FAITH :: Remembering the past and changing the future.

Hello, everyone... it's about 12:30 am now... I just finished watching the very old version (1936) of SHOW BOAT... in two parts.  Today was a YouTube and search result movie day. I'm not sure how I ended up with the old version.  I really LOVE the 1951 movie version of the song OLD MAN RIVER and tried to find a way to listen to it.  Now I have it saved at my YouTube space so I can listen any time I want. 

Old movies really are different from what is made today.  I suppose they were considered too revealing in their time... but it's a big change to watch singing and dancing and stories and then today's idea of "progress" is to watch people having sex, swearing, hurting each other, and more.

This week I watched a replay of a talk about MORALITY. It is a forgotten concept in our time.  We don't fully understand what this means to our society, our laws, our relationships.  I see it online, but if you don't have moral boundaries, what do you base your decisions on?  Right.  Nothing... "Just Do It"... If it feels good, it must be good... and other phrases like these.

I remember when I was a teen in the 1960's - during the "sexual revolution" and Woodstock and bra burning... and women's lib. We don't see the consequence of these changes until it's too late.

I have had the thought that "reality shows" are just the newest version of breaking down the values that protect us.  I don't watch them... don't want to.  I remember checking on some shows a long while back and thinking it's just a way to "watch" people, push them into bad places, and see how far they will go.  

In watching the old version of Show Boat there was a scene with "black face" and I wondered if there would be an uprising to rid the world of this old movie... like taking down historical statues because you disagree with the times that they represented.  

Our world is really in trouble... we can't respect our history.  It is important to remember what the past was like so you can make a better future.  

I didn't like my past, but I can't change what it was. I can change the parts I didn't like, make new decisions, learn how to do things I didn't know about back then, and work toward better results. 

This is the essence of Christ's forgiveness. It doesn't erase the past, it helps you to overcome the habits and choices you had so you can build a new future.  I think I have shared before my idea that Christ erases our criminal record, but the results of our sin and bad choices don't go away, we still have to deal with them.

How to keep from making bad choices... in a world with little ability to engage with it and not have it forced on you somehow.  I might watch a G-rated movie but the ads that go with it are more like porn.  It's something I am trying to find answers for these days.

Right now, I am torn between wanting to buy copies of all these old movies I love, that aren't explicit, rated R, filled with things I don't want to see or hear, and realizing I won't be here much longer so I guess just watching replays is enough.  

I think I will be happy just to be able to listen to OLD MAN RIVER when I want to.

How do we survive with our morals intact in this time in history?  What do you do to be at peace with GOD in the midst of things you cannot control?

Let me know.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us

and more...

PS... I updated the website a bit, on the homepage.  I am getting it ready for the DECEMBER Membership Drive... the Membership info and links will be done by December, GOD willing.  :-)   Who knows WHAT the rest of the year will hold!

Monday, 25 June 2018

I just finished watching one of my new DVDs... it arrived today.  "Dirty Energy" - about the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  It is always hard to discover how little your government really cares about you... and how the big corporations, like BP, seem to control the country.

I don't know how much of that is true, the part about corporations controlling all of America, but it is a big wake-up moment when you discover that ordinary people have little meaning in our country or the world.  It was so hard to see the effects of the oil spill and hear the promises they made (again) and then discover it is just another repeat of previous examples.  There were segments with at least one person who was impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska so many years ago.  I think she said it was 24 years later and Alaska hadn't yet recovered from their disaster.  The documentary was trying to show the things they had in common for the environment, the people, and the finances... and the government.

My interests are in the effects on our food supplies and water sources.  Seeing the photos, hearing the effects, discovering the details about the aftermath... it is frightening to me.  The oceans bring all that pollution to every other part of the globe, eventually.

In the documentary, they reported on deformities and tumors in the shrimp over two years after the disaster, and I remember hearing that the seafood had "recovered" by then, but the biologist pointed out that when you go to the market to buy shrimp, you would not see the deformed parts or the tumors or the things you would never eat if you did know.

This is our government's concern for us...  the priority is the economy, the taxes that business brings to the government, the money to get elected, the desire to keep your job, the apathy for what is right or wrong, and the fact that the people who are being destroyed can't afford to go to Washington (DC) or their own state governments to fight for twenty years just to lose.

It is a difficult moment to realize that your life depends on a system that is overwhelmed with more problems than it can handle, so yours is meaningless.

How will we make America the great country it use to be?  We are not the same country.  The definition of "great" is probably something we need to talk about first.

The news was filled with tariff issues today... I was able to see a lot of channels of news today.  The media reports more about topics that are against tariffs, and that included the announcement that Harley Davidson was going to blame tariffs for their decisions to move some of their business to the European areas where they sell many of their products.  The media doesn't focus on the economic decline of America caused by what I believe is called "trade imbalances."

In my quest for Working Together's future, I realized that transportation and shipping might not be available in the future for Christians.  To me, the only reasonable solution was to make each member region self-sufficient.  That led me to see the wisdom of having business operations in other regions that serve just that region.  I think it would be wise for Harley Davidson to build a new factory in Europe, and sell it's products to those places that are within that continent.  The US factory can sell to US customers. Other people can decide if they want to ship from the US or from the European factory.

My reason for wanting to go in this direction is also because of the differences in currency values.  I figure pricing in other regions will be based on the costs to produce the products that are created and sold there.  It can make things better for everyone.

I think locals in other places need to benefit from the businesses that exist in their location... just like we want to benefit from their existence.

I often wonder how we can find what is right instead of what is only good for the business... like the BP and Exxon recoveries.

This has been a big day for serious thinking... I will be continuing this conversation in future blogs, I am sure.

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin
work2gather.us

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May GOD find us doing more of what is right than what is best for us.
May we see that the damage we do to the world is the same as killing out kids and grandkids.
May we all look for better solutions, help each other in times of trouble, and be thankful for our life.
May GOD be the focus of our decisions.
Amen.