Community:Church of the Dark Star/Sermons/20160806 Balance Discarding the Old"

"Discarding the Old", from the perspective of the Balance Belief, presented by Winfield

Hail everyone! I'm Winfield, the Governor of PaxLair. It's great to be here! Thanks for having me! I greet Kazyn Phoenixfyre for his perspectives on Order. I will speak from the perspective of Balance.

I like to start my conversation with a little humor. Our topic today is about Discarding the Old.

Discarding the old can be cleaning out some old clutter. But it's not easy! The boss walked into the worker's office. He yelled, "clean this clutter off your desk now! There's too much old stuff!" The worker answered, "I'd like to, but I'm afraid it's too late without disturbing the fragile ecosystem" - by Nia Spongberg

Discarding the old might also be about ignoring elder folks, heaven forbid! Remember, they are still very capable people! Some elderly talked to each other one day. "My arms are so weak I can hardly lift this cup of coffee," said one. "I know what you mean. My cataracts are so bad I can't even see my coffee," replied another. "I can't turn my head because of the arthritis in my neck," said a third. "My blood pressure pills make me dizzy," another contributed. "I guess that's the price we pay for getting old," winced an old man. Then there was a short moment of silence. "Thank God we can all still drive," said one woman cheerfully. - by 61hf.com/Nursing-Home-Humor.htm

Oh, and careful about your decisions ... I heard someone say, "my parents are getting old and sick. I think I might have to put them in a nursing home. I feel really bad, though, because I live with my parents and I don't want to live in a nursing home." – by Comedian Dan Mintz

Discarding the old can be getting rid of things that lay around for a few days. This is my favorite! "Fish and visitors stink after three days." - Ben Franklin (Earth 1706-1790)

*smiles*

So let's look at this from a Balanced perspective. Remember what Balance is: "a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions." Be steady, stay on course, see both sides of the fence, be on the fence, assess pros versus cons. Being Balanced is simply an approach to situations and life. In our discussion today, we Balance between Chaos and Order.

So what about "Discarding the Old"? Let's first think about some examples of old things and what do to with them. Bread that is moldy and unedible - okay, that seems kind of old. Toss it out. Shoes with worn down soles - pretty old too. Fix them if you have a good cobbler or toss them. People over 60 years of age - hmm, not so fast! How about 90 years of age? - Nope. People are forever young in my book! DO NOT DISCARD YOUR PARENTS AND ELDERS! Enough said. Old love letters from a long-ago flame - hmm, hard to say. Want to tick off your spouse? Discard the old then or you take the risk. Paintings from early eras of Earth's history - yep, definitely old, but priceless! Keep em. Nasty habit of taunting your opponent before he smacks you in the head? - Yes, that's old - wake up and change! A house full of clutter and can't find anything! - Yes, old stuff - burn down the house! Start over!

From my examples, you can see that I made some orderly choices to throw some things away, like the moldy bread, maybe the old shoes, but definitely not the old paintings.

So what about chaotic decisions? Well, keeping the love letters, high risk area there!! OK, emotion sets in. I'll keep the letters and hide them. Taunting my opponent? I keep doing that because he urks me, my nasty old habit. I feel pain, then I calm down, then I taunt him again. Cluttered house - simple solution - burn it down! How chaotic is that?!

So we can discard or not discard the old in orderly or chaotic ways depending upon what those things are and if we are orderly or chaotic.

However, a balanced approach would be to predict the results of either kind of decision before we decide. Be objective while you consider the emotion about how you will feel if you do or do not throw something away.

My old college notebooks ... throw away? I kept them boxed up for a LONG time! Maybe I could just keep the textbooks ... undecided for years. Guess what, I kept the notebooks and now I am re-learning some engineering as I need a "refresher" after 30 years going into a new job! Ah, my old notebooks with the solutions to problems! Nice! I don't have to go back to school!

Also, be prepared to realize you made the wrong decision about throwing something away or keeping it ... which might still be okay in the long run. Ask yourself, "if I throw this way, will I want it next week or next month or in a few years and why?" Yet, it's hard to predict. Here's an absolute terrible thing that happened to me the other day.

I threw out some old unused coffee grounds. I found them in back of a cabinet with the bag still sealed - I use instant coffee, not grounds. Then, I went and got some nightcrawlers for fishing bait. Hmm, what do you feed nightcrawlers to keep them alive for later? "Coffee grounds!" Darn. I am not buying new coffee grounds to just keep my bait alive. I made a bad choice, but I can live with it.

The moral of the story is, discard the old with reason and purpose while you know you can't predict everything, so take a chance too! Do this and you will certainly live a pleasant, balanced life.

Thank you all once again for letting me speak here today. Dragonspeed and may the Fish be with you!