Archive for the ‘humanity’ Category
On the news tonight, yet another artist who lived (and died) n virtual poverty is now very well recognized. How ironic that artists of all stripes, ethnicity, in generations past and present, almost never benefit from their works. Most often only after they die is their works acknowledged, acclaimed, and valued. I knew one of those people.
But wait! Did they really lose out on the benefits of their art? Not at all! For them, creative works of their minds, hearts, and hands, brought them joy of accomplishment materialistic Collectors can never know!
The real irony is that happiness cannot be gauged by material possessions; Artists knew that all along!
Not often, but occasionally I see an article that I believe is worth sharing with those who may have similar likes as me. The following is reproduced from a Nice News (nicenews.com) subscription for non-commercial information purposes. Imho empathy is as essential to human life as the air we breath and hope you will find it as positive as I do…
Babies Begin Developing Empathy Around 18 Months, Study Says
Past research has shown that the human brain is hardwired for empathy and forming relationships, but at what point in our development do those characteristics emerge? A new study, published in the spring edition of the journal Cognitive Development, says it’s earlier than you may think — at about 18 months of age.
Around the same time that babies are learning words beyond “mama” and “dada,” walking on their own, and starting to feed themselves, they’re also developing the first inklings of “empathic concern,” the scientists say. They reached this conclusion by analyzing 127 mother-child pairs, bringing them in for behavioral experiments when the children were 6, 10, 14, and 18 months old, per a press release from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
The researchers tracked the children’s response to another person’s “simulated pain,” finding that their concern in reaction to the strangers’ “distress” was most pronounced by the 18 month point. They also discovered that a mother’s emotional intelligence affects the child’s.
“The more sensitively mothers responded to the needs of their infants, the greater the capacity of the children was in their second year of life to show empathic concern for a stranger,” the release reads, with study author Markus Paulus adding, “Children learn from [caregivers] how to deal with negative emotions. As a result, they are subsequently able to apply these lessons themselves.” (italics added)
Please Note the comment: ‘Children learn from caregivers!’
The following article is intended for ‘good eggs’, pardon the pun. If it offends, I’m sorry sometimes the truth hurts, but it is still ‘truth’ that should be acknowledged.
Even a rudimentary research effort will help to answer the question, ‘is the celebration of Easter an insult to our Father in heaven? Even superficial research reveals the truth; ergo Encyclopedia Britanica states:
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“The English name Easter is of uncertain origin; the Ang-Saxon priest Venerable Bede in the 8th century derived it from the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess Eostre.” Others link it to Astarte, the Phoenician fertility goddess who had the Babylonian counterpart Ishtar.
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Hares, rabbits: These are symbols of fertility “handed down from the ancient ceremonial and symbolism of European and Middle Eastern pagan spring festivals.
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The American Book of Days well describes the origin of Easter: “There is no doubt that the Church in its early days adopted the old pagan customs and gave a Christian meaning to them.”
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My comments: The ‘adoption’ of a purely pagan custom by Churches of Christendom had the obvious political purpose of appealing to a far wider non-christian audience than the minority of purely bible-based Christians. To this day that fact holds true. So to answer the question; “Could Church ‘adoption’ have God’s blessing,” consider just one, of many, scriptural principles;
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“a little leaven ferments the whole lump.” (Galatians 5:9) In scripture, leaven being often used as a symbol of corruption! So you be the judge; Could the ‘adoption of pagan practices’, such as Easter, possibly have God’s approval, or is it more likely an insult to Him..?
It won’t please recruiters, but I cannot recommend joining the Royal Canadian Navy. As a 5 year recruit from Vancouver it had seemed like a good escape from teenage reality. Although I had held down a couple of jobs in Vancouver, the future just wasn’t bright. So at 17 I joined the RCN and travelled to their Cornwallis Nova Scotia boot camp
Boot camp did challenge my youthful spirit, and a subsequent posting to the navy frigate Lauzon was exciting. However my ‘Oiler’ designation was not.
So going through the necessary command structure I requested a change to ‘Radar Plotter’. It required a several week course ashore, which I topped. Then followed a 20 month draft assignment to HMCS Athabascan, a so-called ‘greyhound of the fleet’ veteran of the Korean war, followed by a similar period on the Quinte, a coastal Mine Sweeper.
Although there were some highlights, viewing amazing stars at sea is beyond imagination, a sea full of porpoises from horizon to horizon, and sweeping instant storms. For me there were some personal benefits, such as learning and accepting discipline, and visiting a few ports in Europe and the East Coast of the US. And of course I was singularly fortunate not to have been involved in wartime conditions during all 5 years.
However negatives included fending off homosexual predators, and vicious street gangs, at many, if not all, ports I visited, and that was in the 70’s. So I can only imagine today’s conditions.
Based on my own experience, all I can say is I believe there are much better paths for a youth to take than joining the RCN, please choose wisely!
Please visit my posting: Paradise lost to Paradise Regained
Venerable International Harvester 4×4
It was 1982 I think. We were living in a modernized log cabin in Rock Creek. Located halfway across B.C. close to the US border crossing at Midway. It was an 8+ acre property backing on the Kettle river, last pristine one in BC some said.
I had little or no experience as a farming type but was hoping to become self-reliant, much like the hippy movement preceding that time. So when my acreage grew a fairly profitable crop of hay, I hired a neighbor with a machine to bail it for a shared percentage. Then, with the help of a visiting friend, we stacked the hay in anticipation of sales.
Some hay did sell, but a fair amount remained unsold. Noticing a large old International 4×4 pickup truck for sale along the highway one day, I offered to swap hay for the truck, partly because hay was difficult to keep. Surprisingly we made a trade; the beginning of another real life adventure for me.
My oldest daughter had secured a job eight miles away in Midway, so it occurred to me I should trade that unused behemoth for something she could use for transportation to work.
So one cold clear winter day I struck out on a back road, (Highway 33 Kelowna to Rock Creek *) and soon realized that heavy old beast, likely with age-hardened tires, was completely unstable on that icy winter road! While transiting an elevated section at slow speed, it began to spin uncontrollably! With no way to stop it, I bailed out and helplessly watched, spell bound, as it slid off the road, almost in slow motion, thundered down a 25′ bank and came to a stop with a loud bang, slamming onto a large bolder!
That was just the beginning! First I tried to restart, but ironically the ignition key broke off! At that point I thought this was definitely not my day and the truck would be a write off. Not to mention traffic on that back road was few and far between in those days. Also day’s were short with temperatures below zero at that time of year. But surprisingly a tanker truck came by before long. Driver seeing the situation stopped, gratefully I related my plight including the broken key. (This is where the story becomes truly miraculous! )
Without a word of a lie, that tanker truck driver handed me a ring full of keys he said he had no more use for, and astonishing, one of the keys on that ring worked in my vehicle’s ignition, which started right up! However being wedged up on that large rock it would not move. The driver had waited, so I climbed aboard, only slightly optimistically of finding more help somewhere down the road.
Now several miles further along there was a rare off-road dwelling came into view, so I riskily offloaded in hopes of obtaining ‘any’ help. To my utter amazement the self-reliant owner offered exactly what I needed, namely a heavy solid steel pole not less than 6′ long and 2″ diameter! (I have no idea what its intended purpose was.)
Almost as miraculous as the ignition I soon thumbed a ride back to the truck with that large steel pole in a small, convertible Triumph sports car, with the top down! Indeed the top had to be down to accommodate that large steel pole. The driver was disregarding low temperatures, while enjoying a crystal blue daylight winter sky.
Returning to the crash site, I was soon able to leverage that old bullet proof truck off the bolder with the steel pole,* * started it up, and crawled parallel to the road until able to climb back onto it! I know this all must sound unbelievable, but I swear it is the truth. And there’s even more to this story!
To return the steel pole, I drove the several miles and pulled off in the lenders driveway. At that very moment there was a loud bang under the hood! Battery damage when the truck hit the rock cracked it open and caused it to explode, spraying battery acid all over the engine compartment! It instantly occurred to me that if that battery had exploded earlier, I would once again have been stranded!
At that point I thought my good fortune must surely have run its course, but wait.. On hearing my plight the generous homesteader told my to ‘go down to his basement and take any one of his spare batteries being kept on chargers’!!
Needless to say I was dumbfounded by all this unexpected help. In conclusion; I made it to Kelowna right at sundown and stayed overnight in a motel. The very next day I was able to substitute that old beast of a truck for a reliable old Mazda! (In fact that is yet another surprising story!) That car served my daughter well for transportation to her job in Midway.
* Hwy 33, Rock Creek to Kelowna, is now ‘greatly improved’ road.
** “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
View this link to Boundary Country Hwy 33 video:
Many would say 16 year olds are much too immature to be allowed to responsibly control a vehicle on public streets and highways. However it may also be said that many adults are no less emotional infants!
Such persons, young or old, male of female, are often the perpetrators of so-called ‘road rage’ incidents, and many of us have been the victims of such ones.
That being true, I suggest a reasonable psychological test be incorporated for all drivers’ licensing, including renewals. especially for those ticketed for bad driving actions or having caused an accident.
A reasonable level of mental/emotional capacity required for licensing, and renewals, would help reduce ever increasing incidents of road rage. Acts of violence towards other drivers are simply inexcusable.These emotionally immature people are unable to understand ‘all’ drivers are imperfect, including and especially themselves!
The truth is they are predisposed towards self interest! So its time we acknowledge ‘road rage’ as fundamentally a mental illness! It can and should be assessed through testing.
Those who exhibit emotional immaturity in tests, or refuse to be tested, should simply be denied a drivers’ license. Such dangerous individuals do not belong behind any wheel, full stop!
There is no doubt the Taliban, now taken control in Afghanistan, are even more convinced that God is on their side! How very typical this is of humans throughout all of history, no matter how great or small the ruling empire may have been, or how many people they ruled over, Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Romans, British or American, just to name a few, all share this one religious thought; ‘God is on MY side!’
Well I’ve got news for all forms of national sovereignty* the one and only true God and father of mankind Himself declares he is ‘not on your side‘! Not yesterday, not today, not ever!
The real distinction to be made is ‘claims to have God on YOUR side’, rather than being ‘on side WITH God’!
How can this be said? Of course the historical failures of virtually all human governments confirms this fact, but please read on;
First; consider the universally admitted fact that ‘we’ (namely all mankind) ‘are imperfect.’ If anyone doubts this basic truth please raise your hand!?
Second; similarly, why would God, our heavenly Father, support continuous changes of imperfect human governments, much less never ending wars and conflicts between them?
Third; as mentioned, if God actually supported a particular human government, why have not one of them successfully brought lasting ‘peace and security’ to its subjects , much less fair and equitable distribution of material benefits to its subjects, no matter how long it lasted!?
No ‘the jury is not out’. The plain fact is God has set an unalterable agenda for establishing ‘His’ rulership (a.k.a. sovereignty)! One government that will rule the entire earth. The Kingdom Jesus said we should pray for as recorded in the Bible at Matthew 6:10*. There is no doubt IT will bring true peace and security for all who adopt it, because those who refuse to subject themselves to that just and righteous government will simply be no more, that is his true purpose, not support for imperfect unqualified human governments.
- * Please read: ‘Our Father, let your kingdom come on earth as in heaven’. (Matthew 6:10.)
- ‘..the wicked will be no more…..But the meek will possess the earth, And they will find exquisite delight in the abundance of peace…the righteous will possess the earth and they will live forever on it.’ (Psalm 37:10,11,29)
I said in my intro to this blog I would disclose the bad along with any good in my experiences, you decide which one this is an example of.?
My daughter’s and me accompanied another family on a so-called ‘trail ride’ near Penticton B.C. one fine summer day. As we started out, one daughters’ horse, no doubt sensing he had an inexperienced rider, decided he was simply going to feed for awhile as the others moved on. I was the trailing rider behind this stubborn horse, and believing I knew something about horses from my dad, although having no practical experience, decided I should ‘encourage’ said horse to move along.
Taking a twig from an overhanging tree while atop my own horse I proceeded to strike the backside of daughter’s horse several times. Since it was only a small twig it left no mark so I felt it was reasonable motivation. I wasn’t even sure it was noticed!
However after several such attempts, said horse had not budged. Instead it turned to look at me, lips curled back showing his very large teeth! It was a warning I didn’t appreciate. The next thing I knew his left rear (horseshoe shod) hoof struck my right leg with laser like accuracy like a bolt of lightning! The utter precision would have done credit to a military sniper! In fact it took me several seconds to realize what had happened and the damage it caused!
I do have a fairly high pain tolerance, and didn’t make a sound, so my daughter was completely unaware of what had happened since she was facing the other way. I didn’t reveal it to her for whatever reason. If my leg had not been held fairly tight against my own horse, I’m sure that kick would have broken my leg! As it was, my leg was grossly technicolored for several weeks.
All in all it was a lesson I’ll not forget, ergo; do not underestimate the intelligence or emotional capacity of our fellow creatures, they are not dumb animals!
B.C. Coast Inside Passage rescue!
We were half way across Queen Charlotte sound, between Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii on the beautiful Inside Passage coastal maritime route.
Our B.C. ferry ‘Queen of Prince Rupert’ was enroute from Prince Rupert to its home port at Kelsey Bay on Vancouver Island when a distress call came from a fishing boat.
A crewman on the boat was suffering from severe frostbite, owing to the harsh winter conditions at the time.
The captain ordered immediate rendezvous with the fish boat because the speed of our ferry was able to bring him to a help destination much sooner than otherwise.
The difficulty was there was very heavy sea condition in Queen Charlotte sound, not unusual and not pleasant to endure!
As we paused to allow the fish boat to approach on the windward side. First officer and crew members, including me, lowered a life boat half way down the ship’s side in order to offload the patient from the lessor vessel. It was a violently windy night with very heavy seas!
I was the bowman in the life boat while the first officer was the coxswain at the stern. As the boat approached it was seriously heaving from side to side, being a much smaller vessel than ours. Over the howling wind I shouted to the first officer; “any chance we will get caught between us?“ To which he shouted back in typical British stiff upper lip fashion; “no I don’t think so!“
Sure enough as that sizeable heaving fish boat closed in, pushed by wind and sea, it literally rolled to its port (left) about 30 degrees and cracked our very stout fiberglass lifeboat against our ship’s side like a hard boiled egg!
As it did so all lifeboat crewmen had no option but to jump, en masse onto the upper deck of the large fish boat, because we were hanging over the water in a broken life boat with no chance to return to the upper deck of our own ship!
Only the first officer was left clinging desperately onto a life line to the davit, (a crane for lowing the lifeboat). Seeing the life-threatening situation some crewmen shouted from the fish boat; “hang on sir!” Meanwhile the boat heaved sharply back the other way, to starboard, leaving his only means of escape to get hoisted back up by those crew on the ferry’s upper deck, which was done!
Somewhat miraculously no one had fallen between the two ships into the boisterous sea, since the chance of survival rate given sea temperature and conditions was slim and none!
The fish boat Captain now wisely maneuvered around to the stern of our ferry, butting up to the car deck. With loading door open it allowed all of us, including the patient, to jump over the bow and return to our ship. It was a decidedly less risky method of transfer than the first attempt, live and learn!
I never learned how the frost bitten fisherman crewman made out, but presumably our urgent response was well worthwhile.
Looking back it was likely a pivotal moment in my life. My ‘girl friend’ Dorothy and I went ice skating at a Dartmouth, Halifax, arena. She was an experienced skater, but I was a far less adept beginner.
As we circulated in the arena, she needed a moment to adjust her skates, while I continued along in my somewhat clumsy direction. However a very attractive tall blond skater came out of nowhere and saw fit to accompany me, coming from behind and taking my hand as I struggled along. Of course I was (ahem) slightly conflicted emotionally, but my new partner looked straight ahead, without so much as a glance at me.
I don’t think we had skated more than 10 feet before my girl friend partner had viewed the situation and skated up behind us. In a flash she issued a decisive judo-like chop to break the connection with my unknown partner, who peeled off without looking back!
The somewhat humorous incident was never a subject of discussion either at the time, or even years later. However it was without a doubt a strong indication of things to come. Indeed we became mates for the nearly 30 years thereafter.
p.s. I never did learn to ice skate well 🙂
