"What belongs on our Bucket List?"

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Bucket List part 1

Pandora played "Wonderful Merciful Savior" by Selah this morning on my "quickmix" channel. Now a favorite. Don't know where I am going with this? More and more feeling the mortality of this Life. This time on earth passing so quickly. No I have not received a terminal diagnosis or anything, just all of a sudden I am 54 not far from "3 score and 10" , 16 years, 832 weeks, 5824 days, 34944 hours.... Events in my mind that seem not that long ago are now 10 years, 20 years, 30 years ago. So how do I make the best use of the last 25% of my life, Lord willing? A sense of urgency, after all it seems many don't feel all that great in their last years. On one hand I want to experience this life's offerings, to travel, hunt, fish, and to love..my wife.. and my kids deeply. Yet the compelling tug that there are more important, even eternal things that I could do, that make those former things seem selfish and shallow....vanity in the words of Solomon. What really belongs on my "Bucket List"???
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Cycle of Democracy

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. "From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

"From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."

Dr. Alexander Tytler, a Scot professor, wrote a scholarly tome, from which this concept comes, called "The Athenian Republic" which was published shortly before the thirteen American colonies gained independence from Britain. "Google" him to learn more.
In publishing a handout on the "Cycle" in 1994 I noted that the national debt had reached a staggering $4.5 trillion dollars. Today (Oct. 1, '07) it is $9.06 trillion! Our forebears thought of debt as slavery. They would be shocked at what their descendants have done. - - John Wrisley.