PICTURE YOURSELF facing your spouse about to draw their last breath after 57 years, the only one you ever lived with, sharing thousands of meals, tears of pain, tears of joy and now you just might recall hearing those words uttered as rings were exchanged, “…for better or worse…” Yes, those words were honest because you lived to see the day when that pledge of love was fulfilled in the most difficult way, the last shallow breath and then silence.
I think I can honestly say this is the only time when we can safely say, BELIEF has been proved between two people. Of course there were obviously times when such dedication was there but for the sake of principles and actuality, being at the threshold of death and knowing you were the other half of that promise “for better, for worse, to love and to cherish until death do us part…”
“Why such a gloomy assortment of words today, Bill?” Well, my wife and I traveled two hundred miles to be with the widow of a friend who passed away in the manner mentioned above…that last shallow breath and then silence. His wife experienced the identical moment as hundreds, thousands, millions of spouses have for centuries.
WHO, OR WHAT DO WE BELIEVE? Both of the people in the brief cameo above believed in the other. They worked out problems through nearly sixty years of life together. They shared a common ground of belief, trust and faith in God and each other because they knew this trio of virtues was the muscle and sinew of their marriage. Their lives were the evidence of what was deeply ingrained in them.
BELIEF, TRUST, FAITH are, I am afraid, becoming as uncommon as common sense today.
Our country or nation is going through “another rough time” as the likes of other rough times have actually happened before. (We tend to forget history.) People have “believed” in some thing: a bank, a system, whatever, and that thin thread of belief, trust and faith (like the three woven strands of rope) began to unravel, weaken and finally snap because the other party, the bank[s], the system, or whatever, did not share the common strands of belief, trust and faith. There may have been a board of directors screaming for more profits. Perhaps a CEO had more greed than was proper for a business man. Perhaps the system was being run during the past decades by cutting too many corners and fudging figures to suit jaded concepts of business ethics.
Looking back 80 years to the Great Depression we have admittedly gone through times likes this . And, to hear annotated comments recently, the “terrible shape” we’re in “is not as bad as the l960′s [or whatever time window is called to mind]. “Do you mean things have been as bad as they are now?” Yes, and maybe worse than they are right now. (It all depends on who is telling the history.)
When a war came along, in our country, for example, World War II. it was an era when patriotism was still in vogue (from the Revolutionary War mainly) and the aim of most citizens, and the direction of our nation, was to STAY TOGETHER, or perhaps more accurately, to STICK TOGETHER. During the duration of World War II, housewives learned how to do without or use less sugar, silk hose, save grease in cans to take to the store (for the cause), plan meals around rationed foods. Men not involved in the war, due to age or physical disqualifications, found the A, B and C gasoline ration stamps on their windshields of the family car limited the use of fuel they could buy. The kids were even involved as they were encouraged to save paper, and any other scrap that might be utilized in recycling to meet the demands of a nation in war. We believed there was a need. We were even willing to sacrifice to meet those needs as long as necessary.
Today, what is so different? We are at war. In fact, several wars — almost on the tail of the other. We are in a constant alert for warring terrorists. We have seen a war of greed drive our nation to its knees. We have seen giants in the auto industry come begging assembled leaders of our nation for loans that staggered the minds of “normal or average citizens”. We have seen, and continue to see, citizens lose their homes because the banks (we were told, were the problem) loaned money to people whose income or credit simply would have disqualified them loans a few decades ago. I am sure the “sides” involved will never truthfully admit to guilt but the wife of a banker told me it was the government’s fault that such loans were allowed to be made. Personally I believe this because it is the government who has made it their business to CONTROL much of the economy and anything else it can gets its fingers onto. The elusive “fine print” of loans enticed people to borrow more than they could afford, and somehow when the mortgage blossomed out, it doubled in some instances and an $800 mortgage payment became $1,600! “For better or worse” relationships (marriages, in fact) were drastically affected.
We have a president, who, along with his compatriots, have simply created some issues that makes old-timers wonder how in the world can we spend so much money and expect to straighten out the economy. I wonder sometimes who to believe. I am convinced that there are sincere Democrats and Republicans who love our country. I am also convinced that there are extremists and “Looneys” on both ends of the political spectrum. WHO DO WE BELIEVE? WHAT DO WE BELIEVE?
Hardly a day passes but I receive another e-mail that says this or that to upset or strain relationships or belief, trust or faith in our esteemed leaders. It matters not that they are Democrats or Republicans. There are good people on both sides but let’s face it, they are PEOPLE. And most everyone knows that all people are not good people. People makes mistakes and bad people make worse mistakes.
Good people like to think their good friends would not send them untruthful e-mails, for example, and therefor MILLIONS of e-mails zoom through the Internet only later to find that some of the facts are “not entirely correct”.
The problem, we are now told is mis-information. And the word ISSUE is used a lot to take the place of the more honest word: PROBLEM. Yes, there are PROBLEMS, folks and ISSUES just don’t tell the complete story.
We have left the chicken house door ajar and further allowed the wrong kind of people “in charge” for far too many decades while we thought all was in good hands. We, not the elected leaders, were asleep at the switch. We were not watching the wall for invaders. We have been wronged and we have wronged others. Why is it that our nation cannot see that when we think less of loyalty that such disloyalty can and has ruined our nation? Why have we set income goals so high and then cry “FOUL” when the industries of America “go offshore” to get their products manufactured? Why is it we have killed millions of babies and think we can wash their blood off our hands with the detergent we call “convenience” and not have our minds altered by such actions? Why should we be surprised to find we have thrown out God from our schools and wonder why some are now wanting us to take God’s name off our currency? Godliness is not just found in Christianity because we have seen a quite workable “marriage” of Christians and Jews during the past hundred years and more. Tolerance is a different ball game today. We have tried to find value and worth in hyphenating our origins and essentially rubbing out the image of AMERICAN completely. What was once something to be proud to claim, is now something strangely inadequate or unacceptable.
Back to my original plea – WHAT CAN WE BELIEVE? WHO CAN WE BELIEVE? Can we expect most, or all or our nation’s leaders to be able to look us directly in our eyes when their last breath is taken, “I have been completely honest with you…” And also, folks, let up on sending all those stories about leaders, heroes, or columnists who say this or that UNTIL YOU KNOW for a fact that they are true.
Personally I think since the advent of C-Span, thirty years ago, we have been able to be more informed than we ever were. Brian Lamb, the founder and CEO of C-span was interviewed and according to the comments in Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, the following comment serves as enlightenment:
He has been to the grave site of every United States president and vice-president. Lamb is not registered as a Democrat or Republican, he has voted for candidates in both parties during presidential elections. In July 2008, John McCain jokingly described [Lamb's] political affiliation as, “I think he’s a vegetarian.” In an interview Lamb stated he has “been listening to both sides so long that I don’t know what I think anymore”.
That is just about where I am – I cannot honestly believe every Democrat or Republican is an idiot, stupid, a liar or any other accusation. I think there is too much glut to sort through and only when that is reduced will we know what we can believe. ####
THE WORDWRIGHT