The Environment, What Surrounds You, Is So

And Into The Brown Paper Bag Of My Heart, Eddy Slipped A Smile.

In A Head-on Collision With Fanatics, The Real Problem Is Always The Same: How Can We Possibly Behave Decently Toward People So Arrogantly Ignorant That They Believe, First, That They Possess Christ's Power To Bestow Salvation, Second, That Forcing Us To Memorize And Regurgitate A Few Of Their Favorite Bible Phrases And Attend Their Church Is That Salvation, And Third, That Any Discomfort, Frustration, Anger Or Disagreement We Express In The Face Of Their Moronic Barrages Is Due Not To Their Astounding Effrontery But To Our Sinfulness?

At Last The Cold Crept Up My Spine; At Last It Filled Me From Foot To Head; At Last I Grew So Chill And Desolate That All Thought And Pain And Awareness Came To A Standstill. I Wasn't Miserable Anymore: I Wasn't Anything At All. I Was A Nothing-- A Random Configuration Of Molecules. If My Heart Still Beat I Didn't Know It. I Was Aware Of One Thing Only; Next To The Gaping Fact Called Death, All I Knew Was Nothing, All I Did Meant Nothing, All I Felt Conveyed Nothing. This Was No Passing Thought. It Was A Gnawing, Palpable Emptiness More Real Than The Cold.

Is The Work Of Sun Worshippers To Honor Those Who Think They Can See The Sun? Or To Worship The Sun?

Anyone Too Undisciplined, Too Self-righteous Or Too Self-centered To Live In The World As It Is Has A Tendency To Idealize A World Which Ought To Be. But No Matter What Political Or Religious Direction Such Idealists Choose, Their Visions Always Share One Telling Characteristic: In Their Utopias, Heavens Or Brave New Worlds, Their Greatest Personal Weakness Suddenly Appears To Be A Strength.