#1978- Decency and Ambition

            "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine." (Leviticus 20:26)

            We serve two masters, decency and ambition. For the Christian, for the human being who has a conscious, there is always a conflict...as hot as the fire bellows of the blacksmith. We live in a world where grown men crawl all over one another, attempting to convince everyone that life is fair.

            The world is built around the idea of sales...selling self or something. This world traveler has roamed the "soups" of Marrakesh, the great Grand Bazaar of Istanbul. I love the farmers' market...locally or in Nepal. Hard-working peasants, bringing their washed/presentable, home-grown vegetables, to a buying public. I was raised in impoverished Eastern North Carolina. My "folks," though land owners, were just peasants. On our farm, we had ten acres of tobacco, which we grew/harvested/grated, and then sold on the floor of the auction warehouse. There has never been harder work than the growing(farming) of tobacco; hanging it in the large curing barns, grating and getting it ready for market. I still remember the first time my daddy sold tobacco for 50 cents a pound. But, the land was productive, not just of produce and things, but of families, and children, who have contributed to this world.

            There was no insurance against crop failure (back then), against fires in the barns or the house. If you were knocked down, you got up and started over. I still remember the night that the barn burned. There was no welfare. The highway (now named for my father), which divided our land, was just a dirt road when I was a child...no power, phone, or water lines. We survived by the purity of sweat. My father said that he had lived on that highway (land) his entire life, and had never seen one government vehicle on the highway (rd), with the exception of the (public) school bus and the mail man. If there was support from Government agencies, we never saw any. When a tornado hit our 300 acres, trees uprooted, barns overturned; it was our neighbors who came in to help straighten things out...not the scent of a Government handout.

            Everyone sells, I have never known any man to make any money at all unless he had something to sell. My mother sold molded butter, eggs, and garden produce in town. Her children, all college graduates, now all millionaires, sold their abilities (which they had gained from years of hard study). The oldest; blind, home-bound and with disabilities, now sells on the internet. The true sales-person learns early the true gravitas of attractive psychology...the smile, the voice, that initial appearance (impression). The successful doctor can attribute 80% of his success to his personality. My patients came to this doctor (me) not just for treatment, but for the experience.

            Why are some preachers, teachers, doctors, and lawyers, more successful than others? It is all a matter of selling yourself. If you can sell yourself, you can sell your product. I have met people, still moving around, who died years ago...they had lost their "electricity." The difference in life and death is a matter of the electricity in the body. I am probably the only man alive who heard the great preacher ,John Henry Worley. When my father and mother were children (they were raised within two miles of one another), both families in the same church, built in 1874. This man (John Henry) would ride for 30 miles on horseback, to preach at churches that only had church services one Sunday a month. In spite of their warts, he and all those people from the hinterlands, who filled the churches, were holy; set apart by/for God.

            The sales-person does not smile all the time, they are allowed to get angry. Jesus got angry; humans get angry. There are people that God hates. One physiatrist told me that he could heal any mental problem by teaching a patient to whistle. Your ability to whistle, sing, or have any type rhythm, it removes "sick" images from your optics. We can survive in a secular world just by observing and appreciating the beauty of this present world; God wanted me to travel all over it...the great Himalayas, the glaciers at both the North and South Poles.

            Everything in creation speaks about God. And to think, you are his very special creation, even made in his image. Line up human beings, one after another, around the world; you will never find another one like you...your voice, your fingerprints, the flex in the iris of your eyes, all special and different from any other human. Just think, every snowflake that ever fell had its own design (no two ever the same). Yet, there are those who do not believe in the design creator! Most of our problems come from our fear of offending others. We think that life should be fair. God not only created the world and everything in it, but also gave us a book to read (containing) all the answers. You will not find "fairness" there.

            We refuse to talk with anyone about the condition of their souls, about not taking care of their health/bodies...abuse/addictions. Much life activity revolves around food. Food is very important in the bible...I'm so glad Jesus enjoyed eating with his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. I still remember those long tables in the church-yard, filled with food. Food, like everything else, is a matter of control. When you write a play, you must remember that people with only sit for so long.

            Patriotism is crippled by political correctness. Christianity crippled by our not wanting to be "different." Information speeds around the world at the speed of light. We live in a society policed by rumors. Always, "is it true?" Compassion is more than a feeling, it is love in action...it is combining your ambition with God-given decency.