A Moment in Time

When one is young thoughts are to be older. You can likely guess what thoughts may go through one’s mind when age creeps upon them. When is the optimum age? It may and probably is different for different individuals. Whatever you think is the right answer, it is right for you. Today I couldn’t help think of a good friend who will be 90 very soon. He was always active through his younger years and into his mid-80’s. He was and is a friend to all in whatever situation they find themselves. He gives his life, time and resources for others. Now my friend has very limited mobility with most of the time in bed. He doesn’t complain and takes each moment as it comes. He doesn’t dwell on the past or search too far in the future on what might come but lives in the moment. One day I asked my friend what he now missed most. He gave this simple one line answer “I miss visits by my friends.” If you have read some of my past postings you will know that the concept or illusion of time has always been an interest to me. The moment after you have read this sentence that ‘moment in time’ is a point in the past. In life we think that the past events are fixed and the future is open until it becomes the immediate present. That immediate flash in time that we call the ‘present’ has not yet become the past and can no longer occur in the future. So when my friend lives in ‘the moment’ that is exactly what we all do and maybe we just haven’t given this concept of time much consideration. Mr. Einstein suggests that there is no single special present but that all moments are equally real. A quote from Mr. Emerson “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” If we have nothing else to give but a ‘moment in time’ that is the most precious gift we can offer another person. Please consider giving another person a few moments of the time that God has given you. DO IT NOW….. Jim Sohn

God Keeps Records – What About the Government

God has always had access to ALL personal records and always will, and that’s OK with me. God is my maker. The government having unrestricted access to personal records & conversations is troublesome. We the people and governments of the world are so different now than in my earlier years of life growing up in the southern United States. There is a near universal (at least on planet Earth) increase in the distrust of each other and world governments. Greed and self indulgence is running ramped in this ever increasing secular world. My personal opinion is we are becoming even more secular, putting our self first and either not recognizing or admitting that we are all here on this beautiful Earth by the grace of God who loves us ALL equally. Indiscriminate collection of large scale information on individuals for no apparent reason except to collect the information is a violation of our privacy rights as individuals. This is likely escalating since now since it isn’t clear on who are the ‘good guys’ and who are the ‘bad guys’ and I am not sure we even have an agreed on clear definition. So in order to collect information on the ‘bad guys’ , is information being collected on all, including the ‘good guys’. Where does it stop, I don’t know but I am concerned. In the USA with Obamacare coming info full force in 2014 the broad based & centralized information collection process will become more intense. The IRS will be the focal point for collecting information on EVERY person in the USA and policing who gets, has and doesn’t have health care and action will be taken accordingly. The IRS has a proven record of not being able to even police themselves so its anyone's guess what they will do when they police us all. This is terribly frightening to a country that has in the past made individual rights & privacy a top priority. It could be that the government is now getting a head start on this large-scale collection process in view of the future. Maybe with international and home grown terrorist on the increase this is a security measure. Who knows, certainly not me. We know that our email exchange, Facebook, Tweets, & Blogs are being archived by our Internet Service Providers and can be made available to the government at their will. In these instances we knowingly participate as with me writing this blog. Intercept is another story and much too complicated and multifaceted for this blog. My thoughts are that we as individuals must have protected rights to express opinions. However we should not say or do things that we would feel uncomfortable about if they were published in the Guardian or Washington Post or on the day of judgment before God. At the same time we have the right to privacy where our personal conversations remain private and not indiscriminately kept on record by governments or other organizations. Is this an oxymoron? This is a subject that is much too complicated for this simple old guy to be writing about.