Monday, March 18, 2013

Exogenous




Exogenous

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

            This writer has found that if anyone, even one of your associates or family members, reads anything you have written with which they disagree, perhaps have a different opinion, they will never read anything else you have written. The magnificence of the human being is his neurological system, his ability to think. The bird has far superior eyes to those of man, the dog a far superior smell to that of man, the cat a far superior muscle system than that of man, the horse-cow a far superior digestive system to that of man. Man has the ability to think, plan, make decisions, dream, the only animal who knows he is going to die. The inner man is usually comfortable with self although many human beings are treated for stress. More psychotropic drugs than any other drug  prescribed.

            Our main problems are exogenous, matters developed from external factors. The attached photograph shows a check written in my professional office 42 years ago. I still remember the very attractive young couple, he, studying for his law degree at Chapel Hill. I knew both his father and grandfather, prominent lawyers. In some way, I stuck the check into a book, or perhaps used it for a book marker. Now, totally blind for many years, since the war, no longer able to practice, I sell old books, even my own. This book was sold and before it was shipped my assistant always checks to see if anything is in the books. Over the years, I have found many valuables in old books...old letters, old stamps, etc., the exogenous history of living. Since this was an ophthalmology book, I am reminded of esotropia (eyes turning outward). When the eyes turn outward it is very difficult to have a single image in the brain...leading to headaches. (Esotropia you treat with surgery, esophoria treated with prism in lenses.) Our lives are more influenced by the exogenous around us than anything else. It is not difficult to love someone who pulled you out of the river, on to the river bank, when you were drowning. Dealing with the exogenesis-eccentricities of our fellow man is an entirely different matter, particularly those who think it is their life's ambition to make others miserable. You can be sure that if you are excelling in life in anyway, educationally, economically, just enduring-enjoying, there will be someone who will want to cut you down in order to build themselves up. Most children never realize the sacrifices made by parents. Doctors, teachers, pastors have told me that they so seldom get a genuine thank you particularly from those for whom they did the most. Most Christians have never realized how much Christ did for them, the will of God, the work of Jesus, the righteousness of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This writer maintains that most, in spite of the fact that they pretend, do not have the knowledge in their hearts. If so, their lives, living-giving, would be entirely different. Within the insidious future of health care (under socialized-Obama care), all care will resemble that of the veteran's administration system. We think we see suffering because of complexity now but when true socialized care takes over, the last vestige of privacy, we will truly know stress. Next to family members-pastors, our spiritual and physical contentment, we most need the privacy-surveillance of our doctor. Why are American's just sitting by and seeing the last features of our democracy evaporate?

            Of all the changes in my long life, perhaps the greatest, a total change in family life. A term from the scripture was used throughout, on this side of the cross. I believe it was made popular by Jesus himself. "But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house" (Mark 6:4). We expected our "kin" to always be there for us. Too many of today's young people know nothing of their "kin," their relatives. Many do not even know their own mother or father.

            Just as those in the stock market always though that a company such as General Motors, once considered the premiere American corporation, no longer in the Dow average, a corporation taken over by the government, bailed out by government money. Do you dare make the exogenous comparison that people are now bailed out by the government (welfare-entitlements-grants)? People no longer looking toward their kin for help in a time of trouble but only to the government, not even the kinship of Jesus in their hearts. Recently, in this town, a mother prepared two months of frozen dinners, stored in the freezer for her husband and two sons, caught up all their clothing chores, spring cleaning, then killed herself. We have one veteran to kill himself every day...such is the stress of life.

Sammy Davis Jr. sang, "Whether I'm right or whether I'm wrong
Whether I find a place in this world or never belong
I gotta be me, I've gotta be me
What else can I be but what I am."
           
            Within the sanctity of your own being, your own neurology in being me, prepare yourself for the outward struggles of others, the world, flesh, Devil which surrounds us.

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