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11:21:00 AM PDT
The Day After Tomorrow
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an entry consisting of a mini auto-bio. I had spent a few hours and had tried to show my readers of the diverse, yet united family and friends environment I had grown up with. I needed to do much research and that required me to jump back and forth to other windows. Needless to say, when I was just about done and ready to publish my entry I accidentally clicked the back button on the "Add An Entry" window and lost everything.
Just like flushing the toilet a masterpiece went down the drain. As the grandpa on the Real McCoy's would have said, "No brag, just facts."
I then wrote an entry scolding AOL for having such an outdated program, of which I deleted/canceled. But I will say this, Come on AOL, pull your pants up and get with the program. It is the year 2008 of our Lord. Most journals or blogs or any other text entry has a safety switch with something like, "If you exit this work all will be lost, do you wish to continue to exit?" Um, duh?
I have friends who are far left-wing liberals. I have just as many friends who are right-wing conservatives. Many of my friends in New York have labeled me a Liberal Republican. Others called me a Conservative Democrat. And still others called me an Independent. Some have called my way of thinking as radical. I am none of the above, really. I take each issue or subject at hand and make my decision which I feel is right or wrong. There is a right way and there is a wrong way.
In my mini auto-bio I had written about being raised with traditional American values. I'm not radical at all. The world around me is radical. In the late 60s and early 70s our nation changed. It changed radically. Men who went to Nam came back home to find the nation they had fought for entirely something different than when they went to that Asian war, which was never classified as a war until much later.
Legalized abortions, same-sex marriages, and a whole lot of things changed since that time in the late 60s. That was radical, not traditional.
Growing up as a 4-H Club member (Two clubs) I carried on the 4-H motto and pledge throughout my life.
4-H Motto:
To Make The Best BETTER
4-H Pledge:
I pledge my HEAD to clearer thinking
my HEART to greater loyalty
my HANDS to larger service
and my HEALTH to better living for my club, my community, my country and my world.
That is what the four Hs stand for. That is me. That is traditional. That is right, not wrong, in a world that has gone drastically wrong since I first made my pledge and promised to make the best BETTER.
That was before the day after tomorrow.
Life went on. I remember being in high school when the first radical teacher's strike struck. An old school teacher who came out of retirement to fill the class while the younger teachers were on strike said to us in her first moment of class, "When I was a teacher, I taught because my heart was in teaching. My husband was the breadwinner, and I wanted nothing more than to teach...."
And so the world changed.
That is not to say that today's teachers are less than those of yesterday. A good teacher, like a good nurse, like a good police officer comes from the heart. The heart of greater loyalty.
But we seem to follow the pack sometimes, even when the pack goes down the wrong path. Some 1600 to 1700 years ago a man wrote this passage which is just as true today as it was back then. Just like the Bible is as true today as it was back when. Some things never change.
Following The Crowd
"Young men don't laugh much on their own, or boast much on their own. But when they get together, what starts as fun ends up as something cruel, greedy or vicious. They're afraid of being different, of standing against the crowd, of being thought of as cowards. They are ashamed that they aren't shameless! What a travesty of human nature, that friendship and companionship, gifts of God, can be so perverted -- that what is essentially good can yet seduce us into sin." -- Saint Augustine, The Subtlety of Sin, in the Confessions
Christ's Choice
"He could have come down from the cross, but he preferred to rise up from the tomb." -- Saint Augustine, The Wisdom of Saint Augustine
Baron vs Beagle, The Original Dogfight
River's Jukebox
Royal Guardsmen: Snoopy & The Red Baron
A Salute
America's First Team Fallen Soldiers
First Team Videos & More
To make the best BETTER. We can never go wrong if we conduct our lives with a motto like that. If we add the GMC motto to that, "Do one thing and do it well" we as a nation can accomplish anything our hearts desire. If we joined hands in the unbroken circle, we together can all make the world a better place to be. If we stop saying, "Me Me Me", and start saying, "Us Us Us," or say "We" instead of "I" our team would be a First Team. A Team second to none. A team that would change the world and make the best BETTER.
Our hearts tell us which is right and which is wrong. That is the Holy Spirit within us, guiding us. The Teacher, teaching. If we listen we can always make the best BETTER.
Thank you for joining me. God Bless You.
And always remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!
River,
Las Vegas, Nevada
Sunday, 1 June 2008
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Indeed, the world keeps changing, but the constant remains: God, our Lord. I believe the Holy Spirit guides us today ... but like you said, not everyone is listening, not everyone recognizes Him. I think all we can do is listen and follow. The 4-H's make a lot of sense today as it did in your younger days. Even if those around you are not adhering to your steadfast traditions, you must follow them anyway. It is the right thing to do, River. May your week be in peace. bea
http://journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/ -
Oh how I agree everything seems to have changed....sometimes I begin to wonder if it is me that is out of step, however I don't think so. Our minister was just saying the last time we had a bible study that sometimes she worries for new ministers coming into the ministry (she has been teaching at the Wesley College training new ministers and lay preachers) many do not act as if they have been God Sent...and see the ministry as a JOB and not a vocation and so therefore are more concerend for themslves,their wages, their holidays. time off etc... than the people they have been sent to minister to..it is a sad time. However all will be well in the end if we continue to Love one another with all our heart and look for the good and keep pointing it out every time someone points out the negative. Keep well God Bless Love Sybil x
7/16/08 6:07 PM
I grew up in the '60's, and it's interesting and sad too that what was "radical" then is mainstream now. Unfortunately, this change has not been for the better.
For the commenter below, you're not out of step in the sense you're values are outdated. The definition of what's right and wrong, and character never changes. We live in a society of situational ethics and the famous "gray area" which really teaches that there are no absolutes.
It's hard to believe that all of this mess has come about in way less than a lifetime.
And River, I remember when our troops came home from Vietnam. It was a different America than the one they fought for alright, many of the Communist (yes I said Communist, and?) hippies spit on our fighting men. I would have definitely gotten in trouble with the law had I witnessed that you-know-what. That was when I resolved to thank our service men and women every chance I got.
Dirk
http://journals.aol.com/tsala