This is meant to be satiric...I thought I'd better say that up front today--yes, I guess it is today even though, once again, I got up in the middle of the night... You know, folks, I wouldn't say that I've spent a lot of time expanding my vocabulary, because, simply, I want to know what each word means when I use it... I call myself a literalist... Actually, I didn't even know that word was "real" before I checked... What I meant when I made myself a literalist was that I take words in a literal fashion...
As I mentioned earlier, I had decided to read the latest book from Lin Wilder--a writer I much admire. So, when in the front of the book, I read this:
Writing Plausible Liars has reintroduced me to the inescapable fact that delving deep into what we know is unnatural and indefensible forces a plunge into the problem of evil. What is it? Why does it exist? Then we must look at it and name it.
Evil - It even sounds "bad." And, placing a D in front of the word, well, that zoomed me back to Sunday School, maybe around 7 or 8--old enough to think about things, but too young to really know for sure...
There was a song that we children would sing--"Let the Sunshine In..." I got to thinking about the words to that song... I decided then and have never changed my decision, that questioned: Why in the world if the D was so bad, would you sing about him? I decided then and there that I would never even want to even say the word! And I don't!
Something happened yesterday. I think I'll write about it separately... But I found myself asking "Again?" Why? Is the world really going downhill so much--from an educational/training basis that our culture is, indeed, being dumbed down? Of course, I didn't say those words, even in my mind, but I had to "find" the right words to share my story. OK? Anyway, given that my disability came about from Job Burnout, I was finding it more and more difficult, even fearful, that I could be pushed into rage so easily--and often--when something "inefficient" happened... And it seemed to be happening more often...
And, then, just as the children's song had come to me, so, too, a voice from the past came with "You can tell if you're working for God, if the D has taken notice..."
Ok, you can laugh at that, 'cause I at least smiled... Was that D watching all that I'm trying to do in my reading certain books and sharing them? And then, folks, I grinned broadly and the tension eased from earlier... And my mind pulled up the time I became a whistleblower for the good of the university, even though it could have led to what happened later... In any event, for the first time in my life, I was able to recognize that I needed to go back and start reading Lin's book again and pay attention... I didn't want to have my mind cluttered or confused... for it's an important book, I believe, about our children...
But beyond that decision, I also started looking perhaps differently about what is happening in America and "how" and "why" it is being done. In my opinion, honestly, I don't think we can use Mr. D as the reason. I believe that each of us chooses to be who we are... Or, if we didn't choose, we were influenced by early events in interactions with others. I knew this to be true for me; and what I've read so far in Plausible Liars, I could see where this was also playing a part in Lin's book... Although I would admit I do accept that there are supernatural elements in this world, even if I don't want to name one of them...
I've included two political videos that, in my opinion, supports my opinions. In Mary Trump's first book, she provided background information on the Trump family and, specifically, Trump's father. It appears that early on the family began to "use" government funds in any way possible to gain income... Could this have been a lead-in to where he is now? Certainly, money appears to have been the god of their lives...
Then the other for Fox News which has a longer reputation, but is illustrative of those agencies who chose to support conservative "issues" because of, shall we use the word fanaticism, at least for some people, in their learned beliefs and those people wanted to watch programs that supported what they believed... Maybe not simple to imagine, but we must know that money and power, as well as prejudice are often chosen in making daily decisions--bad or good.
I remember when I was young, I had a friend who lived nearby and later married who I learned was in the KKK. I remembered my friend as being gentle and kind...Had her husband changed her by his racist actions? But that was a time when nobody really talked about it and, therefore, it was gossip and we had no idea whether the people were actually acting on that prejudice. Still, the memory lingers as I began to meet when I traveled by bus to another town for school in 7th grade and made my first Black friend and a Catholic girl. Those were the days of Archie Bunker and Movin' on Up shouted out that we were a nation where Black people were our neighbors... Marian, Carolyn and I remained close friend through graduation from high school...
Now I look back and can realize that even though there was talk or reference to discrimination; i.e., "don't date a Catholic boy..." I didn't pay attention to the innuendos... I would live my life in this same way, meeting each person on a level field and treating them with respect and courtesy, even when personally I felt an aversion... And when did that happen? Well, mostly when rudeness, disrespect and downright nastiness took place...
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