If it is not unconditional, is it love?

Are we a theist or atheist these days or have we managed to grow past the imagined dichotomy?
 
We just ARE.  Our connection with everything that is bigger than us and more wonderous than us IS.
Our connection with entropy and mal-intent is.  Our ability to choose is.  Our ablity to be humble enough to open and be informed beyond ourselves, just IS. Our ability to involute inward and risk idiosyncratic wrong thinking just is - Our ability to cry out to brother, saints (whether Theresa or Hawking), creation and interconnectedness so that we can be guided beyond our lump of cells, just IS
 
I am very like an atheist who embraces the wide world of connectedness and wills to humbly align with with positive creative forces in every moment, acknowledging there is so much he does not know and so much that bounces back at him like a gift from the universe itself, that he can open to;  to understand more and to play a part in postive thinking and creation.
I am very unlike an atheist who uses his reactionism against those he categorizes as 'nonbrother' (usually because of past hurts to his child self,  his intellect,  his freedom, his fears) as an excuse to close the universe up in a box called random meaninglessness and continue to see some people as opposite to himself (a place to vent his past hurts by dissing their thinking).
 
We divy up the world into categories.  Every culture has different paradigms for like and unlike, for perceived opposites.
So while in one culture green plants may be considered meals, in another they are the purvey of shamans and are considered medicine.  100 years ago anthropologists could not figure out how the Masai survived on only meat, blood and milk.  As they learned more about their elaborate cosmolgy and meanings and religious practices, they found the Masai consume tremendous amounts of herbs and greens as medicine.
 
I am very like a christian who embraces the wide world of connectedness and wills to humbly be a positive creative force in every moment, acknowledging there is so much he does not know and so much that bounces back at him as a gift from the universe itself, that he can open to,  to understand more and to play a part in postive thinking and creation.
I am very unlike a christian who uses his reactionism against those he categorizes as 'nonbrother' (usually because of past hurts to his child self,  his intellect,  his freedom, his fears) as an excuse to close the universe up in a box of finite meanings and continue to see some people as opposite to himself (a place to vent his past hurts by dissing their thinking).

Ever since I gave a medical talk on the resurgence of bed bugs, I have been trying to think of a solution to this looming global scourge.

Can someone out there please design and test the following:

All the literature says bed bugs are attracted to us while we sleep and that they find us by the carbon dioxide and warmth we emit.
So that is the answer right?
We need a little box/trap that emits the right levels of carbon dioxide and warmth to mimic humans (maybe slightly higher would really get them excited and work better) so that they are attracted to the trap and not to the sleepers.  The trap would allow them in but not out and eventually over a year they would just depopulate themselves into the trap.
Simultaneously of course one might wish to scrub the bed and put each leg in a bucket of soapy water so that they could not feed on humans over the months it would take to deinfest.
But forget all this taking apart baseboards and throwing out furniture and pesticides because it is thankless and expensive:  up to $300/room for professionals to come in. Our shelters and poor apartment dwellers cannot afford repetative costly deinfestation

Since yesterday I googled and exchanged a few email and it appears that many have already been working on a trap for bed bugs which would emit either carbon dioxide and warmth (Dr. Kells I believe) or phermones (Dr. Gries)
But my understanding is that traps are being developped for use by the extermination industry in order to better locate critter hideouts.
Whereas what I am imagining is that someone would come up with a trap that is AS attractive to BBs as sleeping humans and that could be used as a decoy  to avoid bites and to help deinfest by trapping large numbers of bugs.
My understanding is that people often hire professional exterminators repeatedly and the cost is quickly prohibitive - I am sure the professionals are charging a fair fee for their time and work - but it is clear current methods simply don't work without exorbitant costs in profesional time and labour.  Plus, apt dwellers pay $$$ only to be reinfested by neighbouring units in about 7 weeks.  Let alone the difficulties faced by shelters for the socially disadvantaged.
In my mind I see future people (especially in apt complexes) concentrating their elbow grease on their beds.  Keeping the bed fastidiously scrubbed and clear and putting their bed legs in buckets of soapy water or other mechanical deterent.  They would coexist in the long run with a bedroom BB decoy to pick off any BBs that hitchiked home or traveled through the walls on pipes and wires.  They would be free of the thankless cycle of reinfestation and reliance on the habits of neighbours; and free of costly professionals.
With BBs now traveling on subways and waiting to come home with us from theatres I doubt any of us can avoid eventually bringing them home.
I sure am hoping someone out there comes up with a solution before BBs come to my house.
:)
Oh, Dr Sorkin says some spiders eat BBs as do house centipedes.

The first thing that springs to mind are the old adages that apply to us all:
 1. Life is a sexually transmitted disease (but one could just as easily substitute the word gift for disease)
2. Life is a terminal disease (oops thats 5)

Those adages have always amused me because I agree entirely that my life springs from the celebration of life of beings before me, so it is a sexually transmitted condition.
And I agree that from birth we begin a process toward death, toward going back 'home'.  :)

So lets see...ummm... umm.... my six word story:  Forever reborn, enroute home. Accompany me.

 

Otter asked if I am doing anything for Lent this year so I told her this:

I was raised Baptist and there was no mention of Lent.  Still, I learned about it from my RC friends who were always giving something up, usually food of some sort.  Kids are jealous of cultural details of their friends, thinking they are missing out.  I was jealous about Lent because my family did not have Lent.  My mother explained that it was an RC way of honouring Jesus and the sacrifice he made for us.  She said it was a nice little human way of saying thank you back and so all very well for RCs.  But she said, protestants simply chose to embrace the view that Jesus sacrifice was free, a gift, and that while he might smile benevolently as the RCs gave up treats at Lent, he really just wanted the same thing of all of us whether RC or protestant:  to accept his loving sacrifice freely and joyfully and to open up and allow it to change our hearts and souls and lives every day all year.

So that was that on lent for me. Until...my own stupid (lol) adult presbyterian congregation took on Lent.  Why?!  We are protestant.  My eyes rolled back in my head and I just ignored my fellow parishioner's prereformation regression.  Until...the kids' stupid (lol) Sunday School teachers told them all about the benefits of Lent and sacrificing for Jesus and that they were all to give something up.  I had no warning.  I did not know the SS was going to brainwash my little sheep who were now all convinced they must do this thing.  Sigh. The kids understood that for Jesus to be pleased they must give up something they truly liked.   

So Daniel (age 7) gave up fresh fruit

And Nathan (age 7) gave up chocolate

And Nic (age 9) gave up cake

Damn that stupid SS!

Mothers of kids that age have trouble finding dishes that the whole family can enjoy together because young kids often have strong likes and dislikes.  The ONLY dessert we all sat around in family fellowship enjoying together was chocolate fondue.  It was a highlight of family unity and harmony and joy.  Daniel adored and ate the cut up array of many fruits. Nathan adored the chocolate sauce and his cubes of cake.  Nic loved the ensemble and partook in all equally. David (age 5) joined in the fun and learned the process of sharing and taking turns.

(When pressed about lent, David gave up girls because he hated the girl next door and was forced to play with her.  He was the only sensible one and I was proud of him for turning the SS schmozzle to his own self interest which is what, I am sure, many Christians do each Lent)

Otter told me this about Lent and of course (as usual) she is exactly right:  "Lent isn't really about what you "give up" it's about clearing away obstacles in your life which are not allowing you to have as full a relationship with God as you could...Without the goal of bringing oneself closer to God, Lent would be just like making a New Year's Resolution - all sacrifice and no tangible immediate benefit - no wonder most people abandon their resolutions within weeks or days of making them."

Yes I agree.  The goal is to bring oneself closer to god and to examine the obstacles in our lives that obscure the path.  Fruit and chocolate and cake brought my children closer to god because they promoted loving fellowship.  The SS twisted the entire meaning of Lent giving them the impression that they would find more favour with god if they gave up abundant life. Whereas god wants us to clear away obstacles that impede us from embracing abundant life.  No wonder many kids raised in the church graduate never really having felt the loving arms of Jesus and the faith to sustain them when they are confused or hurt or broken.