When speaking of black holes, the 21st century person probably talks about the black hole of the universe, that region of space in the universe from which nothing, not even light, can escape. It is that vast area where there is neither time nor space, from this point of no return, the relativism, Darwinians/evolutionists believe that from a great explosion, the universe was formed. It is all conjecture, no one can prove anything, not even with the new, greater Hubble telescope.
From the frigid fantasy of such horrendous blackness, we understand the black hole of existence and its application to our lives. One of my great uncles, the brother of my grandfather, a land owning, hard-working, God-fearing, taxpaying Christian man of great reputation, had only one love in his life. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with so few roads and few methods of transportation, most courtships and marriages were among young people of local families. Cassie was his love from another side of my family, both were from well-known early colonial homes, but a young, dashing charismatic man was moved by the state's Roads department into the area. He immediately swept Cassie off of her feet. I still remember him, a dandy dresser, with a white boater hat (the same type hat often used by male dancers in vaudeville shows). I can still see him taking off that hat, tilting it to every woman he met.
After this man and Cassie married and moved on to Cassie's land, land that her family had left to her, they had one son, but I don't believe she ever had another happy day because her jaunting, flaunting husband was always chasing after other women. He was one of the first real womanizers I ever knew. Even when the two of them went to church, they would never go past the old family home where my uncle continued to live. My uncle in the black hole of despair/bitterness, was never interested in another woman, lived a long, lonely life. So resentful, so afraid that he would see her at the family church, the next time he was in the church was when he was rolled in, at his funeral.
I speak as a totally blind person in a cocoon of blackness. It is so easy for a disabled person, like a bitter person, to fall into the slough of despondency, the black hole of despair. One day, when I was in one of my buildings, a young man in a wheelchair called me into his office. He closed the door and said, “I want to talk to you for a while.” He said, “I always see you outside, with a white cane, getting around as a blind person. I know you are a veteran, I know you live alone. Do you think that most of these “normal” people with whom we come in contact everyday have a clue about what we encounter as disabled people?” He said, “I have a wife who drives me here to work everyday, but I know she has stayed with me all these years simply because I make a good living. She can barely tolerate my disability, the fact that we do not go out, socialize like other couples. I know for a fact that she is in her third adulterous relationship of our marriage, weeing a man whose wife is a mental cripple; the last one, until he tired of her, was a widower. What can I say? What can I do? I need her much more than she needs me, and besides, we have two teenage children” Most “normal” people have no understanding of the plight of the handicapped, in a wheelchair or blind, such a matter as going to the bathroom.
Martin Luther King said, “you must overcome oppression without become oppressive.” I lived at time when there was racial oppression. I well remember the oppressiveness, the despair of black people. It was not just a matter of black people. Believe it or not, we live in a country where many were oppressed, black and white, and not just in the south. One of my friends in New York City told me about how her niece would borrow her expensive fur coat to go shopping in Manhattan's better stores, she got very careful service if she had on an expensive fur coat! Can one even imagine the quandary of a young black mother, or the mother from a poor family, whose baby she had birthed, knowing full well that her baby would never have the opportunity which every human being should have in this country? The black hole of discrimination, separation has led to the faithlessness of many individuals.
One my best friends in the army, a black army medical officer, told me he would never forgive or forget his wonderful mother being referred to in the white community as a “black girl”. He could never forget how she was treated in the department stores...unable to try on apparel, even a hat which she loved to wear to church. He said, “my mother was a brilliant woman, cleaner and more ambitious than any of the white clerks who worked in the white stores.” We can well understand why the haze and cloud of distrust hangs over this once segregated country.
Think of the black hole of drug addiction. This week, Amy Winehouse supposedly killed herself with an overdose. This talented young woman was known for her addiction. Like John Belushi, Chris Farley, all about the age of 27, all having attained fame and fortune, just to fall into the black hole of addiction, and these are just the famous ones, there are many, many others...prisons full, rehabilitation centers full.
Think of the many who have fallen into the black hole, not of drug dependency, but welfare dependency. We now have several generations who are depending on the taxpaying public to support them. It has been estimated that a welfare family of four, taking advantage of every government social service subsidy, including food stamps, grants, section 8 housing, appropriations for learning problems, that the total would amount to around $75,000. The black hole of government largess, dependency for food, shelter, utilities, health and professional care.
Think of it, millions of your tax dollars spent on warfare, bringing misery to to people you do not know and who do not know you. Millions spent on homeland security, travel security (TSA), when there is a greater chance of your being struck by lightning than harmed by terrorists. The black hole of fears, government taunted and promoted, is gripping the American soul.
You cannot feel deeply unless you think deeply. Your deepest thoughts are those of your faith. You escape the black hole of fear, addictions, social problems via an all-comprehensive, all-compassionate faith. Martin Luther said that we should constantly be pushing the Gospel on ourselves.
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