Ultimate Question

Why is there something rather than nothing?  Is there anywhere an answer?  A God or gods?  No God, then what?

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

Trees in the Desert

15,000 sq ft: fenced yard, 1990 Gibralter Rd., Landers, Ca.

(1) Sycamore: front (origin)

(1) Fruited Mulberry: rear (planted)

(1) Fruitless Mulberry: front (origin)

(2) Joshua Trees: front (origin)

(1) Joshua Tree: rear (origin)

(1) Oak: rear (planted) 

(1) Italian Cypress: front (planted)

(2) Monterey Pine Trees: front (planted)

(2) Evergreen trees: front (planted)

(4) Evergreen trees: rear (planted) 

(1) Eucalyptus tree: rear (origin)

(2) Dollar Eucalyptus tree: front and rear (planted)

(1) California Pepper tree: rear (origin) 

(1) California Pepper tree: rear (planted) 

(3) California Pepper tree: front (planted) 

(1) Pickled Orchid tree: front (planted) 

(2) Juniper Evergreen shrub: rear (planted)

(1) Evergreen shrub: front (planted) 

(3) Oleander bushes: front (planted)        

         All planted trees (11 to 4 years old)

         All origin trees (50 to 70 years old)

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

 

maybe not?

One day something different happened among us. Two thousand years later, this world is still trying to figure it all out. An obscure Hebrew spiritual teacher without credentials, from the obscure and tragic land of Palestine, was hung on a Roman death cross because he disrupted the political/religious order of things. There is nothing different here, nothing new. Then, out of the blue, all that resurrection talk began. The whispers permeated the known world. Does dead not mean dead?

Maybe, maybe not. If you or I had a still heart and no brain activity, certainly we would be pronounced dead, given a number and a ride to the crematorium. End of story, well, maybe, maybe not. Does dead mean dead, is death an ending or a door?

This is the question of every time? It was the question that haunted our world two thousand years ago and haunts us to this very moment. After all the supposed human progress, the gargantuan libraries in the sky and all the scientific advancement that has revolutionized our world, still we ask, does dead mean dead?  The question has no answer in this world, only opinions.  

Most of us avoid asking the question, let alone posing an answer. Some of us just file away someone else’s answer and walk on doing our own thing. Forget about what is on or in the next room, in our time, only one question bothers us, does dead mean dead? Forget the macho bravado stuff, all the denials, death as an ending, bothers us.

Shall we take Easter for what it is? Easter is one day in our limited world, a day to celebrate the, "maybe not"!  Party on!

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

 

 

 

Questions

What is consciousness?  How is it that we humanoids are not only aware of our now but also the past and possible futures? Why are we humanoids able to ask the questions, who am I, who are you? Is the male dog asking any such questions as he sniffs the behind of any female in his world? Why is there such a momentous distance or gulf between we conscious humans and all other forms of life? Does any concept of a mere natural progression provide an adequate answer to these questions?

If not, what is going on here?  If the answer is yes, we are taking the bridge to nowhere, are we not?

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.  

Appendix

Every good book has a climax. Every good book promises to take us somewhere yet unexplored. Some books do and most do not. What is God about in this world of ours?  Is God about reshaping the peoples of our world? Not so much, despite all the claims to know God, we have yet to find a worthy and engaging reflection.  Every ethic, theology, every book is but a short-term fix to a long-term human problem. This problem cannot be fixed, we are who we are. Like it or not, we are who we are.

Maybe, the only live option is to surrender. Surrender to our own and others’ expectations. Surrender to the supposed divine expectations. All the plastic surgery available to us cannot turn we who are ugly into the beautiful. All the makeup is pointless. Give up and grow up!

Ours will ever be a competitive, dog eat dog world. Why are we all born as combatants? Why were we all born to trust in something? If there be a God, the only marker available to us in this world is to trust this God, past all the craziness and beyond the grave. Somehow we as individuals are significant, somehow we matter, our lives matter. 

Living and learning to trust in the surety of God is the only meaningful earthbound viable option. It is not easy but it is not complicated.  

What have we got to lose?

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.