Presenting THE NEWS

BLM:90 WHM:90 SMN:90 THF:90 WAR:90 DRK:90 RNG:90 PLD:90

Long ago I studied Financial Engineering as a course in college. This was one of the many times that I was requested to make a presentation in front of class.

Longer ago, when I was only a 9th grader in Louisiana, I was also asked to make a presentation in my Civics class. I was great at Civics. It started to make sense of the world and everything about how it was organized was slowly being unveiled for me to see. I always spoke up and asked questions and I even helped others answer their questions when they couldn't.

This leads me to Jesus. He is a man of mercy but is that a good thing? More on that later.

At the end of the year we all had to present a news story to a camera and then they asked us to be inventive. One guy totally kept his head down the whole time but went off on some sports stories that he split by getting first a baseball hiked to him, then a basketball, then a football. It was very innovative, yet he did keep his head down and read his news stories the whole time.

For my turn, I had actually read over the stories several times and when I had finished reading and saying the stories, everyone thought I would be a natural at presenting the news, which had to do a lot with my popularity in class I'm guessing.

I was HUGE.

Some days later, I asked the teacher what my GPA was to which she said it was 4.0.   But I knew I had not aced all of my tests so to make sure I had it straight I asked her out in the hall what my overall average was, to which she said she didn't know. That must have annoyed her a bit since I obviously could have asked her that in class while she was sitting next to her gradebook. Still more days later, we all were shown into the library where one book per table was lain on each. Since I didnt understand that we were SUPPOSED to have one book per table and since I was one of the early ones, I grabbed some books off the other tables so that we would each have one in our table.

To this the teacher saw me and cried out "That's not fair." I responded "what do yo mean?" "You know EXACTLY what I mean". "No, I don't" I was confused, she was saying I had done something wrong and I was perplexed so I started to cry. Hero to zero and I didn't even know why.

"Crybaby!" she hufffed now put those books back where you found them. I still had no idea what I did wrong.

Later we had an art fair and everyone was supposed to drum up some research on a famous person and make a presentation. I chose to do research on President McKinley, I think. I wrote up some good notes on him and then I made a huge bust of his face in clay and presented that. Well fast forward to close to the end of the show and half of his face was gone as some people had vandalized his face.

Had I not had the reputation of "crybaby" this might not have happened.

This is an example of how my outspoken self would cause a downfall that was not to my liking but to some degree must have been what I should have expected. Maybe it's in my sub-conscious to get "careless" and then wither away in the fire of the actions I caused.

This has happened several times.

So by the time of my presentation at JU in Financial Engineering, I was not so thorough. Getting in front of class was something I didn't want to do TOO well. But I remember thinking I had done all the studying I needed to and then getting to the middle of the presentation and becoming unsure of what I was saying. And this time by the end of it, I was semi-lost. It was my job to explain puts and calls and though it is tough subject matter, I was sure I understood it before the presentation started. At the end, it was becoming time for the class to ask questions to make sure they understood what I "taught" but I think it was obvious to them that I was not ready to take questions. It was a fragile moment for me. Any one of them could have RAKED me across the coals on that one but they were merciful. I got asked two questions, explained them semi-clearly and I sat down. I'm sure the professor knew that I was unsure of myself too because he didn't give his approving face like he normally did.

So we get back to Jesus. You see the political parties are all about Jesus. Mercy. Republicans are unforgiving and the Democrats are. God is unforgiving and Jesus is. I know, I know, I'm treading on some sacrilegious ground here on a Sunday so that's all I will say. Let me just say that there is a fine line between what we all know is a merciful God and a vengeful one.

Vengeance is mine.

Those are the words of God. He takes care of vengeance so WE don't have to. Faith allows you to continue on knowing that those that wronged you will be judged and punished.

I was telling my brethren about the nature of wolves recently. I asked them if they believed that wolves attack the leader. I mentioned that the Pope recently let out his birds of peace which were soon quelled by a crow and an albatross and this was captured on film. So I made mention that I would not be leaving soon because the wolves don't attack the leader, they attack the ones that fall behind the group.   

Am I saying that because of those birds, that have nothing to do with me, that I am taking that as a sign from GOD not to leave?  Am I saying that FAITH is powerless to stop the crow from feeding?  

The people in the theater annoying me with their cough, three groups of them, were all BLACK people this time.  I wonder if THAT'S a sign.   

PS. OK a little tutorial about curse words on a Sunday.  Ever notice that you never associate GOD with mercy.  I mean you say Godammit or Oh God or Oh my God(omg) or for GOD's sake.  These are curses invoking revenge.  They want you to PAY for what you've done, perhaps they want you to FINISH what you started... strange how some of these curses are uttered during sex but then again NOT so strange.   Yet for Jesus we say thank you Jesus, Jesus Christ! or Lord have mercy.  See when they say LORD they mean Jesus and not GOD.  These are curses said to make someone stop being cruel.  So if you say THESE curses you may end up saying the OTHER curses as your requests get denied.  But that's mercy for you.  It's the nicer side of vengeance, like the Democrats. 

So OLD TESTAMENT = Jews GOD Vengeance
and NEW TESTAMENT = Christians JESUS Mercy. 

Don't you feel like you learned something on a Sunday?