Category: General (Page 2 of 5)

Yet, questions along the way continue. Perhaps my finite mind has yet to elevate a few levels – or perhaps no human mind can ever comprehend all there is to know about God and the vastness of Creation and the Universe.

Take, for example, the issue of past injustices like human slavery, the Holocaust, conquests and pillaging, genocide and rape, and the establishment of nations where others were forcibly removes and dislocated.

How does one address past crimes against individuals, groups, nations? Should the descendants of those aggrieved rise up and forcibly seek reddress or compensation? Should vengeance be exacted in like manner as the original acts of injustice?

When there are laws in place today which would throw in jail those who follow such reprisals, there is a deterrent. But there is even a larger issue for those who believe in God and justice and who do not wish to blame the innocent for the acts of ancestors or others.

It is here that my belief in God, rather than dwindling, resurges and recharges. See, of there is no God, then villainous acts and atrocities throughout history that were never punished in the human life cycle would never see the light of justice.

Am I just an idealistic writer and human being? Nah – a world without God and without the prospect of a day of reckoning are absolutely beyond my comprehension.

My belief in God trumps such an unfathomable prospect any day.

It is always best to be oneself. rather than to try to please the world. Sure, some will drop off if they determine that you aren’t the type of friend they’d like. But there’ll be others who’ll ask to come into your life because they see in you something that is of value and bona fide.

As we go through life, we all mature, we sometimes correct errors of the past, or see life a bit differently than we did the day before. It is then appropriate to re-focus, to adapt…even to change so that we “better” ourselves along the way. No one is perfect and we all live and hopefully learn.

Until those events occur, though, where one sees the need to change one’s tempo, or to modify, to add or to subtract, it serves one better to be oneself at all times – with sensitivity to others and consideration that we must live and let live.

Everyone is unique. Being a facsimile of another not only creates a
false persona, it can one day boomerang and take down others along with you – leaving the real you to pick up the pieces.

People fake it in bed, fake it out of bed, at the office, on the street, on TV, and in person. You go online and encounter another minefield of sham sound bites, overtures, relationships, friendships, and even profiles

Now everyone is calling each other a fraud. It’s like we’re all wandering around not knowing who is who, what is what, who is male, who is female, which purchase is as the ad says, which is not, whose credentials are genuine, whose were purchased in Times Square.

Yet we set aside another day in October each year to pretend to be somebody else!

Alas! That we could set aside one to be who we really are…”Reflections Along The Way”

Perhaps in ancient times, God did indeed use special individuals to guide and protect his peoples – but I daresay that today royalty is an anachronism that is an insult to the concept that all men and women are created equal. I am indeed proud to live in a country that does not include such privileges in its Constitution.

God bless the USA.

Let others rush in a frenzy for top of the list. If I bring up the rear, but made a difference for the better along the way for one, two, three persons, or a million people, my journey will have been a successful one.

After the countries in the region gained their independence, there was a flood of citizens to the colonial “mother countries'” leading many analysts to concur that this was further proof of the necessity for others to be Europe-dependent due to deficiencies in their own capabilities.

If you forcibly, or through economic stranglehold, move millions across oceans, then set them free generations later, or renege on promises made in recruiting their services and then leave them hanging, how can a better outcome occur than what has happened? The path to development did not occur via balanced and proportionate means…the end result is chaos. Economies struggle as, in order to survive, people fight for crumbs left behind by departing colonizers.

A bigger pie must be created…and a new psychology must emerge which recognizes that no one is innately inferior, that some are victims of historical injustice, that the ugly past is over, and that all of us – originating from the Old and the New Civilizations – must come together to make the entire world a better place and a more level playing field.

There is no racial inferiority or superiority. There has been a history of injustice. Now we must move on to bringing everyone up to speed, while ridding ourselves of the baggage of centuries gone by.

Not only does it often come across as disingenuous, but the record shows that good and evil, lofty and not so lofty, admirable and distasteful behavior and habits exist across the whole spectrum of humanity.

It’s great to point out the positive when too many view only from a negative perspective. But coming to terms with the reality that all human beings are flawed, that regardless of pigmentation, religion, class, caste, etc., one can end up a hero, a villain, or just plain average – such a recognition might perhaps go a longer way in clearing up the distortions and inaccuracies all around and might help us to co-exist more harmoniously.

What good old days were there during colonialism in Africa, Asia, and the Americas? Good for kings and queens and landed gentry? How about for the colonized? And slaves, commoners, laborers, farm workers?

Good old days for women? A gender that often could not vote or hold equal footing in public, social, or private life – save those with some alleged royal blood or position of nobility?

Yeah, there’s always been conflict, always been the haves and the have nots, periods of stability and instability. Any concept of the good old days, though, must address the issue of for whom were those idyllic and blessed days set aside.

One might well find out that the best days to be had are the ones we face today.

We must all be wary that we do not succumb to wolves in disguise pushing ideologies that are the opposite of what our individual and collective conscience tells us is beneficial to the human race.

Otherwise instead of religion freeing us from despair and uncertainty, it’ll end up sending us all hurling into a bottomless pit of gloom and doom.

Yes, I am indignant at the acts of terrorists using religion to justify their horror. But I cannot rush out and condemn all adherents of that religion – or even the religion itself.

What I can conclude is that anyone can hold a sacred document in their hands, jump on a rooftop, and cry out to God by any name. God, by any name, is not dishonored by hypocrites, murderers, or deviants using His Holy name. Only the perpetrators are dishonored.

The lesson to be learned from all the chaos in history committed in the name of God is that extremism can occur in any religion, and evil can wear many masks.

The reality of a God of justice, love, compassion, caring, and equity, by definition contradicts all the pseudo images perpetrated by sinister, tormented fanatics – no matter how much they utter his word on their stained and vile lips.