Illusion of togetherness
“We can’t put it together; it is together” – Stewart Brand.
Actually, it’s never together – one just has the constant, irresistible urge to look at everything as if it is together. Everything’s just a piece, and only in our minds does it become complete. And our minds have become really good at completing every idea or thing we ever encounter.
We catch a glimpse of someone on the street, and say it looked like so-and-so; or a woman makes up her face, and at some point has to stop and say that her face is now made up.
But, in truth, nothing is complete, and for security, we have nothing. We’re like ants on a morning breadboard, dodging this way and that, before being smudged out by a huge, groggy thumb.
Driving 60 mph down a narrow, twisting two-lane highway is the opposite of safe.
We look up at a white half moon, complete the circle and think of the disc as the ball we know, or the weighted puffy face that is always there, laughing.
We each experience our own families and cultures, and do our best to complete them, but in truth, we each have a small chunk of it, for a short while.
Gossip is the sickly sweet substance used to fill the gaps in our social worlds, allowing us to roll down the highway like a well-balanced tire.
Immortality is the eternal substitute folks use to ignore life’s terrifying start and stop; one’s bubble definitely bursts if there’s nothing in the great beyond.
Harry Holdorf, Brasstown
Take the train bound for glory
My wife, Jane, and I attended a Josh Turner concert in Hiawassee, Ga., and he sang a song called “The Long Black Train,” representing Satan’s ride of destruction for those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord.
This train carries lost souls on a trip of no return, called hell, where each soul in this life on Earth had a choice to make to whether or not they wanted to live totally separated from their Creator, God, by their own choosing or to jump on board the train headed to heaven and live with Christ for eternity.
Folks down through the ages of time have had numerous opportunities that God has showed them to turn from their evil ways, confess their sins and ask for forgiveness which God is willing to do to each one who comes as they are and accept His salvation plan.
God doesn’t force anyone to come to Him, you must come by faith, believing upon His holy name and accept Jesus Christ into your heart and you will be on that train headed to glory.
Don’t let Satan dupe you into thinking he has a better plan for you than God. Satan is the author of all lies and confusion, and wants nothing more than to see you on his long black train, which is headed into a tormenting state of eternal fire and brimstone in which you can never escape.
Hell was never meant for humankind, just Satan and his fallen angels, because of their rebellion against God.
God will not be mocked. What one sows in this life, they will reap for eternity in the next. That is a promise God intends to keep.
Please heed the warning, before you step out into eternity on that long black train of regrets.
Frank Combs, Blairsville, Ga.
Save our post offices, services
Fed up with the U.S. Postal Service? Get ready for some more proposed rollbacks.
During the election and the pandemic, we saw blue postal boxes disappear, fast sorting machines removed from offices, reduced staff, disappearing voter drop boxes and, in far-western Cherokee County, reduced hours for our small rural post offices.
While the post office has never been a profit-making business, I believe we all agree it is critical to our lives.
Postmaster De Joy’s 10-Year Plan includes: longer delay in first-class delivery, reduced post office hours, slashing six-day delivery to five, higher prices (you thought a first-class stamp was high at $.50), closures of more post offices and reduction in other services.
The public opinion window to respond to the proposed plan ends June 26. You need to send your comments to the Board of Governors UPS via email or call 703-248-2100 for general inquiries and comments, or contact your local postmaster on how to make your views known. There is no time to waste.
Donna Ratzlaff, Murphy