Everett Jenkins Birthday Blog

In the world that I inhabit, people may die but their spirit lives on.  For reasons which I cannot fully explain, I was rereading some of the obituaries that I compiled some ten years ago and I came across the obituary for Anne Heyman Anne Heyman, Who Rescued Rwandan Orphans, Dies at 52 - The New York Times (nytimes.com) Anne Heyman, Who Rescued Rwandan Orphans, Dies at 52 (Published 2014) Ms. Heyman found in Israel’s system of youth villages a model for assisting the young survivors of the Rwandan g... What caught my attention, again, and stirred my interest, again, was the work that Ms. Heyman had performed in creating the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village.  You can read about the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village at Agahozo Shalom Youth Village - Wikipedia but you will get clearer picture of Anne Heyman's legacy by going to the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village website Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (asyv.org) Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village is a non-profit focused...

  The documentary "Julius Caesar: The Making of a Dictator" concluded last night with Julius Caesar being killed after becoming the dictator of the Roman Empire and thereby undermining the 500-year practice of democracy in Rome.  Sadly, very few people watched the documentary and, therefore, the historical lessons associated with the dictatorship of Julius Caesar and the demise of Roman democracy are just simply whispers in the wind. Nevertheless, as one who listens to whispers in the wind, I found that one of the messages that resonates throughout time is that once a dictator becomes the dictator, even if it is only for a day, the dictator tends to want to remain dictator for more than a day, ... the dictator wants to become dictator for life. We have seen how this worked in Russia.  Now, we may be on the verge of seeing how it works here. May God watch over us ... may God watch over the U S.  We are in a very historical year. Peace,  Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fai...

  " Hayy ibn Yaqzan  is the story of a man growing up alone on an equatorial island, passing through the phases of individual and civilizational development, and ultimately reaching a spiritual plateau that seems to Ibn Tufayl far more stable than the delicate natural platform from which we all set out, and on which we try to keep our balance as long as we draw breath." (Preface to the 2009 Edition, pg. x.) ***************** "Hayy's wisdom begins as he approaches thirty-five, when he begins to relate to God not merely by knowledge, but by love.  God becomes a passion for him that absorbs ll his attention and distracts him from everything else.  The soul recognizes itself s non-material and comes to see its task as the active seeking of God.  Hayy is ready to enter a final pair of seven-year phases. He finds in himself resemblances to the animals, to the stars, and to God Himself.  He realizes that his well-being, his happiness and self-fulfillment lie in pr...