THANKSGIVING AND HOME

Thanksgiving time always reminds me of a particular Thanksgiving Day.  It was my last day in Vietnam after a one-year tour of duty there in 1965-66.  Going home. For that reason alone it would have been thanksgiving day no matter what the calendar said. We observed Thanksgiving in the Chapel and then at a feast on the roof of Rex Hotel in Saigon. Thanksgiving and home. These go together.  I am thinking today of how many gifts on my thankfsgiving list each year could be listed under the word “home.”  That day in Nam I was most thankful for the family I would soon be embracing and I was thankful for my home country, the United States of America. That homecoming in 1966 was to a country torn apart by strife (as it is today), but it was home. At a stopover for refueling in Japan we walked toward the terminal and was met by a group of American school teachers who spontaneously broke out singing "God bless America, land that I love...." We knew we were almost home. Today, God continues to bless America and for that I am most grateful.  

Have we started yet?

In my dream last night a husband and wife sit in a motionless car.  He says, “I realize that this car will not move without the energy of children fussing in the back seat.”  

FASCINATED WITH AGING

Someone said, “I am getting old and falling apart--and it is SO INTERESTING.”  I thought that was spot on, smiled at it being my experience and shared it with several friends.  Weeks later I discovered what makes it so interesting.  Aging opens up a new world of opportunities for exploring new spiritual dimensions. As body and memory weaken, the spirit gets stronger. “Charlie Wonders” if this is how God intended from the beginning. So many of my energies previously went into all the other kinds of growth activities--also as God intended.  It is called being born and growing up, raising a family and “succeeding” (whatever that means).  The person I have known is disappearing and it feels, at first, like that is all WRONG. The culture around me seems to agree that there is actually something degrading about getting old and dying.  It tells me I should be anxious and depressed. On further examination, however, something feels very RIGHT.  Like this is where I am supposed to be.  There is a sea change going on, a shift from doing to being.  

WE'LL SEE

On the morning after the mid-tem election and the third successive fruit-basket upset in federal govenment.  I woke up thinking about the old story about the man whose external life situation kept shifting. When his neighbors congratulated him on recent good news, his reply was, “We’ll see.”  When the same friends tried to console him on what they thought was a terrible tragedy in his life, he said, “We’ll see.”  As with real life, his fortunes shifted back and forth, but each time his response was the same: “We’ll see.”  So with the news of today.  Congratulations and condolences flood the airways, but no one knows what this really means. We have to see how it plays out. Just saying “no” is also about to play out.  As John Boehner and President Obama have both indicated: now have to get to work and come up with workable solutions to our nation’s many problems and, to use an overworked phrase, what the “American people” want.  What do we want? Recent elections suggest that we don’t know what we want or we know but not for long or we know but don’t want to pay the price. The election results give us a hint, but “We’ll see.” “We’ll see” does not mean a passive waiting.  When we do not know what is coming down the pike, Jesus instructed us to “wait (stay alert, conscious) and pray for outside side help.” Then we’ll see.

RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY

While the junior high locker room language detracts from the maturity of the coming “Rally to Restore Sanity”, such a gathering in Washington D. C. and various parts of the world is long overdue.  Seems like many people are tired of the paranoid politics our country has inflicted on itself. Jon Stewart hopes for a nonpolitical program and believes that 75 percent to 85 percent of Americans are “reasonable people”.  He is inviting these people to come to D. C. on October 30 to support one another and send a message of sensibility to the nation and the world. Satalite simultaneous rallies are springing up spontaneously throughout the U. S. and foreign countries.  Joining Stewart and adding to the satire is  Stephen Colbert”s “March to Keep Fear Alive.”  That combination, plus their guest entertainers, should keep us laughing at ourselves at a time when we need to lighten up.

MALLARD THE BIGOTED DUCK

How do you tame a wild duck?  The San Antonio Express News wants to reign in the “Mallard Filmore” comic strip without descending to censorship.  Like other readers I need the comic relief sometimes found in the comics in these times of pop negativity in the rest of the news.  This paper, however, is a family newspaper and needs to responsibly edit its content especially on this page where all of us can find respite.  My solution, to be fair to all, would be to return Mallard to the editorial pages where he can feed on other fear-driven characters.  I would hope that we Christians would lead the way out of bigotry by showing our maturity and security in our religion by respecting the religion of others as Jesus did.  Jesus gave us his bottom-line commandment which is to love God and our neighbors as ourselves.