For Kindness Day

Kindness

Naomi Shihab Nye, 1952

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. 

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

It is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere

like a shadow or a friend.lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. 

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

It is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere

like a shadow or a friend.

And, BTW, I Am Not the Antichrist…

If you support President Donald J. Trump because you believe he has been ordained by God for his office, then I assume you are voting for candidates who hitch their wagons to his star. Permit me a word or two with you.

You are wrong.

Donald Trump was not ordained by God to be President of the United States. He was elected by enough citizens to win the electoral college. It’s as frustratingly simple as that.

The idea that political leaders are somehow specially sent and put in place by God was once known as “the divine right of kings.” There was a war fought in North America back in the latter part of the 18th century that many think pretty well buried that notion. The leaders of that war of revolution were convinced that political leaders served at the will of the people, not because God had designated them to lead. A person who is “godly” in some ways might well be elected and serve, and that’s okay. But he or she is not in that position because God put her or him there.

The idea is popular in some circles that Mr. Trump is a new chosen one of God destined to save the United States from something, I’m not sure from whom or from what (impoverished trekkers in Mexico perhaps). The particular God they have in mind most often sounds as if they are thinking of the Christian God. They defend Mr. Trump in terms that sound vaguely Christian. I recently saw a picture of him holding up a “Holy Bible” – that is, a Christian Bible.

How do they make this connection? Because of Mr. Trump’s exemplary personal life, a life so morally and ethically beyond the reaches of “sin” that he is a Christ-like model for the rest of us? I cannot see this as remotely close to being true of Mr. Trump and his life.

Fortunately, moral perfection is not a requirement of serving in public office. But I do think moral honesty is quite necessary. Moral honesty of the Christian sort is absent from a person who claims, as Mr. Trump has, that he is not sure he’s ever asked God for forgiveness because he’d rather just move on and make things right. That way of dealing with moral failure perhaps has merits, but it’s not particularly Christian. Besides, Mr. Trump has given us little reason to think he’s done much to “make (moral) things right” in the two years he’s been in office.

I am pretty sure that many Christians feel Mr. Trump is called by God to the office of President for two big reasons. First, that he seems to be with them on the so-called “social” issues of abortion, LGBTQ rights, etc., which they see as the main issues that define being Christian. And second, that he promises to restore the USA’s pre-eminent place among the nations, which is to them where the USA belongs because of the “exceptionalism” that has been granted us by God.

I respect other Christians’ right to understand the “social” issues in ways far different than I understand them. But as Americans together, I resist their attempts to force their particular understanding of such issues upon us all based upon their reading of our Bible. And I am deeply opposed to the idea that our nation is in any ultimate and decisive way “exceptional,” especially when that notion is used to justify militarism, racism, xenophobia, and the like.

Back to Mr. Trump himself: Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them.” What “fruits” has the Trump presidency produced? The Christian scripture’s fruits of love, peace, justice, patience, truth, and the like? I do not see them on his tree. Rather, I see hatred, distrust, threats…the list goes on. Currently, in his violent rhetoric against immigrants and asylum seekers, he is gleefully and disdainfully rejecting the many biblical commands to welcome the stranger. Mr. Trump did not invent the rotten fruits he is producing. But in his words (and words DO matter) and in his actions he surely has made it okay to practice them publicly.

You may be among those who like what Mr. Trump has done policy-wise, and therefore are willing to overlook the way he’s accomplished those things you like. So, the end justifies the means, is that what you are telling me? “We had to destroy the village to save it,” as they sometimes said in Vietnam? In time, wrong ways employed in the pursuit of supposedly good ends eat at the heart of a person or a nation, and can destroy both from within. When you have to tell lies to get what you want, when will the lying end?

If Donald Trump’s kind of moral and ethical output is what you like and think is good for us as a people and for the world, go ahead, support him, and vote for his defenders. You and I are still Americans together. But don’t you ever call it Christian, or pretend the results it is producing reflect the life and ministry of Jesus. You cannot get there from here. And in your heart, you know it.

Good Reasons Not to Vote

One of the truly GREAT things about America is that you do not have to vote. There are no fines, no penalties, no jail time…nothing to harm you or hold you back you if you do not vote.

In fact, it’s no shame if you do not vote. Truth is, it’s kind of cool not to vote. Like, voting is so much trouble and just shows that you are bit hung-up on doing things that take effort. That’s not cool. Old people vote, and who wants to be in that bunch? You’ve got better things to do with your life than vote, and your friends respect you for the way you live your life. Why bother to vote?

You know that in some parts of the world people are so desperate to choose their own leaders that they risk even their lives to agitate for their right to vote. Polling places themselves might be dangerous – bombs and the like. You feel kind of sorry for people who live in places like that, but it’s not your worry. You live in the good old USA, and you’ve got the right not to vote, and by golly, you are going to exercise that right!

You’ve heard that some people – mostly Republicans – are trying all kinds of tricks to make it harder for some people to vote. You do not know if they are targeting you, but you really don’t feel like finding out if they are. It doesn’t matter anyway because they’re all crooks, whatever their party. Vote the Democrats into power, they’ll pull something out of their own bag of tricks. You don’t want to be responsible for that.

What’s really the problem is that you haven’t heard of any candidates you can really get behind. You’re told this person or that person has some ideas you like, but then you don’t agree with them on one thing, so how can you be expected to know whether to vote for them? Plus there are stories about their personal lives that are kind of creepy. So long as there are no candidates who think exactly like you do, and who always are admirable in their behavior, why should any of them expect your vote? You’d rather keep yourself and your ideals far away from such imperfect people.

Besides, politics these days is all about money. And you don’t have any money, so forget voting.

So, go ahead, leave worrying about politics, and voting, to others. Someone will fix things so they’ll come out okay and you can live your life on your own terms. It’s the American way, and America is GREAT, isn’t it?

Dry truth, delicious lies

Poet Claude Wilkinson pictures a serpent whose
        ... tongue was split
with a few dry morsels of truth
and many delicious lies.

When I read those lines this morning I thought of our politics and our whole social contract. That’s what we have on our tongues, so sure of the delicious lies (or at least partial truths) that we savor that we do not taste the dry truth, or truths. So eager to believe what we want to hear that we disregard all the rest that doesn’t taste good to us. Even suppressing dry truth when we want to denigrate even the most worthy and honest of those who see things differently than we see them.

And no, it’s not Donald Trump’s fault. It is ours.

Grieving John McCain

I keep trying to wrap my head around the way many are reacting to John McCain's death.

Apparently today's far right is not willing to grieve for him at all, which underlies President Trump's flagpole insecurity. I guess the less-far right is willing to grieve for him a bit since he is a military hero and supported most of our military endeavors, as well as for other reasons.

From the other side of the aisle (as they say) the left is, as usual, torn asunder. Far, far leftists see no good in him ("war-monger," and the like). I am offended by the vitriol. Others on the left give him credit for his integrity, even when they disagreed with him.

Given our current cultural divides, none of this is surprising. Disappointing, but not surprising. We can and will politicize anything for our own purposes.

What really mystifies me is the near deification of McCain by progressives I know. It is as if they've forgotten they disagreed with him on many things because they thought he was simply wrong about them. Where is this coming from?

I fear it is John McCain's opposition to President Trump that is driving the hyperbole from progressives about him. McCain articulated a clear and principled challenge to Trump, for which he is to be honored. But to remember him with unqualified approval because of that one, admittedly important, quality mystifies me.

It is very hard to remember clearly people we've known at the time of their deaths. Our grief blocks our objectivity. I know this because I've winced at many a funeral, and likely have caused wincing in others by what I've said about the deceased.

John McCain was a man to be admired and honored for many reasons, not the least of which being that he was a man who served our country to the very best of his ability. I honor him for who he was. But I didn't vote for him.

Being a true leader John McCain could not serve everyone's interests just the way they thought they ought to be served. To truly honor him we have to come to that elusive place we call "the center" where no political stand is beyond questioning. Not enough of us are willing to go there these days.

Sneezing and Smoke

Hard-core climate change deniers must be working overtime to protect their positions in the face of the daily and abundant evidence that the predictions of climate scientists about what a changed climate will look like are coming true.

Today’s Plain Dealer reports that the date of the onset of the ragweed allergy season is advancing. We will be sneezing longer. If we lived in California, sneezing would be the least of our breathing problems. The fire season is starting earlier, lasting longer, and being more devastating. Fire and smoke are more dangerous to most folks than is pollen.

Last week I read a 2016 report called “The Rockefeller Family Fund Takes on ExxonMobil.” (Let not the irony escape us!) It is part of the Fund’s explanation of why it is divesting in the fossil fuel industry. It details how ExxonMobil has marshaled and focused its resources to influence public opinion and political players into believing that if climate change is taking place, it’s not that bad, and in any case human activity is not responsible for it.  It compares ExxonMobil’s activities to the long-successful attempts by the tobacco industry to deny the adverse effects of smoking on health.

In both cases, the deliberate confusion caused by corporations’ manipulation and denial of scientific data means death to many. Deaths by smoking will look nothing compared to what deaths by unmitigated climate change may well look like.

One of the arguments deniers mount against the massive evidence for human-caused climate change is that it is the result of a conspiracy on the part of climate scientists. One can hardly imagine tens of thousands of scientists working on every continent pulling off such a hoax. If you think it would be easy to organize such an effort, you don’t know science and you don’t know scientists.

Which is, of course, my point.

It is a major tragedy in the making that our federal government is pulling back from even the modest advances we’ve made so far in the fight against climate change. Of course, denial of science (and of truth in general) is not new to these people. How long will the American public let them determine humanity’s future?

"Ideas of value always shun verbosity"

“When the door of the steam bath is continually left open, the heat inside rapidly escalates through it; likewise the soul, in its desire to say many things, dissipates its remembrance of God through the door of speech, even though everything it says may be good. Thereafter the intellect, though lacking appropriate ideas, pours out a welter of confused thoughts to anyone it meets, as it no longer has the Holy Spirit to keep its understanding free from fantasy. Ideas of value always shun verbosity, being foreign to confusion and fantasy. Timely silence, then, is precious, for it is nothing less that the mother of the wisest thoughts.”

Those are the words of Diadochus of Photiki, one of the Church’s “Desert Fathers” of the fourth and fifth centuries, CE. Henri Nouwen quotes them in his little book, “The Way of the Heart: Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry” (1981).

I recently came upon them and was startled to read them. Nouwen was concerned about the over-abundance of words in his world…in 1981! It is difficult to fathom his level of concern if he were alive in today.

As a retired preacher and amateur writer/author, words are my business. So I am mightily tempted to comment upon Diadochus, which would no doubt do little more than demonstrate that I had missed his point.