"More Better" Aloha Optimism
I have a special affection for Hawaii and things Hawaiian. When I got into the Navy in 1968, I was first stationed at Ford Island and then on a destroyer in Pearl Harbor, Oahu. I was there until 1970. I remember how strange it was for me to be wearing both a raincoat and tropical whites because of the heat in a heavy December downpour. I learned that in Hawaii, when it gets cold, you put on a tee-shirt.
My mother's best friend lived on the other side of Honolulu, and I was frequently on the bus going over to her place to spent time with her and her three children: Janalyn, Donna and Bobby. I was fascinated seeing parts of paradise through that bus window that I would otherwise never get to see.
I have returned to Hawaii a number of times to live, to work, and to get married, for about a year each time. And, like almost everyone else who goes there, I picked up the common Hawaiian expression "more better," which, as everyone knows, is not proper English, but in Hawaii they don't care--everything is just "more better, br'a."
I mention this because I want to ask you to see everyone as being "more better" than they seem to be. As I recently pointed out, everyone else is the same God as you; he's just in a different package over there and is completely absorbed in a different imagining, and he probably isn't aware of being him at all.
However, be that as it may, we are to show mercy to YHWH our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength; and love our best friend like ourself" (Mark 12: 29-31, my take on Victor Alexander's translation; see v-a.com/bible). Anyone who is God is my best friend. (Gush inwardly.)
In loving God, to show him mercy, think of everything as being "more better" for him. Think of him, in everyone, being more successful, stronger, more energetic and focused, more patient and caring, more tolerant and forgiving, more healthy and wealthy and generous, more happy and helping. Think well of him in every way, having all the things he might want or need, and conscious of his Godhood.
Invest your merciful thoughts in him: imagine everyone loving one another and cooperating with each other, taking care of one another, acting with benevolence, providing for one another without jealousy or greed. We do not have to know someone to think well of them. We know that they are us, and we are them, because we are all one. That should be enough.
My mother's best friend lived on the other side of Honolulu, and I was frequently on the bus going over to her place to spent time with her and her three children: Janalyn, Donna and Bobby. I was fascinated seeing parts of paradise through that bus window that I would otherwise never get to see.
I have returned to Hawaii a number of times to live, to work, and to get married, for about a year each time. And, like almost everyone else who goes there, I picked up the common Hawaiian expression "more better," which, as everyone knows, is not proper English, but in Hawaii they don't care--everything is just "more better, br'a."
I mention this because I want to ask you to see everyone as being "more better" than they seem to be. As I recently pointed out, everyone else is the same God as you; he's just in a different package over there and is completely absorbed in a different imagining, and he probably isn't aware of being him at all.
However, be that as it may, we are to show mercy to YHWH our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength; and love our best friend like ourself" (Mark 12: 29-31, my take on Victor Alexander's translation; see v-a.com/bible). Anyone who is God is my best friend. (Gush inwardly.)
In loving God, to show him mercy, think of everything as being "more better" for him. Think of him, in everyone, being more successful, stronger, more energetic and focused, more patient and caring, more tolerant and forgiving, more healthy and wealthy and generous, more happy and helping. Think well of him in every way, having all the things he might want or need, and conscious of his Godhood.
Invest your merciful thoughts in him: imagine everyone loving one another and cooperating with each other, taking care of one another, acting with benevolence, providing for one another without jealousy or greed. We do not have to know someone to think well of them. We know that they are us, and we are them, because we are all one. That should be enough.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
3:52 PM
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