Sorrow without End

I have no words.  I sat down here to try to make some sense out of the unimaginable, nine years later.  People tell you that it lessens with time.  They are lying.  The day of her funeral, my mother’s cousin, who had lost his daughter 17 years before, said a good day is one in which her loss is not the first thing you think of when you wake up.  I still think of her at least once every minute of every day. I’m not sure a day had passed in nine years that I’ve not cried.

 

I don’t cry for her.  She is all right, wherever her beautiful spirit is dwelling.  But Larry and I are lost. Completely. Utterly. And worst of all, hopelessly.  She was the heart and soul of our family, our futures, our hopes and dreams. She was the only one.  Without her, the days spread meaninglessly from one to another.  I bide my time here.

 

We were cleaning out some things today for some new furniture and I found this little poem she’d written sometime.  “In my dreams, I skip on clouds…”

 

Days like today, it is nearly more than I can bear.

 

 

On War and Peace

On War and Peace

Again

I saw an interesting discussion on Ukraine, Russia and China today.  I am a pacifist.  I do not believe in war.  Some of the greatest men of our time, indeed of any time, were opposed to war and violence.  They believed in changing the world by other means, which did not mean that they weren’t willing to die for their beliefs themselves. 

Jesus Christ… Tolstoy… Gandhi… King:  these were men of nonviolence. 

Over 160,000,000 people died as a result of war in the 20^th century.  This is over half the population of the United States today – dead from war.  There are all sorts of arguments for war but in the end, wars are about territory, money, and power.  Period.  I’m not sure any human life is worth any of those things.  I am sure 160 million is a high cost, too high a cost. 

I can dink around on the computer and come up with all sorts of horrible statistics and facts for both sides of the argument.  So can you.   

Those of you who grew up after the Vietnam War and have not been in war yourselves, have seen little of war.  My generation was treated to up close and personal press coverage of the Vietnam War.  We saw the bodies, the wounded, and much more every night on the evening news.  We heard the lies the politicians and generals told us.  We saw brave and good men treated like criminals when they came home.  We saw unarmed college students die, shot by our own soldiers and then we woke up. 

War is indeed a form of hell. Ask the men who’ve been there.  I have met few who’d recommend it.  Men still suffer from the stress of the Vietnam War and it was over forty years ago.  I can remember my Uncle Will, who, when I was a child in the 1960s, still suffered from ‘shell shock’ from his days in the trenches in WWI.  If war has this much impact on individuals, imagine what it does to a people, to a nation, to the world. 

In my 54 years on this planet, I have seen no good come of war.  I do not expect that to change anytime soon. 

Albert Einstein was often quoted as saying "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."  If that doesn’t disturb you and make you think, then there is no hope for you anyway.

To quote John Lennon, all we are saying is give peace a chance. 

Protecting our religious beliefs

I guess it’s time for another rant. 

Every day I see “Let’s put God back in school.” 

Let’s not. 

First of all, our freedom of religion guarantees that neither the federal or state government can tell us how to worship in our country.  This was the most important amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  It gave us freedom to speak and worship as we wish.  The basis for this goes all the way back to Maryland Colony in 1634. 

This amendment was not established to take God out of government but rather to keep the government out of our churches.  School is, whether we like it not, an extension of the government because in our country, we have government funded education that is free to all. 

If you can’t see the conflict already then I will spell it out.  How can you run a public school for all children but force a certain belief system on them?  Christians can’t agree with one another on much so why would I want someone else teaching my child about faith?  That job is and has always been the job of the parents, not the state or federal government and I don’t think I want to trust it to them now. 

Schools have been tasked with a job beyond what was originally intended.  They now are expected to teach morality and to baby sit as well educate.  Do we really also want them to teach our children what they are allowed to believe?  What if they teach my kids things I disagree with?

Let’s not put God in school.  Let’s teach our children about God in our homes and our churches instead.  And let others do the same with their own religion.