Cancel culture at its best
Tag Archives: Here – Now – Can
Self-management in the face of depression
I am extremely depressed this morning. This may be a “monthly.” I find myself hyper-self-critical; ready to take anything someone may say the wrong way; ready to snap.
I’m dealing with various issues in various places that may help explain it, but as opposed to engaging in excuses or blame, I need to deal with what is.
I was in Dunkin’ Donuts at 9:00 and chose to check the library schedule for this week; to chart out what days I would go to the library and what other days I would go to church.
Podcast — The Way of Peace
I’ve just re-published my book. Check it out!
The Way of Peace
Related:
Music: Ringo Starr, “It don’t come easy”
12. An examination of the Sermon on the Mount
THE WAY OF PEACE
| ← 11. Tactics | Home | 13. Two (or more) views of the Kingdom → |
In the beginning, I claimed that all Jesus’ teachings have the goal of enabling a person to attain and maintain a state I said he called “the Kingdom,” which I call peace of mind; and that the principal means thereto is the practice of presence, keeping one’s attention on the here and now and on what one, oneself, can do.
The time has come to test that thesis. Continue reading 12. An examination of the Sermon on the Mount
14. Jesus is not coming soon — or ever
THE WAY OF PEACE
| ← 13. Two (or more) views of the Kingdom | Home | 15. Jesus’ words about “the Kingdom” → |
| “The end of all things is at hand.” | |
| — 1 Peter 4:7 | |
The first time I was told, “Jesus is coming soon,” I was twelve years old, in seventh grade. My friends and I had no reason to doubt it. We thought, “He might come tonight. Or tomorrow. But it could be tonight.” We lived in breathless anticipation.
For me, it all began to unravel seven years later, albeit it hasn’t finished unraveling yet.
Some prayer exercises
First steps toward silence
A Friend posted this on FaceBook:
Someone commented, “I don’t know how to stop thinking. Not until I lay down at night. Brain is always busy with something. Wish I could turn it off.”
Here I will seek to meet that person’s need.
The Freddie Gray demonstrations
As of Monday, 04/27/15, let me say this. We had five days of completely orderly demonstrations. Only after that did the interlopers arrive, and only after that did any trouble begin.
Everybody, I think, wants certain things. We want to find out the facts. We want appropriate prosecutions, if warranted. We want …
I’ve just read this article, which indicates interlopers were indeed allowed to address the crowd at the original gathering Saturday 2015-04-25. They said things I do not believe any native Baltimorean would have said. They had to rationalize their presence, and in my judgment, failed.
A case on point about choosing thoughts, feelings
From my diary for Friday 2015-05-01:
Ta-Nehisi Coates has had two “provocative” HuffPost columns in two days. Wednesday she decried calls for calm in Baltimore. Yesterday she used the incident of Toya Graham’s confrontation of her son, to blame white people for every incident of violence among blacks. [P.S. 12:00. Correction: The latter was by Stacey Patton.] I may yet respond to the latter, but it’s best I not do so today. I need to direct my thoughts and choose my feelings, and I feel immeasurably better when I focus on my own affairs than when I allow myself to get engaged with her turmoil. Today’s task is to prepare materials for the prayer course; and it will be no excuse if I tell my students I came unprepared because she distracted me.
Originally posted 2015-05-02.
The great questions of our time
In recent weeks it has been a matter of some chagrin to me that my Yahoo! News feed keeps bringing articles from major outlets that prove in my estimation to have far less merit than my own; while my own work continues to be ignored.
Frankly, it seems to me that my work is on a par with that of the Washington Post columnists. I see myself as in that league. If I can find my way there, my goal would be not so much to set forth my own views, as to alter the direction of public discourse; to influence, perhaps even at a national level, the way people talk about the great questions of our time.
The Homeless Blogger 