks? Men merely interested only in men? Women just interested in women? Monochrome bows to polychrome. Sameness is defeated by diversity. The natural universe is unlimited, being fueled by interactions in time and place of matter and force; by unseen dark matter & dark forces. It is when the vast diversity of the universe is accessed, is explored, that fusion occurs in nature in man. It is in natural, seminal fusion that germination, that transformation occurs and recurs. It is then that: The limiting, confining, segregating templates of human sameness and insularity are abandoned; The fickle homogeneity yields to honest heterogeneity; A frightened orthodoxy accedes to a more adventurous heterodoxy; It is then that the "magic" begins. It is within this crossing of matter, forces, of planes, of man & in their recrossing, that creation is reborn. Reborn in infinite variety on planes perceived & on many that are not. Polychrome enriches monochrome. 

GREAT IDEAS WITHOUT ORGANIZED IMPLEMENTATION ARE JUST HOT AIR

http://themichaelimhotepshow.com/2015/12/15/why-did-dr-king-tell-us-to-redistribute-the-pain-understanding-the-power-of-economic-withdrawl/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog Ideas without organized implementation are hot air! Good ideas! Great ideas! Even perfect ideas that are not programmatically implemented are just hot air! Earth requires contact with its occupants, interacting with its elements; hitting its very hard floor, the ground! Earth's power is called "Gravity." It demands it. So ideas if they are meant to be acted upon, must be submitted to gravity's application, before change can become real through them. Dr. Martin Lither King had good, even God -like ideas and ideals . But, more importantly, he hit the ground with them. Exposed his degrees, his honors, his flesh with them, and heroically died for them. His blessed blood proved, sealed the gravity of these ideas, ideals and ushered him into eternity with the saints!

DR. KING AND QUANTUM THEORY

Dr. M. L. King and Quantum Theory While reading a passage in WHY WE CAN'T WAIT (1963), p.172, by Martin Luther King, Jr., that "whole generations have been left behind as the majority of the population advanced," and that "the lost generations have never learned basic social skills on the functional level--the skills of reading, writing , arithmetic; of applying for jobs; of exercising the rights of citizenship , including the right to vote," I had an epiphany ! Linear. King's analysis here is linear, I deduced . Is learning, progress , behavior necessarily linear? I asked. If not, there is hope for so-called lost generations. So, I looked it up, online. My hunch was right. Learning is not exclusively linear; nor is human behavior or change. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1586207/ The above linked article was presented, in 2006, to a conference of medical professionals decades after this book by Dr. King was published, and long before the Internet was invented as we know it . It posits that no matter how far "behind" one may be--"behind," itself being narrowly "linear"--one can easily catch up. This is because of common quantum principles and linear cognates are immanent in us all, chaotically and randomly!

300 year head start

t seems that there has been more American political sentiment in favor of doing something TO the Negro, than in regard to doing something FOR the Negro, as was hoped by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., over 50 years ago in his classic book, WHY WE CAN'T WAIT (1963), wherein he he wrote: "It is impossible to create a formula for the future that does not take into account that our society has been doing something 'against' the Negro for hundreds of years. How can he be absorbed into the mainstream of American life if we do not do something special 'for' him now to balance the equation and equip him to compete on a just and equal basis? "Whenever this issue of compensatory or preferential treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality they agree; but he should ask nothing more. On the surface this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man is entered at the starting line of a race three hundred years after another man, the first would have to perform some impossible feat in order to catch up with his fellow runner." P. 165, "The Days to Come."

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by Origen, excerpt

"The daring of his genius must not blind us to the drives of his piety. The shortcomings of his doctrine --inevitable in a thinker of the third century who was the very first to build a theology--must not make us mistake the pure quality of his faith . "His [Origen's] intellectual formation, we must not forget, was entirely Christian; we might even say ecclesiastic... 'I, a man of the Church, living in the faith of Christ and set in the midst of the Church...' Justin, Taitan, Clement and others like them were converts; because of a turn of mind due to their early formation they remained philosophers... Clement after his conversion kept the vocabulary of the Greeks that had already imposed itself on Philo, and then on Taitan; he still called the doctrine of Moses and of Christianity itself by the name of 'barbarian philosophy.' But Origen contrasts the 'barbarians' who were the Egyptians with the 'Saints' who were the great men of Israel. He had been introduced to the Bible on his father's knees, and he always maintained that outside of the Bible, there was nothing holy... He knows that 'the knowledge which converts men to lead a holy life comes only from... Christ' and that Christ is found only 'in the Church' which is filled with his splendor... "We ought to imitate no one, he says, save only Jesus. Apart from Jesus, nothing to him is worthy of being loved. He would have us love with the same love that we owe to God; more, he would have us to love God in him . He prays to him and would have us pray to him even as to the Father. The absence of Christ is for Origen a desert barren of righteousness . His homilies vibrate some of the first notes of that human piety toward Jesus which to us seems to have become inseparable from our religion... "He often speaks of 'my Jesus,' 'my Lord,' 'my Savior.'.. It is a Pauline trait; but Origen's insistent usage makes something new of it, a sort of conquest of Christian piety." P. xv-xix, "Introduction. His Piety and Orthodoxy," ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by Origen , introduction by Henri de Lubac (2013)

NABTA PLAYA

THE MARROW OF TRADITION, excerpt

"Was it not , after all, a wise provision of nature that had given to a race, destined to a long servitude and a slow emergence therefrom , a cheerfulness of spirit which enabled them to catch pleasure on the wing, and endure with equanimity the ills that seemed inevitable ? The ability to live and thrive under adverse circumstances is the surest guaranty of the future. The race which at the last shall inherit the earth--the residuary legatee of civilization --will be the race which remains longest upon it. The Negro was here before the Anglo-Saxon was evolved, and his thick lips and heavy-lidded eyes looked out from the inscrutable face of the Sphinx across the sands of Egypt while yet the ancestors of those who now oppress him were living in caves, practicing human sacrifice , and painting themselves with woad--and the Negro is here yet. "'Blessed are the meek ,' quoted Miller at the end of these consoling reflections, 'for they shall inherit the earth.' If this be true, the Negro may yet come into his estate, for meekness seems to be set apart as his portion." P. 512, " A Journey Southward," THE MARROW OF TRADITION by Charles W. Chestnutt (1901, 2002)

MY ABORTION SONG

MY ABORTION SONG I shall never forget the shock and hurt expressed by my parents when I told them about an abortion that a former girlfriend had had in Washington , D.C., when I was an undergraduate at Howard and not yet ready for the burden of birth. We never discussed it again. But, in that one, unguarded instance, they both independently, simultaneously expressed bewilderment and pain, as though they had lost a loved one, themselves, rather than some fetus that I nor they had ever seen. Ideas and information can injure, that episode taught me, as easily as whips and chains can injure, although the former injuries are largely internal, unseen by others. That conversation with my parents began the process of orienting me away from that of being an abortion supporter. This abortion supporter status was one that I had attained in college, after previously viewing it, politically, as a black population reduction device of eugenicists, who were disguised as "liberals." Life is much more than politics or personal expediency, in the final analysis, I have come to see, since in another place and time, that tiny unseen, aborted fetus, might well have been me, but for my parents! I do not write these somber words, nor share this intensely private, family testimony, publicly, in order to condemn abortion even tacitly, nor to deride another's choices or experiences. Rather, I now sing my abortion song long after the fact to unburden myself. If it also burdens someone else, helps another, one way or the other, then glory to God!

"SEASONS" CHANGE

We blacks seem continually to forget that the seasons change. One must again cut the grass in summer, rake the leaves in fall, again decorate the house in December for Christmas, and shovel snow, around here, every year! This is true in every field . The devil always come back to revisit you. One is never "saved" nor "free"! Must be ever vigilant!

the pilgrim's progress, excerpt...

"When Christ said, 'Do you know all these things?" and the disciples answered, 'Yes", he added, 'Blessed are ye if you do them.' He that doth not lay the blessing in the knowing of them, but in the doing of them. For there is a knowledge that is not attended with doing: 'He that knoweth his Master's will and doeth it not.' A man may know like an angel, and yet be no Christian... Indeed, to know is a thing that pleases talkers and boasters; but to do is that which pleases God. Not that the heart can be good without knowledge, for without that the heart is naught. There are, therefore, two sorts of knowledge, knowledge that restest in the bare speculation of things, and knowledge that accompanied with the grace of faith and love, which puts a man upon doing even the will of God from the heart: the first of these will serve the talker; but without the other, the true Christian is not content. 'Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.' (Psalm 119:34)." p. 69-70, THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS (1692, 2004) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress

LUKE 8

And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him, 2 And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, 3 And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance. 4 And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: 5 A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. 8 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 9 And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? 10 And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. 14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. 15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. 16 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. 17 For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. 18 Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.

SOW SOMETHING

"Sow something" To have something, sow something To grow something, sow something To know something, sow something To love something, sow something To keep something, sow something To win something, sow something Nothing comes from nothing. Everything comes from something. To get whatever it is you want, you simply must, absolutely must, sow something; be it ever so humble, sowing something beats sowing nothing always, everyday! So, sow!

ACTION AND CONSEQUENCE

Action incurs consequences. inaction deters consequences. Consequence is action incarnate. Action is energy applied to matter. Words are actions just like blows . Speaking may incur or deter action. Action may incur or deter speech. Words and actions are energy that may incur or deter consequences.

MARRIAGE

The convention of "marriage" is most unconventional, as reflected in diverse cultures around the world now or heretofore. Example: Take the antebellum slave "marriages" where either 'spouse' or their issue was subject to sale. These relations were those from which most African Americans sprang; were no less acceptable in the sight of God, or the realm of culture of that time and place, and their offspring no less human, valued, vibrant, righteous, than any others, anywhere, who observed those elaborate state-sanctioned ceremonies or rituals, which today conform to acceptable custom.

"JUCHE" NOT JUDO

Learned today of this "Juche," this uniquely North Korean philosophical and cultural accretion to their former Marxist-Leninism which used to guide North Korea, prior to Juche's promulgation by Kim Il-Sung in the 1950s, which arises from North Korean facts, sensibilities, historic circumstances, values. I find it to be similar to the Pharaonic mode of governance, so familiar to ancient historians. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche

facts--freight or fuel?

Facts are freight to some, fuel to others. Freight or fuel, dead weight or living energy. Each must choose, decide and abide

leaping lessons

LEAPING LESSONS Lessons are learned all kinds of ways. School is one way. Religion is another way . Observation and comparison is another way . Personal experience is another way. Book learning , video-viewing and movie and television viewing are other ways. There are as many ways to learn as there are persons willing to learn, amenable to learn. Explore the ones that suit you best. Closed minds lag behind; but, opened instead they leap ahead!

FREE THINKER & RELIGIOUS THINKER

GREETINGS FELLOW EARTHIANS

GREETINGS FELLOW EARTHIANS ! Would we even be here on Earth but for the pull and tug of those uniquely specific life forces that conduced, induced and produced us in this space and time precisely? Among the many millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions , quintillions of inert possibilities and permutations inhering in and around that question, that warrant reflection, study or consideration, our being here, just here, is primal and fundamental ! Good day, Earthians! How are you ?

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE From the known comes the unknown. From the pre-existent comes the existent. Mankind incrementally acquires new knowledge from prior knowledge. Without at least a minutiae of prior knowledge, there is neither reason nor incentive to seek new knowledge. This general principle would appear to apply to all things now known. If the above statements are true, then, prior knowledge is the basis of all new knowledge. The need for prior knowledge does not diminish nor deprecate the prospect nor appearance of chance, luck, grace, good fortune, or peradventure. These random events of unexplained etiology have too commonly occurred historically, allegorically, in mankind to discount or to deny. Instead, prior knowledge enables, enhances, prepares us for, even identifies, the prospective presence of these unusual, inexplicable occurrences. Prior knowledge, then, even celebrates, utilizes, rejoices in the presence of these now-recognized gifts of unknown origin, which derive from that divine, eternal archive of all prior knowledge, of all things period.