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From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: The Start of Something New (I hope)
Message-ID: <1567@pucc-h>
Date: Wed, 19-Dec-84 00:08:35 EST
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.1567
Posted: Wed Dec 19 00:08:35 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Dec-84 07:18:30 EST
References: <2743@ncsu.UUCP>
Organization: my terminal
Lines: 55

>> 	From: jeffh@brl-tgr.ARPA (Jeff Hanes )
>> I think that a great many people in this group have been treating
>> Jeff Sargent unfairly (WRT his recent article), not necessarily out of
>> malice, but out of a failure to understand what he is saying. 

Thanks for the support, Jeff.  (I tried to send you a letter to this
effect, but it bounced back....)

From ncsu!druid (Dave Hesselberth):

> I think that what people are really beginning to object to is his *absolute
> insistence* on looking at EVERYTHING in terms of religion.  I, for one, would
> like to see him do a little thinking on his own, perhaps relying on such
> things as common sense and personal *feelings*, rather than religious dogma.
> Perhaps he does this, but if so, we rarely, if ever, see it on the net.

I have long since learned NOT to rely on myself; I mess up too often.  (At
least in matters of relating to other people, particularly unattached women.)
Particularly do I not dare to rely on my feelings, except to use them as
clues to finding out what really ails me.  Many times have I found, too late,
that my attraction to a particular woman had some other, usually pretty mucked
up, feelings mixed up with it; usually it was obvious to the woman that
something was wrong with this guy, and she bounced me quick -- and it was not
till I analyzed the wreckage that I realized what I had really wanted.  Common
sense dictates the opposite of what everyone in this newsgroup will say; i.e.
while the consensus of this newsgroup is "Go for it" in almost any situation,
my common-sense approach is "Once burned, twice shy" -- i.e. better to be
bearably lonely than to risk yet another such rejection and be unbearably
lonely -- especially since I'm near the dividing line already.  (More on this
point in another article on a different subject.)  Thus the only thing I can
safely do is try to find what God wants me to do.  That itself may not be
"safe" in a common-sense way, but it's got a better shot at being the best
thing in the long run than trusting my own feelings.

In any case, I do a lot of thinking-cum-praying on my own; that's how I
discover the roots of many of my problems.  It's just that I've got a
gigantic number of problems.  Those who knew me a lot longer ago than you
met me can attest to the fact that (externally at least) I have a lot fewer
than I did in, say, the mid- to late 1970's; my relationship with Christ has
done some good.  He's just got a much longer way to go with me than with
others who started out in better shape than I.

> [Jeff]'s a pretty neat guy in person, not at all like the image many of you
> (who have never met him) may have of him.  Give him a break (yes, again).

Thank you, Dave, also, for the support.

>	Soon to spend Christmas on the sunny beaches of Jamaica...

"If I were a rich man...."  Obviously you have no high-interest mortgage.

-- 
-- Jeff Sargent
{decvax|harpo|ihnp4|inuxc|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
Jesus has creched the devil's system.