Blog 2949 – 11.26.2023

A Wrinkle In Time – Chapter 12

Realizing that all writers, speakers, singer songwriters, teachers, and especially bloggers are a bit presumptuous, thinking as we do that we have something worthwhile to share, I continue posting this daily blog even after being at it for over eight and a half years. I am quite certain I have not hit a home run every day nor even gotten a hit at every at bat. I am still swinging though believing as the wise baseball philosopher said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

To be good if not great at any of the above and below listed occupations requires patience and persistence. As I have shared on several occasions, the word translated patience in the famous New Testament quote, “Run with patience the race that is set before you.” shows how the words patience’s meaning has evolved since the 1611 publication of the King James translation of the Bible. Back then its first meaning was endurance.

As I held my granddaughter Emma Grace for the third time on Thanksgiving day her parents told me, “Talk to her and she will laugh for you.” I did and she did and there were smiles all around. Emma wants to talk so badly. You can tell. Soon will come that first word Mama or Dada and then a little later that first sentence spoken and later still written down or perhaps typed on a screen.

My first blog I typed on a laptop, later I composed them on a tablet then for a few years on a small iPad, I have for the last year or so been composing and publishing them on my iPhone. Before I retired from my day job a couple of years ago I rose early to write and post my blogs before I left for work each morning. Sometimes now I do not even begin them before the sun is up.

Still I pride myself that I still continue to make the effort. Why, you might ask. Well, I suppose that I continue to compose these daily love notes in a bottle so to speak hoping that they will somehow find their intended audience. In the earliest portion of my young adult life, long before my first blog, I believed myself called to be a Christian minister and to share that particular version of The Good News. I considered myself a Christian in those days. I have over the years since then discarded many beliefs that no longer serve me. I no longer consider myself a Christian, but still see myself as a friend, a traveler, a brother, and a lover of mankind. When I was in Bible College fifty years ago we referred to people like me as humanists. Christians like most religious people think they have a corner on the truth and that everyone else is a bit confused and lost. Talk about being presumptuous.

I apologize for ever presuming that I ever had or that even now I have a special corner on the truth. The truth it is said sets us free. Opinions that ignore the right of others to form, hold, and express their own opinions are really hard to swallow let alone to defend. Most so called beliefs are really jut strongly held opinions after all.

I try to catch myself when holding too hard to a particular opinion to consider that the opposing opinion might be just as plausible. Often they amazingly are. Imagine that.

If you would rather be right than happy go on holding on tightly to those opinions that masquerade as beliefs. Happiness requires that we surrender those options and beliefs that no longer serve us. I can hear my granddaughter laughing – silly grandpa.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ki0g7NIZi_zXKwUNvBL3N1H7nx3wCK5W/view?usp=drivesdk

A Wrinkle In Time – Chapter 12