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INTO THE MYSTIC   Several thousand years ago a man known as Jesus lived & was crucified for preaching dangerous ideas. Some believe he conquered death and rose again and ascended bodily into heaven. Hmmm (we'll get back to this).   Whatever the status of his "divinity", it is a fact that his life, and the philosophy he espoused has had a HUGE influence on the development of Western Civilization. There are billions of Christians across the globe, some of whom risk literally everything just by believing as they do. Here in the USA, there are a confusing number of denominations, each of which tweaks the story, alters interpretations, but mainly they're pretty much the same.    The world Jesus was born into was a complicated one, an often violent one, as various tribes and belief systems tried to learn to live side-by-side. The Elders of Judea were not impressed by this young upstart. They feared him. They loathed him. They conspired against him. But the Roman Overlo...
History ain't gonna be kind to us, folks. In the twenty-fourth year of the twenty-first century we lost our collective minds. And there's no going back. Some third rate prophet dancing through Hamlin, obliterating gender, weaving truths out of whole cloth, demanding fealty.  Leaders follow the rabid, yowling, snapping harridans, and boneless shadows of men. Hidden faces in secret places inventing news to scare us with stories of privilage and resentment, fictional facts, flights of nefarious fancy.
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    I stroll though this echoing crypt,  not even bothering to call out names any more.  Its sad...nothing is as we would have it...but it rarely is......... ".....and somebody points to you and says 'its his'. And you say "what's mine?" and somebody else says "Where what is?  the answer of course is music..... "I have no pleasure in any man who despises music. It is no invention of ours: it is a gift of God. I place it next to theology. Satan hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us."   Martin Luther
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  Zombie Alert!! ........They're everywhere, all around us.  They move about like you and I, they laugh, cry, walk, talk and think like you and I.  But they're.....different...possibly dangerous...or else they'd be down-right humorous. But make no mistake...they are here and they are real. The danger is....certain words or phrases.... innocent enough at face value...can & does cause a cerebral short circuit with symptoms that mirror rabies and Tourette Syndrome. There will be mouth-foaming, teeth-gnashing, wild-eyed hysteria, and vile, vulgar inanities, insults, slurs and slanders. The transformation is startling. One minute you're speaking with a calm, rational human being, having a delightful conversation and then you say the wrong word and it begins.  The fluttering eyelashes and bubbles at the sides of the mouth are the first signs...and just like that... the calm rational person from a moment ago has been replaced by a screaming bans...
    A walk through the woods can be a balm for one's spirit, but one must be open to the myriad small miracles and wonders all around them. One must leave the hub-bub of the daily grind behind, must bring a peaceful mind. The delightfully chilled feeling of walking through cycles of life and death as the bright green leaves grin and wave at the husks of dead comrades that carpet the ground cannot help but invite meditations on existence.  Every niche, every microenvironment, teems with life rising from death. And these little worlds have a variety of denizens scurrying around, tunneling, avoiding the light. And make no mistake, you're being watched, and tracked as somehow, some mysterious way, the forest, and all the denizens therein, are aware of your presence. Some have gone silent while others, usually birds, broadcast the news of your presence far and wide.     Yet the average person, not used to the forest, not used to the experience, remarks on the silence...
1) A mosquito bit me today and instead of killing it I let it enjoy the buzz 2) Politics has seeped like sewage into facets of our lives where it does not belong. and I do NOT wish to hear "celebrities" lecturing me on ANY subject. I am sick of everything being labeled as racist. I am sick of corporate virtue signaling. The "big four" (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) have an overriding narrative that they push, and all the "news" they "report" is tailored to buttress their narrative. Most of the time their "news" is barely disguised opinion. The big four, like the politicians they promote or pillory, use language the way a squid uses ink; To hide, obscure, and confuse. 3) Iced coffee is an abomination. 4) I am a life-long music FANATIC. Many long years ago, when my dad got his first Hi-Fi I got possession of all his old 78 RPM records, along with a washing machine sized record player. I took over a corner of the basement and made may own  "man...
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 Responsibility seems to be in short supply in 21st century America.