true wisdom

My daily afflictions pale pitifully when compared with the woman and child who look for money at my door.  I am in remorse for those who suffer immeasurably and yet the sorrowed sing of love.  Love and hate, death and life, if I were surrounded by love and life surely I wouldn’t weep for those so far away, would I, but this is my choice or has this choice been made by someone else, I cannot say. 

There was no internet today, I washed two shirts, repaired the cheap washing machine after it didn’t drain, I read on the unfortunate history of the British in Afghanistan, so ill informed they were, how conceited its leaders were, I watched an Oliver Stone movie about wall street and then there was Castaway, which I showed the part when Tom Hanks crashes and lives on the island to an unruly class of ten year olds in South China.  That was ten years ago.

And I watched episode seven of John Adams.  Such passion in writing, an art that most likely has disappeared. 

Racism is in every country but nowhere is it more pronounced than in America.  And we only need to look at our history to explain it.  Unfortunately.

Hate is defeated when we forgive. 

6.20.15

Another day of no internet, it is too hot to go outside, I did grocery shopping yesterday morning so I must put myself under house arrest.  Thanks be to God for a good book.  What to make of Afghani culture in the 19^th century?  A king keeps the tribes happy and in doing so there’s no need for a national army, negotiations between the tribes is the traditional way of keeping peace.  Tribes don’t look at expanding their territories, conflicts such as dishonoring someone-he killed my ox, he must pay-grievances so Old Testament yet, are easily adjudicated.  And when the British finally left because they knew they were no longer welcome but I haven’t read this far. 

“The most extraordinary scientific advances…and the most amazing technical abilities…will definitely turn against man”

I downloaded Pope Francis’s encyclical and will look carefully for infallibilities, if there are any.  The quote above could be though it is like the God of the Old Testament, a divinely harsh and fearful warning.  What becomes of mankind when it is advised of its own self destruction.  Surely he doesn’t have the Hadron Collider in mine, does he, unless a worm hole is found and the Vegan army pours out.

“the divine and the human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet”

Amen to that, how else can one explain the presence of the divine in nature?  A seamless garment, one and the same, it argues if morality could be taught and learned from a tree or a mountain why is there a need for organized religion?

“St. Francis communed with all creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason”

“There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by envi­ronmental degradation.”

The UN estimates 60 million people were displaced last year but I haven’t read of a case where they are moving because of the environment.  Africa migrants from Sudan, Eritrea, Libya, the list goes on, are fleeing war.  Same goes for Middle Eastern countries and those from Burma.  War creates poverty.  In the 1930’s people in the US moved because of drought.   I’d like to read more on what the Pope says here.

“True wisdom, as the fruit of self-examination, dialogue and gener­ous encounter between persons, is not acquired by a mere accumulation of data which eventu­ally leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental pollution”

What is the point of reading anymore, no that’s not what he’s saying.  Mental pollution is statistics, ESPN kind statistics, like the number of curve balls Verlander pitches in five innings before he’s pulled.  Do I need to know this?  No.  I understand in keeping statistics eliminates speculation, like keeping track of a student’s progress in class, but look at the speculators on Wall Street, what do they give to society, nothing.  They’re betting right now Greece defaults on its loans and pulls out of the Eurozone.  What good is this?  This is mental pollution.


Too many candidates blathering on and on is mental pollution.  CNN is mental pollution.  Too many choices about anything is mental pollution.  Keep it simple, everything that is important has been said.  Of course everything that has been said has also been taken out of its original context and has to be challenged.  Sigh.