Hold That Thought

“I sort of have this joke theory,” Brooks says, “that consciousness is put there by God, so that he has this very quick interface to find out what we’re thinking about.”
—     Rodney Brooks
Quoted by:  Virginia Heffernan
In her article:  “Clean Conscience“
Appearing in:  Wired Magazine;  dtd:  Nov 2020
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On This Day In:
2020	Everyone I’ve Ever Met
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2019	A Big “IF”
2018	Silence Presence
2017	Feeling Small Standing In Front Of My Shelves
2016	Show Willing
2015	If He Only Knew…
2014	Dared To Love
2013	Strong Kung-Fu
2012	Two Tribes
2011	Made Any Assumptions Lately?

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First Ask For Courage

If you are not strong, ask for troubles to make you so.
—    Leo Tolstoy
[Which reminds me of:
The Para’s Prayer
Give me, God, what you still have, Give me what no one asks for; I do not ask for wealth Nor for success, nor even health — People ask you so often, God, for all that That you cannot have any left. Give me, God, what you still have; Give me what people refuse to accept from you. I want insecurity and disquietude, I want turmoil and brawl, And if you should give them to me, my God, Once and for all Let me be sure to have them always, For I will not always have the courage To ask you for them.      –    Attributed to André Zirnheld [Aspirant (Second Lieutenant) André Zirnheld was the first Free French SAS officer to fall in Libya in a gun jeep raid on Nazi airfields deep behind enemy lines on July 27, 1942.  Hurriedly buried in a desert sand dune;  his friends found in his officer’s note book a prayer (above) he had written in Tunis in 1938.]
I carried a hand-written copy of this in my wallet for years…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	My 2 Cents
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2019	The Opening Step
	Day 17/18: That Didn’t Take Long
2018	I’ll Trade You…
2017	Luv Me Some Meat Loaf
2016	Unless Your Name Is #AmnestyDon
2015	A Tentative First Step
2014	Making People
2013	On Reading Books
2012	On America
2011	Shiver, Me Timbers!
2010	Fiduciary Breakdown

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To Trust Providence

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.
—     Blaise Pascal
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On This Day In:
2020	I Am Learning
	Plus Plus
2019	Day 2: All Things Considered
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2018	Ryan, McConnell & The Republican Controlled Congress
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2017	Serving Is Proving Harder Than Winning For #DumbDonald
2016	Come Again…
2015	At Five
2014	Touching The Past
	The Supreme Question
2013	Children Will Judge
2012	Liar, n.
2011	Freedom To Doubt

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Universal Vibrations

It is not without reason that the ancestors and prophets wanted nothing else to be associated as closely with the Word of God as music.
—    Martin Luther
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On This Day In:
2020	Weakness In The Oval Office
	Doo Wop (1961)
2019	A Temporary Surrender
2018	I Am Spartacus
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	Day 20: Relief
2017	Try Not To Run Short, Too
2016	I Feel The Same (Thankful)
2015	It Couldn’t Hurt
2014	Sir, I Have Reasoned It Out!
2013	What Are We Becoming?
2012	Miracles
2011	“W” Finds A Nut!
2010	No Strain At All, But I’m Not Sure About Stress…
	An Evening at the Pavilion…

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Still Stumbling

When people can’t see what God is up to, they stumble all over themselves.
—   Proverbs 29:18
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On This Day In:
2020	#45: Diarrhea Of The Mouth, Constipation Of The Brain
	Not As Often As I Used To
2019	Four Buffett’s
2018	Change Happens
	Day 13: Ginger / Mint Relief
2017	Still Removing Bricks
2016	Namaste
2015	Still Learning
2014	Dark Processes
2013	To The Last Link
2012	Slept In Again
2011	Home Again, Naturally
2009	Thoughts after a long day of OT…

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6/11 Capitol Riot Commission

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil:  God will not hold us guiltless.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.
―     Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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On This Day In:
2020	Fact Check: Presidential Memories
	Vote In November!
2019	Where Today’s Republican Party Is Failing America (And The President)
2018	Either / Or
2017	Redemptive Power
2016	On Calls To Renew Waterboarding / Torture
2015	Still Struggling
2014	How To Become A Saint
2013	Not Much Change
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2012	Brain, n.
2011	Styles Of Leadership
2010	Face Front!

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And Yet I Still Pray

I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.
—    Jean Ingelow
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On This Day In:
2020	What Am I Missing?
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2019	For Most #IncompetentDonald Followers
2018	I Dare You
2017	To Republicans Who Choose Party Over Country
2016	All About Control
2015	Liberty Is Extravagant
2014	Always Remember To Reach
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2013	Ripples From The Water’s Edge
	Because I Was Alone
2012	POI vs Reality
	Dear And Sacred
2011	Chilled Again

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Appreciating Intricacy

If a Creator God exists, would He or She or It…  prefer a kind of sodden blockhead who worships while understanding nothing?  Or would He prefer His votaries to admire the real universe in all its intricacy?
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2020	Insensitive To Silence
	Weaker, Sicker And Poorer
2019	Don’t Be Small
2018	Persistence
2017	Are You A Loser?
2016	Constitution And Conscience
2015	Separate, Fearful And Imprisoned
2014	Something Worth Making
2013	Absolutely
2012	Can Do
2011	Wise Criticism

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I Welcome The Questions

But we don’t yet know whether the Universe is open or closed.  More than that, there are a few astronomers who doubt that the redshift of distant galaxies is due to the doppler effect, who are skeptical of the expanding Universe and the Big Bang.  Perhaps our descendants will regard our present ignorance with as much sympathy as we feel to the ancients for not knowing the Earth went around the Sun.  If the general picture, however, of a Big Bang followed by an expanding Universe is correct, what happened before that?  Was the Universe devoid of all matter and then the matter suddenly somehow created, how did that happen?  In many cultures, the customary answer is that a God or Gods created the Universe out of nothing.  But if we wish to pursue this question courageously, we must of course ask the next question: where did God come from?  If we decide that this is an unanswerable question, why not save a step and conclude that the origin of the Universe is an unanswerable question?  Or, if we say that God always existed, why not save a step, and conclude that the Universe always existed?  That there’s no need for a creation, it was always here.  These are not easy questions.  Cosmology brings us face to face with the deepest mysteries, questions that were once treated only in religion and myth.
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2020	Increasing Importance
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2019	But Yours
2018	And Smile More Often
2017	He’s Keeping The Light On For Us
2016	The Results Of Trying Too Hard
2015	Make Me Look
2014	Fresh Drink
2013	Good Business
2012	Unsure Spirit
2011	A Lost Valuable

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Seeking Center

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
—  Voltaire
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On This Day In:
2020	You Mean I’m STILL In School?
2019	Finishing Work
2018	Diversity
2017	Timely Planning
2016	Just Too Easy To Know Fewer And Fewer
2015	A Fine Balance
2014	Next Rung
2013	Super Bowl Prep
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2012	Mutant Powers Of Obsession
2011	Federal Stars
	Mud Pie

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Gifts

Your talent is God’s gift to you.  What you do with it is your gift back to God.
—   Dr. Leo F. Buscaglia
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On This Day In:
2020	A Strength Of Science
2019	A Higher Standard
	Make Two Calls
2018	Irreplaceable Sparks
2017	Saving For April 15th
2016	First Wish
2015	Tracing Shadows
2014	One Thing
2013	More Is Less
2012	The Screw-Up Gene

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Our Fate Is Up To Us

Since this series’ maiden voyage, the impossible has come to pass:  Mighty walls that maintained insuperable ideological differences have come tumbling down; deadly enemies have embraced and begun to work together.  The imperative to cherish the Earth and protect the global environment that sustains all of us has become widely accepted, and we’ve begun, finally, the process of reducing the obscene number of weapons of mass destruction.  Perhaps we have, after all, decided to choose life.  But we still have light years to go to ensure that choice.  Even after the summits and the ceremonies and the treaties, there are still some 50,000 nuclear weapons in the world — and it would require the detonation of only a tiny fraction of them to produce a nuclear winter, the predicted global climatic catastrophe that would result from the smoke and the dust lifted into the atmosphere by burning cities and petroleum facilities.
The world scientific community has begun to sound the alarm about the grave dangers posed by depleting the protective ozone shield and by greenhouse warming, and again we’re taking some mitigating steps, but again those steps are too small and too slow.  The discovery that such a thing as nuclear winter was really possible evolved out of the studies of Martian dust storms.  The surface of Mars, fried by ultraviolet light, is also a reminder of why it’s important to keep our ozone layer intact.  The runaway greenhouse effect on Venus is a valuable reminder that we must take the increasing greenhouse effect on Earth seriously.
Important lessons about our environment have come from spacecraft missions to the planets.  By exploring other worlds we safeguard this one.  By itself, I think this fact more than justifies the money our species has spent in sending ships to other worlds.  It is our fate to live during one of the most perilous and, at the same time, one of the most hopeful chapters in human history.
Our science and our technology have posed us a profound question.  Will we learn to use these tools with wisdom and foresight before it’s too late?  Will we see our species safely through this difficult passage so that our children and grandchildren will continue the great journey of discovery still deeper into the mysteries of the Cosmos?  That same rocket and nuclear and computer technology that sends our ships past the farthest known planet can also be used to destroy our global civilization.  Exactly the same technology can be used for good and for evil.  It is as if there were a God who said to us, “I set before you two ways:  You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars.  It’s up to you.”
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2020	Still Willing
2019	Another Prayer
2018	After Silence
2017	Are You Looking Forward To A Trump Presidency?
2016	Three Errors From Eureka
2015	Limiting Choices
2014	Praise The Lord And Pass The Hypocrisy
	That Sound
2013	Still Waiting For Answers
2012	Informal Leadership
2011	A Little More Progress
2010	Bec’s Gone Again…

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Each Over All

Man is more interesting than men.  God made him and not them in his image.  Each one is more precious than all.
—    Andre Gide
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On This Day In:
2019	And Integrity For Today’s Elected Republicans
2018	A Faulty Start, Too
	Honorable Resignation And Syria
2017	Beneath The Tree Of Wisdom
	The Republican Rape Of The American Middle Class
2016	Something Authentic Happened
2015	Back On The Bricks
	On, Rocinante!!
2014	Changing Frequently
2013	Trifles
2012	Simple, Ordinary And Wonderous
2011	Humane Writers

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A Word Of Assurance They Are Not Alone

So far, all our patients are responding to treatment, so people think we are not saying the truth about how bad this will be.  The same happened in the Ebola crisis.  Until people saw that others were dying, they had doubts that the disease existed.  They won’t believe if they are not seeing bodies.
That said, while caring for patients in extraordinary circumstances, you must remember it is God who saves lives.  You may provide the right medications and have the right equipment, but if someone is bound to die, no matter what you do, you will end up losing the person.  For me as a physician, this is the most painful part of my service.
…
One of the best ways to support frontline health workers is to first appreciate the sacrifices they are making to save lives in the face of limited resources.  It doesn’t have to be by providing them gold or diamonds or even money, but just a word of appreciation and encouragement.  It is an assurance that they are not alone.
The health workers are our soldiers on the front line.  We need to equip them if we want them to fight effectively.  They need a safe work environment and the tools to execute their duties.  As we would do in warfare, we have to look for all available ammunition and sophisticated weaponry so they can win that fight.
This pandemic has proven that no one nation is supreme.  It is time we forget our differences and fight this disease as a united force.  We have to understand that no matter how small or weak a country or person may be, there is something he or she has to offer to the good of the world.  If we think it is a disease belonging to the Africans alone, or the Chinese, we are getting it wrong.  As long as we continue to have COVID-19 in one country, the rest of the world is not safe.  We must work together to defeat it.
—   Dr. Jerry Brown
CEO of JFK Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia
From his interview / article: “How To Conquer A Pandemic“
Appearing in: 27 April / 4 May 2020 issue of “Time Magazine“
A similar version appears online (with a different title) at: “I Helped Fight the Ebola Outbreak in Liberia. Here’s What It Takes to Conquer a Pandemic“
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On This Day In:
2019	It’s Obvious
2018	Passed Too Swiftly
2017	On Our Wall (Part 1)
2016	Or The Ripples From A Good Life
2015	Titles And Reputations
2014	Unfolding
2013	Again
2012	Needs
	Damned
2011	Potter & Prejudice
	Blink, Blink

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Resting

Live simply.  Love generously.  Care deeply.  Speak kindly.  And leave the rest to God…
—    President Ronald Reagan
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On This Day In:
2019	One For Two
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2018	The Worst
2017	#DonTheCon In The Oval Office
2016	Are You Like #AmnestyDon And Sarah Palin?
2015	Begin Today
2014	Look Again (At Life’s Illusions)
2013	None Knows
2012	Yet
2011	No End In Sight
2010	Back At It…

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