May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will leave the world a little better for your having been here. -- Ronald Reagan

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Monsters, Gnats, and the Path of Least Resistance


We hear buzzing, knowing it’s far off, of no consequence, yet we focus on it. Overhead is the giant paw of a monster, and we’re aware of it. Yet we choose to ignore it. Sometimes the gnat is the focus of all the people around us. Sometimes we choose to focus on it of our own volition. We don’t want to recognize that giant paw in our personal lives either.

I take a look at what’s happening politically. We have a president and his Party that focuses on vaginas. Sex. Abortion. Contraception. A totally fabricated war on women. That’s the gnat. The monster whose paw we’re aware of and whose hot breath we can feel on our collective neck is the rise of terror which is dismissed in a barrage of euphemisms and apologetics, terrorists and diseases coming across open borders with the attendant humanitarian crises, over ninety million people out of work but not counted because their unemployment payments have run out, record number of people on food stamps, Russia making serious threats to the security of Europe and the world, China able to crumble our economy with the snap of its communist fingers, and cyber-attacks on both our military and civilian computer run infrastructure. Our national debt plus unfunded liabilities bring us very close to the limit of the total value of everything in this country. Plus, of course, anti-Semitism not only tolerated in Europe, but here in the US and supported by Jews. That last especially stuns me.

Not important; any of it. What’s important is that gnat. Vaginas, pay equality, and most recently, “free” junior college, and calling names, throwing insults at people that say, “Hey, we better pay attention to this monster”!

What or who is the big gnat, the evil in this country? Conservatives, Christians (more dangerous and evil as terrorists whose religion of death and destruction, but we better not say that of Islamofacists), TEA Party members, people that think the US Constitution is good law and should be followed, combat experienced vets. What’s good is abortion, the race industry (what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do) having open borders, protecting Hamas, PLO, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood, and supporting the destruction of Israel and the attendant anti-Semitism. Heterosexual marriage is evil, homosexual marriage good. Hating the successful is good, unless the successful (wealthy) got that way through entertainment or corrupt politics. 

At the personal level, we find that far away gnat. Instead of expressing to someone how much they irritate us we take it out on some unsuspecting soul. Then they think, what the hell is wrong with him? They won’t say anything either. Then at work, if you’re in a position of authority, you find who you can rely on. Why take grief from a belligerent whiner when you can reliably and seamlessly get the job done by selecting the same people you know, regardless of the stress or unhappiness it causes them, will uncomplainingly get the job done. 

In church, we fall so short of our religion. There’s the power plays, the undermining, the badmouthing. There though, it’s expected the other cheek to be turned. The bad actors get a pass and the good guys get marginalized. This is of course an overstatement; just making the point. One would think we can escape the focus on the gnat, and support one another battling the giant in the room. Dare I say it? The Enemy. Our environment, planet, world, institutions and all the rest are the playground of Satan.

We have the gnat on entertainment (I’m guilty of overindulging too), the gnat of not communicating, of focusing on the buzz on no consequence.

The monster is breathing down our necks is roaring and we choose not to acknowledge it. What kind of men and women does this make us? 


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