I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Matthew 18:18

What a strange statement. Who would say something like this, where does it come from, and what does it mean? I feel as if I was unexpectedly enveloped in a giant snow ball of spinning questions like this at an age just shy of reason. My body plastered in snow, I wiggled to free my head. My neck tightened as I strained to see where this giant snow mass came from. Behind the frosty tumbler I could see a crystallized past of many heritage trails. I could look back for a moment and track their stories one revolution at a time, as I rolled forward. I found myself surrounded by many people doing the same. Some were looking back towards our glittering trail. Others were looking forward to what appears to be a bright light. Many were looking at each other, seemingly oblivious to our shared predicament. And still others were focused on our big snow ball; wondering how long we would have before it melted and left us stranded without a destination.

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Categories: Testimony, Introspection
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Dennis Prager has a regular hour of his radio show dedicated to relationships, male / female in particular. Dennis is one wise Jew in my opinion…

Recently he has been making the case for public humiliation being the worst of all possible offenses in a marriage and believed it to be more detrimental to the integrity of a marriage than even adultery. At first it seems silly… being made a fool of by your partner is worse than having them cheat on you? But the more I thought through the implications of being on the receiving end of either offense (a single incident of adultery or regular public humiliation) the more I sided with his perspective.

In one moment he described the public (or private) verbal humiliation of someone as being fueled by contempt. I was struck with a horrible feeling, I know I have been on both sides of contempt… giving and receiving… it never feels good.

A quick word study reveals the following definitions…

• lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
• a manner that is generally disrespectful
• open disrespect for a person or thing
• Contempt is an intense feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless—it is similar to scorn.

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Categories: Confessions, Introspection, Relationships
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People do not like to be reduced to either mean or nice, nice being the worse of the two adjectives.

People are amiable, incorrigible, pompous, religious, ostentatious, fractious, sophomoric, whimsical, arrogant, insipid, vulgar, trite, scornful, repugnant, dignified, sultry, scathing, petulant, pedantic, benevolent, malevolent, ambivalent, pretentious, and otherwise complicated… especially when they are in search of each other.

It is with great trepidation that I admit, I am reading Jane Austin’s “Pride and Prejudice”… okay, well I am listening to the audio book, but still… I am absorbing into my mind the crown jewel of female narrative; encapsulating all known interpersonal, social, and familial happenings between men and women in search of holy matrimony. …and, I like it. I should say, I am in awe of the social commentary, the plot is nauseating…

• 
  Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Classics)
  Author: Jane Austen

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Categories: Introspection, Relationships, Books
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I took a reluctant Nestea plunge into the shimmering surface of iPhone ownership a few months ago. A friend welcomed me to the fold with a warm…

“Your life will never be the same ;)”

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…text message, I have to say that she was right. I have a long history of dysfunctional relationships with PDA / mobile phone technologies… and after a few months of using the glorious iPhone, I must testify that Mr. Jobs got right everything that Palm and Microsoft screwed up. It is silky smooth and amazing in most every regard… and what’s more, it actually works, just about everything I try to do with it… works as advertised or better.

So I should be happy right? Well, yes and no. Perhaps I am over committed to a suspicious under appreciation of life’s simple e-pleasures… or maybe there is something to consider here.

I believe one of the greatest dangers of our current breed of technological prowess is that we can quickly make things that work too well. I believe the iPhone, just happens to be such a gadget.

We have all relegated ourselves to the mandatory sentence of mobile phone custodianship. It goes everywhere we do and we are ever vigilant in response to its beckoning. Even when its not nudging me, I find myself gravitating to its allure. Check e-mail, tetris, a website, podcast, tetris, youtube, text message, Google myself, listen to some music, tetris , visit Rome on Google earth, or just browse the app store. There really is never a waking moment that is not tempted to be filled by the wonders made available by this little portal to everything.


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Categories: Introspection, Nature, Technology
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I was recently spouting off, with a fair amount of smug self appreciation, about how little television I watch. My good friend, who has probably endured my unsolicited viewership habit report on several occasions, replied back…

That’s something white people like to do… not watch TV and then tell other people about it.

He then informed me of an entire website (and book) dedicated to cataloging stuff white people like. And sure enough, there I am… number 28, “Not Having a TV”. Ok, so technically I do have a TV… several actually… but I rarely use them to actually watch television programming. It truly took me 20 minutes on the phone when ordering my internet package to convince them that I did not want TV with it, the temptation to watch 37 hours of straight History Channel during the “Tale of the Gun” marathon is too great for me to resist.

Anyway, a full perusing of the list revealed much more of my apparent “whiteness”…

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

It does seem to be tailored to a specific type of white person. Nascar does not make this list, which may be all that needs to be said in order to describe the type of white person this list intends to quantify. Nevertheless, they got me on several counts… and I enjoyed the biting wit and sarcasm that oozed from each racist wound. It’s a bit like the Onion, but hits so much closer to home… I think the Onion probably deserves to be on the list as well.

• #115 Promising to Learn a New Language
• #107 Self Aware Hip Hop References
• #102 Children’s Games as Adults
  
• #87 Outdoor Performance Clothes
• #44 Public Radio
• #9 Making you feel bad about not going outside

• 
  Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions
  Author: Christian Lander

Categories: Introspection, Books, Criticisms
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I am not sure what is more annoying about a personality test… the setup in which they force you to tell yourself who you are or their uncanny accuracy. I wonder which profile least appreciates being profiled?

But once you get over the trauma of having your inner psyche unraveled by 68 awkwardly probing questions, there comes the blissful comparison of yourself with other well known and famous ENTJs.

• Napoleon
• Bill Gates
• Indiana Jones (well, Harrison Ford anway…)

I have actually been thinking a lot about the whole issue of ingrained personality versus disciplined and purposeful habits. I started reading through proverbs every morning, and I have really been taken back by how blatant the book describes the views and actions of the wise person versus that of a fool. I believe Solomon intends to suggest that we can choose wisdom over folly, and even though we may be born with a propensity for foolishness… we can choose to hold our tongues, listen carefully, seek knowledge, gain understanding, and in time become wise… regardless of our Myers-Briggs breakdown… or is that just typical thinking for an ENTJer like myself?

• Myers Briggs
• Test yourself for free…
• Become wise for free…

Categories: Personality, Introspection
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