Poker Perambulation

I know I have fallibility. It doesn’t take another losing poker session to drive that home. It is a human condition. All those Omni-thingies are assigned to God Almighty. I understand that I’m made in his image. That image doesn’t not confer unto me the power of creating universes. The only god-like status I can identify being granted is self-determination. That went back to the start on the east side of Eden where he threw a fruit tree and a serpent onto the landscape.

If you — like me — accept Genesis as at least the metaphoric account of the world as we know it, you will see self-determination as an original purpose for creation. The original Mom and Dad for all of us were demi-gods – pure and everlasting entities. When they took on sin they took on flaws and have shared them with all of us.

If man is flawed then our institutions share in that. Institutions are in their very nature an amalgam of the participants flaws. That makes them even more flawed. We’ve made them pretty good at times but always allowed it to backslide over time. Then, we correct to a degree or replace it with a new institution.

In the Judeo cycle, God interacted with people. Abraham, Moses and a host of prophets were able to interact more closely with God. And they then shared that information. They and the people they shared that information with had fallibilities. Does that make the bible (or the Koran) the exact word of God as some claim? I have doubts. There were only 10 items written in stone for our group.

At summer camp we would sit around a campfire each evening and sing and play games. One of the games was a counselor whispering to one kid a story which he’d pass on to the next guy who passed it to the next and so on. When it made it around the campfire, the last person would report the story. Lost accuracy made for a laugh. So, I have my doubts about the word for word reliability of reporting that extends to each night at 6 p.m. on our local news station and to the good books. Throw in language translation like you get from Babelfish’s often hilarious output. I’ll give credit for mostly right and good intentions.

When creation took place the first act was to create time. That before was timeless. We interpret time and consider it the prime constant. We recognize cycles and assign time frames. At the longer we often refer to an epoch although even they are only a part of a period. At the shorter side, we have minutes, days, wars, hands of poker, administrations, etc. We view all this with our fallibilities included. We’re in an interesting season at the moment – not the worst or best.

Guess I don’t qualify for born again status. Otherwise, I suppose I’d be in favor of the nanny state and the UIGEA. But I am not willing to give up that one God granted attribute I can still identify. Nor can I willingly deny my fallibility alongside the fallibility of those born again folks.

ADDENDUM:

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Not sure what Otis is doing outside St. Louis other than playing poker and coming up with another great blog. Being 67, I can identify more with Danny than Otis. This piece talked about humanity and Otis’ blog shows it in action.

Back in my day… we were taught courtesy and respect for our elders. Of course we had as little as today’s youth. They too were weird people and out of touch. We knew it all — but we gave the required lip service. Today we have the opposite. It is a youth culture. Yuppies and their get are doing everything from shooting up on monkey balls to buying the latest snake oil product at the local CVS’ roots and leaves in bottles section. I’ve got news for them. The best outcome they have ahead of them is to get old. Hopefully, those following them will know what courtesy and compassion is and be like Otis. That’s the best hope they’ve got.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 26th, 2007 at 4:50 am and is filed under Off Topic. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.