New research finds materialistic people are less happy in large part because of their lack of gratitude.
There are several theories regarding why materialistic people feel less gratitude. …
The dunes are MINE, all MINE. 🙂
(via io9)
Long Walk to Freedom is an autobiographical work written by South African President Nelson Mandela, and published in 1995 …
The book profiles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison. Under the apartheid government, Mandela was regarded as a terrorist and jailed on the infamous Robben Island for his role as a leader of the then-outlawed ANC. He has since achieved international recognition for his leadership as president in rebuilding the country’s once segregated society. The last chapters of the book describe his political ascension, and his belief that the struggle continues …
His childhood name was Rolihlahla, which is loosely translated as “pulling the branch of a tree”, or a euphemism for “troublemaker“.
Indeed, many of the most winning anecdotes are stories of how the now sainted man bungled, cheated or lied.
Mandela oversaw the formation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate crimes committed under apartheid by both the government and the ANC, appointing Desmond Tutu as its chair. To prevent the creation of martyrs, the Commission granted individual amnesties in exchange for testimony of crimes committed during the apartheid era. Dedicated in February 1996, it held two years of hearings detailing rapes, torture, bombings, and assassinations, before issuing its final report in October 1998. …
Though Mandela was influenced by his older contemporary, Gandhi, he did not subscribe to Gandhi’s non-violence. Nelson felt that non-violence worked in India because the British government was reasonable. But that it would not work in South Africa government.
I’d previously read the interesting and controversial book by his warder/censor James Gregory, Goodbye Bafana: Nelson Mandela, My Prisoner, My Friend.
Mandela said that he actually didn’t know Gregory very well. But did state:
“He was one of the most refined warders. Well-informed and courteous with everybody. Soft spoken. Very good observations. I developed a lot of respect for him.”
They made a film I’ve not seen of Gregory’s book.
I’ve also not yet seen the 2013 British/South African biographical film – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.
It’s amazing how often I think of the Monty Python song. 🙂
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ
The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) by Karen Armstrong (2008)
… the world’s most widely distributed book and its best-selling, with an estimated six billion copies sold in the last two hundred years. But the Bible is a complex work with a complicated and obscure history. Its contents have changed over the centuries, it has been transformed by translation and, through interpretation, has developed manifold meanings to various religions, denominations, and sects.
… acclaimed historian Karen Armstrong discusses the conception, gestation, life, and afterlife of history’s most powerful book. Armstrong analyzes the social and political situation in which oral history turned into written scripture, how this all-pervasive scripture was collected into one work, and how it became accepted as Christianity’s sacred text, and how its interpretation changed over time. …
Great idea.
A biography of The Bible.
Karen Armstrong is expert. I respect her opinion.
At one point she asks, Why so much hatred in sacred texts?
Joshua 8 – “The Capture of Ai; Blesses and Curses at Mount Ebal” …
1-2: The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be frightened or dismayed. Take all the fighting troops with you, go and march against Ai. See, I will deliver the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land into your hands. You shall treat Ai and her king as you treated Jericho and her king; however, you may take the spoil and the cattle as booty for yourselves. Now set an ambush against the city behind it.”
18: The LORD then said to Joshua, “Hold out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will deliver it into your hands.” So Joshua held out the javelin in his hand toward the city.
24-25: When Israel had killed all the inhabitants of Ai who had pursued them into the open wilderness, and all of them, to the last man, had fallen by the sword, all the Israelites turned back to Ai and put it to the sword. The total of those who fell that day, men and women, the entire population of Ai, came to twelve thousand.
29: And the king of Ai was impaled on a stake until the evening.
The Koran is criticized as violent.
I’d make the same criticism of our current version of The Bible. It was translated into Latin more by one man than any other — Sophronius Hieronymus (Saint Jerome 342-420).
Did Jerome get it right?
There are all kinds of stories like the Capture of Ai out of line with my understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Slavery. Polygamy.
Anyone who takes the Bible literally has not read it.
Kelley Durbin-Williams linked to this great truth:
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both.”
It takes a big man to do so.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Thanks Kraig.
Astonishingly courageous. So strong. So Inspiring.
We can change the world for the better.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was one of the GREAT men. An anti-apartheid revolutionary and President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
I honour the amazing things he accomplished in one lifetime.
I’m headed back to South Africa, arriving JOHANNESBURG on Jan 16th.
Rick McCharles 