I wanted to say Quanah Parker was a great guy too, despite the bad things he did. His wife must have been treated kindly, because she hated returning to her white "home," so much that she died of a broken heart. But all I know about Quanah Parker is that he had allegedly done some bad stuff, and he had done some good stuff. History was kind to Quanah, and for some reason, he seemed to be fairly and kindly treated by the media and history writers. Maybe he was a rare kind of guy--a true legend.
But everyone, including legends, make mistakes. As Romans 3:10-18 says:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”b
13“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”c
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”d
15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
That verse refers to all. None of us are good in ourselves. How then, can anyone call themselves a Christian? How then, can any one of us judge another? Who alone knows the heart of man? Only God. And Dr. Gene Scott seemed to know that. A little further in Romans 3:
22This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,i through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
A fitting verse for the approaching of Easter.
So, the only thing keeping us from taking our last breath is Jesus. Without Him, we are nothing and can do nothing. And maybe Pam Shetron had a great deal of Forrest figured out. That maybe dying with over $50 is a failure and building your castle on fireproof sand is a reference to 1 Corinthians 3:12-15:
“Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.”
I don't proclaim to be perfect. I make mistakes. As Goofy pointed out, sometimes good people do bad things, and sometimes bad people do good things. Who are we to judge, when many times, the lines are blurred? Yes, we can judge people by their fruits, or actions. But in an online world, how can you accurately do that? The media gets many, many things totally wrong. I have gotten things wrong. You have gotten things wrong.
The media jumps to shame with the negative, rather than highlight the good. How do we find out the truth? Maybe by striving to get to know a person, face to face? Maybe that's why Forrest hates the impersonal and emotionless (though not emoji-less) "texting machines." Maybe that's why Forrest pointed out that Gene Scott, face to face, was a likable guy. Peggy was intuitive, and Peggy was "the best person" Forrest ever met, and Peggy liked Dr. Scott, so that must say something about the guy.
The point is, the world remembers Dr. Scott as his television personality, not as the real man underneath, who in reality, wore a "thread-bare cashmere sweater." It's these subtleties we should look for in Forrest's writing to get a glimpse at what he may be trying to convey.
Anyway, it looks like this post is turning into an admittedly biased analysis of SB 176. I don't know what Forrest was trying to get across--I can't know, unless he comes out and says, "This is what I wanted to convey with SB 176..." and then tells us.
What I wanted to post about was my weird dream. Lol. I dreamed that James and I and some of James's friends from Seattle (that I have never met), were at this huge convention center type place, and we were there for a Tesla convention of some sort, and that James had a new Tesla parked in the middle of the "showroom." I think this part of the dream came because I'd learned yesterday that Tesla is now the #1 car manufacturer in the US, surpassing GM.
Anyway, then some other stuff happened that I've forgotten, and then it wasn't a Tesla convention anymore, although James's car, and a couple other Teslas, was still parked there.
It was like this "sheathing of the swords" ceremony, where we all had swords and were walking in a Viking-style ceremonial line, sheathing our swords in a symbolic heralding of a time of peace. I was the only girl, and at the end of the line. As I was approaching the sheath, the wind started to pick up, making the flames from the torches lit around the procession nearly invisible. I sheathed my sword, and a gust of wind blew, and the fires seemed to go out.
But really, they'd just blown invisible, and had blown toward a very dry kind of tall grass in a vacant lot nearby (we were now outside), and the grass immediately caught fire, and started to spread toward us at an alarming speed. I yelled for everyone to run. James headed for his car, which was in the path of the wildfire, and the wildfire was almost upon it. James would've never survived getting it out of there, so I yelled at him to forget it, and we ran. Instead of running to immediate safety, a few of us ran to a nearby college and warned everyone to get out, and they listened and started to file out of the classrooms as great big ashes started to fall from the sky like charcoal snow.
We were safe, but only by a hair.
And then I woke up.
And I just realized how very much like my dream that verse from Corinthians is...and on the news this morning I just saw that Florida is in a state of emergency from brush fires...that's kinda eerie.
Oh...side note...white is the color that represents Blanca Peak, in the Navajo culture. A connection to SB 175...
Hey, I see on Dal's there is a Searchers documentary being released and I see that James is one of the stars! Cool.