How Much Do Black Lives Matter to Today's White Evangelical?

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» Trying to Impress a Beautiful Creature Can Sometimes be the Motivation that Sends Me Digging Deeper

This would be the perfect place to impress a super-hottie .. of the muse-like variety.

She will be thinking, "I have never seen anything like this guy before." and probably even, "I didnt know that guys like this even existed."

» Slouching Towards Fascism

But what should we explore? These are certainly fraught times in which we live. Elizabeth knows what I am talking about.

America is slouching alarmingly toward fascism. I thought fascism was unconstitutional, no?

This is also an exciting time, a fascinating time to be alive .. from the perspective of the writer, who feels grateful at the good fortune of being able to live through such times. These socially seismic times.

Through key transitional junctures in the 240-year narrative that has been the United States of America.

[ Hemingway, you know, famously said of/to Fitzgerald and about his writing (paraphrase on) "Scott, the reason why your stories suck, and why mine are so good .. is because you were never in a war like I was."

"War is the best thing ever for finding real manly shit to write about. Too bad for you, Scott .. that you have to write about that girlie stuff. And everybody knows you have a small penis that cant satisfy . Sooo .. wanna go to a bullfight?" ]

The idea here being that living through ugly times can serve the writer because of the array of things he will see during these ugly times (war, plague, financial collapse) that us-citizens encounter only rarely.

Of course, another part of me is horrified by what it sees .. but the writer in me sees only endless opportunity .. of the juciest kind.

More things than I can share right now. Suffice to say that the writer-in-me has been pole-vaulting out of bed every morning. So to speak.

» Fuck It .. Let's Do This Thing

I can feel something inside urging me .. to explore the entire range of moral experience .. from the satanic to the divine.

Whew .. that's a long way. That's some expanse there. "Hand me those binoculars, will ya?"

And the things we will encounter along the way .. there's no telling. Just when you think you've seen it all .. life has a way of proving you wrong.

» Not for the Faint of Heart

What do you think? You up for it? If you're scaird, say you're scaird. I would certainly understand.

I should probably give you some time to think about it. I dont want to hear you crying later .. about how scaird you are.

If you sign up, there's no turning back. No opportunities to pussy-out or escape.

» You Will Need a Wide Range of Experiences

It goes without saying .. but you will naturally need a representative range of experiences .. along this continuum.

This moral continuum. This seemingly endless continuum .. the one stretching from the satanic to the divine ..

.. if you want to be able to appreciate the fullness of today's adventure .. the breadth of it and the depth of it.

I bet that Kierkegaard knows what I am talking about.

Today's moral adventure .. is to boldly go where no carbon-based sentient being has gone before. (Cue up Star Trek soundtrack.)

You will need these experiences in order to be able to speak with the authenticity required to speak to moral things.

You will need the authenticity that comes only with plenty of firsthand experience .. which is not always fun.

While you are trying to decide if your cojones are grande enough .. I want to tell you about my experience when I learned that California had been shutdown.

» I Didnt Know You Could Shutdown a Whole State

I was in the middle of flirting with a few of these freakishly-talented super-hotties .. when I first overheard some folks saying that the state of California had just been shutdown.

I was very focused at the time I heard this news .. flirting with these super-hotties and whatnot. I mean, I never even got around to my intended topic.

But I remember the thought passing through my mind that went something like, "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard .. you can't just shutdown a whole fucking state."

When I finally came out of my writing trance, and learned the news for myself .. that the state had indeed issued shelter-at-home orders .. I thought, "I didnt know you could shutdown a whole state."

» Forced to Sit Quietly Alone with Your Own Thoughts

A lot of things changed that day. You know what I am talking about.

I am not even going to mention that this is right about the time that the daily coronavirus deaths really started to climb.

When I finally realized the extent of the limitations imposed by this new world .. I thought of that quote by the French mathematician Pascal (1623-1662):

I thought how many people hate nothing worse .. than sitting quietly alone with their own thoughts.

They would rather you stick needles in their eyes .. than sit quietly alone with nothing but their own thoughts.

Some people. Certainly not all .. but more than you might think.

If you said to one of these types, "See this pincushion here? We're going to stick these needles in your eyes .. or, alternatively, you can go in that room there and sit quietly alone with your thoughts. You choose."

They would be like, "Which eye do you want to start with?"

Pascal died, by the way, on August 19th.

I enjoy pursuing challenging activities .. not always, no. But certainly periodically, and sometimes more than others.

Challenging pursuits that cause me to grow and develop as a person, as a sentient human being .. the ultimate expression of the carbon-based life-form.

It is actually much more difficult than you might imagine .. to simply sit quietly, and just allow your inner self to get in touch with you. To communicate with you.

Or, at least, this has been my experience. (Anna knows what I am talking about.)

I delve into this topic on the page where I wrote about a cool quote from Kafka (1883-1924).

Kafka is #2 on my list of (8) totally rad quotes.

» An Organic Encounter with Quote #9

Speaking of rad quotes .. this quote here by Pascal has long been scheduled for Quote #9 on my quotes page.

Even with sparse commentary, these quotes pages are lots of work.

And if I post a quote that speaks to me in a meaningful way .. then it will be only too easy for me to get carried away with commentary on exactly why this particular quote speaks to me, and what it is saying. (To me.)

So I am cautious about posting new quotes .. even though I have a number of others that I think would be fun to share.

The reason why Pascal pegs all of humanity's problems ..

.. on the inability to sit quietly alone with our thoughts ..

.. is because of the things that your true, inner self might say .. once you really start listening.

Perhaps this inner voice might express a sense of dissatisfaction. (Tay knows what I am talking about.)

Perhaps you might want to take things to the next level. Or maybe you just want to be a better human being.

And if someone is not able to do this .. if someone is not able to sit quietly (for 20 mins) with themselves, with their thoughts ..

.. [ pause for effect ] ..

.. then they effectively silence their conscience. How can people do such cruel things? Nobody with any kind of conscience could ever do something like that.

» The Sense of Becoming More Whole that Accompanies Regular Visits to Your Quiet Place

At least, this is how it was for me .. when I started stopping on the way home at a park by the beach. I would just park in the shade under a big tree and sit there quietly.

I grew noticeably as a person during that period (3-6 months). You can feel yourself getting in touch with your true inner self, your true inner desires.

If I would go home, then I would usually get distracted with this or that. "I'm just going to do this one thing first." And one thing leads to another.

This is why I stopped on the way home.

» Moral Responsibility of the Citizen in a Corrupt, Immoral Society

One of the areas I want to explore today .. because I have been thinking about it for some time now .. is the idea of moral responsibility, moral character, moral courage, and maybe even moral judgment.

(Tolstoy knows what I am talking about. I doubt that Albert Speer does, though.)

I never had a class in Ethics/Morality, but the professor who taught my Logic class .. she also taught a class in Ethics. And she seasoned her lectures with some interesting insights from Ethics.

I actually found the stuff she was talking about in Ethics to be more interesting than studying Logic. Much more.

She would pimp her Ethics class, saying stuff like, "You kids should sign up for my Ethics class next semester."

I mean, morality and ethics are about doing the right thing vs doing the wrong thing .. under an array of various scenarios.

The end for now. More to come, I'm sure ■

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