Nibbled News

Seven Percent Solution For Our World?

 

 

Prayer is co-operation with God. It is the purest exercise of the faculties God has given us - an exercise that links these faculties with the Maker to work out the intentions He had in mind in their creation.  ( E. Stanley Jones)

This is the time of the year when the winter blahs and blues seems to take its toll on many, many people. Feelings of depression slowly creep into a person's psyche. Many folks want to give up on the positive side of life and in its stead embrace a negative, hangdog pessimism.

The shorter days and the darker nights takes its toll on a person's mental health. There is a solution to this perennial problem. We are not doomed to suffer and flounder in a sea of doubt and pessimism.

The short video at the beginning of this blog offers a solution that many people fail to realize may be helping to shape thier lifes and destinies. It is an inspirational video clip. It tells all of us that we are not alone and that there is a benevolent , universal consciousness uniting us all.

Life is meant to be shared and the fruits and the joys in life may come to us through the efforts of others who care for us. Enjoy.

 

 

We All Nibble The Apple of Knowledge Daily

 

"Sanity is a one trick pony -- all you have is rational thought. But when you're good and loony, the sky's the limit!"

-The Tick

 

 

Adam and Eve have been given a bad rap since time immemorial. They allegedly ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of life and doomed the rest of their progeny to the slings, arrows and the many outrageous fortunes of the situation we call life.

Their natural state of naivete was immediately replaced with one of a relatively short lived omniscience.

Biting into the apple enabled them to immediately comprehend and possibly truly appreciate the true nature of themselves , life, the world about them and of course their place in the total scheme of things.

Many religions label this as an original sin. The ancestors of this mythical couple from Eden are forever marked with an indelible tattoo labelling them as having fallen from their natural state of grace and into the depths of a lesser existence.

 But the buck and the ensuing guilt does not stop with our biblical parents. Every day we all take a big conscious bite from the apple of life whenever we knowingly do something that runs counter to our own sense of rightness, morality and fair play. The ensuing sense of guilt is oftentime immediate and we desperately try to either minimize the action or else suffer mental anguish for being so weak and gullible.

Have you ever been driving behind someone when the light turns red and you notice the driver accelerate to cross the intersection and then almost immediately hit the brakes? This reflexive action may be considered a public act of contrition by the offending driver to minimize his guilty action. The guilt of running the light is lessened by the mere application of a foot brake.

I have spoken with a number of people who habitually call in sick for work on a regular basis. Their co-workers are often sceptical to the true nature of their ailments. But the guilty parties themselves cleverly rationalize their absence from work as an entitlement due to their years of devoted service or hard work gone unrecognized by an ungrateful employer, supervisor or manager.

A number of these people eventually do succumb to the stresses and strains their untruths create for themselves. It takes a lot of physical effort and mental concentration to maintain a lie no matter how well thought out it may be.

Judge Judy in her infinite wisdom is correct when she advises plaintiffs before her to tell the truth. It takes less effort and you don't have to memorize a lot of ambiguous details.

Modern man in his limited wisdom has come a long way since being ousted from the mythical Garden of Eden.  His cleverness and his inventive mind is always trying to return to the natural bliss of Eden. Yet many of us fail to learn from our past mistakes. Too many times we would rather regurgitate the apple of wisdom than learn from our mistakes and go forward with our lives.

 

 

Letting Her Steady Boy Friend Sleep Over?

As a parent would you lose any sleep if your teenage daughter innocently and somewhat matter of factly one day asked you if her steady boyfriend could sleep over?

Would this issue raise your emotional hackles , concerns and neurotic fears as to the safety and emotional well being of your daughter?

A representative number of present day authors have stated that an increasing number of parents in Holland have already crossed this highly charged emotional sea of concern and do allow their daughter's "steady" boyfriend to sleep over but with certain stipulations.

According to one published report Dutch parents have normalized such sexual liasons in the hope of indirectly maintaining an infleunce in their teens lives.

In the U.S. parents feel they lack the overall moral authority to sanction such actions because they engaged in sex at an early age.

Lines of communication between parents and teens are not seriously strained as they are in the United States where parents at times feel guilty for having themselves engaged in sex at an early age.

Parents feel that they are losing control of their teenagers. The want to protect them from harm not realizing that their "children" are maturing and not really abandoning the nest as much as seeking support , understanding and guidance from their parents.

The parental "not under my roof" attitude often leads to unprotected sexual activity, increased teen pregnancy and the transmission of sexually communicable diseases. Sex is entered into hastily and the back seat of a car or a seedy motel room is the birthplace for many years of bitterness and tensions.

The Dutch approach to sex is not a laid back attitude promoting sexual license. The boyfriend must be the daughter's steady and must also fit into the family scheme of things. This is not a one night stand situation. It is more of a preventative measure to ensure that parents and teens communicate in an honest and open manner.

Parents in the United States at times  are way too squeamish to have the necessary sex talk with their children. Boys are coerced into being sexual beings way before they are emotionally prepared to be.

Girls are often routinely treated by their loving and doting parents as asexual beings ... daddy's little girl waiting for the right Prince Charming to come into her life. Mr Right seldom does show up.

This current "sleep over dilemma" is a situation that can be easily managed if parents and teens be honest with one another, keep their lines of communication and trust open and seek guidance from school, church or health professionals willing to assist parents and teens with this emotionally charged situation.

Concerned parents can consult Amy Schalet's book, "Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens and the Culture of Sex" published this coming November. It is an informative read.