In the short yet endangered history of western civilization as we know it, religion and politics became the strangest of bedfellows as empires and kingdoms feuded over whichever god would best serve their cause. Rome was the first to misuse this power. Luther upset the applecart in the Reformation. Henry VIII did it in jolly old England for a divorce. Hitler did it as part of his holocaust endeavor. Even the good ol’ USofA [founded on the notion that there will be “NO established religion”] employed King James’ version of holy writ to justify slavery and still misuses the remnants […]
Waiting for the Hallelujah Chorus
George Frideric Handel was a musical stranger until I started singing in our college choir. Maybe we had met earlier, but his name just didn’t ring a bell like it would when we joined with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra each December to sing the “Messiah”. My infatuation with Handel’s major oratorio finds me still humming from this work every Christmas season. “For unto us a child is born…and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God…the Prince of Peace.” If you are familiar with the entire work, you will know […]
Worshipping the Ground on Which We Walk
When we worship the ground we walk on, the route is not that infamous road paved with good intentions nor the primrose path. Not even memory lane nor the yellow brick road to Oz. Rather, the basic surmise here is that of ordinary terra firma. However, there’s something magical about this common ground when one develops a reverence for it and those special people in our lives who tread thereupon. It’s one of those terms of endearment we use almost too casually. “He just worships the ground she walks on” assumes an infatuation with the beautiful and adorned one. The […]
The Insight of Hindsight
“Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday” proclaimed the cross-stitch sign in the dentist’s office. That’ll make your brain itch. While you’re scratching your head about it, here’s another way to consider time: “Today will be the yesterday you’ll try to forget about tomorrow.” We are forever living existentially between our hindsight and our foresight. If we could measure our hindsight, we would probably all have 20/20 vision. And we use such sight to discover who we are. I am the accumulation of years of experiences. My character is formulated by the building blocks of days and years […]