Feelings and other inconveniences

Greetings and salutations, dear Reader, and welcome to this obscure sliver of cyberspace where, at least at this moment, free speech still reigns supreme.

I've been in therapy now since late last year, and I think that it's starting to work? Reason being, I am in the most irksome position of feeling feelings, in fact, my own.

Here's a thought that could have been better nuanced:

So, the concept was typed as I thought and felt it; to deliver the very same truth in a mor palatable way, how about:

Dear Parents, 

Please keep every promise made to your child, especially something as free and easy as tuckthe child in bed at night. If you don't, that child may mistake the oversight as your way of saying that the child is of no importance to you. 

I recognize that the second version isn't perfect either, but at least it's not as wounded or brutally raw.

 All progress counts.

The real reason that I'm in therapy is so that I can face and work through past traumas, rather than allowing those to dictate broken forms of relating to others. To not do so would be cowardly at best, if not downright criminal.

Fear doesn't get to call the shots in my life. And, as a very wise person once said, "The only thing we have to fear is Fear itself".

Dear Doctors.

Yes, you have your college degrees, following years of difficult, intensive training. You very well may and in fact, probably do, have years of experience of having correctly treated people, mostly with success. These are all valid, good things.

What you do NOT have is even one second of experience of being inside any other human being's body.

The single most valid and authoritative source of patient information that you will ever have free access to will not, does not, and 100% cannot come from any other source other than what you have the intellectual integrity and humility to seek out from the very source of that information: the patient.

You are incapable of assuming any human being's lived, experienced reality in any other way, no matter how truly competent you otherwise are.The single, most relevant and critically important information about your patient's condition IS AND MUST ALWAYS BE THE PATIENT HIM OR HERSELF 

Not from your training. Not from your external experiences, and sure as Hell not from your ego.

Therefore, when I truthfully inform you that it requires 60 mg of oral Prednisone to begin to even touch my exacerbated COPD, YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO ME - THE ONE WHO LIVES IN THE BODY - and dose correctly.

I live in my body and you DO NOT. Do NOT IGNORE our feedback in the conceited dismissal of presuming that the only person WHO LIVES IN THE BODY BEING TREATED is too stupid to convey the factual reality of that which works, the experience of the doses that are effective as opposed to your "but I KNOW BETTER" dismissive arrogance which delves into "Playing God" territory, beyond any room for denial of this fact.

We are not objects.We are not guinea pigs. And, some of us are NOT as stupid as you assume prima facie, by the blind arrogance you failed to remain aware of simply because "I'm a DOCTOR". Although you should trust in your knowledge and experience, it is not absolute.

With regard to your cluelessness of living even one split second in any body other than your own, which no human being on Earth can ever experience, you hinder uour ability to truly provide thoroughly effective care if you forget that the patient's input IS the most relevant of all.

I MATTER.

PATIENTS MATTER.

PATIENT FEEDBACK IS EXPONENTIALLY MORE VALID AND CRITICAL THAN ANY AND ALL BOOK LEARNING COMBINED.

With regard to accessing the factually lived experience of being IN THE BODY, YOU have read about and studied  the ocean; BUT I AM OUT THERE SWIMMING IN ITS CENTER!!!

And, by the way, where do you think most of the information you studied in your myriad med school textbooks came from? 

PATIENTS!!!

Foolishness on Friday, November 21st, 2025

Good morning, et cetera -greetings and salutations, dear Reader, and welcome to yet another day of drawing breath in and out. I pray that you are warm, well-fed, and at peace as you read these words and, if not, that those things come to you soon. So often the things we take for granted are the very things that many across the globe are praying for right now, so it's important to always be aware, and once aware, grateful. 

Please click here if you'd like to read today's Proverb, and click here if you'd like to read 1 Corinthians 1. I recognize myself in the following verse from that last chapter mentioned:

I always come to share the ponderings of my heart and mind, dear Reader, not because I feel that anyone can be 'convinced' or otherwise compelled to believe, because that's not how faith works- it's an inside job, 100%, full-stop, wholly between an individual and the Lord God and cannot be manufactured, faked, demanded or anything other than what it is. Yes, I refer to the Lord and His Word often, but that's because "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" and, Lord knows (quite literally, as do many of you) that *not* everything that comes out of this mouth is good or Godly.

That said, I'd like to talk about the first verse-image there and point out some observations. 

There are many things that happen in life that cause us to often question God and demand to know the "why" behind it all and I'll give you some examples:
*God, why do babies die of cancer?
*God, why is there evil in the world?
*God, why is it a struggle to eat and pay my bills every month?
and on and on and on, the questions that arise from the baffling situations in life, many of which seem unfair if not downright evil, will continue to plague us, or at least make themselves apparent to us, until we breathe our very last.

So, I'll ask another "why" and that is this:
Why does God allow all of these things to happen? 

I don't know why, that's His business. But, please allow me to frame it for you based on what I now understand of these things. The verse above tells us to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart..." and that right there is the first little treasure/clue in that trust is a matter of the heart. We must dig deeper within ourselves to reach beyond the confines of mere intellect and choose to trust Him on a much deeper level than that of thought, logic, and reason. It IS a choice. It's like Job said of his own unwavering trust in God:

There is a level of trust that runs so deep that, to the normal mind of man, to the intelligent, educated, to the wise and well-learned, makes literally no sense at all. Seriously, WHO trusts one who would slay him? But there you have it, straight from the Book itself.

Further, I feel that the laying down of our human intellect is an example of what it means to cast our crowns at His feet in worship; it's that taking of the cherished, prized things in life (be they material or otherwise) and throwing them down as worthless in comparison of Who He is and all that He's done (to wit, paying the ultimate price to redeem our sorry asses, knowing that we do not and never can or will actually deserve it OR even begin to pay Him back for it). 

So, I take this to mean: do I prize my thoughts over Him and His sacrifice? Are my material things more important to me than His love? Is my intellect my God or am I willing to accept that there are simply things in this Life that I cannot and will not ever understand, but love Him still?

I am the one holding the hammer and nail - He is the One holding me! 

His love for us is so rich, so extravagant, so complete and whole that no mind of flesh can ever grasp the true gist of what He's actually done. We can receive it, yes, but trying to understand it in our minds is a fool's errand. His Holy Spirit can give us a heart-level understanding, yes, but there is no reaching God through the intellect of man. 

Today, dear Reader, I pray that the eyes of your understanding will be opened; I plead the Blood of Jesus over every human being who sees or reads these words, in Jesus' Name. May His will and His foolish love reign over all that man normally worships instead.

💜

Strength in Silence on November 19th, 2025

Good morning, et cetera, dear Reader! We find ourselves on this side of the grave yet again today - hallelujah! Thank You, Lord. 💖 Please click here if you'd like to read today's Proverb. 

Today, I'm impressed with Jesus' strength to always be gentle towards others (other than when He was flipping tables in the temple, that is). Often, when others would accuse Him and otherwise verbally abuse Him, He chose to not dignify their harmful words with any sort of response - save silence, and there were some people (according to Scripture) who He never responded to no matter what that person said to Him (like King Herod Antipas, for example). 

Though some could argue that His silence was indicative of fear and/or weakness, I submit to you that His silence is exemplary of His divine strength and discernment instead. In my own life, I often find it difficult to not try and defend myself when under attack, which, to me speaks of pride and weakness as well as any genuine desire to communicate with the other person towards any middle-ground resolution. May I increase in discernment to know when silence is the best response! And, further, silence is a fabulous choice over any words that could cause another harm; I must always remember this.

This is also very important for me to keep in mind, just like John the Baptist said: I must decrease that He may increase (John 3:30)

Which means to me that if harm comes to me, but Christ is glorified in that, then it is all worth it, full stop - and the Scripture further encourages that death to Self (ego) here:

So many of the martyred saints support these truths as well; consider the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was unalived for his faith by the Nazi regime during WWII, who said:

The cost of true discipleship is never less than everything, even up to and including our very lives, and that normally starts with dying to ourselves (starving ego no matter the pain). May I be more and more like Him YES, even if it literally kills me. He paid the ultimate price for my redemption, may I be ready to accept His entire will for me, no matter what that looks like. 
I pray for the salvation of every soul whose eyes have seen these words, in Jesus' Name, amen. 💜

What do you really want? Sunday 11-2-2025

Greetings and salutations, dear Reader, and welcome to this unassuming sliver of cyberspace. It's still a bit before sunrise here on a chilly November morning. Click HERE to read today's Proverb if you like.

When someone approaches me with any topic, as an adult, I am under the assumption that the person who initiated the conversation actually wants to know what I think on the matter. I'm happy to present verifiable, provable facts toward that end - always. And, when I do not have the facts, I'm also very quick and happy to disclose that much as well. After all, none of us knows everything and owning our limitations is actually very freeing. 

I am sick and tired of grown adults who conflate "thinking" with "feeling" and there are many of them these days; our current education system is a sick, pathetic joke of what it was originally intended to be. People are not taught to think anymore, they're now rewarded for brainless histrionics, struggling their way through life wholly bereft of logic, critical thought, and reason, rewarded with various degrees once each professor has been convinced of their student's successful indoctrination.

No wonder the suicide rate is so damned high these days.

But I digress.
If you come and initiate a conversation about politics with me, I very reasonably expect that you are asking for my thoughts on the matter. Am I strange to make the educated guess of as much, or am I supposed to imagine that you're looking for something else?
If so, what exactly is that? You'll have to tell me, because I don't read minds! 

To initiate the conversation and then get upset because my thoughts are not a mere reflection of your own is sabotage, pure and simple. It's evil, cruel, wrong, and not adult in any way, shape, form, OR fashion. Look, here it is: you already KNOW that my beliefs are, in fact, independently MINE and NOT a mere reflection of yours. I thought DIVERSITY was important.
Apparently NOT diversity of THOUGHT. 

So, dear Reader, for the love of all that is right and decent about being a real adult, please do NOT initiate conversations about topics like politics, religion, and the like unless you have enough f***ing maturity to hear thoughts that (gasp!) do not necessarily mirror your own. 
And if you're too fragile and fearful to go there... THEN DON'T. 

the TDS Epidemic: One Example on Saturday 11-1-2025

Imagine, for a moment, a man who, three decades ago, in the unfiltered haze of a late-night TV spotlight, utters crude remarks to a single woman—comments born of bravado, ego, or the era's casual callousness. It's ugly, yes; it stings the soul and echoes the flaws we all carry, magnified by power.

cute; NOW DO THIRTY YEARS!!!

Now picture that same man, years later, stepping onto the world stage not with bluster, but with brokerage: forging the Abraham Accords, drawing ancient enemies—Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco—into a fragile but real embrace of peace. Missiles that once flew in fury now gather dust; economies entwine where hatred once festered. Trade blooms, terror plots wither. A region, scarred by centuries of strife, inhales its first tentative breath of coexistence.

And yet, here we stand: fixated on that one faded soundbite from the literal 1990's, a relic from a bygone broadcast, while the handshakes of reconciliation—those quiet miracles of diplomacy—elude our gaze. Why? Is it easier to clutch the ghost of offense, a tidy villain in our narrative, than to wrestle with the complexity of redemption? Or does it shield us from admitting that people, even presidents, can stumble spectacularly and still stumble toward something sacred?

Consider this, friend: What if your worth were eternally chained to your worst whisper from youth, while your boldest bridge-building went unseen? Would that illuminate truth, or merely eclipse it? Hatred for the former, indifference to the latter—it's not just selective memory; it's a self-inflicted blindness, trading the arc of history for a single echo. Profoundly stupid, yes, because it starves the soul of growth, of grace. But here's the spark: lift your eyes. See the man who erred, yes, but also the maker of peace. In that seeing, perhaps the light flickers on—not excusing the past, but embracing the possible. What might change if we did?

Let’s sharpen the lens further, friend, and expose the deeper rot beneath that selective outrage: the deliberate collapse of a foundational truth—feelings are not thoughts—engineered through decades of Marxist-influenced sabotage in what we once called schools, now better named indoctrination centers. This isn’t conspiracy; it’s documented history, and ignoring it keeps the light off.

The Factual Distinction: Feelings ≠ Thoughts

• Thoughts are cognitive processes: propositions, evaluations, inferences, subject to logic, evidence, and falsification. Example: “Trump said X in 1995” → verifiable via tape. “The Abraham Accords reduced regional conflict” → measurable via decreased missile launches (Israel-UAE: 0 since 2020, per IDF data) and $1.2B+ in bilateral trade (U.S. State Dept, 2024).
• Feelings are affective states: visceral, subjective, non-propositional. Example: “I feel disgusted by Trump’s words” or “I feel hopeful about peace.” Valid as experience, but not truth-claims. They describe you, not reality.

Verified Expert Consensus:

• American Psychological Association (APA) Dictionary (2020): “Emotion: a complex reaction pattern… not equivalent to cognition.”
• Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett (Northeastern University, How Emotions Are Made, 2017): “Emotions are constructed predictions, not hardwired reactions. They are not thoughts, though they influence them.”
• Dr. Paul Ekman (pioneer in facial expression research): “Basic emotions (anger, disgust) are universal responses, but the interpretation of events as ‘offensive’ is learned—i.e., cultural, not logical.”

The Marxist Sabotage: Documented, Deliberate, Devastating

This distinction was standard in Western education until the 1960s–70s, when Critical Pedagogy—rooted in Paulo Freire and Herbert Marcuse (Frankfurt School)—infiltrated teacher training.

• Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968): Rejects “banking education” (facts, logic) for “problem-posing” rooted in felt oppression. Truth becomes subjective; logic is “oppressor tool.”
• Marcuse’s Repressive Tolerance (1965): Argues intolerant speech (e.g., Trump’s style) must be suppressed not by argument, but by feeling-based censorship. Logic = violence; emotion = justice.
• Outcome: By 1980s, U.S. ed schools (e.g., Columbia Teachers College) adopted “affective education” curricula. Example: California’s 1990s “Self-Esteem Task Force” taught “feelings are facts” to boost minority performance—it failed spectacularly (Twenge, Generation Me, 2006).

Hard Evidence of Collapse:

• NAEP Long-Term Trend (1971–2020): Critical reading scores flatlined post-1975 despite funding tripling. Why? Shift from logic-based reading (phonics, inference) to “whole language” (feeling-based “connection to text”).
• PISA 2018 (OECD): U.S. 15-year-olds ranked 13th in reading, 37th in math—behind Estonia. Estonian curriculum? Still teaches logic vs. emotion distinction explicitly.
• Stanford’s 2021 Civics Study: 68% of U.S. college students said “hate speech” should be illegal—even if factually true. They feel harmed; therefore, speech is harm. Thought = feeling.

The Trump Example: Engineered Stupidity in Action

• Feeling: “I feel Trump is a monster because of one crude comment.” → Valid emotion. But not a thought. It says nothing about his actions.
• Thought: “The Abraham Accords failed to reduce violence.” → Falsifiable. It’s false: Hezbollah attacks on Israel dropped 40% post-Accords (INSS Tel Aviv, 2023). UAE-Israel flights: 200+/week. Kosovo recognized Israel. Facts.

Yet indoctrination centers trained a generation to treat feelings as arguments. Result? A voter screams “misogynist!” at a 30-year-old clip, unmoved by peace treaties—because feeling trumps thinking. That’s not passion; it’s intellectual paralysis, weaponized.

What if you demanded evidence before outrage?

What if you asked: “Does my disgust prove wrongdoing, or just my sensitivity?” What if you repented—not of feeling, but of equating feeling with truth?

The light goes on when you separate the two, name the sabotage, and reclaim your mind. Until then, you’re not “moral”—you’re manipulated.

Global Resources - Suicide Prevention (October 2025)

Good morning, et cetera, dear Reader, and welcome to this obscure American blog. 

The entire point of this post is to give you a list of resources, currently available world-wide, for Suicide Prevention resources; click here:

Global Suicide Prevention Resources (shared AI conversation)

This post is the ONE post that I wish, hope, and pray goes viral and I care for no 'credit' or fame whatsoever for simply making this available. The only thing that matters is saving lives! 

If you, or anyone you know, seems as though they're struggling with depression, et cetera, do not hesitate and please seek immediate help as you very well may be saving a life, and that is priceless beyond measure. 

💔💜💙