Nobody is perfect and we do the best we can where we are, but Jeff is out there fighting where I can't, this I know. We all need encouragement and if we get discouraged over this, then how can we stand strong if/when things really get bad?
Nobody is perfect and we do the best we can where we are, but Jeff is out there fighting where I can't, this I know. We all need encouragement and if we get discouraged over this, then how can we stand strong if/when things really get bad?
There's a Taoist parable called The Old Man Who Lost His Horse:
"A long time ago, a poor Chinese farmer lost a horse, and all the neighbors came around and said, “well that’s too bad.” The farmer said, “maybe.” Shortly after, the horse returned bringing another horse with him, and all the neighbors came around and said, “well that’s good fortune,” to which the farmer replied, “maybe.” The next day, the farmer’s son was trying to tame the new horse and fell, breaking his leg, and all the neighbors came around and said, “well that’s too bad,” and the farmer replied, “maybe.” Shortly after, the emperor declared war on a neighboring nation and ordered all able-bodied men to come fight—many died or were badly maimed, but the farmer’s son was unable to fight and spared due to his injury. And all the neighbors came around and said, “well that’s good fortune,” to which the farmer replied, “maybe.” And so the story goes.
In China, when something bad happens people will say, “Sai Weng Shi Ma” (Remember “The Old Man Who Lost His Horse”) to remind themselves and others that, sometimes, “bad” things happen which carry a silver lining—and that it’s often in the way you look at things which determines their power over your spirit. It is a caution to all not to get too attached to what happens to us, good or bad."
The First Amendment is both an entirely practical, necessary, vital declaration of rights AND a sacred and symbolic image of America, and it might be that it should not be sacred, that in our Western liberalism we've invested something secular (render unto Caesar) with a symbolic sacralization, and that our disappointment partly comes from the loss of that sacred nexus. Perhaps we reorient ourselves by remembering the American Revolution, and those bombastic overconfident redcoats marching in uniform with fife and drum and the ragtag fighters who won against them and remembering that God is what is sacred. Maybe the First will end up being amended to include all that modernity has inflicted on us, and perhaps we'll get an amendment on health freedom at the constitutional convention that might be born of all this.
Nobody is perfect and we do the best we can where we are, but Jeff is out there fighting where I can't, this I know. We all need encouragement and if we get discouraged over this, then how can we stand strong if/when things really get bad?
There's a Taoist parable called The Old Man Who Lost His Horse:
"A long time ago, a poor Chinese farmer lost a horse, and all the neighbors came around and said, “well that’s too bad.” The farmer said, “maybe.” Shortly after, the horse returned bringing another horse with him, and all the neighbors came around and said, “well that’s good fortune,” to which the farmer replied, “maybe.” The next day, the farmer’s son was trying to tame the new horse and fell, breaking his leg, and all the neighbors came around and said, “well that’s too bad,” and the farmer replied, “maybe.” Shortly after, the emperor declared war on a neighboring nation and ordered all able-bodied men to come fight—many died or were badly maimed, but the farmer’s son was unable to fight and spared due to his injury. And all the neighbors came around and said, “well that’s good fortune,” to which the farmer replied, “maybe.” And so the story goes.
In China, when something bad happens people will say, “Sai Weng Shi Ma” (Remember “The Old Man Who Lost His Horse”) to remind themselves and others that, sometimes, “bad” things happen which carry a silver lining—and that it’s often in the way you look at things which determines their power over your spirit. It is a caution to all not to get too attached to what happens to us, good or bad."
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/parable-chinese-farmer-what-taoists-can-teach-us-hodges-ed-d-
The First Amendment is both an entirely practical, necessary, vital declaration of rights AND a sacred and symbolic image of America, and it might be that it should not be sacred, that in our Western liberalism we've invested something secular (render unto Caesar) with a symbolic sacralization, and that our disappointment partly comes from the loss of that sacred nexus. Perhaps we reorient ourselves by remembering the American Revolution, and those bombastic overconfident redcoats marching in uniform with fife and drum and the ragtag fighters who won against them and remembering that God is what is sacred. Maybe the First will end up being amended to include all that modernity has inflicted on us, and perhaps we'll get an amendment on health freedom at the constitutional convention that might be born of all this.
Yes, but only 3% remember that when the battle starts.
Later Jay
P.s. great parable.