Wednesday, December 18, 2019
I visited the ATM this afternoon to withdraw cash for this next week’s rent. Certain necessities arose at once, and at once drastic changes occurred in my motivations, hopes and dreams.
Tag Archives: Neediness
Rejoice in others’ blessings
If a young man at my church had done this,
he’d still be alive today.
Fareed Zakaria
BK keeps the TV tuned to CNN.
On Sundays, Fareed Zakaria’s GPS comes on when I’m there in the mornings before church, and is rebroadcast when I’m there in the afternoons after church.
His voice makes me feel anxious. Continue reading Fareed Zakaria
Attack of the needy people
This is an unscheduled post.
The letter copied below from Carolyn Hax’s column for today just blew me away, as pertinent to current posts on the topic of presence. A lifestyle of presence is very much out of synch with contemporary American culture, and is seen by those who don’t understand it as selfish and irresponsible. The letter I’m quoting here epitomizes what’s likely to happen when you “keep the focus on you” and “mind your own business” — and deal with others who have no intention of doing either one.
Continue reading Attack of the needy people
1) Do for yourself …
| <– Home | 2) Give up the word “deserve.” –> |
… exactly what the poor need to do for themselves.
On the one hand, I will shortly dispel the notion that wealth means you don’t have the same needs.
On the other hand, unless you do these things for yourself, you’ll never understand what they need to do for themselves — the what, the how, the challenges, the work. Absent that, there’s no way you can possibly make yourself useful or helpful to them.
Ayn Rand’s karma
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
This morning on my walk from Dunkin’ Donuts to the library, I stopped at the corner of Fayette and St. Paul Sts. to finish a cigarette, before I’d go into the convenience store. To my right, on a bench, sat this woman, bent over with her head between her knees; she had turned her head to the left and was calling to me. I couldn’t make out her words. She is a “taker.” Sometimes I respond to such folk with compassion; sometimes I respond with contempt.
How would Ayn Rand have responded?
Dilemma
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In a comment on a WaPo article about “Prosperity Gospel” televangelists, someone said:
Jesus taught us to think of others needs before our own.
As of now I dispute that Jesus taught that.
If he did teach that, Jesus was wrong.
Continue reading Dilemma
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
My response to Sunday’s sermon — and another event, after church — surprised me, and seemed to affirm that self-love is indeed the beginning of creation.
The sermon text was from Luke 18:
Risk and faith
12:30 Wednesday 2016-10-05
A learning opportunity that may seem trivial.
I’ve been pondering a lot lately why people, myself included, balk at owning their personal power. It has seemed to me that a major factor is fear of disappointment: owning personal power means a duty to take initiatives, to act on arbitrary decisions, and face the risk that what one hoped for may not obtain.
Yesterday morning when I turned my phone on, there were three voice mails, one from my invalid oldest brother and two from prospective employers wanting to set interviews. Given the way things are for me on Tuesdays, I was unable to return any of the calls. I wanted to do so today.
Resentment and hope
Three incidents from Sunday 09/18:
(1) I caught the racial vibe as soon as she came in the room.
(2) In the middle of worship, I looked at my situation. I needed to touch base sometime during the service with _____, _____ and _____, any of whom might give me cash; for smokes, bus fare and candy. I also needed to touch base sometime during worship with each of three other people ISO a ride “home.” My petty, material, selfish neediness so preoccupied me, I couldn’t get into the spirit of worship at all. This did not feel good.
(3) At the shelter, in the shower, for a washcloth they gave me a strip of fabric that had been torn from a towel, two inches wide and six inches long. That was to be my washcloth.
I responded as follows.
