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A WORD OF ADVICE!

10/27/2024

My blog post today is later than usual; but as I learned to say during my three year stint in the tenth grade, “I have a really good excuse this time.” Just kidding!

Several weeks ago, I completed my second novel. I asked several trusted individuals to read the manuscript for three main reasons. First, I asked them to help me find typos, spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. Let’s just say I’m sure glad I did. All total, nearly two hundred corrections were made as a result.

The second reason was to check some of my facts as my novel is set in the local area during World War Two. It turns out that I got some things right. But other things I had to change as a result of their input.

The third reason was to seek input and feedback on the plot, characters, etc… I did this because I learned long ago that there is benefit in seeking and heeding advice from others. Solomon tells us in the book of Proverbs (27:17) that “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

In another place, he writes (in Proverbs 15:22-23): “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. A person finds joy in giving an apt reply, and how good is a timely word!”

As a result of their beneficial feedback, I have now undertaken rewrite after rewrite. Hopefully, through the wise counsel and timely words I received, my novel will be now be better than my first draft ever was.

Still, the harshest critic, so to speak, was, of all people, my very own daughter! She may have spilled more ink in her marginal notes than I ever did in composing the actual novel. At times, I wanted to scream as I turned the page and found yet another river of red ink! Of course, I am being a little facetious here. In truth, I slogged my way through her voluminous recommendations, and eventually implemented a great many of what I judged to be truly worthwhile suggestions.

I am reminded in all of this that we are often the hardest on the very people we love the most. And why is this so? Because when we truly love someone, we genuinely want them to succeed at whatever it is that they feel led to undertake. My daughter clearly wants me to be a halfway decent novelist. And for this reason, she took my request for feedback seriously. It is a testament to her love for me.

It works much the same for our Heavenly Father. He clearly wants what is best for us. And for this reason, the Bible tells us over and over again (in Deuteronomy 8:5, Proverbs 3:12, I Corinthians 11:32, Hebrews 12:6, and Revelation 3:19) that those whom the Lord loves, He also disciplines.

We may not like having to take our medicine, as it were; but when He dispenses it, it is for our own good!

Just as a novel is improved by heeding the advice and input of others, so is a life improved by heeding the admonitions of our Heavenly Father.

By the way, to learn more about my novel writing endeavors, check out my other website at: www.cleojackson.org.

SCRIPTURE:

https://biblehub.com/proverbs/27-17.htm;

https://biblehub.com/niv/proverbs/15.htm;

https://biblehub.com/revelation/3-19.htm.

APPROPRIATE ENDING?

10/20/2024

For years, I found myself somewhat impressed by web addresses that ended, not in the customary .com or .org, but with .tv instead. Like so many people, I just naturally assumed the organization involved had a corresponding television presence as well as an internet presence. Turns out this is not quite the case!

According to an article at www.newser.com titled “Countries Are Cashing in on Their Domain Names”, posted on October 20, 2024, domain names are often driven by their country of origin. Thus...

Anguilla is raking in extra revenue from registration fees for its .ai web domain thanks to the artificial intelligence boom, but it's not the only place cashing in on demand for websites with distinctive address endings. The AP has details:

Tuvalu: Tuvalu is a string of coral atolls, scattered over hundreds of miles in the Pacific Ocean, located midway between Australia and Hawaii. It has one of the world's smallest economies and its low-lying islands are vulnerable to climate change, but it does have a very valuable resource: the .tv web domain. Royalties from .tv, which web users might assume is short for television, have been climbing, especially after videogame streaming platform Twitch licensed the web address twitch.tv.

Libya: The North African country, which has been plagued by turmoil since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi's death in 2011, isn't readily associated with internet culture. But Libya controls web addresses that end in .ly, which have become widely used as a so-called domain hack for websites with English names that end in -ly. Well-known examples include bit.ly, used by the weblink shortening service Bitly, and parse.ly, the website for online analytics platform Parse.ly.

Montenegro: This Balkan country became an independent nation after the breakup of Yugoslavia. It's one of Europe's smaller countries—about 620,000 people—bordered by the Adriatic Sea, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, and Albania. Montenegro was assigned the .me web domain, which has become popular with people who want to claim their pronoun for personal branding. Websites ending in .me are "often used for personal websites, portfolios, blogs and online resumes or portfolios because 'me' can be seen as a way to personalize an online presence," website builder Wix says.

Colombia: Websites that end in .co aren't from a generic web domain for companies, like .com sites. The .co domain is assigned to Colombia, but the South American country allows anyone to sign up for its web addresses. Internet registrar GoDaddy says more than 2 million .co web domains have been claimed, including addresses claimed by Big Tech names like Amazon, which uses it to redirect online shoppers to its .com home page. Google, meanwhile, informs visitors to g.co that the link is its official shortcut.

Wow! By registering in Anguilla, one can have a domain name ending in “.ai”. Similarly, a Tuvalu registration gets someone a domain ending in “.tv”; Libya gets one ending in “.ly”; Montenegro gets one ending in “.me”; and Columbia gets one ending in “.co”.

Given the human propensity to promote self, self-serving domain names ending in “.me” are ready made. And whenever a desired domain name is already taken, what better way to appear stylish and fashionable than to create a chic website ending in “.ly”, “.ai”, or “.co”? My strong suspicion is that more than a few domain names have been registered for these very reasons.

Lest I appear hypocritical here, my own domain name admittedly ends in “.com” even though I am an individual and not a corporation. However, when I registered this domain a decade and half ago, “.com” was all that was available. So, I am clearly not masquerading as some large company.

The bigger issue in all of this is that the internet is very much a reflection of human nature. From the earliest chapters of Genesis, men and women pretentiously promoted themselves, while defending their actions by blaming others. And that trend has continued pretty much unabated ever since.

Perhaps this is why the Bible has so much to say about not being haughty and self-centered. In the New Testament Gospel of Matthew (chapter23, verse 12), Jesus tells us: “But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

To this, we can add a multitude of verses such as:

Proverbs 29:23: “A man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.”

Luke 14:11: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 18:14: “I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

James 4:6: “But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”

And 1 Peter 5:6: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.”

Given these things, I think I’ll forego trendy online attempts to aggrandize myself. For in the end, it would hard.ly be right for .me to promote the agenda of the Almight.ai and myself at the same time. In fact, it might well prove to be a spiritual fias.co!

SOURCE:

https://www.newser.com/story/357881/countries-are-cashing-in-on-their-domain-names.html.

SCRIPTURE:

https://biblehub.com/matthew/23-12.htm.

HEAVYWEIGHT?!

10/15/2024

As a little boy, I so looked up to my Uncle Roy. Although the youngest of three siblings (my aunt, my father, and him), he wound up being a much bigger man physically than either my father or my grandfather. To this day, I can still recall the stories I marveled at when told of his upbringing.

Like the time I was told about when he was a teenager at home doing his homework, and two local bullies showed up out in the front yard to taunt him. He tolerated it for a little while before finally telling his mother (my grandmother) that she would just have to forgive him, as he got up from the table, stomped out the front door, and proceeded to whip the ever-loving tar out of the two of them!

And now you see why, to a boy of age seven as I was, his six foot, one inch height and two hundred pound chiseled frame was an impressive thing to behold. His massive arms appeared to me like oak trees attached to a mountain-sized torso. Oh, how I longed to grow up and be like him!

Well, the day eventually came when I did grow up, and even came within an inch of his height. But no worry, as I finally made up for it by far surpassing him in weight! (Laughing emoji here!)

Maybe all of this is why I have always been enamored by heavyweights. Whether they be “wrastlin’” (television wrestling) champs like “Dusty Rhodes”, or “boxin’” champs like Joe Frazier or George Foreman, or football champs like the Falcons’ “Tommy Nobis” or the Steelers’ “Mean Joe Green”, I always pulled for the heavyweight to be the ultimate champ!

And maybe this is why I have also become enamored these days with such recurring fall classics as the annual “World’s Heaviest Pumpkin Contest”, which was won this year by a entry weighing in at a whopping 2,471 pounds; as well as the annual “Fat Bear Contest” held up in Alaska, which was won this year by an enormous mama bear who actually beat out a male bear which had fatally attacked one of her cubs earlier this summer. She weighed in at an impressive weight of well over 1200 pounds!

As I have reflected on all of this, I have come to see that each of us, regardless of our respective physical traits, is in fact a heavyweight in one area or another. Think about it. They say that you become what you eat. In this sense, all of us are overloaded in one given area or another.

I have known people who were so obsessed with this, that, or the other pursuit that they ultimately became so full of whatever it was that they were consuming that they inevitably became little more than a general manifestation of what all it was that they had consumed.

And so, my friend, “In what way or ways are you a heavyweight?” Please note that I did not ask: “Are you a heavyweight?” As we are all a heavyweight in one way or another, I ask again, “In what way or ways are you a heavyweight?”

In other words, what have you so consumed (Or rather, what has so consumed you?) that you have become obsessed with it and by it? That is to say, what has become all-consuming and all-consumptive in your life? In other words… just what are you consuming, and has that just begun to consume you?!

These days, I have come to conclude that it might be best to beware the status of “heavyweight”. In some circumstances, by comparison, it might well be much better to be perceived as being a “lightweight”.

In the Old Testament Book of Proverbs (chapter 6, verse 27), we read: “Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?” The point here is that what goes into the body has consequences in what is the manifest in the outcome! The same can be aid for your mind, and also for your soul.

In light of this, my friend, beware of what all you take into your own bosom. It may well show up one day in your external persona. For after all, each one of us is little more than precisely what we eat!

SOURCES:

https://www.newser.com/story/357828/oh-my-gourd-this-pumpkin-weighs-in-at-nearly-25k-pounds.html;

https://www.newser.com/story/357534/shes-the-first-working-mom-to-win-fat-bear-week.html.

SCRIPTURE:

https://biblehub.com/proverbs/6-27.htm.

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT…

10/10/2024

Part of my mission in life at this point is to help my grandsons to become men. One of the ways I do this is by introducing them to things guys do. We shoot BB guns, we catch crawdads, we play ball, and we even made “spears” out of sticks, covered them with feathers, and chunked them out in the yard this past week.

When the sun goes down, especially when they get to spend the night, is to watch movies. So far, all the ones I have introduced them to all have an obvious moral, with clearly defined good guys and bad guys. And many of them have monsters which the heroes have to come up against and defeat. I particularly like old Ray Harryhausen movies; which I loved as a little boy myself.

But as they age, they are discovering their own movie heroes. Recently, almost out of nowhere, they discovered the Star Wars franchise. They know Luke Skywalker and Hans Solo are the good guys who have to struggle with and overcome the evil Darth Vader and Stormtroopers. Accordingly, they regularly arm themselves with light sabers and blasters as they imagine themselves as Jedi Knights engaged in the struggle to overthrow the Empire and restore the Republic.

Of course, I was around when the first Star Wars movie, “Episode Four: A New Hope”, sprang onto movie screens nationwide in 1977. By the time the first trilogy had been produced, like so many of my generation, I knew every character, every scene, and every outcome in all three movies. But as the sequel trilogy, and then the prequel trilogy each came out, I had moved on in life, becoming an adult and focusing on other responsibilities.

As much as I am an expert on the first three films of my generation, so am I ignorant of the last six films, and especially of the succession of stand-alone story films generated by the franchise. I will leave it to my grandsons in their generation to be experts on the films of theirs. Yet, as my grandsons have begun insisting on watching these movies with their granddaddy, I have gladly engaged.

Still, I watch them with a different eye. Or more properly, with one eye; as I am typically using the other eye to search the internet and read about the production of the various movies. As a result, I now know lots of things about the movies that I did not know when I first viewed them as a sixteen year old.

For instance, in the very first film, a largely unknown director named George Lucas somehow talked such acclaimed actors as Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones, and David Prowse to accept roles in his weird new space opera science fiction film. But accept they did. And the rest, as they say, is history.

One particular detail I uncovered is the point of my blog today. Most of the actors were understandably unsure of the movie’s reception and resultant success or failure. So, when Alec Guinness accepted the role of Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi, the Jedi Knight Master who helps inspire and train the hero, Luke Skywalker, before being killed off later in the film, chose not to take a salary, but to negotiate instead for 2.25 percent of the film’s profits.

By comparison, James Earl Jones, whose deep voice, described as a "stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas", was dubbed in for the voice of Darth Vader over the physical acting of the 6’6” tall British bodybuilder, David Browse, was advised by his agents to “just take the money and run”. He therefore settled for a mere $6500 for his work on the film.

By comparison, when all was said and done, and the film that has cost $11 million to produce had earned an impressive $775 million, Alec Guinness had earned $3.3 million. What is more, by the time he died in the year 2000, he had earned about $85 million, which was more than he made from 40 of his other films combined, including such classics as Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India.

While both men went on amass impressive fortunes in their lifetime, Guinness far surpassed Jones, due for the most part, to the deal each man negotiated on this one film.

A lot can be concluded from this. To be sure, Guinness’ career was slowing down. Born in 1914, he was already 63 when Sat wars came out. He was a well-established actor with a world-wide reputation. The money he made, as a result, allowed him to spend his final years focusing only on what acting projects he truly wanted to pursue.

Seventeen years his junior, James Earl Jones, born in 1931, was only 46, and although an established stage performer, was just getting started in the movie business with only a couple of acting roles to his credit. So his career was just revving up by comparison.

Arguably, therefore, the former could afford to take a risk on salary, while the latter may have valued the cash up front. We all understand how life works.

In the end, of course, Guinness died with a net worth of some $60 million; while Jones died with a net worth of some $40 million. As former Atlanta braves broadcaster once put it, “After a player can command a salary of several million dollars, what’s another million or two? Yet players always seem to want to hold out for more, more, more. Most of us would have to totally revamp our lifestyles in order to spend that kind of money!” So, it seems as if $40 million should have been sufficient.

Still, one cannot help but to wonder what might have happened if James Earl Jones had not listened to his agents and instead had negotiated a percentage of the profits from Star Wars like Alec Guinness did. His net worth at the end of the trail might very well have far surpassed that of Guinness.

For my part, as I look back over my life, I know full well that there were times when I chose to play it safe. Some of those decisions were appropriate. Others were not. For there were many times when I now wish that I had chosen not to play it safe, but to take the risk instead. Here me well - I am not just talking about financial decisions here. For this principle applies to a great many of life’s pursuits.

Conversely, I am increasingly thankful for all those times in life when I chose to take the risk. I did so when I ask my beautiful wife to marry me. I did so when I applied for college. I did so when I applied for my first job. I did so when I made my first investment. I did so when I wrote my first novel.

What about you, my friend? Does the same hold true for you? If you spend a little time thinking about it, you may realize that you too have a similar testimony.

Some three thousand years ago, King Solomon (in the Old Testament Book of Proverbs, chapter 11, verse 1, NET Bible Translation) admonished us in this manner: “Send your grain overseas, for after many days you will get a return.”

He is simply telling us here to take the risk. A ship loaded with grain could easily be lost at sea, attacked by pirates, or suffer any number of other similar fates. But if it made it through to its intended port, and then returned laden with other goods, the return on the investment could be truly enormous.

In other words, Solomon encouraged us to take the risk! Forget the measly $6500; go for the chance at $3.3 million instead! Think long term, not short term! For in the end, the reward will very likely well be worth it!

SOURCES:

https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/much-cast-original-star-wars-movie-make/.

SCRIPTURE:

https://biblehub.com/parallel/ecclesiastes/11-1.htm.

A’ GIVIN’ and A’ GETTIN’

10/5/2024

My blog post this day is a tad late, but with good reason. You see, a loved one dear to my wife and I wound up with an unexpected hospitalization. The good news is that this individual is now home and recuperating; but the experience of support meant that my wife and I had to set our personal agendas aside.

As I sat in the hospital emergency room, I thought about a sermon I once read by Herb Hodges titled "The Lost Beatitude". In it, he explores the words of Jesus in Acts 20:35 in which the Master said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

As a way of illustrating our Lord’s point, Rev. Hodges employs the following illustration:

You may remember the story of the magic vest. It was a wonderful garment. All one had to do was to put it on and make a wish to have the wish come true. But there was one disadvantage — every time the wearer made a selfish wish the vest drew up a bit and became a little more binding and uncomfortable.

But the wearer of the magic garment refused to be warned. He kept on wishing for things only for himself until by and by he was choked to death, choked by the deadly tragedy — getting without giving.

Getters build no churches — but givers do. Getters launch no crusades for righteousness — but givers do. Getters build no hospitals, establish no orphanages, endow no colleges, set up on foundations — but givers do. It is giving that transforms our receiving into a blessing.

Let’s be honest. The Emergency Room waiting area can be a stressful place. Many are there waiting to be seen by a doctor. Others are there waiting to hear about the latest status of their loved ones. In such circumstances, the norm is for people to focus only on themselves at the expense of others.

Yet, over the ensuing two days, I witnessed countless doctors, nurses, assistants, technicians, administrators, clerks, and additional personnel give of themselves "above and beyond" in order to minister to those in need. Many of them had worked long, hard, and full shifts, and had every right to be irritable or non-responsive as a result. Instead, they went out of their way to show compassion.

What is more, those with the jobs viewed by the world as least desirable seemed to express the greatest level of care. Those "merely" delivering meals from the kitchen, cleaning the bathrooms, gathering the trash, and/or changing the linens seemed to go out of their way to be helpful and encouraging.

Later in the above-referenced sermon, Rev. Hodges adds these thoughts:

Did you ever call out loudly in a place where there was a loud echo? You can get any reply you want in a place like that. If you speak kindly, you will receive a kind answer. If you speak harshly, you will receive a harsh answer. Life is like that. Life is an echo.

Generally speaking, we get just what we give. If you say bitterly, “This is a cruel world — nobody ever did me a kindness,” that is another way of saying, “I have lived in a needy world and have never done a kindness to any human soul.”

Generally speaking, if we give the world the best we have, the best will come back to us. Jesus was speaking quite literally when He said, "It makes one happier to give than to get."

My wife and I have been inspired by this whole experience to think less of ourselves and more of others. That is to say, we have been reminded that it is indeed "more blessed to give than to receive".

Perhaps you should ponder this same principle.

SOURCE:

https://herbhodges.com/written-material/. Search for “Acts 20 35 The Lost Beatitude”.

SCRIPTURE:

https://biblehub.com/acts/20-35.htm.

A WORD OF ADVICE!

APPROPRIATE ENDING?

HEAVYWEIGHT?!

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT…

A’ GIVIN’ and A’ GETTIN’

Cleo E. Jackson, III

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