Consider

  Pause tonight, and think of the world, and of the last days, and of wickedness, and whether it is great upon the face of the earth. Ask, what is our wickedness? If we, then, as a world are wicked, what are the ways in which we are wicked?
   Many of you do not believe in the scriptures. And, many others of you suggest that while you believe in the scriptures, they are not appropriate in discussions of politics and issues and world affairs. Leave them out.
   But, in them there, is a warning: In the last days, there shall be great wickedness. And, there will be fires, and earthquakes, and famines, and calamities as the Lord cleanses the face of the earth.
   We would do well to reflect on who we are as a world, and if we have sins that are sins of individuals, or whether there are sins we have as a society. Or whether there are both.

Musings and Wonderings on Coronavirus This Day

  I wonder on antibiotics, and whether they impact COVID-19. Now, I am only wondering -- throwing out a question to be considered -- not asserting that this is true.
  But, what if part of the reason the elderly are succumbing more, is that they are more likely to have had surgeries? Now, when you get a surgery, you get treated with an antibiotic. So, we notice that a disproportional number of people seem to be dying in nursing homes? Antibiotics and pain-killers abound in nursing homes.
  Utah suffered its fourth coronavirus death yesteday. I noticed the lady had a surgery two years ago. Two years might  not be enough time to rebuild your immune system.

  It was announced that social distancing efforts in Utah seem to be working. Officials pointed out that only one in ten of those contacting the disease contacted it from community spread. The rest were from out-of-state or had had contact with those from areas apart.
  I do wonder, though. One of the foremost screening questions -- I believe -- before you can be tested, is whether you have had contact with someone from abroad. If you only test those who have had contact with those from abroad, you are only going to find those who have had contact with those from abroad. If you aren't even testing those who might be from community spread, you aren't going to find them. So, of course you don't find them in your count.

   How much is the weather impacting those nations that have had success fighting COVID-19? India, South Korea, Taiwan? Have they had warmer weather, all along? Some of us -- like me -- have wondered if it is the masks making the difference. But, is it more the weather?


 

More than 25 Years of 'Stupid is as Stupid Does' has Left Its Mark

  One of the best one-liners in the history of movies, it is said. Uttered by the beloved character Forrest Gump in the movie of the same title. From 1994, we bring you this:
   "Stupid is as stupid does."
   Perhaps one of the more influential quotes in all of moviedom -- and perhaps one of the most damaging.
   To society.
   We listen to our icons. We follow them. We parrot them.
   If it is okay for them to call people stupid, it is okay for us to do it. If it is funny, it is funny. Let us laugh at others and call them stupid.
    "Stupid is as stupid does."
     We must wonder if more lessons are learned in a movie theater than are ever learned in church.
    And, some of them aren't good.

The Maverick Voice of Jamessmith Jones

   The world was on the outskirts of town. The whole world -- all of it -- all within a half-mile's chase of our village. I used to go there, visiting every site, every clime, and I'd return home within an hour's time, filled with the wonders of all the world.
   Then came the scurve, the Great American Scurve. No more would my feet take me to ancient Rome and stardusk Scandanavia, all within the same night. No more would the pitter-patter steps of others join me, as we went trolling and touring the world away.
   Now? Just the silence of sheep, the baaing of lambs. These were our voices, as we subjected ourselves to our masters -- masters who kept us on short leash.
   I will tell you of one who would throw off the leash. Jamessmith, they called him, Jamessmith Jones. No, Jamessmith could not be mastered. He could not be kept within our town. He would break away and go right back out into the world on the edge of our town.
   Jamessmith Jones.
   I remember yesterday, his leaving late that evening. I remember fearing they would catch him, and stop him, maybe jail him for his reckless adventure. But, he passed through that gate at the end of town -- passed through it and continued walking to the very edges of the world.
   And was back within an hour's time.
   I rushed to meet him, throwing my arms around him, grateful for his safe return. "What's out there?" I cried. "What did you find on this night?"
   His lips curled. His eyes shot toward me. "Yes! Well, the world remains out there, as big and vibrant as ever. There are Jews and Chinese, and Mexicans, and Africans, and there are Muslims."
   Picking up his feet, he started to walk away, as if to leave it at that. He had went into the wide, wonderful world and found no more than Chinese and Mexicans and Jews. 
   He stopped just a few steps into his walk, looking back over his shoulder. "Oh, and there are those not of our party."
  He turned, again, and continued his walk, and I was left to reflect on his words. We live in an amalgamated world -- people of all races, and religions, and backgrounds to be found on the very edges of our own little circle of friends.
   We lock out all others. We discourage ourselves from even talking to them, reasoning with them, for they are just liars and morons and idiots, we are told. 
   Jamessmith Jones had reached his hut in the town by now. I could see his lamp come on, and watched him duck inside. He stuck his head back out, and yelled at me.
   "Oh, and what am I suppose to be if I live in this town? Could you freshen my memory? Is it Democrat, or Republican? I'm having trouble remembering. Oh, and about those Muslims everybody hates. I love 'em. Met one tonight. He was a pretty nice fellow."
  I started shuffling toward my own home, a little brick house over on 99th. The mottos and chants of our day and age -- the mottos and chants of our village -- rang in my ears, telling me to hate others, telling me to care only for those who are our own, telling me to listen only to this new voice of wisdom and truth and enlightenment.
   Think I'd rather listen to Jamessmith Jones. But, these days, we don't get out much like Jamessmith Jones. We live in our little village, our own little cocoon. This, more than the isolation you might think of -- this is the isolation of our day.

(Index -- Stories, My stories)
   

There Might be a Downside to the Face Mask We haven't Considered

   There is a downside, perhaps, to wearing a face mask -- and it might be one that hasn't been considered.

   When you sneeze, it seems it is an act of your body forcefully ejecting germs or virus from the body. It is said a sneeze screams out at 100 miles an hour. Sneezes, as well as perhaps most coughs, are involuntary. You can't stop them. Something inside the body triggers them. It says, Get out, and throws the germs out with mighty force. It says, Hey-hey, I don't want this in my body! And, it hurls the germs out like a bouncer tossing an unwanted patron violently to the street.

   If the body doesn't want them, it might be because they are doing us damage. We can sit around all day thinking our own germs will do us no harm. We can suppose it is only other's germs, and not our own, that are bad. But, what is this?  Our bodies are forcefully rejecting these germs?

   Yes, those sneezes might not come from rejecting our own germs, but those of others. A germ floats into the air, hits our nasal passage, and the body violently ejects it right back out -- at 100 miles an hour. Surely that is a lot of it. But, maybe it is both the germs of others and those of our own that can prompt a sneeze.

   Likewise, germs from others that enter our breathing space might well spark some of our coughing. Maybe, maybe not. But, it does seem at least most of our coughing is not brought on by the germs of others, but by our own condition.

   So, what of the face mask? What of sticking a barrier right in front of your mouth and nose? The germs are tossed out, only to be bounced right back in. They exit, only to be inhaled about as quick as they've left.

   I do not say we should not be wearing face masks. If the healthy wore them, perhaps it would do them no harm at all. It would seem the masks would surely filter the air they are breathing, stopping many of the germs from entering their air passages. Wearing masks might yet be the right thing to do. 

   But, we should consider on whether the face mask does have this downside that perhaps previously hasn't been considered. 

   

   

There is a Greater Threat than Coronavirus

  Lay down the gloves. Lay down the daggers. Lay down the political spite.
  While our nation's focus and attention to the coronavirus would have you think it is our most-pressing need, our most-pressing crisis, I wonder.
  The day will come when the coronavirus will pass, but, through it all, the political strife seems only to be growing stronger. When the coronavirus ends, our hatred of each other will remain, boiling and roiling and stronger than ever. It, not the coronavirus might be the greater threat to destroying our nation.
   A house divided cannot stand, someone once said. And, I think that was scripture.
   If ye are not one, ye are not mine.
   I do not know how much these scriptures apply. I do not know that I am right in applying them. But, it seems I am. To me such national bickering is a sin in-and-of itself. Hatred is a sin. If we are are heaping hatred upon each other as we are -- Republicans hating Democrats, and Democrats hating Republicans -- is not that a sin? Hatred is hatred. If you practice it, it is a sin. The way we treat each other has no part in, Love thy neighbor.
   If love thy neighbor is a commandment, then does what we are doing not make us a nation of sin? I think of a scripture that speaks of people in ancient scriptural times returning railing-for-railing, and I sense from my reading that it was accounted unto them as a sin. Are we different than they? Is that not what we do -- return railing-for-railing?
   America might get through the coronavirus, but I fear for us and this much-worse malady. A nation that runs around saying, Stupid is as stupid does, to each other cannot stand.

Judge a man not by how he treats his friends, but by how he treats those who treat him as their enemy.