Opus 2025-123: Living the Dream

It occurred to me this morning that both my wife and I are living out our dream as we are in the age of retirement.  The dreams go totally opposite ways.  That causes some conflict.  That is a mild statement compared to reality.  But we’re working it out.

I am rejoicing in retirement.  I am an introvert.  I enjoy my own company for the most part.  I can enjoy the company of others but it is draining on me.  I will confess that sometimes the drain is worth it.  I think of one day recently where after getting up without an alarm and spending a good time in worship and going for a walk, I then join a zoom call with a bunch of like-minded old geezers.  It didn’t end there.  After that I had a friend call and we spent several hours arguing about his plan of the end times.  That evening I went out to dinner with my son.  It was a glorious day of interaction.  It was a totally exhausting experience.  I’m glad I did it.  I’m glad it doesn’t happen every day.

So I am enjoying retirement.  I have lots of time to sit out on the front porch and enjoy God‘s creation.  I have time to study.  I have time to write.  I have time to read.  I have time to take naps.  And God is provided enough resources for me to do that without worrying about where my next meal will come from or can I pay the electricity bill.  Life is good

My wife on the other hand is an extrovert.  She’s not happy unless she’s out changing the world.  For her that means being in charge of things and helping people in need.  So she’s out rushing from crisis to crisis, complaining about all the demands on her time, struggling with her physical issues, and to be honest, enjoying every minute of it.  She is doing what she always wanted, but I don’t know if she even sees it.  But after a lifetime invested in raising her children, and raising her mother, she is now free to try and raise the rest of the world.  She gets to worry about where her next meal is coming from.  She gets to worry about the electricity bill.  She’s been doing that for years to the point where we realized that every time she told us we wouldn’t make it to the end of the month, we were going to starve, it was just her way of budgeting.  For her life is good.

Isn’t it fascinating how we are all different and how different things make us happy.  It’s also interesting.  How seldom we realize how suited we are for the life we’re living in the environment that we have established.  We made decisions.  We set priorities.  And now we get to live in them.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-122: Knowledge and Understanding

As I read in different parts of the Old Testament, the awe the ancients felt at creation strikes me as being very different than our attitude today.  As they looked at the star struck sky, undiminished by light pollution, they told themselves that this didn’t just happen.  They tried to come up with all kinds of explanations, but all of them pointed to the existence of a Creator.  When God spoke to them, and explained that He had made it all they accepted that.  It didn’t fill in all the blanks of knowledge, but it gave them the understanding they needed to live their lives.

Today we have the knowledge that they lacked, or we at least have a lot more than they did.  With knowledge comes arrogance.  Arrogance unrecognized becomes a pathological condition.  We think that because we know the distance to the closest star, or can measure the extent of the expanding galaxy, somehow we are better prepared to live life.  Well, we have increased knowledge but what we lack is the understanding how to apply that knowledge and what it means.

You see knowledge doesn’t mean understanding.  I can recite for you Einstein’s equation E= MC2 squared.  I can define each element in the equation.  What I can’t do is explain how such a thing as possible.  Even Einstein came up short on that.

Most people are too busy living lives to worry about whether the universe is expanding or not.  They really don’t know how to apply the concept of the big bang and what difference it makes whether a monkey became a man.  They do, in the midst of their pursuit of food and shelter, stop to wonder, “Why?”  They might once in a while wander into the question of, “how?” But “how” is not as important to them as “why”.  How they treat their neighbor does not depend on whether they evolved or not but it might depend on the existence of a creator and universal truth.

Seek knowledge.  Seek understanding even more.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-121: Click Bait: Out of Reach

I was glancing through the offerings that the algorithm of YouTube was putting up and I noticed a bit of click bait that represents a common genre.  It had to do with people telling you what is the best.  In this case, it was the best tasting ground coffee.

I have no problem with people posting these things and entertaining the general population.  That’s what free enterprise and entrepreneurship is all about.  I don’t spend a lot of time with them because their conclusions are meaningless to me.

The first reason it’s meaningless is that we all have different taste buds and different preferences.  The video declares what they claim to be the best in their opinion.  I’m not sure what value their opinion is because I know enough about how we experience sensory stimulation to say that my results would be different on different days.  For instance, I make coffee every morning.  I make it the same way as far as I’m able.  It taste different every day.  And for that matter, first taste is often different than the last cup.

Some differences will never be over.  For instance some people swear that French roast coffee is the only way to drink.  If enough of my taste buds die, then the bitterness may be overcome by whatever it is they see in it but for right now it’s not on my agenda.  I was having a discussion this week about how to cook a steak.  I prefer my steaks to resemble charcoal briquettes.  Anything less is like going out and chewing on the cow while it’s still in the field, in my humble opinion of course.  I have tried medium and rare.  I have not had the nerve to try it “cooked” blue.  Even well done isn’t enough for me.  Viva la difference.

The second reason is that often the brands and products that they are talking about are not available in my area.  I can usually see that by looking at the pictures.  We are getting more standardized in our culture and losing a lot of variety, but there are still brands that focus on one part of the country.  There are some stores that have very little variety.  I can only assume that the people shopping there are content with what has been forever.  And coffee, I can drink your Folgers and Maxwell House with a smile on my face.  I don’t get ballistic about it.  I have instant coffee on my shelf.  As long as I acknowledged to myself that it is instant coffee, I can enjoy it.  However I have gotten to the place where I like to get whole beans and grind them and experiment with different blends.  I have my preferences, but even those are limited by a lack of variety.

Click bait will always remain click bait.  Like any other area of life it might require discernment, or just to be ignored. You choose.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-120: MAGA Shelf Life

Right now, when you use the acronym, MAGA people know what you’re talking about.  It carries a certain body of principles and priorities.  It has been embraced by the American people.  Obviously, everyone doesn’t like it but the grass roots, the ordinary people who work for a living tend to like the idea of making America great again.  They tend to love their country, and even if they don’t I understand all the principles behind it, or even know what’s in the first amendment, they have a gut level understanding of what liberty is and how it works.

MAGA says all of that.

For how long?  One of the problems with labels is that they start off being very descriptive and very useful but in the course of time people who have different agendas begin to adopt them, and it changes the whole meaning.  I noticed that in the videos of the Trump victory.  At one point he had a group singing the song, YMCA.  When I was a kid YMCA stood for Young Men’s Christian Association.  As a kid, I took swimming lessons at the local YMCA.  As a teenager, our church had a basketball team in the YMCA church league.  It used to be a very useful organization with solid values and Christian principles.

Now YMCA has become the theme song of the homosexual movement.  It has lost its meaning.

It used to be that being an evangelical meant some thing.  It meant you believe that the Bible is the word of God.  It meant that you believe that Jesus was God incarnate.  It meant that you believe that you were saved by grace through faith.  It made a lot of things that people understood.  The root of the word was the idea of evangelism, which is based on the idea of the Greek word meaning, good news.

Not so much anymore.  The term evangelical has become pretty much meaningless as a mark of spiritual life.

I expect the same thing will happen to MAGA.  It will be eventually co-opted by people who want anything but to make America great again.  They will use the term for photo ops.  In the process they will eventually pervert the whole thing.  Get ready for it.  Be prepared.  Be aware.  Keep the acronyms feet to the fire.  When it gets diluted and polluted, then it will be time to move on.  It will be time for a new label.

Life is fluid.  The world changes around us.  Let’s keep hustling to keep up.  In a perfect world we would be in the lead, and the people who are America haters and liberty resistors would have to be hustling to catch us.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-119: Reading Immune System

Sometimes I wonder why I finished reading certain books.  I wonder why I read some of the Clickbait that I get tricked into.  I wonder why I have a long conversations with people who won’t listen and who are rigid and seem to be unable to put facts together.  It occurred to me perhaps it is a case of building up my immunity to various mental and intellectual deficiencies.

Just as our immune system gathers strength as it is exposed to different attacks from viruses and bacteria, I think our intellectual ability also can be strengthened by the controversy that comes from dealing with irrational thinking.  I have a list of things that I call “timeless illustrations.”  You may hear me use them time and time again and that’s because they’re so effective.  One of them has to do with how bank tellers can tell counterfeit bills without a lot of complex chemical or visual examination.  The reason they can tell what counterfeit is like is because they know what the real thing feels like.  They touch a bill and they know there’s something wrong with it.

In the same way our contact with faulty logic, false facts and fake news is a catalyst because we know how to think and we know what truth is.  Think of the clickbait you see on a regular basis.  It doesn’t take much experience to realize touching the link is a waste of time.  I’ve learned that any time the title talks about how Charlie Kirk destroys a liberal student it’s a bit of an exaggeration.  Yes, he does correct their fallacies but he doesn’t come close to destroying them.  For one thing he is too polite for that to happen.  If you’re looking for something dramatic, keep looking.  Same thing with extremist types of words such as “hilarious”, “New discovery”, “you will be shocked” and “Best”.

I remember when I first started blogging I got excited because I had so many comments left on a post.  It didn’t take very long to realize that the vast majority were just bots laying some nonsense on me.  When I wrote about a Supreme Court decision and the comment has to do with Viagra, I can catch on pretty quick.  That’s what made me start to moderate my comments.  The current level of programming the bots, sometimes labeled AI, is getting more clever, and actually puts some sentences together that make sense.  The thing is, if you read what is there you find that it only touches briefly on what post says, and the rest is just nonsense.

So sometimes I will finish a book or an article, because it might give me a little bit of edge to recognize nonsense more effectively in the future.  It is also a good way to drift into a nap.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-118: All Pain Is Not Equal

As I was looking at a major struggle in my life the passage of scripture that talks about the thorn in the flesh came to mind.

2 Corinthians 12:7 (KJV) And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

There are all kinds of applications to this.  We tend to often exaggerate the difficulties we face.  But there are some which qualify as thorns in the flesh.

Whenever I think about thorns in the flesh and how they fester and cause ongoing pain and discomfort my mind turns to the blessings of my life.  In spite of the thorns, blessings are still there.  I thought of those mornings years ago on my way to prepare for my day, stumbling into the walls, heading for the kitchen to turn on the coffee and asking myself, why am I doing this?  On the way I would have to go by the doors to my children’s bedrooms.  That would remind me why I would do this.

That made me think of how my children presented their own difficulties.  I don’t know how many times I shook my head about the way my children are acting.  I know I frequently threatened to take my son back to the hospital and get a refund.  Fortunately I never acted on it.

There is a big difference between a thorn in the flesh and a pain in the neck.  I know people who are not happy about how their children have turned out so far.  They have become a thorn.  If all goes well they are really only a pain in the neck which goes away in time.  When we are in pain we tend to focus on it and magnify it out of proportion.  Afterward it doesn’t seem so bad.

A thorn is a problem that needs to be removed.  If it is so deep that it can’t be removed it needs to be endured.  Dare I utter the phrase, “It builds character”?   A pain is a warning that there is a problem.  A pain in the neck could be anything from cancer to just sleeping wrong.  

Maybe we could make up a little sign that reminds us of the difference between a thorn and a pain.  THORN OR PAIN?

I hope that I am never a thorn and can keep from inflicting pain.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-117: Early Warning Signs

Ladies, I’m here to tell you it starts early.  This morning after spending the night with us, my grandson was in the living room playing with his Legos.  Now that involves a speaking part, moving things around and making the noises of engines and rifling through piles of little color blocks, a very energetic time.

Then everything stops.  This is the warning sign I’m talking about.  I watch the boy.  He sits there for a long period of time, not moving, staring vacantly into the distance.  After a while, I ask him what he’s doing.  If he were older I might ask him what he’s thinking.  If he were older, he would tell me, “Nothing.”

You may think your husband is the only one that does this.  It seems to be a common male trait.

I think all of the great philosophers spent a long time sitting staring at nothing.  Picture Socrates, looking at the wall.  Imagine Plato staring at shadows.  Can’t you just picture Mrs. Aristotle saying what do you thinking about?  She would be no more satisfied with the answer then you ladies are today.  He would answer dismissively, “Nothing.”

It’s even possible that he wasn’t thinking about anything.  True creativity comes as it did to God as He created the heavens and the Earth, ex nihilo.  It’s part of being created in God’s image.  The juices cheer quietly in your stomach.  The blood pumps out of sight.  Air goes in and out of your lungs.  And metabolism happens.   

So don’t interrupt.  Or if you do, don’t be disappointed if the answer is simply the fertilizer for a great thought of the future.  Every man is a philosopher.  Every woman thinks there’s nothing there, and to a degree, they are right.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-116: Kitty Joy

The other day we were out in the backyard amusing our grandson.  My wife was also looking for her cat.  She still has this idea that she can control the cat and make sure that it is where it’s supposed to be.  Eventually it came out and follwed her around a little bit and she was happy, until she watched the cat for a while.

The cat found a bit of open ground and decided that he would bring great joy to his feline heart if he rolled in the dust.  He had a great time rolling back-and-forth, back-and-forth.  He was a real dusty muffin by the time you got through.  I thought it looked like he was having a lot of fun.  She was horrified that her precious kitty was so dirty.

This illustrates one of those great differences between men and women, or at least between my wife and I.  All she could see, was the dirt on the cat.  What I saw was an animal reveling in life.

We are all different.  Some are more different than others.  Some of the biggest differences are between men and women.  I wonder what would happen if I went and rolled in the dust.  On second thought, I might not live to post about the experience.  If you never hear from me again you can assume I succumbed to temptation.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-115: Who Needs Algebra?

When I talk to people about what goes on in schools and what is required, I often get the question of, “Who needs algebra?”  While I understand what they’re saying, I personally have found algebra to be very useful in my daily chores.  I use it on a regular basis in my spreadsheets and I use spreadsheets for all kinds of things.  So to me algebra is useful.  It’s the kind of thing that you use without thinking about it or by name.

Another thing is cursive writing, who needs it?  One video I was watching pointed out that if you can’t read cursive, then you can’t read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution in their original form.  Now, you may think that’s not necessary, if you look into how much the elite cabal is censoring and changing history you might find it an important skill to have.

But what got me going on this was grammar.  Who needs grammar?  I find that I need to look it up all the time to understand my Bible properly.  This week I had to look up the meanings of direct objects and indirect objects.  I also was looking up the cases.  What does it mean when a word is in the genitive?  What does the dative case convey?  And that was just this week.  Now if I had perfect memory, I would remember those things from taking grammar from elementary school through high school.  But then, again, if I never took them, I couldn’t remember.

So yes, just because you aren’t aware that you’re using them, just because you didn’t use them today, just because you don’t understand them doesn’t mean that certain skills and knowledge are not important to you as an educated and well-rounded person.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-114: Poetry and Prophecy

There are two areas of biblical literature that make me want to do somersaults and scream, “No!”  They would be poetry and prophecy.

Poetry whether it is biblical or not always gives me fits.  I do not enjoy poetry as poetry.  When I’m reading a book and the author includes poetry I tend to just skip over it.  This can be in some kind of science fiction or a work of history, it doesn’t matter.  Somehow when things are written in verse my brain shuts down.  So far I don’t think it’s causing me any great misunderstanding of what the author was trying to say.

Prophecy also tends to make my brain shut down.  I am talking here about the kind of prophecy that would be categorized as foretelling rather than forth telling. Forth telling is just good preaching, and I need to learn to listen to that.  Foretelling is different.  It has to do with commenting on future events.  The problem for me is that I have this belief that this kind of prophecy was not written to be understood.  We might understand it, but it will be too late to change anything.

What happens in both of these types of literature is that the mind of the author goes off the deep end as they try to describe the undescribable.  In poetry the creative muse is leading them down paths in their mind that are almost impossible to explain to someone who’s outside their mind.  They use every different type of literary device to try and transfer the emotions and conceptual stews that are raging inside them. The same type of problem comes with divine messages.  In one place Paul specifically calls our attention to this.

2 Corinthians 12:3-4 (KJV) 3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) 4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

I ran into this recently in the poetry of David,

Psalms 18:8-10 (KJV) 8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. 9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness [was] under his feet. 10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

If you ever had an intimate time of worship with the Lord, do you know how hard it is to describe to someone what you’re experiencing.  David had that problem regularly.

When you go to prophecies, such as Daniel and Ezekiel and Revelation, you encounter the same issue.  How much is to be taking literally?  How much is figurative?  And how much doesn’t fit into either category?

When people tell me that some famous person is a world-class poet, I just kind of nod my head and don’t argue.  When someone tells me that they understand what the book of Revelation is talking about and have it all planned out what God is going to do in the end times I have a similar reaction but it tends more to laughing out loud.

And then I get on with my day, knowing that there are many things that I can grapple with and actually make progress.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-113: Investment Opportunity

I’m thinking that there might be a lot of money to be made by offering a line of stylishly designed tin hats.  We all are aware of conspiracy theories.  Most of us are aware that conspiracy theories tend to turn out to be true.  As we look at the increasing number of people who are coming down with cancers and other physical problems that have not been on our radar, often we can see the association with the vaccines that were pushed upon us.  Recently, we heard about a death at my wife’s church.  A woman in her 40's with several children suddenly died of cancer.  It didn’t make any sense.  Then one day, my wife asked me if I remembered that young woman who just died. I said, “Yes.”  She answered with one word, “vaccinated.”

Now that is just one of the conspiracy theories that seems to be panning out to our horror and dismay.  What we tend to overlook are those people who have been wearing the tin hats for years, claiming that vaccines were causing a lot of the problems we were seeing in our young people.  The correlation between autism and vaccines is very strong.  While keeping in mind the fact that correlation does not mean causation, it certainly is an indication to do some research and digging into the data.  Such research, if it is being done, is being covered up.  More conspiracy theories that seem to pan out in the end.

Anyway, I’m wondering if we could start a business and market the hats that the apocryphal conspiracy nuts wore made of tin or aluminum.  I’m not sure what the point of them was, what they were mocking, or what the caused the fear.  I think it had to do with blocking mysterious beams from penetrating your mind and controling your actions by wearing a tin hat.  If we had a good marketing campaign and PR people, we could probably convince the sheep who continue to vote for Democrats that this was the way to be with it and cool.  We could probably find an Italian designer to come up with new ways of folding.  We might decorate with rabbits’ feet or crystals.

There is a fortune waiting to be made, or to paraphrase an old phrase, “There’s gold in them thar tin hats.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-112: The Destruction of Diversity

As I went through some old notes I noticed a comment from 10 years ago about Ukraine as the Russians were flexing muscles.  What we see taking place in Eastern Europe is nothing new.  It also illustrates a concept that most Americans don’t think about much but our elites are trying to make central.  That is the concept of ethnic awareness.  Ukraine, like Lithuania and Estonia all have large minorities that still consider themselves Russians.  This is an issue.  They view their ethnic background as a major part of whom they are and their nation of residence a lesser allegiance.  Tribal identities are big dividers in the world and the cause of much of the violence.

Take a brief look at our world, even today.  The conflict in India is between the Hindu and Islamic cultures.  Go to China as they are working on exterminating the Uyghurs.  If you do a search on “Chinese persecution of...” you come up with Tibetans, Falun Gong, Buddhists, Christians and that doesn’t even touch on the historic differences across China.  If you remember the brutal killing going on in Ruanda, it was tribal, and as I write it is going on again.  In the middle east it isn’t just Jews against Palestinians but various Arab groups killing each other.  The Soviet Union was an uncomfortable union of many ethnic groups.

The Russians are one group that knows how to work this for their advantage.  They are tribes and the Soviet Union divided these nations along tribal lines.  It kept them from uniting.  Keep the tribes bickering and you can control them.  We have elitists in American that are trying to get us to divide and bicker over our ethinic identities.  They want to destroy the unity of the country.  They have pushed us a long way down the road of Balkanization.

America is an idea, not an ethnic identity.  At least it used to be an idea.  If we want to continue as a beacon of liberty and opportunity we need to get over the diversity thing.  The only way that diversity gives strength is if there is a stronger unity.  It is okay to have roots and cultural traditions that are based in another country as long as you realize they are the herbs and spices of whom you are as an American.  The basic ingredients must be consistent with the ideas in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

As the late George Putnam used to say, “Here’s to a better, stronger America.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-111: Cold Logic

My son-in-law comes from Minnesota.  He grew up in cold weather and knows how it works.  He is also of a mechanical, fix anything frame of mind.  So I asked him about how cold it needed to be before you started letting the water drip to keep the pipes from freezing.  His answer?  They never did it.  His reason?  Because when they built their houses and put in their plumbing they did so with an awareness of the potential cold.  They prepared.  They planned ahead.  Because they did that they did not need to constantly monitor the temperature.  I didn’t ask him about heating the engines and batteries of their cars.

This principle can be applied to many areas of our lives.  

Financially you can plan ahead, expecting emergencies and mistakes.  Think of the ease of mind if you kept $500 dollars in your checking account that you did not count for spending.  No more bounced checks and a slush fund for a real emergency.  In my worst days I might not have had that much to keep in reserve but I had enough to make the principle work.

Us gluttons can learn a lesson by never bringing certain foods into the house.  If you ain’t got it then you can’t eat it.

Spiritually we can lay the groundwork of integrity in such a way that what might temp someone else does not even show up on your radar.

Remember that old saying, “This, too, shall pass.”  Remember that it applies to the good times as well as the bad.  Call it planning ahead.  Call it being a prepper.  Call it silly.  Understand that is is really wisdom.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-110: Shower Thought: Toys or Tools

This is a thought I wrote down 10 years ago.   Different generations view technology in different ways.  My generation looks at the computer as a tool.  It is an extension of the pen, the typewriter.  It is something to get work done.  It has the secondary value of entertainment but it is primarily a tool.  

For my children technology is a toy that can be used for work.  They reject work so it is vain to try to think that technology will solve the problems of education.  When the toy becomes a tool, it is rejected.  That is why they emphasize education being fun.  It isn’t that you learn complex concepts by playing a game.  It is the reality that they are too lazy to learn anything if it takes effort.  I remember the first time the school I was teaching at spent a lot of money on a computer room that was called a “reading lab.”  Hardware and software cost a bundle but it was supposed to encourage learning to read.  Every teacher took classes in on a regular schedule.  The problem was that after the kids had seen the cute cartoon figures dancing at their progress once, the bordom set in.  There is only so many dance routines a programer can come up with.  What no one wanted to acknowledge was that the longer the kids went to the lab the lower their reading scores got.

My grandchildren will look at computers as just a normal part of life.  The chip will replace skills.  If the economy continues to fund the electronics, life will be good.  If we ever are forced to making marks on paper again then the learning curve will have to start from a petrified state.

As us fossils like to say, “Technology is wonderful...when it works.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-109: Retreat

I’m listening to a Catholic podcast while I peel potatoes.  It’s hosted by somebody named Matt Fradd and I’ve noticed him, but not really listened before.  It was a fascinating experience.

Fradd and his guest started off talking about how this American is going to Australia to speak at a purity conference.  He was talking about keeping yourself sexually pure, and so forth, and he was attacked by covens of witches.

It was interesting the way these men were talking like they were devout Protestant Christians, throwing in Catholic terminologies and jargon, but the vibrancy of the Holy Spirit in their lives was very real.  It was a broadening experience to listen to.

They got off on the talking about one of the “saints” in Australia, a man I’ve never heard of and don’t know his story.  Evidently he was being persecuted and was locked up in a prison, not allowed to say the mass, and given menial tasks.  They talked about how, while sweeping the cells, he prayed for people that he could hear screaming in other places, and he made it a spiritual time being locked up there. Then they said this,

“He turned it into a retreat.”

That thought made the listening worth while all by itself.  How often do we look at hard times as persecution and hardship?  I hope I never experience real persecution but I hope I have the maturity to use the time to get closer to the Lord, to turn it into a retreat.  I guess a ridiculous example of that would be listening to faith building podcasts while I do menial chores like peeling potatoes.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-108: The Barons Are Back

The revelations of DOGE bring to mind all the accusations directed towards the robber barons of the 19th century.  A lot of accusations were made.  Most of them were false.  The so-called robber barons made themselves rich but by producing wealth, lowering prices, increasing services, providing jobs and in the process enriching the lives of their fellow citizens.

Today’s robber barons reside in all of these government agencies that are literally robbing Americans of their wealth and distributing it to their cronies.  Imagine how a member of congress is elected to office with a normal net worth and in a few years is worth millions.  How about the wealth that people like Andrew Fauci have pilled up.  They bring no benefit to the general population.  All they do is line their pockets.  They produce nothing that increases wealth.  They are the true robber barons.  

They have raised the concept to new heights.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-107: Swift Decline

You should have sympathy for Taylor Swift.  Keep in mind that she started as a child star and is now moving into that age where everything goes downhill.  She needs to grab for all of the attention and notoriety possible because tomorrow people will say, “Taylor who?”  If you don’t believe it just ask a college student who Bing Crosby was.

I must confess I know nothing about her music.  My son tells me she’s done some good work.  I will take his word for it without further research.  I put her in a class with people like Madonna, Cher and Lady Gaga who owned the world at one time but are now on their way to becoming little old ladies clinging to what was.

Celebrities age like everyone else.  If we ever see them without all that make up, corsets, Photoshop pictures and special lighting they look like a hillbillies sitting out on the front porch in the fading sun.

Consider yourself better off then they are.  Do you have children?  Have they become adults you can be proud of?  Do you have friends who like you for what you are rather than what you can give them?  Do you have a living faith in a living God?  

Like I said, you are better off than they are.  You will probably never be the target of scandalous click bait.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-106: Confusing

Human beings tend to confuse stereotypes with generalizations.  I probably touched on this before but I feel like touching on it again.  I’m not sure if that’s a generalization stereotype or just a statement of reality.

I would like to accuse the left, the people I disagree with, as being guilty of this without including myself, but I’m not sure that would be honest.

Let me give you an example of how you can say the same thing, but mean totally different truths based on whether you are stereotyping or generalizing.  Take the simple statement “War is bad”.  Now, if you are generalizing, you are acknowledging that it would be better if there was a superior way to reach the final conclusion.  There would be less suffering and killing and destruction if we could negotiate things rather than firing at each other.  I think most people would accept that.  However, all wars while bad are not all unnecessary.

As a stereotype, you mean that there’s nothing worth fighting over. You mean there’s nothing worth risking your life in order to maintain or to protect.  A stereotype statement that war is bad means that you live in a mysterious fantasy land of lollipops and cotton candy, and there are no bad actors in existence.

As a generalization, people on the left tend to be wishful thinkers who have little contact with the reality of facts and data evaluated with common sense and an awareness of cause and effect.  Because they are surrounded by the unwashed masses who go about their daily tasks of earning a living, they survive.  A stereotype would say that all liberals are selfish airheads.  Obviously there are some who are not selfish.  Also I would accept that there is some sense in which there are some liberals who could score well on standardized tests.

When dealing with a large group, go with the generalization.  If you are dealing with one individual it is hard to tell the difference between the stereotype and what your eyes are seeing.

Make sure that you don’t fit their stereotype of being a philistine neanderthal.

What a world.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-105: Piles of Paradox

Life is just one contrasting set of experiences after another.  The contrast between having to be a strong adult and mold a child, and the same time really enjoy their failures and foibles.  To be strong and to be sensitive at the same time.  To look to the future with confidence and yet go with caution.  I guess life is full of paradox.

We tend to think of our choices as dichotomies or two opposing choices.  In reality, there is a third element in our decisions that is probably the key one that is most often overlooked.  It is well expressed in a prayer that comes from Reinhold Niebuhr.  It seems to have gone through many revisions and editors.  Here is the way I remember it,

God, give me the courage to change what I can,
The patience to endure what I can’t,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

We know what courage is like, even if we don’t have it.  We learn what patience is like when we make the mistake of praying for more of it.  I’m not sure we would recognize wisdom if it was one of our children.  How much of the problem is we don’t want to recognize wisdom because it tells us to be patient when we want to charge ahead or tells us to be strong when we want to run, or tells us to run when we want to charge ahead?  Wisdom is a mystery.

Wisdom is the key element that is missing in our cultural conflicts.  Wisdom is the missing attribute which looks beyond the current priority into the long-term effects of decisions.  Wisdom is something which makes us pause and take a second look instead of being so sure of ourselves.  It used to compel us to consider universal values and unchanging morals in our mores.

Why is it so rare?  For the same reason that science is having a really hard time telling us the truth about what it learns or discovers in its research.  It is a rejection of those universal values, a rejection of God.  People may disagree on how you define such a thing as adultery or theft, but they agree on the concept that such things exist.  God is one of those standards in our hearts.  He’s also giving us ways to help understanding, to find them, but we tend to reject what we are hearing.

One of the reasons our culture is going downhill is that we are rejecting the accumulated wisdom of our history.  That can involve simple philosophy, lessons in human nature and can extend to the eternal wisdom of the Bible.

Maybe it is time to read the Harvard Classics again.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-104: The Picture

Have you ever heard someone look at a Renaissance painting of Jesus and say, “We really don’t know what He look like?”  In a sense that is true, but in a sense it isn’t.  We do not have any photographs or portraits by contemporaries.  We don’t know if he had freckles, or it was left-handed.  We do, however, have descriptions of what Jesus look like.  Here is one,

Revelation 1:13-17 (KJV) And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were  as a flame of fire;  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.  And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

And a little later we have,

Revelation 5:6 (KJV) And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

And,

Revelation 19:11-16 (KJV) 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.  And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.  And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.  And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

When I see descriptions like this, it tends to make me want to disregard the things that Revelation tells me.  It tends to make me want to reject a literal interpretation.  I do believe that most of revelation is figurative and artistic, not literal, lineal history.  I also believe that any visual relevance that it has is set in a time when we are no longer simply physical beings.  These are descriptions of Jesus, and in other places of God the Father, which we can’t understand because of our limitations.

In the afterlife, when we see someone with glowing eyes and a sword coming out of their mouth, what fills us with horror now might cause waves of love and affection.  Let me give you a sample from our day-to-day lives.  I don’t think I would want to climb up on the back of a tiger and chew on its ear.  You would probably agree, but you have all seen pictures of tiger cubs, climbing the neck of the adult animal, and chewing on its ear or jumping on its tail.  I would not recommend such behavior if you are a tourist in Africa, or India, or just visiting the local zoo.  It is not a survival technique.  If, however, you are the cub of the animal, it would never occur to you to be worried.  It would be home week.

Jesus taught us to call God, “Abba Father”.  He put it in terms that we couldn’t understand now, however, the book of Revelation is trying to get across to us the glory of what it will be like in the presence of Almighty God then.  The pictures are different.  What we don’t understand now will become clear to us then.

Hope to see you on the other side.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-103: The Fourth Dimension

First Corinthians describes three levels of spiritual maturity:  the natural man, the spiritual man, and the carnal man.  I wonder if what is necessary for us to understand the book of Revelation is another level which we could call the glorified man.

Paul talks about the resurrection.  He talks about our glorified bodies.  They will be different than our physical bodies.  Different translations have different words, some say corruptible vs incorruptible.  I think others say mortal as opposed to immortal.  The actual vocabulary is not as important as the concept.  Paul says we will be different.  

I think the glorified way of looking at creation is going to give us a totally new insight into what the book of Revelation is describing.  I think in Daniel and possibly Ezekiel you’ll have similar passages.  To us today they seem the creative products of a slightly warped mind drawing dystopian landscapes for fantasy comic books.  But looking at them through the eyes of glorification, all the details come together, and it makes sense.

That should help us to understand who God is and how that understanding will be different in eternity.  Just as I can’t grasp The glory of singing, “Holy, holy, holy” for a million years, so I can’t understand how heartwarming a sword coming out of the mouth of a lamb could be.  I am willing to learn.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-102: Shame, Shame

Have you ever been summoned to jury duty?  In California I would get called every few years.  Since I got paid for jury duty, it was no problem.  It gave me a few days vacation.  It never got over a few days because I am not a suitable candidate for a jury.

Why am I not suitable?  I don’t drink.  I know policemen.  I have had family members assaulted.  My home has been broken into several times.  Attorneys don’t like people like me on a jury.  For instance, since I don’t drink they figure I can’t make a judgement on whether a driver was driving under the influence.  I did make it on one time.  It involved a traffic accident near where I worked.  I did not endear myself to the judge.  When we were ready to go to deliberations he told us that he would tell us what our options were and basically, what we could decide.  When he asked if we had any questions I asked, “Based on what you have told us, why do you need a jury?  What are we here for if you can tell us what to decide?”  He patted me on the head and sent us on our way.

If you get a chance, do your duty.  Before you go do a little research on a topic called “jury nullification”.  The theory is that the jury can not only decide if someone is guilty but also has the options to declare them not guilty because the law is bad.  Judges don’t like that either so I would suggest you don’t say the words out loud or you will be dismissed.

Are you one of those people who avoids jury duty?  Do you pretend to be insane when jury selection is in progress?  Do you figure you are too busy?  Then shame on you.  It is hard enough to get honest juries because of the way the lawyers have rigged the sytem.  It is impossible if those who have a brain and integrity avoid service.  If you are like me and would like to see the cabal go to prison, jump at the chance to have a voice.

If called, go.  If chosen serve.  Be on the side of truth and justice not legal technicalities.

I would welcome being on the jury if Fauci ever comes to trial.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-101: You Own Personal Catalyst

One of the stumbling blocks I am coming across in my daily time of worship, study, and meditation is that there are some days when my mind just refused to get in gear.  There are days when it seems like all I can do is stare at the wall or at the sky.  There are other days were ideas just flow out and I write and dictate with abandon.

I’ll keep wondering why.  Is it something I ate?  Is it the cedar pollen in the air?  Is that the way I hold my mouth?  Today I noticed something that might be consistent because it applies over several days.  I noticed that when I begin my morning by focusing on the attributes of God, or the conversations that God has had with individuals in the Bible, my mind is more stimulated than it is when I just sit down and try to think or pray.

I am postulating that seeking to come into a conscious awareness of who God is, and how He operates opens up channels in our minds for Him to stimulate our creativity.

So far it’s just a theory.  I don’t know how it will work out over the long term.  It’s possible that the same opening tomorrow may lead to a stagnant mind or it may be an insight into how to be productive in life.  Contact with God should be a very positive and enriching experience.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-100: Justice Will Be Adequate

You may have heard the biblical quotation where God says, “Justice is mine.”  I don’t know about you, but I find that somewhat frustrating when I see all of the destructive evil going on in our society.  You need to understand that this, like so many other historic statements regarding violence and justice, is to restrain us from destroying ourselves and our culture in our rage.

Let me assure you that if we can achieve even partial justice, then our goal will be reached, and our needs will be satisfied.

The problem with vengeance is it lowers us to the level of the deep state Cabal, and it’s minions.  It destroys our integrity and our right to see things corrected.  Justice on the other hand, based on the rule of law, and applied in carefully considered logic instead of hot reaction, will produce results more than adequate.  Keep in mind that justice includes the death penalty.  It is not just a way of being kind and compassionate to criminals.  True justice measures out true punishment.  It is the punishment of justice not of revenge.

So be calm, but stay focused.  If you have the opportunity to be on a jury, act with integrity.  Let justice prevail.  It will be enough.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-099: Reveling in Revelation

As I read in Revelation I see many pictures and explanations that really don’t make any sense to me.  One of them has to do with the throne.  Here is a sample,

(Rev 4:2 KJV)  And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

I offer a question for you to ponder, “How big does a throne have to be in order for God to be comfortable on it?”  Overlook the clear statements of scripture that God is spirit, that He does not really have a body, that He is everywhere.  Set that off to the side.  Maybe we will look at that some other time.

I repeat my question, “How big does a throne have to be in order for God to be comfortable on it?”  You don’t need to have an answer.  I’m not sure there is one that you would accept if you are into prophecy.

I do have an answer.  You may not like it, but I have an answer.  The throne is figurative.  It is a word picture.  You can make it an allegory if you want, but it is not a literal throne.  The point of that picture is to lift up the majesty of God.  It is to remind us that He’s not just our buddy, but He is the creator of the universe and the judge of all mankind.

If you still insist on it being literal, then I might remind you that in order to be consistent it means you think God is a big chicken since Psalms tells us we can hide under his wings.  You can’t have it both ways.  Oh?  You do think God is big chicken.  Why does that not surprise me?

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-098: Society’s Debt

What does society owe us?  Does it owe us a job?  Does it owe us an income?  We have a generation coming up with seems to think that they deserve everything that life has to offer at no cost to themselves.  Actually, it’s probably more than one generation.  There are even elderly people who feel like they are owed a retirement from the government.  I don’t mean just a fair repayment of Social Security, but I mean a certain quality standard of living.

Of course, nobodys asking who’s going to pay for all this.

I am asking and not getting an answer, unless you consider crickets an answer.

I think the preamble of the constitution goes a long way towards answering this question.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Such phrases as “insure domestic Tranquility” fit in with the responsibilities the Constitution assigns to the Federal Government.  It makes you pause and wonder where the Feds are when Antifa is burning cities and illegal gangs are taking over apartment houses.  I guess I live in a Unicorn Land where the government reads its founding document.  Forgive me.  

Then you have the Declaration of Independence which brings up the the concept of the “Pursuit of Happiness”.  Read the paragraph.  Notice it is not the guarantee but the pursuit.

Americans traditionally have not asked the government to do things for them that they can do themselves.  Originally we didn’t even ask the government to step in when we had personal issues, we expected neighbors to step up.  The churches and synagogues were the centers of help and charity.  Ultimately people were expected to be their own first responders in life.

We seem to have lost that concept.  We need to get it back.  Being our brothers keeper does not mean relieving him responsibility.

(Php 2:3-4 NAS77) Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

The hard part of this to understand is that often what is best for the other person is not what they want and by giving them what they want we actually do them long-term damage.  This calls for real genuine love for them, guided by discernment and wisdom.

This morning I was humming an old patriot song from my childish memory,

What can I do for my country,
For all the things she’s done for me?

That brings to mind the old quote from JFK,

“Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”

Those were the days when you could call Democrats real Americans.  I miss those kind of Democrats.

Step up.  Grow up.  Reverse the order if you need to.  Accept responsibility for your own life and look around to see if there is anyone you can really help.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-097: Is It More than a Title

Israel is God’s chosen people.  There are times when that fills me with awe.  There are times when I say, “So What?”

One of the latter hit me as I was reading Deuteronomy 28.  I was not even thinking about the chapter I was in.  I was just slowly reading through the book.  When I got to the section regarding curses I read a few and sat back.  I looked at what I was reading and realized it was chapter 28.  I have had this entire chapter read out loud to me.  I managed to stay awake.  How many curses can you process?  It does show how creative God can be.

The thought came to me, “If this is how God is going to treat His ‘chosen people’ then who would want to be part of that?”

One of my theories, which I wrote about somewhere in the distant past, is that God’s curses are often, if not usually, passive instead of active.  What that means is that God curses by withholding blessings rather than active “Gottcha”.  It works out the same but lays more of the burden on us rather than God.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-096: Surprised by Greed

CS Lewis wrote a book called Surprised by Joy.  It is on my shelf and I have read it but it has been a few years.  I think it is a personal love story about the woman he married who was named, strangely enough, Joy.

I might want to write a book called Surprised by Greed.  It would not be a personal revelation, but simply an observation.  Our culture, which is now controlled by the cultural Marxists*, advocate rich people get to that position out of greed.  They are rich because they are greedy.  That means that they will do anything to steal the wealth of others.  This is cultural Marxism because it is pushing class warfare or identity politics and trying to divide people based on their economic situation.

Of course poor people love a good excuse for why they’re poor.  It has been fascinating, watching some of the short, YouTube blurbs where millennials are agitated because they are now expected to work at work.  They are shocked that all the free benefits that they weren’t really earning have gone away.  They need to look into what happens in the lives of people that win big lottery playoffs.  They tend to be back in poverty in a very short time.

What this overlooks is the basic fact that poor people are just as greedy as rich people.  They may be less organized and gifted, but they are just as greedy.  Some rich people are generous and caring.  The same is true of poor people.  The point is that people are not defined by their income.  They are defined by their values and personality.  Those attributes are demonstrated in how they live their lives, the choices they make, the priorities they establish.

Our modern American environment doesn’t lock us into a frozen course in life.  Our parents and their style of parenting are very influential, but we can’t get away from the fact that we make choices in friends we hang with, majors in education, jobs we will accept, and even in the car we drive.  And all of those things affect where we are in life.

The one thing that we don’t seem to want to admit, unless we come from a Christian background with strong preaching and teaching, is that the big problem lies within us.  It is called sin.

(Rom 3:23 KJV)  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Maybe I should call my book, “Surprised by Sin.”

*(Liberals, educators, cultural Marxists, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, fascists (I repeat myself), elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-095: Why Bother Studying Revelation?

This is a real question for me.  It seems to me that too many people are consumed with studying Revelation and trying to figure out what all the symbolism means.  Or they take it literally and try to figure out exactly how to fit specific parts of the prophets into this account.

Why bother?

In spite of that I have been reading through Revelation and studying it a bit because I have a friend who thinks that this is the cats meow.  To him this is the whole purpose of life, knowing exactly how the end times fit together.  And I find it as I read, there are things that come out to me not because of prophecy, but because of inspiration.

As I start chapter 4, and you have all the strange beasts and the elders, I can read over that and not bat an eye.  But then I come to a passage like this it is different,

Revelation 4:8 (KJV) And the four beasts had each of them six wings about [him]; and [they were] full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

I really don’t care how many wings they had or which direction their eyes looked.  I will leave the deep, hidden meaning of those things to you to explain to me if you can keep me awake long enough to get me to listen.  However, what they had to say strikes a cord in my life.  Why?  Take a moment to look at the second half of that verse.  Do those words seem familiar to you?  They should.  You find them in one of the great hymns of the church.

And then, at the end of the chapter after more glorious information about the 24 elders, you find this,

Revelation 4:11 (KJV) Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

That is something worth thinking about, studying and digging into the words used in relationship to each other.  It’s also worth repeating ourselves, and as you would probably guess these words appear often in songs or through music.

Why study revelation?  Things keep popping up.  They are not the things that my eschatological friends want me to find but they are the things God reveals to me.

Study on.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-094: Vocabulary Lesson

It’s called slavery.

Listening to different soundbites on YouTube I keep hearing mention of “human trafficking”.  No, it is not human trafficking.  It is the time honored slave trade.  I don’t know why we are so reluctant to come with that.  Getting rich selling the bodies of young women and children was what slavery was all about.  Until the sugar and cotton plantations began to demand a stronger work force, most men taken prisoner in Africa were killed.  It was the weaker women and children who could be moved, trafficked, more easily.  It was slavery then.  It is slavery now.

It could be that the media and their Marxist allies don’t want to clarify the fact that slavery is not an issue exclusive to American history.  Slavery is, was, a worldwide norm.  It has not gone away.  It is active in every Muslim country and we see it going on here under the guise of “human trafficking” which is expressed in sweat shops, prostitution, child pornography and child sex, underpaid workers and ways normal minds don’t think about.

Christian Europe did away with slavery.  The Vatican tried to stop it in the New World plantations but there was too much money to be made.  The main force that keeps condemning it is the underlying Biblical idea that human beings are created in the image of God and have worth.  

At least now that we have a new administration in Washington there are an increasing number of voices that are speaking out against it.  Their voices would be heard better if they would set aside the feel-good euphemisms and call a slave a slave.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-093: Election 2026: Make a List, Check It Twice

We are in a very vital period on the journey of our Republic.  Two things are key right now and we need to make them work together.

First, we have an election coming and the real choices we will have an opportunity to make will not come in the general election but in the primaries.  When the choice is a (supposedly) rational Republican or a (definitly) delusional Democrat, it really isn’t a choice.  Often we can only hold our nose and hope.  In the primaries we might have a real choice.  Get ready to pay attention to the challengers.  Pay attention to what the current incumbent is doing.  It is still two years to the next election and many of them are still assuming you are not watching.  Watch.  Make a list.  If you are one of those people who always loses your list then find a blank wall to write on with a Sharpie.  Build a case for discussions with other voters.  Discuss.  We have two years to make a difference.

Second, this is a time when the Rinos come out of the word work.  President Trump was very open about what he wanted to do.  He is actively doing his part.  Many Rinos in both houses of congress and in the courts are doing everything they can to thwart him.  Watch who opposes his agenda.  At the federal court level there is little we can do but in many states the judges must stand for reelection.  Learn who must be primaried.  

Two years isn’t long unless you have given up smoking.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-092: Why Evolution Does Not Bother Me

I don’t come unglued at the mention of the word “evolution.”  Things change.  Things adjust to their environment.  I have no trouble with that.  The part that sets me on a different track than the secular community is that I believe that God is in charge.

Keep in mind that the difference between Christians and non-Christians in the area of creation/evolution is not in the process which science is working to uncover but in the statement and Genesis 1:1,

Genesis 1:1 (KJV) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And,

Genesis 1:27 (KJV) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

The difference is not in the six days in between.  The difference is not between 15 billion years and 4004 years.  The difference is not in literal history or figurative legends.

The difference is and whether God is in charge or not.

I can deal with a concept of evolution because I watch God and how He works today.  Do you notice that He doesn’t deliver to us full grown children, out of college, cured of acne, on their way with successful careers.  For some people He takes years before they can even conceive a child.  It takes nine months to develop the child that is born.  When the child is born, it doesn’t even know that the object moving in front of his eyes is his hand.  He cannot control his bowels.  My son, the perfect genius that he was, could not figure how to suck.  All of that takes a long time.

If that’s how God develops us, there must be something in Him that likes the process of growth and development.  I don’t have any trouble with Him looking at the universe that way.  You say, “You mean you don’t believe in the six days of creation?”  I believe that God created the heavens in the Earth.  The question I would ask you is, “Why didn’t He do it in one day?”  Or I could ask you “Why didn’t He do it all instantaneously?”  I don’t have an answer and neither do you.

Do you believe God created the heavens and the Earth?  Then you are creationist.  If you believe it took Him 15 billion years simply because He enjoyed the process, you are still at creationist.  The key is not the process but the processor.

Learn not to freak out.  They love it when you do that.  Send them back to their video games mumbling and disoriented.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-091: Awesome Asides

I’m watching a short clip of a recent press briefing.  I am going to need to learn the name of this press secretary without looking it up.  Karoline Leavitt was answering the question of a reporter, she paused, and in a kind of theatrical voice, said “As you well know”.  She then went on with her answer without a flicker.

I love it.  Keep it up.  Your answer was fine, but the best part was that little aside which should have slapped this character upside the head and said, “Grow up, go back to your desk, write a sincere and intelligent question, and come see me when you’re ready to go again.”

Unfortunately he probably didn’t even notice.  Maybe some of the new voices in the press pool will start snickering at him and he will wise up.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-090: Election 2026: Amendments

It is a real tragedy that we have no process for amending the Declaration of Independence.  We have a method for the Constitution but nothing for this other founding document.  I wish we could go back to Jefferson’s original.

What am I talking about?  I’m talking about how he substituted the “pursuit of happiness” for “property.”  Jefferson was on the right track.  Originally his phrase, as I understand it, was, “life, liberty and property.”  That takes into consideration that one of the great reasons people came to this country was because where they came from everything belong to the king.

This is the norm in history.  If you go back to ancient Egypt, Pharaoh owned all the land, except with the priests claimed.  I was reading on Sarah Hoyts blog recently about how her parents had a deed to the property.  It wasn’t a deed.  It was simply permission from the king to live on it and treat it as their own while he did not actually give up sovereignty over it.  This was normal.  Even if you were a great and powerful Lord, you exercised power over your lands by permission of the king.  If you fell out of favor, he could revoke his grant.  Common people had no hope of actually owning land.  This is just one of the many jewels in America’s crown and the Progressive* elites are trying to destroy it.

I understand in Europe things are getting so expensive that owning a home is a multi-generational project.  We are approaching that here.  The real problem though is not that property is expensive but such things as eminent domain or tax liens.  The government can tax us out of our property or can declare it has a higher use for your property and take it away.  We need to reestablish the importance of private property.

I checked my Communist Manifesto, and I remind you one of the big goals of Marxism, and our Progressive* elites, is to remove the security that property gives individuals and make us dependent upon the state even for place to live.

If we can’t amend the Declaration of Independence, then, perhaps we need an amendment added to the Constitution which guarantees us the right of property.  That might be a good plan for the next election.  Republican Platform Committee, are you listening?

*(Liberals, educators, cultural Marxists, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, fascists (I repeat myself), elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-089: Electronic Ego

As I am enjoying the ability to dictate to my iPad and have it type out what I have to say.  I keep coming across problems with the algorithm.  I’m making a list of some of the creative ways in which the computer puts down what I say.  Sometimes it’s me mumbling.  Often it is the computer with an inner desire to be creative.

Today as I was talking about theory in regard to science, I noticed that every time I tried to say the word “theory” my iPad would give me “Siri.”  It has done it multiple times in this paragraph already.  I am thinking that this may be an ego problem in the electronic digital world.  

Since I am not a programmer I am afraid I will just have to live with it.  Maybe it will learn.  Maybe not.  I am not a big believer in the “A” of “AI”.  I assume it is not a big believer in me either.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-088: The Big Answers

We are all familiar with the big questions.  You may not think of it that way but when you ask your teenager, “What’s wrong with you?” you are asking a form of the big question.  When you watch the Progressive* elites methodically destroying the prosperity and liberty that gave them a chance to agitate, you ask the same question.

Different groups have different answers.  The sociologists blame society.  The psychologist blame the human mind.  Christians blame sin.

These are questions and issues that need to be discussed and debated.  We need to start out with a couple of parameters.  First of all, we need to assume that there is an answer.  Don’t assume that people assume that.  If there is no answer, or at least a better course to follow, then there’s no point in discussing anything.  They are irreconcilable.  Let the killing begin.

Second thing that we need to start the discussion is at least two people of good will.  We need at least two individuals who are willing to be honest and upfront.  They need to be willing to listen and think.  You would assume this would be an easy thing to find, but it really isn’t.  Don’t try to recruit Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci or Bill Gates.  They don’t qualify on either count.  I of course can only speak for myself.  I find that I am often not willing to listen to what I consider nonsense.  I’ve been down that road before.  So many people think that parroting their favorite guru is being original and cutting edge.

We will never get back to making progress is we cannot discuss the big questions and coming to an understanding.  We don’t even need to reach agreement.  Understanding would go a long way to recovery.  We need to at least agree about what our points of disagreement are.  To get to that point, it might be a good idea to start with what we do agree on.

Join me in looking for opportunities to discuss issues.  Make a commitment to listening around 75% of the time.  That might get you to 50%.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, fascists (I repeat myself), elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-087: The Why Game Again

I know I’ve mentioned it before.  The Why Game is what children play in the backseat when they’re bored and have a desire to irritate their parents.  It starts out, if you’re not familiar with the game, by parents naively trying to answer the child’s question of, “Why?”  Parents paying attention will not have to be asked this question too many times before they realize that the child is just playing a game.

The game is really a deeply philosophical and theological pursuit.  We play it with God.  We ask ourselves why did God do that?  We wonder why God has certain things as a part of his plan.  Couldn’t God have made a world that has free will without pain and suffering?  Why does there have to be a hell?  How can Jesus be both man and God at the same time?  You get the idea.  This is just an adult form of a game of why.

In eternity we are going to learn a few things.  The first target is the answers to questions.  The second thing is that some questions do not really have an answer that we can grasp even with our spiritual minds.  There will be joy in those questions because we will be pursuing, expanding and grasping on a level that we were never able to do in our physical bodies.  Part of the challenge that makes it so rewarding is that we know there will always be a deeper level.

We see this in science today.  I always laugh when I hear that the science is settled.  Obviously, these people don’t know much about science.  What science is showing us with greater certainty is that there will always be another level to investigate.  That’s true on the level of microbiology. That is true when it comes to studying the cosmos.  As soon as science realizes that the happier they will be.  Life is not about the destination as much as the journey.  Now that is an example of pop philosophy.

So make a list of questions that you have to ask God when you get to eternity.  I have a few and the list will get longer.  You may not be able to actually take the paper with you, but somehow I think God will make it possible for you to bring them to mind.  Also be aware that will just be the kindergarten level of questioning.  We can look forward to multiple advance degrees.

Maranatha!

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-086: The Last Word

Christians who are informed, who believe, and who study their Bible, would agree that the book of Revelation is the last scripture written historically.  Does that make any difference?

Where am I coming from?  My friend, who is into eschatology, thinks he has the end times figured out, or at least he’s a lot closer than I am.  Of course he’s closer because it’s a big issue to him.  I am concerned about the end times in the same way that I am concerned about our country’s balance of trade.  There’s nothing I can do about it.  It will effect me in some way.   I may have a lot of opinions.  I might voice opinions, but in the scheme of things there are more important concerns.

But what do we do with someone who reads you Isaiah 60 and makes a big point about how this fits into the book of Revelation somewhere and is really important.  Then when you look at the book of Revelation, you can’t see how it could possibly fit in because there are contrary statements.  For instance, Isaiah talks about sacrifices, and implies that there is a temple.  The final chapter of Revelation when the New Jerusalem descends from heaven very clearly states that there is no temple.  How can Isaiah be forecasting a temple being built in Jerusalem when there will be no temple in Jerusalem?

When we have different scriptures that we have to synchronize, I think it’s important when they were written.  John has given us the final word in the book of Revelation.  It was written when he was in exile on Patmos.  It is the latest scripture that is accepted by the church.  That being the case, I think it would have precedence over things that went before it.  So when Isaiah says one thing and Revelation says the other, it needs to be worked out in favor of Revelation, not Isaiah.

Another thing you see here is the statement in the book of Revelation, which talks about being judged by what we do, by our actions, or using that forbidden word, by our “works”.  The Old Testament is also full of this kind of statement.  Jesus made statements like that.  Sandwiched in between you have Paul talking about grace and faith and downplaying works.  Who has the final Word?  To me that’s a two pronged answer.  Jesus would be at the top of the heap, after all, He is God incarnate.  Revelation would be up there very high also because it was the final word.  That doesn’t mean we discard Paul.  It means that we interpret it all together, but don’t make Paul the final word.

Welcome to the happy world of understanding what God is telling us through the word.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-085: The Why Game

We never get tired of playing the Why Game when it comes to important questions in life.  I’ve been listening to the Joe Rogan program (2008) as he talks to Stephen Mayer, and one of the questions that Joe asked was where did God come from?  It is not an original question.  You run into it all the time.  The idea is that it is impossible to consider a God who is eternally existent.  He must’ve come from somewhere.  Who created God?  I’m sure you’re familiar with this mystery of thought.

The almost laughable logic of this is that the same people who asked this question, and are incredulous that we could believe in eternal God who was not created have a parallel problem.   For a long period of time, possibly centuries, they have believed that there is a universe that has existed forever and was not created.  It would seem to me that if you can believe an eternally existent material universe, which means not created, why can’t you believe the same thing about God?  Why is it irrational to believe it about God but not about the cosmos?

“Why?” can be a very good place to start a conversation or even go to deeper levels.  Of course that depends totally on whether you want to start a conversation or go to deeper levels.  When your teenager wants to stay up late to play his video games until dawn and you tell him to go to bed, he will ask why.  When you tell him he hast to get up early in the morning to go to school, he will ask why.  He knows the answer to both situations.  He is just trying to play the Why Game.

If someone tries it on you, it might be the best thing just to confront them with the nonsense of their question and be out front.  Find out if they really want to talk about it.  If they don’t go to the baseball scores.  Get on with life.  There is only so much you can do.  And also, of course, the other side of that is true, don’t be one of those people.

It’s funny how many swords have two edges.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-084: The Curse

I have been seeing memes mocking women who claim that they are happy having no children.  They claim it is a choice they made and they are glad they did.  

It may have been a choice they made.  That is possible.  A quiet life with your little kitty has some appeal.  Of course it involves bars on your windows, padlocks on your doors and a fear of going out at night.   But the kitty is cute and you don’t need to share your arugula, so it is worth it.

It may have been a choice because a woman has high standards.  That can be read from the extreme that no man who meets her standards would consider her, to living in an area where all the men drool and drink Bud Lite.  In the middle are the women who might have made a choice to become a nun or do some other type of service that was better done single.  The problem with that is those women would not claim giving up children was a joy.  It may have been necessary but was a sacrifice.

The Bible culture viewed a woman who has no children as cursed.  That may not have been what the Bible actually said but that is how people viewed it.  Part of this is because children are viewed as a blessing.  If you did not have them you were not blessed.

(Psa 127:3 KJV)  Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
(Psa 127:4 KJV)  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
(Psa 127:5 KJV)  Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

I know women who desperately wanted children but were unable to conceive.  Sometimes it was their infertility, sometimes the husbands.  We need to be sympathetic to those and somehow be patient with the ones who brag about their lack.  

May your quiver be full.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-083: Going Crazy

My son is worried about me.  As far as I can tell it is just the kind of worry you have when someone is getting up to being really old.  I don’t remember if I brought it up or he did but he shared there are three general categories of Old Age Crazy:  Alzheimer’s, dimentia, and just the forgetfulness how old age.

I’ve had experience with all three.  One of the scary things about it is that it is very possible to know what you’re going through.  There is an elderly gentleman at our church and the first statements you ever made to me as we were at a group dinner was that he had at Alzheimer’s.  He was very open about it and had a very good attitude.  So it’s possible to know that you were losing your mind to Alzheimer’s and still function to some degree.

Then I think of my mother-in-law who had advancing dementia.  Once again, she knew it.  She knew for instance, that she had a daughter, but she couldn’t remember what she looked like.  I think I shared that before.  But what it says is that you can be going downhill on a one-way track, know you are going there and have to live with it.

Then there’s just the gradual forgetfulness of old age.  I see that on a regular basis in a zoom meeting, where I am probably one of the younger ones.  We have to constantly come up with names and words for each other because we just don’t remember.  Again, we know this.  It can be frustrating but to some degree it is part of life.

Ultimately it comes down to our attitude and how we’re going to deal with it.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-082: Poor Song Theology

Today in church we sang one of my favorite gospel songs, “When the Role Is Called up Yonder.”  I noticed something that I had never seen before.  The second verse goes,

On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the glory of His resurrection share;
When His chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

Sounds good until you read what the Bible has to say,

(1Th 4:16 KJV)  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
(1Th 4:17 KJV)  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Notice that the meeting will be in the clouds.

And then you have,

(Rev 1:7 KJV)  Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

Or this,

(Mat 24:30 KJV)  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

I don’t think that the song author checked the weather.  It said, “Fair to partly cloudy.”  

I still enjoy the song.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-081: Philosophical Battlegrounds

The philosophical premises of eastern religion have been attacking Western culture for centuries now.  The western culture which fostered the industrial revolution, the technical advances, the thoughts about liberty and prosperity, the scientific revolution?  Yes, that Western culture.  All these came from the Jewish and Christian views of God in the universe.  The view of the Buddhist and Hindus, for example, are totally different.  As I read through the work of Will Durant he continually will make reference to how different philosophers drew their inspiration from the religions of the east. Those philosophers have been working overtime to destroy the mind set that Christianity had brought in.  I am only half way through the first volume and I have already come across connections to David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer.  I am sure there were more but those I remember.

I have tended to have this idea that the ancient world was made up of isolated communities developing in their own ways but in modern times we have all this sharing.  The idea that the ancient philosophers of Greece could be aware of the Hindu gods or Buddha seemed impossible.  I know that I got irritated when people tried to say that the Jews borrowed their ideas from other cultures.  When you think about it though, traders and wandering philosophers have a long history of travel.  I came across this reading about India,

“The foreign trade of India is as old as her history; objects found in Samaria and Egypt indicate the traffic between these countries and India, as far back as 3000 B.C.  Commerce between India and Babylon by the Persian Gulf flourished from 700 to 480 B.C.; and perhaps the ‘ivory, apes, and peacocks’ of Solomon, came by the same route from the same source.”  p. 479

Then when you add the historical proximity of different thinkers.  In the sixth century B.C. you had the return of the Jews from exile and the rebuilding of the temple.  The writing of the Old Testament was drawing to a close.  This was also the time of Buddha and possibly Confucius.

Were ideas passed back and forth between the different civilizations?  Was the Pope once a Catholic?  Of course.  The cross fertilization of ideas is one reason why certain parts of the world are so advanced.  We need to be aware of these influences when they are disseminated.  Such cultural staples as Lion King and Star Wars have pushed eastern religions.  Yoga, Montessori and TM are foundational to eastern religions.  The class system of Europe finds soul brothers in China and India.  Ideas have consequences, just like elections.

Pay attention and decide what your foundation is going to be.

Durant, Will.  The Story of Civilization:  Part 1, Our Oriental Heritage.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1954.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-080: The End of Israel?

People who are into eschatology love to quote these verses.

(Jer 31:35 KJV)  Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
(Jer 31:36 KJV)  If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
(Jer 31:37 KJV)  Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

It is vital to them to keep Israel in the game.  They reject any other thinking as “Replacement Theology” and say it as if that is heresy.  My friend also threw a couple of other big words at me that I was supposed to cringe at.  Meh.  Maybe it is heresy.  Maybe they are over reacting a bit.  Maybe they have a chart or graph that they want to sell.  They still act like this is the final word in regard to verse 36.

Challenge accepted.

In order for Israel to fall out of favor certain milestones need to be passed.  Keep in mind that these are all future.  It has nothing to do with Israel’s importance today.  This is a discussion of theory and the question of how God plans to work in history.

Notice,

(Rev 6:12 KJV)  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

Evidently the sun is no longer giving light by day and the moon doesn’t seem to be much help either.

Keep reading,

(Rev 6:13 KJV)  And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
(Rev 8:12 KJV)  And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

Stars are falling.  In my level of astronomy they won’t be giving much light if they fall.  The prophecy enthusiasts also like to make much of the parable of the fig tree which seems to be having some serious problems here, but that is for another day.

As for the sea,

(Rev 21:1 KJV)  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
(Rev 21:23 KJV)  And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
(Rev 22:5 KJV)  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

No more sea and it continues with reference to the sun and moon.  It is a great picture.  I like it.  The problem is it does not fit their narative so, guess what?  They ignore it and never quote these verses.

I find the last verse referred to in regard to measuring the heavens and penetrating the earth to be somewhat fulfilled also.  We have telescopes and theories that are measuring the universe.  We have mines and drilling going miles below the surface of the earth.

It would seem that there is a possibility that somewhere in the future Israel will cease to be the chosen nation.  Make sure that does not create any anti-semitism in your heart.  Jews are people and deserve the same courtesy and consideration you would give any other human being.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-079: Cat I.Q.

My wife and I just had a discussion of the cat’s intelligence, or lack thereof.  It was initiated because she could hear the cat making a noise that she interpreted as wanting to come in.  I did not argue with that level of smarts.  We eventually figured out which door needed to be opened.  I was informed that the cat was smart.

A thought occurred to me that I cannot share in this house.  I realized that I think the cat is stupid because I compare it to myself.  That is as far as I will go even in print.  I will leave it to you to figure out the rest.

So often in life our opinion of others is rooted in our opinion of ourselves.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-078: Seeds and Weeds

I don’t know if knowledge of the future would be encouraging or discouraging.  I was sitting in the living room, watching my grandson play on the floor and worshiping with praise and thanksgiving of the blessings God is giving me.  Grandma called him out to get him dressed, because Mom was coming.  I lifted up my eyes to the mantle of the fireplace and on it was a picture of my children when they were at a similar age to my grandchildren now.  I think my daughter was two and my son was six.  What a joy it was to look at them and remember.

At the time if you had told me that I was incredibly blessed, I would have looked at you like you were a lunatic.  At the time I was unemployed with a mortgage.  I was at a crossroads that did not have any happy endings in sight.  That was where I was then.  Looking back I tend to forget that aspect.  Now I just enjoy the pictures of the children we were raising and consider the blessing.

We were planting seeds for the future.  Like the farmer we had no idea how the crop would turn out.  There was always the concern that they might turn into weeds instead.  There are times in life where all you can do is what you know to be right and trust God for the big ticket items.

They turned out to be seeds, a blessing.  I look at the next generation and renew my commitment to helping to cultivate their lives.  

Seeds you plant.  Weeds you remove.  May God fill your life with seeds and you with the faith for them to develop.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-077: Views of Perfection

As I walked through the living room my wife was watching one of those House Lust programs.  A couple was walking through and talking about what they thought was good and bad in a house that they probably could not afford.  I have been force fed these programs on road trips that have one room accommodations and a TV to go with it.  

The little part I picked up today reminded me of an old bit of wisdom about men and women as they enter into marriage.  Men expect the woman to stay like she is.  They married her and want to spend their life with the woman they married.  Women look at the man as a project that has the potential to become what she wants.  It leads to a bit of conflict.

I am wondering if the same applies to buying a new home.  It was that way for us.  All I heard before we moved in was how perfect the house was.  I decided I could live with it and began thinking on how to adjust.  As soon as we were unpacking I started hearing about all the projects she had in mind for remodeling.  All I could say was, “What?”  I am not talking about painting the rooms a different color.  I am talking about closing up doors and covering over windows, moving walls, gutting the kitchen, trenching for plumbing changes and, yes, even painting.

Be prepared.  Be understanding.  The irresistible force eventually wears down the immovable object.  It is a rule of the universe.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-076: Impossible?

I was raised being told that it is impossible to keep the law of God, and therefore we needed the cross, and the sacrifice of Jesus.  I was told all my life that it was the hopelessness of keeping the law perfectly.  It made salvation by faith necessary.

Does the Bible anywhere say that we can never keep the law?  Not in the Old Testament.  Here is a verse in the KJV,

(Deu 30:11 KJV)  For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

 
 The NASB represents an alternate translation found in several versions,

(Deu 30:11 NAS77) "For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.

The issue is not that it is impossible.  The point, even with the Old Testament, is that keeping the law will not earn your salvation.  That is not the result of keeping the law.  The law was designed to make your life better, and to make the life in your community better.  It was a national standard.  It did not deliver salvation.

So no, the point was not that you could not keep the law.  The point was keeping the law would not do you any good in eternity.  Through the entire Bible salvation is offered as an act of God and what He expected of us was faith and obedience.  What Jesus did was replace the blood sacrifice of animals with His perfect blood and made access to eternal life available to all.

homo unius libri