Dear Youngman:

Greetings.  I hope that you are well this morning.  I just came in from a
nice time outdoors and thought I'd share a few thoughts and musings with
you.

Last evening as I stood in the grocery store line I saw a woman purchasing
groceries with government food vouchers and, just behind her, an hispanic
woman in a workman's clothes with a gallon of punch, lettuce, some type of
corn/maiz meal, and some hamburger.  She kept looking at the hamburger and
her money.  I thought about it.  Meat is a good thing to have and I was
willing to help her if she did not have enough money for her purchases.  I
told her so, she nodded and turned away.  I wondered if I should have
tried.  It turned out that she had enough money but she seemed genuinely
grateful that I was willing to help.

As I left the store that night, I thought to myself that here is a
community that I am deeply interested in--the Hispanic/Latino community. 
For years I had wondered why I took so many Spanish classes and enjoyed my
Latino acquaintances so.  But now I trace it back to one lovely woman, an
elementary school teacher with salt and pepper hair who told me that my
middle name is a Spanish name.  Not everyone takes an interest in a little
black girl with chipped teeth and darkened by the hot tropical sun, but
she treated me kindly and smiled at me.  I can almost see her face and I
could not have been more than 10 years old.  Everyone was not as kind as
she.   I think that somehow her words and testimony would eventually
influence my decision to take Spanish when it was offered in the 7th
grade.

Immigration has been long used to overwhelm countries with a foreign
present.  Rome has used this tactic extensively.  King James mentions it
in The Workes.  I have a book in my possession written in the early 1800s
indicating that this--even at that time--was being used [to overwhelm] this country.  It is
still being used today as hordes cross our borders with an inbred Roman-inculcated
submission to all authority.  Nevertheless, the people themselves are
different from Americans.  I have found them hardworking, honest
(sometimes "brutally" so.  Upon introducing me to a man, a woman told me,
"He's a drunkard," as he stood there.), humble, and willing to hear about
the Lord.

In a building where I once worked, the janitorial staff was probably
exclusively hispanic.  One woman, Carmen, who cleaned my office asked my
help because she did not get her tax money and the tax preparer (who
charged her $100 to fill out an EZ form--which is EASY to fill out) would
not return her phone calls.  In the end, we were able to get her money
without much trouble, as I recall.

At lunch time, I'd sit at a long table with the workers and we would talk
and share.  They came  from many countries south of the border--Carmen was
from Honduras, I met people from all over Latin America and each person had a story.  Somebody may have been the only surviving
person in their family, everybody else was killed.  Some come for work and
to send money back home and on and on.  One woman from San Salvador told
me that they call America, "the golden cage."  Once you get here, you have
to stay.

Carmen invited me to her small apartment home.  I'm not sure but I think
her husband may have stepped out on her with another woman.  The Latino
community, in many ways, reminds me of the black community with their
flashy clothes and parties, but the menacing element is not there and
there is more of a familial atmosphere.

They accept you, and usually seem most happy that you've taken the time to
learn their language.  They have shown themselves very patient with me and
my frequent stumblings and mistakes.  Do that with a Frenchman and he may
not be so happy.  I have not been immersed in that community for a long
time and my reading and writing of Spanish is much better than my oral
communication of it, but I perceive that if I were immersed again, it
would not take long to communicate fairly freely.

We've talked about the poor and we've talked about all the social services
benefits in this country--but there is a LARGE group of people in this
country that could use our help in many ways.  There are many strangers in
this country.  The Bible talks extensively about the stranger and about
helping him.  We have many poor strangers in this country.  There are
people from China who have fled here because of the one child, murderous
policy of their government (which now bemoans that there are not enough
women in China because couples want a male heir and kill the females). 
But when they get here, they don't know a thing.  Can I be available with
a smile and a helping hand when God presents this man or that woman to me?
 In the post office, there was a young black woman who, I believe, spoke
French.  She wanted to know what slot to place a letter in.  I could not
understand what she said.  After going back and forth three times, I asked
her to spell what she was trying to say and I showed her where to place
her letter.

People in this country can be so cruel to the stranger.  I've witnessed
it.  It's obvious that the stranger can be forgotten or overlooked and so
the scriptural admonition to remember him.  And when we encounter him, let
us put ourselves in his shoes and load him up with the benefits that he
needs with a pure heart and full of charity.  Could the precepts
that God showed me in teaching Hannah Spanish be used to teach the
Spanish-speaker English?  Yes, an emphatic yes.  She is in there now
translating Matthew, a task she took upon herself.  When she proposed it,
I thought she would be better used critiquing my work, asking questions,
and suggesting changes but she had a mind to try anyway and is progressing
well.   I think that translating was a way that many in the past perfected
their language skills.  How did we get to this point so soon?  I have to
figure that out and write it down.  I have to go back through the archives
and consolidate it into ONE folder on just a FEW sheets of paper.

Where you've met success, write down what you did IN THE ORDER THAT YOU
DID IT AND THE DATES ON WHICH YOU DID IT--EVEN IF THE ORDER DOESN'T MAKE
SENSE AND IS ERRATIC...THAT'S PROBABLY YOU ACHIEVED SUCCESS.  GETTING ONE
BIG FAT BOOK ON NUTRITION AND TRYING TO MEMORIZE IT IS DEATH AND NOT
LEARNING.  ON THE OTHER HAND,

*GENESIS 1:1-2:7 one year,
*the globe the next,
*basic anatomy the next,
*a garden and understanding of the physical degeneration of industrial man
the next,
*nutritional requirements, growing and gathering to meet those
requirements, homeostasis (normal health), and common diseases that YOU
get the next
*pond ecology, tadpoles, fish, dog and their respective studies the next

AND YOU HAVE A WHOLE UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THINGS WORK THROUGH EVERYDAY,
ORDINARY (GUIDED ORDINARY) EXPERIENCE.  BUT YOU HAVE TO GO BACK AND THINK
ABOUT WHAT YOU DID

******************AND WRITE IT
DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!************************

Somebody can follow your trail.  Just make sure that you have a trail and
don't write about anything that you don't know and have not been
successful in.  ONLY SUCCESS, NOT THEORY, SUCCESS.  It can be repeated
over and over again by those who live in a generation overwhelmed, deceived, completely
ignorant, naked, bare,  dependent, controlled, ruled over, serf, servant,
not a master of any one thing, work in McDonalds, no trade, washed up and
out, and can't live without some help while they dwell in the midst of plenty
of resources.  There is enough weed food to live off of.  Nebuchadnezzar
lived off grass **LIKE AN OX** FOR SEVEN
YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Get some grass and eat
it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Nebuchadnezzar came to mind as I sat outside one
day and so I ate some grass.  The Bible told me that I could--and it
didn't kill me.  It was just ordinary grass.  There are things out there
that will kill you if you just touch them to your lips.  A little boy made
a pipe out of a reed and put it to his lips to blow it.  It was poisonous
enough to kill him.  A park ranger took some greens and put them on his
sandwich, he was dead the same day.  

Go on a "weed walk" if you can find
one in your area so that you can see what you can eat.  You only have to
see it one time, and you will remember.  One day we were outside and I
looked a weed and exclaimed to Hannah, "That's chickweed!!!!" and I ate it.
 Don't ask me where I learned that or how I knew it.  Even at that time, I
didn't know how I knew it.  I don't think we saw it on the weed walk but
it is in our "Nature Bound Pocket Field Guide" by Ron Dawson (it has
photos NOT drawings).  Maybe I remembered it from there, I don't know.  To
this day, I still marvel at that.  Just try to stretch out and God will
help you.

It is important TO KNOW what is available to you and to use it on a
regular basis.  The trace minerals and nutrition that is missing from our
grocery store inorganic-fertilizer food is found in that bitter, but
nutritious dandelion leaf.  Lamb's Quarters is as good as spinach,
purslane is extremely high in iron, plaintain will heal a wound that won't heal,
 comfrey has protein and calcium and is
known as knitbone tea.  Parsley has 11 times more vitamin A than a carrot,
more iron than spinach and other distinctions--can you get a plant and
grow it in a pot?????????????????  Can you cut it up on your salad or eat
it with your pot roast and potatoes?   Don't cook it, eat it and chew it
well and let that exquisite digestive system of yours begin to break it
down in your mouth extracting those important nutrients that your body
craves.  Wash it down with loads of water to clean out your system, make
new blood, and flush out impurities.  Realize that your digestive system
is just one long tube called different things at different
points--esophagus, belly, bowels, with other helpers squirting in a thing
or two or three...

One last thing for now--rolled oats are cheap and so good for cleaning out
your digestive system.  I personally love what I call, "Mother cereal" a
little recipe I developed after reading about a woman who grew up eating
raw rolled oats as a breakfast cereal.

Rolled oats (like what you make oatmeal out of)
Grapenuts (you can actually make your own)
Cinnamon, nutmeg, mace
Raisins
Walnuts

Mix it all up in a Tupperware/Rubbermaid container and store
unrefrigerated.  I cover it with milk, and also add honey (when I am
eating sweets which I am not at this time) and you talk about DELICIOUS. 
I could live off of this and I eat it almost daily.  The grains and nuts
form a COMPLETE PROTEIN which is what you would get from meat.  Why should
anyone know this?  Flesh for flesh.  If you want your flesh repaired and
growing, you need protein.  If you are taking care of a growing child, he
needs a lot of protein because he is growing.  What if you do not have a
meat source?  What can you do?  This is an answer.  What if somebody is
incapacitated and you have to care for them?  What do they need
nutritionally?  Sun is the best source for vitamin D, what do you do if
they are bedridden?  What happens if a person does not get enough vitamin A? 
One little girl lost her eye because of it, they saved the other eye. 
What happens when a woman with child does not have enough iodine?  That
baby can be born DEAF.  Onions are a good source of iodine.  If you have
to, you can put a drop of iodine in some water and drink it.  You can boil
a nail and get your iron IF YOU HAVE TO.  Know what homestasis is.  There
are not many things to know--find them out gradually.  When the "white
man" had a problem with scurvy, the red man told him to drink pine needle
tea.  Those that listened didn't have scurvy.  Get your pine needles and
soak them in some water and DRINK IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Vitamin C all around
you--natural vitamin C.  Know what you can eat and eat it and you'll get
what you need without knowing all the terminology.  Our foods have been
denatured.  Modern farmlands have to be abandoned after a certain period. 
No wonderful earthworms live there--there is nothing to eat, just dead,
synthetic fertilizers.  Barren and worn out, the soil is left.

What about your ANIMALS?  Can this information apply to them?  Can you all
eat together?  When you grow for yourself, can they eat that pea vine and
that corn stalk over there?  If you have a pregnant goat, she needs more
PROTEIN than other goats.  Give her some of your grain.  Grow some for
her.  A baby goat needs more protein because he is growing.  If you want
his dam to give you lots of milk, she needs plenty of PROTEIN.  If you
don't want her to get sounder, you may not want to release her on that
tender new grass all day at the beginning of spring...let her go at it for
a few hours and build her up.  After a winter of coarse, dry food, her
system will be overwhelmed by that lushness--unless, of course, she has
pastured all winter.  

Who do you know?  Where do you go?  Will that farm
park over there let you get in there and pitch hay and "pick" the horse
pen?  Will they let you boldly go in and remove that bucket so that that
3200 pound ox won't get it?  Can you go into the llama and sheep pen and
get those good llama pellets/dung (special name) that won't burn your
garden?  Look at those turkens over there--chickens with bald heads--are
there any advantages to having them?

Implications, implications, building, building.  There is much to know,
but it is only learned here a little, there a little.  When I come to a
new thing that gets my attention, I don't put it off,  I look at it right
then because I may never come back to it.   Sometimes I'll write an email
to you, like this one, with just ideas, not the whole with all details. 
The whole is good, ALL the details (like in today's textbooks) is death. 
Pick and choose what you will explore.  In your daily life wear, use, and
eat what you have prepared.  Food, clothing, shelter, water, and fire. 
Seek to be master over them all--or at least know the rudiments so that
you can makeshift some things for yourself.  Find a whole new kind of
life.  A free one.  That is one thing that I've learned from God's chosen
government--Judges--God wants you free.  You have no king but him, no
rules but his word.  He just wants you to obey his rules and not have a
man ruling over you.  When there is a controversy or a problem, then there
is a judge to rise up and handle the situation.

The ideal form of government for regenerate mankind is Judges.  Kings are
inferior and undesirable.  Notwithstanding, kings are what we have
today--President Obama is the king of the United States--and we obey. 
Yet, there is a kingdom within a kingdom where the college student is a
priest and judge of the kings of the earth.  A fifth grader is a judge of
the kings of the earth.  A wife in big dress is one of the priests and
kings and judges of the earth.  The church is supposed to restore this
government of Judges.  Although the visible church has not stepped up in
this area, the true church operates by this type of government, each man
obeys God's rules which are found in the holy scriptures and judges based
on those same scriptures.

I'm working on clearing out all excesses, and I like it.  I want to live
light.  You are young--may you never collect needless things.  Live a
choice life.  Choice library, choice clothes--durable clothing (this term is
found in the scriptures.  It awakened me to the concept.).  When commanded to go forth,
the disciples were not to take two coats, etc.  One good suit of clothes
is an awesome concept in this day and age.  What constitutes a good suit
of clothes?  Make it.  I have more than one skirt, but not much more.  If I had
to travel, I could wear three skirts, multiple sweaters, etc. and save space in my bag for
something else.  Live, think, write, and consider our future as we await the
coming of the Lord.  He said,

Watch.

Mephibosheth