The writings of Grant Huhn

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2008-06-06T10:56:00.001-07:00

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Fundamentals of Finance

2008-05-18T13:51:00.001-07:00

POINT 1: $20,000 = the average annual income of a high school grad
POINT 2: $50,000 = the annual combined household income necessary for a family of four, buying their house. Used car(s). Spartan lifestyle.

IMPLICATION 1: At some point, you're gonna need more than the $20,000 a high school diploma offers.

CONCLUSION: Here's the "more" that you will need, choose one or more: College degree, Specialty School, Longevity, become a student of finance, start your own business.

IMPLICATION 3: We must choose contentment; we must choose to live with less. This is the message of every sage from every culture throughout human history. Addendum to this implication: poverty is not inherently bad.

PRINCIPLE 1: Your monthly mortgage payment should = 2% of your annual income. Your monthly car payment should = .2% of your annual income. Example: $50,000/year = $1,000 monthly mortgage payment and $100 monthly car payment.

RATIONALE: Anything greater than those percentages is only to feed your ego, and, more importantly, it keeps you from living, meaning: it keeps you from making good financial decision (investing, paying with cash, etc); it keeps you from doing things that matter (vacations, travel, hobbies, giving, family)

Michael Clayton

2008-05-17T07:54:00.001-07:00

Here's my review:

Michael Clayton

Boom. Just. Like. That. Boom. That's how you do it. Everything. Story, characters, visual storytelling, music, acting. Take notes, kids.

The title works with this movie... because they made the movie about Michael Clayton, regardless of what the other characters were doing. Naming a movie after the lead character is tricky. It worked for Forrest Gump and... um... Juno. But it rarely works for blockbusters. Which is fine for this movie; it is not a blockbuster; the structure of the storytelling is too confusing for a blockbuster.

Thoughts from Today

2008-05-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Add these earlier posts:

...the problem with arguing with Richard Dawkins is that he is right. More on that later.

The problem with Richard Dawkins' arguments, as I see it, are two problems and one imaginary: first, it is risky to declare current knowledge as final proof and absolute and as explaining(whatever I said earlier). Second, Reason must, as Emmanuel Kant explained, acknowledge that it cannot prove (or disprove) the metaphysical. The imaginary problem is (what I said earlier).

...he is blatantly, self-servingly (?) wrong about Einstein's beliefs. / He presumes to speak for Einstein. / He offers his own brand of revisionist history to suit his needs / to assist his cause. Yes, he does have a cause and has so as much himself (insert quote about combating/erraticating religion / making converts to atheism... which is to be expected and even appreciated. He must have a cause, as any passionate person must. Darwin himself said, "(insert quote re: must have an argument)

...after confessing it's limits, Reason must confess that a Supreme Being is somewhat reasonable.

-------------------------------

...the more knowledge I gain / information I learn, the more I value understanding. I am not impressed with game show contestants. And, if it were possible, am less impressed the more I understand.

Richard Dawkins, You're Going Down!

2008-05-08T11:30:00.001-07:00

Sometimes you secretly want Richard Dawkins to be wrong, just because he's so smug. And arrogant. And insultory. Much like a lot of fundamentalists. Religious fundamentalists, that is. One might argue that Mr. Dawkins is a fundamentalist.

The problem with challenging Dawkins is that he is right. About science and reason.

It is possible--knowing human behavior, likely--that some people who follow Dawkins do so because Dawkins is right. Humans have an inexplicable need to be right... which also means for someone else to be wrong.

(see footnote on page 101 of In the Lake of the Woods)

The problem with Dawkins is that it is always risky to state any current discoveries as truth. We have no idea how the world will look in five years. We cannot even guess at what we will discover in 60 years.

Me: "I want to be the man that re-marries the physical and spiritual worlds."
Richard: "But there is no spiritual world."
M: "Belief in anything takes faith. And it doesn't take much faith to believe in the spiritual."
If you cannot believe in something produced by reconstruction, you may have nothing left to believe in.
If you start with the Biblical viewpoint, it makes as much sense as any other viewpoint. There are as many answers, and as many questions.
For example: if the world is as "young" as the Bible suggests, how do we explain stars that are so far away that they must have burned out millions of years ago? Unless such stars are purely hypothetical.
Re-marrying the spiritual and the physical is (arguably) a more human endeavor than "killing" God or spiritual things.

The Spiritual is more than the release of emotion in a church service.

My idea that we cannot prove God or it would greatly limit free will. It would make free will not as free. Yes, you would still be able to chose to disbelieve (or believe if disproved), but not really.

Dawkins has a palpable dislike, or disgust, for people who have not joined his beliefs. And for those who partially join. There is room for only one belief in Dawkins' beliefs. He would argue that what he believes is not based on belief, and for much of it, he'd be correct. But until everything is known, belief is necessary.

His animosity toward the religious is not unique to him, nor is it new, nor is it a position held only by the learned. There are several explanations for such animosity: it can be an understandable frustration with unreasonable, bull-headed
zealots. Plato said that those still in the cave would resist learning. But it is often a defiance toward God or the idea of God.--a deep (spiritual) rebellion. Which also aligns with Plato's claims, and which the Bible, conveniently, predicted.

However, Dawkins does not sound like a Philosopher-King. This perspective could be the bias of my beliefs, but Dawkins comes across as someone supremely knowledgable about science and someone whose thinking is most logical, but not as someone enlightened. He is missing a human-ness. A compassion. Which, of course, does nothing to his arguments; thankfully. If personality deficiencies affected the validity of our arguments, we all would be in trouble. All that it means, perhaps, is that Dawkins is unfit (or not yet fit), by Plato's definition to be a Philosopher-King.

--------------------

I'm not sure why science insists that their can be no other / that nothing else dare exist. Science allows nothing else. But why? Kant's Critique of Pure Reason applies here.

Here's a simple example: sin. Some human behaviors can be explained no other way. Throughout history and throughout the world, there are dark places and terrifying deeds

My Journey With Evolution

2008-05-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

That all natural processes have scientific explanations does in no way disprove the spiritual.

...
I disbelieved strongly. I spoke out against it, the way religious people do: full of fervor but no fact.

I looked into it. Read: (insert online readings)

I had a crisis of faith. Both the Bible and Evolution cannot be true. Because the Bible makes quite a to-do about the creation of things.

I stated that Evolution was true to a couple who are friends. The wife seemed genuinely baffled. "So we really came from monkeys"

And then I had the crisis of the undoing of my crisis. Wait. Then, as before, the more I thought about Evolution the less it seemed reasonable. It seemed to explain natural processes and most behaviors. But it failed completely to explain some behaviors and origins, and, failing to explain origins, it is difficult to use it to explain much of what it claims to explain, such as: diversity of species.

One difficulty of evolution is the age it claims for the solar system. Maybe it is simply difficult for unlearned minds to believe. Or maybe it is so difficult that it is impossible.

The fossil problem: fossils are incontrovertable.

(from Time mag. letter to editor)
Humans are developed far beyond our function.

Another problem with evolution is that we don't see it... uh, kinda like that other theory.

The question is: where did life come from? We don't know. We may find the answer in fact-based, naturalistic discovery.

Evolution is not a stand-in for science. Science is not a step-by-step process to truth.

If an explanation of origin is necessary to understand evolution, then you will never understand it.
...

One of the first things you have to believe about the God of the Bible--if you believe--is that he would build a world (or universe) that is capable of continuing without constant supernatural intervention.

Starting from that point, everything in the universe fits: of course, this is just the kind of universe that kind of being could and would create. The processes, the interconnectedness and interdependancy between species... all that we have discovered called science--that we will always be discovering, all of it fits. All of the things that evolution explains can be as logically explained with Creation. Everything but the Creator.

We don't see God; we don't see evolution. We can't see the motivating force. We don't know the origin.

I'm not sure why we insist that everything must have come from something else. Why do we insist on that being the only explanation? We see similarities, but does that mean one came from another? For our world, similarities always mean created... by a creator. No one would ever, observing two differently-sized pieces of paper, think that one came from the other.
????

So, adaptation makes sense and is provable. But doesn't that point to an all-knowing creator as readily as it points to evolution?

...

There is as much hard evidence for God beginning things as there is for any other theory of beginnings.

Let Go and Fall

2008-05-06T10:24:00.001-07:00

I'm waiting, waiting for you to let go and fall.
But you never have and you never do.
And it's what you need most

testing ScribeFire

2008-05-05T19:48:00.001-07:00

testing ScribeFire from my Mac

Stop Procastinating

2008-05-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Nice:
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/read-this-now-stop-procrastinating-and-get-stuff-done-or-else.html

Nice:
The Day I Met Lance Armstrong
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/the-day-i-met-lance-armstrong.html

Nice:
http://www.craigharper.com.au/

The Passionate Woman and The Appeal of Partying

2008-05-05T10:24:00.001-07:00

The Passionate Woman
The history of human art is the celebration of passionate women. Painting, literature, music, sculpture are (predominately) inspired by or created for passionate women.

Why, then, do we (generally) discourage women from being passionate? Girls are not supposed to be amorous. We have harsh names, that we readily use, for women like that. We wait, vigilant, ready to proclaim someone "Slut", "Whore", "Cheap".

But why? Is there a sense that a woman who enjoys her body and uses her body is taking the easy way? That's the easy, lazy way to get attention and get what you want.

However, if Plato is right (and he is), we are all in the cave, so our perspectives, especially our shared perspectives, are incorrect. What if the passionate woman was worth celebrating? Even necessary for thing to be as they ought?

-------------

The Appeal of Partying?

Sometimes some teens talk about partying
by which they mean drinking
as though it were the ultimate way, the only way,
to experience fun

by which they mean drinking,
some adults laugh about their last party
to experience fun
by re-living their drinking or

some adults laugh about their last party
?10?
by re-living their drinking
?12?

as though it were the ultimate way, the only way,
?10?
?12?
sometimes teens talk about partying

Best? Worst? Flash game

2008-05-04T10:00:00.001-07:00

http://fubbs.net/

Vision

2008-05-03T13:17:00.001-07:00

Is VISION the missing ingredient in human lives?
Is VISION the difference between the successful and the... well, common?
Is VISION all that's necessary to chase down, and overtake, your dreams?

Making Money

2008-05-03T09:31:00.001-07:00

Ron Burkle

Vision matters most. You gotta know what direction you want to go.

Purpose, my purpose.

2008-05-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

What I like and am good at:

Thinking
Writing
Creating: drawing, photography, motion graphics
Speaking

What I need to do... so I must get better at:

Focusing on the task at hand, staying with it
Doing what needs to be done (vs. listing what needs to be done)
Teaching by intuition and sense vs. Understanding the goal of education

Even those who preach of something more have not become more

2008-05-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

Even those who preach that humans can become something more do not become more. Wayne Dyer comes close. As far as we know.

Many others talk continually about the necessity of becoming something more than what most people become. And their pleadings and proclamations all make sense and stir something deep inside our humanity.

But how many become something different... more?

Deepak Chopra, Buddy Wakefield, (lady who wrote "Heal Your Life", Robert Schuller, Rick Warren,
How much different are they from me or you?

What to Teach

2008-04-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to read engage the students into poetry.

But they are talking about their jobs, and paying for insurance, and their friend (a classmate) who drinks too much, and their dad who took their car even though it's not his.

And I'm trying to engage them in poetry.

Miracles?

2008-04-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." - Aristotle
We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn away. - Walter Percy

Some of the things that "God did" in the Bible can be explained by natural processes. An entire army dying overnight before the battle... some disease or poison could have overtaken them.

But some things cannot be explained with reason. Things like the separation of languages at the Tower of Babel. There is no natural explanation for languages changing overnight. There is however, the possibility of languages evolving within groups of people so that, over time, the groups could not understand each other.

Why can't I believe? If my reality depends on my thoughts, then everything is up to only me. And what do I do when I'm truly depressed? My negative thoughts must be creating my reality, so depression is self-perpetuating and, as such, how does a person escape.

Photography Quotes

2008-04-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

After all the error rests in the mistaken idea that the subject of a [photograph] is the object [photographed]. Robert Henri

(My idea: photography is capturing a timeless moment... not any old moment. A snapshot captures your daughters birthday, a photograph captures all children's birthdays.)

I don't think there is any such thing as detachment when you're photographing. You have a point of view and if you haven't, your pictures don't show anything about the people you are working with. Eve Arnold

In the end, the relationships we form with each other and with the people we photograph are much more important than stories or pictures. Erich Lessin

Life isn't made of stories that you cut into slices like an apple pie. There's no standard way of approaching a story. We have to evoke a situation, a truth. This is the poetry of life's reality. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Sun, April 27, 2008

2008-04-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Our daughter was born a fighter. What a difficult child she has been. We comfort / console / calm ourselves by saying that she will surely become something great--she will surely grow up to use her great strength for something good--she will fight for something good. But, of course, that won't happen. You grow no further than the circle you were born into. She will grow to lead a life just like all those in our circle of family and friends. The exceptions to this rule are so rare that they are mythological--the stuff of fairy tales and inspirational stories.

God does not talk to you through the songs on the radio. A God as great as the Bible claims cannot heal people or talk to those you claim he deeply loves. The best he can do is manipulate what is playing on the radio and when you happen to turn it on?
But then, of course, he did just that. Sunday, at 11:41am, driving to school, pressed "Seek", the radio passed four or five popular stations and stopped at 101.9 KINK. "Anything's Possible" by Jonny Lang was playing. Uh, is that you, God? 'Cuz I'm not sure I believe you talk to people.

All the joy is gone. And I am empty. The only happiness comes in the early, early morning when I am lying in bed, having yet to fall asleep, and I think about not living anymore. A shadow of happiness falls across my heart. I relax and hope I fall asleep and dream of such happiness.

People are forever expecting to suddenly explode. But no one does. People hold to the belief that all the suffering from childhood to adulthood / a life of suffering only means that one day they will have a sudden chrysalis. But the long-awaited explosion never comes. No one ever experiences a sudden chrysalis. What we do get, however, is more suffering; more time struggling against the bonds of the cocoon.

Sun, April 27, 2008

2008-04-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

How to Practice The Way to a Meaningful Life - Dalai Lama
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success - Deepak Chopra
Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life - Wayne Dyer
http://www.youcanhealyourlifemovie.com/
Every thought we think and every word we speak is creating our future. If you change your thinking, you can change your life.
If affecting change were as simply as the innumerous books claim, would we need so many books? If Wayne Dyer has answers, why does he need to continually write books?

Stop and ask yourself, "What am I thinking? Would I like this thought to create my life?"

I am willing to change.
I am willing to forgive.

GRATITUDE:
The healing power of gratitude.
http://www.juniorattractors.com/index.php (gratitude dance)

GIVING, KINDNESS:
Giving, receiving, seeing Kindness releases seratonin.

FINDING PURPOSE:
http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/defining_the_work_you_are_meant_to_do/index.html
http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/2007/05/takeaways_from_.html

What do you love, love, love? Think of the photographers: Ansel Adams, Chase Jarvis, Sergio (http://www.sergiophotographer.com/). They absolutely love what they do. They it so much, they love every part. They get up early to do it. They do it when it doesn't pay. They are (perhaps inadvertently) practicing the principles (see: http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/defining_the_work_you_are_meant_to_do/index.html) that bring success.

Sun, April 27, 2008

2008-04-27T09:19:00.001-07:00

Photographers I love:
http://www.sergiophotographer.com
** Henri Cartier-Bresson
** Sebastiao Salgado
** Richard Avedon
Robert Capa "If your photos aren't good enough, you're not close enough"
*** James Nachtwey (put self in danger, won more awards)

* Mary Ellen Mark
Rebekka G
Didier Massard
Kathleen Connally
eric meola
Steve Highfield
Galen Rowell

http://chasejarvis.com/blog/

PHOTO CONTESTS:
http://www.prophotosupply.com/events/contests.htm

Sat April 26, 2008

2008-04-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

then I gave in and gave up and took up mindless domestic activities.

Most wives life like slaves / lead the life of a slave / lead a barely distinguishable from that of a slave.

:: Coach's Son

beat the crap out of him.

like the neighbor kid. Smart. Knows all the planets in order. "Saul," he yells when he sees me. "Do you know what 5 times 20 is?" I play along and ask what it is. "100" he yells, with a little disgust that I don't know.

His dad makes him hunt and the little bugger does it, of course. 'cause it's his dad, you know. But I wonder how long that will last.

I escaped the hurt by falling all the way into fantasy world. Which has been impossible to get out of now. Plus I'm lonely all the time.

As long as the majority of the population are deep in Plato's cave, sports will have its weird place of worship and idolatry and completeness.

Everyone, even the wives, play along. The local paper, the school principal, the students carry on like sport is the only thing that matters. When it matters least. Like everything folks believe, we have repeated the explanation until we all believe it completely. Here's how it goes: "Young people learn leadership and teamwork and discipline and confidence and love and, oh, every good thing (only) playing sports." We don't say the "only", but it's understood.

Of course there is a bit of a problem with the explanation: it's just not true. No matter how you look at it.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

2008-04-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Which is the bringer of fulfillment: success (from ambition) or enlightenment?

Monday, April 22, 2008

2008-04-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

I know my purpose... well, my vocation.

It came to me Saturday night.

Sell subscriptions to my website. $1-a-month. On the site are all my thoughts. Thinking is what I am best at. That is how I should make my living.

Next Action:
detail what is required and the plan

Friday, April 18

2008-04-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

(My brother's birthday. More on birthdays later.)

Yes, you can be a teacher with purpose... easily. You can have a purpose to the class, which means, a specific direction the class is heading.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

2008-04-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

A man of purpose is one who does not dabble in whatever distraction crosses his path.

A man of purpose knows the one direction he is heading, and focusing, therefore, is easy.

Stand up, fathers. Stand up.

The appeal of video games is PURPOSE. In the game, you have a specific, significant purpose (albeit a virtual one).

Wednesday, April 16

2008-04-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

The man of purpose is simply a person who is heading in a specific direction.

***********************

Next year I will turn 40. Here's what 40 means: "You had your chance."

"But... but... history is full of stories of people who did something with themselves after 40."

No, history is not "filled" with such stories. Yes, there are some such stories. But whether it is too later or not, 40 feels like too late. And that is the cause of the mid-life crisis: the realization that it's now too late for my dreams. Before, there was still time and hope. Now there is none.

"It's never too late to become what you might have been." George Eliot

Are you sure, George?

***********************

"When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"

++++++++++++++

"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." - Sigmund Freud

What is a father to protect his child from? Physical hurt? The dark? Fears? Danger? Hunger? Emotional pain? Weather, cold? Maslow's list? Insults?

++++++++++++++

The need for fathers is a predominant theme in these works I recently encountered:

(book) In the Lake of the Woods
(movie) Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
(book) Angela's Ashes
(movie) Castle in the Sky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A student just showed up to class... over an hour late. His admit slip says, "Excused Tardy". I asked him if he was at some appointment, and he said, "Um, you could say that." I said, "You are an hour late and your mom just excused it?" To which he replied, "What can I say, my mom loves me." I said, "Maybe your mom could do that for work," and he said, "No. Work really matters."

Nice job, mom. Your message has gotten through.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

2008-04-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

I am washed out to sea, and I don't care.

--------------------

Where are the men? Where are the boys who will become men? Where are the boys who are charming, confident, kind, and purposeful? That is what the world needs, has always needed, and will always most need.

Where are the boys who can laugh, but never at someone's expense? I guess the underlining question here is: where are the boys who Know Themselves? Who are working hard at maturing? Who sweat in their effort to be kind, strong, wise, and better than they were before? Where are the boys who see that this is the real task?

And where, oh where, are their models?

---------------------

Well... how do I wish my classes looked?:

orderly
disciplined
purposeful
welcoming
friendly
kind
a safe place to try and fail
students clean and straighten the room before the bell
excitement for learning, writing, reading is contagious

When 45

2008-03-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

When did I turn 45?

This is not a matter of time going by. It is a matter of time lost; of purpose like an unmet stranger: existing out there somewhere, but I haven't met them. We'll never cross paths.

Anybody, Anything

2008-03-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

Anybody can do anything. You can even make the devil good. But that don't mean it's right.

Rather than advice...

2007-01-25T13:16:00.001-08:00

What is better than advice?

People tend to resist advice. Well, most people. The clear majority of people.

So what is more effective? Good question.

W.E.B DeBoius

2007-01-25T10:48:00.001-08:00

W.E.B., in his autobiography, talks about a 22-year-old being "fully mature". Why isn't that the case?

Why doesn't marriage mature men?

2007-01-25T10:44:00.001-08:00

Marriage is supposed to mature a person. (write more precisely, thoroughly)

Why doesn't marriage mature more men, then? Of course the question is wrong.

Why don't men mature in marriage?

It is a matter of personal responsibility. (more on this)

Why do many men become less mature after marrying?

Perhaps TD Jakes is right: there is a focused attack on men and manhood. If "the devil" can take down men, he takes down the whole family, society, future.

Quote - Philo

2007-01-22T12:20:00.001-08:00

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Fractals, baby.

2007-01-21T21:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some "flame fractals"... and a link to free software (Windows) to create flame fractals. Go here.

Real life Bambi and Thumper

2007-01-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

Whoa. This is pretty cute. Check it out.

Check out some of the other links on the page:
Huge Crane
World's Biggest machines
Mysterious Spider Boat

Check this out...

2007-01-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

I heard this show tonight; I have never heard of it before.

Listening, my soul leapt.

Take a look; take a listen.

Web 2.0 is here!

2007-01-21T17:34:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been here for awhile. I just haven't gotten around to writing about it. But, anyways, it's here. And here are some Web 2.0 applications I am using:

del.icio.us
43things
30boxes
box.net
spongecell
goowy
yourminis (part of goowy)
the new blogger (obviously)
wordpress
flickr

Hmm. There are others. I'll post 'em when I remember them.

TNT is a blog (!)

2007-01-21T16:06:00.000-08:00

I have finally moved TNT to a blog.

It used to be a static webpage which meant I would have to re-write the html and upload the new page each time I wanted to post a new TNT show.

That's so Web 1.0.

Now I can update the TNT page from any computer (that's connected). I don't need the html file. I don't need Dreamweaver. I don't need to ftp the file to my host. Subscribing is easy.

Here's the process now:

Make a poster frame
Upload the .mov and poster frame to the host, any host.
Make a new post on the TNT blog page that links to the new files.

Oh, there are easier ways. I could upload the video to Veoh or GoogleVideo, copy the "embed" code and paste it into a new blog post.

And I tried that. But the quality of the video was ~~below my standards~~ horrifying. You've watched video at YouTube/GoogleVideo/Veoh/etc. It's very easy to upload, find, view, embed the video. But the quality... whew. Stinky. I don't know why that is. I think Flash video is capable of high quality. It plays as it loads, so file size is not a concern. I don't know.

Go the beginning of the TNT episodes. I have posted a Veoh flash video before a Quicktime version so you can see the difference.

Talk to you later.

cool lines from Hamlet

2007-01-19T13:15:00.001-08:00

"This is fine revolution"

On Bible's practicality

2007-01-17T06:32:00.001-08:00

If the Bible is practical then the promises therein are practical.

The command, "Honor your father and mother", is stated as though it were a choice. Simply a choice. And if it is wholly, or even partially, a choice, then the promise that accompanies it is wholly or partially practical:

"So that your life may be long."

Could it be that it means that bitterness, selfishness, and pride all work to shorten your life? Could it be that it is not a supernatural promise?

Is there one cause of all trouble?

2007-01-15T13:35:00.001-08:00

what is the cause of the trouble in the world?

...

"People just don't care. Apathy is the cause."

What's the cause of the apathy?

I would submit that if Personal Responsibility is the answer to everything, then the lack of personal responsibility would be the reason for any problems.

Where does sin come in? How does sin come into this question? Personal responsibility, of course.

Beliefs

2007-01-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

What you belive is all that matter.
Beliefs get us through tough situation (...get us IN...)
Beliefs could be counter to reality (...be in line with reality)
Beliefs affect thinking

Everything is a battle of ideas
Everything is a battle for belief
Therefore the weapon is persuasion.

Oh fame, how I love thee.

2005-11-24T20:29:00.000-08:00

Belle read me letters from readers of People magazine. People wrote in about Jennifer Aniston. Ouch. My brain. Oh the things people said. Desperate to worship something, they worship someone. And worship they do. Outlandish praise. Unreasonable offerings. Of course the celebrity is not worth all of it--if any of it. Perhaps the people are worshipping celebrity as much as the celebrity. Oh fame, how I love thee.