Archive for November, 2011

On the Expansion of Our Religious Universe: But it’s still one

By on Nov 9, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

My brother has a telescope.
 
 
Up on the wall of my brother's garage is a National Geographic map,"The Heavens."
 
 
One section of the descriptive copy opens with this line.
 
Our galaxy was thought to be the entire unverse until the early 20th Century. Today we know it is only one of billions of galaxies.

 
How many other situations have there been were we thought there was only one of something, but we discovered there were many more? Over the past century and a half people have been discovered that there are more religious traditions than the one they grew up with. The world is much bigger, religiously speaking, if we think of all of the traditions that are available for us to explote now. Our Bible is bigger. It's a World Bible now. Some chapters are familiar to us, but others may not be. Our spiritual universe is much bigger now than it was for our forefathers. But it's still one universe. -gw
 
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On Immigration Reformed: By laws that keep workers from working

By on Nov 8, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

 
Unemployment is high, yet there are jobs that go unfilled. Like how about all the pickers needed to harvest Washington apples right now? The governor has enlisted the aid of a little more than 100 prisoners to help pick before frost hits. A drop in the bucket compared to what is needed. The same situation is true on the Central California Coast where the pictures above were taken. Pickers are needed, but don't show up for fear of being deported. My wife said, we need a world with no borders. Is that too utopian? Baha'u'llah affirmed that such a world already exists. Humankind simply hasn't caught on yet.
 
My cousins have apple orchards in Michigan. I wonder how they're doing with the new laws and regulations? -gw
 
 

On the Shuttle to the Airport: There is nothing like a child

By on Nov 7, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

It was early, cold, sun just beginning to peak through. The van was parked. We had gotten on the shuttle for the short ride over to the terminal, and then … There is nothing like a child to brighten the day. –gw
 
 

Christ has addressed the world, saying, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”—that is, men must become pure in heart to know God. The teachings have had great effect. Spiritual souls! Tender souls! The hearts of all children are of the utmost purity. They are mirrors upon which no dust has fallen.

 

On the Influence of Birth Order: The youngest child

By on Nov 7, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

I was a youngest child. Was I spoiled? I think that’s the wrong question. Too pejorative. But as anyone who grew up with at least one sibling, there is a lot to contemplate when it comes to birth order. Why am I the way I am when my brother/sister is the say he/she is?
 
I was the planned baby, a true baby-boomer born after the war, three weeks before the family moved to the house on Main Street in Downers Grove where I spent the first 18 years of my life. Yes, I went to college, but it took me two decades before I found a fitting career. I’m a late bloomer, but better late than never.
  
I have five children, a stepdaughter, three sons and a daughter. Each child is so different from the next, birth order influenced, most definately. It’s probably not helpful to ask, who had it better? But I can certainly identify with the challenges of my youngest. I had them, too. -gw
 
 

Train these children with divine exhortations. From their childhood instill in their hearts the love of God so they may manifest in their lives the fear of God and have confidence in the bestowals of God. Teach them to free themselves from human imperfections and to acquire the divine perfections latent in the heart of man. The life of man is useful if he attains the perfections of man. If he becomes the center of the imperfections of the world of humanity, death is better than life, and nonexistence better than existence. Therefore, make ye an effort in order that these children may be rightly trained and educated and that each of them may attain perfection in the world of humanity. Know ye the value of these children for they are all my children.

 
“The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912”, 2nd. ed. (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982), pp. 52–54 [147]
 
 

On Dance Hybrids: No folly

By on Nov 6, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

 
Pat is Diane's older sister and at 80 dances up a storm at the Follies with a group of other octogenarians on California's Central Coast. They dance for charity and have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for fighting Parkinson's Disease, which Diane suffered from. Pat always wanted to dance, and now she finally gets to do it.
 
Speaking of dance, Taraz in Denver has been uploading lots of dance videos to his Youtube channel Tarazatfilms. This one is a synchronized belly dance-hybrid.  It's a new day, no folly. Juxtaposition/synchronization/hybridization is what this new world we live in is all about.  See: "Unity the Easy Way" by Kathleen Kettler Lehman.  -gw
 

On Birds Are Beautiful: In formation

By on Nov 6, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

 
Birds area beautiful. In formation even more so. Even if they're starlings. -gw
 
 

This is the stage which the world is now approaching, the stage of world unity, which, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá assures us, will, in this century, be securely established. “The Tongue of Grandeur,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself affirms, “hath … in the Day of His Manifestation proclaimed: ‘It is not his to boast who loveth his country, but it is his who loveth the world.’” “Through the power,” He adds, “released by these exalted words He hath lent a fresh impulse, and set a new direction, to the birds of men’s hearts, and hath obliterated every trace of restriction and limitation from God’s Holy Book.”

 
 
 
 

On Commemoration of a Life: Release for Diane

By on Nov 6, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

 
Friends and family, including Bonita and I, attended a commemoration of the life of my brother Dick's wife Diane who recently passed to the next world at the age of 75 after five especially difficult years of illness. -gw
 
 

At first it is very difficult to welcome death, but after attaining its new condition the soul is grateful, for it has been released from the bondage of the limited to enjoy the liberties of the unlimited.

 

On No Better Mother on Earth: A remembrance

By on Nov 6, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

Brent's music was so apropos to the evening. -gw
 
 

The training which a child first receives through his mother constitutes the strongest foundation for his future development…

 

On Even Light Drinking: Studies and the law

By on Nov 6, 2011 in All categories | Comments Off

 
There are several places in the world where alcohol consumption is a part of the local culture yet people live a long time. There have been so many scientific studies done with seemingly conflicting results. Ultimately, Baha'is avoid drinking alcohol, not because it's unhealthy, but because that is one of the laws of Baha'u'llah.
 
Then Anna continues:
 
Anna's presentation, Ruhi Resources

Although this does not affect us much at our age, you should also know that Bahá’u’lláh prohibits the drinking of alcohol and, of course, substance abuse. Drinking alcohol is really one of the greatest social ills that exists today in the world. It is one of the most common causes of violence and the ruin of healthy family life. To tell you the truth, I have never understood why people would take something that interferes with their minds and makes them lose their  ability to think clearly. Drinking makes people capable of acting in shameful ways, when we have actually been created noble.

Anna's presentation in Book 6 of the Ruhi Institute
 
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