I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs…Frederick Douglass, escaped slave

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines…Satchel Paige, 1974

Have you met him? 



We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. …I am always wondering what should be put next to my name when I die.... "A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered.

Carve your name on hearts, not on marble", said a great preacher one-hundred fifty years ago. Me, I want mine to say my name and the word "human" next to it. That's the legacy I hope to leave. Here lies larry the human, he is a spiritual being that had a human experience; and still refuses to conform to physical boundaries. Only God gets to say if I was a decent human or not. A humanist has four leading characteristics — curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race

…………… It is a good millennium for the races, all poised to exploit each other for the third, maybe the last millennia. The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal………because we are and it is.

Something that amazes me is after reading several profiles of others was how many say Jesus for the person they would most like to meet. Um hello, what are they waiting for? If they wait till they die they just may find out it's too late. Heavens is the reward for knowing him here on earth. Saint John said: "As many as received him(Christ) to them gave he power to become the sons of God."... Jesus Christ is very much alive and active today. In Spirit and occasionally taking on a flesh-and-blood form, he is working unseen by the masses for the regeneration of the world. With his all-embracing love, Jesus is not content merely to enjoy his blissful consciousness in Heaven. He is deeply concerned for mankind and wishes to give his followers the means to attain the divine freedom of entry into God's Infinite Kingdom....this will be as close to preaching as I will do. I am not a preacher but a truth seeker being led.
……………………Kosmicdebris


What is real never ceases



For in much wisdom is grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Ecc. 1:18 beginner Truth: Recognize that I am a spiritual being having a human experience, and grief is minimized knowing this. Wisdom is layered over time and situation till one day much responsibility for this knowledge attaches itself to being human.

 Religions call it: Epiphany, quickening, satori, enlightenment. Self meets soul. Recognize that my spirit-self is limitless and endless and I know someday I will actually realize this truth better. When I recognize my spirit I also realized a higher level or levels of self; and that I am using only a fraction of the potential I could have ever imagined or dreamed of using. I control all my thoughts coming and going. No one can "make me" mad or upset and no one can 'make me' happy. I and I alone make that choice and generate those real feelings from within myself. Only I alone can make me mad / glad, or insert appropriate dualism here. When I learn this the child in me grows up. That's practical wisdom that has never caused me any grief, and so is this definition of divine self:


What Is Real Never Ceases
The Self dwells in the house of the body,
Which passes through childhood, youth, and old age.
So passes the Self at the time of death
Into another body. The wise know this truth
And are not deceived by it.
When the senses come in contact with sense-objects
They give rise to feelings of heat and cold,
Pleasure and pain, which come and go.
Accept them calmly, as do the wise.
The wise, who live free from pleasure and pain,
Are worthy of immortality.
What is real never ceases to be.
The unreal never is. The prophets
Who realize the Self know the secret
Of what is and what is not.
Know that the Self, the ground of existence,
Can never be destroyed or diminished.
For the changeless cannot be changed.
Bodies die, not the Self that dwells therein.
Know the Self to be beyond change and death.
Therefore strive to realize this Self.
Those who look upon the Self as slayer
Or as slain have not realized the Self.
How can the Self be killed or kill
When there is only One?
Never was the Self born; never shall it
Cease to be. Without beginning or end,
Free from birth, free from death, and free from time,
How can the Self die when the body dies?
Who knows the Self to be birthless, deathless,
Not subject to the tyranny of time,
How can the Self slay or cause to be slain?
Even as we cast off worn-out garments
And put on new ones, so casts off the Self
A worn-out body and enters into
Another that is new.
Not pierced by arrows nor burnt by fire,
Affected by neither water nor wind,
The Self is not a physical creature.
Not wounded, not burnt, not wetted, not dried,
The Self is ever and everywhere,
Immovable and everlasting.
The Self cannot be known by the senses,
Nor thought by the mind, nor caught by time.
If you know this, you will not grieve.
Even if you mistake the Self to be
Subject to birth and death, you must not grieve.
For death is certain for those who are born,
As rebirth is certain for those who die.
Why grieve over what cannot be avoided?
We perceive creatures only after birth,
And after they die we perceive them not.
They are manifest only between birth
And death. In this there is no cause for grief.
Some there are who have realized the Self
In all its wonder. Others can speak of it
As wonderful. But there are many
Who don't understand even when they hear.
Deathless is the Self in every creature.
Know this truth, and leave all sorrow behind.

'I firmly believe that I have to know my spiritual self first before I can improve my conscious contact with my creator. "But if each day I gather some new truths, plant myself more firmly upon principles which are eternal, guard every thought and action, that it may be pure, and conform my life more nearly to that Perfect Model, I shall form a character that will be a fit background on which to paint the noblest deeds and the grandest intellectual and moral achievements; a character that cannot be concealed, but which will bring success in this life and form the best preparation for that which is beyond." w.j. bryan'
................Kosmicdebris

The Pieta, David and me

"It is human nature to want to exchange ideas, and I believe that, at bottom, every artist wants no more than to tell the world what he has to say. I have sometimes heard painters say that they paint "for themselves": but I think they would soon have painted their fill if they lived on a desert island.

The primary purpose of all art forms, whether it's music, literature, or the visual arts, is to say something to the outside world; in other words, to make a personal thought, a striking idea, an inner emotion perceptible to other people's senses in such a way that there is no uncertainty about the maker's intentions." a very talented graphic artist made that comment and was somewhat embarrassed to be called an artist, his name m.c. Escher. No one else can duplicate his work.

For the work of a mans hands I am partial Michelangelo's work the Pieta. Pieta is Italian for pity/compassion. In November of 1497, the French ambassador working for the' Holy See' commissioned one of Michelangelo most famous works, the pieta. To the Frenchman Vasari's eye: "It is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh. "I live and love in God's peculiar light. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free", he said. The pieta has had a profound effect on my religious imagination.

This may be cheesy, but I could stare at the pieta and weep and weep again every time I thought about it. On a human level I am really, really sorry they killed your son Mary, type thing, I am trying to get the word out so it wasn't for nothing. But it is a pity. That makes me sad. A grieving mother holding her crucified sons lifeless body in her lap is human pain amplified.

 My mother went to Rome once and had a picture of herself taken standing next to the stone carving, she told me how beautiful it was. I liked it first because mom did, most compassionate souls cant help get a lump at and thinking about what it means. The catholic church in Chandler Oklahoma has a close to scale copy out front and for this red-neck okie to stop and contemplate, that's rare. But I felt the meaning both spiritually and physically, good job mike the angel.

David is Mikes most famed stone-cutting. The statue is seventeen feet tall and carved out of a single chunk of carrera marble weighing tons. The enormous block was quarried fifteen years before the twenty-six year old Michelangelo was born. The marble has a unique property that makes it appear luminescence almost a glowing aura like quality when highly polished. Everyone for five-hundred years have been carrying on about it. Western ideal of the perfect human form. No one has been able to top the work or even come close. Unable to duplicate even with today's modern tools is mind blowing itself.

 Before the renaissance there were no artist or any art. They were simply known as architects, stonecutters and painters, craftsman. Shortly after mike finished the work someone amazed at it asked, how did you do it? That rock is the hardest rock in the world. Michelangelo made a simple statement. "It was simple, every thing that wasn't David I cut away…….If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius; took three years. The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection."

To make a perfect me, I must cut away everything that larry is not. I had to think about that for awhile. I began to realize that's what I am doing with my self. Sometimes I don't know who I am, but I always know what I am not; and that which I am not I cut away and leave behind. Somewhere inside that chunk of granite is the real me, I am getting there and starting to like myself. That is a big deal to me today. It is a big deal for God too. There is a good human in that rock.

 The roman church hardened his(mikes) life into one of a well financed slave-artist in residence of Roma, saint petes place, thing; thus extinguishing any and all future creative free-thinking art projects. Like he had a choice: create for the church or be put to death. The very painful yoke of the church only increased his soul suffering passion that played out in his painting of the Sistine chapel ceiling, and petes basilica.

 The practical side of me says he went mad owing to lead poisoning for inspiration. I suspect many a great masterpiece were painted under the influence of lead, opium and alcohol. History's temperamental artist in residence all most likely suffered from heavy-metal poisoning of some type due to compounding spirits and pigments. Merlot, laudanum, cadmium, cobalt, lead, what ever "juice of the shrub n scrub?" Michelangelo also said this………..could have been yesterday "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."………five hundred years later … The mediocrity of conformity still reeks of apathy. Religion and art, which should most distinguish us from the beasts, and ought most particularly elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts.
………………..Kosmicdebris




Bible as literature 


Racier than any night-time drama, the bible packs incest, rape, castration, beheadings, cross-dressing, polygamy, sex slaves, seduction, baby murder, and that's just the first few hundred pages. Right smack there in Deuteronomy 25:11-12 we learn that a wife who helps her husband in a fight by grabbing the enemy's testicles shall have her right hand cut off.

And guys today think they have the best wives. I could keep a kids attention on the bible with my stories;) why wouldn't a kid want to study about the greatest wizard ever was, Elijah? I believe if we teach the bible in school we have to present all of it. All or nothing, and there is a lot of information to digest, some not so nice. Teaching the bible in schools, I have been following this community discussion in Arkansas, these are things we as citizens can do and must support:

Three Fort Smith men who want the public school district to add a Bible course as a high school elective said their venture is not about religion.

Asked the Curriculum Committee of the Fort Smith School Board to consider adding the course, "The Bible in History and Literature," from a secular aspect beginning the 2007-08 school year.

"So many people are trying to make this a religious thing, a doctrinal issue, and that's not what we're saying." This class is taught from an aspect of literature. We don't want someone in there that's going to promote a specific religion or a specific doctrine. You take the Bible as a foundational document that our nation was based on and you learn about the literary and historical aspects of that foundational document."

I believe that by taking a Bible elective, students would learn honestly, with integrity, justice, compassion and good citizenship. (maybe love each other instead of killing each other, this is where is starts or stops).

"When I was a child, if a person said 'I will meet you at 9 o'clock in the morning at a certain place,' our word was — that's the integrity — 'I'll meet you at 9 o'clock today.'"
I believe integrity is being lost in today's youths.

If the elective was available at the local high schools, students who are not normally exposed to the Bible could have access to it.

I say any community is ready for the class.

Right here is where the fighting starts with who teaches the class? This is as far as we get with next questions of what is taught? The Bible can be taught in a secular manner in public schools, according to law professors, First Amendment advocates and religious leaders, but teachers and school districts must walk a fine line to do it legally. The U.S. Department of Education published a guide to religious liberty in public schools during the Clinton administration. The area on teaching religion or the Bible states, "Public schools may not provide religious instruction, but they may teach about religion, including the Bible or other scripture; the history of religion, comparative religion, the Bible (or other scripture)-as-literature, and the role of religion in the history of the United States and other countries all are permissible public school subjects."

The Bible and its many versions have a long history in schools dating back at least to the 19th century?

Much of the history is pegged with controversy regarding the specific version used or whether the Bible should have a place at all in a classroom. A series of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court from 1948 through the early 1960s restricted the use and manner in which the Bible could be used in public schools funded by taxpayer money.

After those rulings, many public school administrators took the Bible and anything associated with religion out of schools. We as a people have the power to put the bible back, just not the will. I crossing my fingers and saying a prayer that these people are successful.

There is no greater passion than that of religious fervor..........no historical force stronger than the belief system of a society, faith is the driving force of mankind. We must teach respect and tolorence for humanity to live in peace. Morality is the central theme of all world belief systems..we have to be reminded how to treat each other humanly without prejudice.
……………………..Kosmicdebris

Why the bible?  Public education omits moral obligations toward fellow beings, defaults individual behavior to households, sometimes ill-equipt for the task of youth socialization. Lack of home-training leads down the path of apathetic, indifferent, intolerant antisocial dysfunctional adults that, in turn, ultimately tax limited resources of society as a whole. Pay now or pay much more later.

speaking as an agnostic