Turmoil

What if Obama knew that he was going to lose the “competition” for the Olympics? What? That’s conspiratorial you’d say. Maybe. But what if you, the reader, are just afraid to ask the kind of questions that will reveal answers you subconsciously have no desire to discover.

Why would he go if he knew Chicago was going to lose? Why would he risk the international embarrassment to his supposed god-like powers of persuasion?

The answer:
He secretly told the committee powers not to give the games to the United States because even though it was a done deal for Chicago up to that point, it would have revealed too extensively the depth and breadth of corruption surrounding him, his administration, and the Democratic party.

All the security he thought surrounded his “story” of rags (community organizer) to riches (president of the United States in the snap of a finger. . . from Chicago) have begun to unravel thanks to the vigilant non-mainstream media. Consequently, he couldn’t risk the magnitude of revelation that would follow.

What if?

Expectation Antiseptic

I was in a hurry. Time was acting like the four walls of a room in some long forgotten episode of Get Smart – shrinking in on me; restricting my space and ability to get the the job done. I was Maxwell Smart bumbling my way into yet another predicament with what seemed like no escape. I was going to be late. Again!

So, like so many other good Americans in a time crunch, I figured that the quickest way to squeeze food into a hectic schedule was a speedy run through one of the many fast-food drive-thru’s. Almost as rapidly as the thought struck me, one appeared on the horizon. Hunger relief was only one exit away. I aimed my little Toyota Echo F150 hauling machine in the right direction and within seconds was pulling into line. Others appeared as eager as me to solve their nutritional cravings in a “giddy-up and go” fashion. There were so many of us in line that we looked like a Coral snake. Each car represented another color strip in the snakes skin. What was going on? Did I stumble into a fast-food drive-thru convention? Was it a Brown-and-Serve Tuesday…a complete collapse of the burger market and thus a run on burgers?

My taste buds were beginning to water. Like Asian beetles seeking the inside of my warm house on a cold fall day, the smell of hot grease and and warm fries managed to penetrate whatever small crevices my four wheeled econo-mobile offered. Within seconds the spacious cab of my home-away-from-home was filled with the smells of dinner in the making.

There I sat. No one moved.

I couldn’t back out of line and speed to another joint. Several other unsuspecting burger crazed devotees had piled in behind me almost as soon as I had arrived. I glanced in my rear view mirror. It was a woman in a blue mini-van. She was holding a phone with one hand and writing with the other. She was so animated with her gestures that I was certain she was trying to take the orders of twenty more burger lovers.

Several minutes passed. No one moved.

I was in a hurry. Didn’t they know that?

I expected to be in and out – back on the road. I expected that this would be a quick and painless experience.

Suddenly, there it was. The truth of this time stand-still stood right in front of me. Like oh so much in my life, and I suspect the lives of everyone else too, what I had expected was washed clean by the antiseptic of reality.

Eventually I got my burger and fries. They didn’t taste the same. I was late. Reality doesn’t often hit us over the head to gain our attention. It doesn’t often even raise its voice. It’s just there waiting for those moments when our minds are open to recognizing its presence. In fact, I didn’t even feel like reality had elbowed its way in to the room. It just seemed to stand at the door of my life; gently knocking. Waiting. And waiting. And suddenly I saw it. Light came streaming in. My plans, my expectations are are 24 hour a day workers trying to shape life into the image that I want. The trouble is that it just doesn’t work. Life is bigger than me. Despite all the marketing claims, I’m not the center of the universe, and it’s NOT all about me!

“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”

“Those home I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.”

Revelation 3:17-20

I’ll nod my head, you hit it!

Best friends very often say some of the best things you’ll ever hear, but also many of the very things a person is most likely to fail to pay attention to (since you see and hear them most everyday), hear only part way, and, regretfully, forget nearly as soon as they were said.

One of my best friends is a carpenter of extraordinary ability. He and I have worked together a fair amount. If he were writing this he’d probably say that he worked and I watched, but nonetheless, it is during those wonderful hours together that I’ve heard him say, “I’ll nod my head, you hit it.” The context is typically a job that requires a human with four hands, but since neither of us qualify we depend on each other provide the additional grip. After a moment of maneuvering the piece of wood into just the right position, it becomes evident that one of us will have to hold the wood with one hand and a nail with the other while the other person holds the adjoining piece of wood and the hammer.

I know you can see this coming…he seems most often to hold the nail and I the hammer. At that moment, out it comes: “I’ll nod my head, you hit it,” he’ll say. We’ll both giggle like school girls for a moment and then as promised, he’ll nod his head and I’ll hit the nail. The nod works pretty well. It communicates a message that is clear and concise: I’m ready, or lets do this, or now!

So where did this practical use of the nod get off the tracks of its simple journey?

Far too frequent now I witness someone standing before a group of people expounding a topic (it’s most often a topic of considerable insignificance) while many in the audience are nodding their heads as if in some kind of agreement with the most profound statement they’ve ever heard. Aggressively their chins pivot like a Texas oil rig doing its best work. They could easily be listening to either Barack Obama or John McCain say a lot about nothing (or a whole boat load of things that neither of them has any control over and never will) but with tremendous passion and conviction.

What is going on? I’d ask if they’ve lost their heads, but since I can see them nodding I know that can’t be it. I can hear the professor answer from my distant college past saying, “You’re so judgmental. There’s nothing wrong with them acknowledging their agreement with the speakers thoughts.” You’ve probably heard similar responses to questions you’ve raised regarding human behavior. They’re in that “don’t judge anything” category. Coming from an academic I’m not sure whether I should be humored or depressed. Don’t we do well when asking questions about life? Aren’t academics supposed to be curious about nearly everything?

At any rate, I’m curious. Maybe I’m most curious about things that happen in a society which, when scrutinized, represent a significant alteration in the fabric of human becoming, but which have been stitched so slowly that not only didn’t we see the needle and thread moving amongst us, but we didn’t even know someone or something had the needle and thread out of the cultural and intellectual drawer.

At this moment I feel sort of like that giant SETI satellite array focused on outer space. Although it’s seeking extraterrestrial life of any kind, I’m seeking life on earth period. I’m beaming my message to the world and wondering if there is anyone else out there that has noticed these odd changes in us?

Head nodding odd? Well, not in and of itself, but it is what may be represented by the incessant nod: a growing mental fog; a lack of clarity in thinking while simultaneously clinging tenaciously to the belief that we are somehow smarter and more savvy than any previous generation in the history of the world.

In what appears to me to be in more and more quarters, you could be worthy of condemnation and rebuke if you don’t nod your head in apparent total agreement with the messenger. Is it a scene from Orwell’s “1984″? I think of talk-show host Hugh Hewitt exuberantly proclaiming the unbeatableness of Mit Romney. He would brow-beat anyone that challenged his position and optimism for Romney’s superior political status as a candidate for president of the United States. But then disaster. Romney lost to McCain. Nearly immediately Hugh picked up the joy baton for McCain’s parade and began verbally hitting objectors and detractors over the head with it if they refused to nod in agreement with him and his new found mission. Or there is talk-show host Mike Gallagher who on Monday, Oct. 20th, invited a “friend” and fellow talk-show host to discuss his move to Barack Obama over the radio air-waves. Even though Mike vowed to avoid personal attacks at the absence of head nodding by Michael Smerconish, it took only a few moments before Gallagher asked if there was a secret personal problem in Smerconish’s life that was interfering with his ability to nod his head in passionate agreement with the ways of McCain and Palin.

Here’s the link to Smerconish’s thoughts that led him to cease his Republican head nodding.

You’re probably beginning to think that I support Obama. If so, then you’ll be off track. I don’t. It would take another 500 words to explain the lunacy of the leftists in dealing with anti-head nodders. They would slap the Fairness Doctrine on them in heart beat if given the chance. See this link.

So why all the head nodding? Could it be more from fear of the opinion of others (as rediculous as that may be) than from ignorance? It seems like it to me. Afterall, who wants to be on the outside when all the insiders seem to having all the “fun.”

Harvesting Thoughts

When control is your objective; control of others, things, events, outcomes, you can easily fool yourself into believing that its possible. That is, you can fool yourself much easier as long as your life stays clear of nature.

Like an electric fence to a stray goat, the basics of planting, nurturing, and harvesting will soon set you straight. Sadly, very few people in America are likely to attempt even a simple, small, plot of garden. They, like a friend from Chicago once joked, believe that tomatoes come from the grocery. Isn’t that were they come from? No. Certainly you can purchase them there, but that is not where they come from.

So, control…

Until we are confronted with something as powerful as nature, in even its simplist forms, we can live the kind of protected life that permits the perception of human control in daily activity. The protected life is mostly an unexamined life. For instance, the belief that everything will be alright in your life if you just have enough money is a protected belief. If you immediately said to yourself that money certainly won’t make everything ok, that’s because you’ve taken the time to examine the belief.