lmskipper:
Since Mr. Dark recently got married, does this mean his wife has many 'chores' for him to do around the house?

Merriam-Webster 3, chores: difficult or disagreeable tasks

I did get married recently. I also wrote a paper for a "Philosophy in a Global Context" conference--which I delivered at San Jose State University a couple weeks ago. I started a new job. I'm teaching philosophy at our community college. I'm taking a spanish class with my wife (we're considering MA's in Spanish Literature (she was born in Mexico). My daughter (Valedictorian, McKinney North HS) gave her speech at their graduation last night and we had an open house for her the night before. I'm still working on a book on Ray Bradbury. So I am keeping busy! I have lurked, but hope to begin getting a little more involed again here as I refocus on my book. It has been good to read all your posts/thoughts. I'm very jealous (in a constructive/positive way, of course) of Nard's new proximity to Ray. Would love to get his ear more often.

I seem to remember viewing a Gary Larson Far Side cartoon with a blind kangaroo (you could tell he was blind by his sunglasses... or maybe he had vison and was just trying to be fashionable ) standing on a corner with a t-shirt that read: I Poop Therefore I Am

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LordShen,

Wow, Mr. Dark, I feel like a regular slacker compared to you!! Congratulations on so many things--your recent marriage, your new job, your daughter's success (attributable to her father's influence, I'm sure), your recent presentation, and more. We have missed you, but it's great to hear about all the good things going on in your life.

In my opinion, people who don't believe in an afterlife must have very little regard for the value of the individual.

While I definitely believe in an afterlife (Bradbury is slippery on this, but seems to see himself as living on in his descendents), the existentialists (some of them)argue that a belief in an afterlife actually makes our regard for THIS human life less noteworthy. If we are all planning for the next life, what is the value of this one--other than preparing for the next. The existentialists argue that true meaning is to be found in the here and now. That we find fulfillment not in waiting for the future, but in living fully in the present.

Mr. Dark: Interesting!

Was talking to few dogs in the neighborhood the other day and they agreed with some of those that take that existential point of view. Now there is a cat a few doors from where I live that takes Bradbury's viewpoint. And I hear there's a couple at the local pound as well. (Not much for them to look forward to, I'd say!) Another neighbor's cat said he (I'm sure it's a 'he') believes that he lives on thru his 9 lives. After that, he believes it all goes black.

I remember a neighbor across the alley from where I grew up that raised pigeons. Lots of pigeons. Lots and lots of pigeons! He used to let those pigeons out once or twice a day, and they would swoop across the neighborhood in a large cloud-like appearance, and come over our house like a low approaching aircraft. A hundred or more at one gathering. It was quite a sight to see. And you know what? I never heard any of them pigeons say that they believed that THIS was all there was. Why I remember just like it was yesterday all the chatter that was created the day I brought up that question! They agreed that if all they had to look forward to was swooping around the neighborhood once or twice a day, then life just was not worth 'cooing' about. I remembered that!

Later I did find a few crows that had entirely different opinions. Just like people, I realized, who had a string of different viewpoints as well. Now, I'm not saying that the pigeons were smarter. (Even tho they are pretty smart, actually!) For some reason this bunch happen to share the same view on life. But so many others believe everything from ...the earth is flat and I am in someone else's dream and the drop of water contains all the universe in miniature, to ...I am a god and I'm coming around on my fifth life (sort of like that cat-religion! ) The truth doesn't lie anywhere in between either.

Truth dwells in Holy Scripture. All else is as much nonsense as what's battering out of the mouths of so many dogs and cats and probably a pigeon or two somewheres. I may sound a bit silly myself. But I know at least this:
"Jesus Christ... is the same, yesterday...today, and ...forever!"

Belief in what Christ has done, that is to say he has exchanged his eternal life ...for my not at all forever one...and now it is the forever Christ 'living' in me, and thus my hope of 'living forever'.

So there!

________

Nard, we are in total agreement on that one.

Ever read Richard Wurmbrand?
I got to hear him talk and meet him. In referring to the afterlife, he liked to use the analogy of a baby in the womb, if he could reason, wondering why he had eyes, yet all was dark, arms that could reach farther than his limited environment, a voice that couldn't be heard, etc, if this life (in this analogy, life in the womb) was all there is...

“GRANDPA (tapping on a plate for silence). Quiet everybody! Quiet! (They are immediately silent—Grace is about to be pronounced. GRANDPA pauses a moment for heads to bow, then raises his eyes heavenward. He clears his throat and proceeds to say Grace) Well, Sir, we’ve been getting along pretty good for quite a while now, and we’re certainly much obliged. Remember, all we ask is just to go along and be happy in our own sort of way. Of course we want to keep our health, but as far as anything else is concerned, we’ll leave it to You. Thank You. (The heads come up as RHEBA comes through the door with a steaming platter) So the Second Five Year Plan is a failure, eh, Kolenkhov?

KOLENKOV (booming). Catastrophic! (He reaches across the table and spears a piece of bread. The family, too, is busily plunging in)

The curtain is down”

--Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman

"You Can't Take It With You"! Great stuff. I've seen it as a play twice and it's still fresh.

I just finished a little book that is changing people's lives;
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Most uplifting and thought provoking.

It reads much like a Bradbury story, simple and yet profound truth in its short reading.

Since religion has alway separated Mankind maybe spirituality can bring us back together.

I was given that book as a gift, but have been reading other things. Now with your comment I will pick it up and read it earnestly.

Now Biplane, you had better be reading "Dandelion Wine" before anything else, you know! Are you in its midst now, in fact?

Yes, I admit it! Actually I am a mutli-tasker when it comes to reading. I am finishing up Dandelion Wine, and just started Robert Ludlum's The Aquitaine Progression.