Love Losing or Losing Love

There is competition both formal and informal. In it all we are asking a question. It is "Who wins and why?" The very word "competition" announces to us our mutual interest in that which may be had by only one. Nations compete for territory and tribute. Corporations for trade routes and profits. And individuals for that brief whiff of social standing, the definition of the Self.

Games are great for the exercise of the latter. Point totals, rules and limited times and terrain all compound to make the winner able to cash in a quantifiable for his or her Self definition. Ah, yes, the winner. It is always the winner, darn his hide! But the loser, the sulky, angry, excuse-making, "second place is never good enough", sort of loser is a unacceptable problem to the spirit of grace incumbent on Christians. I guess they just did not like the answer to the question expressed earlier.

Who wins? The other guy.
Why? He was better than you.
What is your problem with that? You are not wise.

"First you call me a loser and then a fool?
You are not making friends, O Oracle. "

What else should I call you?

You are playing a game. You anticipate being able to win. The point totals at the end would verify your self assessment. You rise from the table torqued, affronted, and pouty. The point totals said other than what you anticipated. They rebuked your false definition of self and to pout is to be a fool. Rejoice for you have been reproved in a false notion of yourself. Love them who beat you, for they are your teacher. For do not the Scriptures say:

Proverbs 9:8 Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning.

and
17:10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding
than a hundred blows into a fool.

My Humiliation

And so it came to pass that Ian Tracy, resident of the court and child to Darel and Karla, count and countess of Eagle and the South, did profess with gun and repeated ventures to the woodlands to kill something larger than a hedgehog. As the days of such venture increased in number, so did the mocking words of the Marquis of Mojo. He didst rail on the young man. In his humor, he offered to bow down to young Tracy if any blood be spilt. The days and nights of seeking continued apace. The Marquis words were forgotten except when another opportunity to joke at the lad's expense arose.

Then, one night, as the court sat robustly feasting on goodly victuals, the young Nimrod stood in the door. His hands dripped with the blood o f his prey. He pointed at the Marquis whose heart turned to stone within him. Courtiers and ladies in dumbstuck silence paraded their crushed overlord into the street . The weight of his vow pushed him to his knees and he did homage to the killer of stags and young women's hearts.

The moral of the story: It is better that you not vow, than vow and not pay.

Now is your Chance....

The Tao

On Saturday, October 24, 2009
at the Big Haus
325 N. Polk, Moscow, Idaho
beginning at 10:00 a.m.

Cost: $50 per person
for single or married women

Contact for PDF registration brochure:
ewilson@turbonet.com

This seminar is an event that provides both the substance and enjoyment of the strengths that God has given women. It is a day of information (five talks on the Biblical structure of the Christian lady) topped off with a delightful dinner and fellowship.
We hope for a lighthearted and thoughtful day in which the social, spiritual, and mental tasks for the Christian lady are pursued. You will probably hear things you don’t want to hear but you will suspect that you needed to hear them.
Each session is taught by Mr. Evan Wilson. (Yep, he’s a guy.) Mr. Wilson is the pastor of All Souls Christian Church, philosopher in his own mind and a frustrated artist who, over many years of discussion and practical counsel, has developed a systematic on the strength and dignity that is the Christian lady.
The cost is $50, which covers the classes, a notebook with essential documents, a light lunch, coffee breaks, dinner, and least importantly, a Certificate of Achievement. The seminar is limited in size, so prompt registration is encouraged. It is for women only (married or unmarried) who have reached a time where understanding these things is needful.
We cannot promise to make you a lady, or guarantee that you will understand men, but we will deliver a philosophy that will leave you without the excuse, “No one ever told me”.
And our motto is:
“It’s the Thought that Counts.”

Seminar Schedule: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
First Session: St. SOPHIA & THE ADVENTURESS
Wisdom and Folly are personified as women in the first 9 chapters of Proverbs.
Men are instructed to seek the one and avoid the other.
Which, Wisdom or Folly, is incarnated in you?
light lunch
Second Session: THE MARRIAGE OF THE MOJO AND THE MAID
What is the desire of men all about, and how should a Christian woman deal with it?
From dating to modesty to marriage, a knowledge of Reality informs the Maid
on which way she should go.
30 minute break
Third Session: THE DAUGHTERS OF SARAH
To accept the Biblical instruction for women, a woman must come to grips with the
nature of hierarchy and the demands of honor. The issue of security and fear finds
God’s gift of a husband understood properly and with satisfaction.
30 minute break
Fourth Session: THE WAY OF A LADY
This is an effort to “gentle our condition”, by suggesting less of what to do and more of how to think. The claim is that the Fifteen Rules are true within all societies, practicable regardless of any economy, and sufficiently corrective at any time in history. Be she a Hottentot or a Hohenstaufen, the gentled philosophette will be guided to successfully fill the current culture’s task requirements by the guide of her considered philosophic vantage.
30 minute break
Fifth Session: STRENGTH & DIGNITY
Proverbs 31 describes a rather muscular domesticity. This last session
looks at what qualities a young woman should obtain to be called “the Blessed”.
1 hour break
Dinner— 7:00
perhaps a reading of the short story
“The Father of All Courtship”
Attire: Casual

FIN — 10 p.m.

Contact for PDF registration brochure:
ewilson@turbonet.com

But Mentally Add One More Citizen to Evanistan

Hail to the Beauteous
Manisha Wilson!


also
pic by
Helen Schiebe

Unto To All I Survey

With the moment of Empire upon me,
The Legions would cry out in acclaim,
If I stood at the center of power,
But I went home alone once again.

(pause for a sublime sensation of lost causes)

And Helen Schiebe took a picture.

Of a New(ark) York Wedding

31

So the Amazing Missus and I have trod the rosy fields of bliss, lo, these 31 years today. It has not been all hand holding and baby talk but an insightful dissection of our happiness so that others would not be forced to guess.
What am I saying?
Keep your calendar free for November 6-7, 2009.
It is open to singles as well.