The News?

This morning’s reading of the world according to Facebook led me through an unusual set of absurdities, rather different and yet rather the same as the familiar and ever morphing secular conspiracy theories one is likely to encounter, along with the bonehead comments on serious, real world events. Instead, my eye caught one article regarding the identity of the anti-Christ in an ancient dead sea scroll. Very strange, since the Christ himself had not yet come at that time..  In fact, the word ‘antiChrist’ appears only in the gospel of John and refers only to those who deny Christ, not to some particular individual who is to arise in the future. One article led to another, as these things go, each more absurd and misguided than the former. He is the Pope, he is a Muslim, he is a a Jew, a figure of magical powers and powerful illusion. He is even President Obama (but don’t fret, Barack, he was Bush before you). Essentially, these theories are designed to set various groups of people against one another. They propose a worldly farce in the place of spirituality, a kingdom of confusion in the place of the kingdom of God, fantasies more appropriate to the Hollywood movie than the true depth of truth and wisdom in scripture. In short, he is us. Prophesies themselves are not made to be unravelled and revealed beforetime, but to glorify the omniscience and foreknowledge of God after the fact, not for the pulpit of ignorant men and their naïve, gullible followers. “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” Such was told Timothy by Paul. The conspiracy theory, though it is a shame to admit, is originally a religious phenomenon, and, by that measure, secular conspiracy theories are essentially religious in character, in the worst possible sense. They are manifestations of ignorance, of paranoia, of superstition, grappling with the world through the obverse end of a telescope. It is so very much easier to entangle oneself in the adventure of worldly rumors than to take up your rough wooden cross and travel the uncompromising, unchanging road of truth, pure and simple.

Not long ago, my son from my second marriage contacted me via FB Messenger. Seeming rather concerned, he asked my opinion regarding whether the world was set to end at any moment – a conviction that had been conveyed by his mother. Nothing matters. His studies, his career, his love life. One must simply look to the heavens in anticipation.

Indeed, one must. Why wouldn’t he?  From whence do love, joy, hope, promise, justice emanate in the first place? But I’ll tell you this, I said. Your mother has been saying this for as long as I’ve known her, because this, to her, is hope; and is far easier than growing, than changing, than pursuing the hard and the painful work of becoming more like Him.  No, the  world is not about to end. For you it is just beginning. For when they say it is ending, you know most certainly that it is not.

Walking

It seems that I am becoming what I swore never to become - a walking enthusiast! What's wrong with me? I can't stand people who walk, yet here I am walking - walking to the coffee shop, walking to the store, walking on the beach, walking for no particular reason, when I have a perfectly good, in fact a perfectly new scooter in the driveway. Before you know it, I will be wanting special walking shoes, spandex shorts, a headband (never mind that I have no hair), kneepads, an elastic strap for my glasses and, of course, a pedometer.

Just My Opinion

Surprised to find Limamike's open on Galungan. Often enough, one finds them closed even on a normal day, and here they are open on a major holiday. Indeed, many other places are closed. In fact, most other places are, in Renon, anyway. This has made the streets very pleasant for traveling about.

The big news today is all about the Iran nuclear deal. Obama says that the world is now a safer place, while Netanyahu says it's a much more dangerous place. What is clear, if anything is clear, is that one or the other must eventually be shown to have been wrong.

Well, I suppose even that is not true, really. Politicians are never wrong. They are merely misunderstood.

In any case, I find myself most inclined to agree with Obama on this, though there is an element of reluctance in doing so. I have to admire, once again, the man's dogged determination in pursuing the goals he believes in, even in the face of continued antagonistic rhetoric from the leaders in Iran. Death to America, death to Israel, and such-like. These statements are clearly unacceptable, as Obama himself acknowledges; but the point is not whether Iran likes us, but what the best way is to avoid a nuclear Iran or a rush to war. The natural response at the sight of flag burning and hate-speech is to be offended and to reply in kind.

This is where Obama's amazing patience and self confidence come into play. It is, to me, stunningly unusual in a human being.

Budi

I was going to write something depressing, but I'll write this instead.

I was just thinking, as I walked over to Limamike's Coffee, about how very unkind people can be, when I was stopped midway on the walk by a Balinese man standing in front of his house. He introduced himself as Budi and, of course, wanted to know all about me - where I'm from, how long have I been here, where am I going, how many children do I have, and so on. All pretty routine, for Bali, to that point.

And then he asked if I'd like to come to his house and sit with him.

Excuse me?

You see folks, this just doesn't happen in America. Someone may ask you to get off his property, but not to come onto it. In fact, if you are just passing by a person, the greatest extent of conversation you might expect is a sort of begrudging grunt of acknowledgement. They're certainly not going to ask you to come up on the porch and sit awhile. Not in this century, anyway.

And so he introduced me to his youngest child, and to his wife and invited me to sit with him and visit on the porch.

We talked about my family and his family, his original home in Lovina, a relative who lives in America and hasn't been back for five years; about the Balinese people and the Hindu people and the Indonesians and Muslims, and about his job as a taxi driver and how he drives to Kuta every day because that's where the fares are. Just small talk, but intensely friendly small talk of the type we no longer know or engage in back home, unless maybe you're traveling in the deep, deep South.

And so I am encouraged anew, and renewed at heart. People are not so bad after all.

The Bear in the Yard

A long time ago, when my second wife and I used to run an adult foster care home, one of the old ladies imagined that a bear could often be seen in the yard. Or in any case, she herself often saw the bear.

That bear is in the yard again, she would say.

Well, my mom, who eventually moved in as well when her condition with Alzheimers worsened, believed in this bear just as firmly, although she had never actually seen it.  She simply took the other old woman's word for it - and from that time on, she would not let her poor little poodle dog go outside without an escort. 'Where's Teddy!' she would exclaim in panic. "Is Teddy in the yard with that bear?"

"No, Mom. Teddy is right here," I would reassure. "Teddy's right under your chair."

"Oh, thank God. I just don't know why you keep a bear in your yard, Preston."

She called me Preston, you see. Preston was the name of her brother.

For a long time I tried to convince her of her mistake, but I finally gave up and simply became Preston for the sake of convenience.

What's in a name, anyway?

Principalities and Powers

There is a proclivity among people, and a distinctly modern one, I think, to see others, especially those possessing money or power, as sinister, devoid of natural affections or a common moral sense. These are the puppet masters, who scheme and manipulate from high places, with a motive to betray and control through any and every means. To me, this picture is fatally flawed on a number of levels. It demands an intricate cooperation in the face of the chaos represented by the stubbornness, the contrariness of the individual. It requires us to believe that mere power and riches have the ability to unite, to suck the very essence of a man's soul from his person, such that he may become, in order to be truly sinister, devoid of the most basic components of civilized existence - love, compassion, community, conscientiousness - a mutual agreement that we must survive not alone but together. We may disagree politically, but that doesn't make our opponent a monster. It merely makes him a Republican ( ;) ). We may define the fine points of morality in different ways, but we do so from the inescapable basis that there is such a thing as morality to begin with, and that its key components remain eternally intact. There is no living person, man or woman, rich or poor, strong or weak, who doesn't know what love is. The power of evil, with which we are at war, resides not in man-made plans and institutions, but in high places, in cosmic principalities and powers that are far beyond the ken of mere men.

Gay Marriage

The Supreme Court decision to universally legalize gay marriage was really more complex than many people allow. With some states legalizing gay marriage and others not, all sorts of legal and social difficulties were lining up for the future, in court rooms and in conflicts between state law and federal law. In order that the country may proceed as a union united under common laws, either one case or the other had ultimately to attain. The Federal government has been the supreme and the final authority ever since the Civil War. The rule would have to be collective, not fragmented - pertinent in one place but not in another. The decision, therefore, really had to pose one law for all. The most logical, least troublesome decision was legalization throughout the states.  It was neither a moral nor an immoral decision. It was merely a realistic decision. Everybody prefers his own spin on the thing, but the preference of the court was for practicality, pure and simple. So it's not the beginning of an age of universal tolerance and love. That will never happen in this world. Nor is it the end of the world, as some loudly proclaim. It just is what it is.