No Thanks for Thanksgiving.

I Post Therefore I Am?

WWDD? (Rene Descartes by Frans Hals)

An article by Vibhu Norby entitled, Why Social Media Is Endangering Our Future, starts out saying “Everybody wants to be famous, Nobody wants to be nameless, aimless” "... Because to be searchable and indexed on Google is to be, we are in need of exposing our lives more and more on public channels to permanently plant ourselves in the memory of the Internet.
 Nobody wants to be forgotten. We are losing control over our content as well as how we are represented online. That power is entirely in the hands of social media and search companies".

Today a very good friend posted on facebook the following, "If you aren't writing to be immortal, you are wasting your time and ours."
Another friend and blogger  at Have Coffee Will Write  replied that he writes to understand what he thinks.  I then read a blurb about designer Philippe Starck at Design Within Reach.  In a video at the site Starck states what I believe that everything worth doing should start with mission and that mission informs goals and objects which in turn express the mission.  I think this can be and perhaps should be applied to just about everything. 

One of my clients has enlisted my services to market and advertise for their company.  Early on I learned the client had no defined company mission.  They had products but as far as I was concerned would have a difficult time reaching an intended audience/clientele, developing a niche and their brand without a reason for being.   In our initial meeting I inquired "why do you do this, what drew you into this particular realm, what services do you provide" and so on.

Perhaps ironically, I've never written a mission about why I write or more to the point of this muse why I post to social media.  I have a personal facebook and two fan pages, Google+ personal and biz, I try to stay on top of two blogs and I am leaving one or two things out.

 I do have a personally mission statement I pull out every now and again and peruse to see if I'm on track and if things have shifted,changed or expanded.  It is at the end of this piece.

Am I one of the everybody that wants to be famous of whom Norby speaks?  Do I not want to be aimless nameless?

I don't agree with Vibhu Norby that "We are losing control over our content as well as how we are represented online. That power is entirely in the hands of social media and search companies."
I believe that whatever control we don't have we have never had and that if nothing else John Q. and Alice P. Public have more access to the entire world than ever before.  A case can be made for the fact we don't know and do not exercise what control we have.  This stance may bespeak my ignorance in this area but perhaps it is more that Vibhu may not understand the significance of the fact that "anyone" has access to "everyone."  It certainly was not the case as I was growing up in the 60's.  If you were not associated with a powerful publisher whether it was McGraw-Hill or the Cleveland Plain Dealer not many would ever know your thoughts existed, the access did not exist.

For some time I've been thinking about things I want concerning work and employment and recently I have concluded that my ability to write and high order thinking can possibly pay some bills.  Thus far things I want from writing are basically in my personal mission.  I never want to be complicit in  an organization's actions  that don't have the goodwill of public in mind.  I don't really even want to work for organizations like this however I find this is very difficulty to avoid.  I've found no matter how good an organization is on paper it is given to those in charge and directed and informed by their ethics and morality or lack there of, there understanding of the world.  This is one issue that kept me out of advertising years ago that back then I feared I didn't have the integrity one really needs in advertising.
 Now I have the integrity and the experience if not wisdom to lay a foundation for everyone to glean and hold up to scrutiny for their own good and the good of the organization.

One organization was a bit dismayed because I sent a treatise of sorts concerning a project in which I might become involved.  After deciding to work with this organization and the organization deciding to work with me I received a call from the HNIC questioning my ability to communicate coherently in writing.

So as of recently one reason I write is because it will pay bills, but once again why social media write on a personal note?
I think writing to become immortal may be part of the equation.  If I want to write to understand what I think and I think too I do I would need less of an audience than I am trying to reach.  Do not we all think about posterity and legacy? Some people will leave property, money, goodwill in their name a legacy of community service and all of these can be comprehended through social media.  Some will leave an often used piece of art like a watch, a homemade recipe or literary legacy I think that is sublime.

Foremost in my thoughts however I use social media because I love to discuss and share and hear what others say that might inform and grow my world and social media satisfies this desire with immediate gratification.  As immediate as it is it also affords one the opportunity to go back to a discussion one may have been too emotional about to listen to initially.  You can come across discussion you didn't even participate in even weeks and months later after it was posted.

 I also believe that there is a process whereby folks including myself can continue to become or be thinkers about their lives, how they connect with a diverse world and what they can add to the planet.  One of my bents is global thinking toward a win-win in everything I encounter. It can't always be done but one can come closer to accomplishing it if one has it as a goal from the outset.

Civility is a huge issue with me and I believe incivility rules in these United States.  I think incivility and intolerance walk hand in hand down the path to the dumbing of America, prejudice, racism, poverty, add your own ism and are steeped in selfishness ergo no win-win.

  If we can change our language we can redirect our thoughts and actual talk to people toward consensus, understanding and a more sustainable and livable society.  The term "quality of life" comes to mind.  I'm not saying lets all hold hands and kumbaya.  I am saying there is a big difference between saying "if you are a Republican you are an idiot," and "I perceive Republican ideology to be thus and so and I disagree with it on points a,b,c for reasons e, f, g."

In the past I've tried to excuse myself and others for sensationalism because it is just a statement that gets attention and starts a conversation, blah, blah, blah but I think we should develop a distaste for such language in public forum and shy away from it. It may be that many who engage in this language have an aversion to truth and knowledge and a diverse points of view endeavoring to put themselves at the center of their universes and yours too....ergo no win-win..
How well am I doing?  I have a ways to go or I would have left out the HNIC comment.
So I perhaps said all of this to conclude that I write using social media to change things for the better and probably to leave my mark.
So I am waiting with proverbial baited breath to hear why you do social media voodoo you do so well.
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Short Version: Mission

·     Congruency

·     To love God (the Divine) and my enemy

·     to be content to enjoy life

·     Breathe in/ Breathe out and let God Breathe out then Breathe in, so my soul does breathe in/ breathe out. 

Mission

·     Congruency for myself, for other people and for organizations and alliances.

·     To love God (the Divine) with all my heart by manifesting a passion for El Shaddai’s (Ultimate) truth, for compassion and for service to others.

·     To love God (the Divine):

o   with my entire mind by renewing it with eternal principles for living true to myself, by recognizing the win-win scenario that may exist in every circumstance I encounter.

o  With all of my soul by acting on what is on my mind and in my heart and by obeying that “still small voice” within me.

·     to be content to enjoy life by understanding that the living and praying into the journey is the key to real joy.

·     I will always be where I am supposed to be no matter what the circumstances may suggest. Circumstances are always subject to change that is to say that change is their master.

I have an adage that I keep in mind that; Breathe in/ Breathe out and let God Breathe out then Breathe in, so my soul breathes in/ breathes out.  For me Breathe in breathe out is more than a metaphor. I had this epiphany while meditating and playing my didjeridoo. 

We breathe in what the earth expels and the earth breaths in what we expel as toxic.  I remember when Art Modell, the owner of the Cleveland Browns moved the team to Baltimore and of course Browns fans were angry, to me short sightedly angry.  In a larger picture where Cleveland and Baltimore are a unit or connected what seemed bad for Cleveland was good for Modell and Baltimore and ultimately not bad for Cleveland.

AN EVENING WITH SHANE CLAIBORNE

Author and Christian activist, Shane Claiborne, shares his journey and his mission. Claiborne is founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in Philadelphia that has helped to birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. He writes and travels extensively speaking about peacemaking, social justice and Jesus.
He will be with us Friday, April 27 at 7:00pm at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Avenue.
So don't let the Christian angle keep you away.  Check out the video above.

I've been "walking out" my path in Christ for sometime and many times I am at odds with the official party line.  I think perhaps this is Shane's walk also.

 So many times we are quick to encounter and know the word of God without understanding that we need to know the God of the word so that his Word by revelation can come alive in us. These must go hand in hand.  We often use the word as superficial posi-think mantras allowing the depth and revelation of the Word to fall by the wayside; perhaps mantra and depth of revelation don't have to be mutually exclusive.

  The famed story of Solomon threatening to cut a child in half was inspired wisdom.  We take the uninspired framework and apply it to two guys fighting over a car; well the two are both just as soon see the car cut in half as let the other drive, right?  This is a case of lack of revelation to rightly divide the word of God. 

This is what many of us do, we misapply the word through our ignorance of the Word, through our lack of revelation.  We are quick to affirm, "I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me," when trying to accomplish some feat but not so quick to apply it to enduring circumstances when we are not in control; it is out of spiritual balance and superficial for many.

Much of today's church get's caught up in sin management and thought control, teaching that "we know what the word says and you must believe what we believe," or be in danger of being cast off into the netherworld of Hell.

Many including myself are often quick to quote without having revelation of the thing of which we speak. We can lend mental ascent to understanding that  we do not have revelation on so much but in practical terms it can be hard to determine.  So many of the do's and dont's of the church are not understood at the core, so much is handed down and accepted as "gospel" because of tradition not fresh revelation.

So what do we do with the Gay issue how do we apply the word?  Personally I'd rather deal with, "anyone that looks on a woman in lust has already committed adultery in his heart," and work out my own salvation in fear and trembling than look for what is wrong in others without God's revelatory light.  I know that it seems that there is a sin hierarchy but to the saints, believe the word when it says if you have broken the law in any one point you have broken the entire law.  Listen to Paul when he struggles and says, " the thing I don't want to do, that I do and the thing I want to do that I don't do," and take comfort in the question and answer, "who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.  If you consider yourself in Christ and you haven't figured out there is a war going on you need to, "check yourself before you wreck yourself."

I was on facebook recently and a guy who always talks about "the Lord" and "Jesus" and the "power of God," was openly lusting after a woman whose boyfriend had posted some pic of her in lingerie.  He calls this woman holy and a saint and on and on and then pretty much says to her, "take it off baby!"  He knows she is away from her husband and having an affair with a married man but he is undisciplined in the things of God, lets is dick rule or his flesh rule him and control his mind never realizing the Rhema word of God walking in deference to only the Logos.  The fleshly mind is an enemy of God and can not obey the things of God. 

We all should know that the gate to life is narrow and few there be that find it and great and wide is the gate that leads to death and destruction.  Don't for one minute believe that because you said a prayer once upon a time, or can quote a lot of Christian mantras, wow folks with your prayers or even that because you know the truth that this will spare you from the coming destruction as you repeatedly spiritually shoot yourself in the foot, in the chest in the head.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!   How foolish!  Can't we see that faith without works is dead?  if we have living faith it will produce just like a living orange tree will naturally produce oranges.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, this is different than what many of us think this says; faith comes by hearing the word of God... not.

I was talking to a beautiful Greek woman one night who is not in Christ and I was talking about wanting a trial I am going through to end even though there is much growth because of it. The woman understood exactly where I was coming from and shared some of her own trials and growth and said, "the trials never stop," and went on to further associate trials with spiritual growth.  Christians do not corner the market on morality nor do they corner the market on spiritual wisdom.

We also should understand that different rules apply to those in Christ and those not in Christ.  The only thing pertinent to those not in Christ is that they come to a saving knowledge of Christ, put another way, they come into a relationship with the Christ.  In America it doesn't matter what one does outside of the Christ mind except to our own comfort level as "the redeemed. " I believe we should all think, "to hell with my comfort level, how can I love this person toward Christ, draw her or him to Christ in me the hope of glory?"  Continually we turn our noses up at everyone that doesn't fit our moral code thereby condemning ourselves as hypocrites in most cases, because we compare our strengths to the weakness of others and may not even take account of our failings. Is it an inferiority complex or superiority complex that causes us to label people Not Our Kind if they see something different than we do in their walking out of the word of truth and love?   How can we be in community with the community.

Once in Christ, we need to forgive each other from the cross as Christ has forgiven us.  Forgiveness is not an easy proposition and it is an ongoing process.

I/we have so much to learn about Christ, so much relational ground to cover with Him but first we must acknowledge this fact and the fact we don't save our selves, even the very faith whereby we come to Christ who calls us, woos us, draws us is given to us.  We love Him because He first loved us and have nothing to be proud of and nothing about which to brag.

Well I would love for someone to takes shots at what I've just pronounce or agree with it.

Honest Talk with Yourself

I've been having a very interesting discussion with my brother Jeff over at, Have Coffee Will Write.  He is one of the more well read folks you will ever meet, sincere, an excellent writer.
 We have been soul searching as we deal with the death of Trayvon Martin and uncovering some interesting tidbits.  Love and respect imbued  and I might add received rebuke flow both ways.  I appreciate the different point of view as I think we perhaps both allow our opinions to be jostled around.  


Can our society, as opposed to our nation, move forward without soul searching, true dialogue and even confession?  I don't see how we can.  Can we improve others before we have improved ourselves?  How can we improve ourselves if we have refused to see ourselves as we truly are?  How can we see ourselves as we truly are without coming to terms with the warts and all?  Can we come to terms with that when all we recognize is the euphemism, "warts and all," the truisms like, "oh everybody does that, nobody's perfect," our whatever we tell ourselves to excuse our lack of love our neighborism.  Our "warts" cause us to consign folks to death and poverty as we say, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled; but give not to them the needful things for the body."(James 2:16)

So often I hear things like, "My parents came to America looking for a good life with only $2 between them; they made it, I don't see why those people can lift themselves up."  The bottom line falsehood is I "raised myself up by my own bootstraps" or I built the house I was born in, I got mine now you get yours, ignoring the uneven terrain.

  In the past I've just given up on such ubiquitous ignorance.  I am not even surprised any more that it still exists.  This basic lack of understanding and in my opinion lack of  basic decency, because it is so ignorant... choosing to ignore it is not relegated to "race," or class, or religion or gender but we all identify with our special interest groups and point at the shortfalls in all of the other groups thus making ourselves just like them.  So sadly much of the time I have to name myself among the careless.

I now realize that in life, in living and navigating through this world that the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it and narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it.  There are few who find it because there are few who seek it out.  Being comfortable at the expense of others is so easy, so easy.  I check myself more and more to make sure I am on the right path going through the right gate. I cannot answer for you nor can I judge your heart but I can proffer the question; are you?