Neanderpundit

I have been, for a while, very much in love with my Danner boots, Desert Acadias which I purchased for Africa and which have stood me in good stead since.

I keep them carefully separate from any oil or solvents or fluids that can be scented, and I have been careful to only use them afield and in hunting environments.

Each day I mow the lawn, or dig in the garden, or do anything that requires me to be outdoors mucking about, I look at the perfect fit and supreme comfort of those boots, and I wish I could, but I don’t.

I have good, comfortable, supportive work boots for work, and i often wear them, but the soles and shape of them don’t suit them well to outside work.

And then I stopped at the Army Surplus store on my way home. And they had a pair of the issue fleshout boots very similar, but with no Danner brand on the side, only a .mil number. Looks like theyre either Danner or Corcoran, and I don’t know if they’re used surplus or new surplus, but they were $30. And they feel like wearing a tailored kid glove.

So I can continue to reserve my “good” boots for hunting, and have another almost identical pair for yardwork, etc. that I don’t have to fear getting oil stained.

Now I understand why the British army paid so much attention to the condition of their soldier’s feet.

1: Welcome back, Chocolate. Mmmmm.

2: Welcome back, more than one small cup of coffee a day.

Goodbye, relentless headaches.

No, not the George Michael song, but the real thing.

Tam suggests I’ve tortured logic to prove that faith and belief are different things. This is not my assertion, but the plain and simple fact, I’m just trying to find a clear way to express it- maybe Webster will have better luck at that than I.

From: Websters new Synonym Dictionary, 1973:
A DICTIONARY
OF
DISCRIMINATED SYNONYMS
WITH ANTONYMS AND
ANALOGOUS AND CONTRASTED WORDS

The technical difference between “Faith” and “Belief” is pretty clear- it’s not like, in 1973, people were that much more thoughtful than they are now, but at least by then, the slow campaign of dumbing down the language had not yet reached it’s current state.

(Click to embiggenate)

Now, reading the definition, as it stands, it’s easy to make the assumption that faith and belief are similar enough to be indistinguishable. “Someone told you about Jesus/Mahomet/the Flying Spaghetti monster, and you believed it, and that’s your faith”.

Erm, no. This is the anti-theists explanation for just about everything.

To people with no faith, faith and belief are the same thing. To people with Faith, there is clearly a difference.

Belief is widespread, and therefore common- common not in the “Widespread” use of the word, but common in this use oif the word:

6: hackneyed; trite.
7: of mediocre or inferior quality; mean; low: a rough-textured suit of the most common fabric.
8: coarse; vulgar: common manners.

Faith is rare, and therefore not common, in those same senses of the word.

On Easter Sunday, I pray for all that come here to read that Faith comes to you, as it has come to me.Faith does not exist in the world for you to become holier-than-thou, if so it certainly has not worked on me. Faith just does an excellent job of making the rest of creation make a lot more sense.

Much thanks to old friend Pascal for finding this and scanning it for me from his personal collection.