Unity Center

How many times have you said to yourself, "It’s always something." Just when I’ve almost got all my ducks in a row, another flies in for a landing (and poops on my head).

I’ve had this strange concept that I will "handle" all the things on my plate, and then be able to relax. I’ll do this batch of stuff and then I’ll be "done." But every time I get close to that imaginary magic finish line, something else pops up, demanding I do something about that.

In the garden, there is always the next chore or another weed to pull, and the grass just keeps growing and needing to be mowed. It never ends…. That is, unless there’s a drought, or a crop failure, or some other catastrophe. So we can be grateful that it never ends, because that means it’s growing.

And then I think of my mother, sitting in a nursing home, doing nothing and gradually losing all her abilities to do anything. And I begin to be grateful for things to do and the ability to do them. As long as I have work to do on this earth, I have a purpose for living.

If we viewed our work as play, would we ever want it to be finished? If only I would re-define work so that I can consistently find the joy in it.

Oh, I know that’s the answer to that dilemma, but it’s difficult to remember to live it on a regular basis. It reminds me of the story of the farmer who sends his son off to agricultural college. The son comes back full of advice on how everything should be done on the farm. The farmer replies, "Son, I don’t farm half as good as I know how."

Unfortunately, knowledge will only transform your life when it is actually applied! (It is said that 21 days of consistent repetition of an action turns it into a habit.)

Some areas of life seem inscrutable… so impossible to reconcile with the concept of a loving God or an orderly universe. Why should there be so much suffering? Rabbi Kushner’s title for his best-selling book speaks to the puzzle: When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

Lately this idea has been hitting close to home. Why is a sister out riding a bicycle, minding her own business, hit by a car to suffer a brain injury? Why is a mother hit by truck, dying only days before her daughter’s wedding? Why does a young athlete lose control of a bicycle, to need years of difficult physical therapy and family care? Why does a good friend, who never did anything nasty to anyone, get cancer? Why are innocent Chinese children killed in an earthquake?

We tend to view life as a game that rewards or punishes. If you are "good" and play by the Rules, then you will be rewarded by getting nice Stuff, a healthy body, the best job, and all the other "desired outcomes" we dream of.

And if you’re bad, you will suffer, instantly drawing the "Go to Jail. Do not Collect $200" card in Monopoly. And the guilty will receive appropriate punishment from The Avengers or The Equalizer or some form of Instant Karma (Just add water, stir, and watch God wreak vengeance?)

But perhaps you’ve noticed that life isn’t really like a board game or a TV drama. Stuff happens, serious Stuff that we’d rather not deal with. Jesus said, "In this world, you will have tribulation," and I’m beginning to think that tribulation is a sign that you’re truly, fully alive… and growing.

In the garden, if you want lots of growth, you apply manure. It’s the crap we go through that makes us grow.

We just don’t know what’s around the next corner for us. We also don’t know what purpose it will serve in our lives… for personal growth, for an opportunity to be of service, for enriching the fertile soil that will nourish our future. It’s a mystery, because we don’t have the big picture.

There are those who believe this is just one plane of existence…. like a Kindergarten for the Soul, an early stage of our Soul’s development. So in the big picture, perhaps nothing is all that significant.

As I grow older, I find that less and less stuff seems as important as it once did. Oh, let’s enjoy it while it’s here, but eventually, if you live long enough, it all passes away into irrelevance. Nursing homes have small closets. No more striving… no fame or glory… no more search for the perfect mate… no struggle for status… no more worry about my looks. "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." And it all fades away.

So I’ve got to wonder why I drive myself crazy over any of it now… why I’d ever let this striving ruin the perfect moments I am given.

It’s always something… and that something is life, and it’s happening to us in all its exuberant chaos, outrageous abundance, and unfathomable perfection. Every moment is too precious to waste on resisting our existence. Surrounded by beauty, drowning in blessings, and nurtured by the light of God, we are. Even when we don’t understand it, Grace happens.

Drought.

On June 27, the U.S. Drought Monitor classified the Asheville area as D5-”Exceptional” drought. By Sept. 2, the North Fork Reservoir was down 11.3 feet. On Aug. 5 the City of Hendersonville implemented mandatory water restrictions on all water customers, declaring a Phase II water shortage condition; violators may be subject to disconnection of water or a fine up to $500. Buncombe and Henderson counties are now classified as D3-”Severe” (www.ncdrought.org).

We can pray for rain… but we also need to conserve our water. We need to take action to preserve what is valuable and essential.

The water of life is a precious resource that we often take for granted. It may be difficult, but we can live without oil. We can’t live without water.

Drought is a powerful symbol for the lack of something that is essential. Back in the 1930s, there were two kinds of droughts: the lack of water that created the famous Dust Bowl, and the lack of funds in the collapse of the economy known as The Great Depression. Is there anything familiar in this situation?

The Dust Bowl was created when the effects of extended drought combined with human misuse of the environment: decades of extensive farming without crop rotation or other erosion prevention techniques. Crop failures led to the collapse of farm exports and loan defaults in rural banks, which was the start of the Great Depression, the largest and most important economic depression in world history. It is used as a benchmark on how far a modern economy could possibly fall. Its causes are still debated, and they include excessive debt and reliance on credit, decreased spending when demand for products fell, fraud by bankers and industrialists, and government incompetence. Widespread failure of banks and the stock market crash created a panic and a downward spiral.

Blaming the excesses of big business for causing an unstable bubble-like economy, Democrats believed the problem was that business had too much power.

In 1933 the U.S. elected a President who had ideas to change the way things had been done. Accepting the nomination, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Throughout the nation, men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for a more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth… I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people… This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.” He got 57% of the vote, and carried all but 6 states.

During Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office in 1933, governmental programs designed to restore the ecological balance of the nation were implemented, leading to a national soil conservation agency. FDR’s New Deal empowered labor unions & farmers and raised taxes on corporate profits. Regulatory programs included the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), the Federal Reserve, and broadening the Federal Trade Commission. Social Security was introduced to be a safety net for all Americans.

FDR also established the Civilian Conservation Corps which put unemployed men (ages 18-25) to work on building parks, planting trees, building roads & bridges and fighting fires. Each camp had about 200 men who lived in barracks. The boys signed up for a 6 month period and could only work for 2 years. My father was one of the 3,463,766 men of the CCC.

75 years later, the CCC legacy is impressive. In 9 years’ time, they planted 3 billion trees, developed 800 State Parks and 52,000 acres of public campground, restored 3,980 historic structures, and built fish hatcheries to stock 972 million fish. Working in every state of the union, the CCC strung 89,000 miles of telephone wires, built 13,100 miles of foot trails, and built 125,000 miles of roads, including the Blue Ridge Parkway. They established modern methods of conservation, taught soil conservation, did soil erosion projects on 40 million acres, developed forest fire fighting methods, and began the modern service corps movement.

In the CCC, men who had been hungry gained an average of 11.5 pounds in the first 3 months, and 40,000 of them learned to read. The standard of living in surrounding communities rose, as 12-15 million people benefited from the money sent home.

How much did all this cost? 3 billion dollars. How much was the value of their work? 2 billion dollars (1942 dollars). Investing in people paid off for a nation in dire straits.

In his 1941 State of the Union speech, FDR stated his famous Four Freedoms: “In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.”

The FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C., is an inspiring testament to a man of vision with truly spiritual values.

I listened to a lesbian comic on TV a few days ago. Touching on politics, she said that it was time we came “out of closet” to declare our progressive values. “Liberal” been the real “L” word for too long.

I am tired of people whose family values include hatred and discrimination. I am tired of people who peddle fear to justify corporate greed. I am tired of attacks on the Constitutional rights that our ancestors fought to create and protect. I am tired of religions that teach judgment and division instead of acceptance and unity.

I am tired of a nation that excuses the excesses of the rich because we idolize material success. In a world where children die of starvation, owning seven houses should be cause for shame, not our envy.

I am tired of this drought. Aren’t you?

Please vote.

Back to the Index of Articles                            To the Home Page

Talk to us or be notified by e-mail when new articles are posted to this site!