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Monday 21 December 2009

What if...

"COGers, Armstrongists, WCGracies, Papists, Defectives, Sinners and Loons.

What if..."

Guest commentary by Dennis Diehl

The purpose of most religion is to make us "better" than we currently are. The Biblical premise is that all human beings are fatally flawed, not good enough and in need of vast improvements and control of their "human nature." Without this ongoing overcoming of the evil self, growing towards a better kind of person and change, one runs the risk of being so not good enough that they will spend eternity, for their inability to change over a rather short lifetime, in a punishing hell. Scripture goes out of its way to remind us all that our fundamental human qualities are deceit, wickedness, jealousy, anger, lust and greed. I find that personally to be one of the most unhelpful and controlling lies ever foisted upon human beings by religion. Of course that is how we can act, but that is not who we are by any real means when given the freedom to be authentic and feel safe in being so.

We are called "worms" and less than nothing in this great book of encouragement. Even the early leaders, prophets and apostle-types knew that they had to degrade themselves as less than human in order to show they understood they were not worth anything as an unregenerate human being. Only when one realized they were a piece of poop, could they lead the people who were really poopy people. If you could not utter the words, "I am not worthy," you would never be a Bible CEO. The Apostle Paul noted that he was "the least of the Apostles" and that "the things that I don't want to do, I do and the things I should, I don't." He made his problems everyone's. He concluded he was simply a wretched human being, and so should everyone else. He reminded others that they were blind, miserable, poor and naked of heart and spirit. He even said he had to beat himself into submission, lest after preaching to others, he should flub up himself and be a castaway. Seems he didn't have the confidence "in the blood," to make up the differences in what he was and what he felt he needed to be.


Jesus is also said to have said that humans are to become "perfect, even (in the same way) as your Father in heaven is perfect. The word means "complete" not "perfect.' There is a huge difference. What if are complete already? What if we were born right the first time?


How did we get this way? Well, of course it was due to the "fall" where Adam and Eve, our really true and actual first human parents, created by God out of mud and ribs, flubbed up and ate the forbidden fruit. We can only take comfort in that the story finds it's origins in Sumerian Mythology.


We have all been blamed for this event and must spend our lives coming under a blood sacrifice of a more perfect human/god being and then continuing the struggle to be "better" until we die. It's then we find out if we understood being bad enough to be good enough to live forever. Redemption of humans by blood sacrifice and execution have always been the preferred solution to the depravity of man. Membership in the club usually cost ten or more percent of your material income and membership in the one true of many churches. I am not being disrespectful to the life and teachings of Jesus, but few understand how that has been woven into a tale that Jesus himself would have cringed at.

Have you ever considered the fact that you and I may have been born right the first time? What if the most simple and spiritual goal a human being has is to become your own genuine, authentic self? What if our purpose in life is neither to jump through the hoops set out by others, who think they know, nor to struggle and strive to improve yourself dramatically over what you are? People don't change much over a lifetime no matter what their religious affiliations, and while it's an improvement to stop killing one's self with sugar, caffeine, alcohol and nicotine along with other assorted body killing habits, it's ok to just be yourself.
Is it easy to be yourself? No, not in our culture and certainly not in many others where not being a mere cog in the tribal wheel can get you killed in really bad ways. One of life's simple truths that most humans have long since forgotten, or never knew, is that all of us are one and the same and all smaller parts of the one single thing. I don't pretend to know what that is, but let's just say we are all one in the same conscious awareness stuck in a limited five sensed carbon based wet suit for now. As Mike Adams said in a recent article on the discovery of DNA variability, holographic blueprints and the symphony of life... "We are, in fact, an expression of the very phenomena we are attempting to understand, and if we read the poetry of DNA correctly, we will realize that life itself is not about the accumulation of wealth, or stuff, or power over others, but rather the discovery of self. And "self" does not exist in isolation. We are, in every way imaginable, intertwined. We are all made of the same stuff, wrought from the same patterns of nature, and in fact, formulated from the same musical notes played out in five billion unique but compatible tunes. With this discovery, Western science has concluded we are all more different from each other than previously thought, but I believe it is evidence that we are all just unique verses of the same universal poem."
That's a far cry from humans being merely wretched, miserable, poor blind and naked worms that need major rehab at the hands of prophets, priests and pastors who are just as, if not more, flawed than the congregation or the nation. Saying we are born right the first time and not in need of being born again or reborn goes against the meme, which is the mind virus we all got taught as kids. Our parents had it taught to them and their parents before that. It is the idea that we are all flawed at birth by a non-event in the lives of our first not-literally-so parents Adam and Eve. It's the idea that even if you are a pretty ok person, you are filled with vanity, jealousy, lust and greed that, unless paid for by a perfect blood sacrifice, demands you spend eternity in hell burning forever, cut off from God, or permanently dead. It's also not true and is not what a genuine human being, in reality needs to become the monkey on their back over.

What liberation it is to simply recognize that we are all one and the same smaller parts of the one big thing. It is every bit as difficult to live an authentic life as it is to live a life of false compliance to the will of others. It is easy or not easy depending on the need to please everyone or appear to agree when you don't, to be true to your self - and by self, I do not mean ego. I mean true to the conscious awareness that abides in the container we all too often mistake for the self. You are not your body. That is merely transportation and a container for a short time. You are not your brain. That is a receiver of information and memories that may, in fact, arise from outside of a bigger you and I than we can imagine. You are not your mind, which is that thinking brain that spins in the angry past or projects itself into the anxiety filled future when it has nothing better to do in the present.


How much misery and struggle to be all that one can never really be religion has heaped upon the faithful. Not many will leave the warmth and comfort of the boxes they were born in by happenstance and explore ideas that are not acceptable to the tribe or the church. But some will. They might be labeled "heretics" or perhaps more benevolently, "ahead of their times." In the past, those ahead of their times tended to be burned at the stake. Leaving the box of religious dogma is difficult and often one leaves it alone and on their own. Those in the last box don't often follow. You can be your authentic self as it comes to you and risk a lot but gain a lot, or you can put on your mask and be more comfortable by scarfing down antidepressants the rest of your life. That seems to be the road to the fact that being oneself is the most simple spiritual truth there is for a genuine human being.


Don't label yourself as belonging to this or that group. Don't label others for belonging or believing or thinking or even not thinking. We are who we are. NOT ONE PERSON I EVER KNEW WHO TAKES THE TIME TO PARTICIPATE ON AW HAS UTTERED THE WORDS, "THANK YOU, I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT AND I AM NO LONGER GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE NOW OR BE WHO I NOW AM."
The joy and the challenge is in the journey not the ultimate find. Be yourself and consider that you might just have been born right the first time.

28 comments:

        AMERICAN KABUKI said...

Wonderfully well put.

Religion is the intrusion of politics into things spiritual.

Its purpose is to reinforce the idea we need other humans above us so that we do the right things.

If you want to understand Christianity, understand the problems of the Roman Empire when it came into existence.

Gledwood said...

Where abouts are we called Worms in the Bible ~ (if that's what you mean by the Great Book of Encouragement)...

The only place I know where "worm" appears is in the scripture on the destruction on the King/Prince of Tyre or Babylon ~ whatever ~ it's supposed to describe the demise of Satan and says of the fire "it's worm shall not be quenched"... or something like that!

Schits and Splisms said...

"What the .....?!?!!!!??"

Anonymous said...

Dear Dennis
Are you starting a new religion free religion?

Anonymous said...

Pagan Christianity (Hardcover)
http://www.barna.org/store?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=32&category_id=1

Pagan Christianity makes an unsettling proposal: Most of what present-day Christians do in church each Sunday is rooted not in the New Testament, but in pagan culture and rituals developed long after the death of the apostles. Authors Frank Viola and George Barna support their thesis with compelling historical evidence and extensive footnotes that document the origins of our modern Christian church practices.

Unknown said...

Thank you Dennis.

"What liberation it is to simply recognize that we are all one and the same smaller parts of the one big thing."

Listened to a song recently. "Everything is Holy". In it, the singer mused about how as a child in religion he was taught that only certain things were holy. But now, as he looked around at all the amazement in the world, the natural world, the people, he realized that holiness wasn't up to proclamations of the bible, everything is holy, not just what the bible claims is holy.

For me, growing up in wcg, I struggled with the position of original sin, I knew that I wasn't perfect but also knew it wasn't fair for me to feel guilty for not being born right. As I grew older I realized no loving / fair god could possibly make me imperfect and then make me feel guilty for not living up to the standard that I was incapable of living up to.

Eventually I rejected the notion of sin and realized I was born right. Not a sinner. It certainly feels liberating. Yet, the daily challenges of my own imperfections mean that while the liberation of not being a sinner frees me of a life of guilt, the effort to accomplish the changes I want to make is still huge.

Reminds me of a xen quote: "Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water, after Enlightenment, chop wood carry water."

My version is "Before Liberation chop wood carry water, after Liberation, chop wood carry water."

Thanks again. anonseven21

Anonymous said...

This article was very good, most of the way through, about putting the false teachings of religion into perspective and ridding our minds of their false prospective. However, it lost its way toward the end, stating:

"You are not your body. That is merely transportation and a container for a short time. You are not your brain. That is a receiver of information and memories that may, in fact, arise from outside of a bigger you and I than we can imagine. You are not your mind, which is that thinking brain"

Holy religious assumption, Batman! Dennis apparently still believes, and asserts with zero evidence, that we are some kind of immortal soul/spirit/something! Perhaps not the god of the bible, but some kind of unclear mysticism.

Dennis, if you have any proof or evidence, please show it. Otherwise, I have to to conclude that the above-quoted assertion is a myth.

Unless you can demonstrate otherwise, I have to think the simplest answer is probably the truth. What you see is what you are. I am my body and my brain. You are your body and your brain. No more, no less.

Yes, I'm made up of atoms, and they'll continue to exist after I am gone. But me - my consciousness - resides in my brain and dies with my body.

The Skeptic

Corky said...

Dennis the freethinker,

Good article Dennis but I disagree that we are not our minds. Your article proves that we are who we think we are because our thought processes comes from our minds, our brains.

The Bible may say that "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" but we don't really think with our hearts. Ancient man thought that the imaginations came from the heart but nope, they came from the brain.

When Jesus said "born again", he didn't really say "born again". The Aramaic that Jesus spoke didn't translate well. That's why Nicodemus didn't understand that he meant "born from above" or, that is, "born of the spirit" until he explained it to him.

Changing the way one thinks really is like being "born again" and one's life really does have a new beginning at that time.

One may go from religious to non religious or from non religious to religious but each time and in either way you go it involves a "renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2).

I'm not sure if anyone can step outside of all boxes and truly make his mind and thoughts free but a person can only truly be himself if his mind is free.

Shepherd or sheep, leader or follower, is the choice offered but there really is a third choice - keeping your mind and thoughts free - which one can only do alone and by his own self.

Easier said than done but one does not have to follow the crowd or join a parade. He does not have to be a team leader or a team player and he doesn't have to be someone he isn't.

Anonymous said...

Hello Dennis, Thanks for the post. It mirrors something that has been a problem for me over the years and I had a difficult time explaining this to others nor did I try very often. Your post comes as close to the gist of it as anything I have ever read.

At Passover when the WWCG would beat us up - I was dismayed at the situation because I felt something was just not quite right in the manner this event was presented.

I still have a difficult time defining the concern but will try: If I was born a sinner - and would never REALLY escape the inclinations of my heart - there was not much I had to do for this to happen. It just was. Then at Passover I am told to beg forgiveness for this condition. Ok, now I am to be so sorry for being born a sinner and a flawed human being struggling with a nature that is a part of me and, according to the Bible, always will be. But, hey wait, if you repent and acknowledge how flawed you are - you can now be forgiven for it. Ok, I'm sorry I was born flawed so please forgive me and accept me, dear Jesus.

Perhaps I am not making this clear but it has been a sliver in my thumb from day one. Your comments come as close to my thoughts as anything I have heard before in any CoG - and believe me I DON'T share this conflict with many!

I truly believe that my relationship with our heavenly Father is a good one. It is not mainstream CoG but that is something I accept. I have a much warmer view and love of God than the so called evidence via the Bible and the ministry has declared. My relationship is based upon experience and the comfort and peace I have been able
to find in just living.

Dennis, you and Karen were in the ministry in a congregation that I attended - many many moons ago. Nice to hear from you again.

Adele

author@ptgbook.org said...

Although I do not know Dennis Diehl, I knew he does not agree with the teachings of the Church of God. But does he believe God exists at all? Is there such a thing as the supernatural, or is the physical universe with its matter and energy all that there is?

If God exists, is the Bible His inspired word, or no?

If God exists, and if He inspired the words of the Bible, do you think He is lying or mistaken in Jeremiah 17:9?

If God does not exist, if there is no supernatural, nothing at all except the matter and energy that make up the physical universe, and if human life is only a product of natural processes, then what justification is there for saying, "You are not your body...You are not your brain"? If the physical universe is all there is, then we are nothing more than complex arrangements of protons, neutons, and electons, and there is no good or bad, right or wrong. Our body and brain are all that we are, nothing more. And without right or wrong, good or bad, it becomes meaningless to say we were born right the first time.

Tom Mahon said...

author@ptgbook.org puzzles...

>>Although I do not know Dennis Diehl, I knew he does not agree with the teachings of the Church of God. But does he believe God exists at all?<<

Dennis' proposition is fundamentally flawed, his language is poor, his argument, to put it politely, lacks cogency, his logic is muddled and his conclusion is stultifying.

Yet, despite these glaring inadequacies, I defend his right to say what ever comes into his head, provided he realises, "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment."

Jared Olar said...

"Be yourself and consider that you might just have been born right the first time."

Then we're all screwed.

Anonymous said...

Dennis, There are some of the things presented in this blog post that paint an accurate picture of religion and government as it has functioned through out history. But I disagree with the idea that God and the bible are the problem. I believe this is a distorted picture of what the Christian bible presents.

Before we can address this question we need to look at other questions dealing with a human life. How did it all begin?
Evolution assumes we started from matter at some point and eventually achieved a state of awareness, but was that state of awareness at a point where human beings were civilized and had a mutual respect for other humanoids?

The bible begins with an intelligent God creating one innocent human being placed in a perfect environment? The next step a second human being was created to begin populating the earth with a race of human beings. These seem to have had the intellectual capability of working toward a peaceful and fruitful existence to manage their environment and relationships. The next major event in the scriptures reveals that human beings in such a condition that the only solution was to wipe them out and start over.

The narration puts them in an environment that was perfect and they like babies were without previous experience, but with natural instincts for the perpetuation of the life. With such beginning what happened? Where did all of the evil destructive thoughts come from? Was man created with such desires? How did a perfect world go bad?
Whether this is inspired by a divine creator is irrelevant. What is important to note is that human life (also animal life) has continually gone in cycles revealing a nature that goes from innocence at birth moves and due to an internal “hardcore” selfishness (survival of the fittest) reaches a point of annihilation before returning to a more balanced condition. What point it may go over the brink with human life being extinct is difficult to predict. No matter what we believe there is not much hope for this life or what is beyond it unless there is a better picture presented. I submit that the bible paints a picture of hope, if looked at from a different perspective than those drawn from many church teachings. A starting point is to quit blaming religion, government, environment, ‘THE’ church, our wife, our neighbor, God, ad infinitum, but realize like Pogo the opossum (a comic character) that the real enemy is us.

Quibbling over things that can’t be answered causes many doubts and questions and clouds the ability see the bible story a series of narrations dealing with human problems. The factoring of a divine creator god as having the only solution to the problem seems to be an irritation to the human ego and fails to address another important question. What if there is a real God and His solution is the only hope for human life. Will He make it clear enough that everyone can make an intelligent choice to be a part of eternity? I believe He will, but for now I guess we will need live life in the best way we know how and let the chips fall where they may.
Bert

Dennis said...

Job 25:6
how much less man, who is but a maggot— a son of man, who is only a worm!"

Psalm 22:6
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

Isaiah 41:14
Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, O little Israel, for I myself will help you," declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Dennis said...

"Holy religious assumption, Batman! Dennis apparently still believes, and asserts with zero evidence, that we are some kind of immortal soul/spirit/something! Perhaps not the god of the bible, but some kind of unclear mysticism.

Dennis, if you have any proof or evidence, please show it. Otherwise, I have to to conclude that the above-quoted assertion is a myth."

If I had proof I'd have a new religion to head. I have hope. Who wants to come and go never to be heard from again?

" But does he believe God exists at all? Is there such a thing as the supernatural, or is the physical universe with its matter and energy all that there is?"

I don't believe in what I call "Biblegod" That is a cultic, killer God that is the exact oppostie of his son in the NT. I don't have the answers. I just am happy to be free to ask the questions. PERHAPS we are a spirit trapped, for now, in the flesh. We are limited in scope yet vast in potential once we get to move on. I don't know. I find the idea that Jesus died the worst death (others have died much much worse over much longer time), and was such an amazing sacrifice, which in fact was a mere weekend inconvenience with all known to turn out good, to be less than satisfying. As one person asked me, "shouldn't a real sacrfice stay dead?" Yes it should! Every OT sacrfice that pointed is said to point to Jesus, stayed dead. Jesus was merely dead and back better than ever in a very short time.

The Bible is not the inerrant word of God, to me. It is riddled with contradictions, false science, false history and ideas made to seem from a God but in fact made up by a priesthood. I can't help it. I have studied too much. I soaked in the Bible and while most are piously convicted, they are also marginally informed.

I wish I had more answers. I am not content to be where I am. But I am not content either at being deluded or taking mythology as history.

Dennis said...

"it becomes meaningless to say we were born right the first time."

Speculation about what and who we are in reality, it is not meaningless to say this.

I oppose churches, ministers and organizations that use the idea that one is defective, evil or in need of fundamental change and using fear, guilt and shame to achieve it. With my WCG background where all our hearts were deceitful and desperately wicked, I take exception to that kind of manipulation. Most humans just want to live, love and be helpful.

Most people I know are simply doing the best they can and are not seeking to take advantage of others. The COG however seems to have created men who thrive on controling others and the idea of being more special than the average person. What kind of insanity does it take to declare oneself a "watcher", "witness", "Prophet" "apost" or the "elijah to come." ???? That's what religion can do to the unstable who in turn, hurt others who are too uncritical in their thinking to escapte it.

Dennis said...

PS

I don't have the answers. I used to have the answer to EVERYTHING. Just ask. I would like to think that we, as energy, go on. I'd like to think that reincarnation has merrit. But I don't know. I am unwilling to commit to the idea of "knowing." "Knowing" seems to come with an arrogance that pushes people away or closes off understanding and learning new things.

If you listen to a Ron Wineland or Dave Pack, you encounter men who "know" and manipulate their followers to know what they think they know. It' is profitable but it is also bullshit. Most men who rise to a position of control and the taking of Biblical titles to themselves, to me, are mentally yet profitably ill.

Anonymous said...

Hi Again Dennis,

This is The Skeptic. You had to know this article would bring a bunch of follow-up questions and comments, from both ends of the spectrum and everything in between.

You state "who wants to come and go never to be heard from again?" I have a couple of answers.

First, "what one wants" is irrelevant. I'm looking for what is true, what is reality. What one wants has no bearing on whether it is true. In fact, what you just said pretty much sums up the reason man made up gods and created religions. He wanted to believe death is not really death, but he somehow would live forever. But wanting it and creating a belief system around it does not make it so.

Second, is it so terrible if we come and go and that's the end? Carl Sagan died knowing full well that would be the end, but he died at peace knowing he had contributed to making this world a better place.

Third, is it really better to live forever? When you really think about it, would you really WANT to live forever. Food for meditation, I'd say.

The Skeptic

Anonymous said...

"I don't have the answers."

Very honest, Dennis. I don't have the answers, either. Especially, I don't know exactly what IS true. It's a lot easier to tell what ISN'T true. And even then, we're really in the realm of "best guess" and probability.

One thing I'm guided by is Occam's razor. The most obvious answer is probably the right one.
Not always, though.

I'm also guided by Judge Judy's saying, "if it doesn't make sense, it isn't true". That one helps a lot, too, but its not 100% foolproof.

Finally, I'm also guided by the objectivity test. If someone has a reason for wanting a certain outcome to be true, and he concludes it IS true, he's not being objective. And it's most likely not true.

Anyhow, thanks for the thought-provoking article, and the humble approach. We're all just out here searching for answers. Take care Dennis.

The Skeptic

Anonymous said...

This guy is lost in space. What a tragedy, even if temporary! No wonder he's severed his connections with religious groups. His appraisal of what Scripture teaches of the human condition is as tragically flawed as he says we are. There's not an ounce of wonderful in this morbidly depressed and bewildered thesis. It's way off the mark, which is crystal clear from the get go.

Genesis 1 ends with the creation of man IN GOD'S IMAGE, and "God saw all that he had made (including mankind), and it was VERY GOOD." How is this any kind of ugly? Yet Dhiel says, "Scripture goes out of its way to remind us all that our fundamental human qualities are deceit, wickedness, jealousy, anger, lust and greed." He misses the point: Choice. Nobody forces us to make wrong choices; we just do it, on our own, usually knowing better. So it was with our first parents.

All the prophets worked with a single goal in mind, the restitution of all things to the pristine Edenic condition by way of free choice. We're not waiting for Godot; we're supposed to be repairing the world. And this takes experience coupled with study to learn to choose wisely.

If we are worms, as God addressed Jacob, then we should be as Sir Winston Churchill said of himself, referring to Jacob's wormy characterization, "I believe I am at least a glow worm."

Who among us is not free to choose to be a shining star of decency -- not necessarily a Jewish decency as HWA did his best to make of us -- but decent, moral, ethical, self-disciplined human beings? The awe of God should best be part of the picture, but not everyone seems capable of that.

I have yet to meet a human being that did not possess within him or herself the raw materials of excellence, whether or not he or she chooses to exercise the inborn gift of free willpower.

What's this? "NOT ONE PERSON I EVER KNEW WHO TAKES THE TIME TO PARTICIPATE ON AW HAS UTTERED THE WORDS, 'THANK YOU, I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT AND I AM NO LONGER GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE NOW OR BE WHO I NOW AM.'"

I begin every day with a formula, from the heart, "I gratefully thank you, O living and eternal king, for you have returned my soul within me with compassion. Abundant is your faithfulness." How's that?

Armstrong taught that we are just animal life, nephesh, and later added that we are infused with "the spirit in man." He didn't realize that God refers to His own nephesh, "naphshi." He didn't know God had breathed into Adam a soul of life, a "neshama chaiim." So whose fault is it that some haven't learned that yet?

I guess what I'm saying is that if all of one's life after HWA will be an ongoing reaction to the HWA experience, one will find oneself fluttering in the breeze like a beautiful autumn leaf. A nice breezy way down to the ground and after that, decomposition. Not nice.

There's more, lots more. And the Armstrong experience can be used either as a stumbling block or a stepping stone. Once again, one must exercise free choice to grow or to stagnate.

No one with intelligence, courage and a capacity for independent thought as high as that of Dennis Diehl should find himself mired in a physical after-Armstrong-life on earth without hope of immortality and eternal joy. It really, truly is out there, ahead of every one of us. One may choose to find it now, or later. Either way, it's inevitable. Enough of this crying in one's beer based on a horrible and gross misunderstanding. The best really is ahead of us. Anyone who needs evidence can find it; it's always a matter of choice, as it has been from the beginning.

And if you know better, prove me wrong.

CONTENT FORMER MEMBER

Mr. Scribe said...

CONTENT FORMER MEMBER,

I just assume to cancel my ticket to your christian resurrection. You can keep your hwa and your god as your lucky rabbits foot.

Death is better than what your unholy god, the mass murderer of the bible has to offer.

Hail Beelzebub!

I really don't think that I could handle eternity with some of you armstrong wanna be christians. You are just full of hatred and contention. Go to any other church and you will meet folks that are more christ like than those in the UCG, LCG, PCG, who remind me of those who are taking LSD!

For you Dennis, GOOD JOB! I appreciate you speaking your heart!

Anonymous said...

How right. God doesn't want religion. He wants a relationship with us.

Anonymous said...

"Without this ongoing overcoming of the evil self, growing towards a better kind of person and change, one runs the risk of being so not good enough that they will spend eternity, for their inability to change over a rather short lifetime, in a punishing hell. "


that is simply not true....this posting simply reconfirms my belief that you are badly confused.

Anonymous said...

Dennis:

Keep up your posts in 2010. Your insight and understanding, as well as your ability to communicate so effectively is appreciated far more than you will ever know.

Wishing you all the best for health and happiness for the coming year.

DM

James K. said...

This is the most unhelpful essay I have read in a long time.

Anonymous said...

If you have some brandy near,
Toast another pending year.
Have great cause for jubilation,
A decade new needs celebration.

Read,indeed the words of Gerry
Whilst all around is gay and merry.
And Rodders too will have a say
About our very decadent way.

Hogmanay,the Scottish feast
Has lashings of fermented yeast.
And a dram or two of treated rye
Helps the evening to pass by.

Resolve to keep the Watch intact
Where Coglets all are ever tracked.
It makes our day to read therein
Of ramboes,rebels,pride and sin.

May Twenty Ten a blessing bring,
An earned degree to freshly spring.
And may one ever thus assume,
"DR RUMNEY,I PRESUME?"

Cheers,

Jorg

Gavin said...

Thanks Jorg, but you presume far too much. Two more papers and I secure a much less impressive qualification, but one I'll be pleased to have "under the belt" nonetheless. I suppose I could always supplement it with one of those Th.Ds that Bob Thiel snaffled though... ;-)

Purple Hymnal said...

Two more papers? Congratulations, Gavin, you're almost at the end!!

Oh, and Happy (belated) New Year everyone!