“If everyone had been in love, they would treat their children differently. They would treat each other differently.”

–mass shooter quoted in Rebels With A Cause by Niobe Way

(Amacon.com)

Women want him, men want to be him.
Sometimes I wish you would just relax, and sit down and gaze at the world around you.
Sometimes I feel like you are trapped in a silicone bubble.
Only seeing what is fake.
What is pushed on you?
Your strength is admirable. But you don’t interest me at all.
You’re a tool.
You remind me of the boys I met this summer.
You remind me of the boy who said goodbye.
Sensitive one minute and then destructive the next.
I like it when you smile and I love it when you cry with me.
But this is just too much.
You cry too much and you are a pussy.
You don’t stand up for me.
You let me push you around. I messed up and you told me it was okay.
But it wasn’t.
Man up already. I don’t want to date a girl.
Be the stereotype.
Be my ideology, the buff guy, the gentleman, the tough guy. the provoker, the superhuman, push the limits, the provider, the frat boy, the villain.
Each of these personas clash with the notion of homosexuality.
But you’re not gay, you’re not a gentleman, either. I don’t want to be dating a girl.
I like when you smile, and I love when you cry with me.
But this is just too much.
I told you to man up, but you couldn’t.
And then it changed.
You briefly became a man.
Dinners and hangouts. You toughened up. And I melted.
But you got too tough.
I flip-flop. Masculine traits you’d drop and and pick up.
It was like you had to be everything at one point.
You are trapped in the silicone bubble now, with your alcoholic vomit and oil paint thinner.
I told you to man up and you did.
If only I hadn’t.
If only I didn’t make you feel bad for feeling sensitive.
If only I didn’t take advantage of you, and if only I hadn’t pushed you around.
Then I wouldn’t remind myself of the boys from this summer.
Because I was like them, the way they acted to you.
Controlling, dominant, bitchy.
And you were sensitive, sweet, and caring.
Stereotypes of the typical male infiltrated my ideal as to what you should have been.
But weren’t.
It should have been balanced. But you shouldn’t have stopped being nice.
You stopped being NICE.
You’d hit the bottle until you puked and I’d smoked until my lungs shriveled.
You ruined it, dude. You changed, dude. Was it because of me?
I like it when you smile and I love it when you cry with me.
But this is just too much.
My fault for pushing. My fault for the pressure. You snapped and I collapsed.
You don’t stand up for me. I messed up and you told me it was okay.
But it wasn’t.

–poem by Ellie Schnayer from Rebels With A Cause by Niobe Way.

The Bible verse “do not get weary in well-doing” appears in Galatians 6:9, which reads, “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”. 

This verse can be interpreted to encourage people to: 

• Be steadfast 
• Continue on despite tiredness or homesickness 
• Give their best in their jobs, classes, or majors 
• Revitalize themselves through prayer and God’s Word 

The verse points to the reward that awaits those who persevere in doing good. It’s similar to the idea that a sower of seed must wait for the harvest. 

(Google.com)

(Courtesy of Nina Turner)

(healthywealthyandwiseuk.com)

Healthy, Wealthy & Wise

• Healthy
• Wealthy
• Wise
• Metamorphosis the book
• About Me

PERSONAL GROWTH

Sonder and solipsism: two fairly obscure words that fall at opposite ends of the spectrum of our interpersonal relationships.

Below is an extract from my book, Metamorphosis. It’s taken from Chapter 8, ‘Love: Reframing How We See Others’ and explains why sonder is a mechanism for really seeing, and appreciation, the inner richness of our fellow humans:

“It’s hard for our brains to process that billions of people on the planet can all, simultaneously, lead a life that is as rich and varied as our own. It’s almost easier to believe in metaphysical solipsism, which is the philosophy that the self is the only reality, and that our world and other people only exist as representations of ourselves, and have no independent existence. 

I was much younger when I came across this concept and I remember being terrified by it; it felt like the most isolating idea in the world. Now I find it obnoxiously ego-centric. It is truly the antithesis of the idea that we are all connected and interwoven in one consciousness. I choose connection. 

If solipsism paints all others as unreal, then sonder is a concept that makes our fellow humans shine as three-dimensional beings. The word sonder was only coined in 2012 by John Koenig; it’s new enough that my computer keeps auto-correcting it to wonder. A Google search throws up the following definition: sonder is ‘The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own, which they are constantly living despite one’s personal lack of awareness of it.’ 

Essentially, sonder is the understanding that all other humans lead an inner life whose richness and complexity is equal to ours. Unless we’re into solipsism, we already know this intellectually, but it really does boggle the mind: billions of humans with unique and equally elaborate inner worlds. When we embrace this, we bring our fellow humans out of the shadows and into the limelight in our lives; we marvel at their unique qualities and we appreciate the ways in which, together, we can be so much greater than the sum of our parts.”

(framelab@ghost.io)

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

fulgent

PRONUNCIATION:

(FUHL-juhnt) 

MEANING:

adjective: Shining brilliantly; radiant.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin fulgere (to shine). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhel- (to shine or burn), which is also the source of blaze, blank, blond, bleach, blanket, and flame. Earliest documented use: 1475.

USAGE:

“The storm has ended, clearing the sky for a fat, fulgent moon.”
Rob Costello; Whatever Happened to the Boy Who Fell into the Lake?; Fantasy & Science Fiction (Hoboken, New Jersey); Jul/Aug 2021.

Translation is a 5-step process of “straight thinking in the abstract” comparing and contrasting what you think is the truth with what you can syllogistically, axiomatically and mathematically (using word equations) prove is the truth.

The claims in a Translation may seem outrageous, but they are always (or should always be) based on self-evident syllogistic reasoning. Here is one Translation from this week. 

1)    Truth is that which is so.  That which is not truth is not so.  Therefore Truth is all that is. Truth being all that is is therefore total, therefore whole, therefore complete.  Truth being true, is therefore right, therefore correct, therefore flawless, therefore perfect.  I think therefore I am Since I am and since Truth is all that is, therefore I, being, am Truth.  Since I, being, am Truth, therefore I, being, have all the attributes of truth, therefore I, being, am total, whole, complete, true, right, correct, flawless, perfect.  Since I, being, am Truth and since I am mind/consciousness, therefore Truth is Mind/Consciousness.  (Two things being equal to a third thing are equal to each other.)

2)    We all have multiple personalities which were formed in our childhood.

Word-tracking:
childhood:  development, change, grow, unwrap, unfold
personality:  characteristics, attributes, allotment, portion.
we:  people, human beings, homo sapiens, wise men

3)    Truth being Mind/Consciousness is therefore knowing, therefore wise.  Truth being all that is and Truth being wise, therefore wise man (homo sapien) can only be Truth man.  Truth being all, therefore limitless, there can be nothing which is not allotted to Truth. Therefore Truth has infinite attributes, characteristics, personalities. Truth being whole, complete and perfect cannot be undeveloped or partially developed, wrapped up or partially wrapped up, therefore Truth is fully developed, fully unwrapped, fully unfolded and gifted.

4)    Wise man (homo sapien) can only be Truth man.  
       Truth has infinite attributes, characteristics, personalities.
        Truth is fully developed, fully unwrapped, fully unfolded and gifted.

5.    Truth man has infinite attributes which are fully developed, unwrapped and gifted.

For information about Translation or other Prosperos classes go to: https://www.theprosperos.org/teaching

Published: August 29, 2024 (TheOnion.com)

WASHINGTON—Bemoaning the terrible course conditions he encountered while visiting the military burial site, Donald Trump called out Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday for its hazard-filled fairways. “I’ve played at amazing golf courses all over the world—like Augusta, Pinehurst, and Pebble Beach—and let me tell you, Arlington National Cemetery was the worst 18 holes I’ve ever played,” said the 45th president of the United States, adding that service was terrible at the 639-acre memorial, from the rude and overbearing guards, to the messy gravestones littered everywhere, to the distracting spectators who kept kneeling down and praying. “Immediately after I teed off, I had no idea where the holes were, my golf cart started sucking up wreaths, and my ball got caught in this huge trap called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Plus, it was impossible to order a lemonade or a BLT. The waitress I called over just started sobbing.” At press time, Trump added that this was exactly why he preferred playing at Trump golf courses, where there was only one grave and it belonged to his late ex-wife.

29 AUGUST 2024/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/JAY BARMANN (SFist.com)

Oprah is taking on the topic of artificial intelligence, and she’ll be airing a prime-time special on ABC in September to ask the question “AI: What is it?” and other things your parents and grandparents have been asking.

“AI and the Future Of Us: An Oprah Winfrey Special” will air on Thursday, September 12 on ABC stations, and the next day on Hulu, and it features Oprah sitting down for conversations with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman, and FBI Director Christopher Wray among others.

The special is likely to raise as many questions as it answers, but Oprah, like many boomers, just wants to know what-all people are talking about when it comes to AI, and to process the basics of what it is capable of right now.

“It might fascinate you, or it might scare you, or if you’re like me, it may do both. So let’s take a breath, and find out,” Oprah says in the intro to the trailer.

Other guests include the co-founders of the Center for Humane Technology, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin, and YouTube creator Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD.

And Oprah will also be talking with a fellow senior citizen, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping, Gilead), about “the threat AI poses to human values and how we can resist the convenience of this powerful technology.”

This feels like an early entry in a genre of TV program that we will be seeing a lot of in the coming year or two. And it may end up, in retrospect, sounding alot like all the mindless TV chatter about “the worldwide web” back in the 90s.

See Oprah’s teaser below.

https://abc7news.com/video/embed/?pid=15244121

aTo all our Prosperos members and friends, Our annual gathering is online this year, and we’d love to have you join us from wherever you are! It will be a wonderful weekend of inspiring talks and meaningful breakout discussions, plus all the fun and fellowship we can send zooming through your tech device! We’d love to have you join us in the Zoom Room! And we’d be delighted to include any of your friends who are interested in what The Prosperos has to offer — please let them know about this special event! You can find out more about Assembly 2024 on our web page, which gives times, speakers, topics, and more: www.theprosperos.org/prosperos-events/assembly-2024 If you register before Monday, September 2, there’s a special Early Bird discount for you — only $100! You’ll find a registration link on the Assembly web page, or you can click here: www.theprosperos.com/payments-etc/assembly2024 Want to know more? We’ve recorded some fascinating interviews with a few of our Assembly speakers. You can listen to a great discussion with our Dean, William Fennie. And check out this podcast with Richard Hartnett, H.W.,M., who is the coordinator for Assembly 2024! Even more information will be featured in the upcoming issue of our Community Update, so watch your mailbox for the latest in Assembly news!  We’re looking forward to seeing you in September!a

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