Author: MontereyBayForum

It’s time to update your resume — your Life Resume — your ‘brand’ ….

  Yes, it’s a good time to update your resume.  Your Life Resume.  Your ‘brand’ ….

How to update your Life Resume?    Ask yourself  these five  questions:

 What important  experiences formed and shaped you?

What achievements have you accomplished over your life time?

What qualities and gifts are unique to you — that you know of or others say about you? What are your skills?

What are your Passions?  What do you love to do?

In summary, where are you?  Where have you  been?  And, where are you going?

As you look back, where has God been leading you  — then  — and now?

   A great book to read is Being Mortal.  It’s about End of Life Care and it asks  four questions:

  1. What is your  understanding of your situtation?
  2. What options are available?
  3. What are your Goals?
  4. What are you going to Do?

 

   Many years ago people put all their prized possessions in a wagon and set off westward for a new life.  They pressed on.  And when they came to swollen streams and difficulty moving their wagons they left behind all sorts of prized possessions.  They pressed on.  They did not look back.   The Oregon Trail was littered with prized possessions left behind.

 Similarly, the apostle Paul regarded all his ‘possessions’  — his personal life  resume of being circumcised, of the tribe of Benjamin, his great zeal as a prosecutor for righteousness, that he did it all ‘perfectly’…. Paul viewed all his ‘resume’ as ‘rubbish’ aka ‘excrament’ … Paul viewed all of his accomplishments as dead weight.  Paul’s goal was to press on …. with the goal of Christ Jesus.

 So — are your ‘accomplishments’ dead weight?  Is it time to leave behind those accomplishments as dead weight and press on?    Is it time to ‘pray and let God worry’ as Martin Luther said 500 years ago?    

_____________________________________

The above is based on a sermon by Pastor Dale Sollom-Brotherton,  October 8, 2017 at Christ Lutheran Church, Aptos, California.  Services are at 10 AM on Sundays.

To hear Pastor Dale’s  sermons, go to YouTube and search under Christ Lutheran Church Aptos — look for  the Sermon for October 8.

Want to catch some great organ music played at Grace Cathedral  and learn about the Reformation?

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)-affiliated organization Reformation 500 is holding an ecumenical celebration that includes a social justice event, a Eucharist, splendid music and a festive reception. See how the Reformation looks today.

_____________________________________

written by Cameron Jackson   DrCameronJackson@gmail.com 

Share

freedom ? — Trump, Hilary and the “swamp” in Washington square off…. who is winning?

Three issues:  immigration, taxes and health care.  Looks like  the “swamp” still runs Washingon D.C. The alligators are strong.

And the world keeps getting less safe in so many ways…. Las Vegas with 50+ dead and 500 sent to hospital. So sad.  So terrible.

Trump stumped for a physical   Wall to control illegal immigration,  he wants to  reduce taxes on the middle class  and Trump  wants to repeal Obama-Care.

Where are we?

So far, 10 months into his Presidency,  Trump   can’t seem  get much done on any of these three issues.  The ‘swamp’ [big time donors, the ‘establishment’ of both Democrats and Republicans] oppose Trump’s stance on all  3 issues.

Remember Hillary?  Hilary opposed a Wall, wanted  a single payer system of health care and said  she wants to soak the rich –  but who knows really what her policies would have been on taxes.

Freedom for the little guy.  The small business.  The lemon juice  stand.  People who want to start a business or grow one.  How can we help to  increase freedom?

And how can people safely go to a Country Western concert and just ‘hang out’ with friends listening to music that heals them?  How do we as a People heal …?

written  Oct. 7, 2017  by Cameron Jackson    DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

 

 

Share

Late-night TV blackout — about Harvey Weinstein Hollywood producer & Democratic Party mega-donor

   Late-night TV blackout  — about  Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood producer & Democrat Party mega-donor.

The parade of liberal late-night TV hosts — including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and James Corden — flat-out ignored Thursday the blistering New York Times report alleging that Hollywood super-producer and Democratic Party mega-donor Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed multiple women over a period of decades.

The allegations piled up even as Mr. Weinstein helped define popular culture. He has collected six best-picture Oscars and turned out a number of touchstones, from the films “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting” to the television show “Project Runway.”

In public,  Mr. Weinstein  presents himself as a liberal lion, a champion of women and a winner of not just artistic but humanitarian awards.

In 2015, the year Ms. O’Connor wrote her memo, his company distributed “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about campus sexual assault.

A longtime Democratic donor, Mr. Weinstein  hosted a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton in his Manhattan home last year. He employed Malia Obama, the oldest daughter of former President Barack Obama, as an intern this year, and recently helped endow a faculty chair at Rutgers University in Gloria Steinem’s name. During the Sundance Film Festival in January, when Park City, Utah, held its version of nationwide women’s marches, Mr. Weinstein joined the parade.

Weinstein’s most current attorney, a woman, just resigned.

—————————————————————————

Firenze Sage writes:   Did we really expect fair and balanced news from these elitists?

Share

MSNBC host: Every good Republican has a tank … part of the right to bear arms

 Every good Republican has a tank…. part of the right to bear arms …so says MSNBC Chris Matthews.  

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews said Republicans were “fanatics” on guns and that they even supported private ownership of tanks.

Chris Matthews  added, “Well you know what the Republican’s says in their platform that the right to bear arms precedes the Constitution. It’s a God-given sort of theological right. They treat this like religion. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s a religious, essential notion to them that everybody should have any kind of gun they want, any—a bazooka, a tank. They never put a limit on it, ever.”

———————————————————————–

Firenze Sage responds:   Yes, Chris,  it is an unalienable right to defend oneself against the govt so as to protect your right to say stupid things.

Share

Comcast, government, bureaucracy: Just keep ’em moving … what to do about The Big Shuffle?

Just keep ’em moving.  That’s what happens when you deal with  government and  bureaucracy.   Just try to start something new in a moribund organization — it won’t get off the ground.

Yesterday   — in Aptos, CA –  in a Parkinson’s support group a man  with severe Parkinson’s issues said to a government bureaucrat:

Can you help?  Whenever I contact Comcast I get the big shuffle …  Comcast used to come out and help when my service got messed up and now they do nothing …

And what did that government bureaucrat do?  Nothing.  He referred the man elsewhere.  Ah, yes, just keep ’em moving. That’s the  Big Shuffle.

What to do about COMCAST?   It used to be that they helped people who had problems. Now it’s just  ‘move ’em on….’

It’s not just COMCAST — it’s lots of organizations including churches.

You want to put a bench outside a church building?   You get referred to the architecture committee which does not meet officially anytime.

How about gathering up empty pill bottles and sending them oversees?  If the organization is moribund — those worthy  projects just don’t get off the ground.

What to do?  Don’t give up! Find a way!

written by Cameron Jackson   DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

 

 

Share

Jesus Heals All! Come Oct. 14 to Aptos, Resurrection Catholic Church

 Jesus Heals All!   Come Oct. 14 to Aptos   

October 14, 2017    Live Music 9:45 am  to 11:45 am    –  pot luck sharing. 

Memorial Table for those harmed in recent  fires.  

 7600 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA

Resurrection Catholic Community  

Experience  healing through  prayer,  song, laughter, sharing and listening.

 All are Welcome!   

 Coming from out of town?  Plan to stay in Aptos for the day. Enjoy a bit of Aptos  enviorns.  The entrance to Seacliff State Beach  is 1/2 mile away.              

SATURDAY, Oct. 14, 2017 – 

    9:45 am — 11:45 am:   Live Music (Secular & Sacred)  in the Community Hall.  Lulu Manus on  guitar!  

Like to participate?    bring a favorite book on healing — or some reading that helps you heal.  Bring an object that matters to you (a ring, bracelet, picture). Bring some food that you like to eat and some to share.  

There may   be  discussion of some several of the healings Jesus did with women:  Peter’s mother-in-law;  a woman who had bled for  many years; a young girl who had recently  died.  

Come and enjoy the music!  Share  food with others!  Listen!  Laugh!    Bring a friend!   

Bring your (supervised)  children & grandchildren.   Mini-cup cakes, warm cider & tea  at 9:30 am.

Can’t come for all of it?  Then come for part!  Prefer to read the newspaper?  Fine!  Need to do your work?   Then bring your  laptop or smart phone  as you listen to great music played by   Resurrection musician  Lulu Manus.

 Healing Event is offered  by Licensed  Clinical Psychologist, Cameron Jackson, Ph.D., J,D.   PSY14762     127 Jewell Street, Santa Cruz,CA  95003    831 688 6002

For information on various events happening at churches in the Aptos, CA area click on the link below: 

 www.aptoschurch.info 

 

Share

Wake up Aptos, CA churches: Go out to the people! Ashes to go? Wafers & prayer & jam tarts to go at the farmer’s market?

 

Ashes to go. Why not wafers and prayer to go?

  Wake up Aptos, CA  churches! Go out to the people.

One place to go is the Aptos Farmers’ Market.   Ashes to go? How about   Wafers and Prayers &  Jam Tarts to go   at the  Aptos Farmer’s Market?

farmers market

How about home made cookies from St. John’s Episcopal,  Resurrection Catholic , Christ Lutheran  and  First Baptist — made  with love & sealed with a church sticker?

 Why sell baked goods only at Christmas time?  People want cookies all year  long! People love home made pasta sauces. How  about    Tomato Preserves?   And Church cook books? Many  Aptos  churches have Women’s Guilds and those organizations  can talk to each other and work together.

   And, how about a  Prayer Station — next to the jam jars  —  where people can ask for prayers for someone they love and miss  now serving in the military?

 Why not?  Don’t wait for people to come to you.  Go to them. People need healing.

prayers available at Farmers Markets?

Looking at all those gray heads sitting in the pews  it’s clear that congregations are aging.  And shrinking.

It’s  time to go out to the people rather than hope that they — somehow — will come to your “campus’ aka “community”.

Research shows:    churches that say they have a strong sense of identity and mission have a higher level of vitality.

So what’s the mission of your church?  What’s the sense of identify that makes your church distinctive?

It’s time to  ‘invest” connecting  with people outside the church premises.   Go where people actually congregate.  Engage people on their turf.  Where are they? At Farmers’ Markets.  At the Garlic Festival and the  Santa Cruz Fair.

 Did you know that hospitals are doing exactly that?  Because hospital In-Patient services have become so expensive, hospitals are offering all sorts of services on an Out-Patient basis.

  Hospitals are investing outside their walls.  They are following the patient.

 See article in The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, September 26, 2017:   Hospitals Invest in Outside Clinics.  Per that article,  Peggy Seasborn, vice president of strategic growth for Dignity Health [owner of Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, CA] said joint replacement seemed impossible a decade ago.  Now Dignity Health is able to replace hips and knees outside the hospital  in a limited number of cases.   People are bypassing the Hospital.  Since 1994 the has been an 80 percent increase in outpatient admissions whereas Inpatient admissions to Hospitals has remained flat or decreasing.

It’s time that local Aptos CA  churches ‘invested’ outside their walls.     Go out with a sense of Mission and Sense of Identity and engage with people. On their turf.

One near to Aptos,CA  church that does ‘go out and  find the patient’  is  Santa Cruz Hope Church located in Soquel, CA and Scotts Valley.

If Hospitals can think ‘outside the box’ —  so can Aptos  churches with  a strong sense of Mission and Identity.

  How do people experience healing?  Numerous ways:  prayer, music, singing, laughter, listening, and sharing are some ways.   In what new ways can  your church share the Healing Love of Christ? And reach out ….

 It’s time to leave  those church buildings ….

 

________________________

written by  licensed Psychologist  PSY 14762 Cameron Jackson    DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

Share

‘safe inside his alabaster chamber’ – Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago

    ‘Safe inside his alabaster chamber’ – Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago

Chicago can’t spare cops to investigate death of man ‘found floating’ in Lake Michigan.

Dispatchers tried to assign the drowning call around 2 p.m. But every 19th District cop was tied up, assigned to other duties–like watching the mayor’s house.

This may strike you as odd, but while that man was dying on the sand, there were seven cops doing essentially nothing in the same police district. Two were assigned to sit in front of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s house at 4228 N. Hermitage. Another two were committed to sitting in the back of the mayor’s house. Another two were assigned to a roving car that circles the mayor’s home. And the seventh was the sergeant in charge of the mayor’s castle guard.

—————————————————————————-

Firenze Sage writes:   Rahm opposes gun permits for others. Rahm has more guards than a drug lord.

Share

The Palestinian way: Marry your rapist

     More than 50% of  Palestinians — men and women  — think a woman should marry her rapist. That seems bizarre and  outlandish  by Western standards. The picture to left  shows a group marriage of child brides in  Palestine.

Below is a picture of an 11 year old who was forced to marry her rapist.

 Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Palestine have similar ‘marry-your-rapist laws.

 Egypt is the worst country for women in the Arab world, closely followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen, according to gender experts surveyed in a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll.

 These are the results of a U.N. Women study which finds horrifying attitudes and behaviors toward women in the Muslim world.

 64% of “Palestinian” men say that women who dress provocatively deserve to be sexually harassed. 52% believe that women who are in public places at night are asking to be harassed.

57% think that a woman should marry her rapist and 47% believe that women who are honor killed for bringing “shame” to their families usually did something to deserve it.

A third of “Palestinian” men say that women who don’t wear hijabs deserve to be insulted.

And the women aren’t much better.

More “Palestinian” women than men justify sexual harassment in public places. 54% believe that a woman who was raped should marry her rapist. 41% don’t think he should be prosecuted.

43% of “Palestinian” women agree that women who are out in public at night deserve to be harassed.

Half the population knew of an honor killing that had taken place in their community in the previous year.

—————————————————————————–

 Firenze Sage writes:   More dross from the religion of peace. 

Share

Is the electric car a fraud? Should “green technology” be paid for by taxpayers?

Let’s “Go Green” with electric cars?

 Huge hopes have been tied to electric cars as the solution to automotive CO2 climate problem. But it turns out the the electric car batteries are eco-villains in the production process of creating them. Several tons of carbon dioxide has been emitted, even before the batteries leave the factory.

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute was commissioned by the Swedish Transport Administration and the Swedish Energy Agency to investigate litium-ion batteries climate impact from a life cycle perspective. There are batteries designed for electric vehicles included in the study. The two authors Lisbeth Dahllöf and Mia Romare has done a meta-study that is reviewed and compiled existing studies.

The report shows that the battery manufacturing leads to high emissions. For every kilowatt hour of storage capacity in the battery generated emissions of 150 to 200 kilos of carbon dioxide already in the factory. The researchers did not study individual brand batteries, how these were produced, or the electricity mix they use. But if we understand the great importance of the battery here is an example: Two common electric cars on the market, the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S, the batteries about 30 kWh and 100 kWh.

—————————————————————-

Firenze Sage writes:  We all knew this but “green technology” must be revered and of course paid for by taxpayers.

Share