Category Archives: Writing

Leg Cramps Cure: Haiku

For leg cramps, a friend/
said: “Tonic water.” The cure’s /
worse than the problem.

What Channel Are You On To Be Happy? Prose

Can we be on the joy Channel, the happiness Channel, the enthusiasticly passionate Channel, the God is good Channel, the nature is amazing Channel, and have the same good vibrations? I believe YES!

No matter how much I like Motown and soul music, any of those channels is better than being on the sad, depressed or funk Channel. And when you talk to people on those channels, they won’t hear or see the same wonderful things and feelings that you’re experiencing.
#givethanks

Enumerate Thanks Haiku

There are times when I’m/
So grateful that I just can’t /
enumerate thanks.
#GiveThanks

Tearing Down Statues: Who’s Next?

During the riots and protests surrounding the George Floyd killings, there’s a lot of tearing down of statues. A number of historical statues have been torn down. But it’s not just the Confederate soldiers and generals who are being targeted. People operating under the #BLM #BlackLivesMatter #Antifa banner vandalized the statues of George Washington, Christopher Columbus, and others.

Probably the most upsetting to me (because ImaCheesehead.com) was the decapitation and throwing of the statue’s body into the lake in Madison, Wisconsin, of Col. Hans Christian Heg, commander of the 15th Wisconsin Regiment (aka Scandanavian Volunteers) of the UNION army. Col. #Heg was gutshot, mortally wounded, about 2 miles away from my house. His monument on the #Chickamauga National Military Park, a pyramid of cannon balls, is now marked with American flags, as if to say “Col. Heg was an American Patriot.” As a politician and a newspaper editor in Wisconsin, Heg was a staunch and determined abolitionist, who hated slavery with everything he had … and he gave his life for that cause on a battlefield in Northwest Georgia.

As a result of that arsonistic vandalism of tearing down statues, I went on a rant on social media, posting a video of Col. Heg’s monument, as well as another rant about “Where does it stop?” I also linked one of my Facebook messages to a post by my wife, Marnie Kuhns, on her FrontPorchSense.com blog, about judging people in the past based on our incorrect understanding of them, and by our own faulty morals and standards. Here is the Facebook post. (By the way, I’m removing it from social media because I’m tired of the fighting, the back and forth silly commentary, and the disagreements and unkind feelings it stirs in me. It’s as if Heavenly Father is saying “This is not your fight. You are kind, creative, loving, NaturesGuy.com, observant, and you have other things to do.”)

(It includes the original post from Marnie, as well as a good response from Doug Clark, my nephew.)

Where Does the Arson and Vandalism End?

I #SupportMySpouse. Nearly a year ago, Marnie posted https://frontporchsense.com/20…/…/betsy-ross-flag-nike-shoe/ about the dangers (and hypocrisy) of using our PC modern values to judge people who lived in a completely different time period, with totally different morals and ways of living. Yet we apply our standards to them, tear down their statues, slander them, and devalue their contribution to GIVING US OUR LAND AND OUR FREEDOMS.

Here’s an example: Someone I know is friends with someone who has started a petition to remove 700 Confederate statues throughout the USA. Now, I don’t have a problem removing certain statues of, say, the founder of the KKK, or Jefferson Davis. But what about statues honoring an “unknown” Confederate soldier or sailor who happened to drafted (as most were), or even those who enlisted because they believed they were fighting for their “state’s rights”. Shouldn’t they still be honored for their bravery?

More importantly, who says? Who gets to judge?

Because what eventually happens is that someone turns the lens on the people, ideals and causes YOU hold sacred. And then how are you going to argue against that?

Here’s an example: Some of the finest examples of courage under fire and valor came from the so-called “Buffalo Soldiers”, black Americans who volunteered to be soldiers from 1866 (post Civil War). Dozens of men from these units received the Medal of Honor for “Valor” in defense of what they believed was right, and in obeying what they were told to do.
Fred Fulmer, Alvin Bitsilly, Vickie Murray, Jeremy AndToni Boland Doug Clark, Teri Sorace Ryli Sorace Cali Sorace and others I know are full or part Native Americans. The Buffalo Soldiers, as calvarymen, were part of the genocidal actions known as the “Indian Wars”, from 1866 to 1918. These fine, brave warriors were directly responsible for the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of Native Americans, as well as for their relocation off of ancestral lands to other lands. (Sound familiar?)

My question is this: Should all statues of Buffalo Soldiers be torn down? And, if there are any statues of Native Americans who fought against the U.S, should they be torn down as well?

And if we’re really upset about what people in this country “back in the day” did, and think it’s so wrong, then don’t we, as a judging, “moral” people, have the moral obligation to return our land, our property back to the native people whose land it was first, and go back to where we came from?

If so, why? If not, why not? (asking for a friend).

“Judge not, lest ye be so judged. For with the same judgement ye judge, so shall ye also be judged.”

“Your ancestors had slaves.”
“Actually, mine didn’t. BUT you agree to and support and fund (actively or passively) the murder of hundreds of thousands of children (including a disproportionate number of black babies) every year.”

Didn’t Lincoln encourage people of his time, and people of future generations, to move forward: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations”

Marnie wrote: “I find it ironic that one of the most wicked and perverse generations of any era in a nation that kills over 800,000 babies per year and has an estimated 199,000 incidents of sex trafficking every year.is standing in judgement on people who lived in the past.

“Woe to you, … hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27)

Repent of your own wickedness and pray God has mercy on your own souls… “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:2) Show mercy to the past if you want mercy for this wicked and adulterous and murderous generation!”

Doug Clark Right or wrong ,history is history…we learn from it,good and bad. Tear it all down now and you remove the opprotunity for futire generations to learn from it. Nobody alive today can change what happened in the past ..the past is there so we can change the future. We are writing another chapter in todays world that no dought, someone will want to take out of the history books someday but my vote is leave it and learn from it. God bless us all right now these trying times are stupid and im sorry the world is going through them. LIVE AND LEARN.

CyranoWriter again: Almost every comment against Confederate soldier statues say “We should tear them all down. After all, there are no statues for Nazis in Germany.” Well, technically that may be true: Certainly no statues for Hitler, Goering, Goebles, etc. exist. They were terrible men.

HOWEVER, there are hundreds, if not thousands of statues and memorials honoring the fallen German soldiers. Here’s a link to just one example: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Speinshart_World_Wars_Memorial.JPG
Living in Germany in the mid-1970’s, one thing that struck me was that every town and city, from the big cities all the way down to the smallest farming villages in the Black Forest, had these monuments. What was even more amazing were the numbers of names. Even the smallest village had dozens, if not hundreds, of “honored fallen”.

Similarly, I think, the “unknown Confederate soldier” statues should be left up. Maybe they fought on purpose because they owned slaves, hated the North, hated the Union. More likely, they didn’t own slaves, were drafted, and were fighting, like the German soldiers, for their homeland.

I knew several German soldiers from World War II. They were good men. They were kind, gentle examples of service and humility. I would be angry if someone defamed their memory just because they fought on the wrong side.

I don’t think the Confederate soldiers should be treated any differently.

No More Pandemic Worry: Hopeful IMprov Haiku

When God’s prophet says/
“wonderful days are ahead!”/
I can rest easy.

at 11:26 p.m., a Facebook IM response to a friend:
Amos 3:7/
says it best. And knowing that,/
I’ll peacefully rest.

Light And Truth: A Covid-19 Pandemic Cure? Did I #HearHim Right?

Covid-19 / the Coronavirus Pandemic is ravaging the earth. I have not been directly impacted, but friends and family members are sick from it. And I fear.

So it was with interest  and hope that I watched the 190th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which I am a member.

Did I hear a cure embedded in a Conference talk Saturday evening? Or preventative medicine against the Covid-19 virus? I think I did!

An Apostle Speaks Truth … And A Pandemic Cure?

In the Saturday evening special session, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, spoke. At about the 9:30 point of his talk, which you can watch here,  things got interesting.

Is The Pandemic Cure Contained In This Talk?

I re-listened to his talk this morning. I typed as fast as I could: I’ve paraphrased some, and quoted some. Listen to his talk for yourself, and take notes on what YOU hear.

Elder Oaks said: “We’ve been taught great principles of eternity.” He then encouraged us to have our eye single to receive these truths of eternity, “so our bodies may be full of light.” Elder Oaks then discussed the Savior’s sermon (in both The Bible and The Book of  Mormon), where the Savior taught that “mortal bodies can be full of light, or full of darkness. ”

The Savior “used the example of our eye,” Elder Oaks said, and talked about the eye being single. “If the eye is single to truth and righteousness, to that which is good, then thy whole body shall be full of light. But if the eye seeks evil, then the body will be filled with evil. That is, if we look for evil and take that into our bodies, then our whole body will be filled with darkness.”

“Mortal bodies can be full of light, or full of darkness. Listen to messages about truths of eternity. If we are concentrating on receiving  eternal light and understanding,” thy whole body shall be full of light.”

“The light or darkness in our bodies depends on how we see or receive the eternal truths we are taught..”

How I Heard This Talk About Light = Pandemic Cure

His discussion about filling my body with light caught my attention: If we desire this and have our eye single to receive truth and light, “the Savior promises that the truths of eternity shall be opened unto us.”

Is this the prevention — and the pandemic cure — for Covid-19? I’ve found that, in recent months, I’ve been extremely negative and critical. I’ve criticized people and politics and processes on Facebook, in my daily interactions. While I haven’t sought wickedness, I haven’t been positive, joyful, or (for me, at least), happy. And as I’ve acted that way, I’ve felt darker, more weary, more down and downtrodden.

What if I start looking for truth? What if I start looking — again — for goodness, for joy, for happiness? What if, instead of grumbling about having to clear out the invasive trees on my property, I rejoice in getting to go outside on beautiful, sunny days? What if, instead of complaining about the rain, I give thanks that’s, when it’s over, the ground is so soft that I can pull out weeds and non-native trees easily, instead of struggling to cut them down? What if, instead of complaining about people I think are politically negative, I’m glad we live in a country where we can have different opinions?

Yesterday I wrote a press release about a Ultra-Violet disinfecting machine, recently shipped to one of my clients, that sanitizes health care facilities with LIGHT. What if internalizing joy, happiness and truth fills my body and soul with light? And what if, if my body is filled with light, THAT is the prevention — and the cure — to this pandemic?

In the time of Moses, the Children of Israel had a plague of poisonous serpents. Moses raised up a serpent on a staff. To be healed, someone who was bitten just had to look upon the staff (which was a symbol of the Savior Jesus Christ) to be cured. The task was simple. Yet because it was so easy, so simple, many didn’t do it, and perished.

What if this simple thing, given by an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the answer to this pandemic, as well as to other woes? What if we all looked for the good, the truth, the light?

Will people still die from this and other ailments, even if they are full of light? Of course. That is the human condition. Will it save everyone? Probably not. So why try to fill our souls with light? I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know my answer. I don’t like darkness or evil.  I’m going to change, to do this simple thing, to look for truth, for good, for joy. I’m going to fill my body and my soul with light.

#HearHim #ChurchofJesusChrist #GeneralConference

Here is Elder Dallin H. Oaks Saturday evening Conference talk. Listen from 9:30 on for a possible pandemic cure.