Love thy Neighbor as thyself

Or, Do unto Others Until you finally get it Right.

If you tried to give one piece of advice that would serve a person through out his entire life, you'd spend your life adding footnotes about nuances, exceptions and Mac v. Windows.

No one piece of advice is going to create a template for a satisfying life. Simply because there is no one definition for "Satisfying Life."

But within Christiandom there is supposed to be one good, solid rule you can follow which will get you to Heaven. (Heaven! Has any word ever had so many definitions??!!)

Do Unto Others as ye would have them do unto you.

I have no problem agreeing that as far as aphorisms go, this one is a doozie, a real beaut, a real rock on which to build a church...

But have you ANY idea what following this supposedly rock solid rule for living would do to Capitalism? Think about it! Fortunately the human animal, a creature forged by nature lo these millions of years, is as capable of following this rule as it is of living on love.

Capitalism depends on buying low and selling high. The lower you can buy and the higher you can sell, and the more units you sell, the more successful you are. Capitalists can't survive if they think about paying as much as they can just because that's how they'd like to be treated if they were sellers. Capitalists can't survive if they sell for as low a price as they'd like to have offered to them if were they buyers. The closer a Capitalist can come to making a sale the equal of forceable rape, the more money the capitalist is going to make. And as the oil companies have demonstrated, eventually the buyer becomes agreeable to bending over and taking the reaming with a smile. But then we've been trained by the credit card companies, haven't we?

Somewhere in Acts of the Apostles, (begiinning with 4:32) there's some talk of communism; everyone sells their possessions and gives the money to the Apostles, who distribute it according to each man's need. You don't see much made of this Holy practice today, at least outside of Cuba. Even China allows private enterprise (human greed).

Then starting with Acts 5:1, we have the short story of Ananias and Sapphira, a husband and wife. They opted into the Apostles' communist plan, but did it the way many people do their federal taxes: they lied. When Ananias turned in his 'communism return' he got caught mproperly withholding. His penalty was 'giving up the ghost.' Then his wife showed up, was shown the 'return' and agreed it was correct. She was castigated for supporting the lie and she too 'gave up the ghost.' The implication is that both of them died "voluntarily," but I like the think the IRS supposes the Apostles had something to do with it. They are so envious!

I want all of you to do unto me as I would do unto you.

You have no idea how kinky that would be!

Do I have a point? Maybe, but it's pointless, isn't it?