The Unworthy Saint

Your reality is based on your own individual perception. If you’ve ever experienced the feeling of time moving quickly or slowly (if you’ve ever said “Today went by way too fast!”), you’ve experienced a skewed version of Reality that is based on your own interpritations, projections and perceptions. Your individual reality (small “r”) is not absolute Reality (large “R”). In my opinion, no one really experiences full Reality, only pieces of Reality. But it’s not such a bad thing as we’re all in the same boat. It is my belief that only a being (i.e. God) who can get past human things like emotion, life experience, transference, sensory flaws, etc, can truly experience absolute and total Reality.

Last night C quoted Danny Kaye when she said “life is a great big canvas and you should throw all the paint on it you can.” An inspirational quote for an aspiring artist… or anyone alive for that matter.

As boats move through the ocean or lake they displace a certain amount of water creating a wake – the displacement of the water effects it’s surroundings. Now wouldn’t the waves created by that boat carry through at least part of the body of water?

Now take this concept and apply it to cars and trucks on a highway. We’ve all felt the rush of the air as a car or truck passed us by. My question is: Do busy highways create extra wind? Assuming they do, how far does that extra wind travel? How is our envirnment affected by that displacement?

Update: Should we be engineering cars centered around replacing (rather than displacing) the air surrounding them? Should the hybrid/environmental cars be focused on both fuel efficiency and neutral movement (not displacing air as they move)?

It is my understanding that an allergic reaction will not occur on your first encounter with the allergen. This is simply how our body works. My theory is that our brain carries this logic over into other arenas. Have you ever found when you first encounter a new sport you’re not very inept, but if you come back to the sport 6 months or a year later you’re much better? Or you come across a concept that you simply can’t comprehend, but when you come across it again, it all comes clear? Part of this phenomenon can be accredited to gains in life experience and knowledge, but, perhaps, part of this phenomenon can be likened to the allergic process our bodies naturally go through (which is, in part, a function of our brain).

If only I had enough faith, I too would be able to walk on water. What else could I do if I had enough faith?

So quickly and so easily I turn into the person I despise. All reasons point to the fact that I dwell on the traits I despise in others. Correcting will involve shifting my focus from the negative to the positive – in doing this, hopefully I can acquire the traits I love in others rather than the ones I despise.

It’s amazing how doing nothing can say more than doing something – even if the “not doing” is a direct result of forgetfulness or innocence and not of anti-love.

Someone once said “you cannot not communicate” – meaning that anything you do or don’t do is a form of communication and delivers a message to anyone who may choose to listen or watch.

Humility is restraint from false pride and a healthy a knowledge of one’s own fallen nature, and stance, before God and the world.

It is our nature, as fallen human beings, to assume a stance of pride with one’s self and one’s own doing upon completion of a task or the attaining of a goal. And while this pride is not wholly unjustified, that which is justified is usually severely inflated to an unhealthy degree. You see, there are very few instances where a given task requires the input of only one person, with no help from other humans, God, nature, or any other entities one could name. And this is where the problem of disproportionate pride rears it’s ugly head.

How many times do we say “Look what I did!” when, in all reality, what we did was only a portion of the work. How quickly do we jump to take the credit? And it’s not that we don’t necessarily want to give credit where credit is due, but we forget. We forget that in writing our novel, or catching our fish, there were other forces at work. In writing a novel you have inspirations for characters and people who make the paper your work is on, in fishing you have other people who have made your fishing poll.

Perhaps humility is partly about clearly seeing one’s own role in a given task and being sure that credit is given elsewhere when credit is due elsewhere. And perhaps exercising humility is about defaulting to less ownership and less pride instead of more.

That’s not to say that having no pride in one’s self, one’s abilities and failing to take credit where credit is justly due, is “being humble.” Those actions would only trigger a downward spiral of low self esteem and low self worth. I believe God has made us all able and capable beings and to not take credit for what we are able to do ourselves would doing a disservice to our creator. We should certainly thank God, and I believe a large part of humility is acknowledging anything we do in life is a direct result of our being created in the first place, but we should not completely deny any credit for what we’ve done.

Humility is an extremely hard trait to master but it holds unbelievable power. If you have humility, and only taking credit where credit is due, giving out thanks and praise to the people who helped you (or entities), you no longer have to boast and be prideful to be heard. Other people will migrate to your giving and humble nature, and, on their own free will, sing praises of your character and tell the world of the things you’ve done.

Sometimes I feel that promises to my self don’t ever come true. I could promise anyone else anything and I would following through, but I can’t seem to follow through when it comes to myself. I’m getting a little better and it’s something that I’m working on…but it’s a struggle. These lyrics sum up my thoughts in an almost creepy so-close-to-home way.

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“Under My Feet” by Celldweller

“Promises and wishes all mean nothing
When it’s me that I’m speaking to
Wanting something
Won’t mean I will see it through”

If I relax every muscle in my body, relax my breathing, relax my brain…I can find God wherever I am. Tension and chaos in my own mind and body causes my perceptions of the world to skew and I don’t see the world for what it is (and God in the world). However, ifI relax it’s much easier for me to see God’s work and God’s hand throughout this life I call my own.