Be a good parent!

Kicking Mules

I can honestly say that I love teaching people things. I am delighted when people say "Gee Geoff you are surely knowledgeable about a lot of useless things." Or better yet, "Gee Geoff you sure know much about a few useful things!"

These are good moments in my life. I like learning, I like knowing new things. I love being taught. With this, I like to allow for others to experience the same.

I think for the most part people are intelligent, that they have a desire to learn, to understand, to think different. However I think that, for the most part, people just think that they can't. There is an old saying, you don't learn anything the second time you're kicked by a mule.

Sometimes, people just don't think, they get behind a mule again, and get kicked in the groin, and wonder "What the heck?" I don't think that it's because people are inherently stupid...although there is evidence to the fact. I think it's just that people are forgetful.

They get this amazing revelation of truth, or something new and fantastic, and it changes their life. Then things go back to the same, the way it was. Why? We forget.

As a teacher the most frustrating thing is having to remind people of the facts that seem so plain to me. There are things that are simple for me to understand, others it takes reminder, prodding, pushing until they finally get it. Then 2 years, 2 months, 2 days later you have to remind them again.

The fact of the matter is that as a teacher this is life, and the rewarding part of it all is when it finally clicks, when the planets align the sun is shining, and birds are singing. Then reality sets in and you have to do it all again!

"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."
Clive Staples Lewis

We as teachers, preachers, students, seekers of truth need to know that it's not about removing obstacles in peoples way, its about taping into the potential that is in us all, the truth the lies within to make us better people. Planting of seeds, and pulling weeds.

I don't ever want to stop learning, or be lazy in thought. My greatest hope is that I can move people to feel the same. I know I will forget many things that I learn, but hopefully, as I push myself and others, I will learn to forget less. I like donkeys, hopefully they will learn to like me more!

Church?

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42-47

American Heritage Dictionary
com·mu·nism (kŏm'yə-nĭz'əm)
n.

1. A theoretical economic system characterized by the collective ownership of property and by the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members.

Just a thought...

A day in the life of a serial killer

In the past month, I've watched 2 seasons of a Showtime program called "Dexter."

This rather delightfully dark comedy follows the life of a rather socially awkward Miami Police Department forensics investigator named Dexter Morgan, who in his spare time is also a serial killer.

Due to witnessing his mother being sawed to pieces as the tender age of 3, he has a rather strong impulse to kill others himself. He is not your a-typical, Hanibal Lecter type killer. He, infact, uses his CSI job to carefully choose and find other criminals, who themselves are serial killers, or murderers in their own right.

As I've been rather enthralled by the life of this wonderfully comical killing machine, I've also wondered why I am so amused by something I clearly should be repulsed by. I'm not going to lie, I like it when Dexter kills someone whom, in my opinion, deserves the carefully orchestrated death at the hands of Mr.Morgan. I enjoy the fact that he is smart enough to work so closely with the police, and no one is the wiser. I laugh at his quick wit and inner monologue about making his next kill, or how not to be caught when his next impulse to kill arises.

Why?

Why is this entertaining to me?

Why do I love watching one human killing another human.

I can understand the feeling of people getting what they deserve, it's in us all, justice, we seek justice. Especially in a society where many get off scott free for things that in Bible days would have lead to a granite slab being dropped on your head, we seek justice, we seek revenge.

However I have found myself enjoying Dexter killing those that are innocent of nothing, other than finding him out, or getting in his way.

I don't have an answer for this, I don't know why I feel the way I do, other than the fact that that the writers of these shows are genius in twisting my moral compass...in making my joy swell when I see the beauty and craft of this serial killers work.

I think I'm in love with the idea of a show, or a movie making me feel a certain way when inside I know I shouldn't. Feeling sad for a lunatic being repaid in "A Clockwork Orange." Of Hanibal Lectar escaping in "The Silence of the Lambs." I am glad that Catherine Zeta Jones finds a way to support herself by selling drugs in "Traffic."

So this first blog is a toast to all the writers out there that toy with my emotions, that twist my judgment, and mess with my morals! I salute you for making me appreciate my inability to think for myself!