“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.”
— Psalm 46:1
I am aging much faster than I’d like. Continue reading Scary
Category Archives: The Way of Peace
This Ancient Philosophy Is What We Desperately Need In Our Modern Lives
Another link from Brian Williard:
This Ancient Philosophy Is What We Desperately Need In Our Modern Lives
Growing up, all the word “Stoic” meant to me was keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of adversity.
Not until 1989, when I was taking the Synoptics course at St. Mary’s Seminary, did I learn — from Sean Freyne’s The World of the New Testament, which I highly recommend for many reasons — that there is a great deal more to it, including much to like.
Stoicism is a life of ordered joy.
As you read this article, please note the many similarities between the approach to life described there, and the things I have said here about presence.
Carolyn Gregoire also wrote the first article I mentioned about emotional intelligence, “How emotionally intelligent are you?”
And yet another link from Brian Williard:
Google’s ‘Jolly Good Fellow’ On The Power Of Emotional Intelligence
Looks like links to Carolyn Gregoire are becoming pretty common on this blog.
Don’t scoff at the headline. From the gentleman in question here, Chade-Meng Tan, comes another ringing endorsement of meditation and presence as I have discussed them. I note that the first exercise described in the article is tantamount to what I call prayer, and practically the same as I proposed in “You don’t need an invitation to love people.”
(Originally posted 2014-06-21.)
What can I do for myself today?
Notice how I avoid the question.
Practical advantages of being a nice guy
(Originally posted 07/28/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 05/14/14.)
It’s been a long time since I last considered this; maybe because, for some months, there haven’t been that many jerks among us at the shelter. Whether the “spirit” I breathe out has anything to do with that, I don’t know.[1] But I was in the shower 07/01/12 and overheard that they’d run out of wash cloths, and that brought this to mind.
Just being a nice guy earns me concrete, practical rewards.
A number of mainstream people help me financially who definitely would not help a jerk.
If we’re in the smoke pit and I need to bum one, I’m far more likely to get one than would a jerk.
Last summer, there was a shortage of wash cloths, for reason that people were stealing them. At first, if you weren’t one of the first 40 to shower, you wouldn’t get one. Then it became 30. Then 20. Several guys, it turns out, actually donated wash cloths. I donated 15. They all disappeared.[2]
Some guys come to the clothes window and every day, it’s:
Continue reading Practical advantages of being a nice guy
Free speech issues, etc.
Carter Scott, Karma and Chaos
(Originally published 06/05/13 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 06/04/14.)
Short life of Carter Scott marred by accusations of family violence
It’s difficult to start this post, as the story’s prone to leave one speechless.
What sort of karma would impel a child to be born into that context?
At the shelter, we’re compelled to attend chapel every night. A different preacher comes each night, in a monthly rotation. These generally disappoint me in their utter failure to speak to the sort of situation in question here. About 40% of the presenters are preoccupied wholly with what will become of your soul when you die; whether you’ll go to heaven or hell; and your need to “believe in Jesus” as the key to salvation. It’s all about a cognitive assent, saying “yes” to a certain set of ideas. There is no presentation of Christianity as a lifestyle, nor any discussion of the role of discipline in following Jesus.
Another 40% of the presenters are preoccupied wholly with obtaining “blessings,” principally by the means of praise: “When the praises go up, the blessings come down.” A “blessing” here is always a material, for example monetary, advantage that one has done nothing to earn. It is as if God were some cosmic King Lear jealous for flattery.
Neither group mentions the call to repent, in terms of any need to change one’s ways.
The only hell that concerns me is the living hell that folk create in this life, here and now, for themselves and their community.
Continue reading Carter Scott, Karma and Chaos
This shit works.
The Way of Peace
I can’t believe what I’m experiencing.
The Gestapo librarian
(Originally posted 08/04/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 05/28/14.)
Officer Nasty works security at the library. He doesn’t wait for trouble to happen or for someone to ask him for help. Instead, he constantly patrols the whole place looking for people who may be breaking the rules, so he can put them out. He walks up and down the narrow aisles of the computer center to see what you have on your screen. He comes into the men’s room hoping to catch someone in the act — act of what, I can’t imagine. You get the picture.
Dealing with physical pain
Physical pain can make you irritable.
Saturday, December 8
The arthritis in my knees has been getting worse and worse in recent weeks. Continue reading Dealing with physical pain
The Homeless Blogger 