by

Our Daily Thread 2-20-15

Good Morning!

It’s Friday!!!

Today’s header photo and the photos below are from Cheryl.

beach eagle cherylcheryl eagles

I’ve never in my life seen that many together. Nice shots Cheryl. 🙂

______________________________________________

On this day in 1792 President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act thereby creating the U.S. Post Office. 

In 1815 the USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart fought the British ships Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captures both, but lost the Levant after encountering a British squadron.

In 1839 Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia. 

And in 1921 “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” was released starring Rudolph Valentino. 

______________________________________________

Quote of the Day

“Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.”

Bobby Unser

______________________________________________

 Today is Charles-Auguste de Beriot’s birthday.

And it would have been Kurt Cobain’s too. Such wasted talent. 😦

Covering Bowie.

______________________________________________

Anyone have a QoD?

75 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-20-15”

  3. Good morning Kim & Aj.
    It’s Friday! You know what that means?
    Not much. No Y today.
    No Lions today.
    We were supposed to usher at the Hendersonville Little Theater tonight for the “Miracle Worker”. That’s the story of Helen Keller.
    That’s off too.
    3.1 degrees, up one from earlier. a record for this date, and probably overall for Hendersonville.
    They say that it’s cold in Florida too.
    I had trouble sleeping last night because it was too hot in our bedroom. I kept the thermostat up to keep the furnace running because of the exposed pipes in the basement.
    Bu according to Paul Speranza the worst is over for temperature. We have wintery mix next week, with temperatures in the twenties. We can handle that.

    🙂 Everyone have a nice day and keep warm.

    Like

  4. It is 17 degrees here so not quite as cold as it is where y’all are. I’m ready for that spring like weather to return. Not sure if this really cold weather will reset the bloom date for our Birthday Tree. March 11 is when we hope it will be in bloom.

    My next writing assignment is an investigative article about something that I would be able to write on given access to sources, and a reason that I could be one to cover the story. Naturally I am thinking of Donna and her expertise. At first I thought of nothing, but as I brainstormed I thought of several possibilities. I am interested to know about the disposal of the mercury light bulbs. How many people do it the right way and how many don’t, and what does that mean for our environment? I am interested to know about our local library system and why Christmas seems to have been pushed aside or neglected and other religious or cultural holidays are taking priority. Why not equal treatment? And why all the programming about the Muslim faith? I also want to know where the counties stand in my state in implimentation of Common Core. From what I understood last year from being in a meeting is that each county was at a different level depending on the money either that they could get by faster implementation, or by funds available in their system. It seems rather crazy to me to have all the counties at different levels, but maybe this will give the less affluent areas the advantage by being “behind,” The last shall be first in God’s ways of blessing.

    What would you do an investigative story on?

    Like

  5. Janice, if you want to understand the Islamic faith, a good source would be God’s War on Terror by Walid Shoebat. (Co written with Joel Richardson. I’m sure Richardson put in in acceptable English.)
    Shoebat was a Muslim terrorist, reared in Bethlehem by a Muslim father and Christian (Catholic) mother. He took the rout of jihad ’till he was converted. His book compares the Islamic and Christian doctrines. Several of my quotes, including two on today’s Politics Thread are from his book.

    Like

  6. Posting over on the prayer thread made me think of this…for fun
    What is the oddest, most delicious sandwich that you like?
    I like canned pineapple slices and American cheese on white bread with mayonaisse. (I haven’t had one in a long time)

    Like

  8. I like baloney sandwiches. But I almost never have them because we don’t keep baloney around. I save several kinds of mustard to put on them though.
    I like peanut butter and banana also, but seldom eat them because of the calories.

    Like

  9. What a beautiful sight on the header photo this morning! On the news last night they had a shot of an eagle flying over Denver….the news helicopter was out in the morning reporting on the morning traffic rush. The reporter saw this eagle flying over downtown…it was beautiful!
    It is going to be in the 40’s today…tonight the snow begins to fall…as well as our temps…winter is coming back for a while! Busy day…gotta get up an’ Adam…where did that phrase originate…my Mom said that every morning when we were kids?!

    Like

  12. Thanks for praying, Kim. That was the second night that troubled seventeen year old started sleeping out in the hunting mansion again. He is by himself. That is of some concern to me as his mind wanders down strange avenues. But, I believe, he has discovered the value in sleep and exercise so he is generally asleep shortly after hitting the sack. Also, seven year old is no longer in the coat room next to my room and is talking of nightmares again. So, lots to pray about around here.

    Like

  13. We get eagles like that along the river when the salmon or steelhead are running. They follow the fish. And the road kill. We saw one dining on the grade a few days ago. It was in company with three turkey vultures and some magpies and crows. I did not check to see what they were having but suspect it was deer.

    Like

  15. A lifelong favorite sandwich that makes everyone else say “Yuck” without even trying it (a reaction I have honestly never understood) is peanut butter on rye. My mom and I also both love(d) banana sandwiches: toasted bread (rye is wonderful) with butter and sliced bananas. And a sandwich I used to like, but didn’t like anymore last time I tried it, consists of chopped black olives mixed into cream cheese and spread on bread to make a sandwich. As a child I had it on white bread, but I haven’t eaten white bread in years; maybe it’s only good on white bread. That used to be the only way I liked cream cheese; I prefer butter on a bagel, and I don’t like any desserts made with cream cheese (yes, that includes cheesecake).

    I think that eagle in the header may have had had a fish. He came up out of the water and landed on the tree, and he kept putting his head down. Because of the trees between me and the bird, it was hard to find a place to focus and zoom in, and once he moved a foot or two from that spot I couldn’t get any more good ones. It was actually probably a “she,” as it was a large bird and the females are bigger, but I really can’t tell them apart. The juvenile on the ice (left photo below) gave me several good shots. The birds en masse in the trees were farther away, too far away to zoom and still get any detail at all. That’s just part of the group; my husband estimated we saw 70 birds. Last year others were counting, and the number was more than 80. They told us some years there are more than 100. (This year we didn’t go with an official eagle watch group; my husband put the coordinates into his GPS last year when we went with the group, and thus this year we were able to go back on our own. Local people kept driving up with a camera and/or binoculars to watch for a few minutes, though, so it wasn’t just us. But we seemed to be the only ones who had driven a couple hours to get there.)

    Like

  17. When I was a child, I hated mayo. I finally appreciated it when I was at Georgia Southern College for two years and the cafeteria served pineapple, cheese, and mayo sandwiches. I loved them. Makes me want one right now! Let’s do virtual lunch, Kim. ♡

    Liked by 1 person

  19. When I was a child, I hated mayo and would lose anything I ate with it on it. To this day, mayo does not go on bread. Ever. Period. I don’t want it on my bread and I certainly don’t want to see it on yours.

    Like

  20. Nothing goes on the bread that is not natural. Like butter or margarine or jam or peanut butter (iffy) or honey or cinnamon or sugar..

    Like

  24. So? Who is Mary Ellen?
    It took me a full 30 seconds to figure out that Obama with his head in the sand.
    Obama knows what he is doing.

    I love Rub en sandwiches too.

    So? What are the ladies doing in the secret room? Say you can’t tell?
    So many mysteries going on here. 😦
    I should be on the way to Lions now. I miss it. But this is the smart thing.
    It has zoomed up to 22 degrees. That is supposed to be the low tonight. I hope so.

    Like

  25. Sometimes if you receive a cherished “heirloom” type recipe here in the South it will specifically say Hellman’s REAL Mayonaisse, do NOT use any other.
    This is especially important if you want your chicken salad to taste like Great Aunt Virgie Mae”s

    Like

  26. Love Miracle Whip. It is always interchangeable with real mayo, as Kim points out. I love peanut butter and banana on toast, but haven’t eaten it for years. I think I developed a sensitivity to bananas. I also like fried bologna sandwiches, but haven’t had one for years. I am more likely to experiment with wraps these days. One of my favorites is lettuce, chicken or turkey, cheese with a barbecue honey, chipotle, berry sauce. Put all in a whole wheat wrap for a yummy lunch.

    Like

  27. Oh, NO! Say it ain’t so. Someone — who’s afraid to give his or her name — is disparaging my favorite Miracle Whip!

    Miracle Whip & baloney. Mmmm. The poor working girl’s sandwich. But I never have any of that much anymore.

    Hey, remember when whole wheat was considered good for you? I mean, really good for you? I’d like to know why no one can figure out what’s good or bad to eat anymore, it all keeps changing — or it depends on what “expert” is talking.

    Investigative reporting isn’t my forte, but we all wind up doing some of it from time to time. The latest I’m doing is a story surrounding alleged misuse of a school credit card (why of course a Caribbean cruise is business related!) by a school official who’s now on leave. In fact, that’s the story I need to catch up on today.

    It’s been a busy-busy week for us, one of our refineries had an explosion the other day (minor injuries only, but gas prices locally are spiking as a result, of course), a meaty (I’m still thinking about baloney?) port meeting I had to cover yesterday, the ongoing labor dispute, and news of a possible NFL stadium coming our way (the 2nd stadium being floated for our local communities).

    Stay warm everyone. This global warming is a bear.

    We’re foggy and in the 60s these days, pretty much “normal” for our winter weather.

    Great eagle photos!

    Liked by 2 people

  28. Kim’s QoD: There is a little deli which sells European food imports in the nearest town. Every once in a long while, we get a rye, corned beef, and sauerkraut sandwich there.
    I stand with Mumsee, I do not approve of mayonnaise on sandwiches 😛

    Like

  29. There is your investigation Donna…look at what the government is most subsidizing and you will see what they recommend is good for you. The “Food Pyramid” was developed during the Great Depression when the government needed to get rid of some food.

    Liked by 1 person

  32. Just catching up with old blog comments, and I noticed the one about not calling every birth a miracle. It reminded me of an exchange between a fellow student and our teacher during one of my physiology lectures in nursing school. We had just been learning about the changes in a baby’s circulatory system that happen when it takes its first breath. The student was marvelling at how everything could work in such quick order. The teacher agreed, and said, “You know, when you understand everything that could go wrong, the amazing thing is that any of us are here.” Later, when I read G.K. ‘s The Man who was Thursday, I understood what he meant by this quote,

    “It is things going right,” he cried, “that is poetical! Our digestions, for instance, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry. Yes, the most poetical thing, more poetical than the flowers, more poetical than the stars—the most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.”

    I have witnessed the birth of a least ten babies. One was stillborn. Knowing all that I know (and I don’t know all there is to know) about birth, I can say with conviction that it is a miracle every time a child is born normally, even though statistically 90 percent of births are normal. The wonder is new with every one I witness.

    Liked by 3 people

  34. Anon at 11:19 was me on the laptop.

    MW is nasty, and it’s not interchangeable with Hellman’s or any other real mayo. EVER. I can tell the difference immediately, and I’m done eating it if it’s MW. 😦

    Growing up it’s the only thing I knew because it’s all Mom bought. When I finally had the real stuff on a turkey sandwich at a friends house (when I was like 15) I felt I’d been cheated for all those years. Now I won’t touch the fake stuff. Not even on Mom’s potato salad, which everyone raves about but me. I skip it. 🙂

    .

    Like

  35. Donna,

    The stadium thing makes a lot of sense. The Giants and Jets have done this successfully for years, and rivalry games are always cool. Both teams saved a substantial amount by partnering, the NFL works the schedule so one is home, one away every week. The stadium takes about 2 hours to convert. They have panels and lights that rotate from NY blue to NY green, and even a neutral black for high school and college games. Both got a state of the art stadium for half the cost.

    Even more importantly, they did the deal privately and didn’t make taxpayers pay corporate welfare to them. Here in PA the Eagles (turns head and spits) and the Steelers got new stadiums, but it cost taxpayers 600 million or so to get it done. That’s just wrong.

    And by the teams funding themselves, they control all contracts associated with it, and not some bogus sports authority steering contracts to friends and the politically connected. They make more money, and don’t burden the taxpayers. What’s not to love?

    But this is California, so…….. 😯

    Like

  36. So LA might get another NFL stadium with no team? We here in Missouri hear rumors that the St. Louis Rams want to move back to LA. You can have them back any time.

    As for mayo vs Miracle Whip- use mayo, especially if it has natural ingredients. MW has high fructose corn syrup, which is a major reason Americans are so overweight. Besides, some “experts” claim HFCS has other health issues.

    The QoD mentions odd sandwiches, and several have mentioned regular sandwiches. The only “odd” one I have is peanut butter and jelly on pancakes. We used to have hot dogs rolled in tortillas when the children were little.

    Like

  37. If one must have something, Miracle Whip is much better. At least I can be in the same room with it. But it better not touch my bread.

    Like

  39. dogs rolled in tortillas when the children were little — Somehow I read that line detached from the one above it at first. lol

    Stadium: there are now 2 proposals, one in the city I grew up in (Rams have indicated an interest in that site, which is the old Hollywood Park racetrack); the other (for Chargers/Raiders) is proposed for a city close to where I live now (and is more unlikely to happen).

    It’s really amazing LA has been without a professional football team for so many years.

    Like

  40. As mentioned before, I did not eat mayo when young. Sometime I got a taste of MW and considered it to be quite worse than mayo. I don’t think I have ever had another taste.

    I love peanut butter on rye, but leave off the jelly on rye. Peanut butter and bananas are good on rye, too. Lately I have indulged with almond butter. It costs so much that I use it sparingly so I don’t get as many calories. I like fried egg sandwiches. Cream cheese between graham crackers is a good fake sandwich, and I like sesame seed bagels toasted with butter and cream cheese which I very seldom get. Last time we visited son we went to a breakfast place and i got some special pancake that was not as light as what I usually get. I think it was made with natural grains. I ended up putting blackberry jam on it with some butter and it was fantastic. A favorite sandwich from years ago was guacamole, tomato and sprouts. I loved that and still would, but don’t do tomato now. It was great with fresh carrot juice at a health food grocery and cafe over near Emory.

    Like

  41. I’m on a roll now! I also adore a big BBQ sandwich covered with coleslaw. The Purple Daisy at the base of Lookout Mt. serves that, and you can get it with plain slaw or slaw made with jalapeno pepper for brave souls.

    Like

  43. Hello, all. Just catching up after our media fast yesterday. Looks like I missed oreo cookies and milk yesterday, but am just in time for sandwiches today. 😉

    My grandmother used to fix me tuna sandwiches with iceberg lettuce, spread with Miracle Whip. I liked them then. I don’t like MW (or iceberg lettuce) anymore, though, and I never did like real mayonnaise on sandwiches. I can tolerate a little in salads (like potato salad) sometimes, when eaten soon after it’s made, but much later than that — yuck, the thought of it almost makes me…well, never mind. It’s probably around lunch time for some of you. 🙂

    I’m gluten-free now, and due to the outrageous cost of GF bread loaves, or even buying GF flour and making my own, I hardly ever eat sandwiches anymore.

    I see Mumsee is picking on me for not knowing who Mary Ellen is. But I’ve heard of John Boy, so I’m guessing Mary Ellen must have been on the Waltons.

    Do I win a prize?

    Chas, the “secret room” is the 12-20-14 Our Daily Thread post that has continued to this day — hey, I just realized it’s two months old today. You can find that post listed in the sidebar under the heading “Top Posts & Pages.”

    Oh, and Cheryl — 6th Arrow and I love the bald eagle pics. I saw your link yesterday and showed her your album, and twice she said, “Those are REALLY good pictures!” 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  44. That would be “Today I saw the link you posted yesterday”, in case anyone is wondering if I cheated on my media fast and saw it yesterday.

    I was a good girl, like I always am. 😉

    Like

  45. “dogs rolled in tortillas when the children were little — Somehow I read that line detached from the one above it at first. lol”

    That’s OK, Donna, I misread your post at the end of Wednesday’s daily thread, I think it was. You were talking about craving pot roast, and somehow I missed the “roast” part on the first glance. 😛

    Liked by 2 people

  46. We’re at 1, 270 comments in the secret room. And there has been at least one comment every day since it started. Jo has kindly posted there today, so we are still going…

    Liked by 1 person

  47. I’ve just learned something that may lure Donna up to visit–my seven-year-old heart throb, Timmy from Lassie, lives about 100 yards from us!

    The neighbor who revealed this bit of information reports he does NOT own a collie. “I think his wife has gone one of those poodle-like dogs,” was the exact description. He also observed, “you wouldn’t recognize him now.”

    Of course not. He must be close to 70 years old!

    Liked by 1 person

  48. Mumsee @ 3:12 ?????????????????? Still. I think it’s because I never watched much TV.
    70 years old is really young. That was my age when we moved to Hendersonville.

    Like

  49. Yes, 70 is quite young! Husband will be 67 next month.

    Wow! Timmy from Lassie ♡♡♡

    One other sandwich from childhood. We had a neighbor lady who taught us how to make the cute little canape sandwiches she carried to her women’s meetings. She would cut white bread into little squares after removing the crust. She put on a very thin layer of mayo. Then she would top the square with a slice of cucumber and sprinkle that with Season All. I would eat those little sandwiches so I had forgotten about having that minor bit of mayo as a young person.

    Like

  50. OH I forgot to tell you that the Oreo Cows are Belted Galloways

    Key Lease Agreements executed by non-principal brokers, sales licensees, and licensed or certified
    appraisers will be cosigned by the designated REALTOR or the office’s broker of record. Keys may
    not be used under any circumstances by anyone other than the keyholder.

    Like

  52. Chas commented in the secret room!!

    You’re welcome to comment there anytime, Chas! (And if you go back there, you’ll see I said the same thing.) 🙂

    Like

  53. I’ve had mayo and I’ve had Miracle Whip; I buy mayo, but I’ve never particulary noticed the difference between them. I like mayo on sandwiches–tuna salad with lettuce is one of my favorites. Egg salad, no. Egg salad needs potatoes in it (that’s the way my family always made potato salad, and I don’t like any other variety of potato salad).

    Where I did notice a huge difference is butter vs. margarine. I grew up with margarine and prefer the taste, and it’s a lot cheaper. But when my husband and I were courting, I was just in the process of weaning myself off margarine and onto butter, since it’s so much healthier. I did half of each for months. Even if it was just some corn with supper, I did half of each. Eventually it was all butter, though I still do half of each with cookies. (I don’t like the taste of butter as much in cookies, and I figure others prefer butter, so half-and-half should “satisfy” everyone.)

    Like

  54. Roscuro, every birth is providential, but not miraculous. “Providence” is one of those old-fashioned, underused words. It’s providence that wheat grows and can be made into bread; it’s miraculous when five loaves feed five thousand people. It’s providence when a baby is born; it’s a miracle when a tumor disappears before the doctor has to do the dangerous surgery that was planned to remove it. It’s providence that we can see; it’s a miracle when Jesus gives sight to a grown man who was blind from birth.

    Like

  55. D3 used to eat peanut butter and tuna sandwiches. There was a restaurant where we used to live that sold Goober Burgers. They would put peanut butter on a hamburger. I tried one once, but it was so greasy I didn’;t like it. Sometime I think I’ll put peanut butter on a grilled burger.

    Like

  57. Cheryl, I am accustomed to seeing Providence used as a substitute for God by nominal deist types – even the Oxford Dictionary defines Providence as “the protective care of God or of nature as a spiritual power.” I have come across references to it recently in discussions of Protestant theology, but I remain skeptical of its adequacy in describing how God works in the world. The word miracle, on the other hand, is used to describe something that is wonderful, which is what the Latin root mirus means. Conception and birth is an event of wonder; and if one thinks about it, it is one in which God does directly intervene in nature. Does He not create the new soul which inhabits that new body? Decay and disorder are the natural tendency of things, the second unbreakable law of thermodynamics; from the moment we are born, our DNA begins to decay. Death is an act of nature, new life runs contrary to nature. As Jeremiah wrote in his third Lamentation, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

    Liked by 1 person

  58. Janice (8:42), I wouldn’t have the courage to do investigative journalism, but if I did, I know what topic I’d do it on. (But since I don’t have the courage, I’m a little afraid to mention what that topic would be right now.) 😉

    Speaking of investigative journalism, though, I have reserved a copy of Sharyl Attkisson’s book Stonewalled, and I see it is in transit to my local library.

    Thanks for mentioning that book, Chas (I think it was you who recommended it, anyway). I’m looking forward to reading it — or parts of it, anyway.

    Like

  60. Roscuro, that’s obviously not how I’m using providence. 🙂 I’m talking about God’s care without which the world would fall apart; the beauty of each sunset and each snowflake and each birth. Conception and birth are incredible, but God’s providence is not too “small” for something that amazing. He holds the planets in their orbits through His providential care–nothing at all small about that!

    There is theological debate, by the way, as to whether souls are created individually or are also part of reproduction. One of my theology classes discussed that, with the teacher pointing out that it isn’t only our physical characteristics that are inherited, but our personality and other intangibles, so there’s a point to be made that souls, too, are inherited. How God does any of it is beyond our ken, but so much fun to think about and explore!

    Like

  62. 8 Arrows, I finished Stonewalled a couple of weeks ago. It’s an important book but hard to read because the details are very complicated, but the motivations, actions and outcomes are easy to understand.
    She deals with several issues; Fast & Furious, Benghazi, Health Care, and others. To me, the important part starts at Chapter 6.”I Spy: The Government’s Secrets”. She tells how the government spied on her and monitored everything she did.
    Scary that they can, and will, do those things.
    You can do anything if you own the DoJ and the mainstream media.
    i.e. If Obama or Clinton had been President, Watergate would still be unnoticed.

    Let us know what you think.

    Like

  64. 6 Arrows, I thought of pressing like for your comment about the peanut butter and ketchup sandwich, but I had second thoughts that someone might get the mistaken idea that I would like that combo myself.

    Like

  65. 6 Arrows, I thought of pressing like for your comment about the peanut butter and ketchup sandwich, but I had second thoughts that someone might get the mistaken idea that I would like that combo myself.

    Like

  66. My friend in CA was a special ed teacher. She once commented thst when she was in college and learning about all the different things that can go wrong with a person that it made her think it was a miracle that any of us turn out functional. I think what she said along with the background of her thought pretty well matches up with Roscuro’s viewpoint. But I think that what Cheryl is saying is just as valid. Maybe this is an instance where we need another English word to distinguish common daily miracles from the truly beyond believable miracles.

    Liked by 1 person

  67. Cheryl, a Google search of Providence lead to this introduction from the Wikipedia entry:
    “In theology, divine providence, or providence, is God’s intervention in the world. “Divine Providence” (usually capitalized) is also used as a title of God. A distinction is usually made between “general providence”, which refers to God’s continuous upholding the existence and natural order of the universe, and “special providence”, which refers to God’s extraordinary intervention in the life of people.[1] Miracles generally fall in the latter category.[2]”

    So, miracles would be considered a part of Providence. As to the theological debate about whether souls are inherited, I think that to hold the view that souls are an inherited result of conception ultimately reduces not only our spiritual being to the result of a physical union [Atheistic psychologists love to say that our consciousness is merely a result of chemicals]; but also reduces the role of God to a mere watchmaker who has wound up the clock and leaves it to run down, interfering at rare points for repairs, but never rewinding the clock. It is not the picture of God given in the Bible, who is said to uphold all things by the word of his power and in whom we live and move and have our being. One of the first characteristics of God to be emphasized in the Bible is the fact that he opens and closes the womb – in other words, he prevents new life from forming or gives it as he sees fit. Even a child conceived by IVF only lives at his will.

    Indeed, such a view of God as the giver of each new life is essential to a proper perspective of children. If children are created individuals who are given to parents to nurture until maturity, then adults have no right to abort them, abuse them, or buy and sell them. If, on the other hand, they are purely the results of a natural physical process, then those who produce them may buy and sell them (as they do now, paying surrogate mothers in impoverished countries) and treat them as possessions to be kept or gotten rid of as the parents see fit (as did the ancient Greeks and Romans). It is the view that each zygote contains a soul from God which makes Christians balk at the idea of embryonic stem cell research.

    Like

  68. Okay, I know I’m not going to catch up on these comments before I go to bed, so I’m just gonna jump in & say…

    Mayo. On almost any sandwich, except for peanut butter. I do not like Miracle Whip nor mustard. My husband thinks it is almost sacrilegious that I use mayo on sandwiches which usually go with mustard.

    My slightly weird (according to my family, but I don’t think so) sandwich is Peanut Butter & Orange Marmalade. Delicious! (I sometimes have one for breakfast.)

    Like

  69. I would add that the inherited personality traits have more to do with physical brain structure, which impacts human consciousness. However, as in Alzheimer’s, when the decaying brain alters personality until it is almost unrecognizable, that does not mean the spiritual aspect of that person alters. I can think of two real life examples. One was a pastor whom my grandparents took care of as he died. My mother said that as his mind decayed, he began to express great bitterness and anger over a situation which had happened many years before, and, thinking of the admonition to forgive trespasses, she wondered whether the pastor had backslidden. I pointed out that two things probably went wrong with his brain – his memory regressed to that point in his life causing him to relive it, and the part of the frontal lobe which controls emotion was probably damaged. I have seen or heard of such cases since – a Godly pastor with dementia who curses and swears, a celibate Christian with Alzheimer’s who begins to display sexual behaviour. God only knows the state of each of our hearts, but from the life this pastor had lived up to that point, it is more reasonable to assume it was his brain which was broken, not his spiritual state. Another was my great aunt, who spent years dying from a rare form of cancer. Towards the end, she had days when her personality darkened and she became, according to my uncle, a different person. Yet, her former personality would eventually return, and whenever it did, she would announce, “I’m back!” So, purely physical causes can alter a person’s personality, but those causes cannot alter who a person really is in the eyes of God.

    Liked by 1 person

  70. Janice, I don’t think I’d like peanut butter and ketchup together, either. And it seems to me there might have been a third ingredient in the combination (besides the bread), which would make it even more unpalatable. 😉

    Karen, peanut butter and orange marmalade sounds kind of good. In fact, I may have even had it once.

    Like

  71. Roscuro, I really have no opinion one way or another where souls come from; I just thought it was an interesting concept. And remember I’m Reformed, and we believe in the sovereignty of God over every detail of life. I definitely don’t think we have a clockmaker God. But what means He uses to effect His will is more than He usually tells us. If our souls are part of our inheritance from our parents, that does not mean He isn’t involved; it just means that is the means He uses. Since He doesn’t tell us, all we can do is speculate, and I’m OK with that.

    Brain science tells us some interesting and some scary stuff. I know someone whose brother-in-law started getting uncharacteristically angry. I think his wife was on the verge of divorcing him; certainly it brought strain to their marriage, and she didn’t like what she saw in him. Then he started soiling his pants, and it became obvious the changes were physical, not spiritual. A brain scan revealed a tumor, benign in the technical sense of that word but very harmful. They were able to remove part of it. I haven’t been in touch with her for years, so I don’t know how all of it worked out.

    Like

  74. Mustard and mayo on ham and cheese (or any meat and cheese) sandwich. Add a dill pickle slice and you have a tasty sandwich. I never have turkey without both mustard and mayo.

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.