Bill Whittle, back from a crippling bout with COVID-19, finds that his mental DNA has changed, sparking a heightened awareness of gratitude. Zo Rachel — having escaped California for the free republic of Texas — helps Bill explore the causes and consequences of this unexpected aftermath.
Video above hosted at Rumble.
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28 replies on “Unexpected Aftermath: How Recovery from COVID-19 Changed My Mental DNA”
I can’t let this go, either. As much criticism as Zo can throw out against organized ‘religion’s, the same could be said of any group, and even of nationalism, which is the most common thing attacked these days and on the same grounds.
Being patriotic is no different from being religious and loyal to your group, whatever type of Christianity you are claiming. If you can be proud of being American, what’s the difference really in being a proud Catholic? We are part of something, and we consider it greater than ourselves, though it is a thing that has its value by what it is comprised of. It is more than an idea, it is a family and a common mindset and belief which can live within the framework of ANY country and even adopt its sense of nationality without losing any sense of itself. But it is also a dual citizenship which challenges every authority that thinks to overstep the spiritual one set over it, which some bad Catholics like Kennedy seem to have gotten backwards. King in heaven first, then country, then family. But no man is a fool to not know that his country IS the prosperity of his family.
A common misconception and a very real stumbling block in modern society is to conflate ‘criticism’ with ‘condemnation’.
Without criticism things are slow to change if they change at all. There’s a LOT to criticise about various religious organizations.
I grew up in the Lutheran Church, it was my church home for most of my life. Of all the Protestant sects and denominations the Lutheran Church used to be the closest to Roman Catholic. I’ve been to many a Catholic Mass and felt right at home, other than the Catholic Church denying me Holy Communion and a statue of the Virgin Mary here and there the differences were minor and inconsequential.
I was critical of the things my Church was doing wrong as an organization that whole time. When the synod I belonged to merged with another, more Leftist synod I criticized that move loudly. When the new amalgamation decided to participate in BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) policies against the State of Israel I virtually screamed about that to anyone who would listen. When the ELCA synod finally decided to start ordaining openly gay Ministers in “committed relationships” I walked out never to return.
Because at that point I realized I wasn’t going to fix a thing and I could no longer in Faith and a clear conscience support the thing the Church I grew up in had morphed into.
Don’t get me started on criticizing the Catholic Church, there’s a lot there to criticize too. That doesn’t mean you need to leave, it doesn’t mean you need to like it and support wrongs either. If you can’t take criticism of your own Church Home and especially if you’re not doing whatever you can to address those very valid criticisms then you are not a Proud Catholic. You’re a blind indoctrinated follower as bad as any Social Marxist is about their religion of Social Marxism.
One of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life was a Catholic nun from the order of Sisters of the Holy Family. She and I used to discuss this sort of thing, along with many other fascinating topics, regularly and in depth. She agreed with my views considerably more often than she disagreed with them. When she did disagree with them she was able to defend her position with intelligence, wisdom, facts and zero rancor. So it’s not like “I don’t know about Catholicism” and don’t go there.
Notice I’m not condemning either you or the Catholic Church of Rome (there are other Catholic Churches, a fact that Roman Catholics find convenient to ignore.) I’m telling you that there are serious, doctrinal and procedural problems rampant in some aspects of the Roman Catholic Church and if you want to get your back up about that, that’s proof I’m right.
You haven’t said anything that has offended me, except finding anything Lutheran as comparable to Catholicism. And you are right that you should be denied Communion, since to receive it unworthily would have caused you more harm than good, since you must believe that it is the very body, blood and divinity of Our Lord. To receive it with any view not completely understanding this would indeed have been grounds for refusal.
As for being blind to the faults of men or of the Church, we would have to have a discussion on just what specific thing you would want to discuss.
It if is about the history of sexual misconduct of many priests, show where in the doctrines of the Church where such acts are promoted; that would be a conversation about poor shepherds and not about official Church teaching.
If it is about Galileo, you should be the one to step back, as he had very little actual new information to share that could alter any official view more than the silly planetarium children create in school projects. He couldn’t prove the distance of the sun or the moon from the earth, nor explain the revolutions of the zodiac, which still is a phenomena taken for granted even today in its respect to earth and the affect it has had over the human civilization since prehistory. Most critics are angry because the Church was actually practicing the scientific method in postponing an official stance on heliocentric position until further evidence were available?
And if you’ll take the weakest attack, and point out ‘What about the crusades!’ I must ask you which one and begin by asking if you have considered the Mamluks and their historical contribution to the histories of religion and that the Saracens later in Spain were no better and are actually the primary CAUSE for the inquisition that followed, together with all the corruption that state appointed Church officials leads to, history which China repeats before our very eyes.
I’m not an ordinary man, nor any ordinary Catholic. I am ROMAN Catholic, which is very distinctively different than any other mere [c]atholic organization outside communion under Pope Francis, the legitimate Papal successor to Peter.
Lol, I can see from your first paragraph that I know a lot more about Catholicism than you do about the traditional Lutheran Church. I’m not going to quibble with you about the differences between transubstantiation and consubstantiation.
And BTW, I wasn’t complaining about being denied Holy Communion in a Roman Catholic Church. If you knew anything about Lutheranism you’d know that YOU would also be denied Holy Communion in a Lutheran Church. Which is another clue regarding your ignorance of other Christian Faiths including Lutheran.
I was aware of Roman Catholic doctrines in this regard and showing respect for them. I know I’m not welcome at a Roman Catholic Holy Communion but there have been tons of times I could have just walked up there and done what everyone else does because it’s exactly the same as what my Church does. EXACTLY the same, same words and everything. Are you not aware of these similarities because they’re quite real, I assure you most sincerely.
Additionally I’ve been served Holy Communion by a Roman Catholic Priest many times while I was in military service because either that was the only Chaplain available or they were taking turns/filling in for each other. Those Priests did not object on the grounds that I didn’t fully appreciate what was happening. They certainly were not interested in damning some Protestant troop to hell by tricking him into Catholic Communion right before battle — And that means …
What you said seems absurd and ignorant to me for very good reason. I’m not welcome not because I might be “damning myself to hell for not understanding what I was doing”, that idea is preposterous. I’m not welcome because I’m not a Roman Catholic. Full Stop.
Again,don’t confuse what’s actually being said with condemnation.
That’s at least two main points of failure due to your ignorance of the Lutheran Church and its doctrines. I will not debate or discuss with ignorance.
So I’m not going to address the rest of what you said because there would be no point. You cherry picked a few historic things that I wouldn’t even have brought up, and I agree with your views on those things.
It’s fine with me if you’re a Roman Catholic. I don’t have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is if those silly “faults” are the best you can come up with critically as it involves the organization of the Roman Catholic Church … You’re not looking very hard or you choose not to see any genuine faults at all.
Because here’s the thing about that. I threw out some very contemporary, very poor policies of my Home Church as an example for you to follow and you gave me back a bunch of limp spaghetti in reciprocation. You’re going to have to do a lot better than that if you think you’re going to have a serious discussion with serious people.
Which is clearly not something you and I are going to have on this topic for the reasons I’ve already stated.
If the Roman Catholic Church will serve Joe Biden, who pretty much violates all but the most superficial Catholic Dogmas, if they will give Potato Joe the Abortion Champion Holy Communion then … Clearly the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church is more interested in political expediency than it is matters of Holy Christian Faith.
As long as there is no bite for Catholics in Washington DC for violation of Catholic Doctrines and edicts from the Pope, as long as someone who supports the murder of babies and worse can call himself a “Good Catholic”, as long as a Church that includes a claim to “infallibility” won’t even condemn the actions of the obviously Evil … Were I one of you I would refrain from calling my self a “Proud Catholic”. I would never put the words “I’m proud of …” next to the name of a faith that won’t even publicly condemn and officially censor someone like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and their ilk.
And why won’t the Roman Catholic Church openly condemn not the person but the actions of those sorts of public people in power, using their power to do Evil in exact contradiction to the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church? Because Rome knows if it does that then true Catholics, people like you are in your faith if not like you in their politics, cannot vote for those Monsters. Which tells us that Rome is just fine with those Evil Bastards being in power.
There is no excuse for this, there is no “interpretation” that offers a reasonable defense. Roman Catholicism has a lot bigger problems than a few frocked perverts hurting little boys.
Zo is perfectly correct in being critical of organized religions in general, including the Roman Catholic Church.
You seem upset about a few things you are clearly misinformed on, and have jumped to your own conclusions on where exactly I stand with non-Catholics receiving Communion.
First of all, my warning was not one of condemnation. When you eat without recognizing the fullness of what the Church insists that the Sacrament actually and really is, you drink judgement on yourself (1 Corinthians 11:29). If you really did respect the rites of the other beliefs, you would refrain, since we do not believe it is EXACTLY the same, since no Lutheran has the authority of apostolic succession or the anointing necessary to accomplish this outside of the Church. So, I would not miss out on being refused anything, since it is not anything else other than what it was prior to their communal meal. Neither would any of them claim it is anything other than a symbolic representation.
You drink and eat judgement on yourself for your DISRESPECT in not honoring the difference and those chaplains should have known the difference too, but transitional deacons in the military cannot consecrate a host. Only a validly ordained priest can. So unless he brought consecrated hosts with him, or is a valid priest as part of the AMS, only you can say.
As far as your comparison to Joe Biden. Why would you compare yourself to such a one? He also drinks and eats to his own injury if he does so without prior confession and having every intention to live contrary to the teachings of the Church, which is the ONLY organization on the planet that has never changed its stance on contraception and abortion. Do all Catholics abide by her teachings? Obviously not. There was a time I also did not.
Joe Biden, whatever his motivations or aspirations, will have to answer for them himself. The contents of the private meeting with Francis have not been made public, so it is beyond my ability to comment any further on what exactly his private motivations are, though they seem, in practice, disastrous to me. To be quite honest, China is a greater concern to Catholicism and the free world than Joe Biden ever could be, and the foreign relations negotiations and talks between the CCP and the Vatican will show you that this Pope is taking actions which limit the possible persecution that the Chinese Catholics must endure under under atheistic communism. If he were to excommunicate old Joe, what should he say about Xi Jingping? And once he said it, what do you think will occur? You have obviously not thought ahead about such things. The way of peace doesn’t ever make sense to impatient men who are not willing to suffer for a while the ignorance and imperfections of others while striving to renew all other things in a world that is losing everything to apathy and growing colder by the day.
It is better to receive Communion in faith and in trust, even if you do not understand it. And, like a child, grow out of your ignorance and doubts as faith and confidence build within you. But to claim you are mature, and receive what you claim is nothing.. this invites discipline from on high that is NOT easy or long-suffering. Will you be like Paul, who must suffer for the Name, or be child-like and be treated with forbearance instead. Which is better?
As far as Zo is concerned. He’s an aggressive 7th day adventist. It’s easy to see how hostile he is to organized religion, and especially the Roman Catholic Church. He is holding back because of his respect for Bill and the program. In Romans 14:16, it is said to not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil. So I continue to make a defense.
Wow, you badly missed all the points I was making and either you did that out of ignorance or you did that intentionally to avoid those points with a strawman argument. Either way, it’s not worth debating or discussing this with you because you’re not even able or willing to understand what I say. That makes talking to you an exercise in futility.
Just to be clear, I’m not upset about anything at all. That’s your own assumption. There is much good as well as much to criticize in the Roman Catholic Church. For example — The Catholic Church operates a charity network, by means of voluntary contributions of money and material, second to none on this planet.
I absolutely did not “compare myself to Joe Biden”. That statement is absurd on the face of it and I can only think that absurdity was intentional and derogatory. You didn’t discuss the point I was making there, you deflected from it. That’s de facto proof that what I said in the first paragraph above is valid and talking to you about this is a waste of time.
Clearly you are not able to honestly examine, or even admit a single fault existing in the Roman Catholic Church of your own volition. You are only interested in defending those faults with circular thinking, deflection and rationalization.
There is no perfection in the Catholic Church. There is only One who has ever achieved perfection and He sits on a really fancy chair at the Right Hand of the Creator.
Say whatever else you like, I’m done discussing this with you. It’s insulting to me that you won’t even bother to make the effort to understand what I’m saying and accuse me of ridiculous things like “comparing myself to Joe Biden”. I see no reason why I should discuss anything with someone who does that.
You think the comparison is ridiculous because your ego has kept you from admitting that it is the very thing you have actually done. When you are so offended by another person’s life that you arrogantly speak the way you do with dripping condescension.
It is written that no man should speak evil of his ruler. If you knew the good book half as well as you think, you would know this too. However Biden came to be in office, however illegitimately, the fact is that the world recognizes him as our president. For the time being, he’s the one in the oval office; he is commander in chief. That makes him our leader.
As for his faults. Who can see their own sin in a mirror as clearly as God would see them?
This man is the epitome of everything politicians have become in this country. The most accurate representation of the heart and soul that has led us to all this mess. So it does not surprise me at all that God would allow it and that we should become represented in the eyes of the world by everything that Biden is.
He is the perfect example of what this kind of life leads to. This is what the last lap looks like for a man that sells even the souls of his own children for personal gain. It is almost unbearable to watch. His wife should be the most ashamed to allow it to continue, but it is the necessary parody of all the power and influence we believe ourselves to have. It is enough to make one moan like a dove, cry like a swift or thrush.
This is a time for this country to stop and recognize their own part in all this misery, to confess and denounce evil and to stop adding to it. To stop pointing the finger and start cleaning up, beginning with ourselves. Before your kind of thinking sets the dry kindling of the world ablaze.
I was saving this for a response, but since you have ducked out I will leave this for the record.
You claim I made an unfounded statement that you were comparing yourself to Biden. Early on you mentioned your negative experience on being denied communion in a Catholic Church. You later complained that the Church would sink so low as to not deny it to Biden. In your deep seated ego, you are bitter because you think yourself morally superior to Biden, but feel slighted by the denial. I don’t have to be a Jordan Peterson to make the connection. But I explained to you that it is not because we are perfect that makes us eligible to receive. We need only be children of the Church. You doubtless would never call yourself Catholic, but somehow dare to partake in her most sacred rite.
I am not the judge of Biden. God is. I would not call him a false Catholic. He believes himself to be one. You should understand also that Biden HAS been denied Communion in the past.
Also, you made an incredible comparison to Lutheranism and Catholicism and refused to admit your mistake, as both have foundational irreconcilable differences, showing you know little about Lutheranism and even less about Catholicism, since you think all catholic (small c) denominations are the same. If you want more information on just why the Lutherans attempt to ape the liturgy of the Church I direct you to the works of martyrs John Fisher and Sir Thomas More. It was a tactic designed to ease the transition from Catholicism to Protestantism. Those who didn’t know any better hardly noticed the difference either.
As for your exit strategy, when you found yourself out of your depth, and resorted to basically claiming I’m too stupid to understand you and I can’t follow the conversation, even while I’m proving you don’t know what you’re talking about and ignore YOURSELF to address these inconsistencies, while accusing me of the same. I consider this a pathetic and cowardly form of disagreement. It usually comes from people with large vocabularies, but little substance. You multiply words, but say little that has value, choosing to insult rather than expand with facts. You waste words rather than disperse the fog. Good riddance. You are the problem with communication in ‘intellectual’ circles today. You look down on the left, but you speak just like them.
I read as far as your second paragraph and stopped there. I’m not going to read past that because that was silly and insulting enough, there’s no requirement for me to subject myself to more of the same.
Your back-of-the-serial-box psychology diploma lets you down badly. The psychological term for what you did is “rationalization”. Your pathetic attempt to conjure Jordan Peterson is as insulting to you as it is to me. However, it’s typical Catholic arrogance and not at all surprising.
Other than that I’m not Catholic so Roman Catholics won’t have me or any other non-Catholic at their Communion rail, which is normal doctrine across sects and denomination and not at all special to Roman Catholics … The rest of what you said is presumptive at best and outright absurd in the whole of it.
That’s not a “negative experience”. That’s no more a “negative experience” for me than it would be for you to be denied Lutheran Communion. I do not desire Communion in a Catholic Church any more than you desire Communion in a Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, non-Denominational Evangelical, Russian Orthodox Church or all the many Eastern Orthodox CATHOLIC Churches. Lutheranism does not “ape” Roman Catholicism any more than Orthodox Catholicism does. The very idea is absurd and one only existing in the narrow, hidebound, obstinate, arrogant mind of a Roman Catholic. Rome isn’t even the only Catholic Church with a capital “C” and you blither on and on about catholic with a small “c”.
I didn’t even bring up the catholic nature of Christianity, you did. That’s you building a straw man argument.
Yet you just arrogantly assumed my making the point of limiting Communion in any Church magically hurt my feelings for some stupid reason and went on from that crumbling foundation with your psychobabble. You don’t even have the good sense to realize you’re embarrassing yourself.
I’m a man, a male human being, I don’t use the Ladies Restroom and never have. Males are and should be denied use of the Ladies Room. I’m no more upset about that nor would consider denial of access to the Ladies Room a “negative experience” than I do the cross sect, cross denominational practice of most Churches to limit who they will and will not serve Communion to.
No doubt in your convoluted bass-ackwards way of seeing things after reading that paragraph you now think I’m upset at being denied the use of the Ladies Room and I’m comparing myself to the Ladies who can. I’m not doing either one.
I’m sorry but your assumptions and preposterous, pompous projections have led us away from the topic. That’s my fault, I shouldn’t even have let you go down that rabbit hole. I won’t make that mistake anymore because …
Our conversation started with you bemoaning your offended ego as a “proud Catholic”. Running around looking for something to get all offended over is a Leftist thing so — If the shoe fits, you’re wearing it whether you’ll look down and admit it or not.
Your whining about being offended is all I will address henceforth so …
Stop whining. It makes you look like a little Catholic school girl. It’s no wonder you think everything is a complaint and something to whine about, that’s your natural state. I’m not whining like you are, you are projecting that onto me and it’s not so. If you think I’m whining about anything you’re mistaken and betrayed by your own crybaby view of things.
I didn’t stop talking to you because I was afraid of your ridiculous Catholic arrogance and pomposity. I didn’t stop talking to you because of some silly notion that I was “out of my depth”. I didn’t stop talking to you because I was afraid of your gigantic gallumping bilious rampaging Papism.
Which is obvious because you thought I had “run away” and you had to sneak in a last few insults and absurdities. That’s you making another stupid assumption that I wasn’t coming back. Well guess what, Sport? Wrong again because here I am.
I stopped talking to you because you’re whiny, boring and insulting and that hasn’t changed a bit. Refusing further conversation with you isn’t me running away, it’s me not wanting to see you whine, be boring, pedantic and insulting. So put on your big-boy pants and grow some hide.
Good. I’m glad you’re back. Now sit back and listen to why I think you are such a hypocrite with your feigned outrage towards Biden and Pelosi as pro-abortionists. And I’ll do it with half as many words. Don’t bother responding if you don’t read through, yet make such a shameful long mess because I’m the one that so whiny and delicate? I really am honored with such a windy response and word count. But like I said, big words, little substance.
When I mentioned Catholicisms stance on abortion AND contraceptives, you seemed to have selective reading or not bothered by the implications of what it truly means. Like most Protestants, you see no correlation between the two, because you don’t understand how the most common estrogen based contraceptives don’t stop ovulation. The egg is STILL fertilized. The pill basically acts as an abortifacient by reducing the cell lining of the uterus, thereby denying the embryo an anchor, and/or tricking the body into thinking it is already pregnant.
Are you married? How many children do you have? I don’t suppose you are a hermit living in a desert cave enjoying Bill Whittle content. Virginal purity does not speak as you do. The truth is, most people who use daily contraceptives have many more children than I do, and many more abortions than women who didn’t take contraceptives and have serial abortions, three, four or more. The difference is you’ve flushed yours down the toilet while theirs were torn out forcefully.
Yet you have nothing to say about this? Is this not an even more monstrous and massive rate of yearly abortion? We are not talking about a cake that hasn’t yet come out of the oven, that sits on the counter mixed in a bowl. This is a human being, that might one day use, or refuse to use, the ladies restroom. The cake does not have a spirit, like the child, either before or after it comes out of the oven. As for the soul of the person, it comes to us BEFORE the flesh is formed. It is the spirit that receives a body, and not the body that receives a spirit (Jeremiah 1:5). Such is the teaching of the Church, and the holy word validates it.
Will your offended principles have anything to say about this? Was the Catholic Church not standing completely alone in this?
You thought you were bursting a balloon, but my pride in my faith has only increased. And you, once again, will only pretend to have not read this far.
‘Lutheranism does not “ape” Roman Catholicism any more than Orthodox Catholicism does.’
Maybe you should listen to Luther’s own words on this: “The church must appear in the world. But it can only appear in a covering (larva), a veil, a shell, or some kind of clothes which a man can grasp, otherwise it can never be found.” “not in itself, especially in this life, but in Christ.” And to Luther, the only way to become one with the ‘hidden’ spiritual church, one must suffer in participation with the cross. Which means children are not part of the church? Does Luther expect children to suffer? Isn’t suffering antithetical to the life of a child? Who wants to deny a child anything, to cause it want or pain?
Yet Daniel 2:34 says a rock was cut out, but not by human hands, and this REVEALED rock strikes the idol. If there is only a spiritual true church, which is and can be only hidden, since the revealed church is sinful (according to Luther), imperfect and destined to disappear with the world … how is it that it conquers over the idols of the world?
It is an ape, because it is an empty shell, just like he has described it himself.
Many years ago I began a ”mindfulness” program called GoGratitude… with a lovely logo (See the bottom of the image) and daily emails, with a quote or thought about gratitude… for a period of 42 days… they repeated the practice periodically but , after that first time it became a habit… and I saw my health and my fortunes improve as well… and now it is ingrained and beloved… and ultimately shared with those in my/our spheres and beyond… GoGratitude… works for me!
Be sure to guard your gratitude or you’ll loose sight of it through the fog of complacency and self absorption…
A couple of quick thoughts.
1 – Welcome back to the USA, Zo! I know your just getting boxes sorted out, hope there is a good mic in there somewhere 😉
2 – 16 years ago I nearly lost my bride in a terrible accident. Then a few weeks later in the ICU. After well over a year of work we found our new normal and now live everyday knowing that it is a day to be treasured. Tomorrow should be planned for, but it is not guaranteed.
3 – My dad has been gone10+ years now. If you asked him how he was doing the last couple years, his response was “I am standing on the grass looking down instead of the other way around”. Dad could put things into perspective.
4 – I am an old lover of good musicals. Each Christmas we watch “White Christmas”. My favorite song in that movie is “Blessings”.
When I’m worried and I can’t sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you’re worried and you can’t sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you’ll fall asleep counting your blessings
I am very grateful for my health, and more. 1) I was kinda a sickly kid. With my many allergies, I constantly got bronchitis and traceitus. Got both measles and mumps, but not chicken pox. Now, I rarely get sick. But when I do… Yeow! My immune system is weird; I’m not allergic to poison ivy. (at least until last September when I grabbed poison ivy bare handed and threw it away.) 2) My wife was hit by a truck 30 years ago(way before we were married). Got right knee replaced, need left knee replaced, herniated disk in back repaired, and had herniated disk in neck they won’t touch… At least not right now. in constant pain. Also last April shel got her first Modern shot….and It nearly killed her kidneys shut down. Nearly died.3 weeks in hospital, and then 4 weeks dialysis. Reported to CDC VAERS. Doctor says the second shot would kill her. Rare effect, but she is not alone. Better now, but has to watch diet, and can’t take anti-inflammatories, making her hurt worse. 3) Jack, one of my 4 rescue dogs had to have his right rear leg removed 2019. Thought it was bone cancer, if removed would live6-9 months (was 9 years old). It was cartilage cancer. Has 3-9 years to live then. A lot happier; less pain and he gets around well. Looks to live beyond the 3 years. Lots of health issues in this house!
Bill, I, like you, have survived a health crisis that taught me that new level of gratefulness of being healthy. If you think 2 weeks of Covid wakes you up, three months of Billous Pemphegoid really drives it in deep when, like you, I had always been healthy! If I may put a phrase to the experience, “everything Costs” and I didn’t know that applied to Appreciation as well.
BTW, thanks to my lovely wife who nursed me through that most horrid of experiences! She was my hold on life!
So Congratulations for beating that ‘killer of all Americans’ Covid and welcome to the ranks of the Truly Grateful to be alive and healthy.
WELCOME HOME, ZO!!!!
I have three things I’m grateful for every single day, all day long …
I know it might sound melodramatic but I never expected to live this long. I’ve outlived my Father, he died at a younger age than I am now. There are a lot of reasons why I didn’t expect to live this long and a lot of ways that could have happened. Every day is a bonus to me.
I lived in Los Angeles for 15 years and I hated it with a passion. Now I live in a semi-rural Mid Atlantic state with mild summers and winters. Mild to me anyway because I’ve lived both where it’s a lot hotter and a lot colder so this is “just right”. I live in peace and quiet, my neighbors are good people. If I forget and leave the key in my Jeep I know it’s still going to be sitting right there in its parking spot come tomorrow morning. With all the electronic gear still sitting where I mounted it untouched. Living here is much, much better and I’m so grateful to spend the last part of my life in such a place rather than the hell-hole Kalifornians have created in Los Angeles.
The third thing is that I live within walking distance from the surviving members of my family most dear to me.
My life now is more than I could ever have reasonably hoped or asked for. Not in material things, I’m the opposite of wealthy. In the things that really count I’m a rich man. I know this and I’m grateful enough to say so every chance I get.
I’m sorry to complain, but I found Zo’s audio so “boomy” that I couldn’t listen to it. I hope that can be corrected in the future.
I could listen to it but I also found it somewhat annoying. I’m sure it’s because of Zo’s move to Texas and he’s not got his full studio set up yet. It should improve in the near future.
Arguably, from an earthly perspective, the most important thing in a married person’s life is their spouse. What happens when you lose that? I still love the woman who divorced me three years ago. With such a great loss I have found that gratefulness has shifted heavily to the eternal. The sense that I have lost everything is very real even though there is still much to be grateful for. When my heart cries ‘I’ve got nothing to lose’, I point it to, and let it be thankful for, the things that I will never lose.
Petra – Thankful Heart – YouTube
Way to go, Zo!
Bill, don’t die on the Kaifornia Hill. It’s time to move back to America. Get out whilst there’s still time.
Thank you for this message! Exactly what I needed to hear today. I’m so thankful for you and Alfonzo 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Zo, welcome to Texas! I hope to run into you one of these days.
Gratitude vs. entitlement – it’s the basic difference between Leftists vs. us Normals, as I wrote about in the fall of 2020
https://www.floppingaces.net/2020/10/29/the-most-basic-difference-between-leftists-and-conservatives-3-of-3/
Mickey Mantle is quoted as saying “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”
After having “beaten” two cancers, I know God carries us when we trust Him and we can’t help ourselves. Medical care, transportation, and lodging costs absorbed all our savings, including 401(k)s. And a godly friend reminded me of Hebrews 13:5-6.
One example of how God encourages us is the painting in one of my doctors offices in Houston, TX, being a really familiar scene to those who lived in Eureka, CA. It’d the southern end of Humboldt Bay, as seen from the Tompkins Hill Road exit.
I felt like God was saying “I knew you in California. I brought you here. Trust me.”
Here’s the view from Google Streetview for comparison. Note the hummocks near the water’s edge:
“Behind the tofu curtian” – I see that one becoming part of the vernacular in a few years, and we Stratoloungers will be able to say we were dropping that phrase begore it was cool!