Sympathy/Empathy

Comparing sympathy to empathy is like comparing a candle flame to the light of a 1,000 watt bulb. The first just takes a match. The second requires real power.

Capitalism/Socialism/Communism

Socialism is wide socially oriented rule.
Communism is narrow dictatorial rule.
Socialism is NOT communism.

After spending years examining complex issues, their reduction is accomplished by observing results.
Beyond obfuscating blather are these summarizing descriptions.

Capitalism creates problems,
Socialism solves them.

Favorite books, movies, authors, etc.

FAVORITE INFLUENCES
      Emanuel Swedenborg
      Edgar Cayce
      A Course in Miracles
      Unbiased spiritual studies

FAVORITE MOVIES
      Casablanca
      Lawrence of Arabia

      Bagdad Cafe

      The Snake Pit

FAVORITE BOOKS
      The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
      Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
      Series: A Course in Miracles
      Thinking: Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
      Aztec by Gary Jennings
      Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
      Series: Junior Classics, 10 volumes
      Series: Dune by Frank Herbert et al.
      Series: Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
      My Antonia by Willa Cather
      Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
      Maus I & Maus II by Art Spiegelman

FAVORITE AUTHORS
      Frank Herbert
      Philip K. Dick
      Ann Rule
      Steve Hamilton

FAVORITE POETS
      Wallace Stevens
      William Blake
      Rumi

FAVORITE POEMS
      Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens
      Like This by Rumi
      Songs of Innocence: Introduction by William Blake
      Peter Quince at the Clavier by Wallace Stevens
      Things I Didn't Know I Loved by Nazim Hikmet
      The Lamb by William Blake
      The Tyger by William Blake
      Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing... by Rumi
      Ode on the Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth
      Edward, Edward. Ancient Ballad, author unknown
      Love Dogs by Rumi
      The World Is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth
      Auguries of Innocence by William Blake
      The Idea of Order at Key West by Wallace Stevens
      I have lived on the lip... by Rumi
      The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats
      Sonnets 18, 29, 110, 129, 130, 138 by William Shakespeare
      The Thought Fox by Ted Hughes
      Spring and Fall (To a young child) by Gerard Manley Hopkins
      Come to the garden in spring by Rumi
      Attunity by Russ Bedord
      The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
      The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot
      Composed on Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth
      My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
      Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
      Miniver Cheevy by Edward Arlington Robinson
      La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats
      London by William Blake
      Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne
      The Garden of Love by William Blake
      Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats
      Musee des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden

      Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins

      The Gift by Russ Bedord
      The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell
      The Silken Tent by Robert Frost

      

Free Market

How do subsidized and deceptively marketed products create a "free market"? The US market is not free, but "authorities" say so. It reminds me of the aphorism: You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. But if authorities think the pig is beautiful, it is presented in the language of beauty. Yet it's still a pig.

Solve problems or retire issues.

Seeing a concern as a real problem suggests that there is a real solution Seeing a concern as an issue pretends that resolving the issue is the same as solving the problem that caused it. Too often, the issue is made to go away with expedient action while the problem remains. As long as the problem remains the issue  returns, sometimes with a different symptom and different appearance.

Evolution

Don't believe in evolution?

Don't evolve.

Communication

To some, communication is transmitting. To others it is receiving. Communication is not only transmitting and not only receiving. It is a two-way shared process of sending and receiving words, moods, thoughts, expressions, etc.—whatever a medium can carry.

Developing proof

When thinking things out, the mind wants proof. Proof is developed from its opposite—being able to see the error nurtures the ability to see the truth. Below is the procedure that develops proof from error.

The mistake of generalizing, (your path is the same as everyone's) sometimes applies solutions irrelevant to the problem, encouraging Superstitious thinking. To correct this, try to see true relationships.

Seeing true relationships means that a problem needs to be ENCODEd correctly.

Personalizing means that everyone else's path is the same as yours. Because everyone has a different experience, this is not true. Thinking that everyone is the same leads to Naive thinking.

To prefer meaning avoids naive thinking. INFER.relevance by preferring meaning.

False constructs build convincing cases that should be viewed with suspicion. Building on false constructs leads to Esoteric (Exclusive) thinking, where special (though limited) knowledge claims to know THE answer.

Building structure depends on true MAPping.

Making invalid connections—with bad comparisons, wrong connections, and invalid contexts to possible results encourage Reactive thinking. To react accurately, APPLY validation.

Reasoning emotionally, giving false credit, and outright denial all have the effect of giving false credit to elements with little relationship to resolving the concern. Thinking a certain way is called Categorical thinking. To avoid categorical thinking, PROVE: Give credit where credit is due.

Blind acceptance of a recommendation or principle, jumping to a (wrong) conclusion, and prejudice all are the same: Emotional thinking. Emotional thinking causes a jump to conclusions that may have nothing to do with reality. The goal remains resolve, or SOLVE the situation, or problem. Choosing the correct result assumes that one Chooses wisely.

Summarizing the proof process:

Encode: See relationship.

Infer: Prefer meaning.

Map: Build structure.

Apply: Validate.

Prove: Give credit

Solve: Choose wisely.

For detail on how to open the door to a review of a habit, got to www.spiritwill.info

Resolving concerns

The concerns listed below are numbered to agree with the organization of the www.spiritwill.info web site for the Labyrinth of the Spirit. If the concern is not the same, use the listed concern with the closest name or similar in subject. Each one has an effective procedure.

The Labrynth of the Spirit
1. Insight
2. Extension
3. Objective
4. Resource
5. Knowledge
6. Purpose
7. Relationship
8. Communication
9. Involvement
10. Means
11. Method
12. Verify
13. Perfomance
14. Leadership
15. Importance
16. Opportunity
17. Solution
18. Revelation

In your browser, enter www.spiritwill.info
It shows how a creature of habit uses Willpower to reach its objectives. If the objective proves unsatisfactory, it suggests ways to change it.

Substance

Actions are taken “in the spirit of the thing.” Spirit is considered insubstantial, sometimes even ghostly, yet spirit as a feeling or an attitude is real. 

Which is more important: appearance or behavior? Which is more real and substantial, the physical body or the spirit that controls the shape, position, actions, appearance, health, and communications of the physical body? Which proves more meaningful?

It is:the spirit in which actions are taken (or not taken).

Habits that don't work, use the Labyrinth of the Spirit

To review habits that might not work, open the door to the Labyrinth of the Spirit 
by searching in the browser for the web site: www.spiritwill.info.