It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t.
It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not.
— James Gordon
I thought this was an insightful comment, as we all try to change ourselves, influence others, etc etc. There is a definitely a timing to everything.
This is an interesting talk on how the internet connects us to each other. She discusses some of the social norms that have created the structure we have, and how the higher up the echelons, the more control one has over their ability to talk to their close relationships.
Anyway, interesting.
It is very humbling to feed a young woman her breakfast because she is too autistic to tell you she’s hungry, but functional enough to sometimes be able to use a spoon. It is humbling to watch a spirit, “trapped” in a body that wont allow her to communicate all she feels, so only pure emotion and frustration surface. When she is not understood, or cannot get her needs met, she strikes her own head–her ears bearing years of scars and healing in the form of large keloid scars.
It is humbing to think, that something as simple as telling another human, I think I am tired, do you mind letting me rest? or I am very sad, and I cannot seem to be comforted, will you love me? Can never be said by some who need it most. A very humbling thing to watch.
Premortal life, a spiritual life before this mortal life is core to the LDS faith. There are some other religions who this that we were only created to praise God. That He made us instantaneously at birth to do this.
I came across this written essay by JF McConkie titled “ Premortal Existence, Foreordinations, and Heavenly Councils“. He is the son of a former apostle and a scriptorian. I’ve been recently very interested in the concept of God’s planning of the world and placement of each person and their purpose. This talk speaks to the former.
He interestingly quote from the Acts of Thomas, an apocryphal work with a really interesting parable that an LDS member would appriciate.
THE ALLEGORY OF THE PEARL
The various threads at which we have looked to this point are perhaps best woven into a single tapestry in the Syriac Hymn of the Pearl, which has been preserved for us in a work entitled the Acts of Thomas. This is an allegory of a king’s son who is required to leave his father’s kingdom, where he enjoyed great wealth, to obtain a pearl. The pearl, quite obviously, is a symbol of his own soul. His parents see that he is properly provisioned for his journey. Before leaving their presence he is required to surrender his splendid robe. This robe, or garment of light, we are told, had been woven to the measure of his stature. He also enters into a covenant with them to obtain the pearl and return that he might once again enjoy their presence and wear his splendid robe. The covenant is written upon his heart.
Though the way is hazardous and difficult, an intimate friend referred to as “an (anointed one)” warns him of the dangers that beset him. Notwithstanding all this he soon forgets his identity as a king’s son and his mission to obtain the pearl. At this point a council is held; it is attended by his father, his mother, his brother (the crown prince), and many other great and mighty ones. They determine to send him a letter imploring him to awake and remember who he is and what king he serves. He is encouraged to remember his splendid robe and to so conduct himself that his name might be written in the book of heroes, and that with his brother he may be an heir to his father’s kingdom.
Thus reminded, he commences again his efforts to obtain the pearl, which he must wrestle from a terrible serpent. This he is able to do only by naming his father’s name, that of his brother, and that of his mother. Having obtained the pearl he flees Egypt, sheds his dirty and unclean garments, and is further guided by the letter. At this point he is greeted by messengers from his parents, who clothe him once more in his royal robe, and he returns as an heir to his father’s kingdom. As introduced in Edgar Hennecke’s New Testament Apocrypha, this story is described as a “fabulous narrative: of a Gnostic Redeemer myth in which to be sure nothing points to a Christian origin.”
Interesting idea. Particularly in light of a “patriarchal blessing” LDS members receive.
A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.
Hippocrates, Regimen in Health
“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I thought this was awesome:
The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.
– Andre Malraux
Not that I think we’re in a prison, but it is amazing what we can conjure within our souls, if we’re just a product of random generation….not eternal creation.
It makes sense that we try to find out tribe. We want to be in a mixture of people whom we are a part of their family, in a sense, I think he made some interesting points about being a leader, but what does it also say about us, as participants?
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
One of my favorates when I was younger in high school.
It’s national poetry month. I will try and post some of my favorites as well as some of mine.
