Addiction is False

Let me tell you, friend -
there is such as thing as good addiction...

'Tis that very ordinary love
with which Man daily tends to the labors of the earth
and allows him to quietly succeed in life and family...
seemingly hidden - to the world - in plain sight;
a love of the LORD and the way of His commands,
both all and sundry (the nations) and/or particular (honorable religion),
all that leads him (or her) to true and lasting (even everlasting) happiness -
this is true (and therefore, good) addition.

Now, the bad addiction is - so bad - it has to lie.



Addiction is false
and to have made it this far -
its lies are cunning.

What is false to Man
too is false to the nations -
its lies are cunning.

Man and his nations
are destroyed by its falseness -
there's no stopping it!

EXCEPT look away
find what (or Who) is worth living for...
and then surrender.

Love must love
and love true.
---<--@

Addict soul,
you were made to love
(you know the power of this love)
BUT you were made to love the truth -
what is truth?

Commitment

Commitment. I am.
Sitting through the pain, the pain...
this is better pain...

Determination.
Discipline. Courage. Spirit.
Death. Life. Choice. The Truth.

Healing pain...
now, now, now!
---<--@



Inspiration is
a necessary guide to my motivation
and long may she bless me with her light.

But
commitment is
the only force in the universe
that will propel forward my motivation
into the realization of my dreams.

I commit
because I now understand
I will never be content with inspiration alone
unless her light becomes forever mine
and we become one reality.

As every heart
must take this journey,
so should mine.

So I must and I will. 

For me,
this is commitment.

It is
the I must 
and
the I will
for me.

Awkward

Awkward is that space

between two moments - frozen -

between two strangers.

At the threshold of

welcome and friendship - it's there -

The caution of love.

The choice is...

must be made.

---<--@

If you can't live with awkward, you can't live with brave.

Materialism

Numbers, they become

meaningless... Number so large,

it confounds, senseless...

Numbers so massive

it preoccupies spirits;

hardening the heart.

Life becomes

dead as things!

---<--@

On Materialism

Materialism is of the spirit of the world. It afflicts all classes of people. It is also indiscriminate in its desire to destroy the wealth of our nations.

Being rich and being materialistic have nothing to do with each other. It is not wrong to have a lot of material wealth.

Too less money is actually a form of physical evil. It's called poverty. Materialism when it is left to exploit this evil turns it into an organic indigence that in a nation creates division within our communities.

In many ways, it is desirable to be able to handle one's own temporal affairs.

Virtuous entrepreneurship require the vigilant exercise of prudence and prudence as a virtue is averse to either selfishness or recklessness in financial affairs.

Joseph of Arimathea is a good example.

Money in and of itself is not evil. It is the inordinate attachment to it that makes it so. It is these sinful attachments to the evil in all evil things that produce injustices in the distribution of the goods of the earth.

The possession of money and all its various material extensions is not immoral as long as it does not create distance between people and between people and God.

Because wealth is much more than these...

---<--@

The ascent of Country -

A Republic and her Liberty

can afford to be very forbearing - in her hope -

but materialism, once it becomes rampant,

is never a healthy pursuit for a city or for a nation

and shall soon imperil the well-being

of any egalitarian democracy.

- selah -

We must understand - that -

the happiness that is universally sought

by the heart of the children of Mankind

is not a material kind of happiness.

---<--@

The telling of names -

It takes about 5 straight months to say 1 million names with attention. Indeed these numbers, they matter.

These names, seemingly hollow now and empty of their substance, they matter.

These names now sought in silence, seemingly dead to the earth, they matter.

In the timeless realms of the spirit where all our names belong under one heaven before God, they matter.

For with voices clear as a bell these names resound as a chorus - imploring the timeless justice of thy own heart before the Throne of the LORD in Eternity to listen now to the telling of those numbers thou must never choose to ignore...

Indeed, these numbers - they matter!

And they matter more than the matter that serves the cause of every human life.

- selah -

In thy every pursuit of happiness in this world, may you never be found by God to have placed your love at the feet of Mammon.

For you will be made to account for the desire you have invested in every cent, every penny, you have ever held in your hand - all the material riches to the last atom that the LORD had cause to let pass through your own life - for your own sake, may those desires be good.

My Miyang, our Margot, and countless other human beings starved while across the fence there was an excess of bread.

Simplicity

Our firmament - is -

as vast as the dreaming - that -

gives it form and shape.

Each life is a piece

of this heaven from within;

one star in the sky.

And you work to gain

from the LORD above - a piece -

of heaven on earth.

So you dream a dream

in the midst of all these dreams...

a star among stars.

And you set a course

to bridge thy heaven and earth

to make thy dream true.

Adrift in the sky

- you gaze at a million suns -

all of them not yours.

And in the darkness

- set afire by thy hunger -

you find yourself lost.

Life is a big place!

It is easy to get lost.

And to get lost fast...

Simplicity - is -

A return to thy own truth.

It is thy anchor.

"A piece of my dream -

it does not have to be big...

somewhere to return."

It guards thee

from excess.

---<--@

Simplicity is giving my Anne the most expensive bar of dark chocolate I can find - in the whole of the universe. Because seeing my Miyang happy is a significant piece of my own sky.

This thought gives me a very real sense of joy. It is a treasure I know I'll always have.

I am familiar with it, it is familiar with me.

So when life gets too complicated for me, I use these as my anchor. For I have more than one.

And it never fails to leads me back to my own better, clearer, truer self.

Alleluia, God is good!

The First Cause -

What causes the motion of all things (and the mystery in all things) in the visible universe IS the longing that lives within ourselves.

Each of us is a dreaming that exists within the greater dreaming of God.

Indeed, the motion of the stars and the galaxies mirror the motion of our love; for everything here is engaged in a vast and inescapable journey of return -

everything here is like - life longing for God,

everything here is like - love longing for Itself.

---<--@

Herding Cats

As luck would have it -

I will elude prediction.

This is decided:

I am my own mind -

the meaning inside the word.

You can not know me.

Find your own

sense of self.

---<--@

Mindless Claptrap -

Have you ever noticed that when you're a cat, you are immediately associated by those who are inclined to do so as somehow, somewho, opposed to dogs.

Yes, the cat - the enemy of the dog!

The dog, the enemy of the cat!

It's all humbug, of course. Things between cats and dogs are actually more complicated than these over-hyped stereotypes loudly proclaim.

But it sells exactly because it is mindless.

So start thinking for yourself!

---<--@

Finally, scenes we'd like to see -

"The Value of Weakness"

This is exactly how Captain America began, kitten.

Trust me. Go on, show these pups some skill!

=^.^=

Party of One

I am currently reading "We the Purple" by Marcia Ford.

Inspired by her book, I wrote this -

Party of One

I belong to me.

And to me, the Republic.

I am no fraction.

I think for myself.

I choose according to me.

I am a headache.

I am in motion.

Citizens of the nation.

I am one million.

Hear my vote

I will roar.

---<--@

In the Comedy Central tradition of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and other serious Americans, let me follow this up with something funny-serious:

The color of politics in America -

Blue is for Democrat.

Red is for Republican.

Purple is for Independent.

The official party mascots -

Donkey is for Democrat.

Elephant is for Republican.

What is for Independent?

I've always known cats to be akin to vigilance and independence. I have to say, a cat just might be a fitting mascot for the purple heart of America...

But seriously, things have to get fixed. Because dammit, America, I know you're better than this.

I know you're better than this.

Twilight of Choices

Twenty-Eleven...

the twilight of choices - here -

we define the road.

The way ahead - though -

not so often clear on earth

is written above.

You should know

it by heart.

---<--@

Is it the dawn of the new morning

or is it the dusk of another long night?

THE LONGEST NIGHT

The Day once forsaken shatters into Night -
Light turns into darkness.

And the night can not get much darker.

But the darkness itself
once the Light of Day is forgotten
and the hearts of the children of Mankind
is overtaken by the emptiness,
amidst the long march of exile time,
can deepen into madness -

Hurling into the gravity of oblivion
the void that once was -
the nations of our needful Mankind.
---<--@

Milky Way Road

The road up ahead

unknown to all but myself

stretches out of sight.

I look behind me

into the void as I walk

the Milky Way Road.

Up ahead of me

in the distant horizon

heaven and earth meet.

I walk on

to the stars.

---<--@

Per Ardua ad Astra - Through Adversity to the Stars

This is the motto of the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth Air Forces particularly the Royal Australian Air Force.

Abigail

You were so tiny

when you started out in "Signs"

not so long ago...

Years are a measure

of maturity not age -

listen, learn, love, grow.

Be happy,

dear Abbie.

---<--@

I believe in you.

The Chase

- from a friend

The story is told about a young lion that asked his mother: “Where is happiness?”

The mother lion responded: “On your tail.”

Upon hearing this, the young lion started chasing his tail, and spent the whole day doing so.

Seeing the young lion tired and exhausted, the mother lion said: “Son, you don’t chase happiness. Just keep moving forward, and your happiness will follow.”

- selah -

Of course, in your case Abbie, this story would be about a young lioness...

You know, a lot of things can be said about making the wrong choices... the problem is when we don't say them (even to ourselves).

Everybody wants to be happy. But no one knows how to get there. So we sort of stumble into happiness, we try to define it. And when we are wrong we get devastated.

So many people in your profession are trying to find happiness in the wrong places. I should know, I've been in some of those...

So go and be happy, dear Abbie - grow up with grace and let happiness come to you.

God bless you and your generation, Starshine.

Agreed to Disagree

Is it porcelain
or plastic, elegance or
practicality?

That was the question -
my Miyang wants elegance
but I'm for plastic.

We agreed
we're both right.
---<--@

When a couple and faced with this kind of a dilemma... go straight.

The Fire of Loss

The fire of loss

is like the blackest of tar,

heavy and sticky...

The crush of darkness

shall envelop thy being

like you were buried:

Forever.

Forever!

---<--@

Religious art often depicts hell as a projection of the human inclination to live and build in community.

But hellfire is the absolute rejection of this human inclination.

The rejection of the Kingship of God is also a rejection of the communal order of human reality.

Therefore, hellfire is a state of eternal desolation.

It piles upon the soul like skin of the heaviest, stickiest, smelliest, blackest tar - separating Man from his own humanity - hardening the human heart against the tender mercies of God.

And hell is a place of isolation.

There shall be no more familiar human faces, human places, human customs, human culture, human promise, human dignity, or human community in hell.

In hell, at the end of this dispensation of time, the damned will be truly alone, burning and restless, twisted beyond recognition, the sport of demons forever.

Hell and hellfire is not meant for human beings. For hellfire is not the original purpose of Man. Nor hell the proposed habitation of the one family of the nations of Mankind.

It is therefore inhuman to desire hellfire on other human beings.

As the LORD Himself desires salvation for all the children of Mankind, the heart that knows God must neither exceed nor fall short of the will of the LORD.

No one goes to hell by accident.

To Thine Own Self Be True

There's a million ways
to live and a million ways
to die, O my soul!

But the way of Truth
is one and the lie that kills
is one, O my soul!

To thine own
self be true.
---<--@

There is only one nearness and it ascends to the Truth.

There is only one distance and it descends to the void.

Absolute

Why do many fail
to become what Truth there is
in the unseen life?

Sin is division:
knowledge of good and evil
God or godlessness.

Make your path
absolute.
---<--@

The Walk of Life

Walk the walk of life!

Neither seek nor avoid strife...

say peace, go through it.

The road you must take

is the path you must make, friend,

that leads to freedom.

Ascend the mountain!

Make the path yourself and climb...

and you will find - you.

Set your heart

on the LORD!

---<--@

America, Remembered

What is great about -

America? Let me say this:

Freedom and Country.

Every chance to be

the best you can be and the

right to protect it.

In one word -

Liberty.

---<--@

That's you, Old Glory. Own it.

Advanced Happy Birthday!

Vigilant Journalism

What is truth, my friend,
when there is nothing but gray
and nothing stands firm?

Truth paves our hist'ry,
the light of our hope, one road,
one reality.

Share it like
you mean it.
---<--@

Media serves the truth. The truth serves the people.

My Miyang would have made a fiery jounralist. I love my Miyang.

One

There is but one peace
and but one final outcome;
many worlds within...

Observe, O Mankind,
the unity of heaven:
The mandate of Truth!

As God is,
so must we.
---<--@

Let's us fill our earth with living lights... of knowing love and virtues bright!

I saw in a vision, a crystal blue sphere, shining with a multitude of living lights. The vision came to me quite abruptly while I was awake in the day, riding a jeep home from work.

The vision stayed for a time before me as I wondered. I wondered at how wondrous and beautiful beyond imagination it was that I thought I was seeing through the eyes of angels.

Then a darkness came over the vision and it seemed to me for an instant that it was no longer there. But it was, O my nation, before me was a world so overrun by sin and war that it was no longer distinct from the nothingness of the void - an unknown earth bereft of light, forsook by heaven, and forgot by God.
---<--@

Learning is for People

As a child, starshine,

you aspired to be your dreams.

Remember thy youth.

For you are more than

what you know, my beloved.

By learning, you grow.

Youth is in thy soul.

'Tis an innocence you keep,

to let you become...

Love requires knowledge.

For what you love becomes you.

So too must you grow.

Remember

thy dreaming.

---<--@

Especially for the graduating class of 2012 -

Learning is not a product.

Learning is a privilege.

It is never bought,

it is seldom taught,

it is transmitted by a good life.

We pay for educational services

not for knowledge.

We pay dues not for learning

but for tuition.

If you want to become happy,

study not to make money.

Learning to make it profitable,

is undertaken not for profit.

Study for happiness.

Learning is for gladness.

All things will follow suit

when you follow thy dreaming

for all things have a tendency of coming together

when you work the work of becoming.

Education is the right of the youth,

teaching the duty of the custodians of the youth -

the human family, the community at all levels,

every authentic institutions of learning,

both private as well as public and at all levels,

above all shining examples of leadership and service

in authentic human entrepreneurship,

and in responsible government at all levels,

in our police services, our emergency services,

our volunteer services, our noble military

for all of these efficiently transmit learning -

all of these effectively teach.

Let this be our culture.

Let this be our custom.

Learning is for people.

---<--@

Why is it that it was recently reported (here in the Philippines) that we have too many nursing graduates this commencement year?

Because we tell our youth to study for profit. We drive them to study for money. This kind of culture actually forbids learning. It produces brokenness and leads to despair.

Old Compliant

Flee Old Compliant!

We, the People, command thee -

Let our Country free!

Thy wicked reign ends -

Our Nation march not for thee!

Let our People free!

After Night

cometh Day...

---<--@

"...akala ko batis, yun pala kanal..."

(from the song, "Akala" by Parokya ni Edgar)

Old Compliant is the false image of Old Defiant, my people.

It is everything we are not supposed to be by virtue of our nationhood.

It is everything we are not purposed to be by the will of the LORD, our God, the one Sovereign of all nations.

Unconquered

DREAM, my precious Starshine,
and be thankful for the dreaming
more than the dream itself -

For as tomorrow remains unwritten
yet every hope is made secure
so trust you must in thy dreaming
more than in thy dream itself
for as the eagle soars with wings
knowing not how it must fly
so must your own freedom become
more than what can be held by hands:

Thy freedom, dear Starshine,
like thy dream and thy dreaming
is a thing held not by grip
but a thing beheld by thy releasing
for to hold freedom tightly
like it is to deny it's flight
is to lose it entirely.

For thy freedom walks
upon the unconquered grounds
and wills to take it's flight
untrammeled and untamed.

So seek of thy freedom,
my precious Starshine,
but in thy seeking know -
here and Now,
that freedom lives in the giving
like every dream is in the dreaming
for it is always in the giving
that we become free.
---<--@

Freedom that is free is free indeed.