"Please Be Stronger Than Your Past..."

"The Future Might Still Give You...
a Chance!"

~ Cowboys and Angels.

"I Won't Let You Down..."

"I will not give you up.
Gotta have some Faith in the ...
Sound!  It's the one good thing that I've...
Got! I won't let you down...
So please don't give me up...
Cuz I would really, really love
to stick around... Oh yeah!"

~ Listen w/o Prejudice, Vol. 1.

RIP George Michael.
Like Prince, you ultimately let us -- and yourself -- down:  unaddressed addiction kills...

Still, the songs live on:

I know you think that you're safe Mister... 

Harmless deception that keeps things this way. 

It's the ones who persist for the sake of a kiss who will pay...

~ Cowboys and Angels.

Our Freedom to Live.

“We don’t want to do without Christmas markets, without nice outings together.” ... “We do not wish to let fear and angst take away our freedom to live.”

On Hope...

Red: [narrating] In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Oh, Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time.

Red:  I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn't make much sense in here.

Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget.

Red:   Forget?

Andy Dufresne:  Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.

Red:  What're you talking about?

Andy Dufresne: Hope.

Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

~ “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994)

"Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper."

~Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

Hope is the only good god remaining among mankind; the others have left and gone to Olympus. Trust, a mighty god has gone, Restraint has gone from men, and the Graces, my friend, have abandoned the earth.
~Theognis of Megara (c. 550 BC)

Silver and Gold.

Silver and gold, silver and gold
Ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold.

How do you measure its worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth...

Silver and gold, silver and gold
Mean so much more when I see...
Silver and gold decorations
On ev'ry Christmas tree...

Songwriter:
~JOHNNY MARKS

Read more: Burl Ives - Silver And Gold Lyrics | 

Busy, Busy, Busy...

vs.
Be Still. And Know that I Am.

Hope you are taking your Advent preparations in stride...

I had a blessed Thanksgiving -- just finishing up the thank-you cards now -- and got to see some families growing in faith...  Gd willing, my baby sister and her husband will be welcoming a new life of their own come February. Life is the greatest gift of all. ("We are the world.  We are the children...")

Back on a document review project now -- things slowed down for me right after the election, though I keep my head down, and don't interject opinions into the workplace;  perhaps just coincidence -- and glad to be bringing in even an under-employed paycheck.

May your days be merry and bright,
and may your faith bring rewards of great light.

*  Remember, if you can't be an angel, try shepherding.  Beats bleating, no? ;-)
------------------------
Psalm 49  King James Version (KJV)

49 Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:

² Both low and high, rich and poor, together.

³ My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

⁴ I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

⁵ Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?

⁶ They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

⁷ None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

⁸ (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

⁹ That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

¹⁰ For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

¹¹ Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

¹² Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

¹³ This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

¹⁴ Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

¹⁵ But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.

¹⁶ Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

¹⁷ For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.

¹⁸ Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.

¹⁹ He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

²⁰ Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

They trust in their wealth. 

We are now furnished with the reason why the suffering children of God should dismiss their apprehensions, and keep themselves from despondency, even when reduced to extremity by the violence and treachery of their enemies. Any boasted power which they possess is fleeting and evanescent. The Psalmist would convince us that the fear of man is unwarrantable; that it argues ignorance of what man is even at his best; and that it were as reasonable to startle at a shadow or a spectre. They boast themselves, he adds, in the multitude of their riches, and this is an error into which we are disposed to fall, forgetting that the condition of man in this world is fluctuating and transitory. It is not merely from the intrinsic insufficiency of wealth, honors, or pleasures, to confer true happiness, that the Psalmist proves the misery of worldly men, but from their manifest and total incapacity of forming a correct judgment of such possessions. Happiness is connected with the state of mind of that man who enjoys it, and none would call those happy who are sunk in stupidity and security, and are destitute of understanding. The Psalmist satisfactorily proves the infatuation of the wicked from the confidence which they place in their power and wealth, and their disposition to boast of them. It is a convincing sign of folly when one cannot discern what is before his eyes. Not a day passes without forcing the plain fact upon their notice, that none can redeem the life of another; so that their conduct is nothing less than insanity. Some read, A man shall not be able to redeem his brother; which amounts to the same meaning, and the text admits of this translation. The Hebrew word 'ch, ach, which I have rendered brother, is by others translated one; but I do not approve, although I would not absolutely reject, this reading. The Psalmist adds, that none can give a price to God for the ransom of another, where he adverts to the truth that men's lives are absolutely at the disposal of God, and that they never can be extended by any human arrangement one moment beyond the period which God has fixed.