PatrickMead

Monday, September 18, 2006

The Certain Among the Strange

There are times I think the entire world has disappeared down the rabbit hole into Alice in Wonderland territory.

The Pope reads a medieval poet's view that Islam breeds violence and evil. Muslims disagree with this so much they shoot a 60 year old nun who is helping the poor in a hospital (they cheer as she dies), they fire bomb several churches in Palestine (only two of which happen to be Catholic), jeer at worshippers at Catholic churches in London and Paris, holding up signs declaring the upcoming death of all Christians and Jews, and engage in violent marches and attacks worldwide. THAT'LL show the world the Pope was wrong to call Islam a violent faith!

Over one trillion dollars have been spent on the war on poverty. We have more poor people now. The solution, say the architects and supporters of the Great Society? Spend more money.

Huge sums of money are spent on public education. Our kids are failing and SAT scores are in free fall. The solution, says the educational monopoly, is spend more. Even when Bush doubles the amount of money given to education he is ridiculed for his parsimony.

Gore flunked out of divinity school. Bush's SAT scores were higher than Gore's and almost every one of the Democratic leadership. He has better degrees than many of them (but no law degree, so it doesn't count...) and has beaten them in two straight elections. But Bush is an idiot and his opponents are intellectual giants. Right.

Churches are dying as they guard their sacred bubble, their holy hour on Sunday. They see attendance falling and their children fleeing to other churches and their solution? Clamp down on any change! Stay the course!

Sigh.

I remember when my sweet wife and I were first married. She is now a well known interior designer and, frankly, I should have seen it coming. We were poor and rented an upper story one bedroom flat in an old, drafty house. The rooms were huge but we had only a few pieces of furniture. Kami would rearrange it all relentlessly. Everytime the phone rang at night, my shins were in for a bruising. This was back in the days before cordless phones so each phone (we had only one) was tethered by a short cord to a wall socket. Light switches were hard to locate at night so I would fall over and bang into all of our furniture as I tried to reach the phone.

How to stop this? I wondered. I didn't want to tell her to stop moving our stuff around because, well, I never have liked telling her what to do or seeming like I was correcting her. I needed something creative, something subtle. I came up with a solution at last...

I went into the bathroom and left the door open. I knew she would be walking down the hallway to the bedroom from the kitchen momentarily so I situated myself on my knees, hands folded in front of me as if I were in fervent prayer while facing the toilet. Eyes closed, I listened as she approached. She stopped just outside and said, "Patrick? What are you doing?"

I replied, "I'm just thanking the good Lord this thing's nailed down!"

In a down-the-rabbit-hole world, I am thrilled that there are some things nailed down. God loves us. There is a place prepared for us. We are saved by grace. He has promised to get us safely home.

"Jesus loves me, this I know..." That's nailed down. Yes!

15 Comments:

  • At 9/19/2006 05:47:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Excellent thoughts (as usual) Patrick.

    I will miss hearing you/seeing you this weekend at the Round Lake Retreat. My family and I will actually be up in the Detroit area while you're down here in north central Ohio.

    We'll probably pass you on the road! Look for us -- we'll be in a minivan.

     
  • At 9/19/2006 07:51:00 AM , Blogger David U said...

    As I said a few weeks ago in response to the craziness going on......."this house sho gone crazy!"

    Lord, come quickly!

    DU

     
  • At 9/19/2006 08:15:00 AM , Blogger Mike the Eyeguy said...

    Patrick, that's a new twist on the old phrase, "praying to the porcelain gods."

    Thanks for the laugh and the encouragment.

     
  • At 9/19/2006 08:26:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Just curious: what makes a degree better than another degree? ("He has better degrees than many of them...")
    I'd also add that I have a hard time believing it was Bush's "brains" that helped him "beat" "them" in two straight elections. His opponents may not be intellectual giants, but I'm confident that none of them have fed more "one-liners" to the media (i.e. "More and more of our imports come from overseas", "Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country", "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure" etc. etc.).

     
  • At 9/19/2006 09:44:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    am --

    Here's a few quotes for you:

    "There were a lot of times when we were alone, but I never really thought we were." -- Bill Clinton

    "Yeeeeeaaaaaargh!" -- Howard Dean

    "I took the initiative in creating the Internet." -- Al Gore

    "I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it." --John Kerry

    "There was never any doubt in our minds that men and women were equal, if not more so." -- Al Gore

    "A zebra does not change its spots." -- Al Gore

    "I mean, I think, Iraqis, I think, feel that if we drove smaller cars, maybe we wouldn’t have to kill them for their oil.” --Bill Maher

    I could go on, but that's probably sufficient.

     
  • At 9/19/2006 10:35:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    One of your best posts. I love the anecdote at the end. And that
    first paragraph should be on the front page of every newspaper and the the lead-in on every evening newscast!! I have shared it with my entire address book. Nancy in WV

     
  • At 9/19/2006 12:02:00 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Patrick, this one is over the top. Excellent thoughts!

     
  • At 9/19/2006 12:12:00 PM , Blogger One Observationist said...

    One of the things I always find humorous is how devoted most Christians are to the Bush regime. I mean Bush is so much more Christ like than the rest of the politicians in Washington I can understand why Christians act like Bush is morally superior. He’s such a great example of someone that practices Christianity.

    Jeremy

     
  • At 9/20/2006 06:18:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Great blog this time around, Patrick.

    Here's a column on Wyoming dramatically increasing their spending on education:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060919/ap_on_re_us/wyoming_natural_gas_money

    This will be a great chance to see the effect this will have on their test scores, college acceptance levels, etc.

     
  • At 9/20/2006 06:20:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Well, the link didn't come across. It's on Yahoo today, and the title is "Wyoming Schools Flush with Money from Natural Gas". I guess that ties in with the toilet theme from today's blog.

     
  • At 9/20/2006 06:25:00 AM , Blogger Kenny Simpson said...

    Very good thoughts. Sad that many view the Muslim religion as "a peaceful" one.

     
  • At 9/22/2006 07:35:00 AM , Blogger One Observationist said...

    Stoogle - You're telling me that sending 3000 soldiers to their deaths and killing over 30,000 Iraqi civilians is on par with lying about having sex with someone? I just don't get it.

    Jeremy

     
  • At 9/26/2006 06:22:00 AM , Blogger PatrickMead said...

    Observationist -- my son is one of those who fights for you to have the right to speak your mind so I won't delete your post. You are making too many assumptions in your comment: many of us believe the war is necessary and that it is the right thing to do to give our grandchildren the right to live free of Islamofascism. Believe what you will, but my son and I will remain Semper Fidelis, always faithful.

     
  • At 9/26/2006 08:59:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Regarding my first comment here, I noticed that the "rebuttal" had 5 different democrats quoted. I was just going for GW quotes, but there is not time or space here for all of his "Brilliance".

    Regarding your last posted comment, Patrick: Always faithful to what? To Jesus (highly recommended and a wonderful thing, by the way)? To GWB? To the republican party? To the war in Iraq and/or on "terror"? To the Marine Corps? To despising Clinton and/or democrats?

     
  • At 9/27/2006 09:33:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Patrick – If I offended you I apologize. I have respect for all of the people that serve our country whether they are military personnel or people that wake up every morning and go to work in order to feed their families.

    I too remain faithful. I do my best to remain faithful to my God and his teachings, and to the freedom of my fellow countrymen. I respect anyone willing to stand up for the weak (as Christ did) whether they are Democrats or Republicans or military or civilian.

    Your comments are also laced with assumptions. My comments stem from the numerous political posts on this article and other places here that insinuate that liberals and Democrats have a monopoly on adultery, lying, and sin. Would you mind telling me how killing weak Iraqi civilians in the name of protecting our children and grandchildren is in any way, shape or form Christ-like?

    I no longer wish to offend you so I will make this next thought very brief. I disagree with you that your son is fighting for my freedom to dissent. If you wish to further discuss my reasoning then the ball is in your court.

     

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