What I didn't say...

...over on Igor's Substack.

I self-censored today. There are messages I would like to help deliver, but it has to be in the right way in the right place at the right time.

Here’s the original post:

Pandemic Officials are "Disappointed in Themselves", per the New York Times

I made a comment here, but left half of it out. Actually I finished the draft, dozed off, woke up later, re-read it, and decided to cut it short. But here’s the rest, for anybody that might happen to pop over here from there later, or anybody else that cares. I can say things like this here.

[…There is another way of looking at it that also takes into account our own wrongdoings. We don't talk much about the latter, by the way. It's almost always "them" -- "they" are doing this to us." It's not that simple.]

This other view has been expressed here:

Matthew 6:12 (ESV) - and forgive us our debts,

    as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Also here, expressed a slightly different way:

Luke 11:4 - and forgive us our sins,

    for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

Notice the commercial language pertaining to indebtedness, which is also present in the underlying Greek.

There is so much to be learned from the past few years, and the decades and centuries that preceded them, but if we remain stuck in what it has cost us and who else is to blame, we won't learn. This is a shared problem.

We are also stuck in the idea that we can make ourselves better than we are. It's time to look at our legacy and see it for what it is. Look at our science, technology, and industries through fresh eyes, and see what they really have given us after the lies are exposed. Time is running out.

All this stuckness begs for a real solution, and one has been provided. It is both simple and not. Simple to begin, difficult to complete.

Matthew 7:7 - “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

This is not about working out solutions ourselves.

Matthew 7:13-14 - “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

The narrow gate is very narrow. Much must be left behind. What do you value most?