A LIFE FULL OF RICHES

This man expresses so eloquently my very feelings, I can only but quote him here in full.

A LIFE FULL OF RICHES by Karl R. Green
This material world constantly reminds me of what I don’t have. But somehow I still feel wealthy.
It was early December 2003, my first season as a Salvation Army bell ringer, when I was confronted with the question. I was standing just outside the doorway of a Wal-Mart, offering a "thank you" and a smile to each person who dropped a donation into my red kettle. A neatly dressed woman and her young son walked up to the kettle stand. While she searched her purse for some cash, the boy looked up at me. I can still see the confusion and curiosity in his eyes as he asked, "Are you poor?"
"Well," I stammered, trying to think, "I have more than some people, but not as much as others." His mother scolded him for the social no-no, and they hurried off to do their shopping. His question, however, did not leave me.
I’ve never thought of myself as ‘poor’, but I can’t deny certain facts. Every time I fill out my 1040 form, I fall into one of the lowest income brackets. In the past 35 years, I’ve taken just one vacation trip. My TV is a black-and-white set that someone gave me eight years ago.
Yet I feel nothing more than a passing whim to attain the material things so many people have. My 1999 car shows the wear and tear of 105,000 miles. But it is still dependable. My apartment is modest, but quiet and relaxing. My clothes are well suited to my work, which is primarily outdoors. My minimal computer needs can be met at the library.
In spite of what I don’t have, I don’t feel poor. Why? I’ve enjoyed exceptionally good health for 53 years. It’s not just that I’ve been illness-free, it’s that I feel vigorous and spirited. Exercising is actually fun for me. I look forward to long, energizing walks. And I love the ‘can do’ attitude that follows.
I also cherish the gift of creativity. When I write a beautiful line of poetry, or fabricate a joke that tickles someone, I feel rich inside. I’m continually surprised a the insights that come through my writing process. And talking with so many interesting writer friends is one of my main sources of enjoyment.
But there is one vital area of my life where I am not so well off. In a society that spends so much emotional energy on the pursuit of possessions, I feel out of place.
When I was younger, there was an exceptionally interesting person I dated. What was most important to her, she told me, was "what’s on the inside." I thought I had found someone special to share my life with. Then I took her to see my apartment. At the time, I lived in a basement efficiency with a few pieces of dated furniture. The only new, comfortable chair was the one at my desk. Shortly after her visit, our relationship went straight south.
The seemingly abrupt change in her priorities was jolting. It remains a most memorable turning point in my personal journey.
In contrast to relationships, stuff just doesn’t mean that much to me. I think most people feel the same way - except when there are social consequences to not having particular items. There is a commercial on the radio that begins, "Everybody wants a high-end TV..." The pressure to purchase is real. It may be true that everybody wants a high-end TV. After all, nobody wants to be a nobody.
But I’m happy to live without one. In fact, not being focused on material goods feels quite natural to me. There are many people throughout the world who would consider my lifestyle to be affluent.
Near the end of the year, when I put on the Salvation Army’s red apron, something changes inside me. Instead of feeling out of place economically, I begin to feel a genuine sense of belonging. As I ring my bell, people stop to share their personal stories of how much it meant to be helped when they were going through a rough time. People helping people is something I feel deeply connected to. While I’m ringing the bell, complete strangers have brought me hot chocolate, leaving me with a lingering smile. Countless individuals have helped to keep me worm with the sentiments of the season: "Thank you for ringing on such a cold day." "Can I get you a cup of coffee?" Bless you for your good work." December is the time of year I feel wealthiest.
Over the past four years, I’ve grown t understand more about myself because of a single question from a curious child. As I’ve examined what it means to be poor, it has become clear to me what I am most thankful for: both my tangible and my intangible good fortune.
Newsweek 12/24/07

In The Universe, Just Existing Is Enough- - By Chuck Lunney

Have you ever had one of those moments when an idea or concept suddenly makes complete and total sense? One of those times when you slap your forehead and say, "Wow! Why didn't I think of that?" I've had those experiences several times in my life, and each time it's been a profound event for me. Earlier in my life I had such a "eureka" moment studying biology when I finally understood the concept that all of life is related using a very simple process, and that there isn't anything about humanity that is special or separate from the rest of the flora and fauna on Earth. From there it wasn't too great a leap to begin questioning whether a deity could fit into the equation, although attempting to successfully navigate that leap was a challenge. I began to consider that instead of needing input from a deity to keep things functioning, the Universe does fine on its own. It dawned on me that the only type of deity that could possibly be involved would be completely impersonal and utterly removed from this Universe, one that set the whole thing up and has stayed away from meddling in it since then. The way I see it, if Life can arise and diversify on its own - and if the planets, stars and galaxies can, too - there just isn't room for a deity, except perhaps at the very start. Physics, chemistry and biology all combine in an elegant synthesis to provide a comprehensive explanation for why the Universe looks as it does, the emergence of Life on this planet and the way in which Life's diversity arose. I began to realize how small and insignificant humans are to the Universe, and how absurd it would be for all of that vastness to be subservient to a few humans on one small, backwater planet in only one of billions of solar systems, amid billions and billions of galaxies. As I thought about it, I decided that although I recognized the possibility of such a "starter" deity, I wasn't going to worship or bow down to such a being. At that moment, the light went on and I realized I didn't need a god to live and love - just existing was enough. Written by Chuck Lunney

Attitude Is Everything - Author Unknown

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood... or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. " Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or... I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of Life."Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested."Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."I reflected on what he said. Soon thereafter, I left the power industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about Life instead of just reacting to it.Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw him about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins.... Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live.""Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked...... He continued, "..the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action. "What did you do?" I asked."Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John."She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'." Over their laughter, I told them "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Today, remember, is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.

So plan for tomorrow, but live for today.

My Birthday Post

June 27th, 2007.
A friend wished me a Happy Birthday a bit ago. I am celebrating 61 years of Life here on planet Earth, a member of what has been called the ‘enlightened generation. For me it has indeed been a wonderful Life and I am very glad that I am still here and that my physical/mental condition is not worse than it is. I am thankful for having been alive in these wonderful times, though I have to be honest, I am not at all liking the future I see coming at us. While the technological future looks increasingly exciting, the future of much of our world does not look so good. Recently, we’ve seen news accounts of deformities and disappearances of frogs and other amphibians, disappearing honey bees and song birds. Ocean fish are dying. There seems to be an ever increasing amount of violence amongst the peoples of the world. Drought and famine appear to be increasing as well. I no longer watch scary movies, as the evening news is scary enough.
When I was growing up in the suburbs of Kansas City during the 1950' & ‘60's, we seldom locked the house doors and we left the keys in the car, unlocked. We were encouraged to be friendly to all others, including strangers. We didn’t have to walk around being afraid that someone might accost us, though we stayed out of the ‘bad part of town’.
Well, it’s a different world out there today. The ‘bad’ has invaded every part of town. So I am thankful that I have gotten to live when and where I have, and frankly, I feel somewhat sorry for the youth of today, though I have a feeling that they, too, will feel fortunate to have lived in their time while also feeling sorry for the young of their day. It appears that for much of Life, things are on a downward spiral.
Today I began my sixty-second year. Happy Birthday To Me...I am a part of the Great Baby Boom Generation that is now moving into the final act of human Life. One of the habits I formed many years ago is reading the Obituaries every day. I find it interesting and a great source of inspiration, reading about the lives of the departed ones, who they were and what they had accomplished as individuals here on Earth. The daily obituaries are peppered with my peers, most of whom may have missed out on this third act of Life.
'If,' as Leonard Pitts asks, 'Life's first act is about growing up, coming of age, learning the lessons that shape you, and the second is about acquiring things, getting ahead, building a career, shouldn’t the third be about something bigger than one’s own aspirations and comforts? Shouldn’t it be about doing something, leaving something, creating something that makes Life better for somebody else.' If I, as a member of the Enlightened Generation, am really going to be a part of doing something, or creating and leaving something that has the possibility of making Life better for others, then I had best begin to Change myself, for 'Change,' as Sheldon Stahl tells us, 'begins with one - the power of the individual. It’s not uncommon these days to be overcome with the notion that there is little we can do to alter the flow of the cosmos that sweeps us along in its current. This sense of powerlessness often results in a degree of passivity and paralysis that simply reinforces the notion that we really can’t Change anything, even if we should wish to do so. Yet history provides us with numerous examples of individuals who have made a profound difference. And we must know intuitively that there are among us even now individuals who by their actions are having an impact on our lives and the lives of generations yet unborn. A single drop of water may have no perceptible effect when it falls on stone. However, over time the result of innumerable drips on that stone will be to alter its form. That is to say, the power of one is most often imperceptible. But the power of many individuals united in their vison and in their actions is an altogether different situation. The nature of most societal Change is that it tends to proceed incrementally. Great changes are the exception, not the rule. They seldom emerge full blown, but are the result of a cumulative process over time. And at the root of all such transformation in our society, there must first be a Change in ourselves and in our thinking. Absent such a Change at the individual level, there can be no effective Change at the collective level. There resides in each of us the potential to initiate and to contribute to the process of Change, if we have the will to seize that potential and to act upon it. If we fail to participate in that process, or choose to stand aside, we run the risk of living rather barren lives. For as the futurist Alvin Toffler observed, 'Change is not merely necessary to live - it is Life.' To recognize this reality is to shun the excuse that our power of one, like the drop of water, is bereft of significance. Rather, in choosing action over inaction, we can make manifest the coda of Margaret Mead and join together as atomistic players in helping to Change our world through the combined ‘powers of ones'.' So let the Change begin. One by one, together we can transform the world....

No Spare Change - By Observers

"Change is upon us," says Bill Eckhardt. "It comes at an unnerving pace. Our foreign policy, our economy, our medical system, our means of communication, indeed the very basis of much of our knowledge seems to change daily. Change causes anxiety which can only be calmed with a commitment to educate ourselves so that it becomes less frightening. Change must be a friend rather than a foe. My hope for (today) is that (we) will do better at becoming comfortable with Change. That is quite a task for a society that now doubles it’s knowledge every seven years - but a very necessary one." To which we can at the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, "One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. - - One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. - - -The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. - - When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men." We don't have any time to spare....
It might be an understatement to say that the human race needs to wake up and Change.
But Will We ?

What's Really Important - True Love and True Relationships

Keep Asking Yourself, "What's Really Important?" By Richard Carlson
It's easy to get lost and overwhelmed in the chaos, responsibilities, and goals of life. Once overwhelmed, it's tempting to forget about and postpone that which is most near and dear to your heart. I've found that it's helpful to keep asking myself, "What's really important?"
As part of my early morning routine, I take a few seconds to ask myself this question. Reminding myself of what's really important helps me keep my priorities straight. It reminds me that, despite my multitude of responsibilities, I have a choice of what is most important in my life and where I put my greatest amount of energy...
Despite the appearance of being overly simplistic, I have found this strategy to be immensely helpful in keeping me on track. When I take a few moments to remind myself of what's really important, I find that I'm more present-moment oriented, in less of a hurry, and that being right loses its appeal. Conversely, when I forget to remind myself of what's really important, I find that I can quickly lose sight of my priorities and, once again, get lost in my own busy-ness. I'll rush out the door, work late....and do other things that are in conflict with the goals of my life.
If you regularly take a minute to check in with yourself, to ask yourself, "What's really important?" you may find that some of the choices you are making are in conflict with your own stated goals. This strategy can help you align your actions with more conscious, loving decisions.
True Love and True Relationships By Unknown Observers
We love those for whom we happily labor, and we happily labor for those whom we love.
Love is the active care and concern for the life, growth and happiness of the ones we love... Care and concern imply another aspect of love; that of responsibility.
Responsibility in its true sense is an entirely voluntary act; it is our response to the needs, expressed or unexpressed, of another human being. Love is the condition which exists when the welfare, well-being and happiness of another human being is almost as important to us as our own welfare, well-being and happiness. This is the true meaning of the word Love
Happy relationships aren't the result to luck. A relationship has to be a constant evolution. Though we each remain as separate, distinct entities, while once we were two, not we are three. The two of us as individuals, and the union which our relationship now forms. In this respect, our love makes us one.
There is, of course, a difference between being 'in love' with someone and truly 'loving' them. Being 'in love' is something we do for ourselves, while 'loving' is something we do for the other person. To love another person, we must really care for them and encourage them in their own personal growth, whatever their direction.
A relationship isn't something we have, it's something we do. It's about attentiveness, anticipating our partner's need and what they like. If we want them to try to fill our life with a little warmth and love, then we have to do that for them. We can't just be takers, we have to be givers, too.
The most important sphere of giving is not that of material things, but lies in the specifically human realm. What can we give to each other?
We can give of ourselves, of our lives. This doesn't not mean that we sacrifice our life for the other - but that we give that which is alive in us; we give of our joy, of our interest, of our understanding, of our knowledge, of our humor, of our sadness, and of all the expressions of that which is alive in us....giving implies to make the other person a giver also and we shall both share in the Joy of the Love that we have brought to Life. This is the meaning of a True Relationship...

The Law Of Convergence

"A Jesuit philosopher, Frenchman Teilhard de Chardin, foretold before his death in 1955 that “a new law of nature has come into force – that of convergence. The hitherto scattered species, Homo sapiens, is being united by a single nervous system for humanity, a living membrane, a single stupendous thinking machine.”
President Kennedy once proclaimed that “those who would make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolutions inevitable.
Who could have envisioned mass-produced automobiles back in 1850, airplanes back in 1900, or the information age back in 1950? Don’t stop now thinking about tomorrow. We should reignite our creativity engines, toward the next evolution of humanity.
Others will succeed Henry Ford, the Wright brothers and Bill Gates; and they will facilitate the creation of still another frontier.
And we will lead the world toward whatever is the next evolutionary phase in the progress of Homo sapiens," writes Otto Rieke.
It is important for us to live in the moment, but it is equally important for us to envision the long view of the future. It's kind of like driving on the highway. It's important to know what is directly in front of us, but it is also important to keep an eye on what's coming at us from a distance so that we are better able to prepare for what will soon be directly in front of us. The law of convergence tells us that as our numbers grow and we learn to assimiate other cultures into our own, we naturally will become more acceptive of the fact of our human existence. We truly are just one race - the human race.... If we examine the long view of what life might be like in the next one hundred years, it is impossible to believe that we will remain as we are today...How can we not become one world - all living in the United Nations?

Drug Problems

By An Unknown Observer
The other day, someone at a store in a small town read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farm house in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, "Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?" Well, I did have a drug problem when I was a kid growing up. I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter what. I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher. Or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me. I was drug to the kitchen sink if I uttered a profane four-letter word (I know what soap tastes like). I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad's fields. I was drug to the homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some fire wood, and if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the wood shed. Those drugs are still in my veins, and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack or heroin, and if today's children only had this kind of drug problem, our world might be a better place today. Unknown Author
I find it odd that we wage this 'war on drugs' when on every other town corner everywhere there is a 'Drug Store'. It may be a franchise of a large chain or a small mom and pop, family owned store, but our children grow up watching us go to the 'drug store' to get 'drugs' to cure whatever it is we think we are suffering from. And we are bombarded from all sides by the media, whose ads encourage us to buy and 'use' this or that drug. What else could we possibly expect but a society of drug addicts. Our chickens are coming home to roost. We are only reaping what we have sown. But who cares? Who Really Cares ?

In The Beginning

IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS THE UNIVERSE!
The Universe, that is to say, all that exists, comprises the living, expanding, ever-evolving ORGANISM UNIVERSE. It is hard for us to comprehend, but it is true. The Universe, Itself, is the supreme Organism. We humans are just a very minute part of the living whole organism, just as those microscopic mites that live on our skin are a very minute part of the human organism. And as the mite has no conception of its living host, so the human has been, and still is, for the most part, incapable of comprehending the truth of our own existence. This is not really such a difficult concept to grasp, it is just a different way of looking at things; the same things we’ve always inwardly known. These truths are still valid but now must begin to be understood from a different point of view. It may be hard to conceive of the Universe as a living entity, and maybe even harder to conceive of this Living Universe as the Supreme Intellect, but if we try, we might learn how to Change our minds.
Writing in the introduction to Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief History Of Time’, Carl Sagan tells us that, "We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an Earth that would otherwise send us spinning off into space, or to the atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally depend. Except for children - - few of us spend much time wondering why nature is the way ikt is; where the cosmos came from, or whether it was always here; if time will one day flow backward and effects precede causes; or whether there are ultimate limits to what humans can know. There are children - - who want to know what a black hole looks like; what is the smallest piece of matter - - how it is, if there was chaos early, that there is, apparently, order today; and why there is a universe.In our society it is still customary for parents and teachers to answer most of these questions with a shrug, or with an appeal to vaguely recalled religious precepts. Some are uncomfortable with issues like these, because they so vividly expose the limitation of human understanding.But much of philosophy and science has been driven by such inquiries. An increasing number of adults are willing to ask questions of this sort, and occasionally they get some astonishing answers. Equidistant from the atoms and the stars, we are expanding our exploratory horizons to embrace both the very small and the very large"
It appears that as the human race continues the exploration if its universe, we become capable of seeing both smaller and smaller, and at the same time, larger and larger, with all that we see a part of the same Universe. We just have to open our eyes and accept what we see.....

Your Mind Can Map Your Destiny

By Ben Carson
At medical school, I decided to make neurosurgery my lifelong passion. I was impressed by the clinical presentations made by the neurosurgeons there, but the deciding factor was my own analysis of my god-given gifts: I had a tremendous amount of eye-hand coordination as well as an ability to think and visualize in three dimensions, a crucial skill. The brain does not contain many landmarks, and a neurosurgeon must be able to imagine readily where all the numerous nuclei, tracts and neurological pathways are situated.
After that first glimpse around the dissection table, the landscape of the brain continued to hold a fascination for me. Two years later, I saw it again in a living patient. Once again, I awaited the moment of revelation. This time, as the dura was folded back, the mysterious mass pulsated with life - and I had a sudden, startling insight: This conglomerate of billions of neurons and hundreds of billions of interconnections was the actual physical thing that gave each of us our distinct personality, the intellectual and emotional characteristics that made each person unique.
The organ systems of the brain is one of incredible complexity and power. It can process millions of pieces of information per second. It remembers everything a person has ever seen or heard. For example, by placing special electrodes into the parts of the brain that control memory, you can stimulate recall in an 85-year-old so specific that he could quote verbatim a newspaper article read a half-century earlier.
One characteristic of the brain in particular makes us essentially human and distinguishes our brains from those of animals: the presence of very large frontal lobes. They enable us to engage in rational thought-processing, to extract information from the past and the present, analyze it and use our conclusions to project a course of future action.
Animals are victims of circumstance. They can only react to their environment. But humans, thanks to our front lobes, can plan, strategize and exercise control over our environments..We don’t have to be victims who simply react.
I learned that truth about frontal lobes at age 10, when - not doing well in school and guided initially by my mother’s firm hand - I made a decision to change my life’s direction. Within a year and a half, by devouring book after book, I had migrated from the bottom of my fifth-grade class to the top of my seventh-grade class. This academic transformation was so dramatic that one might have suspected a brain transplant, if such a thing were possible. ‘The actual change occurred in my self-perception and my expectations. I had gone from victim to master planner.
By age 14, my mind was plotting my future. Reading biographies of successful people, I realized that I could change my circumstances of poverty by programming my brain with the kind of information that would guarantee academic success. That, I believed, would allow me to choose my own destiny.
I encountered negative people who tried to discourage me and put a lid on my dreams. I chose to regard them simply as environmental hazards to be carefully swept aside.
My strongest supporter and inspiration throughout this metamorphosis was my mother. She was one of 24 children, had only a third-grade education and was married by age 13. She steadfastly encouraged my brother and me to read, though she never learned herself.
Many times, as I progressed from medical student to professor of neurological surgery, I was struck by the anatomical beauty of the brain and the extraordinary things medicine could do to improve the quality of life. Yet, at the same time, I became increasingly fascinated with the unbounded intellectual potential contained within that 1400 -gram (3 pound) structure. The human brain, I came to realize, is simply a mechanical component of an entity of far greater beauty and power: the mind. I was awed by what an inspired and disciplined mind could accomplish.
Within every child’s brain is a mind teeming with ideas and dreams and abilities unrealized. The greatest thing we can do - as parents, teachers and friends - is to nourish that potential, both intellectual and humanitarian, so the each mind can fulfill its promise to the benefit of mankind.

Intelligent Design - Windows to God’s Work - - - Kate Barsotti

A few months ago I bought two mice. I housed them in a terrarium with toys, but the mice grew listless.
They gazed at me with dull, whiskered looks that seemed to say, "Really, is this the best you can do?" With a renewed appreciation for what parents go through to please their children - I, after all, was only trying to secure the happiness of rodents - I discovered pet accessories.
The mice now reside in a Habitrail manor with a maze, dining room and bedroom loft. While they may not live in a mouse paradise, at least Thelma and Louise no longer appear bored.
The cage is a designed system. The mice have everything they might want, but they still squabble over the exercise wheel and steal corn kernels from each other’s paws. In other words, the mice stay busy being mice. I, godlike, take care of everything else. Which leads me, by roundabout route, to questions implied by intelligent design;
Was life designed by a higher power? Are we able to comprehend divine purpose, any more than a mouse understands human intentions? Would my charges survive just as well without me?
Scientists observe natural phenomena, examining fossils and genetic mutations to verify evolutionary principles. There are gaps in the fossil record, because many creatures didn’t leave traces or we have yet to find them.
Evolution doesn’t explain everything. It doesn’t address what, or who, stirred the primordial soup. Or why. To use the mice as an analogy, science examines the cage and its inhabitants but not the keeper - the material and mathematical, not the metaphysical or moral.
Intelligent design substitutes observation for guess-what-God-is-thinking. Did she only draw the blueprints, or is she tinkering? Are disasters punishments for sin or planetary indigestion? Does species extinction mean that the habitats are unhealthy or that Armageddon is near?
We can’t test such questions now, although physicists are exploring the relationship between consciousness and matter.
The current passion attached to intelligent design is rooted in public education’s elimination of prayer and creches from their grounds. Have schools gone too far? Perhaps.
But special interests of all political flavors force personal values through board takeovers, court decisions and legislation. Compromise is unthinkable. We feel persecuted if we aren’t in control and crafting institutions in our own image.
The line between church and state, though artificial is like the boundary in Robert Frost’s ‘Mending Wall’: the good fence that makes good neighbors. Here we sit in the 21st century with a rich banquet of scientific knowledge and spiritual tradition, and instead of partaking of each course, our response is to have a food fight.
Naturalist Louis Agassiz, who saw God’s plan revealed in nature, said: "Every great scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Next they say it had been discovered before. Lastly they say they always believed it."
Intelligent design doesn’t belong in textbooks; science should be in Sunday school. Why? If nature is God’s expression - God’s language - then natural things are the Rosetta stone.
Every dyed-in-the-wool creationist should have bird-watching binoculars and a garden trowel. The anatomy of a leaf should be his verse, the workings of a dragonfly’s eye, inspiration. The spiritual seeker doesn’t replicate miracles in a laboratory or test faith like measuring cholesterol. Experience is evidence. Truth, not fact, is its realm.
British scientist and atheist J.B.S. Haldane reportedly said, "If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation, it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles."
People have a special fondness for questions. They are even fonder of their particular answers and the rather Darwinian struggle for the supremacy of their paradigm and its (per)mutations. What we lose in this process is intellectual rigor for science, discovery in faith and the humbling of doubt in both. William Shakespeare, naturally, said it best: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Thelma and Louise, thank goodness, don’t have and agenda beyond millet and sunflower seeds. Design looks premeditated in hindsight. But creativity is messy, unpredictable. The smallest relationship has weight. My routine now includes fretting over the best wood chews and daily mouse observations. In still moments, I look over my shoulder and catch them watching me.

Observe Nature To Learn Life's Lessons...

A LESSON FROM GEESE (Author unknown)
Have you ever wondered why migrating geese fly in a V formation?
As with most animal behavior - it is included in their instincts.
As each bird flaps it’s wings, it creates uplift for the birds following.
In a V formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% more flying range than if each bird flew alone. Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone...And quickly gets back into formation.
Like geese..People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier than those who try to go it alone.
When a leading goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position. If people had as much sense as geese, they would realize that ultimately their success depends on working as a team, taking turns doing the hard tasks, and sharing leadership.
Geese in the rear of the formation honk to encourage those up front to up their speed. It is important that our ‘honking’ be encouraging. Otherwise, it’s just - well - honking.
When a goose gets sick or wounded, two other geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and provide protection. The stay with the unhealthy member of the flock until it is either able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out again with another passing flock or try to catch up with their own. May we be so sacrificial, that we may be worthy of such friends in our time of need.
You don’t have to be a scientist - to learn from Creation; you only need to stop long enough to observe and let nature’s wonders be revealed.
"Ask the beasts, and they will teach you; Ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you." (Job12;7-8)

See there... We knew where to look for Life's lessons all along but are blinded by our egotism.

It is time we get over it....

Shift Happens So Get Ready

SHIFT HAPPENS by Karl Fisch
Did You Know ? Sometimes size does matter.
If your are one in a million in China, there are 1300 people just like you. In India, there are 1100 people just like you. The 25% of the population in China with the highest IQ is greater than the total population of North America. In India, it’s the top 28%. Translation for teachers; They have more honors kids than we have kids.
Did You Know?
China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world. If you took every single job in the U.S. today and shipped it to China, it would still have a labor surplus. During the (time it takes to read this article) sixty babies will be born in the U.S., 244 babies will be born in China, 351 Babies will be born in India.
The Department Of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38. One out of four workers today is working for a company for whom the have been employed less than a year. More than one out of two are working for a company for whom the have worked less that five years. According to Richard Riley ‘the top ten jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist using technologies that haven’t yet been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet’.
The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet. There are about 540,000 words in the English language - about five times as many as during Shakespeare’s time. It is estimated that 1.5 exabytes of new information will be generated worldwide this year. That’s estimated to be more than in the previous 5,000 years. The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. For students starting a 4 year technical or college degree this means that half of what the learn in their first year of study will be outdated by theri third year of study. It is predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.
Third generation fiber optics has recently been tested by both NEC and Alcatel that pushes 10 trillion bits per second down one strand of fiber. That’s 1900 CDs or 150 million simultaneous phone calls every second. It is currently tripling about every six months and is expected to do so for at least the next 20 years.
Predictions are that e-paper will be cheaper than real paper.
Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain. By 2023, when (today’s) first graders will be just 23 years old and beginning their (first) careers, it only will take a $1000.00 computer to exceed the capabilities of the human brain. And while predictions farther out than 15 years are hard to make, predictions are that by 2049 a $1000.00 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.
What Does It All Mean? Shift Happens....... Now You Know... Karl Fisch
The world’s population will grow to 9 billion by 2050. To meet human nutritional needs over the next 40 years, global agriculture will have to supply as much food as has been produced during all of human history.
The pace of technological change accelerates with each new generation of discoveries and applications. Experience simultaneously reaches forward and backward and thus shapes the present. L. Dennis Higgins

I guess I am glad that I am already in my sixties and got to live most of my life in the 20th Century because it looks like the 21st Century is going to be rather chaotic - at least for this old guy....

Lost Memory

Today I had expected that I would be looking back upon a really fun weekend. Such is not the case. I had spent several months and considerable energy helping to push for a certain thing to happen, which it in fact did. The last two days have been the ceremonies and celebrations that went along with the annual affair. This would have been the first year I attended -and attended specifically to support the recipients of my energies as they received their awards. There were two full evenings of festivities. I had purchased my tickets and reserved my hotel room. Everything was set. - Then I didn't go. Partly due to the ice and snow storm, but mostly due to a severely infected ear that had been hurting me for better than a week. And the cold wind blowing made the whole side of my head hurt. I almost went, I came very close. But my better judgment just kept telling me - stay home - Stay Home - STAY HOME ....... So even though I couldn't believe it myself - I Stayed Home ...I missed out on doing something that I had wanted to do for a long time...and it was a once in a lifetime kind of thing..I have a lost memory of the event. Needless to say, I am saddened by the fact that I missed it...But Life Goes On...I know that some of those who attended will provide me with all the details of what I missed.
So what am I to do ?
Guess I will just relish the fact of the ceremonies importance and that the goal was achieved.
For Every Negative In Life, There Is At Least One Positive.

It's The New Same Ol Same Ol ......

January 1, 2007 - 12:00 PM CST...Twelve hours old, just finishing up the last minutes of The Rose Bowl Parade - and switching between MSNBC and CNN to keep up with the lastest late breaking news, which, as one might expect, is just more of the same ol same ol that we hear every other day. Think I'll watch a movie - though it, too, is likely to be just more of the same ol same ol stuff. Has the word 'new' really taken on another meaning, now just being an adjective that really means 'same thing, but different'? At the rate our technology is advancing, we are introduced to 'new' technological advances on a daily basis. As we assimilate and absorb this rapidly evolving, constantly escalating, and ever changing technological global society which we who are living here in the post-dawn of the twenty-first century are witness too, we are finding that 'new and improved' really just means 'improved'. And frankly, the word' improved' doesn't always apply to the updated version of the original, as the effort to make a less expensive product generally leads to a cheaper quality as well. So it'll be another year of the same ol same ol and 365 days from now everything will be the same, but different. Who knows what unexpected events will take place between now and then. Some great people will die this year, some great people will be born, and the greatness of some who are now unknown will become evident. We will be introduced to the lasted gadgets, which will replace the new ones we just bought which, in many cases, are obsolete before we even have a chance to read the multi-lingual instruction book. It's bound to be a great year, as great as a year could be, considering the general state of the human race and the mess we have made of things. It's going to be 'a heck of a ' ride, so I think I will buckle up and hang on, for 'guess what' is going to happen???