Mark Pendleton sent me an email on Tuesday:

“It sounds like each of us is a unique expression of God… Maybe even of the person of God.  Sort of makes you wonder where He starts in us and we (our egos) end…Or vice versa… Hence the need to “die” to ourselves daily.”

maybe. who knows? but, evidently one of three things happens, in the end, as it were…

• something magnificent, transforming, and probably unimaginable;
• something awful and unimaginable; or,
• nothing, which is almost impossible for us to imagine.

dying is rarely easy. in fact, it’s often painful. thats why so many pray they die in their sleep. have you ever seen someone die? it’s always awful. always.

then of course, the concept of an afterlife, and then God (buffered by Christ), to make sense of it was realized by the fear of death, and our own ego’s inability to surrender to the notion that perhaps the slide into darkness with our final breath is where it ultimately ends.

that is the ultimate terror.

the unimaginable.

or, maybe the prospect of death, our mortality, ignited our awarenesss of God.

so, the Bible requires an ultimate surrender leveraging our desperate hopes for salvation, which is another word for more options other than, nothing.

It’s literally, all-or-nothng.

so, I choose, all, and am hoping for, and working towards, the best.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

Related posts:

1. death is morbid but Meaningful and we need to be Ready
2. how does God pull us to Him?
3. texting and driving to death
4. you have to understand evil to appreciate goodness
5. Faith and Fear
6. swine!
7. not Bored to death
8. pointing toward some truth best left unspoken – or, God and that numinous thingy
9. A WORD of love can make a WORLD of difference.
10. two sides rhymes with suicide

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I think it’s fair to say, possibly just admit, that I have lost my zeal for blogging.

it’s not that I no longer have opinions, or have discovered apathy, mind you.

however, I awoke this morning with the thought, which is worse apathy or death? or, are they the same?

…seriously…

so… here I am foisting a blog post upon the lot of you.

this is more about me finding other things beyond my own imagination, view, or standpoint to champion. I have been very much involved with Emma Jo and our soccer. despite me as their coach, Emma Jo and her U12 Shockers Nation found themselves 11-0 on the regular season, and finalists in their first bonafide tournament at the prestigious KOHLS Cup. I’ve also been coaching everyone else’s son in Lacrosse these past eighteen months. and, as evidence of my lack of desire to pontificate, I’ll not trouble you with any of those details. …well, at least for the moment.

meanwhile…

I have made a very conscious decision to stop being so hard on Barack Obama. for bad or worse, he is our Commander-in-Chief. we may not know if he is an anti-Christ until it’s to late. my own sixteen-year-old daughter Haley Anne pointed-out that if most Americans voted for the man, they must see something the minority does not.

she’s pretty bright.

so, we are mostly stupid or mostly right.  only time will tell for the rest of us.

on the other hand, maybe this is Gods own way of forcing the laws of natural selection down our collective throats. the European nations favor Obama. but then they are all sliding towards Socialism, and “misery loves company”, as they say, whomever they are. I suspect they conceived of Socialism as they follow apathy as a form of religion.

reference (I dare you): the secret series: in pursuit of They

in any event, with all of it weighing heavily on my mind, I have recalled a poignant, if not foreboding quote from the formidable Alexander Fraser Tyler, from his indomitable (and, certainly foresightful) work, Cycle of Democracy (1770):

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to Complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.”

okay… so, now what next, neighbor? could we hear the words, “give me liberty or give me death”, again? what might only 300 of us do?

we saw Emma Jo off on her first school away trip early this morning. as I brushed touseled hair from her eyes this morning to wake her as gently as I could, my eyes did tear-up somewhat as my mind ran rampant with memories of high intensity and drama from the weekend, natural apprehension around the pending trip, and a earthly fathers keen desire to protect his child from the rigors of an uncertain future. or, would that be opportunity?

God knows, right? I just want to be part of the solution, and not the problem. so, that is my prayer, today.

peace be to our Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

Related posts:

1. God gave me Daughters. What did He give You?
2. my daughters name is not Charity
3. honoring the Squirrel
4. converging paths
5. October sixth
6. the Eyes have it
7. Rowdy is alive and well
8. …the point being everything
9. our carver motor yacht story: July 4th, High Adventure, and Great Memories
10. ironic motivation or is it…

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I forget the title of the post now, but somewhere in this blog is at least one rendition of the story around how Curtis Burton the Third and I took his Mom’s new silk sheets and used them to jump off of the third story of my house. I think one of them is: running To or from or both.

Mom was just pulling into the drive way as I flashed her a smile and made that particular leap of faith, and into the hands of God.

Grandad often said:

“you need stories to tell. you can tell them about other people, or they can tell them about you. you have that choice in your own life.”

when I signed-on as a firefighter (and, we also had to be EMT’s) while living in Louisville, Colorado, part of the fitness testing included climbing a one hundred foot ladder.

…I’m generally afraid of heights.

with about ten rungs to go I was thinking I liked the burn in my thighs, and I was also glad there weren’t any building this high in Louisville.

those details are less important today. one reason for that is my point for this post lay else where. in fact, I’m not likely to make any point, here, today. well… other than, contrary to the general belief of those people around me, and who have followed my adventures, I do have fear.

but, hell, boy, I face them.

I taught myself how to jump.

I also look at people in terms of groups. one of those groups are white guys in GoreTex and real Adventurers. the first lot are men (ish) who fulfill themselves by finding an adventure – climbers, kayakers, hikers – a solid group, possibly. but, it’s the second group that I’ll relate to most. those who have adventures in their everyday lives – firemen, soldiers, survivors, entrepreneurs, Dads who hug their kids in public and cry when they score goals, etc.

by the way… two small things, really. the only vehicle I currently have left is my Porsche. and, the thought of crawling into the cockpit of that small vehicle is very uncomfortable for me – literally because my ribs hurt like blazes, and I still see that jeep baring down on my every time we pull up to a stop sign or light. and, I have over two thousand emails (that’s the number that got passed my staff as priority) that I need to pile through just to be ready for a return to work today.

look Ma, no hands.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

Related posts:

1. old things seem New to me
2. 2009 was a great jump-shot
3. furious resolve if not Survival
4. authentic human progress
5. a generation of Risk-takers thumping their chests at Darwin
6. Happy Birthday Mom
7. Donating Bone Marrow
8. converging paths
9. mount rainier Beckons
10. mount rainier won't rate "hors categorie", it may be a Kobayashi Maru, certainly a Raison d'etre

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if you’ve ever read any of the Dune books, a series by Frank Hebert, you know that we:

“…must face our fears, and do it anyway”.

it might also help to understand that fear is an emotion that exists to give any of us an edge in terms of what we need to do. that fear, sense, or feeling is instinct speaking to you, maybe something like a whisper tickling the nerves at the base of your skull.

I look in the mirror daily, and whether I like what I see or not, and if I’m honest, I get frightened (I never use the word scared) most days. but, I try to use that as some form of advantage.

by the way… go read Rhinocerous Success by Scott Alexander. do it!

mr. Alexnder probably did not say this, but I know Grandad did:

“I don’t sweat the details, so much. for me the important stuff involves following your dreams and looking after your true friends”.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

Related posts:

1. i can't pretend to fear what might be uncertain
2. Faith and Fear
3. drink heartily from that cornucopia of Fear
4. God and fear and darwin and light and discernment, and a lens
5. the face of my Father
6. Fear is an ugly gift
7. praying for fear so I have the courage to Hate?
8. Apple In Perspective
9. change is good if you ask Oprah
10. mount rainier won't rate "hors categorie", it may be a Kobayashi Maru, certainly a Raison d'etre

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