Nothing changes - most remains the same

I am reading a book on my Kindle from Amazon containing the writings of Abraham Lincoln.  What a treasure!  Most reads of that sort are treasures, if one appreciates that kind of history.  I like history going back that far, this, 140 years or so.  It is interesting to me to see how they thought and why.  It is for that reason that I say, Nothing changes - most remains the same. 

There is a lot that can be talked about in the read of what Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president said.  Certainly, I will not capture all of it - not nearly - in one blog (Perhaps we will do another or two of my thinking on the writings.).  One thing that Lincoln brought out with regard to some subject he was writing or speaking about was telling: most things done have good and bad; it is best to have more good than bad.  Wow.  Certainly none of us have the capacity, as much as we would like, to have all good in everything we do - but we can work to have as much good as possible. 

One interesting recap by the author was in a speech given just after being reelected president.  The was was on a wind down.  Things were still tough, though. From a speech made Nov. 10, 1864, Lincoln had these words:

"It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its existence in great emergencies.  On this point, the present rebellion (Civil War) brought our republic to a severe test, and the presidential election, occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to strain.... What has occurred in this case must ever occur in similar cases.  Human nature will not change."  He goes on to talk about the nature of mankind - weak and strong, silly and wise, bad and good.  I like the following: "So long as I have been here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom... it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or pained by the result."  Wow.  "Honest Abe," they called him.

Admittedly, to me at least, things have changed, looking at our present seat of government.  Well, maybe this is a good lesson rather than "nothing ever changes."

(Quotes taken from The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, published Apr. 29, 2008, B&R Samizadat Express - editor not given.)

Well come back to more on Lincoln and his writings.  What a great read.

Time to do it again

I started like a house a fire. Then, I cooled like ice. Started, stopped. Now, it is time to start again. A chance to sort of get it off my chest. Certainly, a lot of water has gone under the bridge, so to speak. So, this offers me a chance to say it more, to cover other subjects. Sometimes they will be like what troubles chuck; sometimes it will just to be to comment for what it is worth. The reader - if read - can be the judge. So what brings all this on?

For one, reading. I have been doing a lot of reading. I got a Kindle from Amazon and have used it a lot to read history, which I love. Also, television has offered a lot to talk about, as well. And, so has life. So, there is plenty of fuel out there. Maybe I can treat it rightly and with appropriate respect.

 

 

My next blog will deal with what I found in reading the writings of Abraham Lincoln. Imagine that. Going back that far. I have found, or have renewed my knowledge, that President Lincoln was a pretty neat guy. I have found in the read he had a lot of good to say, and that saying ought to be thought of today. No, he did not have higher education as we think of it today, but he was educated - self taught would be the best way to put it. So, with that source I will have at least one - maybe more - blog on the Sayings of Abe Lincoln. I am convinced that had he not been murdered we would have a lot to talk about, and the world might have been a better place because of it.

 

 

Other blogs will speak to the both good and bad. There is plenty of both, obviously.

 

 

I will try to keep this blog up for some time. Certainly, there is enough to write about out there. Whether I can hold up to discuss my perception of it is another matter, fo sho.

Time to start again

Been out a while.  Coming back.

Knowledge and memory

Thought a lot lately about how I am able to recall knowledge, understanding that once stored, it really should be always there. But it is not. Somehow it relates to memory, ability to recall. Now, if I were a psychology major, I'd probably know more about this but I am not. So, this is just Chuck talking, ChuckOThoughts, that is. (Actually, I did take a little psychology classroom, but I don't remember much about it.)

Why is it that I cannot remember certain things that I know I once knew? Like names. Saw a fellow at breakfast (two in fact) who came up to me and I could not remember the name. One of them I worked with for at least four years at the local paper; the other I mixed with quite a bit but that was a few years ago. Yet... there are things I learned a long time ago, that I would classify as just knowledge, that I can still recall.

As a kid I learned, put to memory, the books of the Bible - all 66 of them (that is the protestant Bible, some call it. I can still repeat all the books from Genesis to Revelation. Imagine that. Fifty years ago, as a Navy air traffic controller trainee, I put to memory a saying to identify light beacons for pilots along a planned route or flight. There were ten, and then they would start over - When Undertaking Very Hard Routes Keep Directions By Good Methods. So, why can I remember all such as that and I cannot remember like a person's name? I don't know.

Certainly there are a lot of other things I remember, too, and frequently or perhaps infrequently apply. These are too numerous to mention. Knowing which direction to turn a nut off a bolt comes in handy occasionally. No need to go on. Surely I convey what I am trying to list.

I learned to ride a bike and swim as a children. Even though I have not done either for decades I have no doubt but what I could swim today and ride a bike. Not sure why that is, when I can't remember other things. Further, usually if I drive to some location before unknown, I can just about do it again anytime.

Perhaps being able to recall or do has to do with how I applied it - somehow, but I cannot explain it. That bothers me lately. Perhaps it should not. But it is just a thing I thought I would express thought about - ChuckOThoughts, that is all.

Preachers' finds

Preachers, because of what they do, are probably more into the Bible than most folks, with the understanding that some who never preached know a lot more about the Bible than those who preach as a vocation or avocation. That said, those who are into the Word find NEW things sometimes or realize more the possible importance of what is said. That is my point in this blog, which I call preachers' finds.

Reading Acts 7 about Steven, the one who was stoned for his believe in and proclamation about Jesus, I find the following interesting, leading up to his stoning: "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he (Steven) gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Verses 55 and 56). Note: the writer reports what Steven saw and records Steven's statement about what he saw.

I pose the question, where is God? Lots of speculation on that, for sure. Based on that question, perhaps, sometimes I stand at night and gaze into the sky and wonder, where is God, where is heaven? Which star is he located on? Which? With what Steven said, maybe God is beyond all that we see and know that exists! Could that be? Could God, and the Son, be beyond all that exist so many light years from earth? Could it be that what is recorded about Steven and what he said go beyond everything we know?

One thing I have believed is that God as our creator made us with time and measurements, all for our benefit. But he created us and those with limits! We count time by years and increments thereof. We count mass by weight and size. All of it, the counting of it, has thus far gone beyond the limits of what we can see, know or understand. Even the greatest telescopes devised by man have not reached the end. Isn't that amazing? Well, maybe not. I believe there will come a time for us when time, weights and measures will be no more, and we will know as we are known.

I believe (this is my find) it is possible that God is on the other side of our sky, beyond what scientists are trying to determine as the point of the "big bang." I believe that Steven in his statement saw it and was giving us and those who would stone him a glimpse of it. Certainly, I cannot say for sure that his words convey what my mind is picturing; I have not been there. But at the moment, it is the best preachers' find that I have, and I wanted to share it with you.

One day, I believe I, and we, will have the answer to where God is. Certainly, in my view, Steven was telling the truth about what he saw. The stones had not yet been thrown that would make him hallucinate,

Measuring the application of charity

Reading Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis) a second time through. First read was over 10 years ago. Figured I had forgotten too much, or maybe I am now more prepared to understand what he said about Christianity. One of many standouts is his discussion of charity, the act of helping others.

Lewis says we are to exhibit charity to those we don't even like. Humm. Guess he is right on that. Jesus said we were to love those who do not love us (paraphrased). Lewis admits how hard it is, but his point is that we can do better in the application, and the more we do so, the easier it is. We don't have to like the person to whom we give our charity, Lewis says. That is a problem, fo sho.

How does one come about liking people though. The writer offers good examples. Writing during and immediately after WW II, Lewis said the Germans did not like the Jews. They hated the Jews. And the more they persecuted the Jews, the more they hated them. In other words, it is like compounding (his word). The more you do it the more you do it. Lewis contends we can change hate to like (perhaps even love). That part is up to us. The converse to the Germans to the Jews is the more one likes a person the easier it is to like them.

A preacher friend of mine told me today of a recent time he was confronted by his neighbor because my friend allowed his dog to do his thing on the neighbor's trash can. When the confrontation started my friend was pretty neutral in like or dislike of his neighbor. They had had no relationship. But, said he, as we talked about Lewis' comments on like and dislike, the more his neighbor talked about his dog peeing on his trash can, the more he disliked her. (He still does not care much for his neighbor. He finds others reasons outside the dog incident to dislike his neighbor now. Well, that is what we are talking about! The more we dislike the more we dislike.

Based on the above, my view (and applicable to me and my friend) is that when we find ourselves disliking someone, we need to shift our thinking. Stop our dislike and convert it to like.

I found myself disliking a person recently. The more I disliked the more I found reason to dislike more. I decided, even before reading Lewis, that I must change my thinking. Already I feel better toward this person. Now maybe I can think in terms of charity.

That it the thought: measuring the application of charity.

Just change the filter!

As an old air conditioning man, I know the importance of having a clean filter for the air to go through on the way to the cooling coil. That was one of the first things I learned in my training. So, why would I not do that? Why would I not make sure I had a clean filter on my A/C unit? Filters don't cost much. They are no trouble to replace. So, why?

Last night I decided on the way to bed to check the filter on my upstairs unit. After removing one screw on the outside panel, I was ready to pull the filter for a look see. I did. It was so dirty! If you cannot see through it, it is dirty. Believe me. Hard to imagine any air getting through it to the cooling coil. Probably explains why it was taking so long to cool down the bedroom. I changed the filter. Just happened to have a spare, clean one on the ready, right inside the air handler door. I am lucky. This error on my part could have led to big time problems. Let me explain - for my own benefit.

I have already said what a filter is for. But let's go further. An A/C system is designed to operate most efficiently with a proper amount of cold refrigerant circulating inside the cooling coil tubing with a proper amount of outside ambient air flowing over the coil at a predetermined flow rate. Change the air flow, and the system is out of kilter. Too little air and the refrigerant does not evaporate to a gas and it goes back to the compressor, where it is liable to blow valves, leading to a compressor failure. Does that make sense?

The other thing is if the unit is not operating efficiently, the electric bill soars, and that cost money. Real dollars.

Not only that, but with low air flow because of a dirty filter the temperature of the refrigerant drops so low that it causes the coil to freeze up to a block of ice, rendering any air flow impossible. BTW, refrigerant temperature in the coil is usually about 35 deg. F., just to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

The thermostat set point, say 75 to 78 deg. is a good point, keeping the coil temp just right, and, with a clean filter, the proper amount of cool air going into the living space at about 60 to 65 degrees. That all keeps the house cool.

The filter is a prime component for all to work right. Sure, there are other things that can go wrong, but the filter is probably the number one reason for high electric bills and failed equipment. Imagine that. (I ought to know.)

My advice to all who might read this is this: keep the filter clean. Change it at least monthly. Don't do what I did.

This is just a maintenance reminder, a really important one.