Month: September 2021

They want you afraid

© Fotocelia | Dreamstime.com

They want you afraid. They want you feeling hopeless. They want you to turn to them for help.

Who are “they”?

Well, who scares you? Government bosses? Drug commercials? Political commercials? Some sales guy who says his product will solve your fear?

Could be it’s all of the above. It’s a common tactic, and it’s a common tactic because it works.

The whole idea is to alarm you and get you to search for a safe solution, which they just happen to have here for you — just $19.99 plus shipping — just tax the rich and you can have it for free —oh, and we’ll need to trim just this tiny bit of your freedom to go about your business and make your own decisions.

Sometimes you just have to acknowledge that you’re scared and plow ahead anyway. Everything carries a risk. When you leave the house, you might get hit by a falling meteor or held up at gunpoint. When you drive your car, some idiot might T-bone you at an intersection. When you apply for a job, you might not get it, or when you quit your job to pursue what you really want to do, you may not succeed right away. When you question government rules, regulations, guidelines or other edicts, or heaven forbid you decide not to follow them, something might happen.

With every step you take in life, you risk something going wrong.

The only safe place is in a cage. Nobody can hurt you if you’re behind four sturdy walls. Ask a prison inmate alone in his cell — it’s very safe in there.

They want you afraid: It makes it easier to back you into your cell. They promise this will make you safer. They never promise this will make you freer.

“Freedom is slavery anyway,” they scoff. “Don’t question why; ignorance is strength.” And then they send us off to war in the name of peace.

Puppy portrait

This is Summer on Sunday, Sept. 19, as she completes her ninth week on this plane of existence. She has learned how to go down and up stairs and how to sneak-attack her big sister, Dejah Thoris, who can give as good as she gets. The carpet cleaner is still on hot standby, but at least Summer seems to have learned that number 2 is an outside activity. As for number 1, what the heck, she’s only nine weeks old.

Sometimes, I think, we just need to contemplate how sweet puppies are, rather than ruminate over the matters of this world, especially on Mondays. Mondays are complicated enough.

So there you go.

See here

To share a book or a disc or a file: Look! See! Listen! Do you know what this object is? It is the finished product of so much work, these few hundred pages of story, this half-hour of music, this 90-minute film — someone had a story to tell, an argument to make, a desire to inspire and encourage and motivate, and here is what they created. Now dropped into a pile or stacked lovingly on a shelf, each of these objects is a time bomb waiting to be rediscovered and set off again in a willing brain with a ready heart.

Do you know how many millions of things are out there waiting to be found, and what fabulous good can be done when they are? The literal wisdom of the ages in our hands — an explosion of the greatness and vision and passion — people who overcame personal doubt and uncertainty and wrote down the thoughts and stories and dared to go forth and say, “See here! I need to share this with you. I think it’s important.”

And this here — this book, this music, this film — these words — this vision — this greatest story told so well —

See here. Don’t look there, and don’t be afraid. See what I’ve found, or rather see what I’ve rediscovered. The guy who wrote Ecclesiastes was full of despair because everything ends and comes to dust, and he concluded that means it’s all meaningless, but in the transitory and the inevitable ending is where the meaning is. In a world where all things must pass, the best use of that precious time is to be kind, seek out the good, care and share the wealth of knowledge and wisdom.

Fire not the flames of hatred and anger and despair. Spark the heat of hope and compassion and understanding. Offer the open hand of friendship, not the fist, the plowshare, not the sword. Life is short enough without hastening death.

All these thousands of creations, and that’s just in this one house — the books, the albums, the films, the TV shows — all of them promises against the darkness, declarations of “See here! This is important and I want to give it to you —” Souls sharing what they’ve learned for your delight and inspiration, and you may find this sort of collection in million of homes, likely yours, too — shouts against the darkness wherever darkness may turn.