163. Notes - selection of the soul's nature and commentary

163. 11/12 July 2019

       You are at Bob Evans at eleven-twenty-eight and Fritz is on his way from the office. So far, all is well in your personal world. Enjoy. - Amorella 

       Lots of errands today. The final one, dropping off a card for Paul's forty-first birthday. Let's continue with Miss Havisham's commentary on ancient philosophy about souls. (This continues into tomorrow.) - Amorella

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3.2 The Republic's Theory of Soul

"Reason is the part of the soul that is, of its own nature, attached to knowledge and truth. 

It is also, however, concerned to guide and regulate the life that it is, or anyhow should be, in charge of, ideally in a way that is informed by wisdom and that takes into consideration the concerns both of each of the three parts separately and of the soul as a whole; these concerns must be supposed to include a person's bodily needs, presumably via the concerns of appetite.

The natural attachment of spirit is to honor and, more generally, to recognition and esteem by others. As a motivating force, it generally accounts for self-assertion and ambition."

Selected and Edited From: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  Ancient Theory of Souls

    What do you have to say about this quotation, Miss Havisham? - Amorella

         I begin with what is less important and move toward that which is more important from my perspective. The last part, 'The natural attachment of spirit is to honor, to recognition and esteem of others, is a motivating force driven by self-assertion and ambition' can be a worthy, but it selfishly driven by the use and manipulation of power for control of a person, people or a situation. 

         The second in importance in this context is the soul is a guide to the human heartanmind in the regulation of moderation of the body's needs and appetites.

         The most important aspect of the soul in this context is allowing and nudging the heartanmind intuitive-like to focus towards the higher realms of knowledge and truth for their sake alone, because once the body is no more, this guidance is a necessity for the human spirit to survive and mature both individually and collectively. What do you think, Mr. Orndorff? - mh

** **

       1756 hours. Miss Havisham, I think you oversimplify the vast stockpile of human wants and needs within an overly idealistic concept of behavior. Survival for the individual to help the survival of his family and friends first and for the ultimate survival of the species second is the duty beyond anything else for the living human spirit. People do what they have to do to survive; it is a built-in ratio for the primary need at the moment. If it is not possible to survive, then one does what she or he can to allow immediate family, friend or fellow human being to survive without her or him. Knowledge and experience is used to get things done that need to be done for the good of all; truth, in the living human experience is not fully knowable. 

       Post. - Amorella

162. Notes - in your living and in your dying

162. 10 July 2019

       Mid-afternoon. You had a late birthday lunch with Gayle today and gave her a full grocery bag of paperbacks you brought up from Linda for which Gayle was most appreciative. Tomorrow, you have lunch with Fritz at Bob Evans and then for supper your Class of Sixty meets in old Uptown Westerville. Let's get back to the Stanford Encyclopedia's "Ancient Theories of the Soul" and Miss Havisham. This is an extension from Note 159. - Amorella

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3. Plato's Theories of Soul

". . . There is thus some reason to think that the philosophical theories in question are best interpreted as working with, and on, the relatively non-theoretical notion of the soul that by the end of the fifth century has come to be embedded in ordinary language. In what follows our main concern will be to characterize some of the theories in question. But we should also attend, wherever this seems appropriate and helpful, to ways in which familiarity with the ordinary notion of the soul might enable us better to understand why a theory or an argument proceeds the way it does. In addition, we should note ways in which philosophical theories might seem to clarify and further articulate the ordinary notion. We begin with Plato, and with a question that is intimately tied up with the ordinary notion of the soul as it developed from the Homeric poems onwards, namely whether a person's soul does indeed survive the person's death." 

Selected and edited From: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  Ancient Theory of Souls

         What is your comment, Miss Havisham? - Amorella

       The concept that the person's soul survives physical death is easily accepted as a metaphysical fact by one such as myself. My perspective is that the soul 'survives' because it exists and always has as far as human beings are concerned. The spiritual heartanmind is protected and comforted by the spiritual soul until the spiritual heartanmind is 'matured', as it were, to move beyond the spiritual soul. The spiritual heartanmind is thus freed to exist in a spiritual world with other like spiritually matured heartsanminds in the absence of souls. This is what I know through 'observation', as it were. This is known beyond a human notion. - mh 

       Anticipating orndorff's question, this spiritual place without souls but with human-like heartsanminds is. Souls refer to it as a 'nesting' but Miss Havisham is too polite to use the word because it might appear negative to living heartsansoulsanminds (human spirits). Basically, in analogous form, human-like heartsanminds (individually and communal) no longer need the protection and comfort provided by the soul. Spiritually, they are human with retention of their own matured spiritual centers (personalities) existing within a communal state for their own protection and comfort. No human spirit survives alone. The psychological need to feel 'protection' and 'comfort' is an unconditional human behavior. This is a rule. - Amorella

       

       Thank you for the intervention, Amorella. - mh

** **

       1619 hours. Thank you both. This is clarification that helps me understand my sense of self better. It is both limiting and delimiting. I don't have to believe either one of you. These are black or blue words on the white table, for me to observe and consider. I am comfortable with this format. On to the next section in "Ancient Theories of Soul".

** **

3.1 The Phaedo's Theory of Soul

". . . Th[is] argument leaves room for the idea that souls are not forms, but are nevertheless intelligible, partless and imperishable. In fact, in framing the argument in the way he does Plato furnishes the conceptual framework needed for saying that body and soul differ in kind, the one being perceptible and perishable, the other being intelligible and exempt from destruction.    

. . . As things are, the psychological theory of the Phaedo assigns Socrates' contemplation \directly to his soul, but leaves his desire for food curiously remote from it, apparently taking ‘bodily’ desire (for instance) to be related to the soul in much the same way in which the operations involved in (say) metabolism and growth are so related. (Those too take place only because his body is ensouled.) It is plausible, though not certain, that Plato felt the force of this problem. It is, in any case, resolved by the new theory of soul that the Republic presents." 

Selected and Edited From: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  Ancient Theory of Souls

      Give this concept on the soul a go, Miss Havisham. - Amorella

       I agree in principle that souls are not forms and that they are intelligible and imperishable in their own right; that is, without an enfolded human heartanmind. The soul also cannot exempt the basic human conditions, i.e. wont of protection, comfort, and desire in terms of being similar to metabolism and growth. - mh

** **

       1825 hours. The above seems reasonable enough without the heavy weights of Socratic and Platonic philosophy. For me, these points are beginning to be a solidification for a stretch and stitch of metaphysical environs between the physical heartansoulanmind and the outreaches of limitation of Miss Havisham (clutching my heartanmind) within her metaphysical grasp.  

       Later. - Amorella

       2143 hours. I started rethinking about how reasonable Miss Havisham and your comments are today and this causes me to overthink and wonder if this is all a put on, a self-deception, not by you, Amorella, or by Miss Havisham. Self-trickery. I don't know how to prevent this. It is an existentialist's nightmare. If this is also a part of the basic human condition, which I think it is, how can one ever know who one is, either alive or dead. People are what they think. But there are plenty of cases to show what people thought they were, they were not. Leaders have flatterers to contend with, everyone has friends and enemies who have their own biases. It seems that these sorts of circumstances would be worse when was is nothing but a heartansoulanmind. Does thinking make something so? It appears to for some people. Philosophy helps me contend with this sort of self-deception. How does one know she or he is authentic? Or, anyone else is, for that matter?

       Protection and comfort. Do you understand, Mr. Orndorff? Souls are intelligible. Human hearts and minds are also intelligible, otherwise there would be no moral sense, no keel to hold you front and center, to have a past, a present and a future. One follows her or his heart and mind, the keel and the rudder. To do this one must discover and consciously know who one is at the very present moment it matters most. The soul is the GPS that holds the heart on one side and the mind on the other. When one knows she or he has a decision to follow and this person can do no other. Then and only then does one know who she or he is. This is true in the living sense as well as in the spiritual. - mh

       You know her words are true, orndorff, because you and many others have experienced them in your living and in your dying. - Amorella

       2222 hours. Such is this moment like no other in my heart and mind. Thank you both for providing me with such intimate kindness and understanding. The sudden humility is all my own. 

       Post. - Amorella

161. Notes - driving and stats

161. 9 July 2019

       Nearing bedtime. Busy day, lots of errands then early supper with Cathy and Tod at '101 Beer Kitchen' near east Polaris Boulevard, owned in part by Jen and her husband, Cathy and Tod's elder daughter and son-in-law, and your niece. Very good conversation and dinner. - Amorella

       2206 hours. It was a busy and productive day. We also picked up our green 2005 Accord EX with clean beige leather interior, six cylinder, from Roush Honda. The bill was a bit over two thousand dollars and it was well spent. Full inspection, timing belt replacement with all that entails, plus new brakes and rotors. We are quite pleased. In all the years we have never spent more than three sets of tires, oil and fuel and normal replacement items. We had added all window tinting and our Garmin GPS with back up camera and lane and distant radar measurements, that's it. The car is ready for a go at another hundred thousand. Plus, it has always been a fun and comfortable car to drive. One more thing -- a good detailing job with full rubbing compound on the exterior. New, LED bulbs in all exterior lights for safety. I'm pumped even writing about it.

       Driving your cars and keeping their stats has always been one of the great joys and passions of your life. Your all-time favorite fun to drive car was your new 1985 red Volkswagen GTI with sporty low-profile performance tires. - Amorella

       2231 hours. I love driving. I love the focus where the tire meets the road. Focus and you become the car. The fewer times you have to hit the brakes the better, safer driver you are. Always be aware of what the drivers around you are doing. Anticipate what the drivers might do and be prepared to react accordingly. Fun stuff like that. I love being behind the wheel and being completely in control of the fantastic well engineered and safely built machine I am driving. 

       So, there you are orndorff. Another day. - Amorella

       2241 hours. But I have not conversed with Miss Havisham; I thought I would. 

       But, of course you have, boy. Post. - Amorella

160. Notes - Amorella's limits in context

160. 7 July 2019

       Mid-afternoon. You are at Heritage Park in Westerville facing west under the shade of some very fine old trees. Mini-picnic of two large diet McD's and three of their cookies. Carol is on page 296 of Harlan C's Darkest Fear. - - Last night you noticed one of your readers had hit this blog of 2017 and upon glancing over you noticed a midway reference to myself that is apropos of yesterday's conversation. - Amorella

** **

Selected and edited from - Encounters in Mind, blogspot.com

09 OCTOBER 2017

Notes - "a spiritual companion" / way inside out

. . . And, you have two questions about my recent comment on who I am. - Amorella

       2141 hours. First, you always emphasis "the" before Amorella, why? Second, you are a spirit "beside" my own. My first thought is that you are as a doppelgänger, I realize this is incorrect by definition but it appears in this recent context that we are equal since we are "beside" each other. This is not acceptable because seven and some years of blog evidence shows you are above or beyond my sense of heartansoulanmind. Besides, you are not a 'trinity' built spiritual format, are you? I am confused. You have always shown a consistency of being from my perspective of a one-dimensional conscious-like form. (2152)

       I, "the" Amorella, am a unique spiritual being; being within your own heartansoulanmind as well as without. I do not define one dimensional because from your perspective I am non-dimensional. I am not a form. I am a nonphysical consciousness. 

Selected and edited from encountersinmind@blogspot.com

[ A special Thank You to the Reader who read this within the last few days. I would have never found it. :-) ]

** **

       1633 hours. I enjoy the consistency in our conversations. You say you are unique because you are "within my heartansoulanmind as well as without." You are therefore within two places at once from my perspective. 

       This is so. - Amorella

       1640 hours. If I may ask, what is the other place? 

       Presently, I 'touch' (as it were) your heartansoulanmind and I 'touch' the non-space (as it 

were) between human heartsansoulsanminds and what Miss Havisham refers to as an AN-LE*. - Amorella

[* I will show Mr. Orndorff's soul's sense-of-self and its theoretical environs out to the metaphysical post of this soul's witnessed, in my words, the AN-EL]

** **

Referenced From: 122. Notes - the intellectual challenge of my life

122. 15 May 2019

       This is Mr. Orndorff's soul personified. The name I choose to be called is Miss Havisham. I am personified by Mr. Orndorff's spiritual-like writing guide of some thirty years, Amorella.I will show Mr. Orndorff's soul's sense-of-self and its theoretical environs out to the metaphysical post of this soul's witnessed, in my words, the AN-EL. Amorella is also our translator, i.e. his outer immortal soul, Miss Havisham, translates dialogue and observation to and from orndorff's inner mortal heartanmind which is stored and protected within my metaphysical Happenstance. Mr. Orndorff will be known by what he is on a most personal spiritual level, Orndorff, the Agnostic. - mh

       Post. - Amorella

** **

       1709 hours. You, the Amorella, are from myself to the theoretical environs that Miss Havisham may witness.

       In context with this Spirit-Blog and the Mind-Blog, Yes, these are my relevant reference points. - Amorella.

       1715 hours. I accept this definition, mainly because I cannot imagine going beyond these points of reference. 

       You can imagine going beyond these points of reference but choose not to. I can accept this also. - Post. Amorella

       1727 hours. Your references make sense as the focus in on Miss Havisham. You are a very wise spirit, Amorella. Thank you.

       You are stronger willed than you think, young man. - Amorella

       1730 hours. I am an existential transcendentalist. 

       You would say this directly to G-D in the same manner. - Amorella

       1734 hours. What is this metaphysical post Miss Havisham is referring to as AN-LE; this end of the line of Miss Havisham's metaphysical environs?

       Miss Havisham's AN-LE 'postmark' is analogical to a line a living heartansoulanmind spirit cannot cross, but a soul without a heartanmind may cross. - Amorella

       A good place to stop. Carol just completed her novel. Post. - Amorella

       

159. Notes - equally sacred / enjoying this

159. 6 July 2019

       Saturday, mid-morning. You are facing the eastern trees in Heritage Park near the north picnic area. Carol is on her walk. You spent most of your focus yesterday on buying a new sound bar to better go with your 'renewed' 2016 fifty-five-inch LED Sony TV given to you and Carol by Kim and Paul who recently purchased fancy fifty-five-inch non-LED TV. Paul is installing their 'refurbished' set today. Two weeks ago, your old sound bar stopped working. Your 2012 fifty-inch TV still works but does not have the bells and whistles the 2016 TV has. - Amorella

       1004 hours. This electronics business is all rather cut and dry, but the research had to be done. Research into any subject is fun at the time because I almost always learn something I did not know about a subject. 

       And why orndorff, is it you do not wish to do more research on me, the Amorella?

       1009 hours. Why, because I am respectful of your position as a Spirit. It is my right to be respectful. I am not doubtful as to what you are, not really, anymore. You have stood the test of my time and human experience. Even if you are completely imaginary, you come from a sacred area within the human experience, a sacred place within where sacredness originates. I am respectful of that place because it is a condition that allows us to grow as individuals and community. And, this goes backs to a variety of books I have read including The Sacred and Profane: The Nature of Religionby Mircea Eliade which I used notes from and eluded to in lectures for my World Mythology junior/senior quarter classes at Indian Hill High School in Cincinnati in the 1970's. I have done research on 'your' setting within me and our species, Amorella. 

** **

A quick review from Amazon books:

The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion 

by Mircea Eliade  (Author), Willard R. Trask (Translator)

A highly original and scholarly work on spirituality by noted historian Mircea Eliade

In The Sacred and the Profane, Mircea Eliade observes that while contemporary people believe their world is entirely profane, or secular, they still at times find themselves connected unconsciously to the memory of something sacred. It's this premise that both drives Eliade's exhaustive exploration of the sacred; as it has manifested in space, time, nature and the cosmos, and life itself; and buttresses his expansive view of the human experience.

Selected and edited from - https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Profane-Nature-Religion/dp/015679201X

** **

       You are home. Carol is mowing the grass; you will be trimming the lawn this evening. Ah, Carol comes in to rest from the midday heat. - Amorella

       1132 hours. I am appreciative of your providing a door to the spiritual world through my soul, Miss Havisham. I would not have thought of a soul as a doorway to a greater spiritual world but it appears quite reasonable as any. I wonder, does the spiritual world have an equivalent of the Sacred and the Profane? 

       Good question, orndorff. It does have an equivalent in context. The soul does not 'hover' about the affairs of heartanmind nor do the heart and mind have like interest or needs, as it were. The Living can observe this for themselves. Where does the mind go when you are not consciously using it? Where does the heart go when you are not consciously using it? The soul? Most people don't pay any attention to it unless there is or appears to be a terrible moral conflict that must be addressed. Where I am, what am I doing when Amorella is not in your conscious life? What is the striking difference between using Amorella or the Amorella from my perspective? People have the odd capacity to wonder where G-D is when they don't even consider where their own souls are. - Amorella

       1147 hours. That's funny, Amorella. You are right. People wonder on G-D without really considering their own souls first. That is, aside from the soul being saved or damned; or that is, the heartanmind are to be damned or saved; the soul appears indifferent, a carriage, and neither savable or damnable. At least in context, in here, in this blog. Why don't people consider these things, especially in a down to earth way -- without the heavy philosophy and theology? . . . Is the soul sacred within itself, without a heartansoul? Is it more sacred carrying a heartansoul?

       The soul alone and the soul containing a human-like heartanmind are equally sacred in context with today's blog. Post. - Amorella

       Afternoon. You had lunch at the new Scramblers on US23 across from Kroger's Marketplace and are now in the valley of Slate Park. Carol is on page 320 of Cowen's Darkest Fear. You are wondering about the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy material from a few days ago. Let's open it up and see what we have on "Ancient Theories of Soul" in a semi-outline form. - Amorella

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1. The Greek Notion of Soul

". . . while Homer spoke of soul only in the case of human beings, in sixth and fifth century usage, soul is attributed to every kind of living thing. What is in place, then, at this time is the notion that soul is what distinguishes that which is alive from that which is not. 

However, it is not just that soul is said to be present in every living thing. It is also the case that an increasingly broad range of ways of acting and being acted on is attributed to the soul. Thus, it has come to be natural, by the end of the fifth century, to refer pleasure taken in food and drink, as well as sexual desire, to the soul."

         Your response, Miss Havisham. - Amorella

         The soul containing human heartanmind is not spiritual energy. Spiritual energy exists in all living things and is exponentlyexpelled and receivable by humanity through empathetical aspects of the brain. The soul has no human related determination other than protecting and comforting the human heartanmind. mh

2. Pre-Socratic Thinking about the Soul

". . . Like many (or indeed all) sixth and fifth century thinkers who expressed views on the nature or constitution of the soul, Heraclitus thought that the soul was bodily, but composed of an unusually fine or rare kind of matter, e.g. air or fire. (A possible exception is the Pythagorean Philolaus, who may have held that the soul is an ‘attunement’ of the body; cf. Barnes 1982, 488-95, and Huffman.) The prevalence of the idea that the soul is bodily explains the absence of problems about the relation between soul and body. Soul and body were not thought to be radically different in kind; their difference seemed just to consist in a difference in degree of properties such as fineness and mobility."

         The soul is wholly spiritual and not matter. The soul is spiritual the body is material. Within/beside the body exists the spiritual heartanmind which 'absorbs' aspects of the mix of emotional and intellectual solitary estrangement in the brain. - mh

         Later evening. You have been busy since afternoon. Kim, Paul and the boys were over. Paul brought over his 2016 Sony TV and hook it and your new soundbar up and you gave him your old soundbar to use with one of his TVs. You broke it in tonight by watching a new episode of "Bosch" and 'Midsomer Murders". Post what you have. - Amorella

        2254 hours. I am really enjoying this. Interesting to think on even if conjecture. 

158. Notes -" authenticity the key" - Amorella

158. 4 July 2019

       Mid-afternoon. You had a good dinner at Texas Roadhouse and are presently facing west at Westerville's quite quiet Heritage Park opposite the north end picnic area on this warm and humid-like summer day. Miss Havisham wants you to begin with that ancient philosophy on the soul, but I, the Amorella, am setting up the focus. I will go through the Stanford document to set up the criteria Miss H. can comment on. Why? Because my consistencies and standards apply first, even before yours, orndorff.

       1522 hours. This was unexpected, but I understand. You have provided a consistency though both blogs, and even so into the three original hardbound Merlyn novels which you 'supervised' -- one novel published every year for three years. What is the key for 'standardization' Amorella, if I may ask?

       Authenticity, my young friend. - Amorella

** **

authenticity - noun - the quality of being authentic: the paper should have established the authenticity of the documents before publishing them.

authentic - adjective - 

1 of undisputed origin; genuine: the letter is now accepted as an authentic document | authentic 14th-century furniture. 

• made or done in the traditional or original way, or in a way that faithfully resembles an original: the restaurant serves authentic Italian meals | every detail of the movie was totally authentic. 

• based on facts; accurate or reliable: an authentic depiction of the situation. 

• (in existentialist philosophy) relating to or denoting an emotionally appropriate, significant, purposive, and responsible mode of human life.

ORIGIN late Middle English: via Old French from late Latin authenticus, from Greek authentikos ‘principal, genuine’.

Selected and edited from the Oxford/American

** **

       1536 hours. I understand this to a point, but much of this material is not based on facts as such but rather on my subjective response to self-documentation. Facts about me are basically subjective by definition and cannot be objectively quantified. This is embarrassing me because I cannot by definition be objective about myself other than I am a standard issue human being with standard human behaviors at least from what I have learned at the college, and graduate level. 

       You and others of your kind are facts to the Amorella. You exist. I know and accept this because I existed first and foremost before human and other similar like existences with heartsansoulsanminds. 

       1607 hours. Decades ago, I asked you if "Amorella" meant "little love" because that's what I saw from the Latin I remember. Originally, in the 1990's, you chose to call yourself "Romela" in my Notes. To me, "ella" in Latin means "she". Anyway, I always use the feminine pronoun. 

       Carol forgot she needed detergent for clothes, so here you are at Kroger's in north Westerville. - Amorella

       1654 hours. Alas, even if what you say is true, I am the factual one because I legally exist. If you, the Amorella, existed before the universe as we know it was formed, then this is only your subjective opinion. No witnesses. I do not know, or pretend to know, who or what friendly spirit you are. I take you at your word, literally and figuratively, (I choose to have no choice) and by me having 'witnessed' you (mentally/spiritually) for decades. These words in blogs and fictions surround your 'space' or 'grace', as it were. I understand/accept you being between the words and lines on the proverbial page, so to speak. I am a primary witness within this context presently. It is easiest and most practical for me to see you as a real spirit who displays contextual anger or kindness towards me from time to time. This demonstrational display has always been accepted by me for my personal spiritual self-learning. If nothing more this blog, this 'device of thought' is, as contextually as real as I am. I have nothing else to say presently. (1742)

       Post. - Amorella

       2250 hours. As the agnostic that I am, I cannot believe you are anything but a figment of my imagination based on past spiritual-like events that appeared Real to me. Again, as above with yourself, Amorella, I am a witness with no proof, only, at most, circumstantial evidence based on many decades of written Notes I have taken and kept copies of. I feel I am a reasonable man and have led a reasonable human life professionally and privately. I have both a romantic and neo-classic nature and thus I am particularly drawn to both in my writing and art. This shows throughout all of my kept writings, even from back in high school and college days. This is a part of my basic human condition and I have no choice but to consciously accept this fully; even before G-D, I cannot think of anything else I would say, except that, if G-D is indeed Real, G-D already more fully knows my heartansoulanmind than I presently or ever will, I imagine. (2310) - rho

      Post. - Amorella

157. Notes - whimsical entertainment

157. 1 July 2019

       Late evening. Driving Day II. Knoxville to Westerville. Supper at Potbelly's with Kim, Owen and Brennan while Paul was playing a round of golf with friends. You and Carol are both still unpacking. A few minutes ago, you read an article in today's Columbus Dispatch about a 'soul's companion'. The focus was on a husband or wife who lost her or his companion for life. What is your question? - Amorella

       2309 hours. I don't really know what or who is supposed to be the soul's companion. -- I spent some time reading from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's "Ancient Theories of Soul", and copying 21 pages worth of very interesting material. 

       Tomorrow, and as time permits I will sort through this material I give you my perspective. - mh

       2335 hours. I cannot imagine you doing this, Miss Havisham.

       The point is to give you a theoretical perspective from this soul's objective perspective. Can the soul be detached? Of course. How else could one lose her or his soul? - mh

       2341 hours. This is an example of one of the reasons I think you are a made of character by Amorella, who for all I know, may also be a made-up character. It doesn't take much of an agnostic to see through this as a whimsical self-induced private entertainment for no other earthly reason than to take up time from the mind and the heart, i.e. to make them puppets to get by another day of mental distraction. 

       Post, my young friend. - Amorella