Reality Enigmatic Plunge At Eighty-Five

#1773

“We have shared the incommunicable experience of war, we have felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top. In our youth our hearts were touched with fire.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

            When you reach the age of eighty-five, you no longer have fear of death. You no longer have the competitive spirit. You no longer have the fright of un-forgiveness. You have forgiven all those who have wronged you and if they do not accept such, they are on God's hook, after all, with mercy to spare God has forgiven me for all my rotten sins and if he can forgive "the chief of sinners" such as me, I can forgive others and ask forgiveness of others.. commission and omission.

 

            At eighty-five you have given up about your looks, about your ambitions, your relationships, you have learned not to be shocked at anything, to expect very little from the world and those who inhabit it. You realize how little you have affected those with whom you have come in contact. Those who should have been closest to you. Most were just pretending, like bureaucrats, politicians, even  the cashier at the grocery store, "have a good day," ALL were just going through the motions. You realize just how empty most phrases "I'm praying for you," and the death of a parent or friend, someone saying, "they are better off" (how do they know they are better off?) Or, some irrational statement, finding a needle in a hay-stack (most people have never seen a hay-stack, have no idea what it is like.) OR, "killing two birds with one stone" (those who would kill a bird or anything else have no idea about the intricacies of life... even bird life.) Some of these same people would vote for politicians or groups that are for planned parenthood, that would take the life of the most innocent. Most people I know have little concept of photosynthesis (plant life) or the homeostasis of animal life (clotting of blood, etc.) When my great grandparents were children the population of the United States was thirty-one million. Every time we pass a graveyard where these old people are buried, we should give them the honor of thinking about what they accomplished. Now, the population of the United States, three-hundred and fifteen million. Ninety million do not work, nearly fifty million on welfare, almost 200 million draw a government check of some sort.

 

          

In my lifetime, eighty-five years, I have seen America change completely. Just a small percentage of the population controls all the wealth (some say 1%.) Just a small percentage of the population pays all the taxes (some say 20%.) The middle class has largely become the working class, struggling for survival. The "talking box" in the living room, satanic fed desires for ease keeps from an early age, everyone dissatisfied with everything. The court house is over run by those with addictions. The school house has become a place for entertainment instead of education. The church house has become a battlefield for souls with the fight carried on from air-conditioned fox holes. Your house has become just a changing room or filling station. This world traveler (Doctor Morris' passport has been stamped in 157 countries, eight around the world trips... every continent) has see more commitment to false religions than committed-concerned-convinced-dedication to basic Christianity (in a so called Christian nation.) Most churches are just country clubs with steeples. In my days in speaking before civic clubs, I found more loyalty to civic club principles than I found at most Christian churches.

 

            I believe that the thing that bothers me the most, as most of us enjoy the comforts of 21st century living, just how little we appreciate what we have inherited... we are so busy picking flowers which we did not plant.  Never for one day has the poverty of my youth left my mind and not just me, all my family. We left the fundamental denomination of our forbearers of church house which did not have inside plumbing. We were embarrassed about our own homes, homes of love and understanding because of no inside plumbing... old drafty houses. We could not invite friends to our homes or our churches because they just might need to go to the bathroom. Most of our college educated friends had never seen an "out-house."

 

            This writer, like his parents-grandparents-great grandparents before him, followed his blessed Lord in baptism by being baptized in a fish pond (long before an inside baptistery was installed into our country church.) Women did not wear pant suites/slacks to church. Aunt Sarah who died at 98 would go around and use a safety pins to pin the girls dresses between their legs, so that the dresses would not rise up when they got into the pond. All believe in truth. Your truth is not necessarily my truth... your experiences are not my experiences. Our ancestors had not experienced the truth of inside plumbing, electric power, the bottomless ocean of technology. God forgive us for not appreciating them enough, for not celebrating the fact that they did the best they could with what they had.

           

            I participated at the funeral for the first graduate of the North Carolina State University, who died at one-hundred (N.M. Matthews, Goldsboro NC.) He and I would talk about the challenges of this new nation. My uncle turner told me about the first multistory, eight story, hotel building that went up in the county. Men carrying bricks and water, on their shoulders, up many feet to build that building. My great-grandfather wrote about his first experiences with electric lights, when he attended a baptist convention in Nashville, Tennessee. My own Grandmother and my relatives were land owners, talked about picking cotton  the day after her marriage. Can we even imagine the depths of poverty and despondency for the tenant farmers, the black people of that time in history. This writer still remembers studying the primitive medical instruments (still used until the beginning of the 20th century) at the UNC school of medicine, Chapel Hill. I will never understand my treatment as a totally blind, 100% disabled veteran. I will never understand my treatment by relatives who knew full well that I had worked very hard, lived a life of trust in God, to reach this time of disembarkation. I wonder how I would have been treated by my family-relatives-associates if I had been convicted of some crime and gone to prison. It suffices to say that most survivors who have reached the 21st century are just caught up in a world of me-ism.

            Most of us might go to God's house and sing such old Christian hymns as "Jesus keep me near the cross." When Jesus knows, we do not mean a word of it. The Christian religion is a supernatural religion. You can not be a Christian without believing in the supernatural. It is the supernatural love of God and love by God, which gives reality to life even in the 21st century. I so pity those who have no memories. I so pity those who have no hope for the future. Six hundred thousand Americans were killed in the great American Civil War. It was not that long ago, I have known family members who were alive during that time. They had the faith to keep on keeping on. I do believe that faith is ninety percent raw courage. This morning, eighty-fifth year my mind is clear, my body free of pain, ready to take the plunge into the depths of the river of reality. 

Loose Pieces

"There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God; a place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. Refrain: O Jesus, blest Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before thee near to the heart of God."

If the root is rotten, the entire tree is rotten. This writer has stated on national radio talk shows, from pool pits and speaker platforms. "I am amazed that most young people turn out as well as they do considering the 'homes' from which they come."

            My driver and I were sitting in a fast food restaurant when black woman had come up to the counter, evidently to get her paycheck. She was obviously an employee who had been fired. Some words were exchanged between her and the manager, she went into shouting with profanity I had never heard before (and this writer is an old solider). She caused chaos in the restaurant, everyone stopped eating. My driver said "she has a small boy with her who acts very unconcerned, I'm sure he's heard all those words before."

            We live in a fractal society, a broken culture of broken people. We walk among loose pieces of humanity. Seventy percent of children come from homes without a father. Children need both a father and mother in the home. The sanctity, sanity of life revolves around the sanctity of marriage and sanctity of birth. There are two things which the church cannot compromise, abortion and same sex marriage. If the church compromises with these two sacraments...no matter what denomination, you might as well nail up the doors and put up a funeral-death wreath.  

New Guinea I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)

            I have often asked myself the question, what if I had not been born in America? What if I had not had the parents I had? What if my parents had not made sure I sat on those hard benches at our country church. What if I had not had the blessing of attending a public school, a great university. a great professional school? What if I had not had the ambition to work hard and make something of my life, in spite of everything? How could I complain about anything, when god has made it possible for me to see real heathenism in the world? When god has made it possible for me to study the weaknesses of my own country.

            Think of it, America with the greatest healthcare system in the world, spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world. Yet, the mortality rate for babies is 10x higher than that of most underdeveloped countries. One-half of the worlds population lives in cities and growing at 50% each year, poverty in these cities is rampart. Decedent politicians, who do not pick up pieces, but break things makes sure the families are destroyed through legalized gambling and abortion clinics. 72% of all black babies are aborted. The richest nation on the earth, richer than the dreams of Midas, 49% of our population relies on government checks. Every time this totally blind, 100% disabled, medical officer veteran picks up the pieces of his memory, thinking of that dirt road in poverty stricken eastern NC where he was raised. No power lines or water, remembering the sweat of his mother and father. Remembering when he worked in the sweltering heat for one dollar a day. Looking at a cast iron cooking pot which his ancestors used to cook when they came over from England, I know both the blessings in my life and the certainty that he holds those responsible for compromising our great American heritage. Are those who sit on soft church pews, who hold their hands over their heart in patriotic gesture, any better than the heathens who dance in the fires in New Guinea?

            My great joy, my constant constellation, the grandeur of our large table.... communion with him. In solitude, everyday of my life I take the bread and wine in remembrance of what he has done for me, healing and forgiving. 

#1729

Acquiescence to Evil

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself."-Oscar Wilde

This writer, did not understand for a long time but does understand today the fact that I had a restless  conscious and learned to act upon it. Every minute of every day, I have the cognitive kaleidoscope of images which my sightless eyes could not see, but which my other senses have enhanced. I realized the foolishness of what goes on in America, the challenge of the Christian life, when "Quick fix prayers do not change things." I am an American by birth, like the apostle Paul speaking on Christianity, I have the scars to prove it, "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Galatians 6:17).

Their is not a maverick molecule in the universe. I know that god, creator of the universe, is "boss" in control of everything. From the time Satan was kicked out of heaven, god put limitations on him. With the first two people our ancestral parents, who he created, Adam and Eve. AND in the perfect Utopia, he prepared for them, the garden of Eden. He established his rights, his parameters "Don't touch that tree."

From the darkness of indignity toward human intelligence, we daily face news cast describing the horror story of this present world. Incomprehensible challenge to ones intelligence. At the very time that working-sweating citizens in servitude, were presenting their taxes to the government for national security, we find landing on the capital grounds, a homemade gyro-contraption, built and flown by a postman from Florida. At the same time we learned that many of our nations young people-products of government schools and talking boxes, are heading towards the Middle-East to join the forces of ISIS. Intent on the chopping off of heads- the destruction of the Christian religion. We learn that many of these young people are attracted to ISIS, just as they are attracted to comic book action figures. There minuscule brain cells, connect ISIS warriors with the figures of Super-Man, Spider-Man, Iron-Man and other action figures. From a country and from homes with every convenience, a country were one third of its population is obese, they convent lands were children still have distended bellies from hunger. Walk around with begging bowls. This writer knows because he has been there. Like Communism, this writer has see what Islam does to the human person-hood as well as countries. We live in a world of consistent inconsistencies, an acquiescence to the low rungs in the ladder. Politicians, like civic minded "do-gooders", are attracted to the non-producers. Emphasis in government, and even churches, is built around the platitudes of service. Yet, those who serve get little recognition... Homemakers, Law abiding citizens, protagonists of the family.

Everything has changed, but are the important things better? We find Job, 1500 B.C probably the richest man of his time. It was only after he had lost everything, wealth, children, servants, even his own wife said, "Curse god and die." That he realized the gains and loses of life. He was probably the first man with aids, sores covering his body. God showed him the intrangency of things, the callousness of friends.

Today is tomorrow that never came. We can do little about the future, nothing about the past. It is always good to have a mental cleansing. To think about what "could have been":

What could have been, if it were not for that baby cry in Bethlehem when god put on a tent of human flesh.
What could have been, if my ancestors had not been brave enough to cross the Atlantic in 1677.
What could have been, if I did not have the parents in which I had; who had me sitting on those hard benches in the family church, teaching me the honor of hard work-saving money-preparing for the future.
What could have been, if this writer had not entered the military service, stayed married to one women. Not burn the midnight oil in hard study-live frugally-invested wisely.
What could have been, if I had died in car crashes which I managed to survive.
What could have been, if I had yielded to the evil in which always presented itself. God has forgiven me for every one of my rotten sins. But what could have been, if god had not chosen me to live with him eternally.

The history of Christianity is so beautifully described with two people, two places, and gods hands. The creator-god pushed Adam and Eve out of that perfect garden because they chose death instead of life. But, god walking and eating with two men, after the resurrection, with his two nail pierced hands, showed us forever our escape from evil. He had been walking-talking with two men on their way to Emmaus. Eating with this two men, breaking bread, They recognized his nail pierced hands. Like us, the world around us, we escape our acquiescence, by thinking of Jesus' nail pierced hands.

#1725

A Veteran's Flag

My English guide and I were at the St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, North London. We had become friends and he wanted to help me find one of my favorite poets, Francis Thompson's grave... best known for his famous line, “[love] is a many-splendored thing” from his poem The Kingdom of God. At that time, I had a shadow of vision in my left eye.

He said to me, “you will not believe what I see coming down the walk.” A cemetery employee was pulling a small three-wheeled cart on which was a coffin covered with a tattered American flag. Walking behind the cart was a Catholic priest, along with a very frail woman in a wheelchair, being pushed by,evidently, the driver of the vehicle which had brought them there. This was the extent of the funeral cortege.

Earlier, we had almost walked into a freshly dug grave, and I spoke of the danger of such for a blind person. They stopped at the open grave and two other cemetery workers put the casket in the ground and began to fill the grave with dirt. The priest was saying some words as we walked up, he turned to us and said, “she is not very cognitive, but will appreciate your being here.” She looked at me and reached out a gloved hand, which I squeezed. I told her that I was American. She handed me the folded American flag.

The priest said they were in separate nursing homes, but had been married 50 years, he was an American veteran. You note that I said to her, “I am American.” It is like saying, “I believe God.” Many say, “I am an American” like those who say, “I believe in God.” All sorts of people believe in God, even the devil; many American citizens, traitors, say “I am an American”, but when you say “I am American”, you believe this country, just as you believe God. When you believe this country, you believe all the history, the patriots who made this country.

I sold that old, tattered flag many years ago, along with several other 48-star flags I owned. I do remember that on the hoist edge of the flag was written these words, “Battle Flag, December 1944”. This flag was possibly flown during the Battle of the Bulge. You will note that there was nothing pertaining to veterans or the military at this grave service. Like so many WWII veterans, they had probably met in London after the war, and he stayed there. But, he probably wanted his casket covered with the American flag, it still meant something to him (and her).

On this Memorial Day, we think of the 126,000 buried on foreign soil (not in a casket, just wrapped in an American flag), the thousands buried in Arlington and other national cemeteries. They believed America and would be dumbfounded to see what has happened to their country. Until Korea, most of the fallen were buried on foreign soil. I stood at the great national cemetery in Manila where 18,000 are buried, and on the 25^th anniversary of D-Day, I stood at Normandy at that great cemetery there. What a waste! What a expenditure of life: 50,000 in Korea, frozen bodies stacked like cord wood; 58,000 killed in Vietnam.

I was still in the hospital from the Korean era, when the Vietnam tragedy was going on, I still remember the screams of the woman across the street from me when her son's casket was brought into her home on his “return” from Vietnam. We have a tendency to forget the civilian tragedy of war, on both sides. Even today, while several wars are going on, drones overhead dropping bombs, missiles being fired from oceans as well as from “the enemy's” homeland...do not forget the children who will never recover from the sights and sounds of warfare, children on both sides, in the clutches of man's inhumanity to man.

Never forget that many prosper from the greed of war, fortunes have been made from war. The veteran caught in the dilemma of warfare, the one who survives...blind, crippled, sown back together, is the blessed survivor; those in the soil are the heroes. Many of us worked very hard, while others were having a good time, to get the schooling necessary to sufficiently serve our country...doctors, engineers, weapons/utilities experts. Disabled, we give up everything, accept the patriot's zeal.

The tumult and the shouting dies—
The Captains and the Kings depart—
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
Recessional – Rudyard Kipling (1897)

Expiration Date

We live in a world of expiration dates. We know that everything around us, like we ourselves, are going to eventually expire. Every time we pass a cemetery, hospital or see rust on equipment, we know that time takes its toll, that there is deterioration, that a repair person, whether doctor or electrician, will have a job.

Give a small child a sucker, he loves to lick that sucker - we have all experienced it. You get that sucker from the child simply by offering a lolly pop instead. Most of us would rather have something new or different than illness or a fine. When your library book has expired, you will have a fine. When your milk, meat and prescription drugs have expired, you may have sickness. Things with which we should have no trouble - eggs, peanut butter, and spinach - do not necessarily have an expiration date. But common sense would dictate to producers and distributors that safety is more important than expensive recalls.

As I have written in many commentaries, I am a long time antiquarian book collector. In finding old books, in junk stores, public auctions et cetera, I am amazed to find long lost library books, many with the familiar check out card still intact and dates going back many decades. Someone did not pay attention to the expiration date.

We are slaves of the computer. Whether in the automobile or paying utility bills, the computer, though smarter than most human beings, is very impersonal. Since I must depend on telephones in order to run my various businesses, I have phones from several companies, just in case something happens. I have a land line with AT&T (cheapest service). You cannot make long distance calls on this phone, only local calls, and by law, emergency calls. The phone was disconnected because I refused to pay a large charge for long distant calls, a phone on which you CANNOT MAKE long distance calls. Of course, the agencies responsible for the oversight of these monopolistic companies, locally, statewide and nationally, are just paid to sleep. They give not the slightest oversight or response to a letter of complaint. Finally, after many letters, this dead phone, which had been dead for weeks, finally rang.

I realize the woman on the phone, when it finally rang, was a victim of a computer. I had stated in my letter regarding this problem that I would give one thousand dollars to the company if she could prove that anytime over the past sixty years of telephone service that I ever failed to pay a legitimate bill. These folks could care a less, they simply act on an expiration date. If the money is not there, they expire your service, like the electric utility who expired my service in an empty building where no service had been used simply because the meter had been misread, like the water utility who threatened to expire my service in all my rental units because I would not pay a twelve hundred dollar water bill for a building that had burned down twenty years before, before I owned the empty lot. The water meter had never been removed and a new employee read the meter from thirty years previous. All of these utilities wanted me to pay the erroneous bills and then get a refund later, after they were satisfied of the outcome. This is American life with monopolies, services on which you must depend.

If there is need for government at all, government regulations and government controls, there should be oversight with expiration dates. There are some things with which we have no control. Expiration dates which cannot be foreseen. Today we are observing the 9th anniversary of 9-11, an infamous date in America history, when thousands of Americans left home in the morning expecting to return in the evening, but becoming the victims of a dastardly attack. Today, in this city, a 21 year old marine is being buried, his expiration date coming much too soon, as he defended his country on foreign soil. He will be buried with military honors and long lines of military and police patrols will escort his casket to a family cemetery. But his life is over (and we all only have one life to live), and for his family, a large part of their lives has been erased.

The future holds expiration dates for us all. We do not know when or where. Before the foundation of the world, God designed us for a specific number of years, and he is Boss. Religion is not salvation. If you have not made arrangements, prepare for your certain redemption. In the meantime, prepare for an uncertain future. No one could have convinced me that I would spend most of my life as a totally blind person. The test of a man is not what he does when everything is going well, but what he does when things go wrong. Surveying conditions in the world, we are sure things can go very wrong in this country. Prepare for the unexpected. It might be a dirty bomb or it might be worsened economic conditions. By faith, you may learn how to hold on to your very existence, compromising your expiration date by the very finger nails.