Time-Capsule for 5,000th Celebration of America

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Too Big to Fail

Please first view Clip from American football-related movie Concussion (in link here)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/arjp53xlafwaqur/_%20concussion%20.mp4?dl=0

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The psychological drive for invulnerability is a huge influence in human affairs.  The wonder of paradox is its glaringly counter-intuitive nature.  The more resources—The Bigger they are—can be an express ticket not to “Better” but to Disaster.  A resource from this point of view can be considered money, status, muscle, market position, credentials, or even self-confidence.  The race of the Turtle and the Hare is a template for innumerable hard and decidedly unromantic lessons of life.

A central lesson of Christianity is that humility is mightier than arrogance.  As that translates in science it means that hypotheses are tentative and subject to verification.

We are all too familiar with the phrase “Too Big to Fail.”  We should be warned that this denies the texture, complexity, and paradoxical forces of life.

Those versed in Scripture appreciate the “horizontal” person-to-person aspect of life and the “vertical” nature of our relationship with God.  Thus, relationships with other humans can be sketched out in a continuum from absolute preoccupation with self on one extreme to unconditional denial of self and affirmation of others on the other.  Jesus suggests a balance in his affirmation that we are to love others as ourselves.  This view of justice is not complete however since it assumes a totally Godly nature of the societal status quo—it assumes that possession is 9/10s of the law whereas in truth wealth creation can be ridiculously unrelated to the distribution thereof.  It is at this point that believers join to prayerfully seek the Lord’s will.

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When viewing movie Concussion, note the Christian/democratic/disciplined arts and sciences approach of absolute loving respect...in particular note how the doctor lovingly addresses his deceased subjects--this approach participates in our Creator"s great love for us--the only true wonder open to objectivity.   After the movie, sit through the credits and be humbled by the vast number of creators involved and their abundance of disciplined gifts.
(Movie Trailer below).






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I think you will also find these blogs of relevant interest:

https://www.wayneblogs.com/2018/04/the-springtime-throwing-open-of-windows.html

https://www.wayneblogs.com/2018/05/the-forever-rebirth-of-wonder-and.html

https://www.wayneblogs.com/2018/04/work-in-progress.htmlnder-and.html

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The Long Tracks of Organic Memory and Allied Inorganic Technology

Recognizing the Bitter-Sweet Keepsakes of Whistle Stop Townships:


(Link to edited clip from classic movie Fried Green Tomatoes)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nitw0z1pujiacsu/Whistle%20Stop.mp4?dl=0

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Rocky Mountain Highs

Patriots tend to focus on freedom as having a governmental attribute often characterized with tribute to the many who have suffered and died to protect and defend nation-state democracies. The homeland is ultimately underwritten domestically by the application of the Sword of the State which identifies and curtails hurtful anti-social behavior that has been duly codified.

During my stay at Saint Anthony's Hospital this week, I complimented the attending Registered Nurse (Don) for his thoughtfulness and proactive courtesies shown to my friends who occasionally stopped by to visit me. He immediately replied with a question…"You know why?" When I shook my head “No", he replied, “FREEDOM"  He could see I was searching for further clarification, and he said “My manager (Jackie) gives me the freedom to do such things.”  I knew immediately what this meant.

For like many others who would joyfully serve up their very best in expansive fields of sunlit uplands, we can find ourselves instead crawling through a maze of  dank Indiana Jones underground caverns whose floors seethe with angry scorpions ready to fire cocked-and-loaded stingers when incited by the perverted and overweening pleasure of the self-appointed masters of the universe.  

This condition is rightly seen as heavily toxic to the divinely solocitous and creative better angels of our nature. Their thuswise crippled performance serve to remind us of the huge importance that due regard suffuse a structure with persistent self-constraint and humility (power under control) necessary to nourish a ruddy social climate of freedom and responsibility--intertwining the wonder of paradox with the interwoven mystic chords of soul.  

The larger point to make is that freedom's enterprising spirit should extend to the maximum extent possible.   What's the point of living in a free nation-state if  chained daily by cruel circumstance to a local workplace satiated with poisonous sadism thinly disguised as no-nonsense tough-as-nails management.  Surely by now we humans should see through this deception which finds no joy but in the desecration of human hope and happiness.

To My Brother and Sister Believers

Soon the current American political abomination will end as justice and truth pierce the night. Yet the forces of sadism will retain a strong national force of virulent cynicism  How shall the forces of light counter such self-destructive madness?  It is clear that we must heighten our affinity with and receptivity to the eternal and sustaining heavenly powers.  Trusting in the redemptive powers of the Way is essential. As in ages past, let us keenly seek the guidance of Providence and have unflinching faith to practically effectuate divine intimations and directives both as individuals and community. 

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Bless Be The Tie That Binds

This week we have seen President Trump yearning to be the Strong Man.  Now lets all confess at the outset we have all been there before ourselves.  It is the desire in some sense to be the dramatic Superman swooping in on the scene to make histrionic and decisive change. Yet, as is so often the case in the complex cacophony of human affairs, resources can be ridiculously outstripped by the grind of mundane needs.  How often have I dreamed that if I could only have unlimited financial resources, I could finally bestow on those I love a final financial solution to end all sadness and grief?.  

Some weeks ago my wife and I were in my villa when I brought a plastic chair from off the patio and positioned it on the interior hard wood floors. On heavily resting myself within the seat the legs attempted to spread-eagle on the slick floor, a leg broke off, and I landed with a thud on the floor.  To all my young and lithe readers out there, let me rudely interpose here an unpleasant fact--old folks like me do not after a fall spring elf-like back on our feet.  No, it literally took me over two hours to so position myself on my knees with suitable structural support surrounding me to once again return to a standing position. Now my wife Connie--due to her physical limitations--could not begin to play the role of a Super-Strong Superwoman. She was there and could have called the first responders as a last resort.  But her continuous indispensable role for more than two stressful hours was TO BE THERE to supply encouragement and moral support. Sometimes with Super-Strong Man images clouding our minds, we tremendously underestimate the essential redemptive nature of just BEING THERE.  I have little doubt that countless parents under severe financial limitations daydream of a stupendous monetary windfall allowing them to save their children....whereas in truth wealth alone can never match the overwhelming need for a BEING THERE supportive embrace

This past week the chief representatives of NATO countries met to ceremonially symbolize SUPPORT in the face of continuing vulnerability.  The whole point of the ceremonies was a mutual demonstration of BEING THERE for one another--even if that should finally entail battlefield death.

When a family visits a loved-one in the hospital (as of, say, a youth seriously injured in a motorcycle accident), there may indeed be words of wisdom older family members may in their view wish to give a careless youth. But there is a season for all things and when a son's life hangs in the balance, there is need for a family circle of unadulterated and palpable symbolized support.

God give us grace to know when to embrace and when to refrain from embracing.


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Donald Trump and Me

Good morning Pres. Donald Trump!

I would like to talk to you this morning as simply “Wayne” and I hope you don’t mind that I address you as Donald. 

Donald I look at your character and mine and come away with a nagging sense that in ways that neither of us perhaps can take credit for or blame, we profoundly differ. I understand that you do not drink alcohol and neither do I--for the very same reason I think.  We deeply understand the harm that it brings to human beings.  Both of us have an intimate acquaintance of harm done by alcohol to a loved one close to us. But at this point our behavior dramatically differs. It drives me crazy to walk through a convenience store with alcohol stacked so high that it literally seems to submerge me in its poison.  I feel for any youngster growing up after having gone down such cornucopias aisles of resplendent alcohol abundance. They cannot help but feel that alcohol belongs in American life – indeed, that it must have compelling health benefits. 

Donald even though a close family member of yours has died from alcohol and you too are so convinced of its harmfulness that you personally do not drink at all – yet even today you own a winery and own numerous properties that push alcohol relentlessly.  Your casinos were once destructive to your customers who--once clouding their judgment through alcohol--ran up enormous debts that you then relentlessly pursued with a staff of lawyers.  How is it that you do not include others within a circle of concern that includes yourself?  Do you see them as suckers to be exploited?  Do you feel that their pain validates and even proves your own superiority?

Don, I too like the smell of money – one of my favorite addictions is spending it every chance I get in Walmart. I suppose the very human response to a query regarding the measure of a money in a bank account is always “I could use more!”  Can you explain why we can be so much alike and yet so different? 








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