Post Mark from Paradise

Michelangelo's David, housed in Florence's Accademia Gallery, is one of the most famous works of art, period.

If

By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/if-by-rudyard-kipling

Americans are known for broken convictions; then aims, limits, and possibilities are just wishful thinking. A man never starves because he did not take time to eat. Unbelievers in God actually believe that all problems can be solved by human technology. Technology has nothing to do with talent. When will we learn that history did not begin the day we were born? When will we learn that everyone does not think as we think? When will we learn that some minds are superior to others? Let's talk about Michaelangelo, many have seen the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, can anyone actually imagine a man lying on his back, all those years to paint that ceiling?

This world traveler (passport stamped in 157 countries)/8 around the world trips including both poles, has had the pleasure of visiting many museums. The most famous museum in the world, has only 1 item, Michaelangelo's Statue of David. This magnificent sculpture is 13 feet tall, perfection. The artist was looking for a piece of marble from which to sculpt this great work of art. It was all in his head, his mind, not a normal mind. He went to a marble quarry and saw a large piece of marble laying near the entrance discarded by men because they were seeking to build one of the many edifices in Italy. He said, "I saw David in that discarded slab of marble, it was a matter of chipping away and letting David come out". He sculpted the most famous artwork in the world from a discarded slab of marble. His famous sculpture of Moses, which I have seen, housed in the church of San Pietro in Rome, was so lifelike when he finished, he hit Moses with his hammer and said: "Speak to me".

What do all robbers, killers, and lovers have in common...a mother. The year I was a freshman and UNCCH, I was hitchhiking home attempting to catch a ride across from NC Central Prison. In a large field next to the prison there was a panel truck and some men digging a grave. Next to the truck, a cheap cardboard coffin. Of course, I had my suitcase with UNC all over it and they began to yell at me about Carolina's ball teams. I went over to speak to them, not realizing that this was the graveyard for prisoners. I said, "what is going on?" One said, "we have a dead one that will never bother anyone else. Would you like to see him"? I said," no, I'll pass". The thought occurred to me that this dead man in this cheap coffin was some mother's son, no one to mourn, no one to even read some scripture over his body. I realize then as I do now that he was a loving baby, a cute schoolchild. Why did he go wrong and contribute nothing to the world? What is the difference between a dead prisoner and a live Michaelangelo? Both had mothers, both were blessed by God with eyes, hands, minds...what is the difference? 

Anyone crazy enough to kill another person, to rob or rape, does not think like the rest of us. Anyone with the magnificence of mind (God's chief creation) such as a Michaelangelo or Einstein or even a Bill Gates does not think like the rest of us. A message from paradise from those saints who are already there; skin of different colors, minds of different abilities, DNA of different genes...only one message, the only thing important in life and living, your personal relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. "(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." http://biblehub.com/kjv/hebrews/11-38.htm 

Let's face it, we live in a world of feel-good religiosity, feel-good civic clubs, feel-good parenting, it makes no difference how much you have been in the church house, if you as a parent are not concerned about the destiny of your child, heaven or hell, you have failed as a parent. If you as a politician are not concerned about your country, those who have given lives, limbs, eyes, health for your country your country has failed. It simply makes one feel good to do good. You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving whether time or money, at the church house, schoolhouse or your house. 

Generosity in time or money is not a feeling but an action. Faith is action based on belief, sustained by confidence.