Something is wrong with my Bible!

My NIV has this in Matthew 25

 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

This seems pretty straightforward to me but apparently the evangelicals and other nominal Christians who support Trump have a different New Testament.

The future of humanity

Posted as a comment on Facebook after reading this article. I've tended to be an optimist about human potential- look at the amazing, positive things we've accomplished in just a few thousand years. Like most everyone, I've always taken for granted humanity would survive, thrive, and progress. I figured we'd work things out over several more millennia and evolve into a peaceful and enlightened global society. I saw the cautionary sci-fi film "The Forbidden Planet" when I was a youth and thought this (the collapse and extinction of an advanced civilized species) wouldn't happen to us.

Recently, looking at how short-sighted, shallow, narrow-minded, materialistic, and foolishly narcissistic our powerful world leaders are (not to mention regional and local ones with occasional exceptions) as they lead us into cultural wars, environmental disaster, multiple epidemics of behavioral-driven health issues, massive weapons development, manufacture, and distribution (from handguns to nukes), and concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a tiny minority of people while keeping the vast majority in states of need (to name a few of the big problem areas), and the failure of our spiritual communities to put their highest values into daily practice (such as standing against racism, sexism, violence, and intolerance and caring for the disadvantaged and oppressed), I'm not so sure. At best, I'm expecting some very rough times ahead as I move into the late stages of life and after I'm gone. You're one of the lonely voices of wisdom and compassion crying in the wilderness and I'm fortunate to be close to others, too. So we'll slog on creating small islands of sanity and love around ourselves, reaching out to those with ears to hear, and hoping for the best. 💕

A parable of Presidential consolation

Final thought: Suppose a famous politician came to Athens, Georgia and held a rally where he said, "Athens is a hotbed of socialists and Antifa, the kind of people who want to turn the USA into a communist state. We have to stop them at all costs." Subsequently, a radical individual who already hated liberals and progressives and believed they want to confiscate all guns, have completely open borders, provide free healthcare to illegal immigrants that many US citizens don't have, and put globalists in charge of the Deep State travels 600 miles to Athens and using a modified assault weapon (obtained legally) commits an act of mass murder of random Athens civilians including some of your friends before being stopped by policemen. In a manifesto published online just ahead of the massacre, the terrorist wrote, "Don't blame (the famous politician)- he didn't make me do it." The politician's spokespeople argue it's just a coincidence the terrorist shares core issues with the famous politician and happened to pick the town the famous politician had recently vilified. A few days later, the politician condemns radical terrorist acts in a short speech and comes to town to "console the survivors and bring people together" while continuing the same rhetoric in interviews and Tweets. Would you welcome the visit? Would it bother you if a private citizen from Athens running for office said the politician wasn't welcome? What if the politician was a demagogic socialist-leaning US President who visited a city in WV and railed about coal and climate change prior to a massacre being inflicted on the town by a radical environmentalist and a conservative townsperson running for the GOP nomination suggested the President stay away? Would that be inappropriate? Not in my book.

Is anger a secondary emotion?

Whether we think of anger as primary or secondary, it's important to realize anger serves the important purpose of energizing you to stand up against threats to yourself and people you care about. Many of us, especially those who've been treated abusively by angry parents and significant others, come to think anger is bad and should be suppressed. Certainly, anger is easily misused by aggressive individuals for whom it works like a drug to create a sense of power. People who don't have those tendencies are unlikely to become anger abusers. They're more likely to suppress or deny their anger while allowing aggressors to continue misusing them.  People who think anger is bad are susceptible to being gaslit by people who have no sense of shame. IMO, channeling our anger constructively is the healthy middle path. Case in point, I'm quite angry about the current political situation in the USA that fuels incidents such as yesterday's mass murder in El Paso. I'm channeling this anger into doing what I can to get the current administration and it's Congressional supporters out of office and elect people who share my values of compassion, respect for women, respect for diversity of ethnicity, culture, and sexual orientation, moral decency, concern for the environment, concern for justice, concern about income and wealth divergence, belief in science etc. On a personal level, I believe in expressing anger respectfully when I have an issue with someone I'm close to and talking through the issue. I also believe in listening respectfully and not being defensive when the other person is angry at me (this is very difficult and I'm not always successful at it). Suppression of anger leads to being passive-aggressive, another thing I and many other have to watch out for.

Retina condition update

I saw Dr. Bringaze, my ENT, today about sinus drip and sharp pain around my left eye. Seems some of the various medicinal drops I have to use leak through the tear duct and irtitate my left sinus cavities. This explanation made perfect sense and I was glad it's not an infection. I'm taking corrective steps that should alleviate the problem until I can get off the drops.

Retired

I chose to allow my Clinical Psychology license to expire at midnight last night. Today is the first day of my retirement.