Don't Worry, Be Happy

Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don't worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
- Don't Worry, Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin

20 years after McFerrin wrote this song, we should all start singing it again. Because, there is little information on the state controlled news broadcasts to make anyone happy.

I was on a gorilla safari in the Congo. I have described this safari in other blogs, I have marvelous photos of the gorillas. My Congolese guide asked me, “do you know how to capture a monkey?” It seems the entrapment of a monkey is the same as the entrapment of a rabbit, a human being. He said, “get a net to throw over the monkey, hide behind a bush, put some thing the monkey likes such as fruit or nuts in a large container, preferably a large jar where he can see the food. Tie the container down so he cannot move it, he will put one of his arms into the container, grabbing the food. When you come out with the net, he will not let go of the food, so as to free his hand from the jar, he will not fight or run. From the first “no-no” tree in the garden, Eve, yielded to temptation, Adam, the first hen-pecked husband, blaming her for the entrapment, all genus fauna, man or animal, has fall into the same trap, forbidden fruit. We can not let go.

There is a many-specied animal called the salamander, with variety of morphology that allows it to live in water or sand. When the pond dries up, the salamander can, with it's hard head, burrow down deep into the dirt until it finds water. Pour water into the pond and the salamander will come to the surface. Again, very much like the hard-headed homo sapiens, who just stick their heads in the sand, instead of facing what goes on in the real world.

Many years ago, after the Korean war, believe it or not, I was a very active Democrat, knowing that the Democrats controlled the state of North Carolina. Family and friends, knowing my ambitions, told me I would never go anywhere in the state with regards to profession, business, or anything else unless I was a member of the Democrat party. Back then, like Helms and Reagan, both Democrats, Democrats were conservative in the south. I became state president of the young Democrats. One day, the governor and a congressman (Sanford, Fountain) told me that the Democrats would always rule the state of North Carolina because they would always get the liberal vote.

I was born a conservative, conservative in everything I do, every thought. At a meeting, I made the following statement, “if the Democrat bosses in North Carolina were to tell the blacks, the unionists, the school teachers, those who draw a government check, those who always vote the “big D”, to go jump in the river, we would hear water splash. If the liberal Democrat party bosses were to tell these same Democrats to go jump in a fire, we would smell clothes burning.” The Democrats asked me to leave their party. The truth will set you free (John 8:32).

For many years, I always attended the southern baptist convention: Dallas, Atlanta, LA, etc. The last SBC convention I attended, mind you I was a well-known baptist speaker, board member; The First Baptist Church, Wilmington, asked me to speak about the convention. I said, “it always amazes me how concerned southern baptist are about people of color across the ocean, but how unconcerned we are about the many who walk by the doors of this church, every day, even on Sunday...our church services, the most segregated time in America.” Mind you, I knew the worst of segregation, bigotry. The ruler of the church, a man by the name of Parker, public health director, asked me to leave the church. I left the church and have never been back. My opinion has not changed about this elitist congregation, or the SBC.

Christianity has been marked by paradox, how well I remember the baptist church in which I was reared, built by my ancestors in 1874. It's still there, a choice, holy ground on Earth. When I was a child, the lines still went down the midpoint of the church, even though by that time, things had changed, the women sat on the left hand side, the men on the right hand side, the black people who worked on the farms in the back or in the balcony. Same as southern movie theaters, until 50 years ago. The only time men, women, blacks sat together was at a funeral. People always come together in times of sorrow, and often in times of joy.

This old soldier remembers the time, when at the military movie theater, we all came to attention for the playing of the national anthem. Something was wrong with the sound system, the anthem abruptly stopped. Someone shouted “at ease”, so we were no longer at attention, enlisted, as well as officers, and we all finished the anthem by singing it. This was real patriotism. I attended many plays in London, even at Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare's home and theater). Always in the British empire, at every performance, they always sing “God Save the Queen”, this is a real spirit of stability.

If there is one society or culture of people who should not worry, who should be happy, it is the Christians of the world. We have a faith, not only to live by, but one to die with. We are winners because the price has already been paid. Christ himself said we can be happy and content in spite of the world, the flesh, the devil. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. (John 15:17-21)