SO, THE FOOLS HAVE WON!

How many of you have had the privilege of being a Fool for Love? I see allot of hands out there so most of you must know what this rap is about. You know I pity the fool for love. What is a fool for love? That’s the kind of person who when he or she gets stuck in a wrong relationship that their friends and family tried to warn them not to get into, do it anyway –fools. And if they had their life to live over again they’d play it again just the same way one more time, -fools!

Yeah well, I knew a guy who played the fool once. He was a real live fool for love once upon a time. Check this out; he was a 20 year old college student and dating that 36 year old woman who was estranged from her husband and had a kid too! Yes I pity the fool, an educated fool at that. Well she dumped him one day and oh…oh…oh…oh…oh... was he ever a hurting fool.  What made matters worse was he tried to get her back.  In the end all he could say was…WHY? And all she could say was: “Go on fool you doing it too,” but he wasn’t doing it!!! You know, you can kick a dog around only so long and he’ll get tired.  After so many times of rejection, he took his little crushed heart in his hands and walked on by, head hanging down and he stayed hurt for months after that, poor fool. I pity the fool for love.

God must love fools (somebody has to) there are just so many of them. They just keep coming. Love will shoot them down, mow them down with machine guns, blow them up with mortar rounds and shell them with artillery and still more of them come like legions of Chinese soldiers, relentless, in unending wave after wave, unstoppable as they march over the carcasses of their fallen comrades. But in the long run, being a fool for love can give you valuable experience. If it were not for playing the fool, you would not know about the flip side of love. You've got to know all about love before you can appreciate it right? You know the old saying, 'There's a sucker born every minute'? Well these suckers have learned how to be from Missouri you've got to show them your love is real first! They’re not going to be kicked around anymore; no more fooling around.

How do you like me now!

Q & A On Love and Trees

Here's a familiar philosophical question for you to consider that explores the possibility of unperceived existence:  

    

      

Question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? 

I like this Answer: "Of course it does. The idea that a member of the human race has to be present at any occurrence for it to be true is quite ludicrous. Sounds are being created all over the world which are never heard by humans and as a final straw there are supersonic sounds which are beyond the range of the human but can be heard by other creatures such as bats."

Jack Hill, St. Albans, England

Let's also consider a theological question that explores the possibility of unperceived harm.

Question: If another sins against you and covers up their sin so that you were never aware of it; have you been harmed?  

My Answer to this question is yes: While in a relationship hidden sin will cause considerable damage and a great loss. This is because the guilty one’s love, assuming love was ever present, will change from Unconditional love to Conditional love and you'll actually feel this change happen. Maybe not right away but you will feel it because Unconditional love is such a valuable gift to lose. A gift more precious than gold, silver and precious stones. When this happens, only God can repair the damage but he will do it when humility triumphs over pride! In Ezekiel 36:26 God says: "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

There is also this beautiful 'Sade' love song that has always meant so much. It's called, 'Love is Stronger than Pride.' (click on Pride to hear it, it holds great truths.)

All Lives Matter

All lives matter! As a human being I regret all hate and killing in any color on this planet. I believe God would say the same.

The Toss Up (Bridal Bouquet Mystery Solved)

This falls under the category of things you didn’t know happened at your own wedding. I never knew the events described here until thirty-three year later, while my wife and I were looking through our wedding album.

In the above photo, with raised hands the young ladies expectantly await the wedding bouquet toss; but who would be the lucky girl to catch it? I never knew that my wife’s cousin in the purple dress secretly told her to, ‘throw the bouquet to me!’ So my wife said, ‘okay stand close to me’ and when the time came she threw it right to her. Did her cousin catch it? Oh yes she did, see the next photo. I was surprised and delighted to hear about their little conspiracy after all of these years. This just goes to show you that sometimes, you have to create your own luck. Or as Michael Jackson said more eloquently in his song The Way You Make Me Feel: "Hee-Hee! Ooh! Go On Girl!" 

Run To Glory

The French Foreign Legion

In some places in the world when a man loses his home, his family and his faith he could put some distance between himself and his problems -by running  off and joining the French Foreign Legion (Légion étrangѐre).  He might find himself in a lonely desert outpost far away from home perhaps never to return.  Wearing his Kepi blanc hat with neck cover and holding his carbine in hand he would experience both intense boredom and unimaginable fear mixed with excitement as he learns to fight fierce foes and win, or die. In the Foreign Legion discipline and Esprit the Corp are everything.  You even give up your name and will have to learn to speak and sing in French. By serving you can even become a French citizen. They have a saying; “Français par le sang versé,” which means you're eligible for French citizenship if you bleed for France.

Here in the US men who flee from their problems usually don’t become Soldiers of Fortune in the Foreign Legion.  Some American men do become contractors or mercenaries for the money.  Allot of money that they might kill or die for.  But no kepi blanc hat! Too bad, it keeps the head cool and looks cool; but it comes at a very high price -es-tu prét?

(Check out the Légion étrangѐre here)

"Let Them Eat Cake" and other tragic faux pas

Did Marie Antoinette really say “Let them eat cake,” before promptly getting her head chopped off on a guillotine by angry, starving French peasants?  And did Captain Edward Smith of the Titanic ever make the claim that his ship was “Unsinkable,” before it sank like a rock into the North Atlantic?

After fact checking these legendary faux pas; I could not confirm that Marie Antoinette ever said "Let them eat cake," but I did find out what her nickname was. It’s Marietta and it's spelled exactly like the city near Atlanta Georgia.

As for Captain Smith, I could not verify that he ever used those exact words that his ship was "Unsinkable!" But there are some witness accounts that he went down with his ship.

But what else do these two well known historical figures have in common besides both meeting with tragic ends? Perhaps they failed to understand something very important and this failure to 'get it' or by being misunderstood if not misquoted; led to people changing their perceptions of them -from adoration to condemnation. That ever happen to you?

Unfortunately I too have said some embarrassing things  that I wish I hadn't said. Like the time I made the faux pas of asking a woman if she were pregnant because her belly was large and she replied, "No I'm not pregnant!" Uh-oh, right then I felt like a part of my own anatomy was in danger of being kicked.  But instead she was gracious with me and I lived to tell about it.  But I will never, ever ask that dumb question again! I just keep learning. I'm getting better all the time at keeping my mouth shut when it should be.

Inclement Weather

When you screw up royally by getting addicted to something that's bad for you, you’re heading into a perfect storm. Illicit sex, drugs, alcohol, nicotine and the like will become a violent wind at your back, a downpour of rain that will drown you and give you a life that is colder than ice. You should pray when this happens, because you won't get out by yourself. Your self is what got you into this mess, so you will need help outside of yourself to get out. So start with a prayer asking for Him for faith! God always answers that prayer. Add to your prayer a request for humility, truth and love and hope. Hope for a miracle from God. Running away won’t get you far. Nor will the false hope that nobody sees what you are doing! God always sees you. 

You may ask, "Can God help me, will he help me, will God give me  a miracle?" The answer is the same: "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor." (Matthew 11:5). You'll just have to trust God and follow Him and accept the help he gives you in whatever form it takes. God often puts people in your path as a conduit or pipeline of his blessings coming to you. 

It may take some time to get completely out of the storm you're in. May God save you from your storm.