ALIVE

What is a butterfly but a leaf come to life.

All It Takes

...is all you've got.

Keeper of the True Faith

 "Unless the king should come again?" said Gandalf. "Well, my lord Steward, it is your task to keep some kingdom still against that event, which few now look to see. In that task you shall have all the aid that you are pleased to ask for. But I will say this: the rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in the days to come. For I am also a steward. Did you not know?"

~What I've been up to since January.

As Above

...so below. As the universe, so the soul.

If this is true, then heaven is in a pretty sad state.

Impeachment

So it begins. Bill Taylor has started his testimony and I am reminded of Isaiah 40:1; "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people..."

The exposure of Trumps' duplicity will now become a matter of public record. I take great comfort in that fact.

He Vexes Me

Little doubt the long shadow of Trump has caused the 4 month plus gap in posting. I didn't want the blog to become political and so much of what dominates my country is purely political. The gifts associated with this man tend to be comparative--akin to saying, "well things are bad but at least I don't have cancer." While true, it has always been my desire to be more sophisticated and nuanced than that. I do believe Americans are far more aware that the institutions that we've taken for granted are vulnerable in ways never thought possible, and that they serve a purpose vital to the nations sense of purpose and order.

Trump has also exposed a significant portion of Americans being deeply troubled. Soul sick. Oblivious of their own obstinate behavior. They remind me of members of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple or L.Ron Hubbards' Scientoligists; they have purposely and willfully divorced themselves from reality.

The last order of business is my self-inflicted identification of visits from different countries to my web site. If I had only known what I was getting myself into! It has become so cumbersome that I want to "look the other way." Ignore it. But Gambia came aboard this morning and it resembles nothing more than a finger stuck in to Senegal's side that, metaphorically, it was like God poking me in the gut. Rationally, there is no reason for Gambia's geographical existence--yet there it is! So to with my roster of countries.

As a review, I noted Equatorial Guinea, Mongolia, and Puerto Rico had brought the number up to a nice, round 100 in the post, "One Hundred 1-12-19." However, they weren't officially brought "on board" in the grand scheme of things; see, "Housekeeping 11-10-18." (note my tendency to start shirking?) So with that caveat, I will bring all things up to date--with a nod to some overlapping.

NEWCOMERS: Equatorial Guinea 12-7-18 Mongolia 1-19-18 Puerto Rico 1-11-19 Palestine 3-19-19 Nicaragua 3-20-19 Malta 3-27-19 Bangladesh 3-29-19 (rather astonishing run there of 4 countries in ten days) Azerbaijan 4-11-19 Paraguay 5-3-19 Kosovo 6-21-19 Lebanon 7-3-19 Bosnia-Herzegovina 8-5-19 Morocco 10-15-19 Gambia 10-21-19

Albania--Algeria--Angora--Argentina--Armenia--Australia--Austria--AZERBAIJAN--Bahamas--BANGLADESH--Belarus--Belgium--Brazil--Bolivia--BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA--Bulgaria--Cambodia--Canada--Chile--China--Costa Rica--Columbia--Czech Republic--Denmark--Ecuador--Egypt--El Salvador--EQUATORIAL GUINEA--Estonia--Faroe Islands--Finland--France--GAMBIA--Georgia--Germany--Ghana--Greece--Guatemala--Honduras--Hong Kong--Hungary--India--Indonesia--Iraq--Ireland--Italy--Israel--Jamaica--Japan--Kazakhstan--Kenya--KOSOVO--Kuwait--Kyrgyzstan--Latvia--LEBANON--Lithuania--Luxembourg--Macedonia--Malaysia--MALTA--Mexico--Moldova--MONGOLIA--Montenegro--MOROCCO--Netherlands--New Zealand--NICARAGUA--Nigeria--Norway--Pakistan--PALESTINE--Panama--PARAGUAY--Peru--Philippines--Poland--Portugal--PUERTO RICO--Qatar--Romania--Russia--Saudi Arabia--Serbia--Seychelles--Singapore--Slovakia--Slovenia--Spain--South Africa--South Korea--Sweden--Suriname--Switzerland--Taiwan--Tanzania--Thailand--Trinidad and Tobago--Tunisia--Turkmenistan--Turkey--Ukraine--United Arab Emirate--United Kingdom--United States--Unknown Region--Venezuela--Vietnam--Zambia--Zimbabwe.

That brings the count to 111. If you are a fan of numerology, you just cant miss how appropriate this post has suddenly revealed itself to be. So that's what Gambia was all about! Sometimes you just have to say, "WOW!"

Yetzer Hara

"The inclination toward evil." This is the dynamic my country currently operates under, spearheaded by our President. We must resist this tendency. We do so by identifying the impulse. By naming it, we limit its power and influence. Until you can describe what it is that you are experiencing, you exert zero control over it. You cannot correct a problem until you have identified the problem. And so I bring you, "yetzer hara."