Thank you, Rev Charles Onubogu, for today reminding listeners at Iglesia Catolica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar in Half Moon Bay, CA, that: A good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree cannot do that. And, importantly, ‘Behavior is Determined by the Nature of a Thing.’ (Thomas Aquinas)
Dear Father, it is Trinity Sunday and you made my day!
So I lit three large candles to symbolically memorialize all family, friends and military whose lives bore witness to those truths, and to remind myself that bad behavior of powerful people is garbage, and comes from rotting roots. Then, as I left the church, I was happily thankful for the music resounding weekly now from my brother Michael’s precious piano. What a perfect blessing!
But there was more: in the sunny parking lot, I saw you blessing a family’s car, drenching it with holy words and holy water. I did not intrude or interrupt that ritual, but determined to remedy the neglect of my own vehicle, secured last All Saints Day. It carries a favorite image of the Madonna and Child, has been drenched by coastal fog, and washed by California rains, but an official blessing is overdue, as so often happens. So I will remember to find you for this task, and once again laud your insightful gifts.
God, please bless America! Enable goodness in all people within our shores and borders, from the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans. Water the seedlings, refresh and reforest the scorched earth. Relegate the bad fruit to the compost heap of history. Wreak your havoc now, as we watch you speedily obliterate corrupt and greedy behaviors. God, bless America!
Deception Pass Madrones
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Goat Rodeo
In the wee hours of this morning, as I was researching information about the ferry from San Francisco to Mare Island and the Tiffany windows in the small chapel there, things were happening in the wider world. After some sleep, with my morning coffee a few hours later, I drank in the news via MSNBC and twitter: Boastful buffoonery continues as the dear leader in DC moved to upstage the dear leader in North Korea with a signature adolescent love and kisses breakup letter; the DOJ continued its attempts to function independently and with integrity amid blantantly unprecedented interference from the Executive Branch and its invertebrate congressional, lawyer and media sycophants.
Then, from an MSNBC analyst, the fabulously descriptive term: GOAT RODEO!
Tragicomedies? For sure. Consequently, I think it good to memorialize the term and say the obvious: Just Another Goat Rodeo Day in America. Viva Chiquita Banana Republic? Of course not. Hope not. After all, unlike cats, goats CAN be herded. But we do first need to get a capable goatherd...
Just telling it like it currently is. And I am never forgetting why, who and what all we Americans celebrate with reverence and awe on each Memorial Day: the land of the free, and the home of the brave. Okay? Olay!
God bless America, from sea to shining sea!
Then, from an MSNBC analyst, the fabulously descriptive term: GOAT RODEO!
Tragicomedies? For sure. Consequently, I think it good to memorialize the term and say the obvious: Just Another Goat Rodeo Day in America. Viva Chiquita Banana Republic? Of course not. Hope not. After all, unlike cats, goats CAN be herded. But we do first need to get a capable goatherd...
Just telling it like it currently is. And I am never forgetting why, who and what all we Americans celebrate with reverence and awe on each Memorial Day: the land of the free, and the home of the brave. Okay? Olay!
God bless America, from sea to shining sea!
Friday, May 11, 2018
Ethics and Eternal Considerations
Life is relational. This makes sense. Every relationship is an eternal responsibility. Hmmmmm. This also makes sense to me, but perhaps not to someone who has no time for “eternity.” Graduate school was the time and place that planted these realities in my brain. They still ring true for me. They help me paddle my canoe. And having a good heart imbued with wisdom, as the Dalai Lama says is the greatest happiness, suggests the best way for life on the water to unfold.
I can always learn, unless I have no questions or curiosity. There are plenty of excellent guides to carry me forward these many years since grad school. And that is actually one of the main benefits of my education. But there is also this: the study of Ethics fascinated me, but also frightened me.
Probably the thing about the study ethics that frightened me was that being on the cutting edge of something was exciting but also seemed dangerous. What if you were wrong? Probably what I failed to grasp was that while you had to follow the logic and then stick your neck out, if you were later proven wrong, you would regroup and learn and grow beyond the point of the cutting edge. You didn’t have to just stay there and bleed to death! You would contribute. You would continue to learn. At that time, bioethics and medical advances were racing with each other. They still are spurring each other on. Add theological principles to the mix, and the challenges and rewards multiply. But the study of ethics is immense and wide ranging and touches probably every facet of our existence.
So why have I been thinking about this lately? I guess it is because some days it seems that nothing matters. Up is down, and down is up, and events and behaviors of visible leaders and hidden, ordinary people in our society are just crazy. I now have more than a handful of friends who cannot bear to listen to or watch the news because it is so depressing, infuriating, disgusting, upsetting, confusing and unhelpful. I understand that. But I watch it all, and while experiencing those emotions myself, I find it good to know the details of what is going on. I ask the questions, look for the answers and hope. And I am sustained and also mightily encouraged when I see there are still leaders and ordinary people much smarter than myself and much more invested in our society than I am. They sometimes get headlines too, but just knowing they exist helps me focus and is extremely helpful. And they reassure me that the bullies, the disruptive students, the inmates in the asylum, will not be allowed free range forever!
So what happens when an administration and/or individuals and large segments of a society, of American society, toss aside and disregard the usual ethical norms? What happens when it reaches a point where there are no discernible norms, when nothing seems to matter, when even the rule of law seems nonexistent? When acceptable behavior becomes totally arbitrary and subjective and relative, should everything be legislated? Of course not. That would be impossible and inhuman.
So what happens is this: I mentally resist the lawlessness, the lunacy, the disregard for ethical norms, the gutting of institutions and treaties. I see it for what it is. I look back at history and I look forward to the future. I know I do not have to reinvent the wheel or rediscover fire or learn again to walk upright. I know I just have to put one foot in front of the other one day at a time, and live for the day when that frozen ninth circle of hell will claim it’s own.
Ethics is eternal! Hallelujah!
I can always learn, unless I have no questions or curiosity. There are plenty of excellent guides to carry me forward these many years since grad school. And that is actually one of the main benefits of my education. But there is also this: the study of Ethics fascinated me, but also frightened me.
Probably the thing about the study ethics that frightened me was that being on the cutting edge of something was exciting but also seemed dangerous. What if you were wrong? Probably what I failed to grasp was that while you had to follow the logic and then stick your neck out, if you were later proven wrong, you would regroup and learn and grow beyond the point of the cutting edge. You didn’t have to just stay there and bleed to death! You would contribute. You would continue to learn. At that time, bioethics and medical advances were racing with each other. They still are spurring each other on. Add theological principles to the mix, and the challenges and rewards multiply. But the study of ethics is immense and wide ranging and touches probably every facet of our existence.
So why have I been thinking about this lately? I guess it is because some days it seems that nothing matters. Up is down, and down is up, and events and behaviors of visible leaders and hidden, ordinary people in our society are just crazy. I now have more than a handful of friends who cannot bear to listen to or watch the news because it is so depressing, infuriating, disgusting, upsetting, confusing and unhelpful. I understand that. But I watch it all, and while experiencing those emotions myself, I find it good to know the details of what is going on. I ask the questions, look for the answers and hope. And I am sustained and also mightily encouraged when I see there are still leaders and ordinary people much smarter than myself and much more invested in our society than I am. They sometimes get headlines too, but just knowing they exist helps me focus and is extremely helpful. And they reassure me that the bullies, the disruptive students, the inmates in the asylum, will not be allowed free range forever!
So what happens when an administration and/or individuals and large segments of a society, of American society, toss aside and disregard the usual ethical norms? What happens when it reaches a point where there are no discernible norms, when nothing seems to matter, when even the rule of law seems nonexistent? When acceptable behavior becomes totally arbitrary and subjective and relative, should everything be legislated? Of course not. That would be impossible and inhuman.
So what happens is this: I mentally resist the lawlessness, the lunacy, the disregard for ethical norms, the gutting of institutions and treaties. I see it for what it is. I look back at history and I look forward to the future. I know I do not have to reinvent the wheel or rediscover fire or learn again to walk upright. I know I just have to put one foot in front of the other one day at a time, and live for the day when that frozen ninth circle of hell will claim it’s own.
Ethics is eternal! Hallelujah!
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Why Do Fools Start Wars?
Is it because they are fools? Is it because they cannot fall in love? Do only fools out-of-love start wars?
I was thinking and wondering about whether someone has researched, written about and reached any conclusions about who, exactly, starts wars? I mean, if we can name specific individuals that apparently triggered various large wars in the last 1000 years or so, can they be reliably profiled? Were they fools, dictators, narcissists, demagogues, warriors, schizophrenics, ignoramuses, delusional, bullies, autocrats, paranoid, mercenaries, autodidactic, or maybe wealth-seekers hungry for the spoils of war? Or some combined characteristics of the above? Were they abused, deprived, neglected, abandoned, malnourished, poverty stricken, homeless in childhood?
Who were they and and what can be discovered and discerned about why they started wars wittingly or unwittingly?
The somewhat obvious origin of my question is pretty existential: the frightening and dangerous era in contemporary American history, that is currently scaring not only Americans, but sensible and alert people worldwide. Some are perhaps playing with a delusional deck of cards. I think there is that, but probably more than that.
Historically, why did no one stop these war-mongers? Stupidity, cowardice, lethargy, inattentiveness, greed, vested interests (political or otherwise)?
Sleeping giants do wake up eventually. Some of them are also undoubtedly fools. Some of them actually do stop or avert wars. Some of them just go with the flow. Some of them are profiteers. Some are self-involved, corrupt beings that have no human compassion or care for others. Some are mean and hateful and angry and aggrieved without cause. They lack rationality. But when they tolerate or start wars, indiscriminately attacking cultures, torturing individuals, separating families, and with scorched earth methods totally disregard all human values, they earn a special place in Hell.
Only God sees the heart, or so believers believe. But any conscious and conscience-driven human being senses evil when it touches them. Asleep or awake, evil has a way of getting our attention and sometimes killing us. War, slowly or suddenly, inflicts the evil of an unnatural death, and so we must resist it. I repeat: We must resist war, it’s evils, and those unmindful of its evil.
And we must remember that wars in this day and age do not always startle us. Their toxic fumes can slowly, subtly creep out of small societal cracks and then explode. The enemy within is not always a Manchurian candidate. (And it seems that the mustache is fairly irrelevant - despite Stalin, Hitler, Bolton, etc - since not a consistent factor.) Sometimes the home grown enemy is simple bigotry or greed. Sometimes we cannot see it or sort it all out, but we can always try to be discerning and energetically mindful of the lethargy that refuses to say something (or do something) when we see or smell something evil. And we can be ever thankful that we are not alone, even in the darkest days and nights.
Fools do start wars. The rest of us can stop them if only we have the will to do so. Rome was not built in a day; it fell when no one resisted, and when the fools took over. Oh, oh, oh, say can you see that when the inmates run the asylum, it is not a pretty picture.
God bless America, from sea to shining sea.
I was thinking and wondering about whether someone has researched, written about and reached any conclusions about who, exactly, starts wars? I mean, if we can name specific individuals that apparently triggered various large wars in the last 1000 years or so, can they be reliably profiled? Were they fools, dictators, narcissists, demagogues, warriors, schizophrenics, ignoramuses, delusional, bullies, autocrats, paranoid, mercenaries, autodidactic, or maybe wealth-seekers hungry for the spoils of war? Or some combined characteristics of the above? Were they abused, deprived, neglected, abandoned, malnourished, poverty stricken, homeless in childhood?
Who were they and and what can be discovered and discerned about why they started wars wittingly or unwittingly?
The somewhat obvious origin of my question is pretty existential: the frightening and dangerous era in contemporary American history, that is currently scaring not only Americans, but sensible and alert people worldwide. Some are perhaps playing with a delusional deck of cards. I think there is that, but probably more than that.
Historically, why did no one stop these war-mongers? Stupidity, cowardice, lethargy, inattentiveness, greed, vested interests (political or otherwise)?
Sleeping giants do wake up eventually. Some of them are also undoubtedly fools. Some of them actually do stop or avert wars. Some of them just go with the flow. Some of them are profiteers. Some are self-involved, corrupt beings that have no human compassion or care for others. Some are mean and hateful and angry and aggrieved without cause. They lack rationality. But when they tolerate or start wars, indiscriminately attacking cultures, torturing individuals, separating families, and with scorched earth methods totally disregard all human values, they earn a special place in Hell.
Only God sees the heart, or so believers believe. But any conscious and conscience-driven human being senses evil when it touches them. Asleep or awake, evil has a way of getting our attention and sometimes killing us. War, slowly or suddenly, inflicts the evil of an unnatural death, and so we must resist it. I repeat: We must resist war, it’s evils, and those unmindful of its evil.
And we must remember that wars in this day and age do not always startle us. Their toxic fumes can slowly, subtly creep out of small societal cracks and then explode. The enemy within is not always a Manchurian candidate. (And it seems that the mustache is fairly irrelevant - despite Stalin, Hitler, Bolton, etc - since not a consistent factor.) Sometimes the home grown enemy is simple bigotry or greed. Sometimes we cannot see it or sort it all out, but we can always try to be discerning and energetically mindful of the lethargy that refuses to say something (or do something) when we see or smell something evil. And we can be ever thankful that we are not alone, even in the darkest days and nights.
Fools do start wars. The rest of us can stop them if only we have the will to do so. Rome was not built in a day; it fell when no one resisted, and when the fools took over. Oh, oh, oh, say can you see that when the inmates run the asylum, it is not a pretty picture.
God bless America, from sea to shining sea.
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