I know I can do as I please. At least I can always refuse. Hence I know that I am responsible for my actions. I will accept this responsibility and play the man. I will not be ever seeking excuses for my weakness.

I know I do not understand all the secret springs of the acts of others, hence I will be charitable in my judgments.

I know that what I know is to what I do not know as one is to infinity, hence I will try always to be teachable.

I know that the past cannot be changed, hence I will make the best of it; and that I cannot control the future, hence I will not worry about it.

I know that happiness depends more upon my thoughts than upon what happens to me, hence I will strive to control and adjust myself, instead of complaining of circumstances.

I know that the world is managed by a power and a will not of myself and greater than myself; hence I will try to understand and conform to it.

I know I cannot cheat nor evade the laws of nature; hence I will seek to find out what they are and obey them.

I know I have limitations, and that it is quite as important to understand them, as it is to know my capacity.

I know that life is sweet to the healthy-minded, and therefore I will reject summarily any creed or opinion that degrades or mocks at life.

I know what love is. I do not always know what is right or wrong, or what is wise or unwise. Therefore I can safely love everybody, and safely regulate nobody.

I know that suspicion is a disease of faith, jealousy is a disease of egotism, and envy is a disease of small natures; these I will avoid.

I know I can control and shape my tastes, my desires, and my thoughts, and I will not allow myself to be dominated by these.

I know that no sentiment, no feeling, is of value unless it enters into the will and is expressed in action.

I know that I will get from this world the equivalent only of what I give to it.

I know that, whatever God may be, a constant effort to do right is the only way to secure His approval. Whatever wrong I have committed, He becomes my friend when I begin to do right.

By Dr. Frank Crane

Free will is limited by our lack of understanding of what free will actually implies.

A computer program that relies upon any heuristic other than randomness is predictable, and therefore, not free to assert its own will, but forever relies upon the will of the program's designer.

Similarly, In our own lives, to rely on pure randomness is not to say that we live, as Charles Pierce might assert, in a Universe of Chance. Indeed, in all of nature, randomness is a function of scale: what appears, and serves functionally as random occurrence at one scale may prove quite orderly at a different scale. The theory of chaos is replete with such examples.

It is certain that our own behaviors are influenced by many things, and to assert that we behave without regard to those influences is to assume that objects which cause turbulence within a river do not over time affect its course, its boundaries and the speed at which it flows.

How much more freely might we act upon our will, if we become aware of our behaviors, study them intently, and trace our personal turbulence to its source?

But that is a challenge - akin to knowing both the velocity and the position of a photon in flight - our observation alone alters our behavior as surely as it alters the course of the photon.

If we can not predict our behavior, can we be said to assert any control over it? Is an act of  free will an unconscious intention resuliting in action that we subsequently call taken by choice only by the light of reason found in hindsight?

If we care to invoke the Law of Attraction, understand human potential, envision our ideal lives and  our ideal world and in a quest to have fun, focus on what makes us feel alive while supporting each other with our own individual visions, would it be helpful to understand how we might begin to observe our own behavior - to awaken as it were from the torpid illusion of our egos, and focus first on how we might discover our purpose in life, while we celebrate?

I learned to think for myself by observing the example set by others, especially those who demonstrated unequivically, that thinking was its own reward, and not something to engage in only to outsmart, undermine, oppose or otherwise compete with others. One especially memorable example is Dick Feynman, whose zeal while thinking was not only entertaining, but amazing - he was truely someone you could observe thinking - his clarity remains for those who study him and his work, a great inspiration to think for the sheer joy of it.

O.E. lufu "love, affection, friendliness," from P.Gmc. *lubo (cf. O.Fris. liaf, Ger. lieb, Goth. liufs "dear, beloved;" not found elsewhere as a noun, except O.H.G. luba, Ger. Liebe), from PIE *leubh- "to care, desire, love" (cf. L. lubet, later libet "pleases;" Skt. lubhyati "desires;" O.C.S. l'ubu "dear, beloved;" http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=love&searchmode=none

It is not that there are so many different kinds of love, but that there are necessarily differences in how love might be expressed in one kind of relationship over another. I love my GTO, but I don't kiss it.

In human relationships I believe love implies a degree of trust and vulnerability mutually shared to whatever degree the love is mutual.

Unlike physical attraction, or seeking to attain satisfaction of physical desire i.e. socially acceptable "lust" - love might be thought of as that which preserves the shared values and aspiratons of people that love one another.

I believe that putting love at the center of a relationship is symptomatic of confused thinking.

Love should protect and promote the harmony of the relationship.

We must see love as the highest form of trust - trust that calms the heart and frees the spirit to be ourselves fully within a relationship without fear of recrimination.

I tell young people contemplating marriage to imagine marriage as the framework that contains their shared dreams and values. And that those contents are at the center of their marriage that their love protects. Love insures that no one may disregard or introduce or otherwise alter the shared dreams and values without the full knowledge and consent of the other. It is not that people get married and become immune to personal growth. Deception, failure to communicate and selfish obfuscation of intentions contrary to the shared values and aspirations of the relationship cause the most harm and ultimately, the most guilt.

An analogy may help demonstrate what love is not:

When love is thought to be at the center of a relationship, it is as though two people are planets revolving about their imaginary sun on fixed orbits, never growing closer nor drifting apart, light and dark sides showing one to the other along the ever changing course of the eliptical path they each must follow. Such relationships become rather easy to predict over time. And it becomes increasingly apparent that love and nothing more sustains the relationship. Some may stay the course, usually for quite obvious reasons. Others may say their love was extinguished. Or they may insist that one or both planets changed in size and their orbits were altered. For an analogy, it's not bad at representing the common reasons for falling out of orbit, err, I mean, falling out of love....

Surely, the analogy is ultimately no more valid then the idea that love binds two people, or is at the center of their relationship.

I suspect that if people, especially young people, spent more time grappling with the reality of shared values and aspirations, rather than imagining that love implies that such values and aspirations are shared, they would enjoy longer, more meaningful relationships.

Blezzings to all from the Most Comical Ambazzador Goodsoul

     - Busted Knee Blues -

 

My woman, she done left me,
My wife, she may go too.
I shake my head and wonder
What am I going to do?
I got the busted knee blues.
Yea, the busted knee blues.
I'd get down on my knees and pray.
But that I can not do.

I limp around the house at night
I limp into my bed.
My wife say she don't like no limp;
And that is all she said.
It's the busted knee blues,
Yea, damn busted knee blues!
I'd get down on my knees and pray.
But that I can not do.

I shook my cane at God on high!
But God was not amused:
He lit my cane wit lightning
And now I'm all confused!
I got the busted knee blues.
Yea man, the busted knee blues.
I'd get down on my knees and pray.
But that I can not do.

I'd get down on my knees and pray
But you know Lord, that I can not do.

Copyright 2007 by Charles L. Johnson, All Rights Reserved

P.S. It's a blues song. Everything is cool with my bride, there is no other woman. I do limp, but am not otherwise, and the cane is temporary. Sheesh.  :)

I am timeless.... :)