SpiritBlog

Is there ever a year
when our lives pause long
enough to take stock and let
our spirits catch
up with the changes being wrought
by the passage of time

It is cliche to engage in
lamentations around the
inexorable approach of the
end but it comes anyway
so you have to face it
sooner or later

Sitting in Starbucks I look
at the men and women who drive
themselves to eat drink think
pray act right so that they can
avoid the fear that it is all
for naught and inevitable

I imagine that I am the realist
among them and smile to myself
that I have a handle on things
until I stand up, back aching
and see myself in reflection
drooping skin fear-filled eyes

So I find solace in Facebook
living through friends whose
new babies 5K runs and fresh starts
herald decades of potential and
change until they too sit in Starbucks
wishing the clock would slow

Enough of this self-indulgence
time to grab camera dog and life
and capture a moment of beginning
rather than wallow in the finality
of ending

Its all good

Youngest in body

Wisest in spirit

Sharpest of mind

Wittiest in thought

Farthest from God

Closest to Knowing

Purest in life

Grungiest in dress

History is cyclical, and it would be foolhardy to assume that the culture wars will never return. But after the humiliations of the Scopes trial and the repeal of Prohibition, it did take a good four decades for the religious right to begin its comeback in the 1970s. In our tough times, when any happy news can be counted as a miracle, a 40-year exodus for these ayatollahs can pass for an answer to America’s prayers.

-Frank Rich, NYTimes, March 15, 2009

It is a wondrous thing that we are too busy surviving to be distracted by either a demagogic debate on stem cell research or by the condemnation of gays who wish to fight and die for our country.  However, there is no reason to celebrate, as Mr. Rich would have us do, for the concomitant overall decline in attention to our spiritual lives.

As Mr. Rich points out, this is nothing new.  So, why do people, even in the face of a protracted disaster, turn away from religion?  Perhaps it has little to do with the bankruptcy of the religious right’s ideals and everything to do with people’s need to return to the first and second levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  At those planes of existence, we have little patience for any emotional debate that distracts from our need to feed, house and clothe ourselves and our families.

Fundamentalists of many religions have attempted to uspurp God’s role in our lives as companion, confidant, stalwart and goad by making Him into the stern schoolmarm who raps you on the wrist when you fail.  In a world where we are fighting for our survival, we turn to our God who, through His Grace, forgives and cherishes us despite our failures and shortfalls.

He’s slogging through the mud
Carrying 85 pounds and the burdens
Of a life lived ungraciously
But with intense bravery.

God smiles with pride for his
All-too-human offspring.

We still aren’t learning.

He called the other night to tell of his mastery of soldiering
“It’s a piece of cake,” he says wiping the tear gas out of his eye that
sent him to the hospital before he had even graduated from boot camp.

We panicked big time when he called to tell us about the eye then didn’t call back for five days.
“Get used to it,” that’s all we can do because we have totally lost control of all events
he may not even spend the holidays with us, his new wife living in another city.

He graduates from BMT this week marching proud for his fellow airmen and his amazed wife.
“Wish we could be with you,”is all we can say as we are now just spectators without portfolio
in a life that is moving faster than we imagined and which will change beyond recognition all too soon.

It is an extraordinary thing what he and others like him are willing to do in the name of honor.
“We’ll die for you” rings out with an unimaginable pain penetrating our bones to the core
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, all are terrible names which conjure sorrow and mourning threatening to break our soul

“I am helping others be free, it’s what I am supposed to be doing with my life”
He is my son, my precious son whose spirit has filled mine since that day he smiled his way into the world
“God leapt the day he was born” and he leaps even now.

Oh, please.

Once again, the Republicans are lying.  This time, they are crossing the line to unadulterated racism.

Maybe the job is starting to look less appealing.

It’s clear from the historical record that what the candidates say or don’t say during a campaign has little to do with the political realities that confront them when they enter the White House.  Consequently, the biggest danger that Obama faces is not losing the election, which he seems to have sown up, but losing the presidency.

That is to say, the promises he is making and the hope he generates are creating expectations that no one could possibly meet. His challenge is to make the difficult decisions that will be necessary to help this country recover from the current crises and not succumb to the vagaries of a fickle press and unresponsive Congress.

It’s obvious we are in desperate need of a real leader.  Barack Obama is an inspiring campaigner and a great politician.  The jury is still out on his ability to lead.

There on the side of the hill he waits.

There, he waits with a promise of redemption.

There, he builds a watchtower, vigilant for those
who are thirsty for sustenance.

There, on the side of the hill, a symphonic caress
spreads fertile joy to delicate blossoms.

There, we tend his vineyards, growing the pure fruit of our faithfulness,
golden grapes of hope and love.

There, he waits for us, knowing that we will drink his
tender and peaceful ambrosia and be transported to a place at his side.

There on the side of the hill.

Way to go, Joe.

Rather than coming away from last night’s debate enthusiastically supporting Barack’s running mate, I find my self immensely depressed that so many find Sarah Palin to be anything but the smarmy sacrificial lamb that a cynical Republican power structure has dangled in front of the gullible American public.

The American people deserve better leadership than this.  The fact that John McCain has supported her for the Vice Presidency is as telling as anything else he has said during this campaign.We should all be heeding the inherent warning in this foul nomination.  I know I will.

Anyone understand what is happening in Washington right now?

More importantly, what’s not happening?

What’s not happening is the admission of complicity in unfettered greed, the consequences of which are felt thorughout the world’s economies.

Ordinarily, I am not one who believes in sin.  But with the revelations typified by this article in today’s New York Times about the troubles at AIG, I am becoming a believer.