MindDweller

Just trying to learn from you.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

@ForWomenScot ‘This is all very complicated. Should we lock up double rapists wearing wigs with a bunch of vulnerable women? People just don’t understand how complex this is. On the one hand, doing so would be inhumane and unlawful. On the other, he’s wearing pink leggings.’

[Mike Netter @nettermike]

This article was written by a 26 yr old college student by the name of Alyssa Ahlgren, who's in grad school for her MBA. What a GREAT perspecitve..👍🏽

My Generation Is Blind to the Prosperity Around Us!
I'm sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis (Florida) trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of presidential candidates calling for policies to "fix" the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around.

I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook's, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we've become completely blind to it.

Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose.These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don't give them a second thought.

We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty One Times!!!

Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful. ??

Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, "An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity."

Never saw American prosperity! Let that sink in.

When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I've ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided.

My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this first hand, I went to college, let's just say I didn't have the popular opinion, but I digress.

Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country.

People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they've never seen prosperity, and as a result, we elect some politicians who are dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism.

Why? The answer is this,?? my generation has only seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn't live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, the Korean War, The Vietnam War or we didn't see the rise and fall of socialism and communism.

We don't know what it's like to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don't have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it's spreading like a plague."

[Andrew Daub @TheResoluteLife]

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13

A Study In Contrast.

Last week, a father publicly proclaimed that his child — diagnosed in utero with Down syndrome — was undeserving of life. In his own words: "Down Syndrome isn't a 'blessing,' it is objectively s— from a health perspective. I didn't realize just how rough it is for the child, let alone the family." He called it a difficult decision. Said he was thinking of his family. "I signed on to be a parent, come what may... but I just didn't fully understand what Down Syndrome entailed." Said, thankfully, he had a choice.

And then he and his wife aborted the baby.

In September 2008, Navy veteran, husband and father Thomas Vander Woude was working on his farm in Virginia with his youngest son Joseph — who has Down syndrome, and was 20 years old at the time — when Joseph fell through a corroded cover into a septic tank eight feet deep.

Thomas didn't deliberate. He didn't hesitate. He didn't produce a video lamenting his woes, detailing his options, and farming for clicks at the expense of personhood.

He jumped into the tank.

He JUMPED INTO the damn tank. Immediately.

For fifteen minutes, submerged in sewage, Thomas pushed his son up from below, keeping Joseph's head above the muck, while his wife and a workman pulled from above. When rescue workers arrived, they pulled them both out. Joseph lived. Thomas died where he had spent so much of his life — at his son's side.

At his funeral Mass, Bishop Loverde called his dying act "truly saintly" — the crown of a whole life of self-giving.

One man decided a life with Down syndrome wasn't worth the cost. One man decided it was worth everything.

One is the personification of self-love dressed as compassion — revealed, in the end, as cowardice and discrimination.

The other is the manifestation of unconditional love, sacrifice and courage. The definition of a father.

Remember Thomas Vander Woude. And remember Joseph — who is alive today because a father believed his child's life was worth dying for.

#TeamIronWill #DownSyndromeAdvocacy #IronWill #Personhood

https://t.co/h09QaERYnV

https://t.co/UE0YWFNdm4

[Andrew Daub @TheResoluteLife]

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” - Romans 5:3-4

Last week a story went viral that says a difficult life isn’t worth living. I want to offer a different perspective:

The Hard Road Is The Point.

There’s a growing lie baked into modern culture that life is supposed to be smooth. Convenient. Perfect. That if things are difficult, something’s gone wrong. That suffering is a malfunction, not a feature.

So people spend their lives optimizing for comfort. Avoiding friction and inconvenience. Looking for the shortcut, the hack, the easier path.

And they miss the whole point.

The beauty of a life well-lived isn’t found despite the struggle - it’s forged inside it. Character doesn’t grow in comfort. It grows under pressure, strain, stress and adversity. Gratitude doesn’t come from ease. It comes from having walked through something hard and making it to the other side.

The ancient understanding - the one we’ve traded for comfort - is that suffering carries meaning. That the valley isn’t a detour. It is the journey.

Truth is, when you strip away the hard parts, you don’t get a better life. You get a shallow one.

Because the rough road isn’t a sign you’re doing it wrong.

It might be the surest sign you’re doing it right.

My son Iron Will has Down syndrome. He spent his earliest months in a walker just to build the strength to stand. Every step was a fight. Every inchstone and milestone was hard won. And watching him work, really work, for things that come effortlessly to other kids didn’t break my heart. It expanded it. Because what I saw wasn’t limitation. I saw determination unencumbered by societal expectations. I saw joy that doesn’t depend on easy. I saw a little boy who gets up every single time, grins, and goes again on his own terms, at his own pace.

My brave little son didn’t teach me about suffering. He taught me what it looks like to pursue life fully - without fear, without shortcuts, and without ever being told what he can’t do.

When we decide a life will be too hard before it begins - based on the inherent limitations of our mortal understanding - we end a story before it ever has the chance to be written.

We will never tell Iron Will, or any of our children, that the hard road isn’t worth it.

Because the greatest stories ever told involve suffering that produces endurance that produces character that produces hope.

And hope changes everything.

#TeamIronWill #DownSyndromeAdvocacy #IronWill #SayYesToPossibility

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@SethDillon @AJKayWriter Can't we just outsource playing with our kids to the government? I mean, they've done such a stellar job of educating them, I think it's best if they also get involved in this.

[Clifton Duncan @cliftonaduncan]

The "Hate Has No Home Here" crowd keeps trying to kill people.

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@ANTHONYBLOGAN Those beautiful, precious babies💔💔💔

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@JenniferSey It's the absence of joy

[Adam B. Coleman, Proud Father & Imperfect Man @wrong_speak]

After we help black people find a DMV to get IDs, then our next mission will be consoling recently married famous white women.

It's the only way to save democracy!

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@TaraBull I was always still cool with my exes when we broke up. Not that we hung out, but we were cool if we saw each other around. I never felt anger when things didn't work out. Very hostile behavior here.

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@cboyack Agree with everything you said, but I do think this was satire. I listened and he made it more and more absurd as he described how the kids travel.

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@JoshuaLisec @HumanEvents @JackPosobiec My homeschool group moms are worried to let their kids read Harry Potter books for the same reasons. (We read them in our home.) "The Literary Life Podcast" does an amazing job of discussing HP and fairytale magic. It's an interesting listen.They discuss Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, etc

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@1776Diva Beautiful property

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@TaraBull How does one have five children and be able to keep their nails like that? Not judging, just seriously can't imagine cleaning, cooking, caring for the kids with nails like that.

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@ScottPresler @Hunter_Eagleman You look gorgeous. How is this not a good picture?

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@realmitchlittle There is a sign outside of a church that I pass by regularly. It says, "It's lent. Get your ash in church!" I thought it was very inappropriate, but it's there at a church many attend.

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@ConceptualJames Victimhood has been put on a pedestal. "Victims" are given an excuse for any and all behavior, because of their perceived "status" as a victim. It then becomes their identity and they do not want to let go of the perks that go with it.

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@end3of6days9 The lady is drunk. She is being drunk aggressive.

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@Jbanklestankle1 @RareImagery The picture on the "news" was literally him on his couch... and he said, "that's not me"

[MindDweller @minddweller]

@TaraBull People share way too much of their children on social media. This could've been kept private. Then they'll blame someone else for their kids getting bullied.