Sometimes things seem all shiny and new, don’t they? This photo below of a cool fountain in the Detroit airport struck me that way; fun, bright,and playful.
Another shot of the same fountain with a “negative” effect applied though brings up something very different. Still very neat, but in a strange way that’s also cold, harsh and unwelcoming.
Life really does depend on the filter your using, doesn’t it? Choose wisely.
Now off to find those glasses…
Howdy and thanks for stopping by! I'm weirdly obsessed with individual liberty and feel it's not given enough credit as being a necessary factor for living a truly empowered and fulfilled life.
Whether it's self serving politicians who are constantly trying to make victims out of us, or the negative fixed narratives we impose on ourselves that limit what we can do, we are constantly giving up personal power over to some person or thing which ironically only shrinks our world further.
This blog is about sticking up for freedom and hopefully opening up a deeper conversation on what it's meaning is, how it enhances our own empowerment and why it's so important to protect.
© Tricia Butler, 2014 – 2021
All images and content, unless otherwise noted, are copyright protected and owned by Tricia Butler. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.
Freedom Through Empowerment 
Sorry, couldn’t resist
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Lol, love it Wally!
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😊
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I’d rather the first picture. No filter at all. Seeing as it is. Whether it is ugly or beautiful. Truth in itself is beautiful.
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Hey mike, well then, I don’t think trish will mind if I point out the fact that your willingness to see without a filter, is the very thing you deny when you sit in judgment of God and scripture.
You hold God in contempt because of YOUR filter………..
YOU decide what is ugly……..
YOU decide where God has fallen short……….
YOU have denied His truth and substituted your own.
So, how about another try in reading, interpreting, and comprehending scripture: without a filter. Sounds fair, and your conclusions just may change. It is we mike who have fallen short, not God. But yep, truth is beautiful,
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No sir, I hold Christianity in contempt…it’s God isn’t existent for me to hold in such
Yup I decide what is ugly, including the viciousness which with you’ve attacked me
Yep. I decide where the God of Christianity and Christianity have fallen short, it’s my right as a thinking, free person
Yes, I have denied that Christianity is true in any way, and discovered that the God presented in the pages of the bible has no evidence in the real world for his specific existence.
Still… Truth is truth, ugly or beautiful. I’ll take truth over a lie any day. Have a wonderful day
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Yeah ok mike. You say God doesn’t exist; ok, then He doesn’t. Just pull out the filter. But viciousness? Attack?
Good gravy.
But I’ll take the wonderful day and tell the bartender to mix one up for you too.
(Just wanted to point out the bias we have, based on your own observations, and no point in taking this post into the weeds any further.)
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It’s so true ColorStorm about the biases we view life through. We all have them which is why following God’s truth is so important. Glad you weren’t sent directly to spam jail. 😉
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No sir. I said the biblical God is a myth. There may in fact be a go or gods, I don’t know. But the God presented in the old and new testament s is non existent
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‘The biblical God is a myth?’ Please. I can’t stop laughing.
The Creator of the oak tree has no competitors.
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Or would you like another go at demonstrating his existence by more than just Faith?
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Duh I suppose you have found some proof He does not exist outside of your combination of faith and desperate hope that He doesn’t
And attacks? Good grief…seen the way you and your crew treat people lately?
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Actually, you’re right brother wally. I have no ability to prove the god of the Bible doesn’t actually exist. However, neither do you have the ability to prove he actually does. Will younbe as honest as i have been in admission? Or if you are able to prove that the biblical god exists in realiy, Care to take a whack at that one? I’ll even clear away an entire post for you and open it up for free discussion. Welcome any time you’d like at the recovering know it all blog.
Cheers
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Ha
Well God proves Himself quite nicely without my help thank you very much. Double duh
He backs up His claim with all of creation but your statement that he is myth is backed by….Nada
Visit you and your band of cackling hens? Hardly
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How would you actually go about proving the existence of something that is immaterial and being time and space?
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Sigh
Mike…close the atheists evangelist handbook for a minute and read comments
See above
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I don’t think anybody needs to prove anything. Just believe what you want to believe and be done with it.
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@KIA
Frankly, if the Truth were ugly, I would rather not have it. If the only Truth was starvation and torment in concentration camp, I would rather avoid it. Awful things do in fact happen, but they are only part of the Truth. Therefore, the awful truths are endurable.
The part of the Truth that is ugly and vicious is part of a greater Truth that is lovely and good. That greater Truth we all have trouble seeing. We all have filters. We all are filters.
God is infinite. His creation is infinite. We who cannot grasp the complexity of a single human being have no way of understanding God, His Creation, or even this little earth. We have only our life experiences and our limited point of view; these are not the Truth. None of us knows the Truth. Only God knows the Truth. He is the Truth. That’s why only He is fit to judge.
Is the Bible the Truth. No, the Bible is true, and it is only part of the Truth. The Bible, which we can only understand in part, just provides us part of the Truth, and part of the Truth is all that we can understand.
Because we can only understand the Truth in part, we must have faith and act in faith. Otherwise, we cannot act at all. Without the faith to believe in something, unbelief will paralyze us.
You say you don’t believe in the God of the Bible? Well, you believe in something, but what? You cannot have much confidence in it. Otherwise, you would find something better to do than jealously attack the faith of those who do believe.
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Very well said Tom, thanks for contributing.
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Indeed, truth itself is beautiful in all it’s rawness KIA.
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Thx
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When reality gets too colorful, I choose the Netflix reality filter!
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Now that is usually not a bad idea Silence! Sometimes Netflix comes with its own special set of horrors like my inability to escape from my Game of Thrones addiction….
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I’ll bet most people’s first impressions (including mine) was similar to yours. How much richer could our lives potentially be if our first reactions to BOTH pictures was finding BEAUTY each represented in its own unique way. Life’s experiences shape our impressions and determine which thought processes dominate our decision making. This is important because it acts to safeguard us in potentially dangerous situations. Sometimes I wonder if we realize our lives drift out of balance toward defensive posturing. It may protect us, however, it also limits our abilities to see greater potentials. I’m not sure it’s worth the trade off?
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That’s a good point Jonathan about the uniqueness of each filter, I hadn’t thought of that. Really nobody operates without one so the views all represent some sort of reality. I guess it’s a point of how to keep a balance and knowing when your reality is being unhealthily warped by a false perspective.
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Exactly.
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I try not to argue religion but I do have an observation. When was the fountain picture taken?
If it is a recent picture then I admire the cleanliness and what appears to be a working fountain. I remember reading article after article about the condition of Detroit and how in debt the city is due to years of liberal leadership. It comes as a surprise that anything in the public arena is working much less intact.
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Well Dennis that is a very good point! It was actually taken last Sunday when I was returning from my trip back east. It’s a very nice, modern airport actually, takes a leap of faith really to believe it’s in Detroit. Lol…;)
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Good point and well said. I’m always looking for my rose colored glasses, too. Knowing me, they’re probably sitting on top of my head.
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Right? Me too, lol!
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At the risk of entering this minefield of religious comment, I’d like to say that I agree with KIA. There is beauty in everything. Even ugliness has its own beauty. Relating our perception of beauty to religion is in its way, judgmental. There are millions of people who have no exposure to the bible that appreciate beauty in their own way. They may attribute it to a God, but not necessarily the God of the bible, whoever that may be. Let’s allow people who believe differently enjoy their take on beauty in the earth and the universe without tying it to religion. Fundamentalist religion is one of the biggest problems this world faces.
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Thanks for coming by Al and leaving one of your many pearls of wisdom. I am not sure how this post became a land mine area to begin with, all I wanted was to share a couple of interesting pics!
I will say there is beauty even in that divisiveness, because it represents humanity and the inescapable reality that we all view life through our own personal filters. Personally I’ve found the more I invite God in to my life, the more clear His truth becomes as my own filter of fixed narratives slowly and quite often painfully melt away.
Now you just had to go open the Pandora’s Box of the topic of religious fundamentalism, didn’t you? 😉 I disagree with your statement but that’s a different topic for a different day. I will say it is important to for all parties to agree on the definition first before any productive conversation can be had about it.
Cheers and have a wonderful Labor Day weekend Al!
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