I've just sold my house of sixteen years. I moved in with an attractive wife I loved, buying a house that we'd keep long enough to get used to the new area and then sell and buy exactly what we wanted and where we wanted it. And then, the divorce.
But that is all long ago now back in 2002. Now my kids are grown. I'm nearing retirement.
I sold that house, now I have to move out. But it's been one thing after another all summer. New roof. Furnace needing fixing. No houses to move to. The housing market is a sellers delight, a buyer or renters nightmare. So many looking, so few selling. I'm down to the last two things.
Getting a place to move to and the Veteran's Association appraisal for the buyer's VA loan. Which is going to take longer than the buyers have in moving here from as far away as possible in the continental United States. A military family changing bases. The VA is backed up five to six weeks and we need it now. Not in September. I have to be moved on by the 24th of August.
This hasn't been going well. But, I sold the house. I'm outta here. Hopefully.
But, enough of reality, of all my summer woes. Let's see if I can stay off of Trump (or for how long?).
Here's my thoughts on abortion and other such things in politics and government IN general.
Pro-choicers want women to have the right to choose because we've lost so many women in the past to ugly situations due to it. It's better to have appropriate and professional care for women's medical issues. Safe and sane, right?
Pro-Lifers see that they are (typically) Christian and their beliefs say no abortion. Okay. They also see that if you have a moral responsibility to something, and you can act on it, you should. Thus, Pro-Life. Okay again.
However....
Religious belief is not just a personal issue, it is a personal requirement.
YOU Must choose using your free will to make the "right" decision. If you take that decision away from someone on a religious level, they 1) do not practice and strengthen their beliefs, 2( you have taken that away from them 3) they do not have the ability therefore to make the "right" decision and choose say, good (God?), over "Evil" and 4) on a civil and American level you have curbed THEIR pursuit of Happiness, and safety.
Thus, in stepping beyond your personal choices in being Pro-Life to where you remove that choice from others, you have damaged their (your?) religion, you have abdicated your God's intent in there being free will and their NECESSITY to choose the "right" path, AND (more importantly to many) you have acted in a purely unAmerican way and antiFreedom fashion
So. What in the the HELL are you doing?
There will be those who see this as hypocritical, but it's not, unless you are one of those I referred to above who can't follow complex thoughts.
That all actually brings up another point.
IF you need to practice your faith, to build your God muscles, to tone up your morality muscles, it begs the question.
Why? Let's actually think about this. According to the Bible, God many Man in His Image, and Woman from Man and also in his image. Though kind of not totally as men and women DO look different and are in fact, different genders of the same species.
If you need to practice your faith, to stay strong, to keep believing through adversity, why?
It must be because you need that strength for something.
Is it that to die and "be with God" you must have a certain degree of being able to keep your spirit together in order for it to make that ethereal journey from body to Heaven?
On the other hand, if that isn't the case and it's okay for Pro-Lifers to take away the choices from Pro-Choicers, then we don't need that strength of character in order to die and be with God.
I always believed that you need to strengthen your character, your morality, your spirit in order to achieve the goals you are told you will receive when you die, if you lead a good life.
Then someone came along and changed all that. Apparently you can be a raping, robbing murdering turncoat and if you repent when you are dying, zingo, get out of jail free card. You get to go to Heaven.
As a catholic you go through a ritual and you're saved. For Evangelicals, you just repent. No real ritual, just easy peasy, hey, I'm in Heaven.
Doesn't seem fair to those others, does it?
But here's the thing. The whole need to build character and strength in spirit caused some issues. So someone thought, hey, we can get those we can't now get, by changing things a bit.
Trouble is they didn't really think that out very well. Yes, seemed like a good idea at first. But in practice and especially once it got acculturated, things changed from the original intent and results.
Now here's another monkey wrench in the mix. IF you should build strength over a life time, if that is The Way, you don't always have to do it. You can skip work out sessions in body building, and still get there, still maintain an awesome build people will admire.
So you don't ALWAYS Have to do the right thing, just enough of the time so you are strong enough for what you need to be strong for. One could argue that to die and get to Heaven you really do need all the strength possibly and then some in life, to do what you need then to do.
However, there will always be a point at which one doesn't need more and so, you can potentially take breaks, have slip ups, or just do the wrong thing (preferably for the right reasons) from time to time.
There are no perfect answers.
That is lazy, and it makes things easier on people in general.
And those are the issues.
No religion has all the answers. There IS no right religion. There are no easy or absolutely right answers. Life is complex, difficult, frustrating and yet, we still have to keep trying because you see, that is the answer.
Always keep trying your best. Trying to find the best answers. Trying to always better yourself and others, but Do NOT make other's decisions for them. That is their struggle, just like you cannot body build for someone else's body.
Because trying to would just be...stupid.
These are the people we are now in fear of who are putting us on a path to destruction, who won't allow discussions of gun violence, who think Trump can Fix the country, who think Republicans have been doing a good job and who aren't satisfied in life:
Allie Fox from Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux:
"Nature is crooked. I wanted right angles, straight lines. You cut yourself opening a can of tuna and you die."
My professor when i at my university told me about this book. He said I was much at the time like the character of the father who wanted right angles in life. Life is generally anything but right angles, even though we too frequently see them in life.
Once I understood, I worked to change and once I changed, a whole new world opened up for me. Life got lighter. People who enjoyed being around me, enjoyed me far more. Life wasn't an insurmountable thing I always seemed to be able to surmount. It became a much more fascinating, interesting, existable place.
The more I understood, the better things got. The more productive I was and I made those around me.
This isn't what I'm seeing this week in the RNC. It's not what I see in Trump.
We need to see that. They need to see where the right angles truly are, when they actually are even there.
Turning to actual world events and the monstrosity that is the 2016 American presidential election:If you vote for president on the basis of fear, that is a cowardly act. Trump is energizing his campaign through fear. His supporters are being energized toward him through fear.
Vote for president on the basis of rational thought, facts and considered actual information, that is a brave and adult act.
If you use emotions through your vote, make it a measured, considered response. Not just on the basis of emotional appeal. Make your rational decision, then let your emotions free. But first be damn sure your emotions are based in reality. Because Trump supporters are not based in reality. Nor is Trump.
I am the only one who can save you! Has little to do with reality. Trumps call that:
"I alone can fix it!" Is total nonsense.
Who said this?
"Do not be afraid - I will save you." Trump? No. It's from the Bible, Isaiah 43:
"Israel, the Lord who created you says, "Do not be afraid - I will save you."
Trump's paraphrasing God. Just think about that for a moment. Stop rationalizing what you want to think he means, and consider from his perspective in who that man is, what he is really thinking, not what you want to believe he is thinking. That being said those in control on both sides of the aisle, have not given people options for change as it feels like the same things over and over again, expecting something to be different. However in Trump saying he will change things it begs the question, how? Because once he gets into office and we find he really doesn't know what to do, he hits walls with congress which he's already hitting with those in power in his own political party, then what?
Not only will cowardly support have gotten him into office in the hope of change, they will find they have chosen a madman or worse, a fool, with no change on hand anyway. Things will be the same, only his tampering will make it worse.
That is a mistake people make over and over again. When you need change, when you feel desperate or worse, afraid, you start to make stupid mistakes. Beyond that, with no hope, not potential for change you eventually get into terrorism. Because that is in part how we come to the world today. Those in power fight to maintain the status quo against reality and necessity and in the end, a minority stands up to invoke anarchy and with anarchy comes terror and abuse. When you take a religion and a culture from previous centuries and apply it to those conditions, you end up with what we are seeing today.
Then within that we find abuse and issues with boundaries. All which we're seeing in ISIS and others of that type.
Yes, we need change. No, we do not need a Trump.
Those who are not Trump, need to wake up and push serious change, through intellect, information, understanding, cooperation and process enhancements or replacements.
Before it's too late.
Once Trump loses this election, do not be complacent.
Be aware. DO something. Just not, ANY thing.
How does this tie in with considerations of heaven?
It has to do with how you see the world, the universe, the long believed afterlife. It has to do with magical thinking. Anything not based in the physical world is magical thinking.
Like religion.
There are Republicans in office who have SAID we don't have to affect change (as in climate change) to protect our selves because...God won't let the earth die!
Seriously?
No, Heaven helps those who help themselves? What are you? Two years old?
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