green

Aw shucks, grrl, it was thanks to all the fine work that the other LBTers have been into this thread for quite some number of pages now but it makes me happy to hear that you enjoyed what I had to say.

But it seems to me that implicit in this package - i.e. belief in God and Jesus, etc - is an acknowledgement of how this individual arrived on this planet and how He chose to conduct His life during His stay here. This was a despised member of the underclass and of an under-race. One cannot be a true follower of Jesus without walking the walk, eh? I spy with my little eye a glaring hypocrisy amongst many of those who are the most right-wing Christians.

When I was very young and briefly a Christian I thought that a Christian was a Christian and that the difference in the sects was merely one of small doctrinal variations and the fit between the style of the church and the individual worshipper. Afterall, I thought, a Christian is a Christian and that is someone who acknowledges and worships the Holy Trinity of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (also known as the Dove/the Holy Ghost). How very wrong I was! Now, although I am now an atheist, it strikes me that if I were to take the long view, perhaps the view of the Ineffable One who might be looking down at us from upstairs, from his celestial post, He might find much of this passionate doctrinal debate, all of this infighting, foolish, sad, retrograde, and offensive. Isn't it true that the broad strokes of the Bible demand its believers to follow the Ten Commandments, to love each other as we would love ourselves, and to believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit? Perhaps the major philosophical shift between the Old Testament and the New was movement from do no harm to Jesus's teaching to do good. An examination of His behaviour while He was alive will bear this out. Indeed, it may be argued that Jesus's arguments with the devil and his minions and His threats of hellfire were mostly directed at those individuals who behaved in an unkind and inhumane fashion towards their fellow men. In tossing out the money lenders, he might be making a comment about such individuals as Benny Hinn (who is currently trawling for donations so that he can buy his private jet which will be called The Dove), Jim Bakker, and others of those so-called Christian pundits who have risen to become rich and powerful. God's argument with Sodom was perhaps based on the city's descent into mindless lust, brutality and social anarchy. A caring and loving same sex couple is the polar opposite from that. One might argue that these days Hollywood comes closer to Sodom, eh. By all accounts Jesus spent most of His life hanging out with the working class. Indeed, he was a working class bloke Himself. And yet in America so many of those who consider themselves the best Christians continue to vote for a party which favours tax cuts which hurt the poor and the lower and the middle middle class. These best Christians are often people who display ungenerous attitudes towards the Hispanic issue and a racist attitude towards Blacks. The most powerfully devout Christian whom I have ever met told me that the Messiah chose to make His first appearance before mankind as a Jew because at that time Jews were regarded with the same distaste as Blacks, Trailer Park Trash, or certain other minorities are today. The point, it seemed, was that the message had to be presented by someone without Hollywood lustre; this is where true faith begins. I was, I must confess, extraordinarily moved when I heard this.

Yep, I miss Carlene, too.

Bad behaviour like this occasionally happens post-band but only occasionally - it's no longer a lifestyle!

I think that it is wonderful that you have written into LBT and that you want to recommit to your band. It sounds like you did have bad luck with the second lapband doctor and with your counsellor. The advice which you have been receiving from other LBT-ers is the same as I would give you: dump them both and find people with whom you are comfortable and who will help you. With respect to your depression, I suffer from depression and I am on medication for this. You may wish to find out whether meds might be an appropriate method of treatment or not. You do have an advantage over some bandsters in that you know from your initial success that the band can work for you. This is a good thing! You were doing well until you were defilled by your doctor. You will do well again. Keep on posting and let us know how you are doing.

Green is green with envy. It looks like she is goin' to have to go to Oz to do her shopping!

I save the daily newspapers and read them during the commercial breaks. This is why commercials don't usually bother me too much. Sometimes I stay up quite late watching TV because I haven't finished reading all the papers. At the end of the evening there they are, thrown all over the floor. The next morning I collect them and any empty water bottles that happen to be lying around and toss them into the appropriate recycle garbage bins. Nevertheless, I did catch the occasional food ad by accident while I was on the liquid phase post-op and the experience was cruel. I do find, however, that the food always looks nicer on TV than it does when you are half-way finished eating it.

I agree with Betsyjane. I was banded last September and I have lost weight thanks to this tool. I simply cannot eat as much and even though I am now retired and thus in close proximity to my kitchen I am eating much, much less. The band won't allow me to eat as much as I used to do. A lot of the success of the band hinges on getting the right amount of fill. And it will work poorly on an oreo and icecream diet. :faint: You do have to collaborate with the band. Because I don't have those big meals anymore I deal with my food obsession by paying more attention to what I am going to eat. I pay a lot of attention to the breakdown of calories and vitamins, fibre, and proteins, etc present in prepared foods, both canned and frozen, and I make a point of trying to add fresh produce to my meals. I also take vitamin supplements because I don't always do a good job.:phanvan And best wishes on your recommitment to your band, rtgirl!

Yep, the original church split into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church at some point during the third century CE. The Protestant split came a long, long time later - over a thousand years later. Carlene could give you the exact dates and more information, I am sure. She really knows her church history!

Yeah, I was baffled by eD, too. I can sort out Cusano's misspellings but eD was right off the map.

I think that it is more in the way of a NBP - a non-Band Pleasure!:hungry: Enjoy it while you can, grrl.

Thanks for posting this, Devana. I found it very interesting. I was sent to a private school by my parents when I was young up here in Canada. In fact my parents paid a big bunch of bucks because I was a boarder. And then I grew up and chose not to have kids of my own. Although my parents and I have paid much more into the school system than we will ever personally harvest I still believe that a country's investment into the intellectual development of the next generation is best thing that the tax paying citizens can do. As to how this might be sorted out with respect to the demands of a private school over a state school, I am very, very confused.

Omigawd, grrl! I am so pleased to hear from you. For sure that mind-body disconnect is proving to be a very big problem for me. I really have no idea where I am or who I am when it comes to my envelope.

Curling is not like hockey but people do like it. Hockey is a real cult up here. People not only love to watch it but many of them also play it. Lots of men play hockey with friends and work mates and of course Canadian kids play hockey. This involves a lot of time, money and commitment on the part of the whole family. There is the cost of the gear and the membership fees for the kids and then the time spent ferrying the kids to their practices and watching them play. This used to be something that came with having boys but now some girls get into hockey, too. The coaches are guys who volunteer their time; they are hockey nuts as well but this game is a passion for the people who care about it and things can get out of hand. Parents get into brawls while watching their kids play hockey. Occasionally these brawls end up in the courts. And sometimes the parents will even turn on the kids' coaches for enforcing rules which the parents don't agree with. There was a case recently up here of an upper middle class father who physically assaulted his son's coach because the coach wanted to bench the kid for missing a couple of practices. The local news will run stories on the worst cases of these dramas; the ones where hockey parents get down with each other and lose control. Of course the whole business is totally Jerry Springer or whatever but it is entirely unstaged. Because I am not a fan of hockey nor of any sport, I just don't get the passion or the sense of self-identification that would lead me into destructive behaviour. I don't understand the desire to strangle your son's hockey coach, nor the weird (psycho-sexual and very boring) affiliations conjured up between regular type women - that is to say, women like you or me - and a bunch of guys who drive cars around oval tracks. This being said, it is crucial that we folks who live on this continent recognise that the Brits and the Europeans are every bit obsessed and ill-behaved as we are: they behave badly when it comes to soccer. The game is different - the behaviour is the same. As for curling, this is, I believe, popular in small town Canada.

I find your post very interesting. Of course different cultures do have a different way of approaching death and it is great to learn something new about this. Thanks for posting this.

I guess it's like hockey up here in Canada. Thanks for helping me to understand.

Yeah, isn't that weird?!?! By the way, I've noticed from your ticker that you have lost a lot of weight. Congratulations:clap2: from Green. And, Mandi, before you know it you will be filled again.

I am from up north. What is NASCR?

I've never really had too much trouble with bread but I can run into trouble with chicken if I'm not careful. And sometimes I am not restricted and I figure I better get a fill and then I tighten right up. The band can be very weird....

Well, I am a Canuck and so I did feel free to laugh my face off - initially. Upon further reflection I decided that this video is very disturbing. Thanks for posting it.

I was amused when I read this because I have often thought that this might be the case with our family. I, and the rest of my family, except with the possible exception of my mother who wasn't exactly Christian but was a very spritual person, seem to be devoid of the ability to believe. Just as some people are colour blind and others are tone deaf, it would seem that some of us are unable to make sense of something which resonates powerfully for so many others. There has been a few times that I have regretted this inability to make this leap. My saddest experience came after I became friends with a Christian mystic. He was, of course, courting me for Christ and he wrote me the most extraordinarily beautiful and passionate letters concerning the Scriptures and faith. These documents were hand-printed on white, 14 inch long foolscap, they were usually many, many pages long - the longest one I received was 50 pages - and they were, well, extraordinary documents. I wasn't the only one in this fellow's class. Enclosed with my letters were photocopies of letters he had written to others. I wanted to believe. I really did but in the end I could not. None of it made sense to me. I, however, have saved this magnificent correspondence, how could I not?

My answers are interleaved inside the quote.

In the province where I live, teachers are unionized. They are well-paid and they have a terrific indexed pension plan. This means that there is competition to get into the education programmes at universities. The Bachelor of Education is a one year post-graduate programme up here. The people who are poorly paid are the ones who go into the pre-school end of things. This requires a two-year college diploma and these folks are not unionized. Pre-schools up here are all private, you see.

Bitter, I've been missing your posts lately. I'm glad you're back. s from Green, eh.