TWO THOUGHTS AS THE YEAR TURNS

 

            1.  Let Us Pray

The phrase “Let us pray” is uttered by priests at various points throughout religious services.  It may be an invitation (generally in Western style services) or an imperative (generally Eastern or Orthodox).  Some believe that prayer can become a way of life. 

The phrase is often uttered either at the end of or as a beginning to meaningful words or acts.  Therefore, it seems appropriate to utter them as we are on the cusp of the end of one year and the beginning of a new one; a time of both ending and beginning.

Of course, a natural question might be:  Pray to whom?  And for what? 

As far as “to whom”:  I would suggest that it matters less how one envisions the entity to whom one prays than it does the fact that someone accepts that there is someone or something greater than oneself in which one believes enough to send forth prayers.   I know there can be pushback here from every advocate of every religion (and every associated denomination within) who believes theirs is the one and only true faith.  But let’s remember that there is a difference between man-made religions and true faith in something that is greater than, and all-encompassing of, Mankind.  Beyond this short statement, I will leave it to the philosophers and saints to argue about who the whom in “to whom” is.

That leaves us the second question:  For what shall we pray?  That is an individual problem.  Many will sit down on New Year’s Day and compose a list of resolutions.  Those are generally positive wishes for oneself in the coming year; I’m not sure they are really prayers, but they could be if in the end they are directed to that greater being to whom one prays.

I think that my prayer is for a reinvigoration in this world of the faith that makes prayer meaningful.  This seems to be something that many humans have lost, or are in the process of losing, as individuals seem to become more and more self-absorbed and our world becomes more and more secular.

When one has no belief in something greater than oneself, when the self and its own satisfaction become of primary importance, that is when we lose tolerance for others, when we lose the urge and even the ability to do something for the true good rather than simply for what feels good.  That focus on worldly selves is when we lose respect for humanity and the individuals that surround us.  And it results in an emptiness, a hopelessness, and the anger that we see so much around us in the world these days.

So, my prayer is that we return to our souls and within those souls become reacquainted (or perhaps newly acquainted) with a faith in that which is greater than we, whatever we may choose to call that greater power.  Not only will it lead to truer individual happiness, but it will also go a long way toward healing the world.

2.  The Year You Complain of May Not Really be Over

For all of you who have sent out (sometimes quite offensive) “holiday” cards proclaiming how horrible 2020 was and your eagerness for 2021:  I have some bad news.

We are currently in the Chinese Year of the Metal Rat.  It began last January 25^th, just about the exact same time as COVID arrived on our shores (from China).  The year will not end until February 11, 2021.

The Year of Metal Rat comes once every 60 years.  Based in Chinese astrology, the 12 animal astrological symbols are combined with the 5 elemental signs, giving us 60 possibilities, each of which then contains a Yin or a Yang energy.

The Metal Rat is a Yang year.  Yang is an active energy, when the world is shaped through actions and big events, rather than by passive attitudes. It is therefore a year of changes some of which can be drastic. 

The Rat is symbolically a highly active animal; one that is known for being intelligent, curious, and restless. The Rat gets what it wants through tenacity and inventiveness; it is an animal that can also bite, explore the lower realm of our world, and carry illnesses. All those characteristics show up in the Metal Rat year. And the combination of Yang Metal and the Rat makes for a very active year that shakes things up.

This becomes clear when one considers previous Metal Rat Years.  The most recent was 1960-61. Not only did that year begin several years of social upheaval in this country, but it was also the year of a recession, the year that substantial American advisory forces arrived in Viet Nam.  It was a year that saw a strong socialist/communist movement in Europe, it began the transformation of colonialism to independence in Africa, and France detonated its first atomic bomb while other nations including China did so only a few years later.

Going back through history one will find that there were at least a few significant events in each Metal Rat year that caused or helped lead to significant changes in the future.  1900-01 saw widespread application of the internal combustion engine along with several other technological inventions, all of which served to push us full force into the industrial age and change human life forever.

Looking back further, in 1840-41, the World Anti-Slavery commission met for the first time, wagon trains began leaving for California, the Library of Congress was founded, and slavery was ended in the Northwest Territory.  1780-81 brought us to the end of armed conflict in the American Revolution and saw the approval of the Articles of Confederation.  In 1720-21, Tsar Peter the Great ended the Russian-Orthodox patriarchy, peace treaties were signed among several European countries, and Europe’s last major plague outbreak killed around 100,000 people.  1660-61 saw King Charles II sign the Declaration of Breda establishing freedom of religion.  In 1600-01, Astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler met for the first time near Prague, and the first British East India Company voyage departed from London. 1540-41 saw exploration of the New World by the likes of De Soto, Coronado, and Cartier while Michelangelo finished painting “The Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel.  The years 1480-81 and 1420-21 saw a number of religious wars play out including Ottoman troops beheading 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam,  Pope Martinus I calling for a crusade against the Hussite Protestants, and Jews in Syria and Austria were expelled. 

We could go on, but you get the picture.  Years of the Metal Rat include events that tend to shake up the status quo and are likely to change the course of history.  That does not necessarily make them evil, even though experiencing a Metal Rat year as it is happening may be unpleasant at best. 

But, if we look at the long view, perhaps 2020 or this Metal Rat year is not as malevolent as many now believe it to be.  We should stop and consider what has 2020 taught us, how it has prepared us better for the future and how we can work to make that future better.

But whether it is the Year of the Metal Rat or simply 2020 that is so fashionable to trash, I find it hard to believe that there is not at least one thing that each person can find during the year to be thankful for.  Even in the most difficult times, there is always light to be found.

In conclusion, then, as we sit on this cusp between years, let us search within our souls for the faith that is there that can make prayer real and meaningful.  Let us look to what we have learned from this year that is passing and let us find our many lights within it.  And, for the future, let us pray.

Happy New Year! What is Your Mission?

Happy New Year!

I am hoping for a new year in which everyone (including myself) becomes a bit more tolerant and that we are able to be thankful for what we each have and take joy simply in living without forever taking issue with those who have more, less, or are simply different in mind, body, or spirit than we are.

But, then, I read the morning news and learned that the Left has declared this the “year of resistance.”  (One wonders what the last 3 years have been?!)  The Left have vowed to double their efforts to remove President Trump from office, whether by the electoral process or by other means, they don’t really seem to care.

This caused me to again reflect upon what is “the Left” and why are they always so discontented and hateful?  We must begin with the understanding that, even though they both inhabit the Democrat Party, Leftists are not Liberals and that Leftism is not Liberalism.

While we often use the two terms interchangeably or think of Left as simply more extreme Liberalism, the reality is that the two have very different world views and each’s ideal includes very different Americas. 

Liberals essentially believe in American Democracy and Capitalism but understand its imperfections and would make changes to improve but not fundamentally change them.  Liberals would like to see more income equality, more affordable housing, better and more affordable health care, less discrimination, etc., but they would create these things within the capitalist structure of this country.  Their disagreements with the Right are more often on how to achieve these things within our governmental structure rather than with the governmental structure itself.   

The Right also has a number of conservative factions including fiscal, Christian, traditionalist, libertarian, moderate, as well as some extremists; but, for the most part the Right or Republicans all support the American capitalist form of government.   As such, when the two parties consisted mostly of conservatives and liberals, it was easier for the government to accomplish necessary changes as the two sides could more easily work toward successful compromises within the same fundamental government structure and ideals.

In contrast, the Left considers capitalism as something that should be done away with.  While they would like to see many results similar to those advocated by Liberals, their method of achieving those goals is to fundamentally change the governing structure of America.  While Liberals might want to see governmental structures change more quickly, the Left would like to see them change completely.  Ultimately, in their desire to create what they would see as a better incarnation, the Left would destroy everything that makes America what it is today. 

Hence the Left’s hatred of Trump, patriotism, and nationalism.  A note here:  nationalism is simply a support for one’s own nation.  While that nationalism can take a dark turn it is not in and of itself an evil; indeed, it is something that is necessary for the health and sustenance of any country or nation-state.  Similarly, patriotism is nothing more than support for one’s country along with a feeling of attachment to that country.  These are not negative things, but they become negative to a group that would completely destroy that country and rebuild it with something else.  This is what the Left would do.

The Left would completely restructure our economy, and in doing so would also completely restructure our democracy.  They cannot follow the Liberal approach of compromise or have patience for the slower path of change that occurs within our current systems because the Left does not believe in that system.  The Left wants not only immediate change but also change to a completely different system.  Their entire ideology is different.

The Left rejects the core ideologies of this country.  For example, Leftism is based on class solidarity, not national solidarity and not human solidarity.  The class – the identity group – is essential to a Left philosophy.  While America believes that the color of one’s skin should be insignificant (and despite history that contradicted that, our country has and continues to allow us to move past inequalities based upon race or other identifiable factors),  to the left, seeing race as insignificant is actually racist.  That is, the Left needs racial identity to build class or identity group solidarity.

The Left’s view toward free speech is entirely antithetical to that of traditional Liberals and to the core values of this country.  “I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it.”  That statement encapsulates the essence of our belief in free speech and the free and often passionate interchange of ideas along with the individual's right to hold and speak ideas with which others disagree.  This concept is essential to our democracy.  The Left, on the other hand, would ban all speech which they find offensive or which counters the speech necessary to their vision of what America should be. 

In this suppression of free speech and with it the freedom of individuality in speech, values, and ideas, the Left would eliminate the individual in furtherance of class solidarity.  The Left has contempt for all which does not further its goals.  Indeed, some would completely obliterate anything based on “Western Civilization” which does, indeed, hold most of the underlying principles of America:  morals, ethics, literature, artistic work, music, philosophy, religion.  These are all denounced in one way or another as the Left seeks to remake America.

To the Left, America is a capitalist horror filled only with people who are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.  While Liberals acknowledge that such mindsets exist, they will work to remove the effects of such negative attitudes within our current Constitutional, legal, and capitalist system.  Economically, Liberals' work will be more towards equality of opportunity rather than equality of result.  While Liberals will use the current democratic and capitalist systems to eliminate such things as economic gaps, the Left will ignore individual enterprise and turn to such things as redistribution of income and/or property promulgated by government fiat.

The democratic system of this country will always recognize individuality and with it the unreality of total sameness.  The Left, on the other hand, would envision absolutely no differences in economic or other results; that is, the Left strives for one unified class supervised by a government that holds and enforces Leftist ideals. The individual is lost to the dictates of a large and controlling government who will create what the Leftists (but perhaps not the people) will determine to be good.

No, Liberalism is not Leftism.  While both philosophies currently inhabit the Democrat party, they actually have very little in common.  They do however, both want to take the power of the presidency back from Donald Trump.   Frighteningly, they have joined forces in this; however, the Liberals have, in so doing, forgotten their core belief in and allegiance to this country.  The Left could care less.

This country, while always holding a variety of beliefs, including political, has always been generally united in the core support for the fundamental structure of our government.  That is no longer true.  The Left has a different mission, one not to support and improve America, but to totally destroy it.  They hate not only President Trump, but also his supporters, and every traditional value upon which this country was built.  They will not give up until they have eradicated them all and remade this country into something no longer recognizable as the shining beacon of individual freedoms and democracy.

That is the mission of the Left.  I do not believe that is the mission of Liberals or Conservatives or most Americans.  The mission of the Left is filled with hate and nihilism.  As the rest of us consider our New Year’s resolutions, we can make them ones of respect and tolerance and inclusion.  Rather than discarding all that is good in America simply because it is not perfect, we can make resolutions that improve and strengthen the already greatness of this country and all that it stands for.  We can make that our mission.  I hope that we do.

Revenge, Jealousy, and 2019

I did not write in this blog for some time because, quite frankly, it seemed pointless.  Each political “crisis” or issue was beginning to seem like just a rehash, over and over, of the same points, just dressed in different clothes. 

On any issue, the President asserts a position fairly consistent with the platform on which he was elected.  The Democrats go all out to oppose that position, primarily by ad hominem attacks on the President and his supporters.  Generally, the President’s positions tend to look to country first while the opposition tends to be less concerned about America than about a new world globalism ethic (that in the end sounds much like the oft tried and failed socialism and often looks even more like nothing more than a grab for their own power). 

But, the opposition positions often conflict with those held by the same individuals before Trump’s election.  That leads (or should lead) one to conclude that it really isn’t about the issues at all, but about a hatred of Trump and the fact that he bested them in the election and that the entire country is not fawning at the feet of the Democrats and their positions.

I had hoped that 2019 would bring an end to this ridiculous childish behavior; that people would grow up and begin to honestly discuss important issues based on objective and rational thought.  But, sadly, it does not appear that this is the case.

2019 brings us a continuation of the revenge and jealousy that has been the calling card of the anti-Trump crowd for the past 2 years.  New Senator Romney preludes his new office with a tirade against the President in today's Washington Post, rehashing his angry and jealous comments made throughout the campaign.  Romney’s niece and chairwoman of the Republican party appropriately replied “POTUS is attacked and obstructed by the MSM media and Democrats 24/7. For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack @realdonaldtrump as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappointing and unproductive.”

Unproductive is a key word here.  How long do we have to suffer through the emotional angst of those who disagreed and disagree with the President and feel the need to act out because they didn’t or are not getting their way?  Revenge is the instinctual go-to when people believe they have been wronged.  But we need to rise above that instinct unless we prefer a never-ending conflict (and, never-ending is not an overstatement if one considers the many conflicts that have gone on for thousands of years based primarily on a cycle of revenge).

Until our politicians can rise above the personal and instinctual response of revenge and retaliation for not getting what they thought they should, we can expect to simply rehash the same personal attacks in the guise of whatever issue is the special of the day.  This is not productive; it is hurtful to our country.  The grown-ups (if there are any), need to acknowledge that they lost and move forward.  This does not mean abandoning their positions on issues, but it does mean abandoning the personal malice, hatred, jealousy they feel for the fact that they lost to someone they personally do not admire and that there are those who choose other people and policies over them and the policies they favor.

Once this is acknowledged, then and only then can we perhaps move forward with productive conversations between those with differing views on the political problems of the day.  Politicians need to remember that it is not about them, it is not personal; it is about our country and our world.  Grown-ups can understand this, can see beyond themselves, and can converse (which includes both speaking and listening!) with those of differing viewpoints, to reach compromises that are good for all of the people, even if not providing revenge for a personal hurt or jealousy.

2019 is still young.  Let us hope that we will see an end to revenge politics and a beginning of mature, reasonable, and rational conversations among those of differing views.  That can only be good for all of us.  Happy New Year.