He ran his finger down the hardcover keyboard of book spines. Individual memories of each, particularly his first experience with every title, burned through him
reading experience memories book individual books
Four days before my mother's funeral there was a pouring of rain, and if it continued, as was usual in July in Changchow, the city would be flooded, and there could be no funeral. As most of us came from Shanghai, the delay would have meant some inconvenience. One of my relatives - a rather extreme but not an unusual example of a Christian believer in China - told me that she had faith in God, Who would always provide for His children. She prayed, and the rain stopped, apparently in order the a tiny family of Christians might have their funeral without delay. But the implied idea that, but for us, God would willingly subject the tens of thousands of Changchow inhabitants to a devastating flood, as was often the case, or that He did not stop the rain because of them but because of us who wanted to have a conveniently dry funeral, stuck me as an unbelievable type of selfishness. I cannot imagine God providing for such selfish children. There was also a Christian pastor who wrote the story of his life, attesting to many evidences of the hand of God in his life, for the purpose of glorifying God. One of the evidences adduced was that, when he has got together 600 silver dollars to buy his passage to America, God lowered the rate of exchange on the day this so very important individual was to buy his passage. The difference in the rate of exchange for 600 silver dollars could have been at most ten or twenty dollars, and God was willing to rock the bourses in Paris, London, and New York in order that this curious child of His might save ten or twenty dollars. Let us remind ourselves that this way of glorifying God is not at all unusual in any part of Christendom.
purpose philosophy life idea order faith family days city children story difference america individual day christians selfishness imagine child rain stop delay hand selfish unusual flood london rock part important paris china relatives pagan save funeral god curious christian extreme pastor
Storytelling awakens us to that which is real. Honest.... It transcends the individual.... Those things that are most personal are most general, and are, in turn, most trusted. Stories bind.... They are basic to who we are.A story composite personality which grows out of its community. It maintains a stability within that community, providing common knowledge as to how things are, how things should be -- knowledge based on experience. These stories become the conscience of the group. They belong to everyone.
community culture conscience stories real personality storytelling experience knowledge story individual personal honest stability things common
As individuals die every moment, how insensitive and fabricated a love it is to set aside a day from selfish routine in prideful, patriotic commemoration of tragedy. Just as God is provoked by those who tithe simply because they feel that they must tithe, I am provoked by those who commemorate simply because they feel that they must commemorate.
culture patriotism death society moment pride feel individual day selfishness tragedy nationalism falsehood honest vanity die universal patriotic selfish popular pop-culture pop popular-culture individuals patriot routine god love
We live in a culture of reductionism. Or better, we are living in the aftermath of a culture of reductionism, and I believe we have reduced the complexity and diversity of the Scriptures to systematic theologies that insist on ideological conformity, even when such conformity flattens the diversity of the Scriptural witness. We have reduced our conception of gospel to four simple steps that short-circuit biblical narratives and notions of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven in favor of a simplified means of entrance to heaven. Our preaching is often wed to our materialistic, consumerist cultural assumptions, and sermons are subsequently reduced to delivering messages that reinforce the worst of what American culture produces: self-centered end users who believe that God is a resource that helps an individual secure what amounts to an anemic and culturally bound understanding of the 'abundant life.
culture life diversity live gospel earth heaven living understanding kingdom end individual biblical simple favor assumptions complexity bound conformity american preaching sermons worst god witness
When art as an expression starts to appear, without prompting, all over the suburbs and villages of this country, what we are saying is: we are confident enough to create our own living, our own entertainment, our own aesthetic. Such an aesthetic will not be donated to us from the corridors of a university; or from the Ministry of Culture, or by the French Cultural Centre. It will come from the individual creations of a thousand creative people
french culture people art living expression creative individual entertainment university create country confident ministry
Purification in Shinto lifts the burden from the shoulders of the individual and washes it away.
culture meditation individual japan burden
Oftentimes in a society when people of a certain type, whether individual or a group, are subconsciously portrayed by the media as abnormal, they also slowly, subconsciously become enemies of that society due to feelings of cultural guilt. Ultimately by this the inflated media is an enemy of its very own cause.
culture enemies guilt people society differences feelings media individual news press enemy subconscious discrimination cause individuals inflation
Yes, it is true that one generally needs to speak to the members of the key audience for a product or service. But as we are not trying to plumb an individual psyche for psychological motivation, but are rather trying to elucidate the relevant symbolic cultural meanings and practices, information garnered from those who do not like something is also relevant to understanding the cultural picture. In fact, contestation between points of view and meanings is a crucial aspect of the social dynamic. These nodal points of disagreement and different points of view can be precisely the most intriguing domains of cultural movement and thus new opportunities.
culture information key motivation true disagreement understanding individual opportunities psychological movement speak picture fact anthropology social audience research psyche view
Yet man dies not whilst the world, at once his mother and his monument, remains. His name is lost, indeed, but the breath he breathed still stirs the pine-tops on the mountains, the sound of the words he spoke yet echoes on through space; the thoughts his brain gave birth to we have inherited to-day; his passions are our cause of life; the joys and sorrows that he knew are our familiar friends--the end from which he fled aghast will surely overtake us also!Truly the universe is full of ghosts, not sheeted churchyard spectres, but the inextinguishable elements of individual life, which having once been, can never die, though they blend and change, and change again for ever.
birth sound life change man death world universe mountains thoughts breath mother words lost end individual space ghosts passions brain die elements
The whole life of the individual is nothing but the process of giving birth to himself; indeed, we should be fully born when we die.
birth life death giving process individual die born
He could not believe that any of them might actually hit somebody. If one did, what a nowhere way to go: killed by accident; slain not as an individual but by sheer statistical probability, by the calculated chance of searching fire, even as he himself might be at any moment. Mathematics! Mathematics! Algebra! Geometry! When 1st and 3d Squads came diving and tumbling back over the tiny crest, Bell was content to throw himself prone, press his cheek to the earth, shut his eyes, and lie there. God, oh, God! Why am I? Why am I? After a moment's thought, he decided he better change it to: why are here. That way, no agency of retribution could exact payment from him for being selfish.
chance accident content retribution change death moment thought earth fear fire individual selfishness searching eyes lie press mathematics selfish geometry probability warfare statistics agency god
Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief. Obeying from within. Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community, active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealized purpose. Not when they are escaping to some wild west. The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom.
community purpose religion individual escape obedience freedom west
For our face and body were beautiful. Our face was not like the faces of our brothers, for we felt not pity when looking upon it. Our body was not like the bodies of our brothers, for our limbs were straigth and thin and hard and strong. And we thought that we could trust this being who looked upon us from the stream, and that we had nothing to fear with this being.
beauty pride individual freedom
It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect.
pride individual freedom
I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers, but such as each of them shall deserve of me. And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But honor is a thing to be earned.I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command not obey.
friendship pride individual
There is one other error in the Gondsman's line of resoning, I believe, on ap urely emotional level. If machines replace achievement, then to what will people aspire? And who are we, truly, without such goals? Beware the engineers of society, I say, who would make everyone in all the world equal. Opportunity should be equal, must be equal, but achievement must remain individual.
achievement individual aspire goals
Constantly stopping to explain oneself may expand into a frustrating burden for the rare individual, so ceasing to do so is like finally dropping the weights and sprinting towards his goals. Those who insincerely misunderstand, who intentionally distort the motives of a pure-intentioned individual, then, no longer have the opportunity to block his path; instead, they are the ones left to stand on the sidelines shouting frustratedly in the wind of his trail.
opportunity success individuality inspirational running accomplishments wind individual pure intentions frustration weight motives path explanations goals burdens
Christ delves far beyond the means of superficiality, not simply because of his immaculate love, but also because he considers the distinct cases of each individual rather than withholding a broadened perception by use of stereotypes.
stereotypes perception individuality christ compassion individual distinction discernment consideration superficiality god
God told me his plans for me. Boldly enough, I laughed at him. Then, I told him my plans for myself. Ignorantly enough, he laughed at me. I tossed him a pair of dice, but he told me that he didn't play with dice. Ironically enough, I had just forced him to play dice with me. He didn't like the fact that I held destiny over him.
individual god
In the last analysis, the essential thing is the life of individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great transformations take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from these hidden source in individuals.
history world individual
When you're the only sane person, you look like the only insane person.
funny sleep humor appearance minority majority life wisdom popularity intelligence people mind society genius individuality creativity humanity world different clever conscious artist individual insanity witty sanity crazy weird being-different brain unconscious insane craziness strange asleep mentality popular funny-but-true misunderstood normal odd outcast
I am what I am Are you what you are or What?
music individual
The progress of the world can certainly never come at all save by the modified action of the individual beings who compose the world.
philosophy humanism individual
The basic idea underlying religion is to create an atmosphere for the spiritual development of the individual.
religion individual spiritual-development
Showing 1376 to 1400 of 1419 results
You must log in to post a comment.
There are no comments yet.