Thought For the Day: The True Measure of A Man Is How He Treats Someone Who Can Do Him Absolutely No Good

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” – Samuel Johnson

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First Principles: No Government, Any More Than An Individual, Will Long Be Respected Without Being Truly Respectable

“No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.” – James Madison (1788)

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If We Wish For the True Keys of the Kingdom

Fall ChicLand  -In the Keys of An Autumn Day
If We Wish For the True Keys of the Kingdom
by Michael Doyle

It is said that in life's great travesty
That it was the things of curiosity
That finally killed off the barn cat
But I would bet that if we looked in the hat

We'd find that looking in from the outside
There'd be another tale to tell that hides
And that tale would be the need to form impressions
Freely that leads to paths of the best expression

If we wish for the true keys of the kingdom
We must be willing to extend intellectual freedom
Artists and writers must put this as a declarative
That we must not constrict ourselves to a narrative

There is more than one story from one angle
And all the perspectives we might openly dangle
Make it clear that there is no definitive affiliation
That leads to only one path for a nation or nations

Ideological tribes might demand their orthodoxy
But all that ever really leads to is a stridency
That, however, seemingly moralistic, imposes its cage
Unneeded, and if unheeded, becomes the blank page

Filled only with self-censorship and too much fear
Until thought itself shrinks until it disappears
In disappearing, it at last becomes death's imposition
And I submit this as the truth of the dead cat's admission

This becomes the death of literacy and the imagination
When anything outside accepted thought becomes an aberration
To be conquered or at best, hidden, stifling creativity
Until it kills all growth by keeping it in captivity

(c) October 3, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Distant Edge - Keys To My Heart

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First Principles: Law Is Defined To Be A Rule of Action; But How Can That Be A Rule, Which Is Little-Known, and Less Fixed?

“Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?” – James Madison (1788)

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Thought For the Day: No Battle Is Ever Won He Said…The Field Only Reveals To A Man His Own Folly and Despair, and Victory Is An Illusion of Philosophers and Fools

“No battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.” – William Faulkner, novelist (25 Sep 1897-1962)

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Autumn Seen Starkly

Frogmore - Witherwood Thicket - Autumn Sunflowers
Autumn Seen Starkly
by Michael Doyle

October 2nd and the days are wearing thin
I suppose it is true that Winter is coming again
This, then, is the truth of Autumn seen starkly
As the days grow shorter and are seen darkly

Poetry captures violent moments of change
Autumn is such a moment when the world rearranges
The memories of warmth become the cold's creep
And the ice in our veins begins the impartial seep

Deciduous leaves turn golden, touched by death
That causes these to fall like the reaper's breath
With vivid colors, the leaves shrivel and fall
And that certain knowledge changes us as we recall

That Winter is coming just around the bend
And the cold of Winter is rarely anyone's friend
Time keeps slipping - slipping further away
We wish vainly that our childhood might yet stay

To put things straightforward and put it simply
Our heartbeats shudder as the truth amplifies
These moments that transmute with their radiance
As we sit aghast, thinking back on our decadence

A blessedness of sunlight poises hanging in the air
As memories collect the love we thought was everywhere
Only to find life's true growth never really withers
It only hibernates to revive with Spring's turning weather

Old life gives way to that which is thought of as new
But without that which came before it, we would have never knew
The traces of its ancient lineage that blossoms and flowers
In cycles of life that spin out the universal hours

(c) October 2, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Frogmore - Witherwood Thicket - Village

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First Principles: Let Justice Be Done Though The Heavens Should Fall

“Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.“ – John Adams (1777)

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Thought For the Day: Civilization Is the Encouragement of Differences

“Civilization is the encouragement of differences.” – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 Oct 1869-1948)

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It’s A Generational Thing

Freedom Gospel Church - Call to the Altar with the Minister and Staff
It's A Generational Thing
by Michael Doyle

However framed, we all begin with the creation
Naming our family by this point of origination
It comes to note that most issues today are of identity
But, we Christians, know who we are through theology

Christ dwells in our heart full of purest love
Dedicated to knowing the ways of Heaven above
Knowing beyond the known in the depth of His story
We rest forever in the Father's truest glory

There are four forms by which we best pray
Adoration helps us grow in our day-to-day
Reminded souls know whom it is they address
As our praise is directed to whom we confess

Recognizing all that is given, we come in petition
We come not as a matter of form or repetition
But always keeping our unselfish eyes on real need
While we relinquish our unnecessary greed

It's a shift of the spiritual and in succession
As next comes, our prayers of intercession
Praying for blessings bestowed on behalf of others
As we walk the practice of loving one another

Lastly, we pray grounded in humility's ideation
As this shows our maturity along with dedication
Giving in our ways, leaning in as we begin to grow
Into the wisdom and discernment we have come to know

The Holy Spirit guides us toward paths of construction
And away from our appetites for self-destruction
This Wisdom indwells in our lives as good news
That the Holy Spirit uses to guide us to right views

In these, we move toward our restoration and regeneration
Ever forward to needed regrowth and maturation
Growing as we do in our maturity toward godly conviction
We become firmly empowered through our redemption

We become hardwired with and through spiritual capacity
To come to terms with our living and loving capability
As we become steadfast in this foundation of God's love
And we learn and grow as we adopt the ways of Heaven above

We must remember that Christ stepped out of Heaven's bliss
To restore our salvation so that would we would not miss
And through God's efforts in all dimensions, God came to raise
Humanity up; and in return, we offer up our devoted praise

God's eternal love was given in terms of the sacrificial
But more then that, it is given to us as unconditional
Everlasting is the love given to each and every generation
It is given, ever so, by our Holy God held in our veneration

While the church community serves all from cradle to grave
Knowing death has no sting in the face of the power that saves
We are victorious over Satan's deceptive snares
We find that our God is present in everything and everywhere

In life we learn that facts and feelings are a full experience
And that even ironic and heroic are matters of preference
We are better served when our cues come from God's example
It serves to illustrate how redemptive chances are quite ample

This post-modern age sledgehammers its deconstruction
Seemingly without a clue as the paths that lead to reconstruction
The Wise mindfully keep their eyes out for the next generation
So that we might avoid the tragedies that come absent veneration

(c) October 1, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Freedom Gospel Church - When In Doubt, Dance!

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Thought For the Day: The Greatest Obstacle To Discovering the Shape of the Earth, the Continents, and the Oceans Was Not Ignorance But the Illusion of Knowledge

“The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.” -Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, professor, attorney, and writer (1 Oct 1914-2004)

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