Tired

I am so very tired this morning. I feel like I am slogging along with a full pack, rifle, helmet all through ankle deep sand. It is a beautiful morning in Winston-Salem, at least weather-wise. On the other hand, the hearts and souls of my fellowman seem to be dark and ugly. As Christians, we often speak of God sightings. It is no wonder that we do so. There is so much bad going on that we have to be especially vigilant just to see God at work. On a morning like this morning, I want to raise my face to the skies and shout "Why?" Why do You make the skies so beautiful, the leaves so colorful, the birds to sing, but the hearts of your own children so ugly? So many of us are so often filled with hate that not only can we not wear the cloak of our religious beliefs, but we can't put on the cloak of compassion and we even have difficulty wearing the cloak of civilized human beings. I read in the paper that a gay young college student commits suicide because of an extremely cruel stunt pulled by his roommate. I read in the paper that a NC state legislator, running unopposed, sent out an email disparaging those of a different sexual orientation in words that, in a better world, would make him withdraw from the election in embarrassment. I read in the paper that people are being burned to death in a toxic mudslide. Do you believe for a minute that those responsible for the dump site didn't know what they were doing or that they cared? I watch a family join in prayer at a restaurant table and a young person reading from the Bible in a coffee shop. Then I hear a college professor tell me in all seriousness that, "Of course all Muslims are terrorists. It is in their nature." On the Internet, I hear that our President is a closet Muslim and that all Hispanics in the US are illegal aliens. I once again raise my face to the sky and shout, "Why? Why can't we love with even a bit of the amount of energy that we use to hate?" I am only one person. I can't change the world and I despair of even making very slight changes to my corner of it. In 1959, fifty years ago, the Kingston Trio released an album containing a song titled, "The Merry Minuet". I'm going to put a copy of the lyrics at the bottom of this blog entry. With just a very few changes in the wording, it is still most applicable today. So, you "Big Bang" theorists, be looking for a bright light in the skies above India, or Israel, or Iran, or North Korea, or Pakistan, Russia, or perhaps even the United States. Maybe that big bang, accompanied by a mushroom shaped cloud will be the announcement of the end of the world as we know it. On a morning like this morning, I almost hope so.

The Merry Minuet

Kingston Trio

Sheldon Harnick

They're rioting in Africa. They're starving in Spain. There's hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles.Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch. And I don't like anybody very much!But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud, for man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud.And we know for certain that some lovely day, someone will set the spark off... and we will all be blown away.They're rioting in Africa. There's strife in Iran. What nature doesn't do to us... will be done by our fellow man. God is good?