agreed, and if the day's beggings is not enough for a motel room, the homelessness continues and it feels better to shiver asleep under a bridge with a quart of beer than it does with hot coffee that keeps you awake robbed and assaulted and brainwashed in church basement army cots

@Akfishlady i have heard, from otherwise reasonable people, that if one gives, one should give unconditionally. i don't know where THAT's written. i don't think it's particularly charitable to be an enabler, and if i want to specify what to give, or to whom to give, based on where i think my gift will end up, that's my business. once i've given it, it's not, but on the other hand that doesn't mean i can't learn from it and adjust my behavior. you did the right thing adjusting yours, based on your experience.

g

god is not a generic term. its meaning may be broad in some senses but it's not as broad as all THAT. you can redefine it as a dog or a potato but i don't have to buy the new definition!

in addition, i do not wonder if there is something walking alongside us, and if that's what god bless means on the signs, then i want no part of it. but i don't think that is what it means. i think it's encouragement to give, as in "god will favor you if you give something to me." to whom do you pray? that's not a generic term, either. one prays to someone, a sentient entity, be it a god or a king or a merchant, for something, be it physical or otherwise. the preposition is the operative word. pray TO someone. i sometimes see people talking about gratitude: same deal there. you're grateful TO someone. to whom?

g

@genessa You must be a lot of fun at parties.

Like it or not language is moving on, and just because you don't accept that definitions are changing... they're changing. Windows has a lot more meanings than it did many years ago. Hell, we just came through a bruising argument over what the word "marriage" meant.

Language is living, and you don't have to accept any meanings if you don't want to. Conservatives still refuse to accept the new way marriage is defined, nor do they accept the word "evolution" as a scientific term. And they use the term "pro-choice" even though they only care about the fetus, and killing the baby after it's born is not their problem.

But also know that I don't have to buy into your drama. The fact that you have to ask, "To whom do you pray" suggests that you've even decided that prayer has only one meaning... as opposed to its other meaning: "used as a preface to polite requests or instructions."

I pray to whomever or whatever is listening. If it's fairies, then I pray to them. If it's a sense of belonging in the universe, then I pray to that. If it simply turns out to be that wise part of me that is able to make better decisions regarding what's happening in my life, then I pray to it.

You assume, erroneously, that gratitude and prayer have to be 'directed at something.' That's absolutely not true. When you stand in the presence of gratitude, true gratitude, it's simply a sense of... well... gratitude. Thankfulness. Whether because you're looking upon a child, or you got the last bucket of extra crispy chicken. I can direct that gratitude toward my child, toward my wife for having that child... OR I can just be grateful... Look at this little person who has captured my heart. I can be grateful to Colonel Sanders for his eleven herbs and spices, or to KFC for keeping that legacy alive, or to the staff who let me have the last box. OR... I can just be grateful that there was a moment... one little moment... where things worked out in my favor.

Or maybe I'm just praying to the mystery. Life is a mystery. A big, thick, scary, sometimes grizzly, mystery. I have no desire to try to fit that into a box. And I welcome changes in our language, because they're there to accommodate our new awareness of how life is changing as we learn more and more about the universe around us.

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
By: Steven Pinker
[amazon.com]

@Benthoven i guess you didn't read what i said, since you're trying to teach me some stuff i already have mentioned. i guess you also have not learned not to fling personal insults at someone with whom you disagree, or who has disagreed with you. fun at parties. feh. i have nothing more to say to someone who gets his panties in that big a wad over that small a thing. have a nice life, even if first you need to get one. do so, i pray you.

g

@genessa OR... maybe you're not really good at explaining things... or come across far more critical than you think you do. I'm sure your comment meant something else coming out of your head, but that's not how it came across in the comment.

The broad meaning of your comment was: God cannot be redefined the way I expressed that it had been. My response to that was language is living, changing, growing, and God has, in fact, been redefined in a myriad of ways.

As to personal insults, I have no idea what you're talking about, but then I'm not aware of what voice you're reading this in, whether it's your hyper-critical voice or your 'how-dare-you-speak-to-me' voice. The comment "you must be a lot of fun at parties" was intended as a joke, which I use sometimes to deflect what feels like a bit of dogmatic ideology sneaking into a conversation and crowding out reason: "in addition, i do not wonder if there is something walking alongside us, and if that's what god bless means on the signs, then i want no part of it."

As to personal insults here are yours: i guess you also have not learned not to fling personal insults at someone with whom you disagree
fun at parties. feh.
i have nothing more to say to someone who gets his panties in that big a wad over that small a thing
have a nice life, even if first you need to get one. do so
i pray you.

And as for "pray you"... thank you? I don't know what it means to pray somebody.

I've observed over time that those who make the accusations, are the ones who actually "do the thing they're accusing the other of." I think psychologists call it "projection."

@Benthoven you don't know what "i pray you" means? not into shakespeare, eh? i am done with you. BLOCK.

g

Yeah damn those devious swine, sleeping in card board boxes in doorways in the snow, when they could be sleeping in their mansions, just to give credence to the lie and the con.
They are really committed to swindling all those dimes and nickles.
Evil, evil, con men, even willing to let a few of their number freeze to death in the winter so they can point to the bodies and make the rest of us feel guilty.
They've certainly got it all organised.

@LenHazell53 I'm not sure if this is irony or a complete mischaracterization of what I said.

I do not think there aren't actual homeless people in my community and I don't think actual homeless are scammers. What I did refer to is that people have been arrested here in the past for claiming to be homeless or poor when they are neither and warnings have been issued to the public concerning this. They can make quite a bit of good money panhandling in a place like this. Some percentage of panhandlers are, of course, in fact homeless. Some of these do not want to take advantage of homeless shelters, clothing or food banks, or other resources designed to help them, and so turn to panhandling. However I choose to support those resources as I don't have the ability to vet and interview panhandlers and I also think even when done by an actual homeless person, it's an activity on the same level with door to door proselytization and street preachers, it is impertinent. That is my choice and my right, just as it's their choice and right to panhandle if they want to go that route.

@Akfishlady yeah maybe but i think i would try that as well though from all accounts religious people are amongst the least likely to give to beggars almost every sign over here has god bless and we are fairly non religious it does seem a dichotomy of belief