Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “I will believe that when I see it.” or you have even said it. Like the Saints winning the Super Bowl.

The reverse is also often true “We see what we believe.” and even if it is not real for others it becomes real for us. On the other hand we sometimes refuse to believe something we see because it conflicts with our personal reality. Then we do not understand why all these other people can be so wrong!

How do we sort all that out in our own heads?

One way is to practice neutral party thinking. That is set aside your own belief system to examine all possible facts and options. Realize that others could see the same things from a different point of view and strife to know what that point of view is in this case. There may be more than one right answer to any problem.

It is not an easy thing to do but the process gives you a greater appreciation for the world around you including those with whom you disagree.

I have just finished shoveling my drive way even though it is still  snowing. Why??? My darling has a 10 AM appointment at the beauty shop and asked me to clean the drive. So I did!

It was not much snow but it is heavy and wet. It is going to be a messy day all around. I am going to restock the fire place with wood and sit and read all day.

I am reading an Anne McCaffrey novel called “The Chronicles of Pern - First Fall” It is a great book so I am off in outer space today.

Strife in the Holy Land

The children of Abraham and Cana have shared the land we call “The Holy Land” off and on for a very long time. When Abraham left Ur {which is now is South Iraq} about 2000 BC and arrived in the Jordan River valley the children of Cana were already living there for thousands of years. One of the children of Cana Melchizedek the king of Salem, now Jerusalem, welcomed Abraham as a friend.

Later the great grandson of Abraham named Joseph was betrayed by his own brothers and sold as a slave to Egypt. He rose above it to become powerful in Egypt and in a time of famine invited his family to live in Egypt. Jacob abandons Cana to live in Egypt for four hundred years. Then Moses led them back to Canaan. Joshua led them across the Jordan River to take the land away from the Canaanites. He was supposed to have cleansed the land but he failed to do so and the Children of Abraham and the children of Cana shared the land for a long time.

After the death of King Solomon the land split with 10 tribes to the North as Israel and Benjamin, Judah and some of the Levites formed the kingdom of Judah in the South. Later Israel was captured in war and assimilated by Assyria and disappeared altogether. Judah later was captured by Babylon and was take captive to Babylon for 70 years. The children of Cana remained in the land.

The tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and the Levites returned once again to share the land with Cana, living first under the rule of the Persians and then the Greeks. Then for a short time they had their own King until the Romans came to rule them in 63 BC. In 68 AD they rebelled and in 70 AD the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and covered it with dirt. A second revolt in 130 AD was also put down and the Jews expelled from Judea and Romans even renamed the area Palestine. Canaanites became Palestinians. There after they lived under the Romans, Eastern Romans, Arabs, European Crusaders, and Ottomans. The children of Cana abided in peace.

In 1917 England gained control of Palestine as a protectorate. Slowly European Jews began to move back to the Holy Land. After 1946 the flow became a flood and the conflict was on until 1948 when the UN saw fit to divide the land with one part Israel and the other Palestine. Neither the Children of Abraham nor the Children of Cana liked the division.

Today radicals on both sides urged that the other be destroyed. War brings death to both sides. It must stop and both must find a way to live in the same place in peace.

Tonight Metro Planning and Zoning is holding a “Public Meeting” on the University of Louisville Shelby campus to discuss rezoning so they can build office buildings.

The Shelby Campus is just East of the City of Bellemeade. In fact I can see the campus from my front door. It is enough to say that this Public Meeting is important to the Mayor of Bellemeade and its citizens. We have requested some restrictions and the developers do not want any restrictions. I do hope that we have a really good turnout for this Public Meeting. Democracy can be messy but it takes the people to speak out to keep the powerful from running over us.

Which they do a lot already.

Congress makes laws for the rest of us to follow and includes exemptions for themselves in those laws.

My Republican Senators want to deny public health care to Kentucky citizens but they enjoy a awesome public health care for themselves and their families. It will continue long after they leave office for life.

At last nights Toastmasters meeting we had the club “Tall tales” contest. The task was to tell a big lie and make it sound believable.

There were five of us entered and I told about a Golden Tornado in West Texas where I grew up. My high school mascot is the “Golden Tornado” so my story was about how that came to be.

I came in second to a tale about two dogs. All the tall tales were outrageous and funny. I had a lot of fun at that meeting. Now I need to get ready for our clubs International Speech contest on March first.

We have all kinds of euphemisms when we wish to be polite about a delicate subject. Things like “In a family way” for shes pregnant.  Then there are all the other body functions that mother taught us not to say in public, which included her.  Number one and number two were on the list in our house.

The euphemisms for sex are endless and people get real inventive when dealing with that subject.

What would we ever do if we could not use our euphemisms? 

After worship at Hurstborne Christian Church we held our annual congregational meeting with the usual business of new officers - elders - my darling wife was elected an Elder. I am to be the Evanglim/Church Growth chair.  We approved a record budget and the final item was a 2+ Million building project to be done in three phases.

Everything passed    100%.

It to the BBC News to explain to me why poor Americans vote against their own self interest.

The article is worth reading.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8474611.stm

I have to think about this but it seems to make sense.

Over the years I have heard many people make excuses for why they can not engage life with success. It is a wide range of “reasons” such as Too Young, Too Old, Too Poor, Too Tired, Too Little Time, and Too Much to Do.

Many of  these people squander their potential because of self-imposed limitations.  Their dreams or goals seem too big for what they think they can do. They are told or think that it is only a pipe dream that is actually out of reach. So they don’t go beyond dreaming and never settle in to the piratical planning to reach their big goal. So they become mentally paralyzed and feel that their life is a failure.

The key to fulfilling your dreams is long term planning that involves a lot of short term goals. A woman wrote to an advice column saying, “I would love to get a college degree and teach but in four years I will be too old.” The reply was “How old will you be in four years if you don’t go to collage.”  Today the average life span is more than seventy years and many people retire from one career and retool for a second dream career.  You are never too old to begin seeking your dream. Set your dream goal and then set progress goals to reach it. Chart your progress day by day and over time you will enjoy fulfillment.

Have faith in yourself