Bits and Pieces 2

Posted on May 12, 2012 by ehurst

I am a food activist, in the sense I am actively doing what I can to make food available at the best cost possible. I offer to help anyone find out where to get free food from nature.
For example, my bonus find of blackberries yesterday was at SE 44th and Choctaw Rd., on the SW corner. Watch your step; they are thick. Another place I’ve yet to check recently is just west of Triple X Rd. on SE 59th, the north side. Of course, the development just west of our trailer park has tons of blackberry bushes along any mowed common area, plus a few fruit trees and lots of persimmon if you know where to look.
We found some cranberries buried in the bottom of our freezer, so we pureed them (it requires extra liquid) with blackberries to make a mixed jam. Did the same with the last of our strawberries and some more blackberries. I now have some 16 pints of berry jams. I’m letting the neighborhood kids scavenge the rest of our strawberries for this year. I’m pretty sure a few will want to go along on the next blackberry pick, and I’m going to make sure they all get more than they can eat.
An activist does things to change the situation. I can justify food activism of this sort, simply because it’s fundamental to the Laws of God. Political activism is just the opposite. It’s folly by definition.
To say someone is “anti-” this or that implies they are an activist. There is something there which is more than mere dislike or failure to support. So, for example, I’m not anti-gay. I don’t care a whit either way about gay marriage, because I don’t want the government involved in marriage at all. According to the Laws of God, any sex act itself is de facto marriage between the partners, and He isn’t happy if you spread it around.
I just note homosexuality is a sin according to Scripture. I don’t support it, and will discuss it in terms the Bible does, mostly as immoral and a threat to community stability. Otherwise, it’s not worth my time to discuss it much. It’s not worth an article here, largely because it’s simply not news. I’m more likely to write about adultery and all sorts of other sexual immorality. Not in the sense of hoping to affect the laws and policies of this nation, but the moral sense of people. Human politics is typically wrong on almost everything these days, so I try to avoid that, simply because the process itself is immoral in all it’s methods here in the West.
My antipathy for Western Civilization is clearly established. Not just in its manifestations, but its very epistemology. That campaign is mostly over on this blog. It’s not likely I’ll have any new formative teachings to offer on the philosophy and religion front. You may see some opinion pieces as a means of clarification, but I’m unlikely to say anything not already stated somewhere else in my archives.
I’d be very interested in entertaining questions about anything at all. Some of my best work is done in answer to questions which make me think. Indeed, for a time on a previous blog, it was mostly just that, because I had a partner who asked brilliant questions. He’s too busy these days, and I miss that influence. I learn so much from good questions. Even contrary questions are useful. If all you want is to insult me, you are wasting your time, because that puts you in the category of folks whose opinions and feelings mean nothing to me. Get your own blog and talk bad about me all you like. On the other hand, respectful dissent makes for a powerful friendship.
I can be friends with almost anybody who wants it. Thanks for stopping by today.

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Moral Fabric Scales Well

Posted on May 11, 2012 by ehurst

I assert there is a moral fabric running throughout the universe. It matters not whether your human eyes or human logic can see it. It works. I’m not so much offering proof here, as offering illustrations, to show how it scales large and small.
First the small. This year’s wild blackberry harvest is huge, more than I could possibly gather alone. Rather than keep it to myself, I posted a little notice on our community bulletin board offering to teach what I know, including locations, to anyone who asks. Motives don’t matter; it was the right thing to do.
Yesterday I grabbed what was easily picked from the vines along the well tended grassy margins of a divided boulevard running through a barely-begun ritzy development just to my west. It’s been the primary source of my blackberry picking for several years. This morning I was headed out on a six-mile ride to another site I found last year, where the berry vines clustered along the cut sandstone facing along one of our main section line roads.
Just two miles out, I spotted a scattered flash of red dots in the landscape just off to my right near an intersection. It was loaded with ripe berries. I had to watch my step, as the berries were that thick, and huge. Standing in one spot, I picked a whole quart of them, leaving the smaller berries. I lifted one after another vine so loaded I had to empty my hand three times or more. I left with a gallon, having barely put a dent in what I could see.
I have no doubt had I not been willing to share, I would not have seen this patch. I’ve passed it dozens of times already over the past three years not seeing the berries. The thickness of their placement indicates they’ve been left alone for quite some time. On the way home, I stopped to share some of them with a couple of kids I know. I have every reason to believe Creation itself will respond with an ever greater load of berries, much of which I’ll have to share simply because I can’t eat them all.
This moral principle scales large, as well. As a point of reference, you might take a moment to read my short study in Amos 6, a chapter from the Old Testament prophet. Amos confronts the Northern Kingdom, whose capital was Samaria, just a couple of decades before Assyria invaded and carried the nation away to exile (Fall of Samaria is dated 722 BC). Aside from the business of how the government is disciplined, you can see close parallels with many Western governments today. Amos was fussing at a ruling class of plutocrats utterly out of touch with the people. They had increased the taxes to a crushing load to increase their comfort while the peasantry was suffering from the effects of Creation’s response to massive violence and sin. They were arrogant and oh-so sure they could handle anything.
That is, the economy was going down hill, but the plutocrats refused to scale down their consumption to match it. To those producing it all, they say: “You must make do with less so we can have more.” Nor does the form of government have anything to do with it. Is there any difference in effect? There is not a single government agency which can conceive of the notion of trimming back on bureaucratic overhead. If anything, each demands it be allowed to grow like a metastasizing cancer. All this while, just as with Amos’ audience, there was a pretense of being faithful to empty religious ritual and extravagant worship spending.
I won’t pretend the exact same consequences will follow, but you can be sure, if it was evil then, it’s evil now. It’s the same God, the same moral fabric, and nothing has changed in that realm. Precious few of my readers won’t be around to see the moral consequences of all this abuse.

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Picking Already

Posted on May 10, 2012 by ehurst

After nearly two weeks of exercising with my axes and saws on firewood, I think I need a break from that routine. Of course, the other workouts will continue.
I was surprised yesterday when I spotted ripe blackberries on one of my jaunts. I found a metal basket set which could be modified to fit my mountain bike, so now I’m riding to the picking spots. It’s much easier carrying the picking stick, collecting bucket and all the other junk I like to have on hand.
So I went back today and rejoiced to see quite a few already turned dark, when I started poking around under the foliage. Just the first day of picking, and all I took was the easy stuff. They are huge for the most part, with quite a good portion as large as the end of my thumb. It was enough to make a quart of paste after running through the blender. Whole berries and lumps are fine for pies and such, but for jam, I want my fruit pureed. Two quarts of berry sludge, after adding lemon juice, sugar and gelling agent, makes about five pints of jam.
We decided not to mess with sand plums this year. It was too much work for too little return. But they are ripe already. However, I won’t pass up the apples and pears, and the lone volunteer peach tree I saw on one road. In the fall, we should have a large crop of persimmons.
It’s going to be a very good year for wild fruit.

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Turn in the Path

Posted on May 9, 2012 by ehurst

I feel like the Mayan calendar — the previous epoch is ending and now we start another.
Have you ever wished you could clone yourself and get more done in less time? The problem is the clone would have an independent mind and might not do what the original wants. But we do often divide ourselves into compartments. If it goes too far, we call it schizophrenia. Yet on some practical level, good mental health means we can’t treat all the things we encounter exactly the same. This is especially true with human beings. We are a different person to everyone who knows us; this is part of living in a broken universe.
On my other blog it’s all about a narrow interest on distinctly Christian spirituality. It’s relentlessly Christian. Here, I felt the need to be a little more clinical and theoretical. I’m the same guy writing both, but expressing differing drives, a different purpose and goal. The purpose on this blog is the one which is changing, not the other.
A primary issue is I no longer aspire to be a writer. That’s not a signal the quality — such as it is — will suffer, but a change in purpose. Because of that, the discipline of writing daily consistently is gone. The posting behavior is likely to be more erratic. I’m still more likely to cover broader interest stuff, but even there, the emphasis will shift a bit. I’m not sure I can describe it, but it’s as if to say the whole drive train has been replaced.
Call it delusion if you like, but my claim to be a prophet of God is likely to be more important here in the future. The prophets of the Old Testament were widely varied as men go, each bringing his own unique talents to the mission. It’s not as if I can forget everything I’ve ever done or studied. This blog will still be aimed at a wider audience, offering more room for those who don’t necessarily share my beliefs than the other blog. Nevertheless, regular readers will detect a shift in subject matter and tone.
That’s because this crazy prophet sees some really big changes in the Spirit Realm, and I’m willing to bet anyone with any kind of spiritual sensitivity shares that perception. I’ve already seen where folks from other religions — Hindu, Buddhist, syncretist — are saying the same thing, just in different ways. Those who can sense the Other Realm know things are afoot, and it’s hardly your garden variety stuff. The hounds of Hell have been set loose to an unusual degree, and this calls for a change. It’s a whole new game.
It may not coincide with all the blather from the mainstream, or even the alternative press, but what you read on the Net in terms of news will surely reflect this fundamental shift in reality. So, for example, you should expect a sudden rise in violence and related crimes. Not everywhere at once, not to the same degree, but as a general trend globally.
If this is not your kind of buffet, you have been warned at least the menu is changing. The one thing you should not mistake is how much I care about all of you, whether I can contribute to your life or not.

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Kids These Days

Posted on May 8, 2012 by ehurst

(This is a parable of something which transpired recently here in the comments. For your amusement…)
*sigh* Another wasted day.
John had just been told the truck delivering his trusses was broke down twenty miles from town. The job site continued to hum, and John would get paid the same either way, but he was really looking forward to personally seeing them installed. He was a construction engineer, not a truck mechanic.
He was close friends with one of the contractors, Charles, who called him over to his truck. Pulling a lever, Charles leaned the back of the seat forward and pointed behind it. “Take a look John. Know what this is?”
John looked and saw the gleaming blade of a competition rapier. Oh, the memories that brought back! He and Charles were co-captians of their fencing team in college. Neither were Olympics or pro material, but both were among the top league fencers. Charles pulled it out and handed it to John. “You need to feel this thing, man.”
Charles took a call on his cell phone and stepped away, telling John he could play with it awhile. John held it, and realized his body had never forgotten what to do with it. The work site was intended to be a hotel and convention center on the beach. Staying within the fenced area, John wandered toward the ribbon of sand, where some wild vegetation still grew.
He glanced back at Charles, then took a couple of swipes at a bush. The thrill was instantly alive, before the clipped vegetation had hit the ground.
Just outside the fence on the beach, a voice called to him. Looking over, John saw a rather young boy. He held something long and thing in his hand, and beckoned with it for John to come around the end of the fence. John decided to humor the boy and see what he wanted. It took only a few minutes of walking in the soft sand. The boy had moved closer to the end of the fence, down near the water.
As John came around the end of the fence, he saw the boy was building a sand castle. Well, it was actually a row of cylindrical sand piles, perhaps a half dozen, and the boy was completing the last. He overturned a small plastic bucket of wet sand, slapped it down, then twisted it around a few times jerkily, causing the load of wet sand to release and left it standing in the shape of the plastic bucket.
Lying on the sand next to him was a plastic sword. The boy looked up. “Here, mister, you can defend this castle while I attack it.”
John considered this for a moment. “You’re going to attack with your plastic sword…”
“And you can defend with your sword!” The boy seemed utterly confident of his success. “You’ll need the castle, because I’m the greatest swordsman on the beach.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” John started.
“You aren’t afraid, are you, mister? Do you think you can build a better castle?”
John glanced at the construction site, with it’s massive framework already in place. “I’m building that right now,” John gestured with his sword.
“That’s nothing. The next big wave will knock it all down!”
John smiled, then turned to go. “You go ahead and enjoy yourself. I need to give this very dangerous weapon back to its owner.”
“That thing? Dangerous? Ha!” Then the boy started yelling, “Come back here, you coward!” He slapped his plastic sword noisily on the wet sand.
John didn’t look back. Kids these days!

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Recapitulation

Posted on May 8, 2012 by ehurst

Here’s the plan. Things will get worse before they get better. Whatever it is we all collectively think of as the USA will be gone really soon. In fact, most people who think of it at all are mostly wrong already. There is no single theory which covers all the bases, but we do have conspiracies aplenty, with lots of action hidden from public view. Not a single conspiracy theory out there covers everything I know about from my own personal experience with the various government agencies. Batches of theories together may come close in a certain sense, but most of them conflict too much with each other.
At the same time, most of them have an element of truth. Good luck working it out.
Knowing all this, I realize there’s not a darn thing I can do to stop any of it. None of the huge protest movements will stop much that matters, and armed revolt can’t be big enough. Worse, so far as I can tell, neither protests nor revolts are likely to attack the real threat. That won’t keep them all from working very hard to entertain us. Get out the popcorn.
I plan to stay on the sidelines as much as possible. It’s not as if protest or revolt aren’t fully morally justified, but they are pointless. Worse, they are too little, too late. Some of them are steered by the same folks at the top everyone is pretending to protest. Many protesters have no idea, and are following a programmed response. The one most important thing any human can do right now is make awfully sure you know your mission and are on it.
My mission is the same as before, but the methods have all completely changed. Just in the past two days, some of the burning and yearning have died completely, and that non-conscious spiritual side of me says it’s time to do something else. I don’t know how that will change what I post here, except for the moment, there will simply be less of it. Certainly less of previous topics.
I no longer care about computers very much, and certainly not about Linux and all those other operating systems. Time’s up on that stuff. I’ll probably still have some fiction, but aside from some unexpected events to prompt something inside my head, I doubt I can offer much more in terms of social commentary. I’ll still be scanning most of the same news sources as before, but it’s all starting to run together, all sounds so much the same. The following is a quick list of sites I recommend, though Activist Post is easily the weakest of the lot. The last two are good places to learn about changes to the Internet in the coming days.

I sincerely appreciate everyone who has been following this blog or visiting regularly. If you need something specific from me, I still read my email. You can find the address on my resume, which is linked on my About page here. Meanwhile, I’m not gone, just busy and won’t be posting nearly so often. Don’t leave unasked questions.

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Am I Done, Yet?

Posted on May 7, 2012 by ehurst

I started this blog because I had a mission. That mission changed somewhat, but not fundamentally. So here I am reassessing what I’ve covered so far. While I’ve managed to say it differently, from different angles, I’ve begun to repeat myself pretty often.
Today I just didn’t have anything to get off my chest. There’s no elephants sitting on me right now. I’ve been spending some time chopping wood and trying to recover my high accuracy ax swing. Sure do wish I could get my hands on a one-man heavy crosscut saw, but they cost more than some chainsaws. On the other hand, they work longer than anyone who owns them. Chainsaws tend to break down quite regularly. In other words, what’s on my mind is pretty mundane.
That is, except for that wondering if I have been faithful to my own self, in the sense of writing what I really needed to say.
I don’t like making predictions, which is funny for someone called to be a prophet. I got burned on that awhile back and almost closed this blog. But once I learned the difference between something inside me versus something clearly from the outside, I’ve managed to avoid making quite such a big fool of myself in that department. And I’m thinking there’s something outside myself nudging me again.
It’s not any kind of real direct threat to me, so I’m not agitated. Near as I can tell, though, some really crazy stuff is coming this year, large numbers of people getting hurt on a scale I’ve not seen before. I don’t pretend to know what it would be, only that if we knew right now, most of us wouldn’t believe it. Some real surprises coming. I’m not even sure we are going to find out about all of it, since so very much is being covered up these days, buried under garbage stories which don’t make any difference.
I don’t reckon I’m done with this blog just yet. At the same time, a part of me feels like I’ve finished something I can’t name, and I have no idea what’s next. Seems to me I’m going to like something about it, so I’m looking forward to it.

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Let Us Be

Posted on May 6, 2012 by ehurst

Live and let live.
My brother lives in a very old neighborhood just a mile north of downtown Oklahoma City. He has a traditional brick fireplace and I am cutting wood for him this summer so he’ll have a good supply this winter. We have tons of well seasoned deadwood lying around out here. Besides, it’s a really good workout, and woodcutting with hand tools is a skill in which I revel. If it weren’t for my brother needing the wood, I would probably cut it to sell.
My brother looks nothing like me. He’s taller, lighter, dark haired. He has a higher IQ, in the gifted class. He’s a secular humanist, but we do share some interest in computers and related technology. He’s a busy entrepreneur and I’m a mystic. He fixes computers for pay, hardware and all, while I try to help people out with simpler problems and charge nothing. We get along well, but don’t pal around much.
I’m not willing to push my beliefs on anyone. The only reason I bother explaining them is because people have asked questions when they find out I don’t fit any of their usual categories. So I welcome pagans and atheists and Catholics and Baptists and Buddhists and Muslims and whatever else you want to call yourself. The key to hanging out with me is the same kind of respect which says, “You have to find your own answers. Nobody else can do it for you.” I believe in you.
Perhaps there’s not enough of that out in the world, because I find I’m never short of friendly contacts, at least online. Perhaps we are so thinly scattered geographically, the Internet is about the best way to find each other. The world is going to seem a much lonelier place if it ever goes away, or becomes so perverted and subverted it might as well not be.
Sadly, the majority of the world believes in busybodies who insist things change to suit them. We aren’t permitted to stand on the sidelines and comment quietly amongst ourselves on the things we see. Here’s my busybody rant: I want to teach you to leave folks alone.
Hey, just let us be, and we’ll return the favor.

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Tell Me God Does Not Exist

Posted on May 5, 2012 by ehurst

Depending on how you define the terms of the debate, I might agree with the statement “God does not exist.”
If your entire approach is Aristotelian (included as an element in Enlightenment, Post-Modernism and just about the entire basis of all Western Civilization), then no one can prove God “exists” because He is not confined to this universe. I’ll certainly concede that.
Nor is any of this a matter of such debate. Yelling and screaming about what can be proved or disproved in this realm of existence is pretty silly in the first place if you intend at any point to discuss anything of real importance. Just getting involved in the debate is to cede the whole ground to those who reject Him. I have no intention of debating it.
You know where that leads you? The entire public debate about Global Warming is pure lies. The very existence of this debate is a tribute to corporate funding through foundations. So rarely do we find any real facts about climate itself, you have to go out of your way to dig them up. Pick any controversy and it’s about the same.
Yet, I’m forced to use a highly limited, and wholly unsuitable human language to indicate things in another realm of existence, outside our universe. You cannot in any way describe that realm, nor any part of it. You can only indicate things about it. If your spirit has been awakened, some part of you will understand. If all you have is your intellect, you’ll struggle with the very fundamentals of it. There is nothing to prove, nothing to falsify, not much to be said at all, until we start talking about how it affects our conduct and frame of reference here.
That’s the real conflict. There is no common ground in any sense of the word, except that we are all stuck here trying to exist on this plane together. The fundamental Christian statement is our allegiance is outside this universe. We claim a part of us has been awakened which is dead in most humans, and that is the key to the whole thing. There are ways to measure it, but it’s all in the murky world of behavioral science.
Christians insist we have a compelling drive to act in ways which make no reference to the logic of this realm. That drive comes from that part of us which does not belong here, which belongs to a superior level of existence in another realm. We can’t prove it, and all those who try will fail. Yes, we can pull out or old copies of Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict but the author himself warns: You can’t prove it sufficient to change your opponents. If they lack that spiritual awareness, there is nothing any man can do by any amount of logic to change their beliefs.
I won’t get the least bit excited if you rant and rave God does not exist, because that simply tells me more about you than anything else.

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Hazing Is Torture

Posted on May 4, 2012 by ehurst

In the past few weeks we’ve seen reports in the news about hazing.
I suppose it’s one thing if you voluntarily join a violent gang and pass through their initiation rituals. It’s like military basic training. You know what you’re getting into, and whatever camaraderie can be had is based on violence and willingness to be tough about it. It’s another thing when you don’t have any choice.
People with military assignments don’t get much choice where they serve. Military contractors serving with likes of KBR, children at schools and many others are pretty much steered into a situation where they are committed before they find out. When a person is subjected to degrading, repulsive or painful abuse without their permission, it’s defined as torture. Fully informed consent applies.
I’ve had a lot to say about torture itself, but I’ll recall my primary point is torture invokes exceptionally powerful demonic forces. Thus, those who engage in hazing are inviting demons to run some portion of their lives, as do those in authority who are derelict in refusing to stop hazing. It’s bad enough the victims are forced to face those demons unwillingly, but those who lead hazing are morally the same as the torturers.
God gave me a powerful protective instinct. It’s almost overwhelming at times, to the point I’ve engaged in some vicious violence myself to stop bullying, for example. I don’t like hurting anyone, but I’ve lost little sleep over those particular acts of violence. I’m at peace about it, and still feel it was an act of holiness. If anything, the resolve behind such is stronger than ever, though I’m probably more tactically careful about it. I don’t fly into an uncontrolled rage, but I’d still be willing to shed blood over it.
Edit: Insert paragraph — I am willing to engage in a lot of crazy stunts, as I am a risk-taking, thrill-seeking fool. Playful rough stuff is okay, too, but it’s up to each of us what we tolerate. Still, I don’t fear much.
I’m not averse to taking someone else’s beating, as it were. It’s something I evaluate every time I see it coming. I’m fully aware I don’t always have all the facts, so I tend to be cautious, and I’d rather err on the side of mercy. I suppose the one place where I would never give it a split second of thought would be if someone attempted hazing me. Since I don’t value this life very much, it’s not hard to for me to take the most radical action to prevent such abuse. It’s not about me, but the principle. At the point someone intends to use force to subject me to that, they’ve proven they cannot be trusted, that they are my enemies on some level. Their opinion on the matter no longer matters in the least, because if that’s the price for being included as an ally, it’s time to start killing. So I’m the kind of crazy fool who would pull a grenade and drop it in my own tent rather than endure senseless torture like that.
Let’s call it what it is: Hazing is morally equivalent to torture.

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