August Angst

Now it is time for the dog days of August and you can bet that all of us will be glad when the dog days turn into the falling leaves of September. I have had a few battles with the computer lately and that is often the source of my angst. It is simply uncanny how the computer or the cell phone will refuse to cooperate with me when Anita is not around. And it wouldn’t be so bad, but they actually get surly about it since they both have speaking programs that allow me to attempt to use them.

The cell phone usually develops a case of poor hearing when I attempt to use voice dial and will ask me to repeat what I asked it to do. Then it will saucily tell me how to do it the next time. It is rather humbling to find yourself in a shouting match with a cell phone; in fact it is really embarrassing. I often think I can hear both devices laughing quietly while they jerk me around. I have threatened their lives often, but they are unimpressed.

Over the week I have noticed that as troops leave Iraq the factions there have stepped up the pace of killing one another. I wonder how long it will take for the old hatreds to take over and have the effort made there seem like a real waste of our young people. It is sad that old men and women declare that we must fight and that the young are the ones they send to do their fighting. And then those same old politicians have to be shamed and embarrassed to provide equipment and care for the maimed that come back from their war for medical care.

It is so often an old man’s war but a young person’s fight. I really don’t know if that Iraq action will be seen as a necessary action, but if it is so important I have always been confused that there was no declaration of war. It still confuses me that the fearless leaders in D.C. go about their business as if no one is fighting or dying or being maimed daily. And I am also amazed that they tell us to go about our business as if that maiming is not taking place. Why isn’t the rest of the country asked to make some contribution other than offering up their sons and daughters as just a necessary sacrifice that some, but not all are asked to make.

I was pastor in Abbeville when the Viet Nam conflict was raging. It is paradoxical to me that we define that conflict as a historical event we try to forget and then turn around and recreate it in Iraq and the other countries we are now asking our young to fight. I knew a number of young men that went and came back from Nam. By some accident we formed an informal group that met and talked about what they had seen, done and endured there. I remember mostly what showed in their eyes when they talked about what happened to them there. It was a haunted look that each had and there was no bragging about anything that went on while they were there. They were just grateful to have survived and not all did that went there from that little town in south Louisiana.

It was obvious that our government had lied to a whole generation of young men and women; and lied to the rest of us as well. The august body of politicians told us that those young people were serving a necessary and noble cause. It wasn’t noble at all and the government suffered no moral or ethical pains for their casual willingness to lie. It was evident that they had been maimed by their time in Nam and that they were confused by what happened to them when they came home. They were treated as oddities and traitors for doing what their government asked and forced them to do. I am glad that we are not treating our military people in that manner now.

If there is any axe to grind, it is with our great leaders in Washington. I wonder how history will be able to define how all this Middle East confusion will work out. What do we say to ourselves about our country and our leaders when we see how casually and indifferently they were used and betrayed? I find that I think about that every day when I hear about the military casualties that happen that day. I do know that the total cost has been and continues to be extremely high. The Nam youth were abandoned by their country when they needed their country the most. I hope that we don’t do that again.

Katrina and Rita showed Louisiana just how it is when the very government that is supposed to help them turns out to not do so. Louisiana was betrayed three times during the aftermath of those storms, so we know much more about governmental betrayal than we ought. We learned firsthand just how deadly incompetence and indifference can be. It now strikes me than many are born to the American heritage, but they do not understand the heritage and it seems that often that they do not wish to understand it. The four R's of reading, riting, rithmetic and responsibility are no longer valued. The result of their absence is taking a toll that may leave a price tag on our future history that we may not be willing or able to pay. And we don’t seem very interested in teaching that heritage in our schools. I know that I sound like an old man, but a poor or inadequate foundation has caused many a thing to collapse. I hope we can get the motivation to do a better effort in this four r area.

I think that July was the month of author Tony Hillerman’s death. He was the writer of Jim Chee, Navajo detective stories. If you haven’t read his works, then you have really been missing some very good novels and they are well written. His Navajo characters have quite a difficult time understanding the white culture. Often his characters have to engage in a sweat bath as a cleansing ceremony for being around the white culture too much. They feel that we are too often out of sync with what the world is really about and they have to find a way to live in both worlds. It is natural that such an attempt to keep one foot in the white world and one in the Navajo world would be most difficult.

I imagine that is true of any culture that has to attempt a straddle like that. One of their observations is that we whites are suffering from a vicious disease; that disease they call money sickness and they fear catching it. When you think about all the tragic events that have and are now active in our culture, you can begin to appreciate how accurate that observation is. It seems obvious that money sickness was and is at the heart of the financial turmoil that is causing so much pain and ruin. It is most frightening to see just what some will do for the money sickness and how easily and indifferently they will destroy the lives of others just to make more money.

There was a time when people went around robbing banks; now the banks and investment firms are robbing people. That’s quite a change. The Stanford group robbed many in this city. My friend works at a local food bank and says that there are people coming for food help in their old age and it is the first time in their lives that this has happened to them. Others are faced with the loss of their homes, at the end of their working lives and are wondering what will happen to them. And the financial felons go merrily on their way robbing everyone and giving to themselves. It seems that the Navajo diagnosis of the disease of money sickness is right on the mark. So let’s be careful out there so that the spreaders of money sickness don’t infect us.

It seems that victimhood has become a self-sustaining culture in this state and in this country. How did responsibility for oneself become located in another person? When victimhood becomes a way of life it is often accompanied by bitterness. When that happens all of us who claim victimhood and its accompanying bitterness must realize that the twins of bitterness and victimhood will always destroy the vessel attempting to contain them. If one does not discover the antidote for those twins, those twins will ultimately destroy both life and spirit.

I try to remember that when I grow angry about the way in which my sight was taken from me. They have taken my sight, but I must make certain that I do not give them anything else. If I do, I will become an accomplice in the loss of so much more. So I patrol my life each day on the lookout for those terrible twins and not allow them to get a foothold in my life. You watch for them in your life too.

How about this for a cogent observation; I feel so miserable without you it’s almost like having you here. Oscar Wilde once said that he had no enemies, but that he was intensely disliked by his friends. Oscar could really say some great things about life now and then. Groucho Marx was noted for saying as he left some gathering, "I have had a great evening, but this wasn’t it." I think we all have had a few evenings like that.

If age brings answers to the great questions of life, it is obvious that it has bypassed me. Sometimes we talk to keep people from telling us that which we would rather not hear. It is also true that some suffer from delusions of adequacy. In all this political turmoil it can be said of some; he is a self-made man and he is obviously in love with his maker.

It is also true that some cause happiness wherever they go; others cause happiness whenever they go. So much for those little snippets of life. I will continue this tomorrow. I will tell you of some of this week’s Scottie adventures. Another random thought is that the way politics is practiced in Louisiana we could qualify as an open air mental asylum. Just to hear our two U.S. senators hold a town meeting will reveal that. When the questions get too tough or ask for an explanation of their personal conduct, they just walk away. The arrogance and disdain they have for the citizens is obvious for all to see. Since Katrina you could say that half of Louisiana is under water and the rest is under indictment. Our politics adds a whole new meaning to the term cold cash and freezer sales just might be going up.

We have a new adventure taking place in the neighborhood; the roads are being resurfaced. We also have a portable poop palace across the street. That and all the other activity give the Scotties much to defend us against. They thus sound off quite a bit and intensely enjoy all the goings on. I don’t have to worry about being slipped up on because I have two Scottie door bells. In fact, they bark so much that it is hard to talk on the phone. But we pass a good time and don’t suffer from boredom. It has been quieter this morning than usual. I guess they are working farther away right now, but they will show up back here at their parked pickups when the lunch break occurs. Then the barking will begin again. Oh well.

I am going to stop the August angst now. In just a few days it will be September and I hope the burr will come in September and chase all this heat and humidity away. I hope you have had a happy summer and that fall will be great for us all. Take care of yourselves in the interim and I will dream up something to send your way in September.