Translating a World on the Edge

These are crucial questions for America, questions that came up at the Supreme Court Confirmation hearings which I watched live on C-Span this past week. Those questions and more have become political questions. Except they should not be political, because they are based in ethics and they deal with TRUTH, not politics, yet the answer to them may eventually end up being determined by the Supreme Court — a court that, in this moment in time, is not exactly non-political.

I spent twenty years in advertising, oftentimes making a product appear better than it is. How is that done? Back then, we called it ‘costuming,’ the ability to cover-up flaws so that the product appears flawless so the public may be more likely to buy it.

Justice Katanji Brown Jackson appeared flawless, a perfect choice for the Court. Gentile, intelligent, a lover of her country, a lovely daughter and very special parents. For quite a while as I watched, she seemed perfect. And then, she could not/would not answer an important question: “What is a woman?”

“I can’t. … I’m not a biologist,” Jackson said after Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn asked her to provide a definition of the word “woman.” It wasn’t a trick question, but a simple one. Just as we don’t have to be an apple-grower to know what an apple is, we don’t have to be biologists to know what a woman is. Especially if we are a woman, and especially if that was one criteria for her nomination.

And that is when I began to wonder if there isn’t a very leftist agenda behind the Justice’s guarded answer. Especially when she talked about abortion. After all, only women have abortions.

Treachery covers itself under a cloak of kindness; and above all, it is peculiarly painful to find numbers of men, even of the learned professions, who ought to set an example of probity and honor, misapply their abilities to twist and pervert the sacred meaning of both law and gospel to the basest and worst of purposes. –Thomas Bewick, 1753 – 1828. Hailed as a truly original genius of his time.

HOW DOES EVIL MAKE ITSELF LOOK LIKE GOOD?

Thomas Bewick (The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing)

“A Wolf disguising himself in the skin of a sheep, and getting in among the flock, easily caught and devoured many of them. At last the Shepherd discovered him, and cunningly watched the opportunity of slipping a noose about his neck, and immediately hung him up on the branch of a tree. Some other Shepherds observing what he was about, drew near and expressed their surprise at it. Brother Shepherd! says one of them, what! are you hanging your sheep? No, replies the other, but I am hanging a Wolf in Sheep’s clothing, and shall never fail to do the same, whenever I can catch one of them in that garb. The Shepherds then expressed themselves pleased at his dexterity, and applauded the justice of the execution.— fablesofaesop.com/the-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing.html

APPLICATION by Thomas Bewick

“We ought not to judge of men by their looks, or their dress and appearances, but by the character of their lives and conversation, and by their works; for when we do not examine these, we must not be surprised if we find that we have mistaken evil for good, and instead of an innocent sheep, taken a wolf in disguise under our protection. The finished hypocrite, by assuming the character of virtue, makes the vice more odious and abominable, and when the mask is torn off, and fraud and imposture are detected, every honest man rejoices in the punishment of the offender. Men (and women) who have not had good, religious, and moral principles early instilled into their minds, find no barrier to check their propensity to evil, and get hardened as they advance in years; and even the most liberal education, if it want the foundation of truth and honesty, is often a curse instead of a blessing, and the objects of it fail to do honor either to themselves or to their country. Thus it is we see tyranny stalking along under the mask of care and protection. Injustice sets up the letter of the law against its spirit. Oppression strips the widow and the orphan, and at the same time preaches up mercy and compassion. Treachery covers itself under a cloak of kindness; and above all, it is peculiarly painful to find numbers of men (and women), even of the learned professions, who ought to set an example of probity and honor, misapply their abilities to twist and pervert the sacred meaning of both law and gospel to the basest and worst of purposes.”

So, as far Justice Ketanji Jackson Brown’s confirmation? Though I admire much about her, I have concerns about the decisions she has made, and those she might make on abortion legislation, gender identity, lenient sentences for those involved in distributing child pornography, and Critical Race Theory in public schools.

Here are two articles you might want to read:

https://yournews.com/2022/03/23/2318523/trans-women-are-men-and-pretending-otherwise-is-cultural-insanity/

https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/23/if-ketanji-brown-jackson-doesnt-know-what-a-woman-is-why-does-she-use-the-word-so-much/

And here is a very revealing interview by Senator Marsha Blackburn, well worth the look.

The Bell and The Switch

As a child, I didn’t want to hear The Bell. It resonated through the pine trees of the woods where I was building the perfect straw house; it caught me dunking a glass jar in the creek to catch the biggest tadpole I’d ever seen; it caused me to brake my Blue Schwinn bike on a red dirt road after I’d peddled all the way up a hill so I could fly down it again. The Bell instructed me to stop all that. The Bell commanded, “Come home. Now.”

A child, of course, comes into the world with irritating abilities. One of them is the ability to close her ears to what she doesn’t want to hear. A child wants to finish the straw house. She wants to capture the tadpole. She wants the excitement of flying down a hill, fast as the wind. A child wants what she wants. Still, The Bell beckons. And in the course of its annoying jangle, a child considers the consequence of not obeying its command.

For me, the consequence of not answering The Bell was The Switch. At first, I was able to choose The Switch. My mother, the bell ringer, pointed a stiff finger. “You did not obey the rules of this house. Now, go get me a switch off the Redbud.” This command, I chose to hear in its entirety, except I brought back the wimpiest branch I could find. When I laughed and told her it tickled, she resorted to finding The Switch on her own. A little stronger, a little longer, it laid as a symbol of consequence on the top shelf of the bookcase in our den. Even now, I can see it in my mind, and usually do if I’m considering something I know is wrong.

We can ignore the consequences, too, as if there will be none. But ignoring can be hazardous, because there is no peace in sin. There is only the fear of being caught, a cover-up, and then the consequences that come from all that.

The Law of Cause and Effect

Nothing happens by chance or outside the Universal Laws. Every Action has a reaction or consequence “We reap what we sow”. Ralph Waldo Emerson said the Law of Cause and Effect is the “law of laws”.  The most important lesson involving human conduct and interaction is seen in the Cosmic Law of Cause and Effect.  “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”.  Every human thought, word and deed is a Cause that sets off a wave of energy throughout the universe which in turn creates the effect whether desirable or undesirable.  The law states the effect must lead to physical manifestation.  This is why good thoughts, words, emotions, and deeds are essential for a better world for they all create good effects.

The law of cause and effect states that every cause has an effect and every effect becomes the cause of something else. This law suggests that the universe is always in motion and progressed from a chain of events.

WE ARE FREE TO MAKE DECISIONS, BUT WE ARE NOT FREE TO ALTER THE CONSEQUENCES OF THOSE DECISIONS. https://www.tfp.org/eternal-and-natural-law-the-foundation-of-morals-and-law/

Sin always has consequences. It may, at first, seem a small thing. It may even have a hint of conscience, until it becomes habitual and infectious to everyone around it. Love also begins small, becomes habitual, and infectious as well. Except love is honorable in the human person, while sin degrades his or her soul.

Of course, sin is all around us. It surely happens in politics since it is made up of many people with ambition, people who ignore goodness if it interferes with their political goals. A few examples of some politicians ignoring of goodness are these: the taking of a human life in the womb, the mistaken confusion that we can change our own gender, or the misrepresentation of what marriage truthfully is. These acts demean us as human beings created by God. And yet, each one of us can choose to agree, and even do, any of them. But there will be consequences.

Genuine love isn’t easy, has never been easy, and will never be easy. Obeying the rules, or even standing by our own beliefs, is a hard thing to do. Today, the rules are watery. Like children, we dilute them to suit ourselves. Our beliefs are spineless; we rarely consider their depth. And sometimes we call consequences of our own making, ‘unfair.’ We spout off platitudes, meant to show that we’re ‘okay’ people, but we don’t realize that we’re called to be much more than just ‘okay.’ No matter who we are, if we live on earth, we are being called to holiness, not immorality.

But, like a child ignoring a bell she doesn’t want to hear, what if we break the rules of God’s house? What if we kill a human person? What if we take what isn’t ours? What if we use others who are weaker than we are, and trample on their dignity as human beings just because we can? What if we lie to gain profit for ourselves? The consequence for un-repented acts such as these is the spiritual death of our soul. And if our unrepentant soul is dead . . . ?

The eternal nature of hell is stressed in the New Testament. For example, in Mark 9:47–48 Jesus warns us, “[I]t is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” And in Revelation 14:11, we read: “And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

Hell is not just a theoretical possibility. Jesus warns us that real people go there. He says, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13–14).

“The world does not revolve around you.”

From my own experience, the above is a message that will often need repeating to a child. Why? Because children usually want what they want when they want it, with no regard for anyone else’s needs. The pictured boy appears to be having a temper tantrum, demanding his way. He is shown as being three to five years old, so being demanding is somewhat normal for a child his age. This is why the behavior is not often considered to be a problem in children because generally they grow out of them.

It is, however, a huge problem in adults when they want what they want when they want it without regard for anyone else’s needs. One name for that is narcissism.  Or elitism. Or people who idolize themselves.

We probably know adults like this, people concerned only for themselves. People with no empathy for another’s situation although they attempt to make you think they are. Literally hung up on ‘self,’ people like this always put themselves first. And unfortunately, many of them are called leaders and have high positions in politics, where they dress their behavior in false concern and fake empathy, insisting they work for the people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. Instead, they manufacture crises supported by lies to get what they want when they want it. Narcissistic? Yes. Elitist? Yes. Dangerous? Most certainly. Man’s narcissistic tendency to idolize himself rather than God is not only disastrous for him, no matter what position he holds, but also, can be deadly for those around him. And it can also destroy a country, even one like America.

I believe in the goodness of people, but I also realize how evil they can be. We only have to look throughout history to see the wickedness committed against populations who choose not to conform to the wishes of kings or presidents — populations who found their God-given rights taken away, populations who were made to feel inferior because of their convictions and beliefs, and then, punished or even killed, because of them. We see this happening today around the world.

Today, there are people and entire countries who do not want to be ruled by the narcissism of a leader who treats them as inferior, do not want to be part of a forced globalist whole, do not want to be part of a new world order, or great reset by the radical left. Yet, the narcissism, elitism, and carefully orchestrated lies of those leaders are forced upon them.

There are multitudes in our country today who cannot speak their minds without being censored or worse. There are multitudes who have been misled by the mainstream media, and yet there are others who do not seem to care if they are being lied to. But as human beings, we are made to question, and meant to seek the truth. It is inevitable that many will fight against the lies and misrepresentations. Why? Because God — yes, God — made us unique, with the free will to choose for ourselves. And our Constitutional right — in an honest election— is that “the people” choose what, and who, is best for ourselves and our country.

“Be proud of your identity as American patriots and of the Faith that must animate your life. Do not allow anyone to make you feel inferior just because you love your homeland, because you are honest at work, because you want to protect your family and raise your children with healthy values, because you respect the elderly, because you protect life from conception to its natural end. Do not be intimidated or seduced by those who propagate a dystopian world in which a faceless power imposes on you contempt for the Law of God, presents sin and vice as licit and desirable, despises righteousness and Morality, destroys the natural family and promotes the worst perversions, plans the death of defenseless and weak creatures, and exploits humanity for its own profit or to preserve power.” — Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States

I ask you to read the following article. There is much in it that surprised me, but its proven records shed light on the truth. Yes, the article will take time and thought, but I believe it is finally the truth set out for us, and we have the right to know it. https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/abp-vigano-globalists-have-fomented-war-in-ukraine-to-establish-the-tyranny-of-the-new-world-order/

Let’s not forget who we are and what America truly stands for.

My husband and I once stopped at an overlook on The Blue Ridge Parkway. It was Fall, so the mountains beyond us were blazing with color; every shade of red, orange, and yellow. To the side of the overlook, we noticed a little-worn path that led into the woods below. We took it.

Step by step we went down into an odd, emerald-colored shade, almost as if we had descended into a different season. There, we found a stream running between fat tree trunks and meandering down and around small rises in the earth. For a time, we sat in silence on a large rock beside the stream, listening to the trickling sounds and the quiet rustle of a breeze.

At the time, one of my grandsons was a lover of rocks, the more unique, the better for him. So, I began to look for some.

All around were smaller rocks that had obviously come from a ragged indent in one side of the large rock on which we were sitting. Perhaps time had made the indentation, or maybe another boulder had fallen upon it. But one thing was certain, the smaller rocks surrounding it had the fiery color of the large rock’s interior, and if any one of them were tested, it would have the same interior composition of elements, too.

Individually though, the parts of the big rock were very different in appearance. Some had ended up in the stream and were round and smooth. Others were angular and roughly formed through weathering and erosion. Yet each was born from the same large rock.

I think our human lives are like those rocks. We all come from the same origin. Many of us may have personally broken away from that entity, or we may have been severed from it by happenstance. Nevertheless, despite our differing appearances through facial features, skin color, or personality traits, we possess the characteristics of our origin. We come from a ‘whole,’ and we all are related to it. This is the fact that makes us brothers and sisters.

Of course, the ‘whole’ I’m speaking of is God, our Creator. The amazing thing is that although we are no longer physically attached to God, as the smaller rocks are no longer physically attached to their origin, we still carry His likeness within us.

Many today, refuse to accept that we carry God within us, or that God exists at all. But if you’ve ever truly loved anyone, how do you come to that refusal? Love is not a physical attachment, not really. Love is something that can’t be touched or seen except through a person’s actions. Our love in action, the way we relate to our brothers and sisters, is the unifying characteristic that likens us to God, and it is the characteristic that distinguishes a human being from the rest of creation.

Reconsider the rocks; the whole and its parts. It is the law of physical nature that the broken pieces of rock will never again be ‘one’ with the boulder they came from. Their natural destiny is to remain divided from it. But human beings have a supernatural destiny. All religions believe that someday we will individually re-unite with God. We will return to the whole.

In the words of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, “I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, ‘How many good things have you done in your life?’ rather he will ask, ‘How much love did you put into what you did?'”

In other words, God will ask: How much of Me did you show to the world?

It’s Tuesday, Mardi Gras day, and time to party!!!
But why do we party? What’s Mardi Gras all about?

Americancatholic.org says that Mardi Gras has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the “last hurrah” before the Catholic season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That’s why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of street sweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards home.

Mardi Gras literally means “Fat Tuesday” in French. The name comes from the tradition of slaughtering and feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of Carnival. The day is also known as Shrove Tuesday (from “to shrive,” or hear confessions).

But do you know that Mardi Gras is related to the Christmas season, through the ordinary-time interlude known in many Catholic cultures as Carnival? (Ordinary time, in the Christian calendar, refers to the normal “ordering” of time outside of the Advent/Christmas or Lent/Easter seasons.)

Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning “farewell to the flesh.” Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; since these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.

The Carnival season kicks off with the Epiphany, also known as Twelfth Night, Three Kings’ Day and, in the Eastern churches, Theophany. Epiphany, which falls on January 6, 12 days after Christmas, celebrates the visit of the Wise Men bearing gifts for the infant Jesus. In cultures that celebrate Carnival, Epiphany kicks off a series of parties leading up to Mardi Gras.

Epiphany is also the traditional time to serve King’s Cake, a custom that began in France in the 12th century. Legend has it that the cakes were made in a circle to represent the circular routes that the Wise Men took to find Jesus, in order to confuse King Herod and foil his plans of killing the Christ Child. In the early days, a coin or bean was hidden inside the cake, and whoever found the item was said to have good luck in the coming year. In New Orleans Louisiana, and in Mobile, Alabama, bakers now put a small baby, representing the Christ Child, in the cake; the recipient is then expected to host the next King Cake party.

The official colors of Mardi Gras, with their roots in Catholicism, are: purple, a symbol of justice; green, representing faith; and gold, to signify power.

Tomorrow, it’s Time to Turn Down the Noise.

For Catholics, Ash Wednesday (the day after Mardi Gras) is the beginning of Lent, which lasts for forty days. For every Catholic, it is a day to confront the inevitability of his or her death, and for that day, we wear the sign of that inevitability on our foreheads in ashes.

The ashes we receive on our forehead in the shape of a cross serve as an outward sign of our sinfulness and need for penance. The ashes also symbolize our mortality, a reminder that one day we will die and our bodies will return to dust. Traditional words when we receive the ashes are: Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.

So, Ash Wednesday is a time of self-examination, and of our faith in the promise of eternal life. Can we turn down the noise in our lives for forty days and listen to what God wants to tell us? Because if we don’t listen, we won’t hear him call us by name–our name. We won’t hear that we should not be afraid. We won’t hear that God is madly in love with each one of us. We won’t hear what we can do to change ourselves.

Is there something in our lives that might prevent eternal life? If there is, we have an opportunity to change it. We know who we are. We know we’ve done. Shouldn’t we examine ourselves and work on the problems we may have?

Dear Lord, we are now in the holy season of Lent. We begin to realize anew that these are the days of salvation, these are the acceptable days. We know that we are all sinners. We know that in many things we have all offended Your infinite majesty. We know that sin destroys Your life in us as a drought withers the leaves and chokes the life from the land, leaving an arid, dusty desert.

Help us now, Lord, in our feeble attempts to make up for past sin. Bless our efforts with the rich blessing of Your grace. Make us realize ever more our need of penance and of mortification. Help us to see, in our ordinary difficulties and duties, in the trials and temptations of every day, the best opportunity of making up for past infidelities. Every day we are so often reminded in field and wood, in sky and stream, of Your own boundless generosity to us.

Help us to realize that You are never outdone in generosity, and that the least thing we do for You will be rewarded, full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and flowing over. Then we shall see, in our own souls, how the desert can blossom, and the dry and wasted land can bring forth the rich, useful fruit that was expected of it from the beginning. Amen.

–Catholic.org