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.

The Souls That Hunger, Feed Thou

 this past sunday, the sermon scripture at church was from the sixth chapter of john's gospel, in which jesus turns "five small barley loaves and two small fish" that a boy had brought with him into enough to feed a huge crowd gathered around jesus.  (the gospel says the crowd numbered "about five thousand men.")  these folk were attracted to jesus because of his healing miracles.  the passage implies that jesus wanted to further demonstrate his power over the physical world by feeding such a gathering with meager resources.  so much food was produced from the boy's offering that there were twelve baskets of bread and fish left over after all had eaten.

as i read through the scripture, several thoughts came to mind.  the first thing that struck me was that the crowd was numbered according to the men who had come.  apparently, the women and children who were there were not important enough to be counted.  i wondered how many in the congregation believed that this story was true.  many christians have no problem accepting that stories in the old testament are not literally true.  the universe couldn't have been created in six days, noah didn't build an ark to save himself, his family, and thousands of pairs of animals from a flood that covered the entire earth, there was no ruth or esther, and david was a mythic king about whom many tales were told much like king arthur.  we learn from these folk tales but they are not factual.   why is it, then, that many christians accept the miracles of jesus as being actual events?

we know that none of the authors of the gospels witnessed jesus' life personally and that all of the gospels were written decades after jesus' death.  surely, exaggerated stories about his life had developed in the retelling of his life in the oral tradition.  there were other gospels purporting to be accounts of jesus' life that were rejected because the church fathers doubted their accuracy but the four that have come down to us as part of canon scripture are accepted as the most truthful.  this faith in unreasonable events in the life of jesus do great harm.  it is this sort of denial of science that has led to the situation in which we now find ourselves, when thousands of people refuse to take a life-saving vaccine despite all the evidence of its benefits.  it is no coincidence that the largest number of unvaccinated people and increasing infections are found in the most "christian" states in the country.  we watch as people are needlessly infected and die because they believe those who repeat lies for political gain rather than heeding the testimonies of medical experts.

belief in the impossible does great damage to the real meaning of jesus' life.  God is a god of love, not a god of vengeance and pettiness.  we are to love and care for one another.  the perversion of religion for one's own advantage is evil.  we are to be quick to forgive one another's wrongs.  all of us are connected beyond ties of blood and race.  we can learn from the stories of jesus' miracles, and in that deepest sense they are true, but we must not take them as evidence that supernatural intervention in our lives will protect us from calamity and disease.  when we ignore science and adopt the stance that God will protect us from a deadly virus even when we refuse to do our part to escape it and that when we catch the virus it must be because God wills it, it is not God in whom we believe, rather we have faith in our own foolishness.

may we read the gospels with a critical eye, learning their deepest truths without rejecting the operations of the natural order.  may we keep learning throughout our lives.  may we do our part to keep ourselves and those we love safe.  may we not allow politics to blind us to the truth.  may we accept that we have been given the gift of reason for a purpose.  shalom.

And the Weather Is Sizzling Hot

 so far, in our area of the country we have had a pretty mild summer.  the temperature has reached into the 90s (farenheit), but most days the high has been in the mid-80s.  we came home last friday after running some errands to find the interior  of our home to be somewhat warm.  when we checked the thermostat, we discovered that the inside temperature was 80º, though the central air had been set to keep the house at 77º.  i fiddled with the control a bit to no avail.  our cooling system just wasn't working.  i immediately called the repairman and asked him if he could come on monday.  since it was already late friday afternoon, i figured we could get by over the weekend, rather than pay an exorbitant price for an emergency repair.  after all, it wasn't predicted to be that warm for saturday, sunday, and into monday.  we have ceiling fans, and the house could use a good airing out.  for me, the house temperature was quite agreeable with just the fans and open windows, but my wife is more sensitive to the heat so it was a little unpleasant for her.  i brought extra fans out of storage and plugged them in to make her more comfortable.

i remembered a home we had lived in thirty-five years ago.  it had been built in the early 20th century, and had twelve foot ceilings, abundant windows, and was long and narrow.  the narrow ends of the house faced east and west, while the long sides were shaded by large trees.  down the center of the house was a long hall, and all the rooms of the house opened onto this hall.  there was a large attic fan in the hallway.  during the evening hours, we opened all the windows and turned on the attic fan.  in the bedrooms, we also put small box fans in one of the windows to pull in more of the cool night air.  often, we slept under blankets because the bedrooms were so cool, even when we were in the hottest part of the summer.  during the day, we turned off the attic fan and closed the windows.  the rooms we used most had ceiling fans that ran twenty-four hours a day.  though we had window air conditioners in the west-facing den, the kitchen, and one of the bedrooms, we seldom needed them.  the one in the den was used for a few hours in the early evenings on the hottest days because the den was warmed by the afternoon sun, and, if we cooked a lot in the afternoon, we might run the kitchen air conditioner until we finished eating supper.

this house was built to be comfortable in the warm, humid summers in the southern part of the state during a period when air conditioning was non-existent.  the design of the home did its job remarkably well.  i miss the summers in that house because the home was filled with fresh air while keeping the summer heat at bay.  having our current home open to the outside and fans in front of the windows pulling in the cool evening air has been a wonderful reminder of our years in that home of many years ago.  i've been so comfortable that i haven't cared if the central cooling system is fixed or not.  my wife would disagree with me, i'm sure, because the heat bothers her much more than it does me.

all this goes to show, that as our technology has advanced to keep us more comfortable in our homes, we've forgotten some design principles that our forebears used to make their homes pleasant during the hot summers.  it is amazing what giving space for the hot air to rise well above our heads, shading our homes with large trees, providing many operable windows, and positioning our homes to minimize heat gain will do.  our energy consuming comfort machines are warming the earth as we sit in mechanically chilled air.  maybe our planet would be better off if all our air conditioners broke down, so long as we remember how to build homes that don't need them.

may we look at how people used to endure what we now consider unbearable summers in the southern part of our country.  may we build homes that are smarter and better able to function in our climate.   may we find ways to reduce our consumption of energy generated by fossil fuels, realizing that the old ways are not always inferior ways.  shalom.

To Fight for the Right

 i live in one of the five areas of the usa that has the highest rates of new infections from the covid-19 virus.  the delta variant has become the dominant strain that causes these infections.  our hospitals are being overwhelmed by young, unvaccinated patients who require extraordinary care, many of them needing to be placed on ventilators.  the supply of ventilators is dangerously low.  the amazing thing is that this surge in new cases is unnecessary.  we have the means to prevent new infections at our disposal.  vaccine availability is high, and local health authorities sponsor frequent mass immunization events at convenient locations.  yet most of the unvaccinated have refused to avail themselves of the opportunity to prevent their infection, so far.  the governor of our state is traveling around the state meeting with any groups that will have him to urge people to be vaccinated.

one wonders why so many have chosen to refuse something that is in their own best interest.  as they ignore the advice of health officials, friends, and relatives, they become breeding grounds for further mutation of the virus into more and more virulent strains.  their failure insures that covid will be with us for a long time.  the winter months are approaching, and people will be forced to spend more time indoors.  with indoor venues and offices fully open once more and mask-wearing less prevalent, the chances of the virus spreading even more rapidly are great.  

we are seeing more people who have been vaccinated developing the virus.  while their illness is less severe, they can spread the virus to those who are not vaccinated.  often those infected do not realize that they have caught covid despite their vaccinations because they are asymptomatic, thanks to the vaccines.  one event that i had planned to attend this week has had to be cancelled because the vaccinated organizer of the event has been forced to quarantine.  it seems that his daughter has tested positive for covid and he was exposed.  a close relative and his family have had to quarantine, despite having been vaccinated, because he was exposed when he took a friend, who had also been vaccinated, to the hospital for a radiation treatment, and the friend tested positive for covid.  we hear of more and more such instances.  some of this may be caused by false positives in the test results, but with covid one can't be too careful.

i can't help but feel anger towards those who refuse to be vaccinated.  for a few, there are good reasons for declining the vaccine, but most have no reason not to take advantage of a cost-free opportunity to stop the spread of the covid-19 virus.  a friend recently told me of one woman who said that she refused to be vaccinated because president biden has recommended it, and she, an ardent trump devotee, won't do anything that biden suggests.  i suspect that many in our area share her sentiment, but there are others who believe that vaccines of any kind are unhealthy.  no amount of scientific evidence will sway them from their position.

may our citizenry wake up to the danger in which they place themselves, those they love, and all of us by their failure to act in their own best interests.  may we each do our part to encourage others to vaccinate.  may we take whatever precautions we can to protect ourselves and those around us.  shalom.

With Ever Joyful Hearts

 there are so many disturbing things going on in the world that make it difficult to find peace in our hearts.  in the pacific northwest, a region of our country that normally has one of the mildest climates that can be imagined, an unprecedented heat wave has taken hold.  people are dying, roads are buckling, and many are suffering.  as our troops withdraw from afghanistan, many of those who live there are fearful of what will happen as the taliban takes over more of the country.  many of those who can are fleeing towards an uncertain future in other lands.  our country is more divided than it has been since the years leading up to the civil war.  we see many parallels between the behavior of our political parties now and during the last half of the 19th century.  voting rights of the poor and people of color are being suppressed, just as they were during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.  leaders of a party that represents a minority of the population are taking drastic actions to hold onto power, despite recognizing that the steps they are taking are not in the country's best interest.  democracy is in peril in many parts of the world.  the covid-19 virus remains a threat to much of the world's population.

in the face of all these problems, we cry out for an end to the worries they cause us.  we long to know how to confront and overcome them.  we are aware that there is little any one of us can do by ourselves.  how do we maintain a calm mind and peaceful heart in the midst of the chaos?  how do we find joy while so many are suffering?  how do we deal with our own suffering?  for me, meditation is one solution.  i can let go of my anxieties and reassure others.  i can look around at all the blessings i enjoy, knowing that others don't have such easy lives.  i can recognize that my obligation is to share my blessings with others as much as i can.  i can live a life of gratitude.  i can comfort others as i have opportunity.  i can defend the powerless.  i can vote for candidates who will try to address the inequities in our society and in the world.  as i think about it, there is a great deal that i can do if my heart is open and if i am willing to take on some of the suffering in the world.

may we not turn our backs on the suffering around us.  may we not ignore those who are racked with pain and anxiety.  may we see the good in the midst of the chaos.  may we be grateful for what we have.  may our gratitude lead us to share our abundance with others.  shalom.