I hate Halloween. It is the day that the world celebrates the power of fear and evil. It’s stupid. Don’t get me wrong, I hand out candy to all the kids who come to the door (even the teenagers who should not be trick or treating anymore but that’s a different blog entry) and our kids participate cause…look, I live on this planet and it is not a hill I am dying on. If you like Halloween great….I’m happy for you, but I hate it. I know all the arguments about it’s all for fun and people make to much of it but in my mind it fits in the realm of good vampire movies….News Flash, there is no such thing as good vampires….that’s why they are vampires. Monsters are bad too. Duh. What is so hard about this logic? Whatever and anyway, I just find it interesting that Halloween and elections are both a celebration of fear. Whoever can make me fear the most gets my vote. If you can convince me the other team doesn’t have a reflection when they look in the mirror or that they howl at the moon I will probably vote for you. Seriously, have you looked at the Photoshop work they do on the really expensive political postcards that they send out? The opposition’s expression and menacing eyes make them look like the devils ugly brother! Well happy-The-Do-Da-Halloween-Day all over again!
I believe both sides have good people who sincerely believe their views will change the world if only they could have a long enough run at leadership. So, for the most part, we who cast our votes are probably the sensible middle who understand our shortcomings at least to some degree but elect those who, on paper appear to be like minded to represent us in our state capital or in Washington D.C. The only problem is those who want to be elected are usually more radical and narrow minded and we set them up to fight against their equally polar counterparts hence, nothing really changes. And once they bite the neck and taste the seductive blood that power brings…game, set, match they turn into ghoulish political monsters. Maybe on the outside they are baby kissers but on the inside they have changed into something of the underworld.
Consider the life we cause political representatives to lead. If they are local, they keep their day jobs and with any spare time they have to focus hard on “the issues” and how to wheel and deal to make the people they represent (at least the majority of us) happy. With the other time that they don’t have because it doesn’t exist, they beg, steal or borrow, so that they can gear up for their next campaign and strategize to denounce their enemies worth to their voters. Soon their missing their kids soccer games and dates with their spouse and holidays with their family, till the only thing left is higher aspirations of power which is nourished by their constituents words that in the end, become their only source of life (another beautiful run on sentence). And for those who are in Washington their lives are even more dismal and soulless. Am I saying all politicians fall into this category? No, probably those who only serve one term can be rehabilitated by a wooden stake through the heart (Ish, that might have been to harsh but it drives home the point. Oofta, that was a pun, my bad).
Nevertheless, we don’t care as long as we get our way. We can’t communicate with or understand each other so we elect people to deal with those we don’t want to. To force people to believe what we believe we use politics like it is nothing but a football game and next week we can throw the winning touchdown. Has this ever worked? Have we ever won by controlling another group of people? John Mayer has this song that often haunts my thoughts when I am feeling judgmental it is called “Belief” it goes a little something like this,
“Is there anyone who Ever remembers changing their mind from The paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls Ever breaking rank at all For something someone yelled real loud one time
Everyone believes In how they think it ought to be Everyone believes And they're not going easily
Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword Like punching under water You never can hit who you're trying for
Some need the exhibition And some have to know they tried It's the chemical weapon For the war that's raging on inside
Everyone believes From emptiness to everything Everyone believes And no one's going quietly
We're never gonna win the world We're never gonna stop the war We're never gonna beat thisIf belief is what we're fighting for
What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand Belief can, Belief can
What puts the folded flag inside his mother's hand Belief can, Belief can.”
This song causes me to reflect on why I believe what I believe.
Funny how Jesus handled his political status differently. He dealt with it in the micro scale knowing his words, once they caught fire in our lives would eventually affect the macro world. Look at this,
“1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish…22Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, 24"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' Luke 13
(emphasis mine)
Doesn’t this example sound like the moral police trying to decide how we should all live? When people ask Jesus to side with them he refuses and says, don’t worry about others and their eye specks (Matthew 7:5) but YOU…you be a leader by repenting. And don't worry about if others are going to be saved but YOU...you make every effort to stay on the narrow path.
Again, someone asks Jesus to use his popular clout to agree with them to force someone else to change and Jesus responds,
13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Luke 12
(emphasis mine)
Does this last section sound like our debate over taxes and where they should go? Both parties try to make us believe that the sum of our lives a worth is wrapped up into what we have or don't have. But Jesus says the kingdom of God is different. It is like this,
18Then Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? 19It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches."
20Again he asked, "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough." Luke 13
In other words the Kingdom of God has to start out in a small group of people that are infected not by ideas but with self-awareness (I know who I am and I need to repent) and grace (I don’t know every thing so I should be careful how I judge) for others because they choose to hear one another.
No matter how many times I go over this I find that I am a conflicted conservative.
Conflicted because I have a story and it affects my worldview. I grew up among people who acted sub-human and I don’t like them. I label them the American poor or at least the pool of American poor I was acquainted with. As I look back at my story, I have through hard work and determination rose out of the ghetto and the craziness of the inner city and I don’t have many found memories of the people or places I left behind. many of the ones I hear about still choose to make excuses for themselves as they wonder why things suck. They suck because they make stupid choices. That might sting to some of you but I am being honest about my bias. I am not defending it. Not saying I am right just letting you know what is going on in my goofy little brain. I don’t have much sympathy for the American downtrodden but I can send money to the poor in India. People who live in Indian never beat me up or abused me the way the American poor have. Just saying. And for those, who care for the American poor, your life story has brought you to that place where you see them as something that can become better…awesome, but when we vote we are going to vote completely differently. And this is just one of the many examples I could list but by the end I will have some haters out there so I will quit while I am behind.
So tell me where is the forum that we can get together and talk in a third space so we can get to know each other? A place we can walk away and not have to persuade or even agree at the end? Where it is not a debate but a forum of ideas where we don’t have to vote against one another. I want things to be different I don’t want to feed the monsters and vampires but I am an American who only understands the system I was born into and when I consider Europe or communistic countries (read Child 44 that will cure you of communism) I don’t consider them to be a brain-trust to follow either. So if anybody has any bright ideas do share cause in the immortal words of Elvis Costello, “what’s so funny bout piece, love and understanding.”
