Carpet diem (High and Tight)

I never imagined that it would take so much work to replace your carpeting at home. Not that I have to install it myself, there are carpet installers who do that.  I'm talking about getting four bedrooms ready for the carpeting.  The carpet store said they will move furniture but no electrical and no glass. Okay that sounds like it should be easy but it's not.  I still have to pick up everything from the floor including each closet floor, remove books from shelves, box up my vinyl records and move a multitude of other things.  I started the preparations on Monday and by Tuesday night  I am only half done.  You see the master bed still has to be broken down and my stereo and my computer equipment too. Oh and there are two more queen size beds in two other bedrooms. But I never forgot the phrase I once heard at a freight forwarding company where I worked part-time for extra money loading trucks. They told us to "Pack em high and tight!" So that's what I've done. I've moved everything I could and packed it high and tight! After the carpet is in all that stuff goes right back to where it was before -so I'm having Such a good time on this project!

    

The Revelations of Genesis (Answering Tough Questions)

Genesis 1:1  The beginning  ( things revealed to us) about  God creating the heavens and the Earth.  Did God create all of the other planets in our solar system too? Certainly!  And did God also create ALL of the other planets in the Galaxy and in the whole universe?  Unquestionably he did; over and over again! So is Earth our planet the only one inhabited by intelligent life forms? I cannot accept that.

In Genesis 1:6-23, God focused on the water, on the land, the ecology and on the biology of the Earth and He called all life that he created good! No doubt God’s creativity extends well beyond the solar system where our planet is situated and well beyond our galaxy that we call the Milky Way.

In Genesis 1:24 God focused on producing more complex life forms which he also called, good!

In Genesis 1:26 God, not stopping with just the animals made a man in his image, in his own likeness to rule over the Earth and over all the other creatures of Earth. More good! So why stop there after all the good things he created on Earth. The universe is limitless, there are numerous suitable planets in the universe where sentient beings could well have been created just like on our Earth.

Genesis 2:16-17 is the troubling story about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that was instrumental in the fall of man.  Why even put that tree in the garden in the first place,was it a test for mankind?

Genesis 3:1  says, "Now, the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals the Lord had made." Wasn't this serpent the one we know as Satan also created by God?   Yes, but he went rogue and is a liar and a tempter.

Was the Earth and mankind's creation on Earth just a test case?  Did God achieve a much better outcome in creating sentient beings somewhere else in the universe? He would of course have learned from man's bad behavior on earth what qualities to avoid on his other worlds.  

The misery of man's fall from grace on Earth was not the end of the story.  We are still made in his image after all. So like the best of parents God never abandoned us and even sacrificed his son to reconcile us to himself.  

Was Jesus' intervention also needed on God's other more successful worlds? Of course, Jesus is always needed wherever and whatever the situation may be but I wonder? Did he have to suffer and die out there among the stars as he did on our rebellious Earth?  

    

Therefore one could conclude that the Earth with its resident evil may well be quarantined from the rest of the universe.   So far our planet appears to be. There's been no conclusive proof of alien contact from other worlds. As far as one can tell the only out of this world contact we have ever had was Jesus Christ himself two thousand years ago and from angels from time to time. 

Come and Get Your Love (Really!)

It's true that “Come and Get Your Love,” is a song by that 70s Native American rock group called Redbone. What’s also true is that God sings it! Yes, he wants us to come and get His love! His epic love that he prepared for us before the beginning of time. Where else are we to find this intense kind of love?  Not from the evil one or by doing anything evil.  Could a man or a woman receive it from each other? Sometimes we do receive  a version of God's love from  our beloved; but it's never a substitute for God's love which is both eternal and unconditional.  What about finding love through money, drugs,  alcohol, fame? I don't think so and you know better than to think so.

Like the lyrics in the song say: Come on and find some, if you want some take some. It's fine and divine and it’s always free.  Come and get your love, come and get your love, come and get your love now! 

Silly Rabbit!

 

I used to think:
-that 'Marriage on the Rocks' meant marriage problems caused by drinking too much alcohol!

- that Hip Hop music would blow over in a couple of years just like Disco!

-that mankind would have gone to the stars or at least to Jupiter by now!

-that my cute little kids would stay little for much longer!

-that a cure for cancer was coming in my lifetime!

-that I would never screw up royally like so many others have!

-that by the year 2000 all men would treat all other men with love and respect!

-I also used to think that all men loved God!
"Silly rabbit! Such beliefs are for kids!!!"

The Winter Soldier

I've told you about riding to LA, man! I've told you about driving to San Francisco and Oakland too! Driving past corn fields over mountains and through deserts. Well here's another place you can go. Looking through a glass windshield,...Snow Land....Snow Land. But it's no problem for a Street Van. As long as you've got gas, you can run that heat and it becomes your Swiss Chalet on wheels!  Yes hot cocoa was available too with a simple heating appliance you plug into a cigarette lighter. Stay parked if you must, use your snow driving skills if you trust, but if you've prepared your Street Van for everything; you can just keep on trucking!

This photo of my van was taken in Orange, New Jersey where a record snow fell; just five months after my summer of 1977 California road trip (See Vantastic Voyage post). Yes there's a music theme to this post, click on the following link:  (Glass Onion) 

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.)