I am Wright!

Mission Statement

In a world that seems so devided and multidementional, I find common sense to be harder and harder to come by. I know things aren’t exactly black and white—but I’ll be danged if they aren’t simpler than most pundits make them out to be. Recall the story of the emperor who had no clothes? No one had the nerve to tell the man he was naked. Well I believe there are a lot of naked people populating positions of high altitude in this world.

I merely feel that in my almost sixty years of common interaction with common and uncommon people, that I have some plain sense io my own to offer. From time to time I will express my ideas as pertaining to . . . Whatever.  

Pride, the Scourge of Mankind.

We are proud of our children, and sometimes benignly proud of our accomplishments. We are proud to be Americans, or soldiers, or Eagle Scouts, or teachers. But words change. Most writings of the major religions of the world condemn what was translated in to archaic English to be PRIDE. I will call this, for simplicity and familiarity sake, Biblical Pride. It is something different than the types of feelings described above. And I submit that Biblical Pride is at the root of all  human failings.

Biblical pride describes a condition, which is all too prevalent in today's society. It is akin to hedonism. It is related to extreme selfishness and self-centeredness. It is apparent in haughty arrogance and conceit. It is the quality that makes humans want to be superior to or to dominate others. It is what drives fashion, greed, the desire for fame and fortune--especially at the expense of others. It is a feeling of entitlement, meaning that the world owes us something, for nothing. It is the reason Capitalism works and the reason Communism fails (I am a capitalist, and I don't condone Communism). It is why Lucifer, as spoken of in the Bible Book of Revelations, was cast out of Heaven. Pride is the antithesis of Godliness.

Pride is at the root of all crime. It is at the root of class distinction as a means of elevating one group or individual over another. Biblical pride is at the root of prejudice, bigotry, and unkindness of all types. Pride drives robbery, rape, sexual molestation, abuse of all kinds, human trafficking, and slavery. It is the root cause of wars.

Pride is responsible for offending and of taking offense. It is the reason for the traditions of so-called honor killings, and indeed, all murders. Biblical Pride is what causes disrespect and the sense of being disrespected. This kind of pride is behind all unethical business behavior and dishonest practices.

Biblical pride is what ultimately causes war, imperialism, nation conquering nations. It is what fills people with hate. Biblical pride is what causes persecution, religious and otherwise. It is what causes children to dishonor and disobey their parents with all malicious wrong behavior. Pride is why socialism will never work.

Biblical pride is what causes a lack of belief in a higher power. It is what causes one generation to declare emphatically that the world is flat, while another generation declares that it is not. Pride is what causes the certainty that science of the day is more correct than faith in God. It is what caused the crusades, and what now causes Islamic extremism. Pride is the father of contention.

Pride causes disputes. Pride causes divorce. It causes abortion in all its forms. It causes wars--even world wars. Pride is destructive and unteachable. It is certain in its fallibility. It is used to unfairly elevate some and to falsely condemn others.

Pride causes infanticide, homicide, and genocide. Pride causes unhappiness in all its forms. Pride is what Jesus Christ reviled and condemned. Pride drives fads, the desire to worship our idols and to desire to be worshiped as idols. Pride means keeping up with the Jones. Pride means refusing help to those who need it. Pride means self-service rather than other service.

Pride is wrong. Biblical pride destroys the spirit and gratifies the carnality of man. Pride causes us to condemn others and to exalt ourselves above other, often in the name of proper religion. Pride is what is wrong with religion--when religion is wrong. Pride snubs, bullys, makes fun, and hurts.

Pride, if you will really think about it, is the basis of all things wrong with humanity. Pride is the Anti-Christ. Pride is the chief tool of evil. Pride prevents human progress and extinguishes Godliness. 

High Med Low Cucumber Diet: Extreme Weight Loss

Yeas, it sounds odd. It is odd. I had this diet forced onto me by circumstances. My doctor prescribed a new cholesterol medication for me. I always read the information sheet and if in doubt about any aspect of the medicine, I read on-line for further information. I was alarmed enough by the warnings that I asked my son, who is a Doctor of Pharmacy, who said, if my doctor said to use it, then I should. Still with some trepidation, I did take it, for about a week. Gradually, the "very rarely happens" warnings one by one, two by two, six by six, began to bare down upon me. I secretly stopped but called my doctor, whose assistant referred me to a pharmacist, who told me to quit and to wait for my doctor to contact me, after he spoke with her.

I was majorly screwed up, but hoped that I had stopped soon enough to avert most of the "rare side affects", especially death. After a week, all of the painful and debilitating muskuloskeletal symptoms of these "rare side affects", were still present. I was also bleeding like a sieve internally, and had a confused thought process. My wife went out of town before I mentioned the bleeding and worsening symptoms. I didn't want to unnecessary upset her or disrupt her important trip. A lot of people were depending on her.

Finally I had my daughter take me to the emergency room who confirmed that I had probably had a reaction to the suspected medicine, did blood tests, gave me an IV to pump up my volume and sent me home. They said that sometimes the symptoms subside, sometimes only after years, and sometimes not at all. They said that they could affect my autonomic nervous system and stop my breathing and my heart, but that I had probably stopped usage in enough time to avert that. Maybe.

My kids show due concern and help me, but I have always been pretty independent and free-spirited. My health has sucked for a long time, probably due to governmentally irresponsible toxins, while serving my country in one capacity or another. I have beat the odds by years. When I go, it will be without fanfare or whining. I think. It will by now be anti-climactic by my family. It is already long overdue.

One of the symptoms of the adverse affects of this medication, is more than usual nausea, and a complete void of appetite. I have to make myself eat.  I had fix-ables on hand and my wife had filled up the freezer with ample microwaveable dinners. The thought of any of these fine rations turned mys stomach. I knew that I had to eat and drink or I would be back getting more IV's.

For the first time in many years, I had a small but ample garden. My squash and cucumbers were among the first to bare and bare and bare. I had a fridge full of large, cold, slicable cucumbers. Salt, pepper, may a little vinegar, and maybe just plain is what I chose to eat. They were and are cool and refreshing to eat. I didn't get tired of them. By the time my wife returned a week later, I had lost about twenty-five pounds. Still i had no appetite. for three more weeks I lost about another 12 pounds per week. I was just about within proper weight.

I had become highly insulin resistant, and as I have a bad liver, I had high tri-glycerides. My thyroid is underactive. I have three disorders including narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and restless everything. All of my blood tests and pee enzymes are elevated, undervated, or just screwderated. My wife agrees that my A-hole enzymes are usually highly elevated and that I am hard to live with. This has been for the last twelve years.I've supposedly been terminal for six years.

My doctor avoided me. she sent letters, which is a sure sign of CYA, and began obviously distancing herself from me. I insisted on seeing her. Finally she did. She did blood and pee tests. I went in to see her. She was apologetically non-apologetic, braced, and official. That's until she got the test results. All were greatly improved over my usual baseline. I had already noted to her that I was requiring hardly any insulin. Where I had usually been taking enough to kill a normal horse.

Doc was sheepish. I was non-challenging. I noted my loss of feeling and the swelling in my arms and legs and hands, but I didn't accus or extract blood. some of the numbness had started going away (I'm not sure how body parts can be numb and hurt like the dickens at the same time, but they can.) She adjusted several  of my medicine dosages downward. She discontinued my blood pressure med altogether, and my tri-glycerides were lower that they had been in years.

Now I am not saying that I am well. I am  not even saying that my doc didn't make a mistake. What I am saying is that I am better. I have not always been a demonstrable man of faith. Being on the short list for life perpetually has an effect on your spiritual nature. I try real hard. Many prayers and blessings have been given in my behalf. I believe that it is those that have kept me alive. And I believe that it is those that turned a potential medical  disaster into a medical (or spiritual) marvel.

When Eve and Adam was in the Garden of Eden, Ole Scratch probably thought he was really pulling a major coup against the Kingdom of God. Instead, God was so far ahead of him, that Satan actually set the Plan of Salvation into motion. I think this is a type model to what happens on a frequent basis, if we will but open our eyes to see it. How in Hell can anyone not believe in God!

So You Want Change, Do you . . .

God almost always performs his little and big miracles for us through other people. I guess our hope should always be that enough people will hear his urgings and heed them. We too should try to do the same. Often we figure into our Fathers plan by following simple thoughts of kindness that come into our minds. If we are living close to the Lord, we might not even distinguish our own thoughts from the promptings of the Holy Spirit. His thoughts are our thoughts. This state is difficult to maintain when we are bombarded by the clever darts of Darkness. Minions work the media, fellow workers, and our own weaknesses to throw us off.

 

When our children were young, we tended to be much more guarded about the influences we allowed into our home. Whether it was right or wrong, we chose to not turn the TV on in our house until the oldest, Brett, was in first grade. We kept a small black and white TV in a closet, but seldom used it. Instead, we tried to see that the children were read to, played with, and learned to entertain themselves, rather than relying upon television to dominate their thoughts. When they were a bit older, we got a nice color TV, but continued to monitor what they watched.

 

We didn’t watch TV on Sundays. I think all of this was a good policy. What few positives we missed out on by such practices, were mediated by the net gain of family activities and alternative education. We feel that our children learned early how to think independently rather than relying on the media to direct their thoughts.

As I have waxed and waned over the years, in various stages of my own spiritual development, I time and again return to the conclusion that TV is now a worse influence than ever. In the nearly forty years that Martha and I have been married, we have seen a complete reversal of societal moors in

America

. It used to be unseemly to practice homosexuality. Now it is considered a legitimate minority.

 

It was once the norm to have prayer in our schools. Now it is illegal. It was proper to feel patriotic. Now it is un-cool. Abortion was once considered something akin to killing babies, or exactly that. Now it is “Women right to Choose,” They conveniently leave off the right to choose to ” Kill their Babies”. Unions, contracts, or even a man’s word or handshake was once as binding as anything needed to be. Now such institutions are routinely dissolved, never intended to be binding, and quitting them is easily justified.