Storytelling.

I listened to my "new" audiobook on storytelling throughout the day.  Seven disks!  In the background while I was doing other things.  The main point was we respond to stories.  Three stories are needed for whatever you are trying to share with people... to sell them something, to convince them of something.  

THE STORYTELLER'S SECRET : Why some ideas catch on and others don't

The author was the reader - Carmine Gallo.

The copyright year is 2016.

I found it at HamiltonBook.com - where I have been buying used books (and more) for a long time.  The don't have good descriptions so you are taking a chance, especially if you are sending books to someone else, but I haven't had problems.  I check out the titles and whatever description they do provide.  I tend to buy items at the lower price point.  I rarely go above $5 - $10 per item, usually choosing things that are less than $5.  Inflation has hit every business, so their base prices seem to be rising as well.  Right now they have a standard shipping price of $4.00 (I think that was it).  This means whatever you order ships for that same price.  I bought up to four books and the shipping price was still $4.

Two of my sons have been in jails and prisons.  Books become their gifts for birthdays and Christmas.  You can filter for softcover books, the only thing allowed in correction facilities.  Hamilton Books is set up for that.

The other book I bought for myself this time was US founding documents like the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights.  I wanted to have these to read and think about as our nation struggles through the problems we are seeing.  Maybe I can find a way to share my own views.

I didn't make it to a grocery store yet.  My sorting project really makes me tired and weak.  I will have to get that done soon.  I ran out of the onion bits I have been using instead of fresh onions, and popcorn (a serious deprivation :-) , and my real butter is nearly gone.  I think I have three tablespoons left.  Margarine is just not the same, but it does work for some things.

We don't realize how much we depend on our favorite foods, any foods, until it is gone.

I will survive, but it is about all I get to do with my budget... buy food and household items I need.  

I am hoping to get out more.  The local art museum has a free day each month.  The public library has things going on I will try to attend.  I can find new books and DVD's and audio books there.  Once I am able to sell online, and increase my income, I will have more options for things to do.

Finding things while I am sorting is becoming an adventure.  Lots of memories.

The reality of my age and health changes so many things.  I have been trying to be brutal in shredding as much as I can.  It's hard to let go of our dreams and hopes for our lives.  

I turn my focus to GOD and try to think of heaven.  I will be glad to live there for eternity.  Whatever my life has been, I have trusted GOD and done what I thought He wanted me to do.  GOD's Will is the bigger issue.  He knows what it has been about, why things have happened, and what they mean to His Plan.  

You will be glad to know I am finding my writing notes from so many places.  As the winter gets here, I will be working to improve my blog contents.  :-)  There is hope!

Pray for our nation, and the world.  

I just watched a video short where someone decided to pass around a fake voter campaign at Yale asking to get rid of the Constitution.  There were too many people who signed it.  It tells me they don't understand where their rights come from, why they are free.  They don't understand how the lack of freedom affects life in countries who don't allow it, countries who are run by dictators and violence.  It's hard to believe they are at Yale and don't understand these details.

When I was attending the University of Oregon I was in a history class where the teacher-in-training was from Germany and taught the students that Germany was right somehow, saying America was not right somehow.  It has been so many years now I can't remember the details.  Maybe I will find a note somewhere - :-)   I just remember he was teaching them wrong information... which was against America.  That was around the 1980's.  Who knows what has been taught in the "privacy" of classrooms all over the nation.  We are being destroyed from within.

I heard a sermon or other video that shared all the major civilizations didn't die from outward attacks like war, they died from the moral decay of their leaders.  One by one we are dying in the same way.  In God's eyes, America has fallen away.  It no longer represents GOD and goodness.  GOD is not responsible for caring for us, for protecting us, as a nation.  I have always felt that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were GOD telling us His Hand of protection has been taken away.

This is also the path to fulfilling the prophecies of the End Times and the Antichrist.  We just don't want to believe that we could suffer GOD's judgment for our national sins.

Pray for us.  Pray for all Christians.  Pray for our families.  Pray for our nations.

May GOD have mercy on us.

Thinking about the future again... where are we heading?

I am getting ready to return some of the DVDs I checked out ot the local library so I watched two of them again today.  WHAT THE HEATLTH and NO SAFE SPACES.  It was hard to view all those details again.  I may watch them again tomorrow to make sure I remember them.

I also watched another DVD for the first time.  It was called DEFINING US.  I thought it was about New York City education systems, but I later realized some of the stories were about Los Angeles.  I don't know if there were other locations included.  I won't watch it over again so you will have to watch it to find out.  :-)  

The copyright year was 2022.  It included some of the recent social unrest over the murders of black men by police (George Floyd), and general references to the effects of poverty and inner cities on the people who have to live in them.  It also shared some of the efforts schools in these difficult areas are making to change the futures of the kids who go to their schools.  Many school officials were featured, giving comments on what their kids need and how their efforts were reaching them.  It was good to see their success stories.

Education is so essential to building a better life.  Our economy is struggling and priorities in government spending are going to get even more difficult.  Criminals tend to take the most funding and get prioritized over other important programs because they represent a safety issue.  I think education will need to get more parent involved, but that is also something poor neighborhoods can't always do.

I wondered how all our government spending would change if we went to just ONE TAX, my view on the tax subject.  

If property taxes went away, how would it change the issue of funding...

The main issue in education is that school funding is attached to neighborhood property taxes.  Rich neighborhoods have better schools because of that fact.  Poor neighborhoods have little funding because of this property tax connection.

Per child statewide is my view.

Taxes are a huge problem in our country now.  The government misspends them and then raises the amounts or creates new taxes.  People and businesses are being crushed by the burdens taxes bring to them.  It's really a mess.

I wonder what will happen in the near and far future.  Socialism isn't going to solve the problem.

I better stop here or I will go on and on about this issue.

I watched a YouTube sermon by John MacArthur on the Antichrist over the weekend.  It was interesting to hear what was included.  It has inspired me to try to study the topic in my Bible again.  I hope to share the differences I see and how our world is becoming what the Bible warns us about. 

The hardest issue is the Rapture idea that seems to have taken over.  I don't know how it happened, it just seems like people want it to be true.  The Antichrist is how we will be missing from the wrath of GOD, not the Rapture.

I hope I can find a way to explain what I discovered so long ago and built Working Together for us to survive together as long as possible.

I really wish I was a better person to do this job, but it is what my life is about.  Whatever happens, I am trying my best with the resources I have... which is little.  Pray that GOD will help us.  Thank you for any prayers you lift up for Working Together, me, and all the Christians who need help.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

https://work2gather.us