A Quatrain For Creed

A man of ideas, stands for oration,
Constitutional law is his vocation.
His rebelling wrong, the battle un-won,
Power comes from the barrel of a Gunn

By gun

To My Teachers and Examples

From Marcus Aurelius I learned the value of regarding your teachers and examples; for we are called to out do one another in showing honor.

From L. Davis Wilson, My brother in blood and in Christ, I learned how to analyze the art of music. This helped me build a palate for the genre of rock; to not only hear, but to listen to the guitar riff and it's rhythmic value along with the four/four drum beat that quenchingly provides a dominance and convinces a man that music is not for the effeminate.

From Jason Schiebe I learned to not weep or wail from the loss of an argument. From him I learned that very few men will give you an inch when in debate; I have seen the uselessness of the custom to cry for failure to back up one's positions. The victor will not take it personally, so what does it matter to him if the loser does?
Also, from Mr. Schiebe I learned that one does not need a college degree to be right. All that is required is the admittance that one is a fool and an honest desire to seek and find truth.

From Graeme Stanford Wilson, My brother in blood and in Christ, I learned the value of loving the unlovable, however irritating they may be. The world is full of those who are not desired as company, and there are few I have seen in my life, as far, love those people better than he.

From my sister, Michal Wilson, I learned confidence and to not take myself so seriously.

From Josh Gibbs I learned that one does not need to hold the correct opinion to be enjoyed by friends and others.

From Al Guyer I learned humility. Self-deprecation has an affect that right after application others may quickly honor you in turn at the sight of your humility; and that with the right kind of humility leaves no room to be prideful of it.

From Jon Hill and Norm Wall I learned that a cigar or a bowl of pipe tobacco with a friend is all that is needed to maintain a relationship; and also the wonders of tobacco and how it may focus the mind away from the malicious things in the world and brings opportunity to expound on your happy state of living. A jolly reminder of our freedom from persecution in whatever we do.

From Major Rick Storm I learned that the woes of this world have nothing to do with the peace and joyful heart we may receive from Christ, our Lord.

From Mr. Wes Calihan I learned that one does not need to attend a college institution to receive a grand education.

From John Buchan I learned the difference between a bad novel and a well written novel. I have gained the desire to read the next sentence of a novel not only for the plot, but for how he says it.

From C.S. Lewis I learned that Philosophy is not made up of big words and hard concepts, but stopping for five minutes to analyze the world we live in. The satisfaction of knowing a mans action before he does it is comparable to few other satisfactions. Having an explanation for others is appreciated by those in search for truth.
I also learned from Lewis the great lengths that man will go to so that he can hold on to his precious sin. Though, there will always be a blinking red light before us saying, "You fool".

From My Grandfather, Jim Wilson, I learned the importance of practical Christianity and how often it may be overlooked by Christians.

From My Mother, Leslie Wilson, I learned the value of an ordered and governed lifestyle. The small arrangements we make in our lives contribute a significant percentage of our personal peace and a smaller percentage of peace to those around us. She communicates the value of discipline in these things and her patience in living with those who lack this virtue.

From My Father, Evan B. Wilson, I learned gallantry, the Tao of Steve, and most importantly, being a gentleman. I have been taught the grand value of being in service to your social world. The social setting does not exist for only our benefit, but exists for us to benefit others.
From My Father I learned futility and he had learned it from King Solomon. Simply there is nothing man can do to preserve anything of this world; it is all chaos and only becomes weaker the harder we try to save it.
From My Father I have learned, but not yet mastered, the art of discussion. It is a splendid experience where in a group discussion everyone is eloquent, clairvoyant and concise; and a joke is well chosen and the non sequiter is no issue to be delt with. It may be compared with a dance routine where everyone steps in the right place.
From My Father I learned that I was pretentious; for a man must first fear God and admit to being a fool before he can receive wisdom.
And Lastly, to My Father, I owe my understanding of the world. This is not to say that I am strictly of the world, but a man who lives in the world should not remain ignorant of it.

From St. Paul and the author of Hebrews I learned that we are not under the Old Covenant but the New Covenant. I learned that we are saved by grace and there is nothing I can do to earn my salvation.

From James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, I learned that faith without works is dead; for even the demons believe - and shudder.

From Jesus Christ, my Lord, Savior and God, I learned of my wickedness as a sinner. He made me aware of my pride of life and selfish desires and showing mercy towards my rebellion, cleansed me of my sins despite my being so undeserving. To Him I owe everything, though I cannot repay Him. He is my gracious and merciful God.

To all those that I have written of I say thank you with the utmost regard. I cannot imagine where I would be if I had not been taught by you.

De Morte

Man's life's a tragedy; his mother's womb
From which he enters is the tiring room;
This spacious earth the Theatre; and the Stage
That country which he lives in: Passions, rage,
Folly, and Vice are Actors; the first cry
The Prologue to the ensuing Tragedy.
The former act consisteth of dumb shows;
The second he to more perfection grows;
I'th' third he is a man and doth begin
To nurture vice, and act the deeds of sin;
I'th' fourth declines; i'th' fifth diseases clog
And trouble him; then death's his Epilogue.

By Sir Walter Ralegh

A Dialogue Betwixt God and the Soul

Soul

Whilst my Soul's eye beheld no light
But what streamed from thy gracious sight,
To be the world's greatest king,
Seem'd but a little vulgar thing.

God

Whilst thou prov'dst pure, and that in thee
I could glass all my deity,
How glad did I from Heaven depart,
To find a lodging in thy heart!

Soul

Now fame and greatness bear the sway
('Tis they that hold my prison's key)
For whom my soul would die might she
Leave them he immortality!

God

I and some few poor souls conspire,
And burn both in a mutual fire;
For whom I'd die once more, ere they
Should miss of heaven's eternal day.

Soul

But, Lord! What if I turn agian,
And with an adamantine chain,
Loch me to thee? What If I chase
The world away to give thee place?

God

Then though these souls , In whom I joy,
Are Seraphims, thou but a toy,
A foolish toy, yet once more I
Would with thee live and for thee die!

By Sir Walter Ralegh

Commentary on The Great Divorce

If The Great Divorce is not Lewis' best book it is his second best. This short but sweet book puts sinners and the righteous in perspective better than I had ever seen before. Lewis treats sin appropriately not just as immoral or bad, but straight up selfish and stupid.

The first bit that caught my attention was when he exits the bus and wrote, "It gave me a feeling of freedom, but also of exposure, possibly of danger, which accompanied me through all that followed." At first it is like being a person living in sin and walking into a group of friends who all know of your sin. Though, it is different for his character when he mentions the danger. The danger is simply the judgment. This is prominent in many lives; minus the feeling of judgment. The exposure is embarrassing at first but we get use to it and begin to joke about it as if the sin is no big deal. This is just one of the many ways we hold on to our "precious sins".

Why are we so reluctant to give up our sins? It is either insanity or very near it since we pepeat the same actions expecting a different result. Simply, it is that we are unaware of the poor results we get. We are thinking only for ourselves and our ideas of what is good; ignoring the destruction it brings to others and our own hearts. It creates a terrible chain reaction where we voluntary and involuntary at the same time dig ourselves deeper into our holes.

Consequently, a remedy lies in realizing that we did not create ourselves and so therefore have no right to anything.

Tacitus, Eulogy for Agricola

45

Agricola did not live to see the senate-house under siege, the senators surrounded by a cordon of troops, and that one fell stroke which sent so many consulars to their death, so many noble ladies into banishment or exile. Only a single victory was credited as yet to Carus Mettius; teh four walls of the Alban fortress still kept Messalinus's bellow from reaching our ears; and Massa Baebius was still a prisoner in the dock. But before long we senators led Helvidius to prison, watched in shame the sufferings of Mauricus and Rusticus. and staind ourselves with Senecio's innocent blood. Even Nero used to avert his eyes and, though he ordered abominations, forbore to witness them. The worst of our torments under Domitian was to see him with his eyes fixed upon us. Every sigh was registered against us; and when we all turned pale, he did not scruple to make us marked men by a glance of his savage countenance - that blood red countenance which saved him from ever being seen to blush with shame.

Happy indeed were you, Agricola, not only in your glorious life, but in your timely death. We have the testimony of those who heard your last words that you met your fate with a cheerful courage. You seemed glad to do your best to acquit the emperor of blood-guiltiness. But your daughter and I have suffered more than the pang of a father's loss: we grieve that we could not sit by your sick bed, sustain your failing strength, and satisfy our yearning for your fond looks and embraces. We should surely have received some last commands, some words to be engraved for ever on our hearts. It was our own special sorrow and pain that through the accident of our long absence we lost him four years before his death. All, more than all, dear Father, was assuredly done to honour you by the devoted wife at your side. Yet some tears that should have been shed over you were not shed; and, at the last, there was something for which dying eyes looked in vain.

46

If there is any mansion for the spirits of the just, is, as philosophers hold, great souls do not perish with the body, you may rest in peace! May you call us, your family, from feeble regrets and unmanly mourning to contemplate your virtues,for which it were a sin to mourn and lament! May we honour you in better ways - By our admiration and our praise, and if our powers permit by following your example! That is the true honour, the true affection of souls knit close to yours. To your daughter and widow I would suggest that they revere the memory of a father and a husband by continually pondering his deeds and sayings, and by treasuring in their hearts the form and features of his mind, rather than those of his body. Not that I would forbid likenesses of marble or of bronze. But representations of the human face, like that face itself, are subject to decay and dissolution, whereas the essence of man's mind is something everlasting, which you cannot preserve or express in material wrought by another's skill, but only in your own character. All that we loved and admired in Agricola abides and shall abide in the hearts of men through the endless procession of the ages; for his achievements are of great renown. With many it will be as with men who had no name or fame; they will be buried in oblivion. But Agricola's story is set on record for posterity, and he will live.

Of Snow -

For the season of damned slick, or honorable influence.

Obtrusive and draped all over,
With pure regulation I'm kept,
To work in my stead moreover,
I thank thee, for now I have slept.

Though, I prithee, melt quickly away,
As I will venture away from home.
But, to petition you, an act risque,
A god may be with deeds foreknown.

If a second hand god had made it,
to endure thy shiver is well.
The experts mind, you've played it,
They saying you wont, you fell.

"Lest We Forget" Truth

Farther, and farther I am stretching and hurting my brain, hoping that my hand will begin to write subconsciously. I have obtained probable cause that I have gone insane since I have attempted this method more than once; each time thinking in my head, "This could be it! I might discover myself and all of my potential!" Who else am I kidding but myself? I am so plainly and obviously not of that kind, to write spur of the moment some master piece after having played an hour long game of tonsil hockey with the muse of literature. How unqualified I am that I do not even know her name! In short, all that I am is a middle class citizen, with a desire for knowledge, falling short of obtaining most of it. I really have no right to be great in any sense of the term. "Oh, but I have written a poem with my heart!" Says I.

Verily, unto say,
I've begotten a miserly play!

Quick, ask me why I think Shakespeare is good. "Because", I continue, "He wrote with his soul." As if William Shakespeare's soul was prone to produce good things. Shakespeare was a genius of poetry just as engineers are geniuses in mathematics. He knew exactly how to write, and did not treat each of his works as if it were his only child. I would consider Shakespeare having sold out when he wrote A Midsummer Nights Dream. Though I am sure he took pride in his plays, but after some time he could not have been proud of Titus Andronicus.

'I'll speak no more but "Vengeance rot you all!"'

So, what did Shakespeare do at which I failed myself? Was it his ambition that made him succeed? But "noble" Evan Gunn says, "I am ambitious, and see where that has gotten me." Shakespeare knew his equations just as Pascal knew his, and I sit here suggesting that I am allowed to write whatever I want. Well, I suppose freedom of the will would grant me that privilege, but I dare not say that my jumbled mess of words qualify as literature, or God forbid good literature.

So what have I left myself with? I cannot write well because I have not learned the appropriate equations. What have I left the rest of the world with? The objective truth (that is objectivism) has slowly crept its way to reside as an elephant in the corner of the room that is my brain. It sits there not saying anything while making uncomfortable faces that by themselves cannot be ignored. It would be a sorry sight to have the elephant start speaking out to the world to remind it of the fallacies it makes. Oh, the heartbreak the world would have to choose between classical music and rap music for which one is better. If that day comes there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth. Luckily, this elephant is soft spoken, but it is still an elephant.

What has relativism done for me personally? It has given me countless open doors that could potentially lead to success. What does it take away? It removes my understanding of art and proceeds to relieve me of my claim to knowing greatness or ever knowing what greatness is. If art is relative it turns its followers into idle bohemians afraid of truth. Being told that your poem was undoubtedly, poorly written is such a painful experience; and so rather we claim no absolute truth about poetry, which frees us up to stand pigeon toed at a precipice shouting in tones of weasely ignorance that our poem was good. Soon after our misguided declarations we fail to search for that which really is absolutely true, because Heaven forbid we make anyone (me) feel bad. We will only continue to dig ourselves deeper into ruts of the mind only creating tripe at the bottom since we have made no effort to improve. "But this is my signature writing style, that no one should change." I say while stamping my foot and pointing my pudgy finger at the accuser. This is childish thinking spurred by a mother or an admiring aunt fawning when you played Heart and Soul. Are you so sure that your style of writing even falls under the definition of poetry/literature? Is this not why we go to school to be taught correct definitions to our world. When a teacher marks you down do you relatively object and say, "I thought it was the right answer!" The world will cut you no slack just because you think you are great.

We must at least reach a definition for all forms of art. As with music I claim that the shreiking tones of howler monkeys is the best form of music, I am almost automatically proven wrong, because of the agreed upon definition of music. Howler monkeys do not agree with the definition. If you think it does you become unable to communicate with others; forcing yourself into musical loneliness.

Have I gone to far yet? You may have ventured on your own train of thought by now and may be realizing the faults you have made in your truth claims. "There is no absolute truth!" says you with an absolute claim of truth. So, there is absolute truth; then where does it come from? Does absolute truth come from the insane? It kind of sounds like the Greek myth of the prophetess Cassandra who was always right but no one would ever listen to her. How do we know that the next homeless person we see shouting that "the end is nigh" isn't right. This may seem a bit shallow, but it is required that the homeless person bring some evidence or proof to the table. That is why we never take a conspiracy theorist seriously. Otherwise it is in our nature to believe that the pattern we have been living will continue on forever and ever, amen. Besides, that would be a most cruel and undesirable existence. why would it be such a way?

On that note, why would we call that cruel in the first place? It so clearly disagrees with any ethical code that any sane person abides with. Though, it cannot be cruel because you said so or even if the majority said so. A majority of Germany agreed with Hitler. It appears that we need an authority to tell us what is virtuous, morally acceptable and ethical. A judgment must be passed for anyone to make claims about ethics or even the small things like beauty, writing or music. I myself would suggest that you go find someone to be your judge or hold yourself as the infallible truth bearer.

Where was I going with this? Oh, I recall that I am not the source of all poetical knowledge. After all I did not invent poetry.

The Golden Saying of Epictetus IX

If a man could be thoroughly penetrated, as he ought, with this thought, that we are all in an especial manner sprung from God, and that God is the Father of men as well as of Gods, full surely he would never conceive aught ignoble or base of himself. Whereas if Caesar were to adopt you, your haughty looks would be intolerable; will you not be elated at knowing that you are the son of God? Now however it is not so with us: but seeing that in our birth these two things are commingled--the body which we share with the animals, and the Reason and Thought which we share with the Gods, many decline towards this unhappy kinship with the dead, few rise to the blessed kinship with the Divine. Since then every one must deal with each thing according to the view which he forms about it, those few who hold that they are born for fidelity, modesty, and unerring sureness in dealing with the things of sense, never conceive aught base or ignoble of themselves: but the multitude the contrary. Why, what am I?--A wretched human creature; with this miserable flesh of mine. Miserable indeed! but you have something better than that paltry flesh of yours. Why then cling to the one, and neglect the other? -Epictetus

How stupid are you? Let me answer for you: Very. The conceit and ignorance even among believers can be quite astonishing when it comes to things to be prideful of. We deal with this when we have too much pride or are so self abasing we refuse to be lifted up. Why would we forget who it was we came from? Who is our kin? The Father. Although we admittedly screw up which is naturally pushing God away from us we may still remember than that God would like to be close with you since he made you.

Why should we trifle over points of connection we have to those of fame and power when we can claim direct points of connection to divinity. If you compare the two side by side we just look like morons.

Why this dwell on this misery, for we are "Miserable indeed!" Who are you to stay sulking in the corner as if God has not given you your very life. Buck up and remember your place, though you deserve less take the gift and use to his glory you knucklehead.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; -Genesis 1:26

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. -Ephesians 4:30

then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. -Thessalonians 4:17-18

Evan G. Wilson - On Beauty

What is the objectivity of Beauty? That last statement presumes that there is no relative truth to beauty since it is the epitome of irrational thought to suggest that A is also not A.

Moving on, how do we find objective truth to that which is good beauty and not beauty. The power of definition is our bridge to telling others that they are wrong. It has been said before that he who makes the definitions wins the argument.

I have simply brought this up to explore what kind of definitions for beauty people have made for themselves.

-Beauty is that which is aged.
-Beauty is that which is new.
-Beauty is achieved through a concept.
-Beauty is catchy.
-Beauty is anything that makes me sad.
-Beauty is anything that makes me happy.
-Beauty is communism.
-Beauty is capitalism.
-Beauty is man.
-Beauty is nature.
-Beauty is fun.
-Beauty is conventional.
-Beauty is the Ubermensch.

For all to know, none of these are beauty. Try again. Though, I would like people to tell me what their idea of Beauty is. Shoot.