John 9:1-3:
1As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
The disciples want to place blame. Their posture can be referred to as fault-finding, judgment and condemnation. Jesus calls attention to the opportunity to heal, to do good, to make a beginning.
I don’t like Elder Conrad.
At the shelter, they compel us to attend chapel every night. A different group presents each night, following a monthly rotation. Elder Conrad and his group come the second Sunday of each month. In nigh on four years, he’s never said a single thing I felt merited attention.
There is one exception.
Continue reading * “Son”
Here is a short list of things I can be grateful for.
| ✓ | A clean sheet every night* |
| ✓ | A clean pillow case every night* |
| ✓ | A blanket every night* |
| ✓ | A pillow every night* |
| ✓ | A hot shower every night |
| ✓ | Clean clothes available every day |
| ✓ | A good supper every night |
| ✓ | Financial resources: At this time, anything I want, I can get. (Anything I can’t get, I don’t want.) |
| ✓ | Moral support from my family, my friends and my church. A ton of people are pulling for me, hoping for my prosperity. |
| ✓ | The best problems in the world. (See next Wednesday’s post.) |
*(To my knowledge, no other shelter in Baltimore City provides these things. If you don’t bring your own, you sleep on a bare mat. A change in that situation is something to earnestly hope for.)
Reblogged 2020-09-10.
Sooner or later, it had to happen.
Sunday, about 14:00, I had just bought my second coffee at McDonald’s. I put it on my table and, as they require me to do, took all my things with me to go out and smoke.
Related: Does McDonald’s discriminate against the homeless?
Outside, I took one more shot at trying to understand how evil — negativity, conflict — happens.
There are those who say that evil is necessary because without it, humans would never be able to appreciate joy. I have never found this believable.
Continue reading * The inevitability of evil
On Tuesday 12/02, my therapist asked for a thumbnail summary of my overall situation.
I said, “I have goals, I’m taking concrete steps toward those goals, and I have a ton of hope.”
I know no way to account for this but the exact scenario I set forth in “Chaos overwhelms the poor:” I pay attention only to the concrete here-and-how, and to what I myself can do. (Related: Here – Now – Can.) From the farthest reach of my right fingertip to my right, to the farthest reach of my left fingertip to my left: within that range lies all my responsibility, everything that I can control. Here, the world appears orderly. Here, I can order and manage my affairs. Here I have power. I can act effectively. I can easily find hope.
A ton of hope.
Continue reading * Status report: A snapshot of my life right now
This is square-on with a forthcoming post of my own, “A place to begin.”
Reblogged 2020-08-06.
I woke up this morning thinking about change. Thinking about how we begin to change our world, one person at a time. That’s exactly it. We create change one person at a time, one action at a time, one THOUGHT at a time.
Change begins with us and within us. The world will not become a better place by leaving it up to someone else. Change will not happen as long as we believe things are not our problem or that we don’t make a difference.
Change begins within us. By changing how we see ourselves and treat ourselves, we begin to change the way we see others and treat others. By changing how we see others and treat others, we begin a ripple effect that reaches out over the miles changing how others see and treat each other.
Change does not and will not happen overnight, but over time…
View original post 139 more words
APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED IN NOVEMBER 2014:
Sr. Administrative Assistant — Transamerica
SEE ALSO:
Announcement: I’m working!
Announcement: I’m not working after all.
POSTSCRIPT, 2014-12-06:
Several weeks ago, I decided to become pro-active in the specific search for work as “William Tell.” As this blog required some enhancements in order to serve its role as a tool for marketing myself under that name, I updated the Playlist to include audio copies of all the items listed. My next project on the blog is to upload Stuart Chase’s Guides to Straight Thinking, which is mentioned on my Resume.
An interesting twist occurred when I began the latter work: I couldn’t find the copy I had made of that text anywhere. Not on my flash drive; not in my e-mail archives; except one, an attachment to an e-mail I sent DLD in 2006. Who ever would have guessed that that e-mail, which probably seemed so trivial at the time, could prove to be so important to me now? It has all the material. The source files in Word date from 2004-2005, which indicates how long I have held these ambitions for William Tell.
I invested $110 in a digital recorder, which is crucial to my being able to make my demo tapes. In other words, I spent that money on a tool to advance my own career. At this point, it may be well to note some things on which I did not spend that $110:
• liquor
• weed
• lottery tickets
• clubs
• cooch
• grillz
• bling
• swag
• bail bonds
• crap games
I anticipate devoting one day a week to my job search in radio. Initially, that one day will go principally to creating my demo tapes. After that, I’ll have to find other pertinent ways to use that time. In the meantime, my posts on this blog may be shorter and-or less frequent.
Against the notion that blacks victimize themselves by “acting black,” Princeton undergraduate Kristen Coke complains that “acting white” does not insulate her from petty racist insults. After all, she doesn’t act “ghetto.”
I’m not concerned about victimizations that occur when blacks “act white” in the presence of whites. In my world, there aren’t enough white people to matter. I’m concerned about the victimizations that occur when black people “act black” among blacks.
We begin with Galaxian’s comment on “Jeanette:”
Schizophrenia is not a karmic matter. It is an organic disease just as much as cancer is. I don’t see how anything someone did in a previous life, or early in their current life, would bring this horrible thing on them. Anybody can develop this condition at any time, although it usually starts in young adulthood.
I gather we are both familiar with this disease.
It’s a mistake to condemn a person on the basis of his or her lot, and also can be highly misleading to say she or he “deserves” it.
The Homeless Blogger 