Lizzy

Lizzy Chaney has a daddy problem.  She should not feel isolated by this fact because we all have a daddy problem in one form or another. After all, we all had a daddy.  In every case a sperm cell comingled with an egg cell to form the embryo of another unique human being, who never existed prior to this moment nor will ever exist again in this life.  We all got here in the same way.  Some of us spend a lifetime immolating our fathers and some of us spend a life time running as fast as we can away from our fathers.  Both reactions to our fathers are a problem because they are an oversimplification that hides our own best path in this life. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to recognize the error of our ways, hopefully there is a happy medium but all of us seem to function best and most frequently on the extremes.  

Lizzy has staked her life motive on defending her father, Dick Chaney, the former vice president who served with President George Bush in a Republican administration.  Following the tragic towers bombing in New York, 2001, the Bush administration went to war with the Islam extremists who preached the killing of all Americans, Americans who just happened to be mostly Christians. This Bush-Chaney administration, as opposed to the first Bush administration, was all about perpetuating the power of the new Republican bureaucrats, who were and are hawkish, desiring to feed the military industrial lobby in Washington. As a result, the Bush-Chaney administration not only defeated Saddam Hussain but then invaded the entire country and began the expensive perceived goal of building a democratic state in Iraq.

The pretext for this invasion, the nation building and the four trillion-dollar expense to the American taxpayer was the accusation that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Our so-called intelligence leadership in Washington confirmed the accusation, promoted the lie and we the people were sucked.  The well-meaning patriotic Americans who fought, died or lost their legs in this conflict, were suckered but the sanctity of their grave sacrifice will only be honored by the truth.  After the war, no one could find the weapons of mass destruction.

Twenty years later, Lizzy is warring with Donald Trump because of what she calls, “the big lie”.  She means the Trump lie that is the truth, the truth that the entire Iraq debacle was a gigantic mistake or a willful misjudgment that only happened because some political interests wanted to make a dime.  This dime bought heartache for millions of Americans.  

The Washington bureaucrats, the greedy lobbyists as well as the Bush Chaney administration, were all complicit and guilty of suckering and selling out the people.  The truth sometimes is hard to accept, but accepted or not, the truth is still the truth. 

Maybe when her father passes from this life, Lizzy will let go of the angst and accept the truth.  Until then, we can better understand our own journey by attempting to understand Lizzy.  The really sad and scary part of this sorted story is that all the guilty profiteers' of war remain entrenched in Washington, whether under Republican or Democrat control.      

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA

       

Great Gathering

Eternity is the circle of completion in all that is spiritual yet temporary on this earth.  In eternity all life relationships are spiritually connected, to include God, nature, nations, family and country, thus the ultimate melting pot.  Because this world has been corrupted or isolated, most, if not all relationships cannot be considered positive or fully realized until “the great gathering” of eternity. 

Jesus spoke words of condemnation and hope to the people of Jerusalem in the midst of chaos.  Chaos they, themselves had instigated and perpetuated as spirituality had long ago ceased to influence their lives. Of this, all humanity is guilty.  Jesus spoke these words not only to the people of Jerusalem but to every nation or religious identity, and to us.

Matthew 23: 37, 38, 39.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were not willing.  Look your house has left you desolate.  For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

The enemy of spirituality is not the supposed devil but simply our own human arrogance, our selfish myopic vision for the world around us.  That “me house” we all build will only leave you and I desolate, as it did for the people of Jerusalem.  After the invasion and captivity by the Romans, they were crying poor me or shouting violence toward their Roman enemy.  In both responses to misfortune, they were blaming God.  Why?  Because, in their own heart of hearts, there is no God if their life is not going well.  Rather, it is only worth believing when that belief has a desired result, if one is the target of misfortune, the blame for poor results must belong to God.       

Blessed means “to speak well of” in the Greek language.  It does not mean a level of ethical purity or acceptable religious group think.  The people of Jerusalem were not speaking well of God and his messengers.  In fact, in the 1000-year history of the Jewish nation, the disappointed and angry people would kill repeatedly those who spoke up for God in the midst of misfortune.  Maybe, this temporary life is a test, a test without a final exam.  Do we speak well of God and his eternity in the midst of all manner of disappointment?  For those who insist on blaming God, your opportunity to grow up will occur after death when it will not require faith “to bless he who comes in the name of the Lord”.  God will be in our faces.

There is only one way to avoid this embarrassment, we must give up the childish blame game, trust God regardless and be counted among the willing.  When we accept the gift of faith from God we shall reap a belonging that cannot be matched by anything in this world.  The great gathering awaits us all but it can start now, the wings of God are outstretched into this world.  

Let’s move into the shade.

G. Goslaw

Landers, CA