***** 'We/I've tried EVERYTHING Reasonable. If it isn't absurd, it has no hope. It's time to absurdly, unreasonably, give EVERYTHING for Humanity. Now. EVERYTHING.' Loving on the shoulders of Einstein

***** 'We/I've tried EVERYTHING Reasonable.  If it isn't absurd, it has no hope.  It's time to absurdly, unreasonably, give EVERYTHING for Humanity.  Now.  EVERYTHING.'  Loving on the shoulders of Einstein

Joe Romm's Deadly Denial Unabated - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/10/why-arent-politicians-listening-to-joe-romm-about-climate-change/263432/

Loving's comment:  I'm sorry.  Yes, that congress is not listening to 1 man, this is such a break with US and world history history of massive change!  Remember how they listened to 1 woman and gave women the right to vote?  Remember how they listened to 1 man and passed civil rights legislation?  Remember how it was the voice of 1 man that ended the Vietnam War?  Remember how the voice of 1 man got rid of Mubarak in Egypt?  Remember?  Oh.  Never mind. 

Romm is like Captain Ahab with this maniacal quest to bring congress to heal, single handedly.  Tragedy.  He, and the rest of the intelligencia on the left are vastly more valuable to the fossil fuel industry than the industry's own lobbyists.   The oil shills deny the science.  Romm and the the rest of the climate club deny not one, but  three things:
1.  The true human suffering already underway and impending.  Oh, they write ad-nauseum of the impending horrors, but you can see from their personal non-commitment, non-risk... that it is all abstract for them, remote, removed, academic; with the possible exception of Hansen who has put skin in the game.  The rest of the climate club, their own kids will be 'fine,' and you can see that in the seemingly infinite lipservice spit-balls they hurl for decades now at an industry after $20-80 trillion in fossil fuel reserves.
2.  They deny that there are only two means of bringing mass change - violence and unviolent action, and that the core, the very stuff of unviolent action is voluntary personal suffering.  Oh yes, he, McKibben, and the rest of the climate club say, NO, we can do this on the cheap;  Few if any need to suffer.  As I said, the deniers on the right deny the Truth of Science; the deniers on the left deny the Truth of unviolent historical change.  Gandhi, MLK Jr faced and embraced the essence of unviolent action.  Romm, McKibben, et al, make a tidy, self-righteous living, denying it.
3.  Romm and the rest of the climate club deny personal responsibility to meaningfully act.
Unlike the fossil fuel lobby, Romm flies under the radar of well intended folks, confuses the well intended as the right could never do, and costs the fossil fuel industry not a cent. 

That Romm's complicity is something he is in psychological denial about makes it no less deadly. 

Hmmm.  Einstein too was a physicist.  'The test of insanity is doing the same thing over and over [frenetic blogging, blaming of Washington, free-lunch 'demonstrations' in Romm's case for decades now]
and expecting different results.'

GWDF D14a Wiki- Self-Immolations since 1960 - US, WW

 Email note sent to several friends, followed by Post, below -

GWDF D14a Wiki- Self-Immolations since 1960 - US, WW  <<<<<<<<< 

http://jesusgodgoodetcnjay.blogspot.com/2012/09/wiki-self-immolations-since-1960-us-ww.html

"Whoever makes extreme unviolent action impossible, makes violence, misery, mass torture..., and now, extinction of all life on earth, inevitable (Book 3: NASAs Dr. Hansen - for...everyday citizens)."  Loving, informed by John Adams, and JFK (JFK, or was it Bobby, like MLK Jr, was deeply changed, and motivated by the the Buddhist self-immolations in Vietnam).

That we may no longer have humans like MLK Jr., with enough humanity/sanity to be inspired, does not change the relative strength of such weapons, but Death Fast is the right weapon for today; and/or wave upon wave of ceaseless, until victory is won, hunger strikes, to death's door but not through, regroup, recover, restart... till we win.  By way of analogy, everything else is the equivalent of spit-balls against Iran's deep nuclear labs.  The Pentagon would break the rank of, and discharge any such mental and intellectual lunatics that suggested such spit-balls. 

But against environmental armageddon?  Against the most highly financed mercenary army in world history, the $20 to 70 trillion fossil fuel industry?  Spitballs have been the order of the day (blogging, writing (to inflame, not to empower, or to generate commensurate action); hopeless, token, time-killing legislative bull shit like the Cap and Trade treason of 2 years ago; 4 hour jailings (what a desecration of history's real unviolent actions and actors) for what, 15 or 30 years now? 

And such deluded, left-wing-nut Deniers of history of change, and personal duty, show every sign of continuing doing the same thing another 15 - 30 years (Einstein's definition of insanity; Loving's definition of Denial and Delusion, well, yes, insanity); even though it may be just 15 or 30 weeks, or months at the most, that the next 200 billion kids have left.  My God. 

No God could have mercy on our Souls for such cowardice, failure of imagination, failure of humanity, failure of Heart, failure of Loving.

And NO God can undo what we are in the last stages of finalizing - Hell on earth.

Only we can.

----- Post, below --------------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_self-immolations 

I don't think that self-immolation is the right weapon for use in the US, or by me.  But we don't know what the right weapon is to defeat the WWIII, Terror War, Holocaust... being visited on the next 200 billion kids, either.  And, if there is anyone sane, or honest, we know that no one, maybe literally no one, is stepping up in any way that honestly, rationally, historically, psychologically... has a prayer of stopping our mass insanity of side-line sitting, blogging, talking, watching, talking, planning, talking, writing, planning, discussing... before all opportunity to save a future is gone, if indeed time still remains - Dr. Hansen (Book 3: NASAs Dr. Hansen - for...everyday citizens) - Someone(s) have got to give us a chance of beginning - SSSSSTTTTTTOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!

Let it be me, but not by self-immolation, I expect.  Death Fast, or Death By Force Feeding in a mental ward for decades, not self-immolation, is the correct weapon for today, to begin a real, hopeful, meaningful, commensurate, historically rational... process of 'SSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!! In time.

1960s

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
June 11, 1963	Thich Quang Duc	66	South Vietnam	Persecution of Buddhists by Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam	Led to several other monks and nuns committing the same act before Diem was toppled
January 25, 1964	Chinnasami		India	For preservation of the Tamil language	Inspired 5 other self-immolations.[3]
March 16, 1965	Alice Herz	82	USA	Vietnam War
November 2, 1965	Norman Morrison	31	USA	Vietnam War	[4]
November 9, 1965	Roger Allen LaPorte	22	USA	Vietnam War	[5]
May 16, 1967	Nhất Chi Mai	34	South Vietnam	Vietnam War	[6]
October 15, 1967	Florence Beaumont	55	USA	Vietnam War	[7]
September 8, 1968	Ryszard Siwiec	59	Poland	Poland's participation in Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968)	Died in hospital four days later.
November 5, 1968	Vasyl Makukh	40	Ukraine	Soviet rule in Ukraine	[8]
January 16, 1969	Jan Palach	20	Czechoslovakia	Communist rule in Czechoslovakia	Student. Inspired a number of self-immolations in protest of Soviet satellite states.
January 20, 1969	Sándor Bauer	17	Hungary	Communist rule in Hungary	[9]
February 25, 1969	Jan Zajíc	19	Czechoslovakia	Communist rule in Czechoslovakia	Student.
April 2, 1969	Evžen Plocek	39	Czechoslovakia	Communist rule in Czechoslovakia	Businessman.
April 9, 1969	Eliyahu Rips	20	Latvia	Communist rule in Czechoslovakia	Survived, became professor of mathematics.

1970s

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
February 13, 1970	Marton Moyses	28	Romania	Communist rule in Romania
May 10, 1970	George Winne, Jr.	23	USA	Vietnam War	Student at the University of California, San Diego. Died the next day.[10]
September 19, 1970	Kostas Georgakis	22	Greece	Greek military junta of 1967–1974	Student at the University of Genoa
September 19, 1970	Joseba Elosegi	54	Spain	Bombing of Guernica in 1937	Survived
November 21, 1970	Jeon Tae-il	22	South Korea	For more robust labour laws and the government's opposition to reform
May 14, 1972	Romas Kalanta	19	USSR	Communist rule in Lithuania	Inspired largest post-war riots in occupied Lithuania and USSR, and 13 other self-immolations
June 6, 1972	Huguette Gaulin	28	Canada		[11]
August 10, 1976	Antanas Kalinauskas	19	USSR	Communist rule in Lithuania	In Soviet Army barracks in Gulbene, Latvia. Died next day.
August 22, 1976	Oskar Brüsewitz	46	East Germany	Communist rule in East Germany	Lutheran pastor
February 10, 1977	Alain Escoffier	27	France	Communism
November 16, 1977	Hartmut Gründler	37	West Germany	Atomic policy
January 21, 1978	Oleksa Hirnyk	65	USSR	Communist rule in Ukraine
June 23, 1978	Musa Mamut	46	USSR	Persecution of Crimean Tatars	Died after five days[12]

1980s

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
March 21, 1981	Per-Axel Arosenius	60	Sweden	Taxes
August 10, 1982	Artin Penik	61	Turkey	ASALA attack at Esenboğa International Airport
November 2, 1983	Sebastián Acevedo		Chile	Kidnapping of his children by the Chilean police during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet	[13]
April 7, 1989	Cheng Nan-jung	41	Taiwan	For Taiwan independence	[14]
May 19, 1989	Chan I-hua		Taiwan	Blocking of funeral procession of Cheng Nan-jung	[15]
March 2, 1989	Liviu Cornel Babeş	47	Romania	Communist rule in Romania	[16] Set himself on fire on ski slope, died at hospital after 2 hours
March 2, 1989	Vytautas Vičiulis	37	USSR	Communist rule in Lithuania
March 24, 1989	Kailash Pawar		India	To draw attention to plight of Bhopal gas victims and protest public indifference	[17] Original story published in the Hindu, March 26, 1990

1990s

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
April 26, 1990	Stanislovas Žemaitis	52	USSR	Communist rule in Lithuania	Protesting Soviet economic blockade of Lithuania. Died next day in Moscow hospital.
May 9, 1990	Rimantas Daugintis	55	USSR	Communist rule in Lithuania	Lithuanian sculptor self-immolated on Hungarian-Soviet border. Died after a few days.
September 19, 1990	Rajiv Goswami	19	India	Reservation in India	Survived, but inspired some 150 other self-immolations[18]
February 18, 1991	Gregory Levey	30	USA	First Gulf War	Amherst Common, MA. Particularly unremarked upon in press, as with other Gulf War protest self-immolations in US, even though Levey's father was married to nationally syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman[19][20]
September 21, 1991	Giorgi Abesadze	35	Republic of Georgia	Looming civil war in Georgia	Physician[21]
February 21, 1994	Homa Darabi	54	Iran	Women's rights after the Iranian Revolution	Biography Rage Against the Veil written by sister Parvin Darabi
April 25, 1995	Reinhold Elstner	75	Germany	Demonization of German soldiers after World War II
September 3, 1995	Sabine Kratze	25	Vietnam	Trial of six Buddhist monks
October 22, 1996	Kathy Change	46	USA	For directly democratic community-based self-government
January 13, 1998	Alfredo Ormando	29	Italy	Roman Catholic Church's condemnation of homosexuality
April 27, 1998	Thupten Ngodup	60	India	Political situation in Tibet	Ex-monk. In protest of police interference with unto-death hunger-strike in Delhi. Died two days later in hospital after visit by the Dalai Lama.[22][23][24]
February 16, 1999	Necla Coşkun	14	UK	Arrest of Abdullah Öcalan	Survived.[25]

2000s

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
January 21, 2001	various	–	China	See Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident	[26]
April 2, 2001	Shahraz Kayani	48	Australia	Government refusal to grant entry to his wife and daughters	Pakistani refugee[27]
July 21, 2004	Mordehai (Hamimo) Cohen	30	Israel	Rejection of work license	Set himself on fire during a cityhall assembly[28]
August 17, 2005	Yelena Businov	54	Israel	Protest against Israel's unilateral disengagement plan	[29]
August 31, 2005	Baruch Ben Menahem	21	Israel	Protest against Israel's unilateral disengagement plan	[30]
March 28, 2006	Eleftheriya Fortulaki		Greece	Treatment of Kurds in Turkey	[31]
November 3, 2006	Malachi Ritscher	52	USA	War in Iraq	Died at the spot.[32]
June 11, 2006	Pravin Joshi	30	India	Screening of Fanaa	Died 9 days later.[33]
March 7, 2007	Uddhav Bhandari	40	UK	Asylum policy	Nepali asylum seeker[34]
April 1, 2007	Heo Se-uk	54	South Korea	South Korea – United States Free Trade Agreement	[35]
October 1, 2008	Ramiro Guillén Tapia	65	Mexico	Local government in the city of Xalapa	[36]
November 10, 2008	Rosen Markov	-	Bulgaria	Broadcasting of Turkish news on Bulgarian National Television	[37]
January 29, 2009	Kumar Muthukumar	26	India	Killing of Sri Lankan Tamils	Inspired several other self-immolations[38]
February 12, 2009	Murugathasan Varnakulasingham	26	Switzerland	Sri Lankan Government Killing of the Sri Lankan Tamils	Inspired several other self-immolations[39]
February 21, 2010	Subram Yadaiah	19	India	For re-creating the state of Telengana in present-day Andhra Pradesh	Died in hospital.[40]
February 27, 2009	Tapey	mid-20s	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk, Kirti Monastery, Ngaba. Shot[41] by Chinese police while on fire, and then taken away by them. Status unknown.[41]

2010s

Date	Name	Age	Country	Protesting	Notes and references
February 20, 2010	Siripur Yadaiah	19	India	Provincial Statehood demand for Telangana	Student. Later died in hospital.[42]
July 31, 2010	Eshan Reddy	20's	India	Provincial Statehood demand for Telangana	student sets himself alight as an offering for a deity pleading Statehood.[43]
December 17, 2010	Mohamed Bouazizi	26	Tunisia	Corruption in government	Inspired the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests leading to oust of President Ben Ali and "copycat" incidents in the Arab world.[44]
January 16, 2011	Venugopala Reddy	20's	India	Provincial Statehood demand for Telangana	MCA student immolated himself near his university auditorium,died on the spot.[45]
January 16, 2011	Mohsen Bouterfif	–	Algeria	Unemployment and housing	Inspired by Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia.[46]
January 17, 2011	Yacoub Ould Dahoud	43	Mauritania	Political situation in Mauritania	Same as above[47]
March 16, 2011	Rigzin Phuntsog	21	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Beaten by police before they extinguished the flames. Died in hospital.[48][49][50][51]
August 15, 2011	Tsewang Norbu	29	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Nyitso monastery in Kham Tawu. In Tawu. Died soon afterwards.[48][51][52][53]
September 26, 2011	Lobsang Kunchok	18	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Set fire to self together with Lobsang Kelsang.[51][54][55]
September 26, 2011	Lobsang Kelsang	18	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Set fire to self together with Lobsang Kunchok.[51][56]
January 16, 2011	Bhavani	18	India	Provincial Statehood demand for Telangana	[57]
February 21, 2011	Mohd Mustafa	40	India	Provincial Statehood demand for Telangana	[58]
October 3, 2011	Kelsang Wangchuk	17	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Beaten and taken away by security personnel. [59]
October 7, 2011	Kayang	17	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Former monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Clasped hands with Choepel; died.[51][60]
October 7, 2011	Choepel	19	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Former monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Clasped hands with Kayang; died.[51][61] China Daily reported they were "slightly injured".[62]
October 15, 2011	Norbu Damdrul	19	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Former monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Kicked and removed from scene by authorities. Current status unknown.[51][63]
October 17, 2011	Tenzin Wangmo	20	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Nun of Mame Dechen Chokorling. In Ngaba, Amdo. Died.[51][64]
October 21, 2011	Wang	42	China	Legal inequalities in China	At Tiananmen Square, Beijing. Taken to hospital by police; evidence at scene erased immediately.[51][65]
October 25, 2011	Dawa Tsering	38	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kardze Monastery. In Kardze, Amdo. Current status unknown.[51][66]
November 3, 2011	Palden Choetso	35	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Nun in Tawu, Kardze. Reported died by Xinhua.[51][67][68]
November 4, 2011	Sherab Tsedor	25	India	Political situation in Tibet	Layperson. Outside Chinese embassy in New Delhi. Overpowered by police and hospitalized with minor burns.[69][70][71]
November 11, 2011	Yenesew Gebre	29	Ethiopia	Corruption of dictatorship government	Inspired by Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia.[72]
December 1, 2011	Tenzin Phuntsok	46[73]	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Ex-monk, Karma Monastery, Chamdo.[74][75] Died on December 6 in Chamdo Hospital in Tibet[73] Reported in China Daily, as a "farmer" who "is considered eccentric".[76]
December 7, 2011	Sondang Hutagalung	22	Indonesia	Disputed	[77]
January 6, 2012	Tennyi	Around 20	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	[78]
January 6, 2012	Tsultrim	Around 20	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	[79]
January 8, 2012	Sopa Tulku / Sonam Wangyal	42	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	[80][81]
January 14, 2012	Jamyang Losang	20s	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Former monk of Andu monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Deceased.[82]
February 3, 2012	Tsaptai Tsering, Kyarel, and unknown name	60, 30, unknown	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Three laypersons. In Serthar. Incident published in several places, but unconfirmed.[83][84]
February 8, 2012	Rigzin Dorje (Rinzin)	Around 18	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Former monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Died Feb 21 in hospital.[85]
February 9, 2012	Sonam Rabyang	30s	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Lab Monastery. In Tridu town, Yushu County, Kham. Taken to hospital; condition unclear.[86]
February 11, 2012	Tenzin Choedron	18	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Nun of Mame Dechen Chokorling. In Ngaba, Amdo. Taken away by soldiers and police, and died soon afterwards.[87][88]
February 13, 2012	Lobsang Gyatso	19	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Current status unknown.[89][90]
February 17, 2012	Damchoe Sangpo	40	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monastic official of Bongthak monastery. In Themchen, Tsonub, Amdo. Died on the spot.[91]
February 19, 2012	Nangdrol	18	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Layperson. In Dzamthang, Amdo. Died on the spot.[92]
March 3, 2012	Tsering Kyi	19	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Girl from Tibetan middle school. In the vegetable market at Maqu County, Kanlho, Gansu. Died on the spot.[93][94]
March 4, 2012	Rinchen	32	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Occupation unknown. In Ngaba, Amdo. Died on the spot.[93]
March 5, 2012	Dorje (Dorjee)	18	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Occupation unknown. In Ngaba, Amdo. Deceased.[95]
March 10, 2012	Gapey (Gepey)	18	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Died on the spot.[96]
March 13, 2012	Jamyang Palden	30s	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Rongpo monastery. In Rebkong, Amdo. Current status unknown.[97]
March 16, 2012	Lobsang Tsultrim	20	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kirti Monastery. In Ngaba, Amdo. Died in custody.[98]
March 17, 2012	Sonam Thargyal (Dargye, Dhargay)	44	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Farmer in Rebkong, Amdo. Died on the spot.[99][100]
March 24, 2012	L Bhoja Naik	21	India	For the creation of the state of Telangana	MBA student set himself on fire in front of his college. Died on the spot.[101]
March 26, 2012	Jamphel Yeshi	20	India	Political situation in Tibet	Layperson in Delhi. Died 2 days later in hospital.[102][103]
March 26, 2012	Rajmouli	40	India	Telangana	For separate statehood to Telangana[104][105]
March 26, 2012	BR Goud	n/a	India	Telangana	For separate statehood to Telangana[106]
March 27, 2012	Pallavi	17	India	For creation of state of Telangana	Later died in hospital.[107]
March 28, 2012	K Uppalaiah	30	India	For creation of state of Telangana	[108]
March 28, 2012	Lobsang Sherab	20	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Kirti Monastery.[109] In Ngaba, Amdo. Died on the spot.[110][111]
March 24, 2012	S Srikanth	23	India	For creation of state of Telangana	Died in the hospital.[112]
March 27, 2012	Kalakanchi Ilaiah	30	India	Provincial Statehood demand for Telangana	Scrap dealer.[113]
March 30, 2012	Tenpa Dhargyal (Darjey)	22	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Tsodun monastery. In Barkham, Amdo. Forcibly removed to hospital by Chinese security forces. Current status unknown.[114][115]
March 30, 2012	Chimey Palden (Chime)	21	Tibet	Political situation in Tibet	Monk of Tsodun monastery. In Barkham, Amdo. Forcibly removed to hospital by Chinese security forces.[115][116] Died later that day around midnight.[117]
March 30, 2012	Shyamapuri Shankar	24	India	Provincial Statehood demand for Telangana	[118]
March 30, 2012	Bandavath Suresh	25	India	Provincial Statehood demand for Telangana	suffered 50% burns.[119]
July 14, 2012	Moshe Silman	57	Israel	Social justice march in Tel Aviv	Social justice activist, suffered 90% burns.[120] Died of his wounds on July 20 in a hospital.[121]
July 15, 2012	Classified	30	Israel	social injustice protest	Protested his debts.[122]
July 16, 2012	Zion Vaknin[123]	46	Israel	social injustice protest	In the Beersheba city hall, in protest of debts.[124]
July 20, 2012	Akiva Mafi	45	Israel	social injustice protest	Akiva Mafi[125] (45) Disabled IDF veteran sets himself on fire in Yehud, on behalf of wounded veterans.[126][127] Died on Aug 1, 2012.[128] New agency established to prevent more cases.
July 18, 2012	Valentina Gerasimovna	57	Russia		A woman attempted self-immolation at the public reception center of the ruling United Russia party in Novosibirsk. She earlier addressed the party's public reception center for legal advice as an apartment buyer.[129][130] Died in the hospital.[131]
July 31, 2012	Ta Phong Tan's mother		Vietnam		Protest against 2011 crackdown on Vietnamese youth activists[132] Died in the hospital.

References

OH! 'If your eye offends thee, pluck it out' I get it now! Thoughts on church and unleashing, restoring humanity

OH! 'If your eye offends thee, pluck it out' I get it now!  Thoughts on church and unleashing, restoring humanity

[Also posted here: SL.  Make certain you are subscribed there.  NOW would be a good time to do so.]

I'm not a position to provide an inventory to myself.  Maybe someday I will be, of the Scriptures, the words attributed to Jesus; the teachings attributed to Jesus; the 20% I felt I didn't fully 'get,' that I could not attribute to nonsense made up by John, just a handful of things, but this 20% that I felt were beyond my full grasp, as to Jesus' intended meaning.  There are very few left, if any, now, that I don't 'get.' I can't name one, off hand,  nor is my knowledge that authoritative yet, unfortunately, to speak with full accuracy. 

But clarity regarding the Scripture, 'If your eye,  if your right eye offends, pluck it out,'  that's a paraphrase, doubled or tripled for me in its meaning for me this morning, which is a great gift. 

The 20% of his teachings that were escaping me in their fullness, that's now two or 3%, have come to their fullness for me only as I've walked the path, more than a decade now. I could see pictures of a Milan, I could be presented with a map of it, but it was only upon going to Milan that it came to its fullness in my understanding.  It's only in progressively and totally embarking upon and living each breath the truths that Jesus taught that the details begin to fall into place.  Couldn't happen any other way.

'If your right eye offends thee pluck it out." 

So in recent years part of the meaning fell into place for me - our nervous system is a virtually infinite universe of possibilities.  There's nothing mystical in that phrase.  If it seems so it's only because our language of psychology is so primitive, so inadequate.  I, this person called Loving, sitting here, could be an ax murder, I could be a rapist, I could be a pedophile, I have, this individual sitting here, I have all those capacities, and an infinite variety more.  One of those capacities is the capacity to 'be' Love, to be immediate family to everyone born and to be born.  You have that same capacity, you have that same infinite variety of options as to who you can be. 

So in recent years it became clear to me, that what Jesus was referring to, in total I suppose I thought, was to find those capacities within ourselves that we were indulging, and if they were not that of being family to others, our neediest, or if they distracted from being family to our neediest, to pluck them out; to radically and totally 'surgically' amputate any connection from them, amputate any influence they had,  redirect attention, ferociously and relentlessly to the capacity that is loving.

The doubling or tripling of meaning beyond that interpretation, that came to me this morning, came as the every Saturday and Sunday church over on the west side of town, in Georgetown, among the most over-privileged areas,  came is they do every morning between seven and nine on Saturday and Sunday, bringing a brownbag breakfast and a cup of okay coffee, usually hot.  It's always two people driving their own car, it's not always the same two people, but it seems to be a crew of about six that rotates, or so, on our end of town. 

They are genuinely kind; I'm hypersensitive to that, always have been .  Genuinely kind.  I wouldn't say saintly, but genuinely kind. 

Several weeks ago, after my weekend encounter, one of the days that they come, it hit me that they were being, to we homeless, the entire Gospel; at least all evidence I could see was that they were being the entire Gospel, which is to say they were 'being' 'family' to us.  And it occurred to me I should go to that church one day in the event that they allow people to speak during the service, and that I should tell them that.   And then I thought that would really be unkind because I'd have to make other comments that were not an affirmation of the church. 

But this morning when I saw them bring breakfast I chose to tell that to the two that were here. 

The first thing I told them was that it was clear to me that the entirety of the Gospel is, 'we are all immediate Family; get on with it,' to which one by nodding and the other in words said that 'I totally and completely agree,' and she seemed to be speaking broadly and inclusively of her view.  But I said 'that's not my point. My point is that to me, to my eyes, you guys are being Family to us, we homeless,' to which one of them started to cry.  And she said 'thank you for that confirmation.' 

I added, I said,  'I'm no fan of what calls itself the church.'  These are Episcopalians by the way.  'My brothers and sisters all, within 200 years the church reconstituted what Jesus taught, remade Him in our own image, and thereby have kept the real crucifixion going for 1800 years,' to which one of them aggressively agreed and the other showed no sign of discomfort or disagreeing.  And I further said, 'unless we reconstitute Jesus in His true form, and His true teachings, it's over now, it's all done,' and I think with one, the crying continued, in affirmation, in resonance.

Subsequent to that encounter I reflected further on what calls itself the church, the horrible Apostles Creed came to my mind.  Do we have an apostles of Einstein Creed?  What utter rubbish.  It's so obvious that we don't want to do or live what Jesus said.  We want to be in the proximity of it, but we sure as hell don't want to do it; so let's step one or two or three or 10 orders of magnitude away. 

But I thought of these breakfast people that are showing such goodness, and thought of how to understand what a church should be; what practices should be, what activity should be, and should there be such a thing.  Yes; if there should be medical school; if there should be a Marine base; if there should be a Navy SEALs base, yes there should be a church. 

And the Scripture I've cited here came to my mind; I thought of the apostles Creed which I find dreadfully offensive, not that I've studied it in detail, I find it to be all dogma.  But the test for the individual, or for what calls itself the church, (and fore everyone and every group concerned for Humanity) should be - does it move, effectively and powerfully and inclusively the individual and the group toward being Family, or not?

A church wouldn't just come and mantra – 'I'm family to everyone, immediate family to everyone, get on with it….'  No, there would be other practices, there would be ways; just like a 100 meter sprinter does other things in preparation to be effective than just 100 meter sprint.  He or she goes to a gym, and has a myriad of exercises all of which are pointed exactly to running that hundred at the greatest possible speed.  Similarly there could be a variety of things in what Jesus would recognize as church.

But if the activity does not do that, does not move powerfully, reliably, accurately toward Universal Family, it should be plucked out for the life of it, for the hope of it.  Should the apostles Creed be plucked out?  I suspect so but I haven't studied it.   But that's the test.  If conceptually and in truth and fact and experience the activity, the practice, the teaching… aggressively, powerfully, reliably moves one toward being immediate family, or the group toward being immediate family, to everyone, it's of the Creator.  If not it should be plucked out. 

And so with every part of our life.  The scantily clad women?  No, sisters.  No, no, no.  That does not move us toward being brothers and sisters, Universal Family; that moves into the head and flesh, out of, away from the Heart, brotherhood.   Desiring 'sexiness' of our female friends as I did most of my years of unwitting hideous existence, brothers?  No, guys, that goes.   The frequenting restaurants, the frequenting almost all of our movies, almost all of our Disney which are ultimately about sexual relations; they are; the beautiful alluring female that dazzles the driven wild and stupid male...? No, friends.  Is that where King and Gandhi lived?  Well, it might be where King lived, to a degree.  It's not where Gandhi lived.  It isn't where Teresa of Calcutta lived.  Did they really have inferior lives?  No, actually, they had Life.   We're the ones, we that spend 99% of every day as not Universal Family, it is we that don't have Life. 

So in all aspects of our lives, if it is of 'being immediate family' to our global neediest, or moving us in that direction, it is of the Creator.  If not, for the joy of it, as you would pluck out cancer, (in anger? No), as part of Life, pluck it out.