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“As long as our brain is a mystery, the universe, the reflection of the brain’s structure, will also be a mystery.” Dr. Santiago Ramon y Cajal Novel Price in Physiology or Medicine 1906

As a teenager, I spent part of my summer vacation on my uncle’s farm. After horseback riding, hunting pheasants, and dinner, we sat outside and looked at the stars. I remember thinking all these light spots were stars at thousands light years distance. So, many of these stars are already gone when their light reaches us. Hence, I am contemplating the past, but at the same time, I was present. And the future does not exist yet. Then it will soon be the past if it is here.

The brain is a mystery, and the universe reflects the brain structure. We are sandwiched between The Beginning and The End. Nobody knows precisely how the beginning was, and nobody knows how it will end. Our job is to leave behind a legacy. But be careful not to mess around with what you don’t know. So, your solution is discernment. My grandfather Don Ignacio used to tell me: “When you are going to cross a busy street, look to the right, and then you look to the left. And then do that once more. Your job is to cross the street without losing your soul.” That is how you grow up!

File: Globular cluster Messier 9 (captured by the Hubble Space Telescope).stif From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

Neuroplasticity

Brain Health

Discernment

Integrity And Discernment

This coming Sunday, we commemorate Father’s Day. Well, I am a father, a husband, and a grandfather. I think I am qualified to answer those two questions. But I won’t attempt to answer. I will let you reach your conclusion about this critical issue nowadays. Just read the biblical story of Josef and Mary. That will be fine if you want to tell all of us about your findings. If not, it is fine too.

“Joseph was a descendant of the house of King David. After marrying Mary, he found her already pregnant and, “being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace” (Matthew 1:19), decided to divorce her quietly. Still, an angel told him that the child was the Son of God and was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Obeying the angel, Joseph took Mary as his wife. After Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem in Judaea, where the Holy Family received the Magi, an angel warned Joseph and Mary about the impending violence against the child by King Herod, the Great of Judaea. After that, they fled to Egypt. The angel again appeared to Joseph, informing him of Herod’s death and instructing him to return to the Holy Land. Avoiding Bethlehem out of fear of Herod’s successor, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus settled in Nazareth (Matthew 2:22–23) in Galilee, where Joseph taught his craft of carpentry to Jesus. Joseph is last mentioned in the Gospels when he and Mary frantically searched for the lost young Jesus in Jerusalem, where they found him in the Temple (Luke 2:41–49).” [1]

[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joseph

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Brain Health

Peace Of Mind

Understanding

Neuroplasticity

The sacred scriptures are full of examples of people with courage and determination; usually, when we read this kind of story, we think of religion or dogmas. I dare you to read it and think about an ordinary woman when she will have a baby.

“And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel being come in said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”

“Who, having heard, was troubled at his saying and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David, his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there shall be no end.”

“And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done because I know no man?

“And the angel answering said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore, also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: Because no word shall be impossible with God.”

“And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” [1]

Consider Mary’s situation. She is only seventeen years of age. This apparition informs her that she is going to have a baby. She argues with the Archangel Gabriel that it cannot be because she had never had sexual relations with Joseph or any other man. Mary and Joseph were only engaged, not sacramentally married. Furthermore, under the Mosaic Law, she is guilty of adultery. The penalty: stone to death. Despite all that, she accepted. Why?

I am a man; I don’t know why. Only a woman can answer. And Joshep, what did he say?

[1] — Luke 1:26–38

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Neuroplasticity

Brain Health

Courageous Living

Love

I called him the first psychologist in one of my previous commentaries about St. Paul. He was a remarkable person. “St. Paul the Apostle, original name Saul of Tarsus, (born 4 BCE? Tarsus in Cilicia [now in Turkey] — died c. 62–64 CE, Rome [Italy]), one of the leaders of the first generation of Christians, often considered to be the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity.[1]

Whether you are a believer or not, his example and commitment to what he believed could be an example of how to follow what inspires you.

Paul’s letters reveal a remarkable human being: dedicated, compassionate, emotional, sometimes harsh, angry, clever, quick-witted, supple in argumentation, and above all, possessing a soaring, passionate commitment to God, Jesus Christ, and his mission.[1] If you look at the above description, you could discover yourself in him up to a point.

Paul was a member of the Pharisees, a religious party that emerged during the later Second Temple period. Paul spent much of the first half of his life persecuting the Christian movement. He infiltrated the Christian groups and denounced them to the religious authorities so they could punish them for breaking the spiritual laws.

“Paul was on his way to Damascus to infiltrate the local Christian community when he had a vision that changed his life: according to Galatians 1:16, God revealed his Son to him. More specifically, Paul states that he saw the Lord (1 Corinthians 9:1), though Acts claims that he saw a blinding bright light near Damascus. This revelation convinced Paul that God had chosen Jesus as the promised Messiah.” [1]

From being the Christian Prosecutor to being often considered the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity! What a remarkable journey and courage!

We all have our Encounter on our way to Damascus. The question is, do we have the audacity to act accordingly?

[1] E.P. Sanders and “The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica” St. Paul the Apostle

Christian Apostle. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Paul-the-Apostle

File: V&A — Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens (1515).jpg From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

Neuroplasticity

Brain Health

Courage To Change

Determination

An Ass once found a Lion’s skin which the hunters had left out in the sun to dry. He put it on and went towards his native village. All fled at his approach, both men and animals, and he was a proud Ass that day. In his delight, he lifted his voice and brayed, but then everyone knew him, and his owner came up and gave him a sound cudgeling for the fright he had caused. And shortly afterward, a Fox approached him and said: “Ah, I knew you by your voice.”[1]

Fine clothes may disguise, but silly words will disclose a fool.

[1] Aesop’s Fables. The Ass in the Lion’s Skin https://www.pagebypagebooks.com/

File: The Corsican Ass in the Lions Skin (BM 1988,1001.14).jpg From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

Brain Health

Neuroplasticity

Discernment

Dear reader, I challenge you to read this letter that St. Paul wrote to his friends in Corinth more than 2,000 years ago. The man gave his friends the first “how to” list of self-analyses. And at the end, he challenges you to grow up and dare to look into yourself without fear as long you have love.

“If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

“Love is patient; love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails.”

“If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.”

“For we know partially, and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”

“When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.”

“At present, we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present, I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.”

“So, faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. “[1]

[1] Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians [13:1–13]

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Neuroplasticity

Brain Health

Self Improvement

In one of his renowned books, “The Everlasting Man,” G.K. Chesterton outlines two distinct methods of returning home in the introduction. He states:

“There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place; and I tried to trace such a journey in a story I once wrote. It is, however, a relief to turn from that topic to another story that I never wrote. Like every book I never wrote, it is by far the best book I have ever written. It is only too probable that I shall never write it, so I will use it symbolically here; for it was a symbol of the same truth. I conceived it as a romance of those vast valleys with sloping sides, like those along which the ancient White Horses of Wessex are scrawled along the flanks of the hills. It concerned some boy whose farm or cottage stood on such a slope, and who went on his travels to find something, such as the effigy and grave of some giant; and when he was far enough from home he looked back and saw that his own farm and kitchen-garden, shining flat on the hill-side like the colours and quarterings of a shield, were but parts of some such gigantic figure, on which he had always lived, but which was too large and too close to be seen. That, I think, is a true picture of the progress of any real independent intelligence to-day; and that is the point of this book.”[1]

What is your preferred method?

[1] The Everlasting Man. G.K. Chesterton. Copyright 1923 by Medad & Company Inc. Copyright renewed 1953 by Oliver Chesterton. Reprinted 1991 Ignatius Press, San Francisco

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Neuroplasticity

Brain Health

Searching For Meaning

A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by. “Ah, Cousin,” said the Dog. “I knew how it would be; your irregular life will soon be the ruin of you. Why do you not work steadily as I do and get your food regularly given to you?”

“I would have no objection,” said the Wolf, “if I could only get a place.”

“I will easily arrange that for you,” said the Dog; “come with me to my master, and you shall share my work.”

So, the Wolf and the Dog went towards the town together. On the way there, the Wolf noticed that the hair on a specific part of the Dog’s neck was very much worn away, so he asked him how that had come about.

“Oh, it is nothing,” said the Dog. “That is only where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up; it chafes a bit, but one soon gets used to it.”

“Is that all?” said the Wolf. “Then goodbye to you, Master Dog.”

Better to starve free than be a fat, enslaved person. [1]

What would you rather be, dear reader?

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[1] Aesop’s Fables. The Dog and the Wolf. Page by Page Books. https://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Aesop/Aesops_Fables/The_Dog_and_the_Wolf_p1.html

One day Envy and Greed went for a stroll in the forest. They are excellent friends, you know. They talked about human follies and how easy it is to fool them. They turned left on the trail and, low and behold, ran into the Archangel Gabriel. Naturally, they were surprised. So, it was the Archangel Gabriel.  “Well, fellows, I have a tradition to bestow a wish to whoever sees me and grant twice as much to the other fellow—said the Archangel Gabriel. So consequently, fellows, think carefully about your wish.”

Who wants to be first? Said the Archangel. Envy thought: If I wish first, Greed will get twice as much as I am getting. Envy thought and thought. Then Envy said: “Archangel Gabriel, poke out one of my eyes.”   

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“I’m lucky to be part of a team who help to make me look good, and they deserve as much of the credit for my success as I do for the hard work we have all put in on the training ground.” Lionel Andrés Messi

Yesterday June 7, 2023, Lionel Andrés Messi announced he was joining Inter Miami CF. The news spread like gun power around soccer fans around the earth and the Miami-Dade Area.  The financial and business implications for this area are enormous. He is the conquering Hero!

I saw the finals. It was an exhilarating game. But what I saw in the game was remarkable—the mark of a genuine Executive. He was leading, observing the positions of the rival team and the positions of his fellow players, and making decisions and executing, but also allowing his fellow players to help the team to achieve its goal. Read the above quote once more. You will understand the secret of being a leader.

For all of us, that is an example and motivation to play the game of life.

Thank you, and Welcome Don Lionel Andrés Messi

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