never

What an odd notion, being born.

The same is true of the big bang or the potential end of the universe. Time doesn’t begin or end in an absolute way. It is a convenient way of using words. Time is simply a concept that fits various physical models. But its origin is as much in metaphysics as in physics. When someone believes he will die and go to Heaven for eternity, the typical, casual definition of “eternity” is a long, long time. But that’s not true, because whatever is eternal must be outside time. Ultimately, the only participation we can have in time, outside time, or with a dimension of inconceivable time, occurs in our consciousness. Whatever we can experience determines the nature of time. It is just as true to say that the big bang is occurring right now as to date it back to 13.8 billion years, because only when we think about the event do we draw the big bang into the world of human experience, and thinking happens in the now.   

None of these conclusions are speculative–quantum physics and cosmology deal with them–and cosmologists and quantum physicists argue over them–every day. Without settling the vexing questions of “What came before the big bang?” “Where did time originate?” and “What is the timeless like?” we only want to point out that time has no meaning outside a specific frame of reference. There is no “real” time, only models of time constructed in human awareness. Once we realize this simple fact, the capacity to move beyond all models, to truly lose our fear of death, come alive. The spiritual concept that we were never born and will never die then becomes viable, too.

(--from, What Came Before the Big Bang? A Surprise Answer, about, Reality is Structured Consciousness, by Depak Chopra and Menas KaFatoshttps://www.scienceandnonduality.com/what-came-before-the-big-bang-a-surprise-answer/

What a curious way of thinking, being dead. 

etymology of “great”

great (adj.) 

Old English great "big, tall, thick, stout, massive; coarse," from West Germanic *grautaz "coarse, thick" (source also of Old Saxon grot, Old Frisian grat, Dutch groot, German groß "great"). If the original sense was "coarse," it is perhaps from PIE root *ghreu- "to rub, grind," but "the connextion is not free from difficulty" [OED]. It took over much of the sense of Middle English mickle, and itself now is largely superseded by big and large except in reference to non-material things.

In the sense of "excellent, wonderful" great is attested from 1848. Great White Way "Broadway in New York City" is from 1901, in reference to brilliant street illumination. The Great Lakes of North America so called by 1726, perhaps 1690s. Great Spirit "high deity of the North American Indians," 1703, originally translates Ojibwa kitchi manitou. The Great War originally (1887) referred to the Napoleonic Wars, later (1914) to what we now call World War I (see world).

"The Great War" -- as, until the fall of France, the British continued to call the First World War in order to avoid admitting to themselves that they were now again engaged in a war of the same magnitude. [Arnold Toynbee, "Experiences," 1969]

Also formerly with a verb form, Old English greatian “to become enlarged," Middle English greaten "to become larger, increase, grow; become visibly pregnant," which became archaic after 17c.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=great

good better best; great greater greatest

Student mentioned his name. Had to look up Ken Ham.

From Wikipedia:

Despite scientific evidence and consensus that the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and the Universe about 13.8 billion years old,^[2] Ham believes the age of the Universe to be about 6,000 years.^{[n 1]}  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Ham

From (DL): "I wonder if people created the bible to hold law and order to the land of that time. How would you get people to follow the rule? "

...

We do seem to have a passion for wanting people to do what we think is good for them and us. 

In conversation last night it was pointed out that most autocrats/supreme leaders start off wanting something 'better' for the populace. The people are often unsure what that means -- better? The autocrats (Mao Zedung,  Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler) decide to impose ‘better' on the people because they know better than the people what better means. What follows is mass murder and mayhem.

This process has been a staple of human history. Even Biblical history is filled with much smiting and smoting and large-scale elimination of 'enemies.'

We’re still trying to decipher exactly what compassion and forgiveness mean. 

We think about it. 

Every day.

something is not right

Russian involvement with DT/45 presidential campaign is receiving serious scrutiny.

Is that what "fake news" failed to see or report?

A fake election?

I don't think this will turn out well.

For anybody.

worry appears to be justified

In a talk Richard Rohr said it's not a matter of being correct, but how we connect with others.

I've been following the rhetoric and actions of DT/45, the current president of the United States.

He is seldom correct.

And seems intent to disconnect us from each other.

This is a worrisome pattern of reactivity and narcissism.

I notice the level of worry rising gravely among those who think about these things.

The worry appears to be justified.

Prayer, Rohr might say, is living within the presence of God.

It is time for prayer.

imitating clowns does not make a circus funny

It's becoming an odder country than we might have imagined.

A parody of itself.

I'm not fond of parodies.

on the death of Leonard Lookner

"Better worlds (I suggest) are born, not made; and their birthdays are the birthdays of individuals. Let us pray always for individuals; never for worlds.” 

(e.e.cummings, in nonlecture 2, from “i: six nonlectures” 1953)  http://www.thinkingtogether.org/rcream/archive/Old/S2000/sixnonlecturesrevised.pdf

My prayer is gratitude for Leonard’s acquaintance, and for the better place he made Camden. 

I’ll miss his slanting gait along the roadside.

http://knox.villagesoup.com/p/leonard-o-lookner/1622321

not a willing

Everytime I leave home I open the door to my home.

Beginning with a basic paradox of the mystical path, expressed by the Zen archer who looks away from the target while releasing the arrow, one of Heidegger's characters remarks about the approach to contemplation: the nature of thinking can be seen only by looking away from thinking. Thus we must turn from our impulse to calculate, looking away into the sky or across the hills of our being, in order to become receptive to the deep nature of thinking beneath its surface function as willing. As the second participant in the dialogue responds: In answer to your question as to what I really wanted from our meditation on the nature of thinking . . . I want non-willing. This non-willing comes into play as we look away from the target. One cannot willfully grasp non-willing but must be released into it. As the third participant in this [7] conversation remarks, You want a non-willing in the sense of a renouncing of willing, so that through this we may release . . . ourselves to the sought-for essence of a thinking that is not a willing. The contemplative thinker does not grasp the essence of thinking but is, rather, released to the essence of thinking. This distinction is not simply wordplay. If we expect to grasp a particular meaning, forcibly extracting the essence of the subject, then we remain on the level of calculative thinking. Even the use of ordinary syntax, a verb and its object, such as I know the essence of thinking, represents a subtle involvement with the mode of willful control. Contemplative thinking, by contrast, is perfect release, which is, fundamentally, release from willing. The contemplative no longer asserts, I know the essence, but reflects, I do not will to know, but await the essence in perpetual not-knowing. Significant cultural and scientific advances have developed from the ambitious willing of human beings to grasp essences and thus control energy, but it will never release us to the nature of contemplation. 

(--from, Coming Home, by Lex Hixon) 

Every time I arrive home I leave my home behind.

No one has to take me in.

I don’t know

what to do.

as with all games

Touch

Down

And

It's over

it's about time

Something about being in time.

It's not that everything is happening at the same time.

It's that every event in time is present in the same place.

For us to see.