EASTER

                                                        

I know Easter will have come and gone before this is ever published. But that’s all right because I want to talk about it anyway. As a Christian man I have always enjoyed Easter because to some extent it’s the one religious holiday we haven’t’ commercialized to death. Oh yes, Cadbury will sell a few eggs and there will be some chocolate bunnies around and some will show off their finest dress or their Easter bonnet, but for most Christians it will be the replaying of the death and passion of Jesus, the cornerstone of our religion. It will pretty much be just a solemn religious journey we take, to reacquaint us with what he did for us on Good Friday.

I find it so ironic that whenever tragedy strikes or things get tough, people who have never seemed to be religious, are heard uttering phases like “God help us,” or “Please pray for us.” Ironic yes, but yet comforting that they still remember that no matter how far we have strayed from the way we were taught to live our lives in the commandments, its never to late to get back on the train. In fact our lord has said, “There is more rejoicing over one sinner who returns, then the ninety-five righteous ones who didn’t need to repent.” What a great promise and you don’t even need an attorney to argue your case. Churches all over this great country are struggling to get Gods message out to sometimes empty pews. They don’t ask much, maybe just an hour of your time once a week. A few dollars to keep the lights on and pay the bills. Easter and when we are despondent shouldn’t be the only time we participate in our faith, but if it is, Jesus says, “Welcome back.”

The decline in the amount of people who practice their Christian faith is mirrored by the decline in some of the virtues we used to enjoy in society. We have gone from a family oriented social system that used to believe that the moral fabric of our children was as important as the clothes we put upon their backs. That the family that prayed together, stayed together. Instead we have embarked upon a journey in life filled with permissiveness and selfish greed and when that bumped heads with a faith that said that was wrong, we either tried to change the rules or abandoned it altogether. Look around you at the problems with drugs and alcohol in this country. Permissive sex and lying and cheating to get what we want.

Were not the first nation in history that has taken this course and we won’t be the last. History books are full of examples of countries that decayed like this. It’s been going on for centuries. So what is the recipe for a lasting peace in our lives? If you celebrated Easter in Church you might have heard about it. It’s still being taught and amazingly the curriculum hasn’t change much. Not in my lifetime anyway. Those rules God gave to Moses still exist the way they were handed down thousands of years ago. They are time tested and true. Oh, we have done our best to change them into something more comfortable to live with. Just as we have done with our countries laws that have been litigated to pieces and look where that has got us. The big difference is God is saying, now that you have tried and failed again, I still want you back. I have something for you that you won’t get from Uncle Sam and its called forgiveness and it all started with the miracle of Easter.

GRUDGES

                                                         

I once talked to a man who told me ‘He never wanted to get dementia because he couldn’t bear to forget all of his grudges.” As sad as dementia is, and I surely don’t want to make light of it, forgetting your grudges would in my estimation be a good thing. To have the God given ability to cleanse your mind and not walk around hating somebody or something the rest of your life-- well to me-- that is a blessing.

We once had a neighbor who was one of the most negative people I ever met. She found no good in almost everything and everybody and she would be the first to tell you so. I worked with, and was close friends with her husband, so socially we were somewhat drawn together, like it or not. My wife who was the polar opposite of her tried her best to help her form a better attitude but most of the times she left my wife in tears. To the point that I finally said, just quit associating with her. A natural inclination for most people, because as my father used to say, “When you hang out with skunks pretty soon you all smell like skunks.” To make a long story shorter her husband and my long time friend passed away, so I went to his funeral. They had been divorced for a long time and I hadn’t seen her for twenty years. She was there and I offered her my condolences but she turned on her heel and walked away from me. It’s hard for me to understand that level of hate.

I have on occasion been caught up in negative feelings for someone. It’s not a good feeling and even if you can’t mend fences I keep telling myself move on with it. Life is just too short to spend anymore time then you have to, being miserable. I have a good friend who I worked with for a long time and one of the things I so admired her for was her ability to be the bright spot in the room. Life hasn’t always been that kind to her but somehow she usually found a way to get beyond her troubles. Sometimes when I’m feeling sarcastic or negative about people or things, I have to say to myself. Be more like she is. If you admire her for that-- then be more like that. She doesn’t own it, she’s sharing it and intended or not it’s such a good example.

I think of the petty reasons people don’t get along sometimes, such as different political views or religious beliefs and it’s baffling how these people think their so called adversary’s are not entitled to their own beliefs or viewpoints. If that’s the only reason you don’t like an otherwise decent person, you are as they say, “Throwing the baby out with the bath water.” If the person is just not a good person, them so by all means move on with it.

If there is one thing about crabby people I have experienced, it is that most of the time if you leave them alone they will leave you alone. There just not out to win friends and influence people. They prefer to stew in their own juices. I for one would like that they not be that way but if after trying to be cordial and understanding you still can’t bridge the gap-- well the world is so full of good and happy people if you look for them so go find them.

TRUE LOVE OF SELF AND COUNTRY

My grandparents were married for over sixty years. I never met a couple that loved and respected each other more then they did. They had their share of troubles but never did it come between them. The whole family of eight kids-- and my grandparents-- contracted diphtheria back when it was an epidemic. Two of the children died. My grandfather was a veteran who had to leave his family for many years while he was off to war, fighting for a country he believed in back then. They lived through the great depression when Grandpa had to go stand in the soup lines. Yet all of this it just made their love and commitment stronger. They never became rich or famous but that was never their goal. Instead they raised a family anyone would have been proud of. But if they were alive today and could see what has happened to the country, they came to start a new life in, they would be appalled.

This whole story started when my Grandfather was eleven years old and immigrated from Norway with his older sister. I have no idea what Norway was like in the eighteen eighties but I know today it is one of the most happy places on earth. It’s that happy because the people in charge over there have as their foremost goal, the happiness of the Norwegian People. They have no desire to meddle in the rest of the world’s problems. They are very ecology minded and want to preserve their country for generations to come. They don’t want to be in charge of anything but themselves. Their standard of living is one of the highest in the world. I am sure today, if most people from Norway were offered a place in the United States, they would say, “Thanks but no thanks.”

I really think that the greatest obstacle any government has to conquer is greed. It’s the one thing that is destroying this nation, more the any other impediment. Not only personal greed to accumulate wealth and power but greed at the top of government, to control other nations too. Socrates said, “He who is not content with what he has, would not be content with what he would like to have.” Yes greed was recognized and existed way back then. Since the conclusion of World War II when we were looked at as the country that had freed the world of tyranny, we have been in a downward spiral ever since. Maybe we were able to free the world that one time but we weren’t able to save ourselves and it becomes more obvious everyday. Trump said he would like to drain the swamp and make America great again. That swamp gets bigger every day and he’s right in the middle of it and that part about making America great again—well I’ll give him credit there. The word ‘again’ says it all. It correctly implies we aren’t what we used to be.

Norway is a rich country and is able to give its people a lot of benefits that keep them happy. We are just as rich as they are but instead of using our money to make our country better we elect to spend trillions on failed war efforts that benefit only the greedy people who sell the hardware. We have a failed war on drug trafficking that is more of a problem now then it ever was. Doing nothing for the majority of the people of this country is the undoing of this country.-- God help us.-- Oh that’s right we got rid of him too.

HI TOM

                                                         

Tonight as I look at the calendar, it is hard to realize that in two weeks we will be journeying back to Minnesota. Our homeland and our summer home. Our stay in Arizona this winter was more then I hoped it would be. Tonight as I think about having to leave here, my heart is full and I wish for many more winters like this. But the weather, the beauty of the desert, the mountains and all nature has to offer down here in the Southwest, pales in the new friendships Pat and I have made on this winter hiatus. We can’t wait to come back here and strengthen them. We left a lot of friends and family behind us in Minnesota last fall and now it’s time to play catch up.  But tonight I really don’t want to talk about any of that.

Instead I want to talk about a special man I met down here. I’ll call him Tom, but that’s not his real name. You see Tom has dementia or at least the start of it. He struggles to find the right words and he repeats a lot of things over and over but I for one feel blessed that I am able to share some thoughts with him from time to time. I know there will be a time when Tom won’t be able to talk to me. A time when all the knowledge this wonderful talented man possess, will be locked away where no one can get at it. A time when he probably will not know me or be able to operate out in this world on his own. I have always liked to talk to people-- and I guess I still do--- but maybe for somewhat selfish reasons because I wanted them to share things from their life that I could write or talk about. That’s what writers do, they take their exploits, their adventures and they talk about them and when they run out of their own stories to tell-- then they go talk to other people. You see the world is full of stories that need to be told. I always felt the more knowledgeable the people I talked to were-- or are-- the better. The worldlier they were the more I envied them because they had been somewhere I never will be. They knew something I didn’t know and I wanted to pick their brain and have them share it with me. At the same time when they were all out of their stories, I wanted to talk with them about my life and I hoped that they would let me share some of my stories with them too. But then I met a man who seemingly had so little to share. I met Tom.

Maybe it’s the way Tom’s eyes light up when he sees me. I don’t care how many times he asks me the same questions or tells me the same things. I want to hear them over and over again and hope that by so doing he clings onto some semblance of pride and self worth and a realization that he is such a special person, not only to his family but to me too. I want him to never forget and maybe just maybe if he continues to talk about things long enough, they just might not go away. Maybe its all foolishness to think like this but what do we have to lose.

I know that we won’t see each other for the next several months, as he doesn’t live in Minnesota and his wife and he go north to someplace else. But I’m hoping that next fall when I see Tom again he will smile that big smile again and say, “Hi Mike. It’s good to see you again.”