Friday, February 26, 2010

Today’s Hymns:

You Never Give Me Your Money

You never give me your money

You only give me your funny paper

And in the middle of negotiations

You break down

I never give you my number

I only give you my situation

And in the middle of investigation

I break down

Out of college, money spent

See no future, pay no rent

All the money’s gone, nowhere to go

Any jobber got the sack

Monday morning, turning back

Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go

But oh, that magic feeling

Nowhere to go

Oh, that magic feeling

Nowhere to go

Nowhere to go

Ah, ah, ah

One sweet dream

Pick up the bags and get in the limousine

Soon we’ll be away from here

Step on the gas and wipe that tear away

One sweet dream

Came true today

Came true today

Came true today

Yes it did

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven

All good children go to heaven

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven

All good children go to heaven

One, two, three, four, five six, seven

All good children go to heaven

?

Song by: The Beatles

From the album: Abbey Road

Released: 09/26/1969

Imagine

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Song by: John Lennon

From the album: Imagine

Released: 09/09/1971

PS

Happy Birthday to the Prophet Muhammad

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Living to Die

As I listened to Keith Olbermann last evening describe the extraordinary measures being taken to “heal” his father and keep him alive, it dawned on me that we humans are never going to get it right until we move past our denial of death. The Healthcare Reform Summit taking place as I write would do well to spend some time exploring the meaning of life in the context of inevitable death, but it won’t. Armies battling one another for whatever reasons would do well to examine just how imposing death affects the purpose of life, but they won’t. Religions extolling the virtues of immortality would do well to discern how that differentiates mortals from the divine (in my opinion, it does not), but they will not. We would all do well to seriously study the impact of our ultimate destiny upon this current process we call life, but we will not. We don’t like to talk about death. We don’t like to think about death. We almost always prefer the death of another to our own. We pretend to know all the answers, which we don’t, and end up living pretentious lives of denial as a result. If we are ever to achieve the next step of human evolution, whatever that may be, it will be because we learned to accept and celebrate death as the purpose of living. For those Christians who are faithfully following the lectionary during this Lenten season, I invite you to read the story with an eye to the possibly new revelation that Jesus provided a living example of how to die.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Another Miracle!

What is death? A seemingly simple question turns out to be exceedingly difficult to answer. When life stops, death begins. One doesn’t have to look too far to discover the inadequacy of such a simplistic answer when applied to the variety of different situations that affect the human species. Technology has only compounded the problem. Just the question of when exactly life begins stymies government, religion, and science. And if it’s that difficult to determine when life begins, how much more ambiguous is the question of when life ends. The cessation of vital signs would be the rule of thumb in Western societies, but with technological advancement (I am intentionally refraining from using the word ‘progress’) the black and white runs together into a grey hue that denies each its purity. The linear mindset develops a polarity with birth at one end and death at the other, but as we grow in our understanding of the dynamic nature of reality such thinking eventually fails. I am sure that there are those who would argue against my contention in yesterday’s post that life is a miracle, and I would expect the same argument to be used against thinking of death as a miracle. I will, however, stand by this as my answer for the present: death is a miracle!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Count Your Blessings

I woke up this morning! That in and of itself was a miracle! And the miracle has continued unabated right through midday. I am thinking! That in and of itself is a miracle! I am acting! That in and of…you get the picture. When life is defined as the opposite of death it cannot help but be regarded as a miracle. I am well aware that there are many for who death would seem preferable to life, but the issue there is not whether or not it is a miracle but what stands in the way of it being perceived as one. To accept the miracle diminishes the downside of virtually everything. Any food is a gift. The roof over my head and the clothes I am wearing are gifts. The traffic to and from work is not so important when understood in the context of getting to drive as a gift, indeed a privilege. Albert Schweitzer encouraged a reverence for life, and seeing life as a miraculous gift goes a long way toward that end. I am totally blessed. There is nothing for which I can be genuinely ungrateful. The breath of God is within me and that gives me life!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

If I Knew

If I had some way of knowing that I was going to die tomorrow, what would I be doing today? Such imminence doesn’t really allow for the creation of a bucket list. It would barely allow time to gather the family—indeed, this late in the day it would be almost impossible as scattered as we’ve become. Depending on how early today I learned of my impending demise, I probably would have not come to work (I just love the bumper sticker at my work station which exclaims, “I Used Up All My Sick Days SO I CALLED IN DEAD”). Even if I had a full twenty-four hours notice, that really would not allow the time necessary to get all my things in order. What I find intriguing about this scenario is that it—in the most general sense—is actually so. I have absolutely no way of knowing when I will draw my last breath, and so I find myself in a position of truly having to regard each day as my last. If any scholars read this blog I would probably be challenged on my contention that this is the very mindset of Jesus when he reportedly said, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34, NRSV) The entire passage of Matthew 6:29 through 7:5 is well worth reading because Jesus elaborates on what life is really all about: “But strive first for the Kingdom of God.” I am keenly aware of how hokey this Kingdom of God business is for the generation that declared God is dead, but I’m also just gullible enough to believe that our not taking the proposition seriously is the cause of human woe.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Nothing So Certain

Death is our destiny. It is the penultimate definer of life. If one does not comprehend one’s own mortality then the present life’s meaning is diluted. It cannot be denied that one begins dying at the moment of birth. Nothing about life is guaranteed in contrast to the absolute certainty of death. We, the living, know absolutely nothing about the time and place of our death. One of the criticisms of adolescent humans is that they behave as if they were never going to die. They are not alone. This week’s TIME focuses on the gains that are being made to prolong human life. A whole slew of documentaries explore virtual immortality, schemes by which we supposedly will never die. Consider for a moment capital punishment. The ultimate punishment is considered to be death. Murder by any other name is imposing death by taking life. We kill to live. And yet we all die. I cannot apologize for inviting our closer attention to death because by so doing we may gain a far greater appreciation for this fleeting and precious miracle we call life. Only when we accept our inescapable death can we begin to put our lives in context.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Looking Forward to Death

I apologize to those for whom my current focus upon death is disturbing, even distressing. Those who have known me for any length of time know that this is not a new interest, that quite to the contrary it has been with me since I first realized that I’m going to die. Observing from the perspective of actions speaking louder than words, I have concluded that it is rare to accept one’s death from the outset. Life is what we covet. Life is what we want to keep at any expense. Life is our “friend” and death is our “enemy”. Tomorrow the Christian observance of the Season of Lent begins, culminating as it always does in the resurrection story of Easter. Many of the devout and pious will adorn themselves with the sign of the cross on their foreheads while hearing “from dust you were made and to dust you will return” during the imposition. It is a most appropriate way to begin the symbolic journey into and out of the wilderness, although mardi gras belies the sincerity of the quest for many. This is not the first time that I have expressed my belief that Jesus of Nazareth’s profound impact on history was not immortality, but a lesson in living to die. So, if this isn’t your cup of tea it would make sense to tune me out until after Easter. But if you’re as interested as I am in learning the way of the Christ, in learning how to look forward to death, then I think we have the ultimate journey before us to share together.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I’m Ready

Today’s post is utterly premeditated. I have given it much thought. I am not being flippant or cynical when I say that I’m ready to die. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross would be proud, I hope. I’ve worked my way through the stages that inevitably face each and every mortal. We have no choice in the matter; we are all going to die. The choice each and every one of us has is how we regard our ultimate destiny. My observation is that many, if not most, humans don’t want to die. This must make life a very miserable proposition. I have accepted that I’m going to die, and that is helping to put my life into perspective. I should be careful at this point to clarify that this is not a suicide note, nor am I seeking to end my life before it is time. But that time is unarguably before me, and I have made peace with that.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Worst of the Worst

My ego’s still smarting from the blow it took yesterday. It’s not a secret that Nevada’s child support enforcement program ranks last in the nation. So, when the first report of our newly reorganized unit’s stats for last month came out, I’ll be damned if I didn’t have the lowest score. If this was golf, Tiger would be looking over his shoulder. But alas, it’s a competition for the highest score and I turned out to be a Tampa Bay Buccaneer. I could here recite my concerns about the shortcomings of self-reporting, but that would just be sour grapes rationalization. I’m never late to work. I don’t leave earlier than I’m supposed to. I sit in my cubicle and do the best that I know how, and the reward for my efforts is last place. My memoirs of our time here will fall under the general heading of Failing in Las Vegas. My “divorce” with The United Methodist Church took place here. My attempt to develop a community of faith failed here. And now, even my impersonation of a Camusian bureaucrat has caught up with me. Is this what the Golden Years are going to consist of? Fondly recalling younger times when success was almost too easy? Boy, this is gonna be the life!

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Got Morals?

I’ve been surprised by how much sense the concept makes to me and yet how little sense it makes to others, it being that morality requires the context of a transcendent higher power without which it can’t be. Once again, I envision a clear distinction between the moral, the ethical, and the legal. Because they are grounded in human norms and mores, ethics and legality essentially require nothing more than those who devise them. Morality, on the other hand, involves the whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. Legality is the concrete cousin of ethics which address how humans relate to one another. Morality, though, encompasses a totality of which humans are an integral part, but only a part. Morality entails being in harmony—in synchronicity, if you will—with the Cosmos. It follows that meaningful ethics and legality take morality into account, but that’s not reciprocal. In other words, something may be legal, even ethical, and yet immoral. Morality is the recognition of something greater than our selves. I keep reading about how we have lost our moral compass, and I agree. To restore our moral bearings, however, will not be the result of more laws and ethics but of reviving our relationship to God through genuine atonement.

Monday, February 08, 2010

The Time Draws Nigh

As if to make us not feel too badly about moving away, Las Vegas has had an uncharacteristically cloudy and damp winter. I haven’t had to shovel any snow in the fourteen years we’ve lived here, but many of the winters past have been milder and sunnier. I’m keeping alert to how this is affecting Death Valley because a second viewing of that desert in bloom may be in the offing. I’m scheduled for a pre-retirement seminar this afternoon which is helping the reality sink in. In one sense I have absolutely no business thinking about retirement, but, as I’ve explained before, my disease has focused my attention on just how I want to spend the time I have remaining. My most prominent feeling right now is gratitude. What a miracle it is to even have such decisions before me. I am keenly aware that millions, possibly billions, of humans have no such future before them. I am blessed in so many ways that I cannot even begin to count them all. I’m thinking that life from now on is going to be about turning that blessedness into blessings for others.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

For What It's Worth

Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed. - Blaise Pascal

Consider that the first U.S. census tallied a population of 3,929,214. The Las Vegas metropolitan area has about half that number all by itself. Consider that the world population right now is guesstimated at 6,805,429,176. All I’m trying to do here is offer some perspective. I am growing in my conviction that as the human population increases the worth of the individual proportionately decreases. That in a nutshell, my friends, is the Antichrist.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

My "Friend" for Life

For as long as I can remember, I’ve sensed the presence of an Other. Yes, there have always been others for as long as I can remember, but these are not the Omnipresence I experience. That Dad was a seminarian at the time of my birth may well be just coincidence, but the Church which I grew up in provided a context, an explanation for what I was already sensing. As far as my Protestant orientation was concerned, the word for what I intuitively sensed a relationship with was “God”. Knowing which came first, the chicken or the egg, was in my instance already resolved. I already “knew” that there was a transcendent power; the Church simply provided me with a name for it. I’ve never shaken off that presence. There has never been any need to. It is as natural to me—and as necessary—as breathing. It is the ground from which my worldview is based. I’m spending a little time with this line of reasoning because it is becoming increasingly focused with age, unlike many things that are becoming vague and ambiguous. I have now spent sixty years in this relationship and I’m still wondering what it means about the purpose of my life, my existence. Religion unfortunately has not withstood the test of time as its parochial and concrete explanations fail to address what is the truest and surest part of my being. My retirement may yet consist of greeting at WalMart, but that lifelong presence continues to agitate in the direction of something more.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

My Job

The astute reader can probably deduce what kind of day I’m having at work by noting the time I take my lunch (posts are generally right at the end of it). I shoot for noon, but today a classic mess took me nearly until one-thirty. I heard on NPR the other day that employers can use blogs, web sites, and other digital forms of communication to support decisions to terminate. So, I’ll not go in to all the gory details of what I do for a living, but suffice it to say that critics of government bureaucracies aren’t just blowing smoke. In the instance of what I do—attempting to collect child support—it is difficult enough in and of itself, but it becomes virtually impossible when it gets entangled in local politics. Hierarchies of power are interesting things, especially when it comes to attempting to change something that isn’t working. It must be hard for folks at the top to admit that they may be the reason. It must be easier for folks at the top to change what is below them instead of themselves. From my view in the trenches, I can’t even see the folks at the top. But I should return to work now, confident that those who have mindlessly led us into this mess will work hard to keep us in it.

Monday, February 01, 2010

The Countdown Unmercifully Proceeds

It’s already February 2010! It was wise of me not to make any formal resolutions for the New Year because even my casual intentions have fallen behind schedule. The goal is to move to Fort Collins by July 1, but I am embarrassed by how few of the things that are going to make that happen have been accomplished. I have explored the possibility of renewing my relationship to The United Methodist Church, but that effort has quickly reminded me why I severed the relationship to begin with. The bureaucracy doesn’t seem to have improved any in the last decade. Health insurance seems to be the critical issue right now, although I’m beginning to resent being held hostage by the current coverage. I’m attempting to accept that I’m just not smart enough to understand how human health and well-being has become a for-profit enterprise in this country. Anyway, there is still much to be done in the now next five months. If anyone out there is looking for a nice condo to buy in Las Vegas, I’m aware of one.