Fragments

Hope seems to be the strength in the heart muscle when it has been exercised by trials.

See Rom. 5:1-5

--

Gam zeh ya’avor = This too shall pass – on a ring worn by the guy who was the chaplain to the prisoners at the Nuremburg Trial

--

“A detective is a sociologist too; a rule-of-thumb practicing sociologist, or he wouldn’t be a good detective.” 

Isaac Asimov,  in Naked Sun.

--

“If you’ve been in the game thirty minutes and you don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy.”

Warren Buffett

--

[A Navy SEAL] was performing a covert operation, freeing hostages from a building in some dark part of the world. [The] team flew in by helicopter, made their way to the compound and stormed into the room where the hostages had been imprisoned for months. The room … was filthy and dark. The hostages were curled up in a corner, terrified. When the SEALs entered the room, they heard the gasps of the hostages. They stood at the door and called to the prisoners, telling them they were Americans. The SEALs asked the hostages to follow them, but the hostages wouldn’t. They sat there on the floor and hid their eyes in fear. They were not of healthy mind and didn’t believe their rescuers were really Americans. The SEALs stood there, not knowing what to do. They couldn’t possibly carry everybody out. One of the SEALs … got an idea. He put down his weapon, took off his helmet, and curled up tightly next to the other hostages, getting so close his body was touching some of theirs. He softened the look on his face and put his arms around them. He was trying to show them he was one of them. None of the prison guards would have done this. He stayed there for a little while until some of the hostages started to look at him, finally meeting his eyes. The Navy SEAL whispered that they were Americans and were there to rescue them. Will you follow us? he said. The hero stood to his feet and one of the hostages did the same, then another, until all of them were willing to go. The story ends with all the hostages safe on an American aircraft carrier. …I never liked it when the preachers said we had to follow Jesus. Sometimes they would make Him sound angry. But I liked [this] story….

Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

Sightings on a Walk

 

A flag with two stars – two military deaths?

A utility pole with a seriously twisted trunk, I’ve never seen anything like it.

A house with cactus layout in the front yard, stepping stone paths criss-crossing, seating areas, a porch-type swing, all abandoned. The cactus showed some kind of fungus, but also yellow flowers. A plant with big, beautiful yellow flowers. The cactus needs to be removed, and all the landscaping needs to be refreshed, cleaned up, cleaned out.

A home with a large back yard, with a motorhome, cars, stacks of white plastic chairs, easily room for a large pool or play yard.

A small church where the banquet hall had tables set out with table cloths, someone putting out place settings, preparing for party of some kind, but what? It was already 7 pm and no one else was there. Was it for a Saturday morning breakfast?

The big church had all their jasmine in bloom, a very strong, very pleasing fragrance. A meeting was going on there – the gates were unlocked, open and a few people were outside talking. I could see a basement doorway that had a drawing that looked like the old stained glass drawings, a stylized man figure with his arms around a long sheet of paper. There were letters on the window, but they must have spelled a word in another language. Maybe it was John, since it was St. John church.

I walked up to a bus stop just as a bus was rolling up, so I stood back so the driver would know I wasn’t waiting for him. I sat for a moment. Saw someone riding by, window open, wearing a paper Covid mask.

I picked up a small cloth flag.

I picked up a small Styrofoam container that was holding water. I didn’t want to leave a place for the mosquitoes, even though it’s not mosquito season. I don’t think.

A young girl walked by, out for exercise apparently. She stepped into the street to pass me.

My toes hurt because my shoes are too small.

I quick-stepped across the street to avoid oncoming cars, with plenty of time to spare.

The whole walk took about an hour, and most of the stuff I noticed was on the way back.

I wanted to walk slow enough to think, but I didn’t think much. I only observed, and wondered why those yards looked so abandoned, like the owners just gave up, just stopped caring so much about the yard, and thought about other things. Hopefully good other things.

Pleasing God

 

Thankfully it is our desire to please Him that pleases Him 

- unknown

Lords and Ladies

 

Lady – from two words that mean ‘maker of bread’

Lord – from two words that mean ‘guardian of bread’

Anger

 

Anger is the devil’s cocaine – Andrew Klavan

I'm Just a Florist

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qYobWEjl_A

Writing

 

It is all very well to be able to write books, but can you waggle your ears?

• Said by J.M. Barrie (author of Peter Pan) to author H.G. Wells.

Honey From the Rock

 

Honey from the rock.

You promise it, but I can’t imagine how it can be. There is no honey in a rock. There is only rock. Okay, that one time there was water, lots and lots of water.  But there’s no honey.

What is honey? Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Hmm. Water is hydrogen and oxygen – that leaves only carbon.

I guess it’s a metaphor. God provides for us from unexpected, even seemingly impossible sources. And he provides not just bare essentials. He provides sweetness. Way more than we expect. Way more than we deserve.

The Woman at the Well

 

It wasn’t the water he came for.

It was me.

 

(said the woman at the well)

(from unknown source)

Andy Rooney

 Rooneyisms - Too good not to share!!

I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.

I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold

and a heart to understand.

I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us

everything we ask for.

I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make

life so spectacular.

I've learned.... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile..

I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned..... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned..... That when your newly born grandchild holds your

little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

Blink

 Malcolm Gladwell, in Blink, tells of a marriage counselor who evaluates a couple's chances of success by examining their facial expressions when they are just chatting together. His team does 'thin slices' - fractions of a second - and categorizes what they reveal about the person's feelings at that moment.

The counselor says he can often evaluate a couple’s chances based mostly on four factors: defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism, and contempt, with the most important being contempt. He “has found, in fact that the presence of contempt in a marriage can even predict such things as how many colds a husband and wife gets; in other words, having someone you love express contempt toward you is so stressful that it begins to affect the functioning of your immune system.” (p33)

Interestingly, he says, “For a marriage to survive, the ratio of positive to negative emotion in a given encounter has to be at least five to one.” (p.26)

Gladwell examines how we make snap judgements, in the blink of an eye, and how those judgements are often, surprisingly, valuable. 

Experts can evaluate something in a few seconds, literally less than two – they would just “know”, for example, that a sculpture was a fake. Trained classical musicians can tell whether an auditioning performer is any good almost instantly.

Snap judgements can also mislead. Gladwell cites several incidents of tests showing how prejudices can taint a person’s evaluation. People in stressful situations can sometimes see things (a dangerous person, a gun) that aren't there – but they were expecting to see those things.

And an autistic man watches the movie Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and completely misses the drama in the key scenes because everything looks equally important to him. That is, the faces of the actors don’t mean any more than a light switch, or paintings on the wall, or a brooch. We can all sometime be autistic in this way, Gladwell says.

Gladwell notes that sometimes prejudices jump in and cloud evaluations. That is apparently why most orchestras now do “blind auditions” where great care is taken to make sure nothing of the performer’s non-musical characteristics are revealed – not their sex (no sound of high heels is allowed), their race, nothing. If the performer coughs, they’re sent back to the end of the line since the cough could reveal their gender. Since this was implemented, the makeup of orchestras, (percentage of women, for example, went from 5 to 50).

Summary?

Gladwell says a partial answer is, “On straightforward choices, deliberate analysis is best. When questions of analysis and personal choice start to get complicated – when we have to juggle many different variables – then our unconscious thought process may be superior.” (p267)

He realizes, he says, “this is exactly contrary to conventional wisdom”. (p267)

It’s a partial answer because it’s just too complicated. Sometimes we need a mix of careful evaluation and feeling in the gut (my term, not Gladwell’s).

And when it’s important we need to be careful of our prejudices, and figure out ways to edit them out – like the blind auditions. He suggests, for example, not having defendants actually in the courtroom, so jurors and judges can escape their tendencies to snap to the wrong judgement.

A fascinating read. Recommended.

Hitchcock

 "Mr. Hitchcock taught me everything about cinema. It was thanks to him that I understood that murder scenes should be shot like love scenes and love scenes like murder scenes."

James Stewart

Pride

 Pride does that to a person. Nothing can ever satisfy. For the proud person there is always another promotion, another award, another dollar to aim for—something else beyond their reach. King Solomon writes of such a person, “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12). This was true in Haman’s life. It was pride that drove him to plot murder—even a massacre. It was pride that meant he could not enjoy what he had but could only be angry at what he did not have.

daily devotional alistair begg Sep. 14 2023

Laughter

 And what is essential to the joke is just this element of distraction. Comedy runs on misdirection and surprise. To the extent that philosophers have bothered with theorising about humour the following is the closest to a consensus view: that amusement is the pleasurable recognition of thwarted expectations. You expect things to go one way, they end up going another, either through Providence or (in the case of a joke) by the design of humans. In certain contexts, this is pleasant.

https://countrysquire.co.uk/2024/10/04/why-the-left-hates-laughter/

Chesterton reminds us:

“Laughter…unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes people forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves.”