Dying Symptoms Of The Roman Empire/edit

Dying Symptoms Of The Roman Empire

https://listverse.com/2016/10/13/10-dying-symptoms-of-the-roman-empire/

Currency Debasement.

Another side effect of inflation was the hoarding of coins. Unlike the debased coins, the “good coins” were kept as long as possible. Archaeologists have found many coin hoards from the late Roman Empire, a sign of economic uncertainty

 AD 68–69 period is known in Roman history as “The Year of the Four Emperors,” which may be considered a premonition of the countless episodes of imperial instability and double-crossing that would later affect the Roman emperors.

political turmoil of this period is reflected in the writings of Tacitus. His introduction to this period of Roman history (Histories 1.2) reads: “The history on which I am entering is that of a period rich in disasters, terrible with battles, torn by civil struggles, horrible even in peace and four emperors killed by the sword.”

early Roman Empire, the Roman army was supported with the booty of conquest. Each new region that was conquered by the Romans brought new land, new slaves to be sold, new taxpayers, and other forms of wealth.

When the Roman Empire reached its maximum size, the army activity became largely defensive. There was no booty conquest to support the soldiers, and the army had to be supported by taxes.Once the guarantor of Roman growth and prosperity, the army gradually and ironically became a necessary evil that drained the wealth of the Roman people. The increasing tax pressure required to run the army forced many members of the Roman middle class into poverty

Barbarian pressure was not a new thing in Rome. What was different this time was the almost complete incompetence of the Roman army to successfully repulse the invaders as they had many times in the past.

the power of the army increased, the Praetorian Guard occasionally got involved in the process of appointing new emperors, usually favoring those who favored them.

they were able to literally make and unmake Roman emperors. In many cases, the Praetorian Guard simply murdered these emperors.

A pretender to the throne would promise to pay a substantial reward if he became emperor. The sooner the acting emperor “finished” his government, the better for the Praetorian Guard’s pockets.

Emperor succession became truly messy during the late history of the Western Roman Empire. Many emperors died by the sword of their own bodyguards, 

The backbone of the Roman economy was agriculture. It has been estimated that more than 90 percent of the late empire’s population were rural poor and endured a precarious existence/

implied an imbalance between the rural and the urban. 

Cities were sometimes seen as “predators” on the labor of peasants leading to the exhaustion of the land. 

Its borders were so big that they required a considerable army presence to keep them safe. But above all, it was no longer possible to control this vast realm from the city of Rome.

A Roman emperor being deposed by a military leader was nothing new in Rome. The novelty was that nobody else was named emperor after Romulus Augustulus’s deposition and that Odoacer was crowned as king of Italy.

the Roman Empire was a shadow of its former self. Even the capital of the Western Empire had been moved from Rome to Ravenna. The Roman West was no longer an empire. It had dissolved into several smaller political units (kingdoms and city-states).

Any form of contemplation is a gradual sinking into this divine fullness /edit

Necessary suffering allows us to grow, but “in secret” (Mark 4:26–29), which is an amazingly common concept, both in the teachings of Jesus and of many of the mystics. Such growth must largely be hidden because God alone can see it and steer it for our good. If we try too hard to understand it, we will stop the process or steer it in the wrong direction.

Any form of contemplation is a gradual sinking into this divine fullness where hope lives. Contemplation is living in a unified field that produces in people a deep, largely non-rational, and yet calmly certain hope, which is always a surprise.

A life of inner union, a contemplative life, is practicing for heaven now

God allows us to bring “on earth what is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)
every time we can allow, receive, and forgive the conflicts of the moment. Such acceptance allows us to sit in some degree of contentment—despite all the warring evidence.

God alone, it seems to me, can hold together all the seeming opposites and contradictions of life. In and with God, we can do the same. But we are not the Doer.

https://cac.org/hope-and-suffering-2020-04-17/

ZEENZ/pix 10

What, are you creating? /edit

WHAT! Are you creating?

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 The indifference 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

you showed a 

fellow soul

 is the same

 indifference 

 you'll encoun-ter

 one day. Is this

 what you want?

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

https://www.quora.com/q/thetruth

Indifference is violence / 

actually a violent action.

Give to life / be nurturing

Take from Life /

 the impulse is violent

If you decide that another's suffering is none of your business don't think that your

rational-izations will protect / prevent you from being affected by your evil.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Every moment on earth is 

school is

 valid and fair.

If you use your rationalization / realizations of this to ignore the suffering of your brothers and sisters you create a world in which you

you're suffering also is of no concern to others.

🌸

If you decide  another's suffering 

is none of your business don't think that your un-derstanding of karma will permit your act of callousness to pass without affecting you.

Every choice you make creates experiences that you will encounter. That is karma.

Getting involved doesn't mean judging. 

You may feel righteously angry at a sexual predator but beware if you do. You do not know enough to judge this act or any other.

You don't know what is be-

ing healed or coming to completion. Molester and molested may be exchang-

ing roles that were played 
in another lifetime. It's not your call to be a judge or a jury. If you decide to take 
on these roles you create painful karma for yourself. 

You don't like being judged. Judge not lest you be judged.Do you have the courage to protect without judging?

 Can you be com-passionate even to those who have no compassion? 

If so there is no fin-er, Karma you can create. you will have a world that is compassionate with you even when you forget to be compassionate you will be supported when you are weak until you have regained your strength. You Will Be Loved even if you forget to love.
🌸

New pics 3 / 5 / 20

a person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected / pix

LENT Day 1 (Ash Wednesday)

Mark 8:31– 38 | Jesus Foretells His Death

We begin our Lenten journey with Jesus by hearing him tell us that he’s not headed to greatness as the world esteems greatness, but to the cross and to death. Peter and the rest of the disciples understand that Jesus is on his way to the capital city of Jerusalem to lay claim to the throne — to become the King of the Jews. But without any ambiguity Jesus tells his disciples that he will suffer many things, be rejected by the chief priests, and finally be killed. Yes, Jesus also says that his apparent defeat will be turned to victory when he is raised on the third day, but his disciples probably hear this as an idiom referring to the resurrection of the righteous at some point in the future — as when Hosea says, “After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up.” That Jesus could become King of the Jews through suffering and death is inconceivable to Peter. For Peter, a messiah who is killed is a messiah who fails, and Peter didn’t sign up for failure. Jesus alone seems to understand that a breakthrough into new life is only attained through the experience of loss. Martin Luther was right, Christianity is not a theology of glory, but a theology of the cross. But to choose the way of the cross over the way of glory is a hard lesson to learn.

Like Peter, we also may be inclined to argue with Jesus when he calls us to choose the way of the cross. “Surely not, Jesus! I don’t want to suffer and lose, I want to be great and win!” But Jesus calls that kind of thinking satanic! As the book of Proverbs says, “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.” Most of us are scripted to think that life is a game and the purpose of life is to win. This is the way that seems right. But the divine truth is that life is a gift and the purpose of life is to learn to love well.

And so Jesus invites us to follow him, not in a march to greatness, but in the cross-carrying way of self-denial. This and this alone is the way of true discipleship. It’s also the way to abundant life. Grasping for greatness is the way of the rat race. But as Walter Brueggemann says, the problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. Or as Jesus put it, what do you gain if you win it all, but lose your soul? During this season of Lent let’s renew our commitment to take up our cross and follow Jesus!

Lord Jesus, we are so often afraid that the way of the cross leads only to loss — a loss that we fear we cannot bear. Help us to believe you and to embrace the cross as the way that ultimately leads to authentic love and abundant life. Amen.

Preparing for Coronavirus/edit

Preparing for Coronavirus

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/preparing-for-coronavirus-to-strike-the-u-s/?fbclid=IwAR2I3QFNymkDyt86rPC51HDImORQtKVzrNQ8uj2dL_Zn2x1DXEzzcqB3r_s

The Centers for Disease Control has already said that it expects community transmission in the United States, and asked families to be ready for the possibility of a “significant disruption to our lives.”

Preparing for the almost inevitable global spread of this virus, now dubbed COVID-19, is one of the most pro-social, altruistic things you can do in response to potential disruptions of this kind.

We should prepare, not because we may feel personally at risk, but so that we can help lessen the risk for everyone

because we can alter every aspect of this risk we face as a society.

you should prepare because your -neighbors need you to prepare—especially your -elderly neighbors, your 

-neighbors who work at hospitals, your -neighbors with chronic illnesses, and your 

-neighbors who may not have the means or the time to prepare because of lack of resources or time.

real crisis scenarios we’re likely to encounter require cooperation and, crucially, “flattening the curve” of the crisis exactly so the more vulnerable can fare better, so that our infrastructure will be less stressed at any one time.

What does “flattening the curve” mean for the current COVID-19 threat facing us: the emerging pandemic

The infectiousness of a virus, for example, depends on how much we encounter one another; how well we quarantine individuals who are ill; how often we wash our hands; whether those treating the ill have proper protective equipment; how healthy we are to begin with—

how many people die of seasonal influenza (or COVID-19) depends on the kind of health care they receive. In China, death rates are much higher in the overwhelmed Hubei province than the rest of the country exactly because of the quality of the care.

those who have a severe case of COVID-19 often need mechanical ventilation and other intensive care procedures. When they are out of beds, people end up languishing at home and suffering and dying in much larger numbers.

if we can slow the transmission of the disease—flatten its curve—there will be many lives saved even if the same number of people eventually get sick, because everyone won’t show up at the hospital all at once.

now COVID-19 cases around the world, and epidemiological data from tens of thousands of cases. Here’s what we know: no doubt to the relief of parents everywhere, this disease is mild to nonexistent in children.

for the elderly or for people who have other diseases or comorbidities, it’s very serious, with death rates reaching up to 15 percent. 

also a great threat to health workers who handle people with the virus every day

this coronavirus is about 20 times as deadly (though again, this number may get much better or worse depending on the kind of care we can provide)

this disease will almost certainly not be contained: we can’t expect to reliably detect everyone who’s ill and infectious, 

the only path to flattening the curve for COVID-19 is community-wide isolation

more people stay home, the fewer people will catch the disease. The fewer people who catch the disease, the better hospitals can help those who do. 

COMMUNITY-WIDE ISOLATION 

means that people will depend on deliveries for essentials: in ground-zero of Hubei, for example, that’s what’s happening. 

while deliveries are better than people going shopping, it’s still a risk to everyone involved.

 if fewer people need deliveries, then fewer people will get sick, and more people who need help such as the elderly can still get deliveries as the services will be less overwhelmed.

get a flu shot, if you haven’t already, and stock up supplies at home so that you can stay home for two or three weeks, going out as little as possible

Staying home without needing deliveries means that not only are you less likely to get sick, thus freeing up hospitals for more vulnerable populations, it means that you are less likely to infect others

If everyone gets masks all at once, there is just no way to keep up. However, don’t worry if you cannot find masks; those are most important for health care workers. 

For non–health care people, washing your hands often, using alcohol-based hand-sanitizer liberally and learning not to touch your face are the most important clinically-proven interventions there are

canned food like beans and vegetables, pasta, rice, cereals or oats, oils/fats, nuts and dried fruits. /

two-three weeks,

-Rice,

- beans, 

-salsa, 

-ramen, 

-some sort of cooking oil, 

-oatmeal, 

-nuts and 

-dried or canned fruits and vegetables enough for two weeks 

have some potable water

keep your household entertained and busy.

THERE'S  MUCH LARGER CONVERSATIONS TO BE HAD: 

-about the way our health care industry runs, for example. -How to handle global risks in our increasingly interconnected world. 

-How to build resilient communities. 

-How to reduce travel for work.

Can you handle this Mardi Gras unicorn? / edit

I am a tourist everywhere;

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/mercynotsacrifice/2020/02/26/can-you-handle-this-mardi-gras-unicorn/

Other peoples’ truths stick to me like flypaper.

Maybe my ancestors are inside the horn on my head;

Maybe they keep shoving me into lovelier confusion.

whatever oozes from my orifice,

I am still God’s poetry;

I just want him to finish the damn poem.

MOUNTAINTOP EXPERIENCES THAT AREN'T ’t SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN 

Since other gods are being invoked;

And yet Jesus is there too?

I’m always looking for him

And he always says I’m here

In the form of wrong people like

Shamans who ask me how to connect with Jesus;

So I ask Jesus;

And he says something inane like

“Just breathe” or “Keep dancing.”

Unicorns are jumpy:

You keep horse-whispering me

But never in a safe, orthodox way.

So I’m stepping out in this field beyond:

I think you led me here,

And I’m terrified

You’re going to say I’m free to run.