Sometimes the holiday season can seem like you’re on an escalator moving down a long corridor that starts slow and before you know it, you feel like you’re on Mr. Toads wild ride!

Just prior to the beginning of advent the escalator stops briefly on “Thanksgiving.” There’s a lot about 2020 that’s been difficult to be thankful for, we can all think about the manifestation of the infection, the hibernation and the Election, losing tasks to wearing masks, to where things grow to where they don’t grow. We moved from “Going Out” to simply “Picking Up.” We discovered that viruses don’t build, don’t manufacture, don’t keep schedules on time or stop poorly planned projects however; they do cause stupid decisions, can be blamed for almost any lack of judgement and most importantly, personal weight gain.

Covid-19 Statistics show that 90% of males cannot find 50% of their neck-ties and 50% of females cannot find 90% of their bras. Razor blades have lasted longer and there’s less underwear in the American laundry.

Words and phrases have been redefined in Websters, like the word “Casual” which now is a substitute for the word “commando,” and phrases like “Sexual Preference” is now a personal choice that cannot be made personally, or at least on the Hawaiian continent anyway. We are finding out that dead people can still vote; and, in some cases this happens multiple times.

But we, like the rest of the world have not faced a pandemic of this magnitude in over a century; and we, in this country are not really geared for having our spaces and our lifestyles infringed upon. Our success as a nation has possibly transformed our shells into a softer texture than they were 50 or 100 years ago.

Some of the results of our softer natures acts out in selfish rage. In 2017, “Richard V. Reeves wrote an essay in the Brookings Magazine about the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority launching an ad campaign, asking for “respect.” The ads were a reaction to a sharp increase in the number of drivers subjected to verbal and physical abuse. Drivers were punched, spat on, and screamed at. In one case, a woman threw a cup of her own urine (collected during the journey) at a driver.”

Respect has great importance in everyday life. As children we are taught to respect our parents, teachers, and elders, school rules and the police, family and traditions, other people’s feelings and rights, our country’s flag and leaders, the truth and people’s differing opinions.

We may also come to believe that, at some level, all people are worthy of respect, if we stay on this virtuous path.

We may learn that jobs and relationships become unbearable if we receive no respect in them. Calls to respect this or that are decreasingly part of public life: if we violate the street law: “Diss me, and you die.” has become a norm.

Respect for human life has deteriorated greatly, as well, since Roe Wade became part of the social landscape. Learning to respect the things that deserve to be respected and that we should respect independently of considerations of how our lives go, is not the cultural way – we have become selfish. History teaches us that when we share common values, discourse and debate have more value.

The greatest Britain, Sir Winston Churchill once said: “A nation that forgets its history, has no future.” We have come far in some things within our culture and others we have not come far enough; but our journey cannot be achieved by tearing down our history – being reminded of our history is a “must” to help us navigate into the future.

Thomas Jefferson said: “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Throwing out our constitution and choosing the chains of slavery that socialism brings must be avoided. Churchill said: “You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth.” Don’t be fooled by the storyline in the news, a picture may paint a thousand words, but some of the dearest, well-healed and most beautiful people have become the reason for the phrase “the wolf in sheep’s clothing” Benjamin Franklin said this: “DEMOCRACY, is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. LIBERTY, is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”

Don’t expect to tell people how they should see this or that or any part of our future. But, the stories of our past and where we came from are the Avatar’s of our future, the stories must be told. Then, each ear, each heart, each soul, must choose. But, how will they know unless someone tells them (Roman 10:14)?

Yes, Thanksgiving is coming and in spite of all the negative rhetoric, masks, isolation and whatever else. I’m thankful that we can begin to see the ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’ The Advent season starts right after “Thanksgiving” and we celebrate the “Light” that came into the world. That light is the real King, He is Jesus Christ. Ain’t it so! 

———–

Give us a call. Get involved.
There’s an adventure out there to live!