“Doctor, I appreciate your diagnosis, but I will not accept your verdict”

“I am a book.Sheaves pressed from the pulp of oaks and pinesa natural sawdust made dingy from purses, dustyfrom shelves.Steamy and anxious, abused and misused,kissed and cried over, smeared, yellowed, and torn,loved, hated, scorned. I am a book. I am a book that remembers,days when I stood proud in good companyWhen the children came, I leapt into their arms,when the women came, they cradled me against their soft breasts,when the men came, they held me like a lover,and I smelled the sweet smell of cigars and brandy as we sat together in leather chairs,next to pool tables, on porch swings, in rocking chairs,my words hanging in the air like bright gems, dangling,then forgotten, I crumbled,dust to dust. I am a tale of woe and secrets,a book brand-new, sprung from the loins of ancient fathers clothed in tweed,born of mothers in lands of heather and coal soot.A family too close to see the blood on its hands,too dear to suffering, to poison, to cold steel and revenge,deaf to the screams of mortal wounding,amused at decay and torment,a family bred in the dankest swamp of human desires. I am a tale of woe and secrets,I am a mystery. I am intrigue, anxiety, fear,I tangle in the night with madmen, spend my days cloaked in black,hiding from myself, from dark angels,from the evil that lurks withinand the evil we cannot lurk without. I am words of adventure,of faraway places where no one knows my tongue,of curious cultures in small, back alleys, mean streets,the crumbling house in each of us. I am primordial fear, the great unknown,I am life everlasting.I touch you and you shiver, I blow in your ear and you follow me,down foggy lanes, into places you've never seen,to see things no one should see,to be someone you could only hope to be.I ride the winds of imagination on a black-and-white horse,to find the truth inside of me, to cure the ills inside of you,to take one passenger at a time over that tall mountain,across that lonely plain to a place you've never beenwhere the world stops for just one minuteand everything is right.I am a mystery. -Rides a Black and White Horse”

“Soraya-joon, I have done all that I could. Do not be sorry for us. Your mother and I await you upon your return. We love you more than we have loved life. After your dear brother name your first son. Live here if you like, but if you sell it take no less than one hundred thousand dollars. ~Bawbaw”

“Respect is a close relative of tolerance, and both go a long way to prevent and alleviate the negative interactions between and among people. Respect was a member of each Lakota household during the free-roaming buffalo-hunting days on the northern plains.”

“Tyranny flourishes in those societies that reject the Reformed Faith. Tyranny is squelched and liberty flourishes in those societies that embrace the Reformed Faith in all its fullness.”

“When a storm blows, you must stand firm. For it is not trying to knock you down, it is really trying to teach you to be strong.”

“In this study, we will be attempting to answer the pivotal question: How does God want to be worshipped? How we want to worship God is irrelevant.”