Snake Eyes

("The Very Worst of Luck")

            About three blocks from my house, Wilmington, NC, Mary Baker Eddy wrote her book, Science and Health". The beginning of the "so called" Christian Science religion. This so called religion is neither science nor Christian. Rather, built on the premise that everything in the world is spiritual, not psychical....so the problems of life, whatever they are: overeating, cancer, rude children...are not physical but spiritual; not real, and therefore, easy to control. So, they put out these "outlandish" advertisements, that just reading her book can help in the control of all human problems (issues), even smoking and drinking. But, the most far reaching of all, a cure for homosexuality.

           

             Perhaps somewhere it has been explained, the plight of the illiterate who cannot read or the blind who cannot read. Their church is built around a "reading room." If they only knew, their reading time could be so much better spent, just reading the book that God took time to write (have written) along with everything else he did (creating the physical world and everything in it), the REAL answer book.

            Jesus dealt with the psychical during his short time on this earth (33 years). God in man, he was hungry, he saw many sick people whom he did not heal; saw much sin, and especially, Roman slavery, which he did nothing about. He saw the inequities of man-kind, royalty as well as poverty. The problem I have had in my belief system, throughout life, not just because I am a totally blind man, not just because I was raised in poverty, not just because I have been exposed to every type hypocrisy the world could receive; WHY we all are expected to believe and worship our sovereign creator, on such an uneven "playing field."

            Oh, the traps of the human mind! Oh, the plight of a woman in a wheel-chair attempting to prepare food with counters and tables built for "normal" people. Everything in the world was built for the "normal." How can a blind person find ANYTHING, especially when there are "unthinking" people around who move everything. Most of my life is filled with frustration from paying good money to employees who do not give a "rosy-dam" about my situation.

            When I was in College, half-starved, always in a state of depression; I would observe the better-heeled students (those who could afford to eat in the better restaurants, where better clothes, and drive fancy cars), playing the game of "dice-throwing." It did not bother them at all to lose money, or to take their friends' money...it was all a game of chance. And this would be their attitude throughout life. In 2015, $91.5 B dollars was spent in the gaming industry, $240 B in gambling industry. Gambling/gaming is as much a way of life around the world, as people breathing.

            This world traveler looked into the great casinos at Monte Carlo, Panama, Atlantic City...and many other such places. One, reading the movie magazines, following lives of the "rich and famous" on television, would think that only those with money would be risking their money...most of it not hard-earned, as those of us that work. To my surprise, it seems that those in the casinos were very ordinary people. Of course, every Nation/State/most Counties must get into the action...lottery games, such as "powerball" and "megamillions." The politicians have sense enough to put these sales-spots for lottery tickets in the poorest areas of town. Once, when this rider had given a blistering speech against the lottery (before it came to NC) on the radio, one prominent citizen whom I respected very much had called and said, "Dr. Morris is so wrong, every person has a right to hope, and making a large sum of money, even when the odds against you are so great, is the only hope that many poor people have."

            In the business world, the political world, and even (I must say) among most of our church friends...so many smile at us while deep inside they hate us. This is the whole philosophy of gambling, falsity. The sales-world is built around false advertisement. Sales-people smiling at you (whether on a used car lot, or at the cash register in your local grocery store,), while taking your money, deep inside they just detest your very life, your very ability to spend money.

            Many would say that even Jesus was born with the dice tossed showing "snake eyes." It is hard to think that any child has had a worse birth-place, lived a more desperate life (never owned anything, never had a home that he called his own, had to depend on the generosity of others). Most of us have had hard lives. Most of the truly rich men I have known negotiated from hard lives, and were not ashamed to talk about it. The only shame comes in conniving that you did by yourself. It is so important to give all credit to the one who was generous enough to give us life, and to protect us through whatever life throws our way....whether from an inherited disease, crippledness, or even ugliness.