I will not suggest you go anywhere I myself haven’t gone.
(Originally posted 05/17/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 12/07/17.)
Category Archives: Get on your feet
* How emotionally intelligent are you? Here’s how to tell.
How Emotionally Intelligent Are You? Here’s How To Tell
If you’re in a boat out on the water, and a storm comes up, and the boat’s rocking and at risk of tipping over; it’s critical to turn the boat to face into the wind. This won’t stop the wind, but will keep it from rocking the boat.
Emotional intelligence is like that. It won’t make life’s storms go away, but can help keep them from rocking your boat.
In my view, emotional intelligence is the same as emotional maturity or psychological or spiritual maturity. This is what spiritual growth is all about.
Continue reading * How emotionally intelligent are you? Here’s how to tell.
* Issues with upcoming posts
In the process of “recycling” old posts on Wednesdays, I am now coming upon a number of posts with which I’m not completely comfortable. I probably would not write them, now or in the future, the way I did at the time; but I’m also still not sure exactly how I’d write them differently.
At the time I wrote those posts, I supposed my homelessness would be brief, and William Tell would soon enough become a public figure able to speak to what he saw as the pressing social issues. My homelessness continues eighteen months later, and my perceptions of those issues have changed.
Continue reading * Issues with upcoming posts
* Shopping list
When I get my own place, there’s no need to move in all at once. I can do it in stages; the shelter’s still available. And this will make less for me to have to carry at any one time.
So, here’s my daydream of the sequence of different things I can buy on different occasions. Lucky for me, I can probably buy all these items at Family Dollar. I don’t plan to be extravagant, but with the income I’ll have, relative my needs, there’s no need to be cheap, either.
Continue reading * Shopping list
* Nancy Lanza, chapter 2
Here continues a conversation that began with the comments on my 12/28/13 post, “Nancy Lanza, a mother tragic and infuriating.” One should also see the 12/29/13 post at lwk’s blog, “How would you prevent another Sandy Hook?”
Three principles of Free Speech Handbook are prominent to me as I approach this writing. I myself must beware temptations to change the subject and filibuster, though filibuster rarely happens in writing. It is important that each participant deal with exactly what the other person says. Thinking of what to say here, I’ve already found myself trying to refute things my opponent never said. Gun control, abortion and race are three topics especially prone to that difficulty.
On reflection, what lwk is actually proposing is reasonable. We know for certain what crooks will do if large amounts of cash don’t have armed guards. We know for certain what the Jared Loughners and John Hinckleys will do if elected officials don’t have armed guards. And we know for certain — now — what the perpetrators of Columbine, Aurora and Newton will do if large groups of children don’t have armed guards.
Continue reading * Nancy Lanza, chapter 2
* Oh, what a tangled web we weave …
… when first we practice to deceive.
Closing arguments in Julius Henson election fraud trial
I have had direct contact with trials involving Edward Smith, Jr. in the past, such that his antics here come to me as no surprise.
The question I ask is whether it’s worth it to tell the truth, and what happens when we don’t.
[To be continued …]
(Originally posted 05/09/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.)
———— ♦ ————
A new page has appeared at The Homeless Blogger: “Choose your name.”
One can also take a sneak peek at the related post scheduled for release 2014-03-12, “What’s in a name?”
(Reposted 08/31/17.)
talk show host, on air talent, radio talk show, the homeless blogger
o Jacob’s Ladder 12/21/13
Prayer for myself often takes the form of imagining myself climbing up a ladder out of a pit, the pit being my current circumstances of poverty and homelessness. Getting out at the top represents a return to the normal life of the American mainstream. I didn’t start with a ladder in there, but I decided to add one to symbolize the various structures and tools that others have made available to me — and eliminate the possibility of clawing at loose earth.
Here begins a list of “rungs” on the ladder that I’ve become aware I need to “overcome.” Each one takes effort, exertion, to get over. I will update this list from time to time as I learn of others.
| 1. | Fear of the unknown. See From my diary: Learning to pray. |
| 2. | Jealousy of others who seem to be prospering more quickly than I am. Details here. |
| 3. | Times of despair. I guess, from time to time, they’ll happen. Details here. |
| 4. | Incidents of utter selfishness. Details here. |
| 5. | Moments of unusual hardship and sacrifice. Details here. |
| 6. | Cut loose the losers. Details here. |
| 7. | Smoking. See posts tagged “Smoking”. |
| 8. | Shame. See “(3) Baby steps.” |
| 9. | Attributions of arrogance, selfishness and greed. Continue reading o Jacob’s Ladder 12/21/13 |
o Jacob’s Ladder 12/14/13
Prayer for myself often takes the form of imagining myself climbing up a ladder out of a pit, the pit being my current circumstances of poverty and homelessness. Getting out at the top represents a return to the normal life of the American mainstream. I didn’t start with a ladder in there, but I decided to add one to symbolize the various structures and tools that others have made available to me — and eliminate the possibility of clawing at loose earth.
Here begins a list of “rungs” on the ladder that I’ve become aware I need to “overcome.” Each one takes effort, exertion, to get over. I will update this list from time to time as I learn of others.
| 1. | Fear of the unknown. See From my diary: Learning to pray. |
| 2. | Jealousy of others who seem to be prospering more quickly than I am. Details here. |
| 3. | Times of despair. I guess, from time to time, they’ll happen. Details here. |
| 4. | Incidents of utter selfishness. Details here. |
| 5. | Moments of unusual hardship and sacrifice. Details here. |
| 6. | Cut loose the losers. Details here. |
| 7. | Smoking. See posts tagged “Smoking”. |
| 8. | Shame. See “(3) Baby steps.” |
on air talent, talk show host, talk radio, the homeless blogger
* Prayer is work, too.
Saint Benedict ran a monastery. He ran into the problem that many monks wanted to spend all their time praying and studying, and not do any of the dirty manual labor — housekeeping, tending livestock, working in the fields — needed to keep the place going. So he adopted and enforced the motto, Laborare est orare — “Work is prayer.”
In excess, religious study can become a drain on society’s resources. Many Haredi, or “ultra-orthodox,” men in Israel want to spend all their time in religious study instead of earning any money. (Article.) Meanwhile, a majority of them live on welfare, with eight to fifteen children. This places a burden on the remainder of society that that economy can no longer bear.
What about me?
Continue reading * Prayer is work, too.
* The Twelve Steps
THE TWELVE STEPS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Copyright A.A. World Services, Inc.
(Reblogged 04/20/17.)
on air talent, talk show host, radio talk show, the homeless blogger
The Homeless Blogger 