The Two Lives Of Mr. Black
Brian Hickey, with PhillyVoice, reports on the strange case of a Mr. Black, who required two obituaries.
In the first obit, his “loving wife, Bearetta Harrison Black” gets top survivor billing. In the second, however, Bearetta is nowhere to be found, but “his long-tome (sic) girlfriend, Princess Hall” appears in her place.
A man answering the phone at Greenidge Funeral Homes told PhillyVoice that the obituaries were placed separately because "the wife wanted it one way, and the girlfriend wanted it another way." But he did not anticipate any problems because everybody knew it was happening.
Mr. Black had lived two separate lives, acknowledged in two separate obituaries. How about you? How many lives do you live? Do you present one persona to one group of friends and something quite different to another? If an honest report were given, would you require one obit or two?
“... Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8).
How Do You Want Your Bread Buttered?
There is an old story about two neighbors, a baker and a farmer. The baker began to be suspicious of the farmer, wondering if he wasn't getting his money's worth when he paid for a pound of butter. He weighed the farmer's butter on several occasions, and the butter consistently weighed less than a full pound. Enraged, he had him arrested for fraud.
The judge asked the farmer at the trial, "I presume you have scales?"
"Yes, of course, Your Honor," the farmer replied.
"And I presume you use standard weights to measure your goods?” the judge asked.
“Yes, generally,” said the farmer. “But I don’t use them when serving the baker,” replied the farmer.
"Then how do you hope to weigh accurately the butter you sell to your neighbor?" the judge asked.
"That's easy," the farmer said. "When the baker began to buy butter from me, I decided to buy my bread from him. I've been using his one-pound loaves to balance my scales when I portion out his butter.
Nothing could be fairer than to be judged in accordance with how we judge others. So, if you would like to avoid a stricter judgment, keep your standard of judging others as low as possible.
"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Matthew 7:2).
Why Don't YOU Stop The Violence?
An AP story published this morning (11/04/14) is thick with irony. Two community organizers “with a local Stop the Violence group” were arrested and jailed in Washington, Pennsylvania for, get this, “severely beating a former roommate with whom they had a property dispute” (FoxNews.com).
They “allegedly jumped the man as he was walking down the street on Tuesday." Police report that the defendants kicked the victim repeatedly while he was unconscious, causing serious injuries. The female defendant “was still wearing the same ‘Stop the Violence’ T-shirt that she had on the night before when she led a march in the city protesting two recent shootings."
The victim remains in critical condition.