Archive for May, 2013

Distance

I don’t know which I find more sad: That everything I know about my daughter, with whom I was once so very close, I get from her Facebook page (we’ve lived w/n two hours’ drive from each other for the past four years, but she refuses to see me; I’ve stopped asking). Or, what she finds worthy of her time on Facebook are things I find incomprehensible.

She has had quite a lengthy discussion lately on the tragedy in Cleveland where a very sick man apparently kidnapped and held three women (and the born-in-captivity daughter of one of those women) for ten years. Yes, a tragedy, and one whose impact on those women I can’t begin to imagine. But, to expand the speculation to the brothers of the kidnapper, and what they knew, when she’s lived the past 27 years of her life half-a-continent away is just pure gossip. No sympathy for the victims, just retribution for the guilty. Then, of course, there is the trumpeting of the passage of the redefinition of marriage in a few more states, as if that relationship between a man and a woman can be legislated. So what are you going to do if it doesn’t work out? Blame the politicians for that, too?

But no mention of Kermit Gosnell the butcher of Philadelphia who was found guilty of murdering the babies whose pregnant mothers came to his house of horrors. No mention of Angelina Jolie who had the inestimable courage to speak about her double mastectomy – a movie star who relies on her radiant good looks has admitted to radical (in more ways than one) surgery. Yawn.

Yes, this is all part of my shock that those who claim to be “liberals” are just as close-minded as those who claim to be “conservatives.” I had heard years ago that, when you get to the extreme fringe in politics, the left and the right meet; but I had no idea that what that really meant was that they share the same calcified inability to listen. It’s as tho being able to plug your ears determines where you are on the political/religious/ethic/moral spectrums. “Moderates” become, by default, those who can entertain and even appreciate an opposing point of view, w/o becoming apoplectic. Adolf Hitler, at his frothing-mouth, podium-pounding best is the role model, I guess – for everybody who has all the answers and can barely tolerate those of us who are trying to understand the questions.

The geographical distance shrinks to nothing when compared to the emotional and spiritual.

2013
05/15
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Polaris

The star that is commonly referred to as the “North Star” has been estimated to be approximately 434 light years from earth (or, 133 parsecs, which sounds so very Star Trek, but which, in fact was coined in 1913 by Herbert Turner); in any other words: pretty far away. Yet, for some, it can be used for navigation here on earth, for it reliably identifies True North. A reference, not of this world, for finding your way around on this world (even when a compass or GPS might fail). ‘Course, you have to find it, and you have to know how to use it for navigation, it does not broadcast a text or voice saying to turn left in 200 yards. But, I know from experience that it works.

For me, God, is not of this world, but He helps me navigate my way around this life. As long as I face Him, I know where the Truth is. And I have, all too often, closed my eyes and stumbled around.

There are some that say there is no God, and I have every reason to believe they are sincere. They somehow blunder through life, letting the capricious and arbitrary winds of public opinion and fashion push them from one event to another. I guess you don’t worry about connecting the dots if you believe there is no connection, but how do you decide which dot you should jump to next? Just go with the flow? If I could believe that people are basically good, I still can not believe that people are basically smart. Merely following the butt of the lemming in front of me seems a poor strategy. As my friend, K, likes to point out, the amount of intelligence in the universe is fixed, so with the increase in population, each person is progressively less intelligent. Or, maybe those without an external reference spend their time looking in a mirror for advice? Even Narcissus became a beautiful flower. Naw, I know myself well enuf to know I am not to be relied upon (I know I step upon some common ground with that one!).

I understand what John Gillespie Magee meant when he put out his hand and touched the face of God – oh! how well I know. Antoine de Saint-Exupery is another one that knew. Yes, some of us have the proof of God burned eternally into our hearts.

I’m sorry if you don’t.

2013
05/10
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One of His last acts

One of the last – one of the very last – things Jesus did while dying on the Cross, was to not forgive one of the two thieves. Jesus had plenty of energy left to forgive Dismas, the thief who asked to be remembered (see Luke 23:43). And he could have turned His head to old what’s-his-name and said, “Oh, what the hell, I forgive you, too. Yeah, see you both in Paradise.”

But, He didn’t. Jesus did not forgive both of those who were being executed with Him. So, I gotta ask: “Why do you think you’re going to Heaven?”

2013
05/09
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Closed – on both ends

I enjoy “close-mindedness.” As a youth, close-mindedness was something that was synonymous with right-wing, conservative, Republicans. Fast forward and today I see those old-foggies do not have a monopoly: the left-wing, liberal, Democrats are equally closed. Shockingly closed. Interesting that the extremes on both poles should have so much in common – maybe that is what extremism is?

I find that many values of my youth have somehow successfully tagged along all these years. The value, the worth of human life was always paramount then, it still is. Back then the only choice was its preservation. While the right-wing seems to have kept that value, the left-wing has decided that those who can choose should choose for those who can’t. Abortion has always been anathema, unconscionable, reprehensible to me; thank God it still is. But those who espouse a liberal agenda have now decided that those who can’t choose should never have that choice. Hitler had his “untermensch”, the Democrat Party today has its “too young” and “too old.” Kermit Gosnell is the new poster-boy.

John Lennon wondered how wonderful it would be if there was nothing to kill or die for. I will not apologize: there is much, much left to kill and die for. Rather John should have used his imagination to ask why human beings still revert to violence when there should be – after some 20,000 years of ‘development’ – viable alternatives. Our toys have changed, our thinking hasn’t.

We, citizens of the USA, have gone to court to redefine “marriage.” The Demos have, once again, missed the point entirely. Be that as it may, the courts gave us Dred Scott; which some say had a bearing on the election of Abraham Lincoln (a Republican). What I can’t, for the life of me, figure out is why any homosexual would want anything to do with what has heretofore been a heterosexual institution. It is, however, telling that the liberals have decided that those who have chosen a particular lifestyle should be imposed on others who have chosen another lifestyle.

I could go on and on, and in these pages, I will….

2013
05/09
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