MAKE LIFE BETTER?

When we see all the trauma and tragedy in the world, local and far away, a natural reaction is to want to make things better, and to despair when life doesn't get better and more tragedy follows.  Why bother to help create a better world if it is just going to get knocked down again whether by natural forces or by human decisions and actions? 

I do not intend to explain or justify bad or tragic and traumatic events, but I can point out that in the midst of them, we see heroic acts of love and care for the other.  We seem to be able to loose ourselves in our reaching out to others, and in doing that we find deep satisfaction of being ourselves.  These times of giving to the other are holy.  As we remember more casual times, and times of smooth sailing, we can see that we tend to focus on what we want, and we experience more disappointment and anger, sometimes even when we get what we want.

IS THE POINT OF OUR LIFE FOR OUR OWN SATISFACTION OR FOR GIVING TO OTHERS?

WHO IS TO BLAME?

Corporate, group and social culpability has been part of the social discussion for centuries.  Along with that goes corporate, group and social pride.  We have little trouble accepting the pride as a family or nation when someone succeeds in extreme fashion in sports, finance or scholarship.  We give accolades to the individual for sure, but we also give accolades to the team, the family, the opportunities the individual have had.  Even the person who has come from a bad or negative environment we honor their success because of what they took advantage of in the society.  This is all appropriate and healthy.

What is equally good and healthy is to accept the blame and guilt along with the individual who, goes off what we call the deep end, and is destructive to themselves and others.  Each of us lives in the world in relationship to one another and to the groups and social structures which are around us, and we are culpable along with the individual.  When the “bad” happens we need to look at our social selves and see what we need to adjust.  That is healthy.  Looking for blame someplace else or holding the individual solely to blame is unhealthy.  Being human, whether individual or corporate, we need regular adjustments of our attitudes and behaviors so that we can be at our best.  Do not be afraid to be part of the problem, because then you can be part of the solution.

Being part of the solution means that we have to talk and listen to one another with honesty and care.  To be effective and to affect one another we need the conversation to be without angry expressions and without hate and without ill will and without being convinced that "I" am right at the beginning of the conversation.  We must be open to being affected by the other as we are hopeful to affect them.  This kind of conversation fosters a free society and supports free speech and a democratic/representational government.

Things seem to be more complicated than they appear.

The USA had a war over several issue between the states (Civil War).  Big among those issues was how much power do states have versus the federal government.  That argument continues without war.  The Episcopal Church is now having the same argument, and hopefully that will continue without splitting apart the people who are in discussion and some peaceful resolution will come to bear. 

The Anglican Communion is a communion of Churches from the Anglican Tradition who are made up of Provinces who are totally self governing.  Those provinces are divided into dioceses who are in turn self governing within the province.  In recent years discussion has turned into arguing about who has the final say.  There are those provinces who want either an an authority figure or a group to have final say on issues within the church as to the rules, canons, and laws by which we govern ourselves.  There are those within our Province of the USA who want to be a part of us without adhering to the canons, rules and laws of the Province.

Currently the standard of operation is that the provinces are self governing, and Dioceses within the USA are obligated by the Province Canons and Constitution.  Now, all that is up for discussion or argument.  The arguing is what disturbs me.  Discussion gives me hope.  I pray that we are careful as we argue.  The next step in arguing is fighting which leads to war, and both nations and church have a history of war, not to mention religions between religions.  My distress is not over who wins, but is over how it is won.  When war decides, that makes power either our god or the ruling characteristic of our god.  Love, Mercy, Hope, Forgiveness,and Faith are left for relatively small matters rather than determining factors.  This should be distressing  for all Christians.

New Blog address. Lost the old one.

Now that I have a new blog, I can't think of anything to say except that I don't know but I think the country western song is right "God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy."