Like I have said: I didn't discount inspiration or possibly a burning bush or even a dream or vision, but, I believe that my last love interest basically wrote me that a "Dear Josh" because of The Spanish Prisoner, but it seems that Cami had "hit-the-nail-on-the-head" when she commented that, "Maybe it is a personality test to find out if you are compatible." It seems that watching that movie was my secret-compatibility-test and it most definitely "weeded-out" an incompatible love candidate!
I have since found (re-found? We had actually gone-out a few times in High School...) a completely compatible love interest that actually owns the movie in question!
I am completely, head-over-heels in love with her (she is who I have at other times referred to #105 and the topic of that "potential energy" that I have been referring to...)!
So, thanks Cami--you were right!--and thank you David Mamet for both writing and directing that movie (we'll do lunch sometime; have your people call my people...)!
She had declared a poem by Carl Sandburg, as her poet-of-the-month for October and poated:
"HAPPINESS"
I asked professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women and children and a keg of beer and an
accordion.
I am happy though I have never consumed malt liquor (or any liquor, for that matter...) nor played an accordian...!!! Thanks Jill...
JPS
25.10.08
22.10.08
How does procrastination erode faith?
First of all, let's look at what faith is:
In the New Testament (where else should we look to find out the absolute most fundamental characteristic of a disciple of Christ?) we learn that faith is; in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse one -- Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Also, we read in the Book of Mormon, in the book of Ether, chapter twelve much about what faith is, but specifically in verse six, "that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
We can infer from those two verses that faith is not to have a sure knowledge and is not to be able to "prove" that such a thing is true... We can, though, believe that it is the case and can believe so much, AS to, like Joseph Smith teaches in his Lectures on Faith, have the power of faith and, therefore, the power to finish the faithful steps that we are taking! (We could go on and on and on about the nature of faith and describe and discuss it, but our point now is to talk about how procrastination erodes faith!)
Now, let us turn a discussion of "procrastination..." Procratination is, in essence, proof that you don't actually have faith, or I should say that to procrastinate is to show that you don't believe, wholeheartedly, that the object of your desired faith will come to pass!
Let me step back for a moment and try not to offend those reading this that may be procrastinators... Alma 34:33,35 & Alma 13:27 & Helaman 13:38 all talk about procratination in terms of not waiting too long to repent or waiting til it becomes "everlastingly too late" to repent!
To procratinate is to do the opposite of moving forward in faith; it is, literally, to stand still or move backwards in faithlessness... C. S. Lewis tells us is that faithful action is strengthened by repetition but that not choosing to act towards your faithful goal will make you forget about and lose interest in completing your original desire or desired goal...
In other words, to procratinate or procrastination, does, in fact, erode faith! It can actually erode it to the point that you no longer have that initial faithful intention...
JPS
In the New Testament (where else should we look to find out the absolute most fundamental characteristic of a disciple of Christ?) we learn that faith is; in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse one -- Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Also, we read in the Book of Mormon, in the book of Ether, chapter twelve much about what faith is, but specifically in verse six, "that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
We can infer from those two verses that faith is not to have a sure knowledge and is not to be able to "prove" that such a thing is true... We can, though, believe that it is the case and can believe so much, AS to, like Joseph Smith teaches in his Lectures on Faith, have the power of faith and, therefore, the power to finish the faithful steps that we are taking! (We could go on and on and on about the nature of faith and describe and discuss it, but our point now is to talk about how procrastination erodes faith!)
Now, let us turn a discussion of "procrastination..." Procratination is, in essence, proof that you don't actually have faith, or I should say that to procrastinate is to show that you don't believe, wholeheartedly, that the object of your desired faith will come to pass!
Let me step back for a moment and try not to offend those reading this that may be procrastinators... Alma 34:33,35 & Alma 13:27 & Helaman 13:38 all talk about procratination in terms of not waiting too long to repent or waiting til it becomes "everlastingly too late" to repent!
To procratinate is to do the opposite of moving forward in faith; it is, literally, to stand still or move backwards in faithlessness... C. S. Lewis tells us is that faithful action is strengthened by repetition but that not choosing to act towards your faithful goal will make you forget about and lose interest in completing your original desire or desired goal...
In other words, to procratinate or procrastination, does, in fact, erode faith! It can actually erode it to the point that you no longer have that initial faithful intention...
JPS
12.10.08
Energy II (potential energy)...
Now the energy that I'm feeling... (in fact, the way that I put it today in an email was, "I woke-up at 5:20 AM and my body was tingling from this very energy"...) definitely is a type of "potential energy" but another way to-put-it is the excitement of potential energy!
Saturday night there was some actual kinetic energy happening in my life and maybe just a little bit of nuclear energy!!! I think that I may need to get decontaminated some! I know that there actually no reactor meltdown or leakage of any kind though... And maybe there was some of that cosmic energy; in fact, there was!
No sexual energy, but... there definitely was potential sexual energy! Hence me classifying it as "potential energy"... Right? OK? Now, STOP THINKING ABOUT IT and get-back to you MSN News page!!!
JPS
Saturday night there was some actual kinetic energy happening in my life and maybe just a little bit of nuclear energy!!! I think that I may need to get decontaminated some! I know that there actually no reactor meltdown or leakage of any kind though... And maybe there was some of that cosmic energy; in fact, there was!
No sexual energy, but... there definitely was potential sexual energy! Hence me classifying it as "potential energy"... Right? OK? Now, STOP THINKING ABOUT IT and get-back to you MSN News page!!!
JPS
3.10.08
But, isn't it "only natural"?
What does that phrase intend to mean exactly?
Let's look at a couple possible scenarios (remembering that we can substitute any sin with the sin listed in the example!) For example: We may not be prone to violence, but in this first example:
"It's only natural that I murdered my wife and left my children motherless... BUT she has been yelling at me for 30 years! ..."
"Sure... sometimes when I daydream at work or even at home, I think of sex with a woman other than my wife or killing my boss... I am a man, though, and can't help but feel those types of urges! right?"
"It's only natural that I cheated on my taxes... After all, the Government already has their fair share, and the government owed me that money and I don't consider it 'stealing'!"
"My son was foolish last summer and had sex with his long-time and steady girlfriend, but I don't blame him because it was just his hormones and it's only natural to have those feelings and then let your body take its natural course: weren't we made to do just that?"
This next scenario might be hard to read...
"My older bother came over, last night, to help me finish painting my garage ceiling and we got to joking and I told him about some of the dumb things that my wife has done to me lately... I mean, I can't believe that she would ever do that to anyone, but to her own husband!?! My brother says that I should seriously consider divorcing her!"
So, where could we place the "it's only natural label" on that scenario? On just the brother? On just the husband? On both? Why?
Just remember one of the most profound verses in scripture that speaks-to just this sort of topic:
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Spirit, and putteth-off the natural man, and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full-of-love, willing-to-submit to all things that the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
JPS
Let's look at a couple possible scenarios (remembering that we can substitute any sin with the sin listed in the example!) For example: We may not be prone to violence, but in this first example:
"It's only natural that I murdered my wife and left my children motherless... BUT she has been yelling at me for 30 years! ..."
"Sure... sometimes when I daydream at work or even at home, I think of sex with a woman other than my wife or killing my boss... I am a man, though, and can't help but feel those types of urges! right?"
"It's only natural that I cheated on my taxes... After all, the Government already has their fair share, and the government owed me that money and I don't consider it 'stealing'!"
"My son was foolish last summer and had sex with his long-time and steady girlfriend, but I don't blame him because it was just his hormones and it's only natural to have those feelings and then let your body take its natural course: weren't we made to do just that?"
This next scenario might be hard to read...
"My older bother came over, last night, to help me finish painting my garage ceiling and we got to joking and I told him about some of the dumb things that my wife has done to me lately... I mean, I can't believe that she would ever do that to anyone, but to her own husband!?! My brother says that I should seriously consider divorcing her!"
So, where could we place the "it's only natural label" on that scenario? On just the brother? On just the husband? On both? Why?
Just remember one of the most profound verses in scripture that speaks-to just this sort of topic:
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Spirit, and putteth-off the natural man, and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full-of-love, willing-to-submit to all things that the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
JPS
2.10.08
What if I were to stop writing?
I think that, for me, writing is a way to create the goodness that otherwise I wouldn't be able to make...
I'm pretty sure that if I were to stop writing (either here or in my journal at home...), I would die... inside!
The more I am able to create the more I feel love and feel happiness and feel joy and feel completed!
When I need to write something, anything, then to plug this creative outlet would be to turn off that one avenue for love and happiness and joy, anticipating completion.
If I were to stop writing...
I would simply have to find another avenue of creation! -- for now, though, this is the most comfortable and the easiest way that I can express myself, alone, that is...
I think I'll just continue to write like this for a long time. Don't even think that I will ever stop writing mini-devotionals either. That is where most of my expression emerges...
JPS