Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Story Time Part 2

Last time we left Asal while he was lying in agony after he summoned Neo-Bahamut. No one really knew where he was but he was feeling isolated and dejected. Some people are in the area of Asal but no one really directly close. Asal has a nice, natural setting around him but he isn't focusing on the lake, he can't really observe much of anything.

Cristophy was working late at night finishing some grading when she felt the resonance from Neo-Bahamut's summon. "I don't know what to do now, but I'm afraid for Asal, I hope he remembered to take those herbal supplements and pills to stop the darkness elemental, otherwise he's in trouble and I can't help him. I can't get near that monster, not after what that last summoner did to me."

Meanwhile, the people at the lake notice that something is wrong when Neo-Bahamut lets out a loud roar. These were students at the undergrad level, so they are not involved in sorcery. However, they decided to run toward the scream because they were curious what it was. Upon seeing the monster everyone except for one girl ran away from Neo-Bahamut. The girl noticed Asal lying there and waited because she was afraid for his sake. The girl tried to sneak up toward Asal and in doing so found a bush and listened to more of the dialogue.

"Asal, look you're worthless in power before me, and all I had to have was your self-hatred to be summoned. Hahahaha, now I will destroy the Earth." The girl in the bushes was freaked out but also knew that she had to get near Asal to try to protect him. So she runs out from the bush and does a straight line dive near Asal. She is able to touch his arm as Neo-Bahamut is laughing maniacally at his victory. At this point, Asal snaps slightly out of his funk and notices that someone is touching him. He is happy because he's getting what he wants, but still scared for the precarious position he is in. He asks the girl's name.
"Victoria, I'm Victoria".
"Nice, I'm Asal."
"You're going to be okay, you just have to calm down a little."
"You do realize I summoned death incarnate, right?"
"No, I'm not a sorcery student, so I don't know what you did."
"Wow, then why did you come here."
"Instinct, and I do have some sorcery skills, just no formal training. I'm a light elemental."
"Ooh, a light elemental, that's why you can help me."
"Yeah, I can summon a basic spell but I need some more advanced magic to help get you out of this situation."
"Well, I don't know what we can do, we can cast sorcery for a distraction. I do need a light spell to weaken it, and then I can summon a wind barrier."
"Got it, Crystal Pillar sorcery cast."

As she casts this Asal is thinking to himself. "what the hell, she has no training yet she can cast a level 4 light spell. That's like epic level light magic, especially for someone not in MA or PhD level sorcerer's school. Oh wait I have to cast a spell,"

"Pixie cast Rose storm"

At this Asal and Victoria run away toward campus to find some shelter from Neo-Bahamut. The Rose storm traps him temporarily.
"Victoria, how did you cast that spell?"
"Asal, what are you talking about, I've always known spells like this one, white magic runs in my family."
"For someone with no training, you certainly can cast high-level white magic, but yet you don't seem like the support and white mages I run into here that have no survival skills or relatability with people and you can cast better spells than they can."
"Well, sometimes more training actually hurts you and isolates you from the people magic is supposed to serve."
"Why do you seem like such an amazing person, you can cast light magic, you actually care, there aren't very many people like you."
"Well, there aren't very many people like you either, Asal."
"Yeah, except for there's the whole, I'm easily manipulated, I can summon death incarnate, I'm cold, and I don't like myself."
"You've let your darkness elemental take over too much of your vision. You need to recognize that you have a light elemental inside you. Your darkness elemental is good because it can give you attacking power, unlike anything I've ever seen, but you've now endangered everyone you love."
"Part of me thinks you're being a complete bitch, the other part of me realizes you're completely right. Cristophy..."
"You really care about your professor, don't you Asal?"
"Wait, how did you know..."

"Asal!! What happened?"
"Cristophy, I caused a giant monster to appear, and that giant monster lived inside me, why didn't you tell me? I hurt everyone."
*hugs*
"Asal, please stop, part of this is my fault too, I tried to give you pills and medicine and Kristoria gave you spells, but we really needed to pay attention to you and help you through your social difficulties, because you are different from the other students, and you do need more attention. Also, you have so many gifts, wait Victoria, what are you doing here..."
"Well, Cristophy, my friends and I wanted to see what was going on, and as soon as they saw Neo-Bahamut all my friends ran and I stayed because I was curious and saw Asal needed help."
"Victoria, did you even know Asal before you saw him..."
"Well, no Cristophy, but you always say we should help vulnerable people that need help."
"Victoria, I'm so proud of you, but you scared me to death, but I'm so glad you found Asal. *hug*"

"hahhaha, isn't this touching, Cristophy... Now you will all die."
"No, Darnell, no, you will not do this again, I have people that love me now, I have a family that supports me, and I have my students. You can't attack my self-hatred anymore."
"hahaha, but you can't protect Asal, he has no family, a few shallow friendships, and will always feel distant from the community."
"Victoria, why are you grabbing my hand?"
"I will not leave Asal alone anymore. I don't want to date Asal, but I also won't leave him to a monster like you. If that means touching him to be a friend, then I will do that."
"Victoria??" (Cristophy and Asal respond.)
"Victoria, you really get it don't you, and I'm so proud that you've grown so much, to reach out for the common good is really important and that may include doing things you're not comfortable with."
"Hahahaa, ahh your common good almost makes me sick to my stomach, yet your barrier is about to break and I can destroy worlds with one breath, you have no chance, hahahahah..."

Cristophy, Asal, and Victoria all look on in horror at the barrier and hope it will hold. Cristophy starts contemplating a plan, when Victoria's friends start throwing rocks at Neo-Bahamut. In this distraction Cristophy runs toward Neo-Bahamut and casts her super special ultima magic.

"What the hell is this spell?"
"Lv. 7 Ultima, a master level spell that can contain the destroyer of worlds, but not destroy him. I will exile you to another world with no life for you to destroy."
"Cristophy, I never thought you would be the one to detain me, after all those years, all my torture of you, and your student, Asal, he'll be as strong if not stronger than you."
"Darnell, this is something you never learned, I'm not strong in competition in others, I'm strong because of the support and love I have from others, and now I exile you to the lost world without life."
"Cristophy, will you hope for me to find more of what you have?"
"Cristophy stop..."
"Victoria, what are you doing?"
"Can't you see in your dialog that there's even hope for someone who is Death Incarnate. Neo-Bahamut's dangerous but he lived inside Asal this whole time, but he tried to thrive on nothingness and death, but your example showed him something else, if you banish him to another world you'll never get a chance to see him grow away from being Death Incarnate. Plus, you can't banish death, everyone will die at someone, even you two as sorcerers."

"Why would someone like Victoria have mercy on me? Why wouldn't you let Cristophy banish me (because secretly I would still be the destroyer of worlds...)? Why do you want me to stay here? Do you really think you can tame a monster like me?"
"I can't but we can, Asal and I can tame you, you did live inside him after all, and we can co-exist with each other, I don't like your insistence on death, destruction, atrophy, doom, and all your negativity, but we can show you something better."
"Fine, and you're correct, death and darkness can never go away, not in this world you see, but you can teach me about light and darkness co-existing. Pain, suffering, sin, these things will always exist in this world, and darkness will be opposed to light, but light and darkness co-existing can help teach people about why people cause darkness."
"We can't control you, but we accept that you're here. Self-hatred exists in all of us, but we can be better at healing people's self-hatred by understanding their darkness and being the healing we seek."

"Cristophy, what's Victoria's darkness, she seems so intact and you two seem to know each other well, and I'm thankful for her inspiration, but no one's perfect right."
"Well Asal, darkness comes out in time and friendship, you'll see eventually, but you're right to try to avoid disillusionment, but you can't be scared either, you have to take your friendship as the gift it can be, and engage darkness together. Weakness, sin, emotional illness, these things are dealt with better in community than on one's own exclusively, though individual effort is needed. People need to be able to work to love God and neighbor, and Victoria has done very well to improve her behavior."
"Cristophy, thank you for saving us, all of us, even though Neo-Bahamut hasn't really gone away."
"Asal, Neo-Bahamut only holds power over you if your darkness elemental is out of control. You have an unfair situation as you can sense darkness elemental and it overpowers you easier. You have to grow and know that we care about you, even if we don't pay attention all the time, believe me it's not because I don't like you. I have to pay more attention but please don't take a lack of attention as something against you. I just have a lot to take care of, but you'll always be a special student, and I have a lot of fun with you. Just pay attention to Victoria too and just let your friendship be what it is, but meet each other's needs."

Asal, Victoria, and Cristophy made a cloaking spell to hide Neo-Bahamut and bring him to a field in the side of campus. The field was then blessed with an invisibility sorcery so that people could no longer see or remember the darkness that inhabited the world, however, some would always be aware of the presence of darkness like the Zu-Zu and people like Asal and those who knew him. Victoria and Asal met each other's needs, some days Asal would have panic attacks and be overpowered by the darkness elemental. Some days Victoria would be overcome with jealousy and anger as she felt like she gave a lot to her relationships and got little in return. Luckily her feelings didn't cause a monster like Neo-Bahamut to occur but she still was overcome by darkness. On those days Cristophy and Asal would find Victoria and smile at her or do something else just to remind her that she's not invisible and her love doesn't go unnoticed.

Light, darkness, both are present along with other elements that empower existence. There will always be a need for sensitivity to elements, but we must be careful that sensitivity doesn't paralyze our existence. And when sensitivity does paralyze our existence, that's when we need our friends, role models, etc to find us and touch us physically, psychologically, etc in order to help us walk and keep going. This story doesn't have a happy ending, yet this is the world we see, a world of light and dark, good choices and bad. In the end, all we can do is pray for the grace of light and persevere through the existence of darkness, in all its subtle, invisible form. In the light of grace may we see light.

Aristocrates

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Story Time

Since Harry Potter premieres this weekend, I figured I'd try my hand at a fantasy story as fantasy can be fun as well as educational.

This story starts in the land of the Zu-Zu a giant bird who guards the Bylia castle. This story takes place in the home of a young stick boy named Asal. Asal is a young teenager who studies mid-level sorcery: low level summons, intermediate curing magic, basic presence magic, that kind of thing. He looks to study more advanced sorcery in college. However, above his sorcery studies, he also has a power inside him which he cannot control. This power manifests itself in many, various ways. He lives in a village, goes to school, like other students, though he's going into advanced studies into sorcery.

Asal goes to a small school with people all wanting to study mid-level sorcery. It's a specialty study so there are people of various races, ages, and personalities all wanting to study the same basic sorcery. There are several options for study for sorcery students. Students can specialize in curing magic, attack magic, summon magic, support magic, or presence magic. Students can choose any one of these 5 tracks as their specialty and are encouraged to take another track as a minor to expand their learning of sorcery. Saying all this, most of the faculty focus on curing, attack, summon, and support magic. Presence magic is a dangerous magic to teach and learn as it's not something that creates an external effect. Presence magic makes one aware of spirits in the environment and allows the user to use different spirits for different effects. Different elements of spirits give the user different abilities. As such, presence magic is the most powerful magic, but also if uncontrolled can cause different types of possession in the caster.

Asal, being a bit precocious, is really interested in presence magic. His interest makes him a bit odd in his school community as no one else is actively studying presence magic in his school. His interest also creates tension with the rest of the community as he sees things that others do not. These things are important to keep in mind as we go forth with the story. This story is a day in the life of a sorcery student.

Asal gets up early one stormy morning for a meeting with his main adviser, Sorcereress Cristophy. Cristophy is the only adviser who studies presence magic at the school. Asal on his walk over starts feeling sick, because of the thunderstorms. Thunderstorms create a combination of darkness and water elements present in the air and it overloads Asal's consciousness. Asal walks into Cristophy's office and she gives him a concerned look. Asal tells her everything is okay and they begin their meeting. Asal is writing a paper on the effects of darkness and light elementals on human existence and their interplay even outside of magic. Cristophy is his adviser and she is the only Sorceress who teaches presence magic. Their meeting is over the latest draft of Asal's paper. After their meeting Cristophy asks again if Asal is okay. Asal mentions feeling sick because of the weather and Cristophy gives him some tea, gives him a hug, and hands him some herbs, tea, and pills to deal with storm sickness. Asal takes the medicine and begins to feel a little better.

Cristophy thinks to herself inside her office after Asal leaves. "Asal has power unlike anything I've ever seen. The severity of his sickness, his sensitivities, and his ability to acclimate new spirits and magic is off the charts. I'm concerned about his darkness sensitivities though, this can cause great disaster for himself and others. He keeps not wanting to talk about it, yet, this power will eat him up unless he asks for help. Whatever monster lives inside him is beyond his own control, especially at this stage."

Asal's next meeting is with his summon magic adviser, Sorceress Kristoria. They arranged a meeting to discuss the Lich Lord summon and its potential effects on society, particularly as the Lich Lord has become a manipulative threat that threatens to control people in a Coreia cult. The Coreia cult is a religious sect that seeks to revive the Lich Lord in order to control the populace through manipulation, secrecy, and telepathy. Since it's such a strong darkness elemental, Asal is reacting the summoning of the Lich Lord, so Kristoria and Asal are looking for ideas on how to stop the summoning of the Lich Lord. This meeting is to propose a plan to use a support magic barrier by implementing Asal's ability to utilize wind spirits and her minor ability to use support magic. Her plan is to summon High Pixie and have Asal react to her element and create a barrier for a temporary seal of the Lich Lord. They discuss this plan during their meeting. The storm is still going on outside and Asal is getting noticeably more sick during his meeting with Kristoria. Asal tries to sneak taking Cristophy's pills but Kristoria notices. Kristoria asks what he is taking, and Asal responds by saying Cristophy's pills. Kristoria is unhappy but also realizes Asal is in severe pain because of his sensitivities. Kristoria casts a support spell to give him a barrier to the darkness elemental of the storm and Asal's mood brightens as he loves the water elemental aspect of rain and storms.

After his meeting with Kristoria, Asal goes to lunch. At lunch he encounters other students and decides to sit with them. At lunch, Asal notices he's not really in the conversation, but kind of just there, sitting with people. This makes Asal a little sad. However, he is sitting with a bunch of support mages, who tend to dislike what Asal says about presences and the need to act for others with sorcery. The support mages tend to like to do magic for themselves and invoke divine power to enhance themselves. Some support mages can act for others but their main goal and emphasis for study is their own abilities. So Asal is kind of bored with the conversation and observes other people in the cafeteria. He doesn't see anyone he knows, which makes him sad. In particular, he's looking for light elemental mages. While they are technically attack mages, their element also gives them healing abilities. Light elementals make Asal happy as they help control his darkness reaction. The pills Cristophy gave Asal are light elemental supplements to help calm down the reaction to darkness he is having, and the spell Kristoria casts on Asal is a light element boost that raises resistance to darkness elemental air.

After lunch, Asal goes and works for a bit. He works in an office by himself, so he plays some music to engage different feelings and elementals to try to control himself. Different tones of music exemplify different elementals and thus Asal can engage different feelings to control his powers. On a good day, Asal gets more control of himself, on a bad day, music simply causes him more pain as it cannot cure any elemental overload and sickness, it can only delay symptoms. Work is humdrum and Asal thinks more about seeing his light elemental friends, stopping the Lich Lord and is concerned with how Cristophy looked at him during their meeting.

After work, Asal talks with his friend Silmeria. Asal is happy around Silmeria just by her presence, because she's a light elemental that can calm his dark days down. On this day, they didn't get to talk for very long, but they got to catch up. Asal then tries to decompress from his day by playing some games, but he still feels sick and the sorcery and pills are wearing off. He is a little sad as Cristophy and Kristoria are gone for the evening and he is still sick. Silmeria is also busy, and Asal is unsure where his other light elemental friends are that can help him.

Asal starts to feel really sick and decides he needs to leave his room as being near water helps him control the darkness element somewhat. Asal walks to a fountain and meditates near the fountain to find some peace. The fountain on this day is not having much affect for Asal, so he decides to try something different.

Asal then moves to the lake area. It's a pleasant lakeside view accompanied by the sound of gulls, doves, and the wind against the lake. Some piers are seen along the lake and swimmers can be seen in the distance. Asal is feeling really lonely, as he's seen a lot of people but no one has really shown interest in spending time with him, but rather they want his gifts. Kristoria loves his ability to acclimate magic and Cristophy always thought Asal was a prodigy. The other students at the school are interested in him only inasmuch as he can help them and ignore him at other times, and he struggles to find his light elemental friends to calm him stress. He is contemplating on the lack of attention and he is overwhelmed by darkness that's present inside him and around him. The darkness paralyzes him on the ground he's meditating on. From inside him, without his attempt or control, he summons Neo-Bahamut. Neo-Bahamut is the ultimate darkness elemental that destroys worlds with one breath. Asal still can't get up off the ground, and lays there wondering, "how on earth will anyone ever come for me or be supportive for me when I have this ultimate evil living inside me, and because of this evil I sense all sorts of darkness?", "why do I have all these abilities that make me so different from the other students, and everyone else?", Lying in agony, Asal is still stuck in his own head, he sees people in the distance at the lake but can't scream for help, out of the fear of exposing his summoning of Neo-Bahamut.

I'd like to say that Asal gets out of his darkness, he gets his gifts under control and stops being tormented by Neo-Bahamut, but I don't know if that has happened yet. All we can say for now is that Asal is in a desperate situation, there's hope for a solution in the light elementals, yet the darkness elemental seems to have all the power in this situation. The tale continues, but not just yet, the story needs to stop here, just for now, to be continued... (*insert cliffhanger ending here*)


Afterword: This was a fun exercise and I kind of enjoy writing fictional stories. Granted this is more of an outline than an actual story, there's a lot of things I get to express here in thinking that I can't do so much with my philosophical writing. I'll have to work on this genre a bit though. (and not write this at 2 in the morning :P )

Aristocrates

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Trying to be Nice in light of the Vespers "Not so Nice"

"Verse 1: It's not so nice when they say goodie-goodies you can't stay, not so nice, it's not so nice, not so nice of them to say, when my baby brother fell, you didn't even stop to help, not so nice, it's not so nice, not so nice,

Prechorus: but even though I have this much to say, I just like living my own way, doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo. Chorus: I am catching all the yellow lights in my hands and in my mind. Just in time we're just in time, just in time I'm just in time. I'm afraid I might be everything I hate, I'm afraid I might be everything I hate.

Verse 2: Now what's the use of preaching to your brother, acting just like you're his mother, not so nice, it's not so nice, you don't take your own advice, not so nice at all, not so nice.

Prechorus: But even though I have this much to say, I just like living my own way, doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo.

Chorus: I am catching all the yellow lights in my hands and in my mind, I'm just in time, I'm just in time, just in time, I'm just in time. I'm afraid I might be everything I hate, I'm afraid I might be everything I hate, I'm afraid I might be everything I hate, I'm afraid I might be everything I hate.

Verse 3: But I am trying to be nice, trying hard to compromise, between my love, between my vice, "I thank God" (not clear on my recording what this is) I could be nice, I could be nice, I could be nice, I could be nice, I could be nice, I could be nice, I could be nice, I could be nice." (The Vespers, Not so Nice song lyrics, Album: Tell Your Mama)

Something about this song amuses me a lot so I wanted to write a blog post about it. I think it's amusing for me first off because of the voice parts. I like the blend of different women's parts in the song. I think the song amuses me because of the tone of the song. It's played in such a happy key talking about in part how some people can make awful choices, so the paradox is funny. I think the main reason this song appeals to me is because I like ethics and this song brings forth a real struggle that every ethicist has to deal with. There are times where I do things that I spend so much time writing against. It creates a difficult situation as it creates some sense of hypocrisy. But as humans are imperfect, this is always a possibility and conversion is needed sometimes. People also have legitimate struggles and need help from the community and part of doing ethics is working with communities of people who all listen and work to be better people.

However, this song is not about my amusement purely, I want to reflect on what the artists are singing about. The opening verse is particularly telling of things people can do against the common good. We can be closed and cold to people who are different and give them some label like goodie-goodie to make them distant and less human. We can also ignore a suffering, vulnerable person in front of us because it's too hard to make time for someone. If we do this, we can provoke the rage of the artist in this song. Whenever we make a choice against someone, we do not just affect that particular person. We affect a lot of people in someone's present and future. Harm to others can carry over both physical and psychological.

The prechorus gives some interesting context to this song, because the artist admits she has a lot to say about people's behavior, she likes to live by her own standard quickly followed by the chorus where the artist admits she also might act in ways she hates. In particular, she sounds impatient and upset driving and hitting yellow lights on the road, but could also be something the artist is thinking about as she's critiquing other behaviors around her, potentially. (Again, the issue of interpretation is that it can mean a lot of things. :P )

Verse 2 is something I know I'm guilty of, harping on people trying to influence certain people's actions. Now of course, I like blogging, and I like my opinions. I think there's a borderline thought between presentation and nagging, and I know I have to watch that in myself. We have to present ourselves as that is part of our symbolic reality (both of God and ourselves), so it's just practicing and knowing when we hit that borderline, and apologizing and seeking forgiveness when we do.

Verse 3 is the happy resolution to the song because it shows the artist's resolve to try to be nice, even as she's observed unpleasant things around her. She also is admitting she has vice and love and still is trying to be nice. I think that's a nice place to be, as being able to admit imperfection can help connect us to others in their weakness. However, this is a learned skill, as admitting imperfection can be really hard sometimes, especially when we want others to like us. Being imperfect means we're not always useful or pleasant. Even in these times, we still need people to love us, so part of loving and being nice is being available for people even when it's not so nice.

Overall, I love the folky sound this song has. The sound adds to the overall effect that makes this song pleasant. This song is also pleasant because it is not oversaturated. Though things are repeated, and the same lyrics are repeated over and over again to seeming death for some, this song does not become oversaturated. This song connects experience and openness in interpretation in a way that this song can connect to many people's experiences about more than one thing. When a song can promote good values and not be oversaturated, this is a wonderful thing :). I hope though we all try to be nice to someone today by hearing this song. (The tone of the song will encourage you to be nice.) Please God may it be so.

Here's a link to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrGACJFrjNg

Aristocrates

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Loving Like Jesus

The assumption of everything I will say forward in this blog entry is that our religious experiences should influence us to love like Jesus, in His multivalent way of loving people. I pray that you all will grant me this assumption moving forward.

The reason I bring this up is because I want to explore the human ideal of loving, and in particular look at how structures enable or disable us to love like Jesus does. To start, we need to provide a definition of how Jesus loves without becoming idolatrous. In short, our religious and political structures do not help us to love like Jesus, because they build imagery and favor certain images of love while downgrading others. Also, our structures define an "us" and a "them" inhibiting love as it restricts love to certain worthy people who are deemed deserving of humanity, while others are ignored or rejected, both are bad.

First, we must build an image of loving like Jesus loves. Many people tend to use agape to describe the love of Jesus. Agape is described as a self-sacrificing love which is other centered. While this described the intent of Jesus' love, it also has severe limitations. Oftentimes eros is defined against agape, so agape tends to look at love which is not necessarily bodily in the touch or desiring sense. Agape tries to draw desire away to prevent particularly sexual interactions, which are the key example of eros. Too much focus on agape ignores God's desire in love as shown by the fact that an Incarnation even happened. Of course, eros can be overdone, where we love only other people whom we find desirable. So we need an image of love that desires and sacrifices for the other. Also, an image of love needs to include the different ways that love is shown. Words, presence, touch, giving, Jesus presents all of these in his ministry in reaction to loving other people. So love must be able to do many things, be inclusive, and desire and sacrifice at the same time, just to give a limited image for definition here.

Structures prevent a multivalent love, because they have a preferred image of what love is. Certain actions, gestures, presence styles, and terms of affection are used and favored in structures. Society, as seen through advertising, tends to promote a physical love based on feeling good. People are useful and good for us inasmuch as they make us feel good. As soon as people do not make us feel good, or are useful for us, then people can be replaced with others with better qualities. This hinders our ability to love like Jesus, because people aren't the end of society. The end of society is to function and enable people to exist, though it doesn't care which people exist or where. This is how we get broken societies where the poor are taken advantage of and exploited for resources. However, religious structures do not fix this model, they take a different object and present us with the same problems. The growing religious trend is that spiritual love is preferred, one which emphasizes time with God and existential discovery to find one's purpose/vocation in life, but discourages community as seen in certain ritual effects in liturgy and encouragement of devotion among other sources. This spiritual love promotes sacrifice and discourages desire, agape over eros. This dichotomy between society and religion leaves loving like Jesus unfulfilled because we need love that desires, because Jesus desires people in loving, and we need love that sacrifices, like Jesus performs in His miracles for suffering people that he didn't necessarily know.

In building preferences, structures also create an "us" and a "them". People that think like the structure and are favored, and others who are on the outside. Power, influence, money, and many other qualities can be examined in looking at who influences and benefits from the structure. However, when looking at the structure, if we're going to think about loving like Jesus, we must understand how structures encourage or discourage interactions with those on the outside. Many communities in the modern era are becoming more like-minded and hostile to others. This is incompatible with loving like Jesus as Jesus even loved those who crucified Him, as seen in His forgiveness of His persecutors, and loved the Pharisees with whom He disagreed by eating with them and offering to spend peaceable time in their presence.

Our hope for the future is that community and structures do not have to be this way. Communities can listen and people can try to reach out to others and understand their experiences. We can be people that don't ignore others, and our outreach can be both because we desire other people and want to sacrifice for their good. We can touch, give time, listen, and all those activities that inspire the common good in individual relationships that flow over to others. However, as our structures are, many things need to change, and this is not including problems in particular structures due to "emotional illness, personality differences, and sin." (When Ministry is Messy, Richard Brown). My hope is that we can build relationships where we love in these deep ways and build our community. Please God may it be so.

Aristocrates