Tag Archives: punishment

Chastise

Chastise: (v) to rebuke or reprimand severely.

I was thoroughly convinced that my kids were going to remember their childhood by benchmarking the exciting trips, opportunities or gifts I gave them.

But as I sit around with them now, at holidays, and they feel free to open up about their journeys of being my offspring, rarely do they refer
to a camping trip or a special dinner at Chuck E. Cheese’s.

All of them recount the moments when their errors were brought to the forefront, and it was commanded of me, as their parent, to chastise. Sometimes they do object to the severity of my application, but mostly they are extraordinarily grateful that I was able to muster the backbone to stand up against trends of the time and try to tell them the truth to the best of my ability.

It’s actually a very moving experience, when I realize they understand that it is required to chastise those you love.

So even though I have no squabble with the common thought that love, exhortation, hugs, kisses and praise are very important parts of a child’s security, I also know that there comes a moment when time stands still–and it is the mission of the parent to stop the progression of ignorance, and encourage a better solution.

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Chalk

Chalk: (n) a soft white limestone used for blackboards

His first name was Page and his second was Unus. His parents apparently thought this was funny, because once Unus is translated from the
 Latin, his name became “Page One.”

I liked Page. He was odd.

Most kids in school knew he was odd, which disqualified him from consideration. He was highly intelligent, which is the booby prize often given to odd people. Page had quirks.

Page loved to eat cold kidney beans out of a can.

He loved to have crab apple fights in his backyard.

But he hated the sound of squeaky chalk on a blackboard. It made him crazy–not fake, “pretending to be upset” crazy. No, his blood pressure went up, his face turned red, and he gripped the sides of his wooden schoolroom desk as if he were going to tear it apart.

We had one teacher who always had squeaky chalk. I don’t know if it was the cheap stuff or the expensive–but every time he wrote on the blackboard, there was an accompanying atonal melody of squeaking which most of the class ignored.

Except for Page and me–and only me because I was concerned about Page.

One day in the midst of a particularly elongated session of trying to solve a problem on the board with the squeaking chalk, Page got up from his seat, quietly walked to the front of the room, took the chalk from the teacher’s hand and threw it against the wall, breaking it into several pieces. He turned to the class and said, “Doesn’t that sound drive you crazy?”

He was met with a roomful of blank faces.

The teacher took him to the principal’s office, where he received a lecture on self-control and was given in-school suspension for five days. During his stretch for the crime, I saw him one day on his way to the cafeteria. He was smiling.

I was confused. Why would Page be so happy about his punishment? Then I realized.

No squeaky chalk.

 

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Censure

Censure: (n) the expression of formal disapproval.

Why is it not illegal to be an asshole?

I’m not speaking about capital punishment or even hard jail time. But certainly a stiff fine would be in order for being such a damn stiff.

We censure everything else. We raise our eyebrows in disapproval over a myriad of common human behaviors. Why is the asshole able to flee the jurisdiction of decency?

Wait. I see your problem. You would like me to define what an asshole is:

  1. An asshole is someone who tries to steal freedoms from other people simply because those folks don’t measure up to the favored code.
  2. An asshole is a person who hurts someone’s feelings and then pretends that it was nothing personal.
  3. An asshole is an individual who blows his or her horn in traffic instead of slowing up just a little bit, to let someone enter.
  4. An asshole is a Bible-thumper who quotes scriptures in a buffet line.
  5. An asshole is a jerk who posts articles on Facebook about other assholes

Honestly, I could go on and on, but then I would be in danger of becoming an asshole myself.

It is time to use the intimidation of censure to achieve some goodness in our society instead of thinking that goodness is achieved by censuring any fresh, new idea.

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Ban

Ban: (v) to officially or legally prohibit.Dictionary B

You can’t take away from people what God gave them.

This is true even if you feel you are morally supported, spiritually justified, ethically infused or intellectually motivated.

We would have much happier lives if we would understand that our sphere of influence does not have authority outside the circle of our heart.

So you may ask, what has God given to people?

Free will.

I think the reason that many folks believe in destiny is because they can cast onto God their distaste for the world around them. In other words, if they don’t like people with blue hair or brown eyes, they can insist that God also has predestined, from the foundations of the world, severe punishment for these individuals.

But when you submit to free will, you understand that God considers it to be supreme above all commandments.

After all, even though God loves the world, He neither gets offended nor kills people off when they don’t love Him back.

So when we attempt to ban anything and forbid its continuation, we will generally fail because it removes free will from other human beings, which God insists they should have.

  • So how can we have a righteous world if we don’t preach righteousness?
  • How can we have morality if it’s not enforced?
  • And how can we keep our children safe from evil if it’s allowed to roam the Earth?

The answer is easy.

We can’t.

 

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Baffle

Baffle: (v) to totally bewilder or perplex.Dictionary B

I like to pretend that certain things baffle me because I believe it grants me permission to avoid learning something–but actually, I am baffled by very little if I am willing to sit down, listen and comprehend.

This leaves only one true situation which baffles me: lying.

I understand that people do it. I have even found myself climbing into the slimy pit of its confines. But upon deeper consideration, I realize that it never works.

Whether you’re caught now, later or never caught in that particular lie, but because you got by with it, you pursue a second or third adventure in which you are caught, it is a pursuit that always ends in failure.

Every day of my life, I remind myself that avoiding the truth is not eliminating it. It merely postpones the revelation, the admission or the punishment of the deed until a later time when the intensity will be greater because I put off the original sentencing.

Because above all else, primary in every human beings thoughts is, “I don’t want you in my business.”

So we foolishly choose lying, thinking it will prevent people from probing our stuff, when actually, it grants them a license later–a search warrant to go through everything.

Because once we are recognized as being a liar, it is assumed that we will never tell the truth again. Even if we repent and take on the purity of the flower, we will always stink like the weed.

So why do we continue to lie? Because we arrogantly have decided that we’re smarter than those around us.

But every smart aleck is eventually revealed to actually be a dumb-ass.

 

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Backlash

Backlash (n) a strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people, especially to a social or political development.

“Racism is back.”Dictionary B

That’s what I heard somebody say in a news report yesterday.

You see, racism never goes away because of two simple problems:

  1. Human beings are marred by the need to be better than someone else.
  2. Since this is true, no one will let you be better than them.

Thus racism.

So racism is a backlash against failing to deal with your own insecurities. If you are able to admit where you are uncertain about your own abilities and start a vigil of effort to improve your situation, you are much too busy to worry about the color of skin, the curve of a nose or the slant of an eye.

But if you feel that the definition of fairness is, “I should be fine the way I am,” then you will look for ways to diminish your competition in order to adequately uplift your mediocrity.

Here’s the truth: the white plantation owners couldn’t get their family, children and friends to bear the heat of the day to pick a cotton crop. Call it laziness or poor genetic engineering.

So they created a whole philosophy around the inferiority of the black man because of the inability to take care of their own business.

Then they punished the black man because he did the work they were unable to achieve and survived the punishment without striking back and killing them.

So what am I saying?

Racism is jealousy hidden behind superiority. “We just can’t get it done.”

It is the backlash we levy against an innocent party.

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Alter Ego

dictionary with letter A

Alter ego: (n) a person’s secondary or alternative personalityCould you keep up with two?? Personalities, that is?

Yet I think sometimes we, as human beings, try to maintain an arsenal of personalities under the guise of being diverse, clever, intuitive and powerful.

Actually, there are two philosophies that collide with each other, and as often happens in science, when the two things collide, they cancel each other out.

  • The first philosophy is that we are able to “become all things to all men.”
  • The second one is, “all you have to do is be yourself.”

As always, somewhere between these two monsters lies the frightened child of truth.

If you try to be too varied, people call you wishy-washy, liberal or ill-defined.

Yet if you foolishly go out into the world and try to “be yourself” all the time, you will soon offend others and find yourself alone except for those who hold to your position.

There is a third possibility. “As much as possible, live peaceably with all men.”

I like that one.

Sometimes I find that my personality isn’t suited for the environment, so I just give it the night off. I decide not to be too chatty. I find a lovely corner near the buffet table, sit down and let people find me instead of circulating around, to the annoyance of many and the delight of very few.

Then there are times when there are issues which demand that I stand up for a cause. I have discovered there is really only one cause worth standing up for. Whenever human beings feel like they are advancing their cause by making other people to be less valuable than themselves, I must step in with my personality and object.

Other than that, I have found that letting things just play out normally (and even historically) proves to have sufficient punishment for bad ideas.

I am not always myself–because in some adventures, “me” is not needed.

But I certainly do not try to be so open-minded that my brain cannot close a door to create a sense of privacy.

I try to “live peaceably with all men”–unless they are determined to declare a war on their neighbors.


Akin

Words from Dic(tionary)

dictionary with letter A

Akin: (adj) of similar character: e.g. genius and madness are akin.

One of my favorite quotations from the Good Book is: “Wisdom is justified by all her children.”

What that means to me is that great ideas, noble causes and desirable notions are not always spawned from altars and pulpits.

Wisdom bears children which point to certain parents. What is the mother and father of great wisdom? What is akin to divine understanding?

I’ve discovered there are three great uncles who let me know when I am in the presence of lasting promises and golden principles. Everything akin to these three entities is worthy of our time and eternal in prospect:

1. Nothing is going to happen without me.

Every time someone tries to convince me that good things can occur without human involvement, I quietly slip out of the room to avoid the pending disaster.

2. It’s not about what I deserve.

Actually, what I deserve is not relevant. If it were balanced, I would also have to accept the times when I deserve punishment and instead am granted grace. The word “deserve” should be eliminated from the English language and replaced with “get.”

3. Nothing acceptable is accepted until it is rejected and continues to insist on being accepted.

Please understand, I do not think human beings are devoid of intelligence, but our intelligence suffers from blindness. We seem incapable of catching a vision for anything that isn’t immediately in the spectrum of our present doings.

So when I run across anything that submits to, aligns with or honors these three ideas, I realize I just may be sitting in the presence of greatness … because greatness is always the blending of need, sensitivity and curiosity.

 

Adamant

Words from Dic(tionary)

by J. R. Practix

dictionary with letter A

Adamant: (adj.) refusing to be persuaded or refusing to change one’s mind.

I’m not.

Adamant, that is.

I used to be. Adamant seems to be a “wrong of passage” by all young folks, who think that clinging to their opinions is the best way to be grown-up. Such foolishness is perpetuated by political parties which refuse to abandon arcane concepts for fear of coming across as flip-floppers. By the way–I AM a flip-flopper, and damn proud of it.

  • Flip-flopping has prevented me from doing ridiculous things–twice.
  • Flip-flopping has allowed me to include other members of the human race that I once disdained.
  • Flip-flopping has nurtured a sense of humor in me about my own attributes instead of turning me into  a tape recorder announcing my abilities.
  • Flip-flopping keeps me from being adamant.

There may be those who think there are cases when we need to be adamant in the attempt to preserve liberty, righteousness or independence. But since I don’t fear that liberty, righteousness or independence are ever in great danger, it is not required for me to pick up a gun, hurl an insult or even “stand fast for my cause” while ignoring the pursuit of truth.

It’s why I can’t be a Republican or a Democrat. They are both sure. I am not.

It’s why I have trouble sometimes being a Christian. They are convinced that Muslims, Jews and all the other believing sorts are erred, and therefore dangerously teetering on damnation.

This has certainly kept me from being a suicide bomber–too many of my own ideas have blown up in my face for me to blow up for any of my ideas.

I am not adamant.

Actually, I don’t even know why the word exists–and any time I hear someone use it, I quietly slip away, knowing deep in my heart that those who choose that profile must suffer the punishment for their inflexibility. And what is the punishment?

You end up stuck with what you are, with no reinforcements of wisdom coming your way.

Adamant is what our society calls “conviction.”

To me, it’s floating along on the Titanic in the middle of a chilly sea … oblivious to the icebergs.

Adamant

Words from Dic(tionary)

by J. R. Practix

dictionary with letter A

Adamant: (adj.) refusing to be persuaded or refusing to change one’s mind.

I’m not.

Adamant, that is.

I used to be. Adamant seems to be a “wrong of passage” by all young folks, who think that clinging to their opinions is the best way to be grown-up. Such foolishness is perpetuated by political parties which refuse to abandon arcane concepts for fear of coming across as flip-floppers. By the way–I AM a flip-flopper, and damn proud of it.

  • Flip-flopping has prevented me from doing ridiculous things–twice.
  • Flip-flopping has allowed me to include other members of the human race that I once disdained.
  • Flip-flopping has nurtured a sense of humor in me about my own attributes instead of turning me into  a tape recorder announcing my abilities.
  • Flip-flopping keeps me from being adamant.

There may be those who think there are cases when we need to be adamant in the attempt to preserve liberty, righteousness or independence. But since I don’t fear that liberty, righteousness or independence are ever in great danger, it is not required for me to pick up a gun, hurl an insult or even “stand fast for my cause” while ignoring the pursuit of truth.

It’s why I can’t be a Republican or a Democrat. They are both sure. I am not.

It’s why I have trouble sometimes being a Christian. They are convinced that Muslims, Jews and all the other believing sorts are erred, and therefore dangerously teetering on damnation.

This has certainly kept me from being a suicide bomber–too many of my own ideas have blown up in my face for me to blow up for anything.

I am not adamant.

Actually, I don’t even know why the word exists–and any time I hear someone use it, I quietly slip away, knowing deep in my heart that those who choose that profile must suffer the punishment for their inflexibility. And what is the punishment?

You end up stuck with what you are, with no reinforcements of wisdom coming your way.

Adamant is what our society calls “conviction.”

To me, it’s floating along on the Titanic in the middle of a chilly sea … oblivious to the icebergs.