Charisma and all things cat

It is never too late to give up your prejudices. Walden

Its so strange how quickly we dismiss people. When we hear prejudice, we usually assume something big: religion, race, or gender. But what about the little ones i.e. he likes Coldplay, he must be gay. Or he chose to leave, so he doesn't care. Everyone has issues.

I think if we were all honest, everyone of us are desperately doing things to try and get people to like us. In a recent interview, Kevin Smith (director of Clerks) said that even after he has made all this money, everytime after he finishes a film he really just wishes people will like him. Aren't all of us really like that? I know I am. I want you to like me. Approve of me. I even chose my content hoping you will think I said something clever.

Sometimes people are selfish . . . but I really think we all want people to like us.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Walden

I went big. I made a decision. Here I go, I am in Cincinnati. I had a dream of serving a city that was in desperate need. Serving God. I work with "christians" and yet so few understand. Sometimes I don't. I am not a saint, I am a sinner. I am sure that there are some selfish reasons in there no doubt. But I do want you to like me. I also want God to like me.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. Walden

Do you want the truth? Here it is: I have given more passion to football than to God lately. . . and its just a stupid game.

Something else: I loathe condiments on most things. I will eat ketchuop on a burger or fries...and a grilled cheese...but thats how I was raised.

People need to stop persecuting under the moniker of truth.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

I used to work for a christian establishment. We asked for $5 donations so underprivileged kids can have a stuffed animal for christmas. A place of employment, mind you, that many of the clientelle accuse our company and other christians of not being christian enough. As you can imagine, most people do not donate. But thats not what irritates me. I don't know their finances, and certainly not their hearts, so there may be a good reason. Here is why I am bothered. Most people when asked give a response that goes something like "um . . .well, no, not today, you see, uh, well the thing is, I already do a shoebox for a kid and so I have, you know, well I already donate." Ok, and...

See, we think if we do one good thing we are off the hook. The reality is, its about a change of heart. A giving spirit. Donate a bear or don't, I don't care. But we need to give. Often. We don't do something charitable to get God off our backs, or to get it out of the way, we give because we have way too much and can share with our brothers and sisters.

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Walden

We live in neighborhoods that are much too safe. We think we are succeeding when we get a bigger house thats farther and farther away from the real world. A suburb is not the real world. Fact is, more people are poor and hungry than not in this world. Our safe lives with our safe neighbors lead us to believe that more does not need to be done.

Fact is, the house you moved into five years ago is probably not enough for you. We want more. Something bigger and safer and more isolated. Love our neighbor?

Things do not change; we change. Journal

I am simply too often afraid to go out and serve the needy. I like my suburb and I don't want my heart to race. But if we are truly doing something extraordinary for God, shouldn't our hearts beat a little faster? If not from fear, at least from excitement? The Jesus we created is too safe.

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

We do not enjoy poetry unless we know it to be poetry.

Is this blog a little random? Have you made it this far? If I call this stream of consciousness is it in essence not since I planned it to be so?

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

O don't we all hide behind a mask most of the time. We all want someone we perceive as better to like us. Maybe they are richer, maybe they are better looking, and maybe they are better with people, but you know you want to impress them. Wouldn't it be great if we could all kill our imposter?

Derek Webb thinks the best thing that could happen to us is all our sins being posted on a billboard so we no longer had nothing to hide. I tend to agree.

I almost took that prayer back immediately cause I am afraid God will deliver.

I am too prideful. I am arrogant. I have lied about stupid things. I have betrayed.

So behave that the odor of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere, that when we behold or scent a flower, we may not be reminded how inconsistent your deeds are with it; for all odor is but one form of advertisement of a moral quality, and if fair actions had not been performed, the lily would not smell sweet. The foul slime stands for the sloth and vice of man, the decay of humanity; the fragrant flower that springs from it, for the purity and courage which are immortal.

For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labour of my hands, and I found, that by working about six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living.

What is the biggest problem facing humanity? Consumerism. Thats why we need the bigger house. And the HDTV and the new entertainment unit to hold the tv and the furniture to know accent the new entertainment unit and the walls should be painted to match the new ambience and we might as well do the floors too and now this room looks far more modern than the kitchen and so here we go to buy new cabinets, even though they are five years old, and the linoleum no longer looks right and gosh shouldn't we get new dishes . . .

On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning.

When I wake up for work I can barely get out of bed. My joints heart. I need to hit snooze two times. I am just too tired. But, If a Bengals tailgate is about to start, even if I only got two hours of sleep, I seem to feel great and refreshed.

Attitude is like the aroma of your heart. If your attitude stinks . . .

All this worldly wisdom was once the amiable heresy of some wise man.

Worldly wisdom? Thats gotten us a long way . . . sigh . . .

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Civil Disobedience

Just because I follow Jesus does not mean I love to kill Arabs. Geez, and lay off me about it.

Where have we gone wrong? Where have I gone wrong?

Sadly I fit the stereotype, because up until two years ago, I would have never voted for a democrat . . .God forbid.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. Civil Disobedience

How dare you think about abortion? (Isn't it easy for you to be pro-choice after your mom had you? - I hate slogan bumper stickers....especially that one).

But its cool to kill prisoners? Where is the consistent ethic of human life?

Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

My freind Ken loves to fish. He is always hunting the one that got away. He never catches a damn thing in New York, yet I still believe he is a very good fisherman. Sometimes I have a lot more faith in friends than in God.

But I think Ken knows something I don't. He can slow down. Not me. I am all go all the time. I envy people that don't worry alot. I now understand that I am surrounded by a lot of people that don't worry cause I do all of that for them. Scapegoat.

I need to do more slowing down, and I am not talking about the tv. And I hate to kill fish . . .

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

Then why can't we take off our masks, even around the ones we love?

Postsecret.com

I pick my nose.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Thats bad news for me, since I own probably 500 and have read maybe fifty.

As for Doing-good, that is one of the professions which are full.

90% of people say they are kinder than average. You do the math.

I think the people who do good probably make up the 10%. They have something I don't: humility. God's God and I'm not - my definition.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

Wouldn't we all be so lucky?

Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate oddfellow society.

And isn't that what we have made christianity? an oddfellow society? and you wonder why all your friends are atheists or off joining cults. I am the problem. You are the problem

It is not worthwhile to go around the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.

'nuff said