tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35012109.post7027586853236258475..comments2023-10-14T08:05:51.183-07:00Comments on see how we almost fly: Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03662927122733057638noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35012109.post-86667485833418254472009-02-02T15:56:00.000-08:002009-02-02T15:56:00.000-08:00Studying, or simply reading, Lincoln's proclamatio...Studying, or simply reading, Lincoln's proclamations will show you a country that makes the argument for the evangelicals that we lost something here in America and must get it back. <BR/><BR/>His Thanksgiving proclamation, for example. Or his Day of Fast, which is what Tday was to be. The prejudice will dissolve with study, really. <BR/><BR/>Thoughtfulness will replace it, which is what you are. And I appreciate your honesty.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35012109.post-21815299764986321322009-01-31T18:29:00.000-08:002009-01-31T18:29:00.000-08:00Thanks, David, that's a very thoughtful and though...Thanks, David, that's a very thoughtful and thought-provoking reply. I can understand the tendency in myself to be more wounded by personal betrayals than impersonal ones. I am dismayed that, even though I know better, I often feel "betrayed" when people close to me don't share my opinions and ideals, when they differ from me radically. I like to think of myself as open-minded, but there are places in my mind where I have very little space for others' ideologies. I marvel at the marriage between James Carville and Mary Matelin (I think that's her name,) the Republican. I think, No way could I be married to a Republican! I couldn't even be close friends with one! I'm not proud of this aspect of myself, I just notice. And of course I do know some really nice Republican people. I also feel clse-minded, even hostile about Christianity--which is a distressing thing to note, since a) many many people in the world are believing Christians and many of them are good people, and b) any kind of wholesale prejudice like that is wrong. But there you have it. I have no problem with Buddhism, Buddhists, Hinduism or Hindus or Muslims or Islam. It's just the Christian thing that bugs me, especially evangelicals. I really want to dissolve this prejudice because it hurts me.Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03662927122733057638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35012109.post-37463457150081547222009-01-28T10:48:00.000-08:002009-01-28T10:48:00.000-08:00Alison,Just a thought on forgiveness. I propose t...Alison,<BR/>Just a thought on forgiveness. I propose that the closer a person is to us, and the more we trust them, the harder it is to forgive them for hurting us.<BR/> The random thief who exploits an opportunity to steal does not violate a personal trust between himself and his victim. He simply seizes a chance for personal gain. I think that on some level we understand this and accept it as some kind of karmic "road tax" that we all pay in our travels through life. <BR/> It's the person who we have trusted and allowed into our inner self that we struggle to forgive. The deliberate violation of that trust may in fact be unforgivable to us. And, we struggle to resolve the burden of a lifetime of accumulated offenses. <BR/> I suppose some of it is balanced by the knowledge that we too have inflicted such a burden on others who have trusted us. And some of it simply fades from memory with time. But the worst offenses of all stay with us forever. And they take up their task too, molding, forging, and polishing the very aether that comprises our being.David Shearerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14624954470014936977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35012109.post-24099844536990300542009-01-25T18:27:00.000-08:002009-01-25T18:27:00.000-08:00happy birthday, C.happy birthday, C.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com