A LONG TIME COMING
In an earlier post I mentioned that, while in college, I became more aware of political issues and even signed up for a minor in Political Science. My parents were Republicans. I found myself, for the most part, agreeing with their outlook on politics as I was growing up. But, as most college age kids do, I began getting more curious about my world and whether there was only one correct side to every issue. As a freshman in the late sixties, I began to venture out of my safe zone and spend many evenings attending rallies. I wasn't choosy. If there was an issue to be discussed, I wanted to go and see what it was all about. On one of those ventures, I went to see Paul Newman stand up in the back of a convertable and proclaim that "What we have here is a failure to communicate". I also had a brush with history after watching Bobby Kennedy give a campaign speech and, waiting to shake his hand, the crowd was shocked to find out that Martin Luther King was just shot in Memphis. I actually heard the news at the same moment Kennedy did.
I mention all this to explain the context of why I decided to go to a rally for something I had never heard of until I read it in our college newspaper. It was a new group called Students For a Democratic Society. The name conjured up thoughts of people like myself who were becoming more driven toward getting involved in helping to make things better in our country. So off I went to the rally.
The gathering was in a lecture hall that probably seated about 100 students. There were only about 30 of us which I liked because I thought I might be able to get more involved in the discussion. Two men and a woman, all looking to be in their 30's and very well dressed, were milling around talking to some students before they began the meeting. I nosed my way down to the front to listen in. They seemed very intelligent, poised and professional. That was unusual. Most of the anti-war rallies were tie-dye and cut-off style gatherings. So when it was time to listen, I was all ears.
They handed out their literature first. It was a lot of info so I put it aside. I cannot remember the people's names but I do remember they were from Chicago. I admit I was full of anticipation to hear what they had to say. But the whole set-up seemed a little creepy.
They began by explaining that they were well aware that "we", todays college students, were fed up with our current form of government but that we were going about trying to change things in all the wrong ways. OK - that sounded reasonable. So, this is what their plan was. (now please understand that I could have never remembered precisely what they said that night nor do I still have their hand-outs. However, through the miracle of Google, I have re-established myself with their talking points in order to share a few with you.) In fact, it's been over 45 years since I attended this rally and, while reading about them again, it still gives me chills.
They began by harping on the idiocy of the federal government and the careless way that our old "rulers" were too authoritarian and must be stopped. They continually repeated that our Constitution was out-dated and it was time to fundamentally change America.
Here are a few steps explaining how this change would be accomplished:
- In the beginning, do not force anything on the people. Slowly get them to think that the changes being made are a normal part of the evolution of society and for the better in the long run.
- Take as much power as possible away from the state and local governments. There shall be one, central government that will regulate all human activity.
- Discredit you enemies. Attack them through irrelevant arguments.
- Break down the civility of our system of government.
- The ends justify the means. Break all of the Ten Commandments if need be to exact control on the enemies of the "New State".
. . . and so on.
Well, that was it for me. I remember walking back to my dorm with a guy I had met at the rally. We were both joking about how ridiculous those people were. Did they actually think they were going to find anyone who would go along with that nonsense? He told me that night that they were Communists. I didn't tell him then but I was pretty sure he didn't know what he was talking about.
The SDS faded away over the next few years but the concept took root and continued to fester. We are now facing a point in time where those rules (Rules For Radicals) have nearly all been adopted in one form or another by the executive branch of the federal government and radical politicians throughout the country.
This time, I have no suggestions, no attempt at words of wisdom or even a catchy closing phrase. I only have this short story about my little brush with an event in history that started a sad chapter in our wonderful country when a sickness infested our political psyche and has now nearly killed the patient.
Friday, January 9, 2015
UNIVERSAL APPRECIATION
This was in one of my first essays but came up missing. Curious. So this is a reprise.
I grew up in a perfectly sized, mid-western town. It was called a city but I thought of it as a town. No one was ever certain if there were 40 or 50 thousand people in the town but it never seemed to matter. It was a good town. I say was because I have not lived there for over 30 years and I know things change. There are two rivers running through the heart of the town. One of them was perfect for swimming and boating. I was fortunate that my family’s home was located on the banks of that river and I took full advantage of it.
Due to the very nature of my surroundings; the beauty of the spring flowers along the river, the amazing array of fish we could catch nearly year ‘round, the adorable teenage girls that would sunbathe on the piers in the summer months, often gave me pause to think. What’s this all about? As a young teen I pretty much understood why I appreciated the sunbathers. But, why do I appreciate tulips? My dog couldn’t care less about the delicate beauty of a tulip. The ability to perceive of and appreciate so much of our world, our universe, is purely human. But why? Why us? Why us God?
My childhood and church going was a constant battle of wills. Go fishing? Go to church. Go fishing? Go to church. Go fishing. My parents were Presbyterians. I was a Communicant’s Class dropout. By the time I hit high school age, the act of attending church was far from my mind. Did I believe in God? Honestly, I don’t remember. When I went on to college though, and realized that I know everything, I began to think back on my early years as a kid asking why. But I added another query into the mix. Where? Where is God? Not who or what, but where. So I set out in my mind to answer the question. I knew I could find the answer because college-age students are the smartest people in the world. After very little biblical or philosophical research, I had it. God is everywhere! Oh, I know, you hear that all the time. But this was different.
God is everywhere because he is us. Yup. It was us who wrote the Bible, right? It is the collective minds of mankind that conceive of religions and develop them into something that is supposed to help teach us right from wrong. So instead of saying that God is everywhere in our lives helping us get through the tough times, why can’t we just accept that he is us? You and me and your jerky neighbor who just painted his house mauve; we are God. So when we pray, are we praying to some bearded fellow sitting on a throne beyond the universe? Or are we simply helping to put our hopes and wishes into our minds to direct us to some positive end? It seems okay to presume so, if we know that our own minds are a fractional piece of God’s mind. There, problem solved. I figured it out when I was in college. . . . . . . . Then I graduated.
College smugness seems to quickly disappear when a person goes out into the real world. Like most of my friends, marriage and family happened to me over the next 20 or so years. Before my daughter was born, I really didn’t take much time for spirituality and the old questions that I so easily answered years back. But then something happened to me that changed everything.
On the day of the birth of my daughter, the center of my universe shifted. It shifted from me to her. I realized that day that if someone said that I must die so that this little bundle may live . . . no problem. With the universe no longer about me, I began to ask questions again. But this time I had lots of questions. I read books; Cosmology and Philosophy books. Maybe I should call them “scientific theory” and “thought theory” books. I was impressed that so many of the truly brainy scientists had such strong faiths. God seemed to always be an integral part of their scientific psyche. I have often been disheartened to witness the fact that organized, mostly Christian, religions tend to denounce scientific theory and discovery while scientists seem to embrace religion and God. Can’t we all just get along?
After my divorce and my daughter reaching her late teens, my universe shifted once again. This time it began to center around God. As I read more Big Bang Theory and Black Hole Theory and as our telescopes reached further back in time to the very beginning of the universe, I began to realize that I never had the answers. I wasn't even close. But it didn't matter much. Now I wasn't only perceiving of and appreciating that tulip on the riverbank, I was becoming completely rapt in the total package. I remember a line from Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” in which a lovesick Emily Webb blurts out “Oh World, You’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you.” Profound? Yes. True? Also yes. I’ll never know all the answers. But, perceiving of and appreciating as much of our universe as possible, is to me, a noble quest. It is my humble opinion that God cracks a little smile as we continue to inch closer to the answers.
Many of the greatest minds today are churning up scientific evidence that lends itself perfectly to the possibility that the gap between science and theology is rapidly closing. Cosmology is the study of the physical universe from the very big to the very small. String Theory is a result of cosmologists, through mathematical models, coming up with really difficult stuff to understand that tends to reveal the possibility that God is among us. The really brainy people working on this are pretty convinced that there are many more dimensions than just three in our world. The reason we cannot see into these other dimensions is because all matter and light are stuck in only three dimensions. Some cosmologists have concluded that there are as many as 11 dimensions.
OK . . . work with me on this. If we can accept that our universe around us has a lot of stuff going on that we cannot see or perceive of, does it not make sense to presume then that God could have a very comfortable spot to hang out in like maybe the eighth dimension, eating popcorn and watching us create all sorts of entertaining quandaries for his, and our amusement? Then, when we really screw up, he can project through those dimensions and touch our lives in ways that we cannot feel in our limited world but we just know He had something to do with fixing the problem.
No matter how many dimensions there are, the three we've got have lent themselves pretty well to giving me the ability to appreciate the universe. To remember springtime, sitting on that riverbank watching the meandering water flow by while perfectly formed teenage girls seem to tan right before my eyes stretched out on the docks and tulips open themselves to an amazingly blue sky. That was my universe. It still is. Thank you God.
This was in one of my first essays but came up missing. Curious. So this is a reprise.
I grew up in a perfectly sized, mid-western town. It was called a city but I thought of it as a town. No one was ever certain if there were 40 or 50 thousand people in the town but it never seemed to matter. It was a good town. I say was because I have not lived there for over 30 years and I know things change. There are two rivers running through the heart of the town. One of them was perfect for swimming and boating. I was fortunate that my family’s home was located on the banks of that river and I took full advantage of it.
Due to the very nature of my surroundings; the beauty of the spring flowers along the river, the amazing array of fish we could catch nearly year ‘round, the adorable teenage girls that would sunbathe on the piers in the summer months, often gave me pause to think. What’s this all about? As a young teen I pretty much understood why I appreciated the sunbathers. But, why do I appreciate tulips? My dog couldn’t care less about the delicate beauty of a tulip. The ability to perceive of and appreciate so much of our world, our universe, is purely human. But why? Why us? Why us God?
My childhood and church going was a constant battle of wills. Go fishing? Go to church. Go fishing? Go to church. Go fishing. My parents were Presbyterians. I was a Communicant’s Class dropout. By the time I hit high school age, the act of attending church was far from my mind. Did I believe in God? Honestly, I don’t remember. When I went on to college though, and realized that I know everything, I began to think back on my early years as a kid asking why. But I added another query into the mix. Where? Where is God? Not who or what, but where. So I set out in my mind to answer the question. I knew I could find the answer because college-age students are the smartest people in the world. After very little biblical or philosophical research, I had it. God is everywhere! Oh, I know, you hear that all the time. But this was different.
God is everywhere because he is us. Yup. It was us who wrote the Bible, right? It is the collective minds of mankind that conceive of religions and develop them into something that is supposed to help teach us right from wrong. So instead of saying that God is everywhere in our lives helping us get through the tough times, why can’t we just accept that he is us? You and me and your jerky neighbor who just painted his house mauve; we are God. So when we pray, are we praying to some bearded fellow sitting on a throne beyond the universe? Or are we simply helping to put our hopes and wishes into our minds to direct us to some positive end? It seems okay to presume so, if we know that our own minds are a fractional piece of God’s mind. There, problem solved. I figured it out when I was in college. . . . . . . . Then I graduated.
College smugness seems to quickly disappear when a person goes out into the real world. Like most of my friends, marriage and family happened to me over the next 20 or so years. Before my daughter was born, I really didn’t take much time for spirituality and the old questions that I so easily answered years back. But then something happened to me that changed everything.
On the day of the birth of my daughter, the center of my universe shifted. It shifted from me to her. I realized that day that if someone said that I must die so that this little bundle may live . . . no problem. With the universe no longer about me, I began to ask questions again. But this time I had lots of questions. I read books; Cosmology and Philosophy books. Maybe I should call them “scientific theory” and “thought theory” books. I was impressed that so many of the truly brainy scientists had such strong faiths. God seemed to always be an integral part of their scientific psyche. I have often been disheartened to witness the fact that organized, mostly Christian, religions tend to denounce scientific theory and discovery while scientists seem to embrace religion and God. Can’t we all just get along?
After my divorce and my daughter reaching her late teens, my universe shifted once again. This time it began to center around God. As I read more Big Bang Theory and Black Hole Theory and as our telescopes reached further back in time to the very beginning of the universe, I began to realize that I never had the answers. I wasn't even close. But it didn't matter much. Now I wasn't only perceiving of and appreciating that tulip on the riverbank, I was becoming completely rapt in the total package. I remember a line from Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” in which a lovesick Emily Webb blurts out “Oh World, You’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you.” Profound? Yes. True? Also yes. I’ll never know all the answers. But, perceiving of and appreciating as much of our universe as possible, is to me, a noble quest. It is my humble opinion that God cracks a little smile as we continue to inch closer to the answers.
Many of the greatest minds today are churning up scientific evidence that lends itself perfectly to the possibility that the gap between science and theology is rapidly closing. Cosmology is the study of the physical universe from the very big to the very small. String Theory is a result of cosmologists, through mathematical models, coming up with really difficult stuff to understand that tends to reveal the possibility that God is among us. The really brainy people working on this are pretty convinced that there are many more dimensions than just three in our world. The reason we cannot see into these other dimensions is because all matter and light are stuck in only three dimensions. Some cosmologists have concluded that there are as many as 11 dimensions.
OK . . . work with me on this. If we can accept that our universe around us has a lot of stuff going on that we cannot see or perceive of, does it not make sense to presume then that God could have a very comfortable spot to hang out in like maybe the eighth dimension, eating popcorn and watching us create all sorts of entertaining quandaries for his, and our amusement? Then, when we really screw up, he can project through those dimensions and touch our lives in ways that we cannot feel in our limited world but we just know He had something to do with fixing the problem.
No matter how many dimensions there are, the three we've got have lent themselves pretty well to giving me the ability to appreciate the universe. To remember springtime, sitting on that riverbank watching the meandering water flow by while perfectly formed teenage girls seem to tan right before my eyes stretched out on the docks and tulips open themselves to an amazingly blue sky. That was my universe. It still is. Thank you God.
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