Every once in a while we have a run of unusual weather in
this part of the world. The customary grey
clouds have taken a brief respite from the sky.
The trees are barren from their loss of any residual bits of vegetation. Instead, we are blessed with clear skies and
brilliant sunshine. The ground is atypically
dry and covered with a light blanket of frost that lingers in shaded spots
during the day. It is a reminder of how,
in the final analysis, we really are just living creatures being treated to a
glimpse of an infinite universe. It is
easy to be deluded into believing all is well with the world. But, a dose of the daily news and the talk
shows staffed by pundits of every persuasion reminds us that it is quite the
contrary. God’s miracle of bright
sunshine on a frosty landscape is only a reminder of how finite we are compared
to what He can do with all He has it His disposal in the universe. Mortal man, take note. In the final analysis we are really nothing. The magnificence of the wonders of how decent
we, as human beings are, is dwarfed by the pervasive evil that surrounds all of
us, and just how small we seem to be in our efforts to move into the sphere of
wonderment which is our common lot. It
is the persistent pall that hangs over us all.
God is at peace in His Heaven while we consume the flesh of
each other in our persistent efforts to satisfy a greed that is never satisfied.
I happen to believe in the inherent decency of mankind. I don’t believe that anyone enters this world
less than a perfect example of the work of our Creator. What lies ahead may well tarnish his being
and compromise his soul, but we begin with perfection as our birthright. Rather, it is what we do to each other and
the insults that await us that make us fall from grace and do the unspeakable
to each other without remorse. We become
ugly and rationalize that which we become but were never intended to be.
I cannot recall a time in my life when I have looked out on
a landscape of living beings who have managed to sell their very souls to the
darkest bidders for every conceivable kind of materialistic and hedonistic pleasure
imagined by the human mind. Instead of
wonders of Creation, human beings are viewed as just another expendable commodity
and consumable resource to be devoured in the pursuit of those who just cannot
get enough at the expense of all those who have so little to give.
A decorum that once set limits on our darker natures has
vanished. Rather, the only norm of
conduct is simply whatever the traffic will bear. There are no more boundaries within which we
are expected to live for the good of everyone.
There isn’t even a faint attempt to reign in those excesses. And those who are at the bottom of the “social”
ladder are their victims. We all
intuitively know that but do so little to try and right all those wrongs. We just look the other way and continue with
our feeding frenzy at the expense of other less fortunate souls.
We talk a good story but I see few genuine moral compasses
that keep us pointed in the right direction.
I, particularly, am deafened by the particular influence of religion in
all this. They have fallen silent on a
message of hope, peddling instead ecclesiastical bull dung in their futile
attempts to seduce the lesser among us into believing they have our best and
most desirable interests at heart. And
we remain mute as we drink in every word they utter and covet every perverted
admonition they peddle. They have
managed to convince us that they hold forth knowledge. Yet, they can empirically prove nothing. All they have at their disposal is a battery
of assertions; empty beliefs they euphemistically call “gospel.” Knowledge is arduous, believing is
folly.
I ask myself, “Where is all the love, forgiveness,
compassion, concern, understanding, redemption, and all the other superlatives
that are supposed to be at the heart of their message? Instead, they peddle fire, brimstone,
damnation, discrimination, prejudice, and eternal hell for all those who dare
to question what they have chosen to simply “believe.” Where is the proof?
I subscribe to the notion that we are all responsible for
who and what we are. No amount of
rationalization can cleanse us of the darker aspects of what we become. That is on our plate. That is our burden. I don’t believe that anyone comes into this
world inherently bad or beyond redemption.
Nor do I believe that all we carry with us to death necessarily vanishes
from our souls either. The burden of our
humanity is our greatest challenge that carries with it the responsibility for
a level of introspection and reflection few of us ever master, but which most
of us sorely need on our journey throughout this life.
I cannot identify one religion that even comes close to the
level of perfection that all forms of religion profess but which few actually
practice. Otherwise, why do we have a
plethora of hypocrites and so few saints among us? How is it that we manage to rationalize the
darker side of our nature with such ease and condemn our transgressions with
such difficulty? The religious
institutions that are there to guide us in this effort seem to have managed to
overcome that liability with a minimum of effort.
I find it rather incredulous at the amount of time and
effort that has been spent on us over the ages regarding the basic need of
humans, as living beings, to simply reproduce.
That would seem essential to the propagation of the species. Moreover, decorum would suggest that the
process should be a personal matter between two consenting adults. How it has become an issue for public
consumption and perverse pleasure takes it out of the realm of what, in my
opinion, it should be. On the other
hand, it isn’t much of a stretch when you have members of the clergy immersed
in pedophilia, those who advocate and practice polygamy, those who promote
violence and discrimination, and those who have sold their souls for the
almighty dollar and hold themselves out as paragons of virtue. These are but a smattering of those who
profess to be messengers of God. All
seem to have rationalized and codified all they need to feel righteous in the
pursuit of their evil. It should come as
no surprise that they have so little credibility and those who used to listen
to their messages of hope and salvation have turned to the more visceral forms
of pleasure. Then there are those who
practice the most brutal and suppressive forms of politics, all in the name of
the Almighty they ostensibly revere and who have the audacity to honestly
believe “He” (whoever that is) actually communicates with them! At the end of the day, it is Buddhism and the
simplicity of its purity that wins - hands down.
I am most aggrieved by my own chosen faith, the Catholic
Church, into which I came from a more generalized form of Christianity, but
chose for the sake of familial homogeneity brought on by the institution of
marriage. Do I regret it? Not in the least. Am I comfortable with what I have learned
about all its forms of perfection and dismayed by all its imperfections? Of
course. The piety which it professes and the reality of its being have been a
challenge, but I am reminded of the wise words of one who said, referring to
any commitment in life, “Is it not better to stay and strive to change it from
within than to simply condemn it from without?”
That fits for me and it is the path I try to follow, reserving the right
to engage in constructive criticism where appropriate, balanced by the
knowledge that there is nothing stronger and more potentially dangerous than a
simple belief.
The ranks of the clergy are replete with examples of
hypocrisy at its worst and virtue at its best.
Sadly, the darker side of human nature seems to have prevailed because
of the denial of our human makeup at a tremendous cost to a belief that,
somehow, celibacy made one more pleasing to God than simply being a good and
decent person. Marriage serves a good
purpose and it should be an integral part of the lives of the clergy in the
Catholic Church. I cannot see where
being a good husband and father has dampened the religious calling of legions
of good men to different Christian faiths.
But, the pageantry and power coveted by so many men of the cloth in the
Catholic Church seems to have been a much stronger calling. Ambition and reverence for power seems to
have won the day, but it certainly has not dampened the sheer force of hormonal
energy. But, at what cost? One need only look at the damaged lives
strewn over time, created by secrecy and lust tempered with a false sense of
piety. Yet, to this day, we still defer
to the notion that celibacy is preferable to procreation.
Then, we come to those who feed on the stuff of Ecclesiastes
at the bottom of the food chain. One
only has to look at those who claim to be members in good standing of the Tea
Party, followed by your garden variety of politico in every environ and haven
to be found in Washington, D.C. No group
can peddle chapter and verse of God’s Will with greater aplomb than politicians
comfortably seated in the halls of government in order to plunder and pillage
in the name of the will of a higher power.
None are better at pandering to the great wealth of our nation’s
oligarchs, financiers and former government officials. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to spot
them a mile away. Despicable is my word
of choice, but there ought to be one better.
I refer to those legions of self-professed hypocrites who know
absolutely nothing about religion but believe everything it has ever peddled,
and which gives respectability to their personal biases and prejudices that
underscore what they know, with absolute certainty, is the word of God
Himself. Critical thought and analysis
is “verboten.” All it takes to become a
member in good standing is a set of beliefs, no matter how shallow, vile or
destructive they may be, so long as they are compatible with, not what they
need to know but what they choose to believe.
That is their one-way ticket to redemption and the carte blanche claim
to every kind of political largess they can allege as their inherent right. Meanwhile, those who have the least are left
to suffer the most. After all, is that not
God’s will?
Then there are the barons of Wall Street, the august members
in seats of power on the political spectrum to be found in government
institutions ostensibly there to serve us and to be role models for a better
society. We have a sacred and protected
two-party political system. We have the
White House and all who live and work there.
We have the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court,
all living like kings and queens supported at the expense of the broader world
of “serfs” who only want their fair share of their democracy and an equal shot at
the spoils that spring from it. What
they, as taxpayers, cannot provide is garnered from the legions of lobbyists,
myriad numbers and kinds of special interests, the military-industrial complex,
the vast array of financiers, oligarchs, plutocrats and all of the other
unsavory characters who have managed to worm their way into the national
treasury. Every conceivable kind of
thief, philanderer, moral reprobate, and political hack that make the “system”
work can be found somewhere within the Beltway.
Do we hold any of them to account?
Do we bind them to any standards to ensure their honesty, integrity and
performance? Not on your life.
The most glaring example of how bold they have become was
the recent and perverse comedy staged at the White House when the President and
chief minion of William Jefferson Clinton awarded him the Medal of
Freedom. If that doesn’t prove to a
numbed-down nation of citizens just how corrupt and self-serving the “people’s”
government has become, I don’t know what does.
Bill Clinton gave away the safety and security of our financial and
banking systems with the stroke of a pen and, also, reminded us that the term
“fellatio” does not actually refer to any form of Italian food or work of art. Yet, it is he who is held out by every kind
of mass media known to us that he was a great president and our greatest living
statesman. Now I ask you folks, if that
doesn’t confirm the reality of our lazy minds and shallow beliefs, I don’t know
what does. A preponderance of us
actually believes all that crap. Yes, we
really do need a “free and unfettered” press to protect us against our
proclivity to plunge headlong into a terminal case of calcified cranial tissue.
Let us not forget that this democracy belongs equally to
each and every one of us. It is a
treasure we cannot afford to take for granted or to simply care for on an “as
needed” basis. It is a high-maintenance
treasure we must nurture if it is to remain viable and healthy for us and all
generations to come. We must carefully
guard and protect it from predators of all kinds; all those who claim privilege
and power based on their self-perceived and claimed right to every entitlement
imaginable. It is the antithesis of
“self” and the champion of “we.” It is
not for sale to the highest bidder, but rather the property of us all. It is our individual and collective
responsibility to ensure it will always be there to serve our mutual interests
and the common welfare for us all.
We, as individuals, must confront the perils to what we want
to be as civilized people. We must
reclaim a sense of decency, justice, fair-play, and tolerance, a shared concern
for everyone and the attendant affects they have on us as individuals. We have to protect our individual rights but,
also, our social responsibilities. Our
collective wealth must be shared equally with everyone valued as individuals.
We must relearn respect for the great minds, the talented
artists and learned scholars who have the means to delve into bodies of
knowledge that will keep this planet we call home safe and viable for ourselves
and all of those yet to come. Our
treasures are not there to be plundered for a few but, rather, to be the
life-blood for us all. Personal initiative
is to be encouraged, but our common welfare must be a sacred obligation we have
for one another.
The temporal value of things must be kept in perspective for
what they are. Our human component must
be kept paramount in our list of priorities lest we become like a pack of wild
predators that see only opportunity in those of lesser means. We must always remember that it is the blood
of a patriot that saves a nation; not the blood of a nation that saves the
wealth for a few.
We live in the most perilous times I can recall in my entire
life. Nothing is to be taken lightly and
each of us must remain vigilant against the most pervasive evil one could ever
have imagined. We must be careful not to
allow the pursuit of pleasure, the acquisition of things and our own vested
interests to dominate our lives. We must
join with others who share a common goal of preserving what we have and improving
on what is yet to come.
We must relearn the value of mastering the art and science
of critical thought instead of memorizing shallow opinions. We must relearn the value of intellectual
pursuits and the ability to apply the results of those exercises to more noble
actions. We must relearn the value of
talking to each other, touching each other, and seeing each other that only can
come from the warmth of another person.
Let the texting and all of the other empty forms of social networking we
have come to rely on die. We will learn
much more of lasting value from each other than we ever will from those who
have made billions off gadgets that only numb our brains and give us nothing of
value in return. We are alive; they are
not. We can think ahead and
conceptualize; they cannot. We were
created to be all we are and more. They
were created for one purpose only, with a limited life and valued only until
the next model hits the market. Who
needs that? Moreover, who wants that?
Our most formidable enemy is those who believe it will never
happen to them. They are the ones who
denigrate all of the great minds throughout history whose curiosity and
determination are more attuned to the reality of our lives. We are the repository of a broader scope of
thought that takes in all that is around us and all of what we can
imagine. Theirs is a life of lifeless
things. Ours is a life of amazing
wonder.
If you want to change your life forever, simply set yourself
to the task of doing something nice for someone else. Hold a door open for someone. Pay the difference for something that another
might not have, but thought he did. Say
“hello” to someone who would never have imagined that you would. The sheer surprise by the recipient will warm
the very cockles of your soul. The
residual feelings within you will stay with you longer than you think.
At the end of the day, get to know humanity all over
again. See the beauty and worth in every
individual. Feel his pain and share in
her dreams. Share the burden of fighting
for all our dreams, hopes and aspirations.
When the sun sets on the total worth of all of that wonderful effort,
the magnificence and value of all we are and can be will change you forever. Moreover, it will sow within you the desire
to preserve the very best about us and renew our collective hope for a future
yet to come, giving each and every day new meaning.
One of my long-departed Grandfathers left me with one very
profound pearl of wisdom. “When a man waves the Bible in your face, keep
your back to he wall.” Truth may be
elusive but it is the greatest gift of all. May it always have the power to become your personal goal and our common bond.
Cowboy Bob
The Sagebrush Philosopher
November 28, 2013
