Getting Uglier By the Day

It’s another beautiful day in Las Vegas. The temperatures this month have been cooler than normal; there have been some very strong winds, but all that is forgotten on days such as this. I awoke this morning after an uninterrupted night’s sleep, showered with plenty of clean, hot water, downed a breakfast shake lovingly prepared by Mary, and headed toward steady employment on a multiple lane freeway in my Prius. I must be the man who has everything! I’m sure that’s the way at least three-quarters of the world population would see me. But I’m an American. So woven into the blissful start to this day were myriads of commercial messages intended to make me believe that I want—no, that I must have!—more. This is what makes America #1, right? This is what makes us superior, right? Our lifestyle exceeds most of the rest of the world and yet we are convinced that our future happiness depends upon acquiring more than we already have. Our greed has caused innumerable problems and yet we have arranged things in such a way that we don’t have to see it that way. My drive to work this morning was in a minute way responsible for the toxic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. My fat gut that hardly fits into my pants anymore is in a minute way at the expense of the millions who are starving. I flush my bowel movements with more water than many people have available for cooking and drinking. Eugene Burdick and William Lederer wrote of The Ugly American back in 1958, but in the forty-two years since I seem to have done little more than become uglier yet. I am in sore need of some prayerful introspection.