Good and Evil

 

I’ve recently been reading several books in addition to the e-book that I downloaded from the library. One of the books I’ve been reading is the ultimate “good book” also known as the Bible.

I thought that my re-read of the Bible after 20 years should begin in the beginning as “In the beginning.” The knowledge of good and evil are up front and center. Early in the Bible, Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent for disobeying God. This shift of blame exists today. Too many people won’t own up to their mistakes and/or evil ways.

I’ve been watching videos from Bible scholars which shine new light on some old translations. Nevertheless, I’ve been plowing my way through Genesis and it caused me to think about good and evil. Some of the goings on in the ancient text seem more evil than good to me. The stories are rife with incest, concubines, multiple wives, slavery, bartering for human life, destruction raining down from the heavens and etc. etc. etc. There’s a lot going on among God’s people and I’ve not yt efinished Genesis.

 The Biblical meaning of good is aligning with God through righteousness, holiness, and love. Evil is associated with sin, darkness and disobedience to God. Psychologically, good means a lack of self-centeredness while evil means an inability to empathize with others. Ethically, good actions are centered on the well-being of others, truth, and charity. Evil acts cause harm, destruction, and violating the dignity of others.

I’ve come to the conclusion that each of us has both good and evil tendencies. Some of our moral compasses think north is south, and east is west. Some of us wander around in a wilderness of hopelessness for years while ignoring the abundance of love emanating from family and friends.

Some battle and overcome addition while others choose to continue on the road to self-destruction. Sad are the ones who don’t believe they deserve a better life.

We cannot always know what lies in the heart and mind of another person. We only see through the windows they open for us, and not through the blackout blinds guarding their darkest secrets. Even in the most loving and open relationships we guard secrets that would not absolve us from our sins, but could only cause pain.

At one time when I was younger, I would think about wh,at others had done to me. The boyfriend that decided to dump me for someone else. The girl that I thought was my friend who said unkind things about me. I was a grudge holder and never forgot a wrong. Anger kept me awake. 

One major difference is what keeps me awake at night now. Sometimes in the stillness of night, I think about what I may have said or done that harmed another. I think about how it is too late to make things right. I think about my mistakes. That’s the way I roll. Self-reflection to a fault.

I have to remind myself that I never claimed to be perfect. I’m only human and sometimes life is overwhelming. I’ve spent fifteen years of my life as a caregiver: ten years with Jim and five with Harold. Caregiving is hard and all-consuming. Caregivers get worn out and cranky at times, but quitting isn’t an option. Respite isn’t an option either.

I don’t regret being a caregiver, but I’m not happy about the occasional meltdowns. In the end, love made me persistent.

 I heard a pastor say that some Christians believe that a box exists around Jesus and you are either inside the box, or outside the box. The job of the people in the box is to try to convince those outside the box to come in. He said that if we look at Jesus as inside the box and everyone outside the box, some people will move toward Jesus throughout their lifetimes and others will move farther away.

Old Testament good and evil aside, the New Testament gives us numerous examples of following the light (good) instead of falling into the ways of darkness (evil). I Corinthians 13 says that Agape (Selfless Love) does not delight in evil but rejoices with truth. At the end of the Chapter: Among faith, hope, and love, “the greatest of these is love.”

 

Copyright © February 2026 by L. S. Fisher

http://earlyonset.blogspot.com

#ENDALZ

Olympic Injury

 

I’ve spent the past two weeks binge watching the Olympics. I’ve watched sports that I never realized existed before. With 116 events, and 16 different disciplines, my TV was recording day and night on two different channels. I had to keep a sharp eye out for figure skating since that was my favorite. I usually had to cancel two or three other recordings to make sure that I was watching every figure skating event.

The athletes were amazing and I prioritized events that had an athlete from the USA. Eventually, I noticed that some of the athletes representing the USA were actually from another country but obtained citizenship prior to the Olympics. Also, athletes from the USA sometimes represented a different country, especially if a parent was from that country. It’s a small world after all.

During the Olympics several athletes were injured. Many of the sports are intended for the daredevils of the world. Freestyle skiing and snowboarding seem to be a combination of skill with a healthy dose of luck. Of course, ice hockey is a brawl with players wielding their sticks like swords. I thought the women were vicious until I saw the men. And I don’t even want to speak of the flying blades in speed skating.

One afternoon, I was lying back in my recliner watching the Olympics when someone knocked on the door. I used the buttons to pivot myself toward the floor and took a step and tripped over a shoe. I twisted my knee and as the pain was somewhat unbearable, I had to cancel my plans for Monday.

I whined about my injury which was minor compared to the multiple falls throughout most of the disciplines. Anyway, I have sympathy for anyone who was injured while living their Olympic dream.

  I missed Jim during the Olympics. He enjoyed them as much as I did. His favorite skaters were Katarina Witt and Tanya Harding. The only reason he liked Tanya Harding was because she could do a triple axel when no other woman could. He would have loved Amber Glenn who completed a quad axel in the Olympics.

The first time Jim and I went to see Stars on Ice it was in St. Louis. He was showing early signs of dementia but hadn’t been diagnosed yet and there was no way I was driving. A few things stand out in my memory. One was that our hotel bed had only two pillows on it, and Jim was used to sleeping with two. I dialed housekeeping for him, and he said, “My wife doesn’t have a pillow.” Which, I guess was technically true since he had confiscated both of them.

Another thing I remember about that trip was Jim getting confused and going the wrong way down a one-way street. At the arena, we discovered our seats were the highest ones possible. The skaters looked about two inches tall. I had always though that Oksana Baiul should not have won the Gold Medal in the 1994 Olympics until I saw her in person. She was magnificent on the ice.

We went to see Stars on Ice three times in Kansas City. The first time we went, we parked on a side street and had a difficult time finding our car. Jim had lost his uncanny sense of direction, and I never had one. We exited from a different door than where we had entered. When we started crossing a parking lot, I knew we had zigged when we should have zagged. Jim argued with me, but I insisted we go back to side of the building where we had entered. We came across a family looking for their car. We followed them and found out they were in the same lot where we’d left our vehicle.

The next year we parked in a side lot, but I wrote down the names of the streets and the buildings so that we could find our van. The following year, we went on a bus tour with my mom. Jim refused to take off his parka and he listened to his Walkman throughout the show, and paid no attention to the skaters, including Katarina Witt.

I miss the Jim that would have watched the Olympics with me and recorded the figure skating on the VCR if I wasn’t home. Of course, he couldn’t help himself and told me that, my favorite at the time, Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics before I got to watch it.

Good memories keep Jim close to me during the Olympic season. He would have totally babied me after my “Olympic injury,” but he would have also reminded me to leave my shoes on my feet, not underfoot.  

 

Copyright © February 2026 by L. S. Fisher

http://earlyonset.blogspot.com

#ENDALZ

The Book of Love

 

The Monotones 1958 Doo-Wop song, “The Book of Love,” breaks love into chapters. It also poses the question as to who wrote the book of love.

I like the idea of chapters of love because each of us has several chapters in our love story, or more likely stories. The person who finds true love on their first attempt is rare indeed.

My chapters are different from the song, and may exceed four.

 

Chapter One: Learning to Love. We come into this world ready to love. Our first love is usually our mother, or possibly our father. When we start meeting other children, we fall in and out of love with friends and the cute kid in first grade. Throughout our lives, we will develop several crushes, or puppy love, that we may change as often as we do our clothes.

Chapter Two: Looking for Romantic Love.  Different people begin this quest at different times of their life. Sometimes heartbreak ensues when one person is ready for romantic love and the other person isn’t. Without enough experience, some people don’t realize that the relationship is doomed. People move in and out of our lives, and their impact on our romantic interest often diminishes due to time and distance.

Chapter Three: The Love Connection. After failure and heartbreak, or simply apathy, we know that special love when we find it. It may come soon after meeting someone that you find an instant connection, or it may be a long-term friendship that flared into romance through an accidental touch of hands. People find love in strange and unusual ways. Some people “fall” in love and some people “grow” into love.

Chapter Four: For Better or Worse. When a couple decides to pledge the rest of their lives through marriage, they usually begin the relationship built on high hopes. Fairy tales and Hallmark movies lead us to believe that we will be the happily ever after couple. Love is easy during the “better” times, but when we hit the “worse” we move into the hard part of marriage. Some people can’t handle the stress of financial problems, the reality of seeing another at his worse, being shattered by broken trust, dealing with addiction and/or mental health issues, or lack of prioritizing the relationship.

Chapter Five: In Sickness and in Health. We all treasure our health, but circumstances can test our love and resolve during times of sickness. It takes a strong relationship to power through a serious illness, especially when one partner becomes a caregiver for the other. In Jim’s case, he developed dementia at 49 and for ten years I was his caregiver. Our mutual love turned into unconditional love as he turned inward and could not reciprocate my feelings. I believe my love became stronger, and I became as protective of him as he once was of me.

Chapter Six: The End and Beginning. Not all long-term relationships make it to the finish line. Living with another person is difficult and requires an ongoing commitment to survive the various challenges. Relationships that end in separation or divorce can leave one or both partners with unresolved feelings. Some marriages make it to the “until death do us part” ending. When the relationship is permanently severed, the end will result in new beginnings. The new beginning may be another relationship, or time alone to heal from the loss of a loved one. How to handle grief is different for every person. There is no magic timeline when grief becomes manageable.

Conclusion: Who Wrote the Book of Love? I’m confident that we all write our book of love. Once we find true and abiding love, we co-author the book of love. Hopefully, we both come to the same conclusion.

 

Copyright © February 2026 by L. S. Fisher

http://earlyonset.blogspot.com

#ENDALZ