500 Words a Day (3)

I was busy writing yesterday. Even wrote a real blog post, but only because I was inspired to do so. I'm still sticking to my 500 a day.

Yesterday after I wrote the one about sacrifice I was taught a bit about 3 kinds of sacrifice considered in theology circles. Atonement (seeking forgiveness through action), Scapegoating (blaming 1 entity for all the problems in society thereby relieving the society of any real responsibility to remedy the problems) and Swtiching (taking on the suffering of another as a kind of martyr)

I don't know if I got it right, but that's what I remember of that discussion. I'm not a doctoral student in Religious Studies, after all. I'm just a regular Christian struggling with how to be a good one. That's all.

Speaking of being a good Christian, the blog I wrote yesterday was in response to to 2 posts I saw on Facebook. One with 10 reasons not to become a missionary and the other was a short video expressing outrage over the mission work in Uganda promoting intolerance and even hate. My father used to say I was jaded. I guess I am. Not much surprises me anymore.

Well, I take that back. I am surprised when someone I thought was different completely fooled me. I always thought I was a good judge of character. One thing about trying to be less judgmental, though, is that judging someone's character is one of the "judge-y" things we have to lose. And that opens us up to surprises, both good and bad, so in the end, it's worth it.

I'm surprised at what's happening in my country, but I guess the good thing is that it yanks the stool of perceived moral high ground out from underneath me. I used to think America had it going on, if we were on the wrong path, I believed we'd be straightened out. I believed in our processes. Or at least our people. I guess we're like any other developing country now. Or maybe...let me think...what's that saying? Having money doesn't mean you have class. Yes. Like that. Sickening.

I think Oscar Wilde said that America is the only country that transitioned from barbarism to decadence with no civilizing in the middle. How astute!

I love my country. I always will. I don't love it for what it is or even what it was, but I love it for what it can be. The foundation is there, even though sledgehammers and dynamite have weakened it. Our multiracial society of immigrants and dreamers is there. The dream is there.

And so is the fight.

Michael Jackson said "I'm a lover not a fighter". I used to like a good fight, or argument rather, but nowadays, I guess it's because I'm old, I don't care about playing with people who lose their tempers with other people and scream. I've had enough of that. I'm happy to have serious discussions and dialogue with people who think differently from me, but not if it's acceptable to yell and scream and point fingers. (I watched a video clip of an interview on The Daily Show and the person kept pointing at the interviewer. It was very rude, unnecessary and showed a serious lack of self-control.) Life is too short for that nonsense.

Really, we never know how long or short life is going to be, but why take chances and waste our time?


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