bread&tea

One of the funnest things about analogies is that you can frequently go as deep, or as shallow as you want with them. I've been thinking about doors lately. Doors mean forward, usually, although they can also be seen as avenues to go back, or other ways. Usually though, they are seen as progress, or movement forward. Like a door opening for a job, or doors opening for that event, or whatever. The figurative idea of life presenting us with doors that open and shut as we explore them is nothing new. And I've been thinking about doors lately. First, what a weird word. Do-or-es. Dooooorrrsssssss. Dore. Second, in analogical terms, you could take them a long way. There are the different types of doors, like hidden, sliding, automatic, revolving, double, two-way, or whatever else you can think of. And then you could continue with locks and opening mechanisms and colors and material and height and width and whatnot. The possibilities go a looooooong way. So I just stuck to one-way...

I hate to start out on a negative note, but, the worst thing about learning life lessons is that you never learn them all. That's not to say I don't like learning them... but that there's always something coming that I don't know yet. But I have a concept. A protection against this feeling of woe for whenever I learn once again, something that grows my character to greater heights. That is this: all of life's lessons, to some degree, involve becoming less selfish. I think this partly because of all the lessons I've personally learned, and partly because of others' responses when asked for some of them ahead of time. Responses that, while quite often are informationally specific, usually don't pin down any character advances. Selflessness is a hard trait to identify and associate with life's lessons when trying to explain them, and I know that from more than one failed attempt to trace the origins of improved maturity. "Always heed your wif...

Comments welcomed and appreciated. Separation Of Church And State: Is It All It's Talked Up To Be? Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This is what the well known “separation of church and state” is referenced to, and commonly associated with. And yet the amendment has neither “separation”, “church”, or “state” anywhere in it. Where did this come from? What exactly does it mean? Is it even being used correctly? Let's clear some of the fog from this concept so that we can view it's meaning with confidence. Today, those words are used to pull the Ten commandments off of walls, prohibit prayer and bibles in school, repress religious expression at graduations, restrict military chaplains freedom, and other acts of religious intolerance. ...

As I wasn't able to finish the paper I wanted to post today, I went back in my archives and found this one. It was written about two and a half years ago. I hope you'll find it somewhat interesting. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to finish the paper I'm currently working on, in the next few days. I look forward to sharing that with you. Oh, and for the report below, I got a little creative with the extras. :-) Page 16               Another Military General            Historical Reports By Freelance Writers Von Steuben was a military man. What I want to cover about him is not his whole life but rather his achievements in the military, which coincidentally is most of his life. At seventeen, he was accepted into the military and remained there; the Seven Years war, and many other minor battles followed. By the time he was thirty-one, he was serving as a captain in the generals...

Normally I try to keep my poems/weird inspirations down to one a month. For some reason or other, that just doesn't seem to be applying to February. And so, for better or worse, here is yet another poem. This one was particularly inspired by the movie of the same name that I watched this night. I would recommend watching the movie, although it isn't one of my favorites, despite being made extremely well. It's simply a hard movie to watch. Good though. Anyway, I do hope you find the poem interesting and that you end up liking it. Enjoy. The Pursuit Of Happyness What is hope, Without happiness? Or what is happiness, Without hope? Is it dead? Dry, withered, and stiff, Lifeless. And so what is life, Without hope, Without happy? What is life, With a single piece missing. Can we choose to be happy, While trying to hope? For without a true hope, From where comes the happy? Can we choose to have hope, While trying to be happy? If we're trying to be happy, Is that a t...

Back before “How To Train Your Dragon”, around the time of “Shrek”, and “Toy Story”, there was Treasure Planet. Treasure Planet is another one of those breakthrough movies for animation. A combination of traditional 2d animation, beautifully painted backgrounds, and some spiffy new 3d animation were all used in Treasure Planet. It sounds odd to think about, but it actually works out as an amazing spectacle worth seeing. Treasure Planet was also produced at a time when movies made for kids didn't rely on one-liners and animated characters on a constant sugar high. Those aren't bad tools, but they do get old after a while. Treasure Planet on the other hand, uses relatively believable character movement speed, and though stereotypical at times, they are well done. There isn't a large amount of humor in the film, but by all means, it is not a depressing one. Treasure Planet earns a true family safe rating, with messages of truth hidden in dialogue and all over the film in a su...

Maybe we could Could try to be real good Work like we feel we should Would we be happy then? Would that fill our longin' Feeling like we done our part Never letting go of our hearts Maybe we could Could try to be real good Never thinking of ourselves While thinking of others instead Would we be happy then? Making others happy Feeling like we've sacrificed our heart And when they've ended we're still on start Maybe we could Could try to be real good Always doing the good things we think we should Instead of the bad things we wish we could Would we be happy then? Full of willpower, forcing a grin But it's all a lonely deception 'Cause we know it's still just pretend Maybe we could Could try to be real good Good at getting anything we craved No cares, no matter how depraved Wouldn't we be happy then? After all that we'd tried and everywhere that we'd been Sh ouldn't we be happy by then? Yet under all the guise an...

Short piece I wrote tonight, from the perspective of someone questioning who is really their friend, and who is simply an acquaintance. Meant to hopefully feel relevant for many people. Hello, my friend. Let's skip talking about work, school, the weather, or how we are doing, you know that question is never answered truthfully anyway. Instead, let's talk, for real. Let's talk about the silly little things that make us happy, about the infinitesimally pathetic things that irk us, about the oddest things that get our hopes up, about our dreams that we don't think will happen that we still think about. Let's... actually talk. Can we forget the formalities? Skirt around the obstacles of politeness? Dare to be so into each other that we come away with a true feeling of fellowship? My friend, would you like to... really talk? So many I've asked, so many have turned away. I thought of you, because for some reason you are dear to my heart. Please tell me, that the...

Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" For what does he have to give us that would be greater than his own son? And because of that, all other things are easy for him. Whatever else we need, is nowhere near the magnitude of Jesus Christ, God literally with us. And yet despite the verses of promise in the bible that tell me that God will provide, I still worry sometimes. As I've wrestled with this issue I've learned some lessons from God about worrying over my needs. Worry, for me, comes from the realization that although God will provide what I need, what I need is a great deal less than what I have. So I worry over whether God will supply what I know myself that I don't need. Realistically, what does it take to survive? Some water, some food, some clothing. All I have to do is think about the poor, homeless, and starving people to realize how little I...

As I walked outside to do this evenings chores, my mind ran off and left rationalization behind. Consequently, what follows is a pathetic and lame scraping together of what I did not immediately race inside to start writing. I am quite mad with myself. As a writer, NEVER EVER GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT A PEN AND PAPER. EVER. I say that with every ounce of urgency I can use with simple caps. one moment I was staring at the fading not-so-amazing sunset, and the next, everything I had composed disappeared faster than turds down the toilet. Actually that's a terrible description. Those thoughts were not turds and turds don't go down fast. Anyway, if you're still curious as to what those words might've been, read on. I sincerely hope that they may spark your own inspiration into rewriting them and/or your new words into something truly magnificent. My lame title is "Same" end the tyranny end the pain I will not remain the same break the restriction clear jurisdiction r...