CONTINUUMS 2

Before continuing with the last three continuos referred to in last week’s Thought, I would encourage you to review your responses to the quizzes from that previous Thought. It might likewise be a good thing, since the 1st of the New Year is raging upon us, to see if some of your responses could possibly be worthy of being placed on your list of resolutions which I am sure you are starting to assemble.

RESPECT ----------------------------------------------------------------DISDAIN

REVERENCE --------------------------------------------------------- PROFANE

CIVILITY -------------------------------------------------------------- AUDACITY

CHILVALRY ---------------------------------------------------------- EQUALITY

ELEGANCE---------------------------------------------------------VULGARITY

KINDNESS --------------------------------------------------- INDIFFERENCE


CHILVALRY --------------------------------------------------------- EQUALITY

I know, I know, this seems like a continuum where both ends could be construed as being positive, but as I have witnessed the demands being made for equality in all phases of our lives, I have witnessed an equal shift taking place in the loss of chivalry during the campaigning for those cultural movements.

There is little doubt that when chivalry had its 15 minutes of fame, bigotry, castes and ranks divided communities and nations internally and from one another.

There is just as small amount of doubt, that as individuals and nations have demanded equality among races, birthrights and social positions, the means to achieving those ends have in most cases ignored the notion of chivalry.

Perhaps taking a little quiz on this continuum will help clarify what I am trying to say.

Where would opening the car door for your female boss fall on this continuum?

Where would your actions toward people of fame, fortune or rank versus those less fortunate fall on this continuum?

Where would feeding the hungry regardless of their nation of residency or birth fall on this continuum?

Where would learning of languages, rather than demanding others learn yours, so that you might be able to better communicate with more of the inhabitants of the planet fall on this continuum?

Where would burning, rioting and causing social unrest in the efforts of furthering a righteous cause fall on this continuum?

Where would obnoxious behavior in order to make or correct a political point fall on this continuum?


ELEGANCE------------------------------------VULGARITY

I often observed my father leave the room during the indelicate moments when a babe was crying and needed the sustaining fluid which only its mother could provide. He likewise would never be heard discussing any personal or private matter in public settings.

I am sure my grandchildren, even though out of respect they complied, thought me to be extremely old fashioned, when I explained to them that we did not use commonly accepted four letter words as emphasis to our comments in our home.

I think it was somewhere around 1960 and I was enrolled in a beginning speech class at what was then called Santa Ana Junior College. There was one young lady who used some four letter words during her speech who was severely criticized for using such language which would be better kept confined to the docks or construction zones. I am sure my professor would die of humiliation if he were to hear the expletives used in today’s classrooms to emphasize points in almost all speeches.

All of these scenarios are laughed at in today’s liberalized society. Maybe the following quiz will indicate how far we have moved along this continuum.

Where would the gyrations and movements of today’s dances fall on this continuum?

Where would the acceptance of four letter words in casual conversation fall on this continuum?

Where would the inability to use words in their previously acceptable context fall on this continuum?

Where would the over exposure of skin and the casualness with which personal and private matters fall on this continuum?

Where would the lyrics of today’s music fall on this continuum?

Where would the liberalization of movie ratings fall on this continuum?


KINDNESS ------------------------------ INDIFFERENCE

My mother told me many times as I was growing up, ‘if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I quickly understood the saying nice things part of her message, but in retrospect I am pretty sure the indifference, whether inferred or meant in the last part of her scolding has taken on a very different meaning as I have moved through the decades after first hearing these words.

The reason I chose indifference for the opposite end of this continuum rather than unkindness, is since bullying has become an object of crusading mothers on every school ground in the United States and well represented nightly in The News, I felt the underrepresented characteristic of indifference needed some publicity.

Since there are some who take my charter membership in the Non Political Party Party as a stand of indifference, I need to assure all who might have had such a thought that just the opposite is true. I find that my membership in the N3P (Thank you Garnett Oyler Jorgensen for the ‘logo’ for our Non Political Party Party) allows me to express my views on politics and governments and still maintain an attitude of kindness and at the same time avoid becoming indifferent.

Your suffering is about over. Just one more quick quiz before you can go out to recess or go about making your Sabbath Day a Delight. (For Garnett Oyler Jorgensen that might be S2D)

Where would refraining from giving someone a compliment because you don't think you know them well enough fall on this continuum?

Where would withholding your pittance of charity because you are afraid of stepping on someone’s independence fall on this continuum?

Where would writing your grandmother a letter rather than texting or emailing fall on this continuum?

Where would parking in a handicap zone you are not qualified to use, since you only have a couple of items to pick up, fall on this continuum?

Where would refraining from loudly speaking on your cell phone in public places fall on this continuum?

Where would picking up the newspapers when your neighbor forgot to have delivery suspended, and safeguarding them until their return fall on this continuum?

I know there will be a great tendency for me to be judged as an old fuddy duddy because of what I have written these last two weeks. I want to hasten to assure one and all that I do not believe everything that is old to be on the good end of a continuum and everything that is new to be on the bad end of that same continuum.

In truth, my greatest desire is that there would be an absolute revolution, which would catapult our world onto a level of respect, reverence, civility, equality, elegance and kindness which has never even been tried, let alone achieved.

In truth, I also believe that the prophesied Second Coming of our Lord and Savior is not being held up awaiting a magical threshold of evil to be reached, but is only being delayed because we have yet to come to understand and act according to the level of the characteristics of respect, reverence, civility, equality, elegance and kindness required for Him to have a people to dwell among.