I have found “giving up” to be really hard work and terribly difficult to achieve.
I am not making light of the desire, just the opposite. The desire is often very intense, but giving up seems to simply be much harder than finding joy or purpose. When joy seems elusive, I look for purpose. Purpose usually leads me to joy.
It was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil… not the Tree of Wisdom.
Just something to ponder.
Today I did something a quite different. Not only do I share my age, my educational background, and a good deal of my upbringing, I also share my emotional response to the realities we face as a crafting community in light of constricting markets, borders, and liberties.
I did not get “political” even if some may think I did. I went historical, and I shared how my close connection with my grandparents has helped me through past difficulties, and how I hope it will help me through the ones we face now.
I also talk about Tour de Fleece at the end 
When the knowledge others possess makes you feel foolish, the solution is to seek knowledge. To rail against those with knowledge might make you feel temporally better, but the world will now know you are as foolish as you feel.
The bully needs little encouragement to abuse. All that is needed is the power over another, and for that power to be unchecked by others.
Pilate gave the people the opportunity to set Jesus free – the prophesized savior, a man who taught love.
Yet when given the choice, they instead chose a traitor, one imprisoned for sedition and murder. They chose to condemn unto death the very hope they had been taught to seek, and instead they chose another. (Luke 23)
History shows us, time-and-time again, that people will choose unwisely. Choosing a path of love, charity, and kindness takes work. It also can require us to do what the wealthy young man could not do – follow Christ. (Mathew 19:21-22).
The wise speak and quote truth, often universal truth that transcends time or has evolved due to time.
The manipulative misquotes, takes soundbites out of context, and re-writes the words of the wise for the purpose of self-interest.
Those seeking to become wise will spend time evaluating a source for its honesty, clarity, and truth. Those seeking to be led will simply believe that which confirms their desired state of being whether it is truth or falsehood.
Both will believe they have found truth, but only one will know that they have.
War is not just fighting on battlefields, but it is also aiding those displaced and disrupted by the fighting.
This thought and many others prompted me to write a bit and share it in my other blog Pithy History, War: More than Just a Battlefield.
The journey of life can lead us to the certainty of the truths we seek, but only if we avoid the pitfalls that can come due to expectation.
Expectation can often be the biggest roadblock faced on any journey. Expectation can even scuttle a journey before it begins. Remember, expectation is only a belief in something, whereas, it is on the journey that certainty can be found.
Truth is both simple and complex – the greatest of all paradoxes. Truth is more than just a belief, it relies on a preponderance of evidence. Sometimes this evidence has little value or certainty for anyone other than ourselves, but that does not mean the evidence is not valid. It may simply mean that we are seeking a small understanding of something much greater than we are yet ready to perceive.
If we remember that expectation is simply the starting point – the hope, the belief, the dream – and that the journey provides the data, the trial, and the proof, then we should move beyond belief and gain the true knowledge life offers to teach us.
Pithy Ponderings 