Other writing has pushed Views from the Edge to the back burner lately, and when I do start a post here, it feels like yada-yada-yada. John Buchanan’s Hold to the Good piece on Presidents’ Day is more than yada-yada-yada. It moves the discussion to higher ground.
via Presidents’ Day
Elijah in his high chair
Grandpa, my ninth birthday’s coming up next week! Are we going to have a party and stuff?
Well, Elijah, we only celebrate birthdays annually. That means once a year. You’re going to be nine months old, not nine years old. The day you turn one year old, we’ll do something special for your birthday. I promise.
That’s not right! I have to wait for my presents?
Not necessarily. Grandma and I love to give presents. Do you have something special in mind?
Yeah! I’ve been thinking a lot about it. So can I have it now?
Sure, what have you been dreaming about?
Safety.
Okay. What about it.
Can I have a bomb like Kim Jun un and the President?
Oh for heaven’s sake, Elijah, where’d you get the idea you could have a bomb?
The Second Amendment, Grandpa. The right to bear arms!
Remember our discussion yesterday about the origins of the Second Amendment?
The Supreme Court doesn’t agree with you. The Supreme Court says I have the “right to bear arms”. “Arms” are weapons, Grandpa, so why are we just talking about guns? Arms are what armies and state militias have. I’m stickin’ up for my rights! This is America, Grandpa! We get to protect ourselves. I need a bomb to protect Mom and the family!
Grandpa, do we conceal and carry?
Well, sometimes Grandma and I carry your bottle when Mom’s away, but we have no need to conceal it. Why?
I’m not talking about bottles, Grandpa. I’m talking about guns. Do we conceal and carry guns?
We don’t, Elijah. We don’t carry guns and, if we did, we wouldn’t conceal them. We like to be open. People who conceal things have something to hide.
That’s not what people in Congress are saying! They think everyone should conceal and carry. Grandpa, do I have to go to school?
Yes. When you’re older you’ll go to school. You have to. Every child in America has to go to school.
I don’t want to!
Sure you do. It’s just like daycare but you’ll be older.
School’s aren’t not like daycare, Grandpa. I saw it on the news. All those kids in Florida got killed. Kids shouldn’t have to go to school. They’re not safe. That’s why the NRA wants conceal and carry to protect us from the bad people.
Okay, now I’m getting your drift. This is really sad.
Yeah! If I have to go to school, I want to conceal and carry!
Hmmm. I see. You think your school will be safer if everyone conceals and carries so you can get the bad guys.
Right. Exactly. I’m not a Democrat any more. I’m a Republican!
I see. That’s your right under the Constitution.
Yeah! I’m going to exercise my Second Amendment rights!
Well, let’s stop and think about this before we decide to carry anything but your bottle. The Second Amendment isn’t the only right in the Bill of Rights. If we keep going the way we’re going, the Second Amendment will be the only part of the Constitution left. America will become a mass firing range.
Grandpa, that’s awful! Can I please have my bottle before I open my lemonade stand?
It’s not every day a stranger gives one a lift. When they do, we owe them our gratitude. Last September Peter Wallace, host of Day1, invited me to Atlanta. In December we recorded Day1’s radio program for the the second week of February for first Sunday of Lent.
My thanks to Peter and Day1 for the privilege and my thanks to any of you who choose to take a look or open an ear. Here’s how to access it.
The 40 minute podcast is in three parts: 1) an interview with Peter Wallace, 2) the sermon for the First Sunday of Lent (“He as with the wild beasts”), and a follow-up dialogue with Peter.
Readers of Views from the Edge may remember the earlier post about the complete stranger who helped me navigate the Atlanta Metro system on my way to the 10:00 a.m. appointment at the Day1 studio. As the old saying goes, “If you see a turtle up on a fencepost, you can be pretty darn sure it didn’t get up there by itself.”
Grace and Peace,
Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, February 15, 2018.
Happy Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday.
Remember when you used to play with matches and your mother told you not to? Remember when you aimed a toy gun at a friend and your father told you not to?
Maybe not.
Maybe the adults in your home never told you “No”. In that case, you may understand what it might have been like growing up as a child who would lead the United States or North Korea, playing with the bigger matches that can light the fuses of nuclear holocaust on Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday.
Saint Valentine’s Day celebrates love; Ash Wednesday observes our mortal nature. Love and death are side by side on February 14, 2018 when wine and chocolates coalesce with dust and ashes.
Is it too much to hope today that two adult boys with matches will be parented by nations that impose the discipline they lacked as little boys? Is it too much to pray they put away the “sticks and stones” they throw across the Pacific Ocean, burn their match sticks into ashes before they burn the house down, and send each other a Happy Valentine’s Day card and some chocolates?
Ash Wednesday ashes and Saint Valentine’s Day chocolates
Today levels the playing field. Our differences make no difference today. Whether you are religious, agnostic or atheist is beside the point today. All the quarrels and distinctions are beside the point.
“One is still what one is going to cease to be,” wrote Jean-Paul Sartre in Nausea, “and already what one is going to become. One lives one’s death. One dies one’s life.”
Today is Ash Wednesday, the leveler. The eraser. The reminder that we are mortal. That I am living my death as you are living yours and dying my life while you are dying yours.
This year more close friends and classmates are closer to dust and ashes. As I ponder the meaning of it all, my appreciation of the religion into which I was born increases. “I have always said that often the religion you were born with becomes more important to you as you see the universality of truth.” — Ram Dass. Born into and raised in the Christian faith has led me to the universality of truth. Today the church’s practice reduces the size of my ego. Ash Wednesday levels me to a universal truth: the baseline of zero.
Ash Wednesday ashes
The imposition of ashes — “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” — is the reminder of the universal truth of our shared mortality. Wisdom embraces the math of addition by subtraction: the erasure of every source of hubris and division. Today, I will offer my forehead for the imposition of ashes and pray that in the citadels of power someone else will experience the same, for the sake of life itself.
Grandpa and Elijah
Grandpa, is this the end?”
The end of what, Elijah? You seem anxious. That’s not like you. End of what?
End of the world! Don’t you know? You’re the preacher!
You didn’t hear that from me. Where’d you hear about the end of the world? Who said that? Who got you all stirred up?
Mom did! I heard her!
What exactly did Mom say? And to whom did she say it?
She said it to Grandma. I heard it. I hear stuff, Grandpa. I don’t need hearing aids. You miss a lot of stuff. I heard it with my own ears.
Touché! But let’s step back a second to make sure you got it straight. What did Mom say?
Mom said “It’s over. Our world’s coming to an end!”
What were you doing when Mom said that?
I was just crawling like I have all day, and playing with some wires. Mom didn’t like it.
Aha! I see. “Our world’s coming to an end” is different from the world coming to an end.
Uh-uh! She called me a terrorist! I’m not, Grandpa!
Oh, my! There are terrorists and there are terrorists, Elijah. Was Mom laughing when she said you were a terrorist and that the world had come to an end?
Yes. She was. But before she laughed, she’d been crying a lot. That’s when she called Grandma.
What did Mom say to Grandma? How did the conversation start?
She said, “Mom, I’m so tired! He’s getting into everything! He started crawling! I have to follow him every second. I can’t let him out of my sight; I’m exhausted! Our world’s coming to an end!”
Well, Elijah, there are worlds and there are worlds. And one person’s terrorist is another person’s child. It’s confusing to a little guy.
Yeah! This morning I pulled myself up. Pretty soon I’m going to walk. The beginning of life for me. The end of the world for Mom.
— Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, February 13, 2018.
Elijah asking about the Big Parade
Grandpa, are we going to the parade?
What parade, Elijah? It’s February 9. It’s not the Fourth of July.
What’s the Fourth of July? Is that a parade?
No, it’s the date we Americans celebrate our independence.
Yeah! I’m independent!
No, you’re actually quite dependent, Elijah. We all are.
Uh-uh! Kim Jung un’s not. Rocket Man’s liddle like liddle Bob Corker, liddle Adam Schiff. He’s not dependent! Neither am I!
Okay, okay, I’m sorry. There’s nothing wrong with being liddle, Elijah, especially when you’re eight-months old. Every one of us is liddle. Some of us accept it. Others have a lot of trouble with it. They need to feel big.
So are we going to You-Know-Who’s big parade, Grandpa?
No, there’s not going to be a parade.
Why not? You’ve been wrong before! You said You-Know-Who could never get elected. How do you know?
Okay. I don’t know. I’m hoping some of the adults in his cabinet and in Congress will convince him it’s an un-American idea. But You-Know-Who doesn’t like traitors, and he likes big parades. He might decide to do his Bigger-than-Kim Jung un’s Military Parade on the Fourth of July to show he’s biggest.
New McDonald’s GRAND Big Mac
Yeah. He needs some comfort food! Send Melania a text, Grandpa! Quick before he wakes up! Tell Melania to get some Big Macs for breakfast! Do they have Big Macs in North Korea?
No, they don’t have McDonald’s in North Korea. Big Macs aren’t good for you. Too many Big Macs will kill you. They’re big, but they’re not comfort food. Comfort food makes you comfortable with being liddle. Not BIG with a need for a Military Parade.
Mom says this cartoon is “off color”, Grandpa, but I see lots of color. I’m liddle but I know some stuff! But I’ll tell Mom to X out the Fourth of July on our calendar. We’re not going to the parade! Some things should stay liddle, right Grandpa?
Pope Francis — World Communications Day 2018 – on truth and fake news
Click Pope Francis’s World Communications Day 2018 message about truth and fake news . If you’re short on time, scroll down to Pope Francis’s updated Prayer of Saints Francis.
On my way out of town for self-imposed exile to give undivided attention to “The Story of Marguerite”– the novel that’s been writing itself in my head for years — I’ll be away from all electronic communication, except for a quick visit to library, a 20 minute drive from the A-frame cabin. Pope Francis likely will be Views from the Edge‘s last post for this week.
I will not, however be completely alone. Barclay will be good company in the woods.
Barclay and Gordon
Best wishes for a truthful, fake news-free week. Send a hug to Pope Francis, feed the hungry, feed the birds, or hug a tree.
Grace and Peace,
A technological error resulted in the previous post being published without the final two paragraphs! Apologies to you all! Below is an updated version of “Working for Something Better” with the entirety of John’s reflections. Thanks for your patience.
The President’s racism hits me like a body blow. Of course I know that people talk like that, and that both individual and institutional racism remain alive and well. But over the years I have harbored the hope and assumption that progress was being made. The old familiar words for racial minorities are no longer heard in social discourse. We learned, I thought, to stop using the “N” word, first substituting “colored” then “negro”, finally African American which says what needs to be said about origin and identity. Racial quotas and barriers in education, business and the professions slowly came down. And so, at first, I had trouble believing what I…
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