Words

When we are young, growth comes naturally. We can trust it. We can’t help but do it.

Innocence is lost when you find you cannot trust it. When you realize natural inclinations can bring you and or others harm.

I remember in 4th grade when we were called one by one to the front of the class to see how straight our posture was. Mine was way off and I realized it would be hard, “unnatural” work to fix it.

If one does not remove oneself from one’s natural inclinations they will go towards destruction.

Always? What about inclinations towards God and service? If it’s not the time or place or in the right balance others can be harmed.

I have a memory from around the same time period my mother listening to Chuck Swindoll saying that wives shouldn’t get too far ahead of their husbands in enthusiasm towards God and Church.

This is when the less than innocent mindful functionality and dysfunctionality considerations become weightier motivators than following your heart.

Correct your posture and your foot alignment before you start getting a hump back or bunions.

Your back muscles develop contractures that are hard to stretch out again. Yoga stretches and laying on a back roller can help before you get too frozen.

I didn’t realize the bump on the outer knuckle of my big toe was getting bigger, and that my toe was starting to lean the opposite direction till recently. Kneeling in particular has started to hurt there in the past year or so. I just got a brace that pulls your toe back over and holds your knuckles together more comfortably. Hopefully it will also prevent progression.

But if you like spending time refining your special interest more than spending time with me, I feel relieved, and admire and enjoy your improving skill, which makes you more interesting. There are nuanced exceptions of course.

Normies feel jealous, betrayed and offended.

My latest passion is landscaping with rocks. Rock shopping is the only shopping I like to do. I know where the rip rap sections are, according to size, the road base, builder’s blocks, flag stones and leuders.

Our Church has recently expanded the road base parking lot. Grasses and weeds have been making headway in the ensuing months despite many rounds of Roundup, Sedgehammer and an eco friendly vinegar based product. The greenery is very determined and emboldened by the above average rainfall this spring and early summer.

Two weeks ago I found out about weed torches, aka flame throwers, and ordered the 2,400,000 btu Dorlotti with the 10 foot hose and 33” wand, and I’m so glad I did. With our two partially emptied propane tanks, I set about killing and wounding the encroaching nutsedge, crabgrass and Bermuda combatants. It took 6 hours over two days to torch maybe 1/3 of the parking lot, which was the most densely populated section. One reviewer said to just wilt them, so I didn’t go completely scorched earth.

At the parish council meeting, one ranch owner said they tried torching their road base driveway, and the grass came back thicker than ever. My guess is that they got the average 40,000 btu, 4’hose with the 24” wand, and that their area was so big they didn’t have time to get the roots hot enough.

But sure enough, within a week some of the nutsedge in particular regrew with funnily shriveled tips. I asked Grok, and it said you have to get the base 200 degrees by holding the flame on it for 4 seconds. That ignited my fighting spirit, so the next day with the 3rd and 4th full tanks of propane, I went totally and mercilessly scorched earth. For 4 hours I touched up the og 1/3 and expanded my territory making sure to turn up the gas and linger longer at the root base, over 4 seconds for the particularly thick clumps. 2 days later they still looked dead. It does leave blackened stubble, which is easily removed with a broom if one hasn’t already given it their all, but also turns the limestone rocks light brown. I plan to put more road base over it anyway. Regardless, this is the way.

I resisted watching The Chosen till my brother recommended it recently. My brother is a Calvinist, but I did not associate the name with that. I was just skeptical that it would do a good enough job with the New Testament as most don’t. I have written that The Passion did lead me eventually to the Orthodox Church.

By the way, I have also written about my estrangement with my family of origin since shortly after our conversion to Orthodoxy. Last summer, July 16, my father passed away suddenly with a brain bleed. My mother called me, and we came and got her from Louisiana. She is now living with us, and my brother comes over frequently, and we watch shows sometimes.

So I gave it a try. I was immediately impressed by the deep dive into Jesus’ early ministry, Judaism, and the ingénue apostles. I like their careful “plausible” over strictly Biblical approach. We did not like how St John the Baptist came off, however. I’m also not sure why they did not portray Christ’s Baptism or Transfiguration either. In the first seasons they were being more subtle with Christ’s divinity, but still, those were witnessed events.

Despite this, the low, slow approach in the series is more meditative of Christ’s and his apostles’ and followers’ lives. I found myself liking to dwell on it in this immersive way. Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus and is Catholic, is a practicer of meditation. And he looks somewhat like the Sinai icon of Christ.

In watching interviews with the cast on YouTube, I have learned that Jonathan Roumie was cradle Greek Orthodox, but when his family moved, they raised him Catholic, since that was what his Irish mother was. He says he feels more at home with the Catholic Church.

The Australian actor who plays John, well I’ll let Grok explain it:

“The actor who plays John in The Chosen is George Harrison Xanthis. He was raised Greek Orthodox and has spoken about reconnecting with his faith through his role in the series. While he describes himself as having been a “cultural Christian” at times, his work on The Chosen deepened his engagement with Christianity, particularly within the Greek Orthodox tradition.”

I think they all have spoken about how much more they have learned about theology, the culture and the humanity of Jesus’ disciples, if not his own. Xanthis seems to lament not learning it at Church. I have very fond memories of the good Protestant Sunday School teachers who made Bible stories come to life in my youth.

They really stepped it up with Season 5, The Last Supper though. I’ll go so far as to say it rivals, if not surpasses Da Vinci’s. But please watch the previous seasons first so you’ll appreciate each actors’ affect.

Newt Gingrich’s insightful analysis:

But are Democrats giving religion a bad name? Their religion is based on untried experiments (thus unscientific and un materialistic) of nebulous virtue. This after their mantra during Covid a few short years ago of follow the science, and also decades of science teachers bashing faith in the immaterial originator of the universe. They are excelling in the idea of faith in the hope of the unseen, like Indiana Jones stepping out over a perceived chasm.*

This is anti materialistic dualism, sometimes conflated with Gnosticism, which are heresies in Orthodox Christianity. Protestants have a harder time arguing against it. Especially name it and claim it ones who believe if you speak earnestly and repetitiously enough you can make anything you want come to pass, but it has to sound virtuous.

*I picked the above photo instead because there isn’t a material bridge. The depiction with the unworthy falling reminds me of the Orthodox Ladder of Divine Ascent below.

Note how the ladder is portrayed physically.

Even in the Ascension icon Jesus is depicted as physically supported.

We need to reevaluate our notions of “blind faith”.

But that isn’t even the true Democrat MO. They are exploiting the appeal to virtue in order to achieve less lofty goals of sexual deviation, unmerited wealth acquisition and population reduction. Trans people can’t have kids and neither can dead soldiers, murdered people, certain diseased people or aborted babies. I’m starting to wonder about vaccinations too.

I am attempting again to read the trilogy. I got about halfway through the Fellowship at least 10 years ago and found it too descriptive. I am enjoying it more this time. I am listening to Rob Inglis’ narration on Audible mostly while I sew, since I have recently taken that up again also.

On Tom Bombadil: if he has a mastery over the woods, it seems they remain too menacing. He is definitely a master over his own reactions, and I suppose speaking nonsense is a way of transcending anger or panic. I see this in light perhaps of Tolkien’s possible PTSD where one feels powerless over those two out of control reactions in particular. I also find music with nonsense words healing, and have found Hiawatha’s beginning comforting and notice Bombadil sounds similar in some places. I also like French and Russian lyrics in particular. But still it seems to me that if he had mastery over the woods then the trees would have been more peaceful unless they are guards against darker forces, which they may be. And it doesn’t seem such a hospitable couple would be that isolated either. But I imagine the setting could be idyllic for Tolkien to retreat in his mind from intrusion and stress.

The WSG (Western Shadow Government) is scared now.

The IRBM Russia launched yesterday from way far from the border with Ukraine in Astrakhan took 15 minutes to get to Dnipro.

Putin gave the required 30 minutes notice for a nuclear strike even though it had no nukes. But he gave the notice to the US and not Ukraine and said the target was somewhere in Ukraine. The US didn’t know if it was armed until they assessed the damage. Now that Zelensky and the WSG know they aren’t defended, perhaps peace talks can finally ensue.

Wow, he had to give notice 15 minutes before launch and still. Doesn’t sound like anyone tried to talk him out of it.

The ICBM Russia launched in Dneipro clarified that Ukraine: land, buildings and people, is nothing but canon fodder, literally. It is being used, not by Russia, but by the US, as a human shield taking the hit for the US, in whatever way it is affiliated with the Western European shadow government.

What has Ukraine gained from this protracted war? Less and less every day. They had a deal early on when Russia had taken way less territory, but ousted Boris Johnson called it off? Allowing this proves Ukraine is not a sovereign country despite their nationalistic rhetoric.

The US has done nothing to help them, despite the billions of dollars given to entice them with debauchery and fantasies of standing up to Russia. Meanwhile all their men are being slaughtered.

Putin loves Ukraine more than Zelensky or the western shadow government does. The WSG wants to provoke Putin into using nuclear weapons so that they can achieve population decline because I guess global warming. And to bring about their new world order. Putin has been trying to minimize destruction in his attacks. He could have leveled Kiev long ago and taken over the whole country. He is just trying to get NATO, the acceptable proxy for the Western Shadow Government, off of his doorstep, and protect the Orthodox Church and Christian values in Ukraine.

The WSG escalated to long range weapons launched into Russia, and the retaliation is in Ukraine. Russia is gaining territory in Ukraine at the fastest rate since the war began in February 2022. The longer this goes on the more Ukraine looses.

I play Age of Empires. I know.