Combarioda

CAPO 4
Cmaj9/G
C
Em
Dsus2/E
G
Dsus2/E

Holding Grandmother’s hands
White light draws me in
The electricity
Colors run over me
Underwater I breathe
Tether my chest
Inside I’m still
The cancer grows
Beautiful flesh
And it wipes clean
I will not scream
As this body flows away from me
I am never alone
A part of the flow
She welcomes me in
We dance in the stream
New parts of the breeze
This electricity
Inside I’m still
The cancer grows
Beautiful flesh
And it wipes clean
I will not scream
As this body flows away from me
Holding grandmother’s hands
Our bodies down stream
And your heart guides me in
And we wake as if from dream
Knowing who we are
Pain left in our sleep

12:31am, August 15, 2015

About once a year I go through a phase in which I feel ill and begin entertaining the possibility that this is the time for me to move on from this life. Ever since the tumor almost eleven years ago now, I have held the understanding that I am living on borrowed time. A friend recently expressed the opinion that I will live to be an old man. I loved her saying this, but do not love the idea. I am here to make a difference. I believe this time is a gift from the higher power. I try to live a selfless life, understanding that I will have no need to save for my future. This lack of fear requires a strong faith in what I am doing. And I am not afraid of the future in this reality or of the one to follow this reality. Still, once a year I start reviewing my effect this far. I started writing Letters From Limbo about 10 years ago. This writing experience changed my life in a most positive way. And when I start to show symptoms of recurring cancer, I find myself wishing for more time to change the world. As I near the publishing of my book becoming a reality in this world, I feel my purpose here may be almost done. If I go tonight, please spread my message of love. We are all connected. Love comes naturally and fear is the antithesis of love. We must stop being motivated by fear and start being motivated out of love. Love will bring us together, uniting us for the good of all. Fear will inspire us to save for ourselves, never understanding that becoming this change in our world will remove the need for us to fear. I’ve often battled with the idea that I will die alone. In trying to live a selfless life, I have lost many social connections. My perspective would seem to differ greatly from the perspectives others hold. I’ve often felt like an alien in this world. The irony in this is the fact that I have chosen this diversion from a “normal” life, from a life of living for myself. In spite of the loneliness that comes from such a life, I wouldn’t change it. It is more important that I be the change I want to see in this world. A better world is in reach. We just have to be willing to be the first to say we are tired of things as they are. I know that I will not die alone. I cannot. I am a part of you as you are of me. When I die, I will once again become a part of the greater network rooted in each of us. Some call this God. Some call this the soul. But this network is greater than any worldly words used to describe it. I love you all, because I am you. I look back at the many mistakes I’ve made and feel at peace with them. I am perfectly flawed. There is no reason to feel guilty for this. We are all perfect because we are all exactly who we are supposed to be. We are all one. And I love you all.

Verses Versus

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 New International Version (NIV)

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

James 1:17 New International Version (NIV)

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

If homosexual love is reminiscent of everything in 1 Corinthians, is it not a gift from God?

Mark 12:28-31 New International Version (NIV)

The Greatest Commandment
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[b] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[c] There is no commandment greater than these.”

Is it a greater act of love to trust a person’s claims regarding the nature of his or her sexuality or to condemn his or her actions without a clear understanding of the motivation behind said actions?

Who does homosexuality hurt? One could argue it hurts those who engage in homosexual acts as a result of their inevitable judgement at the hand of God. But why would a loving creator condemn someone to an eternity of suffering for actions that don’t cause pain to anyone else, actions he or she sees to be morally correct? Your argument is not really even about the homosexual indi idual, but rather about how his or her actions influence the youth. Would a loving god punish your children and, by punishing your children, punish you, for something your children were led to believe was perfectly harmless?

If it’s not wrong then why would the bible say it is? Why would any culture create laws regarding sexuality? As sexual intercourse between a man and a woman is traditionally a prerequisite for conception, the survival of a species is often dependant upon sexual intercourse between the male and female of the species.

Genesis 1:28 New International Version (NIV)

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

One argument against evolutionary theory uses the following formula to estimate population growth: http://www.ldolphin.org/popform.gif
The assumption in this formula is that each male-female couple has 2 offspring of each gender. According to Lambert Dolphin, the population of our planet would have increased to several billion in the years between Adam and the flood (http://www.ldolphin.org/popul.html). An estimated timeline for biblical events puts the creation story and the flood about 1656 years apart. This compairest to the estimated number of years since the begining of the flood, 4359 (https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/timeline-for-the-flood/).

According to worldpopulationhistory.org, “Our population is expected to grow to 10 billion by the end of this century, yet the Earth’s size remains the same. Slowing human population growth and lowering our use of natural resources are key to reducing the impact we have on the planet” (http://worldpopulationhistory.org). It would appear we are not at risk of becoming exstinct, at least not as a result of our failure to procreate. If anything, a thinning of the heard would be beneficial.

The Basilic Forest

She’s somebodies daughter
But a black horse brought her here
Through her arms he bought her
She smiles over her fear
He releases an impatient blow
This wooden door can’t defend her
It will soon be time to go
But she’s older than I remember
Tar in the Basilic forest blocks out any sun
But in the dark it’s easy to forget what we have done
Black beauty gives a second blow
It’s been too long since our last ride
The racetrack aches, but now we know
It’s not killing what’s inside
One raft and two or three days in all
We can run for but so long
The horse picks us up when we fall
And although we know it’s wrong
Tar in the Basilic forest blocks out any sun
But in the dark it’s easy to forget what we have done
Rising waves crash new low
It’s more than she can allow
Undertow and here we go
Nothing can touch her now

Abbott’s Flatland and Plato’s Cave

Try to explain a variation in color to one who has monochromatic vision. Try to explain the third dimension to a being of Edwin A. Abbott’s Flatland. Try to explain the abstract to a being who lives in a world of absolutes.

As humans, our experience of the world is often one of absolutes. We are convinced that either something is or it isn’t. The absolute language we apply to fixtures in our world makes understanding relative aspects of our world exceedingly difficult. If individual perspective is responsible for an individual’s experience of reality, then reality is defined by an individual’s perspective. This idea goes against how most of tend to view the world. That is to say, if we know A+B=C, if we have extensive personal experience to support the idea that A+B=C, and someone tells us A+B=Q, we may be quick to dismiss such a notion. But this dismissal may not be entirly justifiable. Let’s put this in flatland language: If you say A+B=square and I tell you A+B=rectangle, am I disagreeing with you? Certainly not. Basic geometry tells us that a square is a kind of rectangle. Both terms would be accurate in such an equation.

This absolutist perspective many of us hold binds us to a simplified version of the truth. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave paints the image of prisoners chained inside an underground cave, bound to face a wall of this cave for their entire lives. Although they see shadows of the things passing in front of the fire behind them, they have been given no insight into the sources of these shadows or anything outside the world of this wall. Given that the prisoners could converse, it is theorized that they would create names for the figures they saw on the wall in front of them, believing the “truth” was simply the shadows before them (http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html). So what is it that makes us so sure we are not simply naming shadows?

We people have often died for our beliefs. We have often killed for them. And for what? It is scary to think we may just be watching shadows. What would stop the source of one of these shadows from coming up behind us and cutting our throats? This desire for control would seem to inspire us to feel significant discomfort when an opposing perspective is presented. If we do not know all we think we know about the world, how can we anticipate potential threats?

It is this fear that inspires some to say “My god is the correct god. All others are wrong…I will be rewarded while all others will be punished…Any logic supporting the contrary is flawed because my personal history tells me I’m right.” This logic takes an individual’s perspective and declares it is universal. But unique perspectives are as numerous as people on this planet. We say something is either the product of magic or science; it is the product of God’s work or ours; it is evolution or creation. What is it that causes us to believe these forces are contrary?