I’m on the back deck again, the temperature around 60 and the sun in my face. I’ve gotten a little housework done, and the yard work is taunting me as if to say, “You do know the weather is perfect for working outside, should you ever decide to get off your duff?”
Beyond this idyllic scene, gasoline is up to $4.50 a gallon, about $2 more than before the U.S. government started to bomb Iran. I liked it better when the president was bragging about how many wars he had ended. It seems to be inevitable that the weapons industry will eventually get a bug in a president’s ear and convince him to start blowing things up. Once the explosives are deployed, of course, new explosives need to be ordered to replace them; after all, the war racket must be maintained.
I have tried to keep politics out of my blog, but “Love God and love your neighbor” has become a radical political statement these days. I still believe we are born with certain rights — rights that are certain — beginning with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. My personal pursuit of happiness led me to love God and love my neighbors, and judging from the anger, hatred, violence and viciousness rampant in our public discourse these days, I have to believe I have been more successful than a lot of people in securing a modicum of happiness.
Chaos agents across the land are trying to drive wedges between neighbors, and they have had more success than I care to admit. I’ve said before that my top expectations from politicos are promoting freedom and peace, and that no one in the ruling class cares about such things — they are too busy stirring up hatred and fomenting civil unrest. But we need not heed the chaos agents, not when such a better path is open before us.
It’s spring planting season, and we need plowshares more than we need swords if we’re to eat next winter. I refuse to hate my neighbors, a group of people that includes even you who insist I should be seething with hate.
At least that’s how I see life on a sunny day on the back porch in early May. The cardinals, goldfinches and blackbirds are chirping agreement.
