They Are Precious in His Sight

i've just finished reading the book of joy, a book based on a series of conversations between the dalai lama and archbishop desmond tutu as recorded and moderated by douglas abrams.  at the end of the book there is a chapter that outlines various meditations that reflect the teachings of the two great spiritual leaders.  one of those meditations concerns the setting of intentions for each day.  yesterday i spent part of my morning meditation time pondering what my intention for the day should be.  

my intention for the day yesterday was to not say anything negative about another person.  i was surprised that i had managed to achieve my goal when i reviewed my day late in the afternoon.  i was proud of myself for having managed not to speak critically of anyone the entire day.  i thought that perhaps there is something to this idea of beginning the day with some thought given to what i hoped to achieve in the way of being a better person.  i'm excited to realize that i may be able to change and become a more joyful and compassionate person even after almost three-quarters of a century of living this life.  i'm not stuck being the person i am today; tomorrow i may become a "new and improved" version of myself.

so as i write this little post, i am thinking about an intention for this day, as well as keeping to my intention for yesterday.  today i hope to see each person i encounter as a small child that i must care for, as loving parents care for their own children.  to do this, i must see that their physical needs are met, that they have enough to eat, that they are comfortable.  i must also think of their emotional needs.  are they hurting because of some loss?  has someone or something caused suffering for them?  in writing about this intention, i realize that what i have set for myself is a difficult task.  if i can achieve my goal, i will have made a number of other lives better and helped others to find joy.

may i succeed at the task i've set for myself.  may each of us have the intention of making life better for others and thereby for ourselves.  may we see our mutual interdependence and the connection of all things.  may we look for the good in even the most difficult beings and wish them well.  may we be grateful for the blessings we enjoy and learn from that which causes us to suffer.  may we be willing to forgive even when we are unable to or should not forget.  shalom.

Human Hearts and Looks Deceive Me

 the world has watched the disturbing images coming from afghanistan as western armed forces and citizens withdraw from the country.  as would be expected, politicians in the united states have tried to spin events to their own advantage.  americans overwhelmingly support bringing the troops home and ending our involvement in the affairs of afghanistan.  having spent in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars over nearly twenty years and having lost the lives of almost 2,500 soldiers with about 21,000 more injured, our country has paid a dear price for the costly war and attempt at nation building.  as we never seem to learn from past experiences, the impulse to make the lives of people in other countries better by our armed intervention, followed by efforts to impose our idea of a proper government, is wrong-headed and presumptuous.  

while the rights of women in afghanistan improved enormously during the allied occupation, those gains are all but certain to be diminished and perhaps entirely reversed under a taliban-controlled government, as will many other basic human rights.  the corruption of the government we supported seems to have given ordinary afghans little confidence in their leaders' ability to improve their lives.  its quick collapse and that of the army and police that operated under it are an indication that those at the highest level of government were more concerned with their own survival and enrichment than with helping their fellow afghans.

our hearts go out to the people of afghanistan as these tragic events play out.  we feel compassion for those who aided the american military and who are now in danger of reprisals from the taliban and hope that those who wish to flee are successful in doing so with or without our help.  we will now undergo months of wrenching congressional and press investigations of the agreement between the trump administration and the taliban and oversight of that agreement's implementation by the administration of president biden.  if the taliban enjoys so little popular support in afghanistan, one wonders why the well-equipped military didn't resist rather than collapsing.  afghan politics is far more complicated than a simple choice between a corrupt western-style government and an extremist islamic state.  when most afghans live in abject poverty, struggling to keep themselves and their families alive, who controls the government is far less important that keeping body and soul together.

may we learn from the lessons of afghanistan.  may we in the west, and particularly in the united states, see that our powers are limited and that we do not have the right to impose our will on other nations.  may the people of afghanistan find their way forward from the mess we have created and develop a nation that meets their needs rather than ours.  may we address the current situation with compassion and understanding rather than using it for our own narrow political purposes.  shalom.

Till Selfish Gain No Longer Strain

 i'm thinking these days about the problems facing the generations in this country who are younger than me.  during my working career and that of most others my age, we could count on finding a job that paid us a decent salary if we had a good education.  we could afford to drive a nice car, purchase a home, feed our families, and put something away for our old age.  younger people, especially those forty and below, don't find that to be the case any more.  

i'm thinking of one particular young man i know.  he has a college degree.  he is talented.  he is hard working and dependable.  he has skills that seem to find him a job anywhere but the jobs don't pay enough to afford him any more than the very basic essentials.  he can feed himself and pay rent on an apartment, but there is nothing left over at the end of the month.  he drives a twenty-year-old vehicle which, for the most part, he maintains himself.  he can't save for a home or for his retirement.  there is no room for advancement in his field.  he has reached the top rung of the ladder, though he has almost twenty years of experience.  the only way he can improve his situation is to change careers, which will necessitate a large outlay of capital for additional training.  in order to do this, he will have to go in debt and hope that he can land a new job that pays him enough to repay the debt.  he is not alone in this situation.  few young people can make enough money to fulfill the american dream unless they have a partner and can rely on two incomes.  

i think of the millions of working poor in this country.  we see them every day, pouring our drinks in the coffee shop, flipping our burgers at fast food joints, serving our food in restaurants, checking us out at the grocery store.  these folk who must work for minimum wage or perhaps slightly above it make just enough to keep their heads above water.  often they live in the most basic housing and struggle to have enough to eat.  if they have children, the struggle is even greater.

i hear employers complaining that they can't find people to fill jobs in the service industry.  they blame more generous unemployment compensation enacted during the shut-downs forced on the economy by the pandemic.  many states have ended paying out the extra money the federal government provided to boost unemployment checks, believing that people are failing to return to their minimum-wage jobs because their government dole pays them more than they could earn.  if that is the case, we have something to learn from it.  it is not that those who have not returned to the work force are lazy.  it is that there is something terribly wrong with our economy.  people who work need to earn a living wage.  we should not be subsidizing companies making billions by enabling them to pay less than a living wage while forcing their employees to rely on government assistance to put food on the table.  we speak of the dignity of work, but where is the dignity when someone works hard every day and still has to rely on the government to feed them.

the continuing concentration of wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the rest of society must stop.  some attempts to ameliorate growing income inequality are being made at the federal level, but the business lobbyists and their allies in the republican party are doing all the can to stop these attempts by the biden administration and the democrats in the house and senate.  we must address our unjust economic situation if we are to survive as a democratic country.  keeping the american dream of prosperity for all alive must be the goal of government, business, and labor.

may we see that no one is well off if work is not rewarded fairly.  may we stop our desire to accumulate wealth at the expense of others.  may those who work hard and play by the rules be compensated commensurate with their efforts.  may we recognize that the preamble to our constitution says our government must "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, [and] promote the general welfare."  may we understand that, without just compensation of labor, none of these can be accomplished.  shalom.

Wiling to Suffer Affliction and Loss

 i have written before about my difficulties with belief in "intercessory prayer."  most christians believe that by fervent prayer God will cure those who are sick.  we read of the many instances in which jesus cured all sorts of physical and mental illnesses.  the gospels tell us that it was his healing that attracted many to him.  this whole idea that jesus, acting on God's behalf, was able to reverse the course of disease, open the eyes of the blind, or cast out the demons of insanity with a word or a touch seems to me to be a distraction from his central message.  through his life and teachings jesus shows us that God is a god of love, not a god of vengeance and pettiness. 

 if we accept that God cures our ills of body and mind when we pray, then we may also believe that God causes those illnesses, as well.  when we get cancer, it must be God's will that we suffer from the disease.  it follows that if we beg in just the right way, then we change God's mind and are cured.  it is harder for us to recognize that suffering is a part of the human condition.  much of our suffering is caused by our own minds, but the hurts caused by disease, aging, and the loss of loved ones are pains that come to us no matter what we do or how we think.  while we can take steps that cause us to be less likely to become ill by living healthy lives that delay the effects of aging, and we can care for those we love in such a way that we are less likely to lose them.  in the end, we all get sick, we all get older, and those we love die.

 

one of the great mysteries of life is the "why" of suffering.  there is no mystery in the fact of suffering.  we all suffer.  we all die.  we can choose how we deal with suffering but we can't prevent every pain in life.  one of the poorest ways to deal with suffering, it seems to me, is to ignore our humanity and ask God to remove the causes of our suffering.  for God to do such a thing would mean that God is making us less human.  God doesn't cause our pain, and it is not God's responsibility to remove it, nor should God be expected to deal with it when we will not.  it is the nature of God to suffer along with us, to love us, and to inspire us to have compassion for the suffering of others.  to worship God is to embrace the Divine Love within us as we follow the example of jesus to love no matter what.  without suffering, we are not fully human.  without suffering, we cannot be truly joyful.  without suffering, we cannot grow and learn.  even though we hurt, we cannot enjoy the full range of our humanity unless we experience pain and loss.  it is not avoidance of suffering that we must seek, but rather the wisdom to deal with our suffering and to be grateful for it.

may we recognize our common human condition.  may we act with lovingkindness and compassion for ourselves and each other.  may we be grateful for all the gifts of life.  may we see the good that arises from our suffering.  may we turn to our inner strength to deal with our pain rather than expecting a supernatural being to remove it.  shalom.

I Set by a Deathbed in Many a Home

 we live in an area of the country that is one of the hotspots for the spread of covid-19.  just recently i read of an unvaccinated man in his 30s who had a serious case of the virus.  he lived in a tourist town about thirty miles north of our town.  when he needed to be hospitalized, his local hospital was filled to capacity because of the large number of covid cases.  his doctor was able to find a bed for him in a hospital about sixty miles to the north, though that hospital was almost full.  for a while, it didn't appear that he would pull through, and he was told that he needed to say his good-byes to his family by telephone.  soon after, his condition began to improve, though his recovery is far from being assured.  in an interview with a news reporter, again by phone since he can't have visitors at his icu bed, he said that ten members of his family had come down with covid, though his case was the most serious.   he went on to say that they were "a strong conservative family," that refused the vaccine.

as i thought about his words, i wondered what being politically conservative had to do with taking a life-saving vaccine developed during the administration of a conservative extremist with that administration's support.  how had being a trumpist come to mean being an opponent of preserving one's own life and that of one's loved ones?  are ignorance, obstinance, and lack of caring for yourself and those around you a mark of political conservatism?  our hospitals are filled with those who refused to be vaccinated.  others with medical conditions like heart disease, cancer, and broken bones can't find hospital space because of needless covid hospitalizations.  wait times in many emergency rooms last for hours because of covid infections.  those who are suffering endure long delays for treatment because of vaccine opponents.  in our state, there are no pediatric icu beds available for sick children.  as our governor has traveled around the state begging people to take the vaccine, he has been met with rude, close-minded protesters who equate taking the vaccine with surrendering to "socialism."  he has had to call the legislature into special session to try and convince them to repeal a law they just passed that prohibits schools from requiring masks as more and more children fall victim to the delta variant, at the time schools are set to fully reopen for the new school year.

the politicization of covid prevention methods and treatments means that our country will never recover from this pandemic.  we are becoming a potential breeding ground for deadlier forms of the virus, endangering the entire world.  why can't those who have made this a political issue see that unscrupulous politicians are using this issue for their own selfish advantage?  why are trump followers taking actions that are counter to the preservation of their very lives?  there are some indications that unreasonable opposition to vaccination is weakening.  some people are seeing that the only way to bring the infection rate down is to wear masks, practice social distancing, and take the vaccine, despite the influence of political hacks.  recently, there have been reports of former opponents of vaccination in a neighboring state secretly getting the vaccine and asking their doctors not to disclose their vaccination status to others who continue to oppose vaccination.  these clandestine vaccine takers publicly oppose the vaccine, even as they fear the effects of not taking it.  

may we care for ourselves and those around us in the best ways we can.  may we listen to the advice of medical experts and scientists rather than heeding the words of politicians and editorialists who are more adept at spreading misinformation than in telling the truth.  may we understand our obligation to behave responsibly for our own well-being and that of those we love.  shalom.