Who's in Control?

By all appearances, the normal are not in control. 

The talkers, the takers, the enabled, the fringe element act as if they are, but who is really keeping things afloat in our land?  Who is keeping the families together? Who is keeping our society and economy together—our businesses, the military, our legal system, our churches, educational institutions at all levels, health care, our scientific community, our government—community, state, and national?  

Some people—the noise makers—do not want to hear it; it is so ‘politically incorrect. ’ But the facts are, folks, that the discredited Baby Boomer generation of predominately white men and women are keeping this battered ship afloat. It is they who hold the keys, or in today’s world, the passwords. 

No, I did not miss the last election.  President Obama was elected, but as he found in the last four years, he was certainly not in charge.  Neither was even President Lincoln, as good a man as he was, truly in charge in his fractious administration. 

Who should be? How about those of whom President Lincoln spoke: a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” of, as we of my generation subscribed to, “one nation under God.”  

We ‘boomers’ are not perfect—far from it, but it is we who hold the great majority of political offices, who are on the boards, the councils, in positions of leadership in industry, education, service clubs and organizations, the military and law enforcement, and in all the constructions and institutions that provide the backbone of this country. It is the boomers who are the producers and the providers the populace falls back on. 

The Boomer generation is the safety net, the resource base, the ocean if you will, that keeps afloat all who ride on its ample bosom.  It is they who are the middle-aged and the grandparents (no longer the great-grandparents who are the so-called ‘Greatest Generation’) who try to hold ungrounded, irresponsible, dysfunctional extended families together, who own and direct the businesses that supply the jobs, the farms that supply the food, who own the homes that provide the shelter, who are the fire and police chiefs and captains, the military officers, the experienced teachers and college professors, the investors, the men and women who provide the brainpower and willpower and stability that keep the whole thing afloat and on course. 

Of course the chronically unemployed and uneducated, the chronic recipients of governmental welfare or parental support, the lawbreakers, the anti-establishment misfits and radicals, the fringe elements would have us believe otherwise,  but I would ask you, what, really, have they contributed besides a leak in the cistern?

I contend that there still is a vast silent majority of middle-aged Americans, the body of water, so to speak, that has had so much waste dumped into it, that supports all the great ships and little boats that float upon it.   We should be grateful that it hasn’t dried up or that some greater power has not yet pulled the drain plug.  That Power may yet. It is not an inexhaustible resource and He does not have inexhaustible patience. 

  

In saying all this I am not disparaging the younger generation or peoples of color or ethnic or religious groups or anybody who is here in this country legally and who believe and act in accordance with the duties and privileges of citizenship. Their day is coming and I hope they are prepared to lift the load.  I am just saying to them, to mix the metaphor, what I remember being told as a boy: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.    
The mood of our country is unanchored; the fleet has come loose from its moorings.  It needs to get the strong hands on deck to drop a more substantial anchor into its traditional bedrock of in faith in God, respect for the law, knowledge of and fidelity to our founding principles and necessary institutions. Being loose, our various-sized-and-aged and many-colored vessels are being buffeted by contrary winds that threaten to sink them.  Every vessel needs to have a compass, a rudder, a sail, an anchor. 

And then it needs to use them.

It should also be glad to have a safe harborage and a body of water to sail upon.

Thanksgiving 2012

In case you were not a reader of this weblog last year and you would like to review my thoughts on Thanksgiving I would direct you to my archives (right hand column) and click the bullet beside 2011 and then the bullet next to November and then 'Thanksgiving.' My thoughts have not changed.

If you do not feel that you have too many things to be thankful for this year then I would suggest you do this:  kneel with a loved one, hold his/her hand, open your prayer to God,  wait, thank Him for what/who comes to your mind and then contact that person or do something related to that insight and see what comes of it.  I think you will, at that point find something else to be thankful for--related to that thing/person.  Then build upon it.  It will then be a day of thanksgiving for you.  The Lord works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.

I give thanks for whomever you are reading this -- that you have allowed me to place a residual of thought into your mind this day.  May you be blessed. 

Fiscal Cliff / Moral Abyss

Fiscal cliff

First a word about the looming ‘fiscal cliff:’  This politically-imposed day-of-fiscal reckoning will, I predict, be just another kick-the-can-down-the-road date that will come and go (probably extended) as our lawmakers continue to play out what has become a personal and political national habit.  That habit is, of course, to postpone, borrow, mortgage, take, or steal from the future or from those who still have some resources, so one can get what he (or the liberal element in our government or body politic) wants now.  That is the crux of the problem. 

It is the issue, on the political/industrial front, that Ayn Rand’s 1957 book Atlas Shrugged so ably explored.  

The ultimate reality, the real cliff, will be when the national well actually runs dry and the other guy’s well, who the political Robin-Hoods were counting on, also runs dry.  Extending or expanding the debt will not do for our credibility will by then also have run dry. Then will come the severe belt-tightening, the political austerity ‘solution’ and the historical knee-jerk-lets-find-a-scapegoat revolutionary response that is likely to follow.  One thing leads to another. 

   

My view is that much of our fiscal problem—personal and national—is trying to buy or otherwise procure what we can’t afford or need, or have no right to. It is to spend what we don’t have: the too big or too expensive house, the expensive car when a more modest one would do, or the newest electronic acquisition we think we can’t do without.  It is also caused by trying to buy or demand what is, by then, much needed health care once we have squandered our health by acquiring poor health habits—overeating, smoking and drinking, not exercising, taking drugs.  Vices (a word no longer in our national vocabulary) cost money.

Our problem is caused by our increasing entitlement mentality.  It is caused by the takers not knowing what it costs the givers to provide—or not caring. It is a lack of moral understanding and self-discipline.

 Moral Abyss

It is the moral abyss so many of us have fallen into that causes/contributes greatly to the above problems as well as our nation’s many other social problems.  It is, for example, the attack on the sanctity of marriage and the family, the practicing of unhealthy ‘relationships’ in and out of marriage, it is pornography, the killing of unborn babies, a lack of respect for and disobedience to the laws of the land, and most of all, a disregard, even a repudiation of God, His commandments and the eternal principles that lead to happiness. 

“For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.” (Henry David Thoreau) We have not struck at the root.  The root is moral weakness.  

We have become morally bankrupt and we are being forsaken by God.  He has to, because He is a God of justice. 

  

It is no wonder we have these problems.        

A 'Life Coach'

I met a man this week who said he was a ‘life coach.’  Think about that.  I asked him how he became qualified to become a life coach and he said he had read a book by Tony Robbins.  

Well, I’ve been a soccer coach, a wrestling coach, volleyball coach, football coach, golf coach, track and field coach and baseball coach.  But a LIFE COACH!? 

How would one become qualified to become a ‘life coach?’  I guess it would be to become well-acquainted with life.  Without putting a label on it, I suppose about forty years ago when I determined to continue on with school and become a doctor of philosophy that inchoate thought might have been on my mind. (I actually took my doctorate in education.) I liked history and philosophy and psychology and teaching and religious studies, and through my Church was starting to get a handle on life in ways, I have learned, that simply listening to Tony Robbins or Dr. Phil, or Ann Landers, or Delilah, et al., could not have qualified me.  

  

In process of time I have learned that by trying hard to be a good husband and father and serve with effectiveness in the Church and read as much as I could I was, in fact, becoming much more qualified to become a man of wisdom, or philosopher or ‘life coach,’ though I still hadn’t put a label on it, than I could have simply by taking every course in the university catalogue or by reading a book by a single motivational speaker.  (However, Stephen R. Covey’s writings will take one a long way in that direction if he/she has the other requisite life experiences.)

The larger question might be, why should one aspire to becoming a ‘life coach,’ or in former days a ‘philosopher’?  On one level the title does sound presumptuous, but I suppose there are a few counselors or psychotherapists, even sectarian pastors who are not in it simply for the money, or status, or power, but truly do want to help others come to a more abundant life.  And that is a worthy goal. 

 In fact, I think most legitimate ‘life coaches’ are known by more familiar titles: dedicated mothers, or fathers, or grandparents, or lay Church workers--even teachers, and I salute them. 

Jesus was called rabbi (teacher); indeed, he could have been called the true ‘Life coach’ since he came “that [we] might have Life, and. . . have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) If we need a model, and we do, He is the One—the Life Coach par excellence. 

Our National Destiny

I cannot imagine anyone who is not glad the election of 2012 is over.  Well maybe the advertising people who earned millions of dollars or the critics who delighted in finding targets at which to sling their darts of outrageous fortune or derision or invective.  

  

I am sorry that Mitt Romney lost.  He is a good man, a man of character who could have brought a very different tone and a restoration of foundational political principles to the leadership of our country and perhaps could have brought Washington together.   

Though I have little confidence that it will happen, I hope President Barack Obama, having competed against such a good man and won by such a narrow popular vote margin, will be able bring our political leaders and the body politic together this time around.   It can only be done by leadership and all of us having a better understanding of history and by the earned grace of God.

I am afraid, though, that the America, the United States of America that those of us born before about 1960 knew, the America that had/has been the magnet for so many immigrants, will no longer be recognizable unless we truly become ‘one nation under God.’

A house divided cannot stand. 

 I came upon a revealing statement Mr. Romney made, that was not broadcast on CNN or other vilifying sources: 

            “Over the years, I have watched a good number of people live out their lives in the shallows.  In the shallows, life is all about yourself.  Your job, your money, your house, your rights, your needs, your opinions, your ideas, your comfort.  In the deeper waters, life is about others: family, friends, faith, community, country, caring, commitment.  In the deeper waters, there are challenging ideas, opposing opinions, and uncomfortable battles. [A man I know] told me that his life ambition was to be listed in Forbes among the four hundred wealthiest people in the world.  His ambition, his preoccupation with self, overshadowed his marriage and his loyalties to his friends—so he lost them all.  He became wealthy in the way he hoped.  But he swims in the shallowest of waters, because he swims alone.” (from his commencement address at Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts, May 23, 2004)

We need to clean up our inward act, become united, and then reach outward with strength of each other and Almighty God to help us reach our worthy personal and national goals. 

A New Start

After a hiatus of several months I have determined that I will once again share my thoughts, observations, hopes, and frustrations with all who might value the worldview of a Christian early- Babyboomer white male who loves his wife, family, Church and country and despairs of where our culture and nation seems to be headed. 

My agenda is forthright: I would hope to influence my family, friends, and inquisitive strangers with my views.  Like nearly everybody, I think my opinions have value and wish others saw things as I do.  I especially think they have value because I have arrived at that age where I have seen and experienced much; I have had enough education to have critical-thinking skills that temper my utterances so I am not just shooting from the lip; I have been and continue to be a student of history;  I greatly value the wisdom of great men and women of the past (and that of my wives, present and past) and wish to re-present some of their views; and I believe I am worthy of spiritual guidance but am humble enough to acknowledge that I am not a prophet. 

My special mission, as I sense it, is to be a voice of warning—maybe even a small latter-day voice of “one crying in the wilderness” as the world approaches  ever closer to the brink of self-destruction.  I hope to encourage the preparation that will be needed to detect and weather the signs-of-the times.

If you are a new reader or one who is unfamiliar with my writings of the past several years I would encourage you to review the titles in the archives of my work on the right side of your screen.  I can testify to you that a number of them were, I believe, truly inspired for I know how the thoughts came to me.  If you can overlook my sometimes clumsy presentation I think you can find something of value.  

I thank you for your readership and would welcome your comments.