NUMBER 16 Honorable or what

I am an honorable man I think for the most part, but I have, thus far, been dishonorable also many times throughout my 64 years. I wonder which friend or family member or other of my loved ones will claim the same.

None of us, I think, want to remember our dishonorable deeds, but even the most dishonorable persons sometime exhibit, surprisingly, high degrees of honorable acts from time to time. So, which of your deeds do you think will define you in the end, and, how will you be remembered?

Seldom are we long remembered if we are just Good ole Boys, but we are, often long remembered for our evil or dishonorable deeds.

When I use the term EVIL I do not imply a spiritual force whom our creator has given free reign throughout the world to tempt and to lead people into damnation and hell. I use the term simply because I like the word as a descriptive word to imply invalid thinking in much the same way as I use the word DISHONORABLE or any other word to imply invalid thinking.

I think that all persons are at times dishonorable. Some are more dishonorable than others, but we all fall into that character from time to time. Unfortunately many poor souls fined themselves in this character so often that their reputation continually precedes them. Even if they work hard to become honorable, they seem never to be able to shake off or rid themselves of that old reputation.

Now the bible says that "as a man thinketh so is he". That can be either broadly or narrowly interpreted, so whose interpretation do you rely on?

If you steal a penny are you just as dishonorable as one who steals a fortune? Don't we all envy others sometimes at least just a little, and don't we all lust just a little? I think that people that are in denial of these human conditions are also liars, at least just a little. The bible teaches us not to judge one another, but don't we all find ourselves judging others, at least in our hearts? And when we judge but claim that we don't judge, are we not also liars and hypocrites?

Which of these dishonorable ways of life puts us beneath our fellows? Is a glass of milk tainted if only a pinch of dung is mixed up in it, or must it take the whole piece of dung to taint the milk before you say no to drinking it?

I admit that I am a tainted man but to some people I am still palatable, and I am truly thankful that I'm not full of shit, at least for now.

Finton

NUMBER 15 Beauty is Awesome

I suppose you could say that I am a sucker for beauty because when beauty comes my way I am momentarily stricken with awe.

I love looking at the beautiful moon, especially when it is full and appearing much larger as it begins ascending in the eastern skies and the sunset becoming a pleasant memory.

I do not understand this innate attraction I have for this beautiful moon. Is it any more a heavenly body than this beautiful planet earth where on we have the pleasure of living out our lives?

I know that beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder. We all, I think, see the moon in varying degrees of affection, and this I'm sure is how it is with everything we see on a daily bases. We also see and experience much in life of ugliness and pain and suffering, and all sorts of unpleasant stimuli. So when beauty does come our way it is such a grand surprise that we can't help ourselves, we become for a time her captive with gratitude.

I love beautiful sunsets. Painters have for many years tried to capture in essence their beauty to no avail. I doubt that any artist will ever be successful in capturing natural beauty regardless of their talents. Only nature possesses this kind of talent.

Beauty is fertile to a stunted soul. She awakens the slumbering and causes the heart to dance and the mind to dream again. What good is life if the soul sleeps and the heart never dances and the mind never dreams. That would be what I call the walking dead.

I am truly a romantic but I can't say if this romantic side of me is an innate characteristic in me or if it was born out of some psychological deprivation. Regardless of the origin of my romantic nature I love being this way.

There is much beauty in this world that I have a great attraction to that gives me much pleasure but those kinds of beauty do not cause me to lust for them in my heart. I know of only one source of beauty that has the power to put lust in my heart and mind and that is the beauty of some women in their finest state. Beautiful women are truly a gift to the world and anyone in denial of this, something is severely wrong with them, and, if there is truly a God they slap this God in the face.

I believe that beauty is an elixir. Beauty enlivens both men and women and is good for their souls, their hearts and their minds, and if anyone is in denial of this I have much pity for them.


Finton

Number 13 Do unto Others

My mother always taught us kids to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Most people know that that came right out of the Christian bible but I think that this philosophy is probably taught in most religions throughout the world. I use to think this was just a Christian philosophy but over the years I have given it much thought, and I have come to believe that it is truly a universal philosophy that resides in the hearts and minds of the human race.

I believe that this innate impulse is the thing that brought people to the point of being a social entity. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that most often if we are kind to others they will usually be kind to us.

I know that there are a number of arguments against my hypotheses but at least it is arguable and I would welcome much dialogue on the subject.

There are at least two factors to consider in opposition to my hypotheses, fear and invalid thinking. We do shy away from others whom we do not know especially if they appear aggressive and stronger or unruly, and when this fear sets in our reactions are guided by invalid thinking. These misguided reactions can easily escalate into violence.

I believe that we humans are predominantly passive and followers by nature rather than being aggressive and leaders. Some of these leaders are kind and caring and strive to bring people together for the good of all and establish a peaceful and safe society whereas everyone might reach their full potential. Then, there are those leaders that are aggressive by nature and they have greed in their hearts and a disposition to rule with an iron fist and a sword and fear.

If we humans could learn to resist fear and start doing unto others as we would have them do unto us we would have a much happier life.

Unfortunately the fear of pain and suffering are such powerful forces in the world, and I suppose, they will always exist as long as we are human. After all, they are a part of the human condition.

Finton

Number 12 The Death Penalty

I wanted to say a little more about my stance on the death penalty.

Many people have lived under different influences for the bulk of their years , me included, and we all would like to think that our upbringing was of the greatest. We would like to think that our fathers and mothers would never intentionally lead us wrong but as we grow up and move out on our own we must start making decisions for ourselves. We begin experiencing the consequences of our decisions. We then discover that the things our parents taught us don't quite work favorably in the new worlds that we find ourselves entering. We come to many crossroads while on our journeys and discover that there are many more stop signs and yield signs that we were not taught how to negotiate, or perhaps we just had our ears closed.

I do not think that most parents intentionally teach their children wrong, but I think that ,unintentionally, most parents do, including me.

I do not remember ever having conversations at home with the family concerning ethics. We never talked about our purpose in life or what our responsibilities as a citizen was. We learned most of our ethics from going to church and school and just plain ole observation. Oh! lets not forget the TV.

How many people grew up this way? Most families probably were about the same.

I am not implying that my family life was hard. My father was more the bread winner and the disciplinarian. I don't remember him ever playing with me or my brother or sister. My mother on the other hand, was the greatest. We all knew she loved us. She had a humorous side, a compassionate side, and she always greeted people with a smile and respect, the basic common sense lesson 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. I think that if everyone could live their daily lives in this way the world would be so very much better off.

I suppose all of my life experiences has something to do with my views on the death penalty. I am against the death penalty but I do not judge others that are in favor of it.

I know that under certain circumstances I would kill another person that caused me great fear for my life or the life of some other innocent person, especially a friend or family member. I'm not sure that this is justifiable. I feel as though I would feel good about saving innocent lives but I also think I would for the rest of my life toil with my act of killing. I don't think I could ever find peace of mind again.

I hope I'm not killing you kind people for reading my blogs. My wife would love editing all of my writings.

Finton

Number 11 The Death Penalty

I have been, as long as I can remember, in opposition to the death penalty. For quite sometime my opposition was based on my religious convictions but in recent years the bases of my opposition has moved away from religion to simply invalid thinking.

Barbarism is still a very popular way of life throughout the world and that includes the United States. We are not so much more civilized in this country than in many cultures abroad, we merely have a more sophisticated legal system by which we subject the accused in order to arrive at guilt or innocents. If guilty you are likely to pay heavily.

The death penalty in my opinion is as much a barbaric act as the act for which the criminal was convicted and sentenced to be executed.

The prosecution usually has many more resources to carry on his investigation than does the defendant. To start with, this immediately puts the defendant at a serious disadvantage, and, we are, more and more, hearing about people in prison being exonerated after spending many years behind bars for crimes for which they played no part in. Some of these wrongly convicted people are sitting on death row awaiting execution and most likely will be executed.

How many more innocent people are in prison today because the prosecution could make a case against a poor defendant that could not afford or acquire competent representation? How many will spend the rest of their lives behind bars though they are completely innocent? How many innocent men or women are on death row that most likely will be executed, and how many throughout the years have died by the rope, the ax, the needle, the electric chair, the firing squad or the gas chamber? Don't forget that I am speaking hear about the wrongly convicted, not the truly guilty.

Can you imagine being on death row, counting your days to live before your last hours or moments? Can you imagine the angst that your loved ones are going through daily, especially if they know you are innocent but can't prove it? Can you imagine their helplessness?

The death penalty is an institution that nobody, I think, would be proud to wear the badge of executioner. When a state ordains the death penalty they must employ an executioner or executioners to carry out these barbaric means of punishment, so how does the state give notice that the state is in need of executioners? Do they interview potential persons interested in being an executioner for the state? Does the state think it important to examine the psychological status of such applicants? What psychological profile is ideal to qualify an individual to be an executioner?

I'm sure that there must be personalities out there that would love to be an executioner, but aside from these few personalities I can't imagine anyone else being interested in such a position. Perhaps I am wrong. There may be a great number of people ready and willing to execute someone as long as the courts and the state ordains it, and they may be exhilarated in knowing that they executed this person.

Most people throughout the world are capable of killing another person under severe circumstances such as self defense or to protect some innocent individual or to avenge the harm or death of a loved one. Unfortunately we sometimes live with a would-be murderer, or next door to such a person. We work with and even like and admire some of these individuals completely unaware of this secret side of their personality.

I, at one time had a welder work for me and I liked him . Not too long after he quit working for me a young girl was bludgeoned to death and left in a field to be torn to pieces by scavengers. He became the focus of the investigation and eventually was convicted of murdering the girl. The court did not hand down the death penalty. I think he is still serving time in prison but I'm not sure how many years he was sentenced to serve.

I firmly believe that premeditated murderers should remain in prison for the rest of their life because they have shown society that they possess little or no respect for life. They have demonstrated that they lack the capacity to think validly the consequences of their actions and are therefore too big of a risk to society. I also believe that anyone incarcerated should be required to work or not eat. If I choose not to work it will not be long before I will be without food and therefore become very hungry. Then I will start looking for a job or perhaps a handout, but as we find out handouts usually don't last very long.

I am going to end this BLOG pertaining to 'The Death Penalty' today but I plan to return to it on
my next BLOG number 12.

Finton