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Why I Write 03 10 2010

Why I Write 03 10 2010




My Grandmother (Nee Isabel Roth) was diagnosed with the “where all one mind” illness when she was about 40 years old.


My father, mother, sister and I would visit her at the Marshfield Clinic. She had a tremor in her jaw and her tongue would stick out and her mouth was often dry. We would sit there with her on the front yard of a clinic, where there was a swinging park bench. As we sat I would see an old man with a self contained leer riding around on an adult sized tricycle.


Sitting there with her I realized she was a gentle kind lady. There was an aura of love that surrounded her; even a boy’s will be boy’s type of boy could feel it.


She was compelled to utter these words as best she could through her dry mouth. “I’m the Queen; I’m the Queen” she would repeat. Trying not to stare, I did not know what to think of this. I could see something about her that did not seem crazy.


She would ask for things for my father to bring to her on the next visit like a comb or a watch. And she would emphatically say, “There’s money in the bank. There’s money in the bank. There’s money in the bank.” Her mouth would move as if someone was trying to prevent her from talking. I now know she had the same problem thinking.


She was a little gal made skinnier from the affliction. When we left her and went back to Milwaukee I would worry that that guy on the tricycle or some man in the white coat might take advantage of her. One time I made my mother ask her this and she laughed earnestly and said, “No.”


Knowing that this disease runs in families, I tried as best I could to prepare myself for it if it were to strike me later in life. In addition to my business school classes in college I took as many psychology courses as possible.


She was always writing things on little pieces of paper. Things that made sense to her but nobody else understood them. I thought in the same manner as she did when I was young. I knew about things but not how to explain their complexity. And I am sure what she knew could be explained if she were able to clear her head or if the knowledge were available to her to comprehend them better. I vowed that when I wrote it would be meaningful and understandable, or not worth doing.


About that Queen she thought she was. I was interested in my lineage, particularly because of her and because I was very good at picking winning takeover stocks when I was in college. I wondered if there was any basis for this. My father told me that a lot of Rothschild’s changed their names to Roth when they came into this country from Germany in the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. I read a book on the Rothschild’s the Jewish bankers. It turns out that they made a large banking investment on the outcome of a war they could not have possibly known on a factual basis and won that bet.


My Grandmother wasn’t the Queen of Franks but our ancestry does indeed go back to the Queen of Franks, one of the earliest Nobility of Germany. I am not, per my research, part of the lineage descending from the Rothschild banking family.


Isabel was never respected by her family and forced to do work on the farm where they had nicknames of animals for each other. I thought of this the other day when I was in church. There was a little girl sitting with her family in the front row. She was disrupting the mass and wouldn’t stop talking loudly. At that age a child thinks they are more important than anyone else in the world. This does not happen as often as I like, when a child is misbehaving in public, but finally her father picked her up and cradled her to his chest and walked back to the back of church where we could no longer hear her. All the way back she was screaming, “I won’t stop talking! I won’t stop talking! I won’t stop talking!”


I won’t stop writing.


Thomas Paul Murphy


Copyright 2010 Thomas Paul Murphy

Log On’s Run 10 20 2010

Log On’s Run 10 20 2010



Some people are stuck in small towns and say, “If I could only get our or here.” Some people are stuck in big cities and say, “If I could only get or of here.”


If we listed the reasons why we are not happy where we are and boiled them down I bet they would have many things in common I say somewhat dishonestly to myself as I long for the day to lift that manhole cover away and discover a world that is green and beautiful.






Thomas Paul Murphy


Copyright 2010 Thomas Paul Murphy


Was “Logon’s Run” a neophyte homonym of the Time Lord Race?

The Son of Man 09 19 2010

The Son of Man 09 19 2010

Once upon a time in the early history of man one ape man was different instead of spending time throwing about and killing the ape sons of the women in his group he took them under his wing.  After saving them he stood up on two legs and was very proud.  He pranced around like this for awhile to let all the other apes that he was proud of what he did and they should be proud if they did the same thing. In the early vocabulary of ape-man this ape became known as the Son of Man.  All other male apes up to that time were raised by the females of the ape tribe.  Son of man then often stood up on two legs so that he could spot the actions of other apes from a distance.  This sent a message to other apes in the tribe that he stood ready to protect them from danger and they came to view him as their Savior. 

Son of man was different in that he actually had a father of strong spirit that cared for him.  “Father” taught Son of Man many things, how to make tools and use tools.  What were the best foods to eat, how to think, how to form reason and rationalize.  How to organize and lead other apes through example, how to get along with other apes of different tribes, how to help those in need, how to stick up for the weaker tribe members.

Every ape seemed to look up to the son of man ape.  When other apes were in danger from foreign animals Son of Man always stood before them to face the danger.  That was just the nature of Son of Man as they called him.  He was indeed righteous without even knowing that he was. 

 God in heaven was so proud of what his creation had become he had gave him limited powers to control the natural world.  In fact Son of Man did not know but the natural world did revolve around him.  When Son of Man became angry the heavens then too became angry.  The world followed in the son of mans footsteps.

But one day Son of Man started to have difficulties.  In turns out that Sons of Women- that is sons that were raised and strongly influenced by women, started to become jealous and envious of Son of Man.  These Sons of Ape woman sought to destroy Son of Man in every way possible.  They tried to kill him many times.  Sons and daughters raised by ape women hated Son of Man as they compared themselves to him and did not like the comparison.  Therefore they sought to do   everything they could to lessen their negative comparison to Son of Man.   They even went about calling themselves Gods in an effort to make themselves and Son of Man believe in their jealous delusion. 

Ape Woman indeed felt that she was the spirit of creation and not Son of Man and she set about to prove it.

The daughters of ape women sought to tempt him to ruin, in every way possible.  They sabotaged everything he did in an effort to betray his confidence in himself.  They too thought they could in some way harness his power.  But they were never able to and the world suffered because the more they tried to lesson Son of Man the more God loved him.  Every time they tried to ruin Son of Man God struck back at them in untold and poetic ways.

They tried to make Son of Man feel guilty for every action and thought in his life.  The Ape Women taught their daughters and then sons also to fixate on every action of Son of Man.

Son of Ape Women thought that if they were to torture Son of Man and give him great angst they would be able to splinter off some of the almighty power and beauty that God had bestowed to Son of Man, power and beauty that Son of Man never asked for.   What they never were able to realize through their haze of self imposed jealousy that Son of Man was blessed for his actions early in life and that God did not reward the others for their illegitimate efforts.  God knew the souls of each of his creatures and knew their intent.  They did not know of this either as they acted in spite and jealousy to Son of Man.  Never did they figure out for themselves that they needed to think for themselves and consciously form their own ideas of right and wrong.  And that only after suffering by trying and thinking for themselves would they be redeemed in the eyes of God.  It was just that simple but they were never able to figure it out for themselves.  By the comparison they that were indoctrinated with kin of Ape Woman always felt themselves less than Son of Man.  If they ever did a good dead they were always sure that Son of Man knew about it.  God judged them therefore that they did not to do good deeds for good deeds sake.  But only to try and convince the Son of Man that they were better at doing good deeds.  God knew that good deeds should be done for good deeds sake and sometimes were self sacrificing; he knew this was never the true nature of Son of Ape Woman.  All through their lives and that of their progeny they never had the proper intent to do good deeds.

The progeny of Ape Woman even held themselves out as the righteous ones.  Son of Man was somewhat lessoned in his self confidence and power of self because of this.  Because Son of Man cared for others their actions of aggression against him hurt his feelings of self. 

Because they were raised in competition to Son of Man they eventually got so jealous of Son of Man that they sought to kill him once and for all.  They could not stand to be the same image of Son of Man a reflection of themselves they had come to hate.

Sons and daughters of ape women tried to imagine him in dangers and deeds of great peril and Ape Woman sought to destroy Son of Man through spells. God heard their spells against Son of Man and put his Son of Man to the test by allowing them to put Son of Man to the test of their spells.  Their spells against Son of Man did indeed lesson Son of Man further. 

Sons of Ape Women knew that their spells were indeed being put into reality against Son of Man they could see how he was put in situations of great peril according to their will and suffered greatly as a result of them.  What they did not know was that God was really putting Ape Woman and her progeny to the test.

And so Ape Women and her progeny where put to the test unknowingly throughout their history.  All this time because of their intent and actions they remained Ape Women.  They suffered a paucity of thought because they Love was never their true intent in life and they were defined by their envy and self hatred.

Attrition weakened Son of Man to the point where he could die.  Not a one of the other ape men who had come to stand up on two legs like he did stood by his side.  Not a one stood by his side in unity for what he stood for when the hour was nigh.  Son of Man did not understand why they acted the way they did towards him.  Through the ages God saw all this happening and watched how creation would treat such an image of himself.   The question was would God allow those who persecuted his image to exist?  Would God allow those who tormented his likeness on earth to rein forever?  God identified with Son of Man in his struggle through life greatly.  One day God said, “I cannot stand in judgment of this world any longer I will take earthly form in completeness with Son of Man and leave it up to the will of all that I have created and not myself to decide the fate of all that I created.”  God himself could no longer decide the fate of his creations.  He would become one with them in being with Son of Man.

Neither the progeny of Ape Woman nor Son of Man ever caught on that this had happened.

Son of Man and God in One sought to procreate but ape woman instructed her progeny not to allow it.  They sought to make him disgusted with women.  Son of Man and God in one became sad with his seemingly imperfections of creation.  No woman ape would love Son of Man.  It was against the code Ape Woman had taught them.

One day progeny of ape woman ganged up on the Son of Man and God in one.  The now weakened Son of Man and the spirit of creation were destroyed.  It took awhile but the world absent and devoid of the spirit of creation, that it had destroyed slowly came apart and disintegrated along with the entire universe and everything.  The progeny of Ape Woman suffered in agony in their final days just as they had made the Son of Man suffer, but only worse in his absence.  After the Son of Man died they lived wretched lives of horror, each other then became the object of their destruction in the absence of Son of Man.  They had never learned any other way in life other than prayers of destruction.  Having never learned any other way they were never able to teach any better way.  The dark forces of destruction they preached consumed them and the infinite existence that the Son of Man had created.  Through all of infinite eternity that followed their wretched souls moaned in pain for misery they felt.  And each heard the others pain and suffering.  Misery did not love company in this void.  Misery made misery worse.  Their disembodied spirits never once considered what they had done to Son of Man.  They never regretted what they had done to the spirit of creation. They never once had atonement for the spirit of creation.  They never once realized they would have never existed if not for the spirit of creation.

They created the perfect trap for their souls of destruction, to escape they only had to feel guilt and then will or pray that Son of Man would return.   A trap they would never through eternity have the means of escaping from.  And that is how the world ended.

 Son of Man and the spirit of creation had believed the spirit of his creations would ultimately save creation.  The creations of the unified Son of Man failed him and all of all creation fell victim to the destructive willful spirit of Ape Woman and her progeny.   It was all of creation that was to come apart to its most minute elements never to be reformed.

God Bless Those Who Think For Themselves

Thomas Paul Murphy

Copyright 2010 Thomas Paul Murphy

Originally published on 10 08 2010 at:

http://selectedwriting.blogspot.com/

How to Ask a Good Question

How to Ask a Good Question 03 13 2010

In this Thursday morning’s edition Investor’s Business Daily newspaper there was a quotation from W. Edwards Deming, a management consultant, the quote on the topic of learning. The quote reads, “If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.” I decided to take this issue by the horns and write essay today, that has a few points regarding asking good questions.

Always think this before asking, “Do you know the answer already?”

Is your question one with a common sense answer or does what you want to know contradict with something you know already and you need a clarification?

Has the person talking to you drawn a verbal path to let you know the answer will be forthcoming, if so wait and do not interrupt.

Has the person talking indicated to you that you might have a question and they know the answer, by giving a visual cue such as a pause or smile, then it might be the appropriate time to ask the question.

Have you given them enough time to talk so that they look like they are starting on another topic and they have left an issue of concern to you glossed over, where clarity to all listening is needed.

Do you feel they have made a mistake in what they said, if so ask for clarification in a way so as not condescending to them. Often people make errors of oversight when speaking. If you recognize this, it is your duty to ask for clarification. Do you think what they said is the opposite of what they should have said? Then ask.

When with a new teacher, there will not be a comfortable repoire established yet. Do not ask in a way to discredit them, consider writing your question down, when it occurs to you and asking it at the end of class, if it hasn’t been clarified. Often by doing this you will see whether your question is still a valid one or not. Meaning has it been answered from their continued talking and the answer “sits right” with you. Do this also if you feel you have been labeled as asking stupid questions in the past, this post analysis will help you ask better questions.

When asking a question, often take the attitude someone else might want to know the answer to that question also. But before asking these types of questions think harder.

And there is a way to ask a rhetorical question without being insulting, do this by asking more of a leading question. Leading questions are good.

Often you can tell you have asked a good question because it will put your professor on a roll, talking, and much is learned from the storytelling experience.

If you once asked a dumb question or got that kind of response from the one you asked it to, learn how to ask better questions and try again.

Have you prepared for class and should have known this answer or does your question address contradictions in teachings that need to be resolved.

Finally, don’t ask self serving questions, or arrogant ones. In the Star Trek series, “Star Trek The Next Generation”, there was a character an all powerful deity or God named Q. His name Q, being a metaphor for Question, and he did ask them. Albeit menacing ones, as the answers to his questions often led to a situation of Pandora for the Enterprise and its crew. Q imposed a resulting fate based on the answer. Was he a deity because he asked good questions? Should the Captain of the Enterprise said just once, “That is the dumbest question I’ve ever heard.” and saved himself from the further impact of these questions that put him and his crew in a fateful quandary? Or did Q’s questions lead to a greater learning experience for the outer space explorers.

In today’s political environment, the good questions aren’t being asked to those opposing change, here would be a good place for Q to start asking.

Copyright 2010 Thomas Paul Murphy

Philos on Learning

Philos of Learning 10 22 2009

In order to prevent we have to understand fully.

In order to understand fully we have to learn.

The essence of learning is forming new beliefs.

In order to form new beliefs we have to accept that we don’t know everything already.

This means subduing our egos.

To accept that we are last and not first while listening.

Copyright 2009 Thomas Paul Murphy

The Code

The Code 02 27 2010

I call this one the code but it could also be called the nature of responsibility.

Drinking and partying are more prevalent when you are in High School and College. What do you do when your friends become obnoxious and start trouble by insulting strangers at bars? One of my less obnoxious friends once told me, "You always backup a friend." I disagreed, “If a friend is drawing you into trouble with them, are they truly your friend?" .

In my younger days I was tougher than my friends and developed a secret code of conduct to keep everyone out of trouble.

If a friend causes trouble that leads to a fight, when you tried to stop them, it's their trouble. The best you can do is to protect your friend defensively. Then get both of you out of there.

If you cause trouble, do not expect anyone else to fight your fight. You caused it, it is your responsibility. Would you be a good friend to your friends if they were drawn in and got badly hurt? As the bible says, "You have to walk that road alone."

If someone else causes trouble with your friend first, stand your ground and try and scare them off. If trouble keeps brewing get your friend and walk slowly and straight by the trouble makers without looking at them, they are not worthy of that. If you do look at them, look them straight in the eye and back it up with a feeling that the world does not deserve that, coupled with it. It is okay to show a little righteous strength as you walk by. If you have to defend your friend in a defensive manner as best you can.

When you and your friend are out of trouble confront him and talk sternly to them. In high school I confronted a friend who was much bigger than I, and said, “I’m not going to put up with that.” All he could say back was, "I'm tired of your meaningless threats." Repetition paid off, and his behavior changed for the better.

If your friend gives you all the free beer you could ever drink, are they really your friend? If they get you into drugs or involved with bad people they are exactly the opposite of your friend.

If you no longer want to be a friend tell them why. What the behavior was you didn’t like, years later they will be thankful for this.

This article was meant for college students but I am finding it is relevant to gangs also. Without rules of conduct you are no better than a gang member who will likely have a miserably shortened life with a violent ending. Gangs ruin for themselves, the very communities in which they live in. People join gangs out of fear. Fear of growing up and being a responsible adult. Fear of losing pro wrestler self image of greatness that isn't true. As a boy becomes a man this ego naturally lessons. It is part of maturation. This does not mean you should not assert opinions when you think you are right. Just the opposite is true, you learn to listen to others and still assert what you think is right. And if you find you are wrong, accept that you are wrong; this is the heart of learning.

About fifteen years ago Al Pacino once said on a late night talk show that his mother kept him in the house and would not let him play with street gang members who were are all incidentally dead or in prison.

The complacent group behavior, whether seen in college students drinking or gang members, is for boy's who can’t stand on their own, or for themselves, not for men. It is the way of the coward. It is detrimental to society as a whole not just you.

It’s hard to find good friends, let’s keep the ones we have out of trouble.

Copyright 2010 Thomas Paul Murphy