tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14719740574626465732024-03-18T21:37:57.885-07:00The Musings and Morsels of An Anonymous CFOjchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-33495703913576946242022-02-23T12:24:00.054-08:002023-09-24T11:29:22.658-07:00Punitive Globalism<p><strong style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">©</span></strong><span style="color: #76a5af; font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"> 2022 – J C, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">An Anonymous CFO</span></i><span style="color: #76a5af;">. All rights reserved*</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span><span><span><span style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: #030303; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">“Oil” has found itself
under the heel of vindictive globalists who stridently insist that the world is on the verge of an extinction-level event, a "climaticlysm", if you will. For them, a measured response is simply out of the question; it's much too late for anything other than a radical redirecting of policies and behaviors </span></span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303;">–</span><span><span style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: #030303; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> a resetting of the global trajectory. Fortunately, his</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-family: georgia;">tory breeds cynics, and cynics recognize that power, wealth, and control provide compelling motivations to skew, warp, and suppress data </span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303;">– </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-family: georgia;">to lie. </span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-family: georgia;">Thus, one can be forgiven for suspecting ulterior motives. My background, in part, is in Physics; I trust the scientific process, but have little faith in the character of Man, "good political intentions" and, in this case, the proclaimed "science". </span><span><span><span style="background: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: georgia; line-height: 107%;">So now, the rational sector would like to offer the following prescription: nix the blueprint for the destruction (and humbling) of the U.S. and other prosperous nations </span></span></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303;">–</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: georgia;"> the punitive leveling of "playing fields"</span><span><span style="background: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: georgia; line-height: 107%;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-family: "Times New Roman";">– </span>and deselect the plan's architects, the big-picture illuminati
who can’t see the trees for the forest. Mute the voices incessantly shrieking "CLIMATE CHANGE!" as if the
Apocalypse were due the Tuesday after next. Panic is a lead-footed driver with no sense of direction, and it goes without saying, <i>feigned</i> panic to manipulate "unenlightened" masses is morally repugnant. <i>In the United States</i>, i</span><span style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); color: #030303; font-family: georgia; line-height: 107%;">ncrease our fossil fuel production until we’ve,
once again, reached a point of self-sufficiency; i.e., until we've regained our
energy independence. Then, institute a policy of inverse reciprocity,
where the gains made in “green energy” production are offset by commensurate
reductions in the production of fossil fuels. In so doing, we can maintain the
balance necessary to ensure both our energy independence and our security, while
<i>intelligently</i> advancing toward that most noble globalist vision of averting "The Climaticlysm". </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: georgia;">Lastly and above all else, attempt honesty!</span></span></p>jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-14621597347582199912021-10-02T16:05:00.015-07:002022-04-20T06:15:50.261-07:00Justice and the American Temperament<p> <strong style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">©</span></strong><span style="color: #76a5af; font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"> 2021 – J C, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">An Anonymous CFO</span></i><span style="color: #76a5af;">. All rights reserved*</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There is concern as to what Special Council John Durham can (or
will be permitted to) accomplish in his investigation. More specifically, there is a palpable sense of urgency that the culpable be held to account. The audacious and
egregious, even criminal acts, perpetrated by the elite of our ruling class, intelligence
agencies, military, media, social networking sites, et al – often in seeming
coordination – feel indicative of systemic decay, and the players, like a
necrotizing bacterium that has evolved resistance to our most potent
antibiotics. They are the upper tier "untouchables". My expectation is that Clinton
campaign attorney, Michael Sussman, will, in the extreme, endure brightly
reddened wrists, despite being one of too many lawyers who should be
confronting bars that cannot be passed (Kevin Clinesmith being another case in
point). One could be forgiven for thinking that, with regard to the U.S.
Constitution, these are a “people apart” – “AMINOs”, if you will: Americans In Name
Only. They flout the rules, our laws, and basic morality with seeming impunity,
and therein lies the rub. The belief that there will be no justice, no
commensurate level of accountability, has altered the American personality.
Where there was once passing anger, there is now a perpetual state of low-level
rage, </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9;">and perhaps, for the
unstable among us, a yearning to personally exact “justice”.</span> The d</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">anger is obvious, even to us, the lowly citizenry.</span></span></p>jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-48559173282256331052019-12-08T17:10:00.005-08:002022-08-14T19:42:26.258-07:00How Can Anyone Support President Donald Trump?<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><strong><span style="color: #76a5af;">©</span></strong><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"> 2019 – J C, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">An Anonymous CFO</span></i><span style="color: #76a5af;">. All rights reserved*</span></span></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><span style="color: #b00000; font-family: "times new roman";"></span><br /></span></span></span></div>
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Question</span></b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">: How is it possible for people to support
President Trump, given all of his corrupt misdeeds over the last three
years? </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span><br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 12pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">Answer</span></b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt;">: Please don’t take this as an endorsement of President Trump. It is not! Nor is it an expression of sympathy or affinity for the man. It is merely my attempt to make sense of the thoughts and feelings of those of an ostensibly pro-Trump standpoint. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">I suspect that many
(if not most) of the President’s supporters believe that his conduct and character
are deeply flawed. Some, perhaps, feel they are condemnable; he is, at times, a loathsome bully who, most probably, has breached the law on an occasion or two. Still, they reason: There has been a move afoot since day-one of his tenure – a move <span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 107%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">perpetrated by an elite of a nature far more pernicious and repugnant than anything Donald
Trump has exhibited</span> – to dispose of him like a couple of hundred pounds of putrid,
orange-tinged meat. And so, in response to an attempt at disenfranchisement by their venomous and vile <span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 107%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">“</span>betters<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 107%; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">”</span>, they bitterly, stridently, spitefully, and steadfastly hold to their seemingly untenable position. In their view, President Donald Trump is vastly the lesser of two evils, the "relatively-good Samaritan". He is the bullied bully who has become the beneficiary of profound resentment.</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-48065039040851438122018-04-28T18:13:00.003-07:002023-08-26T11:21:29.249-07:00Freedom of the Press<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><strong><span style="color: #76a5af;">©</span></strong><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"> 2018 – J C, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">An Anonymous CFO</span></i><span style="color: #76a5af;">. All rights reserved*<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 13pt;">It
has been reported that the U.S. news media - "the press" - have blamed President Donald Trump for the diminishment of</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 13pt;">their freedom. I would posit, however, that the U.S. press is not less free, not the pitiable victim of our
truth-averse president; it is incarcerated, bounded by its own biases,
purposes, and allegiances. It has become pathological in its vindictiveness, obsessive
in its single-minded pursuit of an objective; namely the destruction of
"THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT". Its peripheral vision has blackened
through atrophy and its movements are so conjoined as to appear orchestrated.
The American press myopically perceives and bemoans a freedom fading in a barrage of
"withering criticism" leveled by a crass and belligerent president, while it misses what is, in
essence, a prison of its own making: nonobjectivity.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";"></span><br />jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-57769654765204067532016-12-17T17:12:00.002-08:002022-03-04T12:45:20.921-08:00Impossible?<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><strong><span style="color: #76a5af;">©</span></strong><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"> 2016 – J C, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">An Anonymous CFO</span></i><span style="color: #76a5af;">. All rights reserved*</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman";">
</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A few years back, in a conversation I’d had with a young, self-assured Chemical
Engineer, the matter of extraterrestrial visitation arose. His position was
clear from the outset: interstellar distances are so vast as to render such
visitation impossible. Notwithstanding the obvious and begged question “Is
this trip really necessary?”, my suspicion was (and remains) that this is a
perspective shared by most Physicists, Astrophysicists, and Astronomers. From
my perspective, however, “unfathomable” and “impossible” are not synonymous.
One may not know how, or even if, interstellar travel</span><span style="color: red; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">is possible; one does
not therefore know that it is not. A lack of evidence of possibility is not
evidence of impossibility.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: black;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We seem desperate
for certainty, so much so that we cling to our models of the world, of reality. We are, seemingly, bedazzled by them, as if they are a form of jewelry with gemstones so filled with
light, so precisely cut and finely polished, that there appears nothing else worthy
of a turn of the gaze. </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif";"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I am reminded of a simple, though remarkable, toy called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://img.over-blog.com/500x420/4/23/42/31/8/levitron-cherrywood.jpg">The Levitron</a></i>. In
a sense, it is the physical embodiment of an answer to the question “Using
ordinary permanent magnets, how does one stably levitate one such magnet above
another?” The problem is one whose solution most in the scientific realm
characterize as “relatively simple”; yet, until late in the twentieth century,
the consensus among physicists as to the prospect for permanent magnet
levitation could be summed up in a word: Impossible! In 1983, a heedless and
most tenacious tinkerer named Roy M. Harrigan realized the impossible and
<a href="http://www.google.com/patents/US4382245">patented</a> what was to become known as the first spin-stabilized magnetic
levitation device <span face=""calibri" , "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #666666;">– </span></span></span>the prototypic Levitron <span face=""calibri" , "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: small;"><span face=""calibri" , "sans-serif"" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #666666;">–</span></span></span> </span></span></span>employing essentially nothing more than permanent magnets.
And, as if to furnish a line of cosmic poetry with an exclamation point, in 1984, a college
drop-out named <a href="http://amasci.com/maglev/lev/expose1.html#update">Joseph Chieffo</a>, unwitting as to Harrigan’s brilliant, but still
obscure, invention, produced his own distinct, spin-stabilized permanent-magnetism-induced
levitation device. History is replete with seemingly impossible discoveries by
inspired pioneers who are simply too passionate and intuitively attuned to be
impressed by “impossibility”.</span></span> </span> </span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-37462785299886589422015-06-27T18:48:00.001-07:002023-06-26T19:59:19.514-07:00Genius - Installment V - On the Nature of Genius<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><strong><span style="color: #76a5af;">©</span></strong><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"> 2014 – J C, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">An Anonymous CFO</span></i><span style="color: #76a5af;">. All rights reserved*</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "georgia";"></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Genius is inspired action, compelled by passion, by love. It is realized through engagement–a kind of melding–with an idea, a domain, or, most profoundly, the whole of existence. Genius can be manifested in a burst of illumination or creation, or in a trickling, sustained endeavor that may or may not yield a "work of genius". An extraordinary "intelligence quotient" is not requisite for the existence of genius; nevertheless, such quantity may reflect a narrow band or hue (or narrow bands or hues) of the spectrum of genius in that what underlies said quantity may, in fact, be passion–passion for numerical relationships and manipulation, for linguistic or symbolic expression, or the like; or for a subsuming domain that requires (and, through such connection, passionately embraces the development of) fluency in such domains. We sometimes refer to one as "a genius", but as has been said, genius is action, and as some who have "earned" the appellation might attest, such action is only as great as the self is small. That is to say, the action that is genius is impersonal. Uncontrollable, it flows fitfully from a tap in the vastness that is intelligence.</span>jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-29355935955508311022014-12-20T19:27:00.002-08:002022-02-03T06:00:46.316-08:00On the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Guess Who, and The Moody Blues<span style="color: #76a5af;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>©</strong></span><span style="color: #76a5af; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> 2014 – J C, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Anonymous CFO</i>. All rights reserved*</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">
Perhaps it's personal, those glaring omissions. Or maybe it's simply a matter of us not "getting it". Take, for example, the Canadian band The Guess Who, with its seemingly interminable string of memory-etching ballads and rockers: These Eyes, Laughing, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLMF5GM0Kt8"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Undun</span></a>, No Time, American Woman, No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature, Share The Land, Hand Me Down World, Bus Rider, Albert Flasher, Rain Dance...; maybe it just never rose to the level of musicality and renown worthy of the Hall's recognition. And maybe The Guess Who's front-man, the profoundly gifted Burton Cummings, for all of his pianistic virtuosity and what is perhaps the most mellifluous and tunefully explosive voice to have ever graced rock and roll...maybe, in the arcane proceedings and deliberations that are the induction process, his exceptionality counts as nothing more than extraneous ornamentation. If so, then so it is for the band's counterbalance, world class guitarist Randy Bachman, the other half of the brilliantly innovative, woefully short-lived Bachman-Cummings compositional collaboration. But surely the Hall's modus operandi is to exercise exceptionally nuanced and unbiased judgment, a level of discernment commensurate, as one would expect, with notably lofty standards <span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" style="color: #666666; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">–</span> standards that were plainly on display in its induction of, say, Green Day, Rush, Beastie Boys, Abba, and Blondie, each and all at the exclusion of The Guess Who. There is cause for doubt. Consider another supernally talented group, The Moody Blues. As is the case with The Guess Who, this band, according to the Hall, doesn't pass muster, and thus, still resides in the exurbs of Halldom; this, despite their giving genesis to a genre that melded classical music with rock and roll and yielded a number of stunningly gorgeous entries on their laundry list of wildly popular <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM8JjT-97i8">melodic gem</a>s. Call me a rock-sheltered hayseed, but the exclusion of The Moody Blues from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in favor of the noted, pronouncedly less contributive, less notable entrants is, well, somewhat irrational. It would seem the Hall's admission criteria are years overdue for an evolutionary spurt <span face=""arial" , "sans-serif"" style="color: #666666; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">–</span> a particularly radical one if it has been using criteria that weigh more heavily on what's "cool" or palatable to present-day popular tastes, or the Hall's personal likes (or dislikes) ...on anything that deemphasizes that which matters most: the quality of the music. And while it is granted that any estimation as to that quality will invariably and in large part entail subjective means, <em>quality</em> is the one criterion that warrants the Hall's considered efforts to shape and exercise such means. But mutative progression aside, one would hope that, in the near term, the Hall would, at the very least, right what needs righting concerning the two rock and roll marvels at issue. I can think of at least one scenario that would satisfy the avenging poet within: the Hall issues a groveling apology and, by way of a monetary mea culpa, pays The Guess Who and The Moody Blues for the privilege of admitting them retroactively, setting their dates of entry at twenty-five years subsequent to the release of their respective first records. But who heeds the poets?<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Moody Blues</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The Guess Who</span></td></tr>
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jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-23513682725964633302013-12-13T17:31:00.004-08:002024-01-24T07:06:30.562-08:00What Path, The Light?<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><strong>©</strong> 2013 – J C, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">An Anonymous CFO</span></i><span style="color: #76a5af;">. All rights reserved.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Following is a somewhat poetic, decidedly harsh indictment of the world’s loquacious guides to salvation. Titled <em>World Over-heard</em>, it was submitted to a forum known as <a href="http://www.fryzland.com/livwat/index10.html">"The Living Waters Message Board"</a> in 2001.</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">No more words! Too long have flicks and drippings of tongues disserved as wispish proxies for solutions to heart-rending sorrows; promissory pacifiers assuring that miraculous play in fields of light is as near as the days of heaven. Too long have I accepted the currency of purposes, intents, promises, and ‘knowing’ as the medium of exchange, knowing well that weight, substance, and luster render action the basis for the gold standard in this world crying out for golden threads of life-essential light. It is time to pay up in precious nuggets. Enough of “Christ will come again, the meek shall inherit the earth, and then shall we know heaven; but in the meantime, please sit back and enjoy another episode of ‘As the world burns’’’. Enough of hope! Enough of belief! Enough of self-anesthetizing words! Please, Sir, just shut up; shut up and deliver the action – the action of intelligence... now.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">– Joe</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Below is an exchange in connection with the foregoing post.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt;">Joe, I can't tell if you're trying to sound cleverly skeptical or are genuinely confused and troubled. Either way, I'm sorry to "hear" the hostility and misunderstanding on your part. I don't think you've had enough of hope or belief yet, it sounds like you could use a good dose of both. I do hope you are more open to truth than your message suggests, and that you are given an opportunity to come to terms with what is real and what matters.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">–CFry</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">C, I can see how it might appear that my intent was to appear cleverly skeptical, but that was not my purpose. Yes, I am deeply troubled. Confused? – It would be best if you decided this. If you’ve retained interest, please see:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://members.boardhost.com/Galaxey/index.html#mb">http://members.boardhost.com/Galaxey/index.html#mb</a></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">It appears that I’ve over-submitted my initial post by entering it at several boards, anticipating one or two responses at most. I apologize.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">– Joe</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">Joe, I read your reply on the other message board, in which you describe a rapturous, ecstatic experience twenty some years ago. It seems unfortunate to have had an experience that you look back on after many years as a pinnacle event in your life when you almost had a grasp on something great and harmonious. I do not envy your perception of the significance of that moment in time, for as long as you cling to it you can only return empty and unsatisfied to the way things really are.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">2 Cor 12:1-10<br />12:1I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know-God knows. 3And I know that this man-whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows- 4was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 5I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. <br />7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. <br />NIV</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">–CFry</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">C, In this, there is no confusion. There is nothing in ‘what is’ to be grasped, as to grasp is to become attached, and thus, to become disengaged from the action that is life. An event is not important in its capacity to overshadow that</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> which is to come. Its significance is its transformative action, nothing more. One must not mistake citation for fixation.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">–Joe</span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">No, Joe, "to grasp" isn't to become attached, it is to comprehend, to understand. You say that the experience you cited has significance in "its transformative action, nothing more." Yet, when you wrote about this on the other board you used phrases like:<br />"The most meaningful experience of my life occurred at the age of 25..."<br />"In those fleeting moments I lived and understood more than in the entirety of my life prior and since (I’m 47 years of age)."<br />"In the years since, it has become painfully clear..."<br />"We are wasting precious life."<br />"But this is mere knowledge, and knowing is not the same as understanding..."</span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">Tell me again that there is no confusion, and that there is no fixation, as your words lead me to a different conclusion. The description of your "experience" and the aftermath does not conform to your assertions. You also confuse feelings with knowledge. Your transitory feelings will betray you and leave you in despair without answers, whereas genuine knowledge will inform and equip you for decisions and action.<o:p></o:p> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">grasp v. grasped, grasp·ing, grasps. 3. To take hold of intellectually; comprehend. (The American Heritage Dictionary)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">1 Corinthians 14:11<br />If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me. NIV</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Eph 3:14-21<br />For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. <br />Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. <br />NIV</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">– CFry</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">Yes, C, indeed grasp means to comprehend, to understand. And if that was your intent when you noted that</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">“It seems unfortunate to have had an experience that you look back on after many years as a pinnacle event in your life when you almost had a grasp on something great and harmonious”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">I won’t quibble. But please, endure my wish to convey another meaning, viz., to hold, to control. It was in this light, and with respect to the foregoing sentence that I took, or mistook your application of the word. It has been my custom to say ‘grasp of’ when meaning understanding, ‘grasp on’ when implying to hold in the sense of containing, restraining, or controlling. Meanings are easily mistaken.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">CFry: You say that the experience you cited has significance in “its transformative action, nothing more." Yet, when you wrote about this on the other board you used phrases like:</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">"The most meaningful experience of my life occurred at the age of 25..."<br />"In those fleeting moments I lived and understood more than in the entirety of my life prior and since (I’m 47 years of age)."<br />"In the years since, it has become painfully clear..."<br />"We are wasting precious life."<br />"But this is mere knowledge, and knowing is not the same as understanding..."</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Tell me again that there is no confusion, and that there is no fixation, as your words lead me to a different conclusion.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Joe: Then I shall try to explain. An event has significance – meaning, when it is one of action in the stream of life; when the sense of separation from that which we feel as being ‘out there’ ceases. The psychological sense of space, time, observer and observed is now meaningless. One has become the action, the action of life itself. This is the ground of transformation. It is with this in mind that I note that the experience of that 25 year-old was his most meaningful. Yet, I should note that there have been other ‘frolics’ in the stream, just none so profoundly affecting. But, it is essential that I relate that these moments of clarity do not, nor can they ever, arise from fixation, purpose, method, desire, obsession, concentration, purpose, or any other ‘vehicle’ directed toward that end. Truth is pathless.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia";"></span> </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">CFry: “The description of your "experience" and the aftermath does not conform to your assertions.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">Joe: Please, C, explain how this is so and I shall try to clear up any misunderstanding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">CFry: “You also confuse feelings with knowledge.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Joe: I’m not clear on this. Perhaps you are alluding to my statement that ends:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">We are wasting precious life. But this is mere knowledge, and knowing is not the same as understanding...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">What was meant by this is simply that the assertion was coming from the known, from memory, and not from engagement; that is, not from the profound and immediate sense of the crisis that it truly is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">CFry: “Your transitory feelings will betray you and leave you in despair without answers, whereas genuine knowledge will inform and equip you for decisions and action.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Joe: C, I am not your enemy, nor am I an adversary of truth. I sense that some of our differences arise from differing perspectives on the meanings of the words being used. But, if you feel that it runs much more deeply, and you think it worthwhile, then let us confront it head on. If you are right and I am lost in confusion, then your counsel will not have been for naught.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">Joe, I mean no disrespect but you seem to use a lot of words to avoid clear communication. Language is not a mystery, it is a means of sharing information, but with effort we can make it seem mysterious by investing personal coding and nonstandard meanings in standard words. The net effect is a hindrance to mutual understanding, the very function of language.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">When you say that "truth is pathless" you seem to be saying, in the preceding words, that insights into meaning or existence come about through no personal investment or choice, no effort or pursuit on the part of the student. I completely disagree, and say again that such a perspective can only lead to disappointment, frustration and despair. Truth is apprehendable, it can be pursued, learned, and built upon. Insights into value and meaning come through seeking knowledge, particularly of God, who has revealed himself in meaningful language in the text of the Bible, not through capricious experiences in unexpected moments of unaccountable ecstasy.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i>Proverbs 23:23<br />Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i>Psalms 119:30 I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i>Ps 119:33 Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><i>Ps 119:34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. </i><o:p></o:p></span></span><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia";">2 Corinthians 4:2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. NIV</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">C, avoiding clear communication has never been my purpose in this discussion. But, if I have failed to convey my meaning, perhaps there is an alternative explanation. Possibly, wittingly or unwittingly, you’ve become genuinely disinterested, even afraid to step away from that which you believe just long enough to learn the meanings behind the words, to examine matters from a different and unfamiliar perspective. Perhaps you are contented with your life, oblivious to the truth that you are the world, a world crying out for immediate solutions, a world ablaze. I sensed that I’d lost you from the outset when I said “Enough of ‘Christ will come again, the meek shall inherit the earth, and then shall we know heaven…’” Maybe I should have noted that in the teachings attributed to Christ I have found profound meaning and beauty; that it is the peripheral commentary – the interpretations that I have generally found to be misguided. But, I suspect this would not have helped matters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">CFry: “When you say that "truth is pathless" you seem to be saying, in the preceding words, that insights into meaning or existence come about through no personal investment or choice, no effort or pursuit on the part of the student. Truth is apprehendable, it can be pursued, learned, and built upon. Insights into value and meaning come through seeking knowledge, particularly of God, who has revealed himself in meaningful language in the text of the Bible, not through capricious experiences in unexpected moments of unaccountable ecstasy.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;">Joe: What I am saying is that truth, reality, what is, or whatever label one applies, is realized simply – no investment, no preparation, no schooling, no gurus, no initiation, no ‘winding up for the pitch’ required. It is as near as breathing, as conspicuous as the words you are reading, as accessible as life itself.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">C, it is clear from your responses that my writing has served only to annoy or perhaps even anger you. I can understand this. I have entered your ‘realm’ and spouted ‘heresy’. I take no pleasure in the misery of another. I won’t disturb you again. Besides, wasn’t it me who said ‘No more words!’? Goodbye, and best wishes in your pursuit of truth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">– Joe</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Joe, there has been neither anger nor annoyance in my responses to you, only an attempt to speak directly and honestly to the premises you stated. I did not want to be offensive to you in any way, and I'm sorry that you've taken my replies that way, but I also know it would be of no benefit to you to have a dialogue that did not address the issues at all. Though you have said farewell, I hope that you will return to read this comment, and realize that I have spoken from concern, not misery or hostility, and I hope that you will continue to consider the words of Jesus and of all the Bible, for there is substance there that you've not yet found. Despite your denial of the need, I hope you'll search for it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif";">As Jesus said, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."<br />Matt 13:45-46 NIV<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">– CFry</span></span></span></span></div>
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jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-27769686259900429932013-08-03T15:39:00.029-07:002021-01-08T13:38:52.480-08:00Delicate Balance: The Threshold Of American Revolution<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><strong>©</strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> 2013 – J C, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Anonymous CFO</i>. All rights reserved*</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We
Americans, as a whole, are a fairly adaptive lot. While there is much that makes
us hot under the collar, we tend to take the wide-angled view and note that
things are rarely so bad as to warrant anything more than the occasional rant. When
confronted with news of the latest scandal or crisis and the implicit or
explicit message that we’ve again been robbed of our wealth or our liberty, we commonly
observe “We’ve been screwed again”, ingest antacids, and carry on with
lives less fair, less full. What is it that allows
us to suffer the manifold indignities and
the diminishment of life and self at the exacting of agents of injustice? Is it
that we are sufficiently comfortable, satisfied, and thus, disinclined to stir the
pot lest we become scalded through our righteous agitation? Are we too
contented to face systems of seemingly impenetrable,
laminar complexity to right what are obvious and profound wrongs? My suspicion
is that the searing, tensing affronts and injustices wrought by the immorality<em> </em>of our spiritually barren, feckless "leaders" and the "movers and shakers" who retain them–these perfidies that we have come to expect and to which we have become inured, that we assimilate and adapt to–are
indeed counteracted by comforts, pleasures, and trappings that are balm in
the lives of “ordinary Americans”. We will continue to endure the bursting of
bubbles, the scandals, the crises, the inequities, iniquities, and mendacities
symptomatic of our condition–the condition of an America on the gurney–as long
as there is <em>the soothing and</em> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the balance</i>.
Is there a breaking point at which we say (and mean) enough is enough? Most
probably, but the noted agents of injustice have become remarkably skilled in
their art, ever refining, ever testing and stretching the limits of our adaptability, and, it is hoped, ever regardful of our modulus of elasticity and that which constitutes the delicate balance.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/37498118@N07/6152731987/in/photolist-anGmRZ"><span style="font-size: small;">Thomas Jefferson's Original Gravestone</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: "times new roman";">– </span>Lessons Lost?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Courtesy of Jenni Feathers</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span><br />jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-37963391588307495372013-07-17T10:56:00.001-07:002019-07-06T13:29:31.399-07:00Smoke and Mirrors<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>©</strong></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> 2013 – J C, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Anonymous CFO</i>. All rights reserved*</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Legend has it that in the 3<sup>rd</sup> century B.C., Greek polymath Archimedes invented what has been called the “death ray” or, alternatively, the “heat ray”. The purpose of this Flash Gordonesque-sounding device was to burn and destroy enemy ships from afar using focused rays of sunlight. For Archimedes, “father of mathematical physics”, the reasoning would have been relatively simple: sunlight, reflected from the concavity of a parabolic mirror of relatively sizeable surface area, converges upon a comparatively small, suitably remote, area of quite combustible material, generating intense heat and, ultimately, fire. Whether this “weaponization” of the sun truly occurred is still, in the year 2225 A.A., the subject of debate and experimentation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The sun set on Archimedes in the year 212 B.C. His legendary ray, however, has since evolved. In 1984, the year of "Big Brother", Archimedes’ “heat ray” was updated by your <i>Anonymous CFO</i>. Below is a depiction of “SOLAR”–Sunlight Optimization through L-Angled Reflection–in Archimedean setting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Please note that SOLAR was conceived purely as an exercise in inventive thinking, without knowledge of the legend of the “burning-glasses” of Archimedes; moreover, there have been no ships set ablaze as a consequence.</span></span></span></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLCGONEKZzRGlqkOrFXavf-hWrpUFMYgcFiSL9x56Y-tduF2Wo3WaUSFrUt3eE_lEd0f6QqalFlp6nrpyVgaurv9T7vyJJyYZiUI8myFPhgQ-3fuCSAuc0nDmmcYiTla3W-btWIei_4Gll/s1600/Archimedes%2527+SOLution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLCGONEKZzRGlqkOrFXavf-hWrpUFMYgcFiSL9x56Y-tduF2Wo3WaUSFrUt3eE_lEd0f6QqalFlp6nrpyVgaurv9T7vyJJyYZiUI8myFPhgQ-3fuCSAuc0nDmmcYiTla3W-btWIei_4Gll/s640/Archimedes%2527+SOLution.jpg" width="538" /></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
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jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-10589896474695132552013-07-08T17:08:00.002-07:002019-07-06T13:29:47.884-07:00Genius - Installment IV - The Slow Genius<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>©</strong></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> 2013 – J C, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Anonymous CFO</i>. All rights reserved*</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Albert Einstein, regarded by many as the quintessential genius, was known as a “slow thinker”. Most probably the appellation alluded to the “mechanics” of his thinking, not the underlying neurophysiological processes. This installment on Genius will attempt a glimpse of the problem-solving mechanics and the collective personality of Einstein and others who, in the author’s view, are reasonably (albeit oxymoronically) characterized as “slow geniuses”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Slow geniuses are of a type less inclined to seek the shortest distance between two points than to search for meaning in the space, points, and movement along the traverse. They fixate, not so much on solution as essence, seeking holistic resonance where most would contentedly settle for the interrogative’s bottom line; for them, the question is no less significant than the answer. They are often vague, intuitive gropers who are not averse to “winging it”. Frequently, and perhaps, at times, injudiciously, they will jettison their bags of scholarly tools lest they impede entry into those narrow, pitchy spaces–places within which may exist curled dimensions of meaning hitherto uncharted. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The thought processes of the slow genius may seem strange or disorderly, or obsessively redundant; but the appearance of one following one’s “gut” can be deceiving. Employing feedback looping, this genius examines and reexamines points in question with what, to the casual observer, would appear a Rain Man-like tolerance for monotony. Our genius is looking for chinks in a seemingly ironclad understanding, with or without benefit of the subtly different light of a recent insight. Occasionally, a hairline crack is revealed, though, more often than not, it is proven a mere craze. There are, however, occasions where, under seemingly serendipitous circumstances, such flaws are found to propagate deep beneath the surface. The slow genius understands that any such flaw might be part of a network, and that, as a consequence, the present clarity-impeding barrier could succumb to a well-placed, thoughtfully nuanced nudge, shattering under the weight of its own illogicality. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The characteristic “slowness” of the slow genius may be innate, or it may be something into which he or she has grown through years of creative pursuit. This is one who is, at times, ambivalent: resentful of his or her relative inability to “think on one’s feet”–particularly under social circumstance–but one who is undyingly, deeply grateful for a most profound gift. Invariably it is the gift–the light of one illumined–that bur<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>ns away the fog of mixed emotion.</span></span>
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jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-36977183183943032672013-07-01T08:48:00.000-07:002019-07-06T13:30:05.540-07:00Genius - Installment III - The Dialogue<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; tab-stops: 4.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>©</strong> 2013 – J C, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Anonymous CFO</i>. All rights reserved*</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><em>Inquisitor</em></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: <br />If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? More important, why are you doing work that gives you little or no satisfaction at the expense of passion-quenching creative pursuit? Why haven't you used your intelligence to make a fortune, to free yourself to live out the rest of your life in a state of unbridled discovery and creativity?<br /><br /><em>Genius</em>: <br />I am inclined to answer “Contempt!”–contempt for a system that requires me to be both creator and entrepreneur that I may earn the wherewithal, and hence, the “privilege”, to create without constraint; but I know that my reasons run deeper. It isn’t a matter of principle–or obstinacy (though I am not necessarily a rational being in every circumstance)–that drives me to buck the system and settle for a life of “breadwinning”, half-hearted, half-baked wealth-generating schemes, and part-time creation. I do so because I dare not suspend my creative work, but more on this in a bit. Now one might argue that there <em>are</em> breadwinner/creator success stories. With this I would have no disagreement–it is this very notion, together with the creative work itself, that sustains me. I would posit, however, that not all luminous part-time creators are successful; that those successes would be considerably more prevalent were it not for the albatross that is the green-paper chase. Of course, I could reject the path of the part-time creator as well: refuse or quit the job, draw a monthly welfare check, forsake all of the trappings of the 40-60 hours-a-work-week trudge, and spend all of my time doing what I love. But I am not without ethical sense, and the fact is, some of those trappings may be conducive, if not essential, to my creating. Moreover, there is the oft-considered matter of the ruinous effect such rebellion might have on familial relationships, the heart-rending sorrow. Not all geniuses are ruthless, devoid of empathic sense. Returning to the matter of the entrepreneur, you might reasonably ask: Couldn’t you mount a one-man entrepreneurial “blitzkrieg” to quickly get over what, for you, would surely be a mere bump in the road? Even for the genius–particularly one who finds business mind-numbingly dull and distasteful–consummation of a wealth-generating endeavor rarely occurs quickly, certainly not quickly enough for one whose only interest is to meaningfully create. Putting one’s passion “on hold” is torturous, and it can be destructive. Consider the danger of losing that narrow “window of opportunity”, the period in one’s life where his or her peculiar form of creativity is most efficacious; or creative atrophy: the deterioration and seizing of the workings of the too-long-dormant “machine”. Then there is the hazard of focal shift: the losing of oneself to the rush of amassing ever greater wealth. To squander one’s creative gift in pursuit of monetary gain is, to the mind of the genius, self-anathematization. <br /><br />The wisdom-in-a capsule adage “Do what you love and the money will follow” is simplistic hearsay; moreover, contrary to the aphoristically expressed convictions of Francis Galton concerning the indomitable spirit and unstoppable ascent of great intellect– untimely death aside–genius does not always “out”.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/40906734@N07/6957138061/in/photolist-bAM9Le-d3shLE"><span style="color: #45818e;">"Punch Clock"</span></a> - Courtesy of Secret5468</span></div>
jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-31573774860246488022013-06-26T11:16:00.002-07:002022-04-29T09:43:43.694-07:00Genius - Installment II - The Measure of Mind<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: #76a5af;"><strong>©</strong> 2013 – J C, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #76a5af;">An Anonymous CFO</span></i><span style="color: #76a5af;">. All rights reserved.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Can intelligence be measured? Ask a psychometrician–one specializing in the field of “mental measurement”–and the answer would be a resounding “Yes!” Ask ten philosophers to define intelligence, however, and you’d almost certainly get ten different, and perhaps conflicting, definitions. Such "technicalities" aside, the psychometrician’s instrument of choice for gauging intelligence is, of course, the IQ test. Now, many would posit (or, at least, agree) that a genius is simply one who manifests exceptional intelligence, and thus is one of extremely high IQ. This, however, can be at odds with the convention of recognizing those of great and inspiring intellectual or artistic achievement as geniuses. Consider the case of William Shockley and Luis Alvarez. In the 1920s, each was administered an IQ test in connection with psychologist </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=40678"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lewis Terman's</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><u> </u></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">now famous study of gifted children, intended to, among other things, identify future Nobel laureates. Neither William nor Luis demonstrated even the minimum 135 IQ necessary to join the Terman group, sometimes referred to as Terman’s “Termites”; nevertheless, both went on to become physicists of renown and Nobel laureates. Moreover, not one of the Terman group, comprising more than 1,500 gifted children with IQs ranging from 135 to 180+, went on to garner a Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So, do IQ tests measure intelligence? I would put it a bit differently and suggest that they quantify certain manifestations of intelligence–rapid processing, for example–while missing or minimizing other manifestations, such as intuitive sensibility, which serves the true visionary like a "sixth sense". The preceding case, taken in isolation, is merely interesting–of little, if any, significance. I suspect, however, that were it taken in broader context, it would serve to underscore the incapacity of IQ tests to identify those most able to beget revolutionary productions of the mind. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0UZnADsckVMWG32Iqeb8J0IiAl9zzdbBS7wVQjkb6fJyDEQC-UIL7ps30DtVyuQrry53-2yXlojFmIuaqnPN2nfFcoHVYn1Q77GOTW7ad4mq0TBD-5P9u7Xr0uCKbOTq9lEulT8TZBzZ/s242/imagesCAIT901W.jpg" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA0UZnADsckVMWG32Iqeb8J0IiAl9zzdbBS7wVQjkb6fJyDEQC-UIL7ps30DtVyuQrry53-2yXlojFmIuaqnPN2nfFcoHVYn1Q77GOTW7ad4mq0TBD-5P9u7Xr0uCKbOTq9lEulT8TZBzZ/s1600/imagesCAIT901W.jpg" xya="true" /></a></span></div>
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jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1471974057462646573.post-90386353548614641972013-06-20T15:04:00.002-07:002019-07-06T13:32:33.704-07:00Genius - Installment I - The Blessed "Naïve"<span style="color: #76a5af; font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><strong>©</strong> 2013 – J C, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Anonymous CFO</i>. All rights reserved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Geniuses tend to know quite a bit, and, as most of us have learned, “knowledge is power”. So, as one might expect, these luminaries make up a pretty powerful, albeit, relatively sparsely populated, group of problem solvers. Interestingly, as it turns out, all of that horsepower can sometimes be an impediment to discovery. One particular problem exemplifies this rather nicely and is stated thus: Using ordinary permanent magnets, how do you stably levitate one such magnet above another? Anyone who’s had even a modicum of interest in the peculiar behavior of magnets has tried this repeatedly, perhaps even obsessively, only to become frustrated as the would-be floater, without fail, flipped over and slammed into the intended supporting magnet, polar north against polar south. It is a problem whose solution most in the scientific realm would <em>now</em> characterize as “relatively simple”; yet, remarkably, no one–not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">even</i> the scientists–were up to the task. Perhaps the scientists can be forgiven. After all, they'd entered a state of suspended curiosity. They’d learned that a </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v400/n6742/abs/400323a0.html"><span style="color: #45818e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">theorem</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> of renowned nineteenth century mathematician Samuel Earnshaw prohibited the arrangement of permanent magnets in such a way that a magnet of that arrangement could be held in static levitation entirely through the effect of that arrangement. Ever since, physicists had been of the mind that any attempt to produce levitation with permanent magnets merely served as testament to one’s scientific illiteracy. Then, in 1983, inventor and ostensible member of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Society for the Scientifically Illiterate</i>, Roy M. Harrigan, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.google.com/patents/US4382245"><span style="color: #45818e; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">patented</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> what was to become known as the <a href="http://www.amasci.com/maglev/lev/expose1.html"><span style="color: #45818e;">first spin-stabilized magnetic levitation device</span></a>, employing permanent magnets and nothing else of consequence. His invention, an elegant display of eye-popping, fantasy-feeding flight, is now the popular levitating spinning top device known as the Levitron®. Now, before you release your inner cynic and note that the likelihood of such a discovery occurring in the dimly lit outskirts of academia is tantamount to finding a particular grain of sand in the Sahara, know that lightning struck twice with this very discovery. In 1984, a college drop-out named <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/305557080/Blindly-Down-a-Separate-Path">Joseph Chieffo</a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, who was unaware of Harrigan’s patented (but little known) air-borne revelation, also discovered spin-stabilized magnetic levitation.</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgscl1-1_hVMQcv900BlJAZ5InmtVYef27jiSgfMbVYEiyOmJ8XXpGHf5jr4j_AZ5Wir35eclUGEsq6r_CcSdh-l8L0O08ciBqk3GYk4a_YqG-oBnc90Ygd0Ht5GGnLdmd8tRhSUk60HnFA/s1600/levitron_photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgscl1-1_hVMQcv900BlJAZ5InmtVYef27jiSgfMbVYEiyOmJ8XXpGHf5jr4j_AZ5Wir35eclUGEsq6r_CcSdh-l8L0O08ciBqk3GYk4a_YqG-oBnc90Ygd0Ht5GGnLdmd8tRhSUk60HnFA/s1600/levitron_photo.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Levitron® - Courtesy of img finder</span></td></tr>
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</span></span></span>jchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00731456134831195054noreply@blogger.com