Now What?

Now What?

    Yesterday couldn't have gone better.  From beginning to end it was a great day.  I spent time with friends, was able to work, and saw a movie to boot.  Yesterday's over and I guess I am dealing with its fall-out.  Yes, there is the awareness of homework yet to be completed and a rather lengthy day at work to look forward to; but what am I to do in the good times.  Truth be told I listened to Sara Grove's song, "Painting Pictures of Egypt," a song about what to do when we are thrown into the chaotic beauty of real life.

    I have lived too many years in a dormant winter place, a slave to the routine of it all.  It wasn't good, it just wasn't frightening because it didn't require too much.  I could take the bad; I really could!  Not just the mediocrity, the bad!  I could stand the rejections, and firings, and even the ennui that mediocrity heaps out upon us.  Now that I am in Greek and working at Starbucks, I can take that too.  It is painful and the rewards aren't that noticeable.

    But what am I to do with a day as wonderful as yesterday?  What am I to do when I get blown away by one good thing after another?  I felt close to God in my suffering of futility.¹  But, when things shake out for good, I am totally at a loss.  Perhaps, just as we are to give our problems to God, maybe we are to give our good feelings back to God.  I am not talking about "giving thanks" here.  I am talking about something else that I just can't quite put my finger on.  Maybe things were just too out of the ordinary that my brain is having trouble taking it all in; or maybe it was so good that I would rather not know how good things could be when I contemplate how mundane my life usually is.

    In any case, I will give thanks to God and ask for His help, even on the good days.

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1. I really ought to learn German.  I am sure they have words that mean "suffering caused by futility" or "suffering from too much joy."  If anyone knows  words to describe these things (besides "emo"), let me know.

A link to: What's the Other Guy Saying, by Spencer Troxell

My good friend Spencer wrote a post that I believe is handles this question even better than my own. It is good to have friends who can say things better than we can. Here is the link: What's the Other Guy Saying

ochlarchy

ochlarchy

    It is late, very late in fact.  I should be in bed, but I felt that this was important.  It was too important to be left until some later time when life got in the way of the things that really matter.  You see, I am afraid for my country now more than I have been in quite some time.  I am afraid that the careful tapestry woven over so many centuries is coming undone.  I don't want to live in a country that becomes "America-in-Name-Only" or becomes the foolishly pathetic Rome just before the barbarians over ran it.  I am a patriot, I guess ... but not how certain people define patriots.

    Once upon a time, before we were anything worth mentioning and even before we were a country, several British soldiers fired into a crowd of Americans who had been hurtling not just insults but objects at them.  Someone yelled "fire!' and when the dust had settled, dead bodies lay on the ground and up rose from the masses a battle cry.  No one would defend the soldiers except on patriot by the name of John Adams.  The story is well-known for those who have studies the history of their country, but for those of you who don't know it.  John Adams won his defense because he believed they were innocent and he believed in a nation ruled by laws and not ruled by the dictates of fear or by the mob.

    Too often we have seen war-torn countries descend into bitter violence as one mob clashes with another in a futile war of empty words.  We have seen the "dignity of man" flagrantly ignored in favor of a powerful and stirred up mob.  This is the rule of law of the two-bit dictatorship and the worthless anarchic state.  History has seen these places and will see them again and again.  They exist not for the protection of their people, but as a warning for everyone else.  These are the dead and dying places of the world; and while we give them aid we take from them a warning to never become like them.  It would better to be blown off the face of the earth by an act of God than to descend into that Hell.

    Adams would try to re-enforce this notion throughout his political life, while others like Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine would try and exploit the whims of the people's emotions to further some grand view that THEY HAD.  The rule of law was important to Adams, Washington, and even Hamilton; and they sought to buttress the United States of America with it.

    Now we are screaming about health care reform.  The fact is, I don't care about the issue itself anymore.  I'd love to dialogue about it, but there is a far more important problem facing our country.  It is this: Are we to be ruled by civil dialogue and laws or are we to be ruled by the capricious whims of screeching mob.  I would be glad to hear us talk about how to make our health care system work better.  I am sure those in congress would too, but tonight I beheld something that embarrassed me more than I have been embarrassed in years.  I saw an elected member of congress asked a question and then shouted down when he tried to respond.  I saw another member try and answer a question and then be chanted into submission.  If the tyranny over a people's laws gives this group a sense of power and righteousness, than I believe that this people is no longer a civilization but a collection of savages.