Toward a Personal Theology (Part II)

Tags

faith, fundamentalism, God, reality, religion, theology, truth

Reality changes at different stages of growth.

Plenty of people will disagree. Reality is as they say, reality. But is this really true? I would say not. First of all, we know from molecular physics that reality is actually very relative. It is relative to location, but most importantly, we learn that the very act of observation changes the reality of what we are looking at. We subtly change reality by actually viewing it.

I don’t know if it matters that more than one person is looking at the same thing. Does it change it for both? The same? Differently? I don’t have a clue. All I know is that the activity of viewing changes the motion of the atoms.

Psychologists and attorneys know that reality is not the same for everyone. That is why there are such strict and careful instructions when dealing with “eye” witness testimony. No two people see the same event exactly the same. When everyone tells the same exact story, you can be sure they have cooked up the story.

We have come to expect this difference because we have learned that we are all unique, and what we bring to an event is our own unique blend of genetics plus each and every life experience we have engaged it. They are all in the mix in deciphering this new experience.

It seems not a fair leap from that to suggest that therefore what was reality for us in our twenties is not the same reality for us in our forties. We have twenty additional years to factor into our experience of the event. Jesus is not the same for me today as he was when I was thirty. I have lived nearly thirty additional years and I bring those experiences to my experience of Jesus.

More importantly, what was important to me, central to my life has changed. And it will continue to change. So my panorama of reality must change as well.

What this hints at I suspect is that truth changes. Now some folks will claim that this is pure nonsense. Certain religious types are fond of expounding on truth being truth, unchanging and forever. I guess that sounds right, but the more I think about it the less I believe it.

There are few things that are absolutes, much as some faith traditions might wish to explain otherwise.  Perhaps God’s unending perfect love for his creation is one. I would be hard pressed to disagree with that. I don’t know as I would want to disagree with that.

Beyond that however, as we move closer to the world of humanity on planet earth, truth begins to be more slippery. Murder is not acceptable, but then we carve out exceptions and call them not murder. Infanticide is not acceptable, but we again carve out exceptions. These change over time as anyone can note from a simple examination of history.

What I suggest is that we mature, and our reality or truth or both, mature with us. I say we “do.”  I should probably say we “should.” If our faith is alive and well, we are perpetual seekers. We seek truth and understanding of our God and the world around us.

The God of wrath and retribution is one reality. It is many people’s reality and their truth. They claim to, and I have no doubt they do, find it in the bible. They are people who like rules, and consequences for not following them. They recall that they were controlled as children this way, and they see God as parent, controlling them in the same way. The did the same to their children, and so it goes. They think it right, and moreover they think it the only way.

I won’t deny that imposing punishing consequences may be an appropriate way of controlling children at a certain age. When they are unable to grasp the fine mental explanations of why, best to make the failure to comply a consequence they wish to avoid.

I don’t think that that model is necessary as we mature. We hopefully learn to do right because it makes sense to do right, and for no other reason. I don’t any more love God because of fear that I will not attain heaven. I love God because God is worthy of loving.

Growth in faith for me at least means leaving behind fear. I do not attend Church out of fear, nor out of obedience, nor out of any need to work toward my salvation. God knows the heart, and we seem unable to really get that. He knows when we act out of “have to” rather than “want to.” Have to, is okay for children, but I believe God is ready to move from Father to Friend.

To be friend, I must want to. So I discard a lot of fear based concepts regarding God. I find it illogical to continue with them. I don’t think about devils and hell and ” Jesus dying for my sins.” No God produces such things for his creation, nor creates so poorly that such things are needed. No God sends a Son for death. A son dies, to be sure, but does so willingly, not for sins, but to show the Way. The Way of living and of dying and of living again in harmony with God.

It’s taken me a lot of years to work this all out. And no doubt I’m more wrong than right, and no doubt I’m creating  God in my image to too great an extent. But I have lived by a maxim for many a year. God must be at minimum as great as I can conceive. So I feel, at least, that I am on the right track. God knows the mind and heart. He knows honesty. If that doesn’t count,  and some properly constructed liturgical incantation is the deal breaker, then I’m off the mark and God is not any God I can logically understand.

But if we are wired for God, then I suspect I can understand at least the framework of God. If I am in God’s image, than the mind must be the main vehicle in which we share commonality. At least that is my reality today.

Toward a Personal Theology (Part 1)

Tags

Catholicism, faith, fundamentalism, God, Jesus, religion, theology

I’m often asked (well okay, almost never, but you have to admit it’s a good lead in) what my problem is with fundamentalists.

My answer is not that I have such a serious quarrel with somebody saying there are five or six things one must adhere to in order to be “Christian.” Actually, I do, but that’s not the point today.

I have issues with fundamentalists on many levels, but most assuredly that I find them intellectually dishonest. Of course that charge can no doubt be leveled at many believers, those who give lip service to whatever their denomination tends to expound on as “truth” all the while not bothering to think about it, let alone actually investigate.

Today I want to look at the third in a series of statements made by Deepak Chopra.

There is no reliable guide to behavior outside your own heart and mind.

Now on first glance, that no doubt seems outrageously wrong. It can be seen as giving license to everyone to “do their own thing.” But on deeper analysis, this is not at all true.

For it does not mean that we are free to merely act wantonly,  disregarding  truth or morality. It requires that each of us discern as best we can, what is right or wrong in behavior. We do this in any number of ways, some good, some not so good, but we all do it.

Religious folks are want to claim sometimes that there can be no morality outside of religion, that it is the moral barometer of the world. This of course is not true, the human mind has the ability to define morality without reference to any God. Common sense at worst would guide most rational people to conclude that murder is wrong, so is thievery, and so on. Religion merely stamps these conclusions with some “higher” reason–God wants it that way.

Many of us are raised in a certain faith tradition, and thus we often adopt it’s morality scale as our own. At least for a time, that is. As we mature, go off to college, the real world, experiences sometimes conflict, sometimes re-enforce that. We stay, we change, we discard our religious affiliations accordingly.

Before I say more, let me acknowledge that for many people these thoughts never are entertained. Faith is a “part” of life they don’t think much about. They dutifully attend to faith matters as required, with little or no thought. Nothing jarring is occurring in terms of what they hear on Sunday and what they naturally believe, so all is well.

So, some of us actually evaluate our faith tradition against our personal beliefs, some of are vaguely aware that we are in sync or not, and others of us don’t think about it much at all.  Those who claim they adhere to a particular theology because it is “the truth” have merely without really thinking about it,  gravitated to a faith tradition that seems in keeping with their own natural proclivities. We are in essence “guided” to the place that sets out in detail our general beliefs.

This is true of the fundamentalist, though they would be loathe to admit it. The fact is, they read the bible, or hear the preaching, and they agree with this and that of what they take in. It agrees with how they have come to view the world. Happy are they when they see that witches are to be burned or that homosexuals are to be vilified, for they believed this independently of the bible, and long before they found affirmation in it.

To protect this affirmation, they overlay it with a tight canvas of “infallibility.” The Bible becomes the actual “WORD” of God, correct to the last tittle, as they say. But of course, this is the great fallacy. For our fundamentalist friends all too quickly forget that they ignore a good deal of the bible all the time. Inerrancy doesn’t prevent them from eating pork, or not properly blooded animals. Nor does it keep them from lending with interest.

All kinds of nice ways are found around these difficulties, when pointed out, such as “the OT is superseded by the NT, we don’t have to follow those old Levitical laws.” They say this, by of course denying Jesus’ own words in the NT. Pick and choose is all they are doing, and while we all do so, most of us admit that fact. They do not.

We, (sane people like myself) know that the bible is in a sense like the constitution, a living document in some ways. Meant to show us how faith was expressed by others, and as a guide for how to figure out how to act today. The bible doesn’t purport to answer all of our questions today, but it can act as a framework for figuring out how we should decide these new issues.

For me, God must make sense. I cannot deal with a God who doesn’t. So for a good deal of my life, the only God I knew was that offered me by the fundamentalist, and I couldn’t relate to God in this way. A God of wrath, a God of anger, vengeance, and one who demanded me to feel deep guilt for my sinful existence was not a God I cared about knowing.  

I got away from that God in Catholicism for a while. I was able to reconcile some of my confusion. Catholicism is, or so I thought, a fairly logically consistent faith tradition. Until it wasn’t. When I began to find that my heart was guiding me elsewhere, I began to see as well the fallacy. Logic was there, but it was based on a house of cards, each a supposition, unsupported, but supporting the next. I realized that logic doesn’t always mean truth.

Thus my foray some years ago into the more Eastern and “new thought”
traditions.  For I cannot abide the uncomfortable feeling when God doesn’t “hang together.”

(tomorrow: Part II–how reality changes)

Job Satisfaction is Job 0

Tags

David Attenborough, evolution, nature, work, work ethic

A few days ago, I wrote a blog on Memorial Day, and the bizarre way we celebrate it.  I surely won’t belabor the point for you now, but I think from the comments, that my point got across. It is hard to think of Britain or France, or the Israelis celebrating their war dead in this way.

I do think it is highly understandable however, and therefore, I don’t find reason to beat upon the collective head of America for it’s insensitive treatment of a most solemn day.

The reason, is that we, as Americans almost overwhelmingly look forward to any day off from work the way a dog salivates, observing a steak mere centimeters from it’s jaws. We get giddy, we dance, we flat out want to celebrate. We call days various things based on how close or far they are from Saturday and Sunday. Mondays are black, ugly, miserable, the start of a long haul. Wednesdays are “hump” day. Thursday, the anticipation builds, and then it’s “TGIF!”

Not, “Oh wonderful it’s Friday,” or “Yippie, it’s Friday,” but THANK GOD!!!!, as if we might not survive if the work week went on one more day. And indeed perhaps we really come close to believing it. And the reason?

The reason is simply, we feel fortunate to work, to be able to make a living, to be able to pay the bills. Part of the worth ethic in this country has never been that we do a job we love, only that we do the job. We hunker down, we drag ourselves there, we honorably do the job we are assigned, and at the stroke of the hour, we pour out, sometimes even running to the car, the bus, the train, and get the hell away.

This is sad, but I would say, with no real actual stats, that probably 85% of us are at work because we need the paycheck. We may enjoy some aspects of our work, may not totally hate it, make like the folks we work with. But given our druthers, we would be some place else, and doing something else.

We may perceive that the wealthy or more well to do, can afford to take their time and determine what is their life’s love. They can travel the continent for a year, waste a couple of years in college, taking anything much that sounds interesting before buckling down to actually learn something.

The rest of us have no such luxury. If we were lucky enough to afford college, we were there for four years, and we were expected to come out with a saleable craft. Those of us who were a bit luckier could afford to extend that to law school or medical school, but still, we did it in the requisite minimum time frame. No dallying.

A million (well a few actually) other things intrigued me. Anthropology, and philosophy for starts. I didn’t really even know the word paleontology at the time I doubt. These would have been pretty darn neat disciplines I would have loved to pursue. But in all such cases, this required a masters, and then doctorate since there isn’t much call for an BA in anthropology these days, or any days. Teach it and write, and take sabbaticals for treasure hunting. That requires PH.D’s. 

So I ended up being a lawyer. While it had it’s moments, I never was “fascinated” or in love with it. It was a job, it brought a paycheck.

Which is why people like David Attenborough totally are my heroes. I’ve been watching him on various channels for maybe 30 or more years. He travels everywhere, from deep under the ocean to the tallest mountain peaks, and he shows me wonders in nature. He’s been doing it for 50 years.

He seems as much in love with what he does now as when he did the first time I saw him. His sense of wonder and excitement are as fresh today as ever. He seems not to be the product of great wealth. His love for nature apparently was evident since his youth. He was a collector as a child.

I use him only as an example. You can think of your own no doubt with ease. People that you can just tell, jump out of bed in anticipation each morning,eager to go off to their chosen field. You’ve seen the orchid expert gasping with delight at finding a new species, or the geologist waiting expectantly, wringing his hands, waiting for the spectroscopic analysis to be complete. Some of the funniest are the JPL guys and gals as they watch with held breath as the robots traverse the planet Mars, oohing and aahing, over pieces of gravel we simply shrug at.

I truly envy these people who by luck, or sheer force of will attained the right job for themselves. The ones who wouldn’t do anything differently if given the chance. Who can’t imagine retiring. These are blessed lives.

I’m rather convinced that this is what we are meant to do, love the thing we do and do the thing we love. Someday I think we will all do that. Until then, it’s TGIF! for the rest of us.

Reasonable and Holy

Tags

Anglican, bible, Book Reviews, Episcopal, gay rights, God, Jesus, Reasonable and Holy, same-sex marriage, Tobias S. Haller

As I mentioned the other day, we just conducted a short forum discussion at our church on the issue of same-sex marriage. In light of the recent Iowa Supreme Court decision opening the way for same-sex civil marriage, our diocese is suddenly having to grapple with how we will handle it.

We had already been blessings such unions, but  now we must determine whether we as a Church will move forward into the actual marriage arena.

So this book could not come at a better time. I am deeply thankful to Church Publishing in allowing me this opportunity to review this singularly invaluable book on the subject.

Many of you are fans of Tobias Stanislas Haller already from his wonderful and engaging website, “In a Godward Direction.” It will be no surprise that he has written an extraordinary book in Reasonable and Holy.

Frankly I must admit that I was somewhat surprised as I read it. I have read a reasonable amount in this area, and was prepared to revisit the usual issues of what is authentic Paul, and so on, and the various arguments that certain portions of scripture, namely 1Timothy should be ignored. That is not what I found.

Tobias Haller is a good deal smarter than that. He wisely notes that there is plenty of evidence of redaction and so on, but that in the end, we must deal with the text as received by the Church. In this I think he is right. The entire discussion gets side tracked when we first have to convince that perhaps not all of scripture is “valid” in some way.

This of course, is not to say, that he doesn’t examine the text quite thoroughly and make a fine case that much of what we “think”  it says, is inaccurate. He does this by “unpacking” the text as it seems to relate to same-sex relationships. By the use of rabbinic writings, and those of Richard Hooker, as well as countless theologians and biblical experts, Haller unpeels the onion of meaning attached to the various words of scripture that we have come to believe mean homosexual behavior.

Tobias does this in excruciating detail. I don’t mean that to mean boring in any sense, but he essentially leaves no argument unanswered. From the most serious and large to the most silly and small, he responds in a gentle, reasonable, thoughtful manner. At no time is he dismissive of those he argues against. He looks for common ground.

Without doing violence to the text themselves, he makes a good case that marriage is about more than procreation and that this is supported by Genesis itself, particularly in the second creation story of Genesis 2. He shows how God means for humans to  love and support one another and that these are as valid a goal of marriage as procreation.

Haller points out, that we don’t have to ignore or reverse Church teaching, so much as we must and can grow past it, much as we have done with other issues down through the ages. We have adapted scripture to a changing world, and  we can recognize that there is an overriding concern expressed in the bible and by Jesus that we love and uphold good rather than remain tied to traditions that no longer serve that purpose.

There are several examples of what are rather clear directives in the law, yet even though they were held to apply in the early Christian communities, we have long since discarded them. For instance, the ban against eating the blood of animals was upheld in the Jerusalem Council in Acts, yet we have abandoned that practice largely, though the Eastern Orthodox still adhere to it.

Similarly, there is a clear ban on usury, the use of interest, yet our economy today is totally dependent on the concept and we now define that prohibition to mean only “unreasonable” interest.

Haller is by no means the first to claim that the so-called prohibitions against homosexual behavior are deeply tied to cultic idolatry, prostitution, and rape. It has been the considered opinion of many that this is the case, and that the case of loving, monogamous same-sex relationships were not even thought of in that time and place. Thus we do no real violence to scripture in declaring that gay and lesbian relationships that are mutually loving and supportive should be excluded from scriptural restriction.

The book itself is less than 200 pages, but it is literally bursting with excellent exegetical scholarship. It is most clear that Tobias Haller is an excellent mind, and has thoroughly, carefully, and with great insight examined the biblical field as it relates to this subject.

I suspect that it will go down as one of the “classics” in the field, and will be used by countless colleges and universities as a primary text for discussion. I know that it has served me well in deeply enlightening me on the nuances of argument to be made. I have always felt slightly unsatisfied by the arguments so far, and Tobias has given me a real sense of feeling grounded in truth here.

It can serve as well for a text in our various churches when and if we choose to address the issue. And I submit, that we must address it. We are faced with a deep unfairness here. Our lesbian and gay sisters and brothers are enormous assets to our ecclesial life, and we squander their gifts and talents at our peril. It is what Jesus would do I submit. This book helps us get where we need to be, and does so with gentle tenderness.

Let me close with Tobias’s own words:

But the body that matters most at this point is the body of Christ, the church, of which and in which we are individual members–and in that edifice we build with what we have and what we are. Do our actions build it up, or tear it down? Do we edify as building blocks and living stones, or serve as stumbling blocks and stones of scandal about which the builders are bewildered, as indeed Jesus said of himself? As organs in the body, do we contribute to its overall well-being, or spend our energy in attempts at ecclesiastical self-mutilation in removing portions deemed cancerous or malignant, but which may be vital to the health of the whole? Do we overly concern ourselves with outward appearances and forms, or seek the content and the values that lie within? Do we concern ourselves with what goes into the church, or what comes out of it? Do we love much, or little?

Tobias Haller shows us the way to a new maturity and lovingness in our faith. Let us pray that we are wise enough and loving enough to respond.

God Hopes in Ida!

Tags

chimpanzees, evolution, fossils, Human Biology, Ida, lemurs, missing link, paleontology, transitional fossils

Isn’t she cute? She’s our ancestor of sorts. At least those who have studied her svelte little body seem to think so. She is the most perfectly preserved fossil of an animal that is “linked” to humans ever found. Much better than “Lucy” found about 30 years ago by Don Johanson. Only about 60% of her was found, while we have 95% of Ida.

Darwinius Masillae is her quite formal name. She was about three feet tall, and was only 6 months old when she died. She lived in what is modern day Germany. At that time, the area was firmly in the grips of global warming and was a tropical rain forest. It was also highly volcanic, and it is surmised that Ida came down to drink and was overcome by noxious fumes and fell into the lake and drowned. She sunk to the bottom, and remained there for 47 million years.

Why she has excited the paleontological world to near hysteria, is that she may we be a transitional fossil, namely the one before the split between prosimians which gave us lemurs, those cute antic-prone animals who climb like monkeys but aren’t, and anthropoids, which gave us monkeys, apes and then US.

Ida seems a cross between the two groups. They checked her very thoroughly, and although she exhibits characteristics of the lemur family, she has neither the “toilet” claw used for grooming, nor  the “comb” tooth, front  bottom. So she is before the line split. She had fingernails like present day chimps and gorillas, and walked on all fours though she could stand up on two legs.

She lived in the trees, coming down for toilet and water. She fed on leaves and berries and nuts. They were able to identify the contents of her tummy as leaves and nuts I believe. It’s all quite wonderful to think about.

I am of the opinion that God created the universe by setting into motion the laws that would govern it along with the “stuff” of the big bang. He watched and watches it materialize. Some places the right stuff comes along at the right time and place, and live evolves, higher and higher if conditions are right.

I think God “hopes” that lots of life develops into sentience, because then he can truly interact with it. So I imagine that he was cheering on little Ida that day, and hoped the best for her and her kind. Being God, I guess he could project out the possible outcomes, so no doubt, Earth was a place that thereafter he kept an especially close eye on. We were a “promising” place.

What was shocking about learning about Ida, is the underbelly of this business of paleontology. One would like to think that all this stuff is conducted by universities and higher places of science. Sadly this is not the case, and is definitely not the same for antiquities either. Rather, privateers find a lot of this stuff and sell it to the highest bidder. Private collectors end up with some of it, and it can remain hidden from science and the world for decades.

Such happened to Ida. She was actually found back in 1986, and would have been sold to the highest bidder if not for the efforts of Jorn H. Hurum, from Norway. He collected over I believe, one million dollars, to buy the fossil and preserve it for the scientific community.

We saw a special on this Monday night I believe on the History Channel. A book entitled “The Link” is on sale now. What was all quite amusing to me, is that the brain-dead who argue that evolution is all a massive hoax perpetrated by millions of atheists, always complain that there are no transitional fossils as an argument. Of course that is shear nonsense on its face. But during the show, they interviewed a professor of paleontology I believe from Duke University. His speciality is “transitional” fossils and his collection is I think the largest in the world. I imagine he would be quite shocked to learn he was an expert in nothing!

To be fair, Ida is not a direct ancestor as such. She is more aunt than grandmother. But still, isn’t it grand to learn about how incredible God is in creating a universe that has such symmetrical beauty in it. Evolution proves too wonderfully that we are all in God and God is in all. We are all inextricably tied together in a beautiful symphony of DNA. It’s elegant to be sure, and something so very worthy of God.

 

How to Celebrate Solemnity

Tags

American History, celebrations, Memorial Day, Veterans, War

Americans may truly be the only nation of people who can find it somehow right and proper to combine a solemn honoring of our war dead day, with picnics, the beach, camping and barbecue.

I don’t know how we do it,  but we do. And we don’t seem to see anything odd about it.

Now, before you get your knickers in a twist or whatever other bodily wear the image brings up for you personally, I’m not here to wag the finger. No such thing at all. I was happily munching on a brat-dog yesterday and shoveling down my world famous potato salad. (I can say world famous because I published the recipe a while back–and it is undeniable that I have an “international” following of sorts. “Famous” might be quibbled with, but it’s my blog, so you know what that means.)

But the thought did wander through the fog of my brain after having consumed such fare, that well, it was all a bit strange after all. We are not supposed to be celebrating at all, rather we are to be properly solemn. I’ve used that word three times now, so you know it figures prominently here.

We are supposed to be “reflective” and meditative aren’t we? This is called MEMORIAL day after all. We have a lot of memorials to remember doncha think? I mean, starting with the Revolutionary war, various internecine “wars” against Native Americans, such that we nearly wiped out whole tribes. They there is the French and Indian, (the Indians again), the war of 1812, the parties of who escape me now. (So many it’s hard to remember all of them.) San Juan Hill had us in Cuba or some place, and we fought Mexicans over Texas and probably Arizona and New Mexico and California some.

Then there are the biggies, the Civil War when we did our best to annihilate each other, the two World Wars, one of which was wrongly claimed to be the “war to end all wars,” then Korea, Vietnam, a couple of Gulfs, Eastern Europe over those “not real wars but just police actions”. There are two going on now, and plenty dead and maimed from those. There are undoubtedly one’s we don’t know about, sneaky CIA type operations where people die and we never know. They are war dead too I guess.

My point is not to make judgments about all these, although most of you might assume correctly that I’m pretty much agin’ such things. My point is to well, point out, that we have a lot of dead to reflect upon. A lot of lives lost, millions, in causes deemed righteous and not so much. A lot of lives ruined that aren’t all that susceptible to figures and grafts and totals.

I’d say there is more than enough for a body to spend the day in quiet reflection on; war, and how we get in them, and more importantly how we can avoid them. To say nothing of those poor folks who are dealing with it firsthand, visiting graves still warm from shovels of dirt not yet packed down, embracing boxes filled with dreams now dead. 

We have somehow found it right and good to turn this day into the “kick-off to summer” and parades where we wave flags and look about us in self-satisfied wonder at all America has wrought. Kids running and ice cream, and baseball, and pretty teen girls flirting with bare chested boys trying to look manly.  A lot of aging men, and increasing more and more women, dress in semi-formal military fare, and sport caps identifying them as VFW, and their particular part in the ongoing mayhem that has been with us since our birth as a nation.

We dutifully watch the TV during the day, or later in the evening, and see the solemn (now four times) placing of wreaths at various monuments, watching the documentation of this going on here and there throughout the country. We feel vaguely embarrassed or guilty that we don’t attend those events, but after all, we have no war dead to mourn ourselves. And it is warm and sunny, and there is a chance to wear shorts and wiggle our toes in the sand and laugh because we have the day off.

I found it ironic that the television schedule during the weekend was filled with old war movies, and war footage. Yes, a perfect legacy of war is to watch pretend war or film of real war. Fitting to remember the dead that way. Glorious, in fact. I’m sure that’s the way they felt about it, before. . . . before they were dead before they hit the ground. How much they were willing to “give that last measure.” Yeah, sure they were.

Nobody is talking of peace. I can’t figure out why. Haven’t we seen a belly full of death and destruction yet? Are we still in love with John Wayne, and “lace ’em up tight boys.” Are we still in Rambo mode?

I wonder all these things as I eat my Klondike Bar in celebration of Memorial Day. Damned if I know why I feel so phony.

For Those Who Gave the Last Full Measure

Tags

Memorial Day, Poetry, Veterans, War

Memorial Day

Death makes brothers of all soldiers.

Those who lay down their weapons.

Beside their own caskets.

Should be allowed peace from the/

nationalistic/militarists attitudes.

That placed them there.

Shouted prayers for peace/

Would be a more fitting tribute

To those who have fallen,

Than beats of drum,

Or blare of bugle.

What better sign of homage could be given,

Than for all living,

To join hands and say as one–

“You have taught us

VIOLENCE IS WRONG.”

I sob with frustration

When I think of my own failure as a warrior.

The insufficiency is not

That my mates and I did not win.

Individuals can neither win nor lose wars.

They only survive or die.

Our inadequacy is/

We are unable to create an attitude/

That insures peace.

More than cheers of welcome,

I wanted an end to violence

When I returned home from Vietnam.

As a young man, I narrowly wanted/

Only for the savagery/

Of my time in combat to end.

As I age, I wish more and more,

For the surcease of all brutality/

For all people.
One need not don a uniform,

Or learn to drill,

To be a warrior.

My dictionary defines the word as–

“one engaged or experienced in combat.”

Combat is–

“Strife or turmoil.”

I count as comrades all who despair,

Because of conflict or defilement.

The small children who suffer hideous crimes/

From those who mistreated by neglect.

And all in between who have experienced/

Anguish.

I no longer choose to appraise misery.

There are no commonly valued units of ache.

Agony can only be rated by those who endure.

If I can find meaning/

To the chaos I participated in,

It can only be that it contributed/

To the termination of the desecration

of the human soul.

Sadly. . .

No amount of optimism,

Can allow me to believe,

That will transpire during my life.

I see too much flag waving,

And read of too much misery,

To imagine the malignancy/

Of enmity will soon end.

Memorial day is a day of sadness for me.

Not so much for those I have lost,

Their pain is over.

I weep for those who still stuffer,

The pain of immoral wrongs.

Those whose scars are visible,

And those whose affliction,

Can be detected by the gaze of melancholy;

That can only be seen by fellow travelers,

Through the labyrinth of woe.

                                                            ~~The Contrarian~~

(written many years ago) and offered here with his permission. Peace this day to everyone.