Jimmy Carter October 1, 1924--December 29, 2024, 39th President of the US.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, tandem in life for 77 years.
Jimmy Carter was still hands-on building homes for Habitat for Humanity and could pound in a nail in about 4 strokes until he was 95.
In an interview with Thom Hartmann on July 30, 2015, Carter said this:
"It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and, U.S. senators and congress members.
So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election. …
The incumbents, Democrats, and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody already in Congress has much more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who's just a challenger."
I did not know of his book until today.
This version of Carter's book is available on Kindle for Free, it is now in my library.
Carter describes his reactions to recent disturbing societal trends that involve both religious and political worlds as they increasingly intertwine and include some of the most crucial and controversial issues of the day. Many of these matters are under fierce debate. They include preemptive war, women's rights, terrorism, civil liberties, homosexuality, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, environmental degradation, nuclear arsenals, America's global image, fundamentalism, and the melding of religion and politics.
Holy Moley this sounds like now.
You rock Jimmy.
One moment ago, I looked up from my computer—maybe I could type and still look out to the glow of sunlight that painted itself on our backyard. Have you noticed that the moment you say something, there is another moment? I figure the sun shone on the Dark Ages, too. It's strange; I always thought of the Dark Ages as dark, yet the sun didn't stop because people reverted to their most base nature. It just kept on supporting life on its planet.
Yep, without the sun, we wouldn't be.
Without the atmosphere, water, O2, breathing, and eating, we
wouldn't be either. Yet we are fixated on our controllers, those in power who
want to control us. What is there to say about this? It's an old story. Money talks.
That's refreshing.
How often have you spewed out some positive sentiment only to have the person to whom you spewed, discount it? It's discouraging, isn't it? I understand, though, that people resonate with the energy they are feeling at the time—like sometimes you are jiving with a song, and another time you turn it off because it annoys you.
Then, we want information that supports our point of view.
Remember, if new information didn't come to us, we wouldn't grow. And I have concluded--to repeat myself--that I do not believe people are broken and need to be fixed. They need to grow.
Isn't that what we want to grow, become better, wiser, optimistic, resilient, generous, and kind?
Viktor Frankl, the holocaust survivor, said, "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom."
I know you have access to great gobs of information via the Internet, and you don't need me to spew. However, I feel that sitting down and chatting with a friend has value and can warm our cockles—I guess cockles refer to heart chambers.
If
I could, I'd offer you a cup of coffee and an ottoman to prop up your
feet, but I'm sitting at my desk and you are sitting...where?
Frequently I talk about creation with my grandson, so it is on my mind, and the other day, I was struck by reading this sentence:
"Out in space worlds are being made."
Where is the stuff of worlds coming from?
"Stardust," say some. That means that old broken up stars are being recycled. But where did they come from? Einstein said that "Matter is neither made nor destroyed." You could argue that a Creator could create the stuff at will, or we could accept Einstein's theory that it always was.
I might be rambling, but I do have a point. We could be grateful for the air, the water, the food, shelter, computers, family, lovers, spouses, children, pets, beautiful trees, flowers…
We could believe that there is a source of good in the world, and we can use it.
I want to live in joy, are you with me?
P.S. Maybe my mother didn't name me Joyce for no reason.
A 77 year romance.
