REPHRASAL OF MIND-SET

Life is interesting and CHANGE HAPPENS!  Having been raised in a home environment of discipline and duty, etc, and also having had four different Fathers, has given me a certain outlook.  Having joined the military directly out of high school, and going immediately from seven years in the Army to Seminary has given me a structure of life as well.  I wouldn't take a million dollars for my experiences in Southeast Asia, nor five million to repeat them!

I have written about war and being a veteran many times in my Daily

TAO's with the Ancient Taoist Sage.  So now, I'll write to express what and how I feel now...today, in light of what I am personally experiencing.  I hope to at least give you "food for thought".  Changing your mind is not my intention.  ...

Spinoza wrote:

            "PEACE IS NOT AN ABSENCE OF WAR; IT IS A VIRTUE, A STATE OF

            MIND, A DISPOSITION OF BENEVOLENCE, CONFIDENCE, JUSTICE."

Interesting, is it not?  Peace can never be only the absence of war.  It also must be the presence of many things.

I am kind of educated, and can speak passably in a public forum, and while I may not know much, I know what I know.  However, I find I still must await the Tao, as new concepts and feelings are clothed with words, so I can convey them.  I also do much better orally, and many phone me to discuss such things.  Even though I can explain and communicate at some level, I am still seeking meaning.

Blah, blah, blah....Fred is a Bible Thumper!  I don't think so.  However, I think the principle purpose of the Bible and many other Wisdom Books, is to impart values of right and wrong, to teach us the infinite sanctity of human life, and to lend human existence a Spiritual purpose.  This is perhaps something that is counter-intuitive, and often lost on intellectuals like Rousseau, Marx and Tolstoy...or even the "New Atheists", whose mission seems to be to debunk religious faith once and for all.  (I think I read that someplace some time ago!)

Mahatma Gandhi once wrote of the

 "SEVEN BLUNDERS OF THE WORLD THAT LEAD TO VIOLENCE:"

            WEALTH WITHOUT WORK; PLEASURE WITHOUT     

            CONSCIENCE; KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT CHARACTER;

            COMMERCE WITHOUT MORALITY; SCIENCE WITHOUT

            HUMANITY; AND POLITICS WITHOUT PRINCIPLE

It has also been said that "the sword comes into the world because of Justice Delayed and because of Justice Perverted!"

We must start choosing more wisely....  Yeah, but we are in one crisis after another!  Haven't we always been???  President Eisenhower said, "...be careful to take care of what is important; the urgent will take care of itself!"

"CRISIS", when written in Chinese, is composed of two characters.  One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity!

Change is afoot!  I hope the world learns the "First Law of Holes:  When you are in one, STOP DIGGING!"

My Greek friend Aristotle wrote: "Change in all things is sweet."

Me...I resist change even as I call for it!  Who knows, maybe if we are open, we may make a discovery - and discover life!  Because if we "...keep on doing what we've been doing, we'll keep on getting what we have been getting!"

Edmund Burke (the Irishman) once wrote (he doesn't write much anymore!) "He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill.  Our antagonist is our helper."  Well, this may or may not be true, but it depends on how it is applied.  Someone else borrowed from this saying and coined the phrase, "Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger!"  HMMMMM!  I'm not sure about that one either.  However..."Whatever doesn't kill us should make us smarter!"

I hope we are getting smarter as a people...

            Smart enough to live on purpose, and thus live a purposeful life. 

Shen Sung,

Fred