I’ve always been skeptical of that footprints imagery and the explanation of one set of footsteps. I’ve come to realize that a person walking beside me so that we can encourage and support each other is so much more meaningful than a phantasm carrying me. However…
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To be realistic, this picture is closer to the truth. Walking alone and putting one foot in front of the other to do what needs to be done.
Malcolm Jamal Warner who played Theo in The Cosby Show drowned while vacationing in Costa Rica. It’s a coincidence, but Bill Cosby’s biological son was murdered at a young age. Now, the actor who played his son has died in an accident. I didn’t follow MJW’s career, however I have fond memories of watching the show.
I’ve finished Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason. My thoughts–Thomas Paine was a pragmatic deist steeped in the tropes of patriarchy. Paine thought that the God of the Bible was an amalgamation of various pagan deities such as Saturn, Zeus, Chronos, Anu, Baal, Ra, Osiris, etc. He also thought that most of the “Christian” rituals were repurposed pagan rites. No wonder he was not exactly popular in his life time. His writings, if read and understood by the hoi polloi, would have robbed the Founders/elitists of one of the most potent tools of the patriarchy–the Bible. Paine debunked the Bible as the inerrant word of God. However, if one reads the Bible, not with the lens of western society, but with an open mind–the inconsistencies contained therein cannot be explained except by the acknowledgement that the Bible is a creation of men and not men touched by the divine, but men with an earthly agenda.
A friend who studies the Bible and history once told me that the word “amen” which is used after praying to the Christian God is actually an homage to the Egyptian God…Amun. Makes sense as scholars in ancient times would study for years in Egypt. (Of course, this is not the accepted derivation of the word “amen”.)
What I’m coming to understand is that there is little understanding as to “Deism”. People hear that the founders believed in “God” and their default for belief in God is Christianity. I think very few of the Founders would have identified as Christians. However, among the Founders were Free Masons, who I think would identify as Deists, and others who were Deists. An example that Christianity was not thought of as a national religion–“When the Capitol Building was first built, then-President Washington donned his Masonic apron to perform the Masonic cornerstone laying ceremony consecrating the stone with wine, corn and oil before striking it with a ceremonial gavel.
“Washington thought that the United States, as a young, vulnerable republic, needed the kind of sense of the sacred and of public ceremony that other states got from religion and monarchy which the United States, with its religious openness and status as a republic, didn’t have access to,” says Dickie. “He thought Freemasons were great candidates for that public ceremonial role.” https://www.history.com/articles/freemason-symbols-hidden A ritual, performed by Washington, that some would say was pagan, consecrated the Capitol Building.
But that bit of history doesn’t agree with the narrative that Christian Nationalists are striving to normalize.
Why don’t people read? I read a post which pointed out that few people read her blog and that she was trying to make her You Tube posts and her blog shorter so she could get more views. It’s sad that all people want in a presentation is a power point presentation with no explication. No substance, or in the comments…there are comments about the length, just get to the point, etc. I only viewed this particular content creator’s You Tube post because I read her blog. I didn’t see any thing extraneous in her written posts.
Part of the problem is the shortened attention span that has been exacerbated by social media. Click bait headlines are a part of this. If one doesn’t read, how can one suss out the knowledge one needs in order to make the best decisions for oneself? In these United States, ignorance is lauded. Ignorance appeals to one’s emotions and most want that dopamine high at the expense of verifiable knowledge/information. A person addicted to clickbait has no conversation and maybe that’s one of the reasons, when one is in public, most people’s eyes are glued to their phones and they are not interacting with the person who walks beside them. Or they’re walking alone seemingly talking to themselves. (Then one notes the earpiece.) One’s world is encapsulated in a mechanical device held in one’s hand. Sad present and a sadder future for us humans if we continue on this path.
A society can be composed of individuals. Individuals can come together for a common purpose and make a community. A society cannot be composed of individualists. Individualists have no need for community for they see others as objects to be used to satisfy their wants and needs. The United States has a surfeit of individualists. These people care only for themselves and would destroy rather than share with another. If I cannot have, then you cannot have mindset. Cruelty and greed are the hallmarks of individualism.
I just watched “Wicked“, the film version of the Broadway play. Back in 2004, I read the book. The film I saw did not remind me of the book I read. So I will either find my copy or get a copy from the library and re-read.
It’s 2025–a woman cannot get prenatal care in Tennessee because the provider doesn’t treat unmarried pregnant women. It’s against his morals. This is Tennessee where doctors who treat women are leaving because of the harsh abortion laws. This is 2025–more and more children are being killed by their parents /caregivers and a school board has stated a policy that students should come to school sick because that is the real world (never mind that schools have been shut down because of transmissible illnesses). This is 2025 and the plan is that schools will no longer teach facts but become indoctrination centers so that there will be an illiterate, cowed work force, willing to work for pennies. This is 2025 and the criminals are pardoned and the innocents are jailed. This is 2025 and the keepers of society are the amoral, the predators, the criminals, the ones who say the Ten Commandments for thee and debauchery, with no consequences, for me. This is 2025…
There was a Doctor Who segment that dealt with a society where everything from air to food to death was monetized. The corporation that controlled that society was arbitrary and capricious and nothing mattered except profit. (The corporate representative(s) reminded me of the fat cats depicted in Charles Dickens’s books who ate sumptuous feasts while feeding the orphans gruel.) Tom Baker was the Doctor, so this show was aired in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Back then, it was entertainment; now, we live the reality of a society invested in corporate profit seeking. In the early 1980s, the local PBS station aired Doctor Who and it did not air all the shows. Therefore, I didn’t see that particular segment until a couple of years ago. This society controlled by the greed of corporations and the rich has been on the horizon for many years.
I stopped reading science fiction because I became disenchanted with some writers who I thought were catering to a specific demographic. They were, but I slowly came to the realization they were catering to the demographic that bought books and, more to the point, science fiction. I switched to science books written for the non-scientist. I don’t regret the switch, but science fiction can be prescient, a warning while science for the non-scientist deals with facts that are currently known.
There was also the much/over used trope of the quest, the chosen one, the trials, the prize, and the triumphant return home. The formula gets boring and I’d rather read Joseph Campbell’s books than read another hero’s quest.
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If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Alkebulan Proverb
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