Matthew Cleek living life well

1. One advantage of balding is that I am never approached for hair braiding in the Bahamas
2. Cruise ship coffee is not up to my standards
3. Running clothes smell really bad when not washed for a week
4. Free ice cream cones and a desire to lose weight do not go together very well
5. Watching the sun rise and set over the ocean in the same day is a real treat
6. A cruise ship is one place where satellite Internet is of value
7. I apparently look like someone who wants to buy marijuana
8. Key West is much cooler than it was 15 years ago
9. My family can still have a lot of fun together
10. North Carolina is happy to offer a welcome home gift worth $160 to them for driving infractions on my return trip 

Only one living and true God exists, infinite in my being and perfection. I AM completely pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or erratic emotions, unchangeable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, completely wise, totally holy, utterly free, thoroughly absolute, working everything according to the considered purpose of my own unchangeable and righteous choice, resulting in my own glory. I AM most loving, graciously giving to the undeserving, full of mercy, (more…)

This is Rand’s earliest and perhaps most personal work. In Kira, we discover the the beginnings of Rand’s personal philosophy – Objectivism. If you are looking for a good story, turn elsewhere. If you are wanting to understand more about Ayn Rand, there are later books to more clearly gain this insight. However, if you would like an insider’s picture of the U.S.S.R., this is the book for you. I have always felt a personal resistance toward socialism as if it were a road to danger. This book has caused my opinion to change. I now see that socialistic government is in fact a road to nowhere at all.

These quotes come from my scattered reading and research over the last month. Each has given me pause and caused a time of personal reflection and sincere thought.

1. “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein
2. “Fashion is the law of multitudes, but it is nothing more than the common consent of fools.” – Charles Spurgeon
3. “Let me write the songs of a nation; I don’t care who writes its laws.” – Andrew Fletcher
4. “Read one thinker and you become a clone. Read two and you become confused. Read a hundred and you start to become wise.” – C.S. Lewis
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This morning’s time of reading contained the following “insights” from C.S. Lewis. By “insight” I am not referring to the power and understanding of words that Lewis always commands; though that form of “insight” is ever present in his work. For the purpose of this post, I am speaking of the “insight” into myself that was shrouded in darkness prior to the light so eloquently shed by Lewis.

It is a terrible thing that the worst of all the vices [Pride] can smuggle itself into the very centre of our religious life. But you can see why. The other, and less bad, vices come from the devil working on us through our animal nature. But this does not come through our animal nature at all. It comes direct from Hell. (more…)