Main
| March 2006 »
According to those who take surveys I am usually listed as the major shopper in our family, not because I am more qualified – I am just fortunate to have the physical ability to "get around better" (at least for a while longer). For this reason I think I can speak up as some kind of an expert in reading the prices and marketing gimmicks in the store.
EVERY MARKET, whether it be clothing, petroleum, food, lawn mowers, you name it – they are trying to figure every angle possible to take money from our pocket books or wallets. I suppose this is nothing new if we are completely honest but in today’s state of the economy it seems the facts are pretty much epidemic in proportions. Banks and Savings & Loans, those supposed bastions of truth and honesty (with our monies) jockey their interest-bearing contracts so it becomes our responsibility to KEEP UP with their announcements of a raised interest – WE check and be sure they "bump" our lower interest rate when it becomes available in a specific kind of certificate of deposit. Of course they don’t really mind because if we don’t notice it, guess who makes more profit on our money? Those in my age bracket remember the Christmas Savings Clubs where you did not earn a penny in letting them keep your money throughout the eleven months before Christmas! I guess that isn’t too shocking though – have you noticed how much interest your checking account (and Savings Account) earns? Hummm
GASOLINE (and allied petroleum products) – As long as I can remember it has always been $ plus POINT NINE. I am sure Andy Rooney himself has given a commentary on this and we wonder why they just don’t go to the nearest penny (and you can’t get much closer than 1/10!) and charge the next penny. They make us feel we’re getting a bargain. And then, of course, the petroleum industry is virtually gouging anyone who, for whatever reason, uses kerosene and puts them over the virtual barrel just because they want to keep warm! Then, those drivers who for whatever reason have chosen to own a diesel-powered engine, nullify every reason they chose to own a diesel vehicle – they are gouged for their chosen principles or choice of engine that powers their truck or auto.
FAIR is a word that has gradually become a weasel word. (A weasel word is one from which all the blood or meaning has been sucked out. We have others in our American vocabulary: "bargain" "promise" "truth" just to name a few.) The great little hybrid autos that somehow run on an electric generator powered by a smaller gasoline engine or is powered by YOUR electric overnight are priced so that it might take TWELVE YEARS to break even and beat the odds. Recently a film clip from decades ago showed Henry Ford and George Washington Carver talking about running internal combustion engines on PEANUT OIL. Wonder what ever happened to that idea? Today’s experts have figured out how to convert or should it be RECYCLE used peanut oil--you know, what McDonalds & Burger King now have to PAY SOMEONE TO HAUL AWAY, that kind of oil can actually be used as a fuel for diesel engines. Of course we all know that if that ever becomes a reality (nationwide), somehow the fossil fuels will be reduced in price or those inventors of such technology will be hushed into silence and become rich by a pay off. (One benefit from using peanut oil is getting rid of that black smoke—only thing is the fragrance from the exhaust might create an urge to buy some fish & chips!)
GROCERY STORES – Supermarkets have become pros at this (of course they better be because their warehousing facilities have to be profitable and the experts who stock products are not dealing with pennies but DOLLAR$!). Consider their new marketing schemes touting TWO FOR $ (insert appropriate dollar figure). Also there is the TEN for $ (dollar figure). BONUS packages – watch out, some of them actually cost MORE than their purported compared size of package. Check the ounces and do some quick math – sometimes BIGGER is not the best buy. In all honesty I have really gotten in on some bargain prices of shredded wheat – they really cut the prices and I stocked up!
The most recent example of marketing schemes was in my grocery shopping today at one of the big name stores. MILK (with your special shopping CARD of course) -- TWO ½ Gallons for $3.00. I almost got caught. Upon putting two ½ Gallon jugs in my cart I turned around and noticed a GALLON was priced at $2.59. Funny, that sounds cheaper than $3.00 – right, because it is by 41 CENTS. But the truth or honest reality is the REGULAR price of the ½ Gallon was $1.99; so they were not really lying because if your bought TWO ½ gallons at $1.99 you would be getting a bargain by buying TWO for $3.00. And maybe a single person who has little use for milk does not need to buy a gallon to SAVE nearly a dollar. But the idea of playing with our minds and hoping we wont think bothers me.
THE WORDWRIGHT suggests and encourages you to be aware and think about the ways marketing schemes get our money.
###
"We received this as an e-mail from Ann Halford, a friend of ours and of our multiply-handicapped son Tim. We do not know who the author is, but thought it might be helpful to others, as it was to us. Our son Tim who is blind and retarded is now 43 years old, and we certainly can relate to the words of this writer.
Do yourself a favor; don't start reading this until you've got more than 3 or 4 minutes. It deserves some time for reflection.
My brother Kevin thinks God lives under his bed.. At least that's what I heard him say one night. He was praying out loud in his dark bedroom, and I stopped outside his closed door to listen. "Are you there, God?" he said. "Where are you? Oh, I see.under the bed." I giggled softly and tiptoed off to my own room. Kevin's unique perspectives are often a source of amusement. But that night, something else lingered long after the humor. I realized for the first time the very different world Kevin lives in.
He was born 30 years ago, mentally disabled as a result of difficulties during labor. Apart from his size (6'2"), there are few ways in which he is an adult. He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7 year old, and he always will. He will probably always believe that God lives under his bed, that Santa Claus is the one who fills the space under our tree every Christmas, and that airplanes stay up in the sky because angels carry them. I remember wondering if Kevin realizes that he is different.
Is he ever dissatisfied with his monotonous life? Up before dawn each day, off to work at a workshop for the disabled, home to walk our cocker spaniel, return to eat his favorite macaroni-and-cheese for dinner, and later to bed. The only variation in the entire scheme is laundry, when he hovers excitedly over the washing machine like a mother with her newborn child.
He does not seem dissatisfied. He lopes out to the bus every morning at 7:05, eager for a day of simple work. He wrings his hands excitedly while the water boils on the stove before dinner, and he stays up late twice a week to gather our dirty laundry for his next day's laundry chores. And Saturdays--oh, the bliss of Saturdays! That's the day my Dad takes Kevin to the airport to have a soft drink, watch the planes land, and speculate loudly on the destination of each passenger inside. "That one's going to Chi-car-go!" Kevin shouts as he claps his hands. His anticipation is so great he can hardly sleep on Friday nights.
And so goes his world of daily rituals and weekend field trips. He doesn't know what it means to be discontented. His life is simple. He will never know the entanglements of wealth or power, and he does not care what brand of clothing he wears or what kind of food he eats. His needs have always been met, and he never worries that one day they may not be. His hands are diligent. Kevin is never so happy as when he is working. When he unloads the dishwasher or vacuums the carpet, his heart is completely in it. He does not shrink from a job when it is begun, and he does not leave a job until it is finished. But when his tasks are done, Kevin knows how to relax.
He is not obsessed with his work or the work of others. His heart is pure. He still believes everyone tells the truth, promises must be kept, and when you are wrong, you apologize instead of argue. Free from pride and unconcerned with appearances, Kevin is not afraid to cry when he is hurt, angry, or sorry.
He is always transparent, always sincere. And he trusts God. Not confined by intellectual reasoning, when he comes to Christ, he comes as a child. Kevin seems to know God--to really be friends with Him in a way that is difficult for an "educated" person to grasp. God seems like his closest companion.
In my moments of doubt and frustration with my Christianity, I envy the security Kevin has in his simple faith. It is then that I am most willing to admit that he has some divine knowledge that rises above my mortal questions. It is then I realize that perhaps he is not the one with the handicap--I am.
My obligations, my fear, my pride, my circumstances--they all become disabilities when I do not trust them to God's care. Who knows if Kevin comprehends things that I can never learn? After all, he has spent his whole life in that kind of innocence, praying after dark and soaking up the goodness and love of God. And one day, when the mysteries of heaven are opened, and we are all amazed at how close God really is to our hearts, I'll realize that God heard the simple prayers of a boy who believed that God lived under his bed. Kevin won't be surprised at all."
# # #
Another GOOD article from DOES GOD EXIST? - Jan-Feb 2005 issue
Copied with permission from John Clayton's bi-monthly magazine, DOES GOD EXIST?.
"Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out."
--John Wooden, UCLA basketball coach
# # #
People in my age bracket (born in 1932) have more varied experiences of the "garbage collector" than the average city dweller today. I will spare some details about the "quality" of the garbage but believe me, it was a different kind of garbage that was set out in the alley than you find set out on the street (in FRONT of your house) today! May I hint briefly -- in the days of my childhood there was a unique odor connected with the garbage truck!
John Clayton’s bi-monthly magazine, "DOES GOD EXIST?" Has a great story on the same subject – so why "re-invent the wheel", here is the story in his great little magazine, as he writes about this same subject:
"Imagine what it would be like to live in a large city where the garbage collectors went on strike for a year. We have been in a few places where there had been a strike for a few days, and the odor and potential for disease was absolutely horrendous. Some of us may rank garbage collecting as one of the least likely careers that we would want to go into, but mankind is faced with major ecological and space problems with his own waste. Think of how much greater that problem is in the natural world. How do you dispose of an elephant when it dies? Think of the problems involved when there is a mass die-off of almost any group of animals due to a disease or a natural disaster. Humans take huge bulldozers and practice mass burials to avoid the epidemic of disease that a disaster like a tsunami or a flood brings, but the natural world outside of man has nothing quite like that.
In reality there are a number of different garbage collectors that handle the deaths of living things--worms, dung beetles, and some mammals like hyenas. In the past dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurs rex ate mostly dead animals, and probably did very little killing of living things. Most of us know that one of the most efficient and useful workers in the disposing waste is the vulture, but what we may not realize is how incredibly well designed the vulture is to do what they do. The turkey vulture's real name is Cathartes aura which is Latin for "cleansing breeze." That really is a good description of what the vulture does.
The easiest way to spot a vulture is the presence of a bald head. The bald eagle is not really bald, but the turkey vulture is. The head is free of feathers and has an oily material on the skin that prevents any carrion (dead meat) from sticking to the bird as it eats. Vultures cannot kill anything. Their feet are not made to be a weapon and cannot cut or tear things. Vultures are designed to eat dead things within 24 hours of when it dies, and their sense of smell cannot detect something dead if it is over 24 hours. Vultures heat their bodies by spreading out their wings while in a tree to warm up, and they cool themselves by defecating on their feet.
The vulture is designed to keep a big area free of dead things, so it is specially designed to soar on thermals. An adult vulture with a six-foot wingspan will only weigh about three pounds. They will catch thermals and ride them up as high as 20,000 feet so they can monitor the area that they serve. Groups of vultures spiraling to gain altitude are called kettles because they look like water boiling in a pot. Hawks watch vultures to find thermals, and vultures can soar for hours using their design for staying aloft to keep the earth clean by God's "cleansing breeze."
--Data from Dick E. Bird News, March/April 2005, page 3.
+++++++++++++++++
ADAPTED and copied with permission from John Clayton’s magazine, DOES GOD EXIST?
Albert Einstein - (1875-1955) --Physicist, born in Germany, spent later years in the U.S.; won 1921 Nobel Prize for Photoelectric Effect, best known for Theories of Relativity; initiated U.S. nuclear program in WW II.
Profiles of men can be seen in the glimpses we find in their quotes as well as words written by others about them. The Wordwright
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
"Common sense is that layer of prejudices which we acquire before we are sixteen."
"The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career." (Monthly Review, 1949)
"The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown."
"Do not worry about your problems in mathematics. I assure you, my problems with mathematics are much greater than yours."
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. "
"God may be subtle, but He isn't mean. "
"Gravitation can not be held resposible for people falling in love."
"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice."
"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving.
I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker. The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistably invites abuse. Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus or Ghandi armed with the money-bags of Carnegie?" (On Wealth, 1954)
"I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice. "
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
"I don't know how man will fight World War III, but I do know how they will fight World War IV; with sticks and stones."
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough. "
I must voice some disagreement here with Einstein (in principle and fact) -- Surely "tomorrow" often comes soon enough but one must be prepared for tomorrow physically and spiritually, and that does take a lot of thought and diligence as well. The Wordwright
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
"It is not the fruits of scientific research that elevate man and enrich his nature. but the urge to understand, the intellectual work, creative or receptive." - from Ideas and Opinions (1954)
"The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life. "
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
---- The above thoughts gives one a little different slant on Albert Einstein than just a picture of a man with tossled hair, doesn't it? The Wordwright
Some of Gandhi's famous quotations:
"Be the change you want to see in the world."
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
"I will not be a traitor to God to please the whole world."
This is one worth reading twice!
"Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress."
"Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love."
"In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness."
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, ALWAYS."
"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action."
"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition."
"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
"The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice."
This is worth reading again!
"I am in the world feeling my way to light 'amid the encircling gloom'. I often err and miscalculate… My trust is solely in God. And I trust men only because I trust God. If I had no God to rely upon, I should be like Timon, a hater of my species."
"Whatever striking things I have done in life, I have not done prompted by reason but prompted by instinct, I would say, God."
"I am a man of faith. My reliance is solely on God. One step is enough for me. The next step He will make clear to me when the time for it comes."
The above quotes were selected over a period of time from the Internet, and before putting it in place here, I checked and the reference (html link) was no longer in service. The above certainly mirror the virtues and qualities that made Gandhi more famous after he was gone, although certainly his life was not exactly easy to ignore either.
+++++++
Unfortunately, for me, and I suppose this could be true for any number of people I once thought I knew or criticized because I what I thought I knew about them – it is sad that I never knew of these quotes earlier. One instance I read of that really prompted me to change some thoughts about Gandhi was when he was boarding a train, one of his shoes slipped off his foot. To the utter consternation of his fellow travelers, he reached down and TOOK OFF his other shoe and threw it towards where the other shoe was! Knowing what must have been in the on-lookers mind, Gandhi said, "Now when the poor soul finds one shoe, the other will not be far from his view." (my paraphrase of his words) I wonder how many "loyal church-going Christian or Jewish people" would have entertained that thought? I am not pleased to know my thoughts would have been more like jumping off the train to get my lost shoe! The Wordwright
In my limited world of communication a platform of thought occurred to me: "Communication is essential to life and essentials must be noted and observed if we are to be aware of our place in life and giving others the same rights to which we believe we are entitled." The Wordwright
The following selected quotes, though many, can be a treasure trove of thoughts to cultivate one’s thinking and eventually build an awareness within our minds so we can make choices in life which will serve as foundations or no less than guidelines for our daily interchange with other human beings. Of course, some of these are more terse than detailed and some could even be called harsh but words are what we make of them. And unfortunately, that too can create problems or issues until dictionaries are revised to reflect how words are used or abused – some of us cannot wait that long to figure out what others are trying to say. May I just suggest you glean or garner what you can from these assorted quotations?
"What you have to attempt -- to be yourself. What you have to pray for -- to become a mirror in which, according to the degree of purity of heart you have attained, the greatness of life will be reflected."
Dag Hammarskjöld
"The Lord loves the artless, the candid, the childlike. He cannot work with those who argue or bargain or plead or excuse themselves."
A. W. Tozer
"It is the image of Christ the Christian looks for and loves; and this does not consist in being exact in a few items, but in general devotion to the whole truth as far as known."
--Alexander Campbell (1837)
"We all live under the same sky, but we don't have the same horizon."
--Konrad Adenauer
"You cannot choose your battlefield,
The gods do that for you,
But you can plant a standard
Where a standard never flew."
--Nathalia Crane, The Colors, ca 1925
"When lies are repeated often enough, even wise men begin to accept them."
Ben Ames Williams, House Divided, 1947
"Many Christians never get beyond Bethel. God is in their thoughts, but He is not first."
A.W.Tozer, Of God & Men, 1960
"Has it ever occurred to you that nothing occurs to God?"
Source Unknown
"The righteous need no tombstones; their words are their monuments."
TALMUD, Persahim, 119a
"...God can work his will even through men and women who share in the frailties of moral character."
F. LaGard Smith, from page 63 of The DAILY BIBLE
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better."
Anonymous
"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues." Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865
"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."
Rodin
"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment."
Barry LePatner
"Whoever does not love his work cannot hope that it will please others."
Unknown
"When the water reaches the upper level, follow the rats."
-- Claude Swanson
"The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth."
-- Edith Sitwell
"He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God."
Proverbs 14:31
"They were men before they were monuments."
Unknown author, overheard on Book TV (Cspan)
"Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that."
Neil Postman, in Technopoly (The Surrender of Culture to Technology)
"It was more than 35 years ago that A. W. Tozer said, 'Modern civilization is so complex as to make the devotional life all but impossible.' He penned that line long before e-mail, the Internet, 500-channel TV, and the addition of other 'time-saving' technologies began to rob us of so much of our time.
"But it is not just electronic obstacles and modern complexities that hinder the devotional life. More often than not, the biggest hindrance to establishing an intimate time with God is not something outside of ourselves. It's our own reluctance to choose to spend time in prayer and Bible reading.
"So, how do we go about attempting what seems to be impossible? First, we must confess our failure to make time for God. Second, we need to recognize that spending time with God is essential for our spiritual lives. It should be as vital to us as making sure we get enough food every day. Third, we must develop a plan. In Psalm 5:3, for example, we see that David SCHEDULED special time with God in the mornings.
"With those concepts in mind, shut out the complex world around you and open your heart to the incredible joy that comes from devoting yourself to the Lord. You can do what seems impossible."
J. David Branon, OUR DAILY BREAD,
September 2000, RBC Ministries
JUST SOMETHING ELSE for you to give some thought to...The Wordwright
WHY IS IT that everyone knows it is ABSOLUTELY necessary that you put gasoline--not water, into our gasoline tanks? Why is it that we know it is ABSOLUTELY necessary to pour oil into our automobile engines instead of honey or molasses? Why is it that it has been determined an ABSOLUTE recommendation to use an aspirin and not a salt tablet or a lasix tablet to relieve a common headache?
We learn that certain circumstances involve ABSOLUTES -- this is WHY each one of the above three scenarios are so obvious to even the non-mechanical or non-professional people in our society. It has been discovered that "grease and water" do not mix. That simple discovery has been flip-flopped into a working principle in the printing industry and offset printing is the end result. In fact it was probably hundreds of years ago that the principle "grease and water do not mix" was put to practice in lithography, the forerunner of modern offset printing. An image was made using an "oily substance" and when water was washed over the stone it was discovered water did not stick to the image area and eventually an entire system of printing was developed because of this learned process.
BUT WHEN WE bring up the subject of ABSOLUTES in the application of spiritual truths as found in the Bible, all of a sudden absolutes are not either reasonable or understandable! We DO what we WANT TO DO. That is "country wisdom" I heard years ago and it is as true as "night follows day or morning follows the night." What is it we want to DO? Well, first of all, "we" do not like to be told what to do and when the Scripture plainly tells us we are sinners, the "thing" one has to do, if you do not want to accept this fact, is to do away with the source of this information! Discredit it in some way, but definitely do away with such information. Those who strive to destroy Christianity are attempting to prove there is no God, and it took a Russian novelist named Dostoevsky to see through this and conclude, "If there is no God then anything is permissible." Is this what our founding fathers wanted? We must shout "NO!!!" But those critics of any spiritual values consistently try to smudge, obscure and obfuscate the facts of the lives and sacred honor of many of our founding fathers by calling up incidents of weakness in those men.
A recent TV movie was made about one of our presidents and a purported relationship he had with one of his female slaves. A black preacher in Columbus, Ohio, boldly preached that this was nothing but sin in one of our president's lives and he was just as quick to say it was nothing less than sensationalism and not facts of faith being weighed but sheer dollars for tickets lining the pockets of Hollywood! That was the motive behind such an alleged historical story--true or not. Even though Ben Ames Williams wrote this in 1947, it is STILL TRUE today in the year 2,000: "When lies are repeated often enough, even wise men begin to accept them."
Unfortunately we are seeing ABSOLUTES in values, virtues and faith being traded in exchange for a casual community. Call it free speech, self expression, individualism, personal rights or whatever you choose, let's face it, it is a blatant attack on ABSOLUTES in life as demonstrated in God's Word. When we fail to armor ourselves with the Sword of the Spirit--the Word of God, we can only expect to fail--regardless of "how good it sounds". But the promise Christians can believe: "My word will not return to me void." (See Isaiah 55:11) God will accomplish His purpose--whether everyone or anyone "helps" or not! So, if our lives do not demonstrate good morals and virtuous living--even when we claim to be God's children, the Message (or Gospel) will stand or fall in our life time on the basis of how we live. And to repeat myself, "If we don't do it, God will find a people who will!"
"Some men succeed by what they know; some by what they do; and a few by what they are." Elbert G. Hubbard, The Note Book, 1927.
|
|
