Does God look on with dismay?

Does He just watch? Or participate in my life? I think He has participated, because I'm 63 and haven't killed myself after attempting suicide multiple times. Or all those close calls driving -- not seeing the other guy and barely braking in time, or "planing" and skidding on top of  water pool, going 65 on Route 1, without hitting the guardrail or flipping over. Or take my worst personal failure, getting rightfully fired and  transferred to a different unit, which became a huge opportunity launching my 30 year award-filled career with the State of NJ. Or the blackouts from my youth, from Lord Calvert or drugs. I woke up slowly, but awoke.

So I believe in a personal God yet I don't call on Him enough. All the religious writings tell us to ask for His boundless grace and gifts, and forgiveness and help. Grace to do the honest things you want to do; recognizing and accepting His gifts - what I call "opportunities." Help with what we think we want at the moment, like sunshine at an outside tent wedding, or a job, or if lucky, a big raise. Or a cure for cancer for a close relative or friend, let alone food for the starving. Do I ask Him because others want me to? Of course. Sometimes I say aloud the short Healing Prayer or Prayer for the Dead for others. Even the Remover of Difficulties. I say the Noonday Prayer for myself.

Yet as a kid growing up in a deeply Catholic family, being baptized at birth, learning catechism, taking Eucharist, passing confirmation, serving as alter boy and in the choir; heck, I was Godfather to my Scout Leader's Catholic conversion. Did I believe in Him? Not really -- I took Him for granted. Belief actually came at age 18 reading Lao Tze about The Eternal One. And the I Ching expanded my mind and feelings. Without knowing, I was searching for Him. 

I found him a year later and was comfortable -- comfortable having no prescribed path, taking days and life changes as they came. Never pushing -- not my nature. Floating down the river of life aimless, not knowing or caring I actually had a safety vest on and a burgeoning Guide.

Hence, when I married my only love, Janet, our vow was to God, not to ourselves. I'm still learning about Janet, marriage, life and death, and God. Loving the abstract Unknown Essence was harder than the white haired, white bearded man in the clouds. Oblivious until I recognized my trivial trials as opportunities to gain character.

I have never blamed or cursed Him for my, or our condition. Or my families', friends', others, government, the world, changes for good or bad. How could I? Didn't He create all existence and its laws? Is it God's fault one of my uncles is slowly dying of lung cancer from smoking? Or the same when a doctor will confirm mine after 50+ years?

We want to blame someone else for our "bad luck" and poor behaviors. We sue the tobacco companies, despite warnings we've seen on billboards and TV and read on every pack for years. Or the other driver's insurance company. Too much of what some of us have done to ourselves, or to others, wants to be blamed on others, or God's action or inaction. Yet, man's laws are laws also, and we always need their sometimes stupid interpretations of what is right - for all concerned.

On the other hand, how can God be blamed for 1,500 deaths when  the Titanic rammed an iceberg? Or 77 Air Force cadets sent to the hospital in Mississippi in 2011 from a lightning strike?  Or the unspeakable deaths of 20 children from bullets in Newtown Connecticut?  Early man attributed such things to the actions of gods, then gradually to the actions of one God.  Only the Unknowable Essence knows for sure, if that's what you believe, like I do. Is it all cause and effect? Luck of the genes?  Or the laws of Nature.

 Many despair over their suffering. And we have stories of those who rose above on World News with Diane Sawyer at the end of the show. Was it bad luck Mom didn't win at slots? Or good that she did/does? Others exult in the good, some are silent. I bought one PowerBall ticket for myself, hoping for luck. I didn't win. I wasn't sure I filled it out correctly. Do I blame God?

I feel I have an obligation in my years left to correct man's inhumanity to men, women and children. I feel God is helping us, not just watching; but he very well may be doing only that. He's set everything on to their destinies. But I need to act to help Him -- and ourselves. This world right now, not my grandchildren. Like halting climate change, achieving an end to terrorism, or eliminating gun sales.

Take the Russian troops and undercover thugs and instigators whom annexed Crimea, and are now doing the same in eastern Ukraine. Is its government shaky? Yes. But it was created by the will of its citizens, with blood spilt to a dictator, perhaps two. How soon we forget the tactics of dictators. Actually, we don't forget, because they're all the same; we're not united enough as a global society to prevent their cruelties with decisive intervention in all cases. Immediate trainers, protective troops, and material support on the ground and elsewhere is what we give first, maybe, followed by critical humanitarian aid after the fact -- thank God for the U.N. High Commander for Refugees, and NGO's and relief agencies. after the damages and deaths are done and it's safe for us to enter another country. How hard is this to figure out?

I am not the definition of a hawk. Mediation is best; it's why I've been a municipal court mediator over 20 years. Diplomacy is preferred, like treaties and trade agreements which are only the beginning. But not delay causing unjust chaos and deaths of innocents. There's another law: the Rule of Love thruout the universe. Keeping the planets in place for a long time. Causing all action and constant change.

Mankind is still trying to accept that . . .

That's my diatribe today. I apologize. I'll try to keep most to myself. Do you have gripes or wishes for the world?

Rodney Richards Copyright 2014

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Surviving Bipolar Disorder in the modern age . . . a journey of Hope for the afflicted.
My poetic memoir Episodes available at www.amazon.com/episodes-rodney-richards/dp/0615914705/ 

 

The Writing World is Open to YOU

Something different today -- a list. A list you may want to keep to improve writing of all kinds, even tho this relates to my own advice to me writing memoirs. Please add to it . . .
Background: There are five types of writing: Descriptive, Compare and Contrast, Expository, Narrative, and Persuasive. The best writers use them interchangeably. Types of books: Wikipedia shows 30 categories. For example, just one subcategory, Book Formats, shows 12 types, like hardcover, softcover, audiobooks and ebooks -- your minimum considerations when publishing...

1. Free associate! Write it down! Draft or vomit, doesn't matter. Nothing written means nothing to improve and edit. Computers and cell phone Notes help tremendously.

2. There are no rules anymore in writing. Download your writing companion Elements of Style by Strunk and White, for free from  http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/style.html       You should know the rules in order to break them.

3. Use your own unique "voice." Express it or find it with practice. Express that voice: experiences and emotions, thoughts and opinions -- that's what readers expect in memoir and what they want.

4. Don't give the story away up front. Use foreshadowing but let it unfold.

A Theologian's First Lecture

(New! Email comments to 1950ablia@gmail.com )

Yesterday I had the good pleasure of hearing theologian Dr. Cornelius Van der Kooi. It was at Princeton Theological Seminary's huge and beautiful new library, fittingly, on Library Place. I wonder if they had changed the street's name? And the lectures were free to students and the public, my favorite kind. He presented The Warfield Lecture series on Christian views from himself and other philosophers/theologians from Calvin to Schleiemacher to Kuyper. Informative, fascinating and well worth the hour length. It seemed his many uses of "the Church," or "the Reformed Church," may have meant Presbyterianism.
 
I love seminars, webinars, conferences, exhibitions, topical classes; NJBPU energy renewables meetings, up to three free memoir writing classes a week, programs at Hamilton, Princeton and Lawrence Libraries like the SCORE small business sessions, TED Talks and more. Free are my first choice, and there's hundreds of 'em, especially on the Net. Oh, and reading dozens of magazines and a handful of books every month. Even the books I choose are free - overflow from the library where I volunteer.

Dr. Van der Kooi's first lecture started with the famous Protestant reformist John Calvin (1509-64), and his  Welcome Table, spread out for mankind; The Universal Action of the Spirit, particularly the Holy Spirit; Pilgrims in communion with Christ, how communion takes precedence over all other trappings of the (reformed) Church; and Word and Spirit.

Next F.D. Schleiermacher (1768-1834), who's works partly founded hermeneutics, and The Identity of Jesus; Dr. Van der Kooi not using "Redeemer" but singly out the Resurrection as a seminal Christian belief; Ecclesiology - the study of church doctrine and adornments; and the Kingdom of God and Society - a Spirit Christology - the nature and person of Jesus Christ as given in the New Testament. During that part I took note of Dr. Van der Kooi's remark, "Before and after Christ, exists an insufficiency of God's consciousness;" followed by the Kingdom of God and Society (which said to me God has a divine Plan), and He has given mercy, gifts and benefits to mankind to help us find Him [thru Christ]. 

Last came Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920), statesman and theologian, who led an exodus from the Dutch Reformed Church and who made other notable achievements, such as founding the Free University; first Dr. Van der Kooi presented Student of Schleiermacher, about relationships; The Sovereignty of God - self-explanatory; and the Sustaining and elevation work of the Spirit, which spoke of the Goal of the universe - mobilizing believers and society to sustain their work and hope in Jesus - mentioning  the "Glory of God." Kuyper placed equally strong emphasis on the Christ Spirit (?) being both worldwide and democratic; how "... human nature is not evil - weakened only." The work of the Holy Spirit, "... its saving ability, and that science and culture are tools of the Spirit of God." And, God's final goal being the "regeneration of the universe" (to me, similar to Nietzsche's "reoccurrence" theory.

 To me, in other words, the "reform" Church is melding with the differences in our modern world, trying to address them less harshly in our personal behaviors - just my opinion. In fact, at one point the good doctor spoke of modernization - the sharp distinction between mind and body, such as "going to the medical doctor for the body," and the spirit of the Church.

Heavy stuff, yet light enough, presented clearly and cogently. No slides or Powerpoint, only the human voice. And I appreciated the doctor's openness toward the ways the Reformed Church now preaches "Fundamental unity and diversity go together," employing many more ways we can find Christ and God. The downplay of past hard dogma, how our spirits grow not just thru a perfunctory baptism at birth, or thru fear of losing our soul, or going to hell in judgement. The doctor even gave wiggle room on the last point, quoting Matthew, implying where our souls end up is a process, a dialogue, between a man and God, which I took as a sign of modernity. 

At the first lecture in an audience of 30, I was the only one taking notes. I had to ask a question. It's my nature. "You stated Christ has a human and a divine nature, which many seem to have forgotten. Does that make it possible that another one or more humans thruout our 200,000 years as Homo Sapiens could also have had a divine nature?" Dr. Van der Kooi pondered, and answered as mildly as he could, but I did record one phrase, "Christ was unique because of His saving mission, and others like Buddha and Muhammad were all weaker."

 What do you think of any of this?

by Rodney Richards, Subscribe, or email comments to 1950ablia@gmail.com

Surviving Bipolar Disorder in the modern age . . . a journey of Hope for the afflicted.
My poetic memoir Episodes available at www.amazon.com/episodes-rodney-richards/dp/0615914705/   

 Dr. Cornelis van der Kooi, Professor of Western Systematic Theology, Chair of the Department Dogmatics and Ecumenics, and Director of the Centre for Evangelical and Reformation Theology at the Free University of Amsterdam. Author and lecturer.

Good Writers Wanted.

Good writers are not only in demand, but have been especially needed since the advent of digital content websites 20-some years ago. And the need is growing. Just look at all the freelance writers making a better living today.

Today Content is King. There will always be journalists and freelancers, but these days journalism, storytelling and technical (factual) writing have merged, creating huge readership markets for new topical articles, magazines, journals, special reports, manuals; all clear and personable writings on thousands of different, even specialized, websites. Today, there are over 933 million, and increasing at the rate of one per second per "Internet Live Stats," a website itself. Like facebook, and even blogs, some have over 100 million users. Versus U.S. in print newspapers with circulations of over 70,000 subscribers each, which total 100. The largest circulation is the Wall Street Journal with almost 2.4 mil. (Wikipedia)

When I worked for both for 6 months each in 1969, for the two Trenton papers, there were only two types of writers: byline journalists and ad copywriters, who were kings, along with magazine article writers. Oh, and add in AP and UPI (since 1907). First I worked in circulation at the Times, driving a small truck or station wagon to deliver bundles of papers, in a loop of stations from Hightstown, to Levittown PA. Then their weekly paper could be 35 pages thick, not the 22 they are in 2014. I also handled circulation's "gifts and prizes" to the newspaper boys, as incentives, to increase their 5 cent per paper paychecks; much higher now, for delivering fewer papers door-to-door.

I drove a truck for the Trentonian as well. I had the run of both papers buildings, seeing the huge operating presses and hearing their pounding, swooshing noise, and touching the 6 foot tall and wide rolls of newsprint stacked 5 high in the Times warehouse. Sunday papers especially, and weeklies to a lessor degree, had "booklets" of  inserts --  flyers and supermarket ads spouting local sales, whom ruled the day. 30 or 60 minute TV news, always a big deal, and radio news shows that lasted only minutes, mostly announcing weather reports, later followed by traffic reports, garnered larger and larger audiences.Compared to 5 to 7 pm news shows, on the same station, today.

But all that has changed. Let me give an example of this explosive need for GOOD writers.

Take possibly the oldest and premier Information Technology hardprint magazine, COMPUTERWORLD. Only it existed, it seemed, years ago. Before popular PC and PC World Magazines and the subsets like Information Week, Federal Computer News and dozens (hundreds?), of others. Like CW has morphed today, all have free (paid for your clicks on ads, like all sites), or subscription online versions. And look what you now get to feed your IT interests: whitepapers, webcasts, newsletters, research centers, magazine, topics, reviews, opinions, events and even jobs. So much written content required! That's just from CW.

And to blow your mind, I subscribed to hundreds of Energy and IT news sites, and email subscriptions for my past business, RR Energy & IT Consulting. All free online. All also offering free online webinars, and I partook in as many as three every week.  And even more, 10 CW daily emails, individual separate newsletters! And five emails daily from Network World alone, etcetera.

If you don't believe me yet, check out Marty's recorded interview today on Radio Times on WHYY-FM, 10-11 am, on this very subject.Not the first time they've discussed the new online business model for newspapers.

My point is proven. For the past few years Content is King, and will continue so forever, as the world's knowledge discoveries grow every second. Our brains continue to expand and rearrange themselves to keep up (impossible). New forms of expression (art, photos and videos like TED Talks or Soul Pancake's) are all exploding also.

Keyword: Expanding, like the universe. Exploding.

Non-stop unless we annihilate ourselves first with pollution. 

So I encourage you to write well. Learn Elements of Style, practice, even if you print when you "write," and learn keyboarding. Share your writing with others in free writing groups, or if wealthy, inundate yourself with hundreds of paid writing, freelance and publishing classes. Look at Writer's Digest's for example.

You'll have a great job for life. But only if, a big IF, it's good.


by Rodney Richards, copyright 2014

Subscribe for free and comment or write me at 1950ablia@gmail.com. I'm interested . . .

Surviving Bipolar Disorder in the modern age . . . a journey of Hope for the afflicted.
My poetic memoir Episodes available at www.amazon.com/episodes-rodney-richards/dp/0615914705/