Except on the playground.

One of the features about attending the same neighborhood school from Kindergarten thru the Eighth grade is that there were a few kids who will travel that whole journey with you.  One would hope that you might at least come to enjoy one another, since you’re nearly family by the time it’s over!  That would be the ideal.  The problem for me was that I was a rather plump youngster, insecure, and prone to emotion.  This is not to say I didn’t like to get dirty and play sports, I just wasn’t really all that good at it.  I really wanted to be, and I worked hard at it, but always the proverbial Chosen Last.  Except in my case, it wasn’t a proverb, it was reality.

I can’t remember if Rick, Doug, and Ken were there for the whole nine years, but it sure seems like it.  I can still see their faces.  Strangely, I rather idolized them, I think, because they had a swagger about them that I just couldn’t grasp.  Even in Second Grade, I was keenly aware that the little girls found them much more interesting than Chubby Insecurity and how they just had a knack with a football.  And, they were pals, the three of them.  They organized the pick-up games at recess, chose the teams, called the plays, played quarterback, and generally ensured that the three of them emerged victorious as we headed back inside for math lessons.  That was on a good day.

On the darker days, there was this creeping spirit in the room.  Ken would get moody, which inevitably led the other two into a mocking, mischievous frame of mind.  I could always sense it coming, but could never decide what to do about it.  Their Original Sin was manifesting and I was a  regular recipient!  If you’ve ever been bullied, you know what this is about.  It’s an atmosphere you always remember — especially if you encounter it again.

Well, I’m there.  My guts have been telling me to pay better attention these past several years, but I just couldn’t place where it was coming from.  Then it finally dawned on me.  My childhood chums are working in Government!  Probably not them, personally, but people struggling with the same demons.

The similarities are uncanny.  Most days you were pond scum that was rightfully dominated and intimidated and without recourse.  (Telling the teacher only brought it harder the next day.  And don’t even imagine the pain that you would suffer if you actually decided to fight back!)  Then some days, you were tolerated – like when you were given ‘permission’ to sit at the end of their lunch table.  As long as you were compliant and didn’t complain, you might even imagine that were changing their mind about you.  And then came the character-building days when you were actually treated as though they actually liked you.  These were hard days, especially in my younger years, because my eagerness for their approval repeatedly trumped my ever louder internal warning system.  These were the days of greatest anguish, because my hopes would dashed each time in an angry outburst or a mocking ridicule that left me feeling stupid and humiliated.  Sooner or later, you came to realize that they only wanted something and you were the chosen lackey to provide it.  Sadly, over time, this grew even more painful, as my mistrust became deeply imbedded.  As we grew up, I would no longer respond to the invite, dismissing it to avoid repeating the same sad scenario.  Curiously, this only ignited them.  It was as though their charm and wit should always beckon me back to play along, only to get stomped once again.  They never seemed to grasp that it was their deceit and intimidation that had fostered my indifference in the first place — and I was made to pay for not playing along.

It’s the way of Bullies, for they set the groundrules for the playground.  They demand unearned respect.  They wield undeserved authority.  They punish unscrupulously because they sense no accountability. They decide who is in compliance and who is not.  They violate every common relational principle.  And then they castigate those who will no longer play along because they have rightfully concluded that the Bullies have no interest in anything but their own desires and agenda.

Indeed our playground chums have moved to Washington, and they are still playing by their own bullying groundrules.

‘Till next time…

Being a resident of the Right Side of the political spectrum, and better considered a traditionalist than a libertarian, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. And not just about the tension of being a conservative who thinks some things need to change.  While there’s no doubt that I have some deep reservations — nay,  huge concerns — about the direction the U.S. is going, the question that continues to nag me what are the core reasons to be a Conservative – what are we hoping to conserve, preserve, or restore?  What is it that we really want?  And most importantly, why?

The obvious answer is that liberty is at stake.  History and political science demonstrate a direct and converse relationship between the reach of government and the civil liberty of the individual citizen.  They are inherently in tension and the increase of one will naturally diminish the other. (Progressive readers, you are certainly encouraged to take your best shot at refuting this assertion, but please examine history and consider human nature in your comments).  Academic so far, but that’s not the part that concerns me.

A pure concern over liberty becomes a bit murky when you consider what America has become in the last several decades.  The core priorities of liberty and conscience have, in many ways, deteriorated into quests for personal power and pleasure.  Such pursuits are intoxicating, rooted in human nature, and therefore quite naturally selfish.  The differences is subtle but significant.  It’s the difference between liberty and license.  It’s the difference between free enterprise and crippling greed.  And the difference between freedom to choose and pornography or addiction.  Between freedom of expression and spewing denunciations.

No, restoring America must be absolutely about liberty alone.  It can’t be about making sure we get back to the days of yearning for a 52 inch flat screen and an SUV.  That’s not worth fighting for.  Or  dying for.  This human factor makes all ends rather dicey, even one as incredibly important as liberty.  Self-examination requires steel nerves.  The promises of a free society have a limited shelf life if self-centeredness wins out, ultimately perverting the beauty and nobility of the roots in liberty.  For the true patriot, preservation of individual liberty in the face of a government seemingly bent on destroying it loses it’s moral imperative if it’s all about the stuff.  Or power.  Or self-delusion.  If these are the ends, we might just as well roll over and get on with the grieving.  The other just isn’t worth fighting for.

Till next time…

With this as a backdrop, I was glad for a recorded interview I heard last winter with a guy from Eastern Washington state; one R. Maurice Smith. I love folks who grasp heavy stuff, but have been gifted at laying it out in a way that makes it relevant and challenging for the rest of us; thus reigniting the imagination. As Mr. Smith unpacked ‘paradigm shift’, I found some meat, again. His straightforward explanation bears some examination.

It went something like this: The human spirit is inclined to a state of ‘normal’. This is defined first individually in a person’s private life and through their family and close friends. It’s further defined collectively in that person’s local community and their culture at large. A ‘shift’ begins when we are jarred out of this normal state by traumatic events or circumstances. While we may acknowledge the movement, it is always in a temporary context, as the human spirit keeps working back to the norm. As time passes, we become increasingly unsettled — even desperate — for this return and resettling. The ‘shift’ occurs when we finally give ourselves over to the reality that the old normal is no longer possible, and subsequently begin searching for a new definition of ‘normal’.

Since we’re all wired a bit different, and since we each interpret circumstances through our individual lenses, the duration of this process can vary widely. On the extremes, some embrace it so quickly they never seem to connect with day-to-day life while others refuse to ever go there and are still living 40 years ago!

I firmly believe that the basic paradigm I’ve enjoyed for much of my life is shifting dramatically and that we’re a long ways from finding the new ‘normal’. Deep inside I’m pretty concerned with what we’re seeing in American culture and politics these days, but I’ve come to accept that fact that whatever it was that we were guarding — regardless of whether it was real or somewhat illusion — is not coming back.

At this point, you might be thinking, “He said all that just to say… that?”  Here’s why I sense that this is so important: If, indeed, we are entering a new — and likely much more difficult — phase of American and world history, acceptance that there is a shift underway will become essential to leading. From my perspective, any effort expended on returning America to the 50’s, 80’s or even earlier this decade is wasted effort. I am no prophet, nor do I assume to understand what is coming, but I do believe that prayerful, thoughtful anticipation will help us to avoid panic and, perhaps, imprudence. And I further suggest that this kind of preparation will not only undergird us this season unfolds, it will help to instill confidence in the Lord, in what we believe, and what we have taught.

Till next time…

In our conversations these past 18 months, I have been repeatedly sobered.  Several of these sages have expressed deep reservations and concerns over the condition and direction of the world in general, and our country in particular.  Several times they have added the collective observation that these days are unlike any they have seen in their lives. That’s pretty heavy stuff, in light of the length and depth of their experience.  In my much shorter lifespan, I’ve come to expect older folks to reassure the younger by telling them that things in the past have been much worse.  They’re usually quite quick to tell you that they lived through harder stuff, or that everyone learned from it,  and that the country emerged better for it, or that ‘stuff like this’ happens from time to time — the point of which always centers on one basic, usually unspoken tenet: “We’re America, and we’ll get through this — we always do.”

So what does it mean when the oldest among aren’t saying, or believing, things like that anymore?  I have come to believe that the implications are profound, historic, and perhaps even epic.

For these first several posts, I’d like to put those underlying assumptions on the table for examination. On what basis do we assume such stability? History is littered with accounts of civilizations and societies that were living stable and seemingly secure one day and were devastated the next. Empires come and go, and seldom do those living in their twilight ever perceive the impending doom.  A great deal of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is devoted to the quite accurate words of prophets warning people of their impending peril; words that went unheeded and scorned and resulted in devastating days of terror and heartache.  My concern is that there is no basis for such blind self-assurance. No one is immune. Babylon eventually fell. Jerusalem was destroyed.  The Greeks imploded.  The Romans disintegrated.  And history marches on.  But somehow we keep telling ourselves that we’re different. If the Bible is to be believed, there is only one nation that has a guaranteed destiny, and, of course, that country is not America.

By now, you may already be constructing objections, which is certainly part of the dialogue. But I’d also ask that you stay tuned.  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I’ll be posting more in the coming days and weeks. If you choose to dialogue, I’d invite your thoughts and ideas, but also request that you be consider America — and even American Christian’s — blind sense of entitlement and pride.  As you respond, please be willing to ask where our presuppositions come from, whether they square up with the geo-political situation of our day, how history might address them, how they look in light of America’s current economic position, and how these ideas mesh with what we read in the Bible. From here, I pray we can build a useful dialogue.

Till next time…