Happy Lunar New Year!

January 29, 2025, marks the new year for the lunar calendar for China and many other Asian nations. It is also referred to as the Spring Festival. This is the Year of the Snake. We have to love a tradition that celebrates the New Year for a month, right?

To be more precise, this is the Year of the Wood Snake. What does that mean? I am glad you asked this.

A cursory look at the 12 animals and their related elements suggests an emphasis on adaptability, diversity, and lateral growth. In this tradition, the Snake is a symbol of wisdom. What could be wiser than shedding old habits, embracing intuition above overthinking, and viewing change as the opportunity to evolve that it can be and is if we allow it to be so. The element Wood represents growth, much like any plant in Spring. The snake overall is linked with wisdom, mystery, introspection, and elegance. That seems to point to a very interesting year ahead. Doesn’t it? Come on and join me in this second celebration of the new year. Let’s make the most of it!

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First Principles: A Good Moral Character Is the First Essential In A Man

“[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man…It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous. ” – George Washington (1790)

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Thought For the Day: Wealth and Rank Are What Man Desires, But Having Contentment Is the Greatest Wealth and Highest Rank

“Wealth and rank are what man desires, but having contentment is the greatest wealth and highest rank.” – Confucius 

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A Call For the Nation’s Unity

A Call For the Nation's Unity
by Michael Doyle

For God's good satisfaction
Prayers must be followed by the right actions
This is true in our way of government
Especially if we are seeking after our improvement

We know we care for our family
We must, therefore, seek toward unity
Everywhere we look, we see adversity
Let us love one another with dignity

Seeking God's help in all we do
Solid foundations are needed for me and you
We must build our house on sand
If our nation is to continue to stand

All of us share an inherent dignity
Debate should be had to find common ground
This is the mandate from God's divinity
If a lasting peace is to be found

Our unity must be based on honesty
Truth is the unifier of our family
Speaking the truth must be had despite the costs
Steadying the storms through, we are tossed

If we want unity, we must embrace humility
To work together as people filled with possibility
The line that unifies is found centered in each heart
We have needed each other since our nation's start

Without unity, we build our houses on sand
It is with humility that we come to understand
All of life must be treated with mercy
If America is to be the shining light of history

(c) January 28, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
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First Principles: We Must Consider That We Shall Be As A City Upon A Hill. The Eyes of All People Are Upon Us

“For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. Soe that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.” – John Winthrop

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Thought For the Day: If There’s A Book You Really Want To Read, But It Hasn’t Been Written Yet, Then You Must Write It

“If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” – Toni Morrison

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To Know Love Actually

To Know Love Actually
by Michael Doyle

I was just saying hello
When you started saying goodbye
I kept trying the best I know
Being persistent in giving it my best try

Love can be and is so cruel
And I am inevitably its fool
Still, I know from beginning to end
You've been my best friend

I don't really know how it is factually
But I'd love to know love actually
It's all my flaws and egregious mistakes
That likely leads to all my heartbreaks

True love is the gift that keeps giving
It just takes a lot of forgiving
Real answers are hard to come by
Dark horses can't race, no matter how hard they try

Are we really just following the motions
As we end up faking our emotions
Are there words enough to say
Enough to get us through this day

I don't really know how it is factually
But I'd love to know love actually
It's all my flaws and egregious mistakes
That likely leads to all my heartbreaks

Love, it seems, can be total agony
When there's a million miles between you and me
There can be no worse sense of sorrow
Then, to know it will be no different tomorrow

We send our love across the text lines
With me wishing that you were really mine
Whether it's Christmas or close to Valentine's
I really wish you were truly mine

I don't really know how it is factually
But I'd love to know love actually
It's all my flaws and egregious mistakes
That likely leads to all my heartbreaks

(c) January 27, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

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First Principles: The Care of Human Life and Happiness, and Not Their Destruction, Is the First and Only Legitimate Object of Good Government

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” – Thomas Jefferson

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Thought For the Day: That Community Is Already In the Process of Dissolution Where Each Man Begins To Eye His Neighbor As A Possible Enemy

“That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where non-conformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our convictions in the open lists, to win or lose.” – Learned Hand

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Discerning the Consequences

Discerning the Consequences
by Michael Doyle

Standing up steady to be present
We're fully ready to represent
As we adjust our attitudes
Until we are ready with our gratitude

Rising up in confidence
We rely on the ways of providence
As we stumble toward getting right
We need this to live in God's light

Life trends to make us more mature
As we struggle next to conquer our nature
No longer living simply day-to-day
All in preparation for our last day

To live best as a human being
We must live life with meaning
In eternity, we are God's servants
We must live life with this as our purpose

Logos existed before all of creation
It's simply natural that such is the situation
The universe necessitates a God of relationship
Not just an omniscient being worthy of worship

However, fractured we are in our contradictions
There is every sense of strong indication
That we are to put out our conclusions on the table
Knowing as much of our worldview as we are capable

We hope to dissuade the pagan sense of indifference
But their rejecting the truth won't wound providence
Instead, it shows up entirely in the ample reverse
As God's presence is readily shown throughout the universe

Making a system of God has its built-in fallibility
However much the surface appears as morality
God's love, despite our stubbornness, leads to repentance
Layer-by-layer, as we surrender to truth's acceptance

Some have God's law written on their heart
Keeping the Good News present from the start
The warming felt is to remind us to keep His commands
Going in the wrong direction has its own demands

Separation from God is a matter of our own wills
Not God's will but our own, as is the real deal
Of being enabled to use our own voices
And then earning the outcome of our own choices

The decisions we make form our direction
Though from time to time, God offers His course correction
Discernment is called for in guiding our reason
This determines the outcome of our seasons

Going the distance creates our destination
So perhaps we should have a moment's hesitation
Every choice we make has its consequence
This is easily seen throughout life's evidence

Sin is sin in all of it's leveled equality
Equally damning in all of sin's liberality
But the damage done, to be instructive,
Is not equally, fundamentally destructive

Justice is based on God's logic based on truth
It's been this way since our youngest youth
Mercy comes down to accepting God's grace
And depending on His love that we embrace

Through His love, Jesus cloaks our sins
Covering our wrongs with grace again and again
Let His kindness lead to our ready repentance
Knowing our wrongs has the price of our acceptance

Our confession builds a layer of credibility
To accept the need for justice and our culpability
It is only through our just atonement
That we show that we understand what the Gospel meant

Or means; forgiveness is our best path out
To make right with God without tainted doubt
Walking and talking in truth and reason
This is the best of living in every season

(c) January 26, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
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