Merry Christmas

To you and yours Merry Christmas!!

The End is Near

We've heard ad nauseum in the media about the Mayan prediction of the world's end on this date.    Perhaps the Mayans were right, but just not in the way we anticipated.  We're not going to experience a physical, cataclysmic event that ends everything that we know and love (or not love).  Death isn't always physical.  Perhaps we've come to an end that is actually an awakening.

I'd like to suggest that as a nation we have come to the end of ignoring things that we've been ignoring for far too long, that we have come to the end of  pretending things are good when they are not, we've come to the end of tolerating nonsense.  Those with eyes and ears have been sensing the shift.  The massacre of children in Newton, CT made more of us aware.  Lean into the shift.

The Voice of the Children's Blood

He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground. Genesis 4.10 (NASB)

The voice of the blood of 20 children and 7 adults cries from the ground of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT to God and to America, it's way past time to have a mature conversation and to take meaningful, responsible action regarding violence, gun control and mental health in this country.  Enough is enough.

My heart breaks for the parents of the children and the families of the adults who died today in Newton, CT.  There are no words  . . .

As a country we have reached a tipping point and it's time we had a mature discussion about the violence that permeates our culture: on tv, in film, in games, in sport, in discourse.  We, regardless of political or religious affiliation, regardless of ethnicity then need to take decisive action to make certain this type of mass murder does not happen again.

That Hopey Changey Thing

Shortly after the 2008 Presidential Election Sarah Palin, queen, princess, purveyor of snark, asked how that hopey changey thing was going.  Her position, and that of the Tea Party and most far right conservatives, was that the hope and change promised by candidate Barack Obama was not going to materialize, particularly in light of the meltdown in the financial markets and the stimulus package that was necessary to rescue them and the auto industry.

The country was a hot mess four years ago, but we've muddled through.  What many failed to see  was that there was a long game at work.  As a nation we've become so accustomed to the short term and instant gratification: short term profits, on demand viewing, drive thru (meal, groceries, banking, even church services) that we've lost the patience to wait a thing out.  We've also become far more adolescent in our thinking and behavior, it's like a national arrested development.

With the 2008 election of President Obama a change was afoot that we barely noticed.  Yeah, there was all the hue and cry about a post-racial society.  But the change had already started.  We all recognized it on Tuesday, November 6, when President Obama was re-elected, to the chagrin of some, to the delight of others.  We have as a nation become far more tolerant and diverse.  The gay lifestyle is fairly mainstream.  Religious practice is not limited to Christianity.  Atheists have raised their voice in the public square.  Interracial marriages and mixed raise identity are on the rise.  The economy is improving, not nearly as rapidly or as well as we'd like, but we are better off than we were four years ago.  Many Americans have or will have healthcare thanks to the Healthcare Act.  We are leaving the two protracted wars started in the Bush administration.  The guy who actually masterminded the attack on our nation September 11, 2001 is dead.

So that hopey changey thing, it's working and the next four years will demonstrate just how well it's working.  We will need to grow up as a nation because change is never easy.  The President learned and we learned a few things in the last four years.  Hope still remains.  The President said it best in his acceptance speech on election night:

"I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting."

Through The Storms of Life

On the East Coast we've battened down the hatches in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy.  She's a hurricane we're not likely to soon forget.  We've been warned of the potential devastation that this storm will bring.  Some have heeded and moved to safety while others have decided to ride it out. Storms both actual, symbolic and methaphoric are a necessary part of life.

Storms are necessary, they clear out clutter and unnecessary things --and people -- in our lives.  Sometimes we get a warning about the storm and it's potential to devastate our lives -- that lump in the breast, the sudden late nights out or need to get to work early.  We can prepare for the storm or we can ignore the warnings.  Either the way the storm is still coming.  The challenge becomes fear or faith?  Fear limits our vision and can remind us of our finite limitations.

(The power went out when I got this far.)

We're not so comfortable with those limitations.  The trick is to learn to surrender, to surrender with no guarantee concerning the outcome.  It's not always easy, faith gets us there.   Walter Russell Mead expresses it well:

To open your eyes to the fragility of life and to our dependence on that which is infinitely greater than ourselves is to enter more deeply into life. To come to terms with the radical insecurity in which we all live is to find a different and more reliable kind of security. The joys and occupations of ordinary life aren’t all there is to existence, but neither are the great and all-destroying storms. There is a calm beyond the storm, and the same force that sends these storms into our lives offers a peace and security that no storm can destroy. As another one of the psalms puts it, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Accepting your limits and your dependence on things you can’t control is the first step on the road toward finding that joy.

The sun is shining outside of the storm and we will see it will shine again . . . when the storm passes.  We will survey the damage, pick up the pieces, salvage what we can.  It's not easy and why should it be?  Things always look different after the storm, hope yet remains, just keep swimming.

Strength For The Journey

One who swims upstream has a perspective that differs from the popular wisdom.  Haters hate and try to force the swimmer to conform.  But alas, the upstream swimmer cannot conform because it's just not in their nature.  It's painful to swim upstream, so what one needs to do is develop strength for the journey.  Emotional strength, physical strength, spiritual strength.  One must develop the strength because after awhile, inner resolve will weaken.  The journey will take more than willpower.  So strength for the journey must be cultivated, developed.  In time the swimmer learns what feeds, what poisons, what distracts.  The journey helps us appreciate the destination, so get buff and just keep swimming.

 

Liberation

I take to writing this blog because I have noticed that I always seem to be against the tide.  There was a time that I viewed this negatively and became convinced that there was something wrong with me.  I also allowed this to silence me and there were occasions where I really needed to speak.  Well no more.

I have learned to overcome my fear.  The journey inward was difficult, but freedom from fear was worth it.  I accept my assignment to make waves, to challenge points of view, to be controversial, to disagree (and hopefully not be disagreeable).

And so it begins . . .