It's a Day That Begs a Question, or Two, Thing

Dear America,

can't even remember where we were at
before settling in for a long winter's nap.

No matter.

The world keeps on keepin' on.
The Drudge Report keeps on drudging along.
While some people just get up and quit [check out Cheney, here].

It has become crystal clear over the last several weeks, that I seem to live a monk's life in comparison to the level of activity of many.... starting at the first crack of dawn and looking no further than extended family joyfully joining us for the holidays.

My house usually entertains three souls -- my girl, my boo, and me -- and it's pretty darn quiet.   Much like church mice, the three of us scurry around while deep into our own thoughts -- contemplative, springing internal, noise and everyday combustion remains purposefully out of range, choosing to watch the world be busy if we want to from the panoramic view.

We read.

We write.

We pray.

We cook.

We think.

And every once in a while, we spin off to be industrious, alive and doing our thing, being in relationship with others... unveiling our other side -- the one that actually likes talking and being engaging with others.

And just like that, we slip out of our robes and slip into a brand new mode, maybe even flashing a high kick or two, and begin parading around looking more Monk-ette (it's half monk and  half Rockette...and ooooh rah, the making up of words on the fly is a good sign for the old G thing, but I digress). 

But anywho, we integrate tuning in and tuning out as if on remote control.

We like our quiet.

I like my world to be at peace, as well.

Hate conflict of all kinds.  Avoid it usually, at all costs.

Isn't it sad with what has happened in Fallujah.  What a waste of industry, of life, of limb, of military funds, making any attempt to bring Iraq into a brand new day.  For what?  All to have Al Queda swoop in and snap it up and after the loss of thousands of lives later?

And since it was mentioned nearly right at the start -- have you seen the headlines of Drudge?  Every single day.  Every single day, the most horrific collection of news, of culture, of humanity and of the times is brought to the center fold.  It is one of the most unsettling places to land on the web in the every day -- and yet we must.  Matt Drudge takes a pulse of America and she isn't pretty.  What are we doing to ourselves, huh?


My Sunday ritual includes a block of time watching T.V. Ministry over my coffee.  It usually spans a local program, Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah, and of course, my favorite - Joel Osteen, and a Catholic Mass from the Heart of the Nation, with the priests changing from Sunday to Sunday.

This past week, Heart of the Nation's sermon asked a question:  What do you seek?

It's a good question.

Just maybe -- what we truly seek is not found outside our front door; it's not satisfied by a standing rib roast and garlic mashed potatoes with sticky toffee cookies for dessert, as delectable as it very well may be, especially shared with the ones we love; and it's certainly not satiated by an after Christmas boon(doggle) put on plastic...let alone staying in Hawaii with just a few friends to escape the kids, the husband, and the harried public life carried on the taxpayer dime!

Perhaps the cultural divide of what America stands for, and who we are, and more important, what we seek, can be answered from the inside out.   For it MUST be answered from the inside out, one at a time, and by our lonesome.  

The call to go inward is screaming at us -- to contemplate this Life, this Liberty, and this Happiness;  all of which seem to be quite uncomfortably in flux.   These United States, these 300 million pieces of a whole, have a choice between seeking and finding the things that tear us down and do us harm  -- or the things that lift us up and bring us unity, and redemption, and assimilation into one nation.

What have we done to ourselves?

What do you seek?

The strength to mutter the questions aloud seems to be a good beginning; it's something to think about anyway.  And it just so happens to be the place this girl inaugurates a brand new day in the year of our Lord, Two Thousand and Fourteen.  Happy Monday in this new year.

Make it a Good Day, G