Out of Darkness the Light Hath Shined Fiat Lux

The Missing Founding Father Prince Hall

Our Hidden Founding Father: Prince Hall Freemason

Thomas Jefferson, sent to replace Ben Franklin as ambassador to France, wrote a young American seeking advice [1785] putting a damper on the thought of getting an education in Europe because of the glammy sultry dress of the women and the low morals of the high society. A young man, he said "is led by the strongest of all human passions into a spirit of female intrigue destructive of his own and others happiness, or a passion for whores destructive of his health, and in both cases learns to consider fidelity to the marriage bed as an ungentlemanly practice and inconsistent with happiness: he recollects the voluptuary dress and arts of the European women and pities and despises those of his own country." Ironically, not many years later Jefferson splurged for Sally [Hemings] for much the same luxurious apparel that had first shocked him about the Parisian women. How's a man say no to a woman -- especially one he loves? .

My Mama Tried

Tiger Mom Amy Chua Amy Chua says she (and husband) are misrepresented How much do our mothers give up in order to raise a child? Honoring Mother The Mother is queen of the home, its centre, its light and glory. The home, the home is the fountain of all that is good on earth. John Todd [1867] Mothers The Creatress ~ In Human Form ~ MOM WOW Mothers a little lower than the angels "her price is above rubies" God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers [A Jewish proverb, Eastern Europe] Mothers and Sons This represents St. Augustine and his mother What my mother means to me Robert E. Lee If we take [his] own word for it, and the testimony of his many biographers, Ann Lee [his mother] was the master-builder of his character. The sweetness of his character, his legendary stoicism, his studied integrity, his spotless morality are all attributed to Ann Carter Lee. (see Holmes Alexander, p 69) I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life -- Lincoln Men are what their mothers made them. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother. -- Napoleon Bonaparte Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children. -- Thackeray All that I am my mother made me. -- John Quincy Adams A man is mostly what his mother makes him. -- Sir Richard Burton All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. -- Abraham Lincoln about his mother, Nancy (Hanks) We can probably say with confidence that most of the great men in history owed their characters to their splendid mothers, rather than to the example of their fathers. -- Sir John Glubb If a man has been his mother's undisputed darling he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling; the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success along with it. -- Sigmund Freud It is a general rule that all superior men inherit the elements of their superiority from their mothers. -- Jules Michelet Richer than I you can never be I had a mother who read to me. -- Strickland Gillilan All that is purest and best in man is but the echo of a mother's benediction. The hero's deeds are a mother's prayers fulfilled. -- Frederick W. Morton The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. -- Henry Ward Beecher No man is poor who has had a Godly mother. -- Lincoln Barack Obama, recalling his late conversion to Christianity, praised his mother (Ann Dunham) who he said was "skeptical of organized religion, even as she was the kindest, most spiritual person I've ever known. She was the one who taught me as a child to love, and to understand, and to do unto others as I would want done. [see] A Singular Woman Barack Obama and his mother Ann Stanley Dunham 'the kindest, most spiritual person I've ever known' My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her. -- George Washington         One day you'll thank her. Humorous piece by Bobbie Pingaro Jan Goodwin writes: Throughout his life, the Prophet Mohammad's affection and concern for women, and for mothers in particular, was evident. On one occasion when asked by a follower to whom one should show the most respect and kindness, the Prophet responded, "Your mother." "And then who?" insisted the questioner. "Your mother," Mohammad replied again. "And then who?" "Your mother," responded the Prophet for the third time. The questioner persisted: "And after that who?" "Your father," Mohammad replied, positioning men in fourth place. Similarly, on another occasion, when the Prophet was asked whether there was a shortcut to Paradise, he responded, "Paradise lies under the feet of the mother." Selma Karamy never knew her mother (Gibran's paean to Mother) Kahlil Gibran writes: The most beautiful word on the lips of mankind is the word "Mother," and the most beautiful call is the call of "My mother." it is a word full of hope and love, a sweet and kind word coming from the depths of the heart. The mother is every thing -- she is our consolation in sorrow, our hope in misery, and our strength in weakness. She is the source of love, mercy, sympathy, and forgiveness. He who loses his mother loses a pure soul who blesses and guards him constantly. Every thing in nature bespeaks the mother. The sun is the mother of earth and gives it its nourishment of heat; it never leaves the universe at night until it has put the earth to sleep to the song of the sea and the hymn of birds and brooks. And this earth is the mother of trees and flowers. It produces them, nurses them, and weans them. The trees and flowers become kind mothers of their great fruits and seeds. And the mother, the prototype of all existence, is the eternal spirit, full of beauty and love. [Kahlil Gibran. The Broken Wings etc] The Mother-heart of God: mystics through the ages have invoked the maternal side of the divine. The first woman to write in English, Juilian of Norwich, must have shocked the clerical elites of her day when she talked -- and listened to -- our Mother God. In America, Eliza R. Snow (a saint of the LDS tradition) has done much the same thing in her hymn, O! my Father. Snow's hymn reasons that since we have a Father God, the idea of a "Mother God" only follows. For more on Snow's hymn O! my Father. Echoing this thought, Marion Weinstein applies the same clear logic, stating, "If there is a God, There must also be a Goddess. Neither is more important than the other, both are in balance, together they create a Whole." (Or Why not BOTH God and Goddess?) What if we men, steeped in Western boorishness, have lost sight of the Goddess wisdom of ancient times? What, after all, was chivalry and courtlyness trying to teach us? I am indebted to Fumiko Mistato for her inspiration, as well as Mark Redmond (restating George Gilder's principle that WOMAN is divinely appointed to tame the brute in man. See Gilder) SUPPORT THE NUNS Believing Christians should look upon themselves as such a creative minority and ... espouse once again the best of its heritage, thereby being at the service of humankind at large. Christendom's historic prudery (and woman hate) Richard Smoley observes: The human mind, in encountering that which is beyond all its known experience, still has to make use of that experience in framing and expressing such encounters to itself. When we experience a force of transcendental compassion and limitless love, it is only natural that it should take the human form that most resembles it, and the closest thing to unconditional love that most of us experience is mother's love. [Inner Christianity, p151] [here is a Yiddish expression] אויסגעפוצט אין עסיק און האניק oysgeputst in esik un honik "decked out in vinegar and honey, dressed to the nines" Man puts woman on a pedestal so he won't have to look her in the eye. [Marian Stewart] Images of the goddess of justice friend me (facebook) Site creator Bob Shepherd [last save 05/31/11] Barbara and Allan Pease, Australia's famous "self-help" team, delve into the wife's unending challenge: training her man. (Pp 64-65.) Training someone is the same whether they are a child or adult. If a man's mother didn't train him, it will be up to you (the wife) to train him. (No joke!) Would I lie? Bob Shepherd si enim veritas Dei in meo mendacio abundavit in gloriam ipsius quid adhuc et ego tamquam peccator iudicor See Romans 3 : 7 Strong meat will be needed to turn America around