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Smart phone isolation
It’s cool to see pre-smart-phone movies where people in a restaurant will all be talking to each other, or where people on a busy sidewalk pay attention to what’s happening around them. The smart phone is the great isolator. While it enhances some communication, people in the immediate vicinity may as well be 1000 miles…
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Everyone is a hero?
I remember when we used to have an assortment of words for people who did good things. If someone found a wallet and returned it to its owner we would call that person honest. If a kind person aided a motorist having car trouble we call that person helpful. If a shopper paid for another…
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Opposition doesn’t diminish truth
The number of people who oppose you has no bearing on the truth. If something is true, it is true. On the other hand, popularity of falsehood doesn’t make it true.
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We all have it coming
I saw Clint Eastwood’s ‘Unforgiven’ many years ago. It isn’t a movie I would recommend, so it’s interesting how one part still stands out in my memory. Clint Eastwood’s character, Will Munny, has been looking for some men who brutalized a woman—to get a bounty I think. He’s been riding with a young man who…
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Follow the right model for spiritual success
Today we had fast and testimony meeting at church. One man expressed his concern that people, young and old, are having trouble staying faithful. He said every time he visits his hometown he hears of someone else who has fallen away from the church. He talked about things he had learned from Tony Robbins, and…
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A bloodthirsty nation of online executioners
We don’t consider ourselves a primitive society. We are civilized. We don’t punish people who offend us by casting stones. We are not barbarians. We prefer bloodless, virtual crucifixion through viral memes and online commentary. We prefer petitions to higher authority through the screams of a digital mob. Make the wrong mistake and there is…
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When reality isn’t real
Reality TV isn’t real in any sense of the word. Similarly, Hollywood can take a true story, like an uneventful little league football game, and turn it into the Super Bowl.
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Facebook groups are hostile, as are most Internet forums.
Leaving a Facebook group can have a calming effect, like shutting a thick, soundproof door on a room full of baying hounds. Most Internet forums are hostile, regardless of topic or professed ideals.
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Rental property and a person’s character
I think one of the benchmarks of character is how someone treats something they are renting.
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Rebels together
There is a sameness in those who try to look different. The styles have evolved a little in the past 30 years, but not as much as I would have expected. Shaved and dyed hair, tattoos, piercings, and makeup are like ageless uniform. Those who wear them are anxious to be different, but not so…