0
0
The first presidential election in which I voted, I cast my ballot for Ronald Reagan. I understand if some of you cringe. I also understand if some of you miss the conservative girl I used to be.
I voted for Ronald Reagan was because I was tired of other countries laughing at us. I was tired of feeling humiliated at the hands of terrorists. I was tired of feeling powerless in the face of bullies. President Reagan promised to end our malaise. He made us believe we could be a great nation once more.
He wanted to take us back to a simpler day, when life was easier and the world was kinder. He gave us hope that we could reclaim our glorious past and stand tall against our enemies. He reminded us of a time when we could leave our homes unlocked, when family took care of family, when everyone celebrated Christmas, when mothers made apple pie for their children, and when we all slept well at night. He brought to mind a place much like Mayberry.
The problem with this picture is that there never was such a time or a place.
Mayberry is only a television show. It never really existed. Oh, how we wish it did. It’s like an untouchable illusion, we are certain must be true. We’ve become fanatics, looking for Eden, selling our future to reclaim a misrepresented past where all was good and right with the world.
The truth is thieves have always roamed the night. Some families are abusive. Homelessness is pervasive. Mental illness does not disappear when we hide it. Bullies fight back. Honorable and kind people sometimes have no faith. And most people aspire to more than baking apple pies.
We cannot go back to the Garden of Eden.
Life, and the living of it, is and always has been a complicated mess. As I get older, I find more ambiguity than absolutes in our world. I’ve seen pain that is never healed, only borne. I’ve learned to accept that most dilemmas are never fully resolved, only more-or-less resolved. Some folks might call this wisdom. I call it a clusterf*%$ in my brain.
I can see the appeal of a Garden of Eden. I can also see why it is a politically expedient story. People resonate with the nostalgic. And there’s no risk in going backward.
However, when I need to make sense of the cluster*&%, I turn to my faith for support and guidance. As a Christian, that means I’m back to the Gospels.
Jesus lived in a Jewish nation conquered by Romans, who were just itching for an excuse to wipe them off the map. Poverty was the rule. Misery lined the streets with lepers, cripples, and prostitutes. And what the Roman government didn’t excise from the population, the religious leaders did.
So, I find it interesting that, in the middle of a less-than-Rockwellian existence, Jesus never speaks of the Garden of Eden. Instead, Jesus speaks of a kingdom that is here and now, but at the same time imminent. He doesn’t recall a time when things were simple, but gives us the tools to deal with messy world we live in now. He challenges us to create what the Garden could not.
You see, even the Garden of Eden was not perfect. There was a tree in its midst and a difficult choice upon which existence itself depended. Failure without mercy is always an option in the Garden. So why go back there?
Our task is to create the Kingdom of Heaven – not somewhere apart from the world, but right here in the muck and the pain and the confusion that is our life together on this planet.
Our tools are inclusion, forgiveness, mercy, grace, and kindness. When our neighbor is in trouble – and that means anyone – we are there to help. When we consider what our community needs, we include everyone, even those who are different or who disagree with us. When we fail – and we will – we learn and forgive. When one of us is bereft of shelter, food, or clothing, we provide for each other. When we encounter bullies, we stand up, not in violence, but in truth and honesty and courage and kindness, hoping to bring them into the kingdom too. When we are sick, whether of heart, mind, or body, we heal each other. And when fear overtakes us, we stand firm in the hope that love ultimately wins.
The Kingdom of Heaven is filled with difficult choices stemming from the clusterf*%$ we’ve created on this earth. We’re not asked to run from it, avoid it, or deny the mess it is. We are asked to engage it, wrestle with it, and do our best to reconcile it. Our very existence depends upon this. The ultimate tool we have is love. Thankfully, it’s a pretty strong and versatile tool.
We can’t aspire to something we never were. Face this truth with as much love and forgiveness as you can muster. It’s okay. We’re all here together, in the same place with the same fears. But rather than go backward, we must leave behind the Garden and bravely go where no one has before – together. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. There is every chance that this will work. We can be the people of we were always meant to be.
Terry, you are so cluster#@ked, I mean, wise. When I was growing up, there was none of the political strife and division that I see today. At least as far as I was concerned at the time. Of course, the strife and division was always there, but I couldn’t and didn’t see it. I was more concerned about dating, my virginity, driving, and bands. I certainly knew about all these things like the Viet Nam protests, Watergate, and the rest. You couldn’t grow up without hearing about it. But it didn’t affect me. It was not that it was a simpler time. It’s that it was a simpler me. And I think that that is the nostalgia that we long for – when our life ‘seemed’ simple. I have been doing a lot of reading in history lately (research for a play 🙂 ). And it is so clear that all of this bickering, name calling, cutting off our nose despite our face, hypocrisy, and just plain hate is nothing new at all. It’s been here (and everywhere) since the beginning of humankind. While we as a species have grown by leaps and bounds intellectually and technologically, we haven’t grown much emotionally or spiritually.
While this is depressing in some ways, I also find that it gives me great hope. Hope that we are not on a downward spiral and that things are not now worse than they have ever been.
We can return to simpler times – but only by simplifying our own lives and re-prioritizing. We can live in loving times by following love and hope, and not hate and fear.
For me, it all comes down to this: “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” ” Sounds like they were pretty important to him.
thanks for sharing this Terry. i just shared it with my FACEBOOK FRIENDS may share with my e-mail friends latter.
Thanks, Roger! Have a blessed evening!