For the Joy of the Journey

Why is this pandemic so hard?

George November 16, 2020 Covoid 19 Pandemic 2 Comments

After writing the title of this post, the answer that came to mind immediately was, “Well duh, it’s a pandemic stupid.” Yes, pandemics are hard. Maybe the title should be, “Why is the pandemic so hard for the USA? “. It has become clear, relative to the rest of the world, the USA is experiencing a greater impact from coronavirus.
An immediate impulse is to place blame on the government, the president in particular. Perhaps blame is justified, but maybe my question is really about why is the pandemic so hard for American people? No doubt economic consequences, job losses, economic collapse are hard and Americans have not been immune to them. Those cannot be minimized and their impact may very well be long term, if not permanent. What is most interesting and puzzling is what appears to be the hardest part of the pandemic.
An outside observer reading news and social media would probably conclude the greatest hardship for Americans in the pandemic is adherence to guidelines,/mandates, to wear masks, social distance and wash hands. Data indicates adherence to those guidelines can effectively reduce the rate of infections and prevent spreading of the virus.
I fear the legacy of the pandemic for Americans will not be a horrific virus and its tragic death toll; but, the horrible and “unconstitutional” requirements to wear a mask, social distance plus the unfair consequences of closing bars, restaurants and churches.

Conversation between server and customer in Nashville, TN restaurant.

Him: “How late are y’all open tonight?”
Me: “Eleven o’clock.”
Him: “What? I used to hang out here until 3am!”
Me: “Yeah… Because of the virus, restaurants in Nashville get in trouble if they have people here after 11pm.”
Him: “That is so dumb. In Williamson county — just one county over — they have like NO restrictions. I was just there the other day… The restaurant was PACKED.”
Me: “Oh yeah? Stuff like that might be why the U.S. had 183k new cases just yesterday.”
Him: “That’s only because we’re testing so much.”
Me: “We had more new cases yesterday alone than most countries in the world have had TOTAL cases since the pandemic started… You think that’s just due to testing?”
Him: “Anyway, it’s not the CASES that count. It’s how many people die.”
Me: “Unfortunately, we lead the world in that category as well. We have 4% of the world’s population, and 20% of the world’s COVID deaths.”
Him: “That’s only because hospitals are calling things COVID that aren’t COVID to get more money. They get like $10,000 extra to treat COVID cases.”
Me: “So you think doctors are all lying about it to get extra money? I have friends who are doctors and nurses, and I’ve talked to them about it… They are not lying.”
Him: “You think if you ask people if they are embezzling money, they’re just going to say Yes?”
Me: “So ALL of them are just lying for extra money?”
Him: “It’s mostly the hospital administrators. THEY’RE the ones pressuring people to say everything is COVID.”
Me: “And you don’t think — if the doctors & nurses were being pressured to LIE about COVID diagnoses — that anyone would come forward and tell about it? That’s a pretty big conspiracy theory, right there…”
Him: “I have a buddy from the military… Committed suicide. Put a shotgun in his mouth, and killed himself. They marked down his death as being due to COVID-19.”
Me [thinks to myself: “That didn’t happen.”]: “Hmmm. Yeah, well… I have a feeling we’re going to have to shut down again soon…. We missed our chance to take this seriously when we shut everything down in March through May.”
Him: “Europe took it seriously, and now their cases are spiking again just like ours.”
Me: “They’re cases are spiking again in some places where they stopped taking it seriously. Germany has 80 million people, but they only have like 15,000 deaths (the actual number is 12,619 deaths).”
Him: “The only reason the European Union is doing better than us is because they’ve got less people than us.”
Me [considers saying “Fewer,” but decides to say]: “Dude, the E.U. has about 120 million more people than we do.”
Him: “Nope. I just looked it up the other day. We’ve got way more people.”
Me [pulls phone out]: “Hey Siri, how many people are there in the European Union?”
I show him the screen that says “447.7 million,” he says, “I don’t think that’s right,” and I kiss my tip goodbye.

BTW, don’t forget to buckle your seat belt.

So Much to Think About

George November 13, 2020 Notes Anthology 0 Comments

I use the Notes app religiously ( no pun intended). Most often I save quotes, quips, etc from daily readings. I save them, hoping to eventually post about them or share later. Mostly they stay hidden on my iPhone. There is no intended theme or thread, but they may give some insight into the drumbeat in my head.

Cell phone
Just what form the future telephone will take is, of course, pure speculation. Here is my prophecy:
In its final development, the telephone will be carried about by the individual, perhaps as we carry a watch today. It probably will require no dial or equivalent, and I think the users will be able to see each other, if they want, as they talk. Who knows but what it may actually translate from one language to another?
Mark Sullivan 1953

Free fallin’
We are, as author Jonathan Dodson writes, living in a “state of existential vertigo”; as the late, great Tom Petty put it, we’re free, free fallin’.

Moral life
If the moral life is like learning to play an instrument, creative artistry built upon a foundation of technical skill, your early lessons are going to be rote and rudimentary. It’s only later, with advancing skill, where you’ll be able to preform and create in beautiful ways
Richard Beck

Unseen
Merle Haggard says, country music is “about those things we believe in but can’t see, like dreams and songs”–
It’s telling us that there is in front of us a kind of rational world, in which one and one always equals two, but that the thing that compels us forward as human beings, is that we look for one and one equaling three. We find that in our faith. We find that in our art. We find that in our love of each other.
Ken Burns

Christianity
Christianity is not a religion that allows us to make ourselves acceptable to God. If we believe we have become acceptable to him, we have missed him. Instead, Christianity is a relationship with a God whose heart is drawn towards the sinful, the broken, the outcast and the excluded. God sides with sinners and eats with them, warning those of us who are religious that, by declaring ourselves well, we stand in danger of not hearing the voice of our Creator calling us to himself.
Michael Spencer

Sin
Sin is more than making a mistake or “missing the mark.” Sin is a slavery that penetrates to the deepest recesses of our being.
Richard Beck

Truth
Truth has a side. These days everybody wants to be on the right side of history. No one seems to care too much about being on the right side of the truth.
J D Walt

Cynicism
…cynicism is simply too easy and smirking is childish. Neither allow for the deeper truths of joy and beauty
Stephen Kamm

Encountering people
Do the people you encounter this day feel safe, seen, and loved by you? Not just and only our best friends during an intimate chat over coffee, but complete strangers whom we bump into the rough and tumble of the day in our hurry, distraction, and stress. Do those people, the mass of strangers, receive from you the beautiful gesture?
Richard Beck

Front Porch View
As the years have gone by, my front porch has been a window into the lives of neighbor and pedestrian. When we moved in 13 years ago our street was a dead end, walkers exceeded vehicle traffic. Development changed the street to a thoroughfare, a blessing and a curse. Thankful for more pedestrians, increased vehicle traffic has become a bane, speed and noise abound. A front porch provides opportunity to observe and understand rhythms of the neighborhood. Seminarians and residents of nearby apartments and locals walking past, have shared their stories. I watched as some shed pounds and others found them. Vehicles passing by, each with their unique voice, are hard evidence of economic inequality. Deprived of cloistered confines, I have a deeper love for neighbor and community.

Listen for the Week – Just Keep On Dancing

Still on the journey.

I told You So!

George November 8, 2020 What is True and Real 0 Comments

There are those delicious but rare occasions when sinful temptation prevails and you can revel in saying , “I told you so!”. In a welcome respite from my pandemic funk, a post by Fr Stephen Freeman offered me that opportunity, the subject of this post.

Fr, Stephen Freeman’s post is entitled “What a Caveman Said:To Perceive That Which is Eternal” . I recommend reading in its entirety.

My “I told you so” moment came with his opening sentence.
Fr. Alexander Schmemann described “secularism” as the greatest heresy of our time.
I was immediately reminded of the assertion I made in posts on disenchantment.
Living in a disenchanted age is the most significant challenge we face in seeking a relationship with God. BINGO!
(You can read the posts HERE)

I must pause at this point, it has dawned on me how much I detest it when someone tells me “I told you so”. Particularly when they were right and I was wrong. Perhaps I’ve already turned you off with my admitted sinful lapse. Please forgive me. In a spirit of repentance, the title of the second section of this post is: “Fr Schmemann is right…secularism is the greatest heresy of our time.”

For Christians, secularism is mostly viewed as a sinister force (they/them), attacking Christianity, evidenced in the political and cultural arena,,,loss of religious freedom…removal of prayer from school…legalization of abortion… same sex marriage…loss of family values… normalization of homosexuality, et al. Reality is, all those things, and more, are occurring in our society. Threatening as they are, they are just symptoms of secularism. Secularism is a modern day Hydra, a multi-headed monster, which when one head is severed, two replace it. Only when its one immortal head is severed will it be defeated. The immortal head of secularism is a belief. We must understand that reality and realize our battles against symptoms of secularism will never yield victory. Power and legislation will not overcome belief. Even if we succeed in eliminating symptoms we will not have defeated secularism. The problem is greater than “them/they”.

Disenchantment is symptomatic of secularism. …Secularism is the belief that the world exists independent of God, that its meaning and use are defined by human beings. Things are merely things.
Disenchantment as described by Charles Taylor is: “…day to day life… emptied of deeper resonance, is dry, flat; the things which surround us are dead, ugly, empty; and the way we organize them, shape them, in order to live has not meaning, beauty, depth, sense.” We now experience “a terrible flatness in the everyday.” Life in a secular culture where God is irrelevant , is disenchanted.

Fr. Freeman echos Taylor’s sentiments on disenchantment:
Our disenchanted, secular world is a siren song that promises the power of control while robbing us of the reality of communion. We “manage” the world when we should be in love with it.

The essence of disenchantment is the absence of transcendence, most apparent in the absence of God. Without the divine, life loses its meaning and purpose. The only remaining option for meaning and purpose in a secular age comes from within, each individual becomes their own god.
It is easy for me to see the prevalence of secularism. What is most difficult is to see it within myself. Fr. Freeman’s post is helpful in two ways.
First, he points out heresy, by definition, is a false teaching from within Christian faith. Calling secularism a heresy has serious implications, secularism is not a “them” problem it is also a Christian problem… heresy.
Second…notions of secularism have been in the ascendancy for well over 200 years. They have found their way into the bedrock understanding of most Christians, … It is a largely unrecognized heresy in that it appears to be a “non-religious” point of view, being outside the realm of theology. For modern people, it is simply thought to be “the way things are.”

If secularism in not just a “non-religious’ point of view, what does secularism look like from a “religious’ point of view”?

Fr Freeman is helpful answering that question and I encourage you to read his thoughts carefully. For this post, I am pondering what secularism from a “religious” view point looks like in my life.

Secularism is a rejection of transcendence. Belief in God inherently contradicts secularism. I am a Christ follower. I do not hold the secular belief that “the world exists independent of God“. How, then, can secularism find a foothold in my life?

Secularism utilizes diversionary tactics to assault Christian strongholds. When faced with frontal assaults against religious liberty and values I want to resort to weapons of power and violence. When confronted with personal sin I turn to sin management, grasping my boot straps. Committing my energy and resources to those battles, I become vulnerable. With my spiritual immune system compromised, secularism, like invisible coronavirus, finds residence in my heart and mind and threatens my spiritual core.

Unfortunately, I have a “pre-existing spiritual condition” which makes me especially vulnerable. Raised in a a religious tradition shaped by logic and rationality of enlightenment thinking, my mind is fertile ground for secularism.

Secularism embeds itself in the realm of transcendence, especially:
> Holy Spirit
> Prayer
> Eucharist
> Divine presence
> Miracles
As transcendence is diminished, my religion becomes a commodity in a quest for meaning and purpose.
What I am describing about my faith is not an either/or proposition. While I recognize the presence of secularism and its influence on my life, I remain confident in the saving grace of God through Christ. What is at risk is not salvation, but life. Without the transcendent reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and God’s abiding presence, there will no life as Jesus promised in the Kingdom of God.
My life is good but there is more. There is music in an disenchanted life, but never the full symphony. As I’ve grown older and deepened in my relationship with God, there are occasions when I hear enchanting music, sweet as it is, it is but one movement. Secularism denies the full symphonic expression of the Kingdom of God. Fr. Freeman describes it this way:

We are captivated by the “surface” of things, failing to see what lies beneath. It causes us to be anxious and driven by things of insignificance. If there is a constant temptation for us in our present time, it is to lose confidence that there is anything unseen or eternal, at least in the sense that such things impinge on our daily existence.

It seems as though I have been out flanked. On the one hand, there is the reality of frontal attacks. As I have learned, sin management is not sufficient to resist fleshly sin. On the other hand, I am faced with relentless chipping away of belief in transcendent reality. I have good company:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:24-25

Secularism (disenchantment) is debilitating for a Christ follower. Life is deprived of spiritual vitality. Sin management is futile.

The answer to secularism, … is not to be found in attacking it. Rather, it is best seen by presenting what is true and real –

“Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.(2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

The antidote and ultimate vaccine for secularism is unseen reality. As I become increasingly aware of the influence of disenchantment, engaging unseen reality …”what is true and real” is crucial. In posts to follow I will share my developing understanding of what engaging unseen reality means in my daily walk.

When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood … Ps 73

Still on the journey

So Much To Think About

George November 4, 2020 Notes Anthology 0 Comments

Zugzwang
zugzwang is a German chess term describing the “compulsion to move.” If you could just skip a turn and not move any of your pieces, you’d be in fine shape. But moving any piece will worsen your position. But here’s the hitch: In chess, you have to move when it’s your turn; in politics, you don’t. In politics, like war, not moving is a move.
Jonah Goldberg

When young, all I wanted was moral certainty. With age, I must accept complexity.
Greg Everett

William Jennings Bryan said, “The people of Nebraska are for free silver, so I am for free silver. I will look up the arguments later.”

childishness
…populism often manifests itself as childishness. “Childish” has a slightly different connotation than “childlike.” Childlike conveys sweetness and innocence. Childishness is defined by a refusal to accept the rules. Childish people are quick to take offense. They are the Veruca Salts of the world, who want it now. They don’t care about the rules, and they think manners are for other people. They are reluctant to listen and eager to shout. Childish pranks are their own reward, and consequences for their actions are always unfair. Grownups think about consequences. They remember mistakes and adjust for them.
Jonah Goldberg

Going with the flow
The Gulf Stream will flow through a straw provided the straw is aligned to the Gulf Stream, and not at cross purposes with it.”
Bird by Bird – Anne

People of faith
People of faith should embody moral and intellectual integrity.One would hope that people of faith would act differently from members of political interest groups—that followers of Jesus would passionately defend human dignity, champion justice, and create the conditions for human flourishing, without being co-opted by any political party or power structure. …
Peter Wehner

Lamentations is the product of those who still believe
Bobby Valentine

I’ve watched a surge of people I love walk away from Jesus in the last few years… Just about ZERO have been lured away by marxism, liberalism or atheism
Almost all have “shipwrecked” over the politicizing of Christianity & their church’s apathy(hostility) re: injustice. (unknown)

Friends of Jesus
We cannot hope to become the friends of Jesus apart from becoming the friends of one another. It takes the context of real friendship to lay aside our need to know it all and to be right and to be someone other than who we really are. Only friends can make this admission to one another, “We don’t understand what he is saying.”
J D Walt

Who we truly are
The longer I live, the more I realize that we simply don’t know who we truly are until we’re tested. We can vocalize our beliefs all day long, but when living those beliefs is hard—when upholding our principles carries a cost—that’s when we learn what we truly value.
David French

FRONT PORCH VIEW

While sitting on the front porch, a vaguely familiar car stopped at the curb. A lady got out, came up on the sidewalk and said, “I need help”. She went on to explain her husband had just gotten home from the hospital after suffering a heart attack and stroke and she needed $35 for medicine. “Why did you stop here?”, I asked. Shrugging, she replied, “Something told me to stop here.” I invited her to come up and have seat, We got acquainted as my mind swirled ..scam?..$35?…should I?…What if? Deciding to give her the money and having only two $20 and one $10 bill, I scrounged up $5 in coins. She willingly accepted the bills and the inconvenient coins. “I will pay you back next week”, she said, thanking me profusely. “That won’t be necessary.” I said, all the while thinking, yeah…sure.

Sitting on the porch one week later, her car pulled up, she got out and brought me $35 in cash (no coins). Surprised but pleased, I refused to accept her payment, she thanked me and departed.

Anytime I am on the front porch and she drives past she always waves.
In retrospect, that encounter left me with some questions I am still pondering:
Why didn’t I give her two $20’s ?
Why was I so suspicious and doubtful?
Something…told her to stop?

Listen for the week

Still on the Journey

So Much to Think About

George October 26, 2020 Notes Anthology 0 Comments

Here’s the truth, I am a front porch snob. My admission will not surprise many and will generally be met with relief. …Maybe he’ll stop talking about it…Not likely.
When I become ruler of the world, or better yet, president , I will require all new home construction to include front porches. Maximum setback from the street will be 50′. No hedges, fences or other obstructions to personal interactions will not be permitted. All decks, patios and other distractions from the front porch will be permitted only with binding commitment to prioritize front porch usage.
All new developments will be required to be neighborhoods designed for pedestrians.
Yes, I know it sounds un-democratic, but if it will solve our societal woes, why not?
Future editions of “So much to Think About” will include a “Front Porch View” segment.

“A critic is someone who comes onto the battlefield after the battle is over and shoots the wounded” unknown
Bird by Bird -Anne Lamott

Disagreeing
When we disagree on theology or politics, we need a category of, “I am not where you are on this issue but I can see why you would believe that and that is a reasonable position to take.”
Matt Redmond

Little lords
…there is no lordless place. Everyone serves. The only question is whom you serve. We moderns, however, in light of our political freedoms, tend to see ourselves a free agents, obedient to no one but ourselves. We do not serve, only command, even if that command is only over ourselves. We are world full of little lords.
Richard Beck

Chris Christie
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has recovered from his bout with the coronavirus, and he’s written about the missteps that led to his contracting it in the first place. “It is never comfortable to deliver real criticism that includes yourself,” he writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “But it was a serious failure for me, as a public figure, to go maskless at the White House. I paid for it, and I hope Americans can learn from my experience. I am lucky to be alive. It could easily have been otherwise.”

Answer to the poor
The culture’s answer to the poor is to raise them to the middle-class through income and education. It is assumed that, somehow, poverty is like a disease and needs to be eradicated. The English held this idea quite strongly during the 18th and 19th centuries and urged the poor to leave England and go to America and Australia. It did not end poverty in England.
Fr Stephen Freeman

What young people think about Christians
…people between the ages of 19 to 29, they are now in their late 20s and mid 30s.
1) Hypocritical
2) The only thing Christians talk about is “getting saved” and could careless about anything else in the world.
3) Christians are homophobic, indeed they “hate homosexuals”
4) Christians mistake their brand of politics for Christianity
5) Judgemental
6) Christians are mean spirited people.
unChristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity. . .And Why It Matters

The first word
What is the first word? Is it not love! In every, in any, situation the first word, the first response, the first reaction, the first deed is LOVE. As the rock theologian Scott Stapp sang,

“what would love do
If it were here in this room
standing between me and you,
what would love do?“

Bobby Valentine

An independent mind
An independent mind does its imperfect best to seek truth wherever it is found, including intentionally seeking out the best opposing arguments.
David French

Simplism
simplism.” …defined it as “the unambiguous ascription of single causes and remedies for multifactored phenomena.”

For the simplist, “just saying the right thing, believing the right thing, is the substance of victory and remedy.”
First, the solution is always clear and debate is unnecessary.
Second, the opposition is stupid or evil. If they can’t accept your remedy, they must be too dim to understand or too malicious to comply.
Third, objecting means siding with the enemy. There can be no middle ground.
Fourth, political norms do not matter. Simplist proposals are so legislatively and practically unworkable, they require bypassing rules.
The Simpleton Manifesto

If you could choose, what would you want your obituary to say?
Scott McKnight

Effective political peacemaking
effective political peacemaker displaying characteristics like:
Truthfulness – Respecting common facts of reality, and transparency, not deceptiveness
Trust – Respecting others, dependability, earning other’s respect
Tolerance – Forbearing with diversity and differences
Tenderness – Empathetic, compassionate, gracious
Toughness – Perseveres wisely with courage, and stamina, not as a childish bully but after the manner of a true civil servant.
Jim Abrahamson

Recommended listen
“What could produce a Soul that Shallow…?
A great introduction to Stanley Hauerwas

Still on the Journey