Observed

hoody wearing young man & police officer. I took this photo at a Starbucks in Dallas. 1/1

 I wonder what this young man is thinking and feeling conscious and unconscious at this moment.

Missing Persons

I grieve my father sometimes but he is never coming back. Unlike in the movies where the father and mother find each other again. He is not going to find us. It’s been almost twenty-two years and my father is still missing. His life choices lead him from my mother’s arms and into another world. His choices led him away from her, us, me. 

Gaze

Do not look away but gaze at the words until they puncture your heart. 

There is no wrong in the truth. 

Do Not Feed The Monster: The Digital News Age

Image pulled from Google Search

If I wanted you to click on a post, video, or advertisement to generate $1.02 per click*, what would I post?

For starters, I would not post happy, well-mannered news.  I would not post about people getting along and living peaceably.  That is, well, too peaceful.  I would not post about love and kind words, who would want to read that?

The guide to writing well instructs, "Where there is no conflict, there is no story."

To capture your attention, I have a variety of conflicts from which to draw:  hate, violence, sex, racial tension, pain, disease, killings, and shootings.  Any of these will pull you in and entice you to click to read more.

The unfortunate part about digital news in a modern society is it doesn't matter whether the organization is the New York Times, Huffington Post, or Chicago Tribune.  The tactics are the same; to make a dollar off an impulsive need for twisted entertainment.

You are the tool.  Whether red, yellow, black, or white -- you, me, us, we are feeding a hungry monster simply looking to make a profit.

I could inform you not to participate in the consumption, but that is not realistic.  However, you should know what you feed will grow. The more money made on a particular topic per click, more content and information on that subject matter will be posted, good or bad.

The law of attraction, “like attracts like”, means by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life.

Then the question becomes, how do we stop attracting negatives and change to attract positives?

Here are suggestions

·      be conscious of what you are viewing online

·      realize that what you view is tracked and someone is turning a profit or creating more content from it

·      create and post content that serves the greater good.

Feed that which creates a brighter future.

@earlinagreen

*The cost-per-click (CPC) is the amount you earn each time a user clicks on your ad. The CPC for any ad is determined by the advertiser; some advertisers may be willing to pay more per click than others, depending on what they're advertising. (Wikipedia

Futile Attempts

(Futile Attempts also seen on my personal Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook page) 

 A piece from my personal collection of short essays. 12/5/2015

God’s Love Story In Lamar Odom

The story of Lamar Odom is not uncommon to each and every story we hear of regarding addiction; however, this one has a much better ending.

A life taken for granted is the sentiment that I have read online, but is his life much different than most of ours?

One more sniff, one more puff, one more pill. The odds stacking against him and on a particular night at a brothel outside of sin city, the game comes to an abrupt end. We all have our vices that seek to devour us. ‘I can tell this simple lie, I can sleep with this person and this person because it is my life, I can push, take, consume past all earthly limits, simply because I can.’ We all play the game of chance, the game of loading the gun, spinning the chamber and pointing it directly at ourselves hoping that this time we will escape with our lives but hope is not a strategy.

Why do any of us take this life for granted when some did not even make it out of their mothers wombs, some passed in their sleep, or tragically. Psychologists say that we are simply bored and caught in the monotony of life we seek things to make us feel alive. We create drama, power struggles, wars, poverty, self-destruction all to fill a void. Oh, but there is hope.

“Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil DESIRE and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to DEATH (James 1:14-15).”

The hope I speak of will not be found in our own efforts by any means. It is not found in our partners, it is not found in a religious corporate gathering. The hope lies in a savior that set our human existence in motion. A God that created each of us and originally wanted heaven for our lives but in his infinite grace he gave us free will not to make us like robots, but for us to choose him with the very lives he created. The story of grace is a love story of epic proportions, but the summary is that we make a choice daily whether to pursue life or death and even with our ability to choose there still is grace.

Grace is what has been given to Lamar, to his family, and to the world around him witnessing the full-blown power of Jesus Christ in action. We can deny his existence or come alongside his awesome power to do a great work in the lives of people around the world, in our very lives. Grace does not mean we completely avoid the natural consequences of our decisions, it simply means that there is forgiveness and a chance at eternity with our greatest love, Christ.

Today, the story of Lamar Odom continues, not eclipsed by death, but by new challenges that await him. I pray he now believes in the depths of his being that God is for him, he has always been and always will be.

When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you’d been the only man in the world. -C. S. Lewis

written by @earlinagreen

edited by April G.