It's the Reason for the Seasons of America Thing

Dear America,

so many debates, so little time.

and just when you think the coast was clear for awhile, This Week with Christiane Amanpour throws another one into the mix...and so unexpectedly, I might add.  And can you say, that's entertainment?

For me, it is enough just to listen to the attitude drooling from the corners of Christiane's lips; but pursing that together with the left-leaning dribble, and we got ourselves a super model for media bias trying to pass herself off as the intellectual elite.  But maybe that's just me.

Gotta love the title for the show, though:  The Great American Debate -- "there is too much government in my life!"  Featuring....Barney Frank, Robert Reich, George Will, and my personal favorite (really), Paul Ryan.

Granted, I was making myself homemade mango turnovers with a vanilla bean glaze drizzled all over.  I was a wee bit distracted.  But the gist of it was this -- look what happened to Wall Street, that's why we need more government...and...look what happened with Fannie and Freddie, that's why we need less government.

Sure, it wasn't just about Wall Street and Home Loans; and it wasn't always so black and white -- there were times when the polar opposites almost agreed with each other.  But both sides seemed to keep far and away from a reality that nobody seems willing to talk about.

Whether we live in an environment where government is breathing down our backs, or not (which is certainly debatable until the end of time) -- we must first face a striking conclusion:

Until such time we restore our faith in Something Greater than ourselves, and return to the making of good, decent people -- starting at birth and continuing to give it our full attention until death do us part -- our society will falter.

end of story.
go to commercial.
start the reruns.

Now, I normally only turn the television on on a Sunday morning to tune into Joel Osteen, switching it to the Heart of the Nation to listen to the Catholic Mass immediately following.  It's just my thing.  The house is quiet, I have my coffee, and it becomes the time to bring me back to center, just me and God.

So, as Spirit should have it, Joel added another dimension to what I had just heard, you know, following the interruption of Christiane, Barney, Robert, George and Paul (who very well could be a saint in government issued clothing).

Joel reminded us not to get comfortable in our blessings.

cha-ching 

and cue the lightbulb against the green screen

It's not so much about too much government in our life (even though it IS); it is more about having too little faith --  hardly even enough God --  and very little reverence to the attention of the itty bitty details to growing our good.  In short, America has become way too comfortable in it's blessings.

And right now -- collectively -- we are being encouraged to change our ways (again).

Divine Providence is working behind the scenes.

Joel impressed upon his audience the importance of affirmative action in every way.  And paraphrasing here, he said something like this, 'every blessing isn't supposed to be permanent.'  Going on to remind us not to get too comfortable, even when life is good.  And then, he throws in a timely anecdote to make his point...

he's like, you know, in the beginning, mothers nurse their babies, right.  babies get all they ever needed right there...but eventually, it becomes time for the baby to start taking a bottle.  And they don't likey likey too much (ask me how I know).  they fight it every step of the way.  but eventually...they adapt. 

And as we all know, the bottle becomes the perfect replacement to mama and life is good again.   .....ah....but lo and behold...cog in wheel right around the corner...eventually, mama wants to replace the bottle with a sippy cup...and then a real cup...and then eating real peas and carrots and spinach (yuck!)   All the while, it is up to the baby to push itself beyond what it has come to know as comfortable, even letting go of the everything it every wants or needs for something better, and basically, only doing so by pure faith.  the baby trusts the mama every step of the way.

America has had some glorious years -- we have acquired wealth, expanded wealth, created wealth in ways unimaginable to the naked babe in the woods.   The logic back behind how we got here can be debated by ideology for the rest of time.  But history does not lie.

America was founded upon principles and values of the ages and for the ages.

"We have a right to expect that men so aggressively religious as to encounter persecution, and so rigidly conscientious as to become exiles rather than submit to ecclesiastical tyranny, would embody their convictions in the government they constructed, and stamp their characters upon the legislation they enacted."  Bishop Charles Galloway, Christianity and the American Commonwealth, part of a series of lectures.

continuing...

"Those living seed, watched by a favoring Providence, watered by the tears of a sanctified patriotism, warmed by the genial sun of civic righteousness, and cultivated by the industrious  hands of a peerless statesmanship, have produced the magnificent Americanism of to-day. Despite its defects, and notwithstanding the sad chapters of its history, our Americanism stands for all that is purest and grandest in the world's modern civilization."

Let's just say we have evolved.

"The Christianity of the colonists taught the supremacy of conscience, the sovereignty of the individual, the inviolability of private rights, the sacredness of human life, and the brotherhood of man.  Out of these cardinal doctrines came the fundamental principles of our republican government:  liberty, equality, fraternity, and the protection of life and property.  Religious liberty created and sustained  an inexorable demand for political liberty.  Freedom of conscience claims the right of free speech and personal independence."

We have long ceased the nursing stage. Untethered to the heart of who we are as a nation, unattached to the true "freedom of conscience"  -- and the subsequent individual responsibility and duty to uphold it -- we are floundering.  The rattling of the line 'if men were angels...' seems to be ringing in my ear, right next to the clinking of a silver spoon.

The purposeful making of good people has been left to chance.

Minus the reality of the last few years staring at us in the face, America has become way to comfortable in its blessings.  We have forgotten to give thanks; we have extinguished the rites and ritual of a loving, peaceful people; we have suffocated our very existence with stuff that does not matter; we have stifled the voice of direction, and promise, and goodness, that only Divine Providence can bring.

More important, we can do whatever we want but we can't stay here.[reminds me of a great song about that...]

Finally -- and in a twist of irony -- perhaps it may be time to swaddle ourselves back up again and bring ourselves back to the creature comforts of the simpler things in life...'liberty, equality, fraternity, and the protection of life and property.'   ga ga goo goo

but maybe its just me.

Make it a Good Day, G