Me and Jesus (aka Leaf)
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
On a Day I met Jesus
An epiphanical day in New York City! Started with prayer--for family, for friends, for others and for discovering God’s plan and purpose for me. Next was breakfast at Joe Jr’s, a humble but excellent little coffee shop on 16th and 3rd just down from our apartment on 17th, for fruit, cottage cheese and coffee.
Then my lively meeting with Ronny “Armani” Wurtzberger and the boys at Peerless clothing, where I buy lots of suits under such labels as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. We are one of their very first customers and they have always treated me, and our company, great. Ronny held court with his customary jokes, advice and a “special” price for me!
With no other appointments I just let my feet go hither and fro. Turned left at 5th, headed uptown into the heart of couture. Went to Bergdorf Goodman men’s, the cream of cream, the finest in colors, fabrics and style---‘OOH LA LA, SASSON’!
Found a café on the 3rd floor and with some trepidation about, in a store chock full of shirts for $250, what a cup of coffee might cost found a seat at the counter. I noted the verdant green of the Sweet Pea soup, so I had a bowl. Unreal good! The packed house attested to Bergdorf’s quality in food, as well as fashion.
Back on the street, the Plaza Hotel, with its famed Oak Bar, where Cary Grant is mis-identified as a CIA operative by James Mason’s henchmen in my all time favorite movie, North by Northwest. Just beyond it was the park no…THE park.
I’ve grown really fond of parks thanks to my trips to Europe and especially to Amsterdam’s Vondel Park. Even more so since my discovery of meditation, which is NOTHING more than: a) emptying the mind to nothingness (easy for me, right), b) focusing on the breath, totally and solely on the breath—the sense of the air on nostrils in, the flow out, the sense in. When the mind wonders, no biggie, just come back to the breath. Back to the breath focus.
Central Park on a cool, gray day was STUPENDOUS! The colors were so much more real with the cover of clouds: stone, woods, grasses, ponds, ducks, doves, starlings, squirrels, windy paths up, down over and under, people—young, old, foreign, local, happy, pensive, boisterous, quiet, some arm-in-arm, others alone.
In the distance, way to the northeast corner from where I started, on Central Park West was the famed Dakota, where John Lennon lived—and I suppose, died. I made that my destination.
A way’s in, I entered Sheep’s Meadow, a huge grassy field where Tavern on the Green sits on the west side. You might remember the climactic meeting between Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox at the end of Wall Street.
Have ever really stopped to see and listen to children on the playground? Whiffle ball. Bobby swings—crack—“RUN BOBBY RUN!” “Throw it, HURRY, throw it to me—H-U-R-R-EEE!” A girl in left field, where the ball NEVER goes, keeps screaming at the top of her lungs, a banshee scream. All of them were screaming so passionately, as if the future of humanity depended on getting Bobby out—or safely to the next base!
I prayed again, for direction, for a purpose, and just for thanks for this great day I was having. Lit my cigar and waded into that panoramic field of green, nearly fluorescent against the misty gray day. On the other side was a snack area, with a well-timed toilet.
Then pressing on, nearly to the west side, I entered Strawberry Fields. There is a monument of sorts to John Lennon, a marble circular piece of pavement carved with “Imagine.” Some roses with an admirer’s love note was laid there, as I’m sure is an everyday occurrence.
A bench beckoned, so I sat and did my breath-focused meditation, where time just slows down to the here and now, people passing in pairs or groups, most stopping to “Imagine”.
After a while I rose from the bench and just floated—no purpose in my step, no hurry or focus. It was…bliss.
I continued on one pristine path after another, up to the cut-stone Belvedere Tower, which is roughly in the middle of the Park. Then a steep path down to Shakespeare Gardens, full of flowers and plaques with the bard’s quotes every 10-15 feet. NEAT!
I went up to the tower and veered off another path, higher and higher, then went off the path onto a rocky mount and there he was—JESUS!
Of course, I did not recognize him as such, he was just another isolated being finding solitude in nature. I simply nodded my head and said hi as I meditated my way past him.
Then from behind I heard “say, sir, I’m hungry for some Chinese food, can you help me out?” “Sure I can,” and I reached in my pocket as I turned back. Feeling particularly generous I felt a bill, and after sneaking a look to insure it was not a 5, 10 or 20, but a ONE, I gave it to him.
On the streets a quarter will bring “thanks, brother, God bless you.” But on this rocky mount Leaf just said, “man, this Chinese meal costs five dollars.” “Sir, look, I usually give just a quarter, so I am way ahead of my game already!”
He thanked me and I said something about I’d pray for him and God bless him, etc. and as I turned to leave he asks me sharply…”YOU BORN AGAIN?” “Well, no, not really, but I believe in God and Jesus is MY pathway, but not necessarily the ONLY pathway, why do you ask?”
I truly wish I could recall the whole conversation, but I tell you it was Karma--as if God responded to my prayers, at least partly, with this most unlikely encounter.
Leaf first asked me if I had heard of the book, Conversations With God He then spoke of God, of Jesus, of Universal truth in such a commanding way, yet in his words and manner that it all seemed so familiar.
In fact, I nodded and said “amen, brother” throughout our conversation. None more than when he said, “man’s way is so contrary to God’s plain-spoken words…Jesus was called ‘Teacher’ by his contemporaries…as he went lighting our way….Yet we—our government, our society, our world—while professing with our lips failing utterly to act with the FAITH of the divine.”
He pointed to the dollar bill and said, “Look, ‘In God We Trust’ BUT in MILITARY MIGHT we trust! In private profit, trickle down, greed is good, I’ve got mine, you get yours we trust.”
“Listen to their rationalizations…’they hate our freedoms so they attacked us.’ Man, you mean they gonna kill themselves for that, come on!” “The rich have so much to protect, they get the masses to help them by puttin’ the scare into ‘em.”
“But Jesus would NOT stand for that. He went to his death to LIVE as an example his message of non-violent peace and love to show US the way OUT! And we aren’t learnin!” Leaf was definitely on a roll on this rock.
“We stay trapped in fear. The old nukes aren’t good enough, look—they’re making new ones to make us safer!? HA! In that fear we forget all about FAITH. If we would follow the WORD and act with real faith, we could save ourselves. All the military might, the highest walls, the deepest trenches will not save us, but acting with real faith, and real love, WILL!”
“Amen, amen!” I repeated, you’re preaching to the choir!
He continued, “We are human BEINGS, not doings, we just need to BE—God loves us and is with us, we just need to forgive—others AND ourselves, too…learn from experience and go forward, but LEARN.” “Women were dissed from the start, treated with no respect. That’s why the custom of men taking off hats in church—to throw a bone to the women—why can’t women lead a flock, man, why not?”
“Under President Carter, good man, but they developed the neutron bomb—kills people but saves PROPERTY---how bad is THAT!?” Jesus spoke of the end of an AGE, not the WORLD. We’re killing ourselves down here, but it won’t be the end of the world, just the age. Tsunami’s, hurricanes—the earth’s burping, getting ready to flush us away.”
He said a lot more, and especially interesting were these acronyms:
H.O.P.E.—Help Other People Everywhere.
B.I.B.L.E—Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth
E.G.O.—Edging God Out
P.R.I.D.E.—Principle Reason why I Die Early
The thing is it was softly raining. I had a raincoat, but still I felt I was ready to leave, but he kept pulling me back saying, “No, wait, I got more, and I want you to have my best stuff” and sure enough, each time it was something I needed to hear!
Out of the blue, “What’s your purpose, Richard?” Whoa! I did NOT tell him I had been praying about that exact question. Instead I told him I was concerned about the state of our world much as he had been expounding upon and that perhaps I saw a role for myself as part of a solution to these problems.
Leaf said to remember a small group can change a community, then a village, a county, a state, a nation then the world! But we must not forget GOD. Why keep God out of the schools? Because ONE atheist objects. But this is majority rules, with protection for minorities.
“We need LESS RELIGION, but MORE GOD!” He said. Religion is just man’s interpretation and manipulation of God to fit in MAN’S image. We say ‘my God’ and ‘your God’ but there is just ONE God.”
“Jesus, taught us to pray: ‘OUR FATHER, who art in heaven…’ not ME the father, but OUR father—we’re all brothers and sisters with Jesus. Jesus said we are ALL sons and daughters of God.”
He ended with a joke: a Jewish couple married 40 years; the wife did everything for the husband. One morning he asked where his coffee was and she said, “you make it yourself.” Surprised he asked her why, and she said the bible said so. WHAT? That’s right, here it is and she opened it to HEBREWS. HA!
We hugged and wished each other well, knowing we’d be connected spiritually henceforth and then I continued on, going down the hill to a grassy opening below.
Jesus said we’d find him in the likes of Leaf. I’m sure I’ve been face to face with Jesus—with the Devine—often. I’ve felt it with strangers on the street with whom I’ve come in contact, whether I be the giver OR the receiver.
Today’s unlikely encounter, coming as it did after an especially prayerful sojourn through the park, leaves me with no doubt that once again I had met Jesus—and he had LOTS to say.
Then my lively meeting with Ronny “Armani” Wurtzberger and the boys at Peerless clothing, where I buy lots of suits under such labels as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. We are one of their very first customers and they have always treated me, and our company, great. Ronny held court with his customary jokes, advice and a “special” price for me!
With no other appointments I just let my feet go hither and fro. Turned left at 5th, headed uptown into the heart of couture. Went to Bergdorf Goodman men’s, the cream of cream, the finest in colors, fabrics and style---‘OOH LA LA, SASSON’!
Found a café on the 3rd floor and with some trepidation about, in a store chock full of shirts for $250, what a cup of coffee might cost found a seat at the counter. I noted the verdant green of the Sweet Pea soup, so I had a bowl. Unreal good! The packed house attested to Bergdorf’s quality in food, as well as fashion.
Back on the street, the Plaza Hotel, with its famed Oak Bar, where Cary Grant is mis-identified as a CIA operative by James Mason’s henchmen in my all time favorite movie, North by Northwest. Just beyond it was the park no…THE park.
I’ve grown really fond of parks thanks to my trips to Europe and especially to Amsterdam’s Vondel Park. Even more so since my discovery of meditation, which is NOTHING more than: a) emptying the mind to nothingness (easy for me, right), b) focusing on the breath, totally and solely on the breath—the sense of the air on nostrils in, the flow out, the sense in. When the mind wonders, no biggie, just come back to the breath. Back to the breath focus.
Central Park on a cool, gray day was STUPENDOUS! The colors were so much more real with the cover of clouds: stone, woods, grasses, ponds, ducks, doves, starlings, squirrels, windy paths up, down over and under, people—young, old, foreign, local, happy, pensive, boisterous, quiet, some arm-in-arm, others alone.
In the distance, way to the northeast corner from where I started, on Central Park West was the famed Dakota, where John Lennon lived—and I suppose, died. I made that my destination.
A way’s in, I entered Sheep’s Meadow, a huge grassy field where Tavern on the Green sits on the west side. You might remember the climactic meeting between Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox at the end of Wall Street.
Have ever really stopped to see and listen to children on the playground? Whiffle ball. Bobby swings—crack—“RUN BOBBY RUN!” “Throw it, HURRY, throw it to me—H-U-R-R-EEE!” A girl in left field, where the ball NEVER goes, keeps screaming at the top of her lungs, a banshee scream. All of them were screaming so passionately, as if the future of humanity depended on getting Bobby out—or safely to the next base!
I prayed again, for direction, for a purpose, and just for thanks for this great day I was having. Lit my cigar and waded into that panoramic field of green, nearly fluorescent against the misty gray day. On the other side was a snack area, with a well-timed toilet.
Then pressing on, nearly to the west side, I entered Strawberry Fields. There is a monument of sorts to John Lennon, a marble circular piece of pavement carved with “Imagine.” Some roses with an admirer’s love note was laid there, as I’m sure is an everyday occurrence.
A bench beckoned, so I sat and did my breath-focused meditation, where time just slows down to the here and now, people passing in pairs or groups, most stopping to “Imagine”.
After a while I rose from the bench and just floated—no purpose in my step, no hurry or focus. It was…bliss.
I continued on one pristine path after another, up to the cut-stone Belvedere Tower, which is roughly in the middle of the Park. Then a steep path down to Shakespeare Gardens, full of flowers and plaques with the bard’s quotes every 10-15 feet. NEAT!
I went up to the tower and veered off another path, higher and higher, then went off the path onto a rocky mount and there he was—JESUS!
Of course, I did not recognize him as such, he was just another isolated being finding solitude in nature. I simply nodded my head and said hi as I meditated my way past him.
Then from behind I heard “say, sir, I’m hungry for some Chinese food, can you help me out?” “Sure I can,” and I reached in my pocket as I turned back. Feeling particularly generous I felt a bill, and after sneaking a look to insure it was not a 5, 10 or 20, but a ONE, I gave it to him.
On the streets a quarter will bring “thanks, brother, God bless you.” But on this rocky mount Leaf just said, “man, this Chinese meal costs five dollars.” “Sir, look, I usually give just a quarter, so I am way ahead of my game already!”
He thanked me and I said something about I’d pray for him and God bless him, etc. and as I turned to leave he asks me sharply…”YOU BORN AGAIN?” “Well, no, not really, but I believe in God and Jesus is MY pathway, but not necessarily the ONLY pathway, why do you ask?”
I truly wish I could recall the whole conversation, but I tell you it was Karma--as if God responded to my prayers, at least partly, with this most unlikely encounter.
Leaf first asked me if I had heard of the book, Conversations With God He then spoke of God, of Jesus, of Universal truth in such a commanding way, yet in his words and manner that it all seemed so familiar.
In fact, I nodded and said “amen, brother” throughout our conversation. None more than when he said, “man’s way is so contrary to God’s plain-spoken words…Jesus was called ‘Teacher’ by his contemporaries…as he went lighting our way….Yet we—our government, our society, our world—while professing with our lips failing utterly to act with the FAITH of the divine.”
He pointed to the dollar bill and said, “Look, ‘In God We Trust’ BUT in MILITARY MIGHT we trust! In private profit, trickle down, greed is good, I’ve got mine, you get yours we trust.”
“Listen to their rationalizations…’they hate our freedoms so they attacked us.’ Man, you mean they gonna kill themselves for that, come on!” “The rich have so much to protect, they get the masses to help them by puttin’ the scare into ‘em.”
“But Jesus would NOT stand for that. He went to his death to LIVE as an example his message of non-violent peace and love to show US the way OUT! And we aren’t learnin!” Leaf was definitely on a roll on this rock.
“We stay trapped in fear. The old nukes aren’t good enough, look—they’re making new ones to make us safer!? HA! In that fear we forget all about FAITH. If we would follow the WORD and act with real faith, we could save ourselves. All the military might, the highest walls, the deepest trenches will not save us, but acting with real faith, and real love, WILL!”
“Amen, amen!” I repeated, you’re preaching to the choir!
He continued, “We are human BEINGS, not doings, we just need to BE—God loves us and is with us, we just need to forgive—others AND ourselves, too…learn from experience and go forward, but LEARN.” “Women were dissed from the start, treated with no respect. That’s why the custom of men taking off hats in church—to throw a bone to the women—why can’t women lead a flock, man, why not?”
“Under President Carter, good man, but they developed the neutron bomb—kills people but saves PROPERTY---how bad is THAT!?” Jesus spoke of the end of an AGE, not the WORLD. We’re killing ourselves down here, but it won’t be the end of the world, just the age. Tsunami’s, hurricanes—the earth’s burping, getting ready to flush us away.”
He said a lot more, and especially interesting were these acronyms:
H.O.P.E.—Help Other People Everywhere.
B.I.B.L.E—Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth
E.G.O.—Edging God Out
P.R.I.D.E.—Principle Reason why I Die Early
The thing is it was softly raining. I had a raincoat, but still I felt I was ready to leave, but he kept pulling me back saying, “No, wait, I got more, and I want you to have my best stuff” and sure enough, each time it was something I needed to hear!
Out of the blue, “What’s your purpose, Richard?” Whoa! I did NOT tell him I had been praying about that exact question. Instead I told him I was concerned about the state of our world much as he had been expounding upon and that perhaps I saw a role for myself as part of a solution to these problems.
Leaf said to remember a small group can change a community, then a village, a county, a state, a nation then the world! But we must not forget GOD. Why keep God out of the schools? Because ONE atheist objects. But this is majority rules, with protection for minorities.
“We need LESS RELIGION, but MORE GOD!” He said. Religion is just man’s interpretation and manipulation of God to fit in MAN’S image. We say ‘my God’ and ‘your God’ but there is just ONE God.”
“Jesus, taught us to pray: ‘OUR FATHER, who art in heaven…’ not ME the father, but OUR father—we’re all brothers and sisters with Jesus. Jesus said we are ALL sons and daughters of God.”
He ended with a joke: a Jewish couple married 40 years; the wife did everything for the husband. One morning he asked where his coffee was and she said, “you make it yourself.” Surprised he asked her why, and she said the bible said so. WHAT? That’s right, here it is and she opened it to HEBREWS. HA!
We hugged and wished each other well, knowing we’d be connected spiritually henceforth and then I continued on, going down the hill to a grassy opening below.
Jesus said we’d find him in the likes of Leaf. I’m sure I’ve been face to face with Jesus—with the Devine—often. I’ve felt it with strangers on the street with whom I’ve come in contact, whether I be the giver OR the receiver.
Today’s unlikely encounter, coming as it did after an especially prayerful sojourn through the park, leaves me with no doubt that once again I had met Jesus—and he had LOTS to say.
Monday, April 25, 2005
God in Government
Friends:
I have determined to differ from my Democratic/secular brothers and sisters. I now believe--TRULY BELIEVE--that our country, our governments need now more than ever to get GOD/GOD'S VALUES into the conduction of our public affairs.
PLEASE NOTE: this would be a drastic 180 degree change from the conduct now prevalent in our highest elected officials! Especially the conduct of those who so ardently drape themselves in the cloak of Christianity!!
My view of the GODLY values not now present that should be are:
1) LOVE--for truth, for each other--neighbor AND so called enemies. This kind of love need not be emotional, indeed often it will NOT be a warm, fuzzy love. This kind of love is simply a wish of good will to others and the intent to further the interests of the other as well as yourself, i.e.seek WIN/WIN SOLUTIONS.
2) TRUTH--seeing, admitting, dealing with reality, with an eye to staying on the LOVE track above (getting win/win solutions).
3) PEACE--Just what it says...seeking peace and rejecting thoroughly the notion that peace can be had through war and weaponry. True peace can only be had with ONE AND TWO, above AND...
4) JUSTICE--Acting with real justice here and abroad consistent with Truth, Love and Peace. "Prayer in schools" "The 10 Commandments" "Under God" in thepledge---these are all RED HERRINGS! While technically they don't fit in with the constitutional separation of church and state I for one do not feel comfortable fighting them.
In fact, I always thought prayer was GOOD, and I BELIEVE in God. Now I know that just like "JUSTICE SUNDAY" God can and is hi-jacked so that proper references to God filled with Good Will and Love are instead twisted into the narrow, exclusionary, hateful themes which we on the left rightfully and constitutionally reject.
But the REAL battle is in the policies, laws and warped leadership by those herding the flock; fighting against prayer and God plays into their hands. If we, and what we believe are God's real values--or for those of us who are non-believers--UNIVERSAL MORAL VALUES--are to prevail we must be "as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."
Respectfully, Richard F. Dawahare
I have determined to differ from my Democratic/secular brothers and sisters. I now believe--TRULY BELIEVE--that our country, our governments need now more than ever to get GOD/GOD'S VALUES into the conduction of our public affairs.
PLEASE NOTE: this would be a drastic 180 degree change from the conduct now prevalent in our highest elected officials! Especially the conduct of those who so ardently drape themselves in the cloak of Christianity!!
My view of the GODLY values not now present that should be are:
1) LOVE--for truth, for each other--neighbor AND so called enemies. This kind of love need not be emotional, indeed often it will NOT be a warm, fuzzy love. This kind of love is simply a wish of good will to others and the intent to further the interests of the other as well as yourself, i.e.seek WIN/WIN SOLUTIONS.
2) TRUTH--seeing, admitting, dealing with reality, with an eye to staying on the LOVE track above (getting win/win solutions).
3) PEACE--Just what it says...seeking peace and rejecting thoroughly the notion that peace can be had through war and weaponry. True peace can only be had with ONE AND TWO, above AND...
4) JUSTICE--Acting with real justice here and abroad consistent with Truth, Love and Peace. "Prayer in schools" "The 10 Commandments" "Under God" in thepledge---these are all RED HERRINGS! While technically they don't fit in with the constitutional separation of church and state I for one do not feel comfortable fighting them.
In fact, I always thought prayer was GOOD, and I BELIEVE in God. Now I know that just like "JUSTICE SUNDAY" God can and is hi-jacked so that proper references to God filled with Good Will and Love are instead twisted into the narrow, exclusionary, hateful themes which we on the left rightfully and constitutionally reject.
But the REAL battle is in the policies, laws and warped leadership by those herding the flock; fighting against prayer and God plays into their hands. If we, and what we believe are God's real values--or for those of us who are non-believers--UNIVERSAL MORAL VALUES--are to prevail we must be "as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."
Respectfully, Richard F. Dawahare
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Twas the Night Before Easter
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE EASTER
Twas the night before Easter and all through the state,
Spread the Joy of Jesus and a game that won’t wait.
For in good Cats fans’ homes were spread through and through
Eggs in all colors and especially BLUE!
Families were nestled all snug in their beds
While visions of Championships danced in their heads.
Many will rise and in Easter’s finest
Worship and praise their dear Jesus’ rising.
And then dine together in a warm family glow
While secretly yearning for the big round ball show.
When tip off arrives they’ll shout high and low
Pass Patrick! Pick Randolph! Drive on Rajon Rondo!
As Tubby exhorts his Cats to their highest:
Rebound! Stick to him! Don’t let him through!
Pick, set and roll, make your shot true!
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name;
Rebound Kalenna, pass it to Chuck,
Get in there Joe Crawford, you’re our good luck!
In Ravi, In Ramel, In Obrzut and Perry!;
You too, Josh, Sheray and too tall Shagari
We’re a true TEAM with all players a key
Authentically genuine, vintage KENTUCKY!
So no matter the outcome it’s all truly good
Happy Easter to all on and off the hard wood!
Twas the night before Easter and all through the state,
Spread the Joy of Jesus and a game that won’t wait.
For in good Cats fans’ homes were spread through and through
Eggs in all colors and especially BLUE!
Families were nestled all snug in their beds
While visions of Championships danced in their heads.
Many will rise and in Easter’s finest
Worship and praise their dear Jesus’ rising.
And then dine together in a warm family glow
While secretly yearning for the big round ball show.
When tip off arrives they’ll shout high and low
Pass Patrick! Pick Randolph! Drive on Rajon Rondo!
As Tubby exhorts his Cats to their highest:
Rebound! Stick to him! Don’t let him through!
Pick, set and roll, make your shot true!
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name;
Rebound Kalenna, pass it to Chuck,
Get in there Joe Crawford, you’re our good luck!
In Ravi, In Ramel, In Obrzut and Perry!;
You too, Josh, Sheray and too tall Shagari
We’re a true TEAM with all players a key
Authentically genuine, vintage KENTUCKY!
So no matter the outcome it’s all truly good
Happy Easter to all on and off the hard wood!
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
WMD TRUMPS WWJD, or Happy Easter, now bomb’s away!
It was Palm Sunday and I was Peter. “I do not KNOW the man!” I cried three times. The cock crowed and remembering Jesus’ prediction I shamefully wept as I ran away.
When Rev. Sally asked me to take this part in our Passion play (it was a small but very well done affair for about 20 people at our small church’s early service) I did not give it much thought. But being a professionally trained high school and Hollywood extra actor (I was in Grease and the One and Only) I put myself in Peter’s shoes, tried to feel what he did.
Peter saw the danger of a riotous crowd who “with swords and clubs” arrested, attacked and accused Jesus. Obviously anyone WITH Jesus would get the same, so Peter did what most humans would do—deny any association with Him!
I admit it was hard to say the lines. I don’t even like pretending that I would purposefully deny Jesus. Deny Him as friend, as teacher, and as a fellow son of God.
After church the few who were there complimented my “convincing” performance. Then I mused about how easy it is for me to “follow Jesus.” In today’s Christian-dominant world who in the heck would persecute me for proclaiming Jesus? Just the opposite, wearing Jesus is in many quarters an instant badge of credibility and acceptance, much like waving the flag.
But then I thought, “do I ever deny Jesus without realizing it.?” [I mean besides sinnin’ which is why Jesus came to begin with. Sin+(confession, sorrow, repentance)=ABSOLUTION. The best mathematical formula of all time!]
If sin is not denying Jesus, what is? Perhaps it is claiming devotion, but living, acting or believing in a manner contrary to Jesusian principles.
A most timely and relevant example comes from the Passion story itself: “Put up thy sword, for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Jesus, though he could have called on God’s legions for what we today would consider “victory” in battle, KNEW that this resort to violence would nullify all his teachings about how WE could do God’s will “on earth, as it is in heaven.”
So in order to fulfill scripture—and stay true to his message of peaceful love as the way to God’s Kingdom on earth—he allowed himself to be hung on the cross.
Were our Christian society to truly follow WWJD it is doubtful we would be so quick to weaponry and war for our security. We aren’t willing to risk even just a little on that peace that Jesus tried to his death to teach. No, instead we insist on spending billions upon billions on new and more weapons, we lash out like a scared dog, banking our security on force of arms instead of on the faith in WWJD.
But I can take solace that: a) we are only human; and b) we are somewhere on that long continuum from humanity’s inception with who knows how many billions of years to go, and we are continually evolving.
Hopefully we are always arriving. But we are never there.
When Rev. Sally asked me to take this part in our Passion play (it was a small but very well done affair for about 20 people at our small church’s early service) I did not give it much thought. But being a professionally trained high school and Hollywood extra actor (I was in Grease and the One and Only) I put myself in Peter’s shoes, tried to feel what he did.
Peter saw the danger of a riotous crowd who “with swords and clubs” arrested, attacked and accused Jesus. Obviously anyone WITH Jesus would get the same, so Peter did what most humans would do—deny any association with Him!
I admit it was hard to say the lines. I don’t even like pretending that I would purposefully deny Jesus. Deny Him as friend, as teacher, and as a fellow son of God.
After church the few who were there complimented my “convincing” performance. Then I mused about how easy it is for me to “follow Jesus.” In today’s Christian-dominant world who in the heck would persecute me for proclaiming Jesus? Just the opposite, wearing Jesus is in many quarters an instant badge of credibility and acceptance, much like waving the flag.
But then I thought, “do I ever deny Jesus without realizing it.?” [I mean besides sinnin’ which is why Jesus came to begin with. Sin+(confession, sorrow, repentance)=ABSOLUTION. The best mathematical formula of all time!]
If sin is not denying Jesus, what is? Perhaps it is claiming devotion, but living, acting or believing in a manner contrary to Jesusian principles.
A most timely and relevant example comes from the Passion story itself: “Put up thy sword, for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Jesus, though he could have called on God’s legions for what we today would consider “victory” in battle, KNEW that this resort to violence would nullify all his teachings about how WE could do God’s will “on earth, as it is in heaven.”
So in order to fulfill scripture—and stay true to his message of peaceful love as the way to God’s Kingdom on earth—he allowed himself to be hung on the cross.
Were our Christian society to truly follow WWJD it is doubtful we would be so quick to weaponry and war for our security. We aren’t willing to risk even just a little on that peace that Jesus tried to his death to teach. No, instead we insist on spending billions upon billions on new and more weapons, we lash out like a scared dog, banking our security on force of arms instead of on the faith in WWJD.
But I can take solace that: a) we are only human; and b) we are somewhere on that long continuum from humanity’s inception with who knows how many billions of years to go, and we are continually evolving.
Hopefully we are always arriving. But we are never there.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Stop the Darfur holocaust!
Saw Hotel Rwanda Sunday. Shook my head as post-holocaust vows of "NEVER AGAIN" went hypocritically unheeded as, UGH, yet again it happens. Because victims were African, and not so systematically sequestered and scientifically eliminated I suppose "NEVER AGAIN" may technically not have applied. Why else could those with a conscious--me top of the list--have continued rooting the Cats, focusing on local injustices, raising our kids or otherwise living life oblivious to the tragedy unfolding in Rwanda 10 years ago.
IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN, NOW, in Darfur, Sudan!! I credit my seeing the movie Sunday and Nicholas Kristof's NY TIMES piece today (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/opinion/23kristof.html?oref=login), COMPLETE WITH PHOTOS, for this plea for action.
PLEASE, GO TO THE SITES BELOW TO WRITE OUR CONGRESSPEOPLE and do whatever we can to stop the genocide and bring about a higher justice. Thank you and take care, Rd http://www.savedarfur.org/http://www.darfurgenocide.org/
IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN, NOW, in Darfur, Sudan!! I credit my seeing the movie Sunday and Nicholas Kristof's NY TIMES piece today (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/opinion/23kristof.html?oref=login), COMPLETE WITH PHOTOS, for this plea for action.
PLEASE, GO TO THE SITES BELOW TO WRITE OUR CONGRESSPEOPLE and do whatever we can to stop the genocide and bring about a higher justice. Thank you and take care, Rd http://www.savedarfur.org/http://www.darfurgenocide.org/
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
I'm Your Daddy
“Trust in God.” My dad said many things, in many tones and in many moods. But I guess I’d be mistakin’ if I didn’t admit that these 3 words were the most meaningful. [Another that really sticks out was his bedside advice to not let the sun set on unresolved conflicts with others—this was just before he slipped into the black hole of Alzheimer’s last stage].
Lord knows dad had more than his share of trials and tribs. When I was 5 we were living in Whitesburg, deep in the heart of Eastern Kentucky. In 1960 dad drove my younger brother, Willie, to a doctor in Lexington, which back then was a 7-hour trip on those winding, narrow mountainous roads.
Willie was in the backseat and, while playing with the door, opened it, fell out and died. I can only imagine the torment my dad must have felt then—and throughout the rest of his life, and only hope that we never have to experience that for real. I suppose his faith got him through, though he never spoke of it—and I was never tempted to ask.
Mom, I recall being very serene on the front porch of our home on Hayes Street, tears streaming from her beautiful, but now most forlorn, eyes. I am sure I blocked out and can no longer remember the trauma in the household when we learned little Willie would never return. Years later I felt pangs of guilt for the jokes I’d play on my younger brother (he died at 3 when I was 5).
Both mom and dad both were of a similar mind regarding God. Neither were very dogmatic. While they instilled the values of Jesus, they didn’t view salvation as dependant on a specific set of rules. Essentially, they just taught us to be good to others and to trust God to lead us through our earthly tour.
For instance I’d ask, “Mom, we’re going to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving, right?” “God willing” she’d reply. God willing, this. God willing that. Jeez, I’d always think, I KNOW God’s willing because, by gawd, I want to do this thing!
For his part dad always credited God for the Dawahare family’s success in business. He felt God lead us every step. Additionally, one day as I was going out with the guys in high school dad put his hand on my shoulder and said kind of out of the blue, “Son, just trust in God.”
This brief heartfelt message, quietly delivered in the foyer of our Linstead Dr. home, has saved me over my life, giving me license for my faith. I do believe, but sometimes my belief is clouded by, what…appearances? Science? Association with fundamentalists? Doubt?
Yes, sometimes that too. No doubt, I doubt. Oft times it’s mental gymnastics as I struggle keeping God in sight through that nagging doubt: “Rich, there IS no God, depend on YOURSELF!” “Where’s the proof, show me PROOF!” “God was a construct to keep people in line—it’s bogus, man!”
Disasters galore—manmade war, nature’s storms, my own divorce—graphically prove their point. At these times it’s like mind control as I struggle to love God with all my heart, mind and soul as one of His sons, Jesus, directs. Nagging, nagging doubt—am I like Marx’s masses that use religion as an opiate??
But when I just relax … God finds ME. His/Her/Its reality is manifest…God just IS. I tell you, my friend, God is real…but He/She/It’s a mystery for sure. God does not micro-manage, but God is there to lift us up. Time and time and time again over my life has God carried me, most recently after my own personal tsunami.
In the eyes of some my complete reliance on God makes me crazy. But hey, I say that if one is not already crazy in this world, one will GO crazy in this world! And in any case I was destined to have this faith from my parents’ instruction. That is my license. It has saved me, and I am most grateful for it.
The question is inevitable: Is God’s reality such that He would have found His way to my consciousness regardless of parenting, or was that parenting the crucial factor in my belief?
The answer is found in the Golden Rule. Confucius, around 495 B.C. stated this maxim 500 years before Jesus did. Is there any doubt that this universal truth existed way before Confucius? Indeed, this is the Word that was with God and was God in the beginning.
It is. God is. For your peace and joy, for this one moment, I’m your daddy: Trust in God.
Rfd 2/1/05
Lord knows dad had more than his share of trials and tribs. When I was 5 we were living in Whitesburg, deep in the heart of Eastern Kentucky. In 1960 dad drove my younger brother, Willie, to a doctor in Lexington, which back then was a 7-hour trip on those winding, narrow mountainous roads.
Willie was in the backseat and, while playing with the door, opened it, fell out and died. I can only imagine the torment my dad must have felt then—and throughout the rest of his life, and only hope that we never have to experience that for real. I suppose his faith got him through, though he never spoke of it—and I was never tempted to ask.
Mom, I recall being very serene on the front porch of our home on Hayes Street, tears streaming from her beautiful, but now most forlorn, eyes. I am sure I blocked out and can no longer remember the trauma in the household when we learned little Willie would never return. Years later I felt pangs of guilt for the jokes I’d play on my younger brother (he died at 3 when I was 5).
Both mom and dad both were of a similar mind regarding God. Neither were very dogmatic. While they instilled the values of Jesus, they didn’t view salvation as dependant on a specific set of rules. Essentially, they just taught us to be good to others and to trust God to lead us through our earthly tour.
For instance I’d ask, “Mom, we’re going to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving, right?” “God willing” she’d reply. God willing, this. God willing that. Jeez, I’d always think, I KNOW God’s willing because, by gawd, I want to do this thing!
For his part dad always credited God for the Dawahare family’s success in business. He felt God lead us every step. Additionally, one day as I was going out with the guys in high school dad put his hand on my shoulder and said kind of out of the blue, “Son, just trust in God.”
This brief heartfelt message, quietly delivered in the foyer of our Linstead Dr. home, has saved me over my life, giving me license for my faith. I do believe, but sometimes my belief is clouded by, what…appearances? Science? Association with fundamentalists? Doubt?
Yes, sometimes that too. No doubt, I doubt. Oft times it’s mental gymnastics as I struggle keeping God in sight through that nagging doubt: “Rich, there IS no God, depend on YOURSELF!” “Where’s the proof, show me PROOF!” “God was a construct to keep people in line—it’s bogus, man!”
Disasters galore—manmade war, nature’s storms, my own divorce—graphically prove their point. At these times it’s like mind control as I struggle to love God with all my heart, mind and soul as one of His sons, Jesus, directs. Nagging, nagging doubt—am I like Marx’s masses that use religion as an opiate??
But when I just relax … God finds ME. His/Her/Its reality is manifest…God just IS. I tell you, my friend, God is real…but He/She/It’s a mystery for sure. God does not micro-manage, but God is there to lift us up. Time and time and time again over my life has God carried me, most recently after my own personal tsunami.
In the eyes of some my complete reliance on God makes me crazy. But hey, I say that if one is not already crazy in this world, one will GO crazy in this world! And in any case I was destined to have this faith from my parents’ instruction. That is my license. It has saved me, and I am most grateful for it.
The question is inevitable: Is God’s reality such that He would have found His way to my consciousness regardless of parenting, or was that parenting the crucial factor in my belief?
The answer is found in the Golden Rule. Confucius, around 495 B.C. stated this maxim 500 years before Jesus did. Is there any doubt that this universal truth existed way before Confucius? Indeed, this is the Word that was with God and was God in the beginning.
It is. God is. For your peace and joy, for this one moment, I’m your daddy: Trust in God.
Rfd 2/1/05
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Why no why?
Why no why? Lotsa who—Osama, Saddam, Bush and Blair. Plenty of where—Kabul, Karbala, Kirkuk and Khartoum. Too much what—bombs, missiles, war and death—and also When—9/11, 3/11, each day in Iraq. But oh so little why.
Why is holy, why is wise, why’s the essence of the learned eye. Every lasting solution is the product of why.
How many generations have looked but not seen, listened but not heard, thought but not known. How many doubted, how many knew, how many earnestly sought to be true?
Seems that today when we seek to ask “why?” the answer so sure from the right we decry: “they hate our freedoms--there’s always evil, always good--freedom and peace must be paid for in blood.”
When we doubt and offer alternative why’s we’re branded as traitors who’d rather go hide.
Buddha awareness and silent calm means acceptance of life just as it comes. Yet the Dalai Lama still seeks to be, in a free Tibet, his native country.
Perhaps it is in how we seek to ask why: honestly, peacefully with an ever open eye. Never grasping and holding to preconceived truth, but ever open to the highest truth.
Yes pray for those in leadership roles, that they may act justly on the path paved by why.
Richard F. Dawahare 1/23/05
Why is holy, why is wise, why’s the essence of the learned eye. Every lasting solution is the product of why.
How many generations have looked but not seen, listened but not heard, thought but not known. How many doubted, how many knew, how many earnestly sought to be true?
Seems that today when we seek to ask “why?” the answer so sure from the right we decry: “they hate our freedoms--there’s always evil, always good--freedom and peace must be paid for in blood.”
When we doubt and offer alternative why’s we’re branded as traitors who’d rather go hide.
Buddha awareness and silent calm means acceptance of life just as it comes. Yet the Dalai Lama still seeks to be, in a free Tibet, his native country.
Perhaps it is in how we seek to ask why: honestly, peacefully with an ever open eye. Never grasping and holding to preconceived truth, but ever open to the highest truth.
Yes pray for those in leadership roles, that they may act justly on the path paved by why.
Richard F. Dawahare 1/23/05
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Bush's Call to War
In unmistakeable language President Bush has telegraphed an impending American military aggression in the ostensible pursuit of bringing "freedom" and "democracy" everywhere in our world: "So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world. This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary...."
Attention Mr. President---It has ALWAYS been the goal of the US to promote freedom and democracy across the globe!!!! But we worked THROUGH international bodies and WITH other countries to do this PEACEFULLY!! The disastrous war in Iraq only amplifies the importance and necessity of continuing that highly successful path of working through and with other countries.
Alas, the President and his neocons are bringing to fulfillment the plan written long ago in the Project For A New American Century: [military success in] "multiple and simultaneous theatres of war" across the globe so as to acheive American dominance. I pray I am wrong, I pray for President Bush and his team and all the world leaders that they will make decisions for the welfare and peace of the world.
But he lied us to war in Iraq, and he is now using the emotionally-appealing call to patriotism in the name of "FREEDOM" and "DEMOCRACY" to embark us on a course that may instead make a mockery of both. There will either be a draft or the economy will be such that the only job opportunities for many youth will BE the military.
We can stop watching and waiting--the water's 'bout ready to boil!
RFD 1/22/05
Sunday, January 16, 2005
When Bubba Meets Baba
Big, corn-fed freckled country boy, biscuit and gravy belly flopping over his jeans, tongue waggin’-just can’t wait to dig in to that buffet –‘GET OUTTA MY WAY’ focus. Cracker Barrel? No. Bob Evans? No. Texas Roadhouse? No. The Oasis Mediterranean “cuisine”? Dang right!
Bubba meets Baba as he digs into the best tabouli, hummus and baba ghanouj this side of Mesopotamia. Does the heart good to see southern boys and swarthy, olive-skinned fer’ners cheek to cheek at the trough.
Fact is that our joys in general—and this Middle Eastern restaurant in particular—cut through our fears and prejudice to bring us together and show us that there is more that we have in common, than what divides us.
The really, really amazing thing is that the Oasis’s cook, a Lebanese immigrant, started with Aladdin’s, a Middle Eastern restaurant that opened right after 9/11. You can’t believe how successful and accepted Aladdin’s was, despite the supposed paranoia following that tragedy. It, like the Oasis now, was popular with Wasps, Southerners, Jews, Arabs, Asians---everybody. It bolstered my faith in the human spirit, as did the 2002 mayoral election of Teresa Isaac who is of Arabic descent.
Maybe the Bubba/Baba phenomenon points the way to harmony between combative cultures. Peace through the palate makes much more sense than peace through war. And it’s wholesome, healthy and delicious, too (Gee mom, can we go there?)
Like my Uncle Willy used to tell me, “you get more with sugar than you do with salt.”
Respectfully, Richard F. Dawahare 1/16/05
Moo on!
Bubba meets Baba as he digs into the best tabouli, hummus and baba ghanouj this side of Mesopotamia. Does the heart good to see southern boys and swarthy, olive-skinned fer’ners cheek to cheek at the trough.
Fact is that our joys in general—and this Middle Eastern restaurant in particular—cut through our fears and prejudice to bring us together and show us that there is more that we have in common, than what divides us.
The really, really amazing thing is that the Oasis’s cook, a Lebanese immigrant, started with Aladdin’s, a Middle Eastern restaurant that opened right after 9/11. You can’t believe how successful and accepted Aladdin’s was, despite the supposed paranoia following that tragedy. It, like the Oasis now, was popular with Wasps, Southerners, Jews, Arabs, Asians---everybody. It bolstered my faith in the human spirit, as did the 2002 mayoral election of Teresa Isaac who is of Arabic descent.
Maybe the Bubba/Baba phenomenon points the way to harmony between combative cultures. Peace through the palate makes much more sense than peace through war. And it’s wholesome, healthy and delicious, too (Gee mom, can we go there?)
Like my Uncle Willy used to tell me, “you get more with sugar than you do with salt.”
Respectfully, Richard F. Dawahare 1/16/05
Moo on!
Friday, January 14, 2005
Tax Reform for Fairness and the Future
I believe in the urgent necessity of tax reform for I see government as a positive force for good, not an evil to be flushed down the tub. My grandfather used to say that taxes were the cheapest rent he paid to live in the greatest country in the world. He was so appreciative of America—and his new Kentucky home—that he easily saw the many ways that his government helped foster an environment in which he could flourish.
Indeed Kentucky is officially a “Commonwealth” in recognition that we are all in this together—that we pool some of our resources to create public services for our COMMON GOOD.
But our state is in serious trouble. We are starving for funds essential to continuing those services so vital to our well being. Whether it’s educating our youth, healing our sick, securing our towns or protecting our lands and skies, investment in public services makes the kind of place that attracts and keeps job-creating businesses.
Since 2001 budget cuts have meant $1 BILLION has been lost to services that benefit Kentuckians and by 2010 we will be $2.3 BILLION short UNLESS we reform and repair our tax system NOW.
“Revenue-neutral” just won’t cut it. That would just put us in the same box as Colorado, which is disastrously under-funded. On the contrary INCREASED public investment does more than teach a man or woman how to fish—it helps insure that the ponds are clean, the roads to get there are in good repair and that their children are healthy and well educated.
I believe in the urgent necessity of tax reform because I can’t stomach sitting quietly by while Kentucky’s poorest citizens get taxed the most. The poorest 20% of us—those least able to pay—are paying 13% of their income in state and local taxes, compared to only 10% by the richest 20%. This is wrong, this is immoral and it is certainly against the values most Kentuckians hold dear.
Those of us with full bellies, fancy cars and the best seats at the games may not fully appreciate what just a few extra dollars a week means to those who live day to day, wondering how they will survive, much less prosper.
I believe in the urgent necessity of tax reform to insure corporations contribute our fair share to the general fund. My grandfather was grateful that his taxes, his public investment, made him part of the solution.
But today corporations are not paying our fair share. While businesses benefit from an educated populace, fire and police protection, roads and infrastructure we are contributing only 5% to the general fund as compared to 10% in 1990. So it is essential to close loopholes and treat all businesses equally, putting us on a level playing field. It will only serve to benefit our companies and make Kentucky a better place in which to do business.
Finally, I believe in the urgent necessity of tax reform because I can’t abide the deterioration of our social contract, the loss of faith in our “united we stand” sense of community. I don’t like the “each man for himself” trend. I much prefer the system that got us here, one with compassion and people coming together. Nothing is more Biblical than this concept of community caring and sharing.
The “no new tax” pledge and its goal of shrinking government so it can be flushed away is irresponsible and counterproductive. We’ve been down that road before! Where too little government allowed the wolves to guard our henhouse and the powerful to run roughshod over the public interest. It spelled disaster for our markets, destroyed our economy, our spirit and our country.
Fair and proper tax reform is an investment for our children and theirs. It is essential for the Public Interest, for our common good, for our COMMONWEALTH.
Indeed Kentucky is officially a “Commonwealth” in recognition that we are all in this together—that we pool some of our resources to create public services for our COMMON GOOD.
But our state is in serious trouble. We are starving for funds essential to continuing those services so vital to our well being. Whether it’s educating our youth, healing our sick, securing our towns or protecting our lands and skies, investment in public services makes the kind of place that attracts and keeps job-creating businesses.
Since 2001 budget cuts have meant $1 BILLION has been lost to services that benefit Kentuckians and by 2010 we will be $2.3 BILLION short UNLESS we reform and repair our tax system NOW.
“Revenue-neutral” just won’t cut it. That would just put us in the same box as Colorado, which is disastrously under-funded. On the contrary INCREASED public investment does more than teach a man or woman how to fish—it helps insure that the ponds are clean, the roads to get there are in good repair and that their children are healthy and well educated.
I believe in the urgent necessity of tax reform because I can’t stomach sitting quietly by while Kentucky’s poorest citizens get taxed the most. The poorest 20% of us—those least able to pay—are paying 13% of their income in state and local taxes, compared to only 10% by the richest 20%. This is wrong, this is immoral and it is certainly against the values most Kentuckians hold dear.
Those of us with full bellies, fancy cars and the best seats at the games may not fully appreciate what just a few extra dollars a week means to those who live day to day, wondering how they will survive, much less prosper.
I believe in the urgent necessity of tax reform to insure corporations contribute our fair share to the general fund. My grandfather was grateful that his taxes, his public investment, made him part of the solution.
But today corporations are not paying our fair share. While businesses benefit from an educated populace, fire and police protection, roads and infrastructure we are contributing only 5% to the general fund as compared to 10% in 1990. So it is essential to close loopholes and treat all businesses equally, putting us on a level playing field. It will only serve to benefit our companies and make Kentucky a better place in which to do business.
Finally, I believe in the urgent necessity of tax reform because I can’t abide the deterioration of our social contract, the loss of faith in our “united we stand” sense of community. I don’t like the “each man for himself” trend. I much prefer the system that got us here, one with compassion and people coming together. Nothing is more Biblical than this concept of community caring and sharing.
The “no new tax” pledge and its goal of shrinking government so it can be flushed away is irresponsible and counterproductive. We’ve been down that road before! Where too little government allowed the wolves to guard our henhouse and the powerful to run roughshod over the public interest. It spelled disaster for our markets, destroyed our economy, our spirit and our country.
Fair and proper tax reform is an investment for our children and theirs. It is essential for the Public Interest, for our common good, for our COMMONWEALTH.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Every Day's A New Year!
HAP-PEE NYEW YEEEER Say we to thee!
With smiles and warm wishes so sincere
Comes hope for a super and prosprous new year.
Then the obligatory “we resolve” to do this
And of course the promise NOT to do that
We fear not the eventual slack of our will
For the next new year (or the next or the next)
Brings new chance to fulfill.
Better to see each and ev’ry new day
As a time to re-try without delay
To remake ourselves as we’d like to be--
Each sunrise an anniversary!
So I’ll say “Happy New Year”
With heartfelt intent
But mean it as if t'were daily sent!
Happy MOO year! RFD 1/1/05
With smiles and warm wishes so sincere
Comes hope for a super and prosprous new year.
Then the obligatory “we resolve” to do this
And of course the promise NOT to do that
We fear not the eventual slack of our will
For the next new year (or the next or the next)
Brings new chance to fulfill.
Better to see each and ev’ry new day
As a time to re-try without delay
To remake ourselves as we’d like to be--
Each sunrise an anniversary!
So I’ll say “Happy New Year”
With heartfelt intent
But mean it as if t'were daily sent!
Happy MOO year! RFD 1/1/05
Friday, December 24, 2004
A Toast To Scrooge!
Here’s to Scrooge!
Huh, whassat, you say? Honor a hard-hearted, grouchy old miser? Toast he who thought so little of good works, aid to the poor and such that he saw the death of starving souls as a Malthusian economic benefit that would “decrease the surplus population?” Humbug on that!
Were this Scrooge’s whole story our revulsion at the mere mention of his name would be duly warranted. But it’s not. Indeed the reason that “A Christmas Carol” is one of literature’s most popular tales is the joyous redemption and salvation of Ebenezer Scrooge.
His turnabout was so complete that Scrooge “became as good a friend, as good a teacher, and as good a man, as any person could hope to know,” a man who honored Christmas in his heart all the year.
So why is it that we continue to greet his name with a sneering contempt, forever condemning Dickens’s creation as a cold, callous curmudgeon despite his incredible conversion?
Is it that we tend to see mainly the negative in life and not really trust in the possibility of miracles? Does it betray a latent tendency we have to pre-judge, label and pigeonhole the “other” in a way that smothers the potential for good?
On one end of that spectrum are those everyday acquaintances with whom we may give short shrift, letting the negative we see cloud what good that is there. At the extreme are death row prisoners condemned to a fate worse than their execution: man’s judgment of their utter unredeemability.
Similarly, in today’s red/blue divide faith and hope seem at times to be flying the white flag of surrender. Each side so certain of the righteousness of their cause and the stupidity of the other’s. Even “Merry Christmas” has, for some, become a rallying call of in-your-face defiance instead of the heartfelt expression of warmth and goodwill that Jesus would want.
Fact is, like Scrooge, we may all be wrong in our assumptions. Scrooge was so sure of the rightness of his harsh ways that his discovery of how wrong he had been, and the harm caused thereby, devastated him. The thought that this was irreversible was unbearable.
So imagine his joy upon discovering that he had a second chance to correct his past and make a better future. All that mattered to Scrooge, given this new lease on life, was to do good and to love his fellow man. Hard economic theory melted in the warm glow of Scrooge’s newfound charity.
Others’ deficiencies mattered not to Scrooge, only what HE could do to keep Christmas in his heart every day of every year. No wonder he was “as light as a feather, as happy as an angel and as merry as a schoolboy.”
At heart what we celebrate in Christmas is the essence of Dickens’s masterpiece: the Good News of salvation and redemption for all humanity! Comes the Prince of Peace with tidings of gladness, of joy, and of the hope that humankind will climb the higher path, collectively and individually.
God’s greatest gift, whether seen or not, is ever present. Perhaps it will take a Scrooge-like Spiritual visit to open our eyes. Or maybe like a wondrous tot on Christmas morn we can grasp with joy what is already there! Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!
Moo on! Richard F. Dawahare December 24, 2004
Monday, December 20, 2004
From Gospel to Gleason
A full day. How lucky am I? Starts with a crisply cold morn with wisps of snow, blessed holiday snow, on the way to early service, just in time for the Decalogue.
Interesting--upon reading the 2nd Commandment… “Thou (i.e. YOU, suckah!, okay me too) shalt not make unto thee any graven image of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” and I thought, WOW is the very cross that we revere AN IDOL? Seems to fit the definition, but who am I to say, a cynic and a sinner and one who actually liked Kentucky’s smiley-faced license plate (before it won the award for the country’s best).
Rev. Sally’s customarily great sermon rightfully praised Joseph’s faithfulness in God’s word that his fiancé’s pregnancy was of the Spirit, and not by what Joseph supposed was Mary’s philandering. Rev Sally had us put ourselves in Joseph’s shoes and realize that indeed, to have the faith of Joseph in a circumstance where he discovers his betrothed to be pregnant (without of course having “relations” with her), then to marry Mary, and name and raise Jesus as God’s angel, Gabriel, directed was an incredible act of faith that resulted in the world’s salvation [in my belief for Christians and non-Christians alike, as I do not believe Jesus would have chosen ANY religion, but that is another subject…].
She then noted the blessed nature of the “Virgin mother” Mary, considered the most high, especially in the Catholic faith. Then a thought hit me like a bombshell: Jesus’ own attitude and treatment of his mother—at least what the Gospels show—was NOT very respectful…at least not near the adoration of her Catholic followers.
One of the few times the Gospels show Jesus’ interaction with his mother is in John 2:4 at the wedding in Cana where Mary, “the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, WOMAN, WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH THEE?” Wow, THIS is “honoring thy mother” (the 5th Commandment)? I dunno about that, but hey, he’s Jesus, so give him the Michael Jordan no foul call.
I mean, he thinks so little of his birth mother that he says in Luke 8:21 “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it” in response to his being told that his mother and brothers were there to see him.
I am not judging, but simply observing what appears to be Jesusian behavior diametrically opposed to what we would assume and suppose to be the ideal, that is, what follows to the T the TC (Ten Commandments). Like when he healed on the Sabbath, and says—and I paraphrase in the lingo of an independent Southerner… "By Gawd the Sabbath was made for MAN, not the other way around!”
You know, there’s something about “Mary” because not only was that the name of his mother, but also his consort of sorts, Mary Magdalene. No proof that Jesus did more than absolve her and restore her to God’s embrace, but who knows. There’s so much missing, like all those years between his youth and his last days—weeks--months from which we learn all we know about Issa (the Hindi name for Jesus, apparently he spent some of those missing years traveling India, perhaps picking up and/or sharing his own, spirituality…definitely another subject).
This thread (which I had no intention of starting at this post’s inception) of biblical reality in conflict with traditional perception, I will sew up with a referral to Acts 4:32-37, a section you won’t often see cited, as it is a God-given prescription for the ideal way a community should live so as to maximize the COMMON WEALTH. These passages are really a description of what centuries later would be called theoretical COMMUNISM/SOCIALISM (NOT Soviet or any Communism as practiced today with tyrranical, terroristic force!), where the disciples had the townspeople sell what they had, bring all together for the common good so that people took what they needed and all lived happily and well thereafter. Incredible, but true, read it!…
-----------------
**OOH, OOH (Car 54 Where Are You OOH, OOH)-- watching It’s a Wonderful Life as I write this, it’s just at the point where George Bailey defends his dad and lays into Potter who criticized giving easy, generous terms to low income working class citizens which he claimed created a “discontented lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class all because a few starry eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stirs them up and fills their head with impossible ideas!”
George Bailey stood up and CORRECTLY said his dad selflessly forsook higher profits, lived frugally so as to help others live better and observes “Don’t it make them better citizens, don’t it make them better customers?” Yes, yes, a thousand times yes it does.
So what is today’s selfless (low, little, private profit that enables low income people to have more) version of Bailey’s Building and Loan? To be continued….**
----------
The rest of the day included a heartfelt talk with a friend at the bookstore, another one or two in other stores, including our own, more Christmas decorating at home, more space heaters bought (hopefully ones that will actually WORK so that I can pay the electric company instead of the gas co.), then to my one of my best friend’s party at his festively decorated new home, and now for the past few hours typing and watching Smokey and the Bandit and Holy Christmas was JACKIE GLEASON HILARIOUS!!
It doesn’t get funnier! What a day.
Moo on! Rfd, December 19 & 20, 2004
Interesting--upon reading the 2nd Commandment… “Thou (i.e. YOU, suckah!, okay me too) shalt not make unto thee any graven image of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” and I thought, WOW is the very cross that we revere AN IDOL? Seems to fit the definition, but who am I to say, a cynic and a sinner and one who actually liked Kentucky’s smiley-faced license plate (before it won the award for the country’s best).
Rev. Sally’s customarily great sermon rightfully praised Joseph’s faithfulness in God’s word that his fiancé’s pregnancy was of the Spirit, and not by what Joseph supposed was Mary’s philandering. Rev Sally had us put ourselves in Joseph’s shoes and realize that indeed, to have the faith of Joseph in a circumstance where he discovers his betrothed to be pregnant (without of course having “relations” with her), then to marry Mary, and name and raise Jesus as God’s angel, Gabriel, directed was an incredible act of faith that resulted in the world’s salvation [in my belief for Christians and non-Christians alike, as I do not believe Jesus would have chosen ANY religion, but that is another subject…].
She then noted the blessed nature of the “Virgin mother” Mary, considered the most high, especially in the Catholic faith. Then a thought hit me like a bombshell: Jesus’ own attitude and treatment of his mother—at least what the Gospels show—was NOT very respectful…at least not near the adoration of her Catholic followers.
One of the few times the Gospels show Jesus’ interaction with his mother is in John 2:4 at the wedding in Cana where Mary, “the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, WOMAN, WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH THEE?” Wow, THIS is “honoring thy mother” (the 5th Commandment)? I dunno about that, but hey, he’s Jesus, so give him the Michael Jordan no foul call.
I mean, he thinks so little of his birth mother that he says in Luke 8:21 “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it” in response to his being told that his mother and brothers were there to see him.
I am not judging, but simply observing what appears to be Jesusian behavior diametrically opposed to what we would assume and suppose to be the ideal, that is, what follows to the T the TC (Ten Commandments). Like when he healed on the Sabbath, and says—and I paraphrase in the lingo of an independent Southerner… "By Gawd the Sabbath was made for MAN, not the other way around!”
You know, there’s something about “Mary” because not only was that the name of his mother, but also his consort of sorts, Mary Magdalene. No proof that Jesus did more than absolve her and restore her to God’s embrace, but who knows. There’s so much missing, like all those years between his youth and his last days—weeks--months from which we learn all we know about Issa (the Hindi name for Jesus, apparently he spent some of those missing years traveling India, perhaps picking up and/or sharing his own, spirituality…definitely another subject).
This thread (which I had no intention of starting at this post’s inception) of biblical reality in conflict with traditional perception, I will sew up with a referral to Acts 4:32-37, a section you won’t often see cited, as it is a God-given prescription for the ideal way a community should live so as to maximize the COMMON WEALTH. These passages are really a description of what centuries later would be called theoretical COMMUNISM/SOCIALISM (NOT Soviet or any Communism as practiced today with tyrranical, terroristic force!), where the disciples had the townspeople sell what they had, bring all together for the common good so that people took what they needed and all lived happily and well thereafter. Incredible, but true, read it!…
-----------------
**OOH, OOH (Car 54 Where Are You OOH, OOH)-- watching It’s a Wonderful Life as I write this, it’s just at the point where George Bailey defends his dad and lays into Potter who criticized giving easy, generous terms to low income working class citizens which he claimed created a “discontented lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class all because a few starry eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stirs them up and fills their head with impossible ideas!”
George Bailey stood up and CORRECTLY said his dad selflessly forsook higher profits, lived frugally so as to help others live better and observes “Don’t it make them better citizens, don’t it make them better customers?” Yes, yes, a thousand times yes it does.
So what is today’s selfless (low, little, private profit that enables low income people to have more) version of Bailey’s Building and Loan? To be continued….**
----------
The rest of the day included a heartfelt talk with a friend at the bookstore, another one or two in other stores, including our own, more Christmas decorating at home, more space heaters bought (hopefully ones that will actually WORK so that I can pay the electric company instead of the gas co.), then to my one of my best friend’s party at his festively decorated new home, and now for the past few hours typing and watching Smokey and the Bandit and Holy Christmas was JACKIE GLEASON HILARIOUS!!
It doesn’t get funnier! What a day.
Moo on! Rfd, December 19 & 20, 2004
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Where's the "est"?
My last post extolling Kentucky's beauty on a recent drive seemed a bit braggadocious, as if I had some kind of pride of authorship in making my native state something special. I am particularly sensitive to this feeling as I just returned from the Netherlands where I kept commenting on it being the "est"--the prettiEST, the artiEST, the quaintEST.
Will is a friend I met through Rotary on a previous trip to Amsterdam. On my recent trip Will showed me that famed Dutch hospitality as he had me over to his home in the very center of old Amsterdam, then on Sunday he took me to a number of small villages--places all the tour books say "you simply MUST go (dahhh-ling). " Vollendam and Marken are two of the most picturesque. They are seaside villages with the typical Dutch wooden homes, windmills, cows and geese that just oozes with quiet, quaint serenity.
Like my drive through Central Kentucky, what accentuated this tour was the unbelievably dramatic skies. Even Will gazed and repeated in his Dutch-accented English "This is Fan-TAWS-tik". One could now see what inspired Vermeer and Jan Steen to paint those Dutch countryside landscapes featuring the very same multi hued clouds stretching across the bright blue sky that we were then experiencing.
One could be forgiven for believing--and saying--that this spot at this time was the most beautiful place on earth, the bEST.
Fact is, though, that across the globe there were countless others right at that exact time who were similarly experiencing there own Nirvana. For each of us, THAT what we were then experiencing was, for us, the "EST." Objectively were we to share each others' milieu we may agree that ALL such places were EST.
And while Kentucky and its people are wonderful, the quest for EST is a non-starter. It is an irrelevant and limiting journey.
Truth be known Jack Daniels is still the most popular single brand of whiskey. And in Haarlem, a village just outside of Amsterdam, I met a Thai gentleman working in his aunt's restaurant who lived for 5 years in both Knoxville and Lexington. He said by far Tennessee was much friendlier and more accepting to him.
So is Kentucky EST? Yes, it's est and so is the place that touches your breast.
Moo on! RFD 12/10/04
Will is a friend I met through Rotary on a previous trip to Amsterdam. On my recent trip Will showed me that famed Dutch hospitality as he had me over to his home in the very center of old Amsterdam, then on Sunday he took me to a number of small villages--places all the tour books say "you simply MUST go (dahhh-ling). " Vollendam and Marken are two of the most picturesque. They are seaside villages with the typical Dutch wooden homes, windmills, cows and geese that just oozes with quiet, quaint serenity.
Like my drive through Central Kentucky, what accentuated this tour was the unbelievably dramatic skies. Even Will gazed and repeated in his Dutch-accented English "This is Fan-TAWS-tik". One could now see what inspired Vermeer and Jan Steen to paint those Dutch countryside landscapes featuring the very same multi hued clouds stretching across the bright blue sky that we were then experiencing.
One could be forgiven for believing--and saying--that this spot at this time was the most beautiful place on earth, the bEST.
Fact is, though, that across the globe there were countless others right at that exact time who were similarly experiencing there own Nirvana. For each of us, THAT what we were then experiencing was, for us, the "EST." Objectively were we to share each others' milieu we may agree that ALL such places were EST.
And while Kentucky and its people are wonderful, the quest for EST is a non-starter. It is an irrelevant and limiting journey.
Truth be known Jack Daniels is still the most popular single brand of whiskey. And in Haarlem, a village just outside of Amsterdam, I met a Thai gentleman working in his aunt's restaurant who lived for 5 years in both Knoxville and Lexington. He said by far Tennessee was much friendlier and more accepting to him.
So is Kentucky EST? Yes, it's est and so is the place that touches your breast.
Moo on! RFD 12/10/04
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
A Postcard Perfect Day in the Bluegrass
It all started with Bobby. He is our sales rep for various men's accessories products like Tommy Hilfiger belts and wallets and Geoffrey Beene jewelry. Bobby came up from Florida--where he recently lost his home and every material thing he and his family owned in Hurricane Ivan to visit our stores and insure his product was properly displayed.
So he asks me to do him a favor and drive him around our stores in central Kentucky. This was a pleasure for me as I love visiting our stores, greeting our associates and driving the rural Kentucky landscape.
We started from our Gardenside store, where we keep our central offices. Next was Fayette Mall. But it was the remaining portion of our journey that was simply SPECTACULAR!
Leaving that store we headed out of town through Nicholasville to our store in Danville, home of Centre College, who beat Harvard 6-0 in a 1921 game that the Associated Press later billed as the upset of the century. It was the first time Harvard lost an intersectional game in 4 decades.
We then circled back east to our store in Richmond, KY. This drive, though field after rolling field, over, by and through streaming brooks and windy two lane roads, was “over the river and through the woods” awesome! Cows so peaceful, either laying in the field, or munching on their feast of greens. Circling hawks, flying geese, ravens and roosters, pristine ponds--'twas as if Audubon himself had ordered this farmland fantasy.
And most dramatic was the sky: it was alive with action. Crystal blue with crisp, gale force winds blowing massive billowing clouds--some white, some various shades of gray--a real Dutch Masters portrait. From Richmond to Winchester we even caught a choo-choo train as it snaked by the tumbling stream.
Bobby said it best: “This is the most beautiful state and this is the most spectacular postcard perfect scenery I have ever seen.” Bobby, a 30 year road warrior veteran, echoed the sentiments of every salesperson I’ve worked with who has traversed our Commonwealth. From Chicago to New York, California to Florida, all who’ve visited Kentucky calls it the most scenic of states.
I woulda paid for this drive, but like most of life’s best things, it was free!
Moo on! Rfd 12/7/04
So he asks me to do him a favor and drive him around our stores in central Kentucky. This was a pleasure for me as I love visiting our stores, greeting our associates and driving the rural Kentucky landscape.
We started from our Gardenside store, where we keep our central offices. Next was Fayette Mall. But it was the remaining portion of our journey that was simply SPECTACULAR!
Leaving that store we headed out of town through Nicholasville to our store in Danville, home of Centre College, who beat Harvard 6-0 in a 1921 game that the Associated Press later billed as the upset of the century. It was the first time Harvard lost an intersectional game in 4 decades.
We then circled back east to our store in Richmond, KY. This drive, though field after rolling field, over, by and through streaming brooks and windy two lane roads, was “over the river and through the woods” awesome! Cows so peaceful, either laying in the field, or munching on their feast of greens. Circling hawks, flying geese, ravens and roosters, pristine ponds--'twas as if Audubon himself had ordered this farmland fantasy.
And most dramatic was the sky: it was alive with action. Crystal blue with crisp, gale force winds blowing massive billowing clouds--some white, some various shades of gray--a real Dutch Masters portrait. From Richmond to Winchester we even caught a choo-choo train as it snaked by the tumbling stream.
Bobby said it best: “This is the most beautiful state and this is the most spectacular postcard perfect scenery I have ever seen.” Bobby, a 30 year road warrior veteran, echoed the sentiments of every salesperson I’ve worked with who has traversed our Commonwealth. From Chicago to New York, California to Florida, all who’ve visited Kentucky calls it the most scenic of states.
I woulda paid for this drive, but like most of life’s best things, it was free!
Moo on! Rfd 12/7/04
Thursday, November 25, 2004
A Thanksgiving Thought (While Morose I'm Not)
I give thanks today for family and friends
Who when I’m so out keep bringing me in;
For so many gadgets and gismos galore
That make life so easy I always want more;
For the insight to note this and pray for reprieve
That in my excess I may more deeply believe;
For the joy, the pleasure and yes--I guess--(sigh)
Even the pain--
For without it my faith is only in vain;
For the yin and the yang,
The pro and the con
Liberals, conservatives
And all (well okay, most) thoughts beyond;
For a good night’s sleep that refreshes the mind,
And a clearer connection to the glorious divine;
The issue’s decided, it’s all good in the end,
And remembering this helps me better begin;
So to you my dear friends I wish you the best
With peace and joy may your hearts rest.
RFD Nov. 25, 2004 Moo on!
Who when I’m so out keep bringing me in;
For so many gadgets and gismos galore
That make life so easy I always want more;
For the insight to note this and pray for reprieve
That in my excess I may more deeply believe;
For the joy, the pleasure and yes--I guess--(sigh)
Even the pain--
For without it my faith is only in vain;
For the yin and the yang,
The pro and the con
Liberals, conservatives
And all (well okay, most) thoughts beyond;
For a good night’s sleep that refreshes the mind,
And a clearer connection to the glorious divine;
The issue’s decided, it’s all good in the end,
And remembering this helps me better begin;
So to you my dear friends I wish you the best
With peace and joy may your hearts rest.
RFD Nov. 25, 2004 Moo on!
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
A Pre-election poem
~A Pre-election poem ~
I’m thankful for so much this election eve:
A trip the day after, can’t wait to leave,
A campaign season with spirited talk
Much more civil than any thought,
(Well Exclude Kentucky, we weren’t so lucky,
Bunning went hunting with guns full of lies,
And it has now fired back right into his eyes!);
GLORY BE! no Madrids or terror alerts,
Even Osama could cause us no hurt.
We parried and sparred and stood our ground,
All wanting to make ours the best country around;
Yes, different paths and philosophies we take,
But never the friendships did our differences shake.
Tomorrow will bring both angst and hope,
But no matter who wins I know I’ll cope,
For in the end it’s already decided,
Don’t really matter who is presiding!
My prediction, for fun, is that Kerry will win--
Lots of new voters with much interest in
The political process that they now see
Has put an end—for now—of their apathy.
We’ll not wait long for the heir apparent
(Be able to bed before eleven)
And whoever’s behind will with class concede
And help our nation, united, succeed.
Richard F. Dawahare 11/2/04
I’m thankful for so much this election eve:
A trip the day after, can’t wait to leave,
A campaign season with spirited talk
Much more civil than any thought,
(Well Exclude Kentucky, we weren’t so lucky,
Bunning went hunting with guns full of lies,
And it has now fired back right into his eyes!);
GLORY BE! no Madrids or terror alerts,
Even Osama could cause us no hurt.
We parried and sparred and stood our ground,
All wanting to make ours the best country around;
Yes, different paths and philosophies we take,
But never the friendships did our differences shake.
Tomorrow will bring both angst and hope,
But no matter who wins I know I’ll cope,
For in the end it’s already decided,
Don’t really matter who is presiding!
My prediction, for fun, is that Kerry will win--
Lots of new voters with much interest in
The political process that they now see
Has put an end—for now—of their apathy.
We’ll not wait long for the heir apparent
(Be able to bed before eleven)
And whoever’s behind will with class concede
And help our nation, united, succeed.
Richard F. Dawahare 11/2/04
Saturday, September 18, 2004
What came first--God or the Universe?
"There is a sphere where there is neither earth nor water nor heat nor air, for it is beyond the field of matter; nor is it the sphere of infinite space, or consciousness, for it is beyond the field of mind. There is not the condition of nothingness, neither is there the state of this world or another world, nor sun nor moon. This is the uncreated condition I call neither arising nor passing away, neither dying nor being born. It is without form and without change. It is the eternal, which never originates and never passes away. To find it is the end of sorrow."
-Udana Sutta
I recall from a very young age wondering exactly where I came from. My world in Whitesburg, Ky was full of mountains, loving folks and family, loud trucks and gentle little lambs. It was a world of wonder as the world is for all youth--humans and animals alike. Images of rambunctious cubs and pups come to mind.
But then I would think, hmmmm, before I was born--for ME at least--there was nothing, nothingness. Then April 8, 1955--BOOM! I suppose I was slapped as many babies are to get them breathing, to get them REALLY ACQUAINTED with the nature of the world they'll have to navigate. There's just gotta be some meaning to a newly born child's first ever sensory experience being VIOLENCE.
Sure, the slap is done as a loving act to save the child by getting him/her to survive. But I am beginning to really believe that this seeming innocuous act might have a truly lasting influence that in part leads to our violent world--a world that sees war as necessary to create peace, a world that glorifies violence, whether on the field of battle or the fields of football.
Psychologists could tell us more than my own musings, but according to their well established principles the fact that much of humankind enters the world with the FIRST experience being a slap, one intentionally hard enough to cause a shout of pain, must result in a psychological IMPRINTING in the subconscious of those most impressionable minds. Has to.
There must be a better way to introduce humanity in the world. I know if our mindset was one of peace, we would find such a way. Or is the world just destined to be a place as full of violence, fear and hate as it is of beauty, peace and love?
It really gets to a "what came first, God or the Universe?" If the Universe came first--Big Bang or otherwise--then the subsequent evolution of humans with their capacity for both emotions AND critical thought, then God was simply created by humanity in order to rationalize their world. Later such religion would be termed "an opiate for the masses." In this case, the words of those fatalistic realists who say "there will always be war, rich, poor and injustice evermore" are a reminder of the futility of even attempting to seek higher ground. So go ahead and slap the little tot.
However, if God came first--as I believe--then the result in our little sphere called Earth is that He allows nature to take its course. It's not so much that He prevents bad from happening, although He is there to comfort the faithful when afflicted. But He has repeatedly shown and taught us the way to do on Earth as it is in Heaven--a land with peace, love and justice. For Christians, that message was perfected in Jesus. But there have been many sages and signs--from Confucius, Moses, Muhammad, the Dalai Llama, Gandhi and many more.
The more we listen and follow those sages, and I will now refer to Jesus as His is the plan with which I am most familiar, the closer we will come to this perpetual land of milk and honey. This is an evolution of thought and faith in which humanity has no doubt made progress on a path still long and crooked.
How far till perfect peace on Earth? Who knows as we can only look backwards from this point in history. But envision looking back from the year 4004 . Folks then will be so much closer to the ideal that they will look back to 2004 and say something like "they actually slapped new-born babies?" They will undoubtedly marvel at much of what we now take for granted as being acceptable, just as we now detest slavery and wonder how on earth that was ever appropriate.
Perhaps one such phenomena will be how this society would allow a few millions of people to keep trillions in savings while many billions have nothing. Maybe it will be how insular "nations" so focus on their own immediate wants and needs that they fail to see the ill-effects on their long term interests by enriching themselves while neglecting--and often degrading--others. [Okay these may reflect my own personal observations and biases in which I MAY be wrong. In any event I am certainly part and parcel of that system.]
By then we will all be gone in our current fleshly form. Will it be a return to the same nothingness as the one I mused about as a little boy? Or will it be "the eternal, which never originates and never passes away"?
Richard F. Dawahare
18 September, 2004
-Udana Sutta
I recall from a very young age wondering exactly where I came from. My world in Whitesburg, Ky was full of mountains, loving folks and family, loud trucks and gentle little lambs. It was a world of wonder as the world is for all youth--humans and animals alike. Images of rambunctious cubs and pups come to mind.
But then I would think, hmmmm, before I was born--for ME at least--there was nothing, nothingness. Then April 8, 1955--BOOM! I suppose I was slapped as many babies are to get them breathing, to get them REALLY ACQUAINTED with the nature of the world they'll have to navigate. There's just gotta be some meaning to a newly born child's first ever sensory experience being VIOLENCE.
Sure, the slap is done as a loving act to save the child by getting him/her to survive. But I am beginning to really believe that this seeming innocuous act might have a truly lasting influence that in part leads to our violent world--a world that sees war as necessary to create peace, a world that glorifies violence, whether on the field of battle or the fields of football.
Psychologists could tell us more than my own musings, but according to their well established principles the fact that much of humankind enters the world with the FIRST experience being a slap, one intentionally hard enough to cause a shout of pain, must result in a psychological IMPRINTING in the subconscious of those most impressionable minds. Has to.
There must be a better way to introduce humanity in the world. I know if our mindset was one of peace, we would find such a way. Or is the world just destined to be a place as full of violence, fear and hate as it is of beauty, peace and love?
It really gets to a "what came first, God or the Universe?" If the Universe came first--Big Bang or otherwise--then the subsequent evolution of humans with their capacity for both emotions AND critical thought, then God was simply created by humanity in order to rationalize their world. Later such religion would be termed "an opiate for the masses." In this case, the words of those fatalistic realists who say "there will always be war, rich, poor and injustice evermore" are a reminder of the futility of even attempting to seek higher ground. So go ahead and slap the little tot.
However, if God came first--as I believe--then the result in our little sphere called Earth is that He allows nature to take its course. It's not so much that He prevents bad from happening, although He is there to comfort the faithful when afflicted. But He has repeatedly shown and taught us the way to do on Earth as it is in Heaven--a land with peace, love and justice. For Christians, that message was perfected in Jesus. But there have been many sages and signs--from Confucius, Moses, Muhammad, the Dalai Llama, Gandhi and many more.
The more we listen and follow those sages, and I will now refer to Jesus as His is the plan with which I am most familiar, the closer we will come to this perpetual land of milk and honey. This is an evolution of thought and faith in which humanity has no doubt made progress on a path still long and crooked.
How far till perfect peace on Earth? Who knows as we can only look backwards from this point in history. But envision looking back from the year 4004 . Folks then will be so much closer to the ideal that they will look back to 2004 and say something like "they actually slapped new-born babies?" They will undoubtedly marvel at much of what we now take for granted as being acceptable, just as we now detest slavery and wonder how on earth that was ever appropriate.
Perhaps one such phenomena will be how this society would allow a few millions of people to keep trillions in savings while many billions have nothing. Maybe it will be how insular "nations" so focus on their own immediate wants and needs that they fail to see the ill-effects on their long term interests by enriching themselves while neglecting--and often degrading--others. [Okay these may reflect my own personal observations and biases in which I MAY be wrong. In any event I am certainly part and parcel of that system.]
By then we will all be gone in our current fleshly form. Will it be a return to the same nothingness as the one I mused about as a little boy? Or will it be "the eternal, which never originates and never passes away"?
Richard F. Dawahare
18 September, 2004
Monday, August 23, 2004
Churchill--reformed Conservative
So you could imagine what Britain would do for the man, Sir Winston, who was the hero and savior of the British Empire. Right…they voted him out of office! How, HOW, on God’s green earth could the British citizens reject Churchill in the election of 1945 after all he did?!
I learned why at the end of my tour of the Cabinet War Rooms. Among famous original documents, letters Churchill’s speeches was a letter from his daughter, Sarah, following her father’s defeat. The letter, which I have attached in my email linking this site (along with a pic from my favorite “brown bar” in Amsterdam which had among its odd assortment of bric-a-brac pictures of Churchill AND Jesus—imagine my delight after quite a few brews and…never mind) explains why the voters chose Labour over the Churchill’s Conservative party in a landslide.
Thing is, before the war there were the few very rich and the many very poor in British society. The war-induced scarcity forced the government to institute strict rationing and welfare programs like healthcare, unemployment insurance and education. This meant that many of the poor, the ones fighting, dying and manufacturing, to keep Britain free and intact were getting more than they ever had—some meat, some new clothes, some gas, etc.
And, as Sarah noted, they didn’t want to go back: “You see the people I know who are labour, don’t vote labour for ideals or belief, but simply because life has been hard for them, often an unequal struggle and they think that only by voting labour will their daily struggle become easier…they are decent people who want an easier and gayer life but certainly wouldn’t tolerate any form of totalitarianism.”
She went on to say, “Because socialism as practiced during the war did no one any harm, and quite a lot of people good. The children of this country have never been so well fed or healthy, what milk there was, was shared equally, the rich didn’t die because their neat ration was no larger than the poor, and there is no doubt that this common sharing and feeling of sacrifice was one of he strongest bonds that unified us. So why, they say, cannot this common feeling of sacrifice be able to work as effectively in peace?"
Why indeed. The Labour Party won in a landslide, installing as the new Prime Minister Clement Atlee, whom Churchill once described as “A sheep in sheep’s clothing” and “A modest man, who has much to be modest about.” Perhaps so, for Sir Winston returned as Prime Minister in 1951 till his retirement in 1955, but the social welfare system was well in place by then.
I rather like this assessment of Churchill from HowToFoldSoup.com:
“Churchill's death in 1965, like that of Queen Victoria in 1901, marked the end of an era in British history. Born into a Victorian aristocratic family, he witnessed and participated in Britain's transformation from empire to welfare state, and its decline as a world power. His true importance, however, rests on the fact that by sheer stubborn courage he led the British people, and with them, the democratic Western world, from the brink of defeat to a final victory in the greatest conflict the world has ever seen.”
One final word, tonight, on Sir Winston. He was a warrior first class, but only out of true “back to the wall” necessity. As he said, “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” I will apply that philosophy and Churchill’s times with the situation now facing our world in another installment.
Until then, please remember that “If you are going through hell, keep going!”
Moo on, RFD 8/24/04
I learned why at the end of my tour of the Cabinet War Rooms. Among famous original documents, letters Churchill’s speeches was a letter from his daughter, Sarah, following her father’s defeat. The letter, which I have attached in my email linking this site (along with a pic from my favorite “brown bar” in Amsterdam which had among its odd assortment of bric-a-brac pictures of Churchill AND Jesus—imagine my delight after quite a few brews and…never mind) explains why the voters chose Labour over the Churchill’s Conservative party in a landslide.
Thing is, before the war there were the few very rich and the many very poor in British society. The war-induced scarcity forced the government to institute strict rationing and welfare programs like healthcare, unemployment insurance and education. This meant that many of the poor, the ones fighting, dying and manufacturing, to keep Britain free and intact were getting more than they ever had—some meat, some new clothes, some gas, etc.
And, as Sarah noted, they didn’t want to go back: “You see the people I know who are labour, don’t vote labour for ideals or belief, but simply because life has been hard for them, often an unequal struggle and they think that only by voting labour will their daily struggle become easier…they are decent people who want an easier and gayer life but certainly wouldn’t tolerate any form of totalitarianism.”
She went on to say, “Because socialism as practiced during the war did no one any harm, and quite a lot of people good. The children of this country have never been so well fed or healthy, what milk there was, was shared equally, the rich didn’t die because their neat ration was no larger than the poor, and there is no doubt that this common sharing and feeling of sacrifice was one of he strongest bonds that unified us. So why, they say, cannot this common feeling of sacrifice be able to work as effectively in peace?"
Why indeed. The Labour Party won in a landslide, installing as the new Prime Minister Clement Atlee, whom Churchill once described as “A sheep in sheep’s clothing” and “A modest man, who has much to be modest about.” Perhaps so, for Sir Winston returned as Prime Minister in 1951 till his retirement in 1955, but the social welfare system was well in place by then.
I rather like this assessment of Churchill from HowToFoldSoup.com:
“Churchill's death in 1965, like that of Queen Victoria in 1901, marked the end of an era in British history. Born into a Victorian aristocratic family, he witnessed and participated in Britain's transformation from empire to welfare state, and its decline as a world power. His true importance, however, rests on the fact that by sheer stubborn courage he led the British people, and with them, the democratic Western world, from the brink of defeat to a final victory in the greatest conflict the world has ever seen.”
One final word, tonight, on Sir Winston. He was a warrior first class, but only out of true “back to the wall” necessity. As he said, “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.” I will apply that philosophy and Churchill’s times with the situation now facing our world in another installment.
Until then, please remember that “If you are going through hell, keep going!”
Moo on, RFD 8/24/04
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