Tag Archives: Live and let live

Live and let live: Ishmael

Wednesday  2016-01-06

“Live and let live” is a Recovery principle.  In recent weeks, it has been “in my face” from many different directions:

  • Recent challenges I’ve faced in managing my own feelings, have made me less judgmental of others who seem to me not to manage their feelings well.
  • Pastor and I are not on the same page concerning the concept of justice.  He is thus prone to say certain things in sermons that I don’t necessarily want to hear.  But I am in no position to demand that he abandon what is, for him, an honest and impassioned point of view.
  • Something in Jamilah King’s 12-16-15 .mic article hurt my feelings.   I have not yet re-read it to determine what specifically it was.  But if the mere expression of an opinion about social conditions can evoke that response from me, it does not bode well for what I hope to accomplish as William Tell the talk show host.  William Tell must be able to “Live and let live.”

Ishmael showed up at the shelter for the first time last night.  When he joined us in the crowd across the street waiting admission, his face said he’d already had a hard day.  Something told me he might be a screwball.

Continue reading Live and let live: Ishmael

“The Problem with Jon Stewart”

“Every single white person upholds the systems and structures of white supremacy.”
— Lisa Bond

Test: Can I discuss this without losing my cool (centeredness)?

Continue reading “The Problem with Jon Stewart”

Belief: The unforgivable sin

“Embracing what is,” a four-part series:
As seen on TV: The new, improved hubris
• Belief: The unforgivable sin
Rationalism cannot save us.
Hell has an exit.

———— ♦ ————

A timely quote from Bertrand Russell:  “Zeal is a bad mark for a cause.  It suggests one is not quite certain.  It is not the vaccinationists, but the anti-vaccinationists, who are zealous.  No one is zealous about arithmetic.”

The homeless shelter where I stay makes us sit through chapel for an hour every night.  A few days ago, this new preacher addressed us for the first time.  Shortly into his presentation, he became hysterical, and stayed that way for fifty minutes.  He wept.  He screamed.  He did not persuade anyone of anything.

Jeffrey Tayler sets forth that atheism is just as settled as arithmetic; but he is just as zealous as that preacher — and just as unpersuasive.  In effect, he preaches only to the choir.

Why?
Continue reading Belief: The unforgivable sin

* Live and let live: Ishmael

Wednesday  2016-01-06

“Live and let live” is a Recovery principle.  In recent weeks, it has been “in my face” from many different directions:

  • Recent challenges I’ve faced in managing my own feelings, have made me less judgmental of others who seem to me not to manage their feelings well.
  • Pastor and I are not on the same page concerning the concept of justice.  He is thus prone to say certain things in sermons that I don’t necessarily want to hear.  But I am in no position to demand that he abandon what is, for him, an honest and impassioned point of view.
  • Something in Jamilah King’s 12-16-15 .mic article hurt my feelings.   I have not yet re-read it to determine what specifically it was.  But if the mere expression of an opinion about social conditions can evoke that response from me, it does not bode well for what I hope to accomplish as William Tell the talk show host.  William Tell must be able to “Live and let live.”

Ishmael showed up at the shelter for the first time last night.  When he joined us in the crowd across the street waiting admission, his face said he’d already had a hard day.  Something told me he might be a screwball.

Continue reading * Live and let live: Ishmael

* Belief: The unforgivable sin

“Embracing what is,” a four-part series:
As seen on TV: The new, improved hubris
• Belief: The unforgivable sin
Rationalism cannot save us.
Hell has an exit.

———— ♦ ————

A timely quote from Bertrand Russell:  “Zeal is a bad mark for a cause.  It suggests one is not quite certain.  It is not the vaccinationists, but the anti-vaccinationists, who are zealous.  No one is zealous about arithmetic.”

The homeless shelter where I stay makes us sit through chapel for an hour every night.  A few days ago, this new preacher addressed us for the first time.  Shortly into his presentation, he became hysterical, and stayed that way for fifty minutes.  He wept.  He screamed.  He did not persuade anyone of anything.

Jeffrey Tayler sets forth that atheism is just as settled as arithmetic; but he is just as zealous as that preacher — and just as unpersuasive.  In effect, he preaches only to the choir.

Why?
Continue reading * Belief: The unforgivable sin