Building the Shop

An apology is in order.

I admit I have not been posting for two reasons.

REASON 1: I am in the fifth week of taking an online computer science course. Many hours are spent writing programs: getting to bed between 1:30 AM and 2:00 AM almost nightly. The class is interesting and I am learning a lot about this new technology but I am coming to the conclusion that this work is for the young. It all ends in July.

REASON 2: I am reading the Nag Hammadi Scripture. This is opening me to a new world of comfort. Also, it provides balance to the many hours that I spent programming. The scriptures occupy a book of more than 800 pages. I see no immediate end date.

Those are my major reasons for not posting. I will return begin to post in late July. I plan to post my thoughts on some writings from the Nag Hammadi Scriptures and some mathematics.

See you then. Thanks for your patience and understanding. I have enjoyed the contributions you have been sending. Keep them coming.

All the best,

Lloyd

The Prayer Of The Apostle Paul

The Site of the Gnostic Find

The Prayer of Apostle Paul is a historically significance spiritual prose that all serious believers should know. It is a part of the Nag Hammadi Gnostic library that was found in 1945 having been buried more that 1500 years. Familiarity with this prose, opens one to a treasure of new expressions for spiritual contemplation.  As the prose communicates thoughts from another era, it is not in present day writing style. Thus references are provided. Pursue them, they expand your spiritual consciousness.

Matthew Zapruder wrote a helpful explanation on reading poems. I supply his summary as a guide:

… poems can be a process of unfolding, one that might welcome us, or maybe grudgingly allow us, to be inside it. Poems do not have to be all about the revelation, the learning at the end. They aren’t necessarily goal-oriented. If anything they are more like a conversation with a friend. You start talking, you learn something, you double back, you get confused, you misunderstand, you laugh, you have some different feelings, you drift off, you come back, you know you have learned some things (though maybe you can’t even say what) but most of all you know you know this person better. What’s the goal? To be alive, and to experience. Which is more than enough, and a great pleasure.

Zapruder’s explanation applies to first time spiritual readings as well. For that matter, a first time visit to an unfamiliar floor plan can cast a haze of confusion or resistance to the environment. But return visits often open you to acceptance, that is, an understanding to appreciate the space, which  prepares you to better appreciate another home yet to be visited. So it is with a spiritual reading.

THE PRAYER OF THE APOSTLE PAUL

…..^[1]

Grant me your [mercy].
[My] Redeemer, redeem me,
for I am your;
I have come from [you].

You are [my] mind:
bring me forth.
You are my treasury:
open to me.
You are my fullness^[2]
accept me
You are <my rest>^[3]
give me incomprehensible perfection.

I call upon you,
you who exist and preexited,
in the name exalted above every name,^[4]
through Jess Christ,
[Lord] of lords,
King of the eternal realms^[5]
Give me your gifts with no regret,
through the Son of Humanity,^[6]
the Spirit,
the Advocate^[7] of [truth].
Give me authority, [I] ask of you,
give [healing]^[8] for my body, since I ask you
through the preacher of the gospel,^[9]
and redeem my eternal enlighten soul and my spirit,
and disclose to my mine the first born of the fullness of grace.
made in the image of the animate God
when it was found in the beginning.

Grant what eyes of angels have not [seen],
what ears of rulers have not heard,
and what has not arisen in the human heart,^[10]
which became angelic,
made in the image of the animate God^[11]
when it was formed in the beginning.
I have faith and hope.
And bestow upon me
your beloved, chosen, blessed majesty,
the firstborn, the first-begotten,
the [wonderful] mystery of your house.
[For} yours is the power and glory
and praise and greatness,
forever and ever.

[Amen]

In peace.

Holy is Christ.

[1] About two lines are missing at the beginning of the text.
[2] Pleroma, here ad below.
[3] The text only reads “rest”.
[4] Philippians 2:9
[5] Or “aeons” “ages”
[6] Or “Son of Man”.
[7] Or “Paraclete”
[8] The Coptic was restored to read “corruption” in which case the prayer may be understood as Paul’s prayer before his death.
[9] Or “evangelist”, probably referring to Jesus, possibly to Paul or another evangelist.
[10] 1 Corinthian 2:9; Gospel of Thomas 17; Gospel of Judas 47
[11] Or “the psychical god” i.e. the demiurge.

Marvin Meyer, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition, ©2007 HarperOne

Zora Neale Hurston: Anthropologist, Writer, Woman

Reblogged from Women in Florida History:

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Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to “jump at de sun.” We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.

- Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston has been a women close to my heart since I first read her work in college (I know, way to late to be introduced to a Woman of this magnitude!).

Read more… 717 more words, 1 more video

Education: The Key to Freedom

So you’re not the type to join an OCCUPY demonstration, but your heart burns to leave the world a better place than it is.

There are many organizations waging battle to transform our society into one that’s responsible to its citizens. If your heart’s churns to be a force in such a transformation but public demonstration is not your cup of tea, examine the mission, goals and the accomplishments of an organization committed to your struggle. I  support three such organizations financially – many in spirit. One that’s worthy of recognition is CALIFORNIA PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP EDUCATION FUND (CALPIRG).

CALPIRG conducts research and public education on behalf of California’s consumers and its interest. CALPIRG’s research, analysis, reports and outreach serve to influence policy for better health, safety and well-being.

I encourage getting to know this organization:

• View its policy recommendations to contain health care cost, to encourage competition, to curtail administrative cost and to reward health care programs  that deliver quality care.
• Recommend to those you love their public education,  “Young person’s Guide To health Insurance”
• Inform in conversations about health care their series of webnair to help small businesses to reduce their health care costs.

Their accomplishments:

• Better Schools Lunches
• New Protections for Consumers
• Safer Toys for Our Kids

View and support this advocate for a better society at www.calpirg.org/edfund/public-health then you too will be a part the OCCUPY movement to transform the society to value and respect nonbusiness interest of society

REVELATIONS: Visions, Prophecy,& Politics in the Book of Revelation

Jim Padgett depiction of Chapter 9:1

Elaine Pagels is a gifted expositor. What’s often boring to me, she expresses in interesting narrative. Since my last post, I have been following paths that she has laid over the past 15 years.

Ms Pagels is the Harrington Pierce Professor at Princeton University. Her interest is early Christianity history. The Gnostic Gospels, one of her bestsellers, is now joined by another, the focus of his post: Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, & Politics in the Book of Revelation.

If you’ve ever said to yourself that you will read the Bible or the book of Revelation, then having second thought feeling the task too boring or overwhelming for lack of a scholarly background in spiritual readings, I invite you to read Elaine Pagels’ latest volume, Revelations.  It’s an assessable read filled with drama and intrigue. Furthermore, it contains an excellent history of early Christianity.

A gifted story teller and scholar

Before I begin, let me declare that I am not an agent for Professor Pagels. My motivations for this post are twofold. First, I admire how the professor presents her research to the non-scholar. She has more than forty years of research experience, yet she communicates like a gifted storyteller. Second, having been one of the first scholars to help complete an English translation of the Nag Hammadi in the United States – the 1945 discovery of secret revelations and gnostic writings, Professor Pagels is among those who seek to illuminate the history of Christianity: its success and the evolution of  its belief – why its believers believe what they believe.

John the Apostle, writer of Revelation?

Early in her book Professor Pagels resurrects this still debated mystery. She recalls three undisputed observations.

1. The Gospel of John is a treatise that declares Jesus is God.
2. The book of Revelation which deals with cosmic war, a dragon, beasts, a whore, a mother, plagues, earthquakes, cosmic disintegrations and the salvation of Jesus’ followers  has a drastically different style than the Gospel of John.
3. Further, the writer of  Biblical Revelation fails to declare himself an apostle: at that time a practice.

Dr. Pagels makes no attempt to resolve this mystery.

Many revelations: secret and public revelation

John’s Revelation was written during a time when many were writing a book of revelations.  Peter, Mary Magdalene, Paul, Phillip, and James wrote their own revelations. A Revelation of  Ezra had been written, although the author was not the prophet Ezra.  Non-Christians also wrote their own revelations.

Writers of a revelation tended to write two: a secret revelation and a public revelation. Apostle Paul is an example.  In his public revelation, Paul declares that Jesus called him to minister to the Gentiles and revealed those things that he wished Paul to tell the Gentiles. Paul’s  zealous pursuit of his public revelation kindled a wide spreading of the new religion. But it is only the Revelation of John, that is highlighted in the Christian canon.

Some takeaways from this read

Below is a list of the some things I gained from this reading:

1. A plausible explanation of why John’s revelation entered the Christian Canon over other revelations,
2. A interesting chapter on church history,
3. Details of an intense rivalry between Apostle Paul and John, the writer  of Revelation,
4. A short introduction to Gnostic history and the Gnostic gospels,
5. The existence of other revelations, and finally
6.  Encouraging an initiate to question was the major focus of many secret  revelations writers.

Conclusion

Today we are bombard with messages through multiple channels. Those who seldom question are prey to messages that are harmful to society. In Revelations Pagels alerts us to the importance of questioning some gnostic writers placed in their secret revelation. I hope this observation ignites the readers of Revelations and ultimately all to forsake blind followings and to adopt questioning the “politics, beliefs and wisdom ”  of all who have the power to spread their views.

Rain in Sacramento

Today it rained: not a drizzle, but a nice wet rain. By the end of the day, an inch will have been reported. For New Orleans that’s the equivalent of an hour downpour. This is Sacramento. An inch downpour is a day’s activity for our clouds.

 I drove to the shopping center  in the rain. The slouching sounds from the tires on the wet streets and the swoop-swoop  sound made by the wipers blades are music to me. I love to driving in the rain.

Along the main drag to the shopping center, the 60-feet sycamores are budding; the flowering plums – in full bloom, stand on a circular carpet of white petals; and the weeping willows are awaking. The clouds completely cover the Sacramento, casting a white light from the blocked sun rays.

Redwoods line the main drag to the shopping center. Their shapes, forever pointing upwards, display the majesty of this statuesque species.  This is a relative young neighborhood, but the heights are well over 50 feet. They are approaching their maximum height  for the valley floor. Along the coastal strip where they thrive, it is not unusual to point out one in excess of  340 foot tall and over 900 years old.

Typical lays out for redwoods

Returning home, I exit the main drag. The camellias are in full bloom. At my corner the double blossom pink camellias and the single blossom red camellias in my neighbor’s garden enjoy the rain. A few yards away then I am at home. Along my driveway, the double blossom white camellia bushes are burdened but happy. To me, they hail, welcome home.

Along my driveway

An Interview With Office Sean Kennedy, CHP

Officer Sean Kennedy is the Public Information Officer for the California Highway Patrol Capitol Protection Section (CHP).  His charge includes the normal duties of a peace officer and he gives Safety and Anti-Violence presentations in Downtown Sacramento.

I wanted to interview Office Kennedy during the Capitol demonstration on March 5. The events of the day did not permit him the time for such an interview. So I waited until today to get his version of the events of March 5.

I conducted the interview by phone so I have no visual image of him.  However my first question revealed much about this peacekeeper.

I asked, “ How would you rank the March 5th Capitol demonstration among the many you have worked?” He replied,”I give only the  facts – just the facts.”

His speech was classic Joe Friday of the original TV series, Dragnet, a somewhat warmer version of Friday’s, but like Joe Friday, he stuck to the facts with occasional statements on officer safety.

After setting the ground rules, he immediately commenced:

The West lawn demonstration was great, less arrests and positive. There was no violence against officers.  The organizers obtained permits to demonstrate, very little garbage left on the lawn. The demonstrators were respectful of officers and state property. Some arrest but no violence. Officers and demonstrators understood each other’s position.

Without sounding preachy he interjected a thread about officer safety, “We appreciated it when the demonstrators are respectful to officers.”

Then his vocal energy changed, “Rotunda, (The rotunda demonstrators were) not permitted. Dispersal orders given multiple times. Some wanted to be arrested to make a statement.”

I broke in, “How were you able to distinguish the rotunda visitors from the demonstrators?”  “The signs.”, he replied; then continued, “Some wanted to be arrested.”

Without prompting he introduced a rest room incident. “Some wanted to use the rest room. We informed them that they could use the restroom, but they would have to leave afterwards.”

He quickly followed with, “Their goal was not to be arrest but to voice their opinion.”

“Arrest in the rotunda, 74 arrested and 66 cited and released that night. There was no damage to the priceless artifacts( in the rotunda).”

The Officer Kennedy returned to remark about the West lawn demonstration:

I was glad to see the the West Lawn organizers policed their crowd. It makes the officer’s job easier when the demonstrators have people to keep their people orderly. I saw one, dressed in blue jacket, tell a demonstrator who was standing on the planted box, to get down, the person did.”  Standing on the planted boxes in Capitol Park is not permitted.

Officer Kennedy ended his remarks with empathy for the students:

I take classes at night then go home and do my homework. When I get my college bill. I wonder why does it costs so much?”

It is clear to me that Officer Sean Kennedy is one of us. He goes home and becomes a husband, a student, and pays bills –  including college tuition. Sometimes members of the public see peace keepers as aliens. I too was guilty of this myopia, but this man has given me a vision correction. He puts a soul into the word  cop.

Conducted on March 8, 2012

Students Protest Cuts in Education Occupy Movement Return to California Capitol

West Facade of California Capitol

Today Capitol Park displayed its natural beauty. Mature camellias trees were burdened with new blooms of white, pink and red camellias. Below each tree laid a circular carpet of spent camellia petals of the same color as the new blooms.

Capitol Park, the grounds on which the Capitol of California sets, is usually quiet. Today noise from a circling Highway Patrol helicopter waxed and waned that something big was happening. The Highway Patrol, the official guardian of the Capitol, had dispatched an unusually large number of mounted and foot patrols.

Across the street within the jurisdiction of the city, complements from the city first responders stood vigilant. This company of first responders would be prepared for anything that might happen.

Assembled was a large crowd, but the matured redwoods, magnolias and sugar pines on the park’s peripheral hid from street view the true size of this assemblage. The young had gathered to protest cuts in education funding. The other were supporters of the occupy movement.

Students, who traveled as far as 300 miles to protest, wore tee shirts that partitioned them into groups from the same places. Some were in line to enter the Capitol; others conversed within their groups, while others enjoyed the park setting in conversation.

As I approached the Wast Capitol entry, the center of the largest concentration of protesters, the sounds from a tom-tom and an answering snare drum repeatedly voiced an unrest:

Boom, Boom
tat, tat
Boom, Boom
tat, tat
Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom.

After a few steps, I was able to read the hand-painted signs lying on the ground. The signs voiced the demonstrator’s grievances as well as the terse protests on their tee shirts. A sample of  the slogans of dissatisfaction read:

Bail out Schools
Not the fools

Don’t let’ em get, away …
Make’ em pay!

Tax the Rich

California

#1 in Prison Spending
#47 in Education Spending

They’d rather incarcerate
than educate.

Remember the California
MASTER PLAN ???

Fund education,
Our future depends in it.

Near the West entry of the Capitol a man had just finished addressing a group of students. I identified myself and asked, “Why are you here?” He said, “I am Tim G., a faculty advisor at Los Angeles Mission College (LAMC). I am leading this group of concerned students to advocate for fee reductions and more financial aid.”

I asked him for permission to speak to two students from the college. He granted me the permission then he chose two students: Angie A G. and Lora E.

Tim introduced Angie to me. I asked her the same question. She said, “I am demonstrating to fight for education and against rising fees. I want to help improve the welfare of all. It’s wrong, upsetting: what politicians do.” Angie identified herself as a resident student who plans to transfer to San Francisco State University to become an English teacher.

Then Lora E. approached me. Her response to the same question was, “I have two daughters: one is adopted. They have just graduated. One will go to University of California at Riverside and the other, to the College of the Canyon. I want to be a positive influence on them, but the situation is getting worse to pay for three students.” Lora had recently enrolled at LAMC. After LAMC she would transfer to California State University, Northridge to study psychology.

On the South lawn, was a lone demonstrator wearing a black tee shirt emblazoned with bold white letters OCCUPY SAN DIEGO.  I approached him and identified myself.  He told me that he is  Mike G., a staff member at California State University San Marcos.”  Then I asked, “Why are you here?”

He said, “I am here because I have four children. I want to protect access to higher education, support the MASTER PLAN and give a strong voice against privatization in education.” Mike took a breath and continued, “It leads to profits for politicians and the rich, rather than a balanced education for students.” Closing he said, “This is a great awakening of the sleeping giant. I hope it continues to stir.”

About 6:31 PM the crowd swelled at the Capitol West entrance. State police, in riot gear lined two deep positioned themselves between the crowd and the West entry. A few students were still inside the Capitol which officially closes to visitors at 6:00 PM. After returning home, I learned from a KCRA TV broadcast that the trespassing students were told to vacate the building or they would be arrested.

March 5, 2012

Rear Your Child For Success: A Sestina

instruct a Child: Society Will Praise You

Everyone wishes the best for his child.
At birth he is wired to accomplish it
in all that he undertakes;
provided he has been properly nurtured;
given guiding principles;
and knows how to keep clear of distractions.

Your child will realize his best when he learns to manage distractions.
Teach him those skills. Society will designate him a worthy child.
In him, cultivate positive principles
then, life will usher him through it.
Vary his experiences, he will be nurtured
by them and they will help him to appreciate all he undertakes.

Teach your child self-love. It will drive all that he undertakes
and will protect him from distractions.
Love him with your time and attention, then his self-esteem will be nurtured.
For what loved child
thinks ” I’m not worthy?” Confidence he shall possess it.
For love from others and self, will build self-esteem and moral principles.

As guardian, in him instill accepted principles.
And give him many diverse experiences. They will prepare him for life’s undertakings.
When such an event arrives and it
will, he will recognize it and be able to avert its crippling distractions.
One-on-one talks, sports and cultural events will develop your child
for a life that is well nurtured.

In your ways, do you wish him nurtured?
Children love imitation. It is their best teacher of principles.
So, be a good example for your child.
Good behaviors he undertakes
having learned from your examples. Life is always threatened by distractions
but your good training will keep alive his desire for it.

Rewarding projects await solutions in IT.
IT problem solvers, nurtured
by disciplined concentration, level their programming distractions.
Their focus is on principles
that ensures success to a user who undertakes
to teach an application to a highly motivated child.

So teach IT to your child.
Having been nurtured in disciplined ways, in all projects he undertakes
he will master their distractions and use the correct principles.

REFERENCES

http://voices.yahoo.com/helping-children-develop-their-talents-709021.html

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5792

on a slave letter

Underground_Railroad_Monument_Windsor_ONT

During the past four weeks a letter written by Jourdon Anderson, a former slave, circulated the Internet. The letter gives Anderson’s response to his former master’s request to return to service. The circulating document garnered many comments. All overwhelmingly decry slavery or are cheers for Jourdon’s refusal. Despite these strong attestations against slavery, in reality America’s racial climate towards Americans of African descent is inversely proportional to the strongest expressed sentiment.

For me, recounting events of American slavery is painful; as painful as removing a new scab from a deep but tender wound. So why am I writing this?  This is my response to one who asked me to share my opinion about African American’s poor economic emergence.

The prevailing sentiment on slavery is “get over it, live in your time”. I find it difficult to get over when vestiges of this inhuman behavior are ever before me supported by a ubiquitous modern technology. They suffer our young and waste natural resources.

Examine Anderson’s letter it is positive in action and thought. In action, Anderson got over the injustice inflicted upon him and moved on. To what? Pouting, killing, robbing, stealing or raping?  No!  He moved on to a better station in life, one in which he used the skills he learned in slavery to support his family; and moved on to dream of a better future for his children. In thought, Anderson walked away from slavery and its painful memories and embraced a new life governed by logic over emotion.

Revisit the letter. There is no ranting, no emotional outburst. The letter is cogent and it appeals only to the superior gifts of man. It is a lesson for all; the aggrieved and the privileged citizens of our time. Its message is clear. Appreciate what has been accomplished and use it as a basis for a better situation.

Many, having repeatedly seen injustices inflicted on the weak become frustrated, helpless and harden themselves to this psychological pain. Others seek to respond.

The most vociferous response is to levy Christianity or capitalism as culprits for African Americans confinement to the lower rungs of the American economic ladder. Ironically Jourdon blames neither systems nor persons.

 

To those who believe Christianity a culprit, work for changes in the Christian leadership for women, gays, and handicapped worshippers in your church. Success in this mission values person over accidents of physical attributes or limitations. If you are not a member of a church, join one and communicate your vision for a Christianity with a leadership open to those capable of serving. If capitalism is a culprit, lead a campaign to educate support of African American enterprises. Even limited success opens opportunities to the aggrieved. These are just two of the many extensions of the Anderson’s approach to a group.

Regardless which approach is adopted, its must value the group’s present accomplishments and extend those them to the group family. The approach must broadcast and honor the interconnection of group members. In other words, all must come to honor an injustice to one member is a potential injustice to all members. This isn’t anything new. But when universally embraced then it will be new.

How can this understanding be implemented?  One approach is to allow those who can do; to do. Celebrate the achievement of members. Encourage abilities and talents. Grow opportunities and reward abilities with opportunities. Any step, however small in this direction, betters the group situation more than blaming – no matter how articulate the reasoning for assigning blame.

The time is short or the gap in the economic ladder widens. All must embrace parts of this approach otherwise present conditions worsens. I pray for the day when the aggrieved takes on this mantle. Then and only then will we a rise. For as long as the talented are isolated and abandoned from the masses the group can never rise to the height Jourdon reached.

Epilogue

The End of the Segregated Century, a recent report by the Manhattan Institute, seems to shout down my remarks. The report declared all white neighborhoods are effectively extinct. It reported only 0.5% of America’s 70,000 neighborhoods are now white and argued that since the 1960’s, ghettos neighborhoods have dropped for nearly in half to 20%.

Jacob Vigdor, a coauthor of the report, notes the biggest drop in segregation over the past decades has been in place because of gentrification and depopulation of ghettos because of better access of credit has spurring movement to the suburbs. The greatest desegregation of neighborhood had taken place where the most subprime lending was available.

John Logan, a Brown University sociologist, believes the Manhattan Report is over the top. He reckons people who wish to move away for black neighborhoods still encounter barriers, even for those making good money.

The Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank complied as report card on a range of measures of racial and ethnic equity in the country’s 100 biggest metropolitans areas. The author of the report, Margery Turner, says even in metro areas scoring high marks, the average black American is more likely to live in poorer neighborhoods, go to weaker schools, less likely to find a job and less likely to own a home than the average white.

The Economist February 11-17, 2012.

http://www.readersupportednews.org/news-section2/316-20/9746-a-letter-from-a-former-slave