#1863 Shifting the Gear Forward, Not Reverse

#1863

Shifting the Gear Forward, Not Reverse

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."  (Galatians 6:9)

The character of Satan is the character of a sinful world.  A lie and false promise is in the character of every sin.  The world has never learned that Satan pays off in counterfeit.

God help any man who has never worked hard and fallen into bed tired.  You either work or you steal...you steal from those who work.  Work-worth-worship.  The mantra of the "new" America, get as much as possible and give as little as possible.  Every job is worship.  Everyone cannot be an executive, everyone cannot be an airline pilot, everyone cannot be a doctor or a lawyer.  In the vestibules of eternity, when God chose we mere mortals for life...put the idea of your father with that of your mother...creating only you...there is only one you.  He may have chosen you for very mediocre work, there is nothing wrong with janitorial work, make sure you clean the corners.  God must have really loved the poor and insignificant, he made so many of us.  I am convinced that God really loves farmers...men and women who had the patience to put seed in the ground and wait for them to sprout-grow and produce a harvest.  I used to watch my Aunt Lizzie crochet one loop at the time, the final product was in her brain...the final product, each of us, was in the mind of God.  There is nothing wrong with hard labor-sweat-calluses.  The friends of Jesus must have had rough hands...most of the disciples, fishermen.  The women whom he visited such as Mary and Martha, tough hands from housework.  Twenty-first century Americans, the strain of many men's hands, just swinging a golf club: the abuse of many female hands, just the shuffling of playing cards.

This old, blind veteran would like to have seen his parents before they were put in the ground.  I asked the mortician to put my hand on each of their hands...hands that had never had a manicure, never knew anything but hard work and hard times. I could not help but think, as I felt each of those lifeless hands, the life they had lived; not what they had not done for me but what they had done for me. 

Like this writer, 86, there are still people in America who remember America going forward, not backwards.  Going forward in decency-morality.  There was a time when students went to school for education, not entertainment and indoctrination.  There was a time when students went to the university for advanced learning, not just to internet and seek an easy way out of life.  There was a time when the brightest were engaged in actual research: foundations, professional schools seeking better lives for everyone not just caressing politicians in order to get their hands deeper into the pockets of government.  Lobbying is a twentieth-century creation, before lobbyist we depended on the good sense of decent government officials. 

Anger is rarely useful.  I will not dwell on the past, perhaps it was not as great as we often remember.  It is not bad that we have a bottomless ocean of technology.  It was not particularly great to have only one telephone in a huge community...just a light bulb dangling down from the ceiling.  A family depending on the smokehouse-washhouse- outhouse.  Every time I take a shower, I think of my ancestors who never had a decent bath.  My ancestors, my parents, even my country of fifty years ago was moving and looking forward to the future...glad to escape the hardships of the past.

Now, we have present day rage.  In the movie Animal House, as has always been the plight of human nature, Satan on one side was saying "do this" and one's angel on the other side was saying "don't do that."  Lack of self-control has resulted even in anger management specialist.  Many have explosive disorders (anger out of control) medication is always the last resort.

31863

Recently, we have watched Trump rallies, masses of hostile people...most at the end of their rope.  The more protestors you have in a crowd, THE MORE YOU ARE CONVINCED YOU ARE RIGHT. 

With debt and debtors, you have people and nations who are just faking it.  Enough debt and you can live like a prince...house, car, clubs, entertainment.  Our nation has faked out the rest of the world via debt.  Ninety-nine percent of Americans just plod along, it is the one percent, politicians-bureaucrats-dollar manipulators that are in control.  We are angry because they control us, we are slaves to their decadence-extravagance.  Angry protesters want to live like the "rich and famous" they have been sold this since babies on the talking box...every advertisement...every politician's promise.

I remember a cousin talking to members of my family about the expenses of her wedding and honeymoon.  My maternal grandmother, respected, living in the best house in the community, having raised nine children said, "I picked cotton the day after I was married."  I so remember one of my uncles returning from WWII, few new cars, they were so expensive, (and remember enlisted men drew twenty-one dollars a month in service during WWII) the car he drove, the engine smoked so badly my aunt and his new child rode in the back seat. 

A nation, a people, setting the standards for living around the globe, even though we are the youngest.  On my many trips around the world, travelling every continent-passport stamped in 157 countries.  There was a time when everyone admired America.  The world has become weary in our well doing.  Almost every scientific accomplishment credited to America, every accomplishment making life better but, with our technology-drones-robots-artificial intelligence, we have brought misery to so many, and they realize it and many of our own citizens know about it...everyone is angry, protesting.