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                                  %LIFE'S PLEASURES 861128

     Life's pleasures  give themselves to us when  we  are
responsive  to God's integrative spirit,  not when we seek
to capture them as truths in formal ways  of  representing
them as unchanging truths.

     Mutual pleasures are not mutually exclusive, but seek
each  other's company.   Bitterness is occasioned by fools
who  seek  exclusivity  and unchanging  truths  which  are
exclusive  in  their demands for individual commitment and
loyalty.    No  perspective is complete in  itself,   more
deserving   of  total  commitment.    When  we  seek   one
perspective  worthy of total and exclusive  commitment  we
find bitterness instead of pleasure in what we seek.

     In  love  God  does not seek to label any  reality or
perspective as evil,  for such labels are  alienative  and
not in the way of God's integrative spirit.

     People  who  seek  that which is worthy  of exclusive
commitment do not accept God's love which is inclusive and
so such people do not find God or know God.  They know not
that   which  they  seek,   because  of  their   exclusive
presuppositions.    Their truths tend to be bitter  truths
because  of  their alienative qualities  which  flow  from
exclusivity.    People  who seek exclusive  truths  become
fewer  and fewer as they seek the perfect  fulfillment  of
their presuppositions.  In the end they are alone,  rather
than in Love.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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