27 September 2021……one week. Ask me.

My peppers. Scorpion peppers. I love the fact that Texas has two growing seasons. The other one starts in a few months. I got a little bit of a late start, but since peppers are perennial I will just go into the next season. I hope it doesn’t snow and freeze in the months ahead like it did a few months ago. 

So, 2012 was said to be the end of the Mayan calendar. The end of the world? Maybe the end of an epic. 

Was it supposed to be the end of the world or did something unseen just change. Like a light-switch was flipped. 

President Obama had four years. 

President Trump had four years. 

President Biden has had his few months. 

It looks like the pendulum is swinging back and forth at an ever increasing rate.

 

Another analogy. Whatever “mortar” was holding the proverbial wall together simply evaporated at the end of 2012. Somethings will remain standing for a while. Eventually there will be a pile of rubble, metaphorically speaking.

 

But what do I honestly know?  I’m not any kind of a prophet. I’m just a guy in a wheelchair that likes to watch TV shows about things that question conventional wisdom.  Conventional wisdom, whatever that is. 

So I’ve thrown in my two cents. 

New topic. 

I had an insight. I was being attacked for something I wrote on Facebook. Ultimately it caused me to think. 

Many years ago I took a political science class. One thing that stuck with me was the teacher’s definition for politics, “the art of living”. I’ve always liked that definition. Still that has not been something I personally believed. Politics, for me has always been a more compartmentalized thing. 

Many people see politics as something you live every day. Honestly I have tried to avoid anything overtly “political” for years. Impossible, I know. 

That is how I see life. 

Everything is spiritual/religious. 

Some people my try to compartmentalize spirituality or religion. I try to compartmentalize politics. Neither one should, or can be relegated to a second position. They both constantly battle for first position but neither can be first because neither can be. At the same time they have very minimal interaction with each other, barely acknowledging each other at times and other times tripping all over each other. 

The way I view religion/spiritual matters is that everything we do is somehow spiritual/religious in nature. Politics, while it does exists, is only there for some of our interactions with other humans. Religion/spirituality is more about our interactions with God. 

That is a better way to look at it. Spirituality/religion is about our interactions with God. Politics is about our interactions with humans. 

Do some humans worry about other humans interactions with God? Yes. They try. Ultimately any persons relationship with God is very personal. Religion/spirituality is more about our relationship with God. Politics is about our interactions with humankind. Religion and spirituality are almost identical in my book. Not the same. Still you can’t have one without the other. 

Some things that are both religious and political:

Making our food or eating our food. 

Me going to work or choosing what I want to do when I grow up. 

Marriage or family matters. 

You could write an endless list. 

Politics and spirituality/religion are very intertwined. Almost inseparable. 

20 September 2021……Damn.

I had an insight about my condition since I’ve had the stroke. I have been noticing that every so often, maybe about six weeks, l start to become more confused about things that I am trying to do. 

I am still smart, I’ve had many people comment on that who are doctors and lawyers and I have had tests to confirm that my intellect is great. I had Psychiatrist give me recommendations about how I am doing since I had a stroke, a form of brain damage.

Even with all my intellectual abilities my intellect and emotions are greatly affected from time to time buy something that happened because of my stroke. I don’t know the word to best describe it, but I have a feeling someday I will.

I can get very caught up in whatever I am discussing or debating someone about. In fact I can lose my train of thought sometimes so badly that it looks like the train jumped the track.

I have been trying, and learned repeatedly, that my super power is listening, not talking. I really prefer writing because it is less likely to convey emotions that I don’t want to express at any given moment. 

I am like a bunch of yarn that is all wadded up with no rhyme or reason. My emotions can overpower almost anything I do. I once was in an argument with someone about something, I don’t remember what. But the argument came to a point where I tried to place myself equal to God. I know that is wrong. At that moment I didn’t care. I wanted to be right, and that is the only place logic would take me. 

Logic is very important. 

Emotions are very important

. 

They mix together very badly at times. Both are essential. 

The best example I can think of is an example I learned about many years ago. A state legislature passed and the governor signed into law that  dealt  with the homeless “problem”. They would buy the homeless person a house. I don’t know the details but it was a very sound idea that doesn’t make a lot of sense. But it made many people very happy and saved the state lots of money. Maybe I will look up the program and see if it is still going. 

Logic and emotion do not  mix well. Without a mixture of the two you cannot have compassion. We all need to have the compassion of a surgeon. A surgeon helps, or can help. That said it is by doing some things that would be unthinkable by a less skilled person. 

We all need the compassion of a surgeon. They have a very unique blend of emotions, logic and skill. 

So, we all have conditions that cause us great confusion. Some conditions are chemical. Some are biological/physical. Some are placed upon us.  Sometimes we place them on ourselves. 

3 September 2021…..wow, wow, wow

So I have decided to grow peppers. I have one ghost pepper and

 one bird pepper. 

I started some scorpion peppers from seed. 

I love the part of the world I’m in. There are basically two growing seasons. So I hope I didn’t plant to late for the plants I started from seeds. I hope that I can grow everything year round. 

I have a few other seeds that I will start later. The biggest problem I have at the moment is I don’t have the space because I live in an apartment. I want to have a house some days. I know that I can’t do anything myself for maintenance. I would need to hire someone that can help with that. I can make a very good mess but cleaning it up that is something very different. 

There are lots of things I would like to do. For example I found a bee keeping course. 

All academic.

 It has been fun. I would love to do bee keeping because you can get honey out of it. The thing I have learned most from the course is I do not have the capacity to do the things that are required to do bee keeping. Desire only helps so much. 

So what do I do. Maybe I can be the benefactor for someone that really wants to do bee keeping. Who knows. 

I found something that I can do easily. Making vinegar.

 You only have to stir it once a day for 20-30 days. Then run it through a strainer and put it in a bottle. Granted, I need some help filtering and bottling it. But that is once a month. Stirring it one daily is right up my alley. So I have figured out how to use/waste my time once again. I think the vinegar I am making will be good for bbq sauce. Apricot. 

Now something completely different. 

I was talking with my children. They don’t like it when I get upset. Fair. I don’t like it when they get upset. Fair. I don’t know anyone that likes it when someone gets upset. That said I do not like or agree with how people call it a “negative” emotion. It is just an emotion. 

Unpleasant? I would agree with that. 

Emotions are not positive or negative. They are pleasant or unpleasant. 

Justifying emotion is a very loaded term. Everyone has the right to feel the way they feel. I don’t always agree with peoples reasons for why they feel a certain way. Still who am I to say that the why someone feels is “right” or “wrong”. I may not like the choice of a person at any given moment. That is my right. 

So as my children and I were talking. The story of the Savior and driving the money changers out of the temple came to mind. I’m sure some people may not have liked his anger. Whether you think it was justified or unjustified. Does it matter?  

I don’t want anyone to think that I am justifying not acting towards others in love and compassion. That said anger is not a “negative” emotion. It is an emotion. Full stop.