TLC-TRS

Kenneth Jacuzzi

Description

I share a life filled with the blessings of love. It is a book about faith, our religions and the people who lead them. I share my belief that God created mankind with a thinking, discerning brain and free will. We are blessed with the freedom to learn and improve our own human condition. My passion seeks a just, loving humanity, caring for and respecting one another and our planet called Earth.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Assertiveness

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781506900353
• Langue: English

Extrait

TLC – TRS:
Tender Loving Care – The Real Stuff
A Discernment and Prayer

By Kenneth Jacuzzi
TLC – TRS: Tender Loving Care – The Real Stuff
A Discernment and Prayer
Copyright ©2015 Kenneth Jacuzzi


ISBN 978-1506-900-34-6 PRINT
ISBN 978-1506-900-35-3 EBOOK

LCCN 2015952477

September 2015

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com



ALL R I G H T S R E S E R V E D. No p a r t o f t h i s b oo k pub li ca t i o n m a y b e r e p r o du ce d, s t o r e d i n a r e t r i e v a l s y s t e m , o r t r a n s mit t e d i n a ny f o r m o r by a ny m e a ns ─ e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , p h o t o - c o p y , r ec o r d i n g, or a ny o t h e r ─ e x ce pt b r i e f qu ot a t i o n i n r e v i e w s , w i t h o ut t h e p r i o r p e r mi ss i on o f t h e a u t h o r or publisher .
Dedication

This book is dedicated to an astonishing, beautiful, selfless person and love of my life, Daniela, and to Pope Francis and his quest to bring healing to the church and transformational, unselfish love and compassion to each and every person.

Ken Jacuzzi
Acknowledgments

It would not have been possible for me to complete this book without the invaluable, endlessly patient and most gracious help of several very dear friends. Their sometimes critical, but always insightful and deeply appreciated feedback has made this book much better and, I hope, at least graciously readable.
To respect and maintain their privacy, only their respective initials follow in alphabetical order, A.T.; B.B.; C.F.Z.; J.B.; J. S.D.O.; R.J.; S. G.M.; and T.S.
I deeply thank each and every one of you for your many contributions to this manuscript, but above all for the treasure of your precious friendships.

Blessings and love,
Ken J.
Forward

For those whose literary hearts hunger for an integrated meld of expository, narrative, and meditative text, this little book will satisfy their tastes for mixed genres. It will also awaken their desire to find out more about the topics that the author so artfully reveals from his point of view. The perspective taken by Kenneth Jacuzzi in TLC—TRS: Tender Loving Care—The Real Stuff; A Discernment and Prayer is radical and at times racy. Ken, the ultimate gentleman, is both scholar and diplomat as he takes on the roles of faith-based contemporary prophet and storyteller extraordinaire.
Ken leads the reader on a literary journey that meanders through four movements, not unlike the differentiated, punctuated stages of a four part symphony. In the first movement, Ken offers a thoughtful letter to Pope Francis that references the topics of sexuality and reproduction, subjugation and violence, Church revitalization and world peace. This introductory movement reverberates with the anticipation that the Holy Father will listen to perspectives on sexuality that are not sanctioned by the Catholic Church hierarchy. There is an immediacy in this initial movement, a plea for help from the man who sits on the Throne of Peter, for restoration of a more compassionate acceptance of men’s and women’s sexuality and active resistance to the abusive practices that still plague the Church.
Before launching into the second movement that is an exquisite expose of Ken’s relationship with his devoted wife, Daniela, Ken transitions the reader with an overview of medical, scriptural, canonical, parochial, and pragmatic background referencing to the movements that follow. Ken provides the multi-faceted reasons for using birth control pills as well as a synopsis of the Law of Divine Love, an interpretation of Canon Law on the Sacrament of Marriage, and dialectical positions on sexuality, disability, and sacramental marriage.
Movement two is the enchanting centerpiece and ravishing balance point of Ken’s work of art. There is energy, playfulness, and surprise in this movement. Ken paints a literary portrait of Dani that illuminates the landscape of their home with the light of loving dedication and unwavering commitment. The spiritual clarity by which Daniela lives her life is the North Star anchor that keeps her grounded and energized. Daniela’s life resonates with an undaunting love that characterizes her relationship with Ken, with family members, friends, and those whom she serves in the community. This unselfish, joyful devotion captivates the reader as does Ken’s lively, erotic, and surprising revelation of their private marital relationship love expressions.
The transition of sections five and six resonate with Ken’s voice as he passionately addresses the evils of slavery, subjugation, violence, and homicide juxtaposed against the oppression and abuse of women historically and in present-day cultures and communities across the planet. Movement three is a powerful surge into the “unity of mindfulness and gratitude” where Ken reminds the reader of the paradigm-changing impact of the knowledge explosion on science, technology, ethics, and morality while simultaneously cautioning that people need to “quest for knowledge with awe and humility.” In this movement, the reader encounters the growing tension between the rapidly expanding universe of knowledge and the sacred parameters of tradition, history, dogmas, tenets, and culture. This movement celebrates the biblical connection to Genesis, to the first Creation, and to humanity’s compulsion to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil, to know all things as God knows all things, to taste of the fruits of cutting edge discoveries and Nobel Prize accomplishments. The dance between the beginning and the continuing is wrought with competing desires, dialectical viewpoints, and uncomfortable compromises. If the reader wishes to travel on this continuum from left to right and back again, the reader must be willing to engage in dialogue and negotiation.
The commanding, overwhelming pathos of the fourth movement resides in the tragic retelling of an excess of violent, disturbing atrocities committed against women in countries across the world. In movement four, Ken carefully researches the awful array of oppression, torture, and annihilation that people have committed against each other, in most cases, men subjecting women to this hateful vengeance. After exposing the suffering inflicted by humans upon humans in communities, cities, and villages that spans the continents, Ken poses the critical question that begs to be answered. Are we compelled to stay entrapped in this vicious cycle of violence, in the endless quest to subjugate and control? Are loving action and compassionate choices possible on the part of a fallen people? Are religious and civic leaders willing to take up the cross, to shoulder the burden of being exemplars, to illuminate the darkness with the light of integrity, unselfish service, to adhere to a code of respect and concern, and to live with the gray areas that fall in between the black and the white definitives.
With the fortitude of a modern-day spiritualist, Ken raises the plea for enlightened, courageous leadership exercised by the heads and guides of the major churches and faith communities. Ken does not mince words as he describes the desolate world panorama of hatred and subjugation that is severely compromising the integrity of the relationship continuum of men, women, and children. His conviction that men and women begin the healing outreach without being tied to hypocritical stances and judgmental practices is passionately stated and eloquently substantiated. The desire to know, the willingness to freely act, the decision to hope, and the choice to be compassionate are human attributes that release us from the deadly temptation to remain static, to resist change. These attributes enable human hearts to open and take in the light of God and love that transforms, redeems, and lifts up humankind to its rightful stature amongst the living and God’s magnificent Creation.

Beth Ann Bader
Table of Contents

Forward . i
Preface . 1
I. A Letter to Pope Frances 5
II. Not Found Under a Rock . 9
III. Turning the Page of History to the Present 17
IV. Creating Lives and Souls 32
V. Forensic Stigma – Fear, Hate, Dominate and Kill 62
VI. Women and Religion; Blessed or Damned? 69
VII. The Unity of Mindfulness and Gratitude . 77
VIII. Catastrophe or Blessing, Violence or Love? 96
Preface

This book is about a life filled with the blessings of love. It is the life of a robust child and magnificent, future athlete whose soul is upended by an insidious, unrelenting illness at the age of 2. A life, nearing 75, soon approaching its end, that's been immeasurably, enriched with the caring love of many souls, but especially Daniela, my loving spouse for the past 41 years.
It is a book about faith, our religions and the persons who lead them. What some say, profess and do in the name of religion and God. It is a plea to set an example through thoughtful, noble, caring actions, rejecting from church, temple and mosque hypocrisy and self-effacing small-mindedness.
A many times battered, but beautiful life offers a bird's eye perspective on kindness, compassion and respect and the too often repeated reality of discrimination, fear, hate, deprivation, abuse and unrelenting violence.
It is a prayer to celebrate every living thing, creature and human and the gifts bestowed by creation on humanity, including both body and mind. It is the smell of hot coffee on a cold morning, the caress of an Oceanside breeze, the warmth of your lover sleeping beside you and the breathtaking memory of your shared ecstasy.
I share my belief that God created mankind with a thinking, observing, discerning brain and free will. We are thus blessed with the intrinsic freedom to learn and seek to improve our own human condition. That which builds up mutual respect, compassion and human rights manifests free will in