Pass this on…

Reblogging:

https://t.co/oLW4oSn6K1  (from  @my_bitz: )

“Reblog if you think the person you reblogged this from deserves to be happy.”

Peace NOW!

If we’re talking about possibilities (not necessarily probabilities), it’s entirely possible for all of the world’s soldiers to drop their arms, remove their symbols of rank, to stop saluting and just go home. What could the politicians do about it?

The Price of Humanity

Our evolution from the barely aware animal state to our higher human consciousness came with a price. We humans have a need for love just as we need oxygen or food. For us, there is no life without love, merely existence.

The God Game (Yet again…)

One point which it seems I must repeat every once in a while for as long as I do live is this: the religious believers and the atheists are doomed to battle forever if they can't both get one simple idea into their heads. Both sides of that argument are fighting for a faith. The theists have faith that there is some Higher Power that got the machinery of All That There Is running (exactly how is both unknowable and irrelevant). Meanwhile, the atheists have faith that, while we appear to be living in an orderly Universe, there was no Ultimate Power involved in the startup process. These two combatants in the How It All Began conflict will continue their mutually unproductive aggression until the last human breathes the last available lungful of air, unless one or the other side gasps its last. We could end it all today if we could just get the attention of both sides at the same time. A quick blow to the sides of the heads on both sides--with, say, a 2" x 4"--might serve but I'd be happy with whatever works.… Hey, Theists! Yo, Atheists! Have none of you ever realised that NEITHER side has any conclusive, objective or otherwise empirical PROOF in hand to actually and permanently settle this question one way or the other? That is why the pointless argument about whether a supra-natural exists in the first place and why the moronic jabbering--by both sides--has gone on for so long! The issue is the existence or non-existence of a theoretical "entity" completely outside of the realm of direct human experience. One is welcome to posit the existence of such an entity to one's heart's content, for whatever reason that one chooses to BUT no one can EVER prove conclusively that such a being either exists or does NOT exist. The argument may be stupid but one must admit that it is at least fair.…

I say, GIVE IT UP ALREADY!! Go work on climate change or something else useful. Please note that climate change is at least something that WE are most definitely responsible for. As for God(s)? Keep it to yourself. And that goes for you atheists, too. Go and find out what's killing off the bees.…

Philosophy 101-n

Try this on: 

Love is much harder to pull off than hate is.

Hate, in many cases, requires only one predicate for its basis and the person who hates will almost always know what the "why" (or "why's) driving their hate is. Love, though not necessarily, is often based on more than one predicate and the person who loves can often be in a situation where they know that they love (someone or something) but, if asked, might well have some difficulty in naming or explaining why they love. It is therefore no surprise that love and faith are often intertwined. Consider the most straightforward definition of "faith:" "Faith is the choice to believe in something without the benefit of knowledge." It is this definition that lies at the heart of Christian faith and God's refusal to provide empirical proof of His/Her/Its existence. The Christian concept of salvation is based on faith and knowledge makes faith unnecessary, even irrelevant.

There is an abundance of faith in our Earthly lives that has no connection to traditional ideas of religion. One example:

If I am standing in front of you, holding an automobile battery in my hands, and you see me drop it, you will move away to protect your feet. That demonstrates your faith in gravity. Neither you nor anyone else knows what gravity is, what causes it or how it works. But yet, in the complete absence of knowledge, you have faith in the power of gravity and will act in a manner that you believe will save you from pain and possible injury.

Yes, I do believe that speculative contemplation is more fun than betting on the horses.…

A Wish

Tell me, tell me true, who will dream the dream of you and the dream of I, as our spirits fly through the ever-sky, be they remembered or forgot, a part of life or maybe not, that some fragment may live on so that we may never be forever gone.

Suicide: An Exchange of Thoughts

Any news item about a suicide is sad but, sadly too, it's rarely that shocking. For those who harbour the inclination, (and T—a would appear to be one) suicide can actually be contagious. Not that many ever consciously think it through but, it is a kind of “if he/she can do it, then so can I" sort of thing. The people who are "inspired" to copy the suicide of another are the borderline cases. Many end their own lives simply because they have decided to do so. Others need some added external factor to make up their minds, to harden their resolve, and the suicide of someone they know well is one possible trigger that is sufficient to give them the little nudge that they need to go from suicidal ideation to suicidal action. 

The negative effects of a suicide must be kept from spreading, however take care and stay alert: you may be dealing with someone from a family whose members are born with a genetic predisposition for self-destruction, which can express itself in different ways. For example, there are those who can’t kill themselves in one decisive act and so, choose instead some slow yet equally and inevitably fatal method, such as drinking themselves to death or, perhaps, neglecting to take care of themselves to such an extreme degree that their lifestyle is as ultimately fatal as a bullet. In order to contain and hopefully break that fatal cycle, involved survivors mustn't be allowed to feel responsible for the death in any way. The successful suicide is the one responsible for his/her own death and any "if only I had/hadn't such-and-such" thinking will only endanger other lives. “If only” thinking is pointless: whatever the imaginary "if" is thought to be, it is unlikely to have existed, at least in the form an outsider would imagine. It is next to impossible to try to second guess a deeply depressed mind. The internal landscape of a suicide-to-be is an alien world. Were it not so, someone close to whoever finally did blow out their own candle would have acted, we hope, on the basis of recognisable clues and thus prevented the tragedy.

I am not suggesting that anyone is obliged to let themselves be dragged down deep into the whirlpool of another's tragedies, for even empathy is best when practiced in moderation but, should hints surface in a conversation, message, letter or any form of personal communication, that someone, somehow, does feel guilty (that classic "survivor's guilt") over the self-inflicted death of, say, a sibling, lover, friend or mother (whosever suicide it was that put the depressive on that stony downward road which, once embarked upon, is bound to return repeatedly to a state of corrosive self-reflection), don't let the affected person spin alone in their decaying spiral down to doom: assume the rôle of the defender of the accused, which in any suicide scenario is Life itself. No "if's," "only's" or "maybe's." The survivor is not complicit in another’s homemade death. The survivor is basically a bystander, someone who suffered collateral damage and isn’t required to be an angel by anyone, with the possible exception of their own subconscious, which may well be in shock and wandering in the dark. No one living can carry the weight of expected perfection, an expectation that does not come from society but which is purely self-inflicted and driven by that ancient demon: Guilt. The survivor’s greatest enemy is their unfounded sense of guilt which must not be allowed to take root in their mind, because it grows especially well in the dark. 

Over the years we have been putting together a Mental Healthcare System that is meant to be of assistance to those in need and, while we know it is still far from perfect, it is not staffed by incompetent, uncaring idiots. Those who find themselves under pressure should cry out for help, LOUDLY, and, while it may be the blackest of nights, flail about for a helping hand, regardless of where it might be coming from.… 

(A reader’s comment: )

A lot of sense in that. Her mum died of cancer when she was quite young. Her mum's sister was a nurse, who had a stroke and, although she was recovering from it, they wouldn't let her go back to work. So she hung herself in the closet. At least one other person in her immediate family hung themselves as well. Her brother was a meth addict. She is bipolar and has a history of suicide attempts. Her gene pool seems to be a cesspool. 

(Asking after the person behind the above pronouns: )

How is T—a doing? Is she still glued together? Given her family history, whoever is close to her should STAY close to her! They should also watch and listen to her very carefully, especially for the next few weeks. Anything out of the ordinary in her behaviour or in what she says needs to be paid attention to as well as any sign of an increase in her interest in things that are…well, morbid. Even if she had never shown signs of being self-destructive, that wouldn’t rule out the possibility that she may still be a carrier of such tendencies on a subconscious level. After such a series of losses, most anything is possible.

(In conclusion: )

Although it is a common enough reaction, there is no point in T—a getting mad at the dead. There isn't even any logic to it. Those people weren't attacking T—a personally, they had simply decided that enough was enough and that they wanted off of what they saw as the stupid carousel of their daily lives. I say, respect the decisions of the dead and let them go. Nobody mourns for the dead anyway: people mourn the loss of a relationship with someone now unreachable which, in other words, means that the living mourn for themselves.

Night of The Sprite

In the darkness of 

My days 

I was lost, I had

Lost my way;

An endless ramble 

Amongst the thorns and 

Brambles, 

Doomed to gloom.

Then, at the very edge 

Of my fading sight, 

A spark, a glimmer 

Of shimmering light.

As I drew nearer to it 

I saw a slit in a hedge,

I fit my eye to it so 

That I could see through it 

And then I did spy what 

Awoke in me wonder for 

What I viewed yonder

Was the flickering form of 

A woodland sprite!

‘Twas her feminine glamour 

I had glimpsed in my dark, 

Her lithe light was the spark

That had guided my way!

In an instant, nay!, less,

I was enamoured. 

I was fated to stay, 

Drinking in beauty from 

Which I didn’t dare stray.

No longer lost, I was 

Rooted to the spot,

Watching magical dancing, 

Ageless, entrancing…  

But how to get nearer

Without inspiring

Fear in her?

Having found my

Life’s light, this supple

Forest sprite,

I now had to meet her,

Clasp her close, then 

Upon her lips I’d press

A thousand kisses,

More or less.

Let time stop I prayed, 

That to her I could 

Make my way

While still the night

Kept the sun at bay.

For a-feared was I

That the love I’d spied

Would fade away  

With the break of day.…