Order out of Chaos

If you enjoy trying to bring order out of chaos you will always have something joyful to do... So why does it seem so exasperating?  Exactly!

Is it Food?

Recent articles about how and where iPads, iPhones and a majority of other computer components are made and the working conditions gave me a creepy reminder of another shiny apple in human history.

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?_r=1

The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/27/investigations-reveal-long-trail-of-abuses-at-apple-suppliers.html

Oops, Wrong Hat

Bullwinkle: Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.
Rocky: Again?
Bullwinkle: Presto!
Lion: ROAR!!!
Bullwinkle: Oops, wrong hat.

Why Is This One Of The Most Profound Analogies Ever?

As you know my lot in life is to observe and comment on life’s absurdities. Mostly I find them simply humorous.  But sometimes they are so profound in their simplicity or obviousness that they are deeply sobering.

As a child I simply laughed at Rocky & Bullwinkle.  Now as an inquiring adult I find some of the humor and insight of Jay Ward to be on par with the parables of the Bible. Before you think of me a heretic, let me draw an analogy to explain myself.

God (Jesus) used stories and verbal illustrations to teach the principles of life to us because He knew that the lessons learned best are the ones we “get” for ourselves.  God knows that to spoon-feed us knowledge is as wasted as trying to get an infant to eat strained peas.  The best way to get us to eat what is good for us is to make it taste like honey.

Jay Ward used Rocky & Bullwinkle as honey to make the peas of life taste better.  That is the only comparison I am making between God and Bullwinkle.  See how it all tastes better now? 

Back to the most profound analogy of Bullwinkle trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat only to pull out a lion and exclaim, “Oops, wrong hat”.  Do you get it?  If so, what do you get?

I won’t try to spoon-feed you the universal truth I finally gleaned out of this innocuous cartoon. Jesus knew that the best way to answer a question was with another question.  But He didn’t leave anyone hanging without a clue either.  Most of the time Jesus answered a question by referring to a question or answer His Father revealed to His ancestors of the Old Testament.  Jesus left it up to the questioner to go back and dig up the answer for themselves then come back and share what they personally learned with the group. Since I am not Jesus I won’t try to refer you to any passage of relevance (to me) in God’s Word.  He will guide you to your own.  That is the beauty of the Bible, it is like a multifaceted jewel that when turned into the light refracts a different color to each person turning it.  But, the colors are all still part of the same spectrum of light/truth.

Please let me know what you get out of this life analogy (if anything) and share it with the rest of us.  I got it one way, you may get it another. But the truth of the analogy is so simply universal I bet we all get a version of the same lesson in our own individual color.

By sharing what we get we educate each other by provoking reveal-ation and discussion of the same. I can’t wait to share with you the profound lesson I learned when I stuck my hand into this hat.

NJOYLIF, Rob

Fatty News - Junk In, Junk Out

Fatty News - Junk in Junk Out

The Information Diet

A Case For Conscious Consumption

by Clay A. Johnson

"Our bodies are wired to love salt, fat and sugar. ... Our minds are really wired to be affirmed and be told that we're right. ... Who wants to hear the truth when they can hear that they're right? 

Who wants to be informed when they can be affirmed? What we do is we tell our media that that's what we want to hear, and our media responds to that by telling us what it is that we want, and sometimes that isn't what's best for us."

...Just as food companies learned that if they want to sell a lot of cheap calories, they should pack them with salt, fat, and sugar — the stuff that people crave — media companies learned that affirmation sells a lot better than information. Who wants to hear the truth when they can hear that they're right!

...You cannot simply flood the market with broccoli and hope that people stop eating french fries.

http://www.npr.org/books/titles/145103496/the-information-diet-a-case-for-conscious-consumption#excerpt

When is a Boulder Not an Obstacle?

When is a boulder not a boulder?  When it is the destination.  In fact, it is my new destination, Boulder, CO!  Yes my rest period is over here in SC.  Summer is here and I am moving on.

Why Bouder, CO?  Would you believe I am taking the word of a friend who lives there.  Sharon ( and her boyfriend Pete) tell me it is a great city.  Very laid back with some hippie thrown in.  A well educated liberal populace that prides itself on being called the happiest city in America.  She said they have some great non-denom churches.  How could I pass that up!

I have never been to Boulder, nor have I spent any time in the West and the Rockies.  Well, once  I flew into Denver to go skiing in Breckenridge but that was 25 years ago.  I left B'ham to find a new part of the country and a new place to call home.   I spent a couple of months last fall travelling the East Coast on my NJOYLIF spiritual quest. I also explored a lot of NC because I originally thought I would want to live in Asheville or somewhere in the Smokey Mts.  Now I am about to journey 1,500 miles to pitch my tent at the foot of the Rocky Mts.  It is ironic that all the cities and parts of the East and Southeast I visited didn't feel right, but I am moving, lock, stock and barrel to a place that only sounds right.

I think this is a God thang.  He does stuff like this for me from time to time to keep me on my toes trying to keep up with Him.  Why else would I have this urge to go West with only one friend, no job lined up and no real place to live.  sharon and Pete are being very generous by letting pitch a pup tent in their basement until I get settled.

I am leaving this Wed. June, 1.  Everything I own will be going with me in a 5'x8' U-haul and what I can pack in my Odyssey.  I am quite pleased with myself that I have been able to shed my material possessions down to just stuff I need.

I took the picture above on my NJOYLIF tour.  The boulder is on the beach in Lubec, Maine.  Lubec was my starting point.  So it is fitting that I use a picture from then for now.  I first posted this picture with a caption about finding the boulders in your life and figurng out how to move around them.  Now I am seeing that my avoidance of the boulder was the wrong choice.  My destiny is to face the boulder and embrace it.  Or, at least learn how to ski this winter, then move on.

I hope to post on my trip out there and journal my first impressions of the city and the people I meet.

So, who do you trust?

When standing at the precipice of life/death, who do you trust?

We Believe What We Want to Believe

Who really knows fact from fiction?  We believe what we want to believe even if it is not to trust anything you hear or read.