[PRCo] Best / worst

Wed Dec 24 16:20:07 EST 2008

This comes with the warmest and heartiest of wishes for
a very Merry
Christmas for each and everyone here.

May the New Year bring untold blessings and
the peace of your soul in
these troubled times.

Mr.Cramer;

You wrote:  "There are two things certain in the world
(no, not
death & taxes): "  May I quote you that I do not have to 
pay taxes
and that I shall never die?--(Big Smiley Here)

It is always good to be thankful for blessings isn't it but the
comments about  'best'
set me to thinking.  As with most if not all
other things in life it is  'relative.'  
Our parents and grandparents
each thought they lived in the best of times;  
this was oft mentioned
in the 1950s, very often.  If each of them thought their 
lives the 
'best'  which we now claim, then it stands that future generations will 
think the same.  Our lives then become relegated to good, bad, and
terrible don't 
they  'relative'  to future generations.

Eskimos live substantially different from us;  some leave that for 
'better'  elsewhere and
some are quite content living as they do.  They
also feel they have the  'best'  and 
could actually look at as as
pampered, coddled, lazy couldn't they.  What is  'best'  
for one is
abhorrent to another;  in this example  'best'  is  'relative'  to
culture.

We can't set a standard because  'best' is personal.

Actually, the statement that I remember from the 1940s and 1950s is this:

We live in the best of times  'and'  we live in the worst of times.

Please consider the following:

*Man recognizes that nuclear warfare could lead to self-annihilation -
........first time in history and this happens in our lifetimes.
*For the first time in history the 48-states have been attacked and
this by terrorists; 
........that threat is not eliminated is it.  The longer
it is dormant the more we forget;
........we are then complacent and totally
surprised when it happens again.  
........While one hopes such a reality is 
'if'  it still seems more like  'when.'
*Famine this decade alone has killed untold thousands in Africa.
*Genocide in recent history - Bosnia, Africa, elsewhere - may have
reached and 
........even surpassed Holocaust proportions.
*The President of Iran convened a summit in 2008  (this year!) to declare the 
........Holocaust a lie;  bigotry / hatred of Jews has not disappeared.
*Neo-nazis /  'skinheads'  in the  U.S.A. and other places in the world 
........echo previous statement.
*Whether or not global warming is a reality can be debated but melting
sea ice at the
........North pole allows passage of ships in the summer for the
first time.  
........That melting is happening infinitely faster than
scientists have indicated such
........changes between ice age and normal temps
happened in the past.
*Land Ice in Greenland and elsewhere is disappearing at alarming
rates.  There seems 
........to be good reason for concern;  measures need to be
taken for coastal areas.
*Some diseases of the past gone;  others have taken their place.
*The following from the main editorial of the 12/6/2008 Economist:
--American mutual-fund assets declined by $2.4-trillion - 1/5th value - 
........since beginning of 2008.
--In Britain the drop is 25%
--Value of global stock markets shrunk by $30-trillion, or roughly 50%.
--The above has significantly impacted retirement possibilities for many in U.S.A.
*Unemployment in Detroit is 20-25%
*More URLs below but quote from one:
--"...there
is little hope the markets will avoid having their worst yearly
performance
........since the 1930s."  'We'  have put ourselves back in 1930s
haven't  'we.'

"Look...!  What massive stones!  What magnificent buildings!"
"Do you see all these great buildings?  Not one stone here will be left
on another;
every one will be thrown down,"  Jesus replied.  Mark-13:1

Christ's
prophesy  'did'  happen within several decades and may happen twice
more
(Bible
prophecy sometimes covers several far removed time frames thus the
observation
that  'history repeats.')  While this is quite specific
other Scripture indicates that this
world will be greatly  'shaken' 
(not destroyed)  but nothing we know will remain.  
City skylines,
luxury homes,
bungalows, igloos, thatched bamboo huts with / without
a furnace are
not important and will disappear.  (Main water line froze upon one coal
delivery.  Coal literally dumped on curb and we had to shovel it into
the coal bin in the
cellar which left the pipe exposed.  Definitely
remember installation of gas furnace.)

"'Foxes have holes and birds... have nests,
but the Son of Man has no
place to lay his head.'"  Matt-8:20.

Jesus was homeless.

"'For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning
of the world until
now--and never to be equaled again.  If those days
had not been cut short, no one would
survive,...'"  Matt-24:21-22a  We
push ever closer to the end of the age don't we.

If this / these are not important then what is important?

Technology has improved our physical creature comforts but  'quality of
life'  should be
measured in relationships.  This is difficult isn't
it.  Male / Female;  Husband / Wife;
parents / offspring;  sibling
rivalry;  other relations;  friends;  acquaintances;  city to city;
state to state;  nation to nation.  We often say that anything worth
having is worth
working for and it  'does take much work'  to maintain
relationships doesn't it.

Let's cut to the chase:

"'There is no one righteous, not even one;  there is no one who
understands,  no one
who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have
together become worthless; there is no
one who does good, not even
one.'"  Romans-3:10-12.  St.Paul is quoting OT
Scripture here, some
from 1,000-years before his time.

Psalm-30 describes the  'depths, pit, slime' of human existence.

"...for I am grieved that I have made them."  Genesis-6:7c - God
speaking  (just before
the Great flood)  of  'humans'  He created.  We are
of the same fabric.

'Relative'  to God we come up wanting and this translates into our relationships.

'Best'  seems infinitely far in the distance doesn't it.

HOPE:

Christmas provides  HOPE  for the  'Best'  --  Guaranteed  'Best.'

Not one person seeks after God but God seeks to redeem All.  In His
Mercy and Grace
(un-merited favor, not deserved)  He provides a way
out.  Sin entered the world through
Adam and the curse of sin and death
is on  'all creation.'  Every created thing decays or
disintegrates or
wears and falls apart and  'dies.'

Christ  (God in the flesh)  lived on earth to do what man could not do 
--  live a perfect
life and offer Himself as the unblemished lamb of
sacrifice for sin.  God requires a blood
sacrifice for sin and while
man can offer that it also extinguishes his life.  Christ being
God
sacrificed self, tasted death, and rose victorious over death to give
us the same
HOPE.

Christmas is a  'reminder'  of the  GIFT  God  Himself offers in the
Person of Jesus
Christ to each and everyone perpetually until the
fullness of time is completed.  This
GIFT   needs to be received to
be of value.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that
whosoever
believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting
life."  John-3:16

What is your decision this Christmas?  Tell the world  --
"Go tell it on the mountains  --  that Jesus Christ is born!"

As friends through Pittsburgh Railways Company it is my hope that we each and
everyone of us - regardless of differences of opinion - shall agree on the need for
The Savior Jesus Christ and that we all shall meet in Heaven as the likelihood of 
such a meeting here on earth seems highly impractical.

Phil

Evidence of the  'worst of our times:'

Stocks Fall Tue Dec-23-2008"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081223/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks
"...there is little hope the markets will avoid having their worst
yearly performance
since the 1930s."

Nov-2008 Home Sales Fall 8.6%:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_on_bi_ge/home_sales

Econ decline 0.5%:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown
"As the longest recession in a quarter century intensifies, analysts
believe the small
decline in economic activity in the third quarter has
worsened significantly in the 
current fourth quarter." ... ""It will
get a lot worse before it gets better,""

IL Gov:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_on_re_us/illinois_governor

----- Original Message ----

> From: Dennis F. Cramer <dfc1 at windstream.net>
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 5:17:46 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] warmer temps
> 
> As Oscar Hammerstein II wrote;  "Oh what a beautiful morning!"  I have now been 
> up for 2 hours and the outside air temperature has already doubled.  It is now 6 
> degrees at 7:35 in the morning.  Is it really that bad?  Hardly.  
> We live in a wonderful time and I ask each of you when it was any better for 
> you?  I am sitting in a warm home with a gas furnace that automatically comes on 
> when I need heat.  I can control the heat from a small thermostat on the wall.  
> Who remembers coal furnaces?
> 
> My van is parked in an unheated garage, but once I get out on the road, it will 
> warm up very quickly.  I have not had to go through the annual change to winter 
> treads for over 30 years.  Remember putting chains on those rear wheel drive 
> cars that were horrible in the snow?
> 
> I have spent the past month decorating and remembering.  As with most of you, my 
> parents and grandparents are no longer here in a physical sense, but the holiday 
> season helps us acknowledge the good and not so happy times of the past.  As we 
> get older, we place less value on material items.  Andy Rooney said it best last 
> night,  "Don't buy me any gifts,  If I really want it, I already bought it for 
> myself."  If life is so bad right now, why are most of us on this list without 
> want?
> 
> Offer to go to your local school and do a transit presentation to the lifeskill 
> students.  You will see some of the happiest children in the world and come home 
> thankful for what you have.  One of the worst heartaches in the world for me 
> working with children was seeing them suffer and many times lose their battle 
> with life from either disease, accident or by their own hand.  The best part of 
> working with children was seeing them grow.
> 
> Would you want to go back to another time and live?  If so, what decade?
> 
> My dad was 15 when the stock market crashed. He then served in the Civilian 
> Conservation Corps and spent Christmas of 1944 stuck in cold and bleak of what 
> became known as the Battle of the Bulge.  Want to go back to the 30's or 40's?  
> 
> We are having another peaceful transition of power next month in Washington as 
> we inaugurate our first African American president.  What a positive sign of our 
> country moving toward opportunity without regard for race, religion, or sex.  
> Are we there yet?  Hardly, but it is a positive step.  Do you want to go back to 
> the 50's when it became so noticeable on a national scene that separate but 
> equal was hardly equal?  Television made the world a little smaller.
> 
> We mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the tumultuous year of 1968 with the 
> readings from the book of Genesis on Christmas Eve as the men from Apollo 8 
> circled the moon for the very first time and showed us the view of earth from 
> space.  We do live on a sparkling jewel!  What a relief that was after the 
> unrest we experienced with the assassinations of MLK and RFK, the misery of 
> Vietnam, the inequity of peoples rights, and the Chicago riots.  Want to go back 
> to the 60's? 
>   
> Why have we noticed so much and had so much change?  Advances in communication 
> technology.  Lincoln had to leave the White House and walk across the street to 
> get news from the war front via telegraph.  We are a group of people who share 
> our joys and or sorrows on a medium that is once again changing how we view the 
> world.
> 
> There are two things certain in the world (no, not death & taxes): 
> 
> People resist change.  Change is inevitable.
> 
> I enjoy studying the past and know there were great times and not so great 
> times.  I tend to study history to see how it changed the lives of people and to 
> see how people changed history.  Change is happening at a faster rate than ever 
> before and we need to be careful to not become too pessimistic.  My glass is 
> more than half full!
> 
> Merry Christmas! 
> Happy Chanukah!
> Blessed Kwanza!
> And there is always Festivus for the rest of us!
> 
> It is still 6 out, so some things do not change as fast as we sometimes wish 
> they would.
> 
> 
> Dennis F. Cramer
>       Trombone