Ice Breaker

Brownie points.  When the modifier is capitalized, “Brownie”, it refers to merit points earned for advancement (origin: young Girl Scouts known as Brownies, merit Brownie points for advancement).  When the modifier is lower case, “brownie”, it refers to the credit one gets from their boss (manager, spouse, etc.) for sucking up (origin: brown nosing, ingratiation, flatterer).  Can one advance in any organization by accumulating only one kind of B(b)rownie points?  What is your experience with advancement with regard to merit and ingratiation?  Can ingratiation be a promoting factor in family and social hierarchies?

 Question of the Night

John 15.2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 15.6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
When does the spiritual pruning of the human soul bear fruit:
When you develop character from the hard lessons you learn?
When you acquire discipline which brings respect and the ability to earn?
When you accept deep flaws as fruitless branches, which you and your spirit then prune, pile and burn?

Other Questions:

Emotional Contagion (EC) is the tendency for humans to feel the emotions of people around them.  The ability to transfer moods between humans is innate.  This is a powerful fact and behind some the world’s religions, dictators, and the history of war.  When have you been affected by EC?  When have you subjected others to EC?  Do you always know when EC is active?

Pagan Kennedy ~ Want to know the secret to a longer life? Don’t ask these dead longevity researchers.  The greatest gains in longevity have occurred not because of longevity research but because of public sanitation, clean water and the control of infectious diseases.  However, Environmental activists are being jailed and government research is being curtailed.  For you, what environmental or social issues would you join in mass protest for or against?  Which government research would you contribute your money to?

Diesel therapy is a purported form of punishment in which prisoners are shackled and then transported for days or weeks. It has been described as “the cruelest aspect of being a federal inmate.” It has been alleged that some inmates are deliberately sent to incorrect destinations as an exercise of diesel therapy.  If this “therapy” only promotes cruelty and results often in insanity, why does this form of torture continue?

Lyric Notes: The Beatle’s lyrics for “Girl”:
Was she told when she was young; That pain would lead to pleasure?
Did she understand it when they said:
That a man must break his back; To earn his day of leisure? Will she still believe it when he’s dead?
John Lennon ~ “I was just talking about Christianity, in that – you have to be tortured to attain heaven… be tortured and then it’ll be alright…”
Wow, your comments, please!  Who tells young girls what to expect from a painful adult life?  Are pain, backbreaking work, and then death a proper instruction to the young for the intermission between childhood and heaven?

Imagine …you are a hermit/hermitess living on an island separated from humanity by a strait called the “Mouth of Hell”.  The last census counted the island population of 1.
What is the appeal of isolation and separation and being far from the madding crowd?
Mainlanders gave you a descriptive nickname.  What is it and what does it describe about you?
The sea currents slowly reconstruct the ancient isthmus to land.  Soon, a road will bring a throng of day trippers to your quiet paradise.  For you, is losing solitude and gaining companionship too often like trading your hermitage for hell?