My Birthday thoughts

December 5, 2016

Today I have turned seventy-six.

And I thank you, for all of your best wishes.

Before the election, one of my friends said,

“I hope God is in control”

My response is Our creator IS in control,

And always has been 

Since the first Universal Day of creation

14 billion earth-years ago,

Before the earth existed.

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He created and destroyed the dinosaurs

He created and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah,

And no matter who wins this election,

He is still in control.

“What profits a man,

If he gains the world

And loses his soul?”

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Why does our Creator

Allow all of the bad stuff to happen?

You may well ask.

My response is:

Our Creator gave us many gifts.

Among those gifts

Are the ability to think and reason,

And the freedom

 to make our own choices.

He also gave us clear instructions

As to what the wise choices are.

When we choose to ignore

Those instructions

We suffer the consequences.

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When I find myself

Suffering the consequences

I go back

And revisit

Those wise instructions.

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And I find myself revisiting them a lot.

Remind ourselves:

Time Capsule Haiku

Ever radiant…

Thirteen thousand light-years out

Adam’s fire still glows.

…

Remind ourselves:

Occasionally, it is good to remind ourselves

 That our galaxy is 100 thousand light-years in diameter,

 50 thousand light-years in radius,

 and that our solar system is a tiny dot located

30 thousand light-years from the center.

And that it takes 223 million earth years

 for our sun to drag us

 In one complete orbit

Around the center of the Galaxy.

On this grand scale a lifetime of 100 years

 is less than a flash in the pan.

…

Here is an interesting exercise:

Plot the moon's path around the sun.

To simplify the task,

Assume that each month has exactly 30 days,

 And that there are exactly 12 months in the year,

and that the moon orbits the earth exactly once each month.

Locate the positions

Of each Full Moon

And each New Moon

And each Half Moon.

And then connect the dots.

Ancestry

 To all of my friends

And in particular,

To all of the descendants

Of Bill and Maybelle Wells:

Ancestry:

Did you know, and perhaps you do,

That the grandfather of your grandmother Wells

 was a Jewish Rabbi?

As a Rabbi, his first language was Hebrew

 and in fact

 it may have been his only language.

 As we trace our ancestry further back,

(And I mean each and every one of us),

 it becomes clear that our roots extend

to ever continent and nation on this tiny planet,

 and we would not exist without these roots.

…

Self-Esteem says

“I am as good as you are”

Compassion says

“You are as good as I am”

Pride says

“I am better than you are”

My Pride denies your self-Esteem.

…

There are two versions of the truth

One is based on Compassion

The other is based on Pride.

The one leads to

The brotherhood of men

The other leads to

Hate and war.

...

This country was built by immigrants,

many of which spoke only their native tongues

which include English, German, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Tagalog, Arabic, Hausa, Russian…

 to name a few.

…

As we sing “I Am Proud to be an American”,

we must also be

 Proud of and never forget our ancestry,

Because it is our ancestry

That defines Who we are.